Hey guys,

I am not good at crafting. I have several toons, with different crafting setups (most of which follow the guide for matching MIssion-Gathering-Crafting). But I've never been able to get to past about 80/400.

I've figured out the Mission and Gathering skills just fine, but crafting is just weird to me. I gather material, I go on missions to get other material, I build, I RE, I occasionally get another schematic. But before I know it:

1- REing my best craftable items won't give me new schematics

2- My best craftable item is well below the stats of the items I pick up from mobs/bosses/etc. or are given at the end of missions.

3- I'm broke, because it costs so much to either keep doing Mission skills until I get specific items (e.g. Wind Crystals instead of just Fire crystals) or buy them from the GTN.

4- I'm no longer gathering material I can use; everything I gather is for craftable items that I don't know the schematic for.

5- Almost all of my craftable items that I can afford (because I built up a massive stockpile of low-end material on starter and capital worlds) are grey and so don't increase by stats.

I would appreciate it if someone can refer me to a crafting guide or otherwise tell me what I'm missing. Because I'm grossly messing up Artifice, Biochem, Armstech, and Armormech.

The best thing i can suggest is to go BACK to the trainer and see if you can learn more schematics. New ones will open up to you once you get to a certain crafting level.

Also, some of the missions skills, like UWT and slicing will provide schematics you can learn - also the GTN you can buy schematics. If you've learned all of the blue recipes, then you will get a tool tip that says "no research available" or something like that. Some crew skills, such as cybertech, the percent of learning a purple earpiece from a blue one os 10 percent, so be prepared to get a lot of fails. You're right though, it does cost credits initially. It's a lot easier once you have a rich higher level character to help you out with money.

As far as selling is concerned, look at what price things are going for on the market and under cut by 1 credit

If the items are grey you wont increase your crafting level, that's why you have to learn new schematics from the trainer on the fleet or on a planet, if they have trainers on that planet, or get them from missions or the GTN.

Hope I could help you out a bit.

Here are a few pointers:

- RE allows you to recoup some of your crafting material and also to learn schematics of the same item with a better quality (blue). RE blue quality will allow you to learn purple quality schematics. However, while levelling your first character, DO NOT try to obtain the purple plans. It's for people who have a lot of ressources, usually with 2 or 3 alt characters supplying the materials in bulk.

- in the same vein, DO NOT buy stuff from the GTN (unless dirt cheap) or run missions until you obtain a blue / purple material you need. This is for people with either deep pockets or who know the game inside out. While levelling, run the missions as you level to increase the skill and keep it up to date, but do not go out of your way.

- your main route for increasing your crew skill is to regularly go back to your crew skill trainer to learn new schematics with him /her, DO NOT rely on the RE schematics to increase your skill.

Did you even consider looking at the forum guide before posting? http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=425519

Honestly, I had not. Thank you. Hopefully one of those links will be helpful (as were the replies above).

Everything I'd seen to this point was unhelpful, because it was just summaries of the crew skills. I probably assumed that whatever was in such a guide was just like that. At a glance, it may be helpful though.

Crafting Breakdown

1) First realize you are only going to make money selling lower level items (sub 45)

2) Pick which type of low level items you will specialize in (Armoring / Barrel / Hilt / Implant / etc)

3) Start with the lowest level of whatever item you chose. Pick the best one for a DPS

4) Craft several and RE til you get the specific blue version you want. If you don't know which one that is, find out. You won't make any money selling items with Presence added, when the next guy is adding Power

5) Craft several of the desired blue and RE until you get the desired purple

6) Now you have your first item for sale. It could be a level 10 STR armoring. Now repeat the steps 3 more times and get the desired level 10 purple armoring for WIL, CUN, AIM

7) Now you have all 4 DPS armorings for level 10. Move up to the next level, 14 or whatever it is. Repeat the process.

Expand your schematics and get a variety out there. If your prices are right, you will get repeat customers as people level up. And one thing about pricing, its very very rare to be able to purchase materials off the GTN and still make a profit. People sell low level supplies for too high of a price and ruin this potential tactic.

Get all of your toons gathering the same needed materials. Log back and forth every 10 minutes and send them all out on the same mission for whatever you need. Build up a vast supply of level 1 stuff, then level 2, then 3 and so on.

Hey guys,

 

I am not good at crafting. I have several toons, with different crafting setups (most of which follow the guide for matching MIssion-Gathering-Crafting). ...

Which is mistake

Why? You loosing your gaming time.

Advice:

Make 1 or 2 toons as pure gatherers, e.g. Bioanalyses, Scavenging, Archeology. Park them in rich mats area. This will save you tons of time. Lots mats nodes are just at one place, so you're able to use all 3 skills at one place and you dont have to run around like crazy. The gathering is superfast then.

Actually this is also a way how to make good bucks. On my server e.g. electrum - polyplast sell for 1-2k / piece. Scavenge one node (if you get 4x4) = up to 16k(max). But you see the point.

Have a look on GTN. Sell the high price mats and use the low level price mats for crafting - ther you have the biggest bang for your efforts.

Think!

What is problem to get for low levels character in e.g. armor? Belts, braces, boots .... find orange schematic - either form missions (e.g. underworld) or buy the schem off the GTN.

If you sell, Keep variety!

If you think you make 20 belts and get rich - mistake. Make 2 or 3 per piece and fill your GTN up to max 50 items allowed. The chance that someone's need is satisfied and customer buy something is much much higher ...

Think ...