[Dev Blog] Crafting Changes

[Zyera]

LINK: http://www.swtor.com/info/news/blog/20151006

Lots of changes to crafting! What do you think?

[Raybenn]

Not bad changes, though it seems like Artificers get the short end of the stick in the redistribution of who does what.

I am happy with the clean up of the materials though... I'm thinking of all the empty legacy storage space I'm going to be able to fill with different junk!

[Turk]

I like the way the crafting is being reorganized. I like the ability to harvest all crafting nodes regardless of level as well as not having to see a trainer to up the skill. Also happy about being able to make HM equivalent gear and that all crafted armor will be adaptive. A little bummed about the Cybertechs not being able to craft armoring. He's has been armoring suppliers to all of my new toons up until the increased coms started.

All in all I'll give the changes a thumbs up on paper.

[Soulfinger]

Sounds good to me. My first character (Soulfinger, a Synthweaver) used almost only the armor he crafted as he leveled - it was almost always better than what he had AT LEVEL. However, at level +2, the crafted stuff was so-so, and +4, it wasn't any better. With about 10 levels between crafted gear (e.g. craft a belt at level 23, the next tier belt is level 33) that meant that the stuff he crafted was a bit underpowered as he was leveling. Because of that, it just didn't make crafting worth while since you'd quickly get stuff that was better than what you could craft. (* note - not the case with the 12X XP since you're not collecting a ton of loot because you skip a ton of combat and quest rewards by focusing only on the class missions).

The two changes I like the most - #1 is that the gear is going to be relevant as you level. #2 is that there is a chance (?) to get a prototype item by reverse engineering the items. That to me is a much better way of doing it. I don't think it is the case that the prototype version is guaranteed.. but that wasn't clear in the blog.

I also quite like the option of RE the Ops gear. Restricing the original ops gear to having the set bonuses balances that out.

...and I still will miss the equipment bonuses on companions... not a big deal I suppose, but just too bad they took that out.