As a Story Tourist who just came for the 12x XP class stories, so frustrated. :(

[Clarian]

Er, no? You never had to do boring filler content in those games in order to advance.

Exactly. And you never have to do boring filler content in this game in order to advance.

[DanNV]

Then why are you here?

 

You're just trolling now, either that or you just like being difficult...

 

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I'm coming to this conclusion about this thread in general.

[Televangelist]

Without reading 9 pages of posts...did you get your questions answered?

 

If not, what do you still need help with?

 

Thanks, it turned into a massive flame-war about whether I should be playing SWTOR at all basically.

 

The main thing I still need to understand is: What's a general, all-around approach to gearing my characters and their companions on the cheap that will get me through the game's story content solo? Doesn't need to be optimal for warzones/flashpoints/other stuff that I'm never going to participate in.

 

Options include:

 

-Buy a single set of orange totally adaptive armor from the Cartel Market (or GTN + unlock), buy vendor mods for that armor every 5-10 levels with the credits I got by buying Cartel packs and selling them on GTN, re-using mods across characters with the same stats (I'm doing 1 of every class)

 

-Buy random green stuff in the GTN every 5-10 levels for my char and their companion

 

Questions remaining include:

 

-Do I need to be getting the various 'accessories' I see on the char equip screen for my guys, even though at level 20ish so far the game's quests haven't given me anything for those slots?

 

-if I buy orange armor but don't mod it properly, will that be worse than if I just buy random green armor in the GTN?

 

-How character-specific are the mod stats? If I buy that aforementioned orange suit, put level 20 mods in it, can I share that suit around all 8 of my chars when they're doing level 20 content? Or will all 8 chars each have different mods they need?

 

-How do I know when the green gear I'm getting from class quests is outgrown and needs to be replaced, for either me or my companion? What's my 'rule of thumb' for judging when my current gear is inadequate?

[Televangelist]

Then why are you here?

 

You're just trolling now, either that or you just like being difficult...

 

I'm here for KOTOR3 through KOTOR10, not the MMO portions of the game. They could let me play the game offline and I would be fine with that.

[TUXs]

Uuh, you may want to mix it up a bit. Most storylines work much better when not just blindly following the LS/DS metre. That said, I think the previous poster's jibe was aimed at eight characters not being very many these days. Hell, I started playing only in May and have 15 lvl 55s now.

Not even close...I only have four 55's, and I've been here since beta. My question on 8 characters was, how the hell can he act so lost if he has 8 characters already...which he answered in his reply...they're all low levels, which makes sense.

[azudelphi]

-How do I know when the green gear I'm getting from class quests is outgrown and needs to be replaced, for either me or my companion? What's my 'rule of thumb' for judging when my current gear is inadequate?

 

Honestly, if you and your companion can't take down a single gold enemy of your level, then you either have issues with the abilities you use or your gear.

 

For Example: I was able to use Treek in her starting gear until level 37'ish (yay for Presence from legacy).

 

It's seemingly vague, but that's the best way to put it.

[ikinai]

Thanks, it turned into a massive flame-war about whether I should be playing SWTOR at all basically.

 

The main thing I still need to understand is: What's a general, all-around approach to gearing my characters and their companions on the cheap that will get me through the game's story content solo? Doesn't need to be optimal for warzones/flashpoints/other stuff that I'm never going to participate in.

 

Options include:

 

-Buy a single set of orange totally adaptive armor from the Cartel Market (or GTN + unlock), buy vendor mods for that armor every 5-10 levels with the credits I got by buying Cartel packs and selling them on GTN, re-using mods across characters with the same stats (I'm doing 1 of every class)

 

-Buy random green stuff in the GTN every 5-10 levels for my char and their companion

 

Questions remaining include:

 

-Do I need to be getting the various 'accessories' I see on the char equip screen for my guys, even though at level 20ish so far the game's quests haven't given me anything for those slots?

 

-if I buy orange armor but don't mod it properly, will that be worse than if I just buy random green armor in the GTN?

 

-How character-specific are the mod stats? If I buy that aforementioned orange suit, put level 20 mods in it, can I share that suit around all 8 of my chars when they're doing level 20 content? Or will all 8 chars each have different mods they need?

 

-How do I know when the green gear I'm getting from class quests is outgrown and needs to be replaced, for either me or my companion? What's my 'rule of thumb' for judging when my current gear is inadequate?

 

It's inadequate if it is around 2 -4 levels below your current level. Just use the credits you get and go to the galactic trade network (GTN) and search for pieces of armor for your level that need to be updated. Before you fight an end chapter boss update everything to current level for both your self and your companion.

[hadoken]

Honestly, if you and your companion can't take down a single gold enemy of your level, then you either have issues with the abilities you use or your gear.

 

For Example: I was able to use Treek in her starting gear until level 37'ish (yay for Presence from legacy).

 

It's seemingly vague, but that's the best way to put it.

 

To be fair, he will neither have Treek nor any of those presence buffs so really your experience isn't anything like his.

 

That said, I do agree that if he's geared moderately well and using his abilities a single gold shouldn't be putting him down (since that's exactly the kind of fights we all had to deal with at launch).

[watermelonfan]

I've joined two, one on my Republic and one on my Empire chars. Nobody has any clue. "Oh, isn't there an icon that unlocks it? Well, if you're not seeing it, dunno what to tell you"

 

once the item is bound to one toon it only unlocks on that one toon. To unlock it on your other toons with coins, you have to log into a different toon that doesn't have that armor set bound to him yet. there will then be a button to unlock it with all toons. And its also worth mentioning that you need the whole set bound on one toon before you can unlock the whole set while logged into a different toon.

[DogeDandolo]

You don't need to level up once every four levels -- you can easily get away with ten, or about two to three planets. So long as you play halfway decent, that is. Use your interrupts, stuns, CCs and defensive cooldowns.

[Jadescythe]

Thanks, it turned into a massive flame-war about whether I should be playing SWTOR at all basically.

 

The main thing I still need to understand is: What's a general, all-around approach to gearing my characters and their companions on the cheap that will get me through the game's story content solo? Doesn't need to be optimal for warzones/flashpoints/other stuff that I'm never going to participate in.

 

Options include:

 

-Buy a single set of orange totally adaptive armor from the Cartel Market (or GTN + unlock), buy vendor mods for that armor every 5-10 levels with the credits I got by buying Cartel packs and selling them on GTN, re-using mods across characters with the same stats (I'm doing 1 of every class)

 

-Buy random green stuff in the GTN every 5-10 levels for my char and their companion

 

Questions remaining include:

 

-Do I need to be getting the various 'accessories' I see on the char equip screen for my guys, even though at level 20ish so far the game's quests haven't given me anything for those slots?

 

-if I buy orange armor but don't mod it properly, will that be worse than if I just buy random green armor in the GTN?

 

-How character-specific are the mod stats? If I buy that aforementioned orange suit, put level 20 mods in it, can I share that suit around all 8 of my chars when they're doing level 20 content? Or will all 8 chars each have different mods they need?

 

-How do I know when the green gear I'm getting from class quests is outgrown and needs to be replaced, for either me or my companion? What's my 'rule of thumb' for judging when my current gear is inadequate?

 

It will depend on your level of skill. The more you understand about your character's abilities, the less you have to rely on gear. For instance, I just take the green rewards from every quest and buy a couple pieces to fill in around level 35. If something gets really outdated after that, I might go to the GTN to replace that piece. If you have a +41 power crystal from the cartel market, unlock it in your collections for your legacy. You can then put infinite copies into your inventory for any new weapons you acquire for you or your companion. Do your best to fill all the gear slots you have when items become available for maximum efficiency in getting through your quests.

 

I have not needed to spend any money or commendations from any alt in order to get all the way through from 1-55 so far. I always end up with 200-300k credits in the end as well. You can certainly put that money back into gear as you go along if you find you are having a hard time getting through the content. I would not recommend using orange gear since you do not have toons to craft the mods for you and would have to spend quite a bit of time doing an activity you clearly don't want to participate in to level up crafting.

[Televangelist]

Honestly, if you and your companion can't take down a single gold enemy of your level, then you either have issues with the abilities you use or your gear.

 

For Example: I was able to use Treek in her starting gear until level 37'ish (yay for Presence from legacy).

 

It's seemingly vague, but that's the best way to put it.

 

Ideally I figure that out before I've wasted all the time to get out to encounter the boss, though; I'm sort of thinking along the lines of a "once per planet" gear upgrade. Ideally using gear and/or mods that I can share across players.

 

Is Presence something that I should be paying cartel coins to unlock early?

[Televangelist]

It will depend on your level of skill. The more you understand about your character's abilities, the less you have to rely on gear. For instance, I just take the green rewards from every quest and buy a couple pieces to fill in around level 35. If something gets really outdated after that, I might go to the GTN to replace that piece. If you have a +41 power crystal from the cartel market, unlock it in your collections for your legacy. You can then put infinite copies into your inventory for any new weapons you acquire for you or your companion. Do your best to fill all the gear slots you have when items become available for maximum efficiency in getting through your quests.

 

I have not needed to spend any money or commendations from any alt in order to get all the way through from 1-55 so far. I always end up with 200-300k credits in the end as well. You can certainly put that money back into gear as you go along if you find you are having a hard time getting through the content. I would not recommend using orange gear since you do not have toons to craft the mods for you and would have to spend quite a bit of time doing an activity you clearly don't want to participate in to level up crafting.

 

My understanding with orange gear is that there are vendors on every planet who will sell you good-enough mods for dirt cheap that you can then slot in the orange gear? Or would that not get me in a better place than just buying random greens when necessary.

 

How do you determine whether something's very outdated? Item level vs your player level?

[azudelphi]

Ideally I figure that out before I've wasted all the time to get out to encounter the boss, though; I'm sort of thinking along the lines of a "once per planet" gear upgrade. Ideally using gear and/or mods that I can share across players.

 

Is Presence something that I should be paying cartel coins to unlock early?

 

No. Presence is just something you will earn along the way from finishing all convos with your companions. There is a Presence buff consumable available from most cantinas, and that may help a tad, but I wouldn't intentionally stack it.

 

Once per planet is probably a bit much, but really as another poster said, it entirely depends on player skill. I would say, once every two planets or so? Maybe? It's incredibly hard to say since I don't know your class, your spec, where your gaps are in gear, what abilities you are typically using, etc...

 

Hence, the best test is to practice against a random gold. Doesn't have to be in a story phase or out of your way, just practice against one you might see while traversing the world you are on. If you die to it, you know that your skill or gear are behind the curve.

Edited November 5, 2014 by azudelphi

[Heat-Wave]

Not even close...I only have four 55's, and I've been here since beta. My question on 8 characters was, how the hell can he act so lost if he has 8 characters already...which he answered in his reply...they're all low levels, which makes sense.

 

Yet, he seems to have an opinion on the end game gear grind and MMO content that he has yet to experience.

[DogeDandolo]

Ideally I figure that out before I've wasted all the time to get out to encounter the boss, though; I'm sort of thinking along the lines of a "once per planet" gear upgrade. Ideally using gear and/or mods that I can share across players.

 

Is Presence something that I should be paying cartel coins to unlock early?

 

What? No. This is a free-to-play game. Throwing RL money at problems usually isn't worth it (if you do, use banknotes, they hurt less). Your Presence is one of your attributes and will increase naturally while levelling. You also get +100 Presence across your legacy by getting a Human character to level 50 and +10 Presence (up to +400) for every companion character whose dialogues you complete.

 

 

My understanding with orange gear is that there are vendors on every planet who will sell you good-enough mods for dirt cheap that you can then slot in the orange gear? Or would that not get me in a better place than just buying random greens when necessary.

 

How do you determine whether something's very outdated? Item level vs your player level?

 

 

Those are green mods -- I barely ever use them, but they should be a bit better than the quest rewards on the selfsame planets. Also, since you'll be outlevelling content, you can always take a sidetrip to the next planet to buy their mods, then go back to continue skipping 90% of the story on the preceding planet.

 

Go by player level required. I.e., most gear will have a level requirement to use.

 

About orange gear, don't buy the ones listed in the Cartel Market unless you really like the look of them since they're bloody expensive. Rather, go through your Collections or check tor-fashion.com for an outfit you like, then check the GTN for it and buy them with credits.

[Televangelist]

once the item is bound to one toon it only unlocks on that one toon. To unlock it on your other toons with coins, you have to log into a different toon that doesn't have that armor set bound to him yet. there will then be a button to unlock it with all toons. And its also worth mentioning that you need the whole set bound on one toon before you can unlock the whole set while logged into a different toon.

 

Ahhhh, I wasn't logged on to a different character. That explains it.

[ikinai]

My understanding with orange gear is that there are vendors on every planet who will sell you good-enough mods for dirt cheap that you can then slot in the orange gear? Or would that not get me in a better place than just buying random greens when necessary.

 

How do you determine whether something's very outdated? Item level vs your player level?

 

You can do that, but the mods aren't always the best for your given advanced class. The GTN will have a much better selection suited to your AC. If there are blues for that slot, get those as they will last much longer than greens and are a much better bargain than modding orange shells as you go.

[Jadescythe]

My understanding with orange gear is that there are vendors on every planet who will sell you good-enough mods for dirt cheap that you can then slot in the orange gear? Or would that not get me in a better place than just buying random greens when necessary.

 

How do you determine whether something's very outdated? Item level vs your player level?

 

Mods are going to cost planetary commendations from vendors and since you aren't running all of the extra quests, you aren't accumulating as many of these as you would need to keep orange gear up to date since you need 2-3 mods per piece. The few vendors you see that sell gear for credits have extremely high credit costs to the point where someone is selling a green version of your item with the same stats for 20 times less on the GTN.

 

Maintaining orange gear is more difficult without an already established set of crafting alts or planetary comms to get mods for your gear. And you realistically only need to level up your gear if it's 8-9 levels below you or 4-5 levels if all of your gear is much lower. The game is fairly easy up until chapter two, so you will most likely need a significant gear improvent around 32-35 to catch up. 99% of what you'll run into is a strong or worse mob and you start seeing more elites after ch 2.

[Televangelist]

About orange gear, don't buy the ones listed in the Cartel Market unless you really like the look of them since they're bloody expensive. Rather, go through your Collections or check tor-fashion.com for an outfit you like, then check the GTN for it and buy them with credits.

 

Maybe I'm doing something wrong -- but I looked at the outfits I liked in the Cartel Market store, found ones I liked that were level 1 req and fully moddable, and then searched the GTN... either the pieces simply weren't for sale on the GTN, or they cost 100,000 per piece in the case of the 'cool' outfits.

 

Am I looking in the wrong place? Are there other orange, whatever-mods-you-want outfits beyond the ones in the Cartel Market store that can be similarly unlocked? And tor-fashion.com is the place to find them?

[theUndead]

Wrong. Why do you think they advertised it so heavily to those of us who've never played before?

 

 

 

I represent a vast untapped market to SWTOR -- one that if harnessed correctly can give them massive profit with no additional investment needed on their end. You represent just another sub.

 

Correction. You represent the single player casual crowd. You are certainly not some untapped market that's waiting to be milked, but rather just one of the many demographics this game attracts. You are not special and why should the devs even remotely care about you?

 

Also no he is not just a sub, he is a paying customer who supports the game. You're just a lazy gamer who wants everything handed without effort.

 

Oh and the promotion was never aimed at you, but rather people who have played before and have multiple alts.

Edited November 5, 2014 by theUndead

[azudelphi]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong -- but I looked at the outfits I liked in the Cartel Market store, found ones I liked that were level 1 req and fully moddable, and then searched the GTN... either the pieces simply weren't for sale on the GTN, or they cost 100,000 per piece in the case of the 'cool' outfits.

 

Am I looking in the wrong place? Are there other orange, whatever-mods-you-want outfits beyond the ones in the Cartel Market store that can be similarly unlocked? And tor-fashion.com is the place to find them?

 

Honestly, I would say do each flashpoint once for its story. One per day will complete a Daily from the Mission Terminal in the Supplies section on fleet. Combine that with the benefits of going through the group finder and you'll get a nice buffer of planetary comms. 7 planetary comms will buy you an armoring or hilt, 2 comms for an enhancement or mod. Not all are ideal stat distributions, but even the non-ideal ones will allow you to swap out your lowest level mods.

 

Also flashpoints are a great source for orange pieces and an opportunity to learn your class better.

 

If you do go this route, be sure to let your group know if it is your first time and ask them to explain any fights. From there, listen, understand, execute... get rewards.

Edited November 5, 2014 by azudelphi

[DogeDandolo]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong -- but I looked at the outfits I liked in the Cartel Market store, found ones I liked that were level 1 req and fully moddable, and then searched the GTN... either the pieces simply weren't for sale on the GTN, or they cost 100,000 per piece in the case of the 'cool' outfits.

 

Am I looking in the wrong place? Are there other orange, whatever-mods-you-want outfits beyond the ones in the Cartel Market store that can be similarly unlocked? And tor-fashion.com is the place to find them?

 

Good-looking outfits do go for quite a lot, particularly if they're very new or very out-of-stock (case in point: Satele Shan's outfit used to go for millions per piece, but now it's a bit cheaper). Still, the way I understood your OP you should be swimming in credits after selling a hypercrate.

 

There are other moddable outfits in the game, but you're not going to get most them without crafting, running heroics, flashpoints, ops, or accumulating planet comms; in other words, all the content you want to avoid.

 

As an aside, you can't send most orange armour back and forth between your characters since they bind on equip. If you want to do that, you need Bind to Legacy armour like the free pilot sets you should receive in the mail on starting a new character. Most other Legacy gear, sadly, is tied to faction reputation (which requires a degree of grinding), and there's not that much of it to begin with.

[Heat-Wave]

How the eff does any of this work? I don't want to figure out your stupid inventory system, I just want to have fun playing a cool KOTOR story.

 

Correction. You're just a lazy gamer who wants everything handed without effort.

 

^ This...

[Televangelist]

Mods are going to cost planetary commendations from vendors and since you aren't running all of the extra quests, you aren't accumulating as many of these as you would need to keep orange gear up to date since you need 2-3 mods per piece. The few vendors you see that sell gear for credits have extremely high credit costs to the point where someone is selling a green version of your item with the same stats for 20 times less on the GTN.

 

Maintaining orange gear is more difficult without an already established set of crafting alts or planetary comms to get mods for your gear. And you realistically only need to level up your gear if it's 8-9 levels below you or 4-5 levels if all of your gear is much lower. The game is fairly easy up until chapter two, so you will most likely need a significant gear improvent around 32-35 to catch up. 99% of what you'll run into is a strong or worse mob and you start seeing more elites after ch 2.

 

Hmm, sounds like buying random green gear in GTN is a significantly better option than orange gear plus green vendor mods, thanks.

 

I take it that in terms of 'best stats' for me and my companion, the classes work the same at 55 as they do at 25, so just read up on what a given class's important stats are online and buy accordingly at my level?