Went ahead and subbed to the game yesterday and as a new player (2 days), are there certain skills I should prioritize over others. I currently have chosen Slicing, Artifice and Cybertech. I have been trying to research and read as much as I can, but the game has so many facets. I am mainly PVE, so I would be using crew skills to primarily earn credits, along with doing Heroic missions as well. Any help and/or guidance is greatly appreciated. Edited September 24, 2017 by CommunityDroidEN

Went ahead and subbed to the game yesterday and as a new player (2 days), are there certain skills I should prioritize over others. I currently have chosen Slicing, Artifice and Cybertech. I have been trying to research and read as much as I can, but the game has so many facets. I am mainly PVE, so I would be using crew skills to primarily earn credits, along with doing Heroic missions as well. Any help and/or guidance is greatly appreciated.

I have several guides linked in my signature. I recommend: Understanding Crew Skills, Best Crew Skills, and Crew Skills Money Making. Some are lengthy reads so here's the short version...

 

First of all, as a subscriber, each character can now have THREE crew skills, but again only one crafting skill. A standard configuration is crafting skill, the gathering skill that feeds that crafting skill, and the mission skill that best feeds that crafting skill. See the Understanding Crew Skills guide for details as to which gathering and mission skills feed what crafting skills.

 

That said, crafting for profit has a significant up front investment. In addition, in my long experience, having that standard setup of crafting/gathering/mission is simply insufficient to maintain proper supply lines; you will find that you are consistently running out of materials; you need several non-crafter characters to feed your crafters materials.

 

Therefore, my standing advice to all new players who wish to make good credits through crew skills right away is to take two gathering skills and slicing. Slicing nodes are free credits, and you can sell the gathering skill materials you acquire on the GTN.

 

Alternatively, using the same setup (2 gathering and slicing), you can save those materials, stock up and then when you have eight companions to send out on crew skills (character level 66+), and you have a million or more credits from leveling characters through the story, then you start swapping out slicing for other mission skills (but not ALL slicing, because most crafting skills do need slicing in addition to other mission skills). Then once you have sufficient mission skill materials stored up, then you swap out some gathering skills for crafting skills.

 

The short, short version: my standing advice to all new players who wish to make good credits through crew skills right away is to take two gathering skills and slicing.

First of all, thank you very much for such a clear and straightforward answer. I have seen you on many posts that I have looked at in the past couple days and yes I did read your guides that answered many questions. So the only thing I have to do now is decide between the following if I am reading your response correctly:

 

1. Slicing, Archaeology, Scavenging

**(Slicing feeds Cybertech, Archaeology will feed Artifice/Synthweaving, and Scavenging can feed Armstech/Armortech/Cybertech)

 

2. Slicing, Underworld Trading and Scavening

** (Underworld Trading can feed Armortech/Cybertech/Synthweaving)

 

P.S.

So I think that I can try those as I level, so that when I do hit max level I should have a fair amount of raw materials that I can either sell ( as a raw goods supplier) or can use them to craft items; either for myself or to sell on the market. Once again thank you for you assistance, I see you almost everywhere on the forums **Legend**.

Slicing can feed every crafting skill, since violet items needs the missions output of slicing companion missions (not free world gathering, that only yields credit boxes).

 

So the most common combinations are:

Artifice -> Archeology / Treasure Hunting

Synthweaving -> Archeology / Underworld Trading (luxury fabrics)

Cybertech -> Scavenging / Underworld Trading (underworld metals)

Armormech -> Scavenging / Underworld Trading (underworld metals)

Armstech -> Scavenging / Investigation

Biochem -> Bioanalysis / Diplomacy

Correction: Slicing is required for mods (mod, enhancement, barrel, hilt, armoring). Earpieces, implants and relics require purple mat of the corresponding mission skill - Underworld Trading, Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting, respectively. I used to have a lot of slicers, now I run with just 2, other missions skills are more in need (for products I craft).

 

It is always a good idea to have somewhat balanced number of skills across legacy.

Correction: Slicing is required for mods (mod, enhancement, barrel, hilt, armoring). Earpieces, implants and relics require purple mat of the corresponding mission skill - Underworld Trading, Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting, respectively. I used to have a lot of slicers, now I run with just 2, other missions skills are more in need (for products I craft).

 

It is always a good idea to have somewhat balanced number of skills across legacy.

 

@Vercundus: I'm not sure and I'm not allowed to play swtor at work to check, but do augments also need sliced parts?

Forgot to mention augmetns, they are mods as well

@Vercundus: I'm not sure and I'm not allowed to play swtor at work to check, but do augments also need sliced parts?

 

Point of fact, prior to 4.0 augments were the original and only item modification that required sliced parts. With 4.0 the crafting system was changed and now most item modifications (barrels, hilts, armorings, mods, enhancements, augments; the exceptions: dyes and weapon crystals require treasure hunting gemstones, and tunings cannot be crafted...yet) require sliced parts to craft.

Good idea to have a few toons as "feeders" which include slicing. That way you can stockpile various levels of tech parts and other resources.

 

Plus slicing is a good source of credits too.

Good idea to have a few toons as "feeders" which include slicing. That way you can stockpile various levels of tech parts and other resources.

 

Plus slicing is a good source of credits too.

 

It's a self-working thing. I have 6 crafters with their logical gathering and mission skill, some pure gatherers (its more easy to collect scav/bio/arch at once!), and now i have a rotation of every 3 chars having slicing and underworld trading plus one of the other mission skills (diplomacy, treasure hunting, investigation).

You might want to pick up Armormech or Synthweaving to get some awesome outfits. The codex will show what gathering or mission skills are appropriate.