i think its pretty bad when most of the crafting is subverted by the planet comm system.

 

why take cybertech at all? just buy the mods with comms.

same goes with gear, anything you can make takes too much time , money, and effort to be worthwhile because you can instantly queue for a instance and get better gear than you could ever craft from a random drop within 5 minutes of fighting.

 

seriously, whats the point? are you guys even bothering with the systems that are so utterly broken? i understand you want to make money from the cartel market, but you basically have abandoned most of your game's content in favor of raking in cash from the f2p market

I have a 450 cybertech, 450 armstech and a 450 artificer -- and it's great to be able to make Armorings with the cybertech and Hilts and selected enhancements with the artificer (or Barrels with the armstech), leaving Planetary comms to buy Mods and orange items from the Planetary vendors when levelling up/gearing a new character.

 

And, with the crafted gear, you can get exactly what you want, and can have it waiting in your mailbox for when you hit the right level, rather than maybe getting some Endurance-heavy mods the next time you get back to the fleet -- or worse, having to hope that (a) something for your class drops, and (b) you win the roll.

 

Even at 55, it's far easier to get a character ready for 55 content if you can make the iLevel 66 pieces than try to grind Basic commendations -- especially now that the Vial of Stabilized Isotope-5 that you can get for 35 basic comms sells for around 200k credits each.

 

And, the availability of Bind-on-Legacy armor and mainhands allows schematics to be learned from level 55 hard-mode level gear -- nothing to be sneezed at, especially since the availability of the Mass Manipulation Generators has been eased significantly with the latest patch (2.2.2).

 

Finally, F2P players can't just get all their gear from Flashpoints, since they only get a few "need" rolls each week -- I believe it's 3?

 

TL;DR: Most crew skills are pretty useful.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Ancaglon

I'm a "Master Craftsman" and I can honestly say every single crew skill is worth something. Some maybe more than others, but all of them are helpful.

 

With people concentrating on end-game items, it's easy to make credits selling leveling gear and mods from all crew skills, especially with Prototype gear since many F2Per's can use only that gear without paying extra...and since they can only have so many credits on hand at any one time, they like to spend them.

 

I might not sell one item for a million credits, but I can sell 100 items for 10k credits and with multiple toons I have GTN slots in which to post that many sales if I desire.

 

Besides, when leveling I prefer to craft my characters gear and save my planetary comms for a chance at a Czerka Crate-o-matic.

I only use planetary Commendations when I can't craft that piece myself. And vice versa. Some of my Characters just don't even have enough Commendations. (My crafting professions are spread among several very different characters.) And when I'm too lazy for farming them, I craft things as good as possible.

I don't consider it worthless, but a lot of what used to be good for selling was diminished by the cartel shop. Planetary comms too to a lesser extent. I don't have any gripes about the current comm. system though.

I respectfully disagree. I have every crafting skill except armstech and every one has products I use regularly and sell on the GTM.

 

I think one of the problems you are having is that, like many others, you are too focused on the best of the best. Yes, getting that one perfect artifact quality piece of gear or item modification for a given character's class and spec is very time consuming, but you would be surprised how often the second and even third best option is "good enough," especially while leveling. And even at end game, you would be surprised how well prototype quality item modifications sell. Why? For the simple fact that for the price of one purple you can get every slot filled with blue.

 

Take augments for example: the difference between the blue and purple quality augments is about +4/+2. And yet, the cost to craft and the value on the GTM is about 10% (for the cost/value of one purple a player can get 10 blues). In the short term this is a MUCH better investment credits and stats wise. And in the long term, when you do get the purples, it's not that big a deal to simply vendor the blues.

I have mixed opinions about this. I personally find that Biochem gives me a big edge over non-biochemist in a raiding envoirement, either in survivability/healing/dps or in money if people decide to use the non-reuseable versions. Thus I have Biochem on 16 of my toons. However...

 

I have 5 level 25s especially for crafting and I must say I love every single crafter. It's great to be able to provide myself (or friends) with barrels/hilts/armourings (7 planetaries!) and sometimes mods if we run low and in end-game I don't want to know the costs of augmenting the gear of all my characters if I wasn't so selfsufficient. As for money I do notice I can make quite a penny with any of the crewskills, though I definitly have my favourites, downside is, it requires patience (people will eventually buy about anything) and a bit of research (raw material price vs end-result price) that I often just stick with crafting 1 kind of thing to make a bit of money, my boyfriend how-ever makes tons and tons of money crafting low-level gear, augments, armourings, etc and everything seems to sell way above value within 2 days.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Gloomycakes

why take cybertech at all?

 

Cybertech is one of the best Crafting professions in the game. It's my #2 on both Legacies behind Biochem. You can keep all toons fully modded in Purples at all times while leveling (except for Enhancements of course), supplied with Purple Earpieces at all leveling stages, as well as have access to infinite Grenades. Now I am first and foremost a PvPer so the three points above have a huge impact on my gameplay.

 

For PvE, you can craft the Underworld Armorings/Mods once you learn the schemas and that's the T2 Endgame PvE gear. Additionally, you can craft Spaceship Upgrades, including the T7 stuff that players can otherwise only obtain on the CM.

 

So if you think Cybertech blowz, you are severely mistaken.

Yeah, between Cybertech and Artifice...the two most under-rated craft skills...and Armstech I don't have to buy anything while leveling once I get custom gear.

All crew skills are worth it because they make money.

 

EDIT: Except Investigation, lol.

 

It's nice not have to spend my precious time doing dailies for income just to do basic things like augment all my gear, and still have plenty of income left over for vanity/cartel stuff on the GTN and not have to spend cartel coins.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Jenzali

All crew skills are worth it because they make money.

 

EDIT: Except Investigation, lol.

 

Yeah, Investigation could use some love. It doesn't have much in the schematics department and only one crafting skill uses it...it's probably the single worst of the mission skills.

With people concentrating on end-game items, it's easy to make credits selling leveling gear and mods from all crew skills, especially with Prototype gear since many F2Per's can use only that gear without paying extra...

It's not even about F2P. There's just no need for purple gear while leveling at all. Blue-Prototype stuff is 100.00% enough for anyone, even totally beginner players. Especially considering the time/effort/money necessary to get purple schematics and mats or cash for overpriced purple stuff on GTN. Which is why blue leveling stuff sells the best since everyone buys it, F2P and subs.

I find that best money makers are armoring mods and weapon hilts/ barrels. Regular mods and enhancements are only 2 comms a piece but weapon parts and armrorings are 7. A smart player will buy enhancements and mods at 2 a piece and they buy weapon parts and armorings off the gtn. This is usually more cost effective for people and even if the parts sell on the gtn for 10-15k a piece, its still quicker to make 15k then 7 comms.

i think its pretty bad when most of the crafting is subverted by the planet comm system.

 

why take cybertech at all? just buy the mods with comms.

same goes with gear, anything you can make takes too much time , money, and effort to be worthwhile because you can instantly queue for a instance and get better gear than you could ever craft from a random drop within 5 minutes of fighting.

 

seriously, whats the point? are you guys even bothering with the systems that are so utterly broken? i understand you want to make money from the cartel market, but you basically have abandoned most of your game's content in favor of raking in cash from the f2p market

 

Well, unless you plan to do pvp all day long endlessly, then sure I guess, but if one doesn't like pvp, just pve, they are limited to the daily and weekly quests for flashpoints, heroics and normal quests and it will take roughly 2 planets worth of quests or 2-3 days worth of heroics, I have calculated that you need roughly 11 commendations per slot, which means you either need 99 commendations just for you or 198 for both you and your companion.

 

Whoever can manage that has absolutely no life.

It's not even about F2P. There's just no need for purple gear while leveling at all. Blue-Prototype stuff is 100.00% enough for anyone, even totally beginner players. Especially considering the time/effort/money necessary to get purple schematics and mats or cash for overpriced purple stuff on GTN. Which is why blue leveling stuff sells the best since everyone buys it, F2P and subs.

 

Yes, for PvE there isn't much point (other than to level quicker) but if you're doing PvP content then purple gear will give you an edge over other players, especially with the removal of the lower level PvP gear in 2.0.

 

Artifice and Cybertech are both fantastic as you can craft the purple modifications and send to lower-level alts using legacy gear. It's of limited use for the armorings/mods, but is great for the enhancements as they are pretty generic in terms of stats until you hit mid-30s.

 

Cybertech was the last crafting skill I learnt and I have to say I wish it was the first one I'd learnt and developed.

 

Also, even in terms of the non-crafting skills, the gathering and mission skills (other than Investigation!) can be used to farm mats to sell on the GTN and turn a profit. May not be a huge profit, but if you're doing dailies or ops, you may as well utilise the fact you can send 5 companions on missions at the same time, i .e. doing something that generates credits rather than sitting idle.

id honestly prefer they added item decay

id honestly prefer they added item decay

 

Let me ask you this...how would that add to crafting? Be specific. Because as the game is setup now, all that would do is cause players to "stock up" on replacement gear (either via running group content, comms, or tokens) so that when an item breaks a player simply goes to a vendor and buys a new one.

 

Even if crafting skills had a repair with no decay feature, all that would do would be to encourage players to take appropriate crew skills so they could repair their own gear or again simply save up comms and/or tokens (or worse click need on items they already have) so that when a piece of gear breaks they can get a easy replacement.

id honestly prefer they added item decay

 

Have you never had to repair your equipment?

What do you think item decay is?

I would say that while leveling armourtech and synchweathing are pretty painful to make useful atall since with so much armour dops in general loot and from flashpoinst etc.. that you get better stuff from drops than you can use from crafting your own for your level. They are however useful if only for the high Argument Kits you can craft end game once you reach 450. So I agree to a point with these two crafts.

 

They both need a boost up to make them worth it while leveling, weather its just making all crafted armour at Artifice grade or custom quality or what I would rather see is a good reduction to the amount of loot you get in general solo play and restrict general non-binding loot you get just to random elites and all champions in flashpoint and heroic area's. The amount you get from your bog standard silvers in solo area's is silly really and these kills should just give credits with elites in solo area's giving the odd comms as loot. Then I would just improve the options you get on the Bind on Pickup loot from Quest rewards giving you a more varied choice between a tanking, DPS and heal based stat gear.

 

More players are going down the moddable route especially with more adapative stuff on Caretel market and the

re-structure of the planetary comms system (so that they are not planet bound) making it more beneficial than it used to be. The value of Non moddable gear has dropped to the point that the GTN is simply flooded with hundreds of greens that nobody wants or needs so you either have to basically give them away or sell back to vendor for a paltry sum. This is true or armour and wepons but more so armour since more armour drops than weapons.

 

Basically standard gear is no longer the preffered for most meaning most dont need it for leveling and hence unit does not make much, apart from things like earpeices and implants and offhands perhaps.

 

Cybertech is I would say the best while leveling since you can make both armourings and mods, and providing you level this craft up well as you go along it will save you comms and credits as each armouring costs 7 Comms Artifice also useful since you can make hilts and enchanchments, Armstech so-so but you can make barrells.

 

It hard to get a full 100 Coms quota per 4 level planet you usually average out between 50-70 comms per planet if starting from 0 so that is not enough to totally upgrade all your mods on full kit hence why you can still make money on crafting mods.

 

Biochem not sure about leveling wise but it is a useful money maker at end game.

 

Have you never had to repair your equipment?

What do you think item decay is?

 

He is talking about every time you repair your equipment, it loses some of its durability to the point where it becomes unusable.

 

I would say that while leveling armourtech and synchweathing are pretty painful to make useful atall since with so much armour dops in general loot and from flashpoinst etc.. that you get better stuff from drops than you can use from crafting your own for your level. They are however useful if only for the high Argument Kits you can craft end game once you reach 450. So I agree to a point with these two crafts.

 

I do not think the problem is with the crafting skills because level appropriate crafted greens are better than any quest reward. The problem lies in the fact that unless you run missions to get materials (near to the point of poverty) you are unable to get the materials needed to make level appropriate gear; if you depend on gathering materials from nodes, by the time you have enough to craft something you are already two levels above its requirement and quest reward gear is better.

I do not think the problem is with the crafting skills because level appropriate crafted greens are better than any quest reward. The problem lies in the fact that unless you run missions to get materials (near to the point of poverty) you are unable to get the materials needed to make level appropriate gear; if you depend on gathering materials from nodes, by the time you have enough to craft something you are already two levels above its requirement and quest reward gear is better.

 

Maybe crafted is a better level comparison for normal solo area green loot but not flashpoints and heroics and its not really enough of a stat benefit in the time and cost taken of collecting the metals to keep you ahead of the game because you just level far too quick. Its just to easy cost free to upgrade as you go along with looted gear, players will always tend to take the easy option. I guess it a bit more useful when your sending your crafts down to your lower levels but again not strictly a great benefit with all the loot about.

 

The demand for moddable gear is certainly much more than standard green and blues. The recent change

Un-binding the planatary comms from individual planets has benefited you going moddable but means standard gear is pretty much trash for the most part, maybe earpieces and implants aside. Bioware has done this to encourage people to spend cash on getting cartel coins for adapative gear.

 

Are there too many side quest's making it too easy to overlevel?, Personally speaking I think so yes (They certainly dish far too many of these XP boosts in quest rewards) That is a very subjective point though and it something that is difficult to get the balance right with some players preferring to do all quests some less so. Alot of players just see leveling as a means to a end and play for the end game , but some like leveling up and the story and see that as the main par and challenge of the game and not raiding for gear end game. In my book we should try and make leveling a bit more challenging overall as to not overlevel.

 

How do you you adjust this not sure but I think one clever option would be to give the player a option to make quests adaptive in that once the level of the quest goes green that it non longer shows as possible quest on your map. Keep this as a option in preferences. I know you would just say you can do this yourself in a sense by abandoning green missions, but I think I am like many players get drawn into to doing what is on offer and end up doing green just because its there, it feels like your missing something if you don't. If its made not available you not aware of these sub level quests do don't miss it so to speak.

While I don't agree with the OP's statement that Crafting Skills are useless, I do agree that they're not quite as useful as they could be. My take on each:

 

Armstech/Artifice - These skills are supposed to be about making your own weapons. However, with the Planetary Comm system these skills are entirely useless for that purpose. Every class is given an Orange-rarity weapon at the end of their Class Quests on their starting planet, or near that point. This weapon may not be pretty, but it is functional, and will do the job just fine if you keep it's modifications upgraded. This renders both skills useless for their intended purpose. That's not to say that they're completely useless; Armstech allows the creation of Barrel modifications and Augments, while Artifice allows the creation of any off-hand item that isn't a Blaster, as well as Color Crystals, Hilts, and even Enhancements. Still, for their stated purpose, these skills are lacking.

 

Armormech/Synthweaving - Given how easy it is to unlock a set of Adaptive Armor for every character you create, these skills lose a lot. It's often far easier to just grab a set of Adaptive Armor and upgrade it's mods than it is to use Armormech or Synthweaving to keep your armor upgraded. As with Armstech and Artifice, these skills aren't completely useless; both allow you to craft Augments, but for the most part, these fall by the wayside. The only way these skills would retain their usefulness is if you don't (or can't) use Cartel Market items. If you instead rely on drops and mission rewards, these skills raise in value, though there are still Flashpoints to keep you stocked in Orange gear if you go that route.

 

Biochem - Honestly, I think this may be one of the better crafting skills. Possibly the best. Biochem allows you to make Medpacs and Stims, which allow you to boost pretty much every aspect of your character. Medpacs are no longer a finite resource, so you can use them when you need them because you can always create more. Stims can boost your offense and your defense, and like Medpacs, you can always make more of the ones you use. This is probably the only Crafting skill that hasn't been affected by the rise of the Cartel Market.

 

Cybertech - For those using Adaptive Armor, Cybertech has risen in prominence. Because the preferred method for gearing yourself now tends to be Adaptive Armor, Cybertech can allow you to keep your armor kitted much more easily. Instead of the 95 Planetary Comms it would take to fully gear out your Player Character, it would now only take 17. That number jumps up to 24 if you're using a class that wields two weapons (Sentinel or Gunslinger, or their Imperial equivalents (haven't messed with the Imperial side, so I'm not quite up to snuff on them)). This makes Cybertech a very attractive option for Leveling, at the very least.

 

That's just my take, though. I'm still feeling new, so I may have missed or misunderstood something. Primarily, though, I see the Weapon and Armor skills being hit the hardest by the introduction of the Cartel Market.

i think its pretty bad when most of the crafting is subverted by the planet comm system.

 

why take cybertech at all? just buy the mods with comms.

 

cybertech actually produces better mods and more options than planetary comms, and you can make ear pieces. biochem can make implants. both of which are pretty rare from planetary vendors and never nearly as good. these two professions are also extremely useful in pvp for producing reusable stims and grenades. compare that to the pathetic utility of armormech or synthweaving, which are NOTHING more than augment and aug kit factories. the only reason to ever make a piece of armor is to RE it for mats. pathetic. artifice and armstech are somewhere between the first two and worst two.

Edited July 19, 2013 by foxmob