Okay, we're starting to get more 50s every day in the Republic guild. Here are some small tips for those hoping to join some of us that are starting to run Hard Mode Flashpoints.
Start doing your Ilum/Belsavis dailies. Once you hit 50, the Ilum storyline opens up to you, it's relatively simple, and short, despite being a little annoying. Complete it. It shouldn't take you too long, it will go a lot faster if you team up though, and make it a lot more enjoyable. Ilum storyline feels very rushed/dull. The real reason you're here though, is not for the story, it's for the rewards. Besides the main storyline questline of Ilum, there will be a handful other quests that you will be able to do daily. These quests will reward you with Daily Commendations. While the amount seems small, these come in very, very handy, and will play a role in preparing you to run some of these HM FPs. You can trade in these for either level 23 (Purple) Armoring/Barrels/Hilts. This is where you're going to get your Armoring and either Hilt/Barrel for you items. Belsavis also has bonus series quest, you pick up the bonus series in the Fleet, I believe. Get it done, as it opens up the Heroics, which is going to be your main source of purple mods/enhancements/etc.
Okay, now that I've slightly brushed up on the daily quests, it's time to talk about the daily Heroics. There will be a Heroic 2 in Ilum, Darkness on Ilum. This will award you with the option to pick one of 4 enhancements. These will be class specific, I believe, so pick the one that is right for your build. These are the options I get to pick from as a Commando.
- Advanced Battle Enhancement 22
- Advanced Vigilant Enhancement 22
- Advanced Initiative Enhancement 22
- Advanced Quick Savant Enhancement 22
Pick the one that best suits your class.
Next we will travel to Belsavis, there are 3 Heroics there. 1 [Heroic 2] and 3 [Heroic 4]. Similar to the Ilum Heroics, these will award you with level 22 Purple enhancements/mods/armoring, that are Class specific. One of the Heroics will give your companion a nice weapon also. The armoring that you will get from "The Stasis Generator" Heroic, is not the level 23 Armoring you can buy with your Daily Commendations on Ilum, but it should do well enough until you can buy the 23 armorings from the Daily Comms vendor on Ilum. Best case, you want to end up with each armor you have to be:
- Armoring (51)
- Mod (50)
- Enhancement (50)
All purple, of course.
Now another thing you want to use to supplement this is Ilum Weekly/Daily PVP missions. While these are going to change once 1.1 hits, right now you'll want to take advantage of how easy they are to do. Basically you will go to the Ilum Open World PVP area, and destroy the enemy tanks to build up your Daily/Weekly. Shouldn't take too long and there will be usually Imperial players there too doing it, don't be so rash and attack though, most are there to do their Daily/Weekly also. Try find one a spot where Rep/Imps are going back and forth destroying tanks in order to build up your Daily/Weekly count. The weekly will reward you with 2 champion bags and a choice of one champion bag or one Battlemaster gear bag. (Pick the champion, unless you're Valor 60.. but if you're Valor 60 you probably won't be reading this lol) The daily also rewards you with 1 Champion bag. These champion bags randomly give you something, it could either be a piece of Champion level armor/etc that you can go exchange to the PVP Vendor, or Centurion Commendations. The armor/weapon/implant you can get from the bag is not an actual piece of armor, rather it's more of a commendation which let's you choose one piece of gear from different Champion sets. For example, if you get a chest piece, you can then go exchange that chest piece for one of the 4 different chest pieces available. Choose the one that is better suited to your build of course. Don't want to go into too much detail here but if you have more questions about how Champion bags/Ilum PVP Dailies work feel free to ask me in game. Anyways, the main thing I was trying to convey, is that these pieces of Champion armor will also be very helpful to get you started in end game Hard Modes, at least until you can pick up better PVE armor. You can also get more bags by buying them for 200 Warzone & 200 Mercenary Commendations and doing your Win Warzones PVP Daily/Weekly.
If there's enough interest from the 50s we have in the Republic side right now, me and Aran will be running two groups to do the Heroics tomorrow so you can get a handle on what to do/where to go/etc. If there's not enough people, but you would still like to learn what to do, feel free to send me a whisper or let me know in clan chat, and I'll be more than glad to guide you.
If I missed anything, I apologize, it's 3 AM and I'm really sleepy. If you don't understand something, again feel free to ask. Might not be the clearest post, but I hope some of the information can help you.
