I am wondering if I am missing something here. It seems very convenient to upgrade armor and weapons with everything except for the weapon crystals. I mean, there are credit and commendation vendors for armoring, mods, enhacements and barrels. But nothing for the crystals.

 

Is this actually the case or am I missing something? It seems the only way to upgrade your crystal is to:

-rip it from a dropped, purchased or mission reward item

-craft it yourself

-buy it on GTN

-find it in cartel packs

 

I see that a +41crit crystal comes in cartel packs and is usable by lvl 10? I mean, really? I have a stable of 20+ characters and they're all running around with crapola +4 endurance crystals or something like that. Have I just flat out missed the "Crystal Ship" here somehow?

No, you're right about how to obtain them. The +41 endurance crystals from CM are pretty cheap now (should be anyway). Endurance isn't a major issue in pre50 anyway so don't worry yourself over it.

 

Not to say don't upgrade your gear, I just mean don't lose sleep over not having maximum endurance.

Thanks. Now I know what my options are and that's what I needed.

 

I do intend to start crafting soon but so far everybody just gathers (anybody need some desh?). I've assigned all crafting skills but nobody has made a thing yet. Guess I need to level the Artifice toon as a priority and set him to making some crystals.

Don't bother with Artifice and crystals. You're much better off buying a CM maxed crystal right off the GTN. The depleted or whatever Purple +41 power crystals go for about 500k on my server and they're worth the money. Seeing as you'll be keeping them all the way up to lvl 50 and beyond.

I know this is good advice you've given but the whole crystal thing smacks of Pay2Win to me and I really don't want to buy into it. I mean, some level 15 Shadow running around cloaked has a +41 power crystal while my L41 Warrior has 2 junk endurances because I'm not willing to spend cartel coins or big credits is just wrong.

Is +41 to anything really gonna make much difference ? i mean at lvl 13 i've already got like 190 endurance. +41 will boost my 2.2k hp to 2.6khp. That's not gonna be some game breaker.

 

The +41 expertise and power, well i dont know how much dps that power will add in PvE or how much damage/healing that 41 expertise is in PvP but i'll throw it out there that its around 5% max.

 

300k for a 5% dps boost ? meh!

I know this is good advice you've given but the whole crystal thing smacks of Pay2Win to me and I really don't want to buy into it. I mean, some level 15 Shadow running around cloaked has a +41 power crystal while my L41 Warrior has 2 junk endurances because I'm not willing to spend cartel coins or big credits is just wrong.

 

They've justified it by saying that the crystals aren't any better than any other end game crystal, which is true. They are doing everything they can to incentivize making alts ... having more powerful color crystals being one way to accelerate leveling.