I gotta say I've loved they game until I reached this planet (Makeb). Now I feel almost like not playing anymore. I'm not sure, were to go from here. I reached 55 and now I need gear, but it seems like every other NPC on this planet is an elite that can't seem to be CC. The game has just become far too frustrating now. If all the quest are meant to be group, fine, but they should say so. I just spent 20, 000 credits in repairs. When I almost had this one (of many) impossible strong druids suddenly almost down, a weak NPC spawns and kills me. It's as if this planet was designed by different people all together who love making players suffer

/end rant

 

Not sure what to do and how to progress or even how to get gear. I've hit a brick wall on Makeb.

That's... intersting, I find it rather easy for he most part, although I suppose that really depends on your class/spec and level/gear. Some form of aoe damage helps make things quick. You really don't need a group to play the Makeb main story.

 

If you have played any flashpoints from directive 7 and up you had a shot at some campaign/black hole gear. The one-time mission for the rakghoul flashpoints rewards a campaign mainhand weapon, which should serve you well until level 53 at least. For the rest of your gear you can buy rakata mods from the makeb comms vendor on the fleet or on makeb. And if you don't have any of this, search the GTN for level 51+ green pieces of gear with your main stat, they should be cheap but still be nice upgrades to anything green/blue up to level 50.

 

Starting from level 53 a new tier of moddable gear becomes available (rating 148 & 156), this is already overkill for Makeb and is starter gear for level 55 content, but getting it through the GTN may get a bit expensive.

Normally you would go to Oricon at level 55 to get some gear but if ou're havin trouble on Makeb, maybe it's best not to set foot on Oricon just yet...

 

So, I gues the question is, what's your gear like ? Did you play through Ilum and did you have any difficulty ?

Edited April 4, 2014 by Loc_n_lol

1st thing. Yes, Makeb is more annoying than any of the other planets, especially for fresh 50s. The reason why? The insane mob density (no idea why they thought it was a good idea). I hate the Makeb mob density, it isn't particularly hard for me, but it is a pain in the arse.

 

2nd thing. Gearing up when you reach 50 is important. You can do this several ways, 2 of which are buying some fairly decent 50 gear from the GTN or spending Planetary Comms for better gear/mods (if you have enough).

 

If even after gearing up you're having trouble, I recommend leveling to 55, then do the Makeb storyline. You can level up from 50-55 by doing the level 50 daily areas (Ilum, The Black Hole, Section X). You can also level up by doing level 50 flashpoints or find a group to carry you through one or two level 50 operations (Eternity Vault, Karraga's Palace, Explosive Conflict).

Edited April 4, 2014 by Essence_of_Light

Can we get a little more info? spec, gear status(i.e greens or orange as well as A/E/M level), companion,rotation and so forth.

 

Makeb isn't supposed to give you problems at 55 and up to date gear, Oricon on the other hand

Makeb at 55 should not give you too many problems anymore, so i think t is your gear.

At 55 (depending on class) you and your comp should be around ~32 K HP in purple 28 (oricon lvl) gear. This gear is readily available on GTN or if you have Cybertech you can craft it. All you slots should be full by now. For the beginning you can get two relics for WZ comms, until you can get better ones. Implants and ear from GTN or crafting, some drop in the Czerka FP.

You may want to tell us what gear you currently have for better advice.

Edited April 4, 2014 by mike_is_valid

I started on a pretty lenghty post but came to the conclusion that I was just trying to say "L2P" in a nicer way. But L2P is what this boils down too.

 

Yes, makeb can get really annoying with the tight mob spawns but that's all there's to it and if you can't handle them then it's because you don't know how to play your class. I've power leveled my last six or so chars and jumped straight to makeb the second I hit lvl 47, due to it being easy EXP there, and I havent had any issues, give or take the first boss (I'm still lvl 47 at the time and he's a lvl 52). Here's the thing, if I'm a lvl 47 then my gear is usually lvl 40-45 (companion is in even worse gear) so there goes the gear argument out the window.

i think the last itme i managed the planet at 48..you make ton of exp so even undergeared you can finish the story..for sure it's crowded with mobs adn you always finish to aggro multiple groups..if you have not a stealth class or tanking / positioning skills you must kill pull by pull to avoid this..watch for patrollers, since they are oftenm strongs/elites..do oricon with a group to grab 156 gear and you'll be fine on makeb

Avoiding mobs is the only way to go, same as on Oricon.

Makeb at 55 should not give you too many problems anymore, so i think t is your gear.

At 55 (depending on class) you and your comp should be around ~32 K HP in purple 28 (oricon lvl) gear. This gear is readily available on GTN or if you have Cybertech you can craft it. All you slots should be full by now. For the beginning you can get two relics for WZ comms, until you can get better ones. Implants and ear from GTN or crafting, some drop in the Czerka FP.

You may want to tell us what gear you currently have for better advice.

 

XD Oricon gear has lvl 66 mods, it's worse than basic. I have less than 25k with Oricon gear, care to explain?

Makeb at 55 should not give you too many problems anymore, so i think t is your gear.

At 55 (depending on class) you and your comp should be around ~32 K HP in purple 28 (oricon lvl) gear. This gear is readily available on GTN or if you have Cybertech you can craft it. All you slots should be full by now. For the beginning you can get two relics for WZ comms, until you can get better ones. Implants and ear from GTN or crafting, some drop in the Czerka FP.

You may want to tell us what gear you currently have for better advice.

 

My Merc healer in almost full 72 has about 36k, augs and all, in Oricon gear I had about 24k. Only thing I can think of that might come close to these numbers is a Tank. and even then it would be what 30k max?

Where did you pull that 32k from?Endurance heavy 69 blues?

My Merc healer in almost full 72 has about 36k, augs and all, in Oricon gear I had about 24k. Only thing I can think of that might come close to these numbers is a Tank. and even then it would be what 30k max?

Where did you pull that 32k from?Endurance heavy 69 blues?

 

Well now I'm even more confused by your statement.

My numbers are about (assuming trooper/BH buff is present) :

 

Oricon (artifact) + Microfilament + Campaign / Dread guard relics + Grade 28 Barrels / Hilts =~27-28k HP (no augments) for DPS/Heal. Good to go for HM FPs and S&V/TFB.

 

Full Verpine =~ 32k HP (no augments) for DPS/Heal.

 

Full Oriconian must be about 37-38k HP before augments.

 

14 mainstat augments = 2800 extra HP.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Loc_n_lol

Well now I'm even more confused by your statement.

My numbers are about (assuming trooper/BH buff is present) :

 

Oricon (artifact) + Microfilament + Campaign / Dread guard relics + Grade 28 Barrels / Hilts =~27-28k HP (no augments) for DPS/Heal. Good to go for HM FPs and S&V/TFB.

 

Full Verpine =~ 32k HP (no augments) for DPS/Heal.

 

Full Oriconian must be about 37-38k HP before augments.

 

14 mainstat augments = 2800 extra HP.

 

You sure you're talking about Oricon story mission stuff? I'm agreeing with toha, I don't get this.

Oriconian gear can only be purchased with ultimate comms. Its the set bonus-less and unoptimized version of Dread Forged. Its not the same thing as the gear you get during the Oricon story missions . The one-time oricon story missions award artifact gear containers which have purple (artifact) rating 66 gear ... basically, its the original "Basic" gear you could purchase with basic comms when Makeb first came out. When the Dread Fortress/Palace operations and the Oricon daily area came, they moved commendations up a tier so that Basic comms now buys Black Market (the set bonus-less and unoptimized version of Arkanian) gear. The same rating 66 gear can be crafted by the appropriate crafters (always could once Makeb launched) with regular grade 9 materials.

 

If you can find the crafted item modifications, there is no need to do the one-time oricon story missions just to get the artifact gear containers. However, they do award basic comms which you can use to get yourself a Black Market (rating 69) set which will be more than sufficient for Makeb story missions. However, if you are having trouble with the Makeb story missions you'll have loads of trouble on Oricon, so its a moot point anyway.

 

However you acquire them, blue or purple rating 66 stuff should be more than adequate for Makeb story missions. They're craftable and tradeable so no need to spend any comms on them. Purple rating 66 stuff is considered entry level for HM 55 flashpoints except the two Czerka ones. Make sure you are using chilled corellian cocktail for the presence buff and the stim applicable to your class and make sure your companion's gear is up to date too.

wow, so many responses to read through , thank you all. I will read through them.

 

As for a couple of things off the top, my gear is orange gear, I will check the lvl but it's mod'd pretty well. That said, I only have 17k health for a lvl 55 Jedi Sage. That could be my problem. I'm noticing I'm only doing around 750 dps which seems very low.

 

I will have to check gear and keep reading to see what the issue is.

 

As for the other planets, I've not really had much of a problem for the most part.

As for a couple of things off the top, my gear is orange gear, I will check the lvl but it's mod'd pretty well. That said, I only have 17k health for a lvl 55 Jedi Sage. That could be my problem. I'm noticing I'm only doing around 750 dps which seems very low.

 

As for the other planets, I've not really had much of a problem for the most part.

 

That does sound rather low. The best gear you can get that is 'easily' obtainable (ie not spending boatloads of cash or being carried through ops) is from the Makeb planetary comm vendor. A mostly full mod loadout of that gear generally puts my 50-55 characters in the low 20k HP and around 1-1.2k base damage on the character sheet. There's other gear that is a bit easier to obtain, but if you are having issues with Makeb, the Oricon story missions will tear you apart.

 

I kind of hate to echo what someone else said, but it does also sound like you need to optimize your rotation a bit and make sure you're making use of your defensive cooldowns and crowd control a bit better.

Okay, so for my gear I'm wearing "Omenbringer's Robe" (not sure how to link armor in here). Traditional vine-silk gloves 285 armor, 111 endurance on them. Omenbringer's legwraps 356 armor 112 rating 91 endurance

stats 456 armor, (rating 140). Enshrouding force boots 116 rating 237 armor 83 endurance. Vinidicator's Lightsaber. 140 rating 119 endurance. Not sure if this helps in what my issue is. I'm going to look for gear now.

 

During questing, in comparing my gear to quest rewards/drops my gear has always shown higher stats.

 

bonus damage 608.2

bonus healing 438.8

accuracy: 103.00%

Critical chanceL 12.54

Critical Multiplier: 63.20

force regen 8.3

alacrity: 3.15%

 

As for the L2P comment, that's not far off from what I need to do. I do love this game and I'm really trying to learn how to play the game and this character. So thank you for all the help people have offered so far.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Amilyne

Ok so I really don't know what to make of most of those values (I have nothing to compare them to right now). But some of those item ratings are basically level 50 entry gear (<120). So it's not surprising you're having trouble on Makeb. For a quick and easy powerup I'd say look up on the GTN for [microfilament] implants and earpieces with willpower on them. The blue ones tend to go for very cheap on my server...

Your rating 140 lightsaber hilt should be good enough for now, try to get an equally good armoring for your focus. Or you can spend a bit for a resolve hilt 28 (rating 156) which crafters can make for cheap (~15-40k depending on the market).

The rating of your mainhand and offhand items are very important for your damage and healing output. Your armor rating doesn't matter so much because no matter what it is, you will always be a squishy sage.

 

For the rest of your gear you can either upgrade it with planetary commendations through the makeb vendor, or just look for green lvl51+ items on the GTN as a temporary stepping stone.

Once you're geared enough to handle Makeb, you can head to Oricon to get your free 5 pieces of rating 156 gear, which should make everything else much easier.

Okay, so I changed a few things and had a guildie help run me through the starting Oricon quest for gear. With 7 pieces of new gear my health went to 22490 and force bonus damage of 737.2. I went back to Makeb and took out the druids with little problem (minus the bug that seems to happen in Dr. Oggurobb's Lab, in which the npc keep resetting when almost dead). but they are not much of a problem other then killing them twice.

 

I have some more gear to upgrade, and things should get easier for Oricon solo.

 

Thank you for all your help as it was just a gear issue. Pro tip, don't always go with the gear that looks pretty.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Amilyne

Pro tip, don't always go with the gear that looks pretty.

no no no! Go with the gear that looks pretty just make sure it's up to date

 

As for the values you're giving, can you just put the A/M/E rating? IE 58(Makeb comms vendor),66(Oricon),69(basic comms vendor)

it will make it easier to make heads and tails of.

Also what are the secondary stats that you're stacking(crit, power, accuracy,and so forth), and what's your role dps or healer?

The overall difficulty on Makeb is indeed a little higher - but still, you should be by long lv. 55 when you get there. I don´t know why the level should be a problem there. I played up to Makeb with 6 characters until now - they all hit lv. 55 already at the beginning of Corellia (that means even before finishing the story quests). After Corellia still comes the whole Ilum-Questline, then the Black Hole and Section X-Dailies and so on. Arriving on Makeb it felt already an eternity since I had reached lv. 55. And by the way: without ever having used xp-boosts or ever having played on double xp weekends (which are in my opinion the most useless thing since the game gives sufficient xp anyway)

 

Unless, of course, you belong to the "content-skipping" faction - then of course things can look pretty different. There are people that skip whole quest lines and I have even heard of those skipping whole planets - of course if you do that you should not complain that Makeb proves too difficult.

@TarisKnight It turns out that I was just simply under geared for the missions I was doing. Once I changed my gear I breezed through the rest of the quest.

 

I'm one of the people that loves to do the story slowly and as many quest and side quest as possible. Especially because this is my first toon so the experience is amazing.

I can resonate with that. I love "story playing", too. Although planetary missions might get a bit much for my taste, but in general they are still great and add to the overall planet's experience.

1st thing. Yes, Makeb is more annoying than any of the other planets, especially for fresh 50s. The reason why? The insane mob density (no idea why they thought it was a good idea). I hate the Makeb mob density, it isn't particularly hard for me, but it is a pain in the arse.

 

2nd thing. Gearing up when you reach 50 is important. You can do this several ways, 2 of which are buying some fairly decent 50 gear from the GTN or spending Planetary Comms for better gear/mods (if you have enough).

 

If even after gearing up you're having trouble, I recommend leveling to 55, then do the Makeb storyline. You can level up from 50-55 by doing the level 50 daily areas (Ilum, The Black Hole, Section X). You can also level up by doing level 50 flashpoints or find a group to carry you through one or two level 50 operations (Eternity Vault, Karraga's Palace, Explosive Conflict).

 

I actually love the mob density of the planet, means more credits and more massacre! Combined with a well placed strong aoe you just burn through most of them.

 

I also found the makeb storyline to be the toughest storyline of all the storylines but the most rewarding and satisfying. It really does require a lot of skill in my opinion to beat.

 

Remember guys, it's past end-game content.. they had to jack up the difficulty somewhat.

Okay, so I changed a few things and had a guildie help run me through the starting Oricon quest for gear. With 7 pieces of new gear my health went to 22490 and force bonus damage of 737.2. I went back to Makeb and took out the druids with little problem (minus the bug that seems to happen in Dr. Oggurobb's Lab, in which the npc keep resetting when almost dead). but they are not much of a problem other then killing them twice.

 

I have some more gear to upgrade, and things should get easier for Oricon solo.

 

Thank you for all your help as it was just a gear issue. Pro tip, don't always go with the gear that looks pretty.

 

Looking pretty is half the battle. A lot of us choose to run cybertech alts for cheap armor plates and mods. That way we can be fashionable AND functional.

I try to do Makeb w/ a friend that is a tank and he has Treek and I have HK, so it does help a lil' bit imo heh go there a lot but still not a fan of it, just because it is so big and so many dailies (which I guess pays off in the end) and my companions get buggy sometimes and disappear