Armormech and Synthweaving are pointless

[Madprophetus]

OK, so I don't get why Armormech can make armor, which is made up of armoring, but can't make armoring? That's pretty odd.

 

Artifice/Armstech can both make hilts and barrels, respectively. Why armormech (which makes subpar gear once you start getting into instances) can't make Armoring mods is beyond me.

 

Just to break it down, here's each trade and what they make:

 

Artifice/Armstech:

Main/Off Hand Weapons

Hilts/Barrels

 

Biochem:

Adrenals

MedPacks

Stims

Implants

 

Synthweaving/Armortech:

Armor

 

Cybertech:

Droid Armor

Droid Parts

Droid Motors

Mod Slot Items for EVERY item

Armoring Mods

Mounts

Grenades

Gadgets

Earpieces

 

I don't understand why armormech and synthweaving both make gear that is absolutely inferior to orange dropped gear with cybertech mods. Artifice/Armstech both complement the orange gear concept really well. I am hoping it's an oversight that leaves armormech out there in irrelevant space and that it will be corrected.

[Repefe]

OK, so I don't get why Armormech can make armor, which is made up of armoring, but can't make armoring? That's pretty odd.

 

Artifice/Armstech can both make hilts and barrels, respectively. Why armormech (which makes subpar gear once you start getting into instances) can't make Armoring mods is beyond me.

 

Once you get into instances ... making subpar armoring will help you how ?

[Corran]

Once you get into instances ... making subpar armoring will help you how ?

 

read his post before you reply, as that was his point

 

armormech should be able to make armoring mods. synthweaving is the only source of enhancements and i dont see a need to give it armoring too

[Madprophetus]

It doesn't. With every slot you replace with orange armor, armormech/synthweave becomes increasingly useless.

 

It's just... odd. Such a timesink for ho-hum rewards. Armormech should be making orange gear, not crappy greens.

[Twilights_Herald]

It doesn't. With every slot you replace with orange armor, armormech/synthweave becomes increasingly useless.

 

It's just... odd. Such a timesink for ho-hum rewards. Armormech should be making orange gear, not crappy greens.

 

 

It does make Orange gear, and you do need a relatively high skill rank to make it. But you don't get the orange schematics for free - they come from Underworld Trading (and possibly Investigation) missions. These can then be created and have a chance for an Augment (4th) slot, making them better than the gear dropped from instances.

 

Incidentally, it also makes purple gear that can be equivalent to the as-is orange drops from a similar flashpoint - you RE the green to make a blue, then the Blues you make to make a purple schematic for yourself.

[Rafkin]

It doesn't. With every slot you replace with orange armor, armormech/synthweave becomes increasingly useless.

 

It's just... odd. Such a timesink for ho-hum rewards. Armormech should be making orange gear, not crappy greens.

 

This just isn't true. Take a piece of orange armor, put the best mods you can find in it, and an armortech can make a piece just as good that requires no mods.

 

An artifact quality piece of armor is the same as an orange armor full of artifact quality mods. Just much cheaper and easier to maintain.

 

The ONLY benefit to using orange armor is you can keep a look for that you like.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Rafkin

[Aximand]

It does make Orange gear, and you do need a relatively high skill rank to make it. But you don't get the orange schematics for free - they come from Underworld Trading (and possibly Investigation) missions. These can then be created and have a chance for an Augment (4th) slot, making them better than the gear dropped from instances.

 

Incidentally, it also makes purple gear that can be equivalent to the as-is orange drops from a similar flashpoint - you RE the green to make a blue, then the Blues you make to make a purple schematic for yourself.

 

I've got Armormech on my BH at around 220 skill level and one problem I've found is that I've spent, easily, 50,000 credits on it, and only made around 7,000 back. One big problem is that, for some stupid reason, I keep getting Synthweaving schematics from my Underworld Metal missions, and the Armormech Schematics that I DO get are all republic class required. Its a bit of a fiasco right now, and I'm thinking of dropping it soon if it doesn't start to pan out. Right now, all Armormech is is a hole to throw money into.

[Rafkin]

If you plan on sticking with a certain set of orange armor then armormech has nothing to offer you. If you want the best armor at the cheapest price, then armormech is perfect.

 

For some reason people think that orange armor with mods is better gear. Its just not true. Orange armor full of green mods is equal to green armor an armormech can make. Orange armor with purple mods is equal to the purple armor that an armormech can make.

 

I have a toon doing cybertech and he has 3 orange items and its a pain in the butt upgrading mods every 2 levels (and I can even make half of them myself).

 

Armormech is a much better way to go if you're not super picky about how you look.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Rafkin

[Aximand]

If you plan on sticking with a certain set of orange armor then armormech has nothing to offer you. If you want the best armor at the cheapest price, then armormech is perfect.

 

For some reason people think that orange armor with mods is better gear. Its just not true. Orange armor full of green mods is equal to green armor an armormech can make. Orange armor with purple mods is equal to the purple armor that an armormech can make.

 

I have a toon doing cybertech and he has 3 orange items and its a pain in the butt upgrading mods every 2 levels (and I can even make half of them myself).

 

Armormech is a much better way to go if you're not super picky about how you look.

 

Frankly, with the commendation system for planets its cheaper to maintain mod gear than it is to replace gear with set stats once you get a full set of orange.

[Xallis]

Not really buying this as I have made some incredible armor that is level 15 (purple) that is better than I can upgrade my level 15 orange. It also has some nice benefits like +3 crit that I am not seeing on the orange stuff (at that level at least). I have found synthweaving to be awesome. I did not craft in beta and I notice a big difference in the live with crafted gear.

[Korialstrazs]

I'm wearing mostly purple gear I've crafted, every single piece is a redoubt defense/shield stat. I can only customize oranges better if I get higher level mods, my purple gear is awesome.

[Rafkin]

[

 

Not really. By the time you have the commendations you've outleveled the mods on the vendors.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Rafkin

[Iram]

I've got Armormech on my BH at around 220 skill level and one problem I've found is that I've spent, easily, 50,000 credits on it, and only made around 7,000 back. One big problem is that, for some stupid reason, I keep getting Synthweaving schematics from my Underworld Metal missions, and the Armormech Schematics that I DO get are all republic class required. Its a bit of a fiasco right now, and I'm thinking of dropping it soon if it doesn't start to pan out. Right now, all Armormech is is a hole to throw money into.

 

I'm at 222 Armor / 197 underworld / 234 salvaging. After all that, $50k sounds low. Wouldn't surprise me if my cost is closer to twice that. Every time I level, the first thing I do is go estimate the training costs for my next level, otherwise I'd end up spending every credit I have on crew missions.

 

Crafting skills aren't about making money; they're about having gear. In general, about half the armor I wear is stuff I crafted.

[Aximand]

I'm at 222 Armor / 197 underworld / 234 salvaging. After all that, $50k sounds low. Wouldn't surprise me if my cost is closer to twice that. Every time I level, the first thing I do is go estimate the training costs for my next level, otherwise I'd end up spending every credit I have on crew missions.

 

Crafting skills aren't about making money; they're about having gear. In general, about half the armor I wear is stuff I crafted.

 

Honestly it wouldn't surprise me if the total Armormech/Scavenging/Trading was three times that. I've had to spend an ungodly amount of credits just to keep it afloat and stay competitive with my schematics compared to the commendation vendor and Flashpoint gear.

 

Also, crafting skills are about making money, no one would do spend money on leveling them if people wouldn't want to buy the gear they make.

[Ravensroke]

The stuff you can craft via armormech is almost on par with instance or commendation gear of the same level after level 25 or so, and can be RE-ed to get a blue recipe as well.

 

I'm sitting at level 42 and haven't had anything but weapons and implants to spend my commendations on for the last 10 levels thanks to armormech.

 

Great skill, looks to be useful to get some starter heroic/raid gear after level 50 thanks to being able to reverse engineer blues and purples.

[Ohoni]

Take a piece of orange armor, put the best mods you can find in it, and an armortech can make a piece just as good that requires no mods.

 

True-ish. Except for two things. One, the orange armor you can choose a look you like, and continue to use it indefinitely, while with a non-orange piece, it's only useful for a fixed level range, any earlier and you can't equip it, any later and it's obsolete. Two, while the Armormeched piece of gear might be equal to or better than your orange piece at its specific level range, given a few levels it will become obsolete, and will need to be replaced completely for a higher cost than the mods needed to upgrade an orange armor, and you can also upgrade the orange armor in "installments", a piece at a time as you have the funds and levels required to do so, rather than needing to do it all at once. Orange is forever.

 

Also, it's easy to keep orange armor upgraded with blue Commendation mods, while blue crafted armor is ridiculously expensive to make.

 

Not really. By the time you have the commendations you've outleveled the mods on the vendors.

 

It's usually still a significant improvement over what I'm capable of crafting.

 

I'm at 222 Armor / 197 underworld / 234 salvaging. After all that, $50k sounds low. Wouldn't surprise me if my cost is closer to twice that. Every time I level, the first thing I do is go estimate the training costs for my next level, otherwise I'd end up spending every credit I have on crew missions.

 

Crafting skills aren't about making money; they're about having gear. In general, about half the armor I wear is stuff I crafted.

 

And yet I just got to Nar Shaddaa, have pretty solid gear for my level, including several pieces of orange gear (fully upgraded using Taris commendation mods, but ready to take Nar mods soon) I've got from mission rewards and commendations (and a pair of purple pants I looted on Taris), and have $70K in the bank at level 23, likely twice that by 30, even after buying a speeder or two. And I have around 120 or more in Armormech, whatever it is that can craft level appropriate Chanlon gear, I just only tend to craft the minimum needed to fill out my own gear and then craft the simplest stuff repeatedly to rank it up, belts and gloves and such.

 

If I wanted to spend as much money as you guys are talking about on my gear, it'd probably be much cheaper to just buy the fancy stuff off the rip-off "Specialty" vendors.

[Rafkin]

Your statements are just not true. Sorry. I'm not trying to be difficult..

 

If your goal is to have the best armor for your level it is far easier with armormech. You say that you have to replace your armor but you have to do the same with mods and getting them from commendations is going to keep you behind 3-4 levels.

 

The ONLY reason to not like armormech is if you want a certain look. If you want to use orange armor then armormech has nothing to offer you. Otherwise, it is far superior.

 

Have you tried to find 6 purple mods for you orange legs/ chest? Its much easier and much cheaper to just buy purple legs and chest. You have to upgrade your mods just as often as I have to craft a new set of armor. The difference is I can be self sufficient.

[Bammur]

Frankly, with the commendation system for planets its cheaper to maintain mod gear than it is to replace gear with set stats once you get a full set of orange.

 

This is only true if you have 2 or 3 orange at most. I started to lose any wish to level armourmech as I got orange gear, until I realized that with multiple pieces it was near impossible to get enough mods to keep it up to level. I have moved most of my orange gear to the bank for now, with the exception of my sniper rifle. The gear I'm making is as good as equvilent level fully modded gear and I can concentrate on maxing my gun.

 

Also, for the most part, I'm not thrillled with the look of the orange gear I have found or made so far.

 

YMMV.

[Ohoni]

If your goal is to have the best armor for your level it is far easier with armormech. You say that you have to replace your armor but you have to do the same with mods and getting them from commendations is going to keep you behind 3-4 levels.

 

Replacing my mods doesn't change my appearance, and while I may not be on the absolute cutting edge at all times, I will at least be within the competitive range. If I were Cybertech I could craft mods to stay much closer to the ideal curve.

 

The ONLY reason to not like armormech is if you want a certain look. If you want to use orange armor then armormech has nothing to offer you.

 

Exactly. Case Closed.

 

Have you tried to find 6 purple mods for you orange legs/ chest? Its much easier and much cheaper to just buy purple legs and chest. You have to upgrade your mods just as often as I have to craft a new set of armor. The difference is I can be self sufficient.

 

It would be easier to learn and make six purple mods using Cyber than it would be to learn and make six different purple Armor recipes.

[Greyfeld]

Replacing my mods doesn't change my appearance, and while I may not be on the absolute cutting edge at all times, I will at least be within the competitive range. If I were Cybertech I could craft mods to stay much closer to the ideal curve.

 

 

 

Exactly. Case Closed.

 

Nobody is saying one way is better than the other. The fantastic thing about Bioware's decision to go with this sort of gear system is that it allows the player to decide his path to the greatest levels of gear.

 

 

It would be easier to learn and make six purple mods using Cyber than it would be to learn and make six different purple Armor recipes.

 

I'm not sure I understand your argument. If you only need 6 purple mods, that means you're only gearing two pieces of equipment. Which means 2 different purple armor recipes for an equivalent level of gear.

[ryancwn]

OK, so I don't get why Armormech can make armor, which is made up of armoring, but can't make armoring? That's pretty odd.

 

Artifice/Armstech can both make hilts and barrels, respectively. Why armormech (which makes subpar gear once you start getting into instances) can't make Armoring mods is beyond me.

 

Just to break it down, here's each trade and what they make:

 

Artifice/Armstech:

Main/Off Hand Weapons

Hilts/Barrels

 

Biochem:

Adrenals

MedPacks

Stims

Implants

 

Synthweaving/Armortech:

Armor

 

Cybertech:

Droid Armor

Droid Parts

Droid Motors

Mod Slot Items for EVERY item

Armoring Mods

Mounts

Grenades

Gadgets

Earpieces

 

I don't understand why armormech and synthweaving both make gear that is absolutely inferior to orange dropped gear with cybertech mods. Artifice/Armstech both complement the orange gear concept really well. I am hoping it's an oversight that leaves armormech out there in irrelevant space and that it will be corrected.

 

Artifice can also make Enhancement and colour crystal. So Artifice alone can make 3 of the mod for lightsabre.

[Ohoni]

Nobody is saying one way is better than the other. The fantastic thing about Bioware's decision to go with this sort of gear system is that it allows the player to decide his path to the greatest levels of gear.

 

I am saying exactly that, I'm saying that Cybertech is definitely and measurably superior to both Armormech and Synthweaving.

 

I'm not sure I understand your argument. If you only need 6 purple mods, that means you're only gearing two pieces of equipment. Which means 2 different purple armor recipes for an equivalent level of gear.

 

Ok, fair enough, I didn't make my point clearly. What I had intended to say was that it would be easier to use Cybertech to learn to make two different types of purple mods and then crank out six of each to outfit orange gear (as I understand it Enhancement mods need to come from elsewhere), than it would be to independently learn to craft six different types of armor to purple level and then make one of each. The latter path would require on average three times more failed REing to learn all the appropriate schematics, and each attempt would tend to cost more in resources than each attempt in the former path.

 

Can anyone run the numbers on that one? Assuming a fairly generous average of only five attempts to successfully arrive at a next-tier schematic, and setting aside for the moment that in many cases the first schematic you draw isn't going to have the stats you're looking for, what would be the total material costs of constructing:

 

All level 30-ish gear:

5 Green Armoring mods -> 5 blue Armoring mods -> 6 Purple Armoring mods (to finally equip)

5 Green Mod mods -> 5 blue Mod mods -> 6 Purple Mod mods (to finally equip)

Total: 10 Green's worth, 10 blue's worth, 12 purple's worth

 

vs.

 

5 Green Chests -> 5 Blue Chests -> 1 Purple Chest

5 Green Legs -> 5 Blue Legs -> 1 Purple Legs

5 Green Gloves -> 5 Blue Gloves -> 1 Purple Gloves

5 Green Bracers -> 5 Blue Bracers -> 1 Purple Bracers

5 Green Boots -> 5 Blue Boots -> 1 Purple Boots

5 Green Belt -> 5 Blue Belt -> 1 Purple Belt

Total: 30 greens' worth, 30 blues's worth, six purple's worth

 

Which has higher material costs in total? Also, would those gear be of equivalent value at that point, or would one be stronger than the other?

[Fdzzaigl]

Whatever result the discussion of modded gear vs non-modded might eventually turn up (someone will likely start the spreadsheets soon)...

 

I think one question remains clear: why can't armormechs / synthweavers craft more orange items?

 

Sets of craftable orange gear would be sought after and cybertechs too would profit (even more) due to increased demand for mods.

Edited December 21, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[hadoken]

Whatever result the discussion of modded gear vs non-modded might eventually turn up (someone will likely start the spreadsheets soon)...

 

I think one question remains clear: why can't armormechs / synthweavers craft more orange items?

 

Sets of craftable orange gear would be sought after and cybertechs too would profit (even more) due to increased demand for mods.

 

They can, the issue is finding the schematics. Currently it's very hard to get many of them with underworld due to it providing schematics for synth as well AND having both faction's gear showing up.

[Fdzzaigl]

They can, the issue is finding the schematics. Currently it's very hard to get many of them with underworld due to it providing schematics for synth as well AND having both faction's gear showing up.

 

I wasn't aware, and that says quite a bit since I have put a decent bit of time in this.

 

Things are kind of mixed up with the mission skills, I personally dropped UT since it's much more profitable to simply buy stuff and generate money for that with slicing.