• Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals no longer require Biochem to use.
  
• Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals are no longer bound, allowing them to be traded or sold to other players.
  
• Rakata reusable stims and adrenals have been reduced in power, providing buffs equal to Energized stims and adrenals.
  
• The Exotech Med Unit schematic obtained from the Eternity Vault Operation now functions properly and can be learned.
  

FINALLY some great changes to Biochem.

We're no longer have Biochemists running an ultimate profession.

 

See the implications:

1. Guilds no longer will force players to run Biochem - everyone now can use same stims and adrenals standing on equal ground in operations.

2. Biochemists won't be the only ultimate tanks/dps/healers in PvP - now everyone receive a chance to buff-up to the same amount, although it's much more expensive for the other professions.

3. Market will be more open and a new, possibly HUGE source of income has emerged for biochemists.

 

 

Add to this few nice tweaks:

• Crafting skills no longer inform the player that no missions are defined for the Crew Skill.
  
• The reverse engineering button no longer occasionally disappears after a crafting skill is initially learned.
  

And we've got probably the best patch for crafting since the release.

 

 

Obviously still NOTHING have been done to improve other crafting professions which is annoying to say at least, but finally we got rid of situation where one crafting profession beats any other on the battlefield regardless of what other folks do.

 

In theory with right amount of money, or a biochem alt you can be as much maxed-out player as the dedicated biochem (minus medpacks applied during combat, which still remain as unique perk, but I'm fine with it - Cybertech have grenades so they can have reusable medpacks).

 

What we are missing still?

• Other crafting professions being useful at the end game - especially Armstech, Synthweaving, Armormech (in that order)
  
• Perks for armor and weapon crafting professions
  

 

As for me: We're also missing a removal of Bind on Pickup from all craftable items, and turning that to crafting profession requirement, so we could trade stuff between fellow synthweavers/armormechs/armstechs while people wouldn't be able to create ultimate-craftable-setup from simply switching professions, but it seems like that's a discussable topic as some people think they should be able to get benefits from jumping professions instead of being dedicated crafter.

 

Anyway: Good work BioWare! Bring up the missing stuff and we'll be much closer to having good crafting experience in TOR!

Edited February 2, 2012 by Sky_walkerPL

Just found another post from Bioware, with bit more news on future of crafting:

 

Major changes are currently on schedule for the next major content patch, such as

- extractable basemods (armoring, barrel, etc.) from purple items,

- critical crafting successes on orange outfits,

- more bind-on-equip schematic drops for artifice and other professions,

- increased relevance of augments,

- better reverse engineering chance,

and other improvements. We want to create significant incentive for players to engage in the crafting economy – as provider of goods or supplier - without requiring players to take up a specific profession as a ticket into endgame.

I especially like the part about BoE items. Not sure though what to think about critically hit orange items. This might bring a big poo on purple items, because currently it's the ONLY way to get better purple item than an orange one.

You are living in a fantasy world. No one buys adrenals now and never will, not when they cost the same as stims to make, and add to that no one buys stims either.

 

No guild of any note is forcing their people to go biochem and never did, only noobs do this sort of thing because they think it how the big boys do it.

 

The biochem only items never game me an advantage over you, While you are wearing your free Rakata gear I'm rocking my superior stim which gives a while what +20 to a stat?

 

The only thing we can hope happens now is that all of the other professions rakata gear gets knocked down to grade 126 like ours to even things out again as well as requiring that profession to use so people will stop making their items and switching professions.

 

All this does is screw those of us that took the profession at level 10 cause we liked it.

Well now basically all professions are even (in terms of maxing out your damage or healing) except for cybertech..

 

As far as I know the only way a player who isn't a cybertech can get a grenade is by buying it from a cybertech.. So they should either make grenades a much more common occurrence in the game (like stims, medpacs, and adrenals are)

 

OR make it so that other players can only get stims or adrenals from biochemists..

 

I kind of hate my own idea here.. but there has to be some way to create an economy in this game..

Edited February 2, 2012 by Mcfondles

What they really need to follow up with for Biochem is to either increase the materials yield for gathering and missions or reduce the recipe requirements. When you produce a rapidly consumable item it requires a significant volume of materials. Biochem materials gathering yield is equivalent to other professions which make "permanent" items (even if they are only used for a few levels). As it is now Biochemists find it hard pressed to produce anything in significant volume for others to use or purchase. I enjoy crafting but I don't want to be a gathering bot.

They already said they are looking into the cost of crafting consumables. I suspect they will change it when they do the other crafting changes and have like 10 consumables created instead of one for things like the adrenals.

Well now basically all professions are even (in terms of maxing out your damage or healing) except for cybertech..

 

As far as I know the only way a player who isn't a cybertech can get a grenade is by buying it from a cybertech.. So they should either make grenades a much more common occurrence in the game (like stims, medpacs, and adrenals are)

 

 

I'm a cybertech and being able to make grenades are really not that much of a deal. It has 5min CD and the materials for good grenades are not easy to come by.

 

OR make it so that other players can only get stims or adrenals from biochemists..

 

Correct me if I was wrong, aren't the best stims and adrenals only made by biochem now? They only remove them from BoP or required 400 Biochem to use.

Edited February 2, 2012 by MilkPudding

 

Correct me if I was wrong, aren't the best stims and adrenals only made by biochem now? They only remove them from BoP or required 400 Biochem to use.

 

There is no best stim or adrenals now. The reusable Biochem only items were just nerfed. They have the same stats as the ones anyone can buy on the GTN.

 

I am biochem and at first was kind of upset with the nerf, but what it does is not force everyone to go Biochem. There is no stat benefit to doing so. The crafting system in this game is still a little whacked, but hopefully that gets better.

Correct me if I was wrong, aren't the best stims and adrenals only made by biochem now? They only remove them from BoP or required 400 Biochem to use.

They are and always have been.

While leveling up you can get Biochem medpacks better by 5-8 levels than these sold by vendors.

At level 50 now we have community encouraged to go and buy stims. Or find a willing friends to make a gifts

I personally can't wait to get pile of stims for my main I'm more concerned by lack of supply to market or some ridiculous pricing tags.

 

You are living in a fantasy world. No one buys adrenals now and never will, not when they cost the same as stims to make, and add to that no one buys stims either.

People say the same about grenades, blue-quality mid-level stims, lvl49 craftable gear, etc. etc.

Never the less: I sell most of these without a problem on my server.

Obviously I'm not the one who lives in the fantasy world. More like: a world of numbers instead of opinions.

 

No guild of any note is forcing their people to go biochem and never did, only noobs do this sort of thing because they think it how the big boys do it.

You weren't too long here, were you? There were guilds forcing biochems and it wasn't a single case. The fact that you haven't heard about it doesn't mean anything.

 

There is no best stim or adrenals now.

There's always some biochemist crying... gash...

Sure there is. Rakata reusable lvl50. If you can't see this than well...

Edited February 2, 2012 by Sky_walkerPL

so, can i buy reusable stims/medpacks now without having to lvl up biochem? or just the blue ones?

What they really need to follow up with for Biochem is to either increase the materials yield for gathering and missions or reduce the recipe requirements. When you produce a rapidly consumable item it requires a significant volume of materials. Biochem materials gathering yield is equivalent to other professions which make "permanent" items (even if they are only used for a few levels). As it is now Biochemists find it hard pressed to produce anything in significant volume for others to use or purchase. I enjoy crafting but I don't want to be a gathering bot.

 

This.

 

I don't think having more powerful stims was really the issue. They only provided a +30 to a stat and maybe 10 power. It is certainly nice but nothing to make a huge deal about.

 

However the adrenals/medpacs take probably 10k worth of crafting missions to get the materials for a single use item. In a couple hours of hardmodes or operations I probably use my resuable adrenal probably 10 times and medpac 5 or so. Someone buying those items is out 150k (if they can even find them on the GTN).

 

I think it makes sense for Biochem users to be able to have more powerful items...but make it so that I can give my non-biochem guildies something that is anywhere close to what I can use and not have to spend an hour creating a single item that provides a 15s buff.

I personally can't wait to get pile of stims for my main I'm more concerned by lack of supply to market or some ridiculous pricing tags.

 

 

Stims have some ridiculous material costs.

 

For the blue 48s, it's something like 20 resources spread across both Grade 5 Samples and Compounds and Grade 6 (samples for most stims). One of those (it varies based on the type of stim) is 6 units, and you generally don't get 6 in one gathering mission. For instance, there are 3 different Grade 5 Compounds that can be returned - the missions often give you 5-3-2.

 

So in order to make you a blue level 48 stim, I've got to run 2 Grade 5 compound missions - and hope neither chooses to return the other compounds instead of Red Goo. Then I have to run a Grade 5 sample mission. Then a Grade 6 sample mission. Then a Diplomacy mission. Total cost is well over 10k credits. Given the filler missions you might have to run in order to get an appropriate mission on your list, it could push 15k.

 

It is true you get other mats from those missions, but there aren't a lot of recipes that use them. I sell off stacks of 99 Nutrient Gels and 99 Psychoactive Compounds to the vendor every other day just to get them out of my inventory slots.

 

The irony is that apart from the longer craft time, it's almost cheaper to make level 49 purple implants than the level 48 consumables.

All this has done is move Biochem from 'absolutely required' to 'still the best skill in the game by far and now a fantastic way to make insane amounts of money'.

 

So we went from having "no real choice other than Biochem" to "no real choice other than Biochem".

Just found another post from Bioware, with bit more news on future of crafting:

 

 

I especially like the part about BoE items. Not sure though what to think about critically hit orange items. This might bring a big poo on purple items, because currently it's the ONLY way to get better purple item than an orange one.

 

Better RE chance, that's cool

You are living in a fantasy world. No one buys adrenals now and never will, not when they cost the same as stims to make, and add to that no one buys stims either.

 

No guild of any note is forcing their people to go biochem and never did, only noobs do this sort of thing because they think it how the big boys do it.

 

The biochem only items never game me an advantage over you, While you are wearing your free Rakata gear I'm rocking my superior stim which gives a while what +20 to a stat?

 

The only thing we can hope happens now is that all of the other professions rakata gear gets knocked down to grade 126 like ours to even things out again as well as requiring that profession to use so people will stop making their items and switching professions.

 

All this does is screw those of us that took the profession at level 10 cause we liked it.

 

We require people in our guild to be stimmed/adrenaled for all raiding and any serious guild will do the same.

lol that's kinda stupid because all the OPS are easy. The only person that should be required for stimmed and adrenaled is the tank.

 

All others should be optional...

 

The hard mode ops in this game are a joke... if it wasn't for bugs everything is easy mode.

 

Why require a crutch?

 

Anyway don't care but just saying. This is not WOW you don't need flasks lol.

 

 

This is actually the first MMO i've played in a game where Raiding aka Operations are easy mode from the start lol. Very casual friendly.

 

 

We require people in our guild to be stimmed/adrenaled for all raiding and any serious guild will do the same.

Edited February 2, 2012 by spicycookie

i heard how awesome biochem was so i ditched my lvl 200 synth and started doing biochem. i'm around lvl 130 and i dont see the benefit. sure the reusable medpacks and stims are ok, but honestly a 28 stat boost to strength isn't REALLY that much of a difference. and now that this fix came i'm definitely dropping it and going back to synth (even though i'll go back to 0 and lose all my schems) because as some have said before, i can just get another crafter to give me stims and still have the ability to craft armor.

 

basically, i think biochem isn't as great as everyone thinks it is.

Stims have some ridiculous material costs.

Yes, that's true. Granades aren't much better too.

IMO consumable items should have 1/10th of the reusable price, and definitely much lowered current price.

Perhaps if they need to be demanding - add direct crafting cost in money or make grade 6 biochem missions cost 10 times more than they currently do. IMO it's good to have a big money sink in endgame - we are lacking endgame money sinks anyway. But currently it's more boring, time taking grind than actual crafting. If you supply guild with stims than it's around 8 hours wasted before each Ops which is ridiculous at least.

They already said they are looking into the cost of crafting consumables. I suspect they will change it when they do the other crafting changes and have like 10 consumables created instead of one for things like the adrenals.

Oh yea, this sounds good too.

We require people in our guild to be stimmed/adrenaled for all raiding and any serious guild will do the same.

See Kinada? Told ya. Ridiculous guilds do exist.

They should leave Rakata reusable stims etc the same power and make non-reusable equivalents produce 10x as much.

 

People ***** about the reusable nature not the slightly extra power provided by Rakata. The complaining about Biochem will not stop with these changes.

see http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=263765

So we won't have a bunch of drugged up adrenal users running around? Aaaww...

Sure there is. Rakata reusable lvl50. If you can't see this than well...

 

Rakata reusable stims and adrenals have been reduced in power, providing buffs equal to Energized stims and adrenals.

 

Energized = 126 rating items

Exotech = 136 rating items

Rakata = 140 rating items

 

So it seems that the reusable biochem only stims are now worse than the single use alternative. If guilds were forcing people to roll Biochem to raid with (as you claim) then they will now force them to use the single use stims - thus making it pointless being a biochem.

Edited February 2, 2012 by Valorak

I might quit crafting if they make the RE chance too much better. Already spent so much time and money on the schematics I do have, if everybody else can all of the sudden get what I have for much less effort then I don't see what the point is. If all they do is get rid of "you already know this schematic" that would be great.

I might quit crafting if they make the RE chance too much better. Already spent so much time and money on the schematics I do have, if everybody else can all of the sudden get what I have for much less effort then I don't see what the point is. If all they do is get rid of "you already know this schematic" that would be great.

 

So because you're suffering what early adopters suffer, you want everyone else to pay for it? Kinda selfish I think. I've RE'ed about 40 to 50 blue Implants without a single purple grade proc, the increased chance to proc will be most welcome.

lol that's kinda stupid because all the OPS are easy. The only person that should be required for stimmed and adrenaled is the tank.

 

All others should be optional...

 

The hard mode ops in this game are a joke... if it wasn't for bugs everything is easy mode.

 

Why require a crutch?

 

Anyway don't care but just saying. This is not WOW you don't need flasks lol.

 

 

This is actually the first MMO i've played in a game where Raiding aka Operations are easy mode from the start lol. Very casual friendly.

 

Except when Ghaj wipes cause us to be ghost killed repeatedly.

 

That would really suck stim wise, now that I think about it. Alright everyone, pop your stims we're going to try this again.

 

*everyone dies randomly one at a time*

 

Well, there goes a lot of money down the drain...

 

But on topic, I just think it's silly that they are reverting back to what it was in beta that they felt was a broken system as a means of "improving" it.

 

I'll be glad to get out of the SI tier set, with its shoulderpads of god awfulness, but why we couldn't have just stayed with this system from the start boggles the mind.

 

Or you know, they could just do an APPEARANCE TAB, and not have to worry about orange gear becoming broken and overpowered compared to raid drops.