Gearing to 336

With 7.2 we now have the ability to increase our gear score to 336 without the need of participating in the R-4 Hard Mode Operation.  The minimum gear score has also been increased to 324.  The fastest way to get all your gear to these 336 levels is through using the Hyde and Zeek Vendor.  While it is still a process of grinding out materials and completing content to get to 336, it is nowhere near as tedious as it was at the launch of 7.0.  Below, I have highlighted the differences between the old and new method.

7.2 Gearing Strategy
Getting to 336 - Starting From scratch
Step by Step

This is a video I made in 7.1 explaining how to use Hyde and Zeek to get to 330 quickly.  The same method applies to the 336 gear and is detailed below.

Head to Hyde and Zeek, they are located in the back right of the center booth in the supplies second of the fleet.

In 7.1 there was a gate of needing to have 324 gear score or higher to get the correct dialogues to prompt.  This seems to be gone in 7.2.  You will need to smash 1 for the dialogue options a million times (it's an extensive conversation) until you get to this option.

You can only complete 1 assignment at a time.  You will need to complete both of these assignments to gain access to all the 336 gear you will need.

You will need 2 pieces of gear.  I used left over Rakata to complete both assignments.

Belts are the cheapest way to go as far as materials go.

To upgrade a BELT to 336 from 330 you will need:
-180 Conquest Commendations
-180 OP-1s
-120 Daily Matrixes
Boots and Gloves are the next best, with an increased requirement of 210 OP-1s
Everything else will run you 240.
(Avoid using relics and ear pcs as you may want those for alts, cannot be built from Hyde and Zeek)
If you do not have extra gear, you do have the option of buying 324 gear from the vendor and upgrading it now.  It is much more expensive as far as materials go, but will yield the same results.
(Note that right now Rakata Gear cost less OP-1s, but more credits vs columi gear, so I would still buy the Rakata and upgrade it up to 336 even for the prototype mission)

You have your gear to 336, deconstruct it to complete the mission, head back to Hyde and pick up the second and repeat the process.

Once both missions are completed, interact with Zeek to access the store.

There will be some junk available.  Filter the menu at the top center to ALL to ensure you can see what you need to get, be vigilant in sorting through the unneeded stuff.  You want the Purple Enhancement 99s and the Blue 103 Mods/Armoring/Hilts.  Be sure it says "Rating 336" Before buying.  It will run several Million Credits to buy everything you need for your gear, so have a stack of credits ready.

I found these blue Enhancement 103s to be 336 as well.  PURPLE is the better DPS option.  I suspect these blues may exist for tanks wanting to build critical and alacrity stats.  Avoid these unless for some reason you want more HP and Less DPS/HPS output.

The correct Armors and Mods for DPS/Heal sets

The correct Enhancements for DPS/Heal Sets

The Correct Armors and Mods for Tanks

The correct Enhancements for Tanks

Note, I have included the Purple 99s here.  They could be an option for a higher endurance build vs defense stat.  There is now some degree of ability to tinker with the endurance vs defense stat as a tank.

Ok, so we have all these cool mods now, where do we put them?

The adaptive gear vendor in the supplies section has gear for sale that can equip the components we got from hyde and zeek.  I like the Void Master's (imperial name will probably be different) set at the bottom.  It is legacy unlocked and can be stored in my legacy bank.  That makes it to where I only need to do the Hyde and Zeek unlocks on one Character, saving me mats for gearing up ALTs. 

The enhancements, mods ect that you purchase will be bound to you for 2 hours of real character log in time.  If you want to put the raw components into your legacy bank (say to transfer to another toon that needs to put the components into an item that is not legacy bound) you will need to first put them into a piece of modable gear, then remove them to remove the bind timer.  Alternatively, you can mail them to the desired character to get around the bind timer.  This takes a lot of mail messages, as you'll need around 27 components to fully outfit a character.

I have a separate Page for recommended gearing for each class that shows which types of enhancements I put where and how many augments I used to build out my stats for each spec.  Note that currently this is the 330 g.s. recommendations.  I will be working on updating it for 336.

So which 336 is better, or are the all the same?

Comparison 1 Modded vs Rakata

Purple 336 Rakata is equal in stats to the modded 336 from the vendor.

Comparision 2 - Modded (and Rakata) vs R-4 HM gear @ 336

Modded/Rakata wins here as far as DPS/Heals go.  More power is always better.

Comparison 3 - R-4 HM gear @ 340 vs Rakata/Moddable

RAKATA/MOD has more power vs. 340 BLUE HM R-4 gear in terms of power as we may expect as purple gear has better stat distribution vs blue.  The losses to Mastery, Endurance and our Tertiary stat makes it stat wise better to keep going for those 340 blue pieces

 My takeaway here is that 336 gear is going to be good enough for everything in the game, so for simple easy of Acquisition, it wins in my eyes.