Ripping out Augments will also bind the item to you.

You're coming in on the latter half of the augment craze. You should factor in augmentation kits and how long you're willing to wait for prices on them.

Alacrity really needs to speed up DoT/HoT ticks and lower max duration.

The higher level second tier schematics that aren't linear (i.e. not mods, armorings, barrels, etc) are only 10%.

Um...not sure why this thread exists. The augment kits DO make the item bound if you use them on the item.

Augment Toolkits are created by crafting only. You cannot go to a vendor and buy them or loot them off a corpse.

You, quite simply, have a sample size that is far too small and are trying to look at this too optimistically. You have a 20% chance of learning. Which means you have an 80% chance of NOT learning on each attempt. There is a difference between a broken system and a sucky system. This system is not broken. It does, however, suck because of how streaky it is. There's also quite a few threads about this. This is not new. This thread has people who have written and run their own simulations showing that not only is long streaks of failure (as in 60+ failed attempts) possible, it is normal. (Well, it does after the first few pages of whining.)

It's not that people hate hybrids...it's that if a hybrid outperforms a spec that goes all the way up, it's first on the chopping block for "adjustments." Just look at Sorcerer/Sage.

So actually, are you leveling him or is he already 50? We probably should have asked that in the beginning to be honest.

IIRC, there was something about how there's a limit to the number of recipes you can learn, and Cybertechs and Artificers are dangerously close to that limit? To the point where giving either one augments would bump them over.

I think he was trying to make fun of the people who whine that the chances are too low. That's just how I took his comment though. Yeah, the annoying about 50 is that the closer you get to it, the more other gear starts to overshadow it. The only real market you'd have are the people who are struggling on something at 49 and don't have a lot of patience.

As a player who leveled up an operative up a healer tree and am leveling up scoundrel up a DPS tree, I can count the number of times I've used any sort of medpac on one hand, all of them because I charged into a situation that was a bit much. Just because you can use it doesn't mean it is useful. On top of that, most of the time I needed to heal I was out of combat and it was more of a quick touchup. Stims and adrenals are nice, but there's nothing stopping him from using the blue stims either. He's really not more effective in a reusable stim than in a blue stim. The only thing he'd really lose out on is the adrenals because of how short they last -- kind of unfeasible to stock up on lots of them. Leveling up with both Armormech and Cybertech alts, the armormech geared character was significantly less maintenance to take care of because I didn't have to make 4 - 6 copies of each armoring and mod AND gear up the enhancement mods for each mod item from the commendation vendor or the Artificer alt. I just make the armor as it unlocked for Armormech, reverse engineered any extras I made and moved on. Gearing the Scoundrel with the Armormech's stuff, the only item I have even had to buy so far from the PvP vendor is a helmet, because the armormech couldn't make one. The armormech's stuff outclassed the rest. Yes, Biochem is the best option at 50. But just because it can provide benefits while leveling doesn't mean they're the best leveling ones.

Which is even more reason why it makes less sense for him to pick Biochem while leveling. If he can make the reusable ones, he can make the Prototype ones too. If his gear is great, he's really not going to need more than 2 or 3 stims per world. As an Operative the medpacs are redundant to Kolto Injection and Kolto Infusion -- especially if he levels up as healer and gets Kolto Probe. So the only major benefit he's going to have while leveling with Biochem selected is going to be maybe unlimited adrenals. He's going to get a bigger boost by having better gear.

Biochem is better as a "I am finally 50" skill. It stinks to level up as you're leveling because a lot of the time, the items you need to make stuff just doesn't want to show up in a harvest and you're forced to rely on missions if you want a better chance of them being available. The scavenging based skills can help you fill gaps in your gear as you're leveling so that you can spend some or most quest rewards on commendations instead of gear that's worse than what you can make. Just don't get too zealous trying to make everything purple.

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.