An Alt-a-Holics Method for Gearing up Alts

direpath

Member
The mileage may vary on this depending on how invested you are in the game so far. This is how I kit out my alts with higher-end gear to keep them on the leading edge as they level. This post assumes you are a subscriber.

Getting the basic gear

Custom gear is the best gear. It can be gained from most flashpoints, crafted, earned from quests, or purchased from the Cartel Market. My personal preference is CM sets. Few sets are directly purchasable off the CM as they are often found piecemeal in cartel packs. I recommend purchasing the sets from the GTN with credits, then using your coins to "unlock" the collection once you have a complete set. This allows an endless number of copies to any character on your account.

But I am new to the game..

Were I to start fresh on a new server or new account, here is what I would do...

Take the following Crew Skills on your first character:

Cybertech
Scavenging
Underworld Trading

This is the biggest money saver for alts. I suggest only RE'ing up the odd armoring schematics. This will give you the ability to make armouring up to max level for any character you make. Personally, I rarely find myself making the artifact level armoring for alts. Blue is plenty good enough. Your choice on how much REing you want to do.

Why just odd?

You really don't need to update your item mods every other level.

Why not mods?

Mods (and enhancements) are the cheapest to buy with Planetary Comms. Ever since they merged all the different planetary comms into one type, this made life easier. You should get plenty enough comms to get all the mods (9) and enhancements (7) you need to upgrade a character with a full set of custom (moddable) gear.

What about Hilts/Barrels?

Both of these cost 7 comms per, but given that you would only need 1 or 2, they remain rather affordable.

If you want to reduce that cost, level up an Artifice and Armstech next to help your future alts further.

Now how about money?

At max level you can earn a fair bit doing dailies. You will definitely find the need to buy the odd materials.

Ok back to custom gear

This is where I put it out in your hands. You will want to have custom gear that you can update. Every character starts with custom weapon/offhand once they hit the fleet and pick their advanced class. Getting a set will happen as you go through FPs and the quests. I highly suggest looking for some of the cheaper sets on the GTN.

How do I unlock a set?

Pretty much all of the sets that are available on the cartel market will be in your collections window. Pretty much every single piece can be found on the GTN. Some are more expensive, depending on their popularity. There are plenty of awesome looking sets that are cheap to get. In order to unlock a set you must do the following:

1. Obtain the whole set.
2. Equip the whole set on one character.
3. Open collections on another character and locate the set.
4. Hit the unlock button to open it up for all your characters.

The unlock price for sets can vary. Most often it is 90cc. I have seen newer sets (or more popular) at 360cc.

What else can i "unlock?"

Many things. Mounts, pets, titles, color crystals, weapons.

I suggest locating one of the level 10 color crystals on the GTN. These have level 50 stats and can be used at level 10. These give a nice boost to your new toon. Make sure to check the level requirement before buying. Crystals and weapons typically cost 200cc to unlock.

I have sets, crystals, weapons, and a maxed out Cybertech, now what?

Pick and alt you want to start on. Retrieve your collection set, weapon, crystal and whatever else from collections, while logged in as them. Go back to your Cybertech and start pumping out armoring.

I recommend making blues, starting at 3 and hitting the odd numbers. If you have a full custom set, you will need 7 at each level. If you have the artifact materials, make those artifact mods. You can likely skip a level if you do as they are often more powerful than blues the next level or two up.

I tend to make enough to get into the 30s then I make more later. This is just to save bag/bank space on my alt.

How else can I get more self sufficient?

You could make yourself an armstech to make the barrels or an Artificer to make hilts. I would recommend picking up slicing, scavenging, and underworld training on the alts. This will provide you with cash flow and plenty of extra materials to make the mods.

Enjoy.
 
Back
Top