Let me set something straight

Which is pretty much my experience doing every quest available. Six levels too high by Tatooine (Republic), reached Corellia two levels too high.

I have a lvl 36 Sith Mara, And I Grinded tons of side quest along with my class quest, today I just started an Inquisitor, Im thinking about only doing Class quest on that one, and doing PVP, Space missions and flashpoints.. etc, etc... to level up that character.

So imagine it if JUST doing class quests made you perfectly on par with the zones level.

For the record, I did almost every side quest and class quest on my Sith Juggernaut, and I was eventually one level behind. I quickly caught up with some mob slaying, and was on par until Taris, where I stopped doing side quests for the whole planet. I'm now 2 or 3 levels behind.

Doing side quests puts you about on par, or it should. I didn't do any dungeons besides Black Talon, and only did two PvP matches (while on Taris), so I didn't have any outside influence other than quests.

So, to overlevel, you're hitting more content than just quests, I'm guessing.

And, hypothetically, if the class quests alone kept you on par, the side quests would either give no experience, or would make you outlevel as badly as doing every dungeon and PvP on the side of questing does.

" side quests are MANDATORY, WITHOUT EXCEPTION."

Sorry, how is something mandatory that you don't have to do?

Not really, Eselles was the only Flashpoint and a few space missions just after getting the ship, no PVPing at all.

Hm, I only did one space mission on my Juggernaut, didn't do any dungeons other than BT, hit every side quest on Korriban-Alderaan, and I was underleveled at the end of Taris.

Odd.

Edit: I didn't do heroics, though, so that might be it.

All I can say is from my own experience and that of my significant other. We've PVP'd a smidge on all our characters, do our space missions pretty often and never pass up a bonus objective on a mission. We do all the 2+ heroics and some of the 4's when we can either duo them with companions or (very rarely) find even one other person to join us.

We are never underleveled, or more than 1-2 levels higher than the content. Foes of every sort never fail to present us with reasonable challenge even if we're a couple levels higher, as 1-2 levels higher than a silver or gold when your gear is on-level for the area at best still have plenty of ability to tear your face off in a big hurry if you're not being just a little smart about yourself.


All in all, not one single problem from our end with it one way or any other. If it never changes, it's fine.

nope nothing is mandatory ...
Aside from class quest .

The system works on gear , how you get your gear ... is your problem
You buy gear , make gear , pvp for gear , run flashpoints for gear.

As long you got a full set of beter then your level gear , you only are forced to do class quests .

So end of the story , the side quest are totally optional , as long you can get equel or beter reward , infact the class quest would have been optional too , if you can just get your ship your companions ... alas it is not so .

So only thing mandatory is your class quest .
The rest is like every other MMO , GEAR GEAR GEAR grind .

Could well be a factor, I did every Heroic up to Hoth, and all the +2s afterwards. I also went for every bonus that came up in quests, though to be frank, you get them 90% of the time by doing the quest naturally.

Yeah, I did all the bonus missions, too.

Either way, it's clear the side quests aren't mandatory, what with PvP, flashpoints, space missions, mobs, etc. to do for experience.