I'm a new player to this endgame, well any MMO endgame really and I am getting into these operations. At the moment, I am grinding hm fps and running sm ev/kp to get full columi gear.

 

My question is, not everything shows up in group finder, and I just want to know what else there is out there. Because I hear people say thing like TFB, Denova and EC, then HM EV/KP and NM of some other things.

 

As someone new to endgame, where do you find all these? I have found some missions on fleet, one for Denova and one, I believe for TFB, but then, what about the others?

Oh and I've seen the name Asation come up as well, and have no idea what that is either. Also, the Tier 2 HM FP, Lost Island. What gear level do I need to run through that?

only EV and KP story mode are in group finder. For everything else find a good guild as you really can't pug them.

But what is everything else? Like I was saying, I see all those names tossed around in general, and aren't sure if some are the same thing, or what is going on.

HM = Hard Mode

NM = Nightmare Mode

FYI

 

TFB = Terror From Beyond, the latest operation. SM drops rakata, HM will get you some dread and campaign.

EC = Explosive Conflict, it's an operation that's pretty challenging from SM(story Mode). NM is currently the hardest fight in the game, as NM mode TFB has yet to be made.

 

TFB is on the planet Asation, EC is on Denova. If you want weekly missions as well as HM dailies, visit the mission terminal in the middle of the "Supplies" section on fleet.

 

Hope that helped

only EV and KP story mode are in group finder. For everything else find a good guild as you really can't pug them.

 

Mwuah, EV and KP HM are quite well PUG'able as well, and the NiM of these runs have quite a good shot as well if the PUG is well organized and takes experience in mind. EC and TFB SM also work out pretty fine with PUGs if you have at least one person along who knows the tactics and the rest of the players are willing to listen.

As someone new to MMOs, I'm sure you've discovered by now how MMO players love their three letter abbreviations. So don't get too bogged down by the lingo. You are right on track as a new player entering end-game.

 

Hard Mode Flashpoints and Story-mode Operations are the perfect starting spot for you. The group-finder did well to lead you this far, but at a certain point a guild is required to tackle the tougher content. Bioware agrees, so they will not enable group-finder for the tougher content. Pick Up Groups (Pugs) struggle too much with such content.

 

The content you are looking at next is definitely the Rakata level gear set (above columi). This drops from the following content from easiest to hardest:

 

Hard Mode Eternity Vault, (Abbreviated HM-EV)

Hard Mode Karagga's Palace (Abbreviated HM-KP)

Story Mode Explosive Conflict (Abbreviated SM-EC or SM-Denova)

Story Mode Terror From Beyond (Abbreviated SM-TFB or SM-Astation)

 

Once you've got Rakata gear at your side, you're going to look next to Black Hole gear. You are already earning commendations for this with your group finder. A black hole armoring mod will take about a week if the only thing you do is a flashpoint per day. However, black hole comms drop from all kinds of stuff like doing the weekly quest that includes Torvix in the Black Hole area of Corellia, or story mode operations with group finder.

 

Note that there is a gear set that is identical to black hole except it also has set-piece bonuses tied to the armoring mods called "campaign" gear. This gear drops from EC-HM. (Which by the way, is pretty tough)

 

Nightmare Mode Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace are like HM-EV and HM-KP except ... well harder. They don't drop better gear. However, they DO give you a title at the end for completing it in a time limit (Titles are The Unyielding and The Infernal)

 

The operations (also known as raids) listed above will keep you busy for some time while you gear up. Just walking around in Rakata gear won't be enough to tackle Terror From Beyond hard mode. You will need mod-optimized black hole gear to get past that.

 

By "mod optimized" I mean you must understand your gear to such a level that you know how much crit, surge, accuracy, power, ect... you want and then tailoring your gear set by swapping mods in and out. Some mods (like endurance heavy mods for sorcerers) are automatically considered "poorly optimized". Some research may be required, possibly a guild-mate who knows your class can give you some pointers to get you up to speed on what you have to do.

 

Like so many Sith and Jedi, you may study under the tutelage of a seemingly wise master only to discover one day you can surpass them yourself to become the new star of your guild and then share your great knowledge of the game with your friends.

 

The top two raids right now are Terror From Beyond Hard Mode (TFB-HM) which takes place on the planet astation and Explosive Conflict Nightmare Mode (EC-NMM) which takes place on Denova. These two operations drop Dread Guard level gear, currently the highest gear in the land.

 

 

Of course, that's just the path before you if you look at operations. Remember there are daily quests on Belsavis, Section X, Corellia's black hole, and Ilum which give you Daily Comms that can buy things like the Dread Guard level relic.

 

There is also the path of PVP gear. As a general rule, War Hero gear is about as strong as Rakata in operations. You will notice it's loaded with expertise stat, but expertise stat does nothing except help player-vs-player combat. Elite War Hero gear is not quite as strong as black hole level gear, despite it's item level. Again, the expertise does nothing in operations.

 

So that's your path. Enjoy, and welcome to Tor.

Thank you very much for the help all, I really appreciate it. When I asked in general chat, I was flamed like there is no tomorrow.

 

It all makes a lot more sense now.

Nice summary Suzina. Well done.

thought I read somewhere the lore behind EC was some attack on ord mantell

One more thing... even though this discussion is Ops centric as it should be, I think Lost Island should be mentioned. IMO it is a mini Ops of sorts. There are a lot of boss mechanics and it can be very challenging as a hard mode. And... it will drop a Rakata chest piece.

 

But OP... I don't think you should consider this FP as you get started. Once you are mostly in Columi and have a good group to run with then you should run SM first. After that put on your best gear, stock up on stims and creds for repair and try your hand at the HM version.