What is the recommended or optimal gear and mod set up for running hard mode flashpoints? I'm looking to get biometric alloy for the rakata relic (darkside critical one), as well as defeating bosses for the aramech nightscythe achievement. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Trying to find some thread that clears this up as well. My guild says I am undergeared for HM, but I don't quite find any guidance on how you know you are ready.

Well, the easier HM FPs (BT, foundry, BP) can be done without much high-quality gear, moddable gear full of level 48-50 blues from corellia, and perhaps some of the purple modifications from doing the ilum/belsavis/corellia dailies. Of course, you can give yourself an extra boost by doing dailies for the rakata earpiece/implants/relics, but the full set takes a lot of commendations to get, so don't worry too much about trying to immediately get them all - you'll burn yourself out on too many repetitive dailies. Also if you're a synthweaver/armormech you can craft yourself the rakata belt+bracers (crafted with an augment slot would be even better). If you want, you can browse the GTN for some decent mods/enhancements to stick in your gear, and a crafted earpiece might be a decent start to your endgame content progression.

 

Seriously though, the first few HMs don't really require you to have much gear, especially if you're alongside a team with more geared players who can pull you through a bit.

 

Once you can successfully do the easier HMs, use the commendation rewards to grab some columi and tionese pieces if you don't get lucky with the columi drops from end-bosses.

 

A tionese/columi mix should then easily be enough to do the other HMs and get into story mode operations. Story mode ops drop lots of columi gear, so a few runs through there and you'll be fully kitted out in columi gear and by now hopefully you have some decent level peripherals (implants/ear/relics) to go with it. From there you can do HM ops for rakata gear, Lost Island HM for a rakata drop and blackhole comms.... and so on...

For the most part, you can do HM flashpoints in quest blues if you (and your team) know your classes and play at a high level. Getting mods from the daily missions helps a *lot*, so I would recommend that. None of the first tier HMs outright require Columi gear. The only HM that actually has a hard gear requirement is Lost Island HM, which requires at least 50% Rakata to complete (unless you're a really epic group).

 

If you're on the Republic side, I recommend you start with Taral V, False Emperor and Kaon Under Siege (if you have a good tank). These are the easiest ones. Battle of Ilum is also quite straightforward. Maelstrom Prison is harder because of some of the enrage timers. Esseles is *brutal* due to the incredibly tight enrage timers and high damage on some bosses, requiring some cheesy tactics for certain fights (good luck with Vokk). Directive 7 is also quite difficult, and about on par with Lost Island Story Mode.

 

The fastest way to get gear as a new 50 is to run Eternity Vault Story Mode. Seriously, that op is a loot pinata with essentially no gear requirements. I've taken groups into their composed almost entirely of new 50s in level 45 quest blues and we one-shotted everything.

 

Good luck!

Buy Recruit PvP Gear and/or Run Daily quests to get Advanced Purple Item Augment 22s to fully slot up anything sub 50. This will help. If you actually do PvP, getting some pieces of Battlemaster gear will help as well (especially Weapons).

 

Finally, run the Flashpoints and Operations on Story Mode first. Get to know the layout of the zone, the way the pulls work, the attacks the bosses like to use and how they interact with the party. In Hard Mode, there are very few additional attacks or scripts to a fight, and most just require adaption to new techniques, but going in blind certainly doesn't help you in any way. Know the fights, know your classes best specs and rotations for healing/tanking/dpsing, and skill takes over, which is what you truly need for Harder content.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Toogeloo

For the first tier of Hard Mode Flashpoints, you'll want Premium (green) level 50 gear at the least.

 

For the difficulty of flashpoints, here's my ranking of them from least difficult to most:

• Black Talon :: For having the same mechanics as normal mode. Have fun.
  
• Boarding Party :: " "
  
• The Foundry :: " "
  
• Kaon Under Siege :: " ", with the bonus boss being very difficult to defeat. Need some HM experience first.
  
• Battle of Ilum :: Slight changes in mechanics. Mostly light on damage except for two bosses. Need HM experience.
  
• The False Emperor :: Several big changes in mechanics with the penultimate boss being the biggest gear check. Bonus boss is difficult to defeat. Need HM experience.
  
• Directive 7 :: Mechanic heavy bosses, yet those can be memorized. Would be one of the least difficult HM's if Bulwark wasn't such a huge gear check. Need some Columi for Bulwark.
  
• Lost Island :: Mechanic heavy bosses. First real boss is a beef gate for melee heavy groups. Definitely need to be nearly full in Columi.
  

 

For Operations in the same order:

• Eternity Vault Story :: Skilled teammates with level 50 Prototype gear at the minimum required. Very easy overall.
  
• Karagga's Palace Story :: Clearing EV SM and having some Columi will make this another easy Operation.
  
• Eternity Vault Hard :: Familiarity with EV's mechanics required. Nearly everyone in full Columi required (can spare a skilled under geared player or two). Only one major mechanic change.
  
• Karagga's Palace Hard :: Familiarity with KP's mechanics required. Nearly everyone in full Columi and a clearing of EV HM required. Again, some skilled undergeared players can come along.
  
• Eternity Vault Nightmare :: Complete understanding of EV HM's mechanics required. No mistakes allowed in execution. Rakata/Columi required for all players. Not necessary for the guild to repeat.
  
• Karagga's Palace Nightmare :: Complete understanding of KP HM's mechanics required. No mistakes allowed in execution. Rakata/Columi required for all players. Black Hole comms are reason enough to repeat.
  
• Explosive Conflicts Story :: Meant for teams to finish gearing to full Rakata and get Black Hole gear. If a team can clear KP HM with ease, they have the gear/skill for EC SM. However, EC is a mechanic heavy Operation. Failure to understand the mechanics will result in wipes regardless of gear or skill.
  
• Explosive Conflicts Hard :: Important mechanic additions compared to EC SM. Complete understanding of the mechanics is required. A group without full Rakata will struggle regardless of how well they know the mechanics.
  

Edited June 2, 2012 by ImmortalAlien

I would actually rank Battle for Ilum as the easiest Flashpoint, but that is only because you can skip SO MUCH on it. If you have a stealther, you literally only need to pull 6 Trash Packs, 2 Mini-bosses, and 2 Regular Bosses in the entire zone, and you can skip the hardest boss completely. Without a Stealther, all you add on is about 4 more trash pulls. That's more advanced stuff though. Edited June 2, 2012 by Toogeloo

Lost Island :: Mechanic heavy bosses. First real boss is a beef gate for melee heavy groups. Definitely need to be nearly full in Columi.

I just got bullied out of a group for Lost Island hard mode, and I was in full Columi (full disclosure: my earpiece is Tionese, but my Black Hole chest and boots and Rakata implant I figure compensate for that, so I just say "full Columi"). They said I should have Rakata gear, and that I should do HM Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace and SM EC before doing Lost Island HM. But the drops for LI HM are mostly Columi, with the last boss dropping a Rakata. So if I was already in full Rakata, why would I want any of the gear dropped in LI HM? In HM EV an KP, and SM EC, all the boss drops are Rakata, right? So why would those be considered easier than LI HM?

 

If I need to do some HM operations first, I'm fine with that. I just want to know whether the group I was in was being too picky (they rejected me right off of the shuttle, so it's not like they'd seen me try yet), so I should just try again with a different group, or if I should wait a little longer before trying it.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Mireleni

I just got bullied out of a group for Lost Island hard mode, and I was in full Columi (full disclosure: my earpiece is Tionese, but my Black Hole chest and boots and Rakata implant I figure compensate for that, so I just say "full Columi"). They said I should have Rakata gear, and that I should do HM Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace and SM EC before doing Lost Island HM. But the drops for LI HM are mostly Columi, with the last boss dropping a Rakata. So if I was already in full Rakata, why would I want any of the gear dropped in LI HM? In HM EV an KP, and SM EC, all the boss drops are Rakata, right? So why would those be considered easier than LI HM?

 

If I need to do some HM operations first, I'm fine with that. I just want to know whether the group I was in was being too picky (they rejected me right off of the shuttle, so it's not like they'd seen me try yet), so I should just try again with a different group, or if I should wait a little longer before trying it.

 

They were being too picky. They were likely one of these groups that just wanted to waltz through the place with no difficulty. Unfortunately, you'll probably see a lot of this there. Really that place is designed mainly for people in Columi, since the final boss drops a Rakata CP (and the general feeling is that the only point of a FP is the stuff off the last boss, as ridiculous as that actually sounds to me).

I just got bullied out of a group for Lost Island hard mode, and I was in full Columi (full disclosure: my earpiece is Tionese, but my Black Hole chest and boots and Rakata implant I figure compensate for that, so I just say "full Columi"). They said I should have ...

 

My first guess would be, that what you had there was a group of bads who wanted to get boosted by an overgeared player.

 

If someone in columi gear, who has not ever done it before, joined LI, my main concern would be if they know how to play their class to its full potential, and how fast are they going to learn to execute the tactics correctly.

They were being too picky. They were likely one of these groups that just wanted to waltz through the place with no difficulty. Unfortunately, you'll probably see a lot of this there. Really that place is designed mainly for people in Columi, since the final boss drops a Rakata CP (and the general feeling is that the only point of a FP is the stuff off the last boss, as ridiculous as that actually sounds to me).

 

They were most defiantly being way too picky. I mean, whats the point on running a HM LI in full Rakata if you already have gear that supersedes it - getting the BH coms for the weekly.

 

Short answer:

Any HM FP with the exception of HM LI: recruit

HM LI /w full group which knows mechanics and well coordinated: Tionese

HM LI /w pug: Columi or better

Ops: see posts above as they hit most of it.

 

Just to throw players off that i pug with, i will run HM LI with my Tionese set with the 61 mods inside. I've had a couple groups say that i wasn't geared enough because i was using gear with a Tionese 'tag' associated with my gear even though i had the BH/Rakata mods swapped into them.

Edited September 17, 2012 by haliy

I would actually rank Battle for Ilum as the easiest Flashpoint, but that is only because you can skip SO MUCH on it. If you have a stealther, you literally only need to pull 6 Trash Packs, 2 Mini-bosses, and 2 Regular Bosses in the entire zone, and you can skip the hardest boss completely. Without a Stealther, all you add on is about 4 more trash pulls. That's more advanced stuff though.

 

I doubt you can skip more bosses in that one comparing to Taral V

I find it useful (if you want to skip hardcore daily grinding) to spare lots of pvp commendations, and grab 2-3-4 battlemaster pieces in like 2 days (I did quite a lot of pvp and was able to get BM legs, chest and mainhand right after I dinged). This also gives you a nice set bonus. Then again from 47 you can run D7 and other 47-50 normal flashpoints, get some purple gear that drops there with 50-51 rating purple armoring and mods. Once you dinged 50 get the recruit token, sell it, buy some recruit items like relic and offhand. Get a guildie craft you lvl 49 purple implants/ears (or make it yourself if you can), get your level 50 matrix cube, and you are good to go for easier HM flashpoints and story mode operations. In the meanwhile do some dailies so eventually you'll have enough commendations to buy some nice implants/relics from that. It's much more fun than grinding for the ~same or worse gear for 2 weeks with dailies. Just as a comparison, from dailies I believe you get 51 purples, while BM is 56- even though it's pvp gear, you can swtich the mods later on. And don't forget to augment your stuff if you have the credits, it also helps a lot.

Yeah False Emperor and Battle for Ilum are really easy, as someone said Battle for Ilum you can actually skip a lot on, I remember 2 manning those instances with companions only a few days after dinging 50 (although False Emperor for the first time was really tough cause we get scratching our heads at how to kill him before realising you have to knock him down, and we had to get some guildies to get a full group to actually kill him, but then after a rise in gear it got to the point where we could knock out so much dps that we could ignore that mechanic entirely). But yeah everyone plays at their own comfort level, but I guess you shouldn't struggle with those two.

 

Despite what some people will tell you Esseles isn't actually that bad, yeah the second boss can be a pain if it''s your first time doing it, but the rest is really easy.

 

Directive 7 was one I always hated, it always required paying attention as a healer and was one of the only Flashpoints I ever found myself having to concentrate in. I can't remember the name of the guy but the boss where you have to stack either side of him, and the adds come out etc, think his name was bulwark? But ye that fight did have it's moments, especially when doing it for the first time. I think the last boss in that place is called Mentor or something, again not really that difficult if you do it with a group who's done it before, just can be tricky as a healer when you're on the move almost all the time and people are taking damage that they shouldn't be.

 

Other than those, the rest of the dungeons are pretty middle of the road (I haven't done the really new flashpoints so can't comment on them), and most can be done with the odd wipe in a full group of people with freshly dinged 50 gear, although some will require either a bit more patience, or a bit more gear!

 

Hope this helps!