I find that there are certain skills that I'm not finding it worthwhile to throw down the $ to upgrade to the higher ranks. I'm not talking about skills that I don't use at all, but rather as a Sentinel, I've got certain skills like Leg Slash, that the importance of using it is for the snare effect, and not so much the damage, and it looks like you get the entire effect of the snare right from the first rank. I wasn't really paying attention at first, and I did upgrade from rank 1 to rank 2, but then I noticed the upgrade to rank 3 would have cost me nearly 20K, for no increase in the utility, and an upgrade of a measly 20 points of damage. Definitely didn't seem worth it. I noticed a similarity with my Force Leap ability, which again, I use for the utility (charge attack and/or interrupt), and the latest (expensive) upgrade will only increase the damage by 20 points (less than 5% damage increase).

The way I figure it, when I've got more credits than I know what to do with it, I'll upgrade these, but in the meantime, is it safe to say I'm being smart to pass these for now, and only buy the upgraded ranks for my skills that actually do solid DPS?

Nope, I bought every single one and never skipped. Mostly because I had more credits than I knew what to do with while leveling.

Hell, I had 600k credits at level 31.

I find that there are certain skills that I'm not finding it worthwhile to throw down the $ to upgrade to the higher ranks. I'm not talking about skills that I don't use at all, but rather as a Sentinel, I've got certain skills like Leg Slash, that the importance of using it is for the snare effect, and not so much the damage, and it looks like you get the entire effect of the snare right from the first rank. I wasn't really paying attention at first, and I did upgrade from rank 1 to rank 2, but then I noticed the upgrade to rank 3 would have cost me nearly 20K, for no increase in the utility, and an upgrade of a measly 20 points of damage. Definitely didn't seem worth it. I noticed a similarity with my Force Leap ability, which again, I use for the utility (charge attack and/or interrupt), and the latest (expensive) upgrade will only increase the damage by 20 points (less than 5% damage increase).

 

The way I figure it, when I've got more credits than I know what to do with it, I'll upgrade these, but in the meantime, is it safe to say I'm being smart to pass these for now, and only buy the upgraded ranks for my skills that actually do solid DPS?

Yes. I frequenly skipped buying upgrades on skills I rarely if ever used while leveling up. Good way to save credits lol

I wouldn't call it smart, I would call it cheap. There should be no reason for you to not be able to afford to buy the skill upgrades, unless you are crafting and spending your money there.

That's the thing, I AM crafting, and yes, that is eating up all my $, along with gearing up my companions. Like I said, when I'm no longer strapped for cash, then I'll get these upgrades, but for the time being, I don't see it worthwhile to spend 20K to increase a utility skill's DPS by 20 points (I crit for over 2.5K points on my actual damaging attacks, in comparison. Those skills I DO upgrade at every rank I can, and their upgrades usually increase by 100-200 points per rank).

Now does that make any more sense?

That's the thing, I AM crafting, and yes, that is eating up all my $, along with gearing up my companions. Like I said, when I'm no longer strapped for cash, then I'll get these upgrades, but for the time being, I don't see it worthwhile to spend 20K to increase a utility skill's DPS by 20 points (I crit for over 2.5K points on my actual damaging attacks, in comparison. Those skills I DO upgrade at every rank I can, and their upgrades usually increase by 100-200 points per rank).

 

Now does that make any more sense?

I already understood what you were doing, like I mentioned the only way you would not have money was if you were crafting, and I was right, thats exactly what you were/are doing. You have made that your priority and thats fair enough, maybe you should have put in the OP that you would rather spend it on crafting than skills.

I skipped the one BH skill that's only usable on incapacitated targets and makes less damage on stronger mobs...I bought the first rank of it and realised I'd never use it as a merc, so I didn't bother to buy the second rank. every class seems to have these useless skills (I think a Juggernaut even has 2 or 3 of these)

I also haven't bought the higher ranks of the first weapon cylinder you learn (the one for the pyro tree). I only played Arsenal while levelling and now as a healer I only use the combat support cylinder. So it would be wasted money for me to buy that cylinder.

I've started skipping the "defense/reaction" SKILLS (THE ONES YOU USE AFTER YOU'VE BEEN HIT BY A CERTAIN TYPE OF ATTACK, OR PARRIED, OR LIKE THAT) BECAUSE i JUST CAN'T REACT FAST ENOUGH TO MAKE USE OF THEM, SO WJHY SPEND THE CREDITS...

What? you can't react fast enough to hit a button within a few seconds time? really?

Don't want so sound impolite, but that's really slow. I doubt you'll have fun in flashpoints because with such a slow reaction you'll stand in the fire or other boss attacks a lot and thus die a lot.

Only the higher speeder skills, and catch them up when I've the spare cash.

Wouldn't skip class skills. Compared to the money you make, their cost is minimal, and you risk degrading your ability to perform (speed of levelling, rate at which you gain more credits) without them. Plus, if you don't pick them up you don't get used to using them, and you don't realise how useful something might be. Then when you miss out upgrades on skills your output will gradually degrade, but it'll happen slowly so that maybe you don't even realise you're being slowly gimped.

I was crafting while levelling, and it was only at the top crafting levels that I started picking and choosing which crafting recipes to get. The value of endgame crafting is an argument for another thread.

Credits aren't quite so easy to get as to be worthless, but the cost of your class skills is so realtively low I'd say you were being penny-wise pound-foolish to miss them out.

I buy all skills available on all ranks. On my Guardian I use like 50% of them though.

Which brings question, why to even bother buying them?

There are still 3 skills on the vendor that I didn't even buy up from rank 2, I won't use them as a Jedi sorc, So why waste the money when you are leveling up.

At lvl 50 as a BM, the chances of me using a melee attack are laughable.

Sure, I skip Tumult, Double Strike and Disturbance on my sage. I have some questionable other skills but pick them nevertheless. Stuff like Force Stun I get not because of the (minimal) damage increase but if it is anything like WoW the level difference in skills will make them more susceptible to be resisted.

With skills costing 20k more I see no point, even if I'm swimming in cash which I usually am (oh noes, Slicing was nerfed, oh noes!).

Sure, I skip Tumult, Double Strike and Disturbance on my sage. I have some questionable other skills but pick them nevertheless. Stuff like Force Stun I get not because of the (minimal) damage increase but if it is anything like WoW the level difference in skills will make them more susceptible to be resisted.

 

With skills costing 20k more I see no point, even if I'm swimming in cash which I usually am (oh noes, Slicing was nerfed, oh noes!).

there's no swimming in tor

What? you can't react fast enough to hit a button within a few seconds time? really?

Well, what with my sub-par eyesight (20/50 right, 20/100 left WITH glasses), reading the "parry" text (or whatever) as it goes by in the middle of a fight is pretty much impossible...

I only regret buying the stealth probe skill as a bounty hunter since its only good for PvP apparantly and i dont do PvP...

i even tried it on some sand people ambushers that cloaked as i got close, but it didnt reveal them at all :/

Well, what with my sub-par eyesight (20/50 right, 20/100 left WITH glasses), reading the "parry" text (or whatever) as it goes by in the middle of a fight is pretty much impossible...

If i remember correctly, most (if not all) of those skills are greyed out until you actually manage a parry so i dont even look for some kind of text hint when to use them, i just gather them all in one place on the quickbar and that way i know i can use them when they flash up (go from dark to bright) and i just know what button to press then since i have them all in the same place no matter what class im using.

If i remember correctly, most (if not all) of those skills are greyed out until you actually manage a parry so i dont even look for some kind of text hint when to use them, i just gather them all in one place on the quickbar and that way i know i can use them when they flash up (go from dark to bright) and i just know what button to press then since i have them all in the same place no matter what class im using.

Ahhh, thatnks !! Didn't think of that...

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk by saying this, but I'm not sure many people understood the question I was asking, or the point I was trying to make in the OP (I think the thread title I chose is to blame).

Surely yes, if you don't use a skill at all, you shouldn't waste any $ on it. I'm talking about skills that ARE used, but just aren't worth upgrading past their lower ranks.

Again, I think the skill I mentioned in my OP, Leg Slash, is the perfect example: it's a weak attack (currently hits for 225-250) that slows the target by 50% for 12 seconds. I use this all the time in PvP, but not for it's damage output, rather to snare my target so I can unload my big hitters. Spending 20K on the next rank adds 20 points to the min/max of the skill, but absolutely no upgrade to the slowing effect.

Sure, you might look at that and think that is nearly a 10% increase of damage for that skill, but that is one of my weakest skills damage wise, so in actuality, I'd say that increase really equates to being around <=1% of my total DPS. Sure, every bit helps, especially since I am a DPS class, so I will eventually get it, but it's about the lowest thing on my priority list.

TL;DR

If you need to be smart with your spending, don't just blindly upgrade your skills. Odds are if the skill has utility to it, and isn't purely damage based, you most likely get 95% of the benefit of the skill from rank 1.