Ahhh okay. I also checked out the following post, and here's what one fellow described: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=325195&page=2 Do you suppose the pricing might make a difference? Not sure I like seeing those schematics on that vendor in the least bit. Are they same stats or different stats? If former, makes farming World Bosses pointless - 750k for quick purchase, versus a *chance* at the recipe? Gee, wonder what route I'd go.

Edited my post - see above.

If you read the 1.1.5 PTR patch notes, you'd also see that this is something that will only be in the game until Game Update 1.2 hits. It will be removed at that time. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=325047 Edit: Furthermore, are these simply raw crystals that still need an Artificer to craft, or already crafted ones? According to these patch notes, it could be either. If the former, I don't see the problem. If the latter... understandable, but it's not permanent.

Looks like a blue crystal archaeology node of some sort. It might be bugged, however, due to an incomplete loot from a previous scanner of the node?

To my knowledge, you'd lose everything, including all those artifact-level recipes. You'd have to start from the ground up again. Here's what I'd highly recommend... wait until patch 1.2 hits, then decide if you want to drop whatever crew skill you have. I'm guessing it's not Biochem, and that you're considering dropping it for Biochem. In the Dev Q&A today, they stated that the crew skills have 4 pages of changed devoted just to them so far, so expect a decent overhaul coming with patch 1.2, which I've been told will hit sometime in March. *crosses fingers*

Have a link stating this?

Hey guys, quick one for you. I've a couple of Slicers and have stockpiled a bunch of the purple-quality 340 Underworld Trading mission discoveries. I'm considering UWT on one of my alts, so I can send my own companions out to gather the goods, but not sure if it'd be wiser to sell these discoveries on the GTN and just buy whatever UWT goods I need. So my question: what is the average yield, assuming no critical, from successfully completing one of these missions? How many metals, fabrics, and gifts would I expect? Thanks.

I don't see how this would be a bad idea whatsoever. Oftentimes people accidentally click "Need" on things they clearly can't use, for whatever reason, and having this as an option to alleviate the mistake can only lead to positive results.

Biometric Crystal Alloys are Bind on Pickup, so this option isn't available. Furthermore, they don't drop in regular BT - it requires Hardmode, only accessible at 50.

Don't worry, there is an option in Preferences. Unless someone beats me to it, I'll repost how you get to it (I'm offline and can't remember off the top of my head). EDIT: Preferences > User Interface > scroll down to Tooltip, click "Enable Companion Comparative Tooltips." I'd also recommend checking all the other options in the Tooltip subsection.

Exactly my thoughts. You really shouldn't skip any of the side quests at all - they'll bring excellent experience points, and the heroics often grant superior-quality gear that will help with questing.

You often see people complaining about Slicing because they don't do it smartly - it appears, from my experience, that Moderate and Abundant missions almost always bring back fantastic profit, though YMMV. What these people fail to take into account and/or mention are the world lockbox nodes you'll find while questing (near buildings, tents, etc.), which of course are pure profit and also have the chance to spawn a mission discovery or an extra [higher-quality] lockbox. Truth be told, I put Slicing on all of my characters while leveling. I also may or may not keep Slicing on my Biochem main, in large part because of the overabundance of Diplomacy materials on the GTN, as well as dolts who simply right-click and post without adjusting the price to a higher value. What you choose really depends on your market. I also like covering gathering and mission crew skills that I find I'll need with my own characters (end-game materials), so the breakdown appears as such: Bioanalysis, Biochem, Slicing Archaeology, Slicing, Treasure Hunting Scavenging, Slicing, Underworld Trading (Bioanalysis while leveling) TL;DR: Choosing any combination of gathering/mission skills will result in profit, and it just depends on the demands of your server. See what areas are lacking for supply, and those might be your choice of focus.

I thought I'd just chime in with the numbers, hope it helps: Level 25: Rank 1 Mount Training costs 40,000 credits. The mounts themselves cost 8,000 credits. Total cost (min.) - 48,000 credits. Level 40: Rank 2 Mount Training costs 210,000 credits. The mounts themselves vary in price with the least expensive costing 25,000 credits. Total cost (min.) - 235,000 credits. Level 50: Rank 3 Mount Training costs 315,000 credits. The mounts themselves vary in price with the least expensive costing 55,000 credits. Total cost (min.) - 370,000 credits. So you're looking at spending 653,000 credits total for baseline mount and training. Some mounts will cost more than others (such as the Light V/Dark V mounts, Security Key vendor mount, etc.). I'm sure having this to look at is very intimidating, but if you're smart with your money and don't wantonly buy things you don't really need, complete all quests including bonus missions and each planet's bonus series, train only the skills you actually use, etc., you'll be able to afford the above costs. What will help is if you avoid crafting altogether until hitting end-level - none of the crew skills are mandatory while leveling, so having the ability to choose gathering crew skills and sell everything you collect. Edit: Some other tips. Don't hesitate to use moddable gear, and select mods as they appear as quest rewards. They'll suffice for leveling purposes and allow you to spend commendations on the more expensive mods (particularly armoring and hilts/barrels). If you can use moddable gear on a companion, that will help as well. Above, I advocated going with all gathering crew skills to maximize profit. To this end, I'd highly recommend Slicing, Scavenging, and Underworld Trading, as the latter two support multiple crafting crew skills, and Slicing is generally pure profit as well (particularly due to world lockbox nodes).

Note: if you're trying to find "Aluminum" (American English spelling) on the GTN, you won't find it. In the game, it's called "Aluminium," the British English spelling, with an "i" after the "n."

I believe the daily heroics on each planet can grant commendations (either as the only quest reward along with experience, or as a choice between commendations and moddable gear).

I forget where I read it, but from what I understand, the devs are trying to keep the DPS specs of all classes within 5% of each other when it comes to damage output. That said, unless you're trying to get into a hardcore raiding guild, whatever spec you choose you'll get into groups with - I'd focus more on playstyle (as discussed by folks in this thread, as well as YouTube videos) and see what complements your tastes best.

Powertechs have the tanking option. Mercenaries have the healing option. FYI.

Hit K to open up your Talent Points window. I want to say the prompt to choose your AC will re-appear when you do that.

As much as I want to participate in crafting, I keep doubting myself about whether or not it's worth the grind for everything except Biochem on my main, allowing my alts access to blue-quality stims while leveling (medpacks are a non-issue, thanks to being a healer or healing companion) and at end-game. I'm as big about end-game viability as I am use while leveling, and from much of what I read on the forums, I have little incentive to pursue other crafting skills because both uses are lacking. I've a Sorcerer I started going Artifice with, since I'm leveling her with my boyfriend's Juggernaut. I figured this would let us be able to spend commendations on armoring, mods, etc. and I could cover the enhancements, color crystals, and offhands for both of us. However, I find myself already lagging behind with what I can craft without having to constantly send my companions on missions, as I'd much rather just be able to use whatever I collect from world spawned nodes. It becomes, "Well these crafted items would be nice, but they aren't necessary and this'll turn into a money sink, so why bother now?" Slicing it is. The same really goes for my Bounty Hunter alt, which I wanted to toss Armormech (with both supporting crew skills) on so I could craft blue-quality belts/wrists and other gear for not just myself, but ALL of my companions, since they're all non-force users. Again, I'm afraid of lagging behind on materials, or finding that the effort put into leveling up this crafting crew skill won't produce enough of a justifiable result to have it while leveling. It's another, "Well these crafted items would be nice, but they aren't necessary and this'll turn into a money sink, so why bother now?" Slicing it is. That said, I'm likely just better off doing what I did on my Sniper - take the two supporting crew skills for the desired end-game crafting crew skill along with Slicing until I hit Level 50 on each, then drop it to pick up Artifice/Armormech. This lets me just "wait and see" what happens with the crew skills, and at least this way, I know I'll have a pure-profit setup. I'm just lost with what to do at this point.

You're on a good start taking mission costs into account. You could keep track (you'll need to write these down) of what the actual mission returns are, and conduct this over the course of a period of time, and calculate the average cost per crafting item. Then you can turn around and calculate the cost of the crafted armor/weapon by adding up your estimated costs and tacking on a mark-up so it results in a profit for you. Another thing you'll need to consider, however, is the value of the materials if posted on the GTN directly (rather than using them to craft). Taking the value you compute above, if you cannot sell the crafted armor/weapon at profit, and find that you'll make more money in the aggregate by simply selling the crafting materials, that would be the more profitable avenue to pursue. HTH and didn't confuse you.

You can't. Say you open click on the GTN, it'll open up both the GTN and your inventory. While you can close the inventory and open up the crew skill window (by pressing N), clicking on, say, the Biochem crew skill to open up the panel of schematics will bump out the GTN and show just the crew skill window and the Biochem panel.

I'm looking forward to seeing answers to this - I wanted to pursue Armormech on my Bounty Hunter alt, but I'm afraid of limited use while leveling, or on the converse, having to rely too much on missions to keep myself well-stocked on crafting materials. Sorry to piggyback n your thread, but if others can provide an answer to this along with the questions by the OP, that'd be great.

Did you level it after you hit Level 50, or find enough use while leveling?

You bet, happy to help. I figured I'd just provide the full description for further explanation/reference

If you mean armor: Synthweaving covers gear for force users, whose primary stats are strength (Jedi Knights/Sith Warriors) and willpower (Jedi Consulars/Sith Inquisitors). Armormech covers gear for non-force users, whose primary stats are cunning (Smugglers/Imperial Agents) and aim (Troopers/Bounty Hunters). TL;DR: Synthweaving.