The storyline hits Corellia, then Illum then Makeb. You are going to QQ about having to go back to other planets to run heroics as if that is out of line with leveling, but demand to skip an entire planet you are supposed to run while leveling? Sounds like you are just whining to hear yourself whine or just a troll with nothing better to do.

Thanks God

Makeb had it's run during 12xp where it was super special XP boost but now that it's normal again I doubt I'll run it again for a few years.

I agree, it will be a long time before I do Makeb again.

Whos bright idea was it to make Makeb now a lvl 51 to get the story? What was so wrong with 47?

Now sitting here at lvl 49 with nowhere to go but Ilum, a pvp laggy hellhole. No thx!

Awesome work BW! Just f**kin awesome!

Wait, how did you finish your class story at 49 while doing all planetary story and class story? You should have easily been level 50 half-way to 51, if not 51 or higher. Shoot, I haven't even left Coruscant yet on my brand new Guardian (created post 4.0), and he's level 27 already. Granted, I'm doing heroics as well.

The beauty of this is that now, due to the hated level sync, you can go to fleet, grab some dailies, and hit up old planets doing said dailies and gain experience on par with your current level. Or do the exploration quests, or any planet arcs you may have skipped. Stupid level sync giving you options!

Wait...you mean I could potentially skip Makeb now? <3

Who actually relies on gear drops?

 

No idea what game you people are playing.

Honestly, I have to wonder how people even get into these situations. I recently ran a character (Sorc) through the entire story line. In otherwords, doing all the purple missions I found. I ended up being so over leveled for most of the content I was getting level-sync'ed when I first landed on some of the later planets (Correlia, Ilum, Makeb and so on..). No flashpoints, though, aside from the SoR solo modes. I did keep a certain couple companion missions up to par, which at the time granted a ton of xp.

Sure the gear drops were mostly worthless, but I ended up with enough comms to buy almost a complete set of 208 gear. And that was with me buying a few mod upgrades with comms along the way. Also ended with about 1.5 mil credits, not selling anything on the GTN, and spending a fair bit along the way on cosmetic stuff.

Shoot, I haven't even left Coruscant yet on my brand new Guardian (created post 4.0), and he's level 27 already. Granted, I'm doing heroics as well.

Right? I've started a Scoundrel post 4.0 that is currently at level 19 before starting Coruscant. Granted, I ran ALL missions on Ord Mantell, not just the purple ones. And I did a run through Esseles solo mode.

People need to stop with this BS. It shows up every time someone is QQing about level sync and it just goes to show they QQ about stuff they know nothing about...just like the OP QQing about Illum. Illum is just like any other planet with a planetary story line. Run it, get to 50 and stop your whining.

How about how in his response to this post from you he completely ignores my post where I followed up on his request (and then some) to test some gear swaps and check the stats in various conditions with and without level sync but instead of just seeing a lack of change in health and grabbing the torches and pitchforks with him I actually dug in and identified precisely in which ways gear remains relevant (all secondary / tertiary stats that aren't power, just like I had said earlier) and where sync imposes caps on you (mastery, endurance, power, health).

(I seriously question the design decision to enforce the caps AFTER applying bonuses from buffs / procs / adrenals though. Gearing up your mastery / endurance / power beyond the capped values and getting bonuses that would boost them up beyond the capped values do all go to waste. And the cap for health appears to be lower than what the cap for endurance would actually provide you with. It would be nice for those small bonuses to apply after the cap has been enforced so that it's some small visible change.)

We can use these observations to make gearing choices that can be relevant if we do something where there's a level sync. Pick crit mods instead of power mods. If you're augmenting, stay away from mastery, endurance, and power augments. Maybe consider looking for the relics that proc a little extra damage instead of the more popular mastery / power boosting proc relics. (I forget. Are those among the options added to crafting?) All of these things are great for non-synced content but they're wasted on synced content.

Brand new lvl 1 trooper after 4.0 dropped, I've not done anything extra otther than 1 Fondor escort, a solo esselles run and the introduction to PvP missions (around lvl 16). I've not touched the planet main lines until tatooine, not run any heroics. Last night she just finished up the okara droid factory section of balmorra.. and is Level 42.

3 class xp boxes have been bought and xp boosts used after Nar Shadaa

How anyone can finish Corellia under level 51 I don't know. As other posters have said Ilum's not just the "additional" something to do that it once was when the game opened, it's part of the linear story now in the same way as going from Coruscant to Taris to Nar Shadaa is.

Hell if you'd spent the time running Ilum instead of QQing about it, you'd probably be past it anyways, it's a ridiculously short line for both sides either way.

Wait...you mean I could potentially skip Makeb now? <3

Makeb is not something each character must do. If you like the story do it again, if not level with other things

Another question: GSI boost on Makeb is gone. So why the hell would you want to go there underleveled now? I suppose healing companions making you Wolverine means you could survive. But wouldn't it take forever?

That could be an interesting experiment to try, I suppose.

The first time I tried to take advantage of 12x and GSI bolster to start a character on Makeb at 47 for a fast track to 55, it was an Imperial character, I did not think to look for the bolster before heading down to the planet because I assumed that it would just be in the main base, and I had completely forgotten that Imperials have to fight their way there before they can use their main base on Makeb. So I went into that big fight at the gravity hook (which didn't seem so big originally with a level 50 when Makeb was new or on other characters after this where I did use the bolster) underleveled for the planet and... Well, I did manage to scrape through the fight after a wipe or two. But I had accidentally made it a lot harder on myself than it needed to be.

So it would be interesting for comparison to see if the new scaling for companions and the added convenience of short cooldowns on heroic moment abilities would make that fight any easier for a fresh level 47.

That could be an interesting experiment to try, I suppose.

 

The first time I tried to take advantage of 12x and GSI bolster to start a character on Makeb at 47 for a fast track to 55, it was an Imperial character, I did not think to look for the bolster before heading down to the planet because I assumed that it would just be in the main base, and I had completely forgotten that Imperials have to fight their way there before they can use their main base on Makeb. So I went into that big fight at the gravity hook (which didn't seem so big originally with a level 50 when Makeb was new or on other characters after this where I did use the bolster) underleveled for the planet and... Well, I did manage to scrape through the fight after a wipe or two. But I had accidentally made it a lot harder on myself than it needed to be.

 

So it would be interesting for comparison to see if the new scaling for companions and the added convenience of short cooldowns on heroic moment abilities would make that fight any easier for a fresh level 47.

Unless the companion drew aggro. As it stands they have zero defense stats at level. They might be able to heal through it still but if it's a whole mob they may still die. I suppose it would depend on how the fights are approached. Still would take forever though. That was the whole point of the GSI boost to begin with.

I remember having some toons at mid-levels, when 12x XP and Epic xp hit, respectively.. They finished Corellia (class missions only), severely underleveled. (5-8 levels below).. This is simply because I had done most of the content BEFORE the bonus xp periods and thus my toons could not take full advantage of said periods... It's just the way it is..

I made a new stealther (Shadow) after the 4.0 changes and ran her un-guilded (but with the free xp bonuses from mission rewards). I stealthed through anything I could, ran Class- and Planetary- Missions and the Heroics on each planet.. Nothing else...

The heroics kept her fully geared in at-level blues (Relics, implants, offhands and earpieces included) for every slot except mainhand, which for some reason was excluded... I used I few greens I picked up (for the mainhand) and took comms as every reward I could (even though I didn't need to use them for anything..)

I hit 65 before I left Corellia.

My point is:

If you have a partly-leveled char, before a bonus-period or changed-xp period, you cannot expect to level exactly the way the Devs describe.. As that requires following the stated path all the way from level 1. (And sometimes using the freely granted bonuses). You will need to do more.

If you start from level 1 within the frame of any given xp-path, such as 12x, Epic or 4.0, you should stay within the stated levels, IF you do the necessary missions (Class- and Planetary- for 4.0) or find alternate means to do so.

And... Using a stealther requires you to either not stealth through everything or complete more than the minimum stated missions, as you do not get xp from mobs along the way...

What are you smoking? Ilum isn't a pvp free for all unless you are on a pvp server. Do some flash points, finish your mission on Ilum then go to Makeb. Simple. Quit whining and do something. There is no entitlement in SWTOR so leave your silver spoon at the log in screen.

This. ^

People need to stop with this BS. It shows up every time someone is QQing about level sync and it just goes to show they QQ about stuff they know nothing about...just like the OP QQing about Illum. Illum is just like any other planet with a planetary story line. Run it, get to 50 and stop your whining.

And this. ^

And very beauty of this is you get very low level gear drops from npc's which is totally useless, and that's why people don't even do this low level stupid stuff...

Not sure what game you're playing, or maybe you just haven't actually done any of the heroics since 4.0?

I can go do a heroic on my toon (which also happens to be level 49 right now) and get almost an entire level's worth of experience, a lockbox mission reward that gives 2 at-level blue gear pieces with top-tier stats, and around 20k credits...closer to 40k if you do the bonus mission. Nothing to complain about here...