My assumption/hope is that they will indeed use the old mats in addition to the slicing mats. With regard to upgrading augments as you level however...im not so sure. Most people at low levels tend to completely ignore augments so far. In the future they will be more likely to use them since they will never have to swap out armor ever again once they get a crit crafted orange with aug slot. But even still, id have a hard time spending good money on anything but a weapon while levelling, because it is just so quick. Especially if it is an alt and you only play when it has rested xp. I too have been hoarding the investigation missions. In fact, ive gone one step further, and on an alt I no longer play, i trained up investigation. So I just run 5 missions on it before I log into my main, and after I log off at night. The missions take 2 hours, so if im on for a long time I might even send out a 3rd wave in a day. The gifts they give quite easily cover the mission sending fee, but its still about the same income flow as you would get from sending 5 slicing missions once every 2 hr. The stacks and stacks of armstech stuff is just a bonus. But, then reality kicks in. You are hoarding investigation, and today I asked two of my friends and they too hoard investigation. We never once discussed it before now, this ws no strategy, we just all independently decided hoarding investigation was a good idea. It doesn't hurt afterall, I mean, you can buy them on the AH for 2000 credits, and they vendor for 1k, so its not a big risk. The problem with this is that it seems everyone is hoarding them. Even if armstech became the go-to skill trade overnight, the supply of these items would take half a year of consumption to overcome the stockpile out there. I picked up armstech on an alt of mine just because of the piles and piles of these investigation mission discoveries I have. Raised it to 400, and it is literally the biggest pile of....stuff, ive ever seen. You see other people complaining about their tradeskills, they have no idea. It will take a herculean effort to bring it up to where it needs to be.

You might have the right of it tbh. I feel right now your assets are best stored in credits. With all the credit sinks they are putting in the game like crystals on vendors, legacy buyouts, etc, its obvious that credits are the name of the game now. They are reducing the credits you get from pvp. They are charging credits for the new level 50 set of armor in 1.2. This means that inflation is (currently) going wild of course, which makes you think holding crafting missions/resources might be better, but then they are making it so all you need is one orange item per slot from crafters, and then you are done. At least they are doing their best to combat the inflation, but its like they are going the other way with crafting supplies. Who is going to spend 100s of mandolorian iron reverse engineering purples to reach tier 3. And who is going to keep spending 100s of mandalorian iron to make sure they get the correct tier 3 piece of armor when you can just make a level 10 orange and get the crit slot that way, then put in the augs you want?

The investigation missions won't be worth anything. Armstech got basically nothing in 1.2. What was the worst profession, still is. People will want one crit orange gun, and they will have no need for you ever again. Its not like your 22 barrel is going to pull them in

Most people agree with you, especially the people with legacy level 40 or something on a dead server.

my main was a synthweaver, and its one of the best skills in the game. I dunno what you are on. if you want some suffering, go armstech. Granted, we are all now biochem anyhow, but....synthweaving was great levelling up, and two rakata slots. I really dont see how you can talk about undergeared and completely useless.

I play both merc and sorc, we (as in merc) were probably the best healer when played by a high skill player. The ability to ignore interrupts was the deciding factor in top team vs top team combat. If you are just looking at healing scores, this doesn't tell you much. Sorc bubble is great obviously, but its usefulness was highlighted by people in pugs not focusing damage, and instead, just attacking whomever they please. As far as worst healer by far, I think merc has that title in pve now. But in pvp, it might even be sorc. I guess we should wait and see, but their emergency heal solution has a really long cast time now. And good players are going to eat them for breakfast with interrupts now that force bending or whatever its called no longer trims time off their big heal. The main drawback to merc is how much is reliant on rapid shots now. People see those healing bullets come in lock onto you until you die. And...you can't shoot yourself. I've said this to many people now, but healing got screwed over period. Whoever is trying to say "but but but, that class has it better" really is clutching at straws. The only thing we can say for sure is that healing got nerfed hardcore, and in due time we will figure out where healer ability falls after we have had time to experience the changes.

Ya, the real pain is healing in pvp. That is no ends of f'd up now. Might level an op now I guess, but i hate to since I already have a scoundral on the other side :/ I just wish I knew what caused the big attack on healing. Is it pvp? or pve? Because if its pve, please, lift your foot off the throat of merc, what..the hell? And if its pvp, then you really went overboard on sorc and need to walk some of this nerf back in.

The whole idea of "find ye a level 11 schematic for orange gear, crit it, and wear it for eternity!" is a bit daft. It doesn't help crafting, it just smears a thick layer of "stupid" across the entire gearing game. They seriously picked one of the worst designs ever for a crafted system. And its kind of sad really, because this is like, one of the few halfway "original" ideas they have ever had. Everything else is a carbon copy from some other mmo. And for all I know, this is as well, but if it was, im sure they would have copied whatever the solution to this problem was (assuming said innovators had a problem like this in their game). It really does no good to bring it up to them, because anything you say will not be understood. They are so out of it, reasonable people can no longer communicate with them.

severs came down this week tuesday/wednesday/thursday at the very least (if memory serves), making this week one of the more annoying ones with regards to this problem. I always kind of thought it was annoying, but now, even moreso.

Congrats! But look at my post: Originally Posted by Relith In short, you only need diplo if you are doing some serious "blue" grade production. If you are only interested in grabbing your reusables, you could probably make a lot more credits with another skill. I guess itd depend on the supply/demand on your server in regard to which skill is better to take. You can make money mowing down beasts on drumond kaas for green paste if you want....I'm saying more can possibly be made elsewhere, but that its server specific. I'm not sure how you can "diagree entirely". On my server at least, diplo is probably the least profitable of any gathering/mission skill with the exception of investigation (which we all know sucks because armstech sucks). Big money has been made in underground trading using mission discoveries and slicing (selling mission discoveries). Scavenging and biochem are both good as well if you kill a lot of mobs you can scav/skin, not so much in the mission discoveries on my server they barely even break even (not worth the time). Archaelogy on the otherhand, seems like those missions sell for almost nothing lately, but the productions of the missions are a tidy profit. Find a niche, exploit it. Give some serious consideration to no diplo unless you want to mass produce bio. The only reason to choose a particular tradeskill is to avoid getting ripped off on the GTN, and the costs of buying materials to make your 3 reusables is so minor, that you really shouldnt go diplo unless A) Its products sell for outrageous sums and you see a large return on investment b) You need a constant supply to diplo materials at cost.

COMMUNISTS!!!! COMMUNISM!!! KILLER BEES!!!! You do of course realize DPS took a 10% haircut in the patch they nerfed surge, but they didnt adjust enrage timers at all. Things are not quite as stark as you make them out to be. MMOs...and especially modern mmos where monsters die in 2 seconds...have so much room for human error in them, its rather unbelievable. Considering how quickly creatures die, and wiggle room for human error, gear almost does not even matter in encounters (if you are a well disciplined group). Much like how the birth canal can expand to shoot out a human baby, the game can take rather large adjustments without such gloom and doom. Sure, there may be a bit of damage and they might need some surgery later if....eh, offtopic. Anyhow, changing the delay on shock/project will not destroy the balance of the game, nor rip the space-time continuum. At least, not today it won't. You 900 damage or whatever arriving 0.2 seconds later than it did before will not cause the entire game to implode. Consulars have been dealing with it this entire time, and tbh, its not a big deal folks. My assumption (and no offense, but its really not much of a reach here honestly), was that he was talking about swapping the animations entirely for consular. Which....pretty much has nothing to do with what you just said. Just a wholesale animation swap with abilities being left the same. So yes, once again, Earth is saved.....this time.

Simply put, biochem was never that great in the levelling process compared to making new armor. I mean, at various points it cost considerably more material to make a singular medpack than it did to make a piece of armor...yet when i dropped a stack of 10 medpacks on people they would say stuff like "should be enough for this run" or "I already have 20 i found on trash mobs". I took it at launch and I felt I was being screwed. Only twice in the levelling process did I get enough material together to RE into a purple resusable health pack (especially since the friends i grouped with expected me to show up with a 20 stack each for them or something). I never made a stim/adrenal. Then level 50 came....and it really changed things entirely. You need a biometric alloy for each rakata bio item. You need a handful of radioactive paste (4? 8?) and you got yourself a reusable that you never have to worry about again. This is how most people treat their biochem. If you are content with just getting your 50 resusables and calling it a day, then fine. You are done, you probably shouldnt get diplo. But, if you are wanting to make exotech stims and such for others in your guild (or sell), then you want diplo. In short, you only need diplo if you are doing some serious "blue" grade production. If you are only interested in grabbing your reusables, you could probably make a lot more credits with another skill. I guess itd depend on the supply/demand on your server in regard to which skill is better to take.

This, 100% agreement. I have felt this way for a long time, and in fact, they should go one step further and do that to all the dailies. Mix them up a bit, running all the ilum missions every day because they give the most credits is really ripping out my soul. But, I want the creds, so... How cool would it be if they just doubled the rewards and allowed you to do your choice of ....7 missions per day? Or 7 per day on a rotation so that everyone is doing the same ones at the same time, and actual grouping occurs. Because the idea of doing a quest daily...is just abysmal. Its worse than just staying in one spot and grinding mobs in my mind. Because the conversations are skipped, and its just running errands...and i hate errands, especially reptitive ones.

Yeah, I moved over to esdf, and I still think caps lock is prime real estate. Haven't played an mmo in like...6 years before swtor, so I dunno what the "1337 d00ds" are doing anymore, but I'd sure like the caps lock key to be able to map.

You summed up anything I could say on this subject quite nicely. I remember the first time I saw Mako arching her back at me as she looked at the ceiling. I thought to myself, dang girl, you are trying too hard. And to be honest, you are going to need some bigger implants than the ones I can afford on the GTN to pull that look off properly.

its even more offensive for male characters. Its so effeminate, i now constantly think of my avatar as being flamingly gay after seeing him sit just that one time. Makes anything Freddie Mercury ever did look downright manly. Its alright though, I don't think there was much chemistry with Ashara anyhow. I think I always knew that he was gay, but he just wanted to try one last time with Ash. But after I saw him sit, he not only came out of the closet, he burst the hinges off on the way out.

Third faction will never happen simply put. But if it did, it'd have been cool if it was the new empire malgus proposed....perhaps carried off by someone who has been behind the scenes till now, using malgus as a puppet. Allow empire players to join the faction, this solves the population issue overnight. It also solves the issue of "this new faction has very few high level players". Perhaps even allow republic people to join them? Problem is buff stacking issues, the buffs would need to be streamlined to stop overstacking. A tripod is more steady structure than a 2 faction tug o war. They could even add an entire planet dedicated to tripartite warfare, with all 3 factions battling over objectives that grant certain minor (but desirable) bonuses to the factions like relics in daoc (but more of them, and less powerful). Almost overnight the pvp in this game would have a purpose. The two weaker factions would have to learn to work together to crush the strongest of the three factions. As it is right now, pvp is just warzones, and griefing questers. Sadly though, there will never be a third faction. The storyline for this game was written long ago, and it will play out over time. There really is no room in the lore of this game for a couple years minimum i'd imagine...and even then, itd be too risky. They are just copying warcraft here for the most part, and warcraft didnt have 3 sides, so they wont have 3. Investors like tried and true.

Do what I did while leveling up. When you are listening to the first dialogue, type in all capital letters "SPACEBAR" like a total jerk and it will aim the suspicion at the other people in the group. After about the end of the second conversation of the fp, everyone will have denied not using spacebar, so you will need to further throw them off your scent. In the third conversation in the flashpoint say "please, spacebar so we can get this done quickly, thank you". This will make it evident to everyone present that there is a person who isn't using the spacebar, but that dastardly fiend is clearly NOT YOU. Afterall, you were the first person who said "SPACEBAR", and after the 2nd conversation, you were the reasonable adult who swallowed his pride and asked kindly for others to space through the conversation. In fact, I sometimes still do this just for the occasional laugh. Nothing like watching the witch hunt that ensues. Just make certain the 3 people you are grouped with don't know each other.

lol, the OP intended this to be a big troll post and hardly a single person is upset at all....is pretty hilarious. Yes, we knew force bending was broken.

Its funny, I was thinking the same thing the other day. But, they have made a big deal about having the animation team go through and balancing the timing on these mirror abilities. I also agree with the OP that shock will have a delay on it like project, as the sorc will "gather" a ball of lightning before launching it. That is the only thing that really makes sense. If they were going to make project instant, they could just make it instant, they wouldnt need to redo the animation.

Not many people in other professions shed a tear for armstech when the first 4 quests on ilum gave people enough money to buy a superior barrel to anything they could make. My armstech is thankfully just a really sparsely played 3rd alt. No matter what bad news befalls you, just smile to yourself and be thankful you arent an armstech. Maybe if you had 3 biometric alloys you could make a 118 rating pistol, lol

lol, just wanted to quote this clown because its so funny. Comes to an armstech post and says "stop all the qq'ing" then he proceeds to have a pout fest of his own about the grave injustices of the artifice profession. 1) "at least your tradeskill didn't have a vendor selling your top tier item". Haha, yeah, AT LEAST armstech doesnt have that problem. Because the armstech complaint is "at least your tradeskill didn't have a vendor selling something BETTER THAN YOUR TOP TIER ITEM for peanuts." 2) You at least had a world boss schematic drop 3) Claims he "rarely makes money in artifice except in niche markets" As opposed to armstech ....? What point were you trying to make here? Then says ingrediants sell for more than product. Well, look at investigation sometime. THe demand is zero, and the ingredients dont even sell for the default GTN price. Meanwhile artifice gems sell for 8 times GTN default price...implying the fact *someone* is doing the tradeskill and either making money or becoming stronger. 4) Then pouts about his 0/12 luck on rakata item crits. Yeah.....ok *******. You do realize armstech would kill to have your "problems".

I'd be willing to bet that was an electrostaff, which you can find plenty of moddable. Also, the best crafted techstaff has "electrostaff" in its name, which only confuses matters further.

Well, its not as nice for every other class. The reward for BH gives you a blue techstaff for torian that kinda sucks....bad. For inquisitor it gives you a blaster for talos drelik that can be used mainhand or offhand(he cannot use offhand). Yet, for andronikos, who can use offhand, the blaster you get is mainhand only??? A lot of stuff like this needs polish.

imp equivalent would actually be asking for an offhand cunning blaster for Andronikos. You just cannot find it. Granted, id rather be lacking a high quality offhand blaster than a sniper rifle.