Dulfy still good?

[Andrew Howell]

I was trying to get an idea of how to guide my healing Merc and Guardian.  Is Dulfy still a good place for info to do this?  Also, is there any reason to buy cartel weapons for upgrades?  I noticed a lightsaber but it only had +54 Force Power....that seems real low.  Would the power increase after I mod it up?

Thanks!  Sorry for being a pest, but it's been awhile since I played.

Exiled: Sunetra 13 Jugg

            Howan  33 Merc

Order 66:  ikomajedi 60 Sage

                 Akodo-san 15 Guardian

[Christopher Morse]

That's just the base power. Once you install a hilt/barrel, mod, enhancement, and crystal, it will have a bunch of other values, with the hilt effectively replacing the base "Force/Tech Power" rating of a given moddable item.

Basics

As to general gearing for casual/solo play, I would recommend this --

• First invest in a complete set of Orange, moddable gear (Helm, Chest, Gloves, Belt, Bracers, Pants, Boots, Off Hand, Main Hand). Any orange shell will do (or purple, or blue if they are moddable shells) whether they are from the Cartel Market or not. What matters is all the moddable components you insert into such gear.
  
• Levels 1-55: Use Basic Comms at the modifications vendors on each planet or in the fleet supply sections (now labeled by the level of mods they offer). Every blue modification in this range only costs 2 basics and lets you get armor plates/barrels/hilts, mods, and enhancements to fill out that orange set. You can do this up until/through Makeb. I commonly claim the basic comms rewards to make it very cheap to upgrade every 7 to 10 levels.
• Crystals: The only thing you can't get from the vendors really is crystals to put into the moddable gear. You'll eventually want +41 Power, Crit, or Endurance in crystals, depending on your preferences or needs. These are able to be crafted in the common Star Wars colors, and a great variety more are commonly available on the GTN, but pay attention to the level requirement. Some of the +41 crystals can't be equipped until level 47 or 49; but there are weaker ones that can stand in if the high stuff is not initially affordable. Cartel Market versions can usually be installed starting at level 10. In the endJust avoid Expertise Crystals unless you are into PvP.
  
• Levels 55-? : Start Forged Alliances quest line from droid on the fleet. Do the Solo Mode Flashpoints. Swap in the Green moddable stuff they give you for finishing that line if it is better.
  
• Levels 55-60: In addition to Forged Alliances, jump straight to Rishi and Yavin via the SoR quest line. Many quests will give you 168 Greens and then 178 blue moddable stuff to swap into your gear.
  
• Level 60: Do the Ziost quest line. You will get a lot of blue 190 moddable stuff you can swap into your gear pieces' slots.
• Other slots: Use crafting or the GTN to round out the Earpiece, Implants, and Relics slots with 178 blue or 186 purple gear at level 60. Use whatever you get or whatever you can craft, find, or buy in those places in the meantime.
• Last: Craft/Buy Augmentation Kits and Augments to install into and round out your gear. This last one is maybe something not to do with KotFE looming since rumor (data mined, but Bioware has not stated officially yet) is that there will be a new tier of Augments.
  

Main stats - On hilts/barrels/armor plates and mods, stick to the stat for your class. No Smuggler benefits much at all from Strength or Willpower gear for instance. Unfortunately the design of the game does not reward non-standard builds like a Strength based Gunslinger for example. The Bioware design for SWTOR is to stick to your main stat; in this example that is Cunning for all Smugglers/Agents.

By class the main stat (until 4.0 comes) is:

Knights/Warrors = Strength

Consular/Inquisitor = Willpower

Smuggler/Agent = Cunning

Trooper/Bounty Hunter = Aim

Secondary Stats ([Crit/Power] or [Shield]) and Tertiary Stats ([Accuracy/Surge/Alacrity] or [Defense/Absorb]) start showing up on stuff in the middle levels and can vary quite a bit depending on the class and skill tree you've chosen. See the next section if you want to maximize your gearing to help you try to solo your way through some stuff that challenges you at the moment. Ultimately these stats are almost meaningless for the base story of the game though, so you don't need to sweat it if you don't want to.

Getting the most out of your gear --

We use the below thread to maximize our ratings. The 192 gearing about 5 posts in, or whatever, is what you want to aim for. Completing the Ziost line will give you a lot of stuff that is really close to the 192 ratings (and it is only Blue, so even F2P players can wear it), plus you can use comms and Ziost quest tokens to trade for a few more pieces that you may need to swap around to get much closer to the thread's numbers. It doesn't have to be exact, especially playing casual, but it will definitely give you good trends. For example - About 750 points of Accuracy at level 60 is important; also some amount of Alacrity can be valuable depending on your class or spec, whereas before patch 3.0 it was worthless. Crit may or may not be good; it just depends on your class and spec. Some Surge is good, but it drops off quickly in most cases. Other trends - Defense does little to no good for you if you are not a tank. Shield and Absorb do absolutely nothing for you if you are not a tank. You could equip an offhand Shield as a DPS in some advanced classes, but it won't change your character sheet at all because only Tank stances enable Shield and Absorb to even work. By the same token Crit, Alacrity, Surge, and Accuracy do nothing for you as a Tank; especially Accuracy. Your tank stance gives you free maximum Accuracy rating.

Lastly, and most importantly...

Gear stats are going through a MAJOR shakeup in 4.0 (again, unofficially at the moment). So I wouldn't sweat the precise values all that much in this linked thread right now. Use them for trend indications for your class/tree unless you want to be very serious about your gearing.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=821885

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[Andrew Howell]

This is a lot to take in!  Thanks!  

I currently have a Consular at 60 that can heal or DPS for missions, but I really enjoy tanking so I wanna get a guardian or jugger up.  I remember earlier someone saying that typically the Order 66 is more active with regular raid nights so I suppose I'll go for the guardian.  Of course...I have always wanted to embrace the dark side.  I'll try to be on more often so I can get through these stories!

--

Best quotes I've heard while Gaming:
"I'm from kenya....Beeotch"
"Watch yourself, I have a death sentence on three servers!"
"I use my Kung Pao Fountain!!!!"  (R.I.P.)  Mike Scott
"I am Snoop of Borg; resistance is futizzle"
"Is there another B-hole, or just the 2 A-holes?"

[Andrew Howell]

So is the old adage true?  If I play a tank (Guardian) I want max Endurance?  Play a Sage and I want Willpower?

[Christopher Morse]

Check the Guardian stats on that page I linked.

[Ty Crockett]

Chis,

This is totally awesome. Thank you for this. It gives our subgroup a bit of purpose in our next bout of playing.

Ty Crockett

tycro...@tycrockett.com

[Andrew Howell]

Sorry...Didn't notice the link!