saido Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I'm leveling armortech while I level -- I actually enjoy crafting as well -- kitted myself out in purples as well as my alt. Had no drama with RE either. Now on to the subject of armstech. 1) How useful is armstech leveling? 2) I've noticed that if I switch to a lower value weapon even my non-blaster skills do lower damage -- i.e grenades and so forth. What I can't work out is -- is this the 'techpower' mod on the weapon increasing the output across the board or does the base damage of a weapon affect all my attack skills (which if the case armstech became a load more interesting otherwise cybertech and techpower mods would make more sense). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saido Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Bumpity Bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerplode Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 My Sniper is 15 and frankly I feel disappointed in Armstech. It's utterly useless except for making Barrels. If you already have an Orange blaster, there's no need to craft a green one. I preffered Artifice, where I could make Hilts, Crystals, AND Enhancements. Why don't we have a skill that useful for non-Lightsabre users? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saido Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 I was hoping it would be like armortech which I have on my sniper. I found with Orange Armour while leveling my BH that the mods I could get at my level were behind crafted armour in the purple or blue range -- I realise that changes later on but it's also been great for kitting out my alts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raani Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Barrels influence weapon damage. The rest of the mods only add stats. It's actually very useful for leveling, since the barrels on the commendation vendors are garbage unless you're a tank. The Commando barrel, which is the tanking one for Trooper/BH, is always available in two higher grades. The Reflex/Skill barrels, for DPS and healers, are always available in one lower grade. Making your own barrels means that you'll always have a decent weapon, but you'll have to buy the rest of the mods (crystal/mod/enhancement) to get the most out of it. RE-ing weapons for which moddable versions exist is probably not the best idea, since you outlevel them pretty fast. I'm sure some people buy them, but you'd have to gauge interest on your server. However, RE-ing non-moddable weapon types (like techblades) will be a good source of profit. You can't get better anywhere, and people do buy these for their companions. For end-game, you won't get anything out of it. However, if they do allow us to yank barrels out of raid/PvP weapons and put them in moddable weapons, the blue crafted ones with an augment slot will be BiS, since you can replace all the crappy blue mods and add an epic augment. None of the drops/vendor weapons have augment slots, so there is some potential there, but it's not in the game yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerplode Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Yeah, I do make Barrels (Currently have a Purple [Legendary?] Skill Barrel 5 I think) on my 15 Sniper. But I feel cheated with it since Artifice has 3 sweet items to make if you're a Warrior/Inquisitor. Not to mention they can also make Shield Generators and such. Armstech just feels like a wimpy version of Artifice for non-Lightsabre characters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KorbinArmand Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Yeah, I do make Barrels (Currently have a Purple [Legendary?] Skill Barrel 5 I think) on my 15 Sniper. But I feel cheated with it since Artifice has 3 sweet items to make if you're a Warrior/Inquisitor. Not to mention they can also make Shield Generators and such. Armstech just feels like a wimpy version of Artifice for non-Lightsabre characters Consider this, Armstech is perfectly designed for the strengths of a IA. Either as Sniper or OP, you craft barrels which ensure your MH weapon is at its top, you also make your OH weapon which is your knife. That is your other means of attack, thus it ensure your base multiplier (attacks are base +/x stats% = dmg) which is single greatest dps/heal bonus you can get. Sure having 10k stats is great, but whats better 300 * (10k stat * %) or 700 * ( 8k * %) ...answer higher base > couple extra stats. Artifice gives enh, which you can get decent ones on each planet for 2 commendations cheap. Most worlds without heroics you make 24-32 commendations thats 12-16 mods more than enough to cover you and 1x companion. Color crystals only offer afew stats. Yes i will agree BH get shorter end of stick with OH being with Artifice and I believe that should change Artifice has enough with Hilt, crystal and Enh, OH's should be Arms, or atleast split them, Cunning/Aim = Arms, Str/Will = Artifice. Edited February 6, 2012 by KorbinArmand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerplode Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Yet I hear at 400, and at Lvl 50, Armstech is completely worthless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KorbinArmand Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Yet I hear at 400, and at Lvl 50, Armstech is completely worthless. Alts and ppl leveling will buy reflex/skill barrels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saldrex Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Yet I hear at 400, and at Lvl 50, Armstech is completely worthless. I feel like I hear this about most crew skills, yet I feel like it is most people not accepting of the valuables they actually produce. In part some people want more than just commodities to sell from their crew skill and not have it out classed by dungeon or raid loot. Producing orange guns with augment slots can be a pain but have value to some people, I know I use one and paid quite a bit for one. Also with the coming of next patch they will likely be BiS. Producing techblades and techsaffs can have value to people as well. There is no other way to get an artifact quality weapon for some companions. I know I have purchased level 50 artifact ones for my companions. Some have claimed to make tons of money off of these. I know I am still looking for lv 50 vibroknives on the GTN but no one sells them right now. I think value really depends on what people are looking for in the crew skill. None of them are 100% worthless to me and I am accepting of hard mode dungeon and raid loot trumping my crafts. If you are looking for more than just making money, crafts may never have a huge appeal to them as you can buy the crafts from them instead. Edited February 6, 2012 by Saldrex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilko Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 My Commando has used Mastercraft or Advanced purple cannons since lvl 29. Currently a 39 cannon with 6 stats plus an augment slot, top end damage is 379. Show me a purple barrel that will do that. My Armstech has 20-25 purple recipes. You're not doing it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricsun Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 My Commando has used Mastercraft or Advanced purple cannons since lvl 29. Currently a 39 cannon with 6 stats plus an augment slot, top end damage is 379. Show me a purple barrel that will do that. My Armstech has 20-25 purple recipes. You're not doing it right. Leveling, armstech is fine, at max level, it's broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilko Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Let you know when I get there. I've seen people write that it's broken everywhere, I'm having great success to lvl 41, maxed out crew-skills 8-9 lvls ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durotard Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I am lvl 50, I am 400 armstech, I am gubslinger. At the moment I see no point in leveling this skill at all. At lvl 50 there is no use of this skill. And I mean litteraly no use. Absolute zero. IMO it is just bad design as if they forgot to add something useful. the word TRASH is best suited for this skill. The skill is TRASH and the designer a MONKEY! sry for raging but its the truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durotard Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 When I decided to pick this skill up I didnt know very much of the end game. I was stupid enough to rely on the fact that as it is armstech it will give me some kind of dps edge in the lvl 50. The best item I can craft is a lvl 48 orange item. Great design! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerplode Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I'm keeping Armstech (Because I hear it's fine when leveling) and hopefully by 50 they will have done something for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KorbinArmand Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 My Commando has used Mastercraft or Advanced purple cannons since lvl 29. Currently a 39 cannon with 6 stats plus an augment slot, top end damage is 379. Show me a purple barrel that will do that. My Armstech has 20-25 purple recipes. You're not doing it right. FYI what you dont see is that your weapon has a barrel in it (you cant remove it) of purple quality, i think if you get someone to link their lvl 39 orange with 39 Purple Barrel in it...you might see they are ahead of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thug-Ra Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) I'm leveling armortech while I level -- I actually enjoy crafting as well -- kitted myself out in purples as well as my alt. Had no drama with RE either. Now on to the subject of armstech. 1) How useful is armstech leveling? 2) I've noticed that if I switch to a lower value weapon even my non-blaster skills do lower damage -- i.e grenades and so forth. What I can't work out is -- is this the 'techpower' mod on the weapon increasing the output across the board or does the base damage of a weapon affect all my attack skills (which if the case armstech became a load more interesting otherwise cybertech and techpower mods would make more sense). I'd say Armstech is second only to Armormech for "worst endgame profession". Armstech exists for exactly one purpose -- making sure you have updated barrels in your orange gun from 11-49. It instantly and permanently becomes useless at 50, and has no other meaningful function. The green and blue guns crafted via Armstech are complete rubbish. You can always get better by sticking barrels into orange weapons. There's never a time when this isn't true. The melee gear crafted with Armstech is garbage, and you CANNOT RE it to get blue patterns -- I tried RE'ing several green vibroknife patterns, in some cases doing more than 20, and never got one discovery. So, the way to use Armstech is this: Every other level, RE green barrels until you get a blue one. If you get epic materials from missions, RE blue barrels and make an epic. This becomes useless at level 50 because you can get an epic #23 barrel from doing Ilum (or Belsavis bonus) quests for 90 minutes, and you can only make up to #22. You can also get a better gun than anything you can make from a single run of hard mode False Emperor, which is cake, albeit long. Edited February 7, 2012 by Thug-Ra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilko Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) FYI what you dont see is that your weapon has a barrel in it (you cant remove it) of purple quality, i think if you get someone to link their lvl 39 orange with 39 Purple Barrel in it...you might see they are ahead of you. They are at best even in damage with a purple weapon. Level 39 barrel is 104, purple Advanced is 104, from a blue schematic, I'm staring at it right now. What are the most stats you get with an orange moddable? 4-5? From lvl 31 and up all purple weapons have 6 stats, some 5 but one is overloaded, with no slot, Mastercraft/Advanced gives you one more slot, so that would be 7 stats. Give me a purple weapon anyday with or without an augment slot, over an orange with a purple barrel, at least from lvls 10 to 45. I use my commendations on purple surprise boxes now instead of on an orange weapon that is half the way I want it to be. Edited February 7, 2012 by Chilko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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