Very good read, and i agree with a lot of what you said. However, the "PvP ASAP" is very server dependant.

 

The fastest way to gear up to a level where you can heal hard mode flashpoints and normal operations is through the level 50 daily quests (belsavis and ilum) and normal level 50 flashpoints.

 

The gear rewards from the flashpoints may not be 'outstanding', but the key to running these flashpoints is that you get corellia commendations, which can be spent on level 50 rare quality (blue) barrels, armorings, mods, and enhancements. You can run Directive 7, Battle for Ilum, False Emporer, and the new Battle for Kaon on normal, and have enough commendations to fill most (if not all) of your moddable slots with level 50 versions. This coupled with buying 1-2 epic armorings/barrels from the belsavis/ilum pve dailies, as well as the epic enhancements/mods/armorings from the heroic quests in the same areas, is an amazingly quick and easy way to get started for new 50s.

 

If you compare the amount of time it takes to do a flashpoint (yes, the first time will be painful as you learn the mechanics, but it gets faster with practice), and consider that the corellia commendations are a guarentied drop off of every boss, bonus, and quest...it really is MUCH faster than the time it takes to get 1-2 pvp bags and praying you get an actual item.

 

I find 'farming' pvp for gear to be vastly inferior to running pve content...assuming you're gearing for pve of course. I will say though, if you're on a server where the Republic has a strong pvp presence, doing the pvp dailies is worth the time...but anything beyond that is vastly inferior as far as rewards gained vs time spent for brand new 50s.

I must admit, I did not even think about how PvP may differ from server to server. At least for my server/myself I found that if you ran with a group (Which I almost always found myself doing) you were almost guaranteed a win. The Empire on our server may outnumber us, but we have the better WZ win rate from the ones I have done.

However, even with the fact that PvP may be slower on different servers than my own, I still hold true to the opinion that you will cut your gearing time in half by pvping. While I do not know the exact amount of commendations you get from the normal mode instances at 48-50, I do know that the blue gear you get from the Corellia commendations is around level 120, if not lower. Now, compare that to the Champion level gear you get from Champion bags by pvping, which is level 136.

While the rate at which you receive gear will be slower, from what I have witnessed the rate of gear dropping from them is 1 for every four bags. So when you hit 50 and have 6 bags waiting for you to get there is high chance you will at least get 1 piece of gear from them, if not more. And couple this with doing the weekly, which gives you 3, and the daily , which gives you 1, you will gain 10 bags in your first week of hitting fifty by pvping which will likely grant you at least 2 pieces of level 136 gear which is only one off from the recommended gear for Hardmodes.

At the end of the day it is always your prerogative, and if you like doing normals and getting the feel for instances before going into them essentially blind during a hardmode then by all means go for it. And about the daily's, that is something I totally agree on. Thank you for your opposing viewpoint in the matter though, it's always good to have multiple ways to do things.

I must admit, I did not even think about how PvP may differ from server to server. At least for my server/myself I found that if you ran with a group (Which I almost always found myself doing) you were almost guaranteed a win. The Empire on our server may outnumber us, but we have the better WZ win rate from the ones I have done.

 

However, even with the fact that PvP may be slower on different servers than my own, I still hold true to the opinion that you will cut your gearing time in half by pvping. While I do not know the exact amount of commendations you get from the normal mode instances at 48-50, I do know that the blue gear you get from the Corellia commendations is around level 120, if not lower. Now, compare that to the Champion level gear you get from Champion bags by pvping, which is level 136.

 

While the rate at which you receive gear will be slower, from what I have witnessed the rate of gear dropping from them is 1 for every four bags. So when you hit 50 and have 6 bags waiting for you to get there is high chance you will at least get 1 piece of gear from them, if not more. And couple this with doing the weekly, which gives you 3, and the daily , which gives you 1, you will gain 10 bags in your first week of hitting fifty by pvping which will likely grant you at least 2 pieces of level 136 gear which is only one off from the recommended gear for Hardmodes.

 

At the end of the day it is always your prerogative, and if you like doing normals and getting the feel for instances before going into them essentially blind during a hardmode then by all means go for it. And about the daily's, that is something I totally agree on. Thank you for your opposing viewpoint in the matter though, it's always good to have multiple ways to do things.

Yes, champion gear is better than corellia gear, but that's not the point i was trying to make. If someone is trying to get gear that is good enough for operations and hardmode flashpoints, the lvl 47-50 flashpoints are faster and more reliable than pvping. The gear won't be as good as the champion gear (which is equavalent to hard mode operations), but it will be good enough for them to function in a PvE group. Once they can get into a PvE group, the gear that drops in hard mode flashpoints is better than the pvp gear (for pve purposes, with the exception of MH/OH weapons).

PvP is a great way to gear up, can be amazingly fun with a group, and is a nice break. It's also a great way to skip an entire tier of gear, but champion gear is NOT starter gear. It's the equavalent of raid gear. In the time it takes to do 3-4 warzones, you can take 8 people in moderate gear (minimum of corellia level gear) and clear Eternity Vault and at LEAST half of Karaggas Palace, which drops gear BETTER than champions gear (for pve, that is). PvPing for gear is NOT faster than PvEing for it...it just takes less organization.

Thanks for a great guide!

Currently levelling using it (alt) and am at lvl 16. One thing I am missing in the guide is clear (dps) rotations for solo questing (there are implicit ones though), so here's a first one that I'm contributing.

For you trolls, I haven't done serious theorycrafting about these and they can probably be improved (and please do ;-)). They are working great for me though.

Preparation:

Use Slice droid on any single droid (the stronger the better)

Position yourself slightly in front on Corso

Use Corso to pull (with harpoon)

Priority rotation for lvl 16 (10-19?):

(Out of cover) Blaster Whip > Pugnacity (if not up) > Back blast > Thermal Grenade > Quick shot (if above 80% energy) > Flurry of bolts

(In cover) Sabotage Charge > Vital shot (if strong mob) > Thermal Grenade > Charged burst (if above 80% energy and mob not close to dying) > Flurry of bolts

4 Weak Mobs strategy:

First mob will usually die on your back blast, pop into cover and trash a second mob. When second mob is dead, Corso will just have pulled a third mob so out of cover and trash that. Into cover and pop the last.

2 Weak + 1 Strong strategy:

Let Corso tank the strong mob. Use cover to blast the weak ones and then out of cover rotation on the strong one.

1 Champion strategy:

Let Corso tank, out of cover priority rotation all the way, except weaving in Underworld Medicine if Corso drops low. You can also drop into cover after back blast to get a sabotage charge in as have been mentioned in this thread.

Hope someone can use this!

I started having trouble with my sawbones on Tatooine, where I was constantly forced to stop and healing Corso after (almost) every fight with a strong involved. And killing elites was a pain, as Corso took too much damage forcing me to constantly healing him, while he wasn't able to bring the enemy down by himself.

I'm playing my commando now (and it's shameful how I can lvl up with no problem at all as combat medic), but I'd like to go back on my scoundrel. Things will get better once I take Risha? And do I really need to get in cover? I think that's a waste of time and I stopped learning gunslinger's abilties... can this be my problem?

I started having trouble with my sawbones on Tatooine, where I was constantly forced to stop and healing Corso after (almost) every fight with a strong involved. And killing elites was a pain, as Corso took too much damage forcing me to constantly healing him, while he wasn't able to bring the enemy down by himself.

I'm playing my commando now (and it's shameful how I can lvl up with no problem at all as combat medic), but I'd like to go back on my scoundrel. Things will get better once I take Risha? And do I really need to get in cover? I think that's a waste of time and I stopped learning gunslinger's abilties... can this be my problem?

i leveled to 50 with just Corso and had no problems.

the best way is to stealth your way around and always CC the strongest mob in your target group (tranquilizer on NPCs or hack on droids) - dont forget to avoid area attacks or you will wake them up.

on the lesser mobs i usually went for all out attack to get them down asap.

on strongs and elites i started by putting 2 HoTs on Corso and keeping them active during fights. i usually did some damage (standing behind the target for my shotgun blast) while Corso was tanking - just kept an eye on Corsos health and the HoTs.

in later fights it will get more complicated as the high level opponents will use nasty specials you will need to interrupt.

i use a key-bind for target-of-my-target to swap between my tanking companion and our target - so i can switch between doing damage/interrupts and companion heals.

always CC the strongest mob in your target group (tranquilizer on NPCs or hack on droids) .

Ok, so I have to cc strong ones in a strong-normal situation? Do I need to take the tranquilizer talent in the sawbone spec?

Last question: should I go for a hybrid or just go straight sawbones, considering that I want to heal flashpoints?

Thank you.

Yes, you should always CC the strongest in a group using tranquilizer. You will not need the talent spec for it. Also use your stuns every time they're off cooldown. CC + stuns + interrupts = easy mode.

I've been healing all flashpoints as I've progressed and I have been going sawbones up until 31pts or so (emergency medpack level) and then I've branched out into scrapper. I don't think you have to go sawbones so dramatically to be able to heal normal flashpoints though.

Stat Priority:

Cunning--> Tech Power--> Critical Chance--> Surge Rating--> Alacrity--> Power

Quick question on this. Why is tech power so much higher than power? I had always thought that "power" encompassed all types of power, like force & tech power. Tech power meanwhile is *tech* only. And indeed, when I open my character sheet, power & tech power is converted to bonus damage & bonus healing at the same ratio (~5.88 power = +1 bonus).

Power though also adds to standard ranged damage, and not just tech abilities. So wouldn't it be:

Cunning > Power > Tech Power > Crit > Surg > Alacrity ?