Because augments are apparently a small fortune now, roughly 9mil each, and I don't know whether or not I should be spending my tech fragments either. I don't know how I'm supposed to go about getting the mods I need either since the set pieces come completely empty. I'm also a PvP-oriented Jugg tank and so I'm splitting my mods between pure tanking (armorings, enhancements and augments will be HP/Shield/Absorb) and trading Defense for some damage (replacing Warding mods with Lethal mods).

Should I start buying my sets and tactical now and modding/augmenting them as I can, or should I hold off and just use Renown gear until I can start getting better stuff from the higher ranks?

1) You have not told us what level you are.

2) As a "PVP oriented" player, you are *****ed by the system.

3) Renown crates are inferior. You need to get the crates from weeklies and run a lot of Flashpoints to get the good gear. Do Onderon weekly and daily as much as you can without compromising your Conquest progress.

4) Join a medium-large to large guild that is very active at Conquest, and be sure to make your 50K weekly Conquest goal every week. If you can do this on multiple characters per week, it will help.

5) Use the Spoils Of War vendor on Fleet to upgrade the lowest pieces of gear you are wearing. Your iRating matters, yes, but the lowest rated piece of gear you are wearing matters as much or more. And the SOW vendor is cheap!

6) Be patient. It will take 2-3 weeks of steady daily work to get to 306 with just one toon. Multiple toons doing Conquest will help speed this up.

7) Be somewhat tight-fisted with your tech frags, but not a total Scrooge. SOW vendor is your best friend.

8) Forget augments until you have everything else where you want it.

1) You have not told us what level you are.

 

2) As a "PVP oriented" player, you are *****ed by the system.

 

3) Renown crates are inferior. You need to get the crates from weeklies and run a lot of Flashpoints to get the good gear. Do Onderon weekly and daily as much as you can without compromising your Conquest progress.

 

4) Join a medium-large to large guild that is very active at Conquest, and be sure to make your 50K weekly Conquest goal every week. If you can do this on multiple characters per week, it will help.

 

5) Use the Spoils Of War vendor on Fleet to upgrade the lowest pieces of gear you are wearing. Your iRating matters, yes, but the lowest rated piece of gear you are wearing matters as much or more. And the SOW vendor is cheap!

 

6) Be patient. It will take 2-3 weeks of steady daily work to get to 306 with just one toon. Multiple toons doing Conquest will help speed this up.

 

7) Be somewhat tight-fisted with your tech frags, but not a total Scrooge. SOW vendor is your best friend.

 

8) Forget augments until you have everything else where you want it.

I'm Level 75, and have yet to start any expansions on this toon.

I always do my daily/weeklies for Warzones and GSF, and GSF is the bulk of my time in SWToR. I have an avid GSF player.

Don't know if I can access Onderon quests without actually being up to that expansion in the story.

Not really a Flashpoint player, I do run BT Veteran at the moment to beef up my Vette influence, but I don't really use group finder. As I said, the vast majority of my time playing SWToR is spent in Galactic Starfighter.

My thought was to spend my fragments on getting my Tactical and my desired Set first, then perhaps upgrading piece by piece through the Spoils of War vender, but the set and the tactical come first. And augmenting them with a cheap 73 right off the bat.

Lots of useful tips from ElZaguero...

First comes the vertical progression: your primary goal is iRating 306 everything else comes after

There are lots of guides how to do this (Vulkk, Swtorista, Xam Xam come to mind) and if you search the forum, lots of helpful posts will come up as well...

Once you got to 306 you can worry about sets and tacticals...

GSF is actually also quite a good way to get gear, lots of crates drop - if the toon you are doing it with is lvl 75.

but the conquest advice is a must: you get tech frags and gear pieces

About augments: most content (other than the new FP & OP and the 2 new planets) is now power & mastery capped so that you don’t need the best augments. You can wholeheartedly use the purple 228 augments.

They are still working to fix crafting - so I‘d wait before spending millions on the new augments

About augments: most content (other than the new FP & OP and the 2 new planets) is now power & mastery capped so that you don’t need the best augments. You can wholeheartedly use the purple 228 augments.

They are still working to fix crafting - so I‘d wait before spending millions on the new augments

You forget that he's mostly a PvP'er so he would want the best augments because there is not stat capping in PvP. For PvE the augments are only really needed in harder Operations (HM/NiM) Even the level 70 ones because of the secondary stats that come with. The secondary stats like shield, alacrity etc. are not capped.

But again the only places where you would need augments is in HM/NiM Ops and level 75 PvP. Beyond that you don't need augments to begin with. It's just a nice to have there.

You forget that he's mostly a PvP'er so he would want the best augments because there is not stat capping in PvP. For PvE the augments are only really needed in harder Operations (HM/NiM) Even the level 70 ones because of the secondary stats that come with. The secondary stats like shield, alacrity etc. are not capped.

 

But again the only places where you would need augments is in HM/NiM Ops and level 75 PvP. Beyond that you don't need augments to begin with. It's just a nice to have there.

How much more tertiary stats have the best augments compared to the 228s that have 96 crit/alacrity/etc?

How much more tertiary stats have the best augments compared to the 228s that have 96 crit/alacrity/etc?

Again he's mostly a PvP'er so there the other stats do matter.

Again he's mostly a PvP'er so there the other stats do matter.

I wanted to know this - but then I‘ll check myself the next time I log in, merry Christmas

I wanted to know this - but then I‘ll check myself the next time I log in, merry Christmas

Please do, I don't PvP much and I am going off the assumption that in endgame PvP you are level 75 and not level locked to 70.

Merry Xmas to you as well.

Lots of useful tips from ElZaguero...

 

First comes the vertical progression: your primary goal is iRating 306 everything else comes after

There are lots of guides how to do this (Vulkk, Swtorista, Xam Xam come to mind) and if you search the forum, lots of helpful posts will come up as well...

 

Once you got to 306 you can worry about sets and tacticals...

GSF is actually also quite a good way to get gear, lots of crates drop - if the toon you are doing it with is lvl 75.

but the conquest advice is a must: you get tech frags and gear pieces

 

About augments: most content (other than the new FP & OP and the 2 new planets) is now power & mastery capped so that you don’t need the best augments. You can wholeheartedly use the purple 228 augments.

They are still working to fix crafting - so I‘d wait before spending millions on the new augments

I'm irating 269 now, one piece away from 270. When will Renown Crates and PvP crates start giving gear better than 270 greens?

I'm irating 269 now, one piece away from 270. When will Renown Crates and PvP crates start giving gear better than 270 greens?

When your RNG luck changes and when they fix PvP rewards.

Normally the equation is relatively simple. You take your iRating and then your loot will be minimum 4 points below it and maximum 4 points above. So you should be able to get 272 pieces already and once you hit 270 you can get 274.

I say "can" because clearly RNG makes it so that lesser rewards are more common. So you may be getting a lot of 268-270 pieces. I sometimes went through 2-3 FPs without getting a piece to improve and other moments I got better stuff regularly. It's the reason why RNG sucks as a mechanics and you really need to persist through the drought.

Now that's PvE. The rewards for PvP are borked so who knows what goes on there. I don't do a lot of it but sometimes I do a daily for conquest. I even did a full weekly not long ago just to see what the rewards were like. Well, I was thoroughly underwhelmed, but also I have full 306 gear on all my toons and was getting purple dropds which are below 300. So that makes no sense.

Hope that gives you a bit of context.

I'm irating 269 now, one piece away from 270. When will Renown Crates and PvP crates start giving gear better than 270 greens?

They should, they are supposed to, but there has been bugs. But i think most of them happen when you have an Irating of 306 or closer. At this early stage, you 'should' be ok

How should I go about gearing up in 6.0?

Do the ONLY sensible thing - DON'T.

Because if you do you'll just encourage them to add more RNG and more Grind and more Credit Sinks, and they WILL consider that "content".

All The Best

When your RNG luck changes and when they fix PvP rewards.

 

Normally the equation is relatively simple. You take your iRating and then your loot will be minimum 4 points below it and maximum 4 points above. So you should be able to get 272 pieces already and once you hit 270 you can get 274.

 

I say "can" because clearly RNG makes it so that lesser rewards are more common. So you may be getting a lot of 268-270 pieces. I sometimes went through 2-3 FPs without getting a piece to improve and other moments I got better stuff regularly. It's the reason why RNG sucks as a mechanics and you really need to persist through the drought.

 

Now that's PvE. The rewards for PvP are borked so who knows what goes on there. I don't do a lot of it but sometimes I do a daily for conquest. I even did a full weekly not long ago just to see what the rewards were like. Well, I was thoroughly underwhelmed, but also I have full 306 gear on all my toons and was getting purple dropds which are below 300. So that makes no sense.

 

Hope that gives you a bit of context.

So basically, if I just continue doing GSF/Warzones and opening my Renown and PvP crates, eventually the gear will slowly start to increase in quality?

if you're aiming to speed level

ignore everything but iRating until you hit 306... even sane stats levels... nothing is more important than the iRating. get a new piece 1 rating point higher than you current gear? replace it immediately, mid run.

once you hit 306, THEN start fixing your stats and worry about buying gear sets

You could try this guide I made early after the expansion.

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=970390

Well, my irating is going up from PvP and Renown Crates, but quite slowly, 1 or 2 points a day. I take it that's normal?

Pvp is the slowest way to gear up because it drops about 1/4 the amount of gear other content like flash points do. Plus it often drops gear much lower than your iRating. Ie my iRating is 306, but pvp mostly drops 292-300 iRated gear for me.

I realize you're mainly PvP, and unfortunately, although technically you CAN gear through PvP, it's waaaaaaaaay slower than doing group PvE content.

You mentioned 1 or 2 points a day... for PvP I suppose that's normal, but if you optimize your runs as described below, it's feasible to go from 270 to 306 in @ 12 hrs of play.

Bite the bullet and que for vet mode Hammer Station (or whatever fp you're comfy doing), you'll gear up in a few more hours of play and then you can get back to PvP full time. Master mode drops better gear, so if you can find a group to que random fps (you get a big bonus for that)... well you'll be getting so much gear & tech fragments you won't know what to do with them all.

Also, yes, buy your set pieces with tech fragments (though I advise tactical first as it's the biggest bang-for-buck), especially since if you're doing fp spam you'll cap out pretty fast.

For augs, perhaps you know someone with the crew skills to make augs and you can supply them with ingredients? I do that for guildies whenever asked.

I realize you're mainly PvP, and unfortunately, although technically you CAN gear through PvP, it's waaaaaaaaay slower than doing group PvE content.

 

Bite the bullet and que for vet mode Hammer Station (or whatever fp you're comfy doing), you'll gear up in a few more hours of play and then you can get back to PvP full time. Master mode drops better gear, so if you can find a group to que random fps (you get a big bonus for that)... well you'll be getting so much gear & tech fragments you won't know what to do with them all.

 

Also, yes, buy your set pieces with tech fragments (though I advise tactical first as it's the biggest bang-for-buck), especially since if you're doing fp spam you'll cap out pretty fast. Perhaps you know someone with the crew skills to make augs and you can supply them with ingredients? I do that for guildies whenever asked.

Does it have to be MM's? Because I don't think I'm comfortable enough to run that with scaled stats, especially since I'm a Tank and there's more responsibility on me to keep things going.

If I can gear up reasonably well by running random Veterans, then maybe I'd be okay doing that, especially if I can learn the FP's along the way.

Does it have to be MM's? Because I don't think I'm comfortable enough to run that with scaled stats, especially since I'm a Tank and there's more responsibility on me to keep things going.

 

If I can gear up reasonably well by running random Veterans, then maybe I'd be okay doing that, especially if I can learn the FP's along the way.

No, it doesn’t have to be master mode, but you will get more gear per boss drop. Just find a flash point you are comfortable with and enjoy and run that. After a bit of time in a Group, you will work out the boss fights and might be able to do them solo. While that can take a little longer, it also means you don’t have to rely on getting good groups of random people.

If you have a friend you can group with, you can fly through those relatively fast with just two.

I also would not suggest doing Hammer Station by your self. The last boss will often blow up your companion healer before you can move them out of damage. I do red reaper and Athis solo all the time. Athis is easier IMO to do solo. But if you have a stealth class, red reaper is easier and the fastest because you can by pass all the mobs that aren’t bosses,

My best RR time with just my wife (who is no super star player) is 7 mins, but we average around 8-9 mins on our sins.

Red Reaper with an all stealth group or solo is by far the absolute fastest way to get your gear lvl to 306. You can do that in under 12 hours.

278 and climbing. Between GSF/PvP dailies, a random daily Veteran FP, and advancing the story, my irating is going up about 2 points every day. Figure I'll be 306 in two weeks or so.

Going with Leviathan's Hide and Lord of Pain as my main tanking set, with Life Warden for PvP.

I don't PVP so here is the "to-do" list for PVE.

Tons of flashpoints. Veteran, then once you got around 290+ master too. And use companions to make money the whole time. You gona need a lots of credits for the final parts

Your primary goal first is to get on 306 irating. Keep all gear, and wear the ones with the highest irating. Even if they aren't optimal. Any gear you aren't wearing should be de-contructed. Also the tech-fragments are account wide. So if you got alts, then get weekly for each.

You may get the new item for your class on the way. It has no irating.

Once you are on 306 you can start getting the set bonuses. At this point there are 2 options.

1. You go for the best for your class, that aren't universal. This will give you more efficiency, but the gear will not be truly tradeable to alts.

2. You go for the best universal for your role. While it might not be good as option 1., but it allows you to trade the gear to your alts at any time.

After that you can go for the amplifiers for any gear, that uses modifications, or in the type, that is best for you. Don't bother with gear, that you gona switch out, because sub-optimal. This is where you need a lot of credits, and PRAY for the gods of RNG.

After that comes the real mess. You need to adjust your mods, and enchantements. That means farm, more farm, and more farm. Keep buying from the Spoils of War wendor, and once again. Pray.

I suggest augments for the last. It has the least impact, and costs the most. But it has no RNG at least.