[Biochem: now just for alts!]

I agree with the changes.

 

If permanent stims were available to all people no one would buy the consumable stims. After a few months the market would be flooded with permanent low level stims and a few months more the market would be flooded with the permanent rakata stims.

 

So why doesn't the same hold true for all of the other crafting skills? Is it a problem that armor/weapons/mods made by other crew skills are "permanent"? Will the market be flooded with permanent armor and weapons? Isn't it already?

 

The benefit to having Biochem is not having to constantly buy or make your own personal stims.

 

Currently, this is true. And it is also the entire problem with Biochem. Make Rakata implants the Biochem benefit and solve the problem.

 

I have biochem on all my serious characters for one reason, the Rakata versions, even if exactly the same as the blue consumables will give me a larger DPS gain over because I will not be conservative on using my stims.

 

Its kind of funny that people will willingly except having to continually grind mats/money for consumables, but if you made them grind 4 or 5 new equipment pieces for each raid/warzone, there would be absolute hell to pay.

 

I find that fascinating.

 

I think its because we mentally categorize them as "consumables" and then accept that they aren't permanent. But how arbitrary is that? What makes them fundamentally different than any other piece of equipment?

 

Heck.. the mats required for a single stim are comparable to a piece of equipment.

[Biochem Recipe Tree?]

You're probably best to check out this guide:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=258426

[Biochem Recipe Tree?]

You mean with regards to the Prefix system? Its the same as the other skills.

[Biochem: now just for alts!]

There does seem to be a lot of fumbling around from Bioware with regards to Crew Skills.

 

I wish they would just make Rakata implants the bonus for being biochem, and allow the reusable "consumables" to be traded and sold.

 

I'm amazed that game developers still include money/mat grinds for consumables in this day and age of mmo development.

 

I'm even more amazed that players still tolerate it.

 

I suppose the latter explains the former.

[SWG and WoW crafting were BAD BAD BAD!]

SWG crafting had some really cool aspects to it, but in general it wasn't spectacular for one simple reason: the leveling process for crafting was absolutely horrible.

 

When I first started playing, I tried out Droid Engineer. Economically mastering that profession required making several THOUSAND worthless droid parts. The same part.. non stop. Manually clicking through UI windows several THOUSAND times, always selecting the exact same buttons. It was utterly mind numbing and soul destroying.

 

Imagine my reaction, after mastering Droid Engineer, when I discovered that it was an almost completely worthless profession.

 

To this day, I still regard that process as the absolute worst grind I have ever encountered in an mmo. Not the longest grind, but still the worst.

[Add a crafting item to Slicing]

Think of it this way: If your Treasure Hunting or Underworld Trading could come back with no materials and only a fraction of the credits you spent on the mission, you'd be upset. This is exactly what has happened to Slicing: full investment, little-to-no-return.

 

 

Well, yeah. That would be a problem. Of course, Treasure Hunting and Underworld Trading are MISSION skills, not GATHERING skills. Comparing the missions available to them is rather unproductive since Slicing has an extra aspect to it that TH and UT lack - gathering nodes.

 

 

So now Slicing is still chance-based, however, no longer consistently compensates the lack of a material gathering return. It has essentially come down to a crit-or-go-home skill. If you don't crit the return, all you have done is spend time and credits churning a skill treadmill.

 

 

Slicing gathers augments and mission schematics still. I have a Biochem/Bioanalysis/Diplo set up, and I can tell you that if I want to get rare medical supplies with diplo in anything resembling an economical fashion, I have to buy purple diplo schematics from the gtn. Guess who sells me those?

 

Also, Slicing still gathers large amounts of credits if you're willing to gather nodes.

 

 

So what Slicers are upset about makes perfect sense: Bioware has nerfed the yield return on a gathering skill which is wholly dependent upon chance/crit/luck. You will lose credits on the skill and gather little to no materials from it. Essentially just throwing credits and time to watch a numerical level increase to 400, with nothing to show for it.

 

No. what they did was to reduce a Slicer's ability to print money, and make them invest a little leg work and take a little risk to achieve maximum results. Kind of like everyone else.

[WHY you should be happy they nerfed slicing!]

So it's okay to throw money away on mission skills because you can always run out and hunt for nodes?

 

Thanks, great input.

 

 

Jeez.. I've been doing that all along with Bioanalysis. You mean I've been getting ripped off all along??

 

[WHY you should be happy they nerfed slicing!]

This is clearly what the average player without slicing doesnt understand. It wasn't just a nerf to bring us on par with other professions it has actually nerfed Slicing to the point that it is completely unprofitable.

 

That means NEGATIVE CREDITS.

 

Negative credits with an average 10% chance to receive a Schematic or Mission is an overall loss across the board. It is actually a money pit.

 

And before someone spits off at the mouth about selling "High level missions" ask yourself how many have you bought?

 

 

Why doesn't anyone seem to understand that Slicing is a GATHERING skill, not a mission skill. If you're evaluating the worth of slicing based purely on the missions, you're ignoring a rather large aspect of the skill.

 

Tip: The contents of high level Slicing nodes are really quite substantial.