Star Wars The Old Republic: Crew Skills Revisited

This is a follow up to my [first post that covers the basics of crew skills]

I see so many people asking which crew skills they should get. I’ll give my opinion in the moment but first I need to say that the correct answer is different for many players. If money is no object to you (you buy 10 hypercrates every week and sell the packs for credits) then your needs will vary from the player on a tight budget whose only game income comes from farming daily quests and making products from his crew skills.

My advice tends to be more for the poor or thrifty player or players like myself that are a combination of cartel spenders and in game earners. I see a lot of people saying “Biochem first! You can make reusable heals and stims” Unfortunately those reusables suck compared to the blues you can make. The healing medpacs and med units offer a heal plus a heal over time that the reusables do not offer. The stims offer more stats being boosted than the reusables. Some stubborn people will say they don’t mind having less heals or less stat boosts. But that’s like refusing to replace old gear with new. Why play with less when more is so affordable?

So for your first character I recommend learning Cybertech. You’ll need Scavenging and Underworld trading to gather the necessary materials. Why Cybertech first? Because EVERY player character and EVERY companion will have gear that needs to be modified with Armorings and Mods. Being able to make earrings and droid parts as well is another perk but it is really about the Armorings and the Mods.

Once you have mastered Cybertech on one character I would recommend Armstech or Artifice as your next skill to master (on your next two characters). Both of these are about as equally useful for skills. Armstech makes barrels for guns and there are more companions that use guns than swords Armstech is also one of the classes that makes augmentation kits and some augments. Artifice makes hilts as well as enhancements. Enhancements are also used by every class and companion in modifiable armor so thats very handy. For Armstech you’ll want Scavenging and Investigation to farm supplies. For Artifice you need Archaeology and Treasure Hunting. Whichever you choose as your second character’s skill, choose the other for your third character.

One more note about Armstech. When it comes to making Augments, are are gathered items from slicing that esare also used. Since you have a Cybertech character that can farm scavenging supplies, you might want to learn slicing instead of scavenging with your Armstech character. However, I advise against that. In my experience slicing ingredients are for sale in mass quantities at dirt cheap prices. The exception of this is the thermal regulator, used for the current endgame augments. Personally, I didn’t add slicing to a character until my 5th or 6th character and I have never regretted it. There are some players on Jung Ma that only take slicing to farm and then they buy all that they need.

So after Cybertech, Armstech and Artifice, I recommend Biochem. Biochem makes Medpacs and Med Units (Med Units heal you and your companion), stims for boosting stats and adrenals for a huge stat boost for a short period of time (absorb are a must have for tanking OPS). In addition, biochem also allows the crafting of Implants, another item every class and companion wears 2 of. Honestly though, I’ve made more earrings than implants and I haven’t made that many earrings for alts.

So why are Synthweaving and Armormech not on my list? Well the only good things they make are augments. Now augments are a must have for endgame players for both pvp and pve. Well at least for those players that want to win pvp matches and complete pve content. In my experience examining gear and speaking with guildmates and friends from other guilds, augments are always the least important. It is rare when I see another player aside from myself adding augments to my low level alts. You have 14 possible pieces of gear to augment and each one requires an augmentation kit before you can augment (well some crafted gear comes augmented but most pieces are not augmented when you acquire them). This means there is a very limited number of customers aside from the level 55 players and the profit margins on the augments for endgame is not that great.

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