dissonan Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 This might sound weird, but for the last year and a half or so I just occasionally dipped into SWTOR for a month or two, all while not really progressing significantly on any of my chars. Most of the time I even redo chars, just to experience the story (up to a certain point) again. This leaves me with mostly low lv toons, the highest being lv 32. It's not really helping that I can never decide on a class/story to play Judging from other threads, lvling exclusively with class missions is only really doable with a certain budget to buy green armor every 10 lv or so. My question is: while I have no char even near max lv, is it even worth it to grab the boost and if I do, will I have the chance to make my chars viable for group PvE content without any crafter/money-making alt to back it up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essence_of_Light Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Yes to both of your questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dissonan Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 Yes to both of your questions. Thanks for the quick answer! Just an additional question: do I really miss something leaving out most of the sidequests? Or should I, at least, do the main planetary quest chain on every planet? That's one of my concerns with rushing through the lvling phase, to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icestar Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 (edited) Just an additional question: do I really miss something leaving out most of the sidequests? Or should I, at least, do the main planetary quest chain on every planet? That's one of my concerns with rushing through the lvling phase, to be honest. The sidequests are there as an additional story. Each planet has a main storyline and a bonus series that is well worth to do, it will not give you the X12 exp but if you like lore and story I think you should see atleast those. My advice is that you do your class story, the main storyquest on each planet and if you got time and find the story interesting the bonus series aswell. The other sidequests varies from killing 20 monsters to lighting fires etc.. Edited October 21, 2014 by Icestar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyVix Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 This might sound weird, but for the last year and a half or so I just occasionally dipped into SWTOR for a month or two, all while not really progressing significantly on any of my chars. Most of the time I even redo chars, just to experience the story (up to a certain point) again. This leaves me with mostly low lv toons, the highest being lv 32. It's not really helping that I can never decide on a class/story to play Judging from other threads, lvling exclusively with class missions is only really doable with a certain budget to buy green armor every 10 lv or so. My question is: while I have no char even near max lv, is it even worth it to grab the boost and if I do, will I have the chance to make my chars viable for group PvE content without any crafter/money-making alt to back it up? First piece of advice: STOP RE-ROLLING CHARACTERS. If you want to experience group PVE content you need to get to the level cap. Since you don't have any characters capped yet, pick ONE class that you enjoy, and play it through to level 55. Once you hit the level cap, you can run dailies and have more than enough credits to fund other characters. If you're currently short on credits, pick up a gathering profession and spend 2-3 hrs gathering materials. Sell those materials on the GTN and you should have more than enough credits to buy leveling gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icestar Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 will I have the chance to make my chars viable for group PvE content without any crafter/money-making alt to back it up? You can use groupfinder that boosts your stats when it comes to ops and tacticals, there you find gear and useful items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dissonan Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 First piece of advice: STOP RE-ROLLING CHARACTERS. I know, I know, I'm guilty, please don't hate me If you want to experience group PVE content you need to get to the level cap. Since you don't have any characters capped yet, pick ONE class that you enjoy, and play it through to level 55. Once you hit the level cap, you can run dailies and have more than enough credits to fund other characters. If you're currently short on credits, pick up a gathering profession and spend 2-3 hrs gathering materials. Sell those materials on the GTN and you should have more than enough credits to buy leveling gear. Thanks for the advice, gonna do some gathering, my finances are not that amazing, currently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dissonan Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 You can use groupfinder that boosts your stats when it comes to ops and tacticals, there you find gear and useful items. Oh, I was not aware of that, thanks. It might not be that hard to get into endgame, then, great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyVix Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Just an additional question: do I really miss something leaving out most of the sidequests? Or should I, at least, do the main planetary quest chain on every planet? That's one of my concerns with rushing through the lvling phase, to be honest. The question you need to ask yourself is what type of content do you want to experience? Do you want to solo grind planetary quests, or do you want to push forward to end-game dungeons/raids, with the option to do the planetary quests on subsequent characters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaedelyia Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I actually liked to do all quest both side once. Because it give much more depth to the universe. They give you this (false) feeling that things are in evolution. You act, you have these bonus quest-line that make you learn more about who control what in the great scheme of the war. So yeah, personally I would do that once with a character, then for the rerolls, you can just smash through with the x 12XP boost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddballEasyEight Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Here's the thing that many people seem to completely miss. You can still do the sidequests to get the gear rewards. And that's a pretty easy way to keep your toon geared up. Just do the sidequests/planetaryquests that give you gear tho. Not the ones that only give credits since you'll usually outlevel them enough to not get much in the way of money anyay. Another option is to pool all your credits to the one character you are levelling up to 55 and then use that one to grind a few dailies to fund the next one and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divona Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 That's common mistake many casuals do. They start leveling one character and never finish it (leveling to current cap). They start another and make many more new characters. They are hindering themselves in long run. Those who have at least 1 or many max leveled chars can support then alts with gear. That is planetary comms and other comms doing dailys and weekly with max leveled char. Always have one character preferably your main at max level. Then start working on alts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akdonkey Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 That's like Saying, I have Guaranteed winning Lottery Numbers, should I buy a ticket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gleneagle Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 That's common mistake many casuals do. They start leveling one character and never finish it (leveling to current cap). They start another and make many more new characters. They are hindering themselves in long run. That depends on what they are playing for. It's really elementary. You describe 'casuals' as mistaken, which carries an implication that what you value and why you play is the correct way to play the game when all that is really happening is that they are playing differently from you. Capiche? For me your style of play is work, something I get paid to do, not something I pay to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gomla Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I was in the same boat. I've played since head start and never managed to get a character to max level. I get bored when I hit Belsavis. The 12x XP was pretty much the only reason I pre ordered the expansion. I just wanted to do some of the story missions and then I can leave happy. Amusingly I probably won't be around when the expansion launches depending on if i've got the stories I want done or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gleneagle Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 My question is: while I have no char even near max lv, is it even worth it to grab the boost and if I do, will I have the chance to make my chars viable for group PvE content without any crafter/money-making alt to back it up?Doesn't that depend on what you value? What is it that you want to get out of the game? To (hopefully) illustrate my point, if a player plays SWTOR to compete with other players then that player will value what makes him competitive, what makes his toon a contender. It is all about the leaderboard. But if a player plays SWTOR because he holds down a high-stress job and wants to play to relax, to enjoy and participate in a good tale of an evening after work (what the unemployed call a 'casual') then the player values something else besides the leaderboard. So what the XP-Boost will be 'worth' for each of these examples is radically different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divona Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 That depends on what they are playing for. It's really elementary. You describe 'casuals' as mistaken, which carries an implication that what you value and why you play is the correct way to play the game when all that is really happening is that they are playing differently from you. Capiche? For me your style of play is work, something I get paid to do, not something I pay to do. Actually i ment people or casuals who are using this bonus but struggling with gearing along the way. Doesnt matter what your end goal is. Things can be easier or harder same way for casuals and hardcore players Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orizuru Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Focus on class missions first. You can always return to a planet after you have leveled up to 55 to finish the side-quests. And the rewards from missions at low levels are still relevant for you if you take the Planetary Comms as a reward every time. In fact, this will help you solve gear problems at level 55 to a small degree. Whenever you are getting close to 100 Planetary Comms you can visit the Makeb Planetary Comm Vendor and stock up on purple 148 mods for yourself and your companions. As you are leveling up though, you don't need a lot of credits to buy gear. If you find yourself getting stomped because you need gear upgrades, just fly back to low level planets and farm more planetary comms from the heroic missions and use them to buy the highest level hilts, barrels, and armorings you can get from planetary comm vendors. The biggest challenge I've seen with leveling to 55 under this promotion is the gear grind at level 55. When you level normally, you would have an average item rating of 140-148 by the time you reached level 55. When you use the 12x XP you will be wearing mostly level 35-45ish gear when you reach level 47. At this point you can head to Makeb and finish leveling to 55 there in about an hour using the bolster buff from the GSI Satellites. However, this fast track to 55 means you are still wearing level 35-45 gear when you hit 55. The best place to start the gear grind at level 55 is Oricon because there is a set of 156 gear awarded for completing the missions there, but you will really struggle with the Subteroth and Bathorium Beast fights if you don't have a decent set of gear already. If you are going back and doing the planetary story missions and bonus series missions though, you will be swimming in planetary comms that can be used to buy everything you need for that set of gear you need to complete Oricon. One thing to add though. If you have a good guild and some friends who can help with the first 5 missions on Oricon, you can skip the entire planetary comm tier of gear and go straight to the 156 tier of gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pscyon Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 The class missions sometimes reference the planet story missions and the other way around. So if you want the most story you'll do both chains. There are also a very select few side missions that connect, but you more or less have to know about them (Lord Malichose on Corellia has some extra/different lines if you worked with him on Snorederaan for instance) so you can safely skip most side missions without "losing out". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foambreaker Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 This might sound weird, but for the last year and a half or so I just occasionally dipped into SWTOR for a month or two, all while not really progressing significantly on any of my chars. Most of the time I even redo chars, just to experience the story (up to a certain point) again. This leaves me with mostly low lv toons, the highest being lv 32. It's not really helping that I can never decide on a class/story to play Judging from other threads, lvling exclusively with class missions is only really doable with a certain budget to buy green armor every 10 lv or so. My question is: while I have no char even near max lv, is it even worth it to grab the boost and if I do, will I have the chance to make my chars viable for group PvE content without any crafter/money-making alt to back it up? Keep in mind it is not just the gear, people with 3-4 55s have a lot of other legacy bonuses like stat boost. If you are enjoying the content and have not done it before I would not skip it, all you do is skip a bunch of stuff so you can grind 55-60 with LESS content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heezdedjim Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 (edited) My question is: while I have no char even near max lv, is it even worth it to grab the boost and if I do, will I have the chance to make my chars viable for group PvE content without any crafter/money-making alt to back it up? Yes, and yes. And since you have been stuck for a while with no max level characters, this event is a great chance for you to get the boost you need to finish some of them off. For leveling gear, you should be able to get by just fine on the class mission credit rewards alone, along with the few green pieces that you will get from them. Remember that there are no ability training costs, so you will have something like 200-300k credits to spend on gear as you level up to 55. If you focus on just the basics, you can pay your own way even with no old money to back you up. As far as gearing up at the cap, you will get five to seven pieces of level 51-53 green armor for your class from the Makeb planet story line alone, not counting other rewards like the Basic commendations. That will be more than enough to do the easier dailies like Black Hole and other level 50 content for a bit to raise some credits, and you should be able to afford a full set of cheap and abundant blue level 53 mods off the GTN without too much grind. You then could grind some dailies and level 50 FPs to get more comms, or head to Oricon to pick up your set of Basic gear. But remember that all of the current level 55 gear will become substantially cheaper and easier to get when the new expansion rolls out, so you might as well just get your full set of level 53 blues and wait until 3.0 to head to the new leveling zones, then keep straight on from there. Edited October 21, 2014 by Heezdedjim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuriDogshin Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 or head to Oricon to pick up your set of Basic gear. The Oricon story line quests reward you with class-matched L53 Purple gear, not Basic gear. You get them as you go, so you can improve your gear as you go. Get a geared 55 doing the Weekly to group up you, and the story quest is a breeze. Get two geared 55s to group, and you may find it hard to keep up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heezdedjim Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 (edited) The Oricon story line quests reward you with class-matched L53 Purple gear, not Basic gear. Those are the same thing. Basic gear is level 53 artifact quality with rank 66 mods (rating 156), which is what the quests from Oricon give you. Edited October 21, 2014 by Heezdedjim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dissonan Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 Yes, and yes. And since you have been stuck for a while with no max level characters, this event is a great chance for you to get the boost you need to finish some of them off. For leveling gear, you should be able to get by just fine on the class mission credit rewards alone, along with the few green pieces that you will get from them. Remember that there are no ability training costs, so you will have something like 200-300k credits to spend on gear as you level up to 55. If you focus on just the basics, you can pay your own way even with no old money to back you up. As far as gearing up at the cap, you will get five to seven pieces of level 51-53 green armor for your class from the Makeb planet story line alone, not counting other rewards like the Basic commendations. That will be more than enough to do the easier dailies like Black Hole and other level 50 content for a bit to raise some credits, and you should be able to afford a full set of cheap and abundant blue level 53 mods off the GTN without too much grind. You then could grind some dailies and level 50 FPs to get more comms, or head to Oricon to pick up your set of Basic gear. But remember that all of the current level 55 gear will become substantially cheaper and easier to get when the new expansion rolls out, so you might as well just get your full set of level 53 blues and wait until 3.0 to head to the new leveling zones, then keep straight on from there. Thanks a lot for the info. Like I said, never had a max lv toon, so knowing what lies ahead of me is quite nice to know. All that's left is choosing a class Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gleneagle Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 The class missions sometimes reference the planet story missions and the other way around. So if you want the most story you'll do both chains. There are also a very select few side missions that connect, but you more or less have to know about them (Lord Malichose on Corellia has some extra/different lines if you worked with him on Snorederaan for instance) so you can safely skip most side missions without "losing out".Then again, some of those side quests contain lines that really shouldn't be missed if you enjoy good humor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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