Hello,

 

Is this op doable in DG gear or do I have to grind to 55 and then grind a new set of gear. Personally I have maybe 6 hours a week to play and I would hate to be so far behind my guild that they lose their raid leader.

if I'm not completely wrong you will have to grind the new lvl 55 gear but I'm not sure

My understanding is that storymode S&V is more than doable with Dread Guard. You'll need arkanian for hardmode though.

 

If you look at the stats on Dread Guard they're not that far off from the Basic Gear

We did some of 16HM in 61/63 mix, at level 55.

 

It will be much easier if you have the new gear though.

You can definitely do SM S&V in Dread Guard gear, especially augmented and min-maxed. It will not be a roflstomp though. The best analogy would be doing SM EV in level 45 gear. It works, and once you're all familiar with the mechanics you can get through pretty easily, but it's not a gear smash by any means.

 

HM S&V definitely has tighter requirements, especially on the later bosses. You should try to get at least a few pieces of Arkanian for everyone before you go into HM. That should allow you to progress at least up to the puzzle, using the drops you get along the way to accelerate your progression. The final boss is very, very tight in hard mode. People on the PTS were clearing it in full Arkanian, but not pleasantly. Unless you're a god among raiders, you're probably going to need to have replaced all of your group's Dread Guard pieces by the time you get to that point.

I believe from 50-55 will be doable in 61/63 gear; I think that 55 HM Ops you will need whatever the new "low" set is, and build from there.

Ok question # 2,

Can you physically walk into the instance at lvl 50 or 51? I am not tryint to weasel out of lvl'ing; its just that I have so little free time in April.

Ok question # 2,

Can you physically walk into the instance at lvl 50 or 51? I am not tryint to weasel out of lvl'ing; its just that I have so little free time in April.

 

While I haven't tried entering with a 50 I believe S&V is limited to 55's only, TFB can still be used be 50's though despite the rebalancing.

You can definitely do SM S&V in Dread Guard gear, especially augmented and min-maxed. It will not be a roflstomp though. The best analogy would be doing SM EV in level 45 gear. It works, and once you're all familiar with the mechanics you can get through pretty easily, but it's not a gear smash by any means.

 

HM S&V definitely has tighter requirements, especially on the later bosses. You should try to get at least a few pieces of Arkanian for everyone before you go into HM. That should allow you to progress at least up to the puzzle, using the drops you get along the way to accelerate your progression. The final boss is very, very tight in hard mode. People on the PTS were clearing it in full Arkanian, but not pleasantly. Unless you're a god among raiders, you're probably going to need to have replaced all of your group's Dread Guard pieces by the time you get to that point.

 

What gear is there between Dread Guard and Arkanian? Didn't think it was as bad as SM EV in level 45 gear o.o

What gear is there between Dread Guard and Arkanian? Didn't think it was as bad as SM EV in level 45 gear o.o

There is Level 55 purple gear purchasable with Basic Commendations, it has a rating of 156 (DG is 150)

 

When I was looking at the vendors on the PTS, it really didn't seem much of an improvement over my min-maxed Dread Guard.

 

So technically it would be a tier in-between, but more practically, I'd use Basic Comms to gear up companions, and wait for Arkanian for my main.

So technically it would be a tier in-between, but more practically, I'd use Basic Comms to gear up companions, and wait for Arkanian for my main.

 

Unless you're a tank, wherein it would behoove you to at least swap out your armorings for the increased armor rating.

As far as gearing thing of the 3 new tiers like tionese/columi/rakata. Tionese was just kind of a an interim gearset that got you to something you'd keep for a while. Same with the 66s you get from makeb/basic comms/HM FPs. They just allow you to do HM FP/SM Ops to get your 69 gear which you need for HM Ops. You can still do all content below HM Ops in 63s so far as I know. That said, new augments (+30ish mainstat!), relics and gear sets; you're going to want to start getting some of those upgrades.

Unless you're a tank, wherein it would behoove you to at least swap out your armorings for the increased armor rating.

Well, for 4 out of 8 pieces, anyway. I like the 4-piece set bonus on my Shadow too much to lose it.