I've had the game since launch but I never really played it much. I took a smuggler to level 50 and than stopped playing. I would sporadically come back and subscribe for a month here or there leveling an alt until I got bored and would quit again. Now that there is 12x exp I have come back and leveled a new character to around 50 and I am now curious about experiencing post class story content for some reason.

So my questions are, what are the best planets or stories available after the class story? Looking for mainly solo stuff. Are any really worth exploring or if I am in it for story should I go toward just doing another class I haven't done yet? I was going to go to Makeb but I kind of want to experience original level 50 stuff before moving on to hutt cartel. Should I just go to Ilum and do that, is that pretty much all there is? Or are there other planets or bonus series worth exploring at 50?

Also with Operations; are they story driven like the first flashpoint early on? If i'm at 50 should I try to find out how to do it or are the story mode operations easy enough where I can just queue up and join one? Im not looking to go through a gear grind as I've done that on other mmos but I guess I will a little if I have to. I just want to experience some content and curious if the Operations are story driven and if I need to gear grind or read about them to learn the fights before going.

I know I'm kind of all over the place with this post, I just want to try to get one thread. As there were some other threads that kind of answered part of it but not part of it. Maybe I'm just bad at looking. Anyway thanks for any and all replies. Very much appreciated.

Click here.

Follow it through and you can do no wrong.

EDIT:

There are also the Bonus Series on Belsavis, in case you missed them.

Click here.

 

Follow it through and you can do no wrong.

 

EDIT:

 

There are also the Bonus Series on Belsavis, in case you missed them.

Thanks for the link. That pretty much answers it I guess. One question, do I need to gear up for those Story Mode operations or become familiar with them(i can read about em I guess) before trying to queue up for them as they become available or is it relatively easy where I can just queue and listen to directions as a gunslinger sharpshooter ?

Thanks for the link. That pretty much answers it I guess. One question, do I need to gear up for those Story Mode operations or become familiar with them(i can read about em I guess) before trying to queue up for them as they become available or is it relatively easy where I can just queue and listen to directions as a gunslinger sharpshooter ?

You should probably check a guide for the operations, though Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace are simple enough to plow through. If you ask in the OPS chat though, I'm sure most people will break it down to you, no problem.

It's story mode after all.

As for the gear, if you do the Oricon quest chain preceding Dread Fortress and Dread Palace, you get a good enough armor set for most of the operations; Story mode anyway.

You still need to run some dailies or weeklies to get the implants, earpiece, belt, bracer, MH and OH however.

If it's soloable, leveling style story content you want - as opposed to content that has a story to it as context rather than the primary driving factor - you're basically limited to Makeb. Illum and Oricon have it as well to an extent, but they also wrap up their stories in flashpoints (kinda soloable once you overlevel and overgear) and operations (in no way soloable). The HK-51 questline is decent, but has the same problem. Forged Alliances is currently nearly all flashpoints, though apparently they're working on a solo version for 3.0.

Places like Section X and CZ-198 are entirely skippable. Their brief intro scenes explaining why you need to come back and shoot guys over and over are nothing to write home about.

I personally think the Dread Masters story arc, that began in the Belsavis Imperial planet story chain and culminated in Dread Palace, was pretty amazing.

The link in the first comment does contain everything I think essential for it, but there's also some extraneous bits so here's my streamlined version:

1. Eternity Vault (Operation)
   
2. Karagga's Palace (Operation) - Yes, this is Hutt activity that culminates in part with Makeb/Rise of the Hutt Cartel, but it ties into the Dread Masters as well.
   
3. Explosive Conflict (Operation)
   
4. Terror from Beyond (Operation)
   
5. Scum & Villainy (Operation)
   
6. Makeb (Optional, planet chain) - it's an outgrowth of Karagga's Palace, but is only connected to the Dread Masters through that Operation)
   
7. Oricon (planet chain)
   
8. Dread Fortress (Operation) - continuation of the Oricon story chain
   
9. Dread Palace (Operation) - conclusion of the Oricon story chain
   

All of those have some sort of pick-up or as I call them "wrapper quests" to put the missions into story context to make the a cohesive story line.

The other flashpoints mentioned in the original link do have story, but they seem seperate from the Dread Masters storyline.

Like the other commenters have said, at level 55, the first three Operations are pretty easy even on Hard Mode, just let people know this is your first time through them. For the other four, if you're wanting to do them as a story arc, pick up the TfB story mission (on either the Gav Daragon Fleet ship (Republic) or Ziost Shadow (Imperial)) then wait for Terror from Beyond to be the Group Finder Operation. Tons of people will be trying to run it at that point, and you'll have the benefit of being Bolstered (meaning your gear stats will matter less) and will get a bonus 30 Ultimate Comms for doing it.

I've noticed the pattern for Group Finder is to do the four level 55 Operations "in order", switching every 2-4 days, so you could, theoretically, do all four in about 8-9 days if you have the time. Or, do TfB, and then do each of the subsequent ones via Group Finder when you have time over the next few months.