Best SG Crafter

[Marine X]

Been thinking about creating and power leveling a toon specifically to be used as a SuperGroup Crafter/Attuner. This would require the ability to slot the widest possible variety of Enhancements. I was thinking probably a Controller would be the most diverse given that it could slot a lot of different types plus what you could add through pool powers. The Hard ones are AT specific enhancements, and those are probably just not going to happen. I also considered Sentinals. Any suggestions? Have no intention of using this as anything more than a Base Bot, eg: Crafter, Attuner, Influence, Salvage and Recipe Storage, so gameplay is not a concern.

[Cancrusher]

I'm trying to figure out what would be the advantage to doing it this way.  You can store as much as you want in the /AH and your email.

[Marine X]

In order to craft and attune enhancements to sell or use on other Toons. In order to Attune them you have to be able to slot the crafted enhancement in order to use a Catalyst to Attune it. So if attuning a Slow Movement Enhancement, you have to have somewhere where you can slot it. Looking for an AT and Power selections that would be able to slot the widest possible variety of enhancements. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

To your question, I'd agree a controller (maybe dominator) since that will give you access to a lot of mez and such.  I'll put some thought into what kind here in a bit.

 

But to save you a lot of catalysts and expenses and trouble, remember you can buy attuned IOs directly in the AH and they come from the same pool as levelled ones.  You can craft a lvl 25 Lotg 7.5% on one character, put it up for sale, buy it as an attuned on another character.  You lose the 10% transaction fee, but that will almost certainly be less than the value of a catalyst.

 

This guide may be helpful:

 

 

[Ukase]

Marine X, 
 While I applaud your initiative, I think there are some things you may not be aware of - or perhaps I misunderstood something. 

Let's say you do have a Slow IO. Why would you slot it & catalyze it? You'll get the same inf for one that's attuned as you would one that is not. The level 22 IO is in the same "bucket" that an attuned version of the same IO is. 
Let's say that I missed something in your post, and the idea was to slot it on a lower level character, say level 25. And the Slow IO in question is level 50. In this context, rather than having your controller slot it, attune it and unslot it so your lowby alt can use it - you're far better off selling it unattuned, crafted level 50 and re-buying it for the same price as attuned.  Yomo goes step by step on how to do this somewhere in this forum subsection. 

For the sake of efficiency when crafting, a lot depends on the scale you craft at. For someone like me, one character is insufficient. This is because of one issue - salvage storage. Max my character can hold is 200. 

So, when I bid on 5x 54 level 10 pvp IOs, that's 5 pieces of salvage for each one I happen to acquire. If I get about 100 recipes, that's 500 pieces of salvage, which is 300 less than the 200 I can hold. (which requires level 50, purchase of 10 extra storage slots from Vanguard computer for 500 vg merits, and a slew of crafting badges to get from the default 172 to 200.) 

So, this is what I do. Which, I'm not doing now because I don't have any good places to stash the inf, outside of AH bids. And I'm not comfy with stashing inf that way, because then, only one character can access it, unlike email - accessible by all alts. 

As you can see, there are 36 "stacks" of 5 of each salvage in the level 1-24 tier. As I grab 5 of the pre-purchased that I need in my character's inventory to complete the purchase, I re-bid for a "fair" price - one I'd be willing to sell for and anticipate someone bidding on. Because I don't want to wait 24 hours, it's generally 500k for rare, 2k for uncommon, 300 for common. Perhaps a little higher, or lower, depending on market conditions. 

This is just for recipes in the 10-24 range. I have a similar character for the 25-40 range, and my farmers tackle all the crafting for 41 to 50 recipes, because they always have the salvage. If they don't, the recipe stays in inventory until the salvage drops, which is tends to do as I farm. For whatever reason, in AE, the mobs drop both arcane and tech salvage, so there's never a need to use the AH to grab any missing item. Some days, I'll have a dozen recipes waiting on some uncommons or rares, while other days, I can craft everything because the RNG likes me more than most of the other players. 

 

 

I used to have a base filled with salvage. I'd kept it alphabetically, 5 of each. Then I kept it in tiers by level. I finally opted to stash purples instead of salvage, resorting to the method demonstrated and explained above. 

I used to have an alt that would grab things from a storage SG and hand them to a lower level character leveling up. That got expensive, (opportunity cost) having a character stand idle in a base waiting to be needed. Far more profitable to have the character in a farm making inf, than sitting idle until needed. I finally just sold all the surplus out of the extra bases, and consolidated to the one. This method seems to work the best. 

One area that I should address: Superior ATOs. To make them superior, you have to slot, then catalyze. And your character needs to be that AT. I used to convert them to Brute ATOs and let my brute do this, because then, the Brute ATOs sold for much more inf than the others. But, there's a lot of competition in this niche, and I finally just opted out, and let something get by me. Cost me a lot of converters to convert all the non-brute ATOs to brute ATOs just to slot and catalyze. I still made influence/profit, but it was time consuming, and I can make the same inf in less time/hassle in other ways. So, I just use my alts that align with the ATO type in question and let them do the catalyzing and selling. Puts all those catalysts that drop on them to good use, too. 

 

In Summary, while I like the way you're thinking, I think you're going it at the wrong way. But, again, I may have misunderstood your intentions. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

So, this is what I do. Which, I'm not doing now because I don't have any good places to stash the inf, outside of AH bids. And I'm not comfy with stashing inf that way, because then, only one character can access it, unlike email - accessible by all alts. 

 

@Ukase, one thing I want to say about email is that I've noticed that sometimes it goes screwy.  I've never lost a money holding mail as far as I know.  But even today, I logged onto a character on a shard I rarely use, and there were 5 emails, some well over a year old, that finally wound their way through the system and popped up.

 

Personally, I trust email a lot less than the /AH.

[Ukase]

To each their own, my friend. Worst case, I have to start over from scratch, lol. 

 

[Marine X]

I can typically acquire recipes and salvage thru missions/farming that are essentially free to create them. There are several popular enhancements, clearly not all, that you can create and attune yourself, at less than the market price. Just looking at those particular ones. There are also others that drop very rarely, even though they are not rare that are cheaper to craft than buy because of demand. I agree that most of the time it is better to craft and sell rather than attune, but there are exceptions. I am focusing on the ones with multiple bids but low or no supply. Just something to keep my idle hands from doing the devil's work, lol.

 

I am thinking of naming the character: "Tuna"

[tidge]

I want to chime in that I think the OP strategy may be inefficient I don't think it is crazy. I would recommend the following:

 

Don't worry about having a dedicated character to craft and attune everything, if you start with just focusing on crafting, eventually you will be able to accumulate enough INF to buy attuned pieces for characters that want them. It is generally a PITA to worry about accumulating both catalysts AND unslotters. Side bar: the level 50 respec is a natural time to reconfigure enhancments, for example: pulling out attuned PVP pieces and dropping in level 50s. After your first (one or two) level 50s, stay open to your strategy.

 

As I've accumulated enough INF (and catalysts, and converters, and merits) I've become a much less efficient (in terms of enhancements and expenditures) myself. My latest 'play through content' character took advantage of the SG's accumulation of previously attuned (and/or accumulated) enhancements. It's closing in on level 50 and at that time the character is going to dump a number of commonly used pieces back into the SG tables and catalyze some new ones. I could do much better (in terms of INF costs) by just using the Auction House, but I treat this as a side amusement.

[Marine X]

I am an Expert at doing things the wrong way. I seem to get an Insane pleasure from doing things the Hard way as well, should be obvious, I play mostly Tanks/Brutes. I also, because of being mostly on Reunion, living in the American Midwest and playing mostly in the early AM before work, tend to Solo almost exclusively. Back on Virtue, I was always a solid team Tank.

 

I used to Craft Enhancements then sell them, then rebuy Attuned Versions for slotting. I understand the Financial Logic behind this practice, but I enjoy the Crafting/Attuning process. I am also somewhat impatient, so bidding low and waiting for an opportunity is difficult for me. I seldom buy catalysts, but collect them in base storage, to use by other Characters later or to  Attune Enhancements to give away when the mood strikes. Just considering the possibility of creating a dedicated Crafting Character to scratch that particular itch and want it to be as capable and versatile as possible.

 

Not the smartest thing, but there you go. Typical Marine X.

 

[Troo]

off top of head guess: Dark/Energy Dominator likely a similar controller or such.

Bonus: it could be thematic putting dark energy into objects to make them more powerful.

 

	Shadowy Binds	1	Ranged, Moderate DoT(Negative), Foe Immobilize, -To Hit, -Fly
	Dark Grasp	1	Ranged, Moderate DMG(Negative), Foe Hold, -To Hit
	Living Shadows	2	Ranged (Cone), Minor DoT(Negative), Foe Immobilize, -To Hit, -Fly
	Possess	6	Ranged, Target Confuse
	Fearsome Stare	8	Ranged (Cone), Foe Fear, -To Hit
	Heart of Darkness	12	PBAoE, Foe Disorient, -To Hit, Minor DoT(Negative)
	Haunt	18	Foe Targeted, Summon Shades
	Shadow Field	26	Target (Location AoE), Foe Hold, -To Hit
	Umbra Beast	32	Summon Umbra Beast

 

	Power Bolt	1	Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Knockback
	Bone Smasher	2	Melee, High DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Disorient
	Power Push	4	Ranged, High DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe High Knockback
	Power Blast	10	Ranged, High DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Knockback
	Power Boost	16	Self +Special
	Whirling Hands	20	PBAoE, Moderate DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Disorient
	Total Focus	28	Melee, Extreme DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Disorient
	Sniper Blast	35	Sniper, Extreme DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Knockback
	Power Burst	38	Close, Superior DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe Knockback

[0th Power]

doesn't energy assault power boost give +to hit too?  Or am I hallucinating?

[Greycat]

Warshade?

Has holds, melee, ranged, melee AOE, ranged AOE, stuns, heal, slows (every attack does slows as a secondary effect,) resist (shields,) can add defense with combat jumping, probably tack some leadership in there. Alternately a VEAT, as they've got the leadership toggles - possibly a fort?

[tidge]

17 hours ago, Greycat said:

Warshade?

Has holds, melee, ranged, melee AOE, ranged AOE, stuns, heal, slows (every attack does slows as a secondary effect,) resist (shields,) can add defense with combat jumping, probably tack some leadership in there. Alternately a VEAT, as they've got the leadership toggles - possibly a fort?

 

There is a peculiar / obnoxious reason to pick a VEAT, although I wouldn't recommend it: there are the mandatory Respecs (on each build). I think you can 'interrupt' a second (and third) build before you get to that respec. This won't help for catalyzing ATO or Winter sets of course, since the forced respec happens at too low a level.

 

I think having a dedicated 'attuner' is already too much effort, but hey... if you want to do things the hard way!

[0th Power]

23 hours ago, 0th Power said:

doesn't energy assault power boost give +to hit too?  Or am I hallucinating?

I checked it yesterday. It is +special and +dmg. No +to hit.