I think a lot of cybertechs will agree...we just did not get much love from 1.2. Pre-1.2, Biochem was (and probably still is) the most popular profession followed by Cybertech. Why is that? Is it because Cybertech was so good? No. It was because the other professions were so weak.

 

So 1.2 rolls around and gives a massive buff to Armstech/Armormech/Synthweaving, an okay buff to Synthweaving, and nothing to Cybertech. CD on grenades reduced to 3 min? Thank you, that was nice. But Cybertechs didn't receive a new way to make money, and here's why that's a problem:

 

Back when the game first released, everyone needed gear. I admit that I made a pretty penny off cybertech at first. I spent a lot of creds getting the schematics for the "BiS" Epic earpieces and the augmented ones sold quite nicely. Now that everyone has their gear though, I'm struggling to find ways to make money. Even with columi earpieces, it's almost getting to the point that selling the mats needed to make them would be more profitable. How did this happen?

 

Well first, Biochem and not Cybertechs were given the ability to make implants. Our characters have 1 earpiece slot and 2 implant slots. Theoretically, the longevity of Biochems profitability is twice as long because everyone has to buy two implants as opposed to one earpiece.

 

Next, mods/armorings cost way too many mats (Mandalorian Iron) to be profitable. Given how easy it is to get the same exact armoring/mods from dailies, it is impossible to stay competitive. Mods/armorings are not, and never were, profitable.

 

So how do we fix this? Here are some suggestions:

 

-Summoning Droid/Gate

I believe someone made this suggestion earlier and I think it's something that should be looked into. Everyone knows that MMOs are a huge time sink, so when you offer people a way to save time, they will pay for it. With the new world bosses and the new quests to kill world bosses, mobility has become more important than ever.

 

How cybertechs profit off this: Make the summoning droid/gate a 1 time use for a set amount of time. During this time, the player must use an item (think fleet pass) to port to the droid/gate. Each item would be a 1 time use as well. If there's always a need for mobility, there will always be a demand for these items. Profit.

 

-Increased Mount Speed stims

This shares the same idea that "time is money". Want to get those dailies done a little faster? Pop one of these stims. Something like +15-20% mount speed (total of +125%-130% for rank 3 speeders) for 2 hrs that persists through death.

 

-Mod Conversion

Let's face it: Bioware will never be able to find the itemization that makes everyone happy and it's not (totally" their fault. That's why the mod/enhancement system is great as it allows players to customize their armor. Of course, the problem is that some itemization is better than others...forcing some classes who want a certain type of stat allocation to buy other class gear for one enhancement. Give us the ability to "convert" mods to an equivalent level mod. This would benefit Artifice the most (usually enhancements are the culprit for bad itemization), but Cybertechs could still convert the amount of a primary stat vs. secondary stat on a mod or even change the secondary stat altogether (power vs. crit etc.).

 

-Weapon Mod "Enchanting"

 

Aside from augmenting (which is more like gemming), Cybertech and Artifice (for enhancements) are pretty much the closest thing to "enchanting". It's obvious that Bioware can make certain armorings only slot-able from where they came from (IE Chest Armoring can only go into chest shell). So why not do the same for weapon mods and enhancements? One of the coolest things about WoW (at least when I played) were the weapon enchants you could get. Let us do the same thing with mods! Or better yet, let us craft these unique "5% chance to steal life" etc. so we could sell our goods even if we aren't online!

 

Anyways, these are just some ideas of how to make Cybertech better and how Cybertechs can help make the game more dynamic. Share your thoughts!

Edited April 24, 2012 by Rischardo

I expect there should be some good profit available for any cybertechs who manage to learn the schematics for campaign level (146 rating) armorings and mods. It's just a matter of time before these become available, right now I'm sure there are not many willing to RE these items just yet. The material cost will still be high, but I bet the right mods and armorings would fetch a good price.

or add armorings 23 and 24? I seen a screenshot of a pattern for 25s so I'm gonna assume I just havnt seen it yet.

One thing BW can (and should) fix asap is the damn bug with the lockbox missions....

Yes, crafting higher level armorings and mods would certainly make some cash, but there's a problem with this line of thinking.

 

First, 146 mod/armorings can only be attained either through campaign gear or black hole gear. Why is cybertech (I guess artifice too) the only profession to rely on this method of learning new schematics? So in order to make money, I have to grind dailies/do Denova, buy a piece of 146 gear, rip out the mods/armorings for a CHANCE to learn said mod/armoring? That doesn't seem right.

 

I've heard reports that some higher level schematics are dropping in ops. While I'm all for having some schematics accessible only to raiders (as I said, I have plenty of columi schematics), the issue is that these schematics are simply not readily available like the augment schematics are. Specifically, we should have an easy way of attaining schematics for armorings/mods that are better than the daily equivalents (like tionese or columi equiv), but we don't. I can't even use my spare columi tokens to buy the armorings/mods for a chance to learn those schematics.

 

Additionally, the mats for these 146 mods/armorings are probably ridiculous (as they should be). Again, there is nothing wrong with having rare schematics/items, but there should be a lower tier that is much easier to attain that allows us to profit on a consistent basis rather than once in awhile.

I would even be happy with allowing us to have the 23s. The problem with the 22s is that you can get them from dailies. 25s drop in hard mode ops. Those 23s would be great towards bridging the gap from the casual player to the hardcore getting ready to gear themselves out .

 

To steer away a bit from mods and armorings, I think paint kits would be awesome for armor or vehicles.

My Cybertech character is pretty much retired. All those purple Earpiece recipes I RE'd are now worthless, no one wants them. Idiots who undercut by 5k at a time have dropped the going price of ship parts below the cost of the mats. And mods? Have always been a waste of time.

 

My CT character is now my Slicing/Scavenging character, which I use to provide materials for my money-makers, which are my Armormech and Synth characters. I don't care anything about raid farming, so it looks like Cybertech is dead to me.