So, as a new player I was told that each skill comes with its own perk.

The only I know of is that Biochem allows you to use the purple non-consumable stims and medpacs. What is the perk for the other skills? For the sake of this question, if you can buy it from GTN, it's not a perk...

Thanks!

well, as of right this minute the perks are:

Biochem: Reusable stims, adrenals and medpacks (BOE, only usable by 400 Biochems)

Cybertech: Reusable grenades (BOE, only usable by 400 Cybertechs), BOE endgame spaceship parts (at a very hefty price)

Armormech: Rakata belts and bracers (BOP)

Synthweaving: Rakata belts and bracers (BOP)

Artifice: Artifacts (BOP), force weapons (BOE and sellable, but only for the looks)

Armstech: tech weapons (BOE and sellable, but only for the looks)

Obviously there's other stuff you can make, but currently these are the lvl 50 "perks" so to speak .. still downloading the PTS so can't tell you what 2.0 will bring.

What I meant by perk is that it changes a game mechanic for you. For example, by having skill in Biochem you can use consumables that don't get consumed. By having skill in Cybertech you can use those grenades that are essentially extra abilities.

So basically. . .

Biochem: Reusable Stims, Adrenals, and Medpac/Med Units. (which function as additional defensive/buff powers)

Cybertech: Reusable Grenades. (which function as additional offensive/CC powers)

Artifice: Some BOP clicky-relics (which seem to function like adrenals.)

Armormech: Some BOP equipment. (not a perk, regardless of how nice the gear is, since it doesn't change a game mechanic.)

Synthweaving: Some BOP equipment. (not a perk, as per armormech.)

Armstech: Nothing? (everything BOE and saleable, meaning you can purchase anything made by an armstech.)

Unless I'm missing something, Biochem beats Artifice hands-down and the only real perks are from Biochem and Cybertech.

Biochems stims are also worse than the consumables (exotech) and are being phased out over time. Particularly, they will probably be beaten by green stims in the expac.

Probably worth knowing if you're choosing a crew skill based on that.

Biochems stims are also worse than the consumables (exotech)

I agree with your (unquoted) comments. To be honest, seeing unlimited uses of consumables in a video game made me /boggle at first. Do you have the exact name for the items you're referencing? I just started a couple weeks ago and am not familiar with them. The few items I could find on darthhaterdb:

Artifact (reusable):

Rakata Medpac ~~ 3750-4575 ~~ max health +15% for 15s

Reusable Ultimate Medpac ~~ 3750-4575

Prototype (consumable):

Exotech Med Unit ~~ 3225-3950 ~~ max health +15% for 15s, heals companion

Prototype Ultimate Medpac ~~ 3750-4575 ~~ +1665 HP over 15s

Now, I'm assuming that the Rakata Medpac either isn't in game or is extremely rare, since it seems to take the cake as far as these four go. Either of those blues is better than the 'Reusable Ultimate Medpac' since the Med Unit also heals your companion while increasing your max health, and the other blue has a HoT as an added effect. Honestly I can't see the difference being worth the cost difference...

But the perk of Biochem is pretty obvious - is my summary of the other skills' perks correct?

...is my summary of the other skills' perks correct?

Basically...yes.

When SWTOR was first released and Rakata level gear was the best available, being able to craft one or two gear pieces of this level was a "perk." This is very reminiscent of the WoW Burning Crusade expansion profession perks.

In WoW, in the TBC expansion, armor and weapon crafting professions could craft pieces that were Best-in-Slot (BiS) for a lot of classes. It would typically only be one slot, but players would drop one profession for another with each new content patch to make sure they could get the best crafted gear for that one slot for their class. Blizzard has since changed that game's profession perk system so that the perks are "balanced" and consistent which all but eliminated the profession swapping.

In SWTOR, when the best gear was Rakata, and you actually had to run SM and HM FPs to get Tionese gear, and even getting the Biometric Crystal Alloy was a feat in and of itself (due to low population servers and no group finder, running a HM FP and being able to get to the end to get a chance at the drop) having those one or two crafted Rakata pieces was a perk.

Now, with each character given 99 Tionese comms upon reaching level 50, and being able to acquire Columi and even Black Hole gear a lot faster, and the fact that the Biometric Crystal Alloy is easy to come by, those crafted Rakata pieces have lost a lot of their luster.

But not all of it...for some advanced classes and skill tree sets Rakata gear is better than the same piece of Black Hole gear due to stat distribution. Also the ease of getting the Biometric Crystal Alloy makes it that much easier to craft the pieces so doing daily quests, and HM FPs and entry level operations is a little easier; they are also one or two less pieces you have to look out for when you do operations.

 

Unless I'm missing something, Biochem beats Artifice hands-down and the only real perks are from Biochem and Cybertech.

yup, those are the only two that keep on giving

Unless they do something to make Biochem useful in 2.0, get cybertech. at least you will be able to RE gear and make some money. Removing the reusable stims/adrenals/medpacks due to massive qq is a mistake, but w/e.

Give biochem a reason to be biochem other than making money from selling stims.

Thanks guys for those insightful and useful comments! I also entirely agree that removing the artifact perk from biochem is an unfortunate knee-jerk reaction to QQ. Without that perk there is no reason not to have a bunch of people in the guild have bioanalysis and have a dedicated toon for creating medpacs for the whole guild; after all, everything is non-binding and doesn't require biochem to use at that point.

For posterity, or for those using the search feature as I did and not finding the results I was looking for, I present the following google searches:

Cybertech consumables which are not consumed (all appear to require level 50 to use).

Biochem items which are reusable (starts at level 1 or 8).

Biochem items which are reusable and require level 50.

Relics that have a recipe, are BoP, require level 50, and have a clicky effect (you should be able to modify this to show more results yourself).

In defense of my previous statements, compare this PvP relic with this BoP crafted DPS relic. You can basically see that the clicky is going to be fail compared to the constantly "on" effects of the PvP relic.