I'm a 50 command, 4pc set bonus, Hard Modes are all on farm. I'd like to share a few tips and tricks i've learned along the way to help get some people who might be struggling on the right track! Feel free to flame and tell me i'm wrong all you want!

1) Gear - Where/how to get it

Ilum and Belsavis daily quests. You have several solo daily quests and 3 group daily quests on each of these planets for level 50 players. The group daily quests reward 3 epic level 50 mods. This means each day you can fully gear out 1 equipment slot on yourself, and eventually start gearing out companions. You also gain Daily Commendations which can be used to buy level 51 weapon mods, armor mods, and very nice ear/implant items. Do these EVERY day you can!

Once you have full set, you're ready for Hard Modes!

Each class has multiple SETS of gear which provide set bonuses. These can be earned from token drops within Hard Modes, or purchased with Daily (and Hard Mode instance completion) tokens. Unfortunately you'll likely get TONS of the tokens that drop off each boss, these are just about useless as every item i've seen requires the tokens which are from the daily rewards and last boss of each Hard Mode.

2) Crafting - What should you pick?

Biochem. Hands down, without a question, this is the most broken and overpowered profession in the game. Once you complete a few Hard Modes, you can craft a self heal (only 90s cooldown) that is bigger than any heal in the game. You can craft a self buff to your primary stat that is MASSIVE, can be used as often as you want, lasts for 2 hours, and stays after death. You can craft a HUGE 15s short duration buff for yourself in surge, crit, tech/force, and other stats.

NOTE: These are BoP so you must be a Biochem to make them, however they do NOT require Biochem to use them. So you can craft them, drop Biochem and pickup another profession of your choice. Every player should start Biochem, or switch to Biochem and craft these amazing items.

3) Hard Modes - These are HARD?!?!

Yes, they are somewhat harder than normal instances. Each instance has on average 2 "strategy" check bosses that will require a lot of work to drop. Once you down these bosses, the remaining are very easy free loot. I notice a lot of players having troulbe with one of these bosses and get the impression the entire instance is going to be that difficult. This is not the case. Figure out how to down that one difficult boss and it's very likely you'll kill the next 2-3 on your first attempt for the free drops!

NOTE: Many bosses are either not itemized, or don't drop anything at all. These are generally the easier mini-boss style encounters (but some really easy bosses do have loot).

4) Finding a group - How the heck do you do it?

Well, Bioware and others have decided social gaming is bad! Yes, lots of you might be against an automated looking for group system. But currently, the only PROVIDED option is to sit in Fleet and spam the general channel. Or find a Guild, but what if that guild is with friends and they aren't online?

Solution! My server, and others I hope, have a GLOBAL channel created for all level 50's to join. This is done by typing "/cjoin channelname" . If it hasn't already been done, create a global channel and spam invites to every level 50 you see! It works great. Within a day or two of this global channel being created we had 3-4 groups of people running Hard Modes constantly! Daily groups are easy to find now!

5) Companions - Who should I use?

This depends on your play style (I know, everyone says that...) and your spec. Personally, I find Aric Jorgan to be the best dps. Being ranged, he can instantly switch targets and start doing damage. Yuun isn't bad either, but he has to run around at times which can be bad.

Elara Dorne is great for any DPS commando, she'll heal you while you unload death. I found running around with her was much faster and easier than using any of the other companions. However, as a heal spec commando, you'll likely want one of the DPS so you can actually kill stuff!

4x and Vik are, bad. Neither of them can take a hit, while they hold threat well, you'll spend most of the fight trying to keep them alive. You're better off using Dorne to heal yourself and tank everything.

If you MUST use one of the two tank companions, Vik is much better in most situations. He jumps into battle and does all of his AOE's to hold threat very quickly. 4x is pretty stupid and will blow his AOE taunt abilities vs a single guy. This requires you to manually manage his abilities on top of keeping him alive.

Do you think someone using all orange gear and mods from the dailies would be at a significant disadvantage to someone with the set bonus's?

I'd really like to get a certain outfit and stick with it.

Awesome and a good read!

One question though, I don't quite get that whole biochem thing. So you don't actually make stims that improve your stats, but items? How can you keep having these buffs after you drop biochem?

Good post OP, I can agree with all of your points.

Some thing I've noticed as a DPS commando, with seemingly similar experience.

1) Set bonuses

As a Commando, stay AWAY from the "Tech" labelled Tier gear, I chose 1 piece due to more desirable stats, but the set bonuses are geared towards the Vanguard DPS AC - reducing the cooldown on Battle Focus as the 2 piece. The "Eliminator" set is what commandos are meant to pick up.

2) PvE wise, I found a lot more success as Gunnery with a focus on Crit/Surge, than i did as Assault - this may not be a complete surprise to some looking at Assaults PvP centric talents, but i wanted to try both out.

Gunnery had excellent ammo efficiency, and I had a much easier time swapping targets as needed, because I did not rely on a DoT to get the most out of my spec (Assault is High Impact bolt focused, and needs a DoT to use)

@Freeborne - I would have imagined Orange items were more customisable stat wise for the loss of Set bonuses. Yet, Epic items (set items) do not have an Armoring slot - an armoring slot is simply Aim and Endurance, no customisation to it... the current set bonuses are:

2piece: 15% crit to Charged bolts and Grav Round

4 piece: HiB is 1 ammo cheaper (essentially free for the DPS specs)

I would personally lean towards the set items.

@Danurion

I'm currently a 400 BioChem, everyone is able to use stims/medpacks. But a Biochem can create stronger versions that are not consumed when used i.e. Infinite use Stims etc. for me it's essentially a free 136 Aim and 56 Power - as for the not requiring BioChem, the Rakata ones currently don't display a requirement for BioChem, but if that's true I would imagine BioWare will change that soon enough and you should only Get them and drop BioChem if you have the money to spare.

Something to note though, I have been picking up Exotech Adrenal patterns in Hardmodes which apprently are BoE reusable items (they are bugged atm, i can't learn them) if that's true, you may get reusable watered down versions in the future without BioChem (and pay through the nose)

I took a quick glance at torhead and saw the various types of eliminator.

What is the earliest tier I should look for when I hit the cap? I started looking at the item levels but I'm not sure.

@OP: Can you comment on the aim>crit>surge>power>alacrity usage at level 50? It seems to be a very large debate within the community as pertaining to Gunnery specced Commandos.

Same!

Swijr

Do you think someone using all orange gear and mods from the dailies would be at a significant disadvantage to someone with the set bonus's?

Yes, very much so. The mods from Daily Commendations are rating 51 - this is the same rating as the mods in the lowest tier of PvE/PvP set gear (Tionese/Centurion). These mods are a great way to fill in your existing orange gear when you first hit 50, but will be quickly surpassed by Columi/Rakata (or Champion/Battlemaster PvP) gear, which contain rating 56 and 58 mods, respectively.

My opinions as a level 50 Commando Medic who has cleared all Hard Mode Flashpoints and all raids on at least normal mode (EV is pretty buggy atm on hard/nightmare):

1) Take Biochem. Completely agree with the OP, it's the best crafting skill in the game for any character, hands down. I'm Armormech on my character, and it sucks. You can make yourself a raid quality (Rakata) belt and wrist item at level 50, and that's about it. You can't make anything decent for other players, as epic-quality schematics that drop at level 50 produce Bind on Pickup items. There are a couple of exceptions - these are Columi or Rakata quality wrist/belt items that require rare/epic BoP crafting materials from HM FP or raid bosses.

2) Commando healing sucks in PvE. Reroll Sage for godmode. We don't even get a combat rez, let alone the shields, pull and overpowered AoE heal. In PvP you're fantastically tanky and it works a treat - unfortunately this doesn't matter so much in PvE. I'm currently leveling a Scoundrel to 50 because I'm too stubborn to accept that only Sages can heal effectively.

3) Level as Gunnery spec, and use Elara to heal you. Easy mode, virtually zero downtime between mobs.

This is based on lv 33 experience.

I am combat heal full spec with cybertech craft. Using 4X with "fully geared" from cybertech. I think the tank + heal/dps combo isnt that bad. (I heal 4X to get stacks, then blow loaded at enemy afterward) Works like a charm. Even able to solo the champion (higher elite?) But i think u need to proper gear him otherwise he wont be a good tank.

I believe the biochem is kinda imba at the moment but i do think Bioware will nerf it and buff the other soon so yea if u already select something and invested, i think u better stick with urs else u're going to be in nerfwagon real soon XD.

Yea combat medic healing AoE is kinda sux plus we dont have combat res nor proper interupt, that's bad. But for now FP, i can handle healing just fine. Whine more so we an get what we want! I dont think it is justified to have no combat res and lame AoE heal while the other classes can do everything! Nerfbandwagon to the sages!

2) Commando healing sucks in PvE. Reroll Sage for godmode. We don't even get a combat rez, let alone the shields, pull and overpowered AoE heal. In PvP you're fantastically tanky and it works a treat - unfortunately this doesn't matter so much in PvE. I'm currently leveling a Scoundrel to 50 because I'm too stubborn to accept that only Sages can heal effectively.

oh... no...

I wanted to be a healer so bad in this game, and really didn't want to be a force user. Of course I chose commando... of course, they are undesired healers... and I'm level 41. Why... WHYYYY!?

They'll probably never balance it out either, because we use heavy armor

And they provide less PvE support by not having an interrupt!! yay.!!

No guild in their right mind would take a Commando healer over a Sage or Scoundrel.

-no interrupt/in combat revive and our healing is nowhere near the level of Sage

And I thought we were Combat Medics.

oh... no...

 

I wanted to be a healer so bad in this game, and really didn't want to be a force user. Of course I chose commando... of course, they are undesired healers... and I'm level 41. Why... WHYYYY!?

 

They'll probably never balance it out either, because we use heavy armor

Hey dude! I'm a member of a hardcore guild and one of our best tank healers is actually a Combat medic! Our tank's health never drops below 80% so you can be the best without a problem. Might not be the best for group heals, but for tank CM is beast.

oh... no...

 

I wanted to be a healer so bad in this game, and really didn't want to be a force user. Of course I chose commando... of course, they are undesired healers... and I'm level 41. Why... WHYYYY!?

 

They'll probably never balance it out either, because we use heavy armor

I love healing on my commando yes Sages has it very easy but i have yet to struggle in heroics with healing lvl 38 at the moment it is very different healing vs other MMO's

I love playing the underdog, makes you feel better when you win

*sucess_kid*

And they provide less PvE support by not having an interrupt!! yay.!!

 

No guild in their right mind would take a Commando healer over a Sage or Scoundrel.

 

-no interrupt/in combat revive and our healing is nowhere near the level of Sage

 

And I thought we were Combat Medics.

ah but look at the buffs a maxed kolto bomb will give... -10% damage taken and +5% heal received is delicious.

ah but look at the buffs a maxed kolto bomb will give... -10% damage taken and +5% heal received is delicious.

yah, but you can't use the -10% dmg as often as you would like.

you have to use a different ability to trigger the buff to the ability and then you only get 1, maybe 2 nade chances to put the shield on people.

Yes, very much so. The mods from Daily Commendations are rating 51 - this is the same rating as the mods in the lowest tier of PvE/PvP set gear (Tionese/Centurion). These mods are a great way to fill in your existing orange gear when you first hit 50, but will be quickly surpassed by Columi/Rakata (or Champion/Battlemaster PvP) gear, which contain rating 56 and 58 mods, respectively.

 

Yes, but can't I acquire 56 and 58 level mods using those commendations/boss drops as well? That is to say, buy gear, pull out all but Armor slots (which I can't) and those armor mods should be boss drops, right? (So, in the end, the only thing I don't have is the set bonuses?)

If not, I feel a bit lied to by this: