Is Crafting Purples Broken?

[Kabolt]

Hi, I have been thinking about posting this for months, but my head say's leave it, who really cares....

Well the problem is I do.

 

I enjoy levelling every bit as much as the end game content, and while levelling a toon I'd like to craft the very best I can, which should mean purples in each peace of gear.

 

My problem is not reverse engineering the Armour, Mods or Enhancements to create the purple schematics ( although this is a very costly process), but it is in trying to acquire enough purple mates to make the purple gear.

 

A typical example would be armour/mods level 9 - 21, these all take or use 2 purples each of either Alusteel or Agrinium. These although difficult to acquire are not impossible to get either via the GTN or companion missions.

However once you hit the 25 - 31 level you'll need 4 Krayt Dragon Scale's per item crafted.

 

So how do we acquire these, first of all we do not just need 4, we need 4 per item crafted, which adds up to...

say 7 pieces of moddable gear per toon, that's 28 Krayt Dragon Scales for the armour, with a further 28 for the mods and the Enhancements need 4 Krayt Dragon Pearls per item, lets say 24 per level.

 

So to mod a full set of gear at level 25 I need 56 Krayt Dragon Scales and 24 Krayt Dragon Pearls, plus all the other mates required.

 

Option 1 - If I try to get these via companion missions, I estimate 1 in every 10 Rich missions will yield 2 purple mates, and these missions take about 18 minutes each, also in order to get the Rich missions, I'll have to run several other missions to make the Rich missions available to me. The actual frequency that the Krayt Dragon mates drop is dependent on both your companions skill set, i.e. if they crit in underworld trading and the level of affection they have for you.

 

Option 2 - The GTN, well at the time of writing this I have just cleaned it out, I purchased 7 Krayt Dragon scales at a cost of 5.6K each, all of these where sold by one person.

As a matter of interest I need the same amount of Xenolite mates to craft the blues in order to reverse engineer them to purples, these where only available from 3 sellers in batches of 50, 64 and 99, at a cost of 1.3K per unit.

 

How I do not have a problem with people buying from the GTN and then reselling at inflated prices, this is commerce, not very handy in my situation, but a fact of life.

 

I am more concerned about the short supply available on the GTN, considering 1000's of people play at any one time.

 

Option 3 - Running crafting missions, these are equally impossible to acquire in the required quantity, I would have to be running several accounts and toons at one time to source the correct missions for my needs, not happening.

 

Conclusions - I ask myself why is it so hard to craft a low level item, or rather why have they designed the game like this, crafting should be as enjoyable as the rest of the game.

 

If this was end of game gear, I could understand it, but for low level gear that'll only be used for a few levels at best then it has to be replaced, I really don't see the point of it.

 

I would like it to be much easier to make this gear, I would like to be able to re-use the gear I make on other toons in my account, if it was legacy bound it would not be wasted.

 

But at the very least, I feel the frequency that we can obtain these mates should be increased, also the amount required per item should be reduced, this is not lvl27 gear, this is lvl 10 throw away gear.

 

Bioware, feel my pain....

[annabethchase]

Purples are supposed to be a reward for those of us with multiple toons that have built up these materials over time. They are certainly overpowered compared to mobs of the same level as you. They are fun to put in your armor if you can, but should in no way be made easier to acquire.

[Harsisus]

So basically, OP wants high quality gear and materials to be cheap to farm, cheap to make, and cheap to buy.

 

This effectively makes it average, not high quality.

[Jamagh]

I never worry about crafting the purple mods and armourings. I just RE the greens to get the blue ones. What makes me mad, is that in cybertech there is no tanking mods. endurance over aim or strength. I can buy those mods from the planet com vendor, but I can't make them. Oh well... at least there is a crafting system in this game that allows you to make things that are somewhat useful. unlike another MMO.

[asbalana]

I don't think that crafting purples is broken, rather working as intended. I think that the concept behind purple gear is to keep it rare and somewhat unique and hard to acquire.

 

That said, it is not hard to be fully geared in purples throughout the entire leveling process. To do so, you do not acquire the purple mats as you go, but build a reserve ahead. If you have two toons with UT and constantly run metal missions, you can end up with a cargo hold full of purples to se when you levele your next toon. Missions though slicing hits also return a bunch of purples. I have at least 300 pieces of UT purple mats at each level by doing that and if I were to level a new character could keep him geared in purples from 10 to 50 without making a dent in my reserves. That is especially true if I am running missions on my alts as I level the current character and replace what I use.

 

My experience after leveling one character in purples was that it was way overkill. My own feeling is that a character in full blues with perhaps purple hilts, barrels, and implants is still a good deal ahead of what is needed at any point in the game. I, like everyone, like the purples, but don't feel that it is worth the resources to build gear that is disposed of every four levels or so.

[s_w_sanders]

I've never seen the point in all purple armor, it's way overkill. Blue works great at any level even if you mix it in with some green gear. The only person I have in almost all purple is t-7 but I have two people trained in underworld trading so I can do that easily. Just craft a purple chest piece and maybe purple leggings and it should be fine.

[Urantia]

Purples are supposed to be a reward for those of us with multiple toons that have built up these materials over time. They are certainly overpowered compared to mobs of the same level as you. They are fun to put in your armor if you can, but should in no way be made easier to acquire.

 

Pretty much this. The best strategy is to plan ahead on the toons you would like to make and start saving. With the introduction of legacy gear {which is all over the place now} you can even pull mods out and save them for another toon and pass them down. This is especially helpful if, for example, you have plans for similar toons that use similar stats. So long gone are the days of having to literally recraft everything over and over...which, of course, saves on the materials.

 

I wish I would have had legacy gear from the start...I would have saved a lot of crafting, time, and materials....granted pulling mods cost credits, but I am sure most would rather that than having to literally remake stuff constantly.

 

As a concrete example, I am working on my nth toon...a dps trooper. She is utilizing enhancement created for the healer sorc made before her. Said trooper will also pass down her old augs, armorings, mods, and enh. to a BH PT DPS thanks to legacy gear. {man I wish I had this option for my ancient toons lol...did I say that already lol?}

 

So yeah if you are working your very first toon it can be a trial in patience....but once made they can be {all or in part} shared now-a-days. But aye...plan ahead and do not "overwrite" anything anymore....you never know what you may want to make next. Sadly the Gree saber came too late for my infrastructure....but it can be used to save on hilt crafting...just like the legacy bowcasters and the new gree autocannons etc...you get the idea :-).

Edited March 24, 2013 by Urantia

[althene]

I never worry about crafting the purple mods and armourings. I just RE the greens to get the blue ones. What makes me mad, is that in cybertech there is no tanking mods. endurance over aim or strength. I can buy those mods from the planet com vendor, but I can't make them. Oh well... at least there is a crafting system in this game that allows you to make things that are somewhat useful. unlike another MMO.

 

One billion times this...

 

You can't even use the comms to buy the mod for a 20% chance to learn them. Hell, I'd even do it if it gave me the green version of the pattern and made me RE those to get back up to par with what I could buy with all my comms.

 

But all that aside, it's likely they did this just to give us something to spend our comms on. I mean, how many of us have actually bought the gear available using them? Even more so after the inclusion of the cartel market.

 

But more to the point of the thread...

 

Get a companion with a bonus in the crew skill you want purple mats for. Buy them gifts until they max out. Send them to step and fetch your shiny purple mats. Ideally you'll send them on the grey missions since they have the highest crit chance. While I don't remember what the base mission crit chances are, I do know that any +crit that your companion has are added percentage points on that base. In addition, you companion affection level shaves off up to 5% of the time required to finish and adds up to +5% crit chance. I suspect this correlates to roughly 1% every 2000 affection (at most).

Edited March 24, 2013 by althene

[Kabolt]

Thanks for your replies...

 

I wouldn't say purples are OP against mobs of the same level, the difference between a blue mod and a purple mod is just a few points, each purple mod will only add 2-3 points over a blue mod.

 

Which if Im correct should add up to about an extra 420HP and say 500 main stat, which on a level 25 - 33 toon, with 10K plus HP, this is nothing and far from OP.

 

Guys, the whole point of this thread is not, are purples better, or should we be using them, it was about how difficult it is to acquire the mates for them. Impossible in some cases.

 

I have been playing this game for over a year now, the game has changed so much over the year, we can buy XP boost, we have XP weekends which now means we are running lvl 35 toon in a lvl25 environment, I would say this is OP, I could do this in my underwear.

 

The cartel market is full of moddable gear which can be used at lvl1, we can purchase lvl 50 crystals which can be used at lvl10. All of the gear can now be augmented to death, as some of you have pointed out, we can use legacy gear to move mods to other toons, this is good advice and I was aware of this, but completely forgot about it.

 

My point is, IMO it should not be this time consuming or difficult to source your own purple mates to make purple gear. Purple gear is as much a part of this game as anything else in it, if we want to go to the trouble of RE mods to purple lvl, we should at least be able to make them, use them , give them to m8's and sell them on the GTN at a reasonable price.

[Screaming_Ziva]

I don't think that crafting purples is broken, rather working as intended. I think that the concept behind purple gear is to keep it rare and somewhat unique and hard to acquire.

I'd have to agree with this. Outfitting a character in all purple mods while leveling is overkill. Even outfitting a character in blue mods makes leveling very easy. If you want the easymode armorings and mods, you're going to have to work for them.

[CosmicKat]

Thanks for your replies...

 

I wouldn't say purples are OP against mobs of the same level, the difference between a blue mod and a purple mod is just a few points, each purple mod will only add 2-3 points over a blue mod.

 

Which if Im correct should add up to about an extra 420HP and say 500 main stat, which on a level 25 - 33 toon, with 10K plus HP, this is nothing and far from OP.

 

Guys, the whole point of this thread is not, are purples better, or should we be using them, it was about how difficult it is to acquire the mates for them. Impossible in some cases.

 

I have been playing this game for over a year now, the game has changed so much over the year, we can buy XP boost, we have XP weekends which now means we are running lvl 35 toon in a lvl25 environment, I would say this is OP, I could do this in my underwear.

 

The cartel market is full of moddable gear which can be used at lvl1, we can purchase lvl 50 crystals which can be used at lvl10. All of the gear can now be augmented to death, as some of you have pointed out, we can use legacy gear to move mods to other toons, this is good advice and I was aware of this, but completely forgot about it.

 

My point is, IMO it should not be this time consuming or difficult to source your own purple mates to make purple gear. Purple gear is as much a part of this game as anything else in it, if we want to go to the trouble of RE mods to purple lvl, we should at least be able to make them, use them , give them to m8's and sell them on the GTN at a reasonable price.

 

Agree with both your posts.

 

Purple mods are 1 level higher than their blue equivalent. A purple Armoring 5 is equivalent to a blue armoring 4. Hardly overpowering. What they are is slightly longer lasting. You can go a level or two before replacing them as opposed to blues.

 

Conversely, if you were to equip any character with all or even mostly purple mods or gear, the time it would take you to gather all of the resources would be far, far, far longer than the time those mods were effective to you.

[translucentwolf]

You can do any of the content in the game in a set of 'at level' greens. That is, you could do Corellia, in full lvl 49 greens. If you keep your companion similarly geared, and you're proficient in your class.

 

I find that it's fairly simple to do missions up to 3-5 levels ahead, using a full set of 'at level' blues. That is, a group of 4 level 13s, in full blues, can take on Hammer Station, and get it done.

 

Full blues are all you really need, till you get into Endgame content.

[nattodaisuki]

I don't think that crafting purples is broken, rather working as intended. I think that the concept behind purple gear is to keep it rare and somewhat unique and hard to acquire.

I'd have to agree with this. Outfitting a character in all purple mods while leveling is overkill. Even outfitting a character in blue mods makes leveling very easy. If you want the easymode armorings and mods, you're going to have to work for them.

 

I have to agree with this person who agrees with that person

 

I've been crafting since Pre-Launch, but I would hate it if someone came along and got to the level I am at in a short period of time (it took me over a year getting where I am at)

Example : My Synthweaver's schematics - Light Armor

 

Rares are Rare because they're rare

They wouldn't be Rare if everyone and their mother had them.

Edited March 25, 2013 by nattodaisuki

[TheShootist]

I'd have to agree with this. Outfitting a character in all purple mods while leveling is overkill. Even outfitting a character in blue mods makes leveling very easy. If you want the easymode armorings and mods, you're going to have to work for them.

 

I agree, but will add that leveling can be easily done with all green mods, blues make it too easy and purples are just bragging rights. I do have all crafting trades and tons of mats, but rarely craft any purples for my toon I'm leveling. usually only craft purples for sale on the GTN. Heck I've gotten to the point that I'd just use the green drops during leveling and stay 1 level below NPC just to make it fun.

 

Get slicing on one of your toons and send them out on lockbox missions, they sometimes bring back mission discoveries that give you a better chance to get those purple mats

[althene]

I agree, but will add that leveling can be easily done with all green mods, blues make it too easy and purples are just bragging rights. I do have all crafting trades and tons of mats, but rarely craft any purples for my toon I'm leveling. usually only craft purples for sale on the GTN. Heck I've gotten to the point that I'd just use the green drops during leveling and stay 1 level below NPC just to make it fun.

 

Get slicing on one of your toons and send them out on lockbox missions, they sometimes bring back mission discoveries that give you a better chance to get those purple mats

 

I tend to agree up to the subject of barrels and hilts. I almost always craft the purple equivalent for my current level and focus the majority of my crafting efforts to making sure I have the means to accomplish this at or slightly before I reach that level. Armor and mods are nice to have and certainly help with the survivability, but nothing is going to help you live through the fight more than being able to lay the hurt down in large quantities. Hilts and barrels quantifiably achieve this goal.

[Kabolt]

I tend to agree up to the subject of barrels and hilts. I almost always craft the purple equivalent for my current level and focus the majority of my crafting efforts to making sure I have the means to accomplish this at or slightly before I reach that level. Armor and mods are nice to have and certainly help with the survivability, but nothing is going to help you live through the fight more than being able to lay the hurt down in large quantities. Hilts and barrels quantifiably achieve this goal.

 

All stats on all gear, hilt's, crystals, relic's, earpiece's and the set of mods are all added together to make up your stats. You could use a green hilt and augment it with a purple, same thing.

[Quellryloth]

All stats on all gear, hilt's, crystals, relic's, earpiece's and the set of mods are all added together to make up your stats. You could use a green hilt and augment it with a purple, same thing.

No. Everything adds to your main stat and Endurance, but only the main hand and offhand slots determine your base damage and give a direct Force/Tech bonus. Thus, having a purple in those slots is much more effective than having it anywhere else.

[Kabolt]

No. Everything adds to your main stat and Endurance, but only the main hand and offhand slots determine your base damage and give a direct Force/Tech bonus. Thus, having a purple in those slots is much more effective than having it anywhere else.

 

Thanks, I did not realise that.

[ElweSingollo]

Thanks for your replies...

 

I wouldn't say purples are OP against mobs of the same level, the difference between a blue mod and a purple mod is just a few points, each purple mod will only add 2-3 points over a blue mod.

 

Which if Im correct should add up to about an extra 420HP and say 500 main stat, which on a level 25 - 33 toon, with 10K plus HP, this is nothing and far from OP.

 

Guys, the whole point of this thread is not, are purples better, or should we be using them, it was about how difficult it is to acquire the mates for them. Impossible in some cases.

 

I have been playing this game for over a year now, the game has changed so much over the year, we can buy XP boost, we have XP weekends which now means we are running lvl 35 toon in a lvl25 environment, I would say this is OP, I could do this in my underwear.

 

The cartel market is full of moddable gear which can be used at lvl1, we can purchase lvl 50 crystals which can be used at lvl10. All of the gear can now be augmented to death, as some of you have pointed out, we can use legacy gear to move mods to other toons, this is good advice and I was aware of this, but completely forgot about it.

 

My point is, IMO it should not be this time consuming or difficult to source your own purple mates to make purple gear. Purple gear is as much a part of this game as anything else in it, if we want to go to the trouble of RE mods to purple lvl, we should at least be able to make them, use them , give them to m8's and sell them on the GTN at a reasonable price.

 

I pretty much agree with you whole-heartedly. The crafting process is made far too difficult to enjoy. As some posters have mentioned here, having a mix of "standard," "prototype," and "artifact" level mods and items should be enough, but it really isn't. It is also non-productive to say "get over it." I've played other good MMOs, and crafting wasn't this difficult. Besides being a terminal completionist, I have found that going into mobs on Tatooine (in particular) with standard level gear is the fastest way to frustrate yourself at this game. Appropriate level, appropriate gear, dying non-stop. So, I stopped playing for a few months.

 

Then I came back, built a bunch more toons with complementary skills and am literally spending a WEEK crafting each time I advance one of my characters 2 levels.

 

That is simply ludicrous. It reduces enjoyment of the game, reduces playability and increases the likelihood that I just stop playing altogether. I agree there should be some scalable reward for difficulty, but this scale is just plain silly. And it appears someone has the secret, because crafting materials (artifact level) go in lots of 50 or 99 on the GTN. With three toons running a metals crew skills mission essentially non-stop throughout a week I cannot get a total of 50 Krayt Dragon Scales. That's not hard. That's horrible.

 

What I HAVE found though, is that C2-N2, no matter what the affection rating, seems to have the best likelihood of success getting artifact metals. Kira is the same for artifact gems. Increasing affection definitely affects time spent and numbers provided for reward.

 

Still, getting these materials is way too hard. Should it be hard? Yes. Impossible? No.

 

/rant

[Rantank]

I leveled my last two chars with green mods and blue hilts/barrels all the way up to 58s. That was more than good enough. I changed my green mods every 5 levels or so, and my hilts/barrels every two levels. I did the same with my comp. I almost never died. I could use my planetary comms for whatever I liked as I wasn't dependent on upgrades from them, but I did buy some blue mods along the way, particularly the types I couldn't make. I have stacks and stacks of regular mats.... of all crafts, so I just churn them out. Green mods mostly only take 5 mins or less to make so it's no biggie to make new ones. At one point I had twenty levels worth in my mail box. I never had to worry about gear the entire time I leveled, I was always appropriately geared, and could upgrade at the nearest mailbox.

 

Holding up your leveling waiting for the mats to make purples is just silly. You don't need them, you don't even need blues... The only thing that should stay current and blue if possible is the hilt/barrel. Save your money and run the missions at max level.... it takes a while to collect the mats for the 66's and you're going to go through a lot of them.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Rantank