I still think people are looking at it the wrong way. I think the mid levels needed to be nerfed, true. But I think, more importantly, a LEVEL CAP needed to be implemented. Slicing should scale as you level, and that would alleviate the numerous amounts of people whining because their level 15 friend is bragging about his 100k credits (really, 100k? That's two repair bills at 50). A level cap would have solved so many issues, and it would have been so easy to do

There are two problems at hand in my eyes: One: Crafting missions, like SO many others have mentioned, are not level capped. They should be. This would have been the easiest fix in the world. Two: The knee-jerk reactionary nerf. Similar to SWG, these kinds of reactions ruin games. Patches need to be well thought out, focus on primary issues, and not just to the whims of the community crying because they didn't level fast enough to see what the benefits of slicing were, they just saw the short term gains of others. It's sad, really. I hope this isn't an indication of future 'balancing' efforts on Bioware's behalf.

Not true. UWT and TH are both profitable from missions. You just end up having to vendor the items you get (unless you decide to make it more profitable through the dismal GTN)

Yes, the augment argument. ....Again, and it still doesn't work.

I ran them all yesterday, ended up with a positive gain of 3000 credits after about 7 hours. Granted, I have max affection on 2 of my companions, so my chance to crit was higher. Those without the chance to crit might end up posting a net loss.

I just went through another 40 pages of replies only to see Bioware still hasn't responded to this issue. They nerfed slicing because people could max slicing early on. All they had to do was put a level cap in the gathering missions according to your level. Silly children see people getting *gasp* 100k credits at level 20...when 100k is only just over double my repair bill at level 50.

I spent about two hours today going to Hoth, Tattoine, Alderan, and a couple other places people mentioned to see what it was like 'gathering lockboxes' What people don't understand is the lockboxes themselves were nerfed. On Hoth, I rarely got over 800 credits / lockbox. On Tatt/Ald, it was more along the lines of 500. My friend who is TH, and another who is UWT, make *much* more than this with the mats they get from 'afk farming' crew members. I'm not saying put it back where it was, but it _needs_ to be revisited.

I really wish they would read things like this

What do you think got us in this mess to begin with? Sigh. I just hope Bioware doesn't demonstrate this lack of thought into their patches in the future.

Yes, they keep closing other threads to point them here. My hope is they are actually thinking about the decision this time around to 'balance it.'

Yeah, I funded my guild's mounts, professions, and repairs. We had a couple slicers to fund everything, the rest were useful (ahem, useful) crafting abilities. I agree it was overpowered and needed a nerf..but this was a little much.

He is just a level 25 troll =/ Leave him be. The arguments put forth are fair, we just have to hope Bioware actually looks into the issue first this time and then decides what to do with it (and the GTN/rest of the crafting skills, imo)

I'd enjoy seeing your math on this. My buddy that I leveled with has TH as his primary gathering professions. He does very well for himself because he is able to sell the items he receives from the missions (in addition to the lockboxes). Same goes with my guildies who run UT, they do pretty well for themselves after taking the time to sell the returns.

These are my feelings Before, I could foot my guild's repair bills + assist with purchasing mats for myself and everyone's crafting skills. Now, I plan on retaining the earnings to foot my own repair bill, then maybe I'll have some pocket change leftover for the occasional dinner out. But you can bet I won't be buying your mats on the GTN. Also, incredibly informative thread. Thank you for this. I love seeing the intelligent threads versus the bantering going on. I was hoping for a slicing nerf (I'm sitting at 400 slicing myself, and it did seem rather...extravagant), but I was hoping for more of a 30-50% nerf. Anywhere in there would have suited me quite fine, but I guesstimated a 80% nerf and looks like I overshot it a bit but that's still rather extreme.

Troll posts are annoying.

Good post.

Again, just reinforcing what has been said...this was a bad move.

Yes, they have been. They reduced the amount the boxes give. Therefore, the 'ground loot' (read:free) return the same boxes the paid for does, it just used to be free. So yeah, it was nerfed all around.

It's just a knee jerk reaction. OH GOD WHINERS AREN'T HAPPY! Instead of thinking it through, as has been stated, they just knee-jerk nerfed it. All the whiners are sitting below level 50, not knowing exactly how expensive things are going to get for them later in the game. Guilds used to need dedicated slicers. Now we need dedicated farmers to foot our repair bills. Fantastic.

Not true Starting out, my buddy and I have been leveling hand-in-hand. He went TH, I went Slicing. Slicing indeed does make more 'pure credits' however, as his TH has leveled up, he continues to get items that are vendoring for 3-5k per item / mission, sometimes as well as credits. My buddy and I compared the two professions quite a bit, and treasure hunting actually makes decent credits, just not in the form of 'pure credits.' I'll be dropping slicing for it today

Except slicing doesn't craft things. They truly did ruin an entire profession. I was of the belief it needed a small nerf, but here is what was done. Before, the highest credits/hour was level 3-4 missions. Now these 3-4 missions cost roughly 80% more than they did before, and return less than half what they did before. You actually lose money doing slicing missions...a profession dedicated to money. What's interesting is that before, our guild construct was 2-3 slicers to fund the monetary needs of the crafters/guild/respecs/etc, and it worked out well. We used a companion crew skill to assist our guilds. Now we're just useless. Oh well Congrats, community, for claiming slicing is OP when you didn't even make it past level 30. =/

Yeah, I didn't even bother trying this. The performance/hassle of using it on my phone just didn't feel worth it.

You have to justify that amount for the phone + monthly charges somehow Most people do it via device-specific elitism. Oh, and I also enjoyed the comment regarding server load. At first I discounted the idea, but thinking about it - it would help with the server queues, as there would be less people 'afk leveling' their skills. Definitely a fantastic idea.

This was brought up frequently before the forum wipe. I still think it is a good idea though And a great idea for EA/Bioware to generate extra cash flow, even if it is a onetime app cost of ~$10 or so. I'd pay it.

A lot of people are complaining about slicing and stating the repercussions from leveling multiple toons to 16 then farming slicing. Why talk about nerfing it? I'm of the mindset that, once 50, it really won't seem that OP anymore and I'll more than willingly give it up in favor of actually _useful_ skills. Instead of nerfing it, impose a level limit. Ie, there are 50 levels and 400 crafting levels. Make it so that you increment by 40 every 5 levels. Level 5 ---- 40 Level 10 ---- 80 Level 20 ---- 160 Level 30 ---- 240 Level 40 ---- 320 Level 50 ---- 400 It would prevent gold farmers, but at the same time allow for a somewhat steady cash flow during leveling, as well as allowing the full cash flow at 50 for those who for some reason decide to stay with slicing. *shrug* People like to blow things out of proportion, especially considering the game hasn't even technically been released yet.