I'm a returning player who stopped playing 2 months into release, and back for SoR.

 

I know purple is supposed to be better, but often green items that has like only 6 higher rating is so much better in stat compared to purple gears. Does purple gear have any advantage besides being customizable? If there is no difference, How does green/blue/purple differ? I've found that green gears with a bit higher rating is better than blue/purple with low rating and this is not what I'm accustomed to.

Generally, that shouldn't be the case, so it'd be interesting to know which items you're talking about.

 

The experience I've made is that purple items of rating X have pretty much the same stats as green or blue items of rating X, but are available earlier. So, for instance:

Skill Armoring 20 (green): rating 98, 29 Cunning, 20 Endurance

Skill Armoring 20 (blue): rating 108, 35 Cunning, 25 Endurance

Advanced Skill Armoring 20 (purple): rating 116, 40 Cunning, 29 Endurance.

All are available at level 45.

 

Compare that to the green Skill Armoring 24, rating 118 (no green at 116), which requires level 50 and gives 42 Cunning 30 Endurance. That's almost 4 AME levels higher than the purple 20 one to get an equivalent one.

 

Of course, the purple gear you found may have been more poorly itemised than the randomly-generated greens.

As the poster above said, it's mostly a matter of level. Two pieces of gear that have the same "rating" will have essentially the same overall "level" of stats. That's not to say they have identical stats - even within the same level of the same colour gear, you have variation in stats. (More/less endurance, less/more main stat, more/less secondary stat, etc.)

The main difference is the level required to use the items. At a given level, green will have base stats, blue will be better, and purple is best - if the purple is a mod-able piece of gear (as opposed to a purple mod), it's stats, like orange gear, will depend upon the mods attached.

Also, purple gear tends to be rarer and may have a unique "look".

 

For example, the green 168 level gear you get on Rishi, is just as good as the purple 168 gear you struggled to get pre-SoR.. On the other hand, the purple 180 gear you got pre-SoR is still better than the blue 178 you can get in Rishi/Yavin.

 

So, to answer the question, it's the rating that matters, not the colour. It's more a matter of your level, stats, and build.

Edited December 14, 2014 by JediQuaker

Purple is a much prettier colour, and it seems mostly to be better than the green stuff. I've found that the green gear suffices most of the time while leveling, though now that I'm higher up, I'm needing the better stuff more. However, it's like the poster said before me, the rating number is the way to judge the item's power. Edited December 14, 2014 by Sharzade

Also note : not ALL purples are modify-able. Some are, some aren't.

 

There are some green modify-able items, but I have seen them mostly on companion gear.

 

I always go for modify-able gear so the color doesn't matter much, unless a nice modify-able purple drops on me.