Useful crew skills while leveling?

[TheMandatum]

Hello, I'm a level 11 sniper. Recently found out about the crew skills and I was just wondering: is any of them useful while leveling?

 

I figure I won't be doing any crafting until I'm 50 so I won't be needing the materials I can gain from gathering. Unless can I sell the materials at a profit?

 

Don't know too much about the mission skills, but treasure hunter seems useful. It can give you some gear, though I'm not sure if the rewards are worth the credits.

 

Any sensible answer is appreciated!

[Yaesive]

I would recommend maybe underworld or one of the other resource gathering crew skills for numeorus reasons.

 

1. They give you rewards for your companion to raise affection

2. The ability to sell them on the GTN and thus increase credits.

[Kapono]

I definitely do NOT recommend Underworld Trading to start. I would go with Archaeology, Bioanalysis, and Treasure finding. You'll be able to pick up crystals and artifacts as well as biochem stuff. If you have excess credits, send your extra companion out for lockboxes or gifts. As you level up, you can sell off your extra mats at the auction and make a good amount of credit, or hang onto the materials and use them for a final skill selection (Artifice, Biochem, etc).

 

Aside from Biochem, tradeskills don't produce a whole lot you can use while leveling up - your gear rewards tend to be better. Having collection skills while leveling keeps you swimming in materials and cash.

 

If you wanted to be a hardcore gatherer, go Arch / Bio / Scavenging. If affection of your companions is important, go Arch / Bio / TH.

[Pherdnut]

I'd probably go with Cybertech and its standard support skills if you're power-leveling. Grab orange items when you can and then use commendation medals to upgrade primary mods (e.g. weapon barrels, armoring). Then you can use Cybertech and supporting skills to cheaply update the rest of your mods with the latest green mods without a lot of scavenging/mission hassle. Building/REing mods is also a great way to stretch your crafting materials while leveling the skill.

 

It's really not hard to get blue mods through reverse engineering if you level crafting somewhat aggressively as you go. It's not proven but I wait until items you want to RE are green or gray difficulty to build. I'm convinced it gives a much higher chance of the crit roll needed for a schematic.

 

If you're planning on running a tank, I can't recommend biotech highly enough, regardless of leveling strategy. Perma-medpacks with 90 second cooldowns that are a step above what you can purchase are a major asset, but you can only use those if you have Biotech. I've found the perma-medpacks schematics (purple) are actually pretty easy to RE if you follow the above advice about waiting for the RE-item to be in the green and you can grab mats from a lot of monster corpses as well as harvest nodes that are common enough to bump into as you go. Perma-stims/adrenals are costlier and probably too much effort to create on the run if you only want ones that are current with your level. Getting mats for the purple medpacks will require you keep diplomacy current too.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Pherdnut

[WLpride]

crafting is very expensive to do while leveling. If you do you won't have much credits left over to buy skills/gear. Crafting isn't supposed to be cheap, and you can't get the good stuff without spending a lot on missions afaik (and raiding).

 

but anyway armsmech is very useful for me, I can make good weapons for any class, 'Mastercraft' weapons which I believe are just about some of the best around because you can fit extra augment on it...

 

If I wanted another crafting instead I'd get Artificing. Just look here for the chart. http://www.swtorcrewskills.com/

[Purlana]

The best thing to do is get 3 gathering skills. Just sell everything you gather and buy items from the market (Or have friends craft things for you and give them some materials).

 

Most of the time it's just not worth the materials it takes to craft 10+ pieces of gear and trying to RE them in order to make 1 blue.

 

 

(If you are looking at what to do at level 50 I would pick up biochem.)

Edited January 6, 2012 by Purlana

[Prophetic]

If you're planning on running a tank, I can't recommend biotech highly enough, regardless of leveling strategy. Perma-medpacks with 90 second cooldowns that are a step above what you can purchase are a major asset, but you can only use those if you have Biotech. I've found the perma-medpacks schematics (purple) are actually pretty easy to RE if you follow the above advice about waiting for the RE-item to be in the green and you can grab mats from a lot of monster corpses as well as harvest nodes that are common enough to bump into as you go. Perma-stims/adrenals are costlier and probably too much effort to create on the run if you only want ones that are current with your level. Getting mats for the purple medpacks will require you keep diplomacy current too.

 

This. Biochem is pretty easy to level as well if you're dilligent about sending your companions on diplo missions and collecting Bioanalysis nodes as you level. I leveled my Biochem last night from 150-350 while doing space dailies and that was just off of cheap medpacks and stims, since I was able to crank out about 80 of each with just the resources I'd come across in the world while playing.

 

Purples are also pretty easy to get when you have mass-produced blue versions of the items. The only ones that give me trouble are the implants. The stims and medpacks almost instantaneously give me the next schematic up whenever I reverse engineer.

[Dubblebass]

crafting is very expensive to do while leveling. If you do you won't have much credits left over to buy skills/gear. Crafting isn't supposed to be cheap, and you can't get the good stuff without spending a lot on missions afaik (and raiding).

 

but anyway armsmech is very useful for me, I can make good weapons for any class, 'Mastercraft' weapons which I believe are just about some of the best around because you can fit extra augment on it...

 

If I wanted another crafting instead I'd get Artificing. Just look here for the chart. http://www.swtorcrewskills.com/

 

It is funny. I have been able to keep artificing (with accompanying support skills) on my sage at a point where I am always crafting "at level" gear and the same with my cybertech on my trooper. My sad is 42 and my trooper is 31 and both had enough credits to never not buy a skill and get the riding skill as soon as I could. I don't play the GTN either or do a lot of flashpoints or heroics (I do do the daily space missions though).

 

However, getting back to the OP, Biochem is great for tank types and I do like cybertech or artificing to fill in the orange gear.

[HanzBlix]

I found armortech, underworld, and scavenging to be quite useful leveling. I'm reading that it sucks at end game, which is fine and normal for most crafting in an MMO. As a IA, you will be able to gear up yourself, Kali, and Dr. Lokin as they all wear heavy and med armor.

 

I keep my chest, legs, and head orange pieces with mods and craft the rest for myself (belt, gloves, bracers, boots) and my companions. With a green recipe I either craft/ reengineer until I get a blue with an augment or a purple for the given slot.

 

Always keep your armortech above your current level, so you can be working on getting your gear ready for when you ding to get max usage. Going from green to blue quality gear is very easy.

 

I'm currently a level 42 IA and I've had great gear while leveling.

 

Again, may suck at end game, but it's definitely served it's purpose. Also keep in mind that this is an MMO so chances are they will add items for the different professions to craft down the road.