How often to mod orange gear.

[Trickai]

So I have orange gear on myself and my companion. The question is how often should I mod it. I have alts for armor, mod, enhance, crystals and hilts. Some of those mods you can make a new one every 3 levels but that can get tiring. So I was wondering how long in between upgrading my mods would be a good balance. Every 5 levels....every 8 levels....10?

 

Would I be able to go 10 levels without changing if I crafted all purple mods....or even if I only did the blue mods?

 

I realize there is no right answer here, but if anyone has experience in modding their own orange gear and could tell me how often they upgraded or their suggestions for upgrading that would be really helpful. Thanks ahead of time to all who respond with info.

[DarthTHC]

I only use orange gear on myself; never my pets. I use cheap greens from GTN on pets. I upgrade them every 4 levels or so.

 

Normally I have plenty of commendations to upgrade constantly. Generally I upgrade an armoring, barrel/hilt, or mod when the main stat is +3 or better over what I have and an enhancement when it's an appreciable improvement in power or defensive stats.

Edited June 24, 2014 by DarthTHC

[errant_knight]

I use orange gear on my companions, too. I like being able to solo heroics and fps if I want. I tend to to re-gear us when I find myself dying, lol. It's hard to give an exact number of levels because that depends on your presence, the number of buffs you have, your class, how well you know the fights and your skill level. One person might only need to gear every 10 levels or so, while another might be better off with every 2 to 4. Best rule of thumb, if you can't get by a boss, or find yourself dying to common mobs, it's time to re-gear. It also depends on your level. At early levels, neither you nor your companion needs much in the way of gear. If you have buffs and presence, you probably don't have to worry about gear until part way through Dromund Kaas or Coruscant, maybe later. Edited June 24, 2014 by errant_knight

[Darth_Wicked]

Ever since 2.0 was released and Bioware opted to have a unified planetary commendations system, it goes down like this for me...

 

Out of <starter planet>: Still in greens'

Out of <capital planet>: Already full orange. Since I'm usually LV18 at this point, I get stuff from the Balmorra / Taris Modifications vendor.

Out of Taris / Balmorra: Remains unchanged.

Out of Nar Shaddaa: Being a LV28 at this point, I get stuff from the Tatooine Modifications vendor.

Out of Tatooine: Remains unchanged.

Out of Alderaan: Being LV36(?), already done - at least(!) - the bonus series on Nar Shaddaa and Boarding Party / Taral V, I get stuff from the Taris / Balmorra Modifications vendor.

 

Out of Taris / Balmorra: Remains unchanged.

Out of Quesh: Remains unchanged.

Out of Hoth: Being a LV44 or so, I get stuff from the Belsavis Modifications vendor.

 

Out of Belsavis: Remains unchanged.

Out of Voss: Being a LV50 at this sage, i get mods from the Corellia Modifications vendor.

 

Midway Corellia, I already have the mods, armorings, enhancements, barrels or hilts crafted by one of my other alts, ready for the Elder Game trip. That's it.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Darth_Wicked

[tanerb]

If you are pvping- never. If you are pve' ing every 4 level. can be stretched to 8 Edited June 24, 2014 by tanerb

[Zoom_VI]

If you are pvping- never. If you are pve' ing every 4 level. can be stretched to 8

 

That's actually not true. Upgrading gear still yields slightly better stats in warzones. Its far less of a difference than it was pre 2.0, but it is still there.

[WorldSmasher]

I update the mods of mine and my companion's orange gear when I start to notice that I'm struggling against mobs.

[TrigPt]

I just wait until I have 80+ planet comms then upgrade all i can.

Sometimes I'll time it so that i upgrade just before the end of a chapter so the last boss fight easy.

[NightEngine]

I seem to struggle bringing in comms as frequently as people say I should be. I assume it's because I'm DPS and the queues for group finder take an eternity. I'll try a healer or tank and see if I end up drowning in comms.

 

But generally speaking, I push every 4 to 8 levels for fresh mods for myself and my favorite companion.

[JamieKirby]

Well, considering i use xp booster consumables and have the xp perks, i craft my own armourings every 8 levels, by then i tend to have enough commendations for the mods and enhancements for both me and my current companion.

 

I never bother with greens, they are a waste of credits, purples are not worth it, they cost too much, blues are just right and they are easily and cheaply made, so if you want to avoid the extremely and oftenly overpriced armourings, i suggest you pick up cybertech, its perfect for all classes during the levelling process.

[JamieKirby]

I seem to struggle bringing in comms as frequently as people say I should be. I assume it's because I'm DPS and the queues for group finder take an eternity. I'll try a healer or tank and see if I end up drowning in comms.

 

But generally speaking, I push every 4 to 8 levels for fresh mods for myself and my favorite companion.

 

I suggest doing just Kuat Drive Yards, thats a tactical flashpoint and compared to traditional flashpoints, the queue is nothing.

[Vis-Tecum]

for me leveling PVE I use orange gear only for me and my companion from level 1, I know you cant use mods till 8 but starter planets you don't need any gear and looking better is more important .

 

upgrade armoring every 5 - 10 levels [10 for early leveling and less for chapter 3, I would stay closer to on level gear] blue quality or better only. with mods and enhancements you can be more casual

 

try to always have a on level purple main hand barrel / hilt and some purple earpiece / implants within 5 levels

 

most modifications can be bought using a mix of planetary coms, crafting, and the gtn. also flash points will give you everything you need if you like group content. for comms you can farm /collect on any of your characters and send them to your leveling character, if you have alts and have played for awhile being a master crafter with schematics for most blue quality items is the best way to go, and the blue schematics are not too hard to acquire. check the gtn occasionally and buy cheap when you can to save coms and time.

 

with this I never have any problems leveling and can easily stay on quests above my level without having to do any green quests to keep up

 

also craft ahead of time, if im level 25 and just geared I plan to gear again at say 30 I will start crafting what I can for level 30 so when I ding my gear is ready and what I don't have I will then check the gtn and use coms then start crafting gear for when I hit 37 or what ever

Edited June 24, 2014 by Vis-Tecum

[jorill]

I seem to struggle bringing in comms as frequently as people say I should be. I assume it's because I'm DPS and the queues for group finder take an eternity. I'll try a healer or tank and see if I end up drowning in comms.

 

But generally speaking, I push every 4 to 8 levels for fresh mods for myself and my favorite companion.

 

I have no issues getting comms as a dps. Just quest while que'd for the regular and tactical flashpoints for extra comms. Could be server thing as well

[Vhaegrant]

So I have orange gear on myself and my companion. The question is how often should I mod it. I have alts for armor, mod, enhance, crystals and hilts. Some of those mods you can make a new one every 3 levels but that can get tiring. So I was wondering how long in between upgrading my mods would be a good balance. Every 5 levels....every 8 levels....10?

 

Would I be able to go 10 levels without changing if I crafted all purple mods....or even if I only did the blue mods?

 

I realize there is no right answer here, but if anyone has experience in modding their own orange gear and could tell me how often they upgraded or their suggestions for upgrading that would be really helpful. Thanks ahead of time to all who respond with info.

 

All these suggestions are under the proviso that I have all four class buffs and the +500 presence buff.

• I mod out all my characters and companions in orange gear as soon as feasible, around level 15.
  
• The first few rounds of mods it's all about crafting stuff myself (through alts I have all the crafting skills), I use the standard green mods. This allows planetary coms to start stacking up.
  
• I never buy Armouring mods (I just use green crafted ones) from the planetary vendor (7 per mod) but restrict my purchases to Hilts/ Barrels/ Mods/ Enhancements (nice and purple)
  
• I try to keep the Barrel/ Hilt of weapons within 2-4 levels of the character, but only change other mods when I start to struggle against gold mobs. This point can vary drastically between Advanced Classes/ Specs and what companions you are using. For my last few playthroughs it has been about 12-14 levels or so.
  
• Try to save up 100 planetary coms for when you hit level 50, the Makeb PV has some very nice mods and I do purchase Armouring mods at this point.
  
• At level 53 I go to the GTN and purchase a full set of mods (can never remember what power rating they are now since they changed, they used to be Purple 66, they are the ones you get at level 53, and they are purple) they tend to be around 20-45k per mod so expect to pay about 1million creds for full load out. But, then I don't tend to do any progression raiding so this stage is good enough for swift progress through all the daily content to date (ie, Oricon)
  
• Some Classes have it much easier than others (*cough* I'm looking at you Troopers) as the character can put their gear directly onto their companions (For Troopers all but the droid use Aim as their main stat) this can save a good deal when buying mods from the planetary vendors.
  

[Anaesha]

Since I have a cybertech which makes it a lot easier I try to keep my char and comps geared with at lvl armor and mods as often as possible.

[The_Natoorat]

I have 100% orange gear for me and companion, I do it like that:

 

Starting from lvl. 9 I craft all green "fillings" from my alts every 4 levels, that is: 9, 13, 17.

 

Starting from level 21 I update gear every 4 levels. I craft blue armorings + barrels / hilts and buy mods / enhancements with comms. It takes 64 comms to buy enough mods / enhs for me and companion.

I don't bother with lvl 49, as lvl 50 is waaay better. Lvl 50 comms "fillings" require a bit of comm grinding tho

I craft blue lvl 53 stuff, unless I want my character to do lvl 55 quests / ares. If yes, I craft purple fillings and... well... you know the rest.

Edited June 24, 2014 by The_Natoorat

[errant_knight]

Since I have a cybertech which makes it a lot easier I try to keep my char and comps geared with at lvl armor and mods as often as possible.

 

Yeah, I should have mentioned crafting in my previous post. you should have a cybertech and artificer for sure and an armstech if you have the alts. it will save you a ton of cash. The others are nice to have, but are nowhere near as important as they were before the cartel market. That gutted the need for crafted clothing.

[Drudenfusz]

About every four level sounds right for me, since each world takes around 4 levels I visit the fleet and buy some new mods there (and craft on my crafting charakters more needed mods to update things when I have not enough planetary comms), since I usually outlevel the worlds it has to be the fleet to get more level appropiate mods from the vendors for the next higher level worlds. My character has of course a higher priority than my companions, and I mostly gear just one companion (not all, at least not at the same time, so I might gear a new companion when I get that companion and want to use that one then for a while). Since one gets most new companions at the end of a world, I usually switch completely to orange gear on them as soon as I hit next time the fleet (have enough gear sets in my collection to pull something appropiate for that character from there).