I've been running the game through with my arsenal merc which is lvl 42 atm and its been too easy. Ive put all my skillpoints to pve-focused skills, kept my items upgraded with cybertech-made parts of my level and everything except heroics can be soloed without Mako or any other companion without any problems. I only free Mako from running crew-missions, when i solo heroics or go into boss-fights. Death from above knocks out all normal packs of 3-5 enemies with one hit and if it doesnt, sweeping blasters finishes all the remaining enemies before they can even get up. Same thing with mixed packs or bosses with minions. Only enemy left alive after DFA is the single strong one who then gets facerolled. 3 x Tracer missiles, heatseeker, 2 x tracers, rail shot (unload everytime it procs). Rinse and repeat. When heat gets capped, vent heat. Ive yet to meet a boss that is still alive when vent heat is used and heat gets capped again. I usually start the bossfights with DFA if there are minions, and stun after that. If no minions, only stun. When stun runs out, i use shield. If boss is ranged i run up close to them, if melee they run to me. Use the pushback to interrupt one bigger channeled or cast-timed hit. If there are two or more strong enemies, i CC one and nuke one down as fast as possible. Its all about gear and level. Have a day for PVP to get some xp so that you are always 2 lvl:s higher than the mobs.

Inflation would be a problem if there was a limited amount of some resource that wasn't available to just about anyone who picks up the right skill. Now the high prices will be countered by oversupply. I would say no inflation because the supply will be equal or close to demand (a bit over or bit under, but close to balance) and the prices will adjust over time on their own to correlate the challenge required to get the item first place.

Isn't the price high because of demand? When the demand goes up and the prices go up, there will be more people joining the competition selling these items, and the prices will go down again. Normal fluctuation that will settle when the economy starts balancing. All the trading skills will balance after time. If there is more demand for certain crew-skill items, there will be more people taking that crew-skill. If the demand is low for another crew-skill, there will be less people taking it. Problems here?