Its a pretty straight forward question. As the market is now flooded with adaptive armor for next to nothing "if you dont mind looking like a frogdog reject etc". What is the point of taking armortech or synthweaving as a skill. The cost you would need to sell the item to recoup costs would be far higher than the free items that come from cartel packs and wherever the other stuff comes from.

 

So far I've geared up all my companions in cheap-free adaptive armor plus the oranges that come from questing, just seems to me like the above mentioned skills are dead!

Augments and augment kits are the only reason to have those crewskills

Short answer: Yes.

 

Long answer: Yes but people still have them to make augments.

It is a competition yes, but i'm still selling lots of orange gear shells with both my armormech and my synthweaver.

Certain looks have no counterpart within the cartell market stuff, nor at planetary vendors or in FPs. Many players try to be individual and mix cartell stuff with other shells available.

You don't earn millions of credits per day but it is a steady income, i get usually 1 to 1.5 millions per week with 15 or 20 minutes effort per day. Thanks to all these colorful dyes even ugly and formerly unwanted crafting recipes have appeal now, because other colors give them some nice new looks.

Want to look like Servant Two or Lord Zash, or a lot of other NPCs? Before the dyes the styling was already there, only with wrong colors, now use black+red dyes with for example a channelers robe or thermoweave vestments and there you are. Formerly boring grey, brown or olive-green armors now can be red, black, yellow, green, white and whatever you want, suddenly looking cool and match better to the image people have of their toons.

 

In addition, the good looking cartell stuff costs a fortune, crafted orange shells seldom cost more than 10-50k depending on required level and slot (old pvp sets excepted), so if you don't have a lot of credits but want to have a nice look, crafted stuff is your best choice.

 

But i have to admit both my chars are old and have almost every orange recipe you can get and most of the pvp stuff too. Someone starting today would have to invest a lot to get the recipes first and then time to get that money back until he starts "earning" credits. If you want a crew skill for fast money those two crewskills aren't the right choice. If you have fun with crafting and selling, they could be the crewskill of choice.

Augments and augment kits are the only reason to have those crewskills

 

This.

 

Depending on server, you still make fantastic money just selling these items from those crafts.

 

Also, if you were lucky (or forward thinking) enough to get the Battlemaster and War Hero schematics, those still sell fairly well too.

Cheap orange shells were always there; Social I armor. Ugly as hell, but for 10 social points? Ye all my toons and companions were in them before the Cartel Market. It's more than some of the best armors (looks-wise) are Cartel Armor (or you want an Inquisitor look on your Jedi and vice versa) but favourable skins unavailable in the Cartel Market still sell.

 

That and like mentioned above, Augments and Kits are amazing.

I would guess that since the only reason to have Synthweaving or Armormech is for the augment kits, that there's no real reason to have both a synthweaver AND an armormech? Thoughts? Edited November 27, 2013 by YanksfanJP

It's not just for the kits, it's for the augments as well. And Synthweave makes different augments than Armormech.

To be honest, I don't think shells ever sold all that well. Augments and kits were always number one reason to have those crew skills (after they were introduced, of course). Edited November 28, 2013 by Helig

I would guess that since the only reason to have Synthweaving or Armormech is for the augment kits, that there's no real reason to have both a synthweaver AND an armormech? Thoughts?

 

I like Synth for the aug kits because both the Jedi Kinight and the Sith Warrior have companions with +5 crit to Synth. Then add in the ship droid companion who can also be given +5 Synth crit, you can mass produce aug kits with the best possible crit chances a lot faster.

 

Then of course Armormech is good for the Reflex and Skill Augments. Currently, since Snipers/Ginslingers and Scoundrels/Operatives are highly popular classes (PvP and PvE) that both get a 9% spec bonus to main stat, Skill augments sell like hot cakes.

 

So with correct alignment to companion skill bonuses, bother craft skills are very advantageous to have.

To be honest, I don't think shells ever sold all that well. Augments and kits were always number one reason to have those crew skills (after they were introduced, of course).

 

Shells sold extremely well back when criting on crafting them was the only way to get an open augment slot on them.

Ever since they added augment kits, and more importantly, all the gear in the Cartel Market, most craft able shells are undesirable.

Only shell I seem to even craft or use after wide spread legacy, adaptive, reputation or CM gear is 1 low level Inquisitor chest - black with hood down (don't remember exact name).

My Syntweaver and my Armormech now craft only augments and kits ... augments for sell and kits for myself because those eat much mats even with CT parts.

If I sell things on the GTN, it usually gets bought sooner or later. Some of this stuff still looks unique.

And with "unique" I mean : Differently looking than stuff from the Cartel Market.

Edited November 28, 2013 by AlrikFassbauer

i dont wanna say those crew skills are dead (they still have augments which make them more then relevant) but tbh they never really made anything good except for the augmented shell crits back in the day. none of the orange schematics were all that great and besides BM/Wh/EWH gear there isnt really anything good they make besides augments.

If all the orange schematics for armomech and synthweaving would produce adaptive armor, that might help a bit, since there are a few nice things, but with all the current restrictions they have on armor type and class restrictions, they cannot compite with CM armor.

 

All I sell with armomech/synthweaving is aug kits, augments and a few belts/bracers. I don't bother with anything else.

As far as crafting armor I feel that Cartel Market armor has killed crafting armor for those professions. As pointed out augments & augment kits are the redeemers.

 

I my opinion a way they could breath new life in to those professions is to make all crafted armor Adaptive.

 

I have a Synthweaver and at times I've wanted to craft a piece of armor for an alt or a companion, but the piece I wanted to craft wasn't the correct armor type (i.e. Medium as apposed to Light. etc). By making all crafted armor adaptive (but keeping class specific armor) Sythnweaver's & Armortech's won't be "one trick ponies" (meaning crafting just augments & augment kits).

With only a few exceptions, the artwork for the crafted custom gear is just sloppy and unattractive when compared to the CM gear. Augments and kits ARE the only thing allowing people to use Armstech, Armormech or Synthweaving. It is cheaper to buy common CM gear to outfit companions than to craft them.

 

The other craft skills have end game possibilities and are useful for leveling alts.

 

Unless changes are made to Arms, Armor and Synth this will remain the case.

. By making all crafted armor adaptive (but keeping class specific armor) Sythnweaver's & Armortech's won't be "one trick ponies" (meaning crafting just augments & augment kits).

 

Why keep the class restrictions ? That only restricts options for everyone, killing potential sells. If Revan's set can be used by a powertech or Elara Dorne, then I see no reason as to why crafted armor should keep their restrictions.

For example, Vette would look gorgeous with the Aspiring Knight set. Really.

No because augments.

For credits-making not the best, but personally I use Armomech more than any crafting skills. Augments is of course #1 reason at end-game, but there're also ready-to-wear armor pieces for my leveling alts and companions.

 

Swapping mods in each orange slot every few levels is PITA and either costly (credits/planetary comms) or time-consuming (try crafting 7 armorings for levels 30/40 with those long crafting times...). So yeah, I would much rather have 2/3 main orange shells (chest/legs are majority of the 'look') and just make everything else with Armomech. The fact that all my characters are DPS with cunning/aim healer companions makes my Armomech even more useful for leveling.

Cartel market pretty much ruined crafting in this game and greatly changed the economy. They should have redone the crafting system after free to play came out.

I would guess that since the only reason to have Synthweaving or Armormech is for the augment kits, that there's no real reason to have both a synthweaver AND an armormech? Thoughts?

 

they both have their place, depending on what kinds of Augments you wish to make.

For credits-making not the best, but personally I use Armomech more than any crafting skills. Augments is of course #1 reason at end-game, but there're also ready-to-wear armor pieces for my leveling alts and companions.

 

Swapping mods in each orange slot every few levels is PITA and either costly (credits/planetary comms) or time-consuming (try crafting 7 armorings for levels 30/40 with those long crafting times...). So yeah, I would much rather have 2/3 main orange shells (chest/legs are majority of the 'look') and just make everything else with Armomech. The fact that all my characters are DPS with cunning/aim healer companions makes my Armomech even more useful for leveling.

 

What buggs me about the armor from armomech/synthweaving is that there are considerable big gaps for specific slots. I stopped bothering with that because of it. At certain level, you get to update gloves and boots, but not the rest., 5 more levels to go.... ufff....

While I do try to see if I have some good belt/bracers to craft I just stick with moddable gear. I craft all amorings and hilts/barrels, since they are "costier" in planetary comms and then the mods and enhancements come from planetary vendors. These drop so commonly that even that way, my lowbie providing mods and enhacements for her and her companions every 5, 7 levels never ran out of....

 

With moddable gear is much straightforward, you decide when to do it and have your cybertech make all the stuff in advance and then is just a visit to planetary vendors to upgrade the rest.

They killed it pretty hard. I still make just under a mil a day if I feel like dealing with it, but it's a pain. You can sit and pound out augments for big profits if you want to keep up with the Jones' every 6 hours.

 

In reality, it's not the cartel market that killed the big money makers, it's the combination of giving away sets of 66 [Artifact] to anyone who levels Oricon, and removal of Isotope requirement and cutting the price in half on Basic Com recipes.

not to mention all new items mostly come from cartel pack instead from game... thats really sad, yes.