Back after 3+ years, need a few pointers

[NostalGeek]

Hi guys,

 

So I played the game back during beta and launch but stopped around Feb. 2012 (Agent lvl 43 and few Sith that are back to lvl 1 because of server mergers and name changes...) so obviously it's like I'm learning everything again.

My questions are more regarding gear and currency. I'm assuming a lot of the currencies have changed since the game went F2P.

Back then I played (very minimally) the AH, I had bags full of crafting mats and crafted a lot. Plenty of companions and runs and such. I seem to remember purple gear was highest but there was an orange type that I don't remember.

 

I would like to know what currencies and gear I should watch out for, what I should save for later, what I should spend....

Edited September 23, 2015 by NostalGeek

[Icestar]

I advice you to start a new character with the X12 experience boost to enjoy a new story and the game again.

 

We will have a new expansion in a month so it is better to not spend alot of resources on something that will be outlevelled very soon.

 

They have not explained everything regarding the expansion yet so it is a good thing to keep an eye out for official posts and read through those that they have posted recently.

[NostalGeek]

Yeah since my SW and SI got reset to level 1 I figured I'd start fresh on those. Then when I'm refamiliarized I can take a peek at my 43 Agent.

I noticed the new expac is coming in Oct. and then SoR will be free to subs so I grabbed a 60 day one time sub for now.

 

On quick Q though. What's the best place to spend your Cartel Points on?

[Icestar]

What's the best place to spend your Cartel Points on?

 

It could be a good thing to upgrade your characters with some of the different perks they can have like faster travel for example. I think you will get alot of different answers to this question since some like different things

 

There are unlocks for the Togrutas for example, they are a new and very cool. You can also use the cartel coins to unlock cartel market items so you can enjoy them with all characters.

 

At this moment you do not need to buy any experience boost perks as the X12 is more then enough for everything when it comes to leveling, it could perhaps be useful from level 55 to 60 but there are enough things to reach level 60, so I do not advice you spend cartel coins on that for now atleast.

[MSchuyler]

On quick Q though. What's the best place to spend your Cartel Points on?

 

Unlocks,

 

from inventory storage space to Legacy XP boosts, maybe species unlocks. Don't buy "things" on the Cartel Market, at least not at first. I'd do personal storage space first. Be sure to do them for account wide--NOT just one character.

[mousestalker]

Orange gear can be modded. That's good, as it means you can keep the same gear through your entire play on a character and simply upgrade the mods as you level. Orange gear comes in two varieties: regular armour (light, heavy or medium) or adaptive (which changes to suit the specific character).

 

Modifications can purchased for credits from planetary vendors or on the GTN. They may also be purchased for commendations from planetary vendors or vendors on the Fleet.

 

If this helps, I generally upgrade my mods and my companion's mods all at once using the fleet vendor every ten or so levels. It takes slightly less than 100 commendations to do that.

 

Or you can try to equip your character from items that drop as you do missions.

[DocDAM]

On quick Q though. What's the best place to spend your Cartel Points on?

Rocket Boost. Get it through the "Going Places Bundle" which seems to be on sale perpetually at 375 CC (cheaper than Rocket Boost alone @ 400 CC). Then you want to get the two unlocks to reduce its cooldown. It gives you speeder speed through areas that a speeder won't work (caves, indoors, etc). 12 sec on, cooldown as low as 30 sec with all the upgrades.

 

After that: account-wide unlocks for stuff like:

Inventory slots

Cargo bays

Stronghold storage (legacy-wide storage) bays.

 

But mostly, hold till you figure out what you want.

 

You can check out my post on cartel market purchases.

[NostalGeek]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Bunch of things to mull over.

 

I did a nice little session today and finished Korriban on my SI which already got her to lvl 15 (I even forgot to use the consumable XP boost that dropped). I had a bunch of emails with some titles, pets and didn't have to pay for the speeder skill or speeder since I'm a founder and had bought the CE.

I logged on to my 43 Agent just to check a few things and noticed I have ~4000 Cartel Points and 200K on him. I did spend ~350CP to upgrade 1 slot row on my bags across all toons but since I have 200K I may just use currency for future upgrades.

He also had a bunch of craft material, some Orange gear, mods and a bunch of mission discoveries and companion gifts.

 

The Rocket Boost sounds interesting but right now I'm rediscovering the game so I'm not in a rush. I'm sure I'll want to get a Stronghold and shared Cargo asap.

Edited September 24, 2015 by NostalGeek

[Icestar]

I even forgot to use the consumable XP boost that dropped.

 

You can save those XP boosts for later, they are not needed during this X12 experience event.

[DocDAM]

FYI, the Stronghold (which gives you a single free "Stronghold Storage" shared cargo bay) starts at L15. Access from a holostatue located on fleet and your home planet (Coruscant/DK). First one (Coruscant/DK) is just 5K, and that's all you need for now. You can add rooms, or get more expensive Strongholds (Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine, Yavin) for a lot more credits or CC. BTW, "CC" = Cartel Coins, is normally how they are referred. "CP" will just confuse people.

 

And 200K credits won't get you very far these days. When you look at account-wide unlock asking prices on GTN, prepare yourself for a shock

[NostalGeek]

Stronghold at Lvl 15? Sweet! I'm getting one today. Just need to send a bit of money to my SI. Stronghold are character specific not account-wide correct?

[Angror]

Stronghold at Lvl 15? Sweet! I'm getting one today. Just need to send a bit of money to my SI. Stronghold are character specific not account-wide correct?

 

All your Chars have access to the SH. If they are opposing faction it will charge you a modest fee for a smuggler to take you onto the hostile world.

[Icestar]

Stronghold are character specific not account-wide correct?

 

The stronghold is legacy, every stronghold is named with one of your characters names. You can select what character that "owns" the stronghold from the menu.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Icestar

[DocDAM]

Stronghold at Lvl 15? Sweet! I'm getting one today. Just need to send a bit of money to my SI. Stronghold are character specific not account-wide correct?

Legacy and SH are server-wide. Every character you have on that server is in the same Legacy. So if you buy a SH, all characters on that server can access it. All share the same SH storage. If you buy an extra bay, you have a choice: character (= Legacy = server) or account. So this is one of those cases where I say you can save and just get the “character”, not the account-wide unlock.

[legbamel]

A helpful tip I picked up around here: crafting mats you put in your legacy storage can be used by all of your characters on that server. It made the unlock for a second bay my top priority! With the stronghold additions to crafting I can stuff things in legacy and whoever can use them to make the various pieces does so and sticks them in legacy. Then whoever isn't maxed on crafting puts them together for universal kits!

 

I also dump my low-level mats in there so new characters can save some cash on running missions. Unwanted gifts? Into legacy storage you go! Some companion will love you. If only there were a bank for my legacy as well...

[NostalGeek]

Haha, yeah putting mats makes sense, also the Orange gear that other toons can use (i think I read somewhere you can make that gear account-wide with CC).

Bought my stronghold today and the Going Places pack like you guys recommended (it was 40% iirc so good deal!). I browsed the cartel shop but didn't see anything that seemed urgent or important. All the cosmetic gear isn't key and I didn't even like most of it. Same with mounts and pets.

The Ewokk companion and Toturga I may get at some point but no rush. Any kind of XP boosts seem useless to me so really the only thing that seemed worthy were unlocks and Escrow but I need to figure out how those work.

I also grabbed Artifice, Archaeology and TH for my Sorcerer but I need to take a look at crew skills again to see what is worth making and what sells best.

[DocDAM]

You're off to a good start and making the right calls (Rocket Boost, saving CC).

 

Not all "Orange gear" is unlockable on alts per se'. But orange adaptive gear that you buy on the Cartel Market, or originated on the CM and sold on GTN (you'll see the little CM symbol) is almost all unlockable via the Collections window. That's one thing you want to save CC for.

 

The utility of that gear, and what they do with crew skills, will all change on Oct 20 with KotFE (early) release. We still don't know most of the details. Frankly, I don't see how the value of those things won't go down as they'll be of little use for items on companions. Just for your character.

Edited September 25, 2015 by DocDAM

[NostalGeek]

Yeah I quit playing back then before the CM was implemented (heck I left before Legacy was put in).

I'm going to try and find a good guild next.

[Icestar]

Yeah I quit playing back then before the CM was implemented (heck I left before Legacy was put in).

I'm going to try and find a good guild next.

 

Then you are old school, welcome back.

 

I started pre-launch 2011, I have been here on this forum since february 2009 and I have endured the problems this game (especially arund launch where my entire guild left) has had but I have always liked it, it feels good to play Star Wars. I am still smiling and now I get to help alot of new players back on their feet it is really fun.

 

Now we head into even more intense storytelling, I am excited to know what that is all about

Edited September 26, 2015 by Icestar

[NostalGeek]

Then you are old school, welcome back.

 

I started pre-launch 2011, I have been here on this forum since february 2009 and I have endured the problems this game (especially arund launch where my entire guild left) has had but I have always liked it, it feels good to play Star Wars. I am still smiling and now I get to help alot of new players back on their feet it is really fun.

 

Now we head into even more intense storytelling, I am excited to know what that is all about

 

I'm with you there. I also was on the forum way before launch and downloaded all those awesome Timeline videos (so sad they never finished them!).

It does feel great to play a Star Wars game that's for sure. My biggest gripe with this game is that a lot of the planets feel too closed-in, too linear and not MMO wide expanse enough which is compounded by that the fact that these are supposed to be planets. But aside from that when the game works it's really good.

[Icestar]

I'm with you there. I also was on the forum way before launch and downloaded all those awesome Timeline videos (so sad they never finished them!).

It does feel great to play a Star Wars game that's for sure. My biggest gripe with this game is that a lot of the planets feel too closed-in, too linear and not MMO wide expanse enough which is compounded by that the fact that these are supposed to be planets. But aside from that when the game works it's really good.

 

I think that eventhough it survived alot of misshapps it has turned into a very great game. There are a few areas that could be fixed but in general it is a good game, and ofcourse it is Star Wars. I would live on Nar Shaddaa for the rest of my lives and enjoy the wealth of the galaxy.

 

Use your pre-order crystal, be proud of it (many will say it is ugly , they are just jelous)

 

They are doin something wtih just about everything, so it is a very good idea to listen to the new livefeeds and blogs, there is also something called a Cantna where they meet up some of the fans and answers questions.

 

The expansion is a week away, enjoy the game as it is now but cause in a month we are going for a liftoff

Edited September 26, 2015 by Icestar

[NostalGeek]

It's hard for me to ask questions or make reco because I'm so unfamiliar with the game at this point. I'm rediscovering everything.... Like I was looking over the class changes for SI for the new expac and didn't even know what I was reading. But in a few weeks I'll be fine.

Did my first Galactic Starfighter mission today and I got smacked but it was fun, basically everything we wanted when the on rail shooting mission first came out.

[NostalGeek]

Soooo I finished Dromund Kaas and went straight to Nar Shadaa, skipping Balmorra........ I was wondering why it go so much harder all of a sudden...

 

This is why my first post was in this forum thread

[Icestar]

Soooo I finished Dromund Kaas and went straight to Nar Shadaa, skipping Balmorra........ I was wondering why it go so much harder all of a sudden...

 

This is why my first post was in this forum thread

 

My guess is that it is because you need to update your armor, weapons and your companion. You also have to match the level of the quest you do with your own level, you can see this when you look at the quest panel, you can not skip Balmorra entirely there is still story there to be done.

 

Use the commendations at the supply section at Fleet to give your character and companion a good boost in stats and output damage.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Icestar

[Roanna]

One thing to keep in mind when you are given a choice of which planet to visit next, such as Balmorra or Nar Shaddaa (or Taris or Nar Shaddaa, on the Republic side), take a look at your quest log, one will be green and the other yellow. Green text indicates you are a at least a couple of levels above the quest, while yellow text indicates that you are right at the level of the quest.