Crystal questions

[Flack]

Returned to the game after about 5 years or so. Enjoying the leveling and story lines. I've only been soloing the planets, stories and story mode flashpoints.

 

Questions about crystals and leveling up a DPS.

1. What crystal do you use for leveling. Mastery? Power?

2. At what point do you switch to crit? When you cap? I read that at some point there's a limited return on mastery and power. Not sure if it's possible to hit that point using the regular drops and rewards.

3. Would you switch to crit when you are running lower level content and "level shifted" or iRating" or whatever it's called?

4. Do cartel crystals drop anywhere? I had one on the last character I leveled up. I don't remember buying a crystal, but it's been a long time so maybe I did and just didn't unlock it across my legacy.

5. Or am I just overthinking all this and any crystal will do? I can say I have not had much trouble completing anything so far.

 

Thanks,

Flack

[Phazonfreak]

5. Or am I just overthinking all this and any crystal will do? I can say I have not had much trouble completing anything so far.

 

This. Leveling has been considerably streamlined and unless you are seriously underleveled, which is almost impossible, you dont need to care for your gear loadout at all.

 

It will only matter when you do endgame stuff and min maxing is only really relevant if you want to commit to ranked PvP or hardcore raiding.

 

Btw, some crystals are in fact random drops from enemies all around the galaxy.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Phazonfreak

[JediQuaker]

1. Me? Critical. You? Whatever colour you like. 🙂

2. Level 1

3. No. I'd already be on critical.

4. Not "cartel crystals" as such. There are some crystals that drop, but they are not available in the CM. Most, if I recall, have a stat lower than +41 and are mostly used on companions for the colour.

5. Yes, overthinking. It was of some concern in the early days, but not so much any more.

 

For PvE DPS there's not much need for anything other than Critical. For tanks, they might use Endurance.

For PvP, I don't know.

[Craydingus]

Returned to the game after about 5 years or so. Enjoying the leveling and story lines. I've only been soloing the planets, stories and story mode flashpoints.

 

Questions about crystals and leveling up a DPS.

1. What crystal do you use for leveling. Mastery? Power?

2. At what point do you switch to crit? When you cap? I read that at some point there's a limited return on mastery and power. Not sure if it's possible to hit that point using the regular drops and rewards.

3. Would you switch to crit when you are running lower level content and "level shifted" or iRating" or whatever it's called?

4. Do cartel crystals drop anywhere? I had one on the last character I leveled up. I don't remember buying a crystal, but it's been a long time so maybe I did and just didn't unlock it across my legacy.

5. Or am I just overthinking all this and any crystal will do? I can say I have not had much trouble completing anything so far.

 

Thanks,

Flack

 

A crystal isn't going to put you over soft cap, assuming those truly do exist. 41 anything is a drop in the bucket for stat totals in this meta.

 

Your post does call attention to something to something I've been thinking for a while now, though. It's time to increase the stats granted by crystals, so that it does actually matter what you equip.

[ThanderSnB]

Just use Critical all the time. It's the only stat provided by crystals that is not capped with level sync system. Basically, if you have blue quality gear (from heroics) or purple quality gear (from flashpoints), you will already be hitting the cap for Mastery, Endurance, and Power on the planets while leveling. Critical is not capped and the soft cap is too high to hit with leveling gear, so the critical from crystals will always be useful while leveling. That said, leveling is so easy, you don't need ideal crystals, but they will help you kill bosses a tiny bit faster.

[SteveTheCynic]

Your post does call attention to something to something I've been thinking for a while now, though. It's time to increase the stats granted by crystals, so that it does actually matter what you equip.

That won't happen. A fair while back BioWare admitted that they thought that putting stats on the crystals was a mistake in the first place, which is why every crystal that you craft or buy from the CM(1) is +41, so it doesn't matter from a "how big the numbers are" point of view which type you have.

 

But *that* means that they aren't going to do anything to make them stronger either.

 

Dev 1: We never should have put stats on the crystals.

 

Dev 2: I agree. Let's make them stronger.

 

Doesn't make much sense, really.

 

(1) I worded that carefully to avoid including the +3 and similar that you can get from some starter world mission rewards, and the 120-rated +30 (+31?) that sometimes drop from foes (hinted at above, as colours-for-companions).

[SteveTheCynic]

Just use Critical all the time. It's the only stat provided by crystals that is not capped with level sync system. Basically, if you have blue quality gear (from heroics) or purple quality gear (from flashpoints), you will already be hitting the cap for Mastery, Endurance, and Power on the planets while leveling.

Pedantry: Power is *set* rather than capped. If you are synced in a particular place, your effective Power will be X, no matter what gear you are using. Even if you take off *all* your gear (armour, weapons, lefties, the lot), in *that* place your Power will be X.

[mike_carton]

This. Leveling has been considerably streamlined and unless you are seriously underleveled, which is almost impossible, you dont need to care for your gear loadout at all.

 

It will only matter when you do endgame stuff and min maxing is only really relevant if you want to commit to ranked PvP or hardcore raiding.

 

Btw, some crystals are in fact random drops from enemies all around the galaxy.

 

QFT. Every sentence of it is worth reading and understanding for new players. Don’t worry about stats, especially those on crystals.

 

Response to another poster: Good thing BW recognized a bad idea for once. Stats on crystals are a nuisance and it’s nice they’re becoming irrelevant as the 82 points they provide become an increasingly smaller part of overall stat budgets (primary, secondary and tertiary.)

[Tsillah]

Pedantry: Power is *set* rather than capped. If you are synced in a particular place, your effective Power will be X, no matter what gear you are using. Even if you take off *all* your gear (armour, weapons, lefties, the lot), in *that* place your Power will be X.

Yeah I think I tested that at one time and it's true. Power is set as you say but mastery and endurance are hard capped. It certainly is a plan B solution that they implemented so they wouldn't have to raise the level 70 endgame content. Probably a matter of resources.

 

As far as crystals are concerned, one could argue that the stats on them should be removed because they hardly make a difference in your total stat pool, but that would hurt them in the CM, cause now they can sell you 4 crystals per colour. And raising the stats on them would arguably become a matter of pay 2 win. They're the only items with stats in the CM and so they can't make the stats on them too good.