I remember in WoW, leveling crafting while leveling your character was useless because the gear was all crap. I was thinking of going artifice/synth/arch for a guardian, but will i actually use any of the stuff while leveling up? Won't mission gear be just as good, if not better? Does it have stuff people will use at the end game?

 

I was thinking about going cybertech instead to be unique, and make mods that I would actually use on my gear I get anyway. Then maybe scavenging and some other third.

 

Since I'm a tank, keeping up with good gear is a good idea, but if the stuff is going to be useless while leveling, whats the point?

Edited December 14, 2011 by XxXSlaynXxX

Since I'm a tank, keeping up with good gear is a good idea, but if the stuff is going to be useless while leveling, whats the point?

 

In Classic you leveled pretty slow, so you could upgrade your gear by crafting. And you had the time to gather the mats. But with the acceleration of leveling you wouldn't have the mats to craft your stuff, so your crafting skills were left far behind and you didn't even care.

 

So to answer your question directly:

If you manage your companions and your gathering skill, you will be able to upgrade your gear by your crafting profession.

If you don't give a **** and try to powerlevel/grind as much as you can, you won't be able to craft the gear at the point you could benefit from it.

 

Best advice:

Don't give a **** on powerleveling, take your time, manage your companion quests and loot. Every now and then you will be able to craft something that makes you keep commendations/credits for other stuff you would like. And that's where you benefit from your crafting skills.

I agree that if you're planning to power level at all then crafting gear will eventually fall behind. However, if you do level "normally" then crafting gear will remain viable as long as you keep with it. I'd say on average during Beta I was able to make gear that would be 2-3 levels better than what I was currently getting in questing with artifice/arch/treasure. My one big negative on doing this thought is that you will have money issues from time to time if you're trying to keep ahead with rares instead of greens. Basically doing Treasure Hunting (or any Mission Skill) to get the rare materials needed to craft blues is a HUGE money sink.

 

Short Answer: For normal leveling you will continually craft gear and enhancements that are better than the quest gear you're getting, but it will hit you in the wallet from time to time.

 

As far as end game is concerned, every Crafting Skill gives you BoP end game gear that are comparable to End Game PvP/Objective gear, especially since the enhancements you get from said pvp/objectives can go into those BoP pieces you make. My personal guess is that it will end up like WoW kinda where crafted gear is on par or better with the normal versions of pvp/pve gear, but the heroic/nightmare versions will be superior.

 

One last thing I wanted to add cause you mentioned the concern of making mods with Artifice. Artifice lets you made a lot of items that can go in more than just lightsabers. The color crystals go into every weapon, Hilts can be used for most melee weapons, the offhands you make can be used by anybody, and you can also make Enhancements that are used for weapons AND armor.

I only tried crafting briefly on a sage, and by mid teens she was craftign much better items than she was looting or getting from quests. Making purple quality hilts and mods via artificing, so i'm guessing it will remain the same for some time.

 

It was a rather nice feeling being able to craft fairly decent upgrades as she was leveling up.

Also consider your crafting skill as a means to gear up companions. As a smuggler going armstech or armormech in beta meant having loads of upgrades for my companions.

Indeed. Since Crafting doesn't have to be a huge time sink, you can do it pretty effectively once you have a second companion and keep questing. Also, I found when I went synthweaving, that I pretty much always crafted better gear than what dropped. It was nice.

Ok thanks guys. Originally I just went slicing because I know it was pretty much free money, but it is boring. I think I will go synth, arch and uwl so I can keep my armor in tip top condition, make a better tank.

Yes, as much as possible.

i only played beta but i didnt use anything personally i made, coz i got better thur pvp chests but i did give some of what i made to newbies i saw (i didnt get far into the pve side after 10) and they used em and was very grateful.

In beta, I was able to get my L29 Smuggler and companion (Corso Riggs) in full L200 gear. All of it was prototype quality blues from Reverse Engineering, far better gear overall than quest rewards. Plus, it all matched as a set. Corso looked awesome in his Trooper gear (just like my avatar's). This was accomplished entirely without buying materials off the GTN.

 

The only reason I'm not taking Armormech in Live is the recent change to modded armor, which prompted me to take Cybertech instead, as I can just buy fully moddable armor and hang onto it now, rather than making a new set of armor every few levels.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Farcaster

I got to 33 in beta. It took me roughly 4 hours to go from 70 crafting skill (armoursmithing) to around 200. I gathered as i quested, i had my companions out 50% of the time. It will take you longer than 4 hours to go from 15 to 30. So you should have plenty of time. The stuff you make is useful, for your companions if not you. ALso disassembling stuff, getting the schems and remaking better stuff is useful and had i levelled it sooner i could have always had better stuff than id found, even if it was only 2 stats better.

 

Personally. I'd do it in chunks, level to 20 then get your skills up to match, upgrade all armour, then go to 30 rinse repeat. Trying to do it on the fly is a waste of time because goign back to the trainer for a worthless schem to grind takes ages.