From levels 1 - 61 I've been doing Heroic 2+ missions to supply me with prototype armor. Now that I'm past 61 that is no longer the case. What I need is a suggestion. How do I get armor now? I do exclusively PvE content (I DETEST PvP). I realize that at 75 I'll need "special" types of armor but I have NO idea where to get it from. Can someone please explain in detail what I should be doing now for armor. And PLEASE... don't say to just buy it from the GTN or make it. I'm used to getting it from missions or Heroic's.

I won't say to buy it on the GTN, nor to craft it, but:

* Foes drop gear at your level

* If you want control over the process, you can buy a set of empty-shell moddable gear from the <Adaptive Gear Vendor> in the Supplies section of the Fleet, then buy modifications for that gear from the <Level 60 Modifications Vendor> (or the level 65 and 70 equivalents when you get to 65+ or 70+).

I realize that at 75 I'll need "special" types of armor but I have NO idea where to get it from. Can someone please explain in detail what I should be doing now for armor. And PLEASE... don't say to just buy it from the GTN or make it. I'm used to getting it from missions or Heroic's.

You don't "need" special armor, but you'll want it. That special 'bonus' armor is gotten from drops and/or bought from vendors on the fleet for credits + fragments.

 

Meanwhile, as Steve says, you can just use a base set of 'orange' armor and upgrade the mods as you go along. Also, you can get a lot of armor pieces and/or mods by doing flashpoints.

Given the current game and mission design, you're likely ahead of your character level in the Story/planet you're doing. You could just keep doing the story and equipping any armor/weapon that drops if it shows a green up arrow on it (replacing your equipped item.) You could do this all the way through to Onderon, Mek-Sha, and the Meridian Flashpoint. This is a zero-cost, no-hassle approach that is very much viable; I know because that is what I recently did with a few new characters. At that point, you can look at the gearing guides on MMOBits, Vulkk, or SWTORista if you're interested in harder, group content like MM FPs, Operations and so on. You'll almost surely reach the level cap of 75 much before reaching the Meridian Flashpoint.

 

Some of this advice will be different if you wanted to do Operations etc. before finishing the Meridian Flashpoint but as soon as you hit level 70+.

Edited December 2, 2020 by mike_carton