How do all these people powerlevel?

[Legendoom]

You've seen them, or maybe you're one of them. The level 36 smuggler riding around on Alderaan, or the 28 on Nar Shaddaa, or the 44 on Hoth. I've heard complaints by a lot of people who complaint that this game provides so much exp that it's impossible to do all the quests on a planet without overleveling. After leveling 4 characters to 50 and well into my 5th, I can say without a doubt that is pure, unbridled bullcrap. I've done every quest on the Republic and Empire side. Twice. I've found every single area quest on planets, all the ones that are way out in the wilderness, every single goddamn one. And yet always, always always always always, I wind up at the end of a planet like Taris/Balmorra at 35, or (the bane of my existence), Hoth at early 40.

 

I guess I'm looking for more answers then tips here, but both would be appreciated. I've postulated trying to do this myself, but I figure that it's running through every single quest that gets me a) my companion's gear, b) my commendations for my orange gear, which I gear every single character out in, and c) the decent pile of credits I amass. Those things would be pretty hard to live without.

 

Yet, my wariness notwithstanding, how do these people do it? Running flashpoints over and over? Grinding mobs until their blasters die and their lightsabers burn out? Running group quests day in, day out? I, in particular, would love to know, despite my reluctance because of the gear and commendation loss, how to skip all the repetitive side quests and get right to the juicy class stories. So, how does it happen?

[implementofwar]

I agree with you. I have leveled many 50's and I have never "outleveled" the planets except for the beginning.

 

You would have to do every quest and every Heroic quest to break even. Most of the time I have to grind mobs to catch up to the quest levels. Or do the planet Bonus Series quests.

 

The people who sayquests give too much XP must be talking about the first ten levels. Which means they are not very qualified to be making those opinions since they have probably never gotten past level 30.

Edited May 11, 2012 by implementofwar

[Alilynn]

Doing PVP daily, space missions, or FP Dailies and FP, as well as planet & class story, and some heroics will easily outlevel the content...

 

I hit 50 on Voss with my last lvl 50, but I was doing PVP daily almost every day, and every FP as it was level appropriate up until then....

Edited May 11, 2012 by Alilynn

[terminova]

I agree with you. I have leveled many 50's and I have never "outleveled" the planets except for the beginning.

 

You would have to do every quest and every Heroic quest to break even. Most of the time I have to grind mobs to catch up to the quest levels. Or do the planet Bonus Series quests.

 

The people who sayquests give too much XP must be talking about the first ten levels. Which means they are not very qualified to be making those opinions since they have probably never gotten past level 30.

 

You actually don't have to do every Heroic quest to break even as the solo content is sufficient, but if you are on the short end a FP/Heroic or two will pick up the slack if you think there is some, or you can move on and have a challenge mode on the next planet. You can front load levels by doing all the Heroics on the early couple of planets to pad any potential level gap problems later. In the end my bounty hunter hit 50 before finishing the class story line or all of the planets.

[jgelling]

I agree with you OP: the game really doesn't give you more exp than you need to progress reasonably, especially after level 20. After level 20, you get just enough to keep pace, and even then you'll be playing catch-up in the 40s if you haven't been doing heroics.

 

As for the over-leveled, my guess: they're logging on for brief periods of time, so getting the rested bonus, and they're grinding mobs a lot when they do, either farming or searching for stuff - not following the very linear quests in a normal way.

[Degarmo]

Rested XP.

 

That's how I outlevelled each area of the game.

[Glower]

Easy! Without WZ or flashpoints, but with heroics.

So... sir, u liar!

Edited May 11, 2012 by Glower

[Celwinn]

Rested XP.

 

That's how I outlevelled each area of the game.

 

This.

 

Rested XP +Quest ending XP + XP killing mobs + FP XP + Warzone XP + Codex XP = Outleveled Planet

[Jeffleigh]

Basically just doing the class quests and the main quest lines in a zone, I am finishing up maybe two levels above the zone when I finish - I do move in straight lines tho and kill everything in my way

 

that's without doing any PVP, heroics areas, bonus quests or flashpoints

 

I can imagine that people who do those things would be probably about 4 or 5 levels above the zone when they leave

[Gungan]

You've seen them, or maybe you're one of them. The level 36 smuggler riding around on Alderaan, or the 28 on Nar Shaddaa, or the 44 on Hoth. I've heard complaints by a lot of people who complaint that this game provides so much exp that it's impossible to do all the quests on a planet without overleveling. After leveling 4 characters to 50 and well into my 5th, I can say without a doubt that is pure, unbridled bullcrap. I've done every quest on the Republic and Empire side. Twice. I've found every single area quest on planets, all the ones that are way out in the wilderness, every single gosh darn one. And yet always, always always always always, I wind up at the end of a planet like Taris/Balmorra at 35, or (the bane of my existence), Hoth at early 40.

 

I guess I'm looking for more answers then tips here, but both would be appreciated. I've postulated trying to do this myself, but I figure that it's running through every single quest that gets me a) my companion's gear, b) my commendations for my orange gear, which I gear every single character out in, and c) the decent pile of credits I amass. Those things would be pretty hard to live without.

 

Yet, my wariness notwithstanding, how do these people do it? Running flashpoints over and over? Grinding mobs until their blasters die and their lightsabers burn out? Running group quests day in, day out? I, in particular, would love to know, despite my reluctance because of the gear and commendation loss, how to skip all the repetitive side quests and get right to the juicy class stories. So, how does it happen?

 

Are you doing bonus series?

 

I hit 50 on my first character on Balmorra. That's before Voss or Corellia. You do have to do the space missions too, and exploring every map to full reveal also.

[ISDEnterprise]

I'm continually ahead by several levesl due to PvPing and rested XP.

 

I recently skipped almost all of Alderaan besides the class missions.

[jgelling]

Basically just doing the class quests and the main quest lines in a zone, I am finishing up maybe two levels above the zone when I finish - I do move in straight lines tho and kill everything in my way

 

that's without doing any PVP, heroics areas, bonus quests or flashpoints

 

I can imagine that people who do those things would be probably about 4 or 5 levels above the zone when they leave

 

Are you playing for 10 minutes at a time and getting rested log-in every time you log back in, or are you talking about pre-level 20? Otherwise even having leveled 3 chars so far I don't find this at all.

 

If that's the case, BW should probably take a look at the rested exp bonus, which seems to be screwing up the game's pacing for very casual players.

Edited May 11, 2012 by jgelling

[TheWookiee]

I easily outlevel the planets due to PVP dailys, rested xp, space missions/dalies and running the flashpoints/hard modes on all planets.

 

Have a smuggler I'm leveling and am at lvl 37 and havent even gotten to Balmora.

 

Got a bit lazy on my Agent, but should hit Voss at level 46.

[Ms_Sunlight]

If you're consecutively playing several alts, you can easily build up a lot of rested XP. I'm taking turns at the moment with smuggler, inquisitor and consular alts and by the time I've finished playing a planet on one, the next one can easily have a full bar's worth.

[Chindi]

I have rarely done FPs or heroics, never PvP as I've levelled and I'm usually one or two levels above the starting level for a planet when I hit it.

So, some tips from me. Log out in a rest area. Do at least one daily space mission that is not greyed out. Check for new space missions opening up, they give great XP the first time. Complete any mini bonus quests, especially multi-stage ones. Do the planetary bonus series. They don't always start on the planet and not always at level, so keep an eye out.

 

That is all I do outside of the regular planetary and story quests and it works out fine for me.

[Jenzali]

The levelling pacing is quite good in this game actually. In the "other game" very often the quests are gray in a zone before you're even halfway through it.

 

However, some reason I am always underlevelled (34ish) when arriving on Quesh. Usually take a break and do a tn of warzones and space missions to reach 37 or 38 before going to Hoth.

[JnEricsonx]

Rested XP, occasional FPs, being a stickler to try to do EVERY sidequest+heroic, hell yeah I'm outleveled on most planets. When Alderaan says 24-28, I'm running like 29, etc, etc. Its there, its xp, its money/gear, why not do it?

[jgelling]

Rested XP, occasional FPs, being a stickler to try to do EVERY sidequest+heroic, hell yeah I'm outleveled on most planets. When Alderaan says 24-28, I'm running like 29, etc, etc. Its there, its xp, its money/gear, why not do it?

 

Well if every planet was as well-designed as Alderaan with a good balance of main/side/heroic quests, it'd probably be a pleasure to complete everything possible. But then there are planets like Taris or Tatooine - Tatooine has what, like 7 heroics? And it's insanely large for a planet you might get up to halfway through before being able to afford a speeder (Imperial-side). And really, who likes hanging around Bug Town for the side-quests to the Heroic series on Taris (Imperial) - by that point I wanted to call in the fleet to re-bombard Taris and be done with it

Edited May 11, 2012 by jgelling

[PendragonPrime]

The bonus series. I didn't even realize how big Nar Shaddaa actually is until I was datacron hunting there. My next alt, I'm going to see how many planets I can skip by completing all the bonus series of any planet I'm on.

[MAgson]

For me: No pvp, no space missions past level 20, no flashpoints, heroic 2+'s if I can solo them, otherwise not done.

 

Always 3+ levels over for a planet, and have been as high as 6 over on some characters. I do always have rested xp, though, and if I run out on 1 toon, I'll swap to an alt that has some, so I almost never running without it.

 

There does seem to be a bit more xp on the republic side. I'm usually 4-5 levels high on that side, while on Empire I'm only 3-4.

 

I did skip 2.5 planets (Taris, half of Alderaan, Balmorra) on my Vanguard so I went to Hoth "at level" at 38, but still left there at 43 and Belsavis got me to 47. I expect I'll be 50 on that character before making it to Corellia, and this is without going back for the bonus series for Alderaan and later.

 

My current stable of toons is:

 

1st server:

41 Commando on Quesh

29 Sage on Tat (just finishing it up since she skipped Taris)

29 Shadow on Tat (just starting it becuz she didn't skip anything so far)

4 others in their teens that I don't remember since it's been months since I've been on that server

 

2nd server:

48 Vanguard on Voss, which (as mentioned) skipped 2.5 planets.

43 Assassin currently running Alderaan bonus. Will go to Belsavis afterward.

38 Sage about 1/4 through Balmorra.

22 Scoundrel about 1/4 through Taris.

 

If you've got rested xp, I don't see how you can't be massively over-level. If you don't have rested bonus, I can see that it'd be a closer thing, especially Empire side, but it still looks like it'd be right in the right neighborhood. If you're doing space and pvp and flashpoints on top of it all, though... back to over-level in a hurry.

[Nyla]

Just sharing my experience leveling pre1.2 on Imperial side

 

1-11: Starter world

11-12: Black Talon

12-17: Dromuund Kaas

17-18: Space

18-24: Balmorra

24-28: Nar Shadda

28-31: Tatooine

31-36: chapter 1/Alderaan

36-39: Taris

39-42: Quesh

42-46: Hoth

46-50: Voss

 

That's how I did, without doing warzones or flashpoints except Black Talon. I was also doing all available spce quests maybe once every 2 days.

I mentionned the starting planet for each bracket but I always did all the quests including the bonus series of current/previous planets.

[DorkTrooper]

Sometimes I over-level, but I do every single quest I can, plus occasional space missions, a FP or two.

 

Also should point out that sometimes the over-leveled people you see might be on higher level quests (such as companion quests) that sometimes return to low-level areas.

[Valperion]

* Basic Quests

* Heroic 2 Quests

* Heroic 4 Quests

* Group xp bonus.

* Rest xp

* Space combat xp

* Warzone xp , "No longer suggested, was good xp at launch"

 

* skip large planets, "Beta testers would get so much xp, that we just skipped planets that took to much time.

- Examples "Nar shaddaa, Voss, Correlia"

Edited May 11, 2012 by Valperion

[Maxil]

Every day when I sit down to play I first get on all my non-50's and do:

 

Daily Space missions

Daily PVP mission.

Daily flashpoint mission. (starting at about 16 a terminal in the supply section of the fleet gives you this)

 

Those alone actually outlevel the characters I'm not playing. Also they are always sitting in cantina, on fleet, or in ship when I log out. So many of them are often maxed on rest XP when I do play them.

 

Since I don't play all my non 50's everyday. (full set of 8 characters, just rerolled though to new server so not yet 50 again) this keeps me in good shape

 

While I level I often have my PVP queue going, so PVP becomes part of my daily mix. On my 28 toon I think I'm pulling something like 25k xp or so per warzone.

 

I'm on fatman so people asking for heroics isn't a problem and they fill pretty fast, so I get those when I do quest.

 

I've found that doing all your dailies while questing, when I was on vulk highway my sage hit 50 in just over 3 days /played. Not shabby at all really

 

Actually I struggle not being over-leveled, as I stop pvping and stop doing dailies when I'm 5 levels over mobs in the area my character should be in, as I don't want quests to become "worthless" exp wise and grey out giving just 5xp. Call it compulsive but I don't want to not finish anything.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Maxil

[xandax]

Have no problems outlevelling planets doing just the quests. Rested XP helps - the bonus series do as well.

I do no WZ and few levelling flashpoints - but I still find myself doing mostly green quests until around Hoth when I just wanna finish and start skipping a lot of content.