Step 14: Understanding CXP & gear tiers

With the advent of 5.0, SWTOR now lets gearing happen through loot crates starting at level 70.  You can get loot from operation bosses "old school" now from version 5.2 & up.  Dulfy again has a guide for loot at each boss :)

How to get CXP you ask?  Many ways young lad!  Here are some tips to get going, because each time you gain 1 CXP level you get 1 CXP crate at your CXP level.  There are 4 levels and each will give gear at random for your class, pets, mounts, adaptative gear, Jawa junk & more. Now for the 4 tiers:

• Tier 1: 230-level gear (or operation SM grade)
• Tier 2: 234/236-level gear (HM grade)
• Tier 3: 240/242-level gear (say HM/NiM grade)
• Tier 4: 246/248-level gear (NiM grade)

5.2 super annoying translations because Bioware decided to rename stuff:

• Story mode = Story mode
• Veteran mode = Hard mode
• Master mode = Nightmare mode
  (Note that Vet flashpoints are the old tactical ones in a 4-man group)

When you press CTRL+G you get to the Command menu and you can choose activities to get the said CXP.  Each day has a different bonus activity for moar CXP!  

What I did when I hit tier-3 on my main I stopped opening crates (egad that's hard!) because you can "disassemble" (or reject) stuff in the crate which becomes CXP points.  At CXP 300 I started opening and the dissassembled items were turned into CXP points to grind Tier 4 - you know where I'm going with this.  By the time I opened my stash I had 4-5 Tier-4 Legendary items and that stash was 150+ crates.   So I got a full set of 246+ on my main fairly quickly.

If you respec your toon or have an alt (my main is a Gunnery trooper these days and have a Commando heals), respec once you've got all your gear so you get the "other spec" gear too.  Am gearing my healer through my DPS :)

PvP gives comms which can be traded for unassembled gear tokens, so you have a reason to suffer :) Important: DO NOT get rid of the Legendary "yellow" shells if you mod your gear as you'll need them to do the trade-ins with the vendors on fleet, Supplies area.

Further recommended reading is Dulfy here for the 5.1 patch info for gearing (still current) and the 5.2 changes here which explain better drop rates in crates too.

When you max out a toon on Tier-4 gear, respec to your other spec (sorry sentinels & marauders) to build the 2nd set by opening Tier-4 packs.  So on a Commando DPS to get a healer set just.. repec!  Also when you hit CXP300 as of 5.2.2 you can get a CXP boost for all your legacy by 25%, on sale now for a low low price at the usual vendor.

Some tips:

• Do the easy daily heroics like Coruscant, CZ-198 & Oricon, they're fast & profitable
• Get the boosters you can afford from the Cartel Market or better the vendor on fleet in Supplies.  I do like that 100% CXP boost.
• Once you have a tier 4 toon, on this one unlock in Legacy -> Other stuff the +25% CXP boost for all your toons 1-299 for 2 million creds, well invested in my book
• If you're loaded with creds, activate in your toon's legacy the CXP boosts - not a lot but if you intent to grind to Tier-4 do it
• KofTE Chapter 2 in Veteran mode is about 7-9 minutes to complete if you take the path on the right at start & avoid mobs, with all boosters will give 2880 CXP.  Not bad ROI even if they nerf'ed it
• Groupfinder activities will pay well
• Operations via groupfinder with the weekly can give 5 to 8 crates per run with the boosts on, sometimes more depending of your CXP tier 
• PvP pays well and GSF better as they're trying to get people in to play these more.
• For gearing with boss drops Dulfy has all the details here
• Mastermode stuff / when you have 236+ gear (#s include all the cxp boosts):
• Do Red Reaper 3x for the Master FP weekly, I do it with 2 steatlhs & 2 comps @ 50 and skip all the mobs, only do boss fights.  This is 50K+ CXP under 75 minutes easy once you have it down.  Taral V is also a quick one.
• Do the weekly Mastermode Uprising, I prefer Fractured as it is the easiest, get over 20K CXP in 20 mins or so