Thanks for your interest in my post. I'm an EX-veteran of the game and am thinking of starting back up. I have a few questions regarding the game, which is now free-to-play, and how to best get back on my feet. I have a 50 Sith warrior, and 50 Vanguard, but who knows if i'll finally level my sniper to 50?

Here's a few questions:

I left just after 1.2 "Legacies." By this point, I had completed most of the major raids and was starting the newest one with my (what do they call it, linkshells, guilds?) whatever. I skimmed the patch notes, and they have added 1 or 2 more raids? My equipment is obviously outdated. Is pvp still an option to get geared for a raid? Do people still do regular flashpoints, or just HM's? Is the gearing set so it's regular FP's/pvp>HM's>raids like it was back then? Are regular flashpoints still viable?

Are old raids still viable at all? Is soto (is that his name?) still a boss people do often? I know this is one MMO where as patches are released, old content gets left in the dust (I.E. WOTLK). To what extent has that happened so far, with it still being only 2 years since launch?

Have any class story missions been added for those who completed them fully? What other notable additions are there to take note of? (I don't mean the legacy rewards like training dummies on a ship- bigger stuff than that). Is the whole rakghoul thing still happening every so often? Are crew skills like armormaking and weaponmaking finally viable for gearing up (from what I remember, just biochem and maybe 1 or 2 other crew skills were actually good for money)?

All in all: What are the major updates that are going to affect my gameplay now, more than ever before? It's been 9 months since I was a dedicated player.

Thanks for your interest in my post. I'm an EX-veteran of the game and am thinking of starting back up. I have a few questions regarding the game, which is now free-to-play, and how to best get back on my feet. I have a 50 Sith warrior, and 50 Vanguard, but who knows if i'll finally level my sniper to 50?

 

Here's a few questions:

 

I left just after 1.2 "Legacies." By this point, I had completed most of the major raids and was starting the newest one with my (what do they call it, linkshells, guilds?) whatever. I skimmed the patch notes, and they have added 1 or 2 more raids? My equipment is obviously outdated. Is pvp still an option to get geared for a raid? Do people still do regular flashpoints, or just HM's? Is the gearing set so it's regular FP's/pvp>HM's>raids like it was back then? Are regular flashpoints still viable?

 

Are old raids still viable at all? Is soto (is that his name?) still a boss people do often? I know this is one MMO where as patches are released, old content gets left in the dust (I.E. WOTLK). To what extent has that happened so far, with it still being only 2 years since launch?

 

Have any class story missions been added for those who completed them fully? What other notable additions are there to take note of? (I don't mean the legacy rewards like training dummies on a ship- bigger stuff than that). Is the whole rakghoul thing still happening every so often? Are crew skills like armormaking and weaponmaking finally viable for gearing up (from what I remember, just biochem and maybe 1 or 2 other crew skills were actually good for money)?

 

All in all: What are the major updates that are going to affect my gameplay now, more than ever before? It's been 9 months since I was a dedicated player.

Basically, there is still a sense of "progression" through the content.

1) you ding 50 you get 99 Tionese comms (even existing level 50s get these comms) to buy gear with so you can pretty much jump right into HM FPs, but SM FPs are still done (usually so that players can enjoy the journey and conversations)

2) doing the HM FP daily and weekly you get a lot of columi comms and if you do a HM FP through the group finder you get five Black Hole comms each day. It is theoretically possible to skip the rakata level of gear altogether by doing HM FPs, but it does take a long time.

3) HM EV and KP drop rakata level gear so they are still viable to get geared up that much faster for the newer OPs

4) SM and HM EC get you geared up for the latest OPs TFB.

There has been no gear reset "expansion" yet in this game like WoW. There have only been content patches - new FPs, OPs and WZs. The first "expansion" (called Rise of the Hutt Cartel) is due this spring and will add one planet (Makeb), five levels (cap to 55) and an unknown quantity of FPs, OPs, and WZs. It currently costs $10 to pre-order for subscribers $20 for F2P. There has been a LOT of debate over this expansion because details are lacking at the moment; BioWare is trickling them out over time.

There has been no extensions of class stories and there is no intent to do so with the expansion on the horizon. However, they have added a quest chain to get another companion - HK-51 droid - called section X. This also includes a new World Boss and new daily quests.

the Rakghoul thing is long over, the only remnant are the two Flashpoints (Kaon and Lost Island).

The Crafting crew skills took a significant hit with the advent of the cartel coin shop. they offer lots of different armor shells for what amounts to real world money (subscribers get a monthly stipend of cartel coins, F2P have to buy them). However, they did correct the set bonuses being attached to the shells. Campaign quality armoring mods exist so that you can get the set bonuses with any gear you wear. Campaign armoring mods are bought with Black Hole comms.

TL;DR - a lot has changed, but most of what you did in the past is still viable and done regularly.

Thanks for your interest in my post. I'm an EX-veteran of the game and am thinking of starting back up. I have a few questions regarding the game, which is now free-to-play, and how to best get back on my feet. I have a 50 Sith warrior, and 50 Vanguard, but who knows if i'll finally level my sniper to 50?

Welcome back.

I left just after 1.2 "Legacies." By this point, I had completed most of the major raids and was starting the newest one with my (what do they call it, linkshells, guilds?) whatever. I skimmed the patch notes, and they have added 1 or 2 more raids? My equipment is obviously outdated. Is pvp still an option to get geared for a raid? Do people still do regular flashpoints, or just HM's? Is the gearing set so it's regular FP's/pvp>HM's>raids like it was back then? Are regular flashpoints still viable?

The "old" raids are still viable, and you can use your old battlemaster gear for the old raids, but EC and especially TFB you will be sorely under-dressed. The regular flashpoints only give Tionese gear, at best, and Daily comms for the group finder daily, so there's not much point. I've only used them for recruitment trolling when my old guild needed fresh recruits.

HM give black hole comms which you can trade for Black Hole gear. Which isn't optimized as well as rakata, but if you buy enough and swap mods around, you will end up ready for HM EC/TFB.

You can do EC/TFB story mode in Rakata. EC story can even be done in Columi/Battle-master (though it will be much tougher).

Are old raids still viable at all? Is soto (is that his name?) still a boss people do often? I know this is one MMO where as patches are released, old content gets left in the dust (I.E. WOTLK). To what extent has that happened so far, with it still being only 2 years since launch?

There is a weekly quest for completing the first bosses in EV/KP HM, plus Rakata is still very viable up through EC hard and TFB story. They are visited alot less, obviously, but still useful.

Have any class story missions been added for those who completed them fully? What other notable additions are there to take note of? (I don't mean the legacy rewards like training dummies on a ship- bigger stuff than that). Is the whole rakghoul thing still happening every so often? Are crew skills like armormaking and weaponmaking finally viable for gearing up (from what I remember, just biochem and maybe 1 or 2 other crew skills were actually good for money)?

 

All in all: What are the major updates that are going to affect my gameplay now, more than ever before? It's been 9 months since I was a dedicated player.

As mentioned previously, the HK-51 companion has been added. You can pick up the quest in the new Section X area. Just take a shuttle from any of the Daily zones.

Armorings, mods and enhancements from Black Hole gear can be RE'd for Molecular Stabilizers. A crafting component used for the top two tiers of mods.

Biochem has been nerfed along the way. I'm not sure how, I didn't level one until after the changes.

HM give black hole comms which you can trade for Black Hole gear. Which isn't optimized as well as rakata, but if you buy enough and swap mods around, you will end up ready for HM EC/TFB.

.

Thanks for your above posts! This is all really helpful and i'm figuring it out as I play around on my old level 50's. This part confused me, though. I definitely thought Blackhole was superior to rakata; are you saying tha rakata is actually superior?

Thanks for your above posts! This is all really helpful and i'm figuring it out as I play around on my old level 50's. This part confused me, though. I definitely thought Blackhole was superior to rakata; are you saying tha rakata is actually superior?

If you take the Black hole and rakata sets as a whole, the black hole set is better than the Rakata set. The problem is that when you buy the pieces one at a time the stat itemization is different so you end up losing one stat and gaining another.

Only an example not fact....

rakata gloves for JKGD has good defense rating

BH gloves for JKGD has good shield and absorb rating but you lose defense rating

but then...

rakata pants for JKG has good shield and absorb rating

BH pants for JKG has good defense rating

therefore the combination of the pants AND gloves for BH are better than the combination of Rakata but when you buy them one at a time your stats are less optimized.