The interview has a wide range of information about upcoming quality of life improvements, including a note that the Looking for Group functionality will be server-specific and not cross-realm. I am a HUGE fan of keeping LFG server-based, having had numerous not fun cross-server LFG experiences. Now, before you start hitting the comment button to complain that your server is so low pop that this doesn’t solve anything for you, the interview also notes that there will be server transfers coming soon (presumably at or before Patch 1.3) to help alleviate the low population server issues.
So, for those of you on low population servers with the opportunity of server transfers on the horizon, what are you planning to do? Take the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments!
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear someone in the SWTOR community say with the utmost conviction: “Crafting is broken. It’s just a huge money sink.”
And while I can certainly understand that the individual making this statement has apparently bankrupted their virtual selves through their pursuit of crafting, I know from my personal experience that statement isn’t a universal truth.
Those of you who listen to me on the TOR Reporter podcast already know that I’ve been able to finance my characters across 4 servers solely through my crafting. While most of them have yet to attain the dizzying heights of Galactic Trade Nexxi, who is so rich Chuck Norris comes to her for loans (thanks Silent!), they have all helped keep me from resorting to grinding dailies or bonus series quests to keep fiscally afloat.
Not surprisingly, I’m often asked what my secret is to having profitable crafting. And thus, I’ve compiled these 4 tips to help you attain a positive crafting cash flow.
Crafting Tip #1: Learn Complimentary Gathering and Mission Skills
I’ve frequently heard people say things to the effect of not wanting to take a gathering skill other than slicing so they can make lots of credits, or not wanting to level underworld trading as a mission skill yet taking synthweaving as their crafting profession. Unless you have landed on a busy server where supply for your crafting materials far outstrips the demand, it is unlikely you will be able to purchase your crafting materials from the GTN more cheaply than running missions on your companions for them.
Further, with an appropriate gathering skill, you will readily pick up a good amount of the base materials for your your profession as you go about your daily activities. Before you snatch up 6 rubat crystals in the GTN thinking you’ve gotten a great deal, remember that you could have gotten 2-3 crystals from a 95c mission, or better yet just from walking around. Not sure which professions go together? Check out this crew skills overview which explains them all in detail, and includes pairings at the end of the post.
Crafting Tip #2: Craft as You Go
I know many folks like to wait and slam through all their crafting en masse, after they hit 50. And these are most often the same people I hear complaining that they are broke and it’s all crafting’s fault. But here’s the thing: crafting didn’t smack you over the head and steal your wallet.
You can train up your crew skills on your first trip to the Fleet, in the level 7-10 range. You can start your gathering profession immediately thereafter. And as soon as you obtain your first companion, they can be sent to craft for you, or to execute crew skills missions.
If you keep a sharp eye out on your mini map, you can make sure to travel from quest area to quest area via gathering nodes. Or if you are lucky enough to be able to recover materials from your slain foes, you can make sure to always kill an extra few silver mobs instead of sneaky past them to ensure you are keeping up your materials base.
Crafting Tip #3: Give Yourself a Set Crafting Budget per Day
It can be tempting to start sending your companion out immediately to level up your crew skills, but you are honestly better off in taking a look after an hour or two of play at what you’ve gathered, then filling in some missing crafting materials and sending your companions off to craft overnight while you’re safely logged off.
Alternatively, if you want to be sending your companions out on missions to obtain specialty crafting materials as you play, be sure to give yourself a set budget then do not exceed it. Once you get up into missions costing 1500c+, times 4 or 5 companions, you can easily blow through your savings if you are not disciplined about your budget.
Crafting Tip #4: As You Level Your Profession Make Either Cheap Items to R/E or Items That are Hard to Come by
And as you level your skills up, try to strike a balance between crafting inexpensive items you can R/E for mats while obtaining skill points, and the occasional leveling item to sell. I’ve previously covered my strategy for inexpensively leveling synthweaving, so be sure to check that out for ideas.
To identify the leveling items you should craft and sell, go to the GTN and do some searches for the crafted items you could, in theory, make. I bet if you make armor, you’re seeing a ton of items, frequently those for level 43+, in the under 5k range. Maybe even up for the cost of the mats or less. Put these items on the list of things you do not want to be making. Being in a price war on the GTN with someone who prices like Walmart is a great way to go broke fast.
Instead, look for gear that you can make, that players are asking for in general chat or on the forums, or that you don’t see up for sale very often. Now, if you make consumables of some sort, you’ll need to modify this strategy a bit, to be looking for items you see for sale pretty regularly but that sell out quickly.
Each server’s economy is different, and there will be many nights when you have all of your GTN sales returned to you in the mail. That is to be expected. So don’t give up! Learn over time what your personal best sellers are, and focus on making those items. You don’t need to have a discount superstore’s level of selection up for sale to be successful in your crafting!
Share Your Experience with Crafting in SWTOR — Take My Poll:
And please share your favorite crew skills tips, or ask your crafting Qs in the comments!
One of the hardest things to do in any game — unless you are lucky enough to be part of a multi-game guild whose members’ interest in MMOs aligns with yours over time– is to find a guild that’s the right fit. But that’s where this guide comes in.
Before launch, it was, in theory, pretty easy to find a guild thanks to the guild recruitment functionality on the SWTOR website. With that handy tool removed, it is a little more arduous a task to find a guild that’s a good fit, but it truly can be done. Though it may take some trial and error– including joining a few guilds that turn out to be duds.
So, how do folks find guilds? A few of the more common methods include:
Word of mouth–asking your gaming buddies if they’d recommend their guilds as a good fit
Joining a guild affiliated with a blog you are a fan of or a website you’re a member of
Scanning Kristin Archer’s guild profiles on TORwars
Eyeballing the guild recruitment posts in the server forums on SWTOR.com
Joining a guild that is advertising in trade or general chat on your server
And if all else fails and you can’t find quite what you are looking for, you can always start your own guild
At this point in my gaming life, I’ve pretty much done all of the above, EXCEPT for joining a guild that was advertising in chat for members. Call me old fashioned, but I would like to think I’m joining a guild that is more discriminating about creating a positive and collegial guild culture than by inviting all comers via a mass chat channel.
Before you jump in and start applying, make sure you know what you are looking for!
Before you start checking out guild recruitment posts, however, I think it’s a good idea to take a few minutes to think through what you are looking for in a guild. When I sit and think through the most important qualities I look for in a guild, a few of the top things that come to mind are:
I’d prefer West Coast, PvE. I’ve played on East Coast servers mind you, but I’m never home before 6PT, so unless the guild is a bunch of East Coast night owls, it doesn’t usually provide enough to do w/others.
I prefer a guild ruled by DBAD. In the guild’s overview in one form or another, I need to see that they don’t tolerate D-y behavior. Of course having it in writing is not always a guarantee the guild isn’t being run by a bunch of D’s but it’s a good ground floor.
I like a guild to have 15-20 people on per night minimum. This means there is a high likelihood of Operations and Flashpoint groups forming. Raiding has been one of my favorite activities in MMOs, so I like to see at least a glimmer of hope that there can be such activities in the future.
I prefer a diverse guild. What I mean more directly is: I don’t want to play exclusively with a bunch of teenage to 20-something dudes. It’s not that that demographic can’t be fun (I have enjoyed playing with so,e folks who fall into that category), but I get the most out of a guild when there is a solid mix of older professionally employed people, including a solid group of ladies. In fact, some of my favorite raid teams had a higher than average percentage of couples. I think that led to the high degree of coordination amongst the team.
On SWTOR specifically, I prefer the Empire. Because they have the purple lightning. I’m addicted, what can I say??? When searching, you want to make sure you only look for a guild that actually is the faction you want to play –ty to @Asros for making me realize I left this out.
So now that you’ve made your list, get out there and start hunting for your ideal guild! And let me know in the poll and the comments how you found your guild.
So far, I’ve definitely identified a couple of classes I want to play through after my Inquisitor hits max level. And I am definitely one of those alt people who likes to have a self-contained crafting army of her own, so I inevitably continue to level up alts until I feel I have all my necessary crafting bases covered.
As of right now, I am thinking I’ll want to level a Jedi Consular and a Bounty Hunter (because I want my own Jawa companion). The rest remain to be seen, since I haven’t actively delved into all the classes yet.
Right now, while we’re playing the waiting game, it’s fun to sit and imagine our bright and shiny alt future…what are you thinking you’ll be doing alt-wise?
I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to what I want to be doing guild-wise when Star Wars: the Old Republic comes out. There are so many options — join a guild that’s forming now, play with one of my World of Warcraft guilds that’s planning to start a SWTOR guild, or even start my own guild.
I’ve given them all a serious amount of thought since I put up the guild poll here a while back. And I think that alt creation capabilities willing, I’ll be doing a little of each of those.
In a perfect world where I had unlimited free time, I would have gone with starting up my own guild. But this year has been anything but that. So although I do have plans to create a little alt guild with some of my favorite gaming people, I am not going to try to do that as a serious full-time endeavor. I simply do not have the time I would want to allot to it (which I think is also the case for most of my buddies, truth be told.)
Instead, keeping in mind my favorite WoW guild of all time, I decided to look for a nice big, boisterous guild that would hopefully be teaming with folks who want to be out and about and raising hell for the launch. I also wanted to think about doing something a little different from my usual PvE raiding focused recent past. And thus, I sought out Coconut Monkeys, the PC Gamer SWTOR guild.
We’ll see how I do in a PvP environment. It’s a big change, but PvP, and specifically world PvP, was a key part of what I really enjoyed about my favorite WoW guild. I’ve already raised my hand to help out with whatever needs doing in building the guild for launch. As a bonus, something about having an active guild forum to go and chat in has gotten me just that much more revved up about the game.
Today’s poll inspired entirely by yesterday’s post on how to find a SWTOR guild. This one is a multiple-selection, to reflect that fact that I think many folks are going to be hedging their bets and indulging their altaholism by having a number of guild affiliations, and playing both sides of the fence.
Today is our lucky day!
