Soldarith Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I dread when I spend a couple of thousand credits on a high-end Slicing mission and get back an Investigation Mission Discovery. Honestly, you cannot give the things away. What is up with Investigation? Does anybody even use it? Why is it I constantly see the Trade Network (on both sides) flooded with Investigation Discovery Missions, as opposed to the few on each of the other crew skills? For example, right now on the Empire side for my server, 14 pages on Investigation missions available for sale. Starting at the dirt-cheap price all the way to the you're-nuts price. For all of the other crew skills, there is not a single one, other than Investigation, with more than 3 pages of Missions for sale. And this is not a fluke: This is every single day on both sides. So either Investigation is the most amazing crew skill in the game, where its users are picking up everything they would ever need from the regular mission returns, or nobody touches the damned thing. Either way, I am thinking Bioware needs to take a look at Investigation and figure out what is going on with it. Am I off here? Missing something? Someone help enlighten me, as I am really curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balth_azare Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Investigation is like Underworld Trading/Diplomacy. It returns blue/purple rarity armtech materials. Since most people aren't truly using these endgame mats (since the whole "endgame crafting sucks..." hits Armstech harder (no blue to purple vibroknives/shotguns/etc...) people just don't have any reason to level this up in all honesty. If this isn't the reason, then I dunno. One could get Investigation on an alt, and farm the mats with all those mission schematics, and see if there is a profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabatus Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 It is also supposed to return schematics for crafting skills such as artifice, but my experience says the chances for that are miniscule and even if it crits it hasn't been anything to be excited about. With no use for the mats (see post above) it seems like a total waste of credits and I've dropped it for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soldarith Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Investigation is like Underworld Trading/Diplomacy. It returns blue/purple rarity armtech materials. Since most people aren't truly using these endgame mats (since the whole "endgame crafting sucks..." hits Armstech harder (no blue to purple vibroknives/shotguns/etc...) people just don't have any reason to level this up in all honesty. If this isn't the reason, then I dunno. One could get Investigation on an alt, and farm the mats with all those mission schematics, and see if there is a profit. Yep, I understand how the skill works. However, if you try to find a Mission for Underworld, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything reasonably priced or available -- similar to Slicing Missions. Diplomacy is always hit/miss because of the Light/Dark thing making it a complete mess for both sides. The Missions available are not only end-game but are for all levels throughout the skill. So I do not believe it is just an end-game issue. I think it is an Armtech issue. I believe there are just too few people out there who actually picked it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louisfriend Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 also... there are enough suckers wasting creds leveling investigation or getting schems from general play. that the schematics can be had...with a little hunting on the AH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdobrowney Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Here is the problem. With running most FP Hard or Normal mode you get Orange moddalbe gear from it. Most very good to start gear too. This gear looks cool and is worth keeping until end game battlemaster gear. Why would anyone run a crew skill like armortech or sithweaving. To max out armor would cost around 2 million credits or more. Plus best investment is Biochem . it gives you something to use at end game. When you look at the battlemaster gear and it has armor rating of 140 in heavy gear and you can not craft anthing close to that .. Why would you want anything but the best. Crafting at this point is just a time and money sink with no return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soldarith Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Here is the problem. With running most FP Hard or Normal mode you get Orange moddalbe gear from it. Most very good to start gear too. This gear looks cool and is worth keeping until end game battlemaster gear. Why would anyone run a crew skill like armortech or sithweaving. To max out armor would cost around 2 million credits or more. Plus best investment is Biochem . it gives you something to use at end game. When you look at the battlemaster gear and it has armor rating of 140 in heavy gear and you can not craft anthing close to that .. Why would you want anything but the best. Crafting at this point is just a time and money sink with no return. You just summed up exactly what I thought was the problem but I was looking for confirmation. Why in the world would anyone have any crew skills whose end products can be replaced by upgradeable/moddable Orange items? It just seems silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battilea Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Here is the problem. With running most FP Hard or Normal mode you get Orange moddalbe gear from it. Most very good to start gear too. This gear looks cool and is worth keeping until end game battlemaster gear. Why would anyone run a crew skill like armortech or sithweaving. To max out armor would cost around 2 million credits or more. Plus best investment is Biochem . it gives you something to use at end game. When you look at the battlemaster gear and it has armor rating of 140 in heavy gear and you can not craft anthing close to that .. Why would you want anything but the best. Crafting at this point is just a time and money sink with no return. Not quite true, the no return bit. Say you are a bounty hunter. Every companion you get and you yourself are aim or cunning based. So Armortech makes everything you need. And it can make it with the stat role focus you want, unlike cybertech or relying on comm vendors. Decent personal return there. People do tend to have orange gear, but it tends to be limited to 5 slots. Belt and bracer, however, most don't have it. So there's a definite market there and one that can make you a lot of money, since most people crafting have little clue to what they are doing. You can also make some money selling orange modable gear. The sucky thing about it though is that there's only 3 slots, you don't get the full 5. But people will buy it for looks reasons or for their companions. Typically, for this, the lower level the armor the better. Basically, if you have some common sense as to what people actually want, you can make money pretty easily with synthweaving or armortech, because most people have no clue on what to make. That said, the cost to acquire the best versions of the gear that starts out blue is pretty horrid, stupid RE system. Edited February 6, 2012 by Battilea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdobrowney Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I have not found anything better then battlemaster gear and mods. Only thing that becomes usefull at end game is biochem. They can Keep nerfing it .. but in the end it will still be the craft to pick for end game. Only way to fix this is to make high end end-game gear come from the crafters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdobrowney Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Do not get me wrong .. The run up to max level you can make alot of money selling mods and gear from your crew skills. But once you max out the gear and mods are junk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raani Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Here is the problem. With running most FP Hard or Normal mode you get Orange moddalbe gear from it. Most very good to start gear too. This gear looks cool and is worth keeping until end game battlemaster gear. Why would anyone run a crew skill like armortech or sithweaving. . Because Battlemaster pieces which don't give a set bonus are garbage for many specs, even more so than some Champion pieces. They are randomly itemized and loaded with a stat which does absolutely nothing in PvE. Both Synthweaving and Armormech have access to Rakata belts/bracers, which are BiS. For some specs, the RE-ed mastercraft epics are preferable. The same goes for Cybertech/Biochem and RE-ed mastercrafts. For some things, you won't find upgrades to crafted items, and definitely not in flashpoints or normal ops. Plus, there are some HM and raid drop recipes which give better items. Armstech doesn't have Rakata pieces or any raid recipes, so it's behind all the other professions. Hence, Investigation isn't something a lot of people have. It's been said before that it has a lot of potential for profit, but right now, it's not a profession you want on a main. If you understand what to do with it, it makes decent money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuuj Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 When you compare Investigation to the other mission skills, you're left with disappointment. The return rate on Blue Schematics is pretty bad. The return rate for Purple Research Materials is pretty bad. The return rate for Companion Gifts is pretty bad. I enjoy my treasure hunting/slicing/underworld trading setup the most. Despite rarely ever getting anything that I can equip to myself or use (Besides credits), I still feel like I'm being... gasp... rewarded for the money I invest as opposed to with Investigation where I just feel like I'm sinking money into nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raani Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 There's no difference between return rate for purple mats and companion gifts. What are you getting out of UT and Diplo that you're not getting from Investigation? I have stacks of purple Investigation mats I don't get to use because the blues sell too well and too fast for me to try RE-ing them. My Armstech unfortunately only has 3 companions, so I can't spam the missions fast enough. But I get the exact same amounts as from the other professions - 2-3 from moderate, 4-6 from abundant and bountiful, 8 and the occasional epics from rich. Companion gifts are exactly the same. My two companions (not counting the annoying droid) are almost maxed and they bring either blue or purple grade 5 gifts. Recipes aren't too frequent, but I got a few blue scattergun recipes which I'm crafting for massive profit, since scatterguns can't be RE-ed. I also got a few Biochem implant recipes which I either sold or gave to my Biochemist. Considering that we can buy the missions for peanuts, it's very easy to get Investigation mats and high-quality gifts. My level 41 alt (soon to be my new main) maxed her 4 companions so far thanks to the gifts she got from my lv 25 Armstech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DenverRalphy Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Investigation is like Underworld Trading/Diplomacy. It returns blue/purple rarity armtech materials. Diplomacy drops Medical Supplies, which always sell well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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