Hello guys,

As the title states im looking for a few pointers to help me get geared in the new patch. I quit when hutt cartel first came out and i never bothered to gear because i simply did not have the time.

anyways. im not seeing any guides on youtube or google that will help me. so can someone help me out a bit?

There's a few things that remain unclear to me

- Is the new pvp gear viable for Flashpoints?

- Is Flashpoints required for me to get gear?

- Do i need to do the Makeb / Section X Dailies?

- When is it a good time for me to start doing Ops?

I am well aware of the elder game guide that was released but i personally find it hard to follow. i would just like a step by step guide to help me get on my way.

Thanks!

Just hit 55 myself, on my Mercenary (my very first character!!!), not sure if you are, or if you are 50 still? If you just hit 50, head to Fleet, and find the Makeb commendation vendor, hopefully you had 100 coms sitting around, you can almost buy a full set of 140 mods for yourself. I went and did Section X, for the HK quest, then ran around and got those parts, might of been worth a level or two, and a cool companion in the end. After that was running around Makeb, seemed like decent exp, and money. With a full set of 140 mods, I was soloing pretty well there.

If you are 55, you should head to Section X and get the breadcrum quest to go to Oricon. The story quest will reward you with pretty nice 156 stuff. (If I recall, just did them last night the first time) I am not sure how much fun this place would be solo, but it was a blast with my 2 guild mates. Also went pretty quick. I did see some others running around doing things solo, but no idea on how geared they were compared to myself, a fresh 55.

You might find this guide helpful http://dulfy.net/2013/09/29/swtor-oricon-missions-guide/

According to my guild members who were helping me out with that, I could jump into OPs at that point, and need on anything that is an upgrade.

Not sure on the PvP questions though, I hate PvP, and do not do it. If it is like any other MMO I have played in then PvP gear is going to gimp you in a PvE setting, and visa versa.

The fastest gearing route will look something like this

Hit 50

Do Section X and Makeb for basic comms.

Hit 55

Do Oricon story.

Augment your Oricon gear with basic comm gear.

Run HM 55 FP's or SM OPS through Group finder for ultimate comms.

HM OPS.

In terms of PvE, all the changes really did is make it insanely easy to get ultimate comms with only basic comm gear. The entire elite comm tier is easily skip-able now .

As for PvP gear, it's never really been that good when compared to PvE gear for PvE. The only exception is the relics. The Brutalizer relics are currently 3rd BIS. 1st being Nightmare mode drops and 2nd being HM drops. Getting them WILL help you in PvE progression.

Edit: I actually did a SM OPS through the new bolster yesterday with a toon that had no relics and really bad gear (leveled through Kuat) and still parsed fairly well. Any 55 is now viable in an ops but getting some basic comm gear will help.

Fastest way to gear up :

Hit 55, do Oricon for 5 156 rating pieces, complement gear with rating 148 stuff from the GTN.

-> straight to story mode ops, forget the dailies grind and flashpoints.

And once the group finder gets fixed, oyu can even skip the first step thanks to bolster.