This may be obvious to some, but it was not to me. I took a hard look at slicing, and it described itself as useful for Cybertech as it provides rare schematics.

 

That it does, but you end up giving up one other skill - most likely, Underworld Trading.

 

Man, have I come to regret it. It's true, I had a steady stream of credits on the character, and I really enjoyed the various in-mission slicing objects. But that's where it ends.

 

I actually really, really like crafting. I like making my own stuff for the characters, and my guild. And Slicing essentially removes that option.

 

This may sound obvious. Slicing is an "alternative" skill, not really meant to be paired up. But I was drawn by the appeal of rare schematics. I envisioned getting the REALLY cool toys that other people have missed.

 

What slicing actually produces is a steady stream of missions for sale, as well as the occassional Space Combat schematic. Don't get me wrong, those are actually amazing. But they are not as useful as the rest of the crafting could be. I have been eyeing the droid parts for the longest time, but I don't get to make them. The Underworld Trading goods are just at too much of a premium, and too rare at the market. I spend all the things I buy on space combat upgrades (awesome) and speeder (awesome). But I never get to play with blue or purple items otherwise.

 

I find augments to be even more annoying. They are amazing, they really are. But because I only craft greens, I don't benefit as much from them as I could. And that's a shame.

 

Overall? Slicing is awesome - schematics, missions and credits; new gathering nodes; fun flashpoint interactions. However, it does not pair well with a crafting profession, if you like crafting. It does pair well with "crafting is boring; give me money" - i've sold many a mission for 2k-5k, and I have seen purple crafting schematics sell for 10k on the market. Not stellar, but good for a "free" profession.

You'll make more by taking UWT and selling mats you gain then with slicing. at least as the game stands now.

 

If you look up the best credit making missions and run them repeatedly for an hour you'll only gain 8700 credits an hour, add on credits gained from selling missions lets bump that number up to 11k an hour.(because none of the top 5 missions are rank 6, so you wont be selling any lvl 340 missions) Since augs atm have no demand selling those on most servers is a loss of money.

 

With UWT mats at the prices they are now your make more then that an hour selling.

 

all the "rare patterns" gained from slicing sell for nothing in the AH they are crazy common, so you're really not missing out on anything there. I've been selling most patterns to venders because they sell for more then i'd get in the AH.

 

Until the market for Augs improves Slicing is just kind of meh.

Thanks for this. I was thinking about dropping UT for Slicing, but you've convinced me otherwise. Cybertech only uses part of UT (metals, not fabric) so it seemed a bit lackluster. I'll just try to sell extra UT mats and buy Slicing schematics.