Sages and L55 gear (PvE/P)

[Obilam]

Hi,

 

I've returned to the game again and am trying to gear up my Sage but am struggling to find, or more likely translate, the information out there.

 

I PvE and PvP. I only solo play. Thus grouping to get high level gear is not possible (don't have the time), thus what I am wondering is what gear I should be aiming for and where do I get it?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Lee

[phalczen]

Hi,

 

I've returned to the game again and am trying to gear up my Sage but am struggling to find, or more likely translate, the information out there.

 

I PvE and PvP. I only solo play. Thus grouping to get high level gear is not possible (don't have the time), thus what I am wondering is what gear I should be aiming for and where do I get it?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Lee

 

I'll point you to two threads (actually two threads and one website), that you might find helpful, and then try and summarize the key points.

 

First, I have found this thread to be very helpful for gearing my sage healer:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=745366

 

If you aren't heal-spec ("Seer") then you can try:

http://dulfy.net/2014/01/17/swtor-telekinetics-and-balance-sage-dps-class-guide/

 

For PVP gearing, I consider this to be the "Bible":

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=707204

 

You may need to fast forward to page 32 in that thread which has a lot of the more recent updates (post patch 2.4 which introduced Brutalizer gear, currently the highest tier).

 

Read those threads for more in depth information.

 

However, the quick and dirty is, there is a Bolster buff applied to Tactical Flashpoints, Story Mode Operations and all levels of PVP warzones and arenas. The bolster buff works somewhat differently in the two environments, so that end-game raid gear (Dread Forged or better) is not the best-in-slot gear for pvp.

 

Because of the Bolster buff, I would recommend you start off by ensuring all your gear is around 156. Rating 156 gear will have [Artifact] at the front of the name. You get a free set of rating 156 Head/Chest/Hands/Legs/Feet armor by completing the one-time intro Story missions for the planet Oricon. Rating 156 gear can also be crafted without material drops from operations, so they are a lot more affordable on the GTN. That being said, rating 156 crafted stuff requires a fair number of artifact materials (myrtag crystals and beryllius) and with those being in high demand for Galactic Stronghold crafting right now, you will be spending more on these item modifications than usual.

 

You can get a rating 156 mainhand for 80 basic commendations from the Makeb reputation vendor if you are Hero standing, if you are unable to find the crafted stuff. I don't believe you can get a rating 156 offhand, but that's ok because you will use the basic commendations to buy a rating 162 Black Market Focus.

 

Rating 156 gear isn't the optimal starting place for pvp, but it will get you close enough so that you can not feel completely rolled over. (FYI, the optimal place is 162 armorings/156 mod/140 enhancements.) You can use that until you start to earn enough pvp commendations for buying pvp gear. Most people recommend getting the relics first, then the four pieces which will make up your set bonus. All of that is in L-Randle's thread so I encourage you to read it.

 

Rating 156 gear is the entry level for HM 55 flashpoints. I know group finder says rating 148, but honestly you'll do better in 156 for the hard mode version of the Czerka flashpoints.

 

As you do your daily missions outlined here:

http://dulfy.net/2013/04/14/swtor-level-55-endgame-gearing-guide/

 

you will accumulate Basic Commendations. You may use basic commendations to purchase rating 162 Black Market gear, except for the mainhand. As you do some of the weekly missions you'll earn Elite Commendations which will allow you to purchase a rating 168 mainhand from the Czerka reputation vendor on CZ-198. They lowered the price on these so its a little more tolerable. You will be stuck with the rating 156 mainhand until you get enough elite comms to get the mainhand 168 from that vendor.

 

If all you do is PUG (pick up group) hardmode 55 flashpoints through group finder, the best you will likely be in is Black Market rating 162 gear, which will lack a set bonus. You could go back and do level 50 dailies for Classic comms and purchase the Campaign gear (rating 146) to get the set bonus that way, but I honestly have no idea if you are giving up too much stat-wise by downgrading from a rating 162 armoring to a rating 146 armoring.

 

You can also do story mode operations through group finder and you will be Bolstered to the appropriate gear rating, which might negate that disadvantage somewhat. Give it a try and let us know, I myself am curious. I think because of Bolster in SM ops now, having gear that is 146/162/162 might be very feasible until you get all four of your set bonus pieces from the Arkanian gear that drops in those operations. Just realize that Campaign gear set bonuses DO NOT stack with the Arkanian gear set bonuses, so you should wait until you get all four pieces of Arkanian rating 162 gear. HM flashpoints are not bolstered, so you can only do this trick if you are willing to PUG some story mode ops.

 

Lastly, whether it is for pve or pvp, AUGMENT your gear with blue prototype Augments. You don't need the purple artifacts yet. For a sage, you want Resolve Augment 28s. There is some debate at to whether Overkill Augments, which add to power instead of willpower, are better, but that is a subtlety that isn't important for you right now, and the answer to the debate is likely dependent upon the exact operation or if it is pvp.

 

Hope this helps!

 

EDIT: if you are completely solo-only, with absolutely no Group Finder PUG-ing, then the best you can acquire is the rating 162 gear by purchasing Black Market gear via basic commendations, doing the daily missions outlined in Dulfy's web site. You will likely not accumulate Elite Commendations, used to purchase Verpine gear (rating 168), at any measurable speed, since you will be saving them for your mainhand from the Czerka vendor. Unless you do some pve activities that will be under the effect of Bolster (i.e. tactical flashpoints and story mode operations), you will have to carefully weigh the downsides of using the set bonus 146 Campaign armorings with your 156-162 stuff. It will cost you about 440 classic comms to get those four Campaign pieces..

 

However, when you do manage to upgrade from rating 156 to Black Market Rating 162 stuff, you will NOT want to wear full rating 162 (Black Market) gear into pvp, because it will negatively affect your bolstered stats in pvp! That's all detailed in L-Randle's thread which I linked above. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing folks zone into warzones in high level raid gear, for which they undoubtedly worked hard, only to end up with like 1000 expertise after Bolster in the warzone and get rolled time and time again by players properly geared (which, if you read L-Randle's guide, doesn't mean a full pvp set!) So, you will want to keep your rating 156 set handy for pvp'ing, until you can buy more pvp pieces (again, start with the relics and the set bonus pieces.)

Edited September 3, 2014 by phalczen

[Obilam]

Thanks for the fantastic reply. Sadly I do solo only as I cannot commit to groups. I'll have read through those links.

 

Thanks again. You set me straight on the solo stuff which I have struggled to get info around...... Seems soloing is nit popular:(

 

Regards

 

Le

[phalczen]

One other thing I forgot to mention. At each taxi/shuttle area and on the orbital stations of Makeb, there are terminals sponsored by Galactic Solutions Industries. These terminals will apply a buff to you that will boost your stats to rating 156 gear equivalent. These terminals are only present on Makeb though. This can help you while you acquire enough basic comms to start to upgrade your gear, if you find you don't have enough pieces. Dailies on Makeb will be an important part of your basic commendation grind.

 

I have a busy work and home life and I can usually do at least one tactical flashpoint each time I play. They are fairly quick, so I'm not sure what you mean when you say you can't commit to any group activities. If you can spend 45 minutes on three war zones, you can (correction, might or could) spend 45 minutes in the longest tactical flashpoint. Tactical flash points don't require the so called holy trinity of MMOs, the healer/tank/2 dps. They are designed to be completed by a group of any composition (so the wait to match a group in groupfinder is not long at all). The benefits to commendation grinding by doing those, and the dailies and weeklies associated with them, are huge.

 

Finally, given some of the things I've read in the class guides posted by Dulfy, I'm very curious to see if a gear load out with 146 set bonus armories from campaign gear and rating 162 mods and enhancements would be viable. Those guides argue that having a 162 armoring with set bonus is better than having a 180 without. That delta in gear rating is more than 146 to 162. So give it a try and see how your performance differs.

 

I may try it out on one of my alts.

Edited September 5, 2014 by phalczen

[Obilam]

Again.... Thanks for the great feedback.

 

My issues around grouping are that with two small kids I often have to stop playing instantly when the smaller one bashes the head of the bigger one with the toy lightsaber..... Quite often resulting in my characters death.

 

Not so popular in a flashpoint me thinks.

 

Somehow my L55sage missed most of Makeb so I am running it now. I'd be interested in hearing about the lower bonuses gear vs the higher if your able to test and come back.

 

 

Regards

 

Lee

[OniGanon]

Go ahead and finish Makeb. It should get you a bit of gear and money to work with.

 

First things first:

-Buy a Rating 156 willpower Hilt and Armoring from GTN. These go into your mainhand and offhand. Buy Rating 156 Earpiece and Implants. Buy a Rating 156 barrel and armoring for your healer companion's mainhand and offhand.

-If you don't have the money for this, run the Ilum, Black Hole and Section X Weekly missions.

-Use your Planetary Comms to gear up your healer companion with stuff from the Makeb Commendations Vendor in Supplies section of the Fleet. Start with Mods, then Enhancements.

 

 

Next up: Oricon.

 

-Your first time through Oricon gets you get a set of 156 Armor. But Oricon is pretty tough when you're going through it in gear less than 156. Funny that. Teaming up with someone to help get you through it will make it much easier. Be sure to let them know it's your first time through.

-Pick up the Oricon mission from the Fleet, then fly there on your ship and get started. Every quest boss in this area hits fairly hard, so you'll probably want to bring your healer companion. Good thing I told you to gear them up earlier, right?

-The tree boss from the Paradise mission starts the fight with a channel called Extract that you must interrupt quickly. Then it knocks you back with Obliterate. Then a few second later it spawns an add you must kill ASAP. Then the cycle repeats.

-The Subteroth in the Engines mission hits quite hard so be ready to use defensive cooldowns. A few seconds into the fight, it casts something called Surge. Immediately after it's cast, you should use a Stun (a message will pop up on the screen telling you this).

-The central Tower boss hits like a truck, especially with two channels called Reaping the Field and Parting the Way. Interrupt these, make good use of crowd control, defensive abilities, even Heroic Moment and Unity (an ability bought through Legacy or earned at Light V).

-The Heroic area has two bosses named Kavo Thran and Sorna Taros that you should probably avoid. They have an ability called Terminate that hits like a truck falling from the sky propelled by rockets.

 

 

Next:

 

-Run the Weekly missions for Black Hole, Section X, Makeb, CZ198 and Oricon. This builds up your money, Basic and Elite Comms.

-If you can manage, get the Tacticals weekly mission and do a random Tactical through Group Finder once per day for more Elite Comms and possibly Rating 148/162 drops.

-Use the money to buy a set of Adaptive gear you like the look of if you haven't got that already. Don't get too crazy and buy million credit outfits or anything, but something you like enough to last a while. You don't want to blow money augmenting ugly gear.

-After that, your money will be going towards buying and using an Augmention Kit MK-9 for every armor slot, and filling it with a blue 28 augment (you'll replace them with purples later, but blue is waaaaaay cheaper and good enough for now). Augment the armor and weapons first. Worry about augmenting the other stuff when they've been upgraded to 162.

-You want main stat augments, with one accuracy augment.

-Use Basic Comms to buy a Bracer and Belt since Oricon didn't give you any. If the Ear and Implants are an improvement, buy those too. Then work on improving your armor.

-If you have Rating 156 enhancements of the form +66 Accuracy/Surge and +40ish Power/Crit, these are actually better than the Rating 162/168 Enhancements you get from the Comm Vendors, so hang onto them!

-When you get 140 Elite Comms, buy a Focus offhand from the Elite Comm Vendor.

-When you're outfitted in mostly 156/162 stuff, get into PVP and do the Warzone weekly and daily missions. Buy Obroan Relics of Focused Retribution + Serendipitous Assault.

 

 

Finally:

 

-When you're done with Basic Comms, start buying Isotope V and sell them on GTN.

-Save up enough money to buy a mainhand Hilt 34 (Rating 180).

-Start gearing up your favourite companion (doesn't have to be your healer).

-Seriously consider doing more group stuff.