[Help] Gearing for PVE content?

[AhxAU]

Hey guys,

First off just want to say that I've been out of the game for about 2-3 months, so I'm probably a bit behind in everything.

I've also searched the first 10 pages and couldn't find any information specifically for this either.

 

At the moment though I'm just doing some PVP to finish off my Battlemaster set, but I thought that it would be a good idea for me to also obtain a great PVE set to get me started on most of the end-game Flashpoints. I don't want to be one of those guys who joins PVE content when I'm covered in Expertise (Although *some* PVP gear couldn't hurt, more specifically Lightsabers as well as maybe Relics)

So far I haven't been able to come up with much because right now I'm confused by the modding side of things. I just don't really know where the best place to obtain mods are (I've gathered dailies and possibly the GTN) but I'm not sure if they've added anything else since I stopped playing last time. Last time I stopped playing they had just added in the Black Hole Commendations (Not sure if I'd realistically have access to a lot of that gear though?)

 

But yeah, what I'm asking is what are my options? Currently I'm playing an Annihilation Marauder, and my crew skills are Synthweaving, Archaeology and Underworld Trading - which I am still leveling. Anything from Synthweaving which will largely help me out in this?

I'm also aware of http://swtor.askmrrobot.com, but as I said previously, I'm confused about what mods I have access to. And from what I've been able to gather for almost any content the Marauder's Exalted/Renowned bracers/belts seem to be the way to go (Well, anything with an armoring/mod/augment slot in it)

I'm not really concerned about stat priorities at the moment, that sort of thing I'd just leave to another thread - However that being said I do have a relatively good idea at what to look for.

 

Thanks for reading and thanks for any help you may be able to give me.

And apologies if/when I was starting to ramble, I haven't been able to get the best sleep lately.

Edited August 1, 2012 by AhxAU

[bbare]

Stat Priority, Annihilation

 

Main Stat>Power>Surge(~75-78%)>Accuracy(~100% melee)>Critical Rating (0-235 points)

 

Critical rating is up to you. As annihilation, you will not need to crit very often to do insane damage. If you are going to equip any crit rating at all, don't go above ~235 points.

 

Due to the nature of the enhancements you will have to sacrifice power for crit and accuracy for surge, because the enhancements only come with power/accuracy or surge, or critical/accuracy or surge. With end game gear, you will pretty much be walking into the accuracy and surge soft caps with the campaign gear you receive. I highly suggest stacking as much power as you can in lieu of critical rating. The reason why it may be appropriate to stack at least some crit is do help out with burst phases and self-heals.

 

The items you should be looking for are +18 strength augments, the power/surge enhancements, and the accuracy/power enhancements. If you are going to stack some crit, I'd advise getting the earpiece and implants with crit/accuracy or crit/surge, based upon how much accuracy or surge you need. The reason for this is because it is much easier to swap earpieces and implants than it is to swap modded gear with certain mods and enhancements. If you find the crit earpieces and implants to be not your thing, you can purchase the power/surge ones instead with a decent 35 BH comms each.

 

For relics, I'd highly suggest the war hero pvp ones with 113 power if you can acquire them. They are most likely BiS for your spec. If you don't have the time to acquire these with ranked comms, I'd suggest going with a matrix cube and a relic of boundless ages.

 

Black hole gear is purchasable with black hole comms and they are shockingly easy to acquire. They are obtained from the following:

 

1. HM EC (4 comms per boss, 4 comms per chest)

2. SM EC (2 comms per boss, 4 comms per chest)

3. Daily group finder sm ev/kp (5 comms each for a total of 10 a week)

4. Daily group finder HM LI (Daily 5 comms)

5. Daily group finder random HM (Daily 5 comms)

6. Rakghoul Conflicts quest (8 comms/week)

7. Weekly Black Hole Quest (6 comms)

8. NM KP (14 comms total)

9. Nightmare Pilgrim (4 comms)

10. Initial EC Quest (6 comms)

Edited August 1, 2012 by bbare

[AhxAU]

Oh, wow. Thank you so much for all the helpful information. As far as I knew I could only really obtain Black Hole Commendations from just the dailies. Heh, the more you know!

 

Realistically for the time being though, I'd only be able to obtain the better armoring/mods/enhancements etc from the dailies right? The (level?) 22 ones? This is excluding PVP items entirely I mean.

 

Before I took a leave last time I was working on the matrix cube, so I think I'll continue upon that.

Again, thanks for everything!

[bbare]

Oh, wow. Thank you so much for all the helpful information. As far as I knew I could only really obtain Black Hole Commendations from just the dailies. Heh, the more you know!

 

Realistically for the time being though, I'd only be able to obtain the better armoring/mods/enhancements etc from the dailies right? The (level?) 22 ones? This is excluding PVP items entirely I mean.

 

Before I took a leave last time I was working on the matrix cube, so I think I'll continue upon that.

Again, thanks for everything!

 

I'd start with getting yourself a full set with the 22 mods, enhancements, etc. Do dailies very frequently to accumulate tons of credits. Next, if you can get into a decent guild that does HM EV and KP, you can get rakata gear pretty quickly. A marauder in full daily mods can put up enough dps and survivability to do HM EV and KP pretty easily. Your goal, however would be to accumulate as many black hole comms as possible as the BH pieces of gear yield many of the BiS items. As a synthweaver, you can craft your own augments. If you haven't already, I'd level synth, slicing, and archaelogy to level 400 so you can make your own strength augments. Once you get mostly rakata or columi gear, you are ready for SM EC where you can get the most BH comms.

 

As a summary your goals should be:

 

1. Do dailies and get the 22 mods, armorings, etc...

2. Learn the strats for HM EV and KP and find a guild that could use you.

3. Gear up to mostly rakata and some columi while doing HM EV and KP

4. Learn the strat for SM EC and do it weekly

 

Of course, as you are striving for these goals make sure you accumulate as many BH comms as you can so you can purchase the BH gear with the BiS mods/enhancements, etc. I'd suggest learning the strats for the HM Flashpoints if you haven't already, especially Kaon and Lost Island.

[AhxAU]

I've been fiddling around with character sheets, and only taking into account the mods I could obtain from dailies/commendations, I've been able to get my surge rating to 74.5, and my accuracy to just shy of 99%. I'm currently using two accuracy/power enhancements, but will dropping the accuracy back to around 97% be worth the 1% surge gain?

 

Maybe I'm just not understanding SWTOR's mechanics all that well, but usually I would have assumed that accuracy to 100% would have been top priority.

 

And again, thanks for everything

[Thundergulch]

Critical Rating (0-235 points)

 

Why 235 points max? What is the reasoning for this?

[bbare]

Why 235 points max? What is the reasoning for this?

 

It is really 240. It is the point where the diminishing returns on your crit start to hit pretty hard. If you have 240 points on end-game gear, it would be 71 on 2 implants and 1 earpiece, plus 27 crit on your matrix cube. Everything else should have power/accuracy or power/surge on it.

[bbare]

I've been fiddling around with character sheets, and only taking into account the mods I could obtain from dailies/commendations, I've been able to get my surge rating to 74.5, and my accuracy to just shy of 99%. I'm currently using two accuracy/power enhancements, but will dropping the accuracy back to around 97% be worth the 1% surge gain?

 

Maybe I'm just not understanding SWTOR's mechanics all that well, but usually I would have assumed that accuracy to 100% would have been top priority.

 

And again, thanks for everything

 

I am really talking mostly end-game gear here (full black hole). You don't have to worry much about getting 100% accuracy or 75% surge right now. Just take the item that has more main stat. If you had to prioritize accuracy over surge right now, I'd go surge, because you can do without 100% accuracy as an annihilation marauder.