So a friend of mine and I just got into the Early Access and he started leveling up armormech, he is a Jedi Knight (Guardian to specify), and figured that armormech would be a nice addition to his tanking oriented playstyle making armor (Such as say.. blacksmithing in other MMOs)

However, as of now he is only capable of making Trooper related armor (Nice for me and all, but not really the point) and was wondering if it was useful at all. So I had a look, and one wiki specifies Armormech is for "Non-force" users however the actual holonet (http://www.swtor.com/info/systems/crew-skills) isn't very specific about this and in fact Synthweaving specifically says "Lighter armor".

So to get to the question; is Armormech useless for Jedi Knights and should they instead use Synthweaving for good (tanking) armor?

Armortech is for Non-force users.

Synth is for force users - all of them, heavy, medium, and light. Codex should have stated heavy and medium, but I can't recall the exact verbage.

I still don't completely understand the use of Armormech/Synthweaving... someone please correct the following:

1) They don't make mods in their current incarnations.

2) They make partially/non modable greens.

3) They make fully modable oranges.

4) They make non/partially/fully modable purples.

If I'm running instances and doing quests to get mods, what is the point of Armormech/Synthweaving other than aesthetics?

Thanks in advance for the info!

I still don't completely understand the use of

If I'm running instances and doing quests to get mods, what is the point of Armormech/Synthweaving other than aesthetics?

Thanks in advance for the info!

To the best of my knowledge, when you loot gear, one of the mods (armoring, I believe) is not removable. You can customize your gear to a point, swapping the other mods in and out as you see fit. If you want to fully customize the item, you need gear that has nothing in the Armoring slot to start with (which is why crafting produces unslotted items now)

This is true with Sabers, Blasters, and Armor.

To the best of my knowledge, when you loot gear, one of the mods (armoring, I believe) is not removable. You can customize your gear to a point, swapping the other mods in and out as you see fit. If you want to fully customize the item, you need gear that has nothing in the Armoring slot to start with (which is why crafting produces unslotted items now)

 

This is true with Sabers, Blasters, and Armor.

99% sure you can overwrite the existing Amoring mod in the gear. You just can't pop it out of gear to abuse the system.

Edit: The reason why crafting produces unslotted items is cost effectiveness: it was a ****ton cheaper for a Synthweaver to make a chestpiece that already had 3 mods loaded in it rather than to get the Armoring from a Cybertech, a Mod from an Artificer, and the other mod from someone else, nevermind the base item.

E.g. a Synthweaver would essentially get 4 items from 1 crafting, instead of 1 item from 1 crafting.

To the best of my knowledge, when you loot gear, one of the mods (armoring, I believe) is not removable. You can customize your gear to a point, swapping the other mods in and out as you see fit. If you want to fully customize the item, you need gear that has nothing in the Armoring slot to start with (which is why crafting produces unslotted items now)

 

This is true with Sabers, Blasters, and Armor.

This is incorrect.

The only class of item you cannot remove the Armoring from is Purple Artifact gear from Endgame Operations (and PvP?).

At every other level you can.

So, if I make a Trooper Armormech, I can craft armor for Troopers and Smugglers only?

Pretty much. However, I did see some schematics drop that would give you the option to make gear with mod slots. This means that in an empty set of armor, you would be able to place whatever stats you want. So, if a medium armor person, say a Sent, wanted to look more like a smuggler just for the heck of it, they could.

So, if I make a Trooper Armormech, I can craft armor for Troopers and Smugglers only?

As well as Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents. There is a neutral market, can't remember where, to sell them if you want to. I'm not sure (because I'm not in yet ) if you can send mail stuff to your own alts of the opposite faction, but I think that was in the patch notes.

This is incorrect.

 

The only class of item you cannot remove the Armoring from is Purple Artifact gear from Endgame Operations (and PvP?).

 

At every other level you can.

In the last weekend beta, I had a random purple quality version of lvl 30 blue gloves drop from a lockbox. The purple did not have the armor mod slot, when I checked the AH the blue version had all three slots.