Guide: How to bridge the PVP gear gap for fresh level 50s in less than 2 days

[Mordris]

Good guide. It's more or less what I did as I approached level 50. Plan ahead people!

 

I laugh at the people posting that are mad that your guide doesn't make them able to go toe-to-toe with a BM as a new 50. They need to read your whole post and pay particular attention to your disclaimer... Don't expect an "I win" button because you are now level 50. No entitlements here.

 

We BMs were in the same situation at one point. It just takes some time and work. Use guides like this and play as a team in WFs instead of just soloing. A well-played team can very well beat better-geared opponents. You are freshmen getting some hazing. Soon you will be the seniors doing the tea-bagging.

[L-RANDLE]

First of all, after playing many MMOs, I've found the modding system in SWTOR to be one of the most intuitive I've ever seen. With this system and some guidance, and a brain on your part, you can literally gear up your character in hours and become competitive.

 

What you will need:

 

1. orange armor gear and orange weapon.

 

2. 500-600k credits

 

3. about 10 hours of play time.

 

The Guide.

 

1. ORANGE GEAR! If you did not level with orange gear in every one of your main slots (weapon, helm, chest, gloves, boots, pants)... you're doing it wrong, Orange gear's flexibility is literally the cheapest option to keep your character in tip top shape until you get either tier 2+ PVE gear or PVP gear. If you don't have your full set, go to the GTN and pick up a full set/fill in slots you are empty. Buy the cheapest orange gear, the item level means nothing, because the power of your orange gear is literally determined by the mods placed in there. EDIT: Alternatively you can get orange gear through pvp, the level 40 orange gear is good for its level (low 40s), you'll still need to replace the mods which I will explain later when you get to 50.

 

2. Credits. By the time you hit 50, you should have 500k-600k credits saved up from just the questing. Skimp out on the 50 speeder training for now, gearing up is more important. What you want to do is find yourself a cybertech and a artificer for mods and enhancements specifically. Commission the artificer to make level 49 epic end/crit/surge enhancements(crit/surge is key for almost all classes) and the cybertech to make the level 49 epic mods with the main stat for your specific class. Epic level 49 mods/enhancements cost 25k-45k per depending on server. So expect to spend 300-500k on mods/enhancements for your orange gear.

 

3. TIME!(about 10 hours). Now if you don't have the credits... don't panic. Once you hit 50 and finish your class story, you unlock level 50 DAILIES. These dailies are located on Ilum and Belvavis (you grab starter quest from your fleet). Do the daily series in Ilum and Belvavis, and you'll be swimming in creds(100k+ creds per day!). Not only will you get credits, you also will get Daily Commendations (this is very important). Use these commendations asap to buy the epic level 50 hilts/barrels (depending on class) and armorings for your class. The heroic daily quests from belvasis and Ilum and definitely worth it, not only do they give you a lot more Daily Commendations, they also give you free mods/enhancers.

 

THERE YOU GO. Once you place all level 49 epic mods/enhance and level 50 armorings/hilt/barrel in your orange gear/weapon... you'll notice a dramatic increase in performance, and will give you a fighting chance against BM/champion geared level 50s.

 

Highly recommended additional tips.

 

1. Save 14 corelia commendations. You can buy a sweet level 50 blue offhand with 14 commendations.

 

2. level 49 epic crafted implants/earpiece. On most servers there will be plenty selection of these on the GTN, they'll cost 50k-100k each, but are highly worth it especially the (superior) versions.

 

3. Orange belt/bracers or epic crafted level 49+ (superior) belt/bracers. I've rarely seen orange belt/bracers on sale, but it could just be my server, but if you do have them on your server, don't be afraid to snatch them up and mod them with epic mods.

 

4. Matrix cubes. These relics are arguably the best for one of your relic slots. You'll need matrix shards to make a matrix cube. There are plenty of guides online that details how to get the matrix shards(datacrons) and forming matrix cubes. Just google "swtor matrix cube assembler" and "swtor datacrons".

 

EDIT: 5. HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 1000 valor and 1000 merc commendations. Thx for the additional tip guys! Before you hit 50, you can do WZs to cap out on 1000 valor and 1000 merc commendations. Now with the level 10-49 bracket, its a very fun and worthwile endevour (I didn't do it since when I was leveling, there was no lvl 10-49 bracket ). Make sure you buy a champion bag that cost 200/200 commendations, and then cap out with 1000/1000 commendations. That way the MOMENT you hit 50, you can open up to 6 bags by buying them one at a time from the pvp vendor. You are now guaranteed 42 champ commendations and 90 cent commendations from opening the 6 bags (as of 1.1.2), that is enough to buy you a couple cent pieces.

 

 

Sub note regarding Tip 5.- Getting your first few pieces of pvp gear is highly recommended, I would recommend getting the centurion belt/bracers/implants/earpiece if you can't find epic surperior crafted versions on GTN. A reason why getting a few pieces of pvp gear is important is because expertise has gradual diminishing returns, meaning your first few hundred points on expertise has be best bang for the buck. Going from 0-100 expertise gives you rougly 2.6% PVP bonus, however going from 500-600 expertise only nets 1.3% pvp bonus. This is why lots of guides recommend getting top quality PVE gear for PVP once you hit the 500ish expertise mark due to the low returns at that point, however since this guide is for fresh 50s, I won't go into all that. Just make note however, that at this point, expertise isn't the end all be all stat in pvp.

 

Edit: 6. Expertise Enhancements. You can stock up on expertise enhancements with 25 expertise each. At the pvp vendor you can buy lvl 46 pvp weapons with expertise on them for 580 warzone commendations, and you can rip out the expertise enhancement out of the weapon. I would not recommend doing this at level 50 because its better to simply use your commendations for champion bags at 50. If you are already 1000/1000 commendation capped, and still want to PVP before 50, feel free to buy these pvp weapons from the vendor. These expertise enhancements ARE NOT mandatory or even an upgrade. They are level 45 blues and are a sidegrades to the level 49 epic enhancements (which has ALOT more other stats) for pvp. Would only recommend this if you are desperately short on credits or have no access to epic enhancements for your class.

 

Additional Note

 

When I hit level 50 on my Jedi Guardian, I joined a WZ and was hitting like a wet noodle against my opponents. I spent 2 days doing dailies and by doing all the things I listed and the optionals, in just 2 days after hitting fifty, I turned my character completely around.

 

My stats changed something like this.

 

-----------OLD-----------NEW

HP--------12k-----------16.5k

Power ---750------------1000ish

Crit-------14%-----------23%

Crit Mult.-55%-----------84%

Strength--1000----------1200

 

The transformation is insane and anyone can do it!

 

 

Disclaimer: My guide will NOT substitute for lack of skill or intelligence. If you are a Jedi Knight that mod alacrity and armor with cunning etc. Or if you mouse click all your abilities in pvp... no amount of guides will help you succeed. But for those that have the will, intelligence, and determination to improve your character, I hope my guide helps you immensely.

 

PS. Here is an old photo of how I used look like a few days after hitting 50 (I'm now in champ/BM gear now, its an improvement, but not THAT big of an improvement)

 

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2783/screenshot2012010913550.jpg

 

and yes if you follow my guide... you can look like a trooper as a jedi knight

 

PS. I am in no way saying you will be on par with full Champ/BM geared pvpers. This is a starting point, not an ending point (would be a pretty lame mmo if the ending point of gear progression can be reached in 2 days...). What I am saying is that you will be critting Champ/BM geared players for 2-4k damage on your biggest attacks depending on your class (instead of just tickling them) making you a threat that cannot just be ignored.

 

 

Thank for the guide and advice you gave me. It really helped. The only thing is, I would remove the Heroic Dailies as a part of the equation.

 

 

As I said before I hit 50 in PvP orange gear, I got rolled in 50 PvP and looked for a way out. I found your guide and started to follow it, but quickly realized that doing the 2+ or higher quests were out of the question unless I have a group. From the solo aspect, even after doing 6 hours of gameplay and 2-3 hours of PvP, I still don't have the goods to beat the 2+ on Ilum in one shot. I am grinding it down, but as a Sage, I don't have enough survivability to take on three lvl 50 siths. Even with a companion tanking for me, I have not totally competed it yet, and I have 51 armor, 50+ mods/enhancements, Critted lvl 49 purple implants, and some champ/cent pieces for belt and ear (Total 13600HP). I was still PvPing and since Champ gear was my goal, I used most of my cent tokens on my companion (heavy armor tank) to make the dailies go by faster.

 

I then had an epiphany last night (day 3)... "I should have bought light armor cent pieces that have mods in them and...."

 

Here is what I recommend adding, but I have not tested it (please confirm it is possible): As stated, expertise has diminishing returns, so instead of buying cent pieces for use (which are really not as good as top level crafted stuff anyway), just take the mods/armor out of the cent gear and put them into your orange gear (specifically the Mods). The only way to get lvl 51 mods/enhancement is through the Heroics, as far as I can tell. That way you can gain them a bit easier than trying to solo a heroic. You also should PvP (daily/weekly rewards) while doing the other dailies, even if you are getting facerolled. You still gain warzone creds for cham bags and on the outside the cent rewards might look useless, but swap them out because they are jusst as good as the PvE daily ones...

[Zag_Stratos]

Unfrotunately, I started quite late planing my 50. Foremost, I didn't know about the expertise and all that stuff. So at around L30, that's when I started to realize that my 50s would be a pain in the @@@@@@

 

Managed to get 600K

Managed to get 4bags

 

Got a few good pieces on me and still working.

 

I'm still very under powered and it will take me quite a few battles to give me a fighting chance.

 

So yeah, start as soon as possible to work on your L50 gear. The difference from me and someone that has 6 bags is actually quite huge...

[Scoobings]

The problem isn't that it's not possible to bridge the gap. The problem is that people are lazy and want it handed to them and I'm guessing even a 2 day time investment is more than these tools are willing to spend.

 

Still, 5-stars because the more threads like this are around the less excuses people will have.

[Scoobings]

*double post*

[Scoobings]

Thank for the guide and advice you gave me. It really helped. The only thing is, I would remove the Heroic Dailies as a part of the equation.

 

 

As I said before I hit 50 in PvP orange gear, I got rolled in 50 PvP and looked for a way out. I found your guide and started to follow it, but quickly realized that doing the 2+ or higher quests were out of the question unless I have a group. From the solo aspect, even after doing 6 hours of gameplay and 2-3 hours of PvP, I still don't have the goods to beat the 2+ on Ilum in one shot. I am grinding it down, but as a Sage, I don't have enough survivability to take on three lvl 50 siths. Even with a companion tanking for me, I have not totally competed it yet, and I have 51 armor, 50+ mods/enhancements, Critted lvl 49 purple implants, and some champ/cent pieces for belt and ear (Total 13600HP). I was still PvPing and since Champ gear was my goal, I used most of my cent tokens on my companion (heavy armor tank) to make the dailies go by faster.

 

I then had an epiphany last night (day 3)... "I should have bought light armor cent pieces that have mods in them and...."

 

Here is what I recommend adding, but I have not tested it (please confirm it is possible): As stated, expertise has diminishing returns, so instead of buying cent pieces for use (which are really not as good as top level crafted stuff anyway), just take the mods/armor out of the cent gear and put them into your orange gear (specifically the Mods). The only way to get lvl 51 mods/enhancement is through the Heroics, as far as I can tell. That way you can gain them a bit easier than trying to solo a heroic. You also should PvP (daily/weekly rewards) while doing the other dailies, even if you are getting facerolled. You still gain warzone creds for cham bags and on the outside the cent rewards might look useless, but swap them out because they are jusst as good as the PvE daily ones...

 

I doubt there are many, if any, people who can solo those dailies. THe point is to get a group. It takes like 5 minutes, especially on Ilum. There are a lot of people doing those dailies.

[L-RANDLE]

Yeah, I tried to PUG a few times, but they most on my server are not willing to go with me. I could ask a guildmate, but I don't want them to carry me so I can get MY stuff. I just wanted to point out an alternative to the Heroic 2+, if you can't get a group going....

[ViperI]

if you dont have all orange gear your doing it wrong??

 

Im Armormech and have WAYYY better gear for all my leveling levels than any orange geared player. FACT!

 

Depends. If you're comparing your purple, RE'd, armormech items to orange gear with blue/green mods, then yes, you'll have better gear. However, if the orange gear has purple, cybertech RE mods in them, they will be equivalent. For most people, though, who are not armormech, orange gear is still the way to go.

[Spifnar]

Pulling the mods out of Cent gear (if you even can) isn't a good idea. Cent gear has the expertise on the piece of armor, not the mod

 

Also, if you can't/don't want to do the Heroic 2+ dailies, there are plenty more dailies on belsavis to do too if you've already done some quests there. And buy purple ship parts to do the space daily for 2 daily commendations.

[L-RANDLE]

Pulling the mods out of Cent gear (if you even can) isn't a good idea. Cent gear has the expertise on the piece of armor, not the mod

 

Also, if you can't/don't want to do the Heroic 2+ dailies, there are plenty more dailies on belsavis to do too if you've already done some quests there. And buy purple ship parts to do the space daily for 2 daily commendations.

 

 

Yes you can get purps from dailies but only armor & hilts/barrels. No purple 51 mods or enhancements (please tell me if I am wrong).

 

Not sure if they can be removed, but the cent heavy armor I bought looks like the expertise is "locked" into the "enhancement" slot. The armor and mod can be removed and their stats are not tied to expertise at all...

 

I will confirm tonight.

 

[EDIT] I guess I should explain further. My orange chest piece has much higher ratings than a cent chest piece (or on par at a minimum), but my orange has Purp 51 armor, Blue 50 Mod, Purp 50 enhan. If I pull the purp 51 mod from the cent chest, I will increase the difference between the two. I will confirm with real numbers when I get home today...

 

[EDIT2] I also have some exp in the cent belt (unmodable) and champ ear piece (unmodable) I own. so i'm at ~130 expertise. If I am only gaining ~1-3% for an entire cent set when I reach 400-600 expertise, it might be a better switch overall and you might not be locked into useless stats for your toon, as most PvP armor has something that is totally useless (accuracy comes to mid with my sage).

Edited February 23, 2012 by L-RANDLE

[OldSwab]

Yes you can get purps from dailies but only armor & hilts/barrels. No purple 51 mods or enhancements (please tell me if I am wrong).

 

Not sure if they can be removed, but the cent heavy armor I bought looks like the expertise is "locked" into the "enhancement" slot. The armor and mod can be removed and their stats are not tied to expertise at all...

 

I will confirm tonight.

 

[EDIT] I guess I should explain further. My orange chest piece has much higher ratings than a cent chest piece (or on par at a minimum), but my orange has Purp 51 armor, Blue 50 Mod, Purp 50 enhan. If I pull the purp 51 mod from the cent chest, I will increase the difference between the two. I will confirm with real numbers when I get home today...

Poster is suggesting that you most likely won't make up for the advantage expertise gives you on the cent gear, even though it's overall stats are a bit gimped.

 

As an aside, in an upcoming patch the Armor modification (with its expertise) will be removable. Don't throw away duplicated champ, BM pieces

[L-RANDLE]

Poster is suggesting that you most likely won't make up for the advantage expertise gives you on the cent gear, even though it's overall stats are a bit gimped.

 

As an aside, in an upcoming patch the Armor modification (with its expertise) will be removable. Don't throw away duplicated champ, BM pieces

 

 

Read this first:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=222960&page=11

 

 

This is why I was using my cent tokens on my companion tank. I already had a lvl 40 PvP set, crit crafted purple 49 implants, etc, etc.... The cent gear suffered HUGE decreases in power when compared to the stuff I already had, so Champ level was the only stuff I wanted. The percent bump becasue of expertise was 1%-2% HP per piece. My difference on my endurance stat can cover that handicap, let alone the others getting added to cover the decreased damage input/output that the expertise provides. Not just Crit...Willpower is HUGE for me, power is huge as well. Some cent pieces made me lose like -20WP. I mean it was disgustingly bad on some of the light armor, even before I started to to get 51 purples (I bought some 49 and 50s before I started my gear up journey). I am just thinking the cent mods are worth more than the cent pieces themselves. More to come later...

Edited February 23, 2012 by L-RANDLE

[Necodreus]

For people asking what Lvl to get 1000/1000 +1 bag, I waited till lvl 45 to pvp and got the comms a lil into 49, I averaged about 84 comms per match and took about 5 days playing only 3 hrs per night roughly, started valor 0 now at 28. I now am a bub from 50. Been trying to finish my class quests but only just got to Belvavis, hopefully can finish soon lol. Edited February 24, 2012 by Necodreus

[jabobob]

Thanks for this thread guys, great advice. Lets keep this going. Edited February 24, 2012 by jabobob

[Iofe]

Tagged for when i eventually hit lvl 50

[mordredz]

This is pretty obvious stuff. It doesnt affect the fact you will be facing 50s with same/better gear + 550 expertise.

 

Its a insanely helpful guide, and negative comments like that arent needed, this is what every new 50 should do before crying about being stomped in pvp at 50... Period...

 

+1! i did all this on my alts...

[mordredz]

I doubt there are many, if any, people who can solo those dailies. THe point is to get a group. It takes like 5 minutes, especially on Ilum. There are a lot of people doing those dailies.

 

Solo'd the ilum/belsavis dailies just fine on all my alts, except the obv 2/4 man H's, so ya its not hard...

[Waagabond]

There is a more simple solution.

 

have 1 champ bag and 1k/1k merc and wz comms when you ding 50.

 

Have orange gear.

 

Buy from corelis the enchancements etc from there.

Maybe spend 100k on GTN. No more needed.

 

You should have full centurion in 2 hours played.

 

And first day you can get daily and weekly in, for 4 additional bags, while farming this you will have ennough for 2 additional bags, so thats 6 bags apart from the 6 bags you had upon dinging.

Thats 180 centurion badges and 84 champ coms in a few hours of game time after you hit 50.

Thats enough for ALOT of gear in a few hours after 50.

 

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE that joines warzones with green or orange none modded gear have zero respect for the pvp and general mmo community.

Everyone needs to gear up, but atleast be prepared and have some orange and blue gear and have those 6 bags ready when you ding.

[L-RANDLE]

Read this first:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=222960&page=11

 

 

This is why I was using my cent tokens on my companion tank. I already had a lvl 40 PvP set, crit crafted purple 49 implants, etc, etc.... The cent gear suffered HUGE decreases in power when compared to the stuff I already had, so Champ level was the only stuff I wanted. The percent bump becasue of expertise was 1%-2% HP per piece. My difference on my endurance stat can cover that handicap, let alone the others getting added to cover the decreased damage input/output that the expertise provides. Not just Crit...Willpower is HUGE for me, power is huge as well. Some cent pieces made me lose like -20WP. I mean it was disgustingly bad on some of the light armor, even before I started to to get 51 purples (I bought some 49 and 50s before I started my gear up journey). I am just thinking the cent mods are worth more than the cent pieces themselves. More to come later...

 

 

Here is further thoughts on my previous post. I took my own situation and will try to explain what might be the case. I am going to compare CHAMPION CHEST ONLY and try to dumb down the numbers as much as possible to keep it simple. Since Willpower is my main stat, I will cater these thoughts with this in mind.

 

Here is the baseline assumptions:

Base HP= 10k

WP= 100

Damage I/O= 1k

Expertise= 0

+1 Expertise= .028% (This is a value that I have not really confirmed, but from all my research its about correct.)

 

Ok, so lets take this chest armor mod (which is locked):

http://www.torhead.com/item/tucpIZ/champion-force-mystics-robe

 

ED= +29 or +290HP

WP= +30 or +300WP

EXP= +46~ +1.288% DMG I/O

 

So given the base stats your toon would be:

NEW HP: 10290

NEW WP: 400

NEW DMG I/O: ~1013(Given) or 987 (Taken)- This is a 26HP swing or +26HP Effective HP.

 

I consider my HP swing to be +316HP total and +300 DMG output

 

 

Here is a LVL 51 Purple Armor I have from dailies:

http://www.torhead.com/item/aB277Up/advanced-resolve-armoring-23

 

ED= +34

WP= +48

 

 

So from Base stats here is what it looks like:

 

NEW HP: 10340

NEW WP: 580

 

I consider the HP swing as 340. It's effective 24HP(340-316) is the difference between the two. Plus a +180 DMG(580-400) output from my main stat which also mutes the rewards offered in increased damage output that expertise has (the 24HP Effective difference is really much larger than this because given the same attack base the 1180 attack (due to +180WP) is being compared to the 1013 attack + minut damage mitigation, as stated above.( well not really.....)

 

 

So.... I propose, overall, the lvl 51 armor mod has more effective HP and better damage output than the CHAMP LVL 56 Armor mod.

 

I also propose that if I take the LVL 56 mods/enhancements (since there is no way to craft or win them outside of PvP or Ops, and there are NO expertise attached to them)out of the Champ Chest and put them into my Orange Chest, and live with the LvL 51 purple armor mod, I will have superior stats than the Champ Chest piece. I might suffer some from damage taken as I will not be able to handle attacks as well, but I have slightly more RAW HP and better attack power, so it outweighs the damage mitigation expertise provides.

 

For the same reasoning, new 50's: If you can't group for the LVL 51 mods/enha on the heroics, get the Cent piece for your main stat and remove the Mod/Enha and put them in your orange gear.

 

 

 

 

Here is more things I think might be the case.....

 

Multiply that over the 6 moddable pieces I own:

 

24HP EFF *6= +144HP over Champ Pieces

+1080WP!!!!

 

Same thing could be said for the BM stuff, but the swing is between LVL 51 and 58 is more profound (to a point), and the set bonus makes a tough choice. So I guess the moral of the story is get Cent/Champ/BM items (that can't be modded) if they are better than what you have....

 

 

This is all perception on my part, but if BW allow crafted mods/armor/enha of Champ lvl or better (Cent pieces are already outclassed if you have lvl 51 purples from dailies), then they will essentially stop all PvP gear being "required" for high level PvP (which would appease the QQ about the armor gap, but PO people who already have their BM gear). If they go that route, they should open the Armor slot on all PvP gear (then the BM's could stomach the change, as they could increase their rating in a similar manner, but keep the bonus).

 

Are they really going to do this?

 

 

 

Sorry so long guys and gals, but what do you think...

[biowareftw]

Bump so people can stop complaining about this.

[anwg]

Expertise is vastly overrated. My op had none and 13k hp when I started PvP (yes level 50 bracket), and I finished my weekly in about 2 hours.

 

If you are a dps and got purple daily mods in every slot, you'll do all right.

[Desist]

Nice Guide. Saw a sentinel in some 50 warzones today with 10k HP. This level 42 guy in my guild had more health then him. I don't know how you can even do that. Needless to say he got rolled repeatedly.

[Noctournys]

As a further update, research/time has shown that the Belsavis Heroic 2 (provides a mod) can be soloed, and depending on your class, so can the Illum Heroic 2 - leaving only the armoring (Old Enemies/Pub equivalent) quest you *need* a group for... and you can just get the armorings with your daily comms anyway.

[AdamHDMI]

Thanks for this.

[Ichibukaka]

Thanks for sharing your Wisdom! Yes, Wisdom!