Hey guys

 

Other than crafting Orange mod-able gear, could you theoretically level an alt just using the recipes provided and either re'ing them up to blue and purple. What sort of level is blue gear compared to orange mod-able gear?

I have a level 21 Guardian with Synthweaving. Pretty low level so I cannot say if this changes eventually, but so far it does not seem like a good idea for staying well geared while leveling, because the rate at which I've earned new schematics has been really slow. Sometimes you get a belt, sometimes bracers, sometimes chest, and so on. It feels like I can not keep a whole set at my level. Also some things cost take relatively much materials to craft, meaning it seems slower to level Synthweaving than some others.

 

What was fantastic for leveling was Cybertech which I have on my Assassin. I'd remember getting new armoring and mods every other character level, which meant that I always had a full set of blue armorings close to my level (some of the mods however were bugged, reported). It also felt like they were relatively cheap to make, meaning that keeping up was really easy.

The bad thing has been that it has not been easy selling anything on GTN, people have not been willing to buy.

The basic answer is yes you could for those slots, however, as Rassuro says, it's unlikely your crafting will keep up with your levelling if you're aiming for purple recipes.

 

Orange gear is only as good as the upgrades. If you fill it with blues, a purple non-upgradable item at the same level should be better and vice versa.

I am a 400 synthweaving and I found it best to keep a few levels of blue armor above my current level. Its not worth wasting money for purples until you hit 47-48 as you level too fast. The synthweaving armor is better than things for sale so you will be well geared. If you aim for augmented blues you can add an augment as well

Yep, with synthweaving you'll get a full new set every ~8 levels. (1 or 2 new pieces every 2 levels). As others said, it will be better than what is available from quests/vendors, and (especially if looking for tank gear) better than stuff you could make with commendations/mods.

 

And yeah, I'd recommend trying to stay several levels ahead of yourself, (if not simply going as far as you can). Not really trying for purples until the high levels, unless you get way ahead of yourself, then possibly trying to purple chest/legs. (most bang for the RE buck)

 

Comparison with orange gear doesn't make sense, since orange gear is dependant on the mods. If it's purple mods, it'll be better than equal levels blue synth, if it's green mods, it'll be worse. if it's blue, about the same. that being said, defensive mods, (ones with shield, defense, absorb) are EXTREMELY hard to come by (since cybertech doesn't get any defensive mod schematics, and I dont' remember seeing any on commendation vendors, though I haven't checked out the lvl 50 stock) so you have to rely on artifice enhancements and the rare quest reward. So synthweaving (and armormech, for that matter) defensive gear will almost always be superior to orange stuff prior to lvl 50, even if lower level, even comparing blue to purple.

My sythweaving alt was leveled after my armstech and armormech alt.

 

This had two benefits:

 

1) Investigation (from the armstech) resulted in about 50 schematics for the synthweaver just waiting to be learned.

2) Underworld Trading (from the armormech) is leveled up to 400 with 5 companions ready to run missions at any time.

 

Because of this, I can keep my synthweaver in purples most of the time.

 

This would have been much harder if I only had one toon doing synthweaving. Just saying.

I would not waste time or money trying to RE purple patterns while leveling. In general purples are far too expensive and take too much time to get if you're only gearing yourself.

 

The bigger problem you run into is with gathering skills, if you run too far ahead of your level in crafting skill, it will become a huge pain to get enough crafting missions run to get the materials you need. Before 25, for example, you can only run two companions at a time, so crafting stuff in the 30s will take a really long time to gather the mats (and you won't have gotten to zones where you can gather them in the field).

 

A couple levels ahead of where you're at should not be too big a deal to keep up with. Just google "swtor leveling synthweaving" and follow the minimum-resource plans for leveling up the skill that people have posted. Every couple levels or so, just gather mats, make 10 of an item that is useful to you to get the next 20 points in the skill, and when you RE them you will likely get one or two blue patterns. Then craft the blue and use it.

My quickest alt leveling I bought the Legacy gear lvl 10. Cost about 750k

Then I had one alt doing artifice, doing blue hilt, crystal and enhancement to every new lvl.

I had one doing cybertech, doing blue armor and mods to every new lvl.

At the same time I only collected planet commedation on every planet buying 2 purple boxes (24com each) and hope for some goddies there.

At the same time i crafted the lvl 22 mods and RE them to purple so when dinging 50 just put these in all slots. So I was ready to go FP HM and Operation on hitting 50 the same day.

 

I recon that purple mods are only worth it around lvl 50 anyways, and if you have diff chars you will also get the buffs from the classes that will together with the blue mods make you able to clear your classquest at least at 3-4 lvls below recommended.