I've been a loyal Artificer since launch. I took a 9 month break from the game and came back around December and have been having a blast. Problem is, I'm starting to think I should dump Artificing (and Treasure Hunting and Archaeology), all of which are 400/400. I never use any of those abilities for my main character, a Jugg tank. I'm not in an end-game raiding guild, and just pug EC or TFB raids when I can. So I'm never going to use my Artificing to reverse engineer end-game equipment to learn level 26 or 27 enhancement schematics (I don't play enough to obtain excess of that level of gear to be able to reverse engineer it hoping for a schematic). And even then, I've got millions of credits, so its not like I have some burning desire to make more money by learning the level 26 or 27 schematics.

On the other hand, having reusable rakata level stims, med packs, etc. is very useful. Can anyone give me a good reason to keep Artificing, and not pick up Biochem/Bioanalysis/Diplomacy? Maybe some Artificing love in the near future (expansion) that might make it worth keeping?

Thanks!

One of the things I like about Artifice is the ability to make crystals. I'm hoping that sometime in the future, they will give us a bigger variety of color crystals we can make. That's just one aspect.

In the end, I agree though. BioChem is better and already I have the ability to make implants for my other toons and my companions. Also stims and health packs which I can make a ton from plus also send to alts. Artifice requires a ton of patience lol

It's hard to give advice for eiher of them tbh, lol

You say you don't need money and not interested in making more, so any argument for those crafts pointing out the ability of making money is moot.

You raid casually, and if you pug EC and TfB I imagine those are story mode. If that's the case, the stims the medical service droid has are more than enough. No need for biochem stims there imo.

Basically, whatever

Anyway, I wouldn't drop Artifice. You never know if they'll improve it. But they did say that Biochem reusables (the thing you want) will be phased out, meaning their usefulness will be reduced in the future

I'd say you should make a different character. Retire the Artifice guy in case it becomes usefull in the future.

I have every craft skill and mission skill at 400 with my characters, and then everyone else I actually want to play is a biochem\bioanalysis\slicer.

I guess that may change if the reusable medical stuff becomes worthless. If that happens then all my characters will have bioanalysis so I can keep mats going on my biochem guys without having to spend extra time farming.

The only reason I would see dropping artifice for biochem is if all you do on that toon is regular warzones or if you don't have a toon with biochem. Right now the exotech stims are best in game (including better than the reusable rakata stim) but the exotech stims are not reusable.

If you are not worried about using the best stims in PvE or PvP, then I don't see why you should keep artifice as imo bioware is slowly eating away its existance. But if you already have a toon that has max biochem, I would suggest waiting until the expansion to decide.

The good ship Biochem is the best has sailed. Depending on how much gear/stims/etc scales in the expansion the Rakata reusabales could easily be completely retired in the expansion, at which point the only reason to have Biochem is to save yourself some credits on stim/medpac costs.

There will be 1 or 2 new tiers of gear come the expansion for SM and HM ops, both of which will be REable for schematics assuming they use the same mechanics as they did with Camp and DG tiers, so come the expansion you will be seeing gear you can RE for mats and schematics with which to make money, gear alts and/or min/max yourself easier so IMO Arti is going to be the better bet come the ROTHC.

The good ship Biochem is the best has sailed. Depending on how much gear/stims/etc scales in the expansion the Rakata reusabales could easily be completely retired in the expansion, at which point the only reason to have Biochem is to save yourself some credits on stim/medpac costs.

 

There will be 1 or 2 new tiers of gear come the expansion for SM and HM ops, both of which will be REable for schematics assuming they use the same mechanics as they did with Camp and DG tiers, so come the expansion you will be seeing gear you can RE for mats and schematics with which to make money, gear alts and/or min/max yourself easier so IMO Arti is going to be the better bet come the ROTHC.

unless maybe they make new schematics for higher level resuables once the expansion is out?

unless maybe they make new schematics for higher level resuables once the expansion is out?

They've already said reusables were a misstep and won't be continuing. Rakata won't be removed but they'll slowly become obsolete.

As for artifice, combine it with cybertech on another toon and you can neatly recycle your old gear as you get better. The recycled mats can be used to gear up faster. Dedicated raiding guild or not that's a great advantage.

Similarly you can RE WH gear from pvp'ing and black hole gear from comms to make extra credits.

None of this involves NiM raiding and everyone can do it.

They've already said reusables were a misstep and won't be continuing. Rakata won't be removed but they'll slowly become obsolete.

 

As for artifice, combine it with cybertech on another toon and you can neatly recycle your old gear as you get better. The recycled mats can be used to gear up faster. Dedicated raiding guild or not that's a great advantage.

Similarly you can RE WH gear from pvp'ing and black hole gear from comms to make extra credits.

 

None of this involves NiM raiding and everyone can do it.

I agree, very good points

The only thing artifice is good for is burning up the rarest mats in the game.

If you want profit it's much better to just have archeology and sell the mats for outrageous prices on the GTN.

If you want a custom color crystal, buy one in the GTN. The headache required to make plain old purple crystals is a joke and thanks to the better variety in the CM they don't even have much value.

I've been a loyal Artificer since launch. I took a 9 month break from the game and came back around December and have been having a blast. Problem is, I'm starting to think I should dump Artificing (and Treasure Hunting and Archaeology), all of which are 400/400. I never use any of those abilities for my main character, a Jugg tank. I'm not in an end-game raiding guild, and just pug EC or TFB raids when I can. So I'm never going to use my Artificing to reverse engineer end-game equipment to learn level 26 or 27 enhancement schematics (I don't play enough to obtain excess of that level of gear to be able to reverse engineer it hoping for a schematic). And even then, I've got millions of credits, so its not like I have some burning desire to make more money by learning the level 26 or 27 schematics.

 

On the other hand, having reusable rakata level stims, med packs, etc. is very useful. Can anyone give me a good reason to keep Artificing, and not pick up Biochem/Bioanalysis/Diplomacy? Maybe some Artificing love in the near future (expansion) that might make it worth keeping?

 

Thanks!

Exotech stims and wz medpac are both better than the reusable ones, so there's really no reason to get biochem. Money is a joke to make in this game, and you have millions of credits so saving money on stims/medpacs isn't an issue for you. Also, BW has stated they're not making reusable items in the future.

Artifice also makes pretty good money selling crystals. Biochem doesn't really make money at all.

If you're adament about dropping artifice, I'd say pick up cybertech because it's better for pvp than biochem.

It's useful if you have lots of alts (assuming you have a cybertech to go along), because you can just slap orange social or CM gear on them and keep them fully geared in blues all the way to 49. In the absence of alts or 27 schematics though, none of the crafting skills are huge money makers anymore, as they've been slowly ground into complete obsolescence by the conspiracy of neglect, cartel marketization, and Bioware's general hatred of all player directed content.

At this point they seem to think even putting crafting in the game was a huge mistake, because it tempts you to step off the gear treadmill and do something other than what they think you should be doing (grinding dailies and raiding non-stop 24/7). If they could get away with just taking the whole thing out, they probably would. Since they can't, for now, they'll just neglect it to the point where nobody bothers with it at all, then eventually take it out "because we don't want to spend resources maintaining a system nobody uses."

Biochem doesn't really make money at all.

I'd say you should make a different character. Retire the Artifice guy in case it becomes usefull in the future.

 

I have every craft skill and mission skill at 400 with my characters, and then everyone else I actually want to play is a biochem\bioanalysis\slicer.

 

I guess that may change if the reusable medical stuff becomes worthless. If that happens then all my characters will have bioanalysis so I can keep mats going on my biochem guys without having to spend extra time farming.

This. That is exactly what I've done.