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[guide] what's the best crew skill for <insert class here>?


psandak

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This is another question that pops up a LOT on these forums. So here goes another guide:

 

First and foremost, there are several perspectives that one can consider with regard to "what's best":

 

1. what crafting skill will provide the most use for the class?

2. what are the "optimized" companion crew skills; which skills are the class's companions best at?

3. how many and what are the desirable items from a given crew skill?

4. what crew skills does the players already have on other characters?

 

Each player has to decide what priority each of the above has. So now let's detail each perspective:

 

1. what crafting skill will provide the most use for the class?

  • Armormech: good for non-force users as you can craft armor while leveling; good for shield/absorb heavy tanks as you can craft augments; good for tanks in general as you can craft "resistive" armorings; OK for DPS and healers as you can craft mastery augments (theorycrafters say otherwise)
  • Armstech: good for non-force users as you can craft weapons and barrels; good for DPS classes as you can craft accuracy and power augments (power augments are good for healers too; but again theorycrafters are saying otherwise). Good for PvPers as you can craft endurance augments
  • Artifice: good for force-users as you can craft lightsabers, lightsaber hilts, Good for one-weapon classes as you can craft off-hand non-weapons (foci, generators, and shields); good for all classes as you can craft color crystals, dye modules, and relics
  • Biochem: good for all classes for stims, medpacs, adrenals, and implants
  • Cybertech: good for all classes for mods, enhancements, and ear pieces
  • Synthweaving: good for force-users as you can craft armor while leveling; good for defense rating heavy tanks as you can craft augments (although all tanks get all the defense rating they need and then some from mods and enhancements). Good for DPS and Healers as you can craft Alacrity and Critical Augments

NOTE: the rating 236 augments have a reshuffling.

  • Armormech makes Alacrity and Absorb
  • Armstech makes Accuracy and Shield
  • Synthweaving makes Redoubt (defense) and Critical

So to be self-sufficient you need all three

 

 

2. what are the "optimized" companion crew skills; which skills are the class's companions best at?

 

There is no more optimization. Companion specific crew skill bonuses are removed. If you want to see what was but is no longer the case, open the spoiler below.

 

 

  • Trooper: +5 Crit to Armormech and Scavenging; +2 crit to Diplomacy; +1 crit to Underworld Trading
  • Smuggler: +5 crit to Armstech; +2 crit to both Bioanalysis and Investigation; +1 crit to Slicing
  • Jedi Knight: +5 crit to Synthweaving and Biochem; +2 crit to Slicing; +1 crit to Treasure Hunting
  • Jedi Consular: +2 crit to Armstech, Scavenging, and Diplomacy; +1 crit to Underworld Trading
  • Bounty Hunter: +2 crit to Biochem, Bioanalysis, and Treasure Hunting; +1 to crit to Armstech
  • Sith Warrior: +5 crit Sythweaving and Treasure Hunting; +2 crit to Investigation and Bioanalysis
  • Sith Inquisitor: +5 crit to Archeology; +2 crit to Scavenging and Slicing; +15 efficiency to Artifice (no class has +crit to artifice)
  • Imperial Agent: +5 crit to Diplomacy; +2 crit to Armormech, Underworld trading, and Slicing
  • Ship droid sensor units offer: +5 crit to Synthweaving and Cybertech; +2 crit to Armstech; Armormech and Artifice get +efficiency.; and Biochem is not available.
  • HK-51 and Treek both have +1 crit to all crafting skills

 

NOTES:

  • The Trooper is the only class with +crit to a crafting skill and +crit to the gathering and mission skill that feed that crafting.
  • The JK and SW have the best synthweaving especially when you add in the ship droid
  • The JC is by far the weakest when it comes to crew skills. The one +crit crafting does very little for the class
  • As stated, no class has +crit to Artifice. The best bonus is +15 efficiency from the SI. Throw in +10 efficiency from the ship droid and it is the best artificer.

 

 

If you want to craft items where critical successes will generate additional units (consumables and item modifications) then you should get at least one companion to influence rank 20 or more. Rank 20 is the equivalent crit chance of a formerly +5 crit chance companion with max affection.

 

3. how many and what are the desirable items from a given crew skill?

For those who are returning who have not played since 4.0 launch...

Things have changed. Bioware has redistributed crafted goods.

 

Biochem reusables are no more

Artifice no longer crafts enhancements but can now craft relics at all levels

Cybertech no longer crafts armorings or droid armor, but has had enhancements added.

Armormech now crafts "resistive" (endurance) armorings

Synthweaving now crafts "versatile" (mastery) armorings

Augments have been shifted around slightly:

  • Armormechs can now craft Shield, Absorb, and Mastery Augments. (formerly Shield Absorb, Aim, and Cunning)
  • Synthweavers can now craft Alacrity, Defense, and Critical Augments. (formerly Alacrity, Defense, Willpower, Strength)
  • Armstechs can now craft Accuracy, Endurance, and Power Augments. (formerly Accuracy, Endurance, Power, Critical, and Surge)

 

4. what crew skills does the players already have on other characters?

There is now absolutely no game mechanical reason to double up (or more) on any crafting skill as reusables are gone

 

This is your first character...

If you are asking about your first character, the answers are debatable. I fall into the camp of taking two of the three gathering skills (Scavenging, Bioanalysis, Archeology), and Slicing if you are a new subscribing player. My reason is that, I know from experience that trying to maintain a crafting crew skill so that what you craft does not lag behind can be credits intensive; just gathering from nodes is insufficient to maintain a crafting skill at or near a character's level - one has to run missions and lots of them. Others say that selling your wares on the GTN counter balanced the expense. While probably true, this path is riskier: maybe what you make won't sell.

 

To confirm that 4.x changes (aka components and reduced RE paths) did not impact my opinion about new players and crew skills, I ran an experiment: I started leveling a new Sith with synthweaving, archaeology, and underworld trading. I attempted to craft armor pieces as I was able.

 

Here is what I found:

#1 I got off Korriban at level 15, meaning that the first stuff I could craft was 6 levels lower than the character level

#2 if I did not already have a stock/leftovers of grade 1 materials in my legacy storage, I would not have been able to craft anything useful while on DK. I would have been stuck just crafting components to level the skill

#3 even the stuff I did craft (all blue/prototype), while it was in fact better than anything that randomly dropped or rewarded, it was still significantly below my character level. The "good news" on that front is that with level sync it does not really matter that my gear is only appropriate to the planet I am on; overgearing does not help as much.

#4 due to lack of companions I typically had to stop playing for a short period to craft.

#5 nothing I crafted (all armor) required a material other than arch and UWT.

 

I believe I answered the question on many players' minds at the time: it is still VERY hard to acquire materials to craft level appropriate gear in a timely fashion with a single character. Therefore, my advice stands: it is best for a new player (or a player starting over on a new server) to take two gathering skills and slicing.

 

Contributions are welcome.

Edited by psandak
5.0 expansion
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I'll add to this, CopperHamster put together this extensive spreadsheet quite some time ago:

 

https://docs.google.com/a/copperhamster.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Av7rr4x654YfdGY2RG9zcjFfSk9ZWHlqRnFlZDlOcUE#gid=0

 

It covers:

 

1. Which companions have which bonuses.

2. Grinding affection to maximize companion efficiency / crit.

3. Other useful companion crafting information.

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Great guide, Pete. I'll look at it in more detail when I get home, but one thing jumped out at me upon first glance:

 

Artifice: good for force-users as you can craft lightsabers and focuses; good for all classes as you can craft color crystals, enhancements, and dye modules, (and relics IF you can RE an existing unit)

 

Artifice also produces lightsaber hilts. IMO, those would be far more important than the lightsabers themselves, since a player would most likely be swapping those out more frequently. You do mention it later in your post, but I think crafting for 1-54 is just as important as crafting for 55.

 

One other thing I might suggest; you've offered opinions on how best to make money at crafting. I think it would help to include a lot of that here, given that making money while crafting (or at least trying not to lose too much money) is helpful to everyone and for some folks, it's the central purpose. Granted, a lot of that money making comes from gathering, not crafting, but I think a guide on crew skills would be an excellent place to address that question.

Edited by georgemattson
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Great guide, Pete. I'll look at it in more detail when I get home, but one thing jumped out at me upon first glance:

 

 

 

Artifice also produces lightsaber hilts. IMO, those would be far more important than the lightsabers themselves, since a player would most likely be swapping those out more frequently. You do mention it later in your post, but I think crafting for 1-54 is just as important as crafting for 55.

 

One other thing I might suggest; you've offered opinions on how best to make money at crafting. I think it would help to include a lot of that here, given that making money while crafting (or at least trying not to lose too much money) is helpful to everyone and for some folks, it's the central purpose. Granted, a lot of that money making comes from gathering, not crafting, but I think a guide on crew skills would be an excellent place to address that question.

 

Fixed it in the OP thanks, good catch :).

 

as for a money making guide, this is not the place for that. While money making is a consideration when choosing crew skills, the secrets of my success, belong in another thread. Maybe soon ;)

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Nice guide OP.

 

I can't tell you how many times I've replied to the 'what is the best crew skill for X' question with the very questions you listed, though sometimes I still get the 'yeah yeah but which one is best'.

 

I also echo take three gathering as first crew skills as mats sell faster and with less risk than crafted items (it takes time to understand what sells and what does not).

 

I've also found slicing can be leveled to 400 at effectively no cost just running lock box missions (below 400 I've always ended up slightly ahead of expense before accounting for mission discoveries, above 400 the returns are less than the costs but come out ahead playing the crit / RNG game for parts / missions).

Edited by DawnAskham
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  • 4 months later...

Since you posted in my guide thread, I thought I'd post in yours :)

 

If you're looking for an alternate guide you can use mine at: What's the Best Crew Skill for My Class? A SWTOR Crew Skills Guide

 

It goes over a lot of the same information that's covered here, but I personally find it more readable being less 'wall of text' dense. It offers more then just the facts and that might be something you're interested in if you're a beginner.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just found the layout to be somewhat cumbersome for my purposes, rearranged it by skill and highest crit to lowest. Maybe someone else might find this useful:

 

Crafting skills:

Armormech: +5 Trooper, +2 IA

Armstech: +5 Smuggler, +2 JC, +1 BH

Artifice: No crit available

Biochem: +5 JK, +2 BH

Cybertech: no crit available from class story companions

Synthweaving: +5 JK, +5 SW

 

Gathering Skills:

Archeology: +5 SI,

Bioanalysis: +2 Smuggler, +2 BH, +2 SW

Scavenging: +5 Trooper, +2 JC, +2 SI

Slicing: +2 JK, +2 SI, +2 IA, +1 Smuggler

 

Mission Skills:

Diplomacy: +5 IA, +2 Trooper, +2 JC

Investigation: +2 Smuggler, +2 SW

Treasure Hunting: +5 SW, +2 BH, +1 JK,

Underworld Trading: +2 IA, +2 SI, +1 Trooper, +1 JC

Edited by g_land
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  • 1 month later...
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  • 2 months later...

This is one of the things I wondered about before actually starting up a character. Good to have all the crew skills known before taking up crafting choices, for sure.

 

I don't have a whole lot of time to spend on SWTOR on so many classes, so based on guides such as these, I found I could cover most needs for the few non-force classes, as I prefer:

 

Scoundrel: Armstech (galactic armsdealer, why not?)

Vanguard: Armormech

Sniper: Cybertech (Slicing, as well)

 

Being self-sufficient to provide all characters with up-to-level arms and armor makes leveling so much easier, albeit longer. I don't mind. Also, flashpoints go by with relative ease by being fully geared on-level to do my job that much better for the group.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was thinking this past weekend that especially with the Legacy Storage feature, the "self-sufficient" crafter isn't as important as they perhaps once were. By that I mean that it may make sense to optimize resource gathering (especially for the mission style skills where we're hoping for purple materials) instead of worrying about what materials my final product crafter needs. Looking at the class bonuses, it appears that the following may show the optimal chances for a crit on a mission skill...

 

Diplomacy - Imperial Agent (5), Jedi Consular (2), Trooper (2)

Investigation - Sith Warrior (2), Smuggler (2)

Slicing - Imperial Agent (2), Sith Inquisitor (2), Jedi Knight (2), Smuggler (1)

Treasure Hunting - Sith Warrior (5), Bounty Hunter (2), Jedi Knight (1)

Underworld Trading - Imperial Agent (2), Jedi Consular (1), Trooper (1)

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  • 5 weeks later...
Maybe if this thread stays on the first page, Psandak won't have to keep replying with...

 

:cool:

 

Thank you for the bump. When I first created the guides I tried to keep them on the first page, but it became tiresome. I then saved the links a document to be more easily copy and pasted into questions. Then I finally decided to just link them in my signature.

 

I just wish they would update the Crew Skill Guides sticky.

Edited by psandak
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  • 3 weeks later...
I wanted to add that SI also has +2 to Underworld trading Critical but its tied to Andron that has +2 critical slicing. So SI has a companion that has two criticals attached to it.

 

Other than missing this bit it's an excellent thread, thank you for making it.

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Updated the OP to reflect changes in 3.x...specifically:

 

Armstech augments are now more sought due to +power augments pulling ever so slightly ahead of main stat with regard to optimization and the need for +accuracy augments to get DPS to the magic 100/110 mark.

 

Artifice is no longer the "distant second" in desirable items/money making. In my experience thus far I craft and sell more artifice stuff but not by much. Add to that, CT is more profitable due to doonium prices being lower than midlithe crystals AND blue quality CT stuff (armorings, mods, and even ear pieces) is more sought than blue artifice stuff (hilts, enhancements, relics). Basically profit margins from CT are better, so it gets the edge in my book.

Edited by psandak
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Artifice is no longer the "distant second" in desirable items/money making. In my experience thus far I craft and sell more artifice stuff but not by much. Add to that, CT is more profitable due to doonium prices being lower than midlithe crystals AND blue quality CT stuff (armorings, mods, and even ear pieces) is more sought than blue artifice stuff (hilts, enhancements, relics). Basically profit margins from CT are better, so it gets the edge in my book.

 

As the author of the [artifice is a] "distant second" quote, I can sum up 3.0 crafting as "Cybertech has left the building, Artifice is in the house". My Cybertech has welcomed her new Artificer Overlord.

 

Seriously, Artifice (on my server, at least) is much farther ahead of CT than CT was of Artifice in 2.x I make millions a day on my Artificer, and I only bother to make stuff on my other crafters once a week or so (and I can make pretty much every BiS 186 purple).

 

I run a couple of THs, and I buy Midlithe at up to 25K each, and I've already burned through the five or six stacks I got during Machine Madness week (note -- I haven't used the two stacks of JJ I won, I just bought a bunch at 5.5K from the people who were very ill-advisedly dumping them), and I make anywhere from 25K-100K *profit* per Midlithe.

 

Here are a few of the main reasons Artifice is King (God Emperor, actually):

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

o Dyes -- Unlike statted gear, "lower tier" dyes don't go out of style, so the old ones sell just as well (or better) than before, and there are lots of new colors.

 

o Enhancements -- You can't get BiS 186 from the Comm vendor (and not a lot of people looking to start DF/DP NiM just for the gear), and with the Accuracy changes in 3.0, DPS needs 7 [Pow/Crit]/Acc Enhancements (+ an Aug) to hit 110%, and few comm pieces have it, so you'd have to buy a lot of extra Comm gear

 

o Relics -- there are no relics at the 186 comm vendor, so you need crafted (or NiM DF/DP) for BiS; also, unlike 2.x, the 186 PVE relics aren't crap, so the PVP relics aren't as good of a substitute

 

o Hilts -- no MH vendor

 

0 +41 level 10 crystals -- expensive as f!, but people have whined about wanting to make these...and, while niche, they are unique colors; at least we didn't get a four-pack of mount reskins

 

Now let's look at Cybertech:

--------------------------------------

o Earpieces -- BiS, but the important [tertiary] stat is the same for the low end crafted version and mid endurance comm version, and each character needs only one

 

o Armorings -- All are BiS, but so are the ones at the Comm Vendor

 

o Mods -- A/B only, but that's what's at the Comm vendor as well; these sell slightly better than Armorings, because secondary stats are not optimal on comm gear

 

o New mounts -- talk about holding a flaming bag of excrement

 

o Augment Kit Components -- oh, wait, the augment kit crafters can make them just as cheaply now :(

 

o Droid Parts -- 186 BoE crafted droid parts (with no visual) requiring level 58 and using 4 Doomium each that competes against 192 BoL set you can get for running a weekly and can be used at level 55 :(

 

And FYI, on my server at least, Doonium isn't that much cheaper than Midlithe, and on a per-purple basis, CT items sell for less than Artifice items, so while my profit-per-Doonium may have a slightly higher lower bound, it has a much lower upper bound. Coupled with the much higher volume of Artifice sales (potential and actual), I'd have to spend a lot more time on my CT to make in a week what I make in a day on Artifice.

Edited by eartharioch
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eartharioch, funny thing is, I ran an unintended experiment this week (unintended because I did not think about it to start with but realized later that the results might prove interesting) to see which crafting skill is truly the best money maker. I wanted to see for myself whether of not Art had surpassed CT). My results are that all are equally profitable :).

 

I started my six crafters at 500k credits (my usual low level for my alts), and went through a week of standard crew skilling for me:

- logging in about 3 times every 2 days during the workweek

- and then several passes each weekend day.

 

On all occasions taking about 30 minutes each time to run through my characters: collecting sales and unsold items from the mail, posting unsold and newly crafted items, and setting up new missions and crafting on comps. The point is that every character got equal love.

 

After seven days ALL my crafters have 1.5 to 2 million credits with a most common result (four of six) being between 1.8 and 1.9 million.

 

low man was AM at 1.52 million

high man was Art at just over 2 million

 

I did not track anything except credit total but I can tell you that:

 

Most of the time I ran one crafter and five materials missions, although there was one occasion each where I sent :

  • my BC comps all crafting (no crit bonus for BC on that character and an over-abundance of mats so no "harm")
  • three of six comps SW crafting (JK Kira, ship droid, and HK).
  • three of six comps CT crafting (BH Ship droid, Mako, and Treek)
  • three of six comps Art crafting (SI Khem, Ship droid, and Treek)

 

What I sold was end-game standard stuff:

  • AM and SW sold nothing but grade 36 augments (blue and purple)
  • AT sold grade 36 augments and grade 36 barrels (blue and purple)
  • Art sold (trained) dyes and grade 36 hilts and one 186 relic (no enhancements)
  • BC sold mostly stims with a small number of grade 36 implants
  • CT sold mostly grade 36 mods with a handful of armorings and ear pieces

 

The conclusion I draw from this is that it does not really matter how many different items a particular crafting skill has to offer. What matters is working the items you can make to your potential. If you were to dedicate equal time to Art and CT I would bet they would generate relatively equal profits.

Edited by psandak
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eartharioch, funny thing is, I ran an unintended experiment this week (unintended because I did not think about it to start with but realized later that the results might prove interesting) to see which crafting skill is truly the best money maker. I wanted to see for myself whether of not Art had surpassed CT). My results are that all are equally profitable :).

 

I started my six crafters at 500k credits (my usual low level for my alts), and went through a week of standard crew skilling for me:

- logging in about 3 times every 2 days during the workweek

- and then several passes each weekend day.

 

On all occasions taking about 30 minutes each time to run through my characters: collecting sales and unsold items from the mail, posting unsold and newly crafted items, and setting up new missions and crafting on comps. The point is that every character got equal love.

 

After seven days ALL my crafters have 1.5 to 2 million credits with a most common result (four of six) being between 1.8 and 1.9 million.

 

low man was AM at 1.52 million

high man was Art at just over 2 million

 

The conclusion I draw from this is that it does not really matter how many different items a particular crafting skill has to offer. What matters is working the items you can make to your potential. If you were to dedicate equal time to Art and CT I would bet they would generate relatively equal profits.

 

I think you missed an order of magnitude or so :) You basically made 12M for the week, spending about 7.5 hours crafting -- you said once every two days during the week, so say M, W, F, and both Sat and Sun, at 3 times per day, for 30 mins each. My Artificer, running 1-2 comps (HK/Treek), for less than 7.5 hrs / week makes more than that all by herself. Obviously, I still run the other crafters when I have spare time, but none of them could make near that kind of money in the same time.

 

BTW, here's how I run things:

 

I make one of every "best selling" purple for all of my crafters. I list them for my target price. Unless the profit margin is high enough, I usually list all items using the same mats at around the same (highest) price. I only make replacements once the initial one sells. I don't care about a few K, based on competitor pricing, but I price based on mat-equivalency first and time-to-sell second. Basically, I sell mats, and crafting is just a way to make a mat worth more than it's raw value.

 

I do log into all of my crafters several times a week, but only Artifice consistently has most of the inventory sold, and that inventory has the highest markups, which is why I spend most time there. The only way to sell faster would be to lower my prices, but then I'd have to choose between logging into my Artificer to replenish high profit goods or a non-Artificer to replenish lower profit goods. And since I'm trying to make money, I choose Artifice.

 

tl;dr: If I spent less time on Artifice and more time on my other crafters, they'd probably make similar amounts of money. But I'd make less *total* money than focusing on Artifice.

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Grand total just over 9 million in the week. And maybe you are right, if I focused on artifice more I might make more with it. But that is just not how I roll anymore. I have said it in other threads, at this point I craft because I enjoy it to see my credits total increase; by how much does not matter.

 

BTW, the "official" winner this week was in fact Synthweaving net gain was 1.73 million (starting at 500k ending at 2.23 million), Artifice was 2nd at 1.65 million, and third was Cybertech at 1.59 million.

 

Lastly, my point was not to "dethrone" Artifice, it was to show that any and all crafting skills can generate profits...none of them are "crap skills."

Edited by psandak
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My take is that Artifice (and Cybertech) have an easier path to tycoon status. Mostly because their paths are clearer. With the other crafts you have to spend a bit of time figuring out where the "sweet spot" is (and sometimes it moves).

 

I agree with the two above that my Artificer makes more profit more easily. Since I (by chance) made my Sith Warrior my Artificer , the fact that I have 2 companions with bonuses in Treasure Hunting (including my ship droid with a sensor implant) keeps my costs down as well.

 

I suppose I could probably re-optimize my crafting skills now that the Legacy Storage makes it less important to have gathering and crafting skills together in the same crew.

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Grand total just over 9 million in the week. And maybe you are right, if I focused on artifice more I might make more with it. But that is just not how I roll anymore. I have said it in other threads, at this point I craft because I enjoy it to see my credits total increase; by how much does not matter.

 

BTW, the "official" winner this week was in fact Synthweaving net gain was 1.73 million (starting at 500k ending at 2.23 million), Artifice was 2nd at 1.65 million, and third was Cybertech at 1.59 million.

 

Lastly, my point was not to "dethrone" Artifice, it was to show that any and all crafting skills can generate profits...none of them are "crap skills."

 

I agree, I don't consider any of the skills to be "crap". Given how easy it is to level a character to level 10, and the fact that subs get 12 characters, I'd never tell anybody to avoid any crafting skill. So sorry if I sounded like I was saying any of the skills were bad, that wasn't my intent. Since (other than Conquest stuff and augment kits), markets don't overlap, there is no substitute for having them all -- especially since we (thankfully) don't have reusables any more.

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