Was wondering if anyone might be able to advise me. I am playing a few characters now, and the primary one, a lvl 30 (almost) Guardian, is not performing as well as I would like. I suspect that, along with my own ability, or lack thereof, his gear might be to blame. My problem is, at least in part, the Web. If I was playing WoW right now, I could go to Wowhead, or some such, and find tons of info on gear, powers, progressions, and more, but SWTOR seems to still be in its infancy, when I go to Torhead, and many things have NO Comments, or helpful directions.

When I get the option for Commendations or..., the ... is often a gear pick for Kira, which is better than what she has, so I don't get quite as many Commendations as I might, to spend at the Fleet. I have a nice Fusion-Core Lightsaber, but I can never shove enough parts in it to make it better than any other lightsaber I just find, and that makes me shake my head. I have moddable robes, and they stay better than any other armor I find, but that's it. For the other armor spots, I rarely find options, and the shops are a bust. GTN is also a bust because I am lvl 30, not 50. I know that I will eventually find gear that ups my max HP, or increases Shield, but I don't know when, and the web chooses not to tell me.

My three Rep Characters are working on Synth (Arch + Dip), Arti (Arch + TH) and Cyber (Scav + UW), so maybe I just have to grind with them, and they'll fix my ailes, but I don't know. Is there any advice people might have on keeping up with good gear, knowing what gear to look for, etc? I know what the colors mean, so please don't just repeat "blue is better than green, and purple is better than blue". I don't PvP much, as I am terrible at it, so I haven't grabbed that gear yet. Thanks for any help.

Keep geared up shouldnt really be a problem as you level along, especially by doing the occasional flashpoint between all your storyline stuff.

Be certain you are not skipping out on some planet quests. You can usually do your own story on a planet relatively quickly, but the other available quests will give you commendations and much needed upgrades as you go. Especially the various heroic level quests. Heroic 4s or 2s on planets usually reward you with some blue level reward, or orange moddable gear for your character.

Make sure to pick up new gear on planets with your commendations as needed.

Even if the reward is a pair of pants and you already have a pair of pants, You can take the necessary mods out from one or the other. You can also buy mods from the mod vendors located near those same commendation equipment vendors.

Keeping mods up to date becomes easier when you have crafters making them as well. I have a high level artifice who i return to ever now and then to make a new level set of enhancements or crystals for my toons. So that can help as well.

here's what I do, might not be the best way, but i have leveled 3 characters to 50 this way.

- always choose planetary commendations over green companion gear items for quest rewards, even if the companion gear offered is an upgrade. when you get green items from random drops, give these to your companions, as appropriate for their stats. if you get blue items that don't match your primary stats but are good for your companion, you can give these to them as well instead of selling them on GTN

- look over the orange gear available from the commendation vendors for the planets near your level. plan out how you will spend the commendations so that you get orange gear in every slot. check the dark side or light side vendor too because they have orange boots and gloves (i think). orange belt and bracers will be hardest to get but I think there are now schematics for these so there should be plenty on GTN that don't cost an arm and a leg

- once you have all orange gear, continue to spend commendations on modifications to keep your gear up to date. check GTN for cheap mods and if you see a cheap one with the stats you like, don't hesitate to buy it even if it's several levels above your level, just bank it for later

you should be able to keep yourself geared quite nicely doing this. it's really all about the commendations so run as many heroics as you need (repeat them if needed) to get the comms in order to purchase the gear and mods as you have planned it. you don't need torhead to see the commendation gear, just go to fleet and browse all of the planetary comms vendors there and pick out what you want to work towards. sometimes heroics will offer you the choice between a nice blue item or 3 comms. here i would normally choose the item if it's a nice upgrade, because to buy a blue bracers or something with comms is usually like 8 comms. so you come out ahead by choosing the item reward. then again, you can always find another group and run it again and get the comms!

ps - sub-50 pvp gear does really well for pve purposes too, so if you find yourself really needing an upgrade in a certain slot, check out the pvp vendor!

At the moment, the Commando cybertecher and Scoundrel artificer are lower level (C.Lvl 15 and 12, respectively, though they both get played with some regularity), so I will be building them up, both to help themselves and my Guardian. The Guardian, my "primary", is my Synthweaver, so I'll have to see how well that helps him.

Right now, the Jedi only has two moddable gear pieces, a Fusion-core lightsaber, and some Exemplar's or something robe. The robe has turned out great, and with me keeping its mods consistent, though maybe not the highest they can be, it has stayed ahead of every chest piece I find, as I go. The lightsaber, on the other hand, always falls behind on everything but Endurance, compared to ANY lightsaber I find as I progress. That is part of why I began this thread, so this is working nicely. Kira's DB-saber is moddable, and that has worked well, but her stat depends are different than Ender's, so I can't make his better the same way. I haven't been given any other orange gear, or felt like shelling out comms for it, over the mods, and I have no idea how to get the orange gear from the Coruscant Legacy vendor, while the PvP gear is too high lvl for even my 30 Guardian (another moment where I whine that the game only cares when I can't get better, except with mods). I'm running through Alderaan right now, so maybe while there, or right after, I'll look into finding some orange gear that I missed.

I'm sure one of my biggest fails is that I don't usually do Heroics, Flashpoints, or PvP. This game so often lets me get away from needing groups, that I often forget it's an MMO, and when I do want to run, that's when no one else is looking to. As for PvP, I can't stress enough how bad I am at it. I die constantly, and can't land a point of damage. I've never killed anyone before they killed me, and that was at lvl 25, even. It's disheartening because I'm playing a Tank, so one would think I could absorb a bit more damage. I guess it's that I don't know anyone in the team, so no strategy. It happened in WoW, too, but at least as a Mage, i expected to be glass, while here, I expect a Jedi Guardian to be wall-worthy, not floor-deco. These limits on my playing have likely denied me some good gear, but learning that helps. Maybe I can fix it.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try to take it to heart, and check back for if any other thoughts are shared.

your synthweaving should help a ton in gearing yourself up. just keep it up to date and beware that some items can only be made every 4-8 levels. greens are ok ,blues are better and you dont need to make purples.

be careful on getting too many orange modable items as it will be almost impossible if you try to update all of the mods on every planet. i think it will take about 11 coms per modable item . i cant remember precisely how much armoring/hilt costs are( 7 - 9?). but the mods and enhancements are two each. five pieces will be 50 coms and unless you do a butt load of heroic content you wont get that many from just solo questing.

depending on the companion you use you can also gear them up too with synthweaving.

gearing up your first character on a server can be a lot of work. especially if it is one that is more gear dependant like a tank.

good luck and have fun.

At the risk of just sounding dumb, or simple, is there a good way to rate the orange gear I might find? Of course, it's going to look like ***** when I first peruse it, because all of its mod slots are empty, and I don't inherently remember what bits are sitting in some other piece, on me, or in the Hold. They might be great kitted up, but I'm going to have to guess, and waste cred/comm to find out, and then pay more to wrench a mod out of my old gear (a mechanic I hate, as i wonder where my money goes when I pay myself).

All orange gear will change when you add the mods to it so it should all be about the same at your level. Just look at the level required to equip it. Some require set levels to equip

My shadow has the republic dancer top, gloves, shoes, and the elegant skirt and hat and we have a cybertech in the guild (she's at 400) that keeps everyone's mods up to date.

All orange gear will change when you add the mods to it so it should all be about the same at your level. Just look at the level required to equip it. Some require set levels to equip

 

My shadow has the republic dancer top, gloves, shoes, and the elegant skirt and hat and we have a cybertech in the guild (she's at 400) that keeps everyone's mods up to date.

I suppose. It's just that it's hard for me to know if I'll be able to keep the orange fear competitive, compared to the relatively nice stuff I find as I go. I never seem to buy from vendors, unless they are comm vendors, so it's usually thanks to completing missions that I get newer stuff, or the GTN, if I feel the price is appropriate.

I haven't shelled out for the Rep Dancer or Social oranges, yet. I'd been considering it, just to give one piece for mods to go in, but my cybertech-toon is my 14 Commando, so he's got a long ways to go before he's making life for himself, my Guardian, and my Scoundrel any easier, and I'm not in good enough with my guild to get offers of services in the crafting dept. If there was good "regular" looking orange gear, but the Social usually looks silly, and the Rep. Dancer is SPENDY. Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open, maybe find a good orange piece or two on one planet, and then put them away till I buy their mods on the next one.

I suppose. It's just that it's hard for me to know if I'll be able to keep the orange fear competitive, compared to the relatively nice stuff I find as I go. I never seem to buy from vendors, unless they are comm vendors, so it's usually thanks to completing missions that I get newer stuff, or the GTN, if I feel the price is appropriate.

 

I haven't shelled out for the Rep Dancer or Social oranges, yet. I'd been considering it, just to give one piece for mods to go in, but my cybertech-toon is my 14 Commando, so he's got a long ways to go before he's making life for himself, my Guardian, and my Scoundrel any easier, and I'm not in good enough with my guild to get offers of services in the crafting dept. If there was good "regular" looking orange gear, but the Social usually looks silly, and the Rep. Dancer is SPENDY. Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open, maybe find a good orange piece or two on one planet, and then put them away till I buy their mods on the next one.

The rep Dancer is almost like the Slave Girl outfit that is in Nar Shadda. It costs less but requires you to be Social 2. Social Gear is adaptable which means if you are light, medium or heavy armor it adapts to your armor type and it is modable.

I'm a sythweaver and there are different modable armors around. Some light, medium and armor but I would be sure to make sure on some of those as some of those are class specific such as the Aspiring Knight outfits. You have to be medium armor and have to be a Jedi Knight or Smuggler to wear it.

Also there are modable outfits on some of the comm vendors. I believe you will start seeing those in Nar Shadda and then each planet will have something. Usually runs from 12 to 14 comms per item.

When I get the option for Commendations or..., the ... is often a gear pick for Kira, which is better than what she has, so I don't get quite as many Commendations as I might, to spend at the Fleet..

This may be the source of the problem, unless the gear pick is markedly better it is a waste taking it. You only really need 1 gear pick per planet (or less). You should always choose the commendations unless the upgrade is significant. An extra dozen armour and a couple of willpower and endurance does not make a real difference. A single blue item drop for a companion is often good enough to last them 4-5 levels.

Most planets can give you circa 30 comms. Get as many pieces of orange armour as you can and concentrate on keeping armouring for your head/chest/legs up to date and the hilt in your sabres up to max for your level (transfer the old armour mods to gloves/boots as they give less armour for the same level). Any spare commendations trade for things for Kira's moddable equipment or for mods/enhancements (being a few levels behind in those does not have a huge impact).

Most planets offer 2 levels of items for commsendations, don't bother with the lower one wait until you are high enough level for the better one otherwise you are wasting the commendations reallu. I generally do the entire planet and then hit the commendations vendors for an upgrade berfore I go to the next planet.

Doing this my Guardian never had any problems while leveling. I did choose artifice though so I was always able to produce the blue hilts for my character level (which saves on commendations).

What do you do when you get a new comp? I have been using Kira since I got her, and could easily end up like a friend of mine, not using T7 again, till the game says "hey, you know that one companion you got, way at the beginning? Yeah, he's the ONLY one that can go with you to fight Darth Vitiate, because the Sith Emperor will turn anyone else who accompanies you, so I hope you kept him up to date." but I assume I'll have to use characters like Doc and Scourge, when I get them, and they work totally differently, stat-wise, then Kira. Did you just find them each some moddable stuff, during their time, and ignore Kira till you 50'd?

What might be a good set of orange gears for my Guardian? He's around 30, now, and I have to keep playing him to unlock Legacy, so that my other chars don't do stuff, and NOT add to that XP bar.

What do you do when you get a new comp? I have been using Kira since I got her, and could easily end up like a friend of mine, not using T7 again, till the game says "hey, you know that one companion you got, way at the beginning? Yeah, he's the ONLY one that can go with you to fight Darth Vitiate, because the Sith Emperor will turn anyone else who accompanies you, so I hope you kept him up to date." but I assume I'll have to use characters like Doc and Scourge, when I get them, and they work totally differently, stat-wise, then Kira. Did you just find them each some moddable stuff, during their time, and ignore Kira till you 50'd?

 

What might be a good set of orange gears for my Guardian? He's around 30, now, and I have to keep playing him to unlock Legacy, so that my other chars don't do stuff, and NOT add to that XP bar.

I very rarely switch companions, on my Guardian for example I used Kira until I got Doc and then used Doc all the way to 50 because I was skilled up as a tank (defense) which mean good old Amix was almost unkillable. I tend to filter down equipment I get from drops and my main characters old equipment onto the companions I don't generally use as often.

If you use Kira its more of an issue as she takes aggro more often, if you use Doc then gear is much less of an issue for a Guardian as usually you have all the aggro.

The actual orange gear you choose is more about the aesthetics as its the mods that you use that make the difference. You want Guardian Armouring or Might Armouring in the Head/Chest/Legs that is the best a planet offers when you leave it, other piece armouring 2 levels below wont make a huge difference. Mods and Enhancements are a lower priority as the stat increase per upgrade is lower. Quite often I might have armouring 11, mod 7 and enhancement 6 in a piece of armour. That is fine for levelling in PvE.

Blue items that drop are also useful, especially if they have the stats for your main companion.

Its a bit hard for me to say exact numbers as my Guardian is now 50. I also have a level 50 Armstech (Bounty Hunter) and Armourmech (Vanguard) so I can keep my lower levels in hilts/barrels/armouring and enhancements without needing to use commendations. But the general guideline is hilt/barrel and the 3 main armourings should be 1st priority for commendation trade ins. Once those are upgraded any remaining comms should be traded in for what gives the best increase for you or your companion.

I also never used T7 until the very end of chapter 3. Wiped on the first run but I just went and bought some gear for T7 on the auction house and filled it with mods I took from other items I was going to sell anyway. Went back and prodded buttock and finished the final fight easily. Admittedly I forgot all about that mission until last night and Amix was in 4/5 Columi so over-equipped.