• About
  • Guides

Inquisitor's Roadhouse

~ a SWTOR blog

Inquisitor's Roadhouse

Category Archives: crew skills

Leveling My Republic Toons and Feeding My SWTOR Crew Skills/GTN Addiction

07 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR

I’ve been keeping Ashara busy, slaving away at the Synthweaving tables. I’ve been finding a good market for the many shiny new custom armor accessories I’ve obtained since Patch 1.3 hit.

I haven’t contained my crafting obsession to my Imperial server either. My Republicans…er, Republic citizens on Canderous Ordo have been getting in on the crafting action as well. I’ve powered up my Biochem to 400 on the level 24 Knight. This was primarily due to having hopes and reams of getting in some raiding time after I hit 50 on my Sage and thus needing a supplier for raid consumables. Of course now that my Sage is 44 and the end game is in sight, it’s not looking like raiding is going to happen with our weeknight raiding team hitting a rough patch, and our weekend Ops team being far too progressed to support a newbie 50. Arrrrgh!

Thus, I have been flirting with warzones on the Sage, and slowly but surely plugging along on her class quests. I’m finally off Belsavis, but taking my own sweet time crafting (she’s a 400 synthweaver) and farting around. It’s hard to make the push to 50 if you’re not sure what you’ll actually end up doing there. I’ve noticed her Underworld Trading missions seem to keep resulting in Armormech schematics, and only rarely a synthweaving schematic. And thus I did what any smart cookie would do: I trained up armormech on my wee baby smuggler and have gone to town with it.

I still have on my post-patch to do list to try out the Group Finder, as I keep seeing my significant other using it with much success (he got himself raid ready in a couple of days between careful GTN’ing, Flashpoints, and dailies.)

What’s keeping you busy now that you’ve settled in to Patch 1.3?

Advertisement

New Synthweaving Schematics to Accessorize Your Look

01 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, synthweaving

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

list of patch 1.3 synthweaving patterns, Patch 1.3 new synthweaving patterns, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR

I have to admit that hands-down my favorite synthweaving change with Patch 1.3 was the addition of a ton of new patterns for boots, bracers, gloves and belts. And these aren’t just any new patterns– they round out our existing custom gear craftable sets. Although the match to chest takes care of some of the color matching difficulties that come up when trying to tie together your other pieces with it, there were a few sets that simply did not have a good match, especially in the belt and glove options. It’s been interesting to see what they’ve come up with.

The patterns are obtainable through Under World Trading missions that crit. Note that some people had surmised they could hedge their bets and guarantee a schematic by running discovered missions, but I have run a number of such missions that did not yield any schematics. The primary place I’ve obtained the schematics is, as expected, the GTN. My servers have some plucky individuals who have placed patterns up for as much as 300,000 credits. I hate those people. Just kidding. But seriously — given that the prices for the crafted items has already crashed down into the same territory as most other crafted items, why on Earth would I or anyone else pay such a crazy price? Not happening.

Here’s a rundown of the new patterns you can now learn:

Light Armor

  • Anointed Demicot Boots
  • Anointed Demicot Gloves
  • Anointed Demicot Sash
  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Boots
  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Bracers
  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Gloves
  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Sash
  • Channeler’s Boots
  • Channeler’s Gloves
  • Channeler’s Sash
  • Consular Adept Boots
  • Consular Adept Gloves
  • Consular Adept Sash
  • Consular’s Boots
  • Consular’s Gloves
  • Consular’s Sash
  • Dark Acolyte’s Gloves
  • Force Initiate’s Boots
  • Force Initiate’s Bracers
  • Force Initiate’s Gloves
  • Force Initiate’s Sash
  • Inquisitor’s Boots
  • Inquisitor’s Bracers
  • Inquisitor’s Gloves
  • Inquisitor’s Sash
  • Jedi Initiate’s Boots
  • Jedi Initiate’s Gloves
  • Jedi Sage’s Boots
  • Jedi Sage’s Gloves
  • Jedi Sage’s Sash
  • Sorcerer Adept Boots
  • Sorcerer Adept Gloves
  • Sorcerer Adept Sash
  • Sorcerer’s Boots
  • Sorcerer’s Gloves
  • Sorcerer’s Sash
  • Traditional Brocart Boots
  • Traditional Brocart Gloves
  • Traditional Brocart Sash
  • Traditional Demicot Bracers
  • Traditional Demicot Boots
  • Traditional Demicot Gloves
  • Traditional Demicot Sash
  • Traditional Nylite Boots
  • Traditional Nylite Bracers
  • Traditional Nylite Gloves
  • Traditional Nylite Sash
  • Traditional Thermoweave Boots
  • Traditional Thermoweave Gloves
  • Traditional Thermoweave Sash

Medium Armor

  • Ablative Lacqerous Bracers
  • Ablative Lacqerous Boots
  • Ablative Lacqerous Gloves
  • Ablative Lacqerous Waistcord
  • Ablative Laminoid Boots
  • Ablative Laminoid Bracers
  • Ablative Laminoid Gloves
  • Ablative Laminoid Waistcord
  • Ablative Plasteel Boots
  • Ablative Plasteel Gloves
  • Ablative Plasteel Waistcord
  • Ablative Resinite Boots
  • Ablative Resinite Gloves
  • Ablative Resinite Waistcord
  • Apprentice’s Boots
  • Apprentice’s Gloves
  • Aspiring Kinght’s Boots
  • Aspiring Knight’s Bracers
  • Aspiring Knight’s Gloves
  • Aspiring Knight’s Waistcord
  • Blade Master Boots
  • Blade Master Gloves
  • Blade Master Waistcord
  • Marauder Elite Boots
  • Marauder Elite Gloves
  • Marauder Elite Waistcord
  • Marauder’s Boots
  • Marauder’s Gloves
  • Marauder’s Waistcord
  • Reinforced Lacqerous Boots
  • Reinforced Lacqerous Gloves
  • Resilient Lacqerous Waistcord
  • Resilient Polyplast Boots
  • Resilient Polyplast Bracers
  • Resilient Polyplast Gloves
  • Resilient Polyplast Waistcord
  • Sentinel Elite Boots
  • Sentinel Elite Gloves
  • Sentinel Elite Waistcord
  • Sentinel’s Boots
  • Sentinel’s Gloves
  • Sentinel’s Waistcord
  • Sith Combatant Boots
  • Sith Combatant Gloves
  • Sith Combatant Waistcord
  • Sith Dueling Boots
  • Sith Dueling Gloves
  • Warrior’s Boots
  • Warrior’s Bracers
  • Warrior’s Gloves
  • Warrior’s Waistcord

Heavy Armor

  • Fortified Electrum Armguards
  • Fortified Electrum Belt
  • Fortified Electrum Boots
  • Fortified Electrum Handgear
  • Fortified Phobium Belt
  • Fortified Phobium Boots
  • Fortified Phobium Handgear
  • Knight’s Crusade Belt
  • Knight’s Crusade Boots
  • Knight’s Crusade Handgear
  • Peacekeeper Elite Belt
  • Peacekeeper Elite Boots
  • Peacekeeper Elite Handgear
  • Peacekeeper’s Belt
  • Peacekeeper’s Boots
  • Peacekeeper’s Handgear
  • Reinforced Battle Armguards
  • Reinforced Battle Belt
  • Reinforced Battle Boots
  • Reinforced Battle Handgear
  • Reinforced Chanlon Belt
  • Reinforced Chanlon Boots
  • Reinforced Chanlon Handgear
  • Reinforced Diatium Belt
  • Reinforced Diatium Boots
  • Reinforced Diatium Handgear
  • Reinforced Phobium Armguards
  • Reinforced Phobium Belt
  • Reinforced Phobium Boots
  • Reinforced Phobium Handgear
  • Warlord Elite Belt
  • Warlord Elite Boots
  • Warlord’s Belt
  • Warlord’s Boots
  • Warlord’s Handgear
  • Warrior’s Pulsing Belt
  • Warrior’s Pulsing Boots
  • Warrior’s Pulsing Handgear

So how’s your hunt for the new patterns going so far?

On Being a SWTOR Crafting Enthusiast in an Environment Where Everyone Wants Everything to be Free

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, PTR, synthweaving

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

augmentation kits, patch 1.3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, synthweaving

I’ve been checking out Patch 1.3 on the public test server (PTS), focusing my time on the crew skills changes to synthweaving. And I will get to a post on that topic later in the week. But first, I wanted to share some of my recent experiences regarding interacting with PTS folks around crafting.

My Time is Worthless, Your Money is Precious

So far, I think I’ve crafted about 30 augmentation kits on the PTS for folks to try out. To do so, I’ve stood around on the fleet, chatting with players about the patch, for several hours as I’ve made crafted pieces to reverse engineer, then made augmentation kits. I am keeping 4 of my companions busy on making the crafted items, and sending the 5th out on Underworld Trading missions in the hopes of scoring some of the new synthweaving patterns added to the game.

I logged in to the PTS this time around to find that I had 20k in credits and not very many crafting materials, due to the huge number of custom pieces I made and sold on the cheap during the last patch’s testing phase. Thus, to have enough cash to list anything of value in the GTN, I had to make and sell some custom gear. I was nearing the end of my possible Kit creation when I got a tell from a reader of this blog who gallantly gifted me with 5 stacks each of the crystals and the artifact fragments. And thus, I was able to crank out a ton more augments which I put up on the GTN for 250k a pop, selling them as fast as I could list them.

And at some point, the grumbling started in General chat, along the lines of “You’re a jerk for selling those kits for 250k. You should be selling them for 100k max. You are greedy.” One of my fellow crafters jumped in and noted that we have to spend 4+ minutes crafting each of our 10 items that we have to RE in order to make each kit. And that further, the materials for making those crafted items sell for 1-3k a piece on live servers, making your base cost for materials anywhere from 40-120k depending upon your server economy. To which our heckler replied “Go farm the mats.”

Uh, excuse me? I need to go and farm materials to make items so they can be cheaper for you mister general chat big mouth? Because my play time is worth less than your precious bank balance? Are you serious? You might think that I was being trolled. But I wasn’t. Because this isn’t the only time that I have had folks consider my time, which I’ve spent crafting or improving patterns or spending tons of credits on missions to obtain schematics to be worthless. (NOTE: see also this same issue, years ago, in WoW.)

Why did I “need to make that much cash anyway”, as one person asked with a side of snark? Because almost nothing on the PTS is free in case you hadn’t noticed. In my case specifically, I want to try out the new custom patterns. Which has meant spending over 50k on executing missions so far (plus another 250k on buying mission discoveries). And buying a schematic on the PTS for 50k. And buying a ton of companion gifts to improve my affection to increase the chance of crits. (The copy of me from pre 1.2 didn’t have her toons very far along in that area, unlike current me.) And so on. And so far? I have exactly two of the new crafted schematics to show for all my efforts. T-W-O.

The great thing about MMOs is they provide a variety of things for each player to do that meets their individual definitions of fun. I love to discover and collect new patterns, and feel a sense of accomplishment when a ton of peeps are running around my servers wearing gear with the made by Anexxia label. And I like that I can support my characters through crafting instead of doing dailies because repeating quests for multiple days is not my preferred way to make cash. Not even if a vanity pet is on offer.

Now, I can understand it is annoying to see people buying my augment kits and reselling them for 750k or even 1.25 mil credits on the GTN. But if you make it a practice to harass players such as myself, who are there making items for you to try out and who genuinely love seeing all the new crafting changes on offer on the PTS so we can plan accordingly, then don’t come crying to me when crafters stop selling the items they make– or worse yet– stop even putting in the time on the PTS crafting items for you to try out. You’re welcome.

/end rant.

Patch 1.3 Crew Skills Changes: Q&A with SWTOR Systems Designers David Hunt and Patrick Malott

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, gear, official announcements

≈ 94 Comments

Tags

augment tables, new augment crafting kits, patch 1.3 crew skills, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR

Q: On the official SWTOR podcast, we heard that Augment stations were going to be added to the game with Patch 1.3. Could you talk a little bit about what they are and how they will work?

A: Our goal with the modification system has always been to allow players to use any gear they choose and have it function at maximum statistical efficiency. Most of the major itemization changes we’ve added have been moving towards this goal, such as moving set bonuses to mods and allowing extraction on endgame items. Augment tables are the next step in this process.

With the introduction of Augment Tables, you can interact with all the previously useless Item Modification Stations spread throughout the world and use them to add an augment slot to any wearable item of at least green quality – which is basically everything except some junk loot on the origin worlds. Previously, this slot was only available for crit-crafted items, and in 1.2 it means that a very limited selection of the items are statistically ideal. When you open up the Item Modification window, you’ll notice a new “Add Augment Slot” button. The new button is greyed out unless you’re interacting with a station. Fortunately, the way augment tables work allows us to apply this to all items, unlike the set bonuses where the ability to transfer them only applies to mods introduced in 1.2 or later.

Adding an augment slot has a cost that scales up for the level of augments you want to be able to use. Unlike other mod slots, the augment slot is now tiered. This means you can add a slot that supports low level augments for substantially less cost than a high level augment slot.

If you choose to apply a lower tier augment, you can upgrade it later. As a side bonus, we’re making a few quality of life updates to the modification window, but you’ll have to wait until 1.3 reaches the public to see those.

Q: What kind of pricing are we looking at?

A: There are two costs to add an augment slot: credits and an Augmentation Kit. The current cost progression starts at 4,500 credits and ends at 50,000 credits, while the kits come in the same MKs that match the types of slots you can add to an item.

Kits are acquired through three crew skills: Armstech, Armormech and Synthweaving. There is no difference in the kits they make, and they can find the recipes on the trainer. In order to create a kit, you need 10 Augmentation Slot Components of the appropriate MK. You receive one component whenever you Reverse Engineer a piece of crafted gear. Note that this is a non-random addition on top of the other returns you already get from RE, meaning that every 10 consumed items will reliably give you the components for one kit. This helps counteract bad luck dealing with randomness and crafting crits, as you’re guaranteed to be able to get the primary limiting component for an augment slot after 10 crafts. Note that since you get the component for the level of the item you’re making, you don’t need to try to craft the expensive purple 10 times. Just make one, then if you don’t crit you can make cheaper items to get the components necessary to create an augment kit.

Q: Given that the crit crafted augmented gear is going for 75-100k per item on servers, how do you think the addition of the ability to add an augment slot to any item will affect the in game economy for crafters?

A: Since augment slots have always been the domain of crafters, we are funneling the Augment Tables through them to avoid shifting demand in the wrong direction.

The price changes will vary depending on the level of the item. The price of some of these items will shift down, others will go up. For items made after 1.3, the crit augment slot matches the level of the item. That means that lower level items won’t get as much inherent value from crits as higher level items. While we expect to see a shift in the value per transaction for many of these items, the cash flow should continue to go in the same direction. The value of non-augmented gear will improve, as it’s actually a viable item now, where previously everything except the crit craft was scrap. Improved value does not guarantee it a market however, especially since that value will have to factor in the cost of adding an augment along with the desire to RE it to create components for an Augmentation Kit. Personally, I’d be more likely to buy non-augmented lower level crafted gear because I’m going to want to upgrade the augment to MK-7. And in some cases, you just can’t get the appearance with the Augmentation Kit, so that gives some value to the kits aside from the individual items.

Q: So, that means if I craft a level 39 custom piece and it crits, its augment slot will only be able to accept augments up to whatever tier corresponds with that item level?

Correct.

Q:  Could you share what the item level tiers will be for the augment slots?

A: (Note: “Level” below is item level, not player level)

Slot                                            Level Min        Level Max

Augmentation Slot MK-1                 10                       16

Augmentation Slot MK-2                 17                       24

Augmentation Slot MK-3                 25                       32

Augmentation Slot MK-4                 33                       40

Augmentation Slot MK-5                 41                       48

Augmentation Slot MK-6                 49+

Q: Can you share with us your thoughts on gear itemization and how that was actually playing out in game versus what you intended that lead to this change?

A: Although the details weren’t decided until recently, all the post-launch itemization systems in SWTOR have been things I’ve wanted for months. Especially with 1.2, I wanted something like augment tables but we didn’t manage to get a system in to go along with the changes to open up mods in the endgame. It sucks when you have an expansive stat customization system and then we throw out caveats like, “Oh, it only works on this small subset of items.” The more freedom and consistency, the better. Player feedback to Public Test for 1.2 indicated to us that there would be strong support for a system that opened up more viable gear, and we felt that augment tables aligned with both our goals and the needs of the playerbase. That feedback helps us get it expedited to try to get it ready ASAP. It might have been cool to get this out between Public Test 1.2 and live 1.2, but the scope of the system meant it would need much more time to do it right.

Along with the feedback we’ve received, the way itemization has played out on live has encouraged us that embracing the full mod route is the right decision. While it may not be apparent, many of the complaints players have had about itemization are concerns we share and are working on addressing. While item mods existed in beta for quite a while, some of the fundamental tech pieces didn’t exist until shortly before launch. Internally, mods make our items inordinately more data-complex and intensive than the items in the average item heavy game, and those complexities are compounded by a live environment.

Q: Any other crafting or itemization surprises up your sleeves for 1.3 that we should be looking out for?

A: We’re reducing extraction costs and improving the quality of many of the level 50 flashpoint drops to support Group Finder.

Thanks so much for this great preview of the 1.3 crew skills changes to augment slots!

4 Tips to Keep From Crafting Your Way to the SWTOR Poorhouse

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, poll, screenshots

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

crafting, crew skills, maximizing your crew skills, poll, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR

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!

How I’ve Been Prepping for SWTOR Patch 1.2

11 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, legacy system, pets, PTR

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

baby tauntaun pet, patch 1.2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Taun Fawn

Thanks to playing around a bit on the PTR over the past 2 weeks, I’d started to get my characters ready for the Patch. I wasn’t expecting it to be coming out this week mind you, but now that it’s confirmed for Thursday, I’m glad I’d started preparing.

Grabbing Items That Have Planned Obsolescence

As previously noted, my first and foremost goal in this area was obtaining some purple lightsaber crystals. In addition to the one I equipped on Anexxia, I stuck a few in the bank for future 50s. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to score two purple crystals for my Marauder on my new server. I just didn’t have quite enough time to level her up and gather the credits to buy her crystals. I’ll just have to cross my fingers that as an artificer she’ll eventually be able to make some sort of super awesome crystals for her dual lightsabers.

The next thing I did, on my original server, was splash out on a sweet new ride, as seen above. They’re taking this mounts out of the game with Patch 1.2 so this was my last chance to grab one. And since I had the unused cash there, it was worth spending the million credits on. Some day, when I can move Anexxia over to a server I am actually playing on, it will have been worth it.

Mulling Over My Family Trees

If I had to make a prediction, I’d say that deciding on family tree structure and setting up custom UIs will consume most players’ entire Thursday night play time. That’s why I’ve been trying to think through my family connections this week. The matriarch picks have been easy enough, but then I have to think through for each of the alts, which of these roles is their best fit:

  • rival
  • ally
  • spouse
  • child
  • adopted child
  • sibling

I think the rival is a really fun choice and I’m planning to have at least 1 rival per family tree, to keep my matriarchs on their toes. Rival is a good way to deal with those opposite faction alts, for sure, but in my case, I think it’s more likely that we have a few strong willed Siths who’d just as soon murder each other as cooperate. I highly suggest thinking this through and sketching out your trees prior to logging in post-patch, especially if you’re like me and have families on multiple servers to setup.

Preparing for the Crafting Changes

I slowed down on my moddable gear crafting and instead made sure to shore up my stores of crafting materials. I expect there to be significant demand for the augmented custom pieces in the first few weeks post-patch, and as such, want to ensure I have enough materials on hand to make a good number of items right after the servers come back up.

The incoming crafting changes are a primary reason I hurried my new character through leveling her artifice to 400 so quickly, even though it meant missing out on her chance at her purple lightsaber crystals.

If you haven’t checked out the Patch Notes yet, a few of the key profession-wide crafting changes include:

  • On critical successes, crafted Custom (orange) gear now receives an Augment slot.
  • The [Exceptional], [Advanced], [Superior], and [Mastercraft] suffixes have been removed from crafted item names. [Augmented] will be appended as a suffix to crafted items that were a critical success.
  • When crafting item modifications (mods, enhancements, etc), a critical success now yields double the quantity of modifications.
  • Crafting materials obtained via endgame content now stack in the player’s inventory. They no longer bind on pickup.
  • Endgame crafting materials (Biometric Crystal Alloy, Self-Perpetuating Power Cells, Alien Data Cubes, and Rakata Energy Nodes) now drop less frequently but are freely tradable.
  • Augments can now be crafted by several professions.
  • Schematics are no longer consumed if a player attempts to use one that is already known.

Similarly, the Reverse Engineering process by which we obtain schematics and materials from crafted or found items is being improved significantly:

    • Players may now reverse engineer many endgame items to research schematics for items and mods. Tier 2 (new) endgame items can be reverse engineered, and players have a chance to learn how to craft these items up on reverse engineering them. Set Armorings do not provide schematics for crafters.
    • Players with the appropriate professions are now able to reverse engineer random drop items and acquire materials from them. This includes Operation materials from endgame items.
    • Reverse engineering Tier 2 items rewards Premium, Prototype, and Artifact quality crafting materials used to craft Tier 2 endgame items.
    • Random items, particularly armor, can now be reverse engineered by crafters based on the items’ stats.
    • Crafted Vibroknives and shotguns can now be researched via reverse engineering. Reverse engineering Vibroknives and shotguns may now yield research variants for Armstechs.
    • Artificers can now reverse engineer relics, shields, generators, and foci.
    • Cybertechs can now reverse engineer all earpieces.
    • The chance of researching schematics via reverse engineering has been significantly increased.
    • Augments may now be reverse engineered for a chance to research their schematics by several professions.
    • Players can now decide how many items from a stack they wish to reverse engineer.

Synthweaving is one of the crafting professions that will gain the ability to craft augments, among a few other key changes:

  • Synthweavers can now learn schematics allowing the creation of Strength, Willpower, Defense, Alacrity, and Presence Augments. Augments can be reverse engineered for a chance to research Prototype and Artifact quality schematics.
  • Critical successes while crafting Custom (orange) outfits will add an Augment slot to the resulting item.
  • Additional lower-level light armor schematics have been added.
  • Material requirements for some Custom (orange) outfits have changed.
  • The Codex entry for Synthweaving has been updated.
  • Synthweavers can now reverse engineer random armor drops with Strength or Willpower stats.

I’m excited to log in and poke around on Thursday! Are you ready? How have you been preparing?

P.S. Thanks to my awesome TOR Reporter podcast co-host Chris, who picked up the code at PAX East, I am also the proud mama of this baby Taun Fawn! I got to visit him on the PTR last night, and have been assured by the protocol droids that he will come to stay with all the characters across my account in Live as soon as Patch 1.2 hits.

Getting Down on the SWTOR Patch 1.2 PTR

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by anexxia in companions, crew skills, legacy system, PTR, video

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

crafting improvements, crew skills, legacy system, patch 1.2, PTR, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR

I have been on vacation, in a land without Internet or cellphone service, known as the NorCal coast. As such I have only just now gotten a chance to hop on the SWTOR PTR and check out all the changes that await us.

But first and foremost, I  have to tell you about the above screenshot. That isn’t a hack — that is me getting to dance with Khem Val!! That’s right, you too can unlock the companion dance ability (which you will find in your abilities window, under the legacy tab, so you can pull it out to your action bars to use it.) This totally awesome ability is available for the low low cost of only attaining social level II, or purchasable with Legacy level 3.

I didn’t realize just how much fun I would have with this one. But dancing with Khemmy totally made my day.

Ahem.

There are a number of other equally awesome and amazing changes now available to us on the PTR.

Family Tree

When you open your legacy window for the first time, you’ll get to start building your family tree. That means right now is the time to start thinking about how you plan to populate it. Whom will be your family matriarch/patriarch?

I made Anexxia my family matriarch then set about thinking about where all my other characters would fit in. AS of this writing, the options available to you for each successive character are:

  • rival
  • ally
  • spouse
  • child
  • adopted child
  • sibling

As you drag each character into the family tree, over the matriarch/patriarch, you will have the opportunity to decide where they fit in. And don’t stress — you can move them around if you don’t get it quite right on first click-and-drag.

Enhanced Character Screen

The biggest addition here is the Unify Colors button. You may toggle on or off which visible clothing pieces you would like to have color coordinated to match your chestpiece. That means no more putting off equipping that new piece of gear because you don’t want to look like a clown college’s wardrobe mistress.

Additionally, your character screen now has a few character customization options available at your fingertips that used to require some poking around in the preferences menu:

  • Show Dark Side Corruption
  • Hide Head Slot

Legacy Unlocks

AS you can see, my flitting around from character to character, on different servers, means I haven’t unlocked too many of the available legacy unlocks. But as seen at the top of the post, I did unlock the all important Companion Dance. Other easily attainable unlocks are the Tech Emotes, which allow you to /datapad, /holocom, and /map whenever the feeling suits you.

Crafting Improvements

The Crafting changes we’re seeing on the PTR are going to make those crafters among us very happy, starting with the individual profession windows. You can now sort by custom. That means no more clicking on every blue recipe in your window to try to find your moddable gear! And, those custom pieces now show as orange, which gives a visual queue and makes so much more sense.

To check out the critical success of moddable pieces, I crafted 25 synthweaving items, across all 3 armor proficiencies. Of those, 5 pieces critted, resulted in an augment slot being added. For ease of ID’ing these exceptional pieces, their names have [augmented] following their name.

Other nice changes to the items is showing you if an item is not able to be researched to find a new schematic, as in this example:

Or if an item *does* have the ability to be researched for finding a new schematic, it lists its % chance, as in this example:

User Interface (UI) Changes

Last and definitely not least, players will now be able to significantly customize their user interface, using in-game functionality. To say that I’m impressed with the level of customization is an understatement. but don’t just take my word for it– take a look at this UI overview window. I consider it to be required viewing for showing you how to make the most of the UI customization options available to you in Patch 1.2.

What to Wear: Moddable Synthweaving Gear Sets

19 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, gear, synthweaving

≈ 1 Comment

The orange moddable gear is one of my favorite aspects of SWTOR. I’m a huge fan of being able to find a look I like and stick with it until I get tired of it, at which point I can merrily go and craft myself something else to wear.  And this is true for my companions as well!

With Patch 1.2 these pieces will also have a small chance upon crafting to crit, which means to be crafted with the addition of an augment slot. Moddable gear with an augment slot will then have the potential –with maxed out mods inside– to be the best gear in the game.

This is by no means an exhaustive selection, but it does comprise the pieces I’ve most often crafted and equipped. It’s interesting to see how many schematics I am still missing. I have a dozen sets wherein I only have partial sets, which is a huge bummer. I hope we see more folks putting schematics up for sale on my server!

P.S. One important note: the non class restricted pieces look different when opposite faction users wear them. This is true even if you have an opposite faction person craft the item and list it for sale on the GTN. So the looks below are only true to Imperial fashion.

Heavy Armor

  • Fortified Electrum Headgear
  • Fortified Electrum Chestguard
  • Fortified Electrum Greaves

Light Armor

  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Headgear
  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Lower Robe
  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Vestments

This level 50 synthweaving set has a sort of art deco feel to me…

  • Traditional Brocart Headgear
  • Traditional Brocart Lower Robe
  • Traditional Brocart Vestments

This shiny rose gold football helmet is not quite what you might expect from this otherwise very girlie set.

  • Dark Acolyte’s Lower Robe
  • Dark Acolyte’s Robe

This set feels like it would be best for skulking around eavesdropping, allowing you to easily blend into the shadows.

Medium Armor

  • Resilient Polyplast Headgear
  • Resilient Polyplast Leggings
  • Resilient Polyplast Vest

I love this chest piece. and the helm is quite intimidating.

  • Marauder Elite Leggings
  • Marauder Elite Vest

I really love this outfit as well, and wish I would stumble across the headgear schematic one of these days. Above, I am just wearing the Polyplast Headgear.

  • Marauder’s Headgear

Hands down, this is my favorite helm. I like that it has a voice modulator too.

  • Sith Dueling Leathers
  • Sith Dueling Pants

Given how much a fan I am of the Medium leather items, I’d probably better get started working on a marauder sometime soon…

😉

Synthweaving Leveling Guide

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, synthweaving

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

crafting guide, crew skills, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, synthweaving

In that other MMO, I have several tailors, including my shadow priest. Thus, it was an obvious choice to make my first SWTOR character, my sorcerer, a Synthweaver. I like to make myself gear, and have found it to be a reasonably lucrative profession choice from an auction house resale standpoint.

Complimentary Professions

As a Synthweaver, you will want to have Archaeology as your gathering profession so you can pick up crystals and artifacts as you explore the world on your missions. For your mission skill, if you want to be able to have easy access to the materials for making blue quality or better gear, which I always do, you will want to level Underworld Trading. Note that many folks wait to level Underworld Trading until they hit max level then parcel out their 5 companions on a never ending marathon of missions until they hit 400. This is perfectly acceptable though not the route I choose. If you have a ton of cheap Underworld Trading goods in your Galactic Trade Network, you may decide to pursue Slicing or Diplomacy as your Mission skill instead, depending upon your game goals.

Re-Engineering

Re-Engineering allows you to recoup a few of the materials you used to make synthweaving items to level your skill. Typically, at lower levels, you are only getting back a crystal, occasionally a crystal and an artifact. But every little bit helps. And as a bonus, every so often, you’ll learn a blue/rare quality version of an item that adds an additional stat upon it. Those items are denoted as follows:

  • Critical versions of a green item have +Crit as a third stat.
  • Overkill versions of a green item have +Power as a third stat.
  • Redoubt  versions of a green item have +Defense as a third stat.

I’ve found that re-engineering is your best return on investment for your leveling synthweaving green items. I haven’t found that green gear, regardless of level, has been successful in GTN sales. Now, once you start having the materials to craft rare quality leveling gear, that’s a different story. You have two options with your blue gear crafting: sell the pieces occasionally on the GTN to help offset your Underworld Trading leveling costs, or re-engineer those pieces in the hopes of learning a purple quality version of the pattern. I personally did not start re-engineering blue quality items much until I started making level 40+ gear, but see plenty of the lower level purple pieces in the GTN.

Leveling Basics

The long and the short of it is: you want to make whichever pattern will net you the most skill for the lowest cost. Yes, make yourself some pieces to wear as well, but to efficiently get your Synthweaving up to 400, you will want to be selecting your recipes carefully. On the left side of your recipe name, you will see a number that denotes how many of an item you can make with the supplies you have in your inventory and in your cargo hold. If you look more closely, you will notice that number has a color: Orange, yellow, green or gray.

  • Orange recipes will give you 2 skill points upon completion
  • Yellow recipes will give you 1 point
  • Green recipes will sometimes give you 1 point
  • Gray recipes do not provide any skill points.

I find this small detail is what most folks miss when starting out with professions in SWTOR, and thus end up crafting recipes that have gone gray, peeved that they are no longer receiving skill points. Also note that every 20 skill points you can go back to your trainer and learn some new patterns. Make sure you do this every time you hit a multiple of 20 to ensure you have orange quality recipes available to you.

Getting Started: Leveling Your Synthweaving to 120

That’s right, I’m not going to take you all the way up to 400 with this guide because I’ve found that even when leveling two characters’ synthweaving simultaneously, 140-160 is where their paths diverge. This is due to the difference in availability of materials from server-to-server, and the difference in RNG as to what blue quality recipes they’ve learned, and what orange moddable gear recipes they’ve managed to scrape up.

1-20: Savant Sash. 2 Rubat Crystals.

21-40: Savant Gloves. 4 Rubat Crystals.

41-80: Acolyte Bracers. 2 Rubat Crystals. Keep making these until the pattern goes green After 60, will only result in 1 point each but since the other patterns require additional materials, it’s still your cheapest bet.

81-100: Rugged War Waistcord or Reinforced Fiber Belt. 2 Lost Archaeology Fragments, 2 Fibrous Nylite Solution, 2 Eralam Crystals.

101-120: Rugged War Gloves or Reinforced Fiber Handgear. 2 Sacred Artifact Fragments, 2 Fibrous Nylite Solution, 4 Eralam Crystals.

121-140: Reinforced Fiber Boots or Rugged War Boots. 2 Thermoionic Gel Suspension, 4 Nextor Crystals, 2 Sacred Artifact Fragments.

141-160: You’ll choose Acolyte Lower Robe or Acolyte Vestments if you have bountiful artifact fragments and fewer crystals, or Reinforced Fiber Chestguard or either legging recipe you’ve just learned if you have more crystals.

161 onward: Make whichever of the recipes you’ve just learned that you want to focus on RE’ing into a blue for you or your companion to wear.

Note that throughout this process, for maximum efficiency and lowest cost, you’ll want to be picking up materials as you complete missions, and occasionally send your companions out on an archaeology mission to grab a hard to obtain/expensive item, such as those pesky Sacred Archaeology Fragments. Although RE’ing your greens will yield a few materials, it will have to be augmented with a flow of materials from your gathering or the GTN.

Happy Synthweaving!

Anexxia’s Rare or Better Synthweaving Patterns (level 50)

01 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by anexxia in crew skills, gear, synthweaving

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

crew skills, gear, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR

I’ll be listing all the rare or better level 50 synthweaving patterns I can make here. See also my post of items up to level 49. BOE items available to Coconut Monkeys with your mats.

Light Armor

Bracers 

  • Rakata Force-Master’s Bracers (Epic, BOP)
  • Rakata Stalkers Bracers (Epic, BOP)

Chest

  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Vestments (Rare) Moddable.

Head

  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Headgear (Rare) Moddable.
  • Primeval Battlemind’s Headgear (Rare)

Legs

  • Anointed Zeyd-Cloth Lower Robe (Rare) Moddable.
  • Primeval Seeker’s Legwraps (Rare)

Waist

  • Rakata Force-Master’s Sash (Epic, BOP)
  • Rakata Stalkers Waistwrap (Epic, BOP)

Medium Armor

Chest

  • Resilient Polyplast Vest (Rare) Moddable.

Legs

  • Primeval Ardent Blade’s Leggings (Rare)
  • Resilient Polyplast Leggings (Rare) Moddable.

Heavy Armor

Head

  • Primeval Paragon’s Headgear (Rare)
  • Primeval Vindicator’s Headgear (Rare)

Legs

  • Fortified Electrum Greaves (Rare) Moddable.
  • Primeval Paragon’s Greaves (Rare)
← Older posts

Current Specials

  • SWTOR Patch Notes — Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate
  • Fall Hiatus: Coming Soon to a Roadhouse Near You
  • The Reconsolidation Begins!
  • How Was the Grand Acquisition Race?
  • Investigating the Grand Acquisition Race
  • You Have Failed me for the Last Time, Qyzen Fess!

RSS Feeds

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

What's on the Menu

administrivia alts BETA blogs commentary community companions crew skills developer blog diary entries FAQs friday five gear guilds In Game Events legacy system official announcements opinion patch notes pets podcasts poll previews PTR screenshots silly SWTOR SWTOR team interviews synthweaving video

Top Posts & Pages

  • Clever SWTOR Guild Names
  • Friday 5: Five Things I'm Looking Forward to in SWTOR Patch 1.3

Recently, on Twitter…

Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.

Blogroll

  • A New Dope
  • All for the Wookiee
  • Darth Hater
  • Dulfy.net
  • force junkies
  • Hawtpants Republic
  • Imperial Intelligence
  • Imperial Medical Corps
  • Inquisitive Myths
  • Oceanic Gamer
  • Peal's Heals
  • Roll one hundred
  • sithwarrior.com
  • Summertime on Hoth
  • SW:TOR Strategies
  • SWTOR Commando
  • SWTOR Hub
  • TORwars

Resources

  • Jedi Tank
  • R2-DB
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic (official)
  • SWTOR on reddit
  • SWTOR Wiki
  • TORhead

Podcasts

  • Corellian Run
  • Galactic Holofeed
  • Mos Eisley Radio
  • The Cantina Band
  • TOR Reporter
  • TOR-talk

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,502 other subscribers

Blog Catalog

BlogCatalog

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Inquisitor's Roadhouse
    • Join 72 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Inquisitor's Roadhouse
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...