Ranking the Crew Skills - Patch 1.1.2

[Alwaysx]

[Crafting] Crew Skills for Patch 1.1.2.

This is a summary of the crafting crew skills endgame. It is with respect to gameplay and is not concerned with the profitability of the professions.

 

 

Armstech: Still useless. There's really no perks in having this profession endgame.

 

Biochem: Now useless. Only benefit is reusability of consumables; that is, you'll only want to keep Biochem if you don't plan on buying massive stocks of consumables all the time. However, for min/maxing purposes, Biochem is unnecessary.

 

Artifice: Crit'd Rakata Relics. No profession-lock on equipping, so you can unlearn afterwards.

 

Synthweaving/Armormech: Crit'd Rakata Wrist & Belt. No profession-lock on equipping, so you can unlearn afterwards.

 

Cybertech: Contains the only unique, profession-locked item (grenades).

 

 

As a Biochem user, I think Bioware made a step in the right direction in nerfing Biochem. Although I'm not particularly joyful of this approach, I'm not surprised that it would now become a practical credit-saving profession over a min/max one.

Certainly, a large amount of players will keep Biochem simply out of convenience. But for the min/maxers out there who've been wondering what to do with their millions of credits, drop Biochem. Choosing Biochem is now a choice of practicality versus min/maxing.

 

In terms of what they should do next, I'd recommend profession-locking the unique perks and then balancing out the resultant perks. It seems like Bioware is heading in this direction, no matter how you look at it.

 

Thoughts?

Edited February 2, 2012 by Alwaysx

[Gudchen]

Armstech: Crit'd Relic. No profession-lock on equipping, so you can unlearn afterwards.

What kind of Relics?

[Alwaysx]

What kind of Relics?

 

As far as I'm aware, Art/Arms can get you Relics with an augment slot. At least according to Torhead anyways.

 

EDIT: Actually, I guess it's just Artifice. So Armstech is completely useless.

Edited February 2, 2012 by Alwaysx

[Mooseb]

What kind of Relics?

 

Oh don't worry, some Biochem player really overestimating these nerfs, they could keep nerfing it, but just like alch in WOW its ALWAYS going to be a HOT profession

 

Armstech on the other hand....well i still don't quite know...still no word if the lvl 23 scope schematics drop in the new raids, otherwise we have nothing to compete against commendation vendors...

[Gudchen]

As far as I know, Armstech can not craft any relics, at least I have not seen a relic schematics for Armstech, either on the trainer, nor as a drop.

[Alwaysx]

As far as I know, Armstech can not craft any relics, at least I have not seen a relic schematics for Armstech, either on the trainer, nor as a drop.

 

You are correct. At the moment, Armstech is still completely useless, even moreso than Biochem.

[Urza]

Armstech: Still useless.

Synthweaving/Armormech: Crit'd Rakata Wrist & Belt. No profession-lock on equipping, so you can unlearn afterwards.

 

Take a look at this again and tell me what's wrong with your statement.

[GamerInDallas]

My highest level is 30th and my crafting levels (in all crafts) are about 140 or so. Cybertech has really been the only one I've found necessary so far. It's the only way you can get Grade 2 ship armor, other than the GTN where everybody (including myself) charge outrageous prices for it. (The reason I charge outrageous prices for it - more than Grade 3 armor - is that the material cost more than Grade 3 armor on the GTN. The only way I stay profitable is either to catch them on the occasional sale or gather them myself, which hasn't been exactly an easy task).

 

Biotech seems kind of interesting to me, but honestly I really haven't used any of the biotech stuff I've created so far. I use stims and med packs that are dropped by the mobs. I haven't really compared those to the ones created by biotech, but they would only be useful to me if they are more powerful, because the only time I use one is for a boss battle that I'm attempting solo. In a group - so far, I haven't ever felt I needed to use a stim or medpac. I've never even come close to running out of them because the mobs drop about 8 times more than I use. My biotech crafting is still fairly low level. So maybe I just need to experiment a bit more. The cool down time is one reason that I don't use medpacs. You only get one per fight and they aren't usually all that effective unless you just need a couple of hit points to finish the battle. Anyway, as a player, I don't find myself thinking "I need to go buy some bio stuff. That would really help me." And I imagine a lot of other people aren't thinking they need to go buy that stuff either.

 

I've mostly found myself crafting mods for myself. Light saber and orange clothing mods are really the only thing, other than ship armor that really make me glad I have the crafting skills for. That's largely because the prices for that stuff on the GTN are just absolutely insane. The prices on the GTN suggest that you should go farm grey mobs for a couple of days, just so that you can buy the equipment to reach the next level. I mean, to fully outfit a character using mods off the GTN costs more than my characters make and I'm even probably more wealthy than a lot of characters. As I listen to myself talk, I am realising I need to go start selling some of my mods. So far I've pretty much just been making them for myself and REing them to get blues, so that I can set myself up with complete sets of blue.

 

I haven't been able to make Purple yet. I "accidently" got one Purple Schematic a couple weeks ago, when I REed a blue that I no longer needed. I was pretty excited that I got a purple. It's level 13 gear, which is just about the right level for people who are buying their first gear off the GTN. In the past couple of weeks I've been able to make ONE and that was for myself. My characters, alone, could use about 18 of them before I would start selling them on the GTN. The problem is that one of the materials is a rare gemstone. I've spent a couple of days trying to send my characters on missions to get that gemstone and not a single mission has returned it. I think you have to get it as a critical result and maybe my companion affection is not high enough (but come on! It's a level 13 item. How high does my companion affection have to be?) And it looks like everone else is facing the same issue because I don't see this purple item for sale on the GTN ever. And the rare gemstone is something that I always keep my eye open for on the GTN and I've never seen that material for sale on the GTN ever.

 

So that's a big part of the reason I haven't felt like it's worth it to try and craft any purples.

 

My theory on why the prices are so jacked up is that most of the players power leveled to fiftyth level and now they have huge piles of credits with which to buy gear for their alts that they are now leveling up from low levels. That would explain how people are able to afford the gear that I make, because most of what I sell is like the Grade 2 ship armor that I sell at prices above Grade 3 ship armor. Obviously that means that someone that is Grade 2 level has more than enough money to afford equipment priced for someone who is at least 10 levels higher than the character buying it. All I know is that people buy it when I price it at that level. I myself, craft it for myself so that I don't have to pay those ridiculous prices.

 

I've also noticed that I'm not really impressed with Synthweaving. As a player, I'm mostly only interested in Orange gear. I have even been known to wear low level gear because it looks good on my character, rather than wear something I hate because it improves my characters' stats. So, finding at least one suit of orange gear that I like is imperative to me. I generally try to collect a whole wardrobe of orange gear. However, some of the pieces (boots, gloves, and belts come to mind here) are hard to find as orange gear and I have my Synthweaver make those for my other characters. SINCE I have a Synthweaver outfiting my other characters, I would be willing to have them wear my Synthweaver's gear. But the problem is that Sythweavers only make about 1 outfit every 10 levels and you need to replace your gear about every 3 levels or so. So, I end up quickly replacing any of the gear my synthweaver makes with drops from mobs, or better yet, go to orange gear which can be upgraded when I need it to be upgraded.

 

Armormech and Armstech tend to only outfit my smugglers and troopers which are all still below 15th level. So, I haven't experimented with those much. At the levels that I am at with those characters, I'm not sure you need tor really buy gear. What you get off the mobs is probably enough to keep winning the fights. And that all goes back to what I was saying about lack of demand for crafted gear.

[Urza]

But the problem is that Sythweavers only make about 1 outfit every 10 levels and you need to replace your gear about every 3 levels or so.

 

There is a reason mods exist and cost fewer commendations than individual pieces of gear.

[GamerInDallas]

Oh. And after my novel that I just wrote, I wanted to add: I was real excited about getting my first hoverbike for my 25th level sage. I had my 15th level Cybertech craft until I got the schematic for it. Then I got the ridiculous amount of materials necessary to make the thing and made my first one. Guess it's my last one.

 

It binds to the crafter instantly. So, you can't sell them and you can't give them away. My crafter is 15th level. Even the ONE that I made is useless to me for about 10 more levels. I can't make one for the character that needs one. And that means you CERTAINLY can't sell them. What exactly is the point of having them in the game when you can't make them for anyone except your Cybertech. If your current character doesn't have the Cybertech skill, that character can never make one. So, only 1 out of 4 characters can make them at all, they are very expensive to make (probably more than just going and buying one from the vendors), and the few characters that make them can't sell them or even give them away to anyone. What's the point?

[Urza]

So, only 1 out of 4 characters can make them at all, they are very expensive to make (probably more than just going and buying one from the vendors), and the few characters that make them can't sell them or even give them away to anyone. What's the point?

 

Rare speeders are rare and rare things sometimes cost more money than commonly available items?

[GloamingLeuceti]

Armstech will be usefull with the ability to remove barrels from raid gear, augmented orange weapons with raid mods will be better than normal raid weapons, and you can pick your model.

 

I imagine the same is intended to apply to synth weaving and armormech, being skills that provide non raiders with good gear and ALL players with choice in how their character looks.

 

I expect the hinted at augment changes will be something that lets players add augment slots to non-critted gear and drops, for a price.

 

Raiding will provide unique models and/or mods they can take out and slot in to the gear of their choice, again, for a price.

 

Overall I like the way its shaping up, and just hope it happens both soon and in conjunction with a cleanup of bugs that have been haunting crewskills since the late beta re-vamp.