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Crew Skills, my take on how things stand...


Rizartha

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Cybertech and Biochem are currently the only two crew crafting skills that have a balanced feel, everything that they make is potentially very useful. Armor mods, Mod mods, grenades, droid parts, ship parts, seeker droid buffs for the cybertech and various stims, adrenals, med kits and implants for the biochem

 

Armstech lags a bit behind the previous two given the ease with which people can pick up cheep custom ranged weapons however off hand gear for companions can be a bit harder/more expensive to get and the blaster barrels are as useful as the cybertech items mods as are some of the augments.

 

I put Artifice behind/ under Armstech not because it is less useful but because OH MY GOD the shear amount that they make. At higher levels they can make well over 3 dozen types of enhancements per level increment, but that variety vanishes once you start getting into com gear, many of the high end color crystals that they can make are still in high demand and the saber hilts are also very useful just like all item mods. They even have a selection of armor dyess that they can make, many of which are in demand. They can also make melee weapons, but this falls into the same problem that Armstechs have. Shear amount of custom gear out there that can be purchased cheeply, however it is less of a problem when it comes to none force user melee weapons, which are fare rarer on the GTN.

 

That brings us to the next problem, with the shear amount of stuff they can craft comes the need for a massive array of materials, everything you get with archeology they need along with treasure hunting for gemstones. You need dozens of stacks of mats, more so when working on higher level items, due to the fact that there are so many to RE and so many variations that can be researched. Be prepared to be broke for a long time if you are trying to get all your blues.

 

And finally we have the poor red headed step children of the Crew Crafting skills, Armormech and Synthweaving. With the over abundance of cheep custom adaptive armor it is easy to outfit them in a set and just use mods to keep them well geared, easier as well given that you don't have to worry about class restriction on the armor, which is a feature on the GTN that still doesn't work. Also with mods you can keep your character at a higher level of gear than you can with the stuff that these two crew skills can make and you don't have to go through each item to see what is falling behind, just buy up enough mods of the level you want and upgrade everything.

 

With few exceptions the custom armor that these two can make doesn't sell well, the green and blues that can be made do not sell well and it is hit or miss on the purples. They can make a few augments that are desirable, but until they hit high level they can not buy them from their trainers, they have to buy them off the GTN or get them as mission rewards for crew missions. The only things they have going for them are the augments and the augment kits and it is a lot of work to get to the level that they become in demand for.

 

My opinion on what should be done with them? Well.. change who can make what an the materials needed as well.

 

Cybertech - Ear pieces, implants, droid parts, enhancment mods [and cut down on the number of them], the Seeker droid buffs, the speeders and only some of the starship upgrades.

 

Biochem - Leave it as is except for implants

 

Armstech - Blaster barrels, aim and cunning off hand items, [and add some custom ones], ranged weapons, grenades, starship upgrades that involve weapons.

 

Armormech - Aim and Cunning armor mods and mod mods, medium and heavy armor, armor/defense, dye starship upgrades

 

Synthweaving - Strength and Willpower armor mods and mod mods, light/medium/heavy armor, dye [same dye as above just made with different stuff]

 

Artifice - Strength and willpower hilts, Melee weapons, strength and willpower off hand items, color crystals

 

Now you may have noticed that I haven't included augments or augment kits on this list. Well, to be honest im still working that out, soon as I get something laid out that feels good ill add them into this post.

Edited by Rizartha
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So my first question is: why do the crafting skills have to produce a (relatively) even number of desirable items?

 

Yes, crafting skills like CT and Art have so many desirable items it is difficult to maintain a supply of everything. But who says you have to? My CT makes nothing but grade 28 mod mods (as you put it), and I have trouble keeping up with demand in that small market. So why should I branch out into ship parts and ear pieces, and armorings, etc? Let someone else do that :eek:

 

Heck, of all the items an artificer can make, 95% of the time I only make two different dye modules, again because they are good profit and I have trouble keeping up with demand. the other 5% is grade 28 hilts. On the Harbinger, the enhancement market is too volatile for my taste and hilts are very expensive to make compared to dye modules.

 

All those items only make "specialization" possible. I specialize in CT mods and two dye modules, another player specializes in armorings and grenades, another in power/surge enhancements, and hilts, etc etc etc.

 

On the flip side, my AM and SW have four grade 28 purple augment schematics each and I only regularly make three of them on each character (Might, Resolve, and Redoubt on my SW; Skill, Reflex, and Shield on my AM). The only other thing these two crafters craft are MK-9 slot kits and that only happens when my CT is in a slump and I can make droid parts for cheap slot kit components. And again, keeping up with demand can be tough, so why would I want my AM and SW to be able to make more?

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So my first question is: why do the crafting skills have to produce a (relatively) even number of desirable items?

 

Would you play a class that had maybe one or two powers that were sorta useful against some mobs while the rest basically did nothing? Would you shrug and say "Eh, im ok against these three mobs, it's all good" or would you want the class to be buffed so you could play the game?

 

This isn't a case of "ever crew skill should craft something semi desirable" it's a case of "Hey, these crew skills are kinda broken" atleast in my opinion.

Edited by Rizartha
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I make more on my armormech than any other - as Psankak said I found a niche and I fill it. We are on the same server both making a good profit with what you consider a broken skill. The key is that we found different things to sell and the sheer amount of things you can craft make it easy for a person to pick what he/she wants to concentrate on and make a steady profit. And if someone else comes along and starts making 'my' item I'll just chose another until he goes away.

 

I personally love armormech. If I were to start the game over on a new server it would be the first thing I made again because I find it both extremely useful and a good profit maker. So in my opinion there's nothing broken about it.

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Would you play a class that had maybe one or two powers that were sorta useful against some mobs while the rest basically did nothing? Would you shrug and say "Eh, im ok against these three mobs, it's all good" or would you want the class to be buffed so you could play the game?

 

This isn't a case of "ever crew skill should craft something semi desirable" it's a case of "Hey, these crew skills are kinda broken" atleast in my opinion.

 

Bad analogy because there are many games out there where certain classes are THE BEST at one thing and SUCK at everything else and yet they are desirable for what they are best at. Perfect example: EQ1 Clerics - great healers, terrible damage dealers. Heck even in this game: how many DPS Scoundrels/Operatives get into endgame content? And yet Scoundrel/Operative healing is widely considered necessary to be successful in progression operations (there is even a thread in the PvP forum asking about DPS Sc/Op viability in PvP). So AMs and SWs are THE BEST at augments (they do make the most desirable ones after all), and they have little else going for them. So what?

 

In addition, I think you would be surprised how viable lower level AM and SW crafted gear is. Think about all those F2P accounts with limited credits and limited resources to unlock restricted features (specifically: access to adaptive gear and purple quality items. Not to mention a somewhat "use it or lose it" credit cap [i know about escrow but it takes CCs [or more credits than a F2P typically has ready access to] to unlock it]). Low level materials are relatively cheap to acquire and so crafting low level gear is cheap, post at a reasonable price (one that F2P accounts can manage) and the stuff sells with ease...quantity over quality; sheer volume of sales makes one wealthy.

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