This profession is completely pointless, and I know i'm probably late to the party and this has all been said but its really frustrating.

 

Noone wants the color crystals I can make, everyone wants the rare colors like magenta, black, white, purple, ect. Which are all drop only. The stats are so superficial on them that noone really cares all that much if their using a 27 end red over the 20 end red they've been using for 10 levels already.

 

Noone wants any of the hilts I can make as noone wants to spend the money for the epic lower level hilts when they can just regularly buy the blue ones off the commendation vendors. Even at the highest level the hilts are worthless because you can earn better ones then the best ones I can make for easily completable quests.

 

Noone wants any of the enhancements for basically the same reason, commendation vendors while leveling, and daily heroic which are lowly heroic 2 mans which are a breeze gives you a free epic enhancements every day of the ones most people want. Also, the enhancements don't follow order or reason as you go up, prior prefix's will suddenly do diffrent stats, take a look at a Battle and Assault, at the higher levels they suddently become completely diffrent stats. Finding what you need is a complete mess.

 

There's no generators for 49-50, the highest I can make are 48, which makes them even inferior to 50 greens even when their blue, not to mention you can get blue 50 generators for free off the Corellia vendor, again, completely negating the need for a Artifice.

 

All the relics are absolute garbage, its universally agree'd among everyone I've talked to that the plain green quality relics off the alignment vendors are superior only because they have +end on them and pretty much the majority of the on-use-ability, the blue version is without a doubt better. Not to mention this thing requires a BOP mat I have zero access to as a PVPer and couldn't justify rolling for even if i wasn't.

 

All the sabers I can craft are again, garbage. Theres better sabers off the commendation vendors on corellia. Why bother? And again, a BOP mat for a saber with blue mods? why? You could buy a junk saber with 5 minutes of farming Dromund Kaas commendations, throw the exact same blue quality mods into it from com vendors or clearance-noone-will-buy-these-jsut-take-them-price off the market for and have the exact same thing for less the the cost of materials. For a BOP mat and all that stuff the thing should at the very least be epic 23 quality, if its not, get rid of the pointless BOP requirement.

 

Lastly, theres zero benefits given to me as a Artifice, I can't make anything thats BOP and gives me some sort of boost like a Biochem gets with their medkits, or a Cybertech gets with there gernades, I get absolutly nothing.

 

Honestly, i'd drop this outright but i've been since early beta and I know how fast things can change with professions, the recent Slicing debacle is evidence in itself. So i'm stuck with this useless profession that might or might not become useful in a day or maybe never and its really frustrating.

Edited January 6, 2012 by SardaTFK

Not entirely true about the hilts. I bought a couple off of the GTN today. In fact, hilts in the lvl 35-49 range with the stats I need are very difficult to find.

 

I also never have enough commendations from each planet to buy ALL of these items you've listed in addition to the other items I need. So I'll get one or two from commendations and then need to fill in the rest with items I buy (or get from quests.. and I agree those are far too prevalent).

 

The bigger issue is that upgrades aren't really necessary because (1) you rarely die unless you're just not that good or take on way too much at once, and (2) even if you die, there's no penalty to it other than a few credits in damage. So people don't need to be tip top equipped at every level which is why the GTN isn't used all that much. The economy in this game is not vibrant. They should've gotten rid of all the item rewards from quests and just given cash so that people could in turn buy the gear that crafters make. I'm not sure why SWTOR is so terrified of crafting, especially given how easy it is in SWTOR.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Amdarius

To each their own I guess. I use what I make and so do my guildies. I also like to outfit my alts. I do agree about the generator part; I hope that gets addressed. I have Artificing n my Sage and Cybertech on my Trooper so I can help the guild (and myself) fill out our orange gear.

Not entirely true about the hilts. I bought a couple off of the GTN today. In fact, hilts in the lvl 35-49 range with the stats I need are very difficult to find.

 

I'm really curious what so game breaking off a requirement you have for a hilt at that level. There's really only 2 types with very minor stat variations. In the example of the warrior, you'd either go Might which is something like 1/2 end, 1/2 str, or you go .. whatever if its called, lets just call it Suicide Hilt since when your leveling the last thing you want is HP right. And that hilt is 60% str, 30% end, 10% lost stats.

 

Most people don't care about 5 more str at the cost of 5 endurance, the general size is sufficent for 99% of the populace.

To each their own I guess. I use what I make and so do my guildies. I also like to outfit my alts. I do agree about the generator part; I hope that gets addressed. I have Artificing n my Sage and Cybertech on my Trooper so I can help the guild (and myself) fill out our orange gear.

 

Noone ever asks me to make them something, even I won't bother making something like a better color crystal for my alts, or a hilt, ill still use the commendation vendor because even to me it isn't worth the time to do it.

 

Here's a example what i'd need to do to give my alt a hilt. 1. Switch to the artifice, 2. Run missions for the rare mats, 3. Spend time crafting the Hilt. 4. Send the hilt over. In that time I know for a fact I could just farm the commendations, and get it off the vendor, given the random nature of rare mats it would probably be faster and cheaper.

 

As for commendations, I rarely ever have to few off them to keep my gear up to date, unless your using a stealth class and avoiding tons of combat or your really bad at questing and drop quests, bonuses and heroics left right and center, you ALWAYS have more commendations then you need to stay up to date. My BH alt today finished Alderaan with 39 commendations, almost 15 more then I needed to bring every modable item up to date.

Edited January 6, 2012 by SardaTFK

"when they can just regularly buy the blue ones off the commendation vendors"

 

Most crafters can sympathize. Heck, I have 400 Cybertech, and I almost never make Armoring or Mods for myself. They're provided for me free of charge with quests or commendations. Crafting is simply not intended to be a part of this game, it's more of a "here, now shut up" bone BioWare threw out to keep people who like to swim in player-driven economy quiet.

 

I'm not saying this to whine or complain, I'm simply stating a fact: BioWare's delegation of player economy and crafting to an inconsequential status will likely cause me to lose interest in this game far earlier than would otherwise be the case. I simply do not understand why they have so much disdain for this aspect of the MMO genre.

This profession is completely pointless, and I know i'm probably late to the party and this has all been said but its really frustrating.

 

Noone wants the color crystals I can make, everyone wants the rare colors like magenta, black, white, purple, ect. Which are all drop only. The stats are so superficial on them that noone really cares all that much if their using a 27 end red over the 20 end red they've been using for 10 levels already.

 

Noone wants any of the hilts I can make as noone wants to spend the money for the epic lower level hilts when they can just regularly buy the blue ones off the commendation vendors. Even at the highest level the hilts are worthless because you can earn better ones then the best ones I can make for easily completable quests.

 

Noone wants any of the enhancements for basically the same reason, commendation vendors while leveling, and daily heroic which are lowly heroic 2 mans which are a breeze gives you a free epic enhancements every day of the ones most people want. Also, the enhancements don't follow order or reason as you go up, prior prefix's will suddenly do diffrent stats, take a look at a Battle and Assault, at the higher levels they suddently become completely diffrent stats. Finding what you need is a complete mess.

 

There's no generators for 49-50, the highest I can make are 48, which makes them even inferior to 50 greens even when their blue, not to mention you can get blue 50 generators for free off the Corellia vendor, again, completely negating the need for a Artifice.

 

All the relics are absolute garbage, its universally agree'd among everyone I've talked to that the plain green quality relics off the alignment vendors are superior only because they have +end on them and pretty much the majority of the on-use-ability, the blue version is without a doubt better. Not to mention this thing requires a BOP mat I have zero access to as a PVPer and couldn't justify rolling for even if i wasn't.

 

All the sabers I can craft are again, garbage. Theres better sabers off the commendation vendors on corellia. Why bother? And again, a BOP mat for a saber with blue mods? why? You could buy a junk saber with 5 minutes of farming Dromund Kaas commendations, throw the exact same blue quality mods into it from com vendors or clearance-noone-will-buy-these-jsut-take-them-price off the market for and have the exact same thing for less the the cost of materials. For a BOP mat and all that stuff the thing should at the very least be epic 23 quality, if its not, get rid of the pointless BOP requirement.

 

Lastly, theres zero benefits given to me as a Artifice, I can't make anything thats BOP and gives me some sort of boost like a Biochem gets with their medkits, or a Cybertech gets with there gernades, I get absolutly nothing.

 

Honestly, i'd drop this outright but i've been since early beta and I know how fast things can change with professions, the recent Slicing debacle is evidence in itself. So i'm stuck with this useless profession that might or might not become useful in a day or maybe never and its really frustrating.

 

Ok, hate to tell you but you are sooo wrong. I play on Iron Citadel and I am a level 330 artificer and people buy my hilts, enhancements, and crystals all day long. Not sure what is going on where you play, but artificing is not useless.

400 artifice here on Warriors of the Shadow, I sell the artifice level 39 color crystals for 22k a pop and they sell out before the auction is over. To each his own I guess.

I agree. Crafting professions are useless in making money and from what I've heard, not relevant end game.

 

It seems like professions are there just to throw something to the players to burn time and energy, while dreaming for a better thing to come.

 

My advice is, do it just to equip your characters while leveling, setting your expectations real low. Don't waste money by trying to get more than that. Crafting is just an afterthought in this game.

This profession is completely pointless, and I know i'm probably late to the party and this has all been said but its really frustrating.

 

Noone wants the color crystals I can make, everyone wants the rare colors like magenta, black, white, purple, ect. Which are all drop only. The stats are so superficial on them that noone really cares all that much if their using a 27 end red over the 20 end red they've been using for 10 levels already.

 

Noone wants any of the hilts I can make as noone wants to spend the money for the epic lower level hilts when they can just regularly buy the blue ones off the commendation vendors. Even at the highest level the hilts are worthless because you can earn better ones then the best ones I can make for easily completable quests.

 

Noone wants any of the enhancements for basically the same reason, commendation vendors while leveling, and daily heroic which are lowly heroic 2 mans which are a breeze gives you a free epic enhancements every day of the ones most people want. Also, the enhancements don't follow order or reason as you go up, prior prefix's will suddenly do diffrent stats, take a look at a Battle and Assault, at the higher levels they suddently become completely diffrent stats. Finding what you need is a complete mess.

 

There's no generators for 49-50, the highest I can make are 48, which makes them even inferior to 50 greens even when their blue, not to mention you can get blue 50 generators for free off the Corellia vendor, again, completely negating the need for a Artifice.

 

All the relics are absolute garbage, its universally agree'd among everyone I've talked to that the plain green quality relics off the alignment vendors are superior only because they have +end on them and pretty much the majority of the on-use-ability, the blue version is without a doubt better. Not to mention this thing requires a BOP mat I have zero access to as a PVPer and couldn't justify rolling for even if i wasn't.

 

All the sabers I can craft are again, garbage. Theres better sabers off the commendation vendors on corellia. Why bother? And again, a BOP mat for a saber with blue mods? why? You could buy a junk saber with 5 minutes of farming Dromund Kaas commendations, throw the exact same blue quality mods into it from com vendors or clearance-noone-will-buy-these-jsut-take-them-price off the market for and have the exact same thing for less the the cost of materials. For a BOP mat and all that stuff the thing should at the very least be epic 23 quality, if its not, get rid of the pointless BOP requirement.

 

Lastly, theres zero benefits given to me as a Artifice, I can't make anything thats BOP and gives me some sort of boost like a Biochem gets with their medkits, or a Cybertech gets with there gernades, I get absolutly nothing.

 

Honestly, i'd drop this outright but i've been since early beta and I know how fast things can change with professions, the recent Slicing debacle is evidence in itself. So i'm stuck with this useless profession that might or might not become useful in a day or maybe never and its really frustrating.

 

We must be playing different professions then cause i'm loving my Artificing.

 

1. Enhancements - I'm spending tons of credits to RE these things up one side and down the other as much as possible. There are people that despise the commendation vendors with the net result being more credits for me. Finding the enhancements that I make to be more beneficial than the commendation vendors to be honest.

 

2. Color Crystals - *shrug* I go for stats and honestly I haven't anything but regular color crystals up on the market. Let the people farm for those ridiculously hard to come by crystals while the rest of the population wants the good stuff. Already saving my yellow crystals up so I can make some artifact level stuff.

 

3. Hilts - Again like crystals/enhancements these things will move at their own pace. Need to break down myself and start REing these things so I can make some nicer stuff.

 

 

I do have to ask though are you investing in schematics? Bought several schematics making a tidy profit from what was sold. Just recently sold a nice artifact level one for 10k on the Port Nowhere server that I made. Also using one that I made since it has a nice augmentation slot on it.

 

 

Right now I find Artificing to be quite enjoyable and a heck of a lot better than it used to be since beta. Still remember making nothing but garbage as mods couldn't be reverse engineered making it a nightmare.

As a Biochemist, I have a lot of sympathy for the OP here, though this needs clarifying:

 

I can't make anything thats BOP and gives me some sort of boost like a Biochem gets with their medkits.

 

By far the cheapest way to be a Biochemist is to choose another profession and buy your medkits. The amount of money I've sunk into creating Reusable kits would easily have supported other upgrades in addition to a packful of regular medkits. Like Artifice, there's no clear financial value here, though I do find it a fun supplement to fighting.

 

400 artifice here on Warriors of the Shadow, I sell the artifice level 39 color crystals for 22k a pop and they sell out before the auction is over. To each his own I guess.

 

Interesting - I know I don't buy them, as what I get from questing usually outpaces what I'd have to spend on the GTN.

 

 

I wonder if Crafting is specifically made this way to deter gold-grinders.

In my guild on Lord Praven there's a few cybertechs that claim that at least for now ship mods sell well. I've seen on Cor- people selling crystals. Might be a market there.

As a Biochemist, I have a lot of sympathy for the OP here, though this needs clarifying:

 

 

 

By far the cheapest way to be a Biochemist is to choose another profession and buy your medkits. The amount of money I've sunk into creating Reusable kits would easily have supported other upgrades in addition to a packful of regular medkits. Like Artifice, there's no clear financial value here, though I do find it a fun supplement to fighting.

 

 

 

Interesting - I know I don't buy them, as what I get from questing usually outpaces what I'd have to spend on the GTN.

 

 

I wonder if Crafting is specifically made this way to deter gold-grinders.

Wered because on my server bio stuff seems to have a market.

Wered because on my server bio stuff seems to have a market.

 

Are you on a PvP server, by any chance? I'm on PvE, and I wonder if that makes a difference in demand for stims.

Actually, i would wish that more crafters would craft items like you do, it would give more stuff to spend credits on and the commendation vendors require too much commendations to be worth jack.

 

Because you do not get enough commendations to gear up both you and your companion(s) and thats where crafters come in, the general idea of a real economy is a symbiotic type of thing, where gatherers gather the materials and sell them to crafters via the GTN and the crafters use those materials to craft a vast array of items, ranging from colour crystals to hilts and stuff like that.

 

But sadly 90% of all crafters just care about themselves and refuse to pay more then 200cr per stack of crafting materials and they wonder why they don't make a profit? because hardly anyone thinks its worth gathering when crafters are so freaking cheap and everyone wonders why the economy in this game sucks.

 

Because crafters need gatherers and gatherers need crafters, its always been like that, but what needs to change is everyones' greed.

My top purple Enhancement is a lv50 *daily* quest reward. Why?!

Actually, i would wish that more crafters would craft items like you do, it would give more stuff to spend credits on and the commendation vendors require too much commendations to be worth jack.

 

Because you do not get enough commendations to gear up both you and your companion(s) and thats where crafters come in, the general idea of a real economy is a symbiotic type of thing, where gatherers gather the materials and sell them to crafters via the GTN and the crafters use those materials to craft a vast array of items, ranging from colour crystals to hilts and stuff like that.

 

But sadly 90% of all crafters just care about themselves and refuse to pay more then 200cr per stack of crafting materials and they wonder why they don't make a profit? because hardly anyone thinks its worth gathering when crafters are so freaking cheap and everyone wonders why the economy in this game sucks.

 

Because crafters need gatherers and gatherers need crafters, its always been like that, but what needs to change is everyones' greed.

 

Anyone who claims as you do, haven't come close to being level 50.

 

Why would anyone give a **** about lower level gear when it becomes useless and pointless to wear after a few levels? Are you going to be buying pieces that are 100-200k a piece? I think not... You want something cheap and decent and low level which will NEVER cost enough money to at least match the money spent on gathering those purple low level matts.

 

 

Get to level 50 and go to Illum and Belsavis.. Do your easy dailies and see how easy it is to get the purple mods they offer vs crafting one yourself. Then decide for yourself if it's actually worth to have any other craft except biochem.

 

 

It's not being selfish when you can't even make enough money to cover the cost of the missions for the item you're trying to make... That's just horrible game mechanics which they ALWAYS knew about yet decided to do nothing.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Balmuck

Agreed. Crafting is a huge time and money sink with very little reward. I keep saying it and I'll say it again. When you can make more money and have better gear as a Non-crafter than you can as a crafter, then the crafting system in your game is a broken one.

 

At least give artificers a rare color crystal recipe when they reach 400.

I have to agree with OP. But then again I realised this and swapped artifice for Synthweaving which is a far easier way of solving it for me.

"when they can just regularly buy the blue ones off the commendation vendors"

 

Most crafters can sympathize. Heck, I have 400 Cybertech, and I almost never make Armoring or Mods for myself. They're provided for me free of charge with quests or commendations. Crafting is simply not intended to be a part of this game, it's more of a "here, now shut up" bone BioWare threw out to keep people who like to swim in player-driven economy quiet.

 

I'm not saying this to whine or complain, I'm simply stating a fact: BioWare's delegation of player economy and crafting to an inconsequential status will likely cause me to lose interest in this game far earlier than would otherwise be the case. I simply do not understand why they have so much disdain for this aspect of the MMO genre.

 

Actually this is a whine, how do you know all this isn't a simple mistake, something hugely over looked?

 

I am betting it was a huge mistake that was over-looked. They're not going to neglect an important part of the game which i can tell they put a good deal of effort into. Part of the companion system was mainly comprised from crafting.

If they'd actually take the time to "synchronize" the bonuses for the enhancements and what not it'd be a heck of a lot better.

 

Heck I'd be broke tracking down people with Artifice skills to get stuff made. Because quite frankly the only thing the commendation vendors seem to have that is acceptable is armor mods. All the other stuff has gotten to be useless as I've leveled up, and more options have become available. And I've needed to focus on things like critical rating, shield rating, absorption, defense,etc etc; depending on which character I'm playing.

 

Right now, it's like trying to fight through the mall during the holiday season to find what you need.

 

The only thing that is consistent is hilts, and even those...unless I find purple hilts on the GTN, commendation vendors sell blue hilts (or barrels) that keep on par with your level.

 

Now I'm not saying take away that sort of stuff from the commendation vendors, but Artifice needs some fixing.

I cant make enough purple hilts, crystals and enhancements. I put them on the GTN and they sell out almost immediately. Made 100k in one hour from a few of them at level 20. I would put one up and get an email that it sold before I put the next one up.

 

I only wish the purple component was easier to get. Thank god I can buy them on the GTN. Even with the high prices people are charging I still make a nice profit from them.

 

Tyr

I dont craft for the GTM anymore only to order and for myself. No money in doing it to trade.

I just dropped Artifice and Archeology for biochem/bioanalasis. I had artifice and arch around 130ish, and I got biochem and bioanalasis to 150 and 170 in like 1 hour, didnt cost me anything, except the new recipes for biochem. already getting more from it than artifice so.

I've decided i'm giving it to the 1.1 patch to see if artifice is worth keeping and just going Biochem like every other PVPer if nothing is changed.