This morning, I found myself with an Unusual Egg in my posession, courtesy of my ever vigilant banker. She had purchased it from some fleet denizen who needed a quick 40,000 credits, believe it or not.
And thus, I hopped into my spacecraft and returned to Tatooine. Who could have predicted how frequently I’d be finding myself here? I really should have purchased a parking discount card from that Jawa last time I was here…
Thanks to having done my homework on how to hatch my Orokeet, I knew my first course of business was to travel to Jundland and be on the look out for a water tower whose blue panel indicated it was ready for some moisture harvesting.
After I found a water tower ready to give up some moisture and give me a buff, I hopped on a speeder and headed to the far South Western reaches of the Dune Sea. I found the Czerka Archaeological site at -2329, -405 and set about looking for an area that looked like it would get hot enough to hatch my egg.
I finally found two solar panels that faced in upon each other that still had enough room for me to squeeze myself inside. Almost immediately, I could tell that my egg was reacting positively to the extreme heat. At the same time, I started to wish I had a large palm frond with which Khemmy could fan me. After a minute or so, my ability to take the heat was rewarded with my Orokeet hatchling! What a lovely treat to become a mother on Mother’s Day.
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!
In case you were somehow unaware, today is Star Wars Day — May the Fourth be with you!
In the spirit of sharing Star Wars awesomeness, I bring you today’s Friday five, focused on one of my favorite star wars the old republic community activities — recording the TOR Reporter podcast with Chris and Josh each week at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday nights. And thus I bring you five reasons you should be spending your Thursday evenings with us, as we record TOR Reporter with our live chat room audience:
Only by being in the live chat did you have the opportunity to make up real-time “Anexxia is so rich…” jokes that made their way instantaneously into the podcast, and led to an episode title. Think of the power and glory!
Our chat room is smarter, more attractive, and better SWTOR players than your average live chat. Don’t you want to rub shoulders with these peeps? Trading quips, live fact checking me when I go off on a tangent, etc.?
We give away a ton of free stuff every episode. Yes, sometimes it’s just free advice, but it has even been baby tauntauns. Because we love you.
If you like us on Facebook you can post on our wall and give us subliminal messages to plant in future shows, and eventually we can take over the SWTOR community and remake it in your image! And your likes will help us get rid of that incredibly long URL for our FB fan page so we can actually say it on the podcast!
You’ll get all the latest views and opinions without waiting for us to put the podcast up on the server for your listening enjoyment — and you’ll get to hear every last word, including the ones Chris edits out!
Bonus reason: it may be your only opportunity to make a Sith crack a smile, or even laugh out loud!
Surprisingly, the Rakghoul Plague went out with a whimper this week. Although we had been warned of the end day/time by the devs earlier, it was surprising, after such an immersive event had taken place, to find activities on the fleet back to normal. Well, other than the few remaining rakghoul plague victims who kept exploding all over the GTN.
What I’d been expecting was some sort of finale to cap off this engaging event. Maybe a big battle that broke out in the fleet. Or an all-galaxy intercom announcement that a cure had been found. Or an email that all those plague samples we sold to that adorable little Jawa paid off in finding a way to contain the virus.
What about you — did you feel the event needed some sort of story completion or a finale? Or were you happy with how it ended? Share your thoughts in the comments.
A small patch this morning, presumably to remove the Plague, and with a few small fixes:
Earpieces and implants now properly apply their stat bonuses when equipped on companions.
Helmets now work correctly when unifying colors on the character sheet.
Corrected an issue that could cause characters in cinematics to appear grey in color.
Corrected an issue that prevented players from adding offline players to their friends list. (maybe this will mean Anexxia will stop getting the character does not exist error message when folks try to friend her?)
For those of you behind a firewall, I give you the full patch notes after the jump…
As a continuation of my public service efforts around increasing the spread of information on the rakghoul plague, I’ve tracked down one of the containment effort’s leaders, to gain further enlightenment around the rakghoul threat. I do hope the following interview adds to your peace of mind, friends.
cheers,
Anexxia
ANEXXIA: Please introduce yourself to our readers
BRASHART: I am Doctor Corrandus Brashart with the Imperial Biohazards Containment Bureau, a division of the Ministry of Logistics. How may I assist you, my lord?
ANEXXIA: Can you tell us a little bit about your involvement in the containment of the rakghoul plague on Tatooine?
BRASHART: I am presently leading the Empire’s efforts to understand this virulent outbreak to ensure it does not spread far beyond this insignificant dust ball of a planet. My ultimate goal is to develop a vaccine that will render our citizenry immune to future infection.
ANEXXIA: When was the Imperial leadership first made aware of this outbreak? How did we find out?
BRASHART: The plague clearly began within the Republic. Our first indications of its spread came from their HoloNet reports. I personally briefed the Minister of Logistics immediately upon verifying the news was not some ridiculous form of prank entertainment.
ANEXXIA: I suspected this was a Republic-instigated event. Have we made in progress on identifying or better yet capturing our patient zero?
BRASHART: I fear identifying the initial plague carrier will be next to impossible, as this person almost certainly emerged from Republic space and is very likely already dead. At this point, our best hope is to focus on the recently infected and learn what we can from them.
ANEXXIA: There have been baseless Republic rumours circulating that the plague was, in fact, initially manufactured by Imperial scientists as a biological weapon, with further insinuations this outbreak is, in fact, our clinical trials. Can you help put these treasonous rumours to rest?
BRASHART: This is an outrageous accusation, my lord. It is a matter of historical record that the rakghoul plague first began on the Republic planet of Taris over three-hundred years ago. It re-emerged during the Republic’s failed attempt to restore a colony on that world, forcing the Empire to step in and quarantine the entire system. Quite frankly, I believe the Republic created this plague to destabilize the Empire and threaten its innocent citizens.
ANEXXIA: I am certain your suspicions on this will be found out to be true.
ANEXXIA: My sources have been hearing about isolated plague cases turning up on other planets. Do we have any official confirmation of these cases? Are they just isolated instances of contaminated Tatooines making it off the planet and being captured by containment officers?
BRASHART: There have been a few reports of inconsequential outbreaks occurring on other worlds. All were the result of infected individuals fleeing Tatooine. My office quickly responded to contain these emergencies. There is no cause for alarm, my lord. I encourage anyone suffering from plague symptoms to remain aboard their starships and contact the Imperial Biohazards Containment Bureau. We will dispatch a team of trained medical technicians to assist them.
ANEXXIA: I have personally noticed a proliferation of small rakghouls being carried around by otherwise sane Imperials as pets. Is there any threat of plague contamination from these trendy crimson raklings and pale raklings?
BRASHART: Quite honestly, I can’t understand why anyone would want to be followed around by those vicious little beasts. But I’m not a pet person, my lord. Suffice it to say that we are monitoring those creatures very closely and would prefer their owners keep them in cages until more is known about them.
ANEXXIA: What can the general public do currently to help assist in the containment of this pandemic?
BRASHART: For the love of the Empire, please do not go to Vaiken Spacedock if you or anyone traveling with you is suspected of being infected! We’ve received disturbing reports of “plague parties” being attended by clearly suicidal and disturbed individuals. That is simply an inappropriate response to this emergency. Please think of your fellow citizens before taking such rash action.
ANEXXIA: How terribly uncivilized. Is there anything else we should be aware of?
*cracks her fingers, readying up a nice purpley shock should that be necessary to extract more information*
BRASHART: My Lord… I guarantee you will be the first to hear of any new developments.
ANEXXIA: Thank you so much for the informative conversation today, Doctor Brashart. That will be all…for now.
This morning, in need of stretching my legs after a good night’s sleep, I popped down to the Imperial Fleet from my ship, and was immediately startled by an unprecedented all systems alert over the PA systems. I tried to shake off the sense of dread that washed over me by looking through some synthweaving schematics, but couldn’t get the travel advisory out of my mind.
Over 10,000 dead so far, with thousands more infected and outbreak area growing exponentially as the virus continues to mutate. In an effort to try to contain the outbreak to the planet, government officials have asked the public to refrain from visiting or in any way communicating with Tatooine and its inhabitants.
While I do, of course, agree with their methods in general, I also knew that this was exactly the sort of catastrophe for which I am personally well-suited to handle. Which is why I immediately hopped on my speeder and zoomed back to my ship’s hangar and made my way to Tatooine.
Once there, I found the typically unremarkable outpost of Mos Ila swarming with containment troops, staring down infected citizens at rifle point. I was pleased to note they heeded our orders and immediately took down any people who showed signs of turning into rakghouls. Well met.
Having spent a good deal of time on Tatooine in my early days, I immediately noticed a few abnormalities– like the escape pod that had lodged itself in one of the unused city outbuildings. Where there is an escape pod, there is an escapee. And a larger ship from which they were escaping.
My path was becoming more clear to me. If I could track down more of the debris from this crash — and better yet the hull of the ship itself and some of the survivors, I know I could get to the bottom of this mystery.
A highlight of my day was definitely coming upon the wreckage from the ship (now known to me as the Stardream) North of the Republic encampment in the Dune Sea. The place was swarming with infected personnel– and already turned rakghouls. Luckily, I was able to subdue one of the rakghouls enough to gather a significant blood sample before I put him out of his misery with a nice overload of purple lightning.
I took my blood sample to someone I trust [name redacted to protect my useful compatriot] who is working on weaponizing the virus as we speak. I’ll have to jump back in the fray tonight to obtain some additional samples. But for now, it’s back to the grindstone. Must Holo in for a few meetings and give the impression I’m cooling my heels on the fleet, awaiting Malgus’ next directive. What a fool that man is…I’m sure my incredibly convincing PSA on the radio show last night, warning all loyal members of the Empire to stay away from Tatooine will give the impression I’m more than towing the line…
With a Patch as extensive as 1.2 it’s no wonder there are a lot of questions cropping up right out of the starting gate. I’ve started off with the ones I’m hearing most often. Have a question not answered here? Or keep having to answer the same question over and over for guildies? Leave it in the comments and I’ll add it to the FAQs!
Where’s the Guild Bank?
On the fleet, head to the GTN, and you will find it in its own room on the outer circle of the area. Note that personal bank vaults are also here. If your guild has not purchased a vault, and you are not the GM, you will not be able to interact with the guild bank vault.
OK, then how do we get our guild bank?
Your GM will have to purchase the tab(s), hopefully with member assistance given the costs: The first tab is 600k credits ; the second is 1 million credits ; the third is 2 million credits ; the fourth is 3.5 million credits. A guild can purchase up to 7 Vault Tabs, but the pricing for the last 3 not yet confirmed in live but per below, on PTR was: fifth tab is 7 million, sixth tab is 15 million, and seventh tab is 30 million. That means if you want to have all seven tabs you will be spending a total of 60 million credits! Thanks to @LegioUmbraSWTOR for the info!
Where are the Legacy vendors?
For Republic folks, head to the Senate Commercial District on Coruscant. For Imperials, on Dromund Kaas, the vendors are downstairs from the Craft and Trade Market, on your way to the central speeder point. Dulfy has a great post on what you can find on the vendors.
Where’s my PTR title?
You will receive an in-game mail with an object that will grant the title (as was the case with the Founder title). Per the forums, this should be delivered today.
My custom gear crafting is not critting– did that actually make it in the game?
Yes it did. But it is only about a 10% chance of critting. Some folks are crafting 11 items without a crit, while others are averaging 1 out of every 5 items critting. It’s all luck of the RNG.
How do I find a Tauntaun pet in the wilds?
Head to Hoth. So far, I haven’t heard about anyone figuring out this mystery yet, but I would be surprised if we make it through the weekend without some progress on it.
How do I find an Orobird egg and hatch it to obtain an Orokeet companion pet?
Check out my updated SWTOR Companion Pets post for details, including 3 egg locations and how to hatch them. If you find another egg location, please leave it in the comments!
What are the new speeder training prices?
The level 25 training is 35,000. The Rank 2 speeder training, available at 40, is 150,000 credits. And Ranks 3, available at level 50 is either 220,000 or 225,000 (need a secondary confirm.)
Ugh. My UI is different! How do I change it around?
I highly recommend checking out the UI preview video. It’s a quick way to get up-to-speed on how to manipulate your UI.
I don’t want to waste time messing around with my UI. What are my quick/easy options?
You can choose one of the premade UIs. Just hit the + on your action bar and choose from one of the premade UIs. You can also check out the MMO Mechanics UI share, and pick a user-modified UI to use.
Do I have to be level 50 to buy the new Battlemaster PvP gear?
Yes. This is unlike many other items in game that allow you to purchase them before you may use them.
Where is the new daily quest hub?
Corellia is now home to the “Black Hole” level 50 daily quest hub with 6 new dailies you can complete. To get to the Black Hole area of Corellia, when you exit the spaceport immediately head right and you will see a shuttle. Click on the door and it will take you to the Black Hole area. Thanks to Jaramukhti for the info and suggestion!
What’s the new Flashpoint?
‘The Lost Island’ is the new Flashpoint, with a storyline that follows immediately after the events of ‘Kaon Under Siege.’
What other questions do you keep hearing? Let me know in the comments and I’ll get them added! Happy Patch 1.2 weekend!
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.
Inquisitor's Roadhouse 