All my characters have 0 renown... I used to be level 100+ or something command rank, now I'm 0, what the hell? Have I missed something, I recently only just started playing again

I haven't done the new quests on most of my characters, and they are all still level 70, would this happen to have anything to do with it, if I level up to 75, will my renown levels come back? one character was level 100+ on the renown

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Did a quick google search and found this "https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/star-wars/star-wars-the-old-republic/new-in-swtor-onslaught/"

so did everyone's rank get reset?

Command Ranks were wiped out with the launch of 6.0 and their change to Renown Ranks. Everyone started 6.0 at Renown Rank 0. Once you reach level 75 you'll start earning Renown points and gaining Renown Ranks. Renown Ranks differ from Command Ranks in that there are no tiers. Whereas Command Rank 1 was different from Command Rank 300 in both the points needed to reach the next level and the quality of gear you would receive from a Command Crate, Renown Ranks are all the same. Going from Renown Rank 1 to 2 or from 998 to 999 requires the same number of points and the quality of gear you receive from a Renown Crate is based on your item rating (irating) rather than your Renown Rank. Renown Ranks stop incrementing at 999 but you still continue to accrue Renown points and earn Renown Crates.

The old Galactic Command achievements were deprecated and replaced by new Renown achievements. There are achievements for reaching Renown Rank 100 on each class and one for reaching Renown Rank 999. Prior to 6.0 the devs stated that Renown is intended to be reset at some point (putting everyone back at 0 and presumably introducing new achievements), likely with the next expansion (7.0).

The most important difference to remember is that Renown Crates give gear based upon your irating rather than your rank. This means that you can save your Renown Crates until you get a higher irating before opening them in order to get better gear versus old Command Crates that gave gear based upon their tier. Renown Crates also differ from Command Crates in that they do not give companion gifts, or drop pets or mounts (these can be purchased on the fleet for tech fragments and credits).

Command Ranks were wiped out with the launch of 6.0 and their change to Renown Ranks. Everyone started 6.0 at Renown Rank 0. Once you reach level 75 you'll start earning Renown points and gaining Renown Ranks. Renown Ranks differ from Command Ranks in that there are no tiers. Whereas Command Rank 1 was different from Command Rank 300 in both the points needed to reach the next level and the quality of gear you would receive from a Command Crate, Renown Ranks are all the same. Going from Renown Rank 1 to 2 or from 998 to 999 requires the same number of points and the quality of gear you receive from a Renown Crate is based on your item rating (irating) rather than your Renown Rank. Renown Ranks stop incrementing at 999 but you still continue to accrue Renown points and earn Renown Crates.

 

The old Galactic Command achievements were deprecated and replaced by new Renown achievements. There are achievements for reaching Renown Rank 100 on each class and one for reaching Renown Rank 999. Prior to 6.0 the devs stated that Renown is intended to be reset at some point (putting everyone back at 0 and presumably introducing new achievements), likely with the next expansion (7.0).

 

The most important difference to remember is that Renown Crates give gear based upon your irating rather than your rank. This means that you can save your Renown Crates until you get a higher irating before opening them in order to get better gear versus old Command Crates that gave gear based upon their tier. Renown Crates also differ from Command Crates in that they do not give companion gifts, or drop pets or mounts (these can be purchased on the fleet for tech fragments and credits).

What the hell is irating? Also, thanks for thee explination., it real; ly helps!

Item rating, or irating, is an average of the rating of the gear your character is wearing. It provides an easy way to assess your, or someone else's, gear. For example, of your character is wearing a full set of 252 gear then your irating will be 252. If half of your gear is rating 258 while the other half is 252 then your irating would be an average of your gear's rating, so 255. Item rating is not affected by augments, so will not change if you augment your gear. The highest rating gear right now is 306, so someone in a full set of 306 gear would have an irating of 306, but that wouldn't tell you if they were in BiS gear or if their gear was augmented. Also, because irating is an average, and does round up, having a rating of 306 doesn't necessarily mean that the person is in full 306.

You can see your irating on your character's Character Sheet. It will be shown on the left side under your character class and Renown Rank, right above your stats.

One further point. When they announced that Renown was coming in 6.0, they said that there would be "seasons" of Renown, and at the end of each season, our Renown ranks will be reset.

There was no indication of how long these seasons are, but I'd guess (WARNING: speculation) that the current one (began with the release of 6.0) will end when they release 7.0. It's also possible that 7.0 will replace Renown with something else entirely, just like 6.0 replaced Galactic Command with something else entirely, called Renown.

So, should I use my renown crates when I get them or wait till a higher ITEM RATING, because surely after a while crates will take up a bit of space

It's up to you. They will, as you say, take up a bit of space, but you will definitely get better (meaning higher-rated) results from them if you do wait. Perhaps do them in batches, and remember that the bulk of what you get will be junk that duplicates what you already have, and only rarely any better. (The Tech Frags from disintegrating gear do not depend on its rating!)

There is some discussion as to the "best" way but really it just comes down to personal preference.

My gearing strategy involved choosing one character that I would focus on gearing while disintegrating everything else other characters received for the tech fragments. In hindsight choosing a stealth character would have been best, but I chose my main Sage. A stealth character would make it easier to do some content. I stored all of my Renown crates, as well as any other gear crate I received, flashpoint, daily/weekly from Onderon, Conquest, etc. I would run content to get gear, equipping anything I received along the way to up my irating, then spend tech frags at the Spoils of War (SoW) vendor on the fleet station to bring up any slot that was lagging behind. Once I got my main gearing character over irating 300 (I was actually at 301) then I opened my Renown crates (making sure to equip anything that was an upgrade as I got it), then my other gear crates. By the time I was done I went from one character at irating 301 with my other characters in their 252 gear to my main and six other character in 304+ gear with most of the rest of my characters somewhere between 300-304. I had a little over 60 Renown crates and ~20 gear crates from other sources when I started opening everything. Now, approximately a month later, all of my level 75 characters have irating 306, they all have a tactical, and I disintegrate anything below rating 306 that I get.

Alternatively, some say just open them as you get them because you'll either get an upgrade or you can disintegrate it for tech frags.

While you are working on raising your irating do not worry about your stats. Wear whatever gear you get if it has a higher rating because your first goal is to get to the 304+ range. While leveling your irating sometimes you'll have 0 alacrity and 115% accuracy, and sometimes you'll have under 110% accuracy and way too much crit. Don't worry about your stats. Once most of your gear is 304-306 then you can start worrying about your stats. Most content is level synced, even flashpoints down-sync your character's stats to level 70, so having wonky stats won't make or break anything. The advantage to having a high irating in sub-75 content is that it grants irating adjustment stacks (up to 30 at irating 306) that give a small boost to your endurance raising it over the synced rating for that content. Mastery and Power do not appear to be affected by irating adjustment stacks and will either be capped by level sync or uncapped in non-level synced content. Your other stats (Crit, Accuracy, Alacrity, etc.) are not affected by level sync.

Mastery and Power do not appear to be affected by irating adjustment stacks and will either be capped by level sync or uncapped in non-level synced content. Your other stats (Crit, Accuracy, Alacrity, etc.) are not affected by level sync.

If you're Synced, Power isn't affected by anything except which area you are. Not the adjustment stacks, not the exact flavour of your gear, not even the fact that your character is ****-naked and unarmed, will change your Power in such an area. In the open world on Zakuul if you are above true-level 70, you will have 3929 Power no matter what you do. In [sOLO] Nathema Conspiracy, it will be thirty one hundred and change. (Also synced to 70.)