armstech vs. armormech

[DarthMetier]

I am a BH trying to decide if I should go with making my own weapons/mods or make my own armor. I want to know if weapons I can make with armstech are comprable with the drops I can get while questing? I like the idea of creating my own armor as well, I did that with my SW; however if the weapons I can make along the way are comprable to the mods I can place into an orange weapon I got from the hutt at level 10, then I just might make the weapons. I guess what I'm saying is that I like crafting my own gear and want to know if it would be better to craft the armor for the augment slots or to make my own weapons, both ideas I like.

[habdl]

I am a BH trying to decide if I should go with making my own weapons/mods or make my own armor. I want to know if weapons I can make with armstech are comprable with the drops I can get while questing? I like the idea of creating my own armor as well, I did that with my SW; however if the weapons I can make along the way are comprable to the mods I can place into an orange weapon I got from the hutt at level 10, then I just might make the weapons. I guess what I'm saying is that I like crafting my own gear and want to know if it would be better to craft the armor for the augment slots or to make my own weapons, both ideas I like.

If you are min-maxer, then crafting purple weapons/armor is the way to go.

Purple weapons and armor are usually way better than orange equivalent filled with blue (or even purple) mods - but you can't compare only base stat, most of the difference is in secondary stats (like power/surge/crit/def/etc.).

I'm not really sure about blue crafted stuff, damage/armor rating is of course the same, but stat-wise I don't know. I would guess crafted ones are still a bit better.

Another bonus is, that to fully mod orange weapon/armor you need three different crafting skills (armstech + cybertech + artifice for weapons, cybertech + artifice for armor) and raw material cost is also higher.

Only downside is getting recipes, to get correct combination you need (in the worst case) 3 green-to-blue REs and 4-5 blue-to-purple REs, while modding needs only 3+3 REs for armor and 4+4 for weapons.

Of course, it is easier to get orange stuff and fill it with blue mods bought by commendations and for most people this is satisfactory.

[GnatB]

For the most part, updated custom gear (i.e. fully moddable) will be roughly equivelent to updated finished (i.e. crafted gear made via synthweaving/armormech/etc.) gear*. Main difference is price. For many slots, each mod in an item takes as many or more mats to make as an entire finished items does.. and an item has 3-4 slots. Since an item also requires mods from 2-3 different crewskills to fully update, whereas a finished item is just 1 crewskill it takes significantly more mats & characters to upgrade a custom item than to make a new finished item, however much of this can be alleviated/reduced by buying mods from commendation vendors instead of making them yourself.

 

Additionally, you can keep updated with mods more frequently than with "finished items". You get more mods every other level for the important ones. Finished armor/weapon upgrades have a much larger interval. But again, there's the cost issue.

 

Final aspect is repairs. Typically, you replace finished items often enough that you rarely need to bother repairing them at all. Whereas since you're always using the same custom shell, it will take noticeable damage, and need repairing... which always feels more expensive than repairing non custom armors, the few times I've checked pricing.

 

'Course, it's easier to RE mods than it is to RE finished items. When you RE a finished item, you may not get the "right" RE at every stage. and in addition, the RE from t1 to t2 is only 10% success. When you RE a mod, you always get the next one based on the starting item, it is always a 20% success rate, and, since you get an extra mod when you crit craft, you will also get extra RE attempts.

 

* When it comes to defensive tanking gear however, finished gear is the *clear* winner. Cybertech is unable to craft any tanking modifications, (stuff with defense/shield/absorb) and they are few/far between from other sources, whereas finished items can be RE'd to gain those defensive stats.

[Teykos]

I am a BH trying to decide if I should go with making my own weapons/mods or make my own armor. I want to know if weapons I can make with armstech are comprable with the drops I can get while questing? I like the idea of creating my own armor as well, I did that with my SW; however if the weapons I can make along the way are comprable to the mods I can place into an orange weapon I got from the hutt at level 10, then I just might make the weapons. I guess what I'm saying is that I like crafting my own gear and want to know if it would be better to craft the armor for the augment slots or to make my own weapons, both ideas I like.

 

If you're a Mercenary, go Armstech. You will have a much easier time keeping your weapon up to date and most of the quest and commendation rewards are armor pieces anyway. Depending on how far you are willing to carry reverse engineering, making the blue/purple weapons is more effective than making mods in a lot of the cases. The tradeoff between the two is that it's easier to make the barrrel mod to purple and can be more picky on what stats your weapon are focusing on, but it takes more of the rarer materials keep upgrading all the weapon mods over the non-modded weapon unless you settle for whatever you can find off the rewards or GTN. You can get pretty big boosts to your secondary stats if you RE a weapon that already has a crit/power bonus and get the same boost to that too.

 

Ideally you'd roll an alt to cover Armormech too though, but not everyone has that kind of time.

Edited May 22, 2012 by Teykos
Clarification

[pokota]

Seems like Armormech would bring more to the table. You have gear covered for ALL your companions. Commendations will easily cover upgrading mods for your weapons. My first character was a Cybertech, but since I leveled up Armormech and Synthweaver alts, I barely use it anymore. If you're going to be a tank, or plan to use a tank companion, then there is no question.

[GnatB]

If you are min-maxer, then crafting purple weapons/armor is the way to go.

Purple weapons and armor are usually way better than orange equivalent filled with blue (or even purple) mods - but you can't compare only base stat, most of the difference is in secondary stats (like power/surge/crit/def/etc.).

 

Hmm... my understanding was that for offensive/healing stuff, the "finished" stuff (other than rakata+.) was roughly equivelent even at purple. Tiering up the prefix increases the secondary stats, but not really the primary, so a tiered up purple gains negligable primary, just secondary. Whereas tiered up mods gain primary, but not much secondary. Been a while since I really inspected latest build advice, (like, months, so I'll admit it's all probably changed) but I was under the impression that at pre end-game, primary stat was usually optimum for healing and DPS. (not so much tank)

[Teykos]

Hmm... my understanding was that for offensive/healing stuff, the "finished" stuff (other than rakata+.) was roughly equivelent even at purple. Tiering up the prefix increases the secondary stats, but not really the primary, so a tiered up purple gains negligable primary, just secondary. Whereas tiered up mods gain primary, but not much secondary. Been a while since I really inspected latest build advice, (like, months, so I'll admit it's all probably changed) but I was under the impression that at pre end-game, primary stat was usually optimum for healing and DPS. (not so much tank)

 

Lower level augments do not have many secondary stats at all. Tiering up the prefix, if it improves the quality (green->blue->purple), also boosts the tech power for weapons and mod weapons with barrels. That's also why it's important to keep your weapons up to date.

[GnatB]

Tiering up the prefix, if it improves the quality (green->blue->purple), also boosts the tech power for weapons and mod weapons with barrels.

 

True, but I was talking about the difference between "finished" items (i.e. crafted blues & purples) and "custom" stuff (i.e. orange or w/e with blue/purple stuff slotted in). Fairly sure they both gain force/tech/damage/armor equally, so that's irrelevant when comparing the two.

[Teykos]

True, but I was talking about the difference between "finished" items (i.e. crafted blues & purples) and "custom" stuff (i.e. orange or w/e with blue/purple stuff slotted in). Fairly sure they both gain force/tech/damage/armor equally, so that's irrelevant when comparing the two.

 

Ah, yes. The cunning/aim doesn't really go up on the standard items, just the mods. The standard items are the ones that give you a ton of the secondary stat. I will have to check when I have the game up, but I'm pretty sure getting Critical on an item already with a Critical stat bumps the secondary stat up high enough to be equivalent to or higher than even Rakata, especially after getting the quality bump(s).

[dufox]

going by endgame and math

 

armor - craft 5 items for yourself sell 1 or 2 items on the gtn (never same item to same person twice)

armstech - craft 1 weapon for yourself, augments for all armor/weapons, sell 1 or 2 weapons on gtn a day (never to the same person twice) sell 1 or 2 augments on gtn a day (can be sold to the same person 6 times or more)

 

as an added bonus armstech can craft "the chopper", which is the most sought after vibroblade in game and if you crit craft it, its worth a fortune (takes 3 biometric alloys to make)

 

armor could be better than im saying because i havnt leveled my alt enough to remember what all u can make but im 99% sure armstech has a mathematical advantage

Edited May 22, 2012 by dufox

[pokota]

going by endgame and math

 

armor - craft 5 items for yourself sell 1 or 2 items on the gtn (never same item to same person twice)

armstech - craft 1 weapon for yourself, augments for all armor/weapons, sell 1 or 2 weapons on gtn a day (never to the same person twice) sell 1 or 2 augments on gtn a day (can be sold to the same person 6 times or more)

 

as an added bonus armstech can craft "the chopper", which is the most sought after vibroblade in game and if you crit craft it, its worth a fortune (takes 3 biometric alloys to make)

 

armor could be better than im saying because i havnt leveled my alt enough to remember what all u can make but im 99% sure armstech has a mathematical advantage

 

Not sure what you mean by mathematical advantage. If you're going to count augment crafting, then the Aim and Cunning augments that Armormech can craft probably give it an advantage as far as Bounty Hunters are concerned. However, the reason I didn't mention augments before is that most people won't be able to take advantage of it while they level, not unless they have a Slicer somewhere.

 

Also, Armormech has plenty of profit potential with custom orange armor and blue/purple tanking gear, and the highest level augments sell well. I don't see either side having a significant advantage there.

[Destoroyah]

One of the questions you need to ask yourself also is how fast do you plan to lvl? Armor can take longer then arms to craft decent stuff as you got 6-7 items to try and keep up to date, but the net profit of all those benefits can outweigh arms. Arms is easier as you only have to craft 1-2 items every 3-4 lvlvs to keep up to date.

 

Another question to ask yourself is what spec you going to use. If tank or healer I'd recommend armor, if dps Arms.

 

I'd say the main difference between standard craft and orange is mainly standard craft gives you much much better specialization in the higher values of the secondary stats. i.e. surge/crit/power/etc.

[sumuji]

Powertech alt here and I decided Armor would be the better way to go. It would be easier to keep you and your companion up to date without having to worry about grinding out commendations to buy item mods for custom armor. Use those to upgrade your custom weapons. Plus you could spend time leveling up with PvP/ Flashpoints and just working on class quests without feeling like you need to do sidequests for commendations. Not to mention the PvP gear for lvl 20 and 40 which would save you some sweat.

 

At least that's my thinking.

[Teykos]

OK, some sample numbers from RE:

 

Hawkeye Pulsewave Blaster: (Level 25) (Originally Green)

 

18 Aim

27 Endurance

17 Accuracy (Originally not there, from the Tier 2 RE bonus)

36 Power (originally 19)

198 Tech Power (Originally 158)

 

Critical Elite H-44 Recon Shrieker (Level 37) (Originally Blue) (Can still RE further)

 

39 Aim

47 Endurance

67 Critical (Originally 37)

357 Tech Power (Originally 302)

15 Surge

 

Hmm...I had thought there were a few guns with more of the primary stat than endurance, but looks like those are just the cunning pistols for Smugglers.

 

I don't have samples for modded barrels in the weapon unfortunately, but the End/Aim would probably be switched, ideally.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Teykos

[habdl]

Hmm... my understanding was that for offensive/healing stuff, the "finished" stuff (other than rakata+.) was roughly equivelent even at purple. Tiering up the prefix increases the secondary stats, but not really the primary, so a tiered up purple gains negligable primary, just secondary. Whereas tiered up mods gain primary, but not much secondary. Been a while since I really inspected latest build advice, (like, months, so I'll admit it's all probably changed) but I was under the impression that at pre end-game, primary stat was usually optimum for healing and DPS. (not so much tank)

Yes, "finished" stuff will have lower primary stats, but these are usually overcompensated by secondary stats. In raw damage output, 1 power is stronger than 1 aim - unless you have something like x% boost to aim as passive skill + inquisitor/consular boost (not sure about aim, but with 9% cunning boost, cunning stat was on par with power [slightly better because of +crit it provides] if inqui/cons boost was present). Furthermore, lower level armorings, barrels, mods and enhancements don't have any surge or alacrity at all, so "finished" weapons and armor are the only option if you want this. Edited May 28, 2012 by habdl