Hey folks,

Hope all is well.

I am trying to understand when or how often I really need to upgrade my armor for PVE. Right now, I am level 28 running around on a planet that is set for levels 20-24 and my gear is rated 72 which is about level 32 armor. On the flip-side, what should I do when I am running around on planet that, for example, is for levels, say, 28-32ish (which would make my armor rating basically even with foe level)?

I consistently use Planetary Commendations for myself and (big try) try to outfit my companion, but outfitting my companion is usually a struggle because I cannot collect enough or manage Planetary Commendations effectively. Since the armor modification items scale every odd levels, I really wonder how "long" I can hold-off upgrades. End result, I keep burning through almost all of my Commendations every two levels and my Companion is left with "green" supplied armor from the GTN.

Er....what I could do better? Thanks in advance.

What are your crew skills? do you have armormech/synthweave/cybertech?

If you are leveling something other then those then you obviously need to rely on quest rewards and drops for upgrades (or the GTN, but i dont recommend that). One thing i used to do was if i didnt have a crew skill to craft gear for my comp, i would upgrade their pieces of gear at certain levels. I would only upgrade their gear if the reward had 15 or more endurance then their current piece. If a quest rewards comp gear, but it was only 12 endurance more then what they had, i would pick the commendation instead. It sounds like you are a bit overleveled, so this method should work well for your too if you stay a bit overleveled.

Now for yourself if you are level 28, go to the Tatooine spaceport and look for a Specialty Vendor in the market area that sells moddable orange weapons for credits. This is a good way to save on comm badges if you have a lot of credits. Remeber that a barrel/hilt costs 7 comms, a mod is 2 comms and an enhancement is another 2 comms. So you just saved yourself 11 comms, 22 if you two moddable weapons. The comms will be useful later when you get even more moddable gear. Another thing worth knowing is that when you complete the Tatooine Bonus Series the quest guy in the spaceport will reward you a moddable weapon. For the rest of your leveling you can just follow a similar rule that i mentioned for comps. If you still have a green for a slot, and a quest reward for that slot is available you can upgrade if the endurance is 15 or more. If less then you can get the comm instead.

The general rule of thumb is to upgrade your custom armour and arms every 4 levels as that is approx how many levels you gain on each planet in doing the majority of quests without over-grinding. Also the comm vendors on the fleet work to that upgrade pattern as such each vendor has mods up to 4 levels ( When I say level here I mean the level of player required to use that mod not the item level itself) better that the previous planet vendor had.

Remember to fully upgrade a full custom set if you have a offhand aswell will cost 95 Comms so even just upgrading yourself fully let alone a companion with full custom gear is actually very hard. You just cant seem to get that amount of comms from starting at zero on one single planet even if you choose all comms at all quest rewards, unless you just grind out elites like crazy. You tend to average out at around 55 to 75 comms if you do most quest and select comms for all rewards per plant starting from zero. So unless you have a craft that can make one of the mod types you are going have to spend some credits to make the shortfall.

To be honest I do not recommend having a full custom gear on your favoured fighting companion anyway unless you have cybertech and just use green and blues to level him except maybe the main and off hand weapons.

Cybertech is very useful providing you level up up to your level as you go along as that provides both armourings and mods(although few gaurdian mods for strength based tanks which seems a oversight). Armourings each cost 7 comms and mods 2 comms so you save your self alot by using this skill as you level providing you keep the craft level up to your level and makes having you companion in custom also more viable.

If you having to choose what to upgrade with comms. always focus on getting the armourings or barells/hilts first as they increase your armour and base damage aswell as the stats, where as mods and enhancement and crystals just offer stat bonus alone.

Remember although your player level might be overlevelled your gear may not be overlevelled and will often lag behind in average item level. Ii is the barells/hilts and armourings that give your the item level of a custom piece.

Dailes are also a good source of comms and will often offer 5 comm each and are always at your level for decent xp.

Remember to fully upgrade a full custom set if you have a offhand aswell will cost 95 Comms so even just upgrading yourself fully let alone a companion with full custom gear is actually very hard. You just cant seem to get that amount of comms from starting at zero on one single planet even if you choose all comms at all quest rewards, unless you just grind out elites like crazy. You tend to average out at around 55 to 75 comms if you do most quest and select comms for all rewards per plant starting from zero. So unless you have a craft that can make one of the mod types you are going have to spend some credits to make the shortfall.

With a 6 piece custom set and no cybertech i would upgrade my weapon and 3 pieces of gear, then 4 levels later i would upgrade my weapon again and another 3 pieces of gear.

Here is how i do it:

level 15 - upgrade weapon first, then chest, bracers, gloves

level 19 - upgrade weapon first, then legs, belt, boots

level 23 - upgrade weapon first, then chest, bracers, gloves

level 27 - upgrade legs, belt, boots

level 27 - buy weapon(s) from Tatooine Spaceport Specialty Goods Vendor for credits, rip out mods and put in existing weapon**

level 31 - upgrade weapon first, then chest, bracer, gloves

and so on...usually between level 30-40 you will start to get a lot more planetary comms to where you can upgrade a helm as well, maybe even an offhand. And i would upgrade comp gear if a new quest reward for them had 15 endurance or more then what they were wearing. Only time i wouldnt take the quest reward for my comp is if it has less then 15 endurance, or it rewards 3 planetary comms. It is a bit of a headache, but it was useful for me early in the game and also when i wanted to reroll to a new server. Once i got my cybertech leveled up though i was able to upgrade all my gear every 4 levels since Cybertech saved me the cost of 49-56 comm badges.

** for the weapon purchase i mention ripping out the mods. Reason for this is when you buy the weapons from that Specialty vendor on Tatooine the weapons will have a level 28 requirement. But the hilt/barrel, mod and enhancements are all level 27. It is the weapon shell itself that has the level 28 requirement. This is good for if you are level 26 and you just hit 27. But in the case of the OP, he is already 28 probably 29 by now, so they wont have to worry about stripping those mods.

I am trying to understand when or how often I really need to upgrade my armor for PVE.

Good advice already in this thread, so what I'm about to type will be somewhat redundant.

Here's how I tend to do it, personally, for that _first_ character:

The pre-requisites:

- Pick Cybertech and the two associated support skills.

- Level those skills consistently, so you can make your own blue Armorings and Earpieces.

- Collect moddable gear for all armor slots, and your two weapon slots. This will take some time, unless you buy a set from the cartel market. (I would recommend that you do so, and then unlock it all for your account. That way you'll have it much easier on your subsequent alts. For me, it's utterly worth the initial investment.)

Then, upgrade your own gear every 4 levels:

- Make 7-8 Armoring(s), depending on your class.

- Buy 1-2 barrels/hilts, again depending on your class, for planetary commendations.

- Buy mods and enhancements for the remaining planetary commendations.

- Upgrade your primary companion's gear via mission rewards, primarily. Buy other upgrades for the companion (mostly green, in my case, to keep costs down) from the GTN, if the price is right. Again every 4 levels.

- Buy anything still needed (implants, for example) from the GTN, as well. Green or blue, depending on budget. Relics tend to be expensive on the GTN, so you can buy those from the light/dark side vendors at green quality for a (often significantly) lower price.

Additional musings, further along the road:

With more alts, I tend to also level Biochem to make my own med packs, stims and implants, as well as Artifice and/or Armstech to make my own hilts and/or barrels. Getting all those skills to high enough level, with enough materials, to supply each other will take time and effort, so I would recommend you to begin with Cybertech as outlined above, for the most payback in the shortest time.

I have 16 characters, so I have redundancy. I have two Cybertechs, several Biochems, one Artificer, one Armstech, one Armormech and one Synthweaver. I have one or two alts with only gathering skills, simply sending materials to the others. Since sending companions on missions cost money, I actually do "pay" for the crafted gear between my alts, in order to keep the credits balanced.

I hope this helps in one way or another. Good luck!