Slicing... Does it even work anymore?

[codyr]

I find that even with T7 having a critical chance at slicing, it's just not profitable to send my companions out on slicing missions. I have slicing at 400 and I basically just break even on mission returns. In fact, I probably lose more money than I gain since when I gain money, it's something like 30 credits on a 1400 credit investment, and when I lose, it's on the order of 200-400 credits. That T7 returns a bunch of skill missions when he crits isn't helpful when the vast majority of them are diplomacy or bioanalysis, missions which people very rarely buy from the GTN.

 

So, is slicing just not viable any longer as a crew skill? It seems like it was nerfed way too much. Besides getting 1000 credits every now and then from a node in the world, it's not really generating any cash flow at all, and in the meantime, my companions just sit on my ship doing nothing. And I'm starting to suspect it's actually sucking credits out of my account with more losses than gains, but I haven't bothered to check.

[PostalTwinkie]

Slicing was way nerfed because it made a ton of people a ton of money. I believe their intention was to make it unattractive enough that people would take other skills.

[TheBBP]

It is very viable. I noticed that you are not counting the schematics that can be sold as well. All of the skills cost to get up to snuff. Slicing is not any different.

[Xontier]

This again? I thought slicing complaints were done with.

 

Its already been proven that slicing still returns a profit on average. That said, slicing is also considered a gathering skill so yes, you should be going out and getting the nodes.

 

I still make money on my sniper with slicing, even if I don't gather from nodes. No, its not nearly as much as before, but its still a steady increase. If you're consistantly loosing money then you have horrible, horrible luck.

[Kabaal]

They nerfed the credits from it but it seems they nerfed the purple augs too, i haven't had a single one on a toon i just leveled to 50 and maxed out slicing well before it reached cap whereas i had loads of them when leveling my Jugg at launch.

 

I find that Treasure Hunting is a much better money maker but i suppose it depends on the GTN on each server.

[Sandriell]

I find that even with T7 having a critical chance at slicing, it's just not profitable to send my companions out on slicing missions. I have slicing at 400 and I basically just break even on mission returns. In fact, I probably lose more money than I gain since when I gain money, it's something like 30 credits on a 1400 credit investment, and when I lose, it's on the order of 200-400 credits. That T7 returns a bunch of skill missions when he crits isn't helpful when the vast majority of them are diplomacy or bioanalysis, missions which people very rarely buy from the GTN.

 

So, is slicing just not viable any longer as a crew skill? It seems like it was nerfed way too much. Besides getting 1000 credits every now and then from a node in the world, it's not really generating any cash flow at all, and in the meantime, my companions just sit on my ship doing nothing. And I'm starting to suspect it's actually sucking credits out of my account with more losses than gains, but I haven't bothered to check.

 

If you are only in it for the credits, stop doing missions for lockboxes. That's where you are going wrong.

 

Only gather. I have slicing on two characters, and they both have at least twice as much money then my other characters had at similar levels.

[Tricky-Ha]

Slicing keep credits in my pockets cause there so many credit lockboxes spread around the worlds. I barely even do slicing crew skill missions, what's the point, cause like you said there too many chances to lose & get nothing. I find that crew skill missions automatically list missions that are a level bracket higher than your player character, so sometimes I'll drop the list back to my correct level so that that way I get passes on all my slicing crew skill missions even if it only nets me like 100-200 credits in rewards after taking off the cost to send my companion to do the slicing mission. Why bother? it costs nothing to have them slice lockboxes while I'm missioning. Edited March 15, 2012 by Tricky-Ha

[Drewser]

Yes. If you pick the right missions it is still profitable even without selling the mission drops you get.

 

It will be worth more though when it supplies the materials for augments to be made.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Drewser

[Trolltar]

They nerfed the credits from it but it seems they nerfed the purple augs too, i haven't had a single one on a toon i just leveled to 50 and maxed out slicing well before it reached cap whereas i had loads of them when leveling my Jugg at launch.

 

I find that Treasure Hunting is a much better money maker but i suppose it depends on the GTN on each server.

 

Slicing still makes ok credits for me without using it to gather. I have it on an alt, so I just queue up missions then pop back over to my main. I find I coast along ok and then strike it big when T7 Crits.

 

But, since that character is an artificer I wish I had gone with treasure hunting.

[Lexster]

I just dropped 400 slicing on my JK. I was making good money, and find large amounts of mission rewards. I was only lvl 46 though, and dropped it because the character was actually a synthweaver, so I took up underworld trading to start making my higher end gear(and orange aug gear when 1.2 comes). However, before I swapped, my character had bought all but 1 inventory slot, 2 extra bays, my speeder skills, as well as my combat abilities. After this, I still had 700k, and Ive not sold a single mission task or augment.

 

I did have other characters send this character companion gifts to increase their affection, they were all over 6k affection. I would have kira run the t5 rich mission that cost 1900? credits and T7 would run the other t5 rich mission that cost 2100?. I would have c2-n4 run the abundant t6 mission. I wouldn't normally send doc/rusk/scourge out though, or I would send them to do archeology.

 

That said, I often would gain blue lockboxes and investigation or diplomacy tasks(worthless really). It wasnt that uncommon to get the other tasks though, besides slicing, which I think is the rarest mission task to find.

[Akella]

I wish you guys would give me all your "worthless" diplomacy missions. Those sell for 25k and up on my server. UTW and Treasure Hunting sell for 45k and up. Can't touch a bioanalysis mission for less than 30k. Even the low level ones are 20 and up.

[lishuss]

go to house alde on alderaan.

 

just go nuts farming(on average about 800 a node and there are a LOT of nodes)

 

success.

 

im still having plenty of bank because of my slicing. even though i havent got a schematic in about a month

Edited March 16, 2012 by lishuss

[Sarge_]

I'm a slicer since day one and already post nerf. Knowing how it is now the nerf was truly necessary, I seriously can't believe what it was like before. The money had to be ridiculous.

 

1- For credits run moderate missions (non-stop preferably), in most tiers i believe these have the biggest return on investment. On average somewhere around 40% profit (estimate based on a little statistical test of mine).

 

Always go for green missions where the chance of failure is highly unlikely. Going for yellow and oranges will result in a higher chance of failure that will put a serious dent on your margins.

 

Once 400, run always the rich missions for the chance of a purple 340 drop, that apart from investigation (on my server) , sell for big wads of cash. Also run all your 340 slicing missions, that drop purple 22 augs that can be sold for anywhere between 30k and 130k+ depending on the stat. Presence is pretty much the only ones that don't sell very well.

 

2-???

 

3-Ridiculous profit.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Sarge_

[Blattan]

Slicing... Does it even work anymore?

 

Yes, and no.

 

The more companions you commit to missions at one time, the more likely you will see a profit.

 

If you only send one companion out at a time, it is possible (not very likely, but still possible) to see only loses enough to believe it is worthless.

 

Without "gaming" the system (running only the best missions - which aren't always the obvious choice, resetting the mission list as needed to get them, etc.) I found the "real world" average of about 16 credits per mission minute profit. So, for the 30 minutish missions, about 650 credits profit on average.

 

((My thread on my research))

 

Since GTNs vary per server, and possibly per faction, the slicing missions can't really be counted on. They are far from worthless, but it may take a good deal of time (and trial and error) to find the missions that sell well, and those you are better off just selling to a vendor - and there are likely a couple.

 

The skill is far from useless. But for credit gathering/making you may find other skills to be much more valuable. My lifetime slicer is making more returns on part time Underworld Trading materials on the market than he is from near full time slicing missions - counting selling off the skill discoveries.

 

Slicings primary benefits are:

 

Statistically steady income while offline (queue up missions before you log off),

 

And;

 

"Free" credits while on planet - in nodes.

 

 

If neither of those are of particular use to you, you will likely find other skills much more useful to you.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Blattan

[DrunkenHyena]

This is a list of almost all of the credit Slicing missions. All of the listed missions are based on at least 50 samples each.

 

http://swtor-crafter.com/content/slicing_missions.php

 

Some missions consistently lose money, while others consistently make it.

[LordRahlik]

Slicing is a three way street to earn money.

 

Low income: Send your companions to fetch chests/boxes and open them.

Net profit: around 20-30k credits per hour if you send 5 companions at all times.

I have done very serious testing on this and you will always get a positive return but it's a very very slow way to get credits.

If you (like me) can have a computer standing a bit off at work and constantly resend companions to slicing missions over and over you will gain quite a lot of money during a normal work day, but it's still a slow way to make credits.

 

 

Medium income: Send your companions to fetch chests/boxes and sell the missions.

Net profit: not possible to calculate. This is based on luck. If you are lucky you get Treasure Hunting or Underworld Trading 340 missions and sell them for 30k credits each on GT.

Very profitable per mission but very hard to affect the amount of missions you get. You can easily get 12 on one day and 0 on the next.

And god forbid you get Investigation, they sell for less than 2k credits (and 1k to vendor). Completely useless.

 

Extremely high income: Collect while you do quests.

Net Profit: around 1-2k per minute.

Selfexplanatory. Do quests on a high level planet (Voss/Corellia) and collect everything you see.

 

 

Slicing is a HUGE generator of credits IF YOU WORK FOR IT.

But expecting credits to rain over you just cause you have slicing is silly.

 

And yes, I have 7 chars with slicing.

[Cragan]

When 1.2 hits Slicing will provide the mats for Aug to be made by Armotech and Synthweaving. I have a feeling these mats will be in VERY high demand.

[Blattan]

Low income: Send your companions to fetch chests/boxes and open them.

Net profit: around 20-30k credits per hour if you send 5 companions at all times.

 

This right here? You are going to have to prove. And I mean more concretely than claiming it is true.

 

Let me explain why:

 

I won't even use the most conservative data. I'll use the most generous data. The most generous data claims that the best two or three slicing missions average about 20 to 25 credits per minute profit average.

We will assume 25, to be the most generous to your claims.

If you run the best two or three missions with all five of your companions (yes, it is impossible, but to be as generous as possible) that is 125 credits, average, per minute.

Multiply by 60 minutes, and you get 7500 credits, average, per hour.

 

Now, let us assume us lesser lifeforms just don't get the system as well as you do. Let us assume the best two or three missions actually average 30 credits per minute profit.

5 companions (still impossible, but giving you the benefit of the doubt) running them is 150 credits, average, per minute.

For 60 minutes, that would equal 9000 credits, average, per hour.

 

So, if you had claimed 10K average an hour, I could have bought it a plausible. But 20K-30K an hour? I claim exploit.

 

With that being said, it is possible (statistically impossible, but still possible) to peak at 20K-30K an hour... But that would require damn near 100% critical rate from all the slicing missions run during that hour.

 

In my research, the greatest profit gained for a group of five missions was almost 8500 credits for half an hour. That only happened when 4 out of 5 of the missions crited at the same time. I wasn't going out of my way to "game the system," so let's round that up to 10K for half an hour. Double that for an hour, and we get 20K. Just to fudge into that what a superior slicer might be able to do we can add an additional 50%, to make it 30K.

In my case, that would require 10 out of 12 missions to crit during that hour.

Statistically impossible. Which means it could happen once in a while.

 

So, once you are averaging - over time - more than 10K per hour, I claim exploit. With more realistic averages in the 6K to 8K range per hour profit. Plus, whatever you can get from any missions/schematics that drop. And realistically, you should only be averaging 1 to 2, maybe 3 of those per hour.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Blattan

[Stovokor]

It always worked. Worked even more splendidly when people overacted and dropped slicing. Good times

[MrHotter]

It works fine. It was broken before, and the only people compaining about the 'nerf' are the guys who were sitting on a million+ credits at level 20 before the change.

 

It's the only gathering skill that pays you to level it with mission skills. Not many gatherers are sitting at 400 skill by the time they hit 25 like many slicers are.

 

If you want to use it to make money, then go out and farm some nodes while questing.

 

I've been 400 on a few of my characters for a while and I keep sending my guys on missions for level 4, 5, and 6 lockboxes to get the mission skills. If you can't use those on an alt then you can sell them for good money.

[pokota]

Slicing makes me a lot of credits. It still kind of puzzles me when people claim a loss.

 

I have at least four companions out on Slicing missions at all times. Three with max affection, the fourth with 8000+. Critical hits of 5000 credits or more are not uncommon. The big crits more than make up for the small losses.

 

However, I really don't care about the lockboxes. They turn a steady profit, but for a level 50, a couple thousand credits are nothing. I'm looking for mission unlocks. All of them sell for a lot of profit on my server except for Investigation. If I end up playing a lot, then I can easily make over 150k a day just from selling the ones I don't need.

 

However, the ones I can use generate even more profit. A level 340 Underworld Trading mission unlock will bring in about 50-60k worth of materials.

 

I really don't mind if other people abandon Slicing, though. The more people who can't see past the occasional loss of 200 credits on an individual mission and give up, the more value my mission unlocks have on the GTN.

[Knockerz]

You make a lot of credits off slicing. I only make chump change off the slicing lock box missions, but make most of my credits off purple missions. I either sell the mission on ah and make a quick 10k-25k profit or I use the mission, especially the 340 slicing mission. The auguments sell for around 100k or more. Thus, you make your credits off purple missions and not lock boxes. It's a bonus if your leveling a character and your already max level in slicing. It's just not very profitable when you first start.

 

I regret dropping it on imp agent.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Knockerz

[FrankyBoots]

You make a lot of credits off slicing. I only make chump change off the slicing lock box missions, but make most of my credits off purple missions. I either sell the mission on ah and make a quick 10k-25k profit or I use the mission, especially the 340 slicing mission. The auguments sell for around 100k or more. Thus, you make your credits off purple missions and not lock boxes. It's a bonus if your leveling a character and your already max level in slicing. It's just not very profitable when you first start.

 

I regret dropping it on imp agent.

 

This.

 

The purple missions are the payday. I guess it depends on what the economy is like on your server. I'm always running missions while I'm playing. If I can nab 2-3 purple missions during a session, it's a big score for doing absolutely nothing.

[va_wanderer]

Slicing works fine. Heck, that and Treasure Hunting can both be reasonably leveled up without much investment to the point where you can drop top-tier stuff on the market- and barely have left the Fleet.

 

What it isn't is a mega-stupid inflationary tool anymore. It's just about right.

[Mythbusting]

Short answer: I make a ton of credits off slicing, but its basically gambling with a guaranteed long-run profit... so while I occasionally get bad streaks where I lose credits, in the long run its a big credit-maker. Yay luck.

 

This is a list of almost all of the credit Slicing missions. All of the listed missions are based on at least 50 samples each.

 

http://swtor-crafter.com/content/slicing_missions.php

 

Some missions consistently lose money, while others consistently make it.

 

I think thats a really cool goal, but because of the way crits work, even running a mission 50 times isn't a great way to figure out whether its a better credit-maker than another mission. To get an accurate estimate, you have to calculate the returns on crits/noncrits and the chance of each. Because crits are highly variable (and the answer depends on your companion's affection) a sample size of 50 doesn't cut it.

 

Math-y details hidden behind spoiler tag for sanity.

 

 

For example, it takes a lot of work to tell whether the abundant grade 6 mission (Azure/Data) is a better credit-earner than the moderate grade 6 mission (Plug the Leak).

 

While the abundant version costs 70 more credits than the moderate one, both missions return lvl 50 boxes of green or white quality. The abundant mission *almost always* returns a green box on a crit while the moderate mission *almost never* does.*

 

I've observed a 20% crit rate on my companions over the last 1k missions I've run at grade 6.

 

So long as green boxes net an average of 350 (70 * 5) credits more than white boxes - and they definitely do - the abundant missions are better returns. Problem is, lvl 50 green boxes have returns that are ridiculously variable, so even getting an average return on them is a challenge (green: min 1822, max 5565 ;; white: min 1180, max 3278).

 

Because many Rich missions have a chance to return a white, green, or blue box, estimating their returns is... a challenge difficult to describe without resort to obscenity.

 

If you want to get all stats-nerdy about it, run a Welch's t-test on your data and see if the results are significant. [note: the variances are distinctly unequal across grade and class of mission]

 

*I've recorded two instances that are exceptions to this rule. Could be a transcription error, a bug, or a feature.

 

I'm a visualize-data person, so I posted my results elsewhere

http://inquisitive-myths.blogspot.com/2012/03/critical-missions-and-companion.html

http://inquisitive-myths.blogspot.com/2012/03/i-just-ran-1400-slicing-missions.html

 

 

Edited March 16, 2012 by Mythbusting