SWTOR Gearing Changes and Tips in Update 7.2

News Date: December 13, 2022 Patch: 7.2

Update 7.2 in Star Wars: The Old Republic brought some gearing changes, many of which you can take advantage of!

Want to learn how to gear up?

I’ve fully updated my Level 80 Gearing Guide for Update 7.2!

SWTOR Level 80 Gearing Guide

What changed?

  • The minimum item-rating for most types of gear used to be 320 – it is now 324, so new players will start at 324. If you never managed to get 324 in past updates, visit the vendors and you’ll be able to simply purchase 324 pieces if you have the right currency.
  • The max item-rating for most types of gear used to be 330 – it is now 336, so you can continue upgrading your gear.
  • This includes Hyde & Zeek, so you can get blue 336 mods and purple 336 enhancements for your moddable gear.
  • You can now buy Flashpoint and Operation gear directly from vendors using their respective currencies – you don’t need the pieces to drop directly from bosses anymore.
  • There are some new ways to exchange currency types that are really useful.
  • Some tacticals were changed/redesigned.

Item-Rating Changes

  • New general minimum item-rating: 324 (Conquest/Solo, Flashpoints, Operations)
  • New general maximum item-rating: 336 (Conquest/Solo, Flashpoints, Operations, Hyde & Zeek)
  • PvP: 322-332 *** BUG/ISSUE:  There seems to be some issues with bolster for players above 332, they are supposed to be pushed down to 332, but are not. I don’t know details.
  • R-4 Gear: No changes.
  • Legendary Implants: No changes.

Old chart:

Hyde & Zeek Mods

Hyde & Zeek now offers up to blue 336 mods and purple 336 enhancements for your moddable gear.

If you are new to Hyde & Zeek, especially if you are a solo player, check out my Level 80 Solo Gearing Guide, I’ve updated it for this update!

If you already have a set of 330 gear from Hyde & Zeek from the last expansion, you will need to get a blue 336 piece or better and purple 336 piece or better to turn in to Hyde & Zeek to unlock the news mods and enhancements.

Hopefully you have some extra pieces lying around that you can upgrade at the vendor, but if you don’t, here’s an easy way to get some:

  • Blue: The easiest way to get a blue piece would be to go run a single boss of a Master Mode Operation, and it should drop a 330 blue piece for you (you can solo stealth the first boss of Red Reaper with some practice). Then upgrade it to 336.
  • Purple: If you are able to find a group, run Nightmare Mode Nefra, and that should give you a 330 purple piece you can upgrade. If that’s not an option, you can now directly buy 324 purple gear directly from the Operations Gear Vendor – a cheap piece only costs 20 OP-1 Catalust currencies! You can then upgrade it from 324 to 330 over time.

Upgrading from 330 to 336 is pretty simple!

  • Blue: Upgrading a blue flashpoint piece from 330 to 336 costs 540 FP-1 Stabiliziers, 120 Daily Resource Matrix, and 240 Conquest Commendations. As of 7.2, you can exchange 500 Conquest Commendations for 200 FP-1 Stabilizers, which may help you upgrade quicker! You will also need about 200k credits for the upgrades, and 1.8 million credits for the nine new mods and nine new armorings you are buying.
  • Purple: Upgrading a purple operation piece from 330 to 336 costs 180 OP-1 Catalysts, 120 Daily Resource Matrix, and 60 Conquest Commendations. You’ll also need about 250k credits for the upgrades, and then 1.4 million to buy seven of the new 336 purple enhancements.
  • And then you can continue upgrading your Earpiece and Relic the same way you would before up to 336.
  • Your Legendary Implants stay at 334.

Gear Vendors

Two new gear vendors have been added in the same area with the other gear vendors in the Supplies section of the Fleet:

  • Operations Gear Vendor: Tionese (green), Columi (blue) and Rakata (purple) gear costing credits and OP-1 Catalyst Currency
  • Flashpoint Gear Vendor: Elite Decurion (green) and Supreme Decurion (blue) gear costing credits and FP-1 Stabilizer Currency

These vendors are useful for:

  • If you are missing a specific piece.
  • Story mode operation players can now buy purple Rakata pieces and upgrade them slowly, without having to run Veteran Mode operations or Master Mode operations. They can also upgrade to 336, turn in the piece to Hyde and Zeek, unlocking the 336 purple enhancements.
  • There are a lot of unique cosmetic looks, especially on the Operations vendor, from the launch of the game. The new vendors make these easy to find and collect. You will need to choose “Show All” in the dropdown to see all the styles. They change appearance based on what faction you are on.

Currency Exchange

  • At the PvP Vendor: Trade WZ-1 Accelerant 200 WZ-1 Accelerants for Tech Fragments 200 Tech Fragments
  • At the Conquest Gear Vendor: TradeConquest Commendation 500 Conquest Commendations for FP-1 Stabilizer 200 FP-1 Stabilizers
  • At the Conquest Gear Vendor: TradeConquest Commendation 200 Conquest Commendations for Tech Fragments 200 Tech Fragments
  • At the Flashpoint Gear Vendor: Trade FP-1 Stabilizer 200 FP-1 Stabilizers for Tech Fragments 200 Tech Fragments
  • At the Operation gear Vendor: Trade OP-1 Catalyst 200 OP-1 Catalysts for Tech Fragments 200 Tech Fragments

There’s no way to trade forOP-1 Catalyst OP-1 Catalysts or WZ-1 Accelerant  WZ-1 Accelerants, you need to earn them through Operations and PvP.

Tactical Changes

  • Vanguard Shield Specialist: The Thermal Screen tactical now applies its cooldown reset to Disruptor Rifle.
  • Powertech Shield Tech: The Thermal Screen tactical now applies its cooldown reset to Payday.
  • Scoundrel: Augmented Holocomm Tactical is now correctly granting an additional charge to Trick Move.
  • Operative: Augmented Holocomm Tactical is now correctly granting an additional charge to Trick Move.
  • Assassin Darkness: Ward of the Continuum tactical has been redesigned. It now does the following: Dark Ward now has 10 charges and Dark Bulwark can no longer restore charges. Consuming a charge of Dark Ward increases defense chance by 1%. This effect stacks up to 10 times and lasts for 20 seconds or until Dark Ward is reactivated.
  • Shadow Kinetic Combat: Redesigned Ward of the Continuum tactical. It now does the following: Kinetic Ward now has 10 charges and Kinetic Bulwark can no longer restore charges. Consuming a charge of Kinetic Ward increases defense chance by 1%. This effect stacks up to 10 times and lasts for 20 seconds or until Kinetic Ward is reactivated.
  • Sentinel Combat: The Shard of Mortis tactical’s critical hit chance bonus per stack has been reduced to 15% (down from 25%).
  • Marauder Carnage: Shard of Mortis tactical’s critical hit chance bonus per stack has been reduced to 15% (down from 25%).