[Artifice] 1.4 did we really get the shaft again?

I see no schematics, recipes, or any of the new drops that can be RE'd.

Is it really your intended, conscious decision to EXCLUDE crafters from this new update to offhands? Are the drops at least limited or have you dismantled the player crafted offhand market entirely? I've invested millions of credits in unlocking all the best prefixed purple offhands items, I was looking forward to expanding that not losing my major source of income entirely.

For all those str or will using vibroknife classes?

There are some odd main stat companions, my mistake if one of them isn't use STR like I thought. Still, Armstech benefits from a change to Artifice but artificers do not.

You've removed hilts and enhancements from the new Hazmat and Dread guard gear and none of them can be RE'd? And saber shells can be RE'd?

But OP has a point regarding taking a hit on the market of offhands. You can just go to BT normal and have one modifiable for the entire campaing., No point buying an offhand again.

This is about the new moddable offhands, as per the quote in my OP. I'm going to edit out the bit about hilts it seems to be muddying the subject.

Understood, but the same has been true for quite some time now for armormechs/synthweavers.

Artificers get to sell crystals and enhancements (and hilts), armstech gets to sell augments (and barrels) and armormech/synthweaving gets to sell augments.

Seems sort of balanced, to me..... though largely in a sucks for everybody sort of balance.

Only artifice got to spend nearly a year spending piles of credits unlocking schematics only to have them rendered useless by one patch. Something similar (albeit temporary) happened once before when they put the Geologist vendor in. What crew skill did that affect? Artifice!

I averaged 6-12 offhand sales a day during the last 6 months. Since 1.4 launched I've made exactly 1 sale despite keeping the same stock up. It didn't even slowly taper off, 1.4 just immediately killed the market.

Are we going to be getting schematics or recipes or the ability to RE the drops? We need a response Bioware.

Well, I make 100% of my income from selling crafted items on the GTN and I think this a great change. A lil competition in the market helps keeps prices lower so more of the player base can afford to gear up how they'd like. And btw, this hurts armstech a lot more than artifice. Not much we can make that ppl can't get elsewhere and now we have to share it with cybers and artificers ... expect your schematics to depreciate in value - remember new tiers of gear will show up periodically. Price your columi/rakata/campaign items competitively and you will have no trouble selling them. Get used to a lower profit margin on this stuff, it happens.

You misunderstand totally. This has nothing to do with columi/rakata/campaign or any endgame gear. Nor does it harm Armstech, quite the contrary it will increase their barrel sales. Nor will competitive pricing help generate sales when total sales are at zero. I didn't think it was needed, but let me explain:

Offhands used to have set stats, and were not modifiable. When you outleveled the stats you would purchase a new one. This continues until you reach endgame and crafters were then largely taken out of the equation. With 1.4 offhand items that can be modded now drop as loot. You can pick one of these up at level 10 and never need to purchase another again. Instead everyone will turn to Armstech for hilts, Cybertech for armorning and mods, Artifice provides the enhancements, and the usual variety provides the augments.

There was plenty of competition and reasonably priced offhands before this change on our server, sometimes cheaper than the purchase prices of the crafting mats.