Please Help A Confused Returning Player

[Death-Hammer]

Gearing at max level was simple and straightforward when I decided to take a break from serious playing. Play how you want and upgrading gear was simple and easy. Now gearing seems to use 100 different currencies and has no clear or logical way to upgrade easily. What happened to gearing? I've tried reading some of the official articles but they read like physics or old stereo instructions and I feel reading them like I got a 3rd-grade education. I do all content but prefer Solo, FP, or PVP. What is the easy way to get to max level gearing so I am prepared no matter what content I want to do? Thank you to any and all who post to help me.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

It's a lot  better now that when 7.0 first came out ... which isn't saying much, it's still an overconvoluted pita.

https://swtorista.com/articles/swtor-level-80-gearing-guide

is a good breakdown of the system.  especially:

https://swtorista.com/articles/swtor-level-80-gearing-guide/#Hyde_Zeek

you only have to push one blue/purple gear piece up to 328 or higher (336 is max) to get mods opened up. 

[Stradlin]

Why on earth DID they change gearing from what it was in 6.0..It was good fun, all those sets and bonus to choose from, decent credit sinks in amplifiers to boot. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Stradlin

[Death-Hammer]

50 minutes ago, LD_Little_Dragon said:

It's a lot  better now that when 7.0 first came out ... which isn't saying much, it's still an overconvoluted pita.

https://swtorista.com/articles/swtor-level-80-gearing-guide

is a good breakdown of the system.  especially:

https://swtorista.com/articles/swtor-level-80-gearing-guide/#Hyde_Zeek

you only have to push one blue/purple gear piece up to 328 or higher (336 is max) to get mods opened up. 

Thanks

[Death-Hammer]

29 minutes ago, Stradlin said:

Why on earth DID they change gearing from what it was in 6.0..It was good fun, all those sets and bonus to choose from, decent credit sinks in amplifiers to boot. 

I couldn't agree more

[TrixxieTriss]

4 hours ago, Stradlin said:

Why on earth DID they change gearing from what it was in 6.0..It was good fun, all those sets and bonus to choose from, decent credit sinks in amplifiers to boot. 

Who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️. It’s one of the reasons I quit for over 12 months. But even now since I came back. I cannot be bothered to put anytime into gearing up. 
The whole system is so convoluted that new & returning players have to do way too much research outside the game to understand the system. 
Then when you do understand, it’s so convoluted that you don’t even bother unless you really need the extra stats for specific end game content. 
At least under the 6.0 system, everyone could gear at their own rate, playing their preferred content (most of the time), except pvpers who got shafted & are still shafted under this convoluted mess. 
 

[StrikePrice]

I'll give you the easiest way. Don't try and understand it. Just do it.  This assumes you have fully modded 306 gear. If you don't, just ignore those steps. I'm not covering how to get your Legendary Implants, look up another guide on that.

1. Complete personal conquest
2. Purchase a full set of 324 gear from the conquest vendor
3. Put all your 306 gear in your bank, we will use the shells later
4. Run Vet flashpoints wearing your conquest 324 gear. Bosses will drop 324 "elite" gear.
4a. Bosses *might* also drop blue accessories (ear, implant, relic)
5. Equip full set of 324 elite gear. Equip any blue relics that drop.
6. Once you get a full set of 324 "elite" gear, you will start to get blue accessory drops.
7. Equip a full set of 324 "elite" gear, all blue accessories except 1 green 324 relic (always keep this one on). This is the critical step.
7a. Because you are wearing one green relic, the bosses will always drop blue gear. Blue gear disassembles for 10 FP currency instead of 3. So you get 30 per run.
8. Run Vet FPs. You will now get all blue drops. Upgrade you ear or implants, keep the 1 green relic at 324
9.  Continue to run Vet FPs. If you get a blue ear upgrade to the blue ear you have, use it. If not, collect enough currency to upgrade your ear to 336
9a. This will require approximately 25 Vet FP runs. It will be less if you get lucky drops and do the dailies and weeklies. 
10. Once you have your 336 blue ear piece. Get the Hyde & Zeek quest for 336 prototype gear.
11. Make sure you have the correct quest before you go past this step.
12. To fish the quest, disassemble your 336 ear. Warning: If you do this step without the proper quest, you will have to start all over.
13. You can now buy 336 mods from Hyde & Zeek. 
14. Get your old 306 gear out of your bank.
15. Modify it with 336 blue mods (you only need to do this if you had augmented 306 gear).
16. You now have 336 augmented gear.
17. Repeat the process until you can upgrade to all 336 accessories.
18. You now have 336 gear.

See? Simple. 

Edited February 23, 2023 by StrikePrice

[TrixxieTriss]

8 hours ago, StrikePrice said:

I'll give you the easiest way. Don't try and understand it. Just do it.  This assumes you have fully modded 306 gear. If you don't, just ignore those steps. I'm not covering how to get your Legendary Implants, look up another guide on that.

1. Complete personal conquest
2. Purchase a full set of 324 gear from the conquest vendor
3. Put all your 306 gear in your bank, we will use the shells later
4. Run Vet flashpoints wearing your conquest 324 gear. Bosses will drop 324 "elite" gear.
4a. Bosses *might* also drop blue accessories (ear, implant, relic)
5. Equip full set of 324 elite gear. Equip any blue relics that drop.
6. Once you get a full set of 324 "elite" gear, you will start to get blue accessory drops.
7. Equip a full set of 324 "elite" gear, all blue accessories except 1 green 324 relic (always keep this one on). This is the critical step.
7a. Because you are wearing one green relic, the bosses will always drop blue gear. Blue gear disassembles for 10 FP currency instead of 3. So you get 30 per run.
8. Run Vet FPs. You will now get all blue drops. Upgrade you ear or implants, keep the 1 green relic at 324
9.  Continue to run Vet FPs. If you get a blue ear upgrade to the blue ear you have, use it. If not, collect enough currency to upgrade your ear to 336
9a. This will require approximately 25 Vet FP runs. It will be less if you get lucky drops and do the dailies and weeklies. 
10. Once you have your 336 blue ear piece. Get the Hyde & Zeek quest for 336 prototype gear.
11. Make sure you have the correct quest before you go past this step.
12. To fish the quest, disassemble your 336 ear. Warning: If you do this step without the proper quest, you will have to start all over.
13. You can now buy 336 mods from Hyde & Zeek. 
14. Get your old 306 gear out of your bank.
15. Modify it with 336 blue mods (you only need to do this if you had augmented 306 gear).
16. You now have 336 augmented gear.
17. Repeat the process until you can upgrade to all 336 accessories.
18. You now have 336 gear.

See? Simple. 

That’s is not simple 🤣😂

[jedipattawan]

what's the power difference between the green mission 322 gear I have on and the 336 augmented gear?  10%/20%/30%?

[Exocor]

Am 22.2.2023 um 23:11 schrieb Death-Hammer:

Gearing at max level was simple and straightforward when I decided to take a break from serious playing. Play how you want and upgrading gear was simple and easy. Now gearing seems to use 100 different currencies and has no clear or logical way to upgrade easily. What happened to gearing? I've tried reading some of the official articles but they read like physics or old stereo instructions and I feel reading them like I got a 3rd-grade education. I do all content but prefer Solo, FP, or PVP. What is the easy way to get to max level gearing so I am prepared no matter what content I want to do? Thank you to any and all who post to help me.

 

It's actually pretty simple. Do the activities you like and you'll get your gear sooner or later.

 

Endgame Gear - that's 330 and above, optimized and augmented of course - is only needed for two things: Running harder operations (you can clear any Storymode aside from Gods, R4 and perhaps Dxun with old Gear) and PvP. If you're a PvP player, play PvP. You get currency and stuff to upgrade your stuff and your max is 336. No need to do any other activity.

If you're actually interested in running harder operations, you should probably get some help from the people you want to run those operations with (e.g. your old group, guild, whatever...). We recently fast-tracked on of our guys who returned from a longer break: We pulled him through Watchdog and Kanoth VM (both 2 and 3 in R4) - those can basically be 7-manned if your group is halfway decent and got him all the purple tokens. He deconstructed two of those and then he could buy full 336 from the our Rodian friends - Hyde and Zeek in the supply area on the fleet. Obviously, that help is something that not everyone has available. Hence my comment above: If you don't run harder operations or do PvP on a high level, you don't need the equipment and can take your time to get it the regular way.

 

However, there is also a more relaxed way of getting your gear, if you don't have friends in high places. I came back roughly six months ago after a long break - and since I had some almost-comebacks over the years, I wanted to prove to myself that I was actually motivated to come back before asking my old group to get me the newest equipment. So I did the grind, starting at nothing (or, to be more precies, at item rating 318). I grinded my way up to item rating 324 (the mods vendor was locked behind that item rating when I started) and then I had the opportunity to join a group asking for Watchdog VM. Everybody gets one blue token from that, that can be exchanged into a blue Gear piece Item Rating 332. That one, I traded in at the Rodian Vendors - Hyde and Zeek - to get access to 330 armorings. it took some time until I got a purple 330 piece - Veteran Mode Eternity Vault is really easy and every boss has a chance to drop a purple left side piece. I got a 326 Ear Piece that I was able to upgrade and then trade in with the Rodians again to get the mods.

And at that point, I built an optimized and augmented 330 Gear Set from the mods I was able to buy now, while also trading in Fragments for Legendaries (those are the most important, especially for DPS!). With that set, I had no problem joining random Watchdog VM and Kanoth VM groups to obtain more pieces with 340 rating. It only took me about a week or two to get to that point - and then I asked my old group if there would be room for me and we did some equipment runs. But that's a different story.

These days, you can just - as mentioned above - trade in those 340 pieces at Hyde and Zeek's and get access to 336 armorings, mods and enhancements. The difference in DPS is, at most, 2k between 336 and 340. That's sufficient to comfortably play the entire Legacy NiM content.

 

Of course, I can understand that getting the best Gear is some sort of progress for some players. I'm of the same mind here as well - I'm still chasing that purple 340 mainhand, but whenever we're there someone else is calling dibs on the purple tokens. But as I said above: If you're not planning to do the hardest content in the game, you don't need the equipment. Just play the content you like and you'll get your stuff sooner or later.

 

 

Edit: In case someone from Bioware reads this while looking for feedback: I miss the times back in 4.0 when we had token drops in all operations. Get rid of the highlight ops and just have three ratings drop in OPs: x, x+4 and x+8. Other PvE Content drops Gear from x-8 up to x depending on difficulty (MM Flashpoints being the highest), while PvP drops currency to get to X as well. x+8 Gear and x+4 Gear get an Expertise-Debuff to prevent players to enter PvP with Gear unobtainable for PvP-only players. Ideally it's bolstering people down to x or x-4, so they're not completely useless - because some players are suffering from an unwillingness to read descriptions and would join PvP with that Gear anyway.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Exocor

[VegaMist]

36 minutes ago, Exocor said:

Endgame Gear - that's 330 and above, optimized and augmented of course - is only needed for two things: Running harder operations (you can clear any Storymode aside from Gods, R4 and perhaps Dxun with old Gear) and PvP. If you're a PvP player, play PvP. You get currency and stuff to upgrade your stuff and your max is 336. No need to do any other activity.

Correction: PVP gear is maxed out at 332. 336 is the max you can get via Flashpoints/Hyde and Zeke route. It is possible to upgrade a piece of an up-gradable gear to level 336 using FP-1/OP-1 currencies (if you manage to get enough of either - do the math prior to upgrading) in order to fulfill Hyde and Zeke requirement (if you choose to buy from Flashpoint or Ops vendor and upgrade, then pick the cheapest one).

[Death-Hammer]

21 hours ago, StrikePrice said:

I'll give you the easiest way. Don't try and understand it. Just do it.  This assumes you have fully modded 306 gear. If you don't, just ignore those steps. I'm not covering how to get your Legendary Implants, look up another guide on that.

1. Complete personal conquest
2. Purchase a full set of 324 gear from the conquest vendor
3. Put all your 306 gear in your bank, we will use the shells later
4. Run Vet flashpoints wearing your conquest 324 gear. Bosses will drop 324 "elite" gear.
4a. Bosses *might* also drop blue accessories (ear, implant, relic)
5. Equip full set of 324 elite gear. Equip any blue relics that drop.
6. Once you get a full set of 324 "elite" gear, you will start to get blue accessory drops.
7. Equip a full set of 324 "elite" gear, all blue accessories except 1 green 324 relic (always keep this one on). This is the critical step.
7a. Because you are wearing one green relic, the bosses will always drop blue gear. Blue gear disassembles for 10 FP currency instead of 3. So you get 30 per run.
8. Run Vet FPs. You will now get all blue drops. Upgrade you ear or implants, keep the 1 green relic at 324
9.  Continue to run Vet FPs. If you get a blue ear upgrade to the blue ear you have, use it. If not, collect enough currency to upgrade your ear to 336
9a. This will require approximately 25 Vet FP runs. It will be less if you get lucky drops and do the dailies and weeklies. 
10. Once you have your 336 blue ear piece. Get the Hyde & Zeek quest for 336 prototype gear.
11. Make sure you have the correct quest before you go past this step.
12. To fish the quest, disassemble your 336 ear. Warning: If you do this step without the proper quest, you will have to start all over.
13. You can now buy 336 mods from Hyde & Zeek. 
14. Get your old 306 gear out of your bank.
15. Modify it with 336 blue mods (you only need to do this if you had augmented 306 gear).
16. You now have 336 augmented gear.
17. Repeat the process until you can upgrade to all 336 accessories.
18. You now have 336 gear.

See? Simple. 

Thanks for taking the time to type this and help me. Doesn't seem simple.

[Death-Hammer]

10 hours ago, VegaMist said:

Correction: PVP gear is maxed out at 332. 336 is the max you can get via Flashpoints/Hyde and Zeke route. It is possible to upgrade a piece of an up-gradable gear to level 336 using FP-1/OP-1 currencies (if you manage to get enough of either - do the math prior to upgrading) in order to fulfill Hyde and Zeke requirement (if you choose to buy from Flashpoint or Ops vendor and upgrade, then pick the cheapest one).

Thanks for the help. I haven't decided yet how deep with content (nim) I'm going to go yet. Thanks for the info. Why did they have to change it to something so confusing

[VegaMist]

1 hour ago, Death-Hammer said:

Thanks for the help. I haven't decided yet how deep with content (nim) I'm going to go yet. Thanks for the info. Why did they have to change it to something so confusing

Good question. My guess is they decided to create options.

If you are planning to have alts, I would recommend unlocking Hyde and Zeke mods (one blue 336 and one purple 336) since it would give you an option to outfit them the moment they reach 80 - it's not a legacy unlock, but your main would be able to buy any mods (as long as "All" is selected in the drop -down) and either mail it, or put mods into legacy-bound gear and transfer via legacy bank. And that gear will make you viable regardless which content you decide to pursue - later you can pursue other sets based on your preferred play-style.

[StrikePrice]

1 hour ago, Death-Hammer said:

Thanks for taking the time to type this and help me. Doesn't seem simple.

Yeah, it's crazy. I don't know why they have made it so complicated. It oscillates back and forth. The 306 gear system was simple. It's swung back to super complex. They will simplify it soon enough.

[JediQuaker]

13 hours ago, Exocor said:

Endgame Gear - that's 330 and above, optimized and augmented of course - is only needed for two things: Running harder operations (you can clear any Storymode aside from Gods, R4 and perhaps Dxun with old Gear) and PvP. 

It's worth highlighting the "optimized & augmented " aspect of this. I've seen many cases of people just slapping on basic 'green' gear and then wondering why their performance sucks. You can enhance the stats of any set of gear by adding augments (preferably at least blue 276) and equipping relevant crystals in the weapon and offhand.

For example, I was in an MM flashpoint recently with a player who had just a basic 320 lightsaber with no augments and NO CRYSTAL in either the lightsaber nor the offhand! Needless to say, their damage output was on the 'low' end of the scale - we basically 'carried' them through. 🙂That player would have done better by augmenting their armor and equipping crystals, than to just whine about not having 330s.

Edited February 24, 2023 by JediQuaker

[Darev]

On 2/23/2023 at 11:16 AM, StrikePrice said:

I'll give you the easiest way. Don't try and understand it. Just do it.  This assumes you have fully modded 306 gear. If you don't, just ignore those steps. I'm not covering how to get your Legendary Implants, look up another guide on that.

1. Complete personal conquest
2. Purchase a full set of 324 gear from the conquest vendor
3. Put all your 306 gear in your bank, we will use the shells later
4. Run Vet flashpoints wearing your conquest 324 gear. Bosses will drop 324 "elite" gear.
4a. Bosses *might* also drop blue accessories (ear, implant, relic)
5. Equip full set of 324 elite gear. Equip any blue relics that drop.
6. Once you get a full set of 324 "elite" gear, you will start to get blue accessory drops.
7. Equip a full set of 324 "elite" gear, all blue accessories except 1 green 324 relic (always keep this one on). This is the critical step.
7a. Because you are wearing one green relic, the bosses will always drop blue gear. Blue gear disassembles for 10 FP currency instead of 3. So you get 30 per run.
8. Run Vet FPs. You will now get all blue drops. Upgrade you ear or implants, keep the 1 green relic at 324
9.  Continue to run Vet FPs. If you get a blue ear upgrade to the blue ear you have, use it. If not, collect enough currency to upgrade your ear to 336
9a. This will require approximately 25 Vet FP runs. It will be less if you get lucky drops and do the dailies and weeklies. 
10. Once you have your 336 blue ear piece. Get the Hyde & Zeek quest for 336 prototype gear.
11. Make sure you have the correct quest before you go past this step.
12. To fish the quest, disassemble your 336 ear. Warning: If you do this step without the proper quest, you will have to start all over.
13. You can now buy 336 mods from Hyde & Zeek. 
14. Get your old 306 gear out of your bank.
15. Modify it with 336 blue mods (you only need to do this if you had augmented 306 gear).
16. You now have 336 augmented gear.
17. Repeat the process until you can upgrade to all 336 accessories.
18. You now have 336 gear.

See? Simple. 

So….here’s what I did.   Simple, but might take longer….as a Solo player.

Buy green 324 gear from conquest vendor on fleet, with exception of a single Blue item from the FP gear vendor.  Choose Belt or Bracer (the WHY will be obvious later)

Don’t really worry about stats.   As you complete conquest you’ll get conquest commendations.  You can use those to BUY FP1 currency at a 500:200 ratio.

As you get more and more FP1 currency over a few weeks, you can upgrade the bracer or belt until you get it to 336.

THEN you go talk to Hyde and Zeek to get the quest to deconstruct the 336 bracer or belt.  Step 10 above.

When you can buy the 336 mods from the vendor, you can IMMEDIATELY replace the belt /bracer you just “lost” and boost your other 8 more gear slots (Main Hand / Off Hand / 7 pieces of armor) up to 336 each)

Now start worrying about the earpiece / implants / relics from group content, or keep doing the upgrades, as above, via conquest.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Darev
Fix a typo

[StrikePrice]

3 hours ago, Darev said:

So….here’s what I did.   Simple, but might take longer….as a Solo player.

Buy green 324 gear from conquest vendor on fleet, with exception of a single Blue item from the FP gear vendor.  Choose Belt or Bracer (the WHY will be obvious later)

Don’t really worry about stats.   As you complete conquest you’ll get conquest commendations.  You can use those to BUY FP1 currency at a 500:200 ratio.

As you get more and more FP1 currency over a few weeks, you can upgrade the bracer or belt until you get it to 336.

THEN you go talk to Hyde and Zeek to get the quest to deconstruct the 336 bracer or belt.  Step 10 above.

When you can buy the 336 mods from the vendor, you can IMMEDIATELY replace the belt /bracer you just “lost” and boost your other 8 more gear slots (Main Hand / Off Hand / 7 pieces of armor) up to 336 each)

Now start worrying about the earpiece / implants / relics from group content, or keep doing the upgrades, as above, via conquest.

Yup, totally works. I like the grind for FPs, so I use the green accessory technique to make it faster, but this is great too.

[TrixxieTriss]

Anyone know how long this takes if you only pvp?

Does saving pvp crate drops from lvl 75-79 to open at lvl 80 help in anyway?

Edited February 24, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[StrikePrice]

54 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Anyone know how long this takes if you only pvp?

Does saving pvp crate drops from lvl 75-79 to open at lvl 80 help in anyway?

It depends on if you have a group or not. If you have a premade, you can win every game, it can happen fast. If you don't, you will lose 90% of matches and so it goes very slow. And on SS at least, WZ pops are very slow.

[Achnaattwo]

13 minutes ago, StrikePrice said:

It depends on if you have a group or not. If you have a premade, you can win every game, it can happen fast. If you don't, you will lose 90% of matches and so it goes very slow. And on SS at least, WZ pops are very slow.

you can also get the WZ-1's from GSF. If you have multiple 80's doing GSF, it's a lot faster then just doing WZ or Arenas.

wonder if that's why the IR is lower for PvP gear, since it's much faster to up grade, then FP or OPS gear . . . I doubt it, but just a random thought,  that's the reason for lower IR

[TrixxieTriss]

21 minutes ago, Achnaattwo said:

you can also get the WZ-1's from GSF. If you have multiple 80's doing GSF, it's a lot faster then just doing WZ or Arenas.

wonder if that's why the IR is lower for PvP gear, since it's much faster to up grade, then FP or OPS gear . . . I doubt it, but just a random thought,  that's the reason for lower IR

So you only get WZ-1’s with lvl 80 characters in GSF? 
Such a shame if you can’t accumulate these on lower character’s so you have a stock pile when you reach lvl 80 😞

[TrixxieTriss]

44 minutes ago, StrikePrice said:

It depends on if you have a group or not. If you have a premade, you can win every game, it can happen fast. If you don't, you will lose 90% of matches and so it goes very slow. And on SS at least, WZ pops are very slow.

What about the WZ crates between lvls 75 & 79. Is there any gear benefit to wait till lvl 80 to open them? 

[Achnaattwo]

1 minute ago, TrixxieTriss said:

So you only get WZ-1’s with lvl 80 characters in GSF? 
Such a shame if you can’t accumulate these on lower character’s so you have a stock pile when you reach lvl 80 😞

yeah, it was kinda last week I saw how fast it was,  so  I have a few (well quite a few) characters in there 50's, and when (for them) I looked at GSF weekly reward, there were no WZ-1's, it was an "ah 💩Pooh" moment. I didn't check at higher levels, just assumed it was a lvl80 thing only

[TziganeNZ]

7 hours ago, Darev said:

So….here’s what I did.   Simple, but might take longer….as a Solo player.

Buy green 324 gear from conquest vendor on fleet, with exception of a single Blue item from the FP gear vendor.  Choose Belt or Bracer (the WHY will be obvious later)

Don’t really worry about stats.   As you complete conquest you’ll get conquest commendations.  You can use those to BUY FP1 currency at a 500:200 ratio.

As you get more and more FP1 currency over a few weeks, you can upgrade the bracer or belt until you get it to 336.

THEN you go talk to Hyde and Zeek to get the quest to deconstruct the 336 bracer or belt.  Step 10 above.

When you can buy the 336 mods from the vendor, you can IMMEDIATELY replace the belt /bracer you just “lost” and boost your other 8 more gear slots (Main Hand / Off Hand / 7 pieces of armor) up to 336 each)

Now start worrying about the earpiece / implants / relics from group content, or keep doing the upgrades, as above, via conquest.

Thank you so much - this is very helpful for a strictly solo story player. I have been away for a year (came back as preferred a couple of weeks ago, but had to sub for a month to get a mission progression problem fixed - will be back to preferred when the month runs out), and it's so utterly confusing. I don't group, I don't do PvP of any sort (warzones, GSF, whatever else), obviously don't do Ops or Uprisings or Vet/MM flashpoints (no grouping at all) - there's precious little direction out there for someone who plays the way I do. 

I understand that as a story ONLY player, I'm stuck with the crappiest green gear, but it's been difficult to find out how to improve my gear as much as I can within my limitations (no augments either - don't understand how those work, how to get them or attach them to gear).

One question - I've done the legendary implant quest on one character, but none of the items offered by the droid have accuracy. Am I missing something, or is there another vendor (SO MANY VENDORS) that will sell legendary implants with accuracy?