What's your best tip for a new player? Money & Guilds

[ProtocolX]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm really enjoying SWTOR and currently at level 20. I haven't tried PvP yet, might do so today. The only real issue I seem to have is I feel it's kind of a long process to make the local currency (I forget what it's called), enough to keep you and your companions in decent gear. I want to see if I'm doing it wrong or that's just how it is.

 

I did buy some cartel coins but don'/won't want to make that a habit -- and most the stuff is for higher levels.

 

As for Guilds, I would probably like to join one ultimately but am an older, independent soul. I figured it best to run though the game first or at least maybe level 35+. I have a couple acquaintances in-game as well.

 

Anyway, I feel like I have 100 questions and yet few...but mostly wondered if there are any game-breaking mistakes to avoid?

 

For example, should I save commendations or spend them, and what's the best way to go about making money (should I be farming something?) and getting good gear for you and your companions?

 

Thanks in advance

[tiltion]

The only real things I'll comment on is to not buy gear with credits. You should keep well enough geared via quest rewards and commendations.

 

As for spending commendations - thats what they are for. Upgrade your gear first, then your companion's if you have enough and they are worth while items.

[Draloch]

Regarding commendations: Definitely spend all of them before leaving a planet. Upgrade you and your companion as best you can with them, paying particular attention to any gear slots that haven't been upgraded recently. There's almost no use for planet commendations once you out level the planet, so there's no reason to keep any in reserve.

 

Making money with your first character is tough. Just like in real life you want to practice 2 basic principles:

 

1) Control your expenses. If you're always sending your companions out on missions full time, you're going to run yourself out of money. For the most part, crew skills are a credit sink. They're useful for suplementing your gear, but with your first character, you should focus on just running enough missions to keep your crew skills leveled appropriately.

 

2) Try to find ways to increase your income. There are alot of level 50's in the game who don't want to take the time to go back and get crafting materials from earlier in the game. Your gathering profession likely can be a source of money making for you. Go to the GTN (galactic trade network) kiosk on the fleet and search for your lower level gathering materials that you aren't going to use for your own crafting needs. See what other people are charging for them and put them up for sale at a comparable price.

 

At level 20, you my not have many of the mid level gathering materials yet, but you're just starting to get into the grade 2 stuff. Grade 2 and 3 gathering materials can often fetch 500-1000 credits each. So if you have a stack of 20 grade 2 gathering materials, you might get 10,000 credits for it on the GTN. That's good money for a first time character in the first act of the game. If you like having that extra money, you may even do a few rounds of running around your planet scooping up gathering mats to sell on the GTN.

[theblaznee]

Well, first of all.. Don't hesitate to join a guild.. Plenty of guilds cater to the more mature crowd with a life next to the game..

 

2nd.. Don't worry about credits.. Questing by itself will net you all the credits you will need. Unless you decide you want to blow some cash on the gtn or at a specialty vendor, you won't have many issues.

 

3rd.. Gearing.. Try to acquire orange gear for all your slots, and upgrade them with new mods as you go along.. Remember that buying green mods on the gtn is MUCH cheaper than going for blues or purples. Use your commendations on each planet to first of all get an orange item in a slot where you don't have one already, next priority is barrel or hilt for weapon(s), then it's armoring for offhand if your offhand has armoring slot instead of hilt/barrel.. And lastly it's whatever you can afford.

 

Always keep your orange gear.. Sometimes you pick up an item that has vastly better stats, but is blue or green, and it's fine to equip that. But keep hold of the orange item as you will probably quickly be able to mod it again.

 

Remember to check mods and enhancements on the gear you come across.. Sometimes a piece of jedi knight gear will have an enhancement your trooper needs - and so on.. But don't roll need in a group on something not directly for your class unless you ask first and recieve yes's from ALL other participants.

 

Lastly.. Unless you're floating cash or resources you can keep your favourite companion geared in "pass me downs".. It'll be plenty geared.

[Draloch]

Lastly.. Unless you're floating cash or resources you can keep your favourite companion geared in "pass me downs".. It'll be plenty geared.

 

One caveat on this point:

 

Every companion comes with a "primary stat." You can find out what that primary stat is by opening your codex (a tab in your missions menu), navigating to "persons of note" and finding your companion on the list.

 

If your companion has the same "primary stat" as you do (aim, cunning, strength, and willpower are the primary stats), then giving them your hand-me-downs is a great strategy.

 

If your companion has a different primary stat than you, then gearing them will be much harder. Most of your quest rewards are meant for you and have your primary stat. For this reason, if you want to stick with a companion that uses a different stat, I recommend trying to get that orange customizable gear for them and spending your planetary commendations on your companion instead of yourself. Gear yourself with quest rewards, and your companion with planetary comms and cheap GTN mods.

[haliy]

As far as guilds go, the first thing to do is figure out what type of player you are. What I mean by that is do you like to

• Role play
  
• PVP exclusivly
  
• looking to see endgame content or gear your character with the best possible gear there is ingame
  
• play casually
  
• etc...
  

 

The 2nd thing to do once you figured out the first part can be done in various ways.

• go do your server forums and check to see which guilds are recruiting for your gaming style
  
• post in the recruiting section that you are looking for a guild and they type of player you are
  
• ideal guild quiz
  
• Listen ingame to guilds recruiting in general chat
  
• look at the different signatures of players posting. some of them have links to their guilds
  

[TheIronMonkey]

Lots of great advice.

 

As stated, save your credits. Up to Level 20 or so I just wear whatever drops thats better for me, no matter what color. You level up so fast you will be replacing it as you go along. As soon as I can I switch my toon and my main companion to orange gear. Then use the commendations to keep it updated. You get a bunch on each planet and as stated, once you over level it, it won't be of much use. So spend those comms as you go.

 

Here is something I didn't see above : pickup everything. If you don't use it, sell it. Another good source of credits. Sometimes I go out of the way to kill mobs just for xp and drops I can sell. Gathering materials, as I said, pick everything you can and sell it.

 

Heroics and Flash Points are a great source of orange pieces you can then keep long term. So when you get to fleet look into running the first couple of FPs. Once you get an orange piece you like the look of, you can stick with it through L50.

 

Do not go cheap on the trainer skills. You need those. So always have money for that. And, if you really love crew skills and crafting, then buy those, but you don't need them all, just the latest level so you can keep leveling up. The main use of crafting I have is for older toons to craft things for my newer toons. So don't overspend on that.

[Storm-Cutter]

Crafting is great, but it can be a money sink. Expect a crafting skill and 2 support skills to cost somewhere between 500K and a Million credits to get them all to 400 points (max)

 

If you are crafting for yourself, start on the next tier as soon as you have kitted out your current level.

 

Gather all the materials you come across. - It'll help you level the skill, and provide mats to use or sell.

 

Keep back around 150-200K as you approach level 50. There are around 12-15 traianble skills at level 50 and you'll want to learn them all.

 

Never bankrupt yourself ( zero credits) If you can't pay for a taxi or space-craft trip to where the bad guys drop loot, then you're stuck until someone gives you a hand-out!

 

Definately join a guild. even the minimum 3 other players is good. - They can provide materials for crafting, unused loot, or make you stuff you can't make or can't afford to buy. - Sometimes crafting criticals and you end up with two for the price of one. - Pass it around the guild before selling it.

 

-Watch you inventory slots. - Your inventory can fill up quick before level 10, then there is a reprieve when you can access the fleet around level 7-ish. This gets you to your ship's hold which is another 80 slots or so. - But the next cargo bay is at level 20 - and expensive in in-game credits 50K IIRC. Better to use cartel coins if you have some to spare.

 

Read the small-print before buying/ selling anything! - some people still sell purple materials / items on the GTN for the basic price. How many of us have bought a piece of kit for the looks only to relaise that we're way off level or it doesn't fit our stats, or we don't have the skill to use it.

 

Run away from fights you're losing badly. Repair costs can be astronomical.

 

Use your quicktravel options instead of the taxi where possible. A few minutes wait for cooldown can save a fair bit. - Hand in missions in batches instead of flitting back and forth.

 

There are many other hints, I'll leave that to other people. - Good luck,

& May the force be with you / Up the Empire!

[ProtocolX]

Wow. You all are amazing! I've never seen such helpful and useful responses on a game forum. (Sad, I know). I could quote most all of you but will say collectively this information helps a lot. I really was way off base on crew skills and wasting money on that, so I'll read up on crafting, for starters.

 

Also, commendation spending now make sense and I had no idea skills were that much to train later on...so yeah I definitely need to save money -- or get better at making it. It sounds like It might not be too difficult if I put these suggestions to work given I play quite a few hours.

 

I think too I'm more encouraged about joining a guild. I think the group events would be better organized and I would learn more. Edit: I will check the servers forum etc. as I was looking for a Guild thread and didn't see it.

 

Thanks again, and I'm still all ears if anyone has more to add.

Edited December 13, 2012 by ProtocolX

[Joesixxpack]

Good advice from others, will echo them that a good guild is a lot of fun.

 

Also that gearing while leveling is a paradox. You need to do more to get gear as rewards, pick ups, etc. but doing more means you'll outlevel your gear quicker.

 

If you hit up google you can find gear lists for different flashpoints and identify which interests you. So you can do Cademimu or one of those and pick up good pieces for free and get a bunch of credits and social points also.

 

PVP is fun, I suggest giving it a try. You'll make some credits and get warzone commendations also, which you can spend on good gear,, weapons, and items without having to spend credits. PVP below 50 gives you experience points too though, so if you don't want to level too fast you may want to keep an eye on that.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Joesixxpack

[gumbydpl]

Welcome to the game! Most of us here try to be helpful, just don't listen to the trolls haha.

 

My advice is, everytime you group with someone, it would be best to let them know you are new and they will be more willing to help you out with the quest or Flash Point. And maybe give you a few pointers as well.

 

As far as crew skills go, I don't know what you picked but I would suggest Cybertech with scavenging and underworld trading. The reason being is once you get all orange gear (which as pointed out you want in as many slots as possible) you will need to fill them with Armor, Mods, and Enhancements. Using world comms to try to fill these slots can be rough. Armor costs 7 comms and Mods/Enhance costs 2 a piece. So that is 11 comms for once piece of armor. On average you will get 25-30 comms per planet, so you can see the problem here. With cybertech you can craft your own armor and mods thus saving you 9 comms per piece of orange gear! Plus you can craft ear pieces which you don't come by too often.

 

To get some good info on crew skills Look Here.

 

And for a good guide for leveling Cybertech, Look Here.

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

[ProtocolX]

 

As far as crew skills go, I don't know what you picked but I would suggest Cybertech with scavenging and underworld trading. The reason being is once you get all orange gear (which as pointed out you want in as many slots as possible) you will need to fill them with Armor, Mods, and Enhancements.

 

I picked Diplomacy, Underworld Trading and Treasure Hunting -- I really just picked what sounded interesting (e.g. can I talk my way out of trouble?) not knowing there was a viable crafting system, until yesterday. Then I heard some people talking about making a good bit of money on it -- though it sounded somewhat time consuming -- which is OK if I enjoy it.

 

If it is not my thing, it would at least be practical to make my own upgrades...so I will definitely look at this. I appreciate the welcome and the links.

 

Also, Joesixxpack made a good point I hadn't considered about leveling up. The PvP is a bit of mass confusion for me at the moment -- such what I tried so far. I want to learn it though, hopefully I won't level up too fast in doing so, but I'll monitor it.

Edited December 14, 2012 by ProtocolX

[Draloch]

All 3 of those crew skills are the "crew mission" type. Diplomacy and Underworld Trading are both good at level 50 for just selling stuff on the GTN for some passive cash if you don't want to be active at playing the crafting game. You probably will end up losing money getting them to 400, though.

 

If you don't really want to devote time to learning the crafting system, I'd focus on leveling Underworld Trading and run the "underworld metals" missions. You'll be able to sell those rewards on the GTN. Stay away from companion gift missions. The reason why metals sell better is because they are ingredients for player made armorings and modifications. There's a market for them.

 

If you want to use crafting to better your own character, I recommend heading over to the Crew Skills section of these forums and reading one of the guides. I believe there is a sticky post that has links to guides that are helpful in understanding them.

 

Of course, if you have specific questions, this is a great place to go to get customized advice. Have you posted what Advanced Class you are playing? That can be a factor in choosing a good crew skill.

[JacksonMo]

I picked Diplomacy, Underworld Trading and Treasure Hunting -- I really just picked what sounded interesting (e.g. can I talk my way out of trouble?) not knowing there was a viable crafting system, until yesterday. Then I heard some people talking about making a good bit of money on it -- though it sounded somewhat time consuming -- which is OK if I enjoy it.

 

If it is not my thing, it would at least be practical to make my own upgrades...so I will definitely look at this. I appreciate the welcome and the links.

 

Also, Joesixxpack made a good point I hadn't considered about leveling up. The PvP is a bit of mass confusion for me at the moment -- such what I tried so far. I want to learn it though, hopefully I won't level up too fast in doing so, but I'll monitor it.

 

Crafting is really not viable for where you are. By the time you gather the materials, buy schematics, and reverse engineer blue items, you are already several levels past and the gear is a down-grade from the quest reward you just got.

Personally, on your first time through, I recommend taking all gathering. It's not worth as much per stack as mission materials, but it's all free and laying around to be picked up. And if you familiarize yourself with GTN prices, you'll find that certain ones (even low level) fetch a better price than even grade 6 materials.

My most recent alt is a pure gatherer. Scavenging, Bioanalysis and Archeology.

Partly to support higher level crafting alts, but also for pure profit.

You can always change them at 50.

[ProtocolX]

If you don't really want to devote time to learning the crafting system, I'd focus on leveling Underworld Trading and run the "underworld metals" missions. You'll be able to sell those rewards on the GTN. Stay away from companion gift missions. The reason why metals sell better is because they are ingredients for player made armorings and modifications. There's a market for them.

 

(edit)

 

Of course, if you have specific questions, this is a great place to go to get customized advice. Have you posted what Advanced Class you are playing? That can be a factor in choosing a good crew skill.

 

Hi, my first character is a Guardian so if that makes a difference that would be good to know....I read a good bit on the crew skills now but still have a good bit to go. Otherwise, I don't mind taking time to learn the crafting system, it's the getting hung up at the GTN playing 1 credit wars etc.I want to avoid -- at least at this early point in the game as I rather focus on the storyline, PvE and PvP and selling some of that loot maybe.

 

Gathering stuff would be fine, I'm not sure how that works. I read something about Nodes (more reading to do). But yeah, I'm already losing money I think on companion gifts, lockboxes and failed missions, so I need to change what I'm doing, even if I change my mind again later.

 

It would be nice eventually to have this character be good at something higher level supported by an alt though. I'm thinking my next character will be be Sith Force user (for the storyline) and then I'll go something non-force, likely.

Edited December 14, 2012 by ProtocolX

[Draloch]

If you go to the screen where you select which missions you want to send your companions out on, you'll see at the bottom of that window, there's a dropdown menu where you can select which companion you want to send out. I think right now you have T07, Kira Carsen, and C2N2. When you select one of them, you'll see that each of them has 2 bonus stats that make them a little better at a certain crew skill.

 

Kira is one of the 2 best companions in the game at Synthweaving, which makes armors (Sith Warriors get the other +5 crit Synthweaver). I don't really recommend Synthweaving as a first crew skill for a new player. The reason is because the excellent armor modification system in this game renders non-custom armor not really very good. Synthweavers do make some custom armor, which is nice, but if you want some of that armor, all you really have to do is ask in general chat on the fleet and you'll find someone to make it for you. Synthweavers also make an augmentation kit that adds an additional modifiable slot to a piece of armor and they are are 1 of 3 crew skills that make the mod that fills that slot. That makes Synthweavers ok, but really just not as good as some of the other crew skills out there.

 

Fortunately for you, Jedi Knights get another companion a little later who has +5 Biochem crit and that companion is the only one in the game that can reach a total of 25% crit chance for Biochem (in order to not write a book, I'll skip the math). Biochem makes stims (which give you an extra buff for an hour or 2), medpacks (which heal you), adrenals (which give a short combat boost buff), and implants. It's a very good profession.

 

Ok, now let me give a very brief tutorial on how crafting works in the game:

 

There are 3 types of crew skills. The "crafting" type brings up a window that is filled with schematics (other games may call them recipes). You learn schematics and can select any schematic you know to make some sort of item that will help you or other players in the game. Most schematics require 3 types of materials to make an item. They require 'gathering' materials, 'mission' materials, and 'vendor' materials.

 

"Gathering" crew skills provide 'gathering' materials. Once you've learned a gathering crew skill, you will get little * symbols on your minimap marking clickable nodes in the game that you can collect 'gathering' mats from (provided you have sufficient level). Each time you "gather" a node, the node disappears, you get some materials, and you will gain 0-2 levels, depending on how close the nodes level is to your gathering skill level. Additionally, you can send your crew out on gathering missions to collect the same materials that come from nodes (it costs credits to do this).

 

"Mission" crew skills allow you to send your companions out on missions for a variety of things (treasure boxes, companion gifts, various materials).

 

Generally, you will first want to decide what "crafting" skill you want to pursue, and that will determine what "gathering" and "mission" skill you get. Once you click each of the crew skills trainers on the fleet, you get a codex entry explaining that skill. You can find out which "gathering" and "mission" skill goes with each "crafting" skill by looking in the codex. To get to your codex, open up your missions menu (the menu that shows all your quests), click on the tab at the bottom labelled "codex," and then click on the crew skills section of the codex. You'll see all the different crew skills in the game and read about them there.

 

If you decide to go Biochem (and I do highly recommend it for a guardian - this is your 1 chance to get 25% crit chance on biochem), you'll get Bioanalysis as a gathering skill, and Diplomacy as a mission skill. You'll have to dump Underworld Trading and Treasure Hunting to make room.

 

I've written quite a wall of text here and it's kind of just a starting point, but it'll at least get you pointed in the right direction and you can learn more as you go. You may have to run around coruscant for an hour or so to get your gathering skill levelled up a bit so that you can collect nodes wherever you're playing now. It won't take long since your character won't have to stop to fight much.

[psandak]

One caveat on this point:

 

Every companion comes with a "primary stat." You can find out what that primary stat is by opening your codex (a tab in your missions menu), navigating to "persons of note" and finding your companion on the list.

 

If your companion has the same "primary stat" as you do (aim, cunning, strength, and willpower are the primary stats), then giving them your hand-me-downs is a great strategy.

 

If your companion has a different primary stat than you, then gearing them will be much harder. Most of your quest rewards are meant for you and have your primary stat. For this reason, if you want to stick with a companion that uses a different stat, I recommend trying to get that orange customizable gear for them and spending your planetary commendations on your companion instead of yourself. Gear yourself with quest rewards, and your companion with planetary comms and cheap GTN mods.

 

addendum to this...

 

some quest rewards are specifically for companions. You are offered gear for each companion you have at that time, you get to choose one. If the quest reward is an upgrade for your favorite companion, it is probably worth getting it over the one planet commendation (or random item box) you would get otherwise.

[TheIronMonkey]

With 7 toons, I have done all the crew skills to 400, and repeated some.

 

To use as you go, Cybertech is best. Between what you can make and the planet commendations, you are always well outfitted. It takes a bit to get all oranges but the last couple things you can pickup at GTN. Right now, the toon I am doing and the two companions are all fully oranged out and over armored for the planet with what I make for myself. And have not purchase materials at all, so all picked up off the floor. Scavange is specially good because there sure are a lot of robots in this game.

 

Now a story. I am an adult player, so are my brothers. One in particular had never been on an MMO. He had been stuck on Age of Empires (!!) for the last 15 years or so. So I finally got him to try SWTOR. When he first downloaded and started, I was at his home visiting and gave him a quick tutorial. At that time I went over greens and blues and oranges, but it was all kind of overwhelming so I gave him the basics. Just told him to concentrate on his main skill and not worry too much about the rest.

 

I ran into him on the game (around L20, he complained of dying too much) and his armor was all a mess. He had all kind of skills on, so I went over a refresher (now with some play time in he understood better what I was taking about) and crafted some armor and stuff for him. Set him off on his way, while I leveled up a BH to play with him.

 

Now at L36, i got to inspect his stuff. Surprise! He is all oranged out, with better specs than me!! He took the mission to heart and is really well setup. Even his enhancements! I just need to make earpieces and implants for him to set him up. I was very very proud of him. And he is using commendations and the GTN to suplement. Note that he has done 0 work on crew skills, I will be visiting for Christmas to go over the whole thing with him.

 

So, go orange, upgrade as you go (what else are you going to do with those planet comms??) and really, never buy from a armor or weapon vendor in planet, they are all crooks!

[ProtocolX]

I read the last posts. Thanks again. I decided prior (after my last post) to go with Biochem/Analysis and so far like it -- I'm on Tarris now and it's pretty abundant. I don't know about later. It's hard to say if I'm getting my investment back on medpacks and stims just yet, but hopefully will make a profit later. I'm leveling up much quicker than on my prior skills I had chosen.

 

The +5/25% crit chance companion is encouraging, too

 

I also picked Slicing rather than a gathering skill which maybe is a mistake to do in isolation. Either that or I need to skill up a good bit to open stuff ...not sure if it's worth the money? So I might switch that to scavenging or something, as has been suggested.

 

Otherwise, Cybertech sounds good for my presumably second character, when more of the game has become old hat or at least familiar. I haven't got a chance to get back to the GTN to see what biochem stuff sells for though.

 

So, go orange, upgrade as you go (what else are you going to do with those planet comms??) and really, never buy from a armor or weapon vendor in planet, they are all crooks!

 

No doubt - I've already wasted tens of thousands here at my low level and hope not to again, though on a big planet w/o GTN access not sure what to do if something decent I need doesn't drop. I think I'm about 60/40 orange/blue at the moment.

Edited December 15, 2012 by ProtocolX

[Draloch]

Slicing is a gathering skill and so is bioanalysis, so technically, you have 2 gathering skills now.

 

Slicing is a pretty good money maker while levelling, but frankly, it's of very limited use later on. You can just about break even running lockbox missions (maybe even make a little money). The big money comes from looting the slicing nodes on the planets. It's free money just laying on the ground, which is great for a levelling character since you're already there anyway.

 

Once you get to level 50 and you're not running around new planets levelling all the time, you'll definitely want to drop slicing and pick up diplomacy. It supplies the materials for all your good stims and medpacks at level 50 and those supplies cost big bucks if you just try to buy them from the GTN. While you're levelling, diplomacy would be more of a money sink though, since the green quality schematics for biochem don't take diplomacy mats, so it's not a bad strategy at all to use slicing as a money making tool while you're levelling and then ditch it at level 50.

[ProtocolX]

Slicing is a pretty good money maker while levelling, but frankly, it's of very limited use later on.

...

While you're levelling, diplomacy would be more of a money sink though, since the green quality schematics for biochem don't take diplomacy mats, so it's not a bad strategy at all to use slicing as a money making tool while you're levelling and then ditch it at level 50.

 

Sounds like a good plan. I think I will do this as it's too hard for me to walk past a locked box.

 

Also, I haven't seen the mats required for health items I'll need later and would have never guessed Diplomacy was involved. But I'll wait until I'm in the money though or when at least maybe I can use my bioanalaysis to start supporting its training in full or part.

Edited December 16, 2012 by ProtocolX

[TheIronMonkey]

On Bio, IMPLANTS are the sellers. They hold prices way up and you get LOTS of schematics. so go crazy on those.

 

The medpacs are good for you, but nobody buys them on the GTN. And the better ones ONLY WORK FOR YOU. So, good for you, but not a great deal money wise.

 

On a planet without GTN : you have a daily fleet pass. I use it at the end of the day (when I am getting ready to get off). I travel to fleet, sell anything I found that might be listed, pickup mail, visit locker, start all the crew on missions, and then, logoff (you are at a safe place on fleet). Next morning just have to travel back to where I was and get on with it.