Will social item gear have 3 slots or 3 + augment as other crafted orange gear can have? If I understand the 1.2 changes nearly all gear can be crafted into an orange set and with a crit will have an Augment also.. what does that mean for existing vendor purchased sets? Will they be craftable (i assume no) and if not, then will they be inferior from other sets because they cannot have the 4th augment slot???

Does this question make sense? Am i out in left field?

Social gear is not crafted. It will only have three slots in 1.2, though the developers have already stated they will implement some way to add an augment slot to them in the future. I doubt we will see this, however, until they add the functionality for social items to serve as medium and heavy armor. The most likely ways of doing this are to either add an item to the game that can add an augment slot to an existing item or to make schematics for social items available to crafters.

They have stated they will be implementing schematics for all orange-quality items currently in the game, though they may not get these all to us in 1.2. The methods of learning these schematics may also differ. Some will be obtained as crew skill mission rewards, and some might be obtainable by reverse engineering the existing items.

I was aware of most of the details in your post, but didn't find details of augment slots being implemented at a later update. This is good news, though I agree a mater of when is a bit of a problem.

It wouldn't make much sense to me to have all the social sets floating out there when every other gear would potentially be better quality. It's like cutting your leg off for using elite gear. I know elite is too strong a word, but I think my point gets across.

I was pretty certain orange social sets wouldn't be craftable, this makes sense to me.

I just needed to hear that I can use the gear I have now post 1.2 down the road. I can live with sub par until if they do intend to allow augments down the road one day.

Thanks for the info!

It wouldn't make much sense to me to have all the social sets floating out there when every other gear would potentially be better quality. It's like cutting your leg off for using elite gear. I know elite is too strong a word, but I think my point gets across.