Confused about what to do about gear with 12k boost.

[Daekarus]

I've been using quest reward greens and world drop greens, but I have to say, it's a lot harder than I expected in places. I actually died four times trying to complete the class story for my Consular on Quesh... Qyzen just couldn't tank the damage the mobs were putting out, and only some pretty embarrassing kiting on my part actually let me finish it off.

[OddballEasyEight]

Make the first character you level up a cybertech crafter (if you don't have one already) and then just start crafting away...

I've got one cybertech and one arifice so the only things I have to buy are barrels basically.

 

It's a great feeling to be steamrolling through the storyline like this

 

I hope they add this as a cartel market purchase sometime in the future.

[yandars]

I've been using quest reward greens and world drop greens, but I have to say, it's a lot harder than I expected in places. I actually died four times trying to complete the class story for my Consular on Quesh... Qyzen just couldn't tank the damage the mobs were putting out, and only some pretty embarrassing kiting on my part actually let me finish it off.

 

 

^ That was my problem as well

Edited October 8, 2014 by yandars

[Lord_Robert]

Make the first character you level up a cybertech crafter (if you don't have one already) and then just start crafting away...

I've got one cybertech and one arifice so the only things I have to buy are barrels basically.

 

It's a great feeling to be steamrolling through the storyline like this

 

I hope they add this as a cartel market purchase sometime in the future.

 

But how much time do you spend crafting then?

 

I've found that I spend somewhere between a third and a quarter of my time crafting, whenever I hit the 'gear-wall' again. (Including logging over all the time, to keep the alt comps gathering)

 

I've pretty much given up on leveling up crafts on the alts I'm leveling now, since it's impossible to keep it at a decent level. (My 34 Assassin Biochemist makes medpacks for lvl 16 or so, even though I'm keeping the other comps gathering/crafting non-stop) And whatever money I spend trying to get the craft up to the point, where it's useful while I'm leveling, is money I can't spend on GTN greens to keep a decent gear-lvl.

[CelCawdro]

^ That was my problem as well

 

Aye, I really had to utilize the most recent companion obtained for a few quests because there was no way gear was being maintained for those I recruited earlier.

[Lord_Robert]

I've been using quest reward greens and world drop greens, but I have to say, it's a lot harder than I expected in places. I actually died four times trying to complete the class story for my Consular on Quesh... Qyzen just couldn't tank the damage the mobs were putting out, and only some pretty embarrassing kiting on my part actually let me finish it off.

 

Yep, even with drops, rewards, GTN and comms, I can't keep the gear at a level, where I wont end up being squishy as [input fitting slur] within 10-15 levels, or roughly 2 hours of play..

 

As it took me around 2 hours to make a full set of green mods for my char and the comp, last time (Incl. time spent logging over to keep the various crafter comps gathering) that equates to somewhere between a third and a forth of my time played spent crafting.. Just to keep my gear viable.. Not good or even decent. Including using drops, rewards and whatever I can afford on the GTN, while leveling. That just makes the whole experience, awesome as it is, feel clunky. In other words, it detracts from my fun, which I find dissatisfying.. But that might just be me.

[CelCawdro]

Yep, even with drops, rewards, GTN and comms, I can't keep the gear at a level, where I wont end up being squishy as [input fitting slur] within 10-15 levels, or roughly 2 hours of play..

 

As it took me around 2 hours to make a full set of green mods for my char and the comp, last time (Incl. time spent logging over to keep the various crafter comps gathering) that equates to somewhere between a third and a forth of my time played spent crafting.. Just to keep my gear viable.. Not good or even decent. Including using drops, rewards and whatever I can afford on the GTN, while leveling. That just makes the whole experience, awesome as it is, feel clunky. In other words, it detracts from my fun, which I find dissatisfying.. But that might just be me.

 

Eh, necessary evil of a one-off perk. I wouldn't expect them to dole out a new set of special gear for our character and all obtained companions after every planet or chapter. A lot of effort for a limited time event.

[Lord_Robert]

Eh, necessary evil of a one-off perk. I wouldn't expect them to dole out a new set of special gear for our character and all obtained companions after every planet or chapter. A lot of effort for a limited time event.

 

They wouldn't need to, if they added some form of gear-level buff like the KDY one, only scaled to you current level.

Pair that with the ability to toggle the buff off, as some players ask for and you might serve everybody right.

 

Edit: Incidentally, while this is merely an annoying inconvenience to me, it may be a more 'serious' obstacle to players without alt crafters or a lot of creds....

Edited October 8, 2014 by Lord_Robert

[TheBBP]

They wouldn't need to, if they added some form of gear-level buff like the KDY one, only scaled to you current level.

Pair that with the ability to toggle the buff off, as some players ask for and you might serve everybody right.

 

Edit: Incidentally, while this is merely an annoying inconvenience to me, it may be a more 'serious' obstacle to players without alt crafters or a lot of creds....

 

The players without the resources to get by are exactly the ones that would do best not to skip everything.

[Alyssis]

Lvl 24, and still going strong, in my lvl 9 mods and hilts.. Ive made it a challenge, to see how far i can get..! No implants, no earpiece, no relics..

[CelCawdro]

Hah, here's a pickle I'm in: I rushed through some class story before the bonus, now I'm four levels behind. I'll need to slog through four levels to catch up, but I could probably simply level from the beginning faster than that.

[Chicktopus]

I had this problem levelling up my Gunslinger almost entirely in KDY, I circumvented it by purchasing gear from planetary vendors for comms, once you hit Makeb, you should be able to gear up from mission rewards

[OddballEasyEight]

But how much time do you spend crafting then?

 

I've found that I spend somewhere between a third and a quarter of my time crafting, whenever I hit the 'gear-wall' again. (Including logging over all the time, to keep the alt comps gathering)

 

I've pretty much given up on leveling up crafts on the alts I'm leveling now, since it's impossible to keep it at a decent level. (My 34 Assassin Biochemist makes medpacks for lvl 16 or so, even though I'm keeping the other comps gathering/crafting non-stop) And whatever money I spend trying to get the craft up to the point, where it's useful while I'm leveling, is money I can't spend on GTN greens to keep a decent gear-lvl.

 

Well... I don't "spend time" crafting them at all. I just go to my alts with cybertech and arifice and set them to work crafting the next set of mods before going to bed or going to lunch.

And I only change mods every 5 levels or so.

 

But if you're leveling up the craft on your current character, it'll be hard to keep up, yes.

My suggestion there is to buy as much as possible from the gtn. Only buy green stuff tho, to save money.

But keep leveling up the craft while leveling the character so you can use the crafting skill to gear your next char.

[Orizuru]

I just kill everything I can while traveling between the class story mission objectives and wear the greens that drop from the trash in the field.

 

When that falls short, I log to my Cybertech and craft some armoring upgrades. I still have a metric ton of the green items for Jawa vendors to buy plenty of mats for the crafting.

 

GTN is also an option, but be careful, there are a lot of opportunistic players looking to make some credits off the rich players who plan to use the GTN to keep their gear upgraded, so prices are rising quickly for low level greens even. I have plenty of credits to afford the prices, but nobody earned millions of credits by spending them foolishly when the market ramps up.

[Gleneagle]

I cannot help dwelling on the fact that this is a truly wonderful problem to have. Rather like it might be if I were complaining that I make so much money that my taxes are in the millions. What a problem to have...

[Alec_Fortescue]

Figuring out the gear is still gonna take you less time than "normally". I have no clue how to do it. gtn normally lacks low level modifications / they are overpriced. Same for mats to make low level gear from. Preparing beforehand is a possibility but it's kinda stupid. Given how quickly you level, i'd consume +50% boost and just outlevel the content

 

Once you hit level 50+ you'll find enough modifications on gtn.

 

Yes... Get some cartel coins and unlock (buy them with credits beforehand) some old cartel market gear with modifications inside maybe? Then redeem them for chars.

 

In main outposts on the planets there are vendors selling blues which are decent enough but tend to be expensive, too. Taris' one has prices of 10k per mod.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Alec_Fortescue

[Gleneagle]

I expect there are many who created a cybertech yesterday, Consequently the supply of available desh and what have you may be depleted for awhile, but hopefully that will result in a glut of low level green mods on GTN shortly. I know my new cybertech will likely be putting some up at default prices.

[Lord_Robert]

The players without the resources to get by are exactly the ones that would do best not to skip everything.

 

While I agree with the basic of your idea on a general level, Bioware granted the bonus for everybody and thus, everyone ought to be able to enjoy it on a somewhat equal footing.

[Heezdedjim]

You should be able to scrape by without having to make side trips just for gearing.

 

First, take all the gear rewards you can get from the class missions themselves; do not take the gear boxes or commendations.

 

Second, pull out your healing companion and put yourself in either DPS or Tank spec. The healing comps will add more to your overall power level than the others when you have meager stats and crappy gear. If you don't have a healing companion yet and you can afford her, this might be a good time to unlock Treek.

 

Third, you can get green trash drop gear off the GTN quite cheap, even with the currently increased demand due to the 12x XP alt rolling frenzy. Green whole gear pieces for each slot may be significantly cheaper and more available than green mods. Check both sides of the market and just go with whatever is more cost effective at the moment, either cheap orange shells with crappy green mods, or cheap green trash drop gear pieces. You should do fine if you stick to upgrading every eight levels, e.g., at 11, 19, 27, 35, 43, etc.

 

Fourth, if you can't find cheap gear or mods on the GTN, then there is a vendor on each planet that sells green armorings, barrels, and hilts at the lower end of the planet's intended leveling range. These aren't super cheap, but they're not too awfully high priced either. Pick up the cheapest set of crappy orange shells you can find on the GTN, and these vendor mods will at least bring you into the ballpark of where you should be. As long as you have on-level barrels/hilts and armorings, you should be good, and you can just use whatever mods and enhancements you happen to have, or skip them if you can't get hold of any cheap ones.

 

Finally, you could think about making yourself up a few legacy bound gear sets with purple mods in them for a few appropriate levels. This may cost a bit more up front, but will be less hassle and more cost effective if you plan to level more than one or two alts of different classes during this 12x XP period.

 

You can use any legacy bound armor set you have available, but you might have a bunch of spares of the GSF gift sets laying around in your bank, if you were eligible for that bonus.

 

Just pick a couple of level points like 15 and 29, and get a full set of purple mods to fill a five or seven piece set for you and your companion at those points. If you can't find or make affordable purples around those levels, then you could get the five piece sets from the Cartel Market that are full of purple mods and use those.

 

The trick is that if you put your purple mods into a legacy bound set, then you just need one set for each main stat in order to cover all the classes except Trooper, since you can always pick a character and companion that have different main stats. For a Trooper you might need to make up an extra Aim set. For maximum economy, I would stick with main stat and power all around and plan on leveling all your characters in DPS specs, unless you can afford more sets and want to make up some tank pieces as well.

 

A level 29 purple five piece set for you and your companion is equal to level 37 greens, so you probably can scrape by with these until 47 if you push it. The CM also has chest pieces with level 15 purple mods, and one of those for you and your companion may be enough, along with whatever crap you pick up, to get you from 15 to 29.

 

At level 47, Makeb unlocks, and at that point anything that you're wearing will get you through to 55 with no problems, because you can use the Makeb planet bolster and just forget about gear. Since the Makeb planet story line also gets the 12x boost, you should be able to cap out with no problem and no need for further gear upgrades.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[LordArtemis]

I would suggest that folks that have level 55s load them up on PComms running heroics on Nar Shadaa, Balmorra, Tatooine and Alderaan. You can get about 50 comms per toon running the Heroics, and of course they are very easy to do at level 55.

 

I can actually list out the specific ones I do for each planet if folks wish. At any rate, it doesn't take long to knock out all four sets. Quick way to build up comms.

 

Also, keep in mind that lower comms are fine if you are overleveled for the area. Generally speaking, you can get away with comms that are 10 levels down if you are 4 levels up...meaning 4 levels above normal level for the area you are questing in.

[Arkerus]

The easiest and most simple solution is to take a trip to the GTN and buy el-cheapo green gear to fill the empty slots.

 

You can do the same with your companion.

[Lord_Robert]

Well... I don't "spend time" crafting them at all. I just go to my alts with cybertech and arifice and set them to work crafting the next set of mods before going to bed or going to lunch.

And I only change mods every 5 levels or so.

 

But if you're leveling up the craft on your current character, it'll be hard to keep up, yes.

My suggestion there is to buy as much as possible from the gtn. Only buy green stuff tho, to save money.

But keep leveling up the craft while leveling the character so you can use the crafting skill to gear your next char.

 

I'm crafting on crafter alts, which while I have them, not everybody does and it shouldn't be a requirement to do so, to fully enjoy the bonus. Likewise, while it seems a good idea to set the crafters to go and then go to sleep, what then, when the gear-wall is hit at midday? And what if, when you hit it, you haven't crafted everything you need yet, or even anything since you didn't know, what level of mods, you were going to need?

 

You may be able to plan yourself out of any obstacles, but to me that detracts heavily from the enjoyment of immersing myself in the class stories, as Bioware says they want us to be able to do. It is my personal opinion and may not be shared by everybody, but it seems to not be in line with what Bioware wanted with the buff.

 

As for buying on GTN, using drops, rewards and comms, I'm doing all of that. It still wasn't enough and it cost me a lot more creds, than I was making while leveling. This shouldn't be the case, as I see it, since not everybody will have available creds, not to speak of crafter alts. Why should the buff only allow those of us, who can work around its flaws, to fully take advantage of it and thus enjoy fully, what Bioware wants us to enjoy? It ought to be equally available to everyone, regardless of how many alts, creds or what-have-you, you have available..

 

Basically, you ought to be able to keep up a basic gear-level, though not a good one, solely through what you gain, find, craft or buy on the char, you are currently leveling. And with basic, I mean simply a gear-level which allows you to survive through the necessary fights to complete the story quests.. Not steamroll or facewalk.

[Heezdedjim]

Once you hit level 50+ you'll find enough modifications on gtn.

As soon as you hit 47 gear becomes a non-issue because you can just head to Makeb, pick up the bolster, and blitz through the planetary story with the 12x bonus to get to 55. If you still want to finish the character story, then you could pick up some garbage level 53 green or blue gear off the GTN as needed, then backtrack and do whatever class missions you skipped from 47 onward when they're green or grey to you.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Heezdedjim

[Gleneagle]

While I agree with the basic of your idea on a general level, Bioware granted the bonus for everybody and thus, everyone ought to be able to enjoy it on a somewhat equal footing.

I don't understand that last. In your view, why ought everyone be able to enjoy anything equally? Individuals value different things differently, therefore will enjoy different things from one another. If we were to have to try to enjoy everything equally we would have to all be the same person, and I don't think that should be thought a realistic expectation.

[Warrgames]

I was surprised I made it too lvl 41 in lvl 29 gear. I could have kept going, my companion but my companion was dying every pull so figure I should up grade my gear. Didn't want to have to do it in the middle of a planet. I should be good till Makeb Edited October 8, 2014 by Warrgames