So I'm a lvl 50 trooper

[TheOzzmanDPG]

and I am underpowered. People don't want to include me on ops because I don't have the right gear yet, which is understandable. The question that I have is what should I be looking for in gear. I know aim, but are power and aim interchangeable? Should I be looking for aim more than power? What other stats should I be looking at for a Commando that went Gunnery? Is Gunnery the right way to go for PvE?

 

Right now I'm hitting at about 8800 for max dmg, what should I be shooting for? What gear should I be picking up? Overall, if I want to do HM's and ops, where should I start. I know I have a lot of questions but any help would be appreciated.

Edited January 23, 2012 by TheOzzmanDPG

[Cruxe]

Power basically adds straight damage. So Power +50 will make you do 1050 damage instead of 1000. Aim, in general, is more useful because it adds to multiple aspects.

 

Aim and Power aren't competing stats, however. Aim and Endurance are your main stats, and you want more Aim than End unless you find yourself dieing too quickly in FPs, then toss in some extra End.

 

Power is like Surge Rating or Alacrity, they're ancillary stats. Power, like I said, is just added damage. Surge Rating makes your crits hit harder. Crit rating makes you crit more often. Alacrity speeds up any channeling time. As a Gunnery spec, Alacrity is very useful, but some people prefer crits or harder crits. Really just personal preference without a DPS meter.

 

If you can stand PvPing and doing the dailies, Champion/Centurion gear is a very good first step for outfitting a character for HM FPs.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Cruxe

[tylersavesworld]

Do all Ilum and Belsavis daily missions. Some of them drop advanced 22/23 mods. Slide those into your heavy armor and your armor ratings will be 126 in no time. 126 is great to have for hard mode.

 

You can also spend 120 daily commendations for a nice ear piece in ilum.

 

Champion pvp gear is great for entry level hard mode as well.

 

I started hard mode with a combination of self-made 126 armor and champion pvp armor.

 

hope this helps

[AznFlip]

Is there such a guide posted here in the forum that calls out the combination of upgrades for items to fit a Commando trooper? It sems like good armor and blaster cannon are the elusive one's for me. I'm just shy of 20K exp in leveling up to 39 and finishing up in recruiting Vik in Balmorra.

 

Thanks for any help you can point out in advance.

[Cruxe]

I would suggest doing PvP to get level 40 orange gear. Completely moddable and will easily last you until 50. It will require quite a few PvP matches, however. Also there are PvP weapons, one at 42, I believe, and one at 46.

 

Cademimu also drops a full set of level 39 orange modable gear, but you'd have to run it multiple times for a full set.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Cruxe

[LordKivlov]

I would suggest doing PvP to get level 40 orange gear. Completely moddable and will easily last you until 50. It will require quite a few PvP matches, however. Also there are PvP weapons, one at 42, I believe, and one at 46.

 

Cademimu also drops a full set of level 39 orange modable gear, but you'd have to run it multiple times for a full set.

At 40, you should be saving all your warzone commendations (besides buying the ear and 2 implants) and turning them into mercenary commendations to buy champion bags with. Do not waste it on 40 gear when you can get an armormech to make you gear that is better than it for real cheap.

[Cruxe]

At 40, you should be saving all your warzone commendations (besides buying the ear and 2 implants) and turning them into mercenary commendations to buy champion bags with. Do not waste it on 40 gear when you can get an armormech to make you gear that is better than it for real cheap.

 

Depends on how much you PvP. I was able to buy myself and most of my companions level 40 PvP armor before I hit 50, and still have commendations left for champ bags.

 

Of course this was before they increased the prices.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Cruxe

[LordKivlov]

Depends on how much you PvP. I was able to buy myself and most of my companions level 40 PvP armor before I hit 50, and still have commendations left for champ bags.

 

Of course this was before they increased the prices.

 

True, true. I keep forgetting people skip a lot of the story in favour of PvPing.

[Hiro-Protagonist]

If you can run dailies with a full group you can be ready for hardmodes in 5 days. Each day you should get an armor mod, mod, and enhancement just from the heroics. Use the money from dailies to buy epic mods off GTN as well if you are in a hurry. At a minimum, run the 2+ heroics for the enhancements and mods and use your daily comms for armoring. Keep an eye out for blue belts and bracers with augment slots on the GTN. The augment can bump these up to 90 aim. Edited January 24, 2012 by Hiro-Protagonist

[DXI-Edge]

Im level 34 atm and i have almost 700 Merc Commendations. My goal now is to buy the gear and weapons for 40, and after 40 just save up the last 300 Merc and 1000 Warzone Commendations for the bags!

 

So just start saving. My recommendation: PvP as much as you can. Its easy for a sorc like me but ya...do it

[Freeborne]

This trooper just did 3/5 of Eternity Vault on Hard Mode last night. I assure you we're not under powered, you just have to get your gear up to par. : )

 

If you're already level 50, your fastest route to gearing up will be doing the Belsavis Bonus Series, and all the quests on Ilum to unlock all your dailies. (For commendations, and credits.) In particular one 2+ heroic repeatable on Ilum, and 2 + Repeatable Heroics on Beslavis that you should try to do every day. Each one gives you a nice piece to slot in your armor, mod, or enhancement slots on orange gear.

 

 

Finally, keep an eye out on the Auction house of level 50 purple BoE Belts and Bracers. They may be really pricey, but some recipes only drop in normal or hard mode OPs that create some sweet pieces of gear. I believe they all start with "Dalarian", but I'm not 100% on that.

 

 

After you get a few pieces filled out, start doing your hard mode FPs. You can get every piece of your Columni gear for set pieces (except head) from HM FPs.

 

 

As for stat priority:

 

Crit>Power>Alacrity

 

Take this with a grain of salt though, until you start getting Rakata pieces. Our Columni mods aren't itemized well and always have + Power on them. (There's no effective method of getting crit mods to place in the them instead.) However, your 2 piece set bonus more than makes up for your drop in crit rating.

[Jasputan]

This is all from a PvE perspective.

 

Aim is your best stat, no doubt about it. After that it is somewhat vague since there is no combat log. However from what I have gleaned it seems like you want crit and surge more so than power. I have also heard that alacrity is pretty horrible since you will need to conserve ammo anyways, and thus wont really be able to utilize the alacrity (aka you shouldn't be spamming your abilities and blowing through your ammo in most situations, thus the value of alacrity is highly diminished). Again, this cannot be proven since there is no combat log, but it seems to make sense.

 

Crit is good not only because it helps increase your damage, but it also helps with ammo regen, which is really the factor limiting your DPS the most. As far as surge versus power, I think you would need a combat log to really tell, but I have heard people say surge after crit, so that is what I am going with. My stat priority (based off of zero actual numbers):

 

1: Aim 2: Crit 3: Surge 4: Power 5: Alacrity

 

Note that alacrity becomes much more valuable in pvp.

[capmjack]

Im a gunnery Commando, Level 50, just started doing dailies and ilum. as far as pvp armor goes, should i get eliminators or combat tech? was looking at the stats today they are very similar just figured id ask what you guys have or suggest? thanks

[Freeborne]

Im a gunnery Commando, Level 50, just started doing dailies and ilum. as far as pvp armor goes, should i get eliminators or combat tech? was looking at the stats today they are very similar just figured id ask what you guys have or suggest? thanks

 

Eliminator. There is no Gunnery specific set, just a Commando DPS set.

 

(I know the links look screwey, but they take you to the right Item Sets)

 

Look at the set bonuses.

 

Combat Tech is for Vanguard dps that PvP: http://www.torhead.com/item-set/1NWaEZp/battlemaster-vindicators-gear

 

Super Commando is for Vanguard Tanks that PvP: http://www.torhead.com/item-set/24oZVks/battlemaster-field-techs-gear

 

Eliminator is more for Commando DPS that PvPs: http://www.torhead.com/item-set/bMnNJMx/battlemaster-stalkers-gear

 

Combat Medic is clearly for Commando Healers: http://www.torhead.com/item-set/939wi5E/battlemaster-war-leaders-gear

[ArchangelLBC]

After you get a few pieces filled out, start doing your hard mode FPs. You can get every piece of your Columni gear for set pieces (except head) from HM FPs.

 

Actually Columni head drops from Kaon Under Seige from both the last bosses security chest and the bonus boss at the very least. I know this because I've gotten three head drops from there (one each of Trooper, Smuggler, and Sage, 2 from bonus boss one from last boss).

 

Getting daily mods from Ilum and Belsalvis (specifically the armorings and barrel from commendations) and getting Advanced Nimble Mod 22A from either the GTN, crafting, or Belsalvis 2 man heroic will combined give you about 96 more aim immediately. More if you have an orange belt or bracers but those are pricey and honestly I feel like some of the purple unmoddable belts/bracers are better.

 

Also you can pick up a complete (and matching!) set of orange gear just doing story/planets and ignoring PVP altogether just from planet commendations, and then using spare commendations to mod them out while leveling.