A few questions for the experts ?

[Elite Peon]

I am leveling up right now while it is the 12xp boost ...but how do I keep up to par gear wise ? Since I am only doing class quests im not making much credits and also not getting much commendations . Is there a secret to keep up gear wise ? Got any links or videos I can watch ? Where do I find gear gear ? Thanks for any replies

[Lesane]

Get a set of gear with slots in them and replace your slots every ~8 levels. It takes somewhere between 4 and 6 commendations to upgrade a piece like this, and you'll get a lot of 12 comm quest rewards even if you only do your story quests.

[Super Kami Dende]

Get a set of gear with slots in them and replace your slots every ~8 levels. It takes somewhere between 4 and 6 commendations to upgrade a piece like this, and you'll get a lot of 12 comm quest rewards even if you only do your story quests.

This is pretty much your answer, but to add a bit to it, if you go to the GTN (Auction House) on Fleet go to Armour and click Adaptive armour.
In each one basically just make it list from highest to cheapest, as you can easily pick up a customizable piece of gear for 1000 credits, which is basically nothing. Also, for a similar price you can go to comm equipment vendors and pick up a not too bad looking piece of gear for the same amount of comms but already socketed, same with Weapons.

With the amount of Comms you get, you can easily upgrade every 8 or so levels as Lesane said, since you now get quite a few Comms and Comm prices for Armorings and such have been reduced to 25% of the old cost.

The gear you get may not look the best being that cheap, but with the outfitting system you can just overwrite it with the pieces you pick up from leveling if need be.

Also, if you are training crew skills as you level, take Slicing and a Gathering Skill, Slicing will give you a nice little supplement of Cash, and low level crew Skill materials sell for fairly good prices for the 25-50 zones.

I've been able to use these methods to level characters on new Servers that did not have any credits and a fresh start so it is very doable.

[Sills]

This is pretty much your answer, but to add a bit to it, if you go to the GTN (Auction House) on Fleet go to Armour and click Adaptive armour.
In each one basically just make it list from highest to cheapest, as you can easily pick up a customizable piece of gear for 1000 credits, which is basically nothing. Also, for a similar price you can go to comm equipment vendors and pick up a not too bad looking piece of gear for the same amount of comms but already socketed, same with Weapons.

With the amount of Comms you get, you can easily upgrade every 8 or so levels as Lesane said, since you now get quite a few Comms and Comm prices for Armorings and such have been reduced to 25% of the old cost.

The gear you get may not look the best being that cheap, but with the outfitting system you can just overwrite it with the pieces you pick up from leveling if need be.

Also, if you are training crew skills as you level, take Slicing and a Gathering Skill, Slicing will give you a nice little supplement of Cash, and low level crew Skill materials sell for fairly good prices for the 25-50 zones.

I've been able to use these methods to level characters on new Servers that did not have any credits and a fresh start so it is very doable.

Lesane and the good Captain pretty much cover everything. You get enough comms to upgrade gear every couple of planets. Each step of the class story rewards 12 comms which is enough to buy a new orange piece if you don't already have one in that slot (I think they are 8 comms apiece), or upgrade 2 pieces completely (4-6 comms depending on the item - belts only need 4 comms to upgrade). I usually drop by the Fleet (head to the Supplies area to get the comm vendors) every 2 planets (or about 8 levels or so) to upgrade your gear.

Between them and the GTN to fill in any holes (like implants, or cheap companion gear if needed) you can pretty much zip through most of the content pretty smoothly.

The good Captain made a really good point, that deserves repeating. Just because all of your gear is the same upgradeable orange quality stuff, you can still change the look of it. Keep an eye on the BoE gear you get in drops and if you like the look of it, use it in the outfit designer in the character tab to change your look. Looking a the same gear all of the time can get a bit dull.

Hope this helps a bit and I hope you enjoy yourself in the game!

[Elite Peon]

Thank you both for the replies ...very helpful !!

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Lesane and the good Captain pretty much cover everything. You get enough comms to upgrade gear every couple of planets. Each step of the class story rewards 12 comms which is enough to buy a new orange piece if you don't already have one in that slot (I think they are 8 comms apiece), or upgrade 2 pieces completely (4-6 comms depending on the item - belts only need 4 comms to upgrade). I usually drop by the Fleet (head to the Supplies area to get the comm vendors) every 2 planets (or about 8 levels or so) to upgrade your gear.

Between them and the GTN to fill in any holes (like implants, or cheap companion gear if needed) you can pretty much zip through most of the content pretty smoothly.

The good Captain made a really good point, that deserves repeating. Just because all of your gear is the same upgradeable orange quality stuff, you can still change the look of it. Keep an eye on the BoE gear you get in drops and if you like the look of it, use it in the outfit designer in the character tab to change your look. Looking a the same gear all of the time can get a bit dull.

Thanks I will do that ..geez I went looking for someone to buy some gear with basic commendations ..can't find anyone sadly .Like what are they thinking having so many vendors that want so many forms of currency that is insane ...also went to GTN and i have 4k credits and nothing was under 10k credits ...

[Super Kami Dende]

Thank you both for the replies ...very helpful !!

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Thanks I will do that ..geez I went looking for someone to buy some gear with basic commendations ..can't find anyone sadly .Like what are they thinking having so many vendors that want so many forms of currency that is insane ...also went to GTN and i have 4k credits and nothing was under 10k credits ...

Try the Vendors on the Outside ring of the Supplies area, they should have descriptions such as <lvl 15-17 gear> and so on. Suppliers on the inside ring are the Raid/Max level dungeon gear Vendors which is why they require different Comms. All Lvling gear Comms are Basic.

All pieces of your gear except for Belt and bracers require 1 Armoring, 1 Mod, 1 Enhancement. Belt and Bracers only require Armoring and Mod. Implants/Earpieces and Relics do not have Moddable pieces, except for Augments but they are unneeded until min/maxing at max level.

Also, what server are you on, I may be able to slip you a decent amount of Credits to help tie you over.

[Witchblade77]

there is a lvl 7 equipment vendor in supplies area (should be in the lowest level gear alcove) that sells full set of moddable gear WITH modifications in it. and when I say full set - I mean mainhand/offhand/headpiece included. each piece costs 6 commendations. you may need to run a random flashpoint or do couple of side quests to cover the cost in basics, but... its the earliest and probably cheapest moddable gear you can get.

[Skizzit]

You want to make sure you buy new mods on the fleet as well. They lowered the price of armoring/barrels/hilts down to 2 coms each and not 8(?) but for some reason some of the vendors on planets still sell them at the old price.

[Katchii]

Just to add... always go back to the fleet to buy your commendation gear. Apparently EA/ BioWare didn't do a full run through of all the vendors. All the fleet vendors sell the leveling mods at 2 comms each (the level 50 and level 55 gear vendors have some at 7 each still). But most of the planetside vendors have the armoring and barrels/ hilts at 7 each still too.

I was upgrading both me and my companion every other planet and was doing fine (ie do starter + first planet, upgrade, Taris/Balmorra+ Nar Shaddaa, upgrade, Tatooine+ Alderaan, upgrade, etc...) Just try to be mindful of the levels at which new mods are available, nothing worse than going to upgrade and only having something 2 levels old and still needing 2 more levels to get to the next set. Waiting this long betwene upgrades doesn't really hinder your experience (IMO, things were still super easy) and you have enough comms to upgrade both you and your companion.

[Binaris]

The levels i have found to be good times to upgrade.

Wear greens until lvl 17. Start with a full modded out 17 set. The upgrade again at 29, this will make sure you have decent gear to finish up chap 1. By this time you should have enough comms to gear your companion rather well too. Again at 37 and again at 45 or 49 whichever you feel comfortable with. On Makeb you should be swimming in comms and can do 53 and 55 without much issue. 55 is huge upgrade.

Also. Legacy bound adaptive gear can be used to transfer bound mods between toons. So if you did have a full set for 17, 29, 37, 45, 53, 55. KEEP THEM. As we are all going to one primary stat, those same sets can be used for any toon, just keep them in your legacy bank in your stronghold.

[Witchblade77]

my system is slightly different from above. I usually grab that lvl 7 set on the fleet and then depending on a class/ac might go as far as lvl 21 before I start updating regularly. (I also tend to play with Treek, which simplifies things a LOT, without treek, you may need to let our companion be slightly less effective and have to play smarter) after that - whichever level I first updated at - I update myself and companion every 8 levels, so lvl 17 for example > lvl 25 > 33>etc. I do not update my gear though when I go to Makeb. instead I use a GSI buff (usually on landing pads and up in a Makeb orbital station) until hitting 55. at which point I buy 172 commendations from Rish vendor for me and comp and then.. pretty much set all the way to 60.

and yeah, you get new mods every 4 levels now. so its 17, 21, 25, 29, 33 etc

the reason why I don't do green gear is that on my server at least it can be pretty pricey. and you do NOT want to grab green quest rewards because 80 of the time you have to either chose a green reward OR commendations. and with 12xp, you ALWAYS want those 12 commendations as its 2 pieces of updated gear right there.

[Elite Peon]

Thank you for all the replies it is appreciated