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The short story on crafting is: don't do it on a first character unless you want to be poor. Save your credits and take three gathering skills instead to gather and sell mats. Also, to save money on your first character, don't worry about your gear. You can get all the gear that you need from quest rewards and commendations. If you want to keep updated with the least effort, just always take the gear rewards from quests and you'll be fine.

If you want to have slightly better gear, get a cheap orange set off the GTN (many of the less desired cartel market outfits and weapons are dumped on the GTN for almost nothing), and just buy blue mods using commendations to fill them. If you take commendations for every quest reward and run the flashpoint daily every day, you should have plenty. If you run a lot of flashpoints and HEROIC quests, you'll hit the comm cap in no time and find yourself forced to spend them even.

Wow. You think I'm actually lying? About something as irrelevant as making fake money in a videogame?

You'd be surprised at the inconsequential crap people lie or grossly exaggerate about.

Scavenging missions on multiple alts, sent to a Cybertech that can craft the earpieces for 2/2/4. Slicing missions on multiple alts, sent to Armstech and Synth (each with +5 to cit).

 

I should note that I don't actually have a lot of playtime either, but I can usually kick off missions in the morning before going to work, in the evening when I get home, and at night before going to sleep. Multiple alts x 5 companions x 3 times a day = a lot of scavenging and slicing missions.

So are you buying purple missions, or relying solely on crits? When MK-6 rolled out, for the first few weeks you could make a killing if you had the materials stockpiled. That only lasted a few weeks though until people noticed and ramped up production and prices plummeted, leveling off just enough above the average cost of purple missions you could make a small profit doing it that way. But normal missions simply don't return enough mats for large scale production.

In fact, by the time you bought flux from the vendor and ran slicing missions for the blue parts you need, its simpler just to make what you need for personal use and sell the raw materials.

This is true, this thread is about LEVELING gear.

 

BUT, the comment of yours that I said was a sweeping generality and not remotely true is:

 

You're not exactly going to get gear from an operation while LEVELING, are you?

Exactly true, just like you're not going to craft many MK-9 augment kits with your first toon at level 30, are you?

By the way, complaining about a generality is a bit childish, don't you think?

Just assuming everything you claim is true, bear in mind you have multiple toons running missions at level 50+, multiple crafters at 450.

How exactly is that suppose to help a new player?

Remember those days, when you had one character and 2 or 3 companions?

So you got to brag about the huge pile of credits you're swimming in (allegedly) and didn't really give the new guy any help whatsoever. Awesome!

Gathering works. It works regardless of level, how many alts or companions you have. It works in any game that has player marketplace.

So are you buying purple missions, or relying solely on crits? When MK-6 rolled out, for the first few weeks you could make a killing if you had the materials stockpiled. That only lasted a few weeks though until people noticed and ramped up production and prices plummeted, leveling off just enough above the average cost of purple missions you could make a small profit doing it that way. But normal missions simply don't return enough mats for large scale production.

In fact, by the time you bought flux from the vendor and ran slicing missions for the blue parts you need, its simpler just to make what you need for personal use and sell the raw materials.

I mainly rely on the crits, although I sometimes get the purple missions myself, on my slicers I run all 4 >3000cr missions (2 tech parts, 2 lockboxes)

There are many times when the raw materials are more profitable, but other times when the final product sells better, it depends on the market at that time.

So you got to brag about the huge pile of credits you're swimming in (allegedly) and didn't really give the new guy any help whatsoever. Awesome!

Gathering works. It works regardless of level, how many alts or companions you have. It works in any game that has player marketplace.

If you look on page 1 of this thread, I've got three posts where I gave some suggestions for the new player leveling. And you'll note that this includes selling mats, not crafting.

The reason I jumped on your statement is that the new player who is leveling will eventually hit end-game, or make alts, and maybe decide to do something to make more money. What you said was false, bad advice, and deserved to be argued against.

If you look on page 1 of this thread, I've got three posts where I gave some suggestions for the new player leveling. And you'll note that this includes selling mats, not crafting.

So you did, so why are you so adamant about contradicting your own advice?

The reason I jumped on your statement is that the new player who is leveling will eventually hit end-game, or make alts, and maybe decide to do something to make more money. What you said was false, bad advice, and deserved to be argued against.

Yup, and when they get there they can easily change it up. Drop something. Pick up a crafting skill. Buy mats and power-level while running dailies. What I said was NOT false, nor bad advice. It was specific to his situation, being a new player leveling his first toon. OBVIOUSLY any idiot will branch out and diversify once they've reached end-game content.

Actively contradicting your own advice just to get the last word in is simply childish and helps no one.

...

 

Actively contradicting your own advice just to get the last word in is simply childish and helps no one.

And trying to paint me as me a lying, unhelpful, braggart is of vast benefit to the OP.

If you think I'm wrong, debate the issue. Argue against it. Make a case for your viewpoint. It's more effective than a character attack.

You stated that the only way to strike it rich is to be an end game raider and learn grade 30/31 schematics. Do you still think this is the case?

And trying to paint me as me a lying, unhelpful, braggart is of vast benefit to the OP.

 

If you think I'm wrong, debate the issue. Argue against it. Make a case for your viewpoint. It's more effective than a character attack.

 

You stated that the only way to strike it rich is to be an end game raider and learn grade 30/31 schematics. Do you still think this is the case?

Well, by your own admission you have to keep an eye on market trends or the price of mats will exceed the price of your crafted items. Even as you've been able to take advantage of newly released items, you also were in a good position to do so with multiple alts able to run, what, 20 to 30 missions a day total?

Crafting profitability has been a constant gripe on the forums since release. Augment kits was possibly the only thing that kept Armormech and Synthweaving afloat. But even then the profit margins were slim enough it takes alot of work and a close watch on the market to turn a profit.

By contrast, cybertech, artifice and armstech can reverse engineer mods ripped from ops gear, craft free in exchange for mats, and charge huge amounts listing mods from crits on the GTN.

But this isn't even about helping new players, is it? You're just hell bent that your experience is somehow the norm, and not the exception. And that's assuming you're not GROSSLY exaggerating. So fine, you win. I fall at your feet in worshipful adulation of your supreme awesomeness.

Well, by your own admission you have to keep an eye on market trends or the price of mats will exceed the price of your crafted items. Even as you've been able to take advantage of newly released items, you also were in a good position to do so with multiple alts able to run, what, 20 to 30 missions a day total?

You are absolutely correct in this, making any sort of significant profit in crafting requires enough effort to know what things are selling, what things aren't, the schematics already unlocked, and the raw materials to craft them.

Crafting profitability has been a constant gripe on the forums since release. Augment kits was possibly the only thing that kept Armormech and Synthweaving afloat. But even then the profit margins were slim enough it takes alot of work and a close watch on the market to turn a profit.

Too true.

By contrast, cybertech, artifice and armstech can reverse engineer mods ripped from ops gear, craft free in exchange for mats, and charge huge amounts listing mods from crits on the GTN.

There is no doubt that the end-game crafting raider who gets enough gear to start reversing can make great money on the market.

But this isn't even about helping new players, is it? You're just hell bent that your experience is somehow the norm, and not the exception. And that's assuming you're not GROSSLY exaggerating. So fine, you win. I fall at your feet in worshipful adulation of your supreme awesomeness.

It's very simple.

Your statement that "the only way crafters strike it rich is through end-game gear", if taken as fact by the new player, would mean they would overlook other methods of making excellent money once they reach end game. These methods include:

1. Crafting Augments

2. Crafting Augment Kits

3. Crafting [Artifact] Implants and Earpieces

4. Crafting 10-45 level purple mainhand barrels / hilts

5. Crafting 10-45 level blue gear

You are absolutely correct in this, making any sort of significant profit in crafting requires enough effort to know what things are selling, what things aren't, the schematics already unlocked, and the raw materials to craft them.

 

Too true.

 

There is no doubt that the end-game crafting raider who gets enough gear to start reversing can make great money on the market.

 

It's very simple.

 

Your statement that "the only way crafters strike it rich is through end-game gear", if taken as fact by the new player, would mean they would overlook other methods of making excellent money once they reach end game. These methods include:

 

1. Crafting Augments

2. Crafting Augment Kits

3. Crafting [Artifact] Implants and Earpieces

4. Crafting 10-45 level purple mainhand barrels / hilts

5. Crafting 10-45 level blue gear

So you agree on most of my points, but insist that new players can make money crafting knowing full well they don't have the resources to invest in learning all that stuff and risking not being able to sell it.

I know from personal experience that purple barrels is a slim margin market with people dumping barrels for dirt cheap.

Learning the green items from the trainer costs money. Gathering the mats to craft costs money.

Reverse engineering only returns a fraction of what you used and it takes on average 5 items RE'd to learn a single blue.

The other option is to buy a shematic off the GTN, or hope for something from a slicing mission or UT or whatever.

So you're asking the new player to invest an awful lot of the little cash they get from quests to try to leverage an income from crafting?

I'm suggesting he do something I've done repeatedly in multiple games. Gather.

Why? Because materials sell. They're subject to the same market forces as crafted items, some of them sell for very little. Some sell for surprisingly more. But they always sell. And they stack much better than 90% of crafted items.

When I started my Mercenary this spring, I didn't take any crafting skills, he was a pure farmer. Scav, Bio and Arch. I later dropped Arch for slicing as the prices were so low on most mats it was a waist of time. I never ran short paying the trainer when he leveled up and he was pushing a million credits by the time I got to Voss and started doing dailies at 47.

Compare that to my Scoundrel. He was armormech early on and broke all the way to level 30 something when I finally dropped it and started gathering. I picked armormech back up at 50 and had no trouble powerleveling to 400 with mats bought off the GTN.

Hmmm.

I guess the problem is you think I'm saying the new player should immediately focus on learning all of the schematics, and invest heavily as a crafter.

This isn't actually what I'm saying.

I'm referring to the player that has reached end-game, not the player that is leveling. The same player you referred to when saying the only way to strike it rich is learning end-game schematics. That player. Not the player that is leveling.

That player can benefit from crafting in other ways than end-game schematics.

The one who is leveling will eventually become the player that hits end-game. Once they hit end-game, they have more options to make money than end-game schematics.

While that player CAN benefit, much of that benefit comes from crafting leveling gear for upcoming alts. Crafting your own augments and augment kits. That sort of thing.

Crafting as a source of income is chancy. There is constant competition not only from other crafters, but people putting unused gear up in the hopes of a better return than the vendor price.

Belts, Bracers, ear pieces and implants seem to be consistant sellers.** Mods, barrels, etc can be extremely cutthroat.

I've seen literally pages and pages of purple barrels level 10 - 20 listed for cheaper than the cost to run the missions.

I was selling them for a while and managed to build up a nice pile of credits when all of a sudden everything I had posted came back un-sold. When I checked prices I found that each level of purple barrel up to level 20 was being listed for just a couple hundred credits! And this went on for weeks until I finally gave up.

So the one major issue with crafting is simply that if you do manage to find a niche and made some money, some jerk is sure to come along and under-cut you.

The one exception of course, being those a-hole ops crafters charging $2 Mill. per mod because they know nobody else on the server has that schematic.

** I noted these exceptions because they can be crafted, belts/bracers are seldom modable at lower levels until around mid to late 20's. There will still be plenty of competition though.

I figure it's about time to reply to this thread. I've been keeping up with it, but haven't said anything.

My original reason for creating this thread wasn't because I wanted to get rich or anything; it was because I was trying to figure out how to get the money needed to keep my armor current. I was originally under the impression that I needed to make regular trips to the GTN to do this, and items on the GTN can be quite expensive, so I was looking for a way make steady money to keep gear current. However, I've since been informed that it's a lot easier to pick up a set of Adaptive Armor, then use Planetary Commendations to keep it's mods current. This makes the original idea behind this thread moot, as I no longer need to focus on making money as I level; instead, I just need to run Heroics for their Planetary Comm rewards. This makes things a lot easier for me.

Also, I've never been good at recognizing market trends, so making money on the GTN isn't something I can do.

I do appreciate all the advice that I've gotten (and I'm actually using the Underworld Trading thing, though I haven't gotten any really valuable stuff from it yet), but the original reason I wanted this advice is now moot.