It's luck really. I have DEd 20 full sets of level 49 crafted blues, and I have only learned 1 epic pieces.

So, where do I learn these "Orange with Crit slot" recipies? So far I have only found "Electro Guard" equipment, boots and chest. But they don't seem to be any different then other moddable items. They start with 25 armor and 3 slots for Armoring, Mod, Enhancement.

That is exactly what I Am saying, even with an Augment slot, the sheer amount of stats I would lose by switching to the purple from the orange with mods can -not- be made up for. There is no augment in the world that makes up for that kind of armor, aim, endurance, ect ect. So from where it stands now, every crafting profession with the exception of Cyber-tech is completely useless. Is Bioware working to fix this?

Hawkeye Powered Ultramesh Legplates (Superior) 776 armor 45 Aim 72 Endurance 75 Accuracy 48 Power 20 Defense. You learn this after REing the green set, then the blue set, of Vanguard friendly recipies in Armormech at 390 skill. I had to RE about 6 sets of greens and 5 sets of blues to learn it. Took about a good 4 hours once I had all the materials of just running around waiting for it to craft. TT-15A Powertech Leggings (( Moddable pants that I put at-level mods in that I was rewarded with by completing SOLOABLE MISSIONS)) 739 armor 76 aim 83 endurance 16 shield rating 6 absorbption 12 defense. If I were to switch my current modded pants to wear my CRAFTED EPIC I would lose 72 armor 31 aim 11 endurance 16 shield rating 6 absorption Only to gain 27 accuracy and 8 defense. What I gather from this is that end game armor-mech is worthless, because anything you can make regardless of how good it is, will be obsolete compared to a moddable item with at-level mods that you either get from a Cybertech or just by completeing SOLO missions on your characters freaking story line. Which means that all the time, credits, organization, and effort I put into leveling Armormech, reverse engineering the end set, was all for nothing unless I want to sacrifice a healthy amount of stats for vanity. Now, unless I am missing something here, I am pretty damn dissapointed Bioware.