Guns, Lots of Guns
My smuggler has been at 400 Armstech for awhile now. My Jedi has also been at 400 Cybertech for about as long. What have I learned?
That at max level, Armstech is fairly useless. It was nice making barrels for my guns as I leveled. It will be useful when I eventually have a trooper who needs barrels. It has allowed me to make purple mark 22 barrels for myself and two of my companions. But now, there is nothing worthwhile to make.
Barrels and guns don’t sell well on the GTN. People get plenty from planetary commendation vendors and from quest rewards. Sure the purple ones are better, but it still takes several mission runs to get the crafting materials needed to make those barrels, and no one will pay the price necessary to make them worth selling. Even the max level ones only sell for less than 20k.
By comparison, my Cybertech has pretty much made all the money. At max crafting level, I’m still going back and making Grade 4 starship components. Grade 5 are selling well too. Mods and armoring are very useful to equip my characters, low and high level. And that’s without even getting into the grenade market, or the droid armor market. Cybertech is a buzz with diversity.
But what does Armstech have? Getting a customizable gun is the best option, since you can get the look you want. And even if you don’t go that route, the PVP/Commendation guns are superior. Reverse engineering the basic guns in order to be able to make betters guns has so far proven unsuccessful.
I’ve gotten purple versions of barrels with relative ease. It might take several tries, but it always works out in the end. The guns, granted I’ve not done as many, but I have REed all loot drops and I’ve made 10+ of a single gun type and REed them all. I’ve not gotten a successful gun RE, ever.
I’m considering if I want to stick with Armstech. Scavenging is really useful since it gets me resources for my Cybertech. And I would like to make barrels for my eventual low level characters. But Investigation is fairly useless. The blue/purple materials are on the GTN relatively cheaply and the parts it gives are only useful for Armstech. But, eventually Bioware might add in something useful for us. We have no consumable items like Cybertech and Biochem has.
If I switched, what would it be too? Armormech is in the same position as Armstech. There are schematics for customizable armor that you can get from slicing, but other than that, it can be useful for leveling. I’ll probably take it on my eventual trooper, so that I can make myself matching armor, so I don’t have to look like a clown.
Synthweaving makes enhancements I believe, so that’s good but their armor is for force users. So I could make stuff for my Jedi character. But he has a customizable robe that looks very Jedi like. I’ll probably keep it.
Artifice is exactly Armstech with the addition of crystals. Which, since still wouldn’t allow me to make the purple crystal I want, isn’t all that useful. Easier access to hilts for my Jedi would be nice, but not super necessarily. Probably do that on my eventual Consular.
My initial high marks for SWTOR’s crafting system has dulled. Only Cybertech and Biochem seem to have much of a sustainable market for goods. If Armstech/Armormech/Synthweaving had better access to customizable armor/weapons, they could sell those, allowing people to wear what they want. As it stands now, you can find a few customizable schematics as Slicing mission rewards, but most stuff comes from vendors.
Crafting can outfit you at level 49, but better stuff is available for the level 50 dailies, and even better from the PVP/Flashpoint/Operations vendors. Which makes some sense, there needs to be cool gear to get from those. But crafting needs something to make at max level.
