Well.. I'm a lv 16 Sentinel. I just want to hopefully get a better understanding of the armor and equipment system in the game.

 

As far as Orange Purples and Green or whatever else types of armor there is..

the ONLY thing I know about them is that Orange can be upgraded...

 

I've just been picking up drops and equiping whatever gives me better stat.

 

I've got about 1mil worth of items that I'm currently selling..

So can anyone please tell me what I should do with that money to help me advance faster and what armors and equips will make things easier for me?

 

Are there any guides for Jedi Sentinel (DPS) that will tell me at what levels I should buy different armor or upgrades? Any guides that can constantly keep me at the top of my level?

 

Would really appreciate it. Thanks!

To be honest, specialized gear while leveling isn't really that critical ... just replace gear as drops happen, or when things get a bit too hard (I usually end up replacing about 1/2 gear per planet - and feed my companions my old gear). Concentrate more on mastering the abilities as you learn them, tricks associated with them (like special procs if X,Y,Z happens) and how you can take advantage of them. And most importantly, enjoy the story :: it's one of the best parts of the game.

most of what you need to worry about is that you should only be equipping medium armor with strength and endurance as stats. strength is the main stat for a sentinel. medium armor with cunning on it won't help you, as that's the smuggler's main stat. as far as buying more equips go, i would just hold onto your money and save it for buying skill upgrades as that gets expensive in later levels. you'll be able to buy better gear and/or mods to put in your orange gear with planetary coms. running flashpoints is also a good way to get gear (just make sure you only roll need on medium armor with strength on it as some people might get mad if you roll need on gear that isn't for your class).

 

and as the person above me said...gear is great, but mastering your skills is even better. gearing yourself up isn't so important at lower levels as you tend to out level your gear quickly anyways.

If you want to understand more about green, blue, and purple items I suggest you read the reengineering guide. Even if you don't craft, it explains the system quite well. For example, the prefixs on crafted gear are meaningful, as they indicate the type of stats on the item. A single green item can be RE'd into 18 different schematics (3 blue x 5 Purple), each with a different combination of stats. For example if you are crafting for a tank, you might want to discover a schematic for Veracity gear, which gives high Defense and Shield stats. Orange and Purple "prototype" gear have slots so all the stats come from the mods.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=45866

 

Redoubt (+Defense)

-Anti-Armor (+Defense, +Surge)

-Exactitude (+Defense, +Accuracy)

-General's (+Defense, +Presence)

-Veracity (+Defense, +Shield)

- ?????? (+Defense, +Alacrity) (This is the missing Tier 2 Prefix)

Critical (+Critical)

-Endowment (+Critical, +Surge)

-Fervor (+Critical, +Accuracy)

-Leadership (+Critical, +Presence)

-Supremacy (+Critical, +Alacrity)

-Tempest (+Critical, +Shield)

Overkill (+Power)

-Commander (+Power, +Presence)

- Expert (+Power, +Surge)

- Hawkeye (+Power, +Accuracy)

-Rampart (+Power, +Shield)

-Vehemence (+Power, +Alacrity)

Edited February 28, 2013 by BebeLeBozo

If you want to understand more about green, blue, and purple items I suggest you read the reengineering guide. Even if you don't craft, it explains the system quite well. For example, the prefixs on crafted gear are meaningful, as they indicate the type of stats on the item. A single green item can be RE'd into 18 different schematics (3 blue x 5 Purple), each with a different combination of stats. For example if you are crafting for a tank, you might want to discover a schematic for Veracity gear, which gives high Defense and Shield stats. Orange and Purple "prototype" gear have slots so all the stats come from the mods.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=45866

 

Redoubt (+Defense)

-Anti-Armor (+Defense, +Surge)

-Exactitude (+Defense, +Accuracy)

-General's (+Defense, +Presence)

-Veracity (+Defense, +Shield)

- ?????? (+Defense, +Alacrity) (This is the missing Tier 2 Prefix)

Critical (+Critical)

-Endowment (+Critical, +Surge)

-Fervor (+Critical, +Accuracy)

-Leadership (+Critical, +Presence)

-Supremacy (+Critical, +Alacrity)

-Tempest (+Critical, +Shield)

Overkill (+Power)

-Commander (+Power, +Presence)

- Expert (+Power, +Surge)

- Hawkeye (+Power, +Accuracy)

-Rampart (+Power, +Shield)

-Vehemence (+Power, +Alacrity)

 

If you want to be well-armored while leveling, Synthweaving with this tip is very useful. However, I kind of feel that in the endgame, Synthweaving sucks.

 

As an alternative, I'd suggest taking up Cybertech. It will allow you to create armoring and mods for all your characters, while you can easily buy the level appropriate enhancements with Planetary Commendations.

 

The added benefit of creating grenades for you is very nice to have as a sentinel, who only gets one AoE Mezz at a rather late level.

 

Take the two gathering skills that accompany Cybertech (Scavenging and, not sure of this, Underworld Trading) and you're good to level your character with optimum gear.

 

BTW: Try to find some level 10 high end crystals (+41 crit, power, endurance or expertise) on the GTN or the cartel market lottery. You can also find moddable bracers and belts.

 

Another tip: Make a choice of gear you are willing to wear from 10 to 50 (and upwards) if you find a look you like, add MK6 augments and you'll get an extra boost, but this is called twinking and maybe not worth it if it's your first character.

Thanks for all the great replies.. Really helped me learn quite a bit. So while we're still talking about this.. (Hopefully) Whats some good equips to get at end game? Or what are some things I should be trying to get or buy for when I get to the point I can use it. And.. I have about 7k cartel points.. What in the shop can I buy to assist me the most? Even if it later leveled stuff. I did see for the most part that all cartel items fitting my currentl level gives me negative stats. So they're useless.. Just wondering if any of it will ever be useful.. let me know please. Thanks!

Cartel armor and weapons are orange with empty modification slots. So they have no stats.

 

They are there so you can get the look you want on your character. Once you buy a piece of cartel gear, you have to fill the slots.

 

Orange gear is the best way to keep yourself in the best stats. That way you don't look for armor. You look for the modification fillers that go into it and just keep upgrading those.

 

If you go to the GTN you can find the dropdown for item modification and find level appropriate armorings, modifications, and enhancements to fill your armor with.

 

Others have said it, but you want high strength for now. Later (in your 30s') you'll be looking for high power, crit chance, accuracy, and surge in addition to strength.

 

I think it's best to just focus on levelling for now and worry about endgame when you get there. While levelling there are plenty of different sources of gear (crafting/gtn, planet commendation vendors, quest rewards).

Theres a few end game guides about, summary version is they are grouped into how good they are by names: Tionese, Columi, Rakata, Black Hole/Campaign, Dreadguard/Hazmat.

 

For example you can get Flashpoint Hard Mode boss will drop a columi base class item, such as trooper chest, you can then go the vendors in supplies at fleet to hand in your preference, they'll be items better for tanks, healers and DPS.

 

Black hole stuff can be accrued by mostly solo activity like repeatable daily heroics, and there are a few exceptions, such as being able to buy hazmat implants for a lot of black hole comms.

 

Reaching 50 is just a new stage of gear and you'll find yourself mostly gearing in fits and starts. When you reach 50 (soon to be 55 with the update) then you should already be in a guild and thinking about going on operations to improve your gear and because theres not much else point to being end game, enjoying yourself.

and cartel items, all the equipment sets for end game players are just cosmetic, some might improve you while levelling but some sets are completely empty.

 

Crystals are of more interest though, currently the highest stat bonus these provide are +41 and pre-cartel could only be equipped at 50. The cartel crystals can provide a +41 stat increase from level 10, a major different to a low level toon. For a DPS class like sentinel, I'd suggest hawkeye crystals which add power which increases damage you do.

 

2.0 is not far away though, I'd sugest saving the coins and see what comes out with the update, you're unlikely to hit 50 before it comes.

It's like no one read his post...

 

So, you have already noticed that some items are green or blue or purple. The ranking for items goes like this -> grey/white -> green (also called premium) -> blue (prototype) -> purple (artifact)

and then there is orange, custom. Green is your standard drop, it's enough to equip your companions with and blue and purple are just better.

You will still have a lot of green gear at your level, but that's fine, with time you'll get more orange items from quest rewards and everything. And you want to either keep these or buy different ones from the GTN if you don't like the look of them. Now, whenever you finish a planet go to the fleet to the... uh, I don't even know what the section is called, sorry, but there is a section with vendors who give you stuff for your planetary comms you got from quest reward. After you finished Coruscant for exmaple, go to the fleet, look for the coruscant modification commendations vendor and buy the items that you need. Those are might armoring and the likes. Take a look at your gear and make sure that the little numbers next to the mods are up to your level.

For example, you hover over your pants. The armoring is level 10, the mod 12 and the enhancement 14. So your priority is to buy a level 15 might armoring to put into it. This is what you will be doing all the time. So you will either sell the green and blue drops or give to your companions since except for the belt and bracers soon all of your gear is gonna be orange.

You will have to take care only to buy armorings and mods that have your mainstat on them, strength and that the strength is higher than endurance. There are for example the guardian armoring which also have strength and endurance on them, though they have more endurance and are a no no for a damage dealer.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for all the great replies.. Really helped me learn quite a bit. So while we're still talking about this.. (Hopefully) Whats some good equips to get at end game? Or what are some things I should be trying to get or buy for when I get to the point I can use it. And.. I have about 7k cartel points.. What in the shop can I buy to assist me the most? Even if it later leveled stuff. I did see for the most part that all cartel items fitting my currentl level gives me negative stats. So they're useless.. Just wondering if any of it will ever be useful.. let me know please. Thanks!

 

When you hit 50, go to the fleet. You will get a quest somewhere that gives you a certain amount of Tionese Commendations/Crystals. With those you can buy yourself starting PvE endgear. The same can be done for PvP, you will get a full set of Recruit gear. This is basically your Tier 1 gear.

 

When you have those 2 gear sets, you are looking to upgrade for the next tier of armor:

 

- PvE: Columi gear. These can be obtained by doing the following Hard Mode Flashpoints: The Esseless, Taral V, Maelstrom Prison, Battle of Ilum, False Emperor and Kaon under Siege. You will get Columi commendations and sometimes an armor token for your class. You can trade these in at the Daily Vendor for this Tier 2 gear. There's no way to collect these tokens before level 50.

- PvP: War Hero gear. This PvP gear can be obtained by playing warzones and earning warzone commendations. They will give a significant boost to your Expertise stat, as well as a nice boost to your main stats in comparison to Recruit gear. Luckily, you can start saving up for this gear BEFORE you reach 50. While you level, PvP every once in a while and save up your commendations. Starting Level 40 (you must also have valor level 40) if you have reached the commendations cap for warzone commendations, you can start converting some stacks of them into ranked warzone commendations. These are for your next tier of gear.

 

From there on out, PvP will (for now) only have one more gear grind, which is to upgrade to Elite War Hero. For this, you will need a lot of Ranked Warzone Commendations, which are hard to grind if you don't do ranked warzones with a premade.

 

PvE, however, will offer you even more tiers to grind. You can go to Rakata, Black Hole, Campaign, Hazmat and whatever else is around. These can be acquired by doing Hard Mode Operations, Nightmare Mode Operations and daily quests (world bosses, etc...). You can also earn daily commendations @ 50 by doing the daily missions on Belsavis, Corellia, Section X, Black Hole and Ilum...

 

But this is all in the future as you're still leveling. My advice: if you haven't reached L32 yet, use your cartel coins to buy yourself a nice set of L32 armor for your sent. It looks awesome and is decked out with L32 purple mods. It will focus more on your endurance and on power however, but it will be a significant improvement on the gear you're wearing from mission objectives. You only really need to upgrade the gear at around level 38-40.

 

Also, again, try to buy some L10 crystals that give +41 in a certain stat (in your case, I'd go for power). They go for around 150K a crystal and are well worth the investment as you will never need to replace them (if you buy the correct ones).

I really understand the colors now.. thanks so much. I bought me a full set of orange armor from the cartel market.. now getting mods are difficult.. :/ It's quite expensive as I'm trying to save.. but I can afford it I guess. Though some of the mods on the board arent the ones I'm looking for. I currently have Bio anylisis, and chem+diplomacy.. so I can't make my own mods on this character. If I were to get the appropriate crew skills on a different character, how could I transfer the mods to this one? I'm almost to 200 on my bios so I don't wanna get rid of them, I love having reusable med pacs and boosters.. So if anyone could give me tips on getting good mods, I'd appreciate it. thanks! Can't express enough how much this thread has helped me.

You just mail yourself whatever you, just be careful that certain actions bind items to a specific character, so if you built yourself an orange belt for example, you can mail that to you any character you have, if you went to a bench and added an augment slot before you sent it, it would bind.

 

When you get to end game, buy a full set of legacy gear from the coruscant legacy vendors, these are special, they allow you to effectively transfer spare end game items from your main to your alt. So if you have a spare rakata chest you can strip out the upgrades which are normally bound to you, put these in the legacy item, mail to new 50, extract into your chest.

Ok hold on a moment here, you're lvl 16 and the vendor value of all your items is 1 million? That doesn't seem possible. I don't have anything constructive to add to the advice given above by the rest but i'm curious as to where you pulled that figure out from.

Ok hold on a moment here, you're lvl 16 and the vendor value of all your items is 1 million? That doesn't seem possible. I don't have anything constructive to add to the advice given above by the rest but i'm curious as to where you pulled that figure out from.

I never said vendor value, lol. I bought some stuff with Cartel Points and got lucky on a couple of drops. GTN.

There are three crafts that create Item Modifications:

 

Cybertech: Armorings and Mods with the added bonus of making grenades and earpieces

Artifice: Weapon Crystals, Lightsaber Hilts and Enhancements with the added bonus of making Relics

Armstech: Weapon Barrels with the added bonus of making some of the best augment types.

 

For each crafting skill, you'll need one toon. You can send mails between your toons with the crafted items, if they are not bound to said toon. Legacy gear is a fine way of transferring mods even though they are bound. Since you are loaded :-) you can go to the capital world and buy a set.

Edited March 2, 2013 by SpoeMeister