Crew skill for sage?

[Al_Sparagus]

Leaning toward Biochem right now, I kind like to RP the whole drug dealer thing

 

But any other suggestions?

[Khadroth]

Leaning toward Biochem right now, I kind like to RP the whole drug dealer thing

 

But any other suggestions?

 

Not really no, Biochem is far and away the best crafting profession right now especially at endgame. Unless you have a personal attachment to one of the other crew skills, I'd always suggest taking Biochem. The adrenals alone would warrant taking the profession, but combined with reusable epic medpacks and stims, and good implants, this crew skill is a no-brainer top choice no matter your endgame focus.

 

That said, I honestly expect it to get nerfed, I really don't see a way for them to bring the other crew skills up to it's level of usefulness without breaking crafting even more.

 

Synth wouldn't be a bad choice, as it's gear is still viable at endgame, but getting mastercrafts of a whole set is extremely time and resource consuming. Many of the pieces can be BIS even compared to operations gear, but the hard part isn't just critting for the augment slot to make this possible, but finding the best possible augment for that slot (especially hard with everyone dropping slicing).

 

Artifice in comparison just sucks, the mods it crafts are at best as good as the daily reward mods and can't be mastercrafted. Similarly most of the rare color crystal schems aren't even in the game yet, and for the few that are, their mats aren't (like purple/white). It can however craft very good focii.

 

Cybertech is a bit more useful than artifice thanks to the grenades and mounts, but unfortunately it's in the same boat as artifice when it comes to the mods. Similarly it crafts very good earpieces.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Khadroth

[Idexicon]

I started out Artifice/Archaeology/Treasure Hunting but I quickly regretted it. I feel like you spend a FORTUNE to get gems and 1/2 of the time you never have enough mats to get everything you need.

 

I tend to find in MMOs unless you get some hella-rare recipe weapon crafting is just ever as good.

 

I'm definitely looking to switch maybe Biochem or Cybertech.

[Khadroth]

I'm definitely looking to switch maybe Biochem or Cybertech.

 

You could always do both. Reason being, apparently cybertech grenades and mounts are broken to continue working for you even after dropping the profession. So you could quick grind to 400 to get all the mounts you wanted and stockpile grenades, then drop it and level biochem. BW really needs to take a hard look at their crew skills. I think I'm only going to be able to tolerate it for one more patch at most, as I've been double screwed by going artifice, arch, slicing.

[Idexicon]

Slicing sucks too? Cool thanks for letting me know that was my sleeper fall back. I think cybertech it is. It sounds fun to be a Sage with grenades

[Deedre]

Biochem ftw. Everything else is for alts and market niches. (I do want to make an armstech alt to crank out techblades, for example.)

 

Biochem isn't just amazing at end game, it's hugely helpful for leveling. The medpacks alone give you a pretty huge edge on boss fights (especially the ones that heal both you and your companion.) Presence stims buff out your companions, too.

 

Over time, you'll get literally scores of medpack drops that you can put up on the GTN since you won't need them.

 

Generally speaking in MMO economies, consumable professions are the way to go. Crafted gear always goes obsolete due to drops. This can be mitigated by giving professions class specific benefits (as in WoW,) but Bioware largely failed to do this. Crew skills are a real weak spot in this game and they will need to do a lot of work here -- otherwise we're going to see a ridiculous number of people going bio for lack of meaningful alternatives.

 

Bio is very expensive to level up, though, so beware. You'll have to cut out all the fat, 100% speeders, pointless abilities (like melee skills for sages) and other credit sinks. Even then you probably should skip a lot of recipes, and just focus on what you need personally and what helps level it up quickest.

 

Slicing isn't bad for an alt, btw, particularly a pure gathering alt. Don't run missions. Just hit every node possible and sell everything.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Deedre

[Khadroth]

Slicing sucks too? Cool thanks for letting me know that was my sleeper fall back. I think cybertech it is. It sounds fun to be a Sage with grenades

 

It doesn't "suck". If you find a good spreadsheet detailing the most profitable missions per time spent and chain run them on 5 companions, you can still make a tidy profit. The augments are also valuable at endgame but it's rare to get anything above green quality, so don't expect to sell much. The problem is the profession was the king of profitability for awhile and got nerfed so hard that most people dropped it. It also takes a bit of research to be to successful with now.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Khadroth

[Idexicon]

In my experience I find that game economies tend to go in waves. Biochem will be huge for a while until no one is doing Armstech (for example) then suddenly everyone will need/want some specific pattern and suddenly Armstech becomes the skill tree of the month.

[Deedre]

Ops recipe drops will help the crafting crew skills, yeah, but they'll need more than that to be competitive. Unless those recipe drops are BOP, guilds will just feed them to alts and everybody's main will remain Bio. (Even if they are BOP, everyone will still keep biochem and either drop dip or bioanalysis on their mains and move those to alts. Biochem is just that good.)

 

And even best in slot crafting recipes will eventually be obsoleted by new content.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Deedre

[Dubblebass]

My sage is artificing/archaeology/treasure hunting and I don't regret it at all. I am able to craft hilts and enhancements that are equivalent to what I get at my level as well as the offhand item. I only have issues with the rare metals when I need to craft new recipes for multiple people. Otherwise I don't seem to be experiencing the material shortage issues particularly gems which I always have a bunch of.

[Kelthien]

I went Cybertech, Scavenging, Underworld Trading. After hitting level 25 and only having 10k credits, needing 48k for my speeder/riding, I dropped Underworld Trading and did Slicing (pre-nerf).

 

If I had to do it again, I'd probably pick something else. I'm not an end-game focused kind of player. That said, it's not too hard to pick up orange pieces off the auction house. Once you do that, you can dump all your commendations into high quality Mods/Armors, or buy some for pretty cheap. An extra 3-4 willpower here and there while leveling just isn't a huge game changer with the leveling pace the way it is.

[Andanathis]

I personally went Artifice / Archeology / Treasure Hunting. I don't regret it personally.

 

That said, I'm not really a fan of the armor crafting professions. This is mostly because (from what I've seen) upgradable armor trumps armor with set stats. And upgradable is a bit more common than what I would have thought. I can't see armortech or synthweaving competing without the ability to make gear mods.

 

I might be wrong though, it happens. I would say take whatever you enjoy. There is no wrong profession since it's your character and if you don't like it, you can ditch it and take something else.

 

If you do decide to ditch, I'd say do it after you get a speeder. This way you can send companions on missions and ride around lower level areas gather materials yourself to level your new skill.

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Andanathis

[Khadroth]

My sage is artificing/archaeology/treasure hunting and I don't regret it at all. I am able to craft hilts and enhancements that are equivalent to what I get at my level as well as the offhand item. I only have issues with the rare metals when I need to craft new recipes for multiple people. Otherwise I don't seem to be experiencing the material shortage issues particularly gems which I always have a bunch of.

 

And maybe to some people who like to reroll that's important, but honestly once at endgame none of that matters.

 

All the mods you can readily make are at best on par if not inferior to those already in gear (yes I'm even talking the RE'd epic mods). Combined with horrible end game schematics that are either rare, exclusive to operations, or whose mats don't exist in game and this profession literally is only decent for it's offhands post 50.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Khadroth

[spud_boy]

I am biochem as well, the buff stims are enough to want to have this crew skill.

[slagartist]

I don't know why people are hating on Artif/Arch/Treasure so much. I've done all three since the get go (by pure chance, really) and haven't regretted it. Sure, it costs a lot. But I always get enough mats through Arch (Qyzen has a + to it as well), and through reverse engineering I always learn enough special schematics to both boosters my self well beyond what the game offers and do decently on the AH.

 

I tend to pvp while my slaves are gathering material, though, which certainly helps pay for it, so maybe that's why it works out. I certainly won't be switching, either way - there's enough biochems out there already.

[Dubblebass]

And maybe to some people who like to reroll that's important, but honestly once at endgame none of that matters.

 

All the mods you can readily make are at best on par if not inferior to those already in gear (yes I'm even talking the RE'd epic mods). Combined with horrible end game schematics that are either rare, exclusive to operations, or whose mats don't exist in game and this profession literally is only decent for it's offhands post 50.

 

...and yet I am still enjoying these crew skills and craft them for myself, my alts and my guildies. My wife already has biochem so at the end game, I don't need it. For some of us, it doesn't matter if you can make a lot of credits with your crew skills. If there is at least one viable portion of the skill, I am good with it. Besides, who knows what may be put in the game later on? If they decide to make these skills better, at least I will be maxed out by then and can take advantage of it instead of respecting into it.

 

These are the skills I like for this character. Your opinion may vary. Neither are wrong.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Dubblebass

[Rawael]

And maybe to some people who like to reroll that's important, but honestly once at endgame none of that matters.

 

All the mods you can readily make are at best on par if not inferior to those already in gear (yes I'm even talking the RE'd epic mods). Combined with horrible end game schematics that are either rare, exclusive to operations, or whose mats don't exist in game and this profession literally is only decent for it's offhands post 50.

 

This.

 

Picked Biochem/Bioanalyis/Diplomacy without really knowing too much about the professions on endgame level. Now, since I was the only one in my guild, everybody is getting Biochem. Can't believe Bioware messed up professions this bad. Apparently, there were plans to make other crew skills up to par (like giving guys with Archaelogoy the ability to enhance their matrix shard, making it having an on use effect that gives you the same buff like the rakata stims do or at least a similar one), but for some reason, these plans didn't made it into the release client so far.

 

 

So, yeah. Take Biochem. It's the best profession, period.

[AlatarTheGrey]

And maybe to some people who like to reroll that's important, but honestly once at endgame none of that matters.

 

All the mods you can readily make are at best on par if not inferior to those already in gear (yes I'm even talking the RE'd epic mods). Combined with horrible end game schematics that are either rare, exclusive to operations, or whose mats don't exist in game and this profession literally is only decent for it's offhands post 50.

 

I'm only level 39, but even though I have put e decent amount of time and money into it, I don't think it's feasible to keep craft levels up to what you can pick up in game (treasure chest, random drops, rewards etc).

 

I took Artifice, Archeology and Treasure Hunting just because I thought that best fit my version of the Jedi stereotype. I liek the Bio skills, but I have never had to purchase a med pack.

 

And from what I hear consistently, as Khad said above, it doesn't really make much a a difference at endgame. Once I reach 50, I will still be most interested in the 3 skills I picked. The idea of gather materials for exotic artifice items will make "crew skills" interesting vs a grind.

[Gerudan]

Biochem certainly seems to be the best choice. I already have my epic Rakata Medipac, Willpower Stim and Power Adrenalin and I'm therefore set for every raid.

 

And of course I can use them during questing as well.

[DaShuk]

On my Shadow I went Archeology/Artifice/Treasure Hunting, but on my Sage I tried Biochem/Bioanalysis/Diplomacy. Diplomacy is great because you can get either dark or light side points and some of the missions net medical compounds or other mats you can use with Biochem. I've been lucky so far and manage to get a couple of epic schematics from reverse engineering and it's nice to be able to run around at lvl 10 with a re-usable medpac that heals almost 1/2 my hp.

[Khadroth]

...and yet I am still enjoying these crew skills and craft them for myself, my alts and my guildies. My wife already has biochem so at the end game, I don't need it. For some of us, it doesn't matter if you can make a lot of credits with your crew skills. If there is at least one viable portion of the skill, I am good with it. Besides, who knows what may be put in the game later on? If they decide to make these skills better, at least I will be maxed out by then and can take advantage of it instead of respecting into it.

 

These are the skills I like for this character. Your opinion may vary. Neither are wrong.

 

I didn't say they weren't enjoyable. I like all the crew skills as they are indeed fun. But that doesn't mean they're all useful at endgame. If you don't care about that fine, point taken.

 

But I'm talking to those who do care about how useful their profession is to them and their guild at endgame. It's not about money, which there's already plenty of thanks to dailies. It's about the benefits the crew skill brings to the table. Just because your wife has Biochem, doesn't mean it would be useless to you. There's quite a lot she can't share with you in the form of reusable medpacks, stims that persist through death, and unique adrenals that can easily change the course of any fight against someone who doesn't have them. And those are benefits that far outweigh any other crew skill currently.

 

You're right the makeup of the professions could change, but it's beyond could. For anyone serious about endgame content, it's quickly becoming MUST change or else. With "or else" being everyone rerolling their crew skills to Biochem. If BW doesn't add more utility to each profession you'll see them getting delegated mostly to alts as Biochem is one of the ones (and the strongest of those ones) that will continue to influnence your character's performance at endgame.

 

If people want a breakdown of how the current professions are performing with their unique benefits in endgame I can easily cover most of them:

Artifice: Color Crystals and Mods that can be crafted are on par with Ilum/Belsavis daily rewards, and immediately inferior to the mods in Champion PvP gear which is easily acquired. Higher Mod recipes exist, but are rare single drop schematics in operations from what I've heard and only on par with the ilvl 56 mods in Champion gear. Mastercraft offhands should last you until and Ops drop with a good augment as they're better than Champion gear for PvE. Many of the Schems and mats for rare color crystals do not exist in game yet.

Synthweaving: Can produce BIS bracers and belts faster than you could normally acquire them after 50 by gearing up to do raiding. However this requires an epic lvl 49 augment to be true (exceedingly rare and expensive). Most of it's other mastercrafts are actually inferior to champion PvP gear for PvE content.

Cybertech: Same as Artifice in the mods department, your epic RE mods are only on par with the worst tier of readily available epic mods from daily rewards. Higher schematics can be gained in the same fashion as Artifice. Both it's custom mounts and unique grenades remain usable after dropping the profession, leading many to power lvl it to 400, craft what they want, and drop it for something else. In terms of combat influence, only it's grenades offer a benefit, as they're great in PvP, but they all share a 5 minute cooldown. Epic Ship parts aren't necessary for any of the current Space Content, and Droid parts are relegated to companions, which are being removed from Ilum PvP combat in the future, and thus only useful at endgame for soloing.

Armtech: Probably the profession I know least about with good reason. Very few people seem to have it since it's lackluster in terms of ability. Can only craft Weapons and their associated mods for tech users. I have no idea how it's mastercrafts fair for endgame.

Armormech: Embarked on the same boat as Synthweaving, at the same time. Different only in that it's the tech user version of synth, which makes it more useful for your companions, who again have no function outside of solo play at endgame.

BioChem: To rehash, it can make reusable medpacks (which aren't as good as the consumable blue medpacks) and reusable stims that persist through death (which are as good as the consumable version), both of which save you money and resources once made. Can craft better implants than champion's gear offers for PvE, meaning it's already on par with Synthweaving since you have 2 implant slots. It's unique adrenals share a 3 minute cooldown and boost your rating in a particular stat by 500+ for a 15 second duration. Essentially making it 2-3 times as potent as regular relic cooldowns in many cases. Aside from Cybertech grenades this is the only unique perk that will persist in usefulness once in a full BiS set of gear for your endgame playstyle.

Slicing: Not a crafting skill so much as a mission/gatherer hybrid. Only included it because of it's uniqueness as a profession. Even after the nerf it still turns a decent profit if you take the time to research what missions to run and which to avoid. Provides you easier access to augments meaning you won't have to buy them.

 

As you can see it's not necessarily that BioChem is so OP, it's just every other profession sucks so much for usefulness by comparison. So much so that you could take the next two most useful professions (Synthweaving/Armormech and Cybertech) and combine them, and they still wouldn't be as useful as Biochem.

[-Dank-]

From what I've heard each of the 5 types of grenades is on its own 5min cd.

[Khadroth]

An addendum to my post above, as it got me thinking to do more research on this. It appears that synth might indeed be the best non-biochem profession in the long run. The problem is it takes exceedingly rare schematics which only drop in operations, which take rare bop mats, which then must be crafted, RE'd until learning mastercraft, and then critted again and slotted with an epic augment to be the BIS for any given gear slot. Considering the set bonuses and ease of acquiring other gear though operations, this means Synth is still only going to be useful in the long run for the non-set pieces (bracers/belt) and the fifth set piece that you won't be using for a bonus.

 

However the same results can apparently be achieved (for the 5th piece only as bracers/belts can't have mods currently) by mastercrafting an orange for augment (can this even be done?) and slotting in the best dropped/operations schematic mods. Meaning everyone can achieve the same level of BIS without needing to be a synth.

[Ruuprect]

What is mastercrafting and how do you do it?

[Khadroth]

What is mastercrafting and how do you do it?

 

Mastercrafts can only be learned by RE'ing crits of purple items. In other words, you must already know a purple recipe (likely through REing greens to blues and blues to purples), successfully craft a crit on it, and then RE that piece successfully to learn the new mastercraft recipe.

 

You can then also further crit on the mastercraft recipe once you learn it.

 

This is incredibly time and resource consuming btw.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Khadroth