Best way to gear out alts

[Maurdiib]

I haven't played in some time and I'm a little lost coming back, so I started a new character and am playing from the ground up. A little lost on how to gear my alt without the help of my other chars as I'm not completely autonomous yet.

 

Last time I played they had Planetary Commendations you could exchange for level appropriate blue item mods. Those are gone.

 

The market is rather inflated for alts, with purple level 10 item mods going for 500k a pop.

 

What's a good option for me if I don't feel like hopping onto my other toons to produces all my items nor do I feel like spending a lifetime fortune on them either?

[Valfuros]

You're not willing to spend credits or time to gear out alts, so your option is to not gear alts. Not trolling, but those are the two recipes to gear.

[Tsillah]

Don't worry about purple gear until your level 70. The way to level up and stay geared is doing heroics. They give you loot boxes with blue gear. If you miss parts due to RNG you can always go crafting. Again blue level gear is plenty.

 

With the amount of xp you get these days you will tend to be overleveled anyway so you don't have to gear up that often. Personally I start doing SM Ops at level 50 cause they give you gear already for level 70 but that's up to you.

 

Between rewards from heroic quests (there's a terminal in the combat section of the fleet) and crafting it's actually quite easy to gear up while leveling.

 

There are also the vendors in the supply section. They sell green mods for credits. They are green but they will also do the trick if you want to level with modded gear (orange quality). One option there is to use legacy gear. You get lots of legacy gear these days and you could have a few sets prepared with mods for specific levels. Then you can reuse them later on alts since it's legacy gear. Below level 70 the exact stats don't matter so much so a mix of crit/alacrity and a bit of accuracy will do for healers and dps. Tanks are different but you might want to level them as a DPS first and then get mods or crafted or heroics gear when you get to level 50/51.

 

Not too structured as a post but hope it helps. I know you don't care much for crafting but if you want to avoid spending a lot of credits these are the best options. Maybe you can pick a crafting skill that helps most with leveling gear so you don't need to jump alts for that. But otherwise heroics and green mods in orange legacy gear are the best options.

Edited November 27, 2017 by Tsillah

[Eli_Porter]

You can give excess mods and enhancements gotten on your main through command crates to your alts with legacy shells, and use the command token vendor to fill out the missing pieces (implants/relics/earpiece/set bonuses).

[yaxmutal]

It is really easy to make Legacy gear and just let your alts use it as they level. I have too many sets now that the servers have merged but it wouldn't cost much to make sets for level 10, 22, 30, 42, 52 and 60. You can make a level 10 blue set of relics, implants and ears easily and upgrade them through occasional heroics as you level. Maybe do the same. For mainhand you can buy cheap mods on fleet in supplies section or just craft blue ones yourself.

 

This would typically cost me close to nothing to level 1-70 for gear whereas raising influence on my companions is usually 3-5 million!

[SteveTheCynic]

Last time I played they had Planetary Commendations you could exchange for level appropriate blue item mods. Those are gone.

They have been replaced by approximately equivalent green mods at vendors in the same parts of the Fleet and the planets. You can use those for gearing while you level. They aren't expensive.

 

EDIT: sorry, forgot to mention: these mods are bought for *credits*.

 

Or you use the gear that drops from fallen enemies - that's level appropriate for *YOU*, not for the planet you're on - or mission rewards, especially H2 missions. They, like the stuff you acquire by armed robbery(1), are level-appropriate.

 

(1) Shooting people (or hitting them with a glowstick) until they fall over and then taking their stuff is most definitely armed robbery.

 

Once you get to max level, gearing is done mostly by Command Crates - these are given to all level 70s for filling the Command Experience bar that replaces the levelling experience bar.

 

If you need legacy-bound stuff: the "Adaptive Gear Vendor" on the fleet (next to the low-level mods vendors) sells a variety of armour - some is character-bound, while other pieces are legacy-bound. All classes get at least one legacy-bound weapon (Inquisitors get two) as part of their story.

Edited November 27, 2017 by SteveTheCynic

[juliushorst]

Once you reach 300 command level on one of your toons you'll find plenty 246 (purple) drops from your command crates. Take out armorings, mods and enchancements, place them in legacy gear (you should have those pilot suits from GSF or you can buy event gear, or use stuff from heroic crates), min-max a little and you have stuff as good as crafted items (so 246 stats, no set bonus if you send it to other class). You can make such set for every alt or move it around your legacy as you play.

Until then - no need to worry about gear. I usually do 1-70 on new charcters with my DvL xp armor and I don't even bother to put stuff into it. Once you reach 70, just buy that 230s on the fleet.

Edited November 27, 2017 by juliushorst

[SteveTheCynic]

legacy gear (you should have those pilot suits from GSF or you can buy event gear, or use stuff from heroic crates)

Visit the "Adaptive Gear Vendor" on the fleet, supplies section, face outwards away from the cantina, look in the left-hand bay, where the low-level mods are.

 

This vendor sells ordinary and legacy-bound adaptive moddable armour sets for credits. (With level 8 blue mods in, but you can trash those or pull them and vendor them.(1)) Every character gets a legacy-bound weapon as part of his class story. (Some classes get two.)

 

(1) At very low levels, the vendor price when you sell mods is more than the cost to extract them. At higher levels, it is the other way around.

[Sarova]

I haven't played in some time and I'm a little lost coming back, so I started a new character and am playing from the ground up. A little lost on how to gear my alt without the help of my other chars as I'm not completely autonomous yet.

 

Last time I played they had Planetary Commendations you could exchange for level appropriate blue item mods. Those are gone.

 

The market is rather inflated for alts, with purple level 10 item mods going for 500k a pop.

 

What's a good option for me if I don't feel like hopping onto my other toons to produces all my items nor do I feel like spending a lifetime fortune on them either?

As mentioned, you do not need purple until level 70 and even then if you're a solo player, you can get away with green stuff as you gather more pieces from the command crates. There is no need to be buying expensive gear for alts. Up to level 10 you can easily get by with gear from drops and quest rewards. From level 10+ Get yourself a cheap custom (orange) set and use vendor mods (which are very cheap) to upgrade this set every 4 levels or so depending on how your damage is (or you can use blue/purple quality crafted mods but the green vendor mods are way cheaper). This is what I do with my alts between levels 10-65 and I have over 30 alts spread over 3 servers. If you don't like the look of the set you buy, make a costume. An alternate way to get gear below level 61 is to do the heroics for each planet (you can do those with a companion). The boxes you get contain gear based on your level.

 

For my level 70s, I did the unassembled component grind on my main to get a full 248 set, however before that I used whatever upgrade I got from the command crates, even if it was green quality. For my level 70 alts I used the Command Token currency to buy a set of purple Mk-3 gear for the set bonus and additional pieces (relics/implants/earpiece)

[doohickeyexpress]

I haven't played in some time and I'm a little lost coming back, so I started a new character and am playing from the ground up. A little lost on how to gear my alt without the help of my other chars as I'm not completely autonomous yet.

 

Last time I played they had Planetary Commendations you could exchange for level appropriate blue item mods. Those are gone.

 

The market is rather inflated for alts, with purple level 10 item mods going for 500k a pop.

 

What's a good option for me if I don't feel like hopping onto my other toons to produces all my items nor do I feel like spending a lifetime fortune on them either?

 

Have a few different sets of legacy gear to trade around to different alts.

[Andryah]

I haven't played in some time and I'm a little lost coming back, so I started a new character and am playing from the ground up. A little lost on how to gear my alt without the help of my other chars as I'm not completely autonomous yet.

 

Last time I played they had Planetary Commendations you could exchange for level appropriate blue item mods. Those are gone.

 

The market is rather inflated for alts, with purple level 10 item mods going for 500k a pop.

 

What's a good option for me if I don't feel like hopping onto my other toons to produces all my items nor do I feel like spending a lifetime fortune on them either?

 

For leveling alts..... there is an adaptive gear vendor on Fleet that sells the empty armor and weapon shells for very low credits. And in the same aisle on fleet... there are mod vendors that sell mods (available every 4 levels) that are also dirt cheap to insert in the armor/weapon skins. The mods are green con, but they are actually very similar (in some cases better) then the mods sold from the old planetary vendors for comms at the same level.

 

For a cap level alt... the fastest and most efficient method is to just buy level appropriate gear from the GTN that are made by crafters. It really depends on what you plan to do with your alt. If said alt is not going to be doing competitive PvP or OPs... then you really only need purple 228 gear in my view and that stuff falls like candy in game and as such can be purchased off the GTN at very reasonable prices. If you plan to do more aggressive end game with an alt, then I suggest you forego the tedious process of grinding GC and instead just grind for credits (earning several million a day is not that hard now days if you play smart and pick the right content). Once you have the credits... go purchase a set of 246 gear (made by crafters). Cost, with just a bit of patience shopping the GTN will be between 20M and 30M for a full set of gear. Now.. some people will tell you that this is outrageous cost and instead will spend hundreds of hours grinding GC with that alt to maybe get a full set of 248 (which honest most alts do not even need). It's really up to you... but time and credits are pretty much interchangeable resources (just like in real life with time and money).

 

Note: since 4.0... credits really do fall from trees now days in this game, and your character level syncs to the planet they are on, yet all drops will be level appropriate. In fact one of the fastest ways to level and gain wealth is to just hit the heroics terminal on Fleet and pick up a couple dozen heroics at a time to run. They are now designed for solo play AND they drop level appropriate gear boxes as well so that for the most part you can level from 1-70 for literally no costs, and will accumulate millions of credits in the process.

Edited November 27, 2017 by Andryah