travislaborde Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 My own opinion so far is "NO" but.. I'm hoping someone here can confirm that or show me why I'm wrong. Here is what I've seen so far, and the conclusions I've drawn... I get my first "orange" gear, and it's awesome! I begin to use it immediately. Then, some "green or blue" gear drops off of a champion I've killed, and.. it's even better! So, now I'm faced with ... "wear the better stuff NOW" or ... go and find better modifications for my current orange gear, so that it becomes better again. So far, it seems to me, that it is much harder work to spend the time to acquire the right enhancements to make that orange gear "better" again. In some cases, I've been unable to. Maybe my searching skills suck. I find it much easier to tell the AH to show me all the pants in my level range that have AIM for example. And to have the tooltip showing me which items are an upgrade. But.. is that the noob way? Am I really missing out? Or.. perhaps... is the orange/purple gear mainly something to concentrate on once I hit max level? Or to have my max level character build out and mail to my alts later? Once I have a max level character, that is? I'm confused. I also want to buy a Cartel set because... My sith assassin looks horrible with the hoodie/bra combination she's wearing now. I want a real robe that doesn't cover my head. But the only thing even remotely comparable to what I'm wearing right now, on the AH, is another hoodie/bra thing. Ick. But, if I buy the Cartel set that looks nice... I'll be back in the "buying mods" grind again... Any advice or tips on how I may be doing it wrong would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bstr Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 (edited) You get a good amount of Planetary Commendations. Use those to buy mods for your gear. Don't buy them off of the GTN. I tend to have enough to replace most of my mods every 6-7 levels past around level 25. I only replace the mods in my gear with Planetary Commendations after each planet: I don't go back to the fleet in the middle of the planet to upgrade. Before level 25, I do tend to wear a lot of green and blue armor, since the armor drops I get from missions and random drops tend to be better that what my moddable gear is at that time. I also occasionally use a green or blue armor after level 25 for a short when it is better than my current moddable gear, but tend to drop it after I complete the planet and upgrade my moddable gear. Don't use Artifact gear until level 50, since you will outlevel it quickly. Finally, Double XP weekends and the recent Double XP week can throw things off and you can quickly outlevel your mods in your gear. Edited July 25, 2014 by Bstr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kulyok Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 1) Pick Cybertech, craft your own mods and armorings with metals and scavenging components you find on the planets. This way you'll be geared just great. 2) Do flashpoints. Hammer station, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders - the usual. Plus: go to the Supplies section of the Fleet and pick up Daily and Weekly quest off the Priority Missions Terminal. That's 25 commendations per one flashpoint. 3) After the flashpoint, go to the Supplies section again, get your quest rewards, and buy hilts, enhancements and other great things with these shiny commendations. 4) Do all the quests you can, including heroic ones, including heroic ones two-three levels below yours, and always pick planetary commendation as a reward. This should help you update your mods on a regular basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMonsterGT Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 It really just depends on if you care about form over functionality. For my first 8 toons, I didn't care about how I looked until after I finished my class quest and went for the endgame stuff. However, for this 9th toon, I used a legacy set of orange gear to gear her up from the beginning. For all the quest rewards, I will pick the PCs or the items for my comps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tharbison Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 (edited) You do what you gotta do on your first toon! Orange gear is nice since you can keep the same armor as long as you want. Also, piecing together blue or green armor from mission rewards can make your character look like an academy flunkie Suggestions... 1) Do flashpoints. You'll get 10 commendations for the daily, and you can pick up additional daily & weekly flashpoint missions on fleet that combined will give you an extra 15 commendations. 2) Flashpoints will also drop orange gear. Even if you don't like the gear, you can strip the item modificaitons out of them and put them in your gear 3) Almost always take the planetary commendation as a mission reward. Exceptions are when there is a reward that is an orange shell loaded with item modifications, or an item modification that you can use. 4) Choose cybertech as your crafting profession. Cybertechs can make the armor modifications, and mod modifiications. Very valuable, especially once you start making alts. Bonus is you can sell these items on the GTN to start earning some credits. 5) Early planets have mods vendors where you can use credits to buy green item mods pretty cheap. 6) Armor mods are expensive (7 planetary comms). Use your cybertech to make these, or, buy them off the GTN if priced right, or, buy them from the mods vendor (see #5 above). Edited July 25, 2014 by tharbison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSchuyler Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Well, different strokes and all, but I tried an experiment by taking one toon up with drops only and the other with orange gear. The orange gear was significantly better than the drops by about 20-25% making it a whole lot easier to level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psandak Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 (edited) My own opinion so far is "NO" but.. I'm hoping someone here can confirm that or show me why I'm wrong. Here is what I've seen so far, and the conclusions I've drawn... I get my first "orange" gear, and it's awesome! I begin to use it immediately. Then, some "green or blue" gear drops off of a champion I've killed, and.. it's even better! So, now I'm faced with ... "wear the better stuff NOW" or ... go and find better modifications for my current orange gear, so that it becomes better again. So far, it seems to me, that it is much harder work to spend the time to acquire the right enhancements to make that orange gear "better" again. In some cases, I've been unable to. Maybe my searching skills suck. I find it much easier to tell the AH to show me all the pants in my level range that have AIM for example. And to have the tooltip showing me which items are an upgrade. But.. is that the noob way? Am I really missing out? Or.. perhaps... is the orange/purple gear mainly something to concentrate on once I hit max level? Or to have my max level character build out and mail to my alts later? Once I have a max level character, that is? I'm confused. I also want to buy a Cartel set because... My sith assassin looks horrible with the hoodie/bra combination she's wearing now. I want a real robe that doesn't cover my head. But the only thing even remotely comparable to what I'm wearing right now, on the AH, is another hoodie/bra thing. Ick. But, if I buy the Cartel set that looks nice... I'll be back in the "buying mods" grind again... Any advice or tips on how I may be doing it wrong would be appreciated! If a green or blue gear piece is better than the orange with mods, that is an indication that you have outleveled the orange gear and that should be "corrected" at your earliest convenience. But IMO that does not mean going out of your way to do so. IMO if orange moddable gear is best use it. If a green or blue piece happens to be better use it until you get the mods (through normal play) to make the orange piece better again. Edited July 25, 2014 by psandak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merouk Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 (edited) If you got the orange piece from a quest, your class and planet quests will eventually deck you out in a full suit of orange, chest, pants, gloves, everything. In addition, the quests give you planet commendations, which you can use at each planet to buy yourself the cheaper (2 coins each) mods and enhancement pieces that you need for the orange armor. And you can buy, for credits, cheaply from an NPC vendor at each planet, green quality armorings. Which means all the mods that you need to keep your orange armor up to spec. are sold at each planet, and the quests give you plenty of planet commendations to buy stuff. Another way to do it is, once you've taken a few characters to level 55 and are rich, and somewhat bored of all the quests, you can train some of these characters in the crafting skills that make the armorings, mods, and enhancements (Cybertech, Artifice, Biochem), and when you want to start an alt from level 1, you just send it a cartel armor set and use your high level characters to craft the mods. Personally, I use green gear and save my planet commendations until Nar Shaddaa, because Nar Shaddaa has orange off-hands (shields, knives, shotguns, foci, generators, etc.) and I buy them for the character and all the companions with planet commendations. Then I just get a set of cheap cartel armor for the character and the 1 companion that I use all the time, and use commendations and NPC mods vendor to get the mods for the armor. It's very doable. EDIT: If you rely on blue armor from quest rewards or drops from champions, that's fine, but realize that such drops are somewhat random; you could be lucky, or not. On the other hand, if you have a strategy to buy mods and enhancements with planet commendations, and armorings with credits, every 4 levels as you go to each planet, then you are reliably outfitted and can focus on just enjoying the game. The AH (GTN) is full of armors (green, blue) for levels 1-25 or so, but then your choices dry up fast. Try to find a good helmet, for example, or tank gear with defense+shield stats on it. Not much for sale... might find the chest but no pants no belt no gloves; 5 levels later you might find boots but no chest. Edited July 26, 2014 by Merouk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horus-Lupercal Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 I do alot of WZs after lvl15 to level my toon quick, thing is with bolster if your gear is more than about 2-3 levels below your level you start to have a hard time. My solution is to convert my WZ comms to Planetary comms and I find I can afford a new set of armour/mod/enhancements every few levels which I just slot into my Orange gear. If you have multiple toons with different crafting skills you can gear an alt very cheaply too. I like to get a Orange set of gear for a toon as soon as I start playing with them to give them there own look. I definately find my class missions easy when I keep my gear updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreadtechSavant Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 Only if you want your character to have a certain look, you can pick up better gear at all levels under 50 as drops. plus you save all the time upgrading. Having said all this most of mine do have cartel armour, but I do like my toons to have a certain look. beyond that as said not worth it. certainly not by just playing the basic story game. 50 is my highest character so cannot say beyond that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKlusky Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 since i have several armor collections available i always start a new toon with mod gear. just speed lvld a sent using it. went cybertech and crafted all my own armorings and mods for me and kira both. only thing ive had t o buy with planet coms was enhancements and saber hilts. using hte mod gear in this manner allows for me to always be over geared for the content im fighting and makes the lvling go realy fast and easy. i also can most of the time keep my quests orange for max xp. i do buy things like offhands with my other toons and mail it so that i make sure i have a full set of mod gear but i for one DEFINATELY say get a full set of mod gear and enjoy lvlling because you are OP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImmortalLowlife Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 Whenever I lvl an alt, I always have a set of Orange gear with all blue mods in place & waiting for me to hit lvl 9. I do this for 3 reasons. 1. I have a crafter who makes low lvl mods and armor 2. I can level the rest of the game wearing the armor that gives me the look I want. 3. I can use com's from quest rewards to keep my gear upgraded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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