Can someone explain the crew skills and suggestions for ones to take? There are a lot and I'm not sure which I should pick. My first character is an Operative and is at level 19 so far and I haven't leveled any.

Crew skills are divided into three types:

 

- Crafting Skills: used to make weapons, armor, components or consumables. Unlike other games, you send one of your companions to craft while you can do other things or log off.

 

- Gathering skills: allow you to gather materials for the basic (green quality) crafted items. You will see resource nodes around the game world that you or your active companion can harvest: or you can send your companion on gathering missions

 

- Mission skills: the only way to use them are sending companions on missions. Used to get the materials for blue and purple quality crafted items.

 

You can have up to three crew skills, from which only one can be a crafting skill. The most common combination is: pick a crafting skill, and get the gathering and mission skill associated with it. When you first talk to the crew skill trainers you get a codex entry that will tell you, among other things, which skill goes with which.

 

Slicing is a bit of a special skill: it is part mission, part gathering, and among other things, you get from it schematics and mission discoveries for other skills. You can also get materials for some special items. So it is best used on an alt, or if you are more interested in selling stuff for credits than making things for you and your companions.

 

As for your operative, depends on what you want and like to do:

- Biochem is nice while leveling, quite useful at endgame. You can make implants (pieces of gear that are not that easy to get otherwise) , medpacks, stims and adrenals. You can even make infinitely reusable "consumables", but only you (or a fellow biochemist) can use them.

- Cybertech is great while leveling, not so good at endgame. You can make earpieces, and above all, armorings and mods.

- Armstech and armormech are ok at both levels. With armstech you make weapons and barrels; with armormech you make armor. You can make augments and augment kits with any of these.

- Artifice and Synthweaving are of little use to an Operative. Used to make items for Force users.

 

You should also keep in mind that your companions have specific bonus for specific missions. If you want to craft with the best possible stats, you'll want to check this guide: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=132015

 

It seems that cybertech or biochem are the best choices for you. But like I said, it's up to preference.

if you are going as a healer on your operative i would suggest going biochem. its nice being able to use a strong medpac because it means you wont have to waste resources healing yourself.

 

if you have another alt i would suggest going with one with biochem and the other armomech.

 

in the end all are viable

Thanks a bunch for that! I picked up biochem, bioanalysis, and diplomacy and it's great. I have a constant supply of medpacks and stimpacks.

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/thread-456.html