I'll try to keep this brief.

 

I chose Synthweaving (currently 320) as my crafting skill and I have come to regret it completely. I have NOT put in the effort that some of these level 50, skill 400 Synthweavers have, but if I had, I would be livid. Here's why:

 

Bioware has decided to create a new class of gear called custom gear. It's gear without any inherent properties (technically, they have minor properties, but I digress). The idea is you can create a look for your character as you see fit, and rather than having to swap out the gear in order to upgrade your armor, you simply upgrade the item's modifications.

 

Because of this system, crafting is pointless. I repeat: Bioware has made crafting obsolete.

 

Most everyone cares about the way their gear looks. You want that toon that you spend hundreds of hours staring at to look pretty. So, when you find that custom piece of gear that makes you look as evil/good/cute/sly/shifty/tough/sexy as you want to look, you would like to hang on to it.

 

This is why, eventually, the majority of players will be opting for moddable gear. You can tweak the way you look as you see fit, without fear of handicapping yourself, because you can upgrade the mods.

 

Ultimately, there will be very little demand for anything other than moddable gear.

 

The result is: A crafter (read synthweaver and the like) will have no use for his/her own crafting skill. Other players will have no use for it. So, why, in God's name, would I want to be a Synthweaver? That is the question.

 

The only reason I can see is if Bioware adds schematics that:

A. Only Synthweavers can use

B. Is customizable

C. Looks like Darth Vader or something equally impressive.

And most importantly, D. Is bind-on-pick-up once it has been created.

 

If any of those conditions aren't met, then I, like most everyone else, will either ignore the gear Synthweavers can make, or let them bear the cost of learning how to make the item (making thousands of items, REing them, millions of credits, hours upon hours of gathering, etc.) so that I can buy it after.

 

I'm a fan of crafting armor. That is why I care about this issue.

 

As a reference, think back on that first cool looking piece of moddable gear you ever got. How long did you keep it? Or perhaps you're still wearing it, because all you have to do is mod it to make it viable.

I can't speak to Synthweaving but on the Armormech side of things moddable armor is mostly for looks, unless you plan to mod it with purple level mods every chance you get a same level master crafted piece of purple armor will have better stats than can be achieved with mods in custom armor.

If your talking about the gear with the orange colored names that have the 3 mod slots then your wrong. Synthweavers and armormechs can make these items you just have to have the schematics for it, my jedi's synthweaving is not even half way to maxed and I've found 5 different schematics for these modable gear pieces and I'm sure there are lots more schematics out there for these pieces of gear, and more still to be designed by bioware.

Oh and these items are not BOP when created there BOE so a crafter can create the gear mod it and then sell it on the GTN

The value of synthweaving and armormech is at end game on your first toon when you really will spend time and money discovering new recipes. Then when you level an alt or a guildie does you might spend time and money learning lower level high quality pieces or to sell on the market to people leveling but the first time through it's hard to have enough money to get mounts, spells, etc and level profs.

 

Now I made some really nice gear for my assassin alt that would last 15 or 20 levels or so and then i'd make some more but I did this with my 50 sorceror who can bring in 200,000 credits a day easily.

the schematics you can get are sometimes for customizable pieces, so having the skill isn't bad still.

This debate continues to rage, but most of us that have put time into the crew skills have learned by now that it's just not true. Moddable gear has not and will not make other crafted items obsolete. The reason has been stated 50 times already. I've been selling armor hand over fist as fast as I can make it throughout the entire leveling process. You just have to learn which pieces sell best and RE and in a smart way, i.e. know what stats different classes specs are looking for in upgrades.

Using only custom (orange) gear on your toons and all companions is a logistical nightmare. I know this because I have two toons; one is a armstech and one is a armormech. Each piece of gear has two to three slots that need to be filled with armoring/barrel/hilt, mods, and enhancements. There is a new armoring/barrel/hilt recipe every two levels and these are critical items that have to be kept up to date or your toon's combat effectiveness will suffer. The mods and enhancements also need to be somewhat kept up to date in order for your gear to remain on par with non-custom gear. Further, armoring is made by cybertechs and not armormechs, so if you don't have a cybertech alt or friend, it can get really expensive. Even if you do, the sheer amount of mats involved is extremely expensive and time consuming to acquire. Further, most of the custom gear is class specific, meaning you can't put it on a companion; so it is somewhat difficult to find custom items that look good together to put on your companions. For these reasons, my toons are mostly wearing custom gear while the companions are mostly wearing non-custom gear. Armormech is not anywhere near useless at any level.