Just wonder when you start out as level 1 and purchase a weapon from the Cartel Market, is there away to upgrade that weapon to keep it strong enough to carry until you reach the max level or is it best to wait until you've reached the max level before even bothering to purchase weapons from the Market?

The cartel weapons in my experience all have slots for upgrading them. (Slot for hilts, barrels, mods, enhancements, color crystals, etc) Most adaptive armor also has it i think.

Should be able to add the upgrades as needed while leveling. They have basic mod vendors in the fleet and also a lot of upgrades people are selling on the GTN.

My Sorcerer has a weapon from the store that was upgraded as i leveled so don't see a problem as long as they have the slots for it. You can preview them also to check before you buy. If it has the upgrade slots you can, if not then no.

Hope it helps.

Edited January 2, 2018 by kamxam

Just wonder when you start out as level 1 and purchase a weapon from the Cartel Market, is there away to upgrade that weapon to keep it strong enough to carry until you reach the max level or is it best to wait until you've reached the max level before even bothering to purchase weapons from the Market?

 

With a brand new character an unmodded Cartel weapon will be stronger than what you start with (as will unmodded CM armor), but will quickly fall behind anything you find on your starter planet. Once you get to the fleet you can buy green mods and upgrade your CM gear. If you have crafters in the appropriate disciplines you can craft mods that are min level 8 and send them to your new character, but you will quickly outlevel those mods. Honestly though, with the current leveling experience, you can use an unmodded CM weapon from start without any issues and just mod it when you get to the fleet.

Mod vendors exist for every fourth level starting at level 10 and going up to 60, then the highest vendor for level 65.

 

You'll see these vendors in various planet markets and on both fleets (in the "Supplies" section).

"Level 10 Modification Vendor," "Level 14 Modification Vendor," etc.

 

In addition to the Cartel Market, you can also buy orange items from certain vendors.

There is sometimes an Adaptive Item vendor close by the Mod vendors (not always on-planet, but there is an adaptive item vendor on both fleets, also in the "Supplies" section. You can buy from these vendors (with credits) common orange (Adaptive) items, into which you can place the mods.

 

Some of the "special currency" vendors (Dark- and Light-side vendors, "Specialty Goods" vendors, etc.) also carry some orange items.

 

You get gear with level 70 mods from the Command Crates you receive at each Command Level after you hit level 70.

 

The mods can be removed from the orange and purple items that have them, but there is a cost in credits, which becomes increasingly expensive as your level increases. You can also just add a mod on top of an existing mod, and the new mod will replace the old mod, if you wish to save the cost of removal at higher levels. Just know that the old mod is destroyed when doing this.

Edited January 2, 2018 by TalonMacLeod

Mod vendors exist for every fourth level starting at level 10 and going up to 60, then the highest vendor for level 65.

Except there is a gap between 42 and 48 that can make newly player have trouble on Corellia if they are doing just the story.

Except there is a gap between 42 and 48 that can make newly player have trouble on Corellia if they are doing just the story.

Now that double-XP is over, you won't even be able to get past Quesh(1) if you are only doing your class story, perhaps not even the second half of Tatooine(2).

 

(1) You're likely to reach Quesh no higher than level 30 or so, and like a guy I met one time, you won't be able to pick up the story arc mission from the doctor, and the shuttle to the surface won't let you on without it.

 

(2) More than one player has posted on the forums about being unable to hurt enemies in the later parts of Tatooine, and it turns out they skipped everything but the class story and consequently didn't get enough experience to be high enough level.