[Megathread] Crafting Skills and You

[conscript]

To prevent clutter, this thread will be devoted to all of your crafting skills chatter and questions. If you want to know what skill will net you the most credits, post it here. If you want to know what you should pick up as a Bounty Hunter, post it here. Threads on these topics will likely be closed from now on and everyone referred here.

The following information was taken from Sithwarrior.com's compendium on crafting. None of this is original information created by me.
Crew Skills Compendium

Crew Skills are the SWTOR crafting system - and they let your companions handle the work while you're busy adventuring. There are three types: Gathering Skills get you basic resources, Crafting Skills turn resources into finished items, and Mission Skills bring in rare resources and other benefits, but only at the cost of credits.

You can have three skills total, only one of which can be a crafting skill, and you can train them at level one if desired (although you normally wouldn't pick them up until you leave your starting planet at about level 10).

Table of Contents

I. Gathering Skills

II. Crafting Skills
II.g. Dependencies diagram

III. Mission Skills

IV. Companions
IV.a. Trooper
IV.b. Smugger
IV.c. Jedi Knight
IV.d. Jedi Consular
IV.e. Bounty Hunter
IV.f. Sith Warrior
IV.g. Sith Inquisitor
IV.h. Imperial Agent

V. Reverse Engineering


I. Gathering Skills

You can gather in two ways - by right-clicking on resource nodes as you wander around (those you can gather will show up on your-mini-map and glow), or by spending credits to send your crew on gathering missions.

Gathering skills also have a secondary use - in flashpoints and operations, you can sometimes use a gathering skill to find an easier way to your goal, for instance by slicing open a computer-locked door that allows you to bypass several groups of enemies.

I.a. Archaeology [missions]

Allows you to mine crystal and "archaeological find" nodes; you can also send your crew on Archaeological missions to gather other crystals, artifact fragments, solutions etc.


I.b. Bioanalysis [missions]

Bioanalysis provides materials for Biochem.
You "analyse" defeated animals and plant nodes. Missions will net you more of the same stuff.
Biochem can be levelled on your starting world, which may provide some handy credits but is not stricly necessary: all the nodes on your next world will be level 1 anyway and it levels pretty fast.


I.c. Scavenging [missions]

Scavenging provides materials for Armormech, Armstech and Cybertech.
You can "skin" many droids and there are also junk nodes to gather.
Scavenging can also be levelled to some extent on your starting world, although again beyond some extra credits this isn't essential as you will level it anyway.


I.d. Slicing [missions]

Slicing nets you money, schematics(?) and augments. It no longer provides materials for any crafting skill, but it's a pretty good source of credits if you don't want to really get into crafting for the market.
Other rewards include protoype and artifact missions, for Slicing and other Crew Skills.
You can slice electronics safes, broken computers etc you find on your travels, and again there are missions. Both will net you lockboxes (most of which contain credits) and other items. Lockboxes from missions ARE worth more than the mission cost - plus a critical success will often get you another, higher value lockbox or other delicious prize.
NOTE: It's tough to tell what items you might get, as the DB sites only report the lockboxes, and not the contents of said lockboxes. More concrete info would be appreciated.


II. Crafting Skills

Crafting Skills allow you to create items for yourself and your companions (or to sell to others on the market) including weapons, armour, mods and consumables. [Each of?] your companions can have up to five items queued up to craft at one time.

You can only train ONE crafting skill (unlike gathering/mission). There are also profession-exclusive bind-on-pickup items which mean that the choice of skill will provide some gameplay bonus.

Crafting schematics can be gained as loot, through the Investigation mission skill, and improved schematics are gained through Reverse Engineering. If you de-train and later re-train a skill, you should retain old schematics [unconfirmed].

Crafting the BoP exclusive items requires rare BoP resources that drop in Operations and Hardmode flashpoints: Biometric Crystal Alloy, Alien Data Cube, Self-Perpetuating Power Cell and Rakata Energy Node.

II.a. Armormech[schematics]

Main recipes: Helm, Chest, Wrist, Glove, Belt, Leg and Feet slot armor (medium and heavy) for non-force users.
Skill-exclusive items include epic armor like the Armormech items here and here.
Materials: base metals from Scavenging, exotic metals & compounds from Underworld Trading.


II.b. Armstech[schematics]

Non-force weapons, both ranged and melee; also barrel-slot mods for weapons.
Materials: base metals from Scavenging, other mats from Investigation.


II.c. Artifice [schematics]

Creates lightsaber hilts and crystals, relics, enhancements, and force-user offhands/generators.
Skill-exclusives include epic BoP relics that act as trinkets, better than those created from Matrix Shards. Also BoP artifact-level enhancements and hilts, as well as prototype-level BoP shields / power generators.
Materials: crystals from Archaeology and high-end mats from Treasure Hunting.


II.d. Biochem [schematics]

Crafts adrenals, stims, medkits/med stations and implants.
Skill-exclusive items include BoP Adrenals, Stims and Medpacs of superior quality.
Materials: various biological compounds from Biochem, high-end mats from Diplomacy.


II.e. Cybertech [schematics]

Main recipes: Earpieces, armoring, grenades, mods, beacons and droid core and motor armor.
Skill-exclusive items include BoP grenades (like these), BoP artifact-level mods, armorings, and earpieces and speeder bikes.
Materials: base metals from Scavenging and exotic metals & compounds from Underworld Trading.


II.f. Synthweaving [schematics]

Creates light, medium and heavy armor for Force users.
Main recipes: Helm, Chest, Wrist, Glove, Belt, Leg and Feet slot armor for Force users.
Skill-exclusive items include epic armor like the Synthweaving items here and here.
Materials: base mats from Archaeology and high-end mats from Underworld Trading.

II.g. Diagram

Credit to an unknown source for the original version of this diagram. It shows the crew skill dependencies as I understand them at the moment:



An alternative diagram with more info can be found here, but the one above is the one I'll be keeping updated.

III. Mission Skills

Mission skills allow you to send your crew on missions to gather rare resources and other benefits. It's inadvisable to get more than one mission skill unless you're swimming in credits for some reason, as they're expensive to level up and use.

III.a. Diplomacy [missions]

Provides dark or light side points, rare Biochem materials, and companion gifts.

III.b. Investigation [missions]

Provides artifact schematics for all crafting skills, rare Armstech materials, and companion gifts.


III.c. Treasure Hunting [missions]

Provides rare Artifice materials, lockboxes and companion gifts.

III.d. Underworld Trading [missions]

Provides rare Armormech, Synthweaving and Cybertech materials, and companion gifts.

IV: Companions










V. Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering is the SWTOR equivalent of WoW disenchanting; it provides very few materials, but it is the way prototype and artifact schematics are discovered. By reverse-engineering premium-quality items (this destroys them), you have a chance of discovering the prototype schematic; RE-ing the prototype items gives a chance of discovering the artifact recipe.

Your chance to get the next level of schematic appears to depend on your (crafting) level vs. the schematic level. At least for armor and weapons, there are three possible blue schematics (critical, redoubt and overkill).

Suggested here: There are 5 chance rates of researching new schematics: Very Low (4%), Low (8%), Medium (10%), High (16%) and Very High (20%)

All information in its original form can be found at: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread...lls-Compendium

[Tigercat]

Looks like you got a few links/pictures to fix. That said, good stuff.

[Morros]

As diverse as the crew skills are, I think putting everything into a megathread is going to be inefficient, less productive, and less helpful.

We need sub-forums, badly.

[Shardik]

I see a listing for companions in the index at the top, but it isn't actually there, did you miss it or something? It is the only thing I'm really curious about still.

[Aplacon]

Nice work.... Thanks.

[Deleted]

Good thread, but I'm still a little confused.

So basically all Gathering skills are available to me at all times,

but I can only pick three, of which only one can be crafting?

Not sure this makes much sense.


I need to know what would make most sense for a Sith Warrior.

[Shardik]

Good thread, but I'm still a little confused.

So basically all Gathering skills are available to me at all times,

but I can only pick three, of which only one can be crafting?

Not sure this makes much sense.


I need to know what would make most sense for a Sith Warrior.

across all skills, gathering, making, or missions, you only get 3. You can have any combination, the only limit is one crafting skill, you can have 3 missions or 3 gathering as you please.

[Deleted]

across all skills, gathering, making, or missions, you only get 3. You can have any combination, the only limit is one crafting skill, you can have 3 missions or 3 gathering as you please.

Ah, ok, so I guess for a Sith Warrior, Archaeology, Artifice and Treasure Hunting/Investigation would make most sense, aye?

[fishyjoe]

I feel like they are gonna change these even more after launch.

[Prag]

So I'm assuming that if I wanted to do Biochem/analysis, I couldn't also do Slicing? What pairs with Slicing? I've never been much of a crafter-for-money, always just took professions that had personal perks that I liked.

[Toralin]

Great idea, thanks for doing this.

@Prag - I love your sig.

[Deleted]

As diverse as the crew skills are, I think putting everything into a megathread is going to be inefficient, less productive, and less helpful.

We need sub-forums, badly.

You wont be getting them, as much as you want them.

[conscript]

Links fixed, colors added. Section 4 update will be done in just a few minutes. Again, much props to SithWarrior.com for this incredibly useful compilation of information.

---------- Post added 2011-12-12 at 06:18 PM ----------

As diverse as the crew skills are, I think putting everything into a megathread is going to be inefficient, less productive, and less helpful.

We need sub-forums, badly.

Don't count on that happening anytime soon or ever. There is already a website dedicated to SWTOR in the Curse Network at darthhater.com that we already rob of page views.

[Aldurok]

Well, to go with actual questions:

I plan on going Bounty Hunter (powertech tank) for my main and was looking at Cybertech, Slicing, and Underworld Trading.

I realize I'll have to buy at least the lower level mats for Cybertech if I don't take Scavenging, but I'm thinking (hoping) that extra money from Slicing can go towards buying the lower level mats, and then UT can help get the higher level mats. I don't mind spending some money to grind it out, so long as it doesn't get ridiculous.

I know it's kind of hard to tell at this point, but does this seem viable? I'm sure it'll depend on market value of the Cybertech mats, but I'm just hoping I don't end up screwing myself over.

I really picked those as more of a role-playing decision than a economical one, but I don't want to RP myself into the poorhouse.

I'd planned on trying to research this myself this weekend on official forums, but those forums haven't been accessable.

[Shardik]

Well, to go with actual questions:

I plan on going Bounty Hunter (powertech tank) for my main and was looking at Cybertech, Slicing, and Underworld Trading.

I realize I'll have to buy at least the lower level mats for Cybertech if I don't take Scavenging, but I'm thinking (hoping) that extra money from Slicing can go towards buying the lower level mats, and then UT can help get the higher level mats. I don't mind spending some money to grind it out, so long as it doesn't get ridiculous.

I know it's kind of hard to tell at this point, but does this seem viable? I'm sure it'll depend on market value of the Cybertech mats, but I'm just hoping I don't end up screwing myself over.

I really picked those as more of a role-playing decision than a economical one, but I don't want to RP myself into the poorhouse.

I'd planned on trying to research this myself this weekend on official forums, but those forums haven't been accessable.

unless I'm mistaken, you will still use scavenging materials on high level stuff too, just the rare and epic (or whatever they are in this) will also require stuff from UT.

[gualdhar]

This will actually be kinda nice, that way we don't have people asking the same 2 questions over and over and getting the same response.

Don't count on that happening anytime soon or ever. There is already a website dedicated to SWTOR in the Curse Network at darthhater.com that we already rob of page views.

Darth Who?

[Deleted]

Il be playing a sith assassin but i am really strugling to decide what crafting skills i should learn.

Synthweaving- archaeology- underworld trading

From what i've read synthweaving isn't ment to be that good at 50 so it feels like a waste, i don't have first hand experience with it at 50 though and i love the idea of archaeology.

Biochem- Bioanalysis - diplomacy

I can see biochem being good for a raiding but i really don't want both bioanalysis and diplomacy.

It feels very restricted, Does anyone have more knowledge on synthweaving and wether you can have a good raiding kit from it at level 50? or should i go with biochem which can make me credits and stuff

I realy can't decide.

[gualdhar]

Well, to go with actual questions:

I plan on going Bounty Hunter (powertech tank) for my main and was looking at Cybertech, Slicing, and Underworld Trading.

I realize I'll have to buy at least the lower level mats for Cybertech if I don't take Scavenging, but I'm thinking (hoping) that extra money from Slicing can go towards buying the lower level mats, and then UT can help get the higher level mats. I don't mind spending some money to grind it out, so long as it doesn't get ridiculous.

I know it's kind of hard to tell at this point, but does this seem viable? I'm sure it'll depend on market value of the Cybertech mats, but I'm just hoping I don't end up screwing myself over.

I really picked those as more of a role-playing decision than a economical one, but I don't want to RP myself into the poorhouse.

I'd planned on trying to research this myself this weekend on official forums, but those forums haven't been accessable.

Your gathering skill will provide you with the vast majority of your crafting mats for any recipe, and (as far as I saw during the beta) all of them for premium-quality items. If you don't go with Scavenging, you'll have to buy almost all the mats, regardless of level. You can certainly get money from Slicing, but whether its worth buying all your mats is going to depend on the server and how many people are willing and able to sell extra mats.

Personally, if you're going to go with one Slicing, I'd take that instead of your mission skill until you have some comfortable cash flow, then switch it for Underworld Trading when you want to make prototype- and artifact-level gear. You can level crafting skills from 1 to 400 without mission rewards, but the same can't be said for gathering rewards.

[Deleted]

from what I understand the companions bonuses wont be ingame. Daniel Ericcson said they stopped you from using your favourite companion, which was fail (his words). I dont know if they will or not end up being in but it does seem slightly pointless.

[Lillpapps]

Anyone know is Slicing is the only source for Augments?