Armstech-Bad Design

[ElCapitaan]

I knew that before I picked Armstech, it was probably not a good crew skill. Still, I like to make my own weapons, especially for my Gunfighter. However, at 120 points into the skill, it's really starting to sink in on really how counter intuitive the skill really is. For example, I have spent a lot of time and credits to finally unlock a purple pattern for nice 17th level blaster pistol. However, despite doing countless Investigation missions, I cant get any Polyfiber-none to be found on GTN either. Soon I will out level the need the the purple blaster pistol and I can't figure out the design philosophy on this skill.

 

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions, besides dumping the skill, or if it will get any better.

 

Thank you.

[KretanMelithorn]

I rarely crit the Investigation missions and get the purple mats when I was levelling up. I found buying the Investigation missions (purple ones) from the GTN to be a better source of mats. However, I rarely see those missions for the low level mats (usually only see 200 and above.

 

Just have to keep running those Investigation missions and hope you crit before you out level it....

[G-Mead]

When I need a purple mat I buy a purple crafting mission from the GTN. I often get purple mats from purchased blue missions too. Investigation missions are usually the cheapest of the mission types on my server (don't forget to check the cross-faction GTN on Nar Shadaa).

 

I works a million times better than hoping for a crit from the regular missions my crafting UI gives me.

[rjkishida]

Quite simply the only reason to pick up armstech is to make your own blaster barrels. Since most players level up faster than the rewards available on a given planet (either by quest or commendations), the best way to keep your blaster up to date is by making your own barrel.

 

Of course this means that you have to have a custom (orange) weapon but since swtor gives those out like candy that's no problem.

 

The problem is that the given materials on a planet are pretty much at the same level as that planet. ie if the planet is level 16-20 you will (generally speaking) only be able to craft level 16-20 stuff from the materials available on that planet (IF you can harvest from the nodes, since they are bugged. but i digress).

 

This means that you need to use the Scavenging missions to collect materials that are needed for the barrel you want.

 

If you are willing to settle for green quality barrels then life is great. If you want blue (prototype) quality barrels, then you need to Reverse Engineer (RE). A simple cursory reading of the Crew Skill board will give you an idea of how well RE works right now (it doesn't). God help you if you want to make purple (artifact) quality barrels. You are in for a life of pain and suffering.

 

If you are talking about the actual weapons that armstech makes, then you are correct. The weapons available from armstech are garbage. Maybe the Custom weapons you can make at 50 would be nice but those weapons are worthless because everyone will want to use their endgame content reward weapons.

 

As far as making your own blue or purple weapons, see what I wrote about RE. Given the time, effort, and pain needed to try and make purple weapons, you will have out-leveled the design by the time you can finally make said weapon. This process will simply repeat until you reach level 40 or so when you slow down leveling so much you MIGHT (I would say under 20% of the time) be able to craft a purple weapon before it becomes obsolete.

 

Quite frankly I picked armstech for my IA Sniper because I wanted to have barrels and only that. I am not disappointed because I KNEW that the rest of the skill was worthless. Unless you believe the good faeries about 1.2 and the uber goodness it brings to all the good little crewskills, then armstech will stay useless probably forever.

[ElCapitaan]

Thanks for all the good comments and suggestions. I will take them to mind and continue to level up the skill. What ever is said, the community on this forum is very helpful and supportive. Edited April 7, 2012 by ElCapitaan

[Gharlane]

Make an alt as a slicer and get your own crafting missions. It doesnt take that long...took me maybe a week part time to get my slicers skill up to the point where I get alot of crafting missions. Pick a class like jedi knight where the companion (T7-01 in this case) gets a slicing critical bonus.

As far as armstech...yes its pretty much only useful for barrels.

[Turino]

It sounds like it will become more viable after 1.2. The two main additions being being able to crit craft orange items and craft certain augments.

 

I also read that there are lots more schematics being added in the next patch.

 

So my advice would be hang on in there. It could get a whole lot more relevant.

[venomlash]

I'm an Armstech, probably one of the top 10 Republic armstechs on my server. I've got Scavenging and Slicing in addition to the crafting profession.

I've found that my ridiculous gains from Slicing (even post-nerf) more than cover the cost of Investigation materials on the GTN; the real trick is in finding someone who's selling what I need. (Lately it's been hard to find anything other than Carbo-plas and Plastifiber for a decent price.) Generally speaking, Armstech is useful as a support role. My alts and guildies are assured of schweet tech weapons (I have useful purple schematics at pretty much every level for pistols, rifles, cannons, and techblades), and my Slicing also provides loads of mission items that I send out to guildies to boost their production. Does it help me particularly? Not really; I haven't used a crafted weapon for a few weeks now, since I've gotten my hands on some daily-comms item mods and a high-grade vendor crystal. Does it help my guild? Absolutely.

Of course, there is still plenty of profit to be made if you know where to look. I seem to be the only person on my server who can make [Veracity Exalted Gladiator's Techblade] (pretty much the best tanking techblade in the game), and since good techblades never really drop in the wild, I can easily get 50k (and more if the crafting crits) for a weapon that cost me 13k in mats.

That's my two creds.