Armormech, Totally worthles? (Mod'able armor Rant)

[kodrac]

With orange armor, you're replacing the mods every few levels anyways, though, so it's really no better. Sure, the mods are individually cheaper, but guess what -- you need more of them, so it's not really any "easier."

 

In fact, with orange armor, you can't even replace all the mods yourself; you need a cybertech AND an artificer to get max stats per level out of it.

 

Also, don't fool yourself. Cybertechs aren't making money hand over foot, either, because non-cybertechs just use commendations to cheaply mod out their armor.

 

The crafting market is, at its core, a vanity market. Once you entrench yourself as a crafter, and collect a variety of orange schematics, you become about delivering the LOOK people want. They can and will get the stats they want for free via quests throughout the levelling process.

 

 

Exactly. Good post!

[TechMaestro]

My only problem with the current system is that even with the best craftable orange gear, it will NOT be better than the best raid gear you can get.

 

You might be able to get away with crafting PvP gear which is better than what you get in game but that's about it.

 

The only real way to 'save' armorcraft and synthweaving is by making available unique looking recipes which are as good as end game gear.

[OSUNightfall]

My only problem with the current system is that even with the best craftable orange gear, it will NOT be better than the best raid gear you can get.

 

You might be able to get away with crafting PvP gear which is better than what you get in game but that's about it.

 

The only real way to 'save' armorcraft and synthweaving is by making available unique looking recipes which are as good as end game gear.

 

If they're smart, like WoW, there will be some recipes, only a couple, that are best-in-slot and are crafted. There may not be now, I realize.

[Sticksabbi]

With orange armor, you're replacing the mods every few levels anyways, though, so it's really no better. Sure, the mods are individually cheaper, but guess what -- you need more of them, so it's not really any "easier."

 

In fact, with orange armor, you can't even replace all the mods yourself; you need a cybertech AND an artificer to get max stats per level out of it.

As I stated in my earlier post once you get orange slots in all of your slots it becomes surprisingly easy to keep your armor fairly top end. Mostly due to a kind of trickle down effect that starts happening. Right now most of the pieces I'm wearing are BETTER than anything I can make and that's just using commendation mods.

 

Also, don't fool yourself. Cybertechs aren't making money hand over foot, either, because non-cybertechs just use commendations to cheaply mod out their armor.

I never said nor implied that you make a bunch of money off of cybertech. And I didn't expect or hope to make a bunch of money off of armortech either. I was just wanting to rely on armormech for all or most of my armor needs. Now it seems I'm relying more on cybertech to keep my armor up to date so to speak.

 

The crafting market is, at its core, a vanity market. Once you entrench yourself as a crafter, and collect a variety of orange schematics, you become about delivering the LOOK people want.

I'm guessing you haven't really thought this whole argument through and it shows here. Are you saying that biomed and cybertech are 'vanity' trade skills? "Hey Jane that permanent health buff looks totally sexy on you.", "Aww, thanks Jim Say those grenades you got there are great they totally match your chestplate and Earpiece." That's a conversation you'll never hear in the imperial fleet.

 

Now I can assume you meant armormech/synthweaving, but I still don't like the idea that armor crafter's are going to apparantly be glorified fashion designers in this game.

 

They can and will get the stats they want for free via quests throughout the levelling process.

I was able to do a pretty good job keeping up with the quest rewards/drops up with my crafted armormech gear up until about lvl 25-27 when I started replacing all my crafted gear with orange. It might not work the same with cybertech but I don't see why this wouldn't be the case there. Since, I'm not I'll just have to defer to you on this one.

[Sticksabbi]

So, this guy shows why 90% of this thread is made up of people that don't understand the crafting system, and everyone ignores him. Look! Up above! It's why Armormech and Synth are BETTER than the oranges you get from drops! Can you get a critically crafted drop? No? End of thread.

 

With a minimal effort I can keep my orange gear on par with the stuff I've crit crafted/reverse engineered. And the orange items looks better... It's undocumented whether or not you can crit on crafted oranges despite what this guy says. There's a reason a lot of people ignored this guy. Additionally, it's a lot easier to say "you can critically craft an item to be as good as an orange" than it is to actually do it and more specifically get the particular crit you want to get.

 

My merc bounty hunter could care less about that crit RE that got me a schematic for +15 def rating to my boots.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Sticksabbi

[JediMoose]

I dont think many of the posters saying that orange suck dont understand how things work.

 

In any orange you can do this

 

Armor: http://www.torhead.com/item/fVPLV6o

Ench: http://www.torhead.com/item/hhCsl2t

Mod: http://www.torhead.com/item/8SA1cAe

 

You armor is going to be VASTLY better than anything you can get from crafting greens to get a crit to de into another recipe to hope for a purple that you hope can crit for the mastercrafted title.

 

Orange is one craft, everything else is a long and EXPENSE process that is not garunteed to happen

[Rorichan]

As a Synthweaver and a guild member, I picked this up to help my guild.

 

However, there is a member of my guild who has no life and has a higher Synthweaving level than me. So, I've concentrated on getting my level up as high as I can and getting as many orange schematics as I can. It's not easy but I have managed to get some through Underworld Trading as well as managed to crit an augment slot on some of them.

 

I still think that Armortech and Synthweaving are worthwhile crafting skills to have. Orange gear, or at least GOOD orange gear, isn't always the easiest to get. It has been stated that there is an orange version of almost all dropped armor in the game.

 

I intend to find out if that's true.

[Sticksabbi]

Orange is one craft, everything else is a long and EXPENSE process that is not garunteed to happen

 

QFT!!! If your an unlucky SoB like myself you may never get what you want.

[Infernal_Marquis]

So, I've concentrated on getting my level up as high as I can and getting as many orange schematics as I can. It's not easy but I have managed to get some through Underworld Trading as well as managed to crit an augment slot on some of them.

 

pics of the crit on orange or it didnt happen

[DrDoobious]

So basically... what most of the whiners on this thread are complaining about it is that y'all want it handed to you on a plate without having to interact with other players? Seriously, what is the point of playing an MMO if you're going to complain about the elements of gameplay which encourage you to interact with others?

If you don't have any friends you could always try the galactic market but do remember - its less than a week since launch day so the market won't have settled down yet.

 

Oh and as for the complaints that crafted armor wont ever be as good as flashpoint reward armor... quit complaining! It's an MMO! Of COURSE armor given as rewards from flashpoints will be better - again, this is to encourage taking part in the mulitplayer aspects of play.

 

Seriously!!!! Why is this so difficult to comprehend for 'experienced' MMOers? Oh yeah...cuz you all just jumped ship from WoW where you got to level 50 then kept playing with the same maxed out character for 5 years instead of enjoying the challenge!

[Korialstrazs]

I dont think many of the posters saying that orange suck dont understand how things work.

 

In any orange you can do this

 

Armor: http://www.torhead.com/item/fVPLV6o

Ench: http://www.torhead.com/item/hhCsl2t

Mod: http://www.torhead.com/item/8SA1cAe

 

You armor is going to be VASTLY better than anything you can get from crafting greens to get a crit to de into another recipe to hope for a purple that you hope can crit for the mastercrafted title.

 

Orange is one craft, everything else is a long and EXPENSE process that is not garunteed to happen

 

Except, those blue mods are equivilant to crafting a single blue piece, which is the easiest thing in the world, and takes maybe 2-3 RE. Meanwhile I've been able to fill near every slot with purple since I started synthweaving. To equal me, you'd need to have a purple in every mod slot, that means you'd need to get two purple recipes for you, and one from someone else, and make enough to fill your entire set of gear.

 

I can supply all I need to make myself great, if I was cyber/artifice, I'd always need to go to someone else, and often.

 

Example level 27 orange piece with blue mods

 

36 end

35 will

10 def

armor 68 rating

 

Example level 27 crafted blue

 

31 end

21 will

20 defense

14 power

14 crit

armor 74 rating

 

The crafted blue is something I am using right now, one of the few slots I didn't make a purple item for. Next level it is being replaced by a better purple, the new gloves are only three levels higher, but it was easy to get a better version of a higher recipe.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Korialstrazs

[Repefe]

Armortech is better than Cybertech. You create gear that is visible. Cybertech creates small nameless mods. Much more satisfying to craft armor than mods. You also get to change your appearance and not stick to one look forever.

 

Also it's better for leveling up since you can gear your companions in addition to yourself.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Repefe

[-Johnny-Shadow]

ok just to clarify have anyone here actualy made a mastercrafter armortech??

 

if not stop ranting about low lvl stuff, wait untill u get to 50 then start ranting.

[Irullnae]

No "info" yet?

[XcSDeadDeer]

I'm going to do some research before forming my complete argument. So far, I agree as the basic lvl 50 gear isnt near a good as the mods/ehancements i can get from commendation vendors. However, im gonna take some time/money to RE lvl 50 purple armor schematics and see that stat differences. If its not worth it, hopefully Bioware adds some crafting recipes. If they dont, I just wont waste more money

[_Flin_]

I'm going to do some research before forming my complete argument. So far, I agree as the basic lvl 50 gear isnt near a good as the mods/ehancements i can get from commendation vendors. However, im gonna take some time/money to RE lvl 50 purple armor schematics and see that stat differences. If its not worth it, hopefully Bioware adds some crafting recipes. If they dont, I just wont waste more money

 

Are the artifact armors up to par with the commendation gear?

Cybertech mods are worse.

But isnt there rakata gear that armormechs can make?

From the raid recipes?

 

I'd be careful before trying to create purples. It takes a lot of money and time to get artifact schmats from RE. 30 REs are not unusual. Be sure it is worth it before you start.

[Shortstahk]

Has anyone determined if it's possible to crit on orange moddable craftable gear to get an augment slot on it?

 

A guildie Artifice crit on a moddable lvl 50 Saber. Had the typical slots (Crystal, hilt, mod, enhancement) + and open Augment Slot.

 

What I'm trying to determine is if it is possible to also crit on an Armor and get the 3 mod slots (Armor, Mod, Enhancement) + an open augment slot.

 

So far I've crafted ~35 orange armors (of lower level to save on mat costs) as an experiment and so far no crit with an augment slot. Mind you, it's post 1.1 patch and the item isn't lvl 50.

 

Theories:

1. it's not possible on anything but sabers

2. it's only possible on lvl 50 gear? (currently testing on a lvl 15 Lower Robe schematic)

3. it's possible and it just hasn't occurred yet

 

Anyone else have any input?

[Madprophetus]

I would be OK with armormech if we could reverse engineer orange pieces of gear to learn the orange recipes with a -100%- success rate. That would make it feel balanced to me. If our big strength is supposed to be making gear that looks cool, it would be nice to have easy access to cool looking recipes.

[Lsya]

Armormech is definitely pointless. So is Synthweaving.

 

Why?

 

Orange gear (which we can't craft) looks FAR cooler than armor we can. The stuff we make is very crappy looking. A white sweatsuit? Really?

 

Looks in an mmorpg are very important. The class that makes armor should be able to make at least one great looking set of each type of armor with mod slots. Creating endless iterations of green crap just to RE to make blue crap just to RE it to make purple crap is actually kind of cool - but lacking customizable gear is a huge mistake with armormech.

 

Armormech should be all about customizable armor, and armoring mods. Why cybertech needs to be Jewelcrafting + Enchanting + Engineering is beyond me.

 

 

That's odd. The best looking orange gear I have came from crafting.

[MaverickXIV]

Can't armormechs make orange armor to put up on the neutral GTN?

[Kelticfury]

From the perspective of a consumer, I am finding that the stuff I buy off the GTN for use in levelling has all been crafted by a player.

 

Dunno if this really means much, because it could be that the good drops are bop or put to use instead of being sold.

 

But to me, crafted armor and weapons seems to be the stuff I buy due to its better stats at the same level as the other stuff.

[Smokey_swtor]

I have been crafting and purpling armor with crits @ 400.

 

I have tried selling it all on the GTN (same faction, and neutral faction) and no matter what the price is, they always come back to me.

 

I have even tried GIVING the armor away to guild members and been told that the orange, pvp and etc are better. Because honestly... they are...

 

You can make the rakata belt and bracers @ 400 but that is it. AND they are BOP

 

Also, all the recipies from hard modes and such are ALL BOP. with the exception of the following:

 

Dalarian Eliminator bracers recipe from false emperor (Hard mode)

They require 2 items that ONLY drop from hard modes (1 per run) to make them and they have been sitting on the GTN for almost a week at 200K,150K,100K,75K,50K,30K,20k credits and no on wants them.. SERIOUSLY!!!! the recipe drops from a hard mode, 2 mats are required from hard modes to make it and the item is still ****...

 

I dont know if it is my server or what but armormech has very little return if any at 400.

compaired to most other crafts.

 

the next time I log on, this skill is getting dropped. its just not worth the effort or the credits to be viable enough for end game AT ALL.

 

For those that stick with this, I hope it works out for you. Cause its not for me or any other person I know that is Armormech as well.

Edited January 21, 2012 by Smokey_swtor

[TheGreatRakatan]

I have a question about this, because I don't really understand the OP's concern and I want to understand.

 

Let's say I have a choice between the following two chest pieces (these are all purely made up)

 

Piece 1(orange piece I found 7 levels ago):

109 armor

3 slots totaling +20 End and +30 Cunning.

 

vs

 

Piece 2 (crafted):

227 armor

No slots, +20 End and +30 Cunning

 

Why would I NOT use the crafted one? I save the expense of buying mods, I get more armor, and I can rip out the mods and slap them in my blaster or some other piece of armor with slightly inferior mods.

 

This is the same experience I've had with my Armstech manufacturing except the armor rating was the base damage stats for my pistol. They didn't go up AFAIK, so I took out the mods and replaced the pistol with something I'd crafted that did more damage and had at least equal stats.

 

Thanks for your help and I'm curious about what I might be missing about advantages of just continuously modding to keep the stats current.

 

You don't even need to buy mods! You can get them for free with commendations that you get on every planet. If you are buying mods with money, then you are buying them from Cybertechs, so the Armormech hasn't won in any way.

[Anishor]

Finding a purple piece of armor is generally less expensive and easier to obtain than purple modifications for your armor.

 

Also once purple items become fully modable again, armortech ( and synthweaving ) will be the best means of CUSTOMIZING your look because the only really matching sets come from these crafting professions. There are lootable sets but most of them aren't fully moddable across all pieces.