Yes, if the item name is in orange that is the case. Sometimes you’ll find blues or purples that have base stats + mods. The only thing that makes one piece of orange gear better than another is the number of slots in it, so if you find one you like the look of you can keep it and just upgrade it as you go. That’s mostly what I’ve been using my commendations for, mods to keep orange gear up to date.
It’s a pretty cool system because my Jedi will keep the lightsaber he made in his level 10 class quest probably until level 50. I like that. Too bad my Consular didn’t have the option to craft a double bladed lightsaber, she had to ditch her quest lightsaber for one she bought…off of a vendor in the fleet. It’s really not as good of a story :D
Teiman
5142
Not casual mmo players fix that problem playing with guildmates. Pubing can be harsh.
I haven’t tried upgrading a level 10 piece, but upgrading a level 24 piece worked very well. It’s the overall item rating number you want to pay attention to, not the individual armor or defense value. It’s my understanding that the mods drive everything and you could, for example upgrade and use social clothing as well, assuming your class uses light armor.
It’s a pretty cool system because my Jedi will keep the lightsaber he made in his level 10 class quest probably until level 50. I like that.
That is cool. I don’t play a Jedi, and I’m not really one to RP anyway, but creating one’s lightsaber is supposedly a pretty important rite of passage for Jedi trainees. It would seem very wrong thematically if the game forced you to replace your saber with a better version every few levels.
Yeah. Well it’s also cool because you don’t have to be wearing a bunch of odd pieces of gear that make you look like a clown. If you find some orange stuff that looks good together you can stick with that look for a while.
On orange gear the item rating will be updated when you replace certain mods. So on a lightsaber adding a better hilt increases the level item and min/max damage per swing. On armor I believe it is the Armoring slot that upgrades item level. As far as I can tell the only thing that matters with orange gear is number of slots, otherwise they are all equivalent.
Also, don’t forget that you can remove mods. So I got a nice piece of orange gear that looked like crap from a quest. I just took the mods out of it and used it to upgrade my existing gear. You have to pay for that, but it’s still cool that you can do it.
Dejin
5146
[Edit] Looks like my understanding is the same as Mike Cathcarts.
My understanding – possibly incorrect – is that one of the components is more important than the others and controls the base characteristics of the orange item. For example for a lightsaber, the Hilt is labelled “Hilts will change the level of the item,” but none of the other components have this label. Also for clothing the Armoring is labeled “Amoring will change the level of the item,” with again the other components not saying this.
I’m assuming this means that the Hilt level determines the base damage of the Lightsaber, and the Armoring determines the base Armor level of the clothing, whereas the other items just provide stats. Not sure if that’s right, but that certainly seems logical from the tooltips.
Sepiche
5147
Yeah I really enjoy the customizable gear. It basically just lets you pick items that you like the look of and keep those competitive as you go through the game.
The only problem I’m running into is keeping around enough mods to fill my custom items. When I only had a lightsaber is was easy to use commendations to keep it up to date, but now that I have a custom lightsaber, a custom robe, and custom boots it’s much harder to get good mods for all of them. It will probably get easier once the galactic markets get better stocked with items though.
You can use the commendation badges you earn from doing quests on each planet to buy level-appropriate mods.
Sepiche
5149
I know… that’s why I said:
;)
The problem is a given planet will only give you so many commendations and it’s really only enough to keep a certain number of items decked out in blue mods… the only other steady source of mods for me at the moment is to buy them, but those costs add up, and those mods are greens instead of the blues the commendation vendors give.
As much as I, as a casual player, like the item mods system, I’m a bit baffled by how it’s supposed to coexist with an MMO gear treadmill for the hardcore MMO people.
Mods will have their own endgame treadmill, I’m sure.
I’m sure it can be finessed but there’s a certain simple skinner-box appeal to having the raid drop a new pair of spikey shoulderpads or the glowing purple bow with red sparkles.
The +295 Endurance, +150 Power Enhancement Mod for your snappy-looking level 15 pants, less so.
I agree, and I’ll bet that raids will skew toward dropping awesome itamz while crafting/solo/dungeons skew toward mods. That’s how I’d do it, anyway.
Pure speculation on my part, but I’m guessing orange modded gear won’t remain competitive at the level cap. So while you’re questing from 1-50, you can keep using the same items and just change the mods, but once you have no more new levels to earn, you’ll have to start replacing your gear with better items.
Yeah, but there’s always a cooler looking orange out there. Last night I realized I have to run Hammer over and over again to get an orange sniper rifle I saw a guy using, because it looks way better than the one I’ve had for 15 levels or so.
Teiman
5156
Random.
My character in SWTOR.
Teik, commando, defender of the people of the republic. Follows the law, but follows also the spirit of the law. People is more important than ideas. And you have to work for justice, peace and freedom.
Rasputin
5157
You should be holding onto orange pieces that you like the look of. That way you can mod them at the endgame for wearing, but I wouldn’t go overboard keeping it around while leveling.
walTer
5158
They need wardrobes so I can run flash points wearing a slave Leia outfit.
In beta, you could exchange comms for higher level comms, for example Nar Shaddaa for Tatooine, but apparently everyone was hoarding them for the endgame.
Tyjenks
5160
I would be happy with my Obi-wan robe until the end…unless there is one with spiky shoulder pads down the road.
