Unannounced Slicing Nerf

[achwas]

Everyone in this post so far is very wrong :/ so wrong that i'm afraid that people actually start believing that slicing is useless. Slicing is very profitable, so profitable that both of my 50s have it. Not only that but ALL of my characters benefit from it. There was no nerf to slicing other than the one if got shortly after release.

 

You are not suppose to run any missions other than abundant or rich, that's point #1. Yes on average it may seam you lose money due to the cost but rich missions have ALWAYS cost 2k, that wasn't something that changed in 1.2.

Than I must have a stochastically absurd run of "mishaps", since I an approximately 20 Slicing missions (all rich or abaundant, rank 5 or 6 ). The opened lockboxes of that series of slicing run contained _never_ more than 1,2k (at a minimum 1780 credits for a rank 5 "rich" run). There was no crit result box (blue). There was no mission gained, which is not unusual. All in all, that series of missions netted me an approximately 20k loss.

 

The companions have faction rating bewtween the high 8000 and app 6000 faction.

 

I have no idea where you get your alleged "data" from, but they do not fit the facts of very real ingame runs. and I have been doing slicing missions continuously since mid- january on that character, after I retired her.

 

If you can counter those observations with equally real results (preferaly with screenshots) from ingame, it would be a welcome addition to the debate.

 

If, not stay out of a fact based discussion, if you please.

Edited April 14, 2012 by achwas

[STRWRSFanforLife]

While I too have noticed a drastic dropoff in lockbox rewards, the cost of slicing missions on the GTN has skyrocketed in the past cpl months, especially for UT and TH....costing upwards of 25-40k.

 

Then there are the open world nodes....free money, just laying there.

 

Also now the ONLY way AUG's can be made, through us slicers. This economy will have to balance out, but my server has went from 6 pages of augs to 1/2 a page in 2 days, making them in my mind extremely valuable now.

 

Stop focusing on the easy "send 5 comps out and make 10k" and start using all aspects of the skill and you will find it to be VERY profitable.

 

Good Luck,

Mike

[achwas]

While I too have noticed a drastic dropoff in lockbox rewards, the cost of slicing missions on the GTN has skyrocketed in the past cpl months, especially for UT and TH....costing upwards of 25-40k.

 

Then there are the open world nodes....free money, just laying there.

 

Also now the ONLY way AUG's can be made, through us slicers. This economy will have to balance out, but my server has went from 6 pages of augs to 1/2 a page in 2 days, making them in my mind extremely valuable now.

 

Stop focusing on the easy "send 5 comps out and make 10k" and start using all aspects of the skill and you will find it to be VERY profitable.

 

Good Luck,

Mike

 

Strange : All the augmentation schematics I have seen in the AH are for... armormech. No augments-schematics for cybertech atm.

 

Open world notes ? few and far betweeen (on republic side) anywhere beyond Taris. And the yield from those is absolutely not comparale to that gained from metal out of scavenging nodes.

 

Crewskill-Missions. for each and every UT and Diplomacy one I gain a number of nigh unsellable one for Investigation, or Archaeology (sporadic sales), Scavenging (sells hardly ever ) or Slicing ones ... (won't move in the AH at all, either) ).

 

The big problem is : If less peope do slicing for the low (10%+) gain at every opportunity, there will me less mission schematics in the market, which in return dries up the supply for rank 5/6 violet rare crafting materials which are guaranteed in these mission, incidentally causing the high prices for the mission schematic.

Edited April 14, 2012 by achwas

[apeiros]

There used to be a slicing spreadsheet posted in someone's google docs that was accessible to anyone. People from the community on every server would post their slicing stats there to get the hard facts on gains and critical chances per mission.

 

I've been keeping my own spreadsheet since 1.2

 

77 missions totaled (still have some pending) and I've netted a whopping 5.5k profit from lockboxes spread over 3 characters.

 

15 crits for mission rewards (~1 in 5), of those 15 only 1 mission is one that I can sell. 3 were UWT/TH missions that I used on other characters, 2 were slicing missions that I used. Of the rest only 1 Diplomacy 340 mission I can sell. The 3 investigation 340 missions and the other non-340 level missions simply do not sell on my server.

[KrackenOne]

Agreed. Lockboxes are now a huge waste. I never lost credits on a lockbox mission until 1.2. They cost 5-15% more then the return regardless of level of my toons now. Edited April 14, 2012 by KrackenOne

[zuile]

Damn it and I just took slicing on my new marauder to avoid running out of money from crafting like I did on my IA, oh well I'll just have to be more conservative in spending.

[venomlash]

Good to see that I'm not the only one noticing. It would be nice if a Dev could let us know whether this insane nerf is intentional.

[Red-Dwarf]

Just to mention the point being missed...moderate and abundant slicing missions still return a profit on a normal return.

 

The choice is now there to either go for bountiful/rich and hope for a crit or go for moderate/abundant and take a safe but smaller return.

 

You can still fail of course, but you still get mission rewards on a crit, this nerf seems to have been about introducing choice to the slicing profession.

 

It may not have been in patch notes, but it was flagged a few times while PTS was running 1.2 testing.

[zombiemannsev]

Even with high companion affection slicing has never been anywhere near profitable enough as a mission skill, IMHO. At least not since the early first nerf. BUT as a gather skill in the wild it is excellent. I make more slicing boxes I find along the way doing my dailies than I do from the dailies themselves.

 

TLDR: If you want something to make you big money while sitting on fleet, you are wasting your time. If you actually get out into the wilds it is well worth the effort to raise the skill

[ArianSix]

Things are looking really bad. Slicing is no longer profitable if you're going after the "higher yield" missions.

 

I just started recording mission data and I'm seeing a -13,396 loss after running 43 missions. I got 1 crafting mission from a crit that's near worthless on my server. Before 1.2 I would just sell it to the junk vendor for 600 creds.

 

All companions are at 10,000 affection too. All that does is make me lose money faster due to the shorter mission times.

 

I just started a spreadsheet to keep track of things over the next few days, but even without it I can see that the net for yesterday and what I've done so far today are losses.

 

I couldn't care less about those "gathering skill" arguments because if that's what's intended for this skill to be profitable, then there is no reason to have lockbox missions as an option at all.

[zombiemannsev]

I couldn't care less about those "gathering skill" arguments because if that's what's intended for this skill to be profitable, then there is no reason to have lockbox missions as an option at all.

 

So by this logic there shouldnt be scavenging or archeology missions for parts, since they can be gathered in the wild as well....

 

I can understand the frustration around the lock box missions loosing profitability, I really can. But lets apply one extremely simple piece of logic to the equation:

 

If slicing is supposed to be a mission skill, why is the slicing trainer in the gathering professions training area? Also why is it referenced as a "gathering" skill in the codex for cybertech?

Edited April 14, 2012 by zombiemannsev

[achwas]

 

If slicing is supposed to be a mission skill, why is the slicing trainer in the gathering professions training area? Also why is it referenced as a "gathering" skill in the codex for cybertech?

 

Then why are craft skill missions schematics only gained through a slicing "collection" skill that is not honestly meant to be used as a "downtime use" of the companions in reserve ?

 

Never found a mission in a lockbox/node out in the field yet. Basically this means the end of slicing because scavenging and bio-analysis are just too useful (and their spoils sell for far more than straight credits.. 10 phobium are a straight 1,6k on my homeserver). no idea about archeology, but given the prices for weapon crystals...

[afli]

made a bug report, since there are nothing in the patch notes about this nerf, and got the reply:

 

"from time to time, based on a variety of factors, such as player metrics and other forms of feedback, the development team will make adjustments to certain things, in order to create as much balance as possible, we would like to assure you that slicing is working as intended.

 

so why not put that in the patch notes..

and balance? for my lvl 25 toon, every lockbox mission is a loss, what kind of balance is that..

sure, we got the augment thing now to make credits on, but still, doing lockbox mission is pointless, unless the companions have max af, maby even then, I dont know..

[SEGMENTUM]

Laff looks like the money missions are now only good for leveling the skill level at a slightly lower cost. Although you get mats from the other crew missions which you can sell. Guess tech parts are way to go now, but the sub-50 ones are probably worthless.

[ArianSix]

So by this logic there shouldnt be scavenging or archeology missions for parts, since they can be gathered in the wild as well....

 

I can understand the frustration around the lock box missions loosing profitability, I really can. But lets apply one extremely simple piece of logic to the equation:

 

If slicing is supposed to be a mission skill, why is the slicing trainer in the gathering professions training area? Also why is it referenced as a "gathering" skill in the codex for cybertech?

 

Logic fail.

 

Those other gathering skills bring in mats that are sold for more than the cost of the mission. Lockbox missions bring in a lockbox that is worth less than the cost of the mission. That's while those other gathering missions are not worthless.

[Parekh_]

Just adding my voice to this thread so that maybe if we get enough people BW will react and adjust Slicing. I too have used slicing in the past to keep my companions occupied while on the fleet. Not for a profit, even though there was a small one running rich lockbox missions, but it was nice obtaining mission discoveries I could use on my various toons. Now I run these missions for a net loss. No fun. Yeah, I know lockboxes are still out there in the open world. But my toons with slicing are all 50 so they pretty much stay with the fleet while I work on alts. And I assume lockboxes in the world yield less money than before. Boo.

[AmosMosses]

Aaarghhh i hate nerfs

[Frezzyisfuzzy]

Even if they don't reverse the change, someone needs to at least recognize and explain the alteration.

[STRWRSFanforLife]

Though I don't play rep side, I still have to go back to the field nodes. Anyone that simply wants to sit on the fleet and send 5 comps out and get rich are the people losing out. I took up slicing for one reason only, and it certainly wasnt for a couple hundred credit gain per 30 mins.

 

The craft missions are where the money is at in slicing. I play a BH, so no bonus to crit, but I keep all my comps at 10k aff.

 

I can confirm 100% that craft missions do drop from world nodes, though nowhere near as often, but they do. I've received a UT and BIO in the past 5 days, along with cybertech schematics...all from world nodes.

 

I play semi regularly...at least once a day, but maybe only an hour on some occasions. In the past month I have seen 2 UT missions for sale, and Scavenge, TH , Arch, and Bio missions have gone to: 40k-60k for UT and TH, the rest 10-30k (Wealthy or Prosperous...doesn't really matter).

 

Also, the Augment crafting will have to balance out, but I don't believe CT's are going to be ablet o make Augments in the first place. No doubt it was alot to read, but I don't remember reading that in the notes, and wouldn't make any sense being we've never made anything but earpieces that can accept them anyway (referring to an answer to a previous post). From what I've seen these are going to be very valuable....at least for the moment. AGain, on my server, a dropoff of 6 pages of augs to literally 4 posts. This will make them extremely valuable, and the price we sell our pieces at to make them will reflect that (for those of us that do not just accept the suggested price anyway).

 

No doubt, I just as much as anyone HATE when easy things get nerfed, but it still is not that hard to make a fortune slicing. Anyone keeping spreadsheets, make sure to either 1. Run your craft missions and include your profit of mats in your calcs or include the profit of selling the Mission itself 2. Actually leave the fleet and count world nodes and 3. Run Aug part missions and include that in profit.

 

I can't say I'm on either side. I love easy credits too, but I never made a ton off of lockbox missions where I only received a box in return anyway. So I personally do not care that I lose a cpl hundred or thousand credits in lockbox missions. The craft mats from missions, profit from missions sold, and world nodes more than make up for it and AUG missions will even out to be very profitable as we will set the market for those prices.

 

Either way,

Good Luck to All,

Mike

[jedisethjedi]

Im not sure why they would nerf slice so hard. its almosot useless now. its not worth lvling to 400 to only farm nodes. And to those that argue farming nodes is easy money, well guess what, its not worth having a crew skill take up space just to farm nodes when i can kill elites for approx same amount and gain leg xp too. I hope bw will look into this situation and understand this is not sustainable.

[Taomist]

Wow, this is really...bad. I mean...really bad. Just got 130 credits back from a level 4 Bountiful lockbox. No more crafting for me; slicing was the only way I could finance it, hehe.

[Sibonk]

Hello!

 

Because a thread about this topic already exists, we'll be closing this thread in order to consolidate discussion. We encourage you to join the existing discussion here:

 

Slicing Lockbox Changes Intended?

 

Thanks!