Jump to content

CrAzEdMiKe's 1-50 Power-Levelling Guide!


CrAzEdMiKe

Recommended Posts

The 1-50 Power-Levelling Guide

By: CrAzEdMiKe

 

Table of Contents:

I - Introduction

II - Planning your Character

III - Character Companions

IV - Exterior Support

V - Getting Started (Levels 1-21)

VI - Mid to Late Game (Levels 21-50)

VII - Damage Control and Course Correction

VIII - Equipping your Character

IX - Crew Skills

X - Conclusion

XI - Additional Material/Resources

 

I - Introduction

 

Hey everyone! To begin I would like to state that I do not consider myself a SW:ToR expert nor am I very experienced in MMOs. In fact, SW:ToR is the only MMO I've ever played. That being said, I have a strong backround in RPGs as I've played Baldur's Gate I, II and Throne of Bhaal at least 100 times, Icewind Dale I & II a fair number of times. I also spent countless hours on Neverwinter Nights. The server I played on actually functioned extremely similarly to regular MMOs just on a smaller scale.

 

My point is I'm not trying to tell you that my guide is THE way to level easily. I'm sure there are lots of ways to get from 1 to 50 in this game, but this is the method I personally have employed with great success with many characters. I made a friend one day in a flashpoint and we had a blast together. He was a level 36 at the time and I was a level 30. Over the course of the following weeks, we played a fair bit together and did quite a few flashpoints together but were levelling seperately... That is until I ended up catching up with him and eventually beating him to level 50.

 

I personally thought that there were a lot of areas that he simply needed to refine in terms of how he was questing that would drastically improve the efficiency of how he levelled. There are some drawbacks to the way I am proposing and I will address them throughout this guide, but I'm hoping that at least a couple of these points may help speed up your quest to get to level 50.

 

So without further ado, let us begin!

 

 

II - Planning your Character

 

Fortunately, this stage of your easy levelling can be done at ANY TIME. That's right, if you're a level 30 and you're reading this now, don't sweat it! The first and foremost thing you should do is have a plan for your character. By establishing a road map that you want to take your character down, decision making becomes so much easier.

 

It's very easy while running through the world and finding a good piece of equipment that has completely different stats for your class and go "Hey, maybe I should use that instead." Do not succumb to this! Most people already have an idea in mind when they start their character... Whether it be something simple like the powerful Sith Warrior that is strong in the Dark Side and will smash face, to the honorable Bounty Hunter who seeks to protect and heal others. What you want your character to be is purely up to you and never let anyone try and sway you from that. You're paying for this game, so play what you want to play and don't look back.

 

With that being said, I'm going to make an extremely brief and simple list of the different classes and what their intended roles in the game are.

 

Juggernaut/Guardian (Tank/Melee DPS)

Marauder/Sentinel (Melee DPS)

Sorcerer/Sage (Heals/Ranged DPS)

Assassin/Shadow (Tank/Melee DPS)

Mercenary/Commando (Heals/Ranged DPS)

Powertech/Vanguard (Tank/Ranged & Close Range DPS)

Sniper/Gunslinger (Ranged DPS)

Operative/Scoundrel (Heals/Ranged & Close Range DPS)

 

This is a very simple list that is basically copy/pasted from the game to describe the roles of each advanced class. In terms of what these roles mean, a Tank would be described as a character that will actively attempt to draw fire and absorb damage for his allies. A DPS is a straightforward damage dealer that will attempt to kill it's target as quickly as possible. Healers are of course, well, healers... They seek to support their allies by keeping them alive as long as possible. Between these three roles, you should select your role based on what playstyle you would like to play.

 

The simplest of the three to play would definitely be DPS. In any situation your objective is simple: Kill the enemy. You will generally have few ways of being able to support your team in ways that don't involve simply killing the opponent. You will be more prone to taking damage and thus your fate will be kind of sealed to the supporting team members (Tanks and Healers). Whether it be in PvP or Flashpoints, you will operate better when enemies just leave you alone and you simply smack away trying to do damage. If you don't wish to worry too much about the rest of your team, I would advise playing a DPS character, especially since you will likely have a much easier time levelling with a DPS than with either a Tank or a Healer.

 

The next level of difficulty in terms of playing a character I would say is the healer. They become more difficult in PvP or in flashpoints since the demand for your heals will increase substantially, but good healing requires a firm understanding of how your energy relates to your healing, and when to use certain heals over others. Healers tend to become more effective as they gain more literal experience in healing related scenarios. In terms of levelling it does tend to be a little slower as your attacks will definitely have less punch and you are focused on keeping allies up instead of bringing enemies down. Although they may take longer to level than either DPS or Tanks, I do feel (and some of you may disagree with me on this) that healers are fairly straightforward and one dimensional in what they need to do.

 

The hardest character I feel there is to play is the Tank. From my experience playing a tank requires the most awareness of what is going on in the battle and requires a lot of attention to try and keep all the enemies focus on you. Tank is definitely tricky to play, but can be extremely rewarding when done well. When playing a tank you should definitely be moving your vision around your character constantly to check up and see if any enemies are attacking your allies. I've seen a lot of Tanks who get tunnel vision and start acting like a DPS where they taunt everyone once and focus in on a single target. This is not the job of the tank! The tank needs to be attacking everyone and pulling attention away from others. This is why I feel the tank is hardest to play. The big boss fights are usually the easiest fights for tanks to worry about as they have only one enemy to keep busy. The sign of a masterful tank is in a room full of enemies and they are all attacking that tank. If the tank does his job well, it will make the healers and DPS work more effectively as well, since they are not concerned for themselves and can take down the targets and heal with relative ease.

 

So once you select your advanced class, you should decide right away what kind of role you want to play in the group and stick to that role... Because your role will influence what kind of companion you will want to keep around with you, and believe it or not your companion will greatly impact your ability to level throughout this game. I will elaborate more on that in the next chapter.

 

Once you have decided what role you are going to be, the next phase of your planning should be to immediately hop to this Website. From there you'll not only be able to look at the respective skill trees for your character, but you can also play around with the figures and get a good sense of how you're going to progress your tree. You can save the link of your build ideas to your favorites bar and keep them there for reference if needed. You can even take builds from off the internet if you prefer, after all it's your character! There's no shame in seeing a particular build and going "Hey, I like that. I want to do that!". So long as you have it saved and bookmarked so that if you don't remember exactly you can quickly look it up and it will tell you where to go.

 

There is a fourth type of character that I've deliberately ignored up until this point and that would be a hybridization of roles within one character. This isn't applicable to Snipers, Gunslingers, Marauders and Sentinels as they are all strictly DPS advanced classes, but other characters have the ability to dabble in different types of trees to try and achieve a unique result. These characters are what I would call niche characters and can certainly be useful in a certain type of group, but keep in mind that they will not fulfill a single role as well as a dedicated type of character would. These characters tend to be a lot stronger in PvP scenarios, whereas in flashpoints they tend to be a little hit and miss. Sometimes being backup heals or backup tank can be useful, but if the tanks and healers are doing just fine then you just become a subpar DPS. So keep that in mind if you choose to attempt a hybrid character. I also feel that hybridization is something that requires a player with a firm understanding of how the class operates to pull off... And sometimes these classes don't come into their own until a critical level where they acquire certain skills in both trees. In terms of difficulty to play, I would probably stick to a single role instead of trying to juggle multiple ones.

 

So once you've figured out what role you're going to be, the next step is choosing your companions and outfitting your character!

 

 

III - Character Companions

 

To begin, character companions will play a crucial role in your levelling experience and they need to be chosen carefully. The role of your companion should be directly related to the role you have chosen to play. I'm going to summarize very briefly the different types of companions that will be available to you.

 

Ranged DPS Companions:

Aric Jorgan (Trooper)

Risha (Smuggler)

Sergeant Rusk (Jedi Knight)

Zenith (Consular)

Gault Rennow (Bounty Hunter)

Vette (Sith Warrior)

Andronikus Revel (Sith Inquisitor)

Raina Temple (Imperial Agent)

 

Xalek (Sith Inquisitor) and Malavai Quinn (Sith Warrior) are listed on http://www.swtor-spy.com/companions/ as being able to perform different roles, so they can be used as well for ranged DPS.

 

Melee Tank Companions:

Tanno Vik (Trooper)

Bowdaar (Smuggler)

Lord Scourge (Jedi Knight)

Qyzen-Fess (Jedi Consular)

Skadge (Bounty Hunter)

Broonmark (Sith Warrior)

Khem Vhal (Sith Inquisitor)

Scorpio (Imperial Agent)

 

Again, Xalek for Sith Inquisitors has the option of being a melee Tank as well. So keep that in mind if you're tired of listening to Khem Vhal's desires to eat you. =P

 

Ranged Tank Companions:

M1-4X (Trooper)

Corso Riggs (Smuggler)

T7-01 (Jedi Knight)

Lt. Felix Iresso (Jedi Consular)

Blizz (Bounty Hunter)

Lieutenant Pierce (Sith Warrior)

Xalek (Sith Inquisitor sort of... You can turn off most of his melee abilties to force him to use ranged more)

Kaliyo (Imperial Agent)

 

Healer Companions:

Elara Dorne (Trooper)

Guss Tuno (Smuggler)

Doc (Jedi Knight)

Tharan Cedrax (Jedi Consular)

Mako (Bounty Hunter)

Malavai Quinn (Sith Warrior)

Talos Drellik (Sith Inquisitor)

Dr. Eckard Lokin (Imperial Agent)

 

Melee DPS Companions:

Yuun (Trooper)

Akaavi Spar (Smuggler)

Kira Carsen (Jedi Knight)

Nadia Grell (Jedi Consular)

Torian Cadera (Bounty Hunter)

Jaesa Willsaam (Sith Warrior)

Ashara Zavros (Sith Inquisitor)

Vector Hyllus (Imperial Agent)

 

So the basic roles of your companions are not unlike your own. The main thing to be aware of is that you need to maximize the strengths of your companions in order to maximize your own. Since you're going to be using your companion primarily when you're levelling alone, you don't absolutely need your setup to be "flawless". Your objective is to level quickly, not perfectly. Here is what I recommend in terms of what type of companion should be paired up with your character role.

 

Tanks = Ranged DPS Companion

The nice thing about having ranged DPS is that they will pretty much always be shooting stuff. Since the AI for your companions is in a way flawless (as they will constantly be trying to use their abilities) ranged DPS won't skip a beat and will bring down your enemies with more speed and efficiency. It's also easier to see when one is being attacked as it will be more visible when an enemy is either turned away from you to attack your companion at range, or if a melee enemy will attempt to go after said companion. The ranged companion also won't attack until you attack, by which point as the tank you should already be drawing the aggro from the mobs allowing you to not have to worry as much for your companion's safety. If you're a Powertech having a ranged companion is definitely superior (I feel) to a melee DPS companion by virtue of that you'll be attacking first and your companion will be spending time running up to the enemy. A ranged DPS companion has the same range as you, and will start shooting right after you do. Melee tanks can certainly get away with having a melee DPS companion, as they will be closer by and can react a little more quickly in certain situations, but I still feel that having a Ranged DPS is superior and also better for general practice since it will encourage you to work on your map awareness.

 

Healers = Melee Tank Companion

As a healer, you're going to want to keep the battle away from yourself. Keep in mind, even though you may not be specialized for damage, all healers have an array of long range attacks and you should be utilizing them. In terms of levelling solo I actually feel like you should still be focused on trying to mow through the mobs as quickly as you can while keeping the heat off yourself. You can patch up your companion if he/she starts to get low, and you can do the bulk of your healing after the battle is done. Your fights wont exactly look pretty as your companion will be getting beat up all the time but it will get the job done more quickly than if you studiously dedicate yourself to keeping your companion at full health throughout the course of the fight. If you have a heal over time spell you can cast those on your companion around the end or after a fight so that he/she will be healed up for the next one instead of having to rest.

 

Ranged DPS = Melee Tank Companion

For reasons extremely similar to the healer, you're going to want to try and keep your enemies at a distance and having a melee Tank will definitely help with that. I didn't mention it in the healer section, but you should always assign your companion to attack enemies first (Control + 1) before unloading as they will draw the aggro first. This isn't necessary for most fights, however in some situations with some stronger enemies you'll definitely want them to go in first. The more damage they take the more you are capable of dealing uninterrupted.

 

Melee DPS = Healer Companion

Since you're going to be getting up close and personal with most of the enemies you'll face while levelling, I would advise a healer companion for these types of characters. Although a tank companion will distract a number of enemies away from you, the problem is that you won't be able to take advantage of a distance gap when facing melee characters (which there are many of in this game). Since putting distance between you and your enemies is counter-intuitive, your objective should be to simply overpower them with your superior DPS capabilities. A healer is the best choice in my opinion since healer companions generally utilize a number of stun abilities that will keep them from damaging you too severely and will give enough in heals to keep you alive long enough to mow through them.

 

For some classes, matching companions will be quicker to find than others. This is by no means a "necessary" thing to do either... If you feel like you want to roll with a different companion than I suggest, by all means do it! Again, these are my suggestions not my rules. In general you're going to be doing most of the work while levelling regardless of what role you pick and what companion you choose, but picking the right one can speed things up a fair bit.

 

I would also seriously advise keeping up on your companion equipment to a moderate degree. My suggestion would be to focus your physical purchases (such as the Galactic Trade Network) on your character since you won't always be in situations where you can use your companion. Once you have yourself properly geared for your level you can spend your commendations to purchase things for your companion after you've completed a world.

 

 

IV - Exterior Support

 

If this isn't the first character you've levelled, you probably already have a good grasp of what's going on and how to get from 1-50. However, you now have an extremely helpful and powerful tool to make your levelling experience even faster and easier: The resources of your main character. Even if your main character isn't a level 50 yet, the amount of money he can generate from quests and his crew skills will be superior to that of your new character, and you should utilize that as much as possible. Sending a level 1 character 5,000 credits at the beginning of the game may not sound like much, but it will help speed that character through that initial world SO much faster as you can right off the bat buy a bunch of equipment (which would otherwise be considered expensive for an early level character) and be decently geared right from the get go.

 

Once you get off your intial world, your main character can help your alternative character even more by providing funds and equipment that might normally be very expensive or even unattainable. Crew skills on your main character can radically improve your levelling speed as you'll be able to send high grade equipment that matches your new characters level constantly.

 

If you're working on your main character, don't fret! You're in luck because there are many helpful guildmates that are here willing to help you! I know that I've put together equipment packages for about four or five people now and my guild, and have also crafted quite a few Enhancements, Hilts and Color Crystals (Since my main character is Artifice) for guildmates. If you're not part of a guild, just join one! You don't have to commit to anything you don't want to, so if you see a guild is looking for members, join up! Young guilds tend to be friendlier to newer players as they are looking to establish a player base and will more than likely be more eager to help you out. On the plus side, joining a guild can be a lot of fun and you'll be able to play with the same people and generally will get more enjoyment out of the game as a result.

 

As part of a guild, you have a support net so if you're looking to get something crafted make a callout! Most guilds also have a guild bank that you can check regularly for good equipment. You don't always need to rely on yourself. So if you need a hand with a particular mission or are looking for a crafter, don't be shy and just ask around. Sometimes the right player may not be on, but if you find out about a character who crafts certain items you can send them a mail in-game.

 

The only thing I would like to briefly mention (and is simply my personal opinion, not all guild members may feel the same way I do) is that I personally don't like when a guildmate asks for credits. I almost always have an excess of lower level materials so it's usually almost free for me to craft lower level equipment... But asking for credits to me is simply saying you don't want to put the work into the game to achieve the results of other people. I've given credits to people before and frankly I've always ended up regretting it as it's money that I've worked hard to earn and ends up being given away for what could be a completely irrelevant or stupid purchase. This is a side subject that isn't related to the guide exactly, but I feel it's something that should be said... Because if you start asking the guildies for credits it could alienate you from people like me and will actually shrink your exterior support mechanism.

 

There are others who have a ton of credits who have no problem giving away a bunch... But as said, just be mindful when asking for credits from another player. Like in real life, time equals money in The Old Republic. You earn credits while questing or doing other activities which generally involve you putting in energy to get those credits. Imagine for a moment that it takes a certain player an hour of non-stop work to acquire 200,000 credits, and you ask that player to give you 100,000 credits. You are basically asking that player to donate 1/2 an hour of their time to you, time that you either don't want or can't take to achieve the same result. That's my little rant on the subject but I do feel it needs to be said, because it can really tick off a couple of people simply by asking the question. And once again, not all people feel the way I do.

 

Regardless, make sure to make use of your exterior support! Whether that be a higher level character you have or your guildmates, being able to access high quality equipment either for free or extremely low cost will help you level so much faster. If that resource is available to you, then you should use it.

 

 

V - Getting Started (Levels 1-21)

 

Finally! We're actually going to start playing the game! By now you should already have decided what kind of character you're going to play and which companion you're going to be using. Hopefully you'll also have been able to access your exterior support to get some good quality low level equipment. High quality equipment at low levels actually makes levelling go by a LOT more quickly, so please if possible get some gear set aside in advance if you're making a new character or if you've already started, play catchup and try and tap into that exterior support.

 

Whichever world you start on, whether it be Korriban/Hutta or Tython/Ord Mantell, your objective early on is to just find as many mobs as possible and kill them. Don't even worry about your missions just yet. You get your first couple of levels fairly quickly and you won't be staying in the low level areas for very long at all. What I always try to do is farm up the mobs until I hit level 3 before starting any of my quests.

 

For the starting worlds it's super straightforward. It is a little annoying, but grab absolutely every single quest you can find and complete it. If you pick up a Heroic +2 quest, don't even worry about finding a group for it. Finding groups is definitely necessary later on in your adventures, but on the first world you start on just keep plugging at the regular and class quests until you've completed them all and have your companion. THEN once you have your companion and are higher level than the Heroic, you can blast through it pretty quickly without the need of having to find a group. You could make a case that the travel time to go back to the Heroic Areas is comparable to finding a group which can be true. But the starting worlds aren't all that large and the Heroic Areas are located in the same general area so you can get them done back to back fairly easily.

 

Make sure to attack any mobs you see. They go down pretty quickly and won't slow you down much. If you're really aggressive and do all the quests on your starting planet, by the time you get to the Fleet you should be level 11-12.

 

Once you hit the fleet, saddle up and get ready because you're actually going to want to spend a bit of time here. Your first priority should be to check out the crew skills area and pick a crew skill. The key is regardless of which crew skill you decide to take is to talk to each and every crew skill mentor. Each one will give you a codex unlock for a relatively small amount of XP... But If you're level 11 by the time you're done talking to all the different vendors you can hit level 12 simply by talking to all these guys. Once you've picked up that XP, head to your advanced class trainer and select your advanced class.

 

Once you have your advanced class selected and skills picked (both class skills and crew skills), you're going to want to head over to the combat training area and pick up the PvP Daily. As a low level the first daily is simply to play a Warzone match. There is no requirement to win, just simply to play one. While waiting for the queue to pop, see if you can get somebody to go on regular Black Talon/Esseles with you. If possible, try and entice higher level characters to join you by offering to spacebar the text and make it a social run. Even though you won't get XP from killing the mobs, the bosses still give somewhat decent XP per kill and the bonus mission and mission completion XP will stay the same regardless of who was with you in your party. If you can find someone who wants to do Black Talon/Esseles multiple times, you can get a fair amount of XP pretty quickly without having to work really hard for it.

 

Don't shy away from regular Black Talon/Esseles runs either though. It might take longer, but you still get a healthy chunk of XP from doing it. Your objective should be to PVP and Black Talon/Esseles your way to level 15 before you even start going to Dromund Kaas/Coruscant. The reason for this is simple: Your quests begin on Dromund Kaas/Coruscant as level 9 quests. The maximum number of levels you can be before quests no longer give you any experience is 6 levels. So if you have a level 9 quest in your log you can complete that quest as a level 15 and you will still get experience from it... And it will take you significantly less time to complete as a level 15 than if you were a level 9.

 

Since the regular quests on worlds (with the exception of Heroic quests) are one time only, they generally give a pretty juicy amount of XP and that is why they are able to maintain a pretty stable average for players travelling through the world. Most of the players who have gone through Dromund Kaas will find themselves at around level 16 when they reach the Dark Temple, and the reason for that is the math behind the experience rewards for doing the regular quests. If you start as a level 15, by the time you're done Dromund Kaas/Coruscant you're going to be approximately level 20-21.

 

So as said, do Black Talon/Esseles and Warzones until you hit level 15. It can be a little tedious at this point and it may even feel like you're not accomplishing anything, but keep this in mind: You must spend a certain amount of time regardless to complete one time quests that you will be doing later. By doing Black Talon/Esseles and Warzones repeatedly and early, they have a greater XP impact since one is a Flashpoint and the other just gives decent XP in general. By having two dailies linked to PvP you can sometimes play two Warzones if you're lucky and complete both. Even if you're not a fan of PvP just do it. The experience you gain in PvP is related to how long you are in the Warzone and how active you are within it. So even if your team is losing horribly don't let it bother you. Your objective is to earn experience, not necessarily to win (in the event of you completing the 1 Warzone win already).

 

Once you hit that level 15, make sure to check to see if you can get any upgrades to your equipment from either guildmates or the GTN (or of course other characters you might have). Get as good of gear as possible within a short timeframe and then head to Kaas. Don't forget that if you've done Black Talon/Esseles a bunch of times, you should have quite a few Dromund Kaas/Coruscant commendations and use them! Get mods for you customizable equipment and better gear if possible. You should have quite a few commendations, and don't be shy about spending them as you'll be getting plenty more.

 

Your objective is going to be very similar to that of Korriban/Hutta. Grab every quest you can find and complete them. The only key difference this time is that you're going to have to pay close attention to which quests you want to do in what order. Check your log a few times to make sure that the quest you are doing is on the far end of you "level reach" for getting experience. So if you're a level 17, prioritize the completion of level 11 missions before tackling any level 12 missions.

 

If you find that you are getting close to levelling up and have more than a few missions on your list that are almost in range of not yielding XP follow these instructions closely: Your objective should be to complete ALL the missions and killing as few enemies as possible. If there are bonus missions, ignore them. Bonus mission experience is less than a mission completion. What you do after you've completed the missions but haven't turned them in is to return to the locations where you turn in said missions and turn the missions in BUT DO NOT ACCEPT THE MISSION COMPLETION. You can keep two or three (can't remember off the top of my head) missions in your pending tab... Which means if you keep these missions pending you will get the experience from them EVEN IF YOU LEVELUP AFTERWARDS. That means you can be a level 18 and still get XP from completing a level 11 mission if you kept the mission in your pending tab. When you turn in the quest and the menu to accept pops up, just hit Escape and it will send the mission to your pending tab.

 

So again, like Korriban/Hutta/Tython/Ord Mantell your objective is to complete all the regular quests and if you can find the people do the Heroic quests as well. Your regular questing will be going quite smoothly as you'll be a healthy number of levels ahead of what you normally would be, and as a result you won't be aggroing as many mobs since the aggro distance will now be longer.

 

Contrary to your starting world however, you are now going to try and avoid mobs at all costs. If you're on a mission I would advise killing at least on group of mobs just to make sure that you're getting the bonus missions (only ignore bonus missions if you're getting too close to a levelup on a far reaching mission), but otherwise try to avoid mobs. Mobs consume a lot of time for relatively little XP gain. Again, if a bonus mission is involved then that's a different story, but generally you don't want to bother with random animals running around the planet. What you're also going to want to do is always pick commendation rewards from mission completions with the exception of if there is a piece of gear offered that is superior to your own.

 

Depending on how many Heroics you are able to get groups together for, by the time you complete all there is to be done on Dromund Kaas/Coruscant you should be around level 18-20. When you finish your class quest and get your ship, head to the fleet right away. Your first task is to pick up Emerging Conflicts I. Similar to when you got off your starting world, your objective now is to get to level 21 before you start Balmorra/Taris.

 

Complete as many of the Flashpoints and Warzones as you can. Just keep in mind that the XP you are getting from these not only yields more XP given the time required to do the quest (For instance you will gain more XP in 15 mins as a level 20 in a Warzone than you would if you were doing level 20 quests). You can balance the amount of PvP vs Flashpoints and space missions however you choose. If you're big on doing flashpoints, then keep getting groups together. Believe it or not, most players will actually be down for a second or third run of the same flashpoint just to try and get some gear for their character. This can yield you not only good gear, but decent XP as well.

 

Try and keep an eye out for moddable equipment for your companion. Your goal is to spend those commendations you earned on Dromund Kaas for equipment modifications for your companion. Ideally, you'll be using the Galactic Trade Network, Guildmates and hopefully other characters to field your character with top notch equipment. If your companion is geared with the highest mods available from Dromund Kaas that is generally a heck of a lot better than what a companion would normally be fielding anyway.

 

So once you hit level 21, hop in your shiny new ship and head to Balmorra/Taris!

 

 

VI - Mid to Late Game (Levels 21-50)

 

Congratulations! Believe it or not the really hard part is now over. By securing a healthy six level lead you're now going to be able to apply the exact same principle you've been using for the rest of the game. You'll also have more "filler missions" to choose from to maintain that level lead. The reason the early part of the game is a little more difficult and tedious is because a lot of stuff hasn't been unlocked for you yet. For instance you didn't have as many flashpoints to choose from, nor were you able to do Space Missions to suppliment your experience gains.

 

By going through planets with not only a level lead but an equipment lead, you will carve through the regular quests like butter. The good news is that you won't need to rely as much on PvP or flashpoints (though I still recommend you do them) for quite a while. The Balmorra Bonus Series is a level 19 series quest (I'm not sure what the Taris bonus series level is as I am an Empire player). This means that after you're all done the class quests and other quests on Balmorra/Taris you'll be able to pick up the bonus series right away and keep that six level lead.

 

Not only will questing be a lot easier by having spent the initial time getting ahead in levels, but to boot you're going to be starting Nar Shaddaa with a speeder! By spending the time early game to get ahead in levels, you will speed up the rest of your game significantly. Believe it or not, you're quite likely to run into problems around Alderaan if you intend on getting XP for the Nar Shaddaa Bonus Series (since both fall in the same level range).

 

Eventually, your level gap between worlds is slowly going to close again, but this is going to be late late game when you're almost completed your class quests. At this time, one of my characters is a level 45 character and she has JUST finished Hoth... And I skipped most of the missions there because I was too high level for most of them (in regards to giving XP).

 

The nice thing about leaving grey missions is that you can use that as easy cash later. If you're in a bind and want to make some credits super quick, you have the option of going back to a planet that you didn't complete the regular missions and just blast through them REALLY easily and make a fair amount of money. If you've been PvPing and doing flashpoints, money shouldn't be too much of an issue as you can use commendations found in the flashpoints to upgrade your gear to gear of that level.

 

Flashpoints and space missions are what I feel the key to executing this style of levelling properly. By doing the dailies on a frequent basis you're going to be getting commendations that are close to your level. You may be just starting Balmorra/Taris, but if you've done Mandalorian Raiders you'll have access to Nar Shaddaa and Alderaan commendations, which can translate into equipment upgrades for either you or your companion (obviously prioritize yourself first). And of course, you'll also be getting drops that are closer to your level while doing these Flashpoints.

 

PvP is also really useful at some key points. If you have enough commendations saved up, you can buy PvP gear at level 20 that will really help you go through Balmorra/Taris... And there are also some sets available for level 40 as well. Even if by that point your gear is better, keep in mind you can give that gear to your companions. By spending commendations on your companions, you keep the credits to yourself which not only allows you to be more efficient spending-wise, but leaves you more room to purchase better equipment. You should check the GTN frequently, as it is an excellent source for finding equipment.

 

From my experience, I haven't actually really seen the planets Voss and Correllia for the following reason: I was level 50 by the time I arrived there and I simply did my class quest and left. Though keep in mind, you can lax up a little bit on the 6 level rule the further along you go in the game, partly because as you gain more levels it requires more and more XP to levelup... Which means you need to do more and more "filler missions" (i.e. PvP and flashpoints) in order to maintain that 6 level lead. You shouldn't have any problems doing this up until about level 45-46 at which point you're almost done anyway.

 

 

VII - Damage Control and Course Correction

 

As much as we all like to stick to the rules... Often we don't. I myself have once in a while said "Screw this planet" and left before I finished all the quests. Ideally, you shouldn't do this as you'll be having a very easy time doing the quests. However, in the event that you've been levelling according to what your log says and haven't thought of doing something like this until now, you're going to have to change course and do some damage control.

 

The first thing I would do is check previous planets to see if there are any Bonus Series that I missed. Bonus Series on planets are higher level than what is shown on the Galaxy Map, which means you'll be able to get a fair amount of XP from completing those missions. You should try and pick a planet that is around your approximate level, but a little bit lower. For instance, say you're a level 31 and you're on Alderaan, and you read this guide and decide "Hey, this makes sense." What you'll want to do is go back to Tatooine and check and see if there's a bonus series available.

 

If you've already done the bonus series for the previous planet, try and get groups together to complete all the Heroic missions. Broadcast the fact that you're quite a few levels higher than the mission and you generally won't have any problems finding people to join up with you.

 

Again, PvP and Flashpoints are your "filler missions" and you're going to need to do quite a few of them to catch up. Again though, you can pick flashpoints that are 6 levels below you and have a relatively easy time going through them as an easier time finding group members. Never underestimate the power of advertising. If you were on the fleet and were waiting for a Warzone and someone called out "Looking for one more DPS for Cademimu"... You might think about it and then go "Ahhh but Warzone takes less time I'll wait for queue to pop." If instead you saw "Group of level 31-35 characters looking for 1 DPS for Cademimu"... You'd start thinking "Hey, these guys are overlevelled... This should be a quick and easy run and they might not need any of the gear drops."

 

When you're overlevelled for the world you are supposed to be on, you'll want to do flashpoints around your level. If you're at or underlevel for the world you're on, you're going to want to apply the 6 level rule to flashpoints... Do ones that are below your level because it will be faster and easier. Don't turn down callouts for flashpoints equal to your level or higher though, since those will really help you catch up on experience bigtime.

 

The whole idea is to make levelling as quick and efficient as possible. PvP is also an excellent way to catch up in levels as the yields for XP in PvP can get quite high especially if you become active and good at it. At higher levels, a single Huttball match will give me 18,000XP... That's a good chunk of XP. The wonderful side effect of PvPing a lot and getting good at it is that you start to have a lot of fun. A few too many times I've gone overboard and lost out on quest experience because I PvPed too long. Don't let it scare you off, it takes some time to learn and again, tap into that exterior support and ask guildmates if they want to start a PvP group. There are quite a few experienced PvPers that sometimes just won't PvP because they don't want to go in solo.

 

Space Missions are also a great way of getting some easy repeatable experience. If you neglect Space Missions like I do, however, you may need to purchase a lot of upgrades for your ship in order to compete in some of these missions.

 

But regardless, once you have corrected your course and done the appropriate damage control, you should be able to get ahead of your world by 6 levels and continue as normal. Don't get stressed out by the time taken to get these six levels ahead... Because by getting that far ahead in levels makes the rest of your levelling not only easier, but a lot faster. You're investing time now to save time in the future. Never forget that.

 

 

VIII - Equipping your Character

 

I've gone into some mild details about this already, but this deserves it's own section due to it's sheer importance. The reason being six levels ahead is so impactful is not so much by your character's skills or abilities it has earned (though they certainly do help), it is actually by virtue of having superior gear.

 

Every time you finish up a world and are done the relevant flashpoints for your level, before heading out to the next world you should check up on yourself and see what gear needs improvement. Often you'll be picking up chestpieces, helmets, gloves, leggings and weapons from flashpoints. However, the areas where you'll find yourself needing equipment will often be Bracers, Belts, Earpieces, Relics and Implants.

 

As a result, those pieces of equipment are the ones you're going to want to prioritize upgrading, as you won't be finding many during your flashpoints (and also not necessarily winning the rolls on them either). Fortunately, most of these items can be crafted, which means if you select one of the trades as a crew skill (more on that in next section) you'll ideally be able to support one aspect of your personal upgrading.

 

Again, try and get help from guildmates. As you get higher up in level you will have to purchase materials for the guildmates as crafting a single piece of purple level 45 armoring requires 4 Promethium, a resource that on average (for my server) sells for 10,000 credits PER UNIT. That means to simply purchase the necessary Promethium requires on average 40,000 credits per armoring. Make sure you know the item costs for stuff you request. If you don't know what is required to make certain recepies, check out http://www.torhead.com/schematics. That way you can save everyone a whole lot of time and hassle by finding the materials yourself, send them down and then that person will be good to go to start crafting equipment.

 

Keep in mind you're actually going to have a fair amount of money saved up throughout most of the game. Because you'll be primarily spending commendations to try and get gear, this will save you a boatload of credits. You'll be able to afford some expensive splurges on some high quality equipment. That same equipment is also going to last you a fair bit longer, as a purple gear is rated just a little worse than blue gear 4 levels higher. The more purple gear you get, the more mileage you'll be able to milk out of it.

 

In terms of what kind of equipment you should be getting for your character, your role will highly impact this. If you are DPS, you should be focusing mainly on making sure your weapons are well upgraded and that most of your equipment's stat distribution goes towards your primary attribute (either Strength, Willpower, Cunning or Aim). Secondary skills that you should be looking for should be Power, Crit and Surge.

 

If you are a Tank, then you're going to want to focus more on your armoring than your weapon. You're also going to want to prioritize Endurance over your primary attribute, and focus on defensive secondary skills (Defense, Shield and Absorption). Which one is most important somewhat depends on your class and your own personal preference, but generally a healthy balance between the three will usually do nicely for most tanks.

 

If you're a healer I feel that there's actually a fair amount of room for flexibility regarding which stats and secondary skills to prioritize. I've seen some healers focus heavily on crit and surge ratings while others power and alacrity. I'm not experienced enough with healers to be able to honestly give a decent assessment, but I do believe it is very class dependant and I'm sure there is plenty of material out there regarding this topic that you could find and learn from.

 

When you've finished up a world and have moved up in "level bracket", scour the Glactic Trade Market for any gear that it better than your own. Even green gear, it doesn't really matter. If your gear is relatively up to date with your level, that means that this same gear will be more powerful than the world you are attempting to conquer.

 

Proper equipment is the key to making this levelling strategy work, so if you're not sure how you should be equipping your character, either ask around the guild or check out various other forums and I'm sure you'll get a fairly decisive answer quite quickly. With the right tools for the trade, you'll find yourself in funny situations where you're able to solo a Heroic 2 or even sometimes a Heroic 4 mission. Yes it can be done! So long as you have the right tools.

 

 

IX - Crew Skills

 

One of my weakest points throughout levelling my characters is crew skills. Because I am trying to achieve maximum levelling speed I will often skip past many nodes that can be found on the world. Not only that, but I don't send excess crew on missions all that often as it does cost a fair bit of money to upkeep.

 

My reasoning towards postponing crew skills until later is this: I find it's much much easier to buff up your crew skills when you have 4+ companions to work on crew missions than it is with only 2-3. Second, if you're actually looking to take up a trade, crafting costs a lot of credits to get up and running in any decent way. Credits that I prefer to spend on upgraded new equipment.

 

However, my advise would be this (and I wish I had taken it myself for my last character). If you're starting from scratch, pick Slicing as your gathering skill. This will allow you to earn extra credits along the way. You may have to divert course a few times to pick up nodes, but making extra cash will directly translate into better equipment for you later. Once you start hitting high enough levels and credits aren't so much of a concern, you can switch the slicing out for the skill that is actually important to whatever trade you are going into and then start working on that.

 

In terms of which crafting profession to take, that is purely up to you. There are pros and cons to each and they also depend on what other characters you have and what crew skills they have. If this is your first character, I would probably advise either Artifice, Cybertech or Biochem as each is able to make equipment that will help all types of future characters.

 

There is of course the option of relying more on crafted gear than purchasing gear off of the GTN. This process is slower and takes more energy, but the upside is that if you're a Synthweaver or Armormecher is that you can use those purple schematics and begin crafting them to sell on the GTN and actually begin to make profits.

 

Crafting gear yourself I feel would slow your levelling down, but would set you up better for post level 50 better. That's an area that is ends up being a big tradeoff for me is that I end up with a nearly completed character with virtually no skills for crafting. However, I feel that that is very easily mitigated for certain crew skills since Bioanalysis and Scavenging both can get boosted via defeated enemies (animals and droids respectively). So depending on which crafting route you decide to go, you might be able to keep it updated more easily than another.

 

Again, try and base your crafting on how valuable it will be to your character and potential future characters. Read up on the different crew skills to figure out which one is right for you and your character.

 

 

X - Conclusion

 

Whew! Well, I think I've covered pretty much everything I want to talk about! I may end up making some editing tweaks here and there over time... But like I said in the beginning, this is the method I use to level my characters and it has worked wonderfully for me, and hopefully it will for you too!

 

I intend for this guide to be something of a work in progress, so if you have any comments, questions or suggestions please post them! If you have any tips or tricks that I didn't cover or just am not aware of, also feel free to let me know!

 

I hope this guide has been helpful to you! And if so, happy power levelling!

 

Yours truly,

CrAzEdMiKe

 

 

 

XI - Additional Material/Resources

 

This is a quick addition to the guide with some links for some additional stuff that I've put together to further complete this guide, as well as a few links to some handy sites that I often use.

 

F.A.Q. / Tips and Tricks / Benchmarks

Project Krovados - The quest to find out what the nitty gritty numbers are!

Torhead Skill Calculator

List of Companions and their role + Crew Skill bonuses

 

Edited by CrAzEdMiKe
Grammar/General Editing
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello CrAzEdMiKe,

 

Thanks for contributing to the community by posting your guide on leveling. We really appreciate the work you’ve put into it; we enjoy seeing positive and constructive contributions to our community. Great Job!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

F.A.Q. / Tip & Tricks / Benchmarks

 

I've always believed in that if you're going to do something, do it right. This is an addition to the guide to try and help flush out any other questions that are either asked or I think up, as well as provide some more detailed information on some select topics. So if you have a question, please post it! I'm happy to try and answer any and all questions you have.

 

F.A.Q.

 

How many hours would it take for one to get to level 50 using your method?

 

This is indeed an excellent question! I don't have the exact answer just yet, please visit Project Krovados for more information.

 

Just how significantly will having lots of money at a low level be? (people like seeing numbers - i know it is hard to get them though)

 

Having lots of money at the beginning isn't super important, and if this is your first toon... You're going to be pretty much broke when you start. Don't worry about it! Although having good gear in the beginning is certainly a great boon if you have another character to support it, you'll be able to do absolutely fine without that support. See the Tips & Tricks section below for some more information on managing your money.

 

How much "grinding" will I have to do?

Early on you're going to have to grind a fair bit. When I say grinding, I'm referring to doing the same quest repeatedly for the sake of getting more experience. When you get off your starting world, it will get a little boring doing Black Talon/Esseles however many times in a row. To try and lessen this, I would try and mix in a healthy amount of PvP as it will get your Valor rating started early and can break the monotony a little bit.

 

After you're finished that though and you have completed Dromund Kaas/Coruscant, the grinding should be over! You'll have tons of options to choose from (whether it be flashpoints, PvP or Space Missions) and you'll actually be playing through the game pretty much like you would normally, with the exception that you will be higher level than the quests you're undertaking. On the plus side, I've found that it gives my character much more of a heroic feel when playing them... And makes you feel like a total boss. Especially when running Heroic Missions as you'll more often than not be the highest level in your group.

 

 

Tips and Tricks!

 

I'm going to be adding more to this section over time as I think up things that I may have overlooked in the guide. Hopefully these should help you throughout your travels, and make your quest to reach level 50 that much easier.

 

I - Avoiding Mobs

In the guide I said to try and avoid as many mobs as possible once you're done with your starting world. In general this will simply take practice as you become more familiar with the distances at which the mobs will begin attacking you. But let's face it, sometimes you're not paying complete attention and you walk right by a mob that you didn't see and they start attacking. What do you do?

 

Simple: Run. Make sure your companion is attacking the mobs and put as much distance as possible between you and your companion (keep an eye on your minimap). When you've covered a good amount of distance (the mobs should be focusing on your companion since he/she is attacking them and you are not) press Control + 2 to set your companion to passive mode. Once he's set to passive, he's going to stop attacking the enemies and if the distance is far enough, he's going to esentially "respawn" at your location. The mobs that would attack you will now have no way to catch up with you, and once you make it a certain distance they will stop altogether and you can keep on moving. This is also a great trick if you're in a dicy situation and you need to retreat. Let your companion take the fall... It's much better than ending up at the Med Center!

 

II - Saving Credits

This is a topic which I know I personally had a lot of issues with until I started implementing the techniques described in this guide. Here is the real trick to making credits in SW:ToR - Don't spend them. It's very tempting to spend a ton of money all the time on equipment on the Galactic Trade Network and you will feel constantly broke, especially if you're working on crew skills as well!

 

For starters, one of the primary notions that I would like to reinforce is that your goal is to be acquiring gear and upgrades for said gear through flashpoints and the commendations you earn by doing those flashpoints. Each time you complete a Daily Mission (Emerging Conflicts) you have the option of acquiring 6 commendations from the planet that shares a similar level to the Daily Mission you are completing, or 4 commendations from a slightly higher level planet.

 

The choice pretty much boils down to your level. Pick the commendation that is closest to your level range. If you've been keeping up on your Warzones, you'll also be able to buy a fair amount of gear with those as well. The key point is that for the early to mid game, Commendations > Credits. Even if you had a million credits sitting in your bank. you're not going to be able to actually find a whole lot of good gear to purchase on the world you're doing... Simply because you're much higher level than what you "should" be. That's why commendations are so important, because you can trade those in for upgrades that are appriopriate to your level. Excess commendations can either be used to buff up your companion, or my personal favorite after completing a world:

 

Buy the artifact level lockboxes and sell the contents on the Galactic Trade Network. You don't even need to be greedy, because that lockbox was FREE! You earned it doing all those quests on the planets (which by the way I should add, for quest rewards you should almost always be choosing the commendation as the reward, unless there's a cool piece of moddable gear that you'd like to wear). By the time I'm done a planet, I'll usually have enough commendations to buy one or two lockboxes. For lower level worlds I usually try and sell the items for around 6-10k as that's what most people are really going to be able to afford for a good piece of purple gear. Once you start getting to higher level worlds you can make a killing off those boxes. After cracking open my lockboxes from Taris, I got two purple armor pieces that sold for 25k EACH! For a level 34 purple armor on my server, 25k was actually a very reasonable price and they sold quickly. I'll go into more detail about the Galactic Trade Network in the following section.

 

But to wrap this up, try to spend commendations on your gear instead of cash. This will allow you to save up a fairly hefty amount of coin for when you do decide to make a bigger purchase.

 

III - The Galactic Trade Network

Ahhhh... That little kiosk where fortunes are made and fortunes are lost. The first thing to note about the Galactic Tade Network is that you will only be able to access items put up for auction by members of your faction on your server. There is a kiosk on Nar Shaddaa that allows for cross faction sales, but I wouldn't check there too often as there usually isn't a whole lot there. There are two fundamental ways of using the GTN: To make money or to spend money. I'll be covering ways to do both in this segment.

 

Spending money on the GTN is easy. You find a piece of gear that you can use, and you buy it. Simple. What isn't simple is deciding how much money you should spend on a particular item and which items to purchase. At lower levels (i.e. 1-25) I really wouldn't advise spending more than 10,000 credits on a single purchase. At lower levels your gear will get outdated rather quickly, so your goal is to spend as little as possible.

 

When searching for gear, I would set your search parameters from the highest level of the world you're about to start to a level above your own (that is if you're close to levelling up). That way, worst case scenario is that you can only find a piece of gear that is basically rated for the hardest quests on the world you're about to start. Try to favor blue gear over purple gear early on, because as said, the equipment you have at lower levels will phase out quickly and there's no need to get gung-ho with all purple gear as a level 21.

 

Since you're going to be running a lot of flashpoints, you're going to acquire a healthy amount of moddable gear while doing these missions. Even if you're doing a lower level flashpoint to get the Daily Mission and you see a moddable piece of gear that is worse than your blue gear (say you find orange leggings and you have blue leggings) NEED ON IT! You can spend commendations to bring that piece up to par with the rest of your stuff and will give you a lot more longevity! What this translates to on your search of the GTN is for gear that you frequently get on these flashpoints.

 

Chances are by the time you're around level 25 you should have a moddable Helmet, Chestpiece, Gloves, Legs, Boots and weapon(s). So when you're looking on the GTN for equipment, you shouldn't be looking for these types of pieces. Only snag up one of these types of pieces if you see a moddable piece and you don't already have one. This means that in general your search for equipment should boil down to these items: Relics, Implants, Offhand (Focus, Generator, Shield, Vibroknife or Scattergun). These are the items you won't run across very often in your travels, so you should be actively looking to get them. You should also try and search for mods for your equipment, but don't spend a whole lot on these for a while since as said, they will get outdated rather quickly (and you have a pretty easy alternate source for "free" mods) .

 

Making money on the Galactic Trade Network can be a lot harder and takes a fair amount of patience. The first thing you absolutely need in order to continually make money from the GTN sounds obvious but actually isn't all that simple: A product. You will be able to sell most of the blue gear you pick up throughout your questing for relatively small amounts of cash (Don't dismiss though: If you pick up a total of 10 blue pieces that you price at 3,000 apiece and they all sell... You just made 30,000 credits!). In order to make larger figures, you're going to need to not only be able to craft but you'll also need to research the schematics for higher quality merchandise.

 

Before posting anything up for sale always do a search for what's already on the market and get an idea of what your item is selling for. Do not go by the suggested price that is defaulted by the GTN. These prices are often way too low and sometimes way too high. My general rule for selling equipment is to find the lowest price on a similar piece of equipment and base my price from there. I tend to try and undercut my competition on the GTN, so if I see another player is selling a piece of armor that I found for 25,000 credits, I'm going to list that same piece of armor for 20,000 credits.

 

Keep a good eye out for crazy good deals, even if it's for a piece that you can't use. You can resell it! A good place to check is in the Crafting Missions and Crafting Materials sections. One day I was browsing through the Underworld Trading materials, and I saw that the average price for Denebrillian Star Silk (a purple grade 6 crafting material) was on average 9-10k per unit. However, I saw a guy who was selling a TON of these for 1,500 credits per unit! I bought up all the silk he had posted up, waited a little bit to make sure that he wouldn't post more... And after I was content that I'd drained him of his stock, I sold each unit for 6,000 credits apiece. I had spent 115k credits buying up his stock for 46 items, and after quickly selling 20 of these I had already made back my initial investment! And now I have 26 of these to sell at the going rate (though I usually still drop a couple of hundred credits per unit just to make sure I sell first).

 

The same can be applied to Crafting Missions. Some people just blindly put up their crafting missions for sale for pennies, and they are worth fortunes! These get snatched up pretty quickly so you have to keep a keen eye out on the GTN (That's usually what I'm doing while I'm waiting for Warzone Queues or to get a group together for a flashpoint). You can buy a mission for 3,000 credits and resell it EASILY for 20,000. Again, always get a good idea of how much stuff is worth before you go off buying stock. It's somewhat risky because once I bought a ton of a material from this one person and I thought I cleaned him out, reposted and he ended up putting MORE on the GTN. Be patient, you don't need to make your money all at once. Make sure your timing is good when you decide to post something up. Weeks later I still have some of the same Silk that I initially purchased. Why? Because I've been checking and the market is filled with them and a lot at fairly good prices. I'm going to wait until there aren't a whole lot of silks to choose from so when that magical customer comes along looking for silk, he'll zero in immediately on mine instead of waiting.

 

IV - Putting Your Legacy to Work

This is only applicable to players who are now deciding to level an alternate character, so if this is your first character, skip this section! It's not useful to you just yet. I mentioned this briefly in the Exterior Support section of the guide, but this in particular needs some attention.

 

Because this strategy involves using a lot of modifiable equipment, you're mainly going to be looking for mods during your travels. Sometimes, you won't be able to find mods high enough for your level. This is where your main character comes in. If they have a crafting profession, this obviously helps IMMENSELY as you'll be able to craft the mods yourself for your character. If you're running a flashpoint on your main character, send your crew to work on equipment for your alt! Lower level crew missions and crafting takes very little time and you can get a lot done with a full crew working for your one character. If you're a synthweaver/armormecher you may want to consider using crafted equipment over modifiable equipment since you'll be able to access levels 1-50 schematicwise when you need to.

 

No matter which crafting skill your main character has, there is another amazing and easy way to help out your alternate character in his quest to find mods for his gear: Run heroics on your main character according to his character level! Say your alternate character is a level 25 and you just don't have enough Tatooine commendations (I'm pretty sure that's the commendation you'll need for that level range, but whatever your level is go check the different vendors on the fleet) send your main character to Tatooine and annihilate the repeatable Heroic Missions. If you have a level 50, you're going to be able to carve through these heroics in crazy good time, and each heroic mission completion yields on average 3 commendations per mission. Now you might be saying "Well gee, I can't transfer commendations." and you're correct. However, you CAN transfer the mods that you purchase with those commendations!

 

Having a level 50 character is by far the biggest boon you can have for levelling an alternate character. If your alternate character is short on cash, run a few high level missions and send some cash down. The amount of time and energy you expend to make the same number of credits on a level 50 is far less than what you would have to do as a level 25. Use those resources! Time spent now to save more time later is always good.

 

V - Social Gear for Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular

As an Inquisitor or a Consular, you wear light armor which presents a unique opportunity for yourself extremely early on and should not be ignored. Since you're going to be running through Black Talon/Esseles a fair number of times, by the time you hit Dromund Kaas/Coruscant you should be at at least Social II, possibly Social III. What this means is that you can purchase social gear to wear as your actual armor! Since you can't wear heavier than light anyway, there are absolutely zero drawbacks to wearing these sets early on. When I arrived on Dromund Kaas with my Sorcerer, the first thing I did was purchase the social set available there (Social gear can generally be found my social vendors in the cantinas for their respective worlds).

 

This means right off the bat you should have an almost complete set of modifiable equipment! There are a number of really cool looking social sets out there, and it can even give your character a very distinct look and feel as you travel throughout the galaxy. Even if you end up switching pieces for cooler looking stuff later, use those items early on! It will save you a bunch of time trying to acquire them.

 

VI - Spacebar!

Most people know about this but there are some that don't: While you're in a conversation for a quest, you can tap spacebar to skip to the next portion of text. For storylines I tend not to do this as I like to enjoy the wonderful stories that BioWare has crafted for us, but for regular quests I would probably just blitz through the text. You can spend a LOT of time doing absolutely nothing and just watching NPCs talk. Cut down on this time, use spacebar.

 

A note regarding grouped play is that in order for the conversations to progress everyone needs to be spacebarring to do it quickly. If there's one person who's watching the mini-movie, everyone is going to have to wait for him/her to finish up.

 

VII - Efficient Questing

This section is going to be a little short but it is pretty important. No matter which world you are on, no matter what level you are, you should be trying to quest as quickly and efficiently as possible. How to do that? It's actually pretty simple. All you have to do is when you reach a new area, pick up every quest you see and DON'T START IT. Make sure you've picked up all the quests for that region before you embark on your missions. Sometimes there are quests that are found in the middle of the map instead of in town, but the game will send you there! If your class quest says you need to go to a new area, postpone it. Complete all the quests on your docket and turn them in before going to a new area. Rinse and repeat. All the quests in the game will coincide with where you are being sent on your class quests, so don't do a bunch of needless back and forth running around to finish up quests. Tackle one area, complete it, then move on.

 

The only exception might be Heroic Missions if you can't find a group to do them. If that is the case, keep doing regular quests. If you see a callout for the mission that you missed, then go! Now that you've unlocked the taxi and bind point for the new area, you can zip forward and fairly quickly and it is worth the experience and commendations to do those Heroics.

 

 

Benchmarks!

 

This section is going to definitely be a long work in progress. I intend for it to work in tandem with Project Krovados, as I'll be using his numbers to be the initial benchmarks. But the whole idea is to log not only the overall time of completion for reaching level 50, but also completion time for worlds as well. It's my hope that people will submit their times for others to see!

 

So if you're keeping track of how long it takes you to complete a particular world or just how long it took you to go from levels 1-50, post it! If you've already started a character, you might not be able to post a time for Nar Shaddaa, but you very well could for a higher level world and do the lower worlds later. A little competition never hurt anybody, and the more that participate I think the better it will be. My primary reason for wanting something like this is actually to get some "real world figures" in terms of how long one would expect to go from 1-50 using these methods.

 

I - Starting World Completion Times:

Krovados (Korriban) - 3 hours, 2 minutes

 

II - Capital World Completion Times:

Krovados (Dromund Kaas) - 5 hours, 22 minutes

 

 

 

Edited by CrAzEdMiKe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello CrAzEdMiKe,

 

Thanks for contributing to the community by posting your guide on leveling. We really appreciate the work you’ve put into it; we enjoy seeing positive and constructive contributions to our community. Great Job!

 

To add on to what Trineda already said, we've also added this guide to the New Players Fleet Pass: A Directory of Resources! It is listed in the Non-Stickied New Players Help Notable Threads post, under the Leveling section.

 

Thanks for making a valuable resource for the community! :w_smile:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a question:

 

How many hours would it take for one to get to level 50 using your method?

 

I'm going to be starting a new character extremely soon, and I will actually make sure to try and record how long it takes me from levels 1-50 and not do silly stuff on that character in-between. Since I spend a lot of time hounding the Galactic Trade Market and helping guild members, it's hard for me to say.

 

However, I do have a level 21 that I haven't touched in a while that has 21 hours of logged play on it. I wouldn't use this as a benchmark since I made this character to help a very new and fresh guildmember start a new character, and he was quite slow and inefficient during the course of our travels (We were very loosely using principles that I stated in this guide, such as trying to stay 6 levels before starting a world). I also started that character before patch 1.2 hit, so I didn't have Sprint for the initial questing which would now cut a huge amount of time for questing.

 

Also keep in mind that the early game is where you're going to be sinking a lot of time into, as the goal is to spend some time now to save a lot of time later. So taking numbers from a relatively low level character that wasn't even done properly may not be the best example, but that is something to keep in mind.

 

It's definitely an excellent question, and I'll make sure to devote my next character strictly to this guide to get some accurate numbers. This question will also be quoted later when I compose an F.A.Q. and Tips and Tricks section.

 

Thanks a lot!

 

EDIT:

To add on to what Trineda already said, we've also added this guide to the New Players Fleet Pass: A Directory of Resources! It is listed in the Non-Stickied New Players Help Notable Threads post, under the Leveling section.

 

Thanks for making a valuable resource for the community! :w_smile:

 

Wow... Thank you! *Blush*

Edited by CrAzEdMiKe
To clarify a few things
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another Question:

 

Just how significantly will having lots of money at a low level be? (people like seeing numbers - i know it is hard to get them though)

 

Great Guide - gonna start using it now.

 

At low level it's actually not a huge deal. If you have a main character already, send him something like 5000 credits to get started. Keep in mind that early on you're doing to be repeatedly doing Black Talon/Esseles runs as well as PvP. My other toons had something in the neighbourhood of 15-20k creds by the time they started Dromund Kaas. Since you'll pick up at least a few pieces of modifiable gear on those early flashpoint runs, you'll be able to use the commendations you earn to upgrade them instead of spending money. You might find some pieces on the Galactic Trade Network for sale, but they tend to be really really cheap since low level gear is well... Low level. =P

 

As said, I plan on adding to this guide a little bit later in terms of economy management. The primary goal is to spend as few credits as possible and to spend as many commendations as possible. By doing this, you'll have enough by the end of Balmorra/Taris to afford a speeder for Nar Shaddaa... And once you're headed to Nar Shaddaa you've entered the mid-game and earning credits becomes a LOT easier as the quest rewards get a lot higher.

 

Like I said though, I'm going to be adding a seperate section for a lot of these questions and I will also be covering some items such as how to avoid mobs, and making credits in general as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Project Krovados"

The quest to find out what the nitty gritty numbers are!

 

I - Introduction

 

A question was asked regarding how long it takes to go from level 1-50 using the principles that I've listed in this guide. Because I spend a LOT of time doing silly and pointless stuff that are completely unrelated to levelling, I don't actually have an accurate idea how long it would take start to finish if I focused my energy completely on that. Fortunately, before I finished this guide I was getting ready to make a Sith Warrior to play (his name of course being Krovados), and so I'm going to use him as my personal benchmark for this guide. I will making a seperate post that will be linked here when I start posting the numbers.

 

Some factors to take into consideration when looking at the timeframes that I'll be posting:

 

1) This character is going to be focused primarily on levelling. As a result, I'm going to pretty much be throwing crew skills out the window for this character until he's completed. I'm going to select Slicing as his gathering skill since that will allow him to make extra money as he quests. By the end of his levelling however, he will have little to no crafting capabilities to speak of (at least I imagine, we'll find out I guess). I'm also going to be using spacebar to skip through most of the text (with the exception of the storyline, that I do want to enjoy), so that will factor into these time figures as well.

 

2) I have both an Artificer and a Synthweaver in my character pool and I will be using their skills heavily to augment Krovados. I'm not going to slug away start to finish only on Krovados, as I have things to do and accomplish on my other characters as well. But while I am doing those things on these other characters, I will be putting their crews to work to help Krovados. If I spend any time directly for the benefit of Krovados, I will be noting it in the log that I'll be keeping.

 

3) Credits are not a huge concern for my characters. It's not my intention to brag but only provide perspective on what I'm about to say: I spent 1.5 million credits to unlock the Twi'lek species for my warrior. That was simply for the sake of vanity and roleplay. As a result, I won't need to spend as much time worrying about the equipment costs for Krovados. I'm going to try and keep the credit dumps to a minimum (they will be logged as well) to get an accurate gauge of how many credits one makes over the course of levelling certain worlds, but since I have a strong exterior support mechanism I will be using it when I feel like it. As curious as I am how long it would take with no outside support, I really don't feel like spending the energy on doing that. As said, I will be keeping track of how much my other characters "help out" Krovados over his journey.

 

If I think of anything else to add to these considerations, I most definitely will do so. As I progress with this character I will add more sections as I complete each world. I'll provide more details about what information I'll be keeping track of and how I'm going to lay it out in Section III.

 

 

II - Krovados Overview & Plan

 

My objective for Krovados is of course primarily to test the merits of my own guide, as I would like to get realistic data in terms of time expectations as well as useful knowledge in terms of average credit earning potential from quests throughout the game. So first things first, here is a link to what I have in mind to use as my build for this character:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#101RMGzzZfMrMRhddMM.1

 

To begin, I would like to state that I am going against the advice of my own guide a little bit for this character. I'm the type of player that likes to experiment and try new things, and something that I've really wanted to try to figure out and pull off is creating a DPS Juggernaut that will primarily use Soresu Form (The tanking form). This is definitely what I would classify as a niche character (as I explained in Chapter II of the guide) but I will explain some of my reasoning.

 

The idea of using Soresu form is primarily for when I am in PvP and regular questing. In PvP threat generation is absolutely irrelevant, so the increased threat generation by Soresu is completely negated. Although I will lose out on some of my damage by being in this form, the upside is that I gain a lot of durability and will be able to throw up Guard for my allies in the PvP match should it be required.

 

In regards to regular levelling, I'm actually going to be adopting more of a tank playstyle. Even though I won't be using a shield, my armor rating will help be asborb most of the incoming fire I'll be receiving from both the threat generated by my DPS as well as the fact that my threat level will be higher simply by virtue of being in Soresu form. I may find that I will have to rest more often, but I'm actually going to be using Vette as my companion from start to finish even though I'm dipping heavily into the DPS tree.

 

A point I would like to make here is that my guide will never be 100% accurate for all types of characters and situations. You should use your own discretion when making some decisions because you will ultimately know how your character operates better than I do. Even though I'm going to be mainly DPS I feel that for this particular character having a ranged DPS companion is preferable to a healer since even though I'll be drawing a lot of heat from the enemies, I'm going to have enough durability thanks to Heavy armor + Soresu that it might be more effective to have her as a companion. With two DPS characters it's my hope that I'll be able to carve through these quests in crazy good time.

 

Besides, I'll be brutally honest: The whole reason I unlocked Twi'lek for my warrior was so that I could romance Vette. :p And I'll have an easier time romancing her if I keep her with me from start to finish. We play this game for fun! And if there's a particular companion that you want to keep with you simply because you like him/her or think you can roleplay better with said companion, it's my belief that you should indulge yourself. If you're having fun while playing the game, you'll level faster simply by virtue of you not getting "grinding blues". There are days where you do some quests and you just start thinking to yourself "Man this sucks. I'm really not in the mood to do these quests right now." If you're able to enjoy yourself more during the levelling process, I honestly think you'll be able to level faster simply due to the motivation and desire to continue forward with your character. Just be sure to think out how you're going to have to play your character in relation to what companion you wish to choose, as different companions may need a different type of style for how you choose to engage enemies.

 

For Flashpoints I'm going to need to switch out of Soresu and into Shii-Cho if I'm going to be taking the role of DPS in the group. If another team member is the designated tank, I don't want my own Soresu threat generation to interfere with his. The good news is that by switching to Shii-Cho I will be doing more damage and will generate rage more easily. What's also nice is that should the group be in a bind, I can either play the role of tank for the group (this should work up until the higher level flashpoints) or switch to Soresu if a fight goes bad and be a backup tank should our tank fall or if the healer isn't able to keep up with the damage on him.

 

The over-arching plan for this character is to try and maximize the strengths of the Juggernaut. From what I've seen, Marauder DPS seems to outclass Juggernaut DPS in most respects. However, Marauders (from what I've seen) are also fairly squishy and can lack surviveability. It's my hope that I'll have a character that does a fairly good job at providing DPS (I won't lie, my DPS won't be considered "excellent"), but also be a lot more resilient and versatile.

 

To conclude this segment, I would like to say that this whole project is designed for the purpose of augmenting the guide as a whole, and as a result I'd appreciate it if we leave build discussions off the table. This is what I'm going to be doing and we'll just leave it at that. :p My reasons for providing thoughts behind the creation of this character are to give you some ideas of the kinds of things to be thinking about while planning your own character.

 

 

III - Understanding the Logs

To try and make the information easy for both you and me to process relatively quickly, I'm going to break each log into the following sections:

 

Time-Frame Statistics: This section will contain information regarding how long it took to complete the particular segment. This section is pretty straightforward, though a quick note is that "Elapsed Number of Days" is meant to convey the literal number of days that passed before I completed the segment. In this section I'm also going to list which Flashpoints I completed (including how many times) as well as Warzones, Dailies and other types of missions (For example: Space Missions and Companion Missions will fall under miscellaneous).

 

Level Status: Another straightforward section but arguably the most important one. I will be keeping close track of how many levels I gain during a segment, as well as my progress for the level I'm currently at (i.e. X = Current Experience / Y = Experience required for next level). I will also be calculating my average levelling speed for the segment as well.

 

Exterior Support Given During this Period: Let's face it, I'm not going to spend 100% of my time working on this character. However, there will be times when either myself or guildmates will send cash or equipment for Krovados. The main reason I want to keep track of this is for the next section to be more accurate, but it also helps figure out some interesting numbers that could potentially be useful when selling equipment on the Galactic Trade Market.

 

Economy Information: This is something I'm very eager to find out and is not completely relevant to the task of levelling. However, I like to be thorough! Having information on the average credit yield of a particular world can be very useful and I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to find out if I'm paying close attention to all my numbers anyway. Again, this is mainly in relation to the Galactic Trade Market: If you know how much an character would make completing all the quests for a particular world, that can help you price items of that world level accordingly.

 

Screenshot Log: I'm doing this because I'm a skeptical person. When anybody posts up any kind of data, I like there to be some kind of evidence to back up the numbers that they provide. So this section is mainly for people like me who want to see that cold hard proof! The idea is that I will take a screenshot with my elapsed time showing each time I log out and log in, just to validate the time-frames I'll be providing. I haven't figured out the exact reason yet, and hopefully I will... But at this point it seems that each time I log out and log back in, my played time shows 4 minutes more than the screenshot I took when I logged out. I will try and find the reasons for this (I'm a curious creature) and report any findings.

 

 

Log #1: Korriban and Arriving at the Fleet

Time-Frame Statistics:

--- Total Elapsed Time: 3 Hours, 12 Minutes

--- Log #1 Elapsed Time: 3 Hours, 12 Minutes

--- Log #1 Elapsed Number of Days: <1

--- Flashpoints and Warzones Completed:

- None

--- Daily & Miscellaneous Missions Completed:

- Vette Dialogue

- Crew Skills

- Advanced Class Selection

 

Level Status:

--- End of Time-Frame Level: 11

--- End of Time-Frame Experience Total: ? (Completely forgot to check this for this Time-Frame)

--- Log #1 Levelling Speed: Approximately 3.43 levels per hour

 

Exterior Support Given During this Period:

--- Donated Gear Costs: 0 (Posessed all necessary crafting materials)

--- Donated Credits: 4000 credits

--- Donated Time: None (Crafting was done while questing)

--- Donated Equippable Gear:

- Purple Gauntlets (Crafted)

- Purple Boots (Crafted)

- Purple Focus (Crafted)

- Purple Color Crystal (Crafted)

- Purple Hilt (Crafted)

 

Economy Information:

--- Total Credits: 12,230 (8,230 Approximate Net Earnings)

--- Quest/Loot Related Earnings: Approximately 8,730

--- Non-Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 0

--- Credits Spent: Approximately 500 (At this stage I didn't bother to keep track, but I will in the future)

--- Skill Trainer Costs: Approximately 500 (Again, I'll be keeping track of this in the future)

--- Equipment Purchases: 0

--- Equipment Repairs: 0

--- Galactic Trade Network Deposit Total: 0

--- Commendations Earned/Spent:

- Korriban Earned: 8

- Korriban Spent: 8 (Chestpiece for Krovados)

 

Screen-Shot Log:

Visual Log #1 - Completed Character Creation and ready to begin levelling

Visual Log #2 - Logging out at 5:31pm

Visual Log #3 - Logging in at 5:41pm

Visual Log #4 - Logging out at 7:16pm

Visual Log #5 - Logging in at 11:32pm

Visual Log #6 - Korriban Completion

Visual Log #7 - Final log for segment

 

Side Notes: I'm going to be changing the file format and file sizes for the images at a later time, as well as try and be more diligent about taking a screenshot before logging out (I forgot to do it twice and had to log back in just to make the screen capture). I'm also going to try and figure out a good format for how I will display relevant information in the screenshot.

 

 

Log #2: Grinding on the Fleet/Pre-Dromund Kaas

Time-Frame Statistics:

--- Total Elapsed Time: 9 Hours, 29 Minutes

--- Log #2 Elapsed Time: 6 Hours, 17 Minutes

--- Log #2 Elapsed Number of Days: <1

--- Flashpoints and Warzones Completed:

- 14x Black Talon (6 Social Runs with a level 50, 8 Runs with similar level allies)

- 2 Warzones (Wins: 1 Losses: 1)

--- Daily & Miscellaneous Missions Completed:

- PvP Daily

 

Level Status:

--- End of Time-Frame Level: 15

--- End of Time-Frame Experience Total: 18667/54035 (34.54%)

--- Log #2 Levelling Speed: Approximately 0.66 levels per hour

 

Exterior Support Given During this Period:

--- Donated Gear Costs: 0 (Posessed all crafting materials)

--- Donated Credits: 0

--- Donated Time: None

--- Donated Equippable Gear:

- Purple Bracers (Crafted)

- Purple Boots (Crafted)

- Purple Color Crystal (Crafted)

- Purple Hilt (Crafted)

 

Economy Information:

--- Total Credits: 22,115 (9,885 Net Earnings)

--- Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 14,505

--- Non-Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 2,693 (Warzone Winnings)

--- Credits Spent: 7,313

--- Skill Trainer Costs: 3,900

--- Equipment Purchases: 3,413

--- Equipment Repairs: 0

--- Galactic Trade Network Deposit Total: 0

--- Commendations Earned/Spent:

- Dromund KaasEarned: 41

- Dromund Kaas Spent: 41 (2x Barrel, 1x Armoring, 5x Mod, 5x Enhancement)

 

Screen-Shot Log:

Visual Log #8 - Login at 12:23

Visual Log #9 - Logout at 15:33

Visual Log #10 - Login at 19:52

Visual Log #11 - Final log for segment

 

Side Notes: This phase of the game can go more quickly or more slowly depending on how long it takes for you to find party members for Black Talon as well as queue for Warzones. I had a guild-mate who wanted to do social runs (we did complete the bonus missions for the experience of course) so we were able to do a lot of Black Talon runs sequentially... But do keep in mind that even though you're going through the flashpoint a fair bit faster, I actually think it's less time efficient (i.e. you would probably get more bang for your buck by finding regular low level allies to do Black Talon/Esseles with, even though you will go through the flashpoint slower). When you decide to do this for yourself, I would also advise ideally picking a peak period for your server so that you'll have a faster and easier time queuing up for Warzones as well as finding party members for the Black Talon/Esseles runs.

 

Another note I would like to make is that I may have messed up my record-keeping at some point. I earned a total of 41 Dromund Kaas commendations (1 I received in the mail from a mail "quest") which means over the course of my Black Talon runs I must have earned 40 commendations. I've been under the impression that you gain two commendations per run, which would total up to 20 runs. I may have missed a few runs in my log, but not that many... However it is also possible that random mobs dropped commendations (it's infrequent, but it happens) and that may also account for the extra earned commendations.

 

 

 

 

Log #3: Dromund Kaas

Time-Frame Statistics:

--- Total Elapsed Time: 14 Hours, 51 Minutes

--- Log #3 Elapsed Time: 5 Hours, 22 Minutes

--- Log #3 Elapsed Number of Days: 1

--- Flashpoints and Warzones Completed:

- None

--- Daily & Miscellaneous Missions Completed:

- None

 

Level Status:

--- End of Time-Frame Level: 19

--- End of Time-Frame Experience Total: 3,595/82,620 (4.35%)

--- Log #3 Levelling Speed: Approximately 0.74 levels per hour

 

Exterior Support Given During this Period:

--- Donated Gear Costs: 0

--- Donated Credits: 0

--- Donated Time: None

--- Donated Equippable Gear:

- None

 

Economy Information:

--- Total Credits: 27,995 (5,580 Net Earnings)

--- Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 18,463

--- Non-Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 4,162 (Slicing)

--- Credits Spent: 17,539

--- Skill Trainer Costs: 9,210

--- Equipment Purchases: 7,580 (Rakghoul Vaccine + Moved 2 mods + Expanded Inventory)

--- Equipment Repairs: 255

--- Galactic Trade Network Deposit Total: 494

--- Commendations Earned/Spent:

- Dromund KaasEarned: 41

- Dromund Kaas Spent: 41 (2x Barrel, 1x Armoring, 5x Mod, 5x Enhancement)

 

Screen-Shot Log:

Visual Log #12 - Ready to start Dromund Kaas

Visual Log #13 - Logout: 12:55

Visual Log #14 - Login: 00:38

Visual Log #15 - Logout: 02:38

Visual Log #16 - Login: 15:27

Visual Log #17 - Final log for segment

 

Side Notes: For starters, I wasn't able to find a group for the Heroic 4 mission "Friends of Old", and that is a pretty juicy mission in terms of both money and experience. For my next log (pre-Balmorra, getting to level 21) I'm going to try and see if I can get a group going for that mission and go back to Kaas to complete it. Heroic 4 missions are always worth trying to get a group together for, as they tend to be similar in experience yields to flashpoints, but typically less time is spent to complete them.

 

Another thing I would briefly like to point out is that I'm now convinced that if you're looking to truly "power level", then Slicing would definitely be a gathering skill to take. I didn't make a whole lot of credits on Dromund Kaas, and if I hadn't been gathering nearby slicing nodes (trust me, I wasn't going out of my way to find them) I would have made roughly 1,000 credits net. Since I imagine the costs/rewards are going to scale somewhat equally (I'm very curious to find out later in the game), a character that is working on crafting is actually going to be losing money for a large portion of the game, as the costs to get the appropriate crew skill up to snuff is going to be fairly high.

 

Finally, my average levelling speed jumped a little bit (0.74 levels per hour vs. 0.66 before starting Kaas) and I think that this definitely hints at the validity of keeping ahead in levels and equipment. Kaas has a broader level range than the rest of the worlds in the game, which also means that the average experience gains from the quests will be smaller (Some of the starting quests on the planet yielded in the neighbourhood of 2,000 experience, wheras at the end they were getting close to 5,000). When it was time to fight mobs, either by accident or for bonus missions, I feel that there was definitely a considerable difference in speed when comparing myself taking on the mobs and watching random other players attack the mobs.

 

 

Log #4: Levels 19-21 - Pre-Balmorra

Time-Frame Statistics:

--- Total Elapsed Time: 19 Hours, 29 Minutes

--- Log #4 Elapsed Time: 4 Hours, 38 Minutes

--- Log #4 Elapsed Number of Days: 2

--- Flashpoints and Warzones Completed:

- Hammer Station

- 7 Warzones (5 Wins, 2 Losses)(

--- Daily & Miscellaneous Missions Completed:

- Emerging Conflicts I

- Jabiim Escort (x2)

- Cartel Listening Station (x1)

- Friends of Old (Heroic 4 on Dromund Kaas)

- Hadra's Defeat (Didn't yield XP but had to do it with group to do Friends of Old)

 

Level Status:

--- End of Time-Frame Level: 21

--- End of Time-Frame Experience Total:

--- Log #1 Levelling Speed: Approximately 0.43 levels per hour

 

Exterior Support Given During this Period:

--- Donated Gear Costs: Aproximately 170,000

--- Donated Credits: 0

--- Donated Time: Approximately 1 hour

--- Donated Equippable Gear:

- Legacy Modifiable Bracers

- Legacy Modifiable Belt

- Modifiable Leggings

- Modifiable Helmet

- Augmented Lightsaber (Crafted)

- All necessary mods for modifiable equipment for level 21 character

 

Economy Information:

--- Total Credits: 54,784 (27,589 Net Earnings)

--- Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 33,969

--- Non-Quest/Loot Related Earnings: 3,800 (Sold items on Galactic Trade network)

--- Credits Spent: 6,380

--- Skill Trainer Costs: 0 (Did not check trainer yet)

--- Equipment Purchases: 0

--- Equipment Repairs: 0

--- Galactic Trade Network Deposit Total: 0

--- Commendations Earned/Spent:

- Balmorra Earned: 1

- Nar Shaddaa Earned: 4

- Warzone Earned: Approximately 900 (Wasn't keeping good enough track, see side notes)

- Warzone Spent: Approximately 850 (2x PvP Implant + PvP Boots)

 

Screen-Shot Log:

Will be updated later.

 

Side Notes: For this log I wasn't paying very close attention to be quite honest. I didn't log some of my economy related material, namely in regards to Warzone commendations. I'll try and figure out by reverse how many I earned and update this at a later time.

 

I was also really sloppy and slow in terms of this segment. Something I should have been doing instead of chatting in general chat while waiting for Warzones was that I should have been doing space missions at the same time. I completely forgot about Space Missions up until about the very end of the log, and I should have made the missions top priority as they are easy to accomplish and yield a healthy amount of experience.

 

In short, this was a terrible run for me as It took me 4 hours to do something that really didn't require that kind of time. I was distracted and there was a lot of stuff going on in real life so this greatly affected my play. The amount of wasted time I had during this period is stupid... And I'll try and make sure to improve on this in the future, as I spent a lot of time literally standing around waiting for Warzones to pop when I could have been getting experience at the same time. This was a poor showing and I hope you take that into account.

 

I also donated a lot of Credits during this period from my other character. If you have the ability to do so, I highly advise getting modifiable Bracers/Belt for your character as this entire strategy is based around the principle of getting gear via commendations. So my exterior support during this period was actually pretty huge. If you don't have these types of resources at your disposal, buy some gear via Warzone Commendations. You can get modifiable leggings from the PvP Armor vendor (as well as find them on the GTN). Commendations are meant to be used, not hoarded.

 

Edited by CrAzEdMiKe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

a cool thread. i already have a 50, but will take some of this advice to heart while i grind up my alt.

 

one thing i'm concerned about is supposedly, the XP rewards for PVP have been reduced. i haven't pvp'd in the sub50 bracket in a long long time, and am wondering if anyone can comment on this.

Edited by Darth_Gao_Gao
Link to comment
Share on other sites

a cool thread. i already have a 50, but will take some of this advice to heart while i grind up my alt.

 

one thing i'm concerned about is supposedly, the XP rewards for PVP have been reduced. i haven't pvp'd in the sub50 bracket in a long long time, and am wondering if anyone can comment on this.

 

This is something I'm curious about as well, and I will be trying to document my PvP matches (for Project Krovados) to try and get some accurate numbers. If anyone has any information on this I would love to hear it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EDIT: I have spent approximately 6 hours grinding on the fleet to lv. 15 using your guide, just letting you know for technical purposes.

 

This seems to be in line with how much time it took me as well. I'm still convinced that it's worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I appreciate all the work you have done with this guide, and I think it will help a lot of people.

 

I use some of the same principles myself, though where I diverge from most people is towards the end.

 

I make an effort to land on Voss around 45-46. If you can do this, then you can do nothing but finish out your class quest (which will leave you at 48, or 49), and then do dailies (probably 2 days worth at most) to finish out to 50. I find this gives a very nice leg-up in terms of commendations, and cashflow for a fresh 50. This should work even better now, with the new dailies on Corellia, assuming they too, do not require level 50.

 

Also, my experience has shown that;

 

Doing your class quest + main planet story arc should net you 2 levels on a given planet.

Doing the rest of the quests should net you the other two levels.

Bonus series (except for Hoth, because it's so short) seem to give half a level to a level each, and are worth doing.

Space is great exp up until around level 35, then I don't find it to be worth the time for exp purposes after that.

 

I just thought I would add some numbers that I have noticed, for those who like to see numbers.

 

Nice work on your guide though.

 

Riôt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is something I'm curious about as well, and I will be trying to document my PvP matches (for Project Krovados) to try and get some accurate numbers. If anyone has any information on this I would love to hear it!

 

 

 

I have played a ton of pvp and am sittin on level 49 right now. Usually i get about 20k xp, but that is for top heals and warzone victories. When we lose (i still get top heals) i get around 12-15k xp. Im sure it depends on your skill level and how you are performing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...