What would I need to do to get into them? Is there gear requirements to do HM's like BT etc? Would I need a certain amount of HP to survive the damage? Are they really any different compared to their regular counterpart?
What would I need to do to get into them? Is there gear requirements to do HM's like BT etc? Would I need a certain amount of HP to survive the damage? Are they really any different compared to their regular counterpart?
it depends on the flash point. Taral V is extremely easy and I started running it as soon as I hit 50. Some of the other ones have dps requirements though.
Also depends incredibly on the group you go with.
We do hardmodes with all of our fresh 50's just to gear them faster. If you are going with a completely fresh 50 group, you may want to see what kind of gear you can find on the GTN to help out.
So I assume Taral V would be a good start to gearing at 50? Any other flashpoints I should consider if I'm gearing? I have been buying item modifications for my gear pieces, getting them all above 50 in each slot, purple no less.
As others have said it really depends on your group. If you are a tank then you probably need a little better gear unless you have a super geared healer. Same with healer, unless you have a super geared tank that requires almost no healing. If you're DPS, if the other DPS is geared you can get by with a little less. Black Talon/Esseles is pretty easy, but I would still have a decent amount of thing from the 50 Normals first.
If I were you I would run False Emp and the other one on Ilum along with Kaon Under Siege on reg a few times and get a couple upgrades if you can, along with checking the GTN. If you are in a guild, check with them and see if they can make you some decent mods, an earpiece and implants too.
Taral V is a fairly easy one for a new group, as is the newest flashpoint, Kaon, is one of the less demanding flashpoints as far as boss enrage timers. The trash is a pain in the ass until you get used to it, but the bosses are fairly easy to defeat for a relatively new group, save the optional boss, although he is getting a nerf in 1.2.
Flash points I would avoid until you get a few pieces of Columi gear would be, Directive 7 (which is very buggy), Maelstorm Prison, (Laser eye has a pretty steep enrage), and Battle for Ilum (the last boss can be difficlut if your group lacks dps).
All of the above assumes you are dps. For tanks and healers, I really don't think the gear curve is as steep, as long as you have a decent set of level 50 blue/moddable gear with level 50 mods and know how to play your class.
Don't forget doing dailies on Ilum and Belsavis, they're an easy way to get all the crappy mods out of your gear, and a lot of people overlook them. Other than that, it depends on your role.
Eire - 50 Balance and Kinetic Combat Shadow, Master Zhar Lestin server. Ace guild
Don't even waste your time with hardmodes, just go right into a raid, fighters are easier, faster and more gear,
This.
All you need is to do 3 days worth of dailies on Ilum and Belsavis which will give you 3 epic mods and 3 epic enhancements to put into your orange gear. Use the daily commendations to buy the armoring 23 for the 5 pieces of orange gear you surely have and to buy the hilt/barrel 23.
Doing those dailies will net you around 500k in credits. Use that to buy the remaining 3 epic mods and enhancements from the GTN (usually around 20k credits each). Use the rest of the money to buy epic lvl49-50 implants/ears/offhand/belt/bracers which usually goes for 40-50k each on the GTN.
Get the relic using the color matrix shards. Takes about an hour to gather the 3 you need (and you get to enjoy a cool balloon ride)!
There you go. No need to run any heroics. Just go straight into a normal ops 8man pug and gather 1-2 pieces of Columi each run plus the odd offset piece.
Just go straight into HM Flashpoints. As soon as I hit 50 I started doing them. Hell, I was going into EV 2 hours after I hit 50 in December.
Taral V or BT depending on your side is the easiest. Foundry has a gear check at HK so get yourself some Tionese and Columni before attempting that. I havent done many other HMs as I jumped right into raiding and was in full columni pretty fast. If you can get yourself a few pieces out of a HM I also recommend getting into a normal EV and KP which will most likely yield a ton of gear your first time.
Realistically this is your best bet. You can buy what amount to gem slots off the auction house and they are better than the ones from daily tokens. I would still do HM flashpoints for the columi/rakata gear though when you have already cleared the operations that week or no groups are available. That said the Rakata earpiece and implants can be obtained from dailies, the downside is they are 120 tokens each.
The only real gear test I can think of is the second to last boss in Eternity Vault and with a handful of upgrades off the auction house I was able to beat one of the 72k health bosses as DPS.
---------- Post added 2012-04-05 at 12:50 AM ----------
The main thing seems to be whether or not he bugs just after the pillar phase and kills people in a matter of seconds. I suspect using area damage spells like flamethrower and orbital bombardment as the pillar comes down help to bug it.
I would do a couple of the Dailies before trying to do Hardmodes. Those Epic mods help a lot.
>>This is where I'd put a witty quote for my Signature<<
IF I HAD ONE
Actually it's a bug. If you break the seals too fast after the pillar comes down, it seems it won't correctly register and the boss will enrage anyways. What we do now is let only 1/2 people destroy the seals. If the whole group does it, it goes too fast and isn't registered and the boss enrages (same thing the small yellow lamps during the platform phase of SOA in EV).
sorry for disgressing the post, just wanted to add that.
Also as other have said: Normal operations are really easy and will provide a lot of gear. Aso running BT / Taral every day will get you gear fast too.
Got it, 3 days worth of dailies on the two planets you listed. I'm assuming I buy the epic mods, enhancements from some sort of vendor inside llum headquarters? Right now I have an epic 50 hilt for one weapon, just need hilt for the other, I have two 56 epic Color Crystals for both weapon, 50 armoring for my boots and legs, so it seems I'll be needing to do less.
And how would I go about getting these color matrix shards?
http://www.oldrepublic.net/273-swtor...lic-items.html
Here is a comprehensive guide on the matric cube. Basically you grab datacrons that contain color matrix shards. A specific color combination yields a matrix cube with stats relevant to your class. A great item for that slot, even when you're progessed and much more geared up.