Hello,

So i just had a couple questions so i don't end up hated and blacklisted on my server. I just hit lvl 50 and have been doing dailies to try and gear up my implants and ear pieces (600 dailys total i think). Im a Inq specced for healing. On my way to lvl 50, i pretty much did the solo content to 50 (no flashpoints, no Heroic 4s really). I've been subbed to 5 or 6 different MMOs so i know how to work in a group dynamic and how to heal so not too worried about it. I also use the keyboard mostly for healing in groups in the past (not a ability clicker while in groups). Thats some background. Not a complete noob when grouping, but not your raid member that has been raiding every week for the last 5 years. I didnt mean to level to 50 solo, but doing the planet quests on rested xp leveled me up fast and was at least a little challenging (going to planets 2 levels below the suggested level range).

My questions really are: Am i going to be under geared if i try to group up to do a HM flashpoint? I think ill go back and solo the flashpoints with my companion so Im at least familiar with the layout. My fear is being undergeared.... doing a crappy healing job cause my gear isnt allowing for enough bonus healing, crits etc. etc. and getting hated on by my server and ignored by people lol. Def dont want that cause of a rookie mistake. Should i stick the course and not try the HM flashpoints until i get those daily com. upgrades? Or can i heal just fine in the mostly lvl 47+ blue/purps/oranges i currently have?

Well, let me give it to you straight from a tanks perspective. I play a Jedi Guardian full tank spec. The other day I thought I would try and give Hard Mode Esseles a shot and well let me tell you even with mostly lvl 50 epics at 17k hp unbuffed I was getting owned. We could not even finish the first boss. I was told I need to have at a minimum full Champion gear, implants, and earring with 20k hp.

So now I am just working on finishing my Champion set via PvP as its easier and faster than running dailies IMO.

I think BioWare made a huge mistake with the itemization in Lvl 50 flashpoints. What they should have done is put gear in the Lvl 50 normal flashpoints and then progress to the hard modes. But as it is now if you gear up in the flashpoints the gear is not good enough for hard modes. Hell running normal Eternity Vault is easier than a hard mode flashpoint.

i've been running FPs/Heroics/Quests with two friends about the time we began playing. both are tanks and i'm a first time healer and we have been most successful. reached 50 and decided to try out HM FP but got decimated by the first boss in Esseles. even with the great gear we currently had, it wasn't enough. just shows that every gear is inferior to another gear and so on.

best route is to complete Dailies on Ilum and Belsavis. the latter i abhor so i skip it. i have focused entirely on Ilum/Warzones as i find this suit me best. might work for you.

i've been skipping on Champion gear atm; Centurion gear will hopefully work for HM FP.

One of my biggest complaints about this game is there, in my opinion, isn't any gear that helps transition new level 50's into HM's, you can spend weeks doing dailies for the mods and implants and what not, but without at least some champion gear you are going to be very weak. I don't like the fact that I felt like I had to pvp for 3-4 peices of champ just to be viable in HM's. Tionese gear is kind of a minimum for HM's, but you have to do HM's to get tionese gear.

In short, in my experience, you need to pvp for some champ gear before jumping into HM's.

One of my biggest complaints about this game is there, in my opinion, isn't any gear that helps transition new level 50's into HM's, you can spend weeks doing dailies for the mods and implants and what not, but without at least some champion gear you are going to be very weak. I don't like the fact that I felt like I had to pvp for 3-4 peices of champ just to be viable in HM's. Tionese gear is kind of a minimum for HM's, but you have to do HM's to get tionese gear.

 

In short, in my experience, you need to pvp for some champ gear before jumping into HM's.

There is no reason you can't do Hard Modes in blue/orange level 50 gear. I mean I guess there are some really terrible players out there that it would it more difficult. However I recall doing Black Talon, False Emp, and Battle of Ilum in level 50 greens and blues (that goes for the whole group). Also 8man EV normal is VERY easy, even if everyone is in blues and greens (might get stopped at Soa, but thats it). I would argue that it is easier than some of those hardmodes.

Well, let me give it to you straight from a tanks perspective. I play a Jedi Guardian full tank spec. The other day I thought I would try and give Hard Mode Esseles a shot and well let me tell you even with mostly lvl 50 epics at 17k hp unbuffed I was getting owned. We could not even finish the first boss. I was told I need to have at a minimum full Champion gear, implants, and earring with 20k hp.

While I do not play yet on the jedi side much, what you said sounds .. wrong. It sounds more like your healer sucked. Or your DPS sucked and you hit enrage timer. In other words, if theres a weak link in your team, it can cause your entire team wipe in a tough spot. It wasnt necessarily your fault, is what Im saying. I cant say more without knowing particulars.

Hardmodes should definitely be doable on relatively generic gear, as long as its the correct type of gear (tank having a shield gen and not power generator etc). Bosses also have mechanics which you need to sometimes know (like interrupt a hardhitting attack etc)

One of my biggest complaints about this game is there, in my opinion, isn't any gear that helps transition new level 50's into HM's, you can spend weeks doing dailies for the mods and implants and what not, but without at least some champion gear you are going to be very weak. I don't like the fact that I felt like I had to pvp for 3-4 peices of champ just to be viable in HM's. Tionese gear is kind of a minimum for HM's, but you have to do HM's to get tionese gear.

 

In short, in my experience, you need to pvp for some champ gear before jumping into HM's.

This isn't true at all. You can be perfectly viable in Hardmodes with just a full set of the daily mods in orange gear. You will be a few stat points short(literally 1-2) of tionese equivalent and no set bonus but you are more than viable in that gear if you are specced correctly and know your class, which you should by the time you hit 50 anyway.

For the OP: It only takes 6 days to get a full set of armoring/mods/enhancements/hilt(or barrel), 7 if you are a class that dual wields. After you get that full set you should still be doing dailies to get your Rakata Earpiece, and 2 Rakata Implants which comes to 360 daily commendations total, so at 25 commendations a day if you are doing your Belsavis AND Ilum dailies you will get all 3 of those in 15 days of dailies. They aren't needed for Hardmodes but they are the best you can get, even through raiding, so you should still want them if you want the best for PvE gear. For Hardmodes you can get by with just a full set of the daily mods in orange gear and upgrade to Tionese and Columi gear as you do your Hardmodes.

Well, let me give it to you straight from a tanks perspective. I play a Jedi Guardian full tank spec. The other day I thought I would try and give Hard Mode Esseles a shot and well let me tell you even with mostly lvl 50 epics at 17k hp unbuffed I was getting owned. We could not even finish the first boss. I was told I need to have at a minimum full Champion gear, implants, and earring with 20k hp.

This actually depends on the situation here for this boss. If the boss himself was destroying you then I would say yes you were undergeared for it, but if the adds were alive and hitting you for more than 5 seconds and destroying you then it is a DPS fail as they should have been AOEing down the adds ontop of the boss.

I guess it just depends on the Faction you play.

Seems like Esseles on Rep-side is overtuned.

The only problems I've encountered so far were maybe the final three in Boarding Party, but as of now they're a cake-walk for us(due to vast gear-improvements and some tuning from BW).

Also let me tell you that you don't need to grind dailies for those Rakata-earpieces and implants.

To be honest there are better ones on the GTN that might now have that amount of primary stat(willpower, strength, whatever) but excel in secondary stats and might even have an augment-slot where you can fit your primary stat, power, alacrity, crit, whatever really floats your boat.

The same goes for shields and focii.

My implants for example has:

50 endurance

62 willpower

40 power

40 accuracy(wrong stat, yes but I don't care )

25 crit

29 alacrity

+ augment slot

It was most likely the dps's fault, those adds should be quickly aoe'd down, dont even try and get agro on them. The boss has a knockdown on a fairly short cd, when stunned/knocked down etc your def stats mean nothing, the dmg goes strait through to your amour, if you have adds on you when this happens you'll likely die.

As a general rule always have dps kill the weakest mobs first

I cleared at least 5 hm all under an hour with under geared guild

Mates. Mostly level 48 and higher mods and some greens and blues. Pve too simple...

Hello,

So i just had a couple questions so i don't end up hated and blacklisted on my server. I just hit lvl 50 and have been doing dailies to try and gear up my implants and ear pieces (600 dailys total i think). Im a Inq specced for healing. On my way to lvl 50, i pretty much did the solo content to 50 (no flashpoints, no Heroic 4s really). I've been subbed to 5 or 6 different MMOs so i know how to work in a group dynamic and how to heal so not too worried about it. I also use the keyboard mostly for healing in groups in the past (not a ability clicker while in groups). Thats some background. Not a complete noob when grouping, but not your raid member that has been raiding every week for the last 5 years. I didnt mean to level to 50 solo, but doing the planet quests on rested xp leveled me up fast and was at least a little challenging (going to planets 2 levels below the suggested level range).

 

My questions really are: Am i going to be under geared if i try to group up to do a HM flashpoint? I think ill go back and solo the flashpoints with my companion so Im at least familiar with the layout. My fear is being undergeared.... doing a crappy healing job cause my gear isnt allowing for enough bonus healing, crits etc. etc. and getting hated on by my server and ignored by people lol. Def dont want that cause of a rookie mistake. Should i stick the course and not try the HM flashpoints until i get those daily com. upgrades? Or can i heal just fine in the mostly lvl 47+ blue/purps/oranges i currently have?

Going to give it to you cold turkey; start with your easiest. Inq healers really *shouldn't* have any problem healing. Mercs are iffy and ops are better-than-iffy, but sorc's should beat their odds.

Start with easiest first. In terms of easy HM's I rank them like this (easy > hard)

BT>Kaon(if you do the bonus boss with the drag method) > found >BP > BoI > D7 > FE

As a tank(powertech and assassin), I could step into them up until BoI(battle of ilum) and run them with no problems. We are talking in 48-50 blues and oranges. I've had ****** healers and I've had good healers. The ones that knew HOW to heal, have told me that they didn't need to worry much; they wore everything from greens to purples.

It's all about if you know how to deal. It's completely possible to do those first 4 I mentioned as a new healer, but you need to know what you're doing and the tank needs to be not semi-mental.

1st of all - as an operative I managed to heal through HMs in Red Reaper/D7 orange gear with no daily mods.

2nd - tell your tank to mark and actually CC elite/strong mobs. That alone can make an HM a breeze. Now I have full columi gear, so I have no problems with chain pulling and no CC, but when I didn't have this gear, we wiped a lot (you know how a columi/rakata geared group LFM healer and starts running thru HM like their wife is giving birth).

running thru HM like their wife is giving birth).

Lol'ed

You should be more than able to run at least most of the HM's in orange gear with high level mods if you know what you are doing and pay attention to the encounter mechanics. Actually, the worst pull in all of Black Talon is the first trash pull. That one is tougher than most bosses.

When I tank HM's on my Jugg tank alt, I just inspect the healer and test him/her on a pull or two, if he keeps me up ok I switch to "my pants are on fire" tanking mode and chain pull keeping an eye on his resource bar They usually love that if they are good.

My advice is as follows:

1) Join a laid back guild that isn't trying to get every HM done every night. Pugging it without purples is going to be a major headache in most cases.

2) Do the level 50 flashpoints on normal a few times. You might get a drop or two that improves your gear

3) A few bosses you might want to avoid at first are the bonus boss in Kaon (KR-82 Expulser), Bulwark in directive 7 and Krel Thrak in Battle of Ilum. KR-82 is a bonus boss and can be skipped, and Krel Thrak can be skipped although I wont describe how here. Bulwark is required however, and so you might want to wait on doing D-7 for a while.

Just my 2 cents.

From what the OP says...I think he is probably good enough to jump into Hard Modes.

Just doing the daily quest chains in belsavis & ilum will get you enough daily commendations to buy a hilt/barrel and I think 2-3 armor mods. The heroics give you another armor and a mod/enhancement. Use the cash from those and buy a two crafted implants, earpiece, and offhand (somewhere between 30k and 50k a piece on my server). Fill in the gear with the blue mod/enhancements from corellia commendations.

Also if you aren't biochem (or don't have a biochem buddy) buy some stims/medpacs off the vendor or GTN.