Why craft at all?

[MutatedSpleen]

I dunno, I did armormech, and for most of the time, I thought it was totally useless.

 

...until I actually spent some time developing it. REing greens to blues, and blues to purples, and purples to purple [superior]s, I found that the [superior] stuff was actually really damn good. Like, significantly better than the stuff I was finding on mobs, and from quests.

 

Now, I don't really do FPs a whole lot, so I can't speak on FP eq. But, for example, I just unlocked a purple pattern for gloves at level 43 with some major +aim and some major +presence, and showed my guild. About 8 people asked if they could buy one from me.

 

So, I guess the point is...I like crafting?

 

I don't think there's anything strange about it being useless if you refuse to put time into it. I mean, FPs are totally useless to you if you don't DO them, durr. This is no different.

[Mistress-Rarity]

I dunno, I did armormech, and for most of the time, I thought it was totally useless.

 

...until I actually spent some time developing it. REing greens to blues, and blues to purples, and purples to purple [superior]s, I found that the [superior] stuff was actually really damn good. Like, significantly better than the stuff I was finding on mobs, and from quests.

 

Now, I don't really do FPs a whole lot, so I can't speak on FP eq. But, for example, I just unlocked a purple pattern for gloves at level 43 with some major +aim and some major +presence, and showed my guild. About 8 people asked if they could buy one from me.

 

So, I guess the point is...I like crafting?

 

I don't think there's anything strange about it being useless if you refuse to put time into it. I mean, FPs are totally useless to you if you don't DO them, durr. This is no different.

 

You're level 43. You're in sort of the pseudo-minority. The biggest problem is crafting doesn't get good until those levels, so whatever opinion you have on the subject is biased.

 

We need more crafting options in low-level and mid-level ranges to make crafting more appealing. Cheaper missions, better chance at rares and epic items, and higher Reverse engineer chances will make crafting more appealing to players rather than making them feel punished for picking a profession. People tend to avoid crafting of any kind because of the looming threat of a 48k price tag on a speeder. If we made crafting easier on low levels, it would be easier to make items you can use and it would help armor/weapon manufacturers who don't want to do flash points.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Mistress-Rarity

[Notsensible]

^this is how i know you don't actually have an arms/armortech

 

 

and this is how i know you don't visit the GTN.

 

I lol'd with that 2nd part. So very true for those unmodded pieces. I don't have experience with armortech, but I know for armstech and synthweaving, I do profit off my artifact tier things. Profit generally ranges from 4-10k per equip depending on the level. It sells fairly often too. Maybe 7/10 times, it'll sell within 24hrs. Not a lot for a 50, but lower levels definitely need what they can get usually.

 

As for why to bother crafting? None in this game... actually none in any game. I mean sure, games like WoW will give you certain stat bonuses depending your crafts, but other than being a min/max player, you really don't NEED them. For SWTOR currently though, its just about convenience and a "false" sense of usefulness. Biochem allowing you to have the best consumables for whatever you do.

 

If you want credits, just get to 50 and do daily quests. If you just want something to kill time with and burn credits on, craft up a storm. Right now, its best to just think of it as something to do if you have an interest in crafting. No goal of making tons of credits, no goal of having endgame gear exclusive to crafts, etc. I like to think of crafting as something of a completionist (learning as many artifact tier as possible). In most games, being that way only means you're spending money for digital glory. No reason this should be any different I guess.

[hammarus]

1. do quests get gear / comms.

 

 

2. do quests get orange gear.

 

 

1+2 = no need for crafting.

[LordZanos]

I was leveling synthweaving and my crafted gear was always better than my dropped stuff. I was usually starting planets at the level they ended at though. Not doing anything extra, just Heroics and story/planet quests and the bonus series.

[Ultrazen]

If you get yourself into all orange gear and take cybertech, you can keep yourself in gear that is better than anything you'll find, this has several consequences.

 

1. You will spend 10 times the cash making things as you would buying them (via the mats you have to use vs selling them).

 

2. You will still need to buy enhancements or start another character that can make them to truly fill your armor in top rate mods at all times....so you really need 2 characters to craft for one character, and that's just mods and enhancements.

 

3. Once you hit 50, all of those crafting skills will be almost entirely worthless, as you get better gear via various means, as such, you'll probably drop them and pick up BIO, which is after all the only really worthwhile crafting skill.

 

I have a fleet of alts, and all crafting profs covered, I only do this because I find it fun to min/max my characters as they are leveling, which is not at all needed to get by the content. Unless you find crafting/min maxing fun, don't waste your time.

 

Take BIO BIO and whatever gathering proff (they can all make money), do this till you get enough money and your first speeder. Then switch to BIO BIO DIPLO and stick with that to 50. You don't need the upgrades to bio as you level, especially at low levels, because you level out of them so fast.

[HuggyTheBear]

i use cybertech, helps ALOT while i was lvling even now that im 50 i still make cash off of it( crafting lower lvl mods and armoring ect.) but now that im 50 all i got left to do is pvp so i was thinking of changing it to biochem, because im at that point where their is pretty much no need for credits because all the better gear is bought with comms or by pvping....

[iResist]

Feel free to keep with gathering skills so that there is less competition for me to sell my pre-50 gear and I can make more of a profit, while the gathering materials keep going down in price because everyone goes all gathering skills.

[PierceLackey]

i'm just stating a simple fact that if you level at a "normal" pace, the gear you get from quests ALWAYS outpaces the crafted gear.

 

Thats really weird becuase. My biochem is level 35 and can craft level 400 medpacs and adrenals and such. And i was always 2 tiers ahead with my artificer. Just got to always send them pets on missions .. It's quite easy.

 

I'm not sure if i leveled at a "normal" pace. Is getting to 50 in like 6days 20 hours of gameplay normal? I'm not sure. But I do know that i would never outleve my crafting

[oredith]

Thats really weird becuase. My biochem is level 35 and can craft level 400 medpacs and adrenals and such. And i was always 2 tiers ahead with my artificer. Just got to always send them pets on missions .. It's quite easy.

 

I'm not sure if i leveled at a "normal" pace. Is getting to 50 in like 6days 20 hours of gameplay normal? I'm not sure. But I do know that i would never outleve my crafting

you know this picture?

 

http://www.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/143.jpg

 

your craft is biochem, your argument is invalid!

[Zeratulr]

Greetings, everybody.

I`ve been playing SWTOR for a couple of weeks and so far I`ve been enjoying my crafting experience quite a lot. The main reason is because for me the crafting (cybertech) was well... fun. Based on the opinions I`ve read in this and some other threads, I can assume that the first thing people who criticize crafting would say to this is that I clearly haven`t reached level 50 yet and when I do, crafting will instantly turn into a useless junk. Well, before I explain why this perspective doesn`t frighten me and answer OP question, I must address an issue which keeps bothering me as I read through different threads. People constantly keep saying that all the great (or not-so-great hence the argument) things that can be crafted are easily acquired through doing quests, FPs and buying from the commendation vendors. The thing is, after doing all the FPs up to Colicoid`s War Games and carefully browsing through the commendation vendors` stocks on all the planets I haven`t seen a single purple (artifact) item of any kind only the blue ones (prototype). At the same time my crafting tab is full of schematics for these purple items. So before I continue, could somebody please tell me whether I'm seriously retarded and all that juicy purple pieces can be acquired without crafting or not, in which case crafting may, at least in theory, have some uses?

Thanks in advance.

[CG_Osirhis]

If you are a Force user, like me, Artifice and Cybertech do wonders for keeping gear up in leveling.

 

Like if you RE and learn the purple schematics for hilts, crystals, enhancements, etc., your gear will be 4-5 levels beyond the gear that is green for your level. It does marvels quite honestly for DPS.

[Golarz]

I got my first toon to level 10. I didn't want to mess up my first toon so I have been researching for my consular/healer. As far as I can tell there is no long term benefit to crafting. Why not just do 3 gathering skills and be done with it?

 

I would sugest Biochem and Bioanalysys plus Sliceing for money.

Level up Biochem and buy all the reusables at level 50 or ask your guildmates to craft them for You.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Golarz

[Kanana]

I thought about editing my post earlier, but decided not to. what I would have added was:

 

or you are on the far end of the leveling ladder.

 

it's nothing against you, if you like leveling slowly, enjoying the scenery, rp, whatever, that's totally cool.

 

i'm just stating a simple fact that if you level at a "normal" pace, the gear you get from quests ALWAYS outpaces the crafted gear.

 

I beg to differ. I did not skip any planet so I was constantly overleveled 2-4 levels for the missions I was taking with my first toon (armormech), and I did mostly solo, so quest rewards on the planets I was on never could match my crafted armor in stats, and what I could buy with comms was also weaker.

 

Even with the alts I use my higher level characters' comms to buy enhancement mods for them, and craft the other mods with my cybertech toon.

[Humankeg]

But why waste my time crafting at all? With 3 gathering skills or maybe treasure hunting as a mission skill since one of my consular crew gets a + 15 to eff to it. Wouldn't I just get more money and just buy the equip I want as I go? Not trying to act smart, just wondering

 

Because with 5 companions running, you can EASILY gather so many reasources from gathering, that you will fill up every slot you have, and not be able to sell them, due to the max of 50 auctions at once on the GTN.

[MareLooke]

As a synthweaver that has been max level (as sorcerer as well as as crafter) for a while now I'll say that crafting is pretty much useless unless you're a purely, so called, "social player" anybody who does their dailies on Illum/Belsavis, runs flashpoints regularly and does operations will get better gear faster and cheaper than you could get by crafting.

 

The reverse engineering mechanic is just 100% broken, after reverse engineering well over 100 blue belts and STILL not getting the schematic I want I just gave up on it. I've also experimented with my (low level) armormech and the RE proc chance is definitely lower than when I started leveling my main.

 

Lately I haven't even been getting any crit crafts on a semi-regular basis anymore and non-augmented blues are unsellable (at least, if you want to make something resembling a profit). Whatever they're doing to crafting it seems each patch somehow makes the crafting proc chances worse.

 

Note that aside from crafting the Rakata belt/bracers I haven't crafted anything for my crafter herself at max level, only for my companions, guildmates and/or alts (and their companions).

[dadamowsky]

Well, if you want to be rich with crafting, forget it . Even top craftable mods and armorings are not profitable at all - no wonder since via commendations ppl can purchase better (at top lvl, or at least just as good as in the lvling process) mods.

 

On the other hand, materials prices get to 10k per piece on my GTN, which might seem profitable if... anyone still bother crafting. Or rather - if anyone bother buying. Price of single purple mat often beat whole product profitability. Ex. can you sell 22 purple mods for less than 50-60k and still be in surplus when single mandalorian iron costs 10k (and you need 4, not to mention other materials)? How great is your profit even if someone buy this stuff, in comparison to time and effort?

 

I almost gave up crafting on main with cybertech (almost because earpieces are the only thing that are not aquirable with comms) - no one buys mods unless their cost is below profit (I don't know why ppl on GTN even sells them for a 70-80% of costs, just for kicks I guess). My alt sometimes manage to sell orange pieces armors, but it is also rare since there are TONS of orange pieces in quests.

 

It's a bless that I took slicing instead of scavenging on my armormech alt, because slicing is the only gap closer in the crafting system. Lockboxes can provide not only cash return of the mission (face it - it's only a return, not profit), but also schematics and single use missions which sells. Sometimes some better augments can be sold by GTN, but for every 10 provided there's only 1 (or even less) purchased.

 

Suming up: if you want credits, and cheap gear - go questing.

Edited January 26, 2012 by dadamowsky

[Zeratulr]

Well, if you want to be rich with crafting, forget it . Even top craftable mods and armorings are not profitable at all - no wonder since via commendations ppl can purchase better (at top lvl, or at least just as good as in the lvling process) mods.

How, just how are they as good as the commendation ones?! They are all purple while those you get from commendations and FPs are all blue! What the hell am I missing?! For all that`s sacred please, please somebody explain that to me...

[Darzil]

How, just how are they as good as the commendation ones?! They are all purple while those you get from commendations and FPs are all blue! What the hell am I missing?! For all that`s sacred please, please somebody explain that to me...

 

The top level commendation ones are higher and purple, I believe (I'm not there yet). Certainly sounds from the forums that top levels will need a rebalance.

 

Personally at present my highest level characters (32 and 33) are Armormech and Synthweaver. Synthweaving I'm finding it fairly close for creating armor on level, as resources seem limited. Armormech I'm killing any strong+ droid I see, and can make stuff several levels higher level than me, so by the time I get there anything I'm going to use is at least blue. My Armormech is also a Trooper, so can reverse engineer stuff for both me and my companions at the same time, and keep them similiarly well equipped.

[archifikoss]

But why waste my time crafting at all? With 3 gathering skills or maybe treasure hunting as a mission skill since one of my consular crew gets a + 15 to eff to it. Wouldn't I just get more money and just buy the equip I want as I go? Not trying to act smart, just wondering

 

You could, I guess. It all comes down to if you enjoy crafting or not...

 

Personally, I find crafting in this game quite enjoyable. OK, it may not be really creative (e.g. creating your own fully customizable armor, affecting it's looks etc), but the critical chance and reverse engineering does give it an unpredictability factor, if only RNG based.

 

If you haven't, try it out. You can always "unlearn what you have learned", and level it up from scratch. It's not irreversible

[ArmoredJuneBug]

With 3 gathering skills or maybe treasure hunting as a mission skill since one of my consular crew gets a + 15 to eff to it. Wouldn't I just get more money and just buy the equip I want as I go?

Yes, a lot more credits even.

 

Crafting is a monumental credit sink, especially if you're trying to re-engineer any improved schematics, and currently crafted gear isn't anywhere near good enough to be worth the effort.

Being a consular I thought I would just go with slicing +10 eff, arch + 15 eff, & treas hunting + 15 eff.

Go with +crit instead of +efficiency, as the latter only speeds up mission times marginally while the former gives you a chance or more/better returns.

[MareLooke]

I almost gave up crafting on main with cybertech (almost because earpieces are the only thing that are not aquirable with comms)

 

120 daily tokens gets you a rakata earpiece if I'm not mistaken, I guess the reason they sell is because people either don't realize it or don't have the patience to get those 120 tokens (which is only about a week's worth of dailies really)

[Sagejosh]

best crafting set is biochem, dip, slicing....good money, you get missions and biochem is the only useful crew skill in the game for PVE/PVP

[Akfourtys]

we need all crafting skills make something usefull, f.e.

 

armor crafters

armor safety patches, making armor breakproof. It will be popular in pve raids, where armor gets worn. Can be buff for 1 hour, not breakable by players death.

armor repair kits, allowing to repair stuff on your own for less credits.

armor paint customise your gear.

 

weapon crafters

maintenance tools, repairing, same as armor kits.

weapon calibration tools, allowing to shift its power from pve to pvp by some degree vice versa. 1h buff.

sound modifiers / sound dampering units to customise your weapon.

 

cybertech

rechargable nitro boosters for all types of speeders

better fuel to give our speeders 10% buff of speed for 1 hour.

grenades, remove them, we have skills, no need of nades.

where are portable teleports?

why arent our speeders modable? make that parts repairable with fixer kits. f.e. we buy or build a chassis, then we need speeder parts, or ofcourse we can buy ready speeder from some vendor or cybertech crafter.

fuel cells for nitro boosters, charge consumables.

 

biochem.

stims are good, make them chargable, free of bio skill.

adrenals. i dont get its purpose at all. either make them chargable and free for all, or replace with something else.

medpacks must be free for all also, and a lil better than vendor ones, chargable.

biochem kits - consumable items, used to fulfill biochem unit charges. f.e. medpack has 50 charges, 30 of them are allready used, so we need 20 bk to fill medpack to its full state.

 

if that chargable things are hard to code then just increase the crafted items amount we get and increase stack size of such items.

[Antipiety]

I find crafting fun and while i didn't sell anything till i hit 50 I've since sold about 1 million worth of purples on the GTN slowly at about 50k credits a time. Its not a get rich thing at all since you can run dailies and get those 50k credits in less then in an hour.

 

With that said I play a moderate amount of time and atm have 4 400 crafters and working on the last 2 I have 2 of every gather skill and 1-2 of the missions skills I also have 6 slicers that provide me like 30k credits in an hour and alot of missions/schematics that I use ( I have like 50 missions across my 6 slicers in their cargo holds atm).

 

If you don't like crafting go biochem/bioanalysis/slicing then drop slicing at 50 for diplomacy. I'm pretty okay with crafting minus the fact that biochem is OP I never really expected to be able to craft BIS everything.

 

Only thing really wrong with crafting is that commendation vendors are a little too cheap raise the prices by about 50% and you'd probably sell more things. Also the game would probably be better if daily mods/commendations didn't exist at all and they just compensated those missions with more credits.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Antipiety