Armorsmith Archive

Greetings. My name is Kothmia, and I'm looking for a profession to add to my skillset. I had filled one whole box on my tailor tree, when my guild recruited (with my blessing) a master tailor. Add that to our master in training (who likes grinding more than I do) and I was free to persue other options. I thought about chef, and then was knocked to my senses. I'm currently working on the dancer, merchant,and fencer trees, but I don't know how far those will end up going.

I'm hoping this post will gather the pros and cons of going armorsmith, and also some helpful tips for those embarking on the route. So, please, share your thoughts, comments, hopes and dreams. I'm just trying to search out some information. Thanks for your time!

Balin76,

Hey, will give you my 2 cents but that might be all its worth. First off I really enjoy being a armorsmith. I enjoy doing special projects for people and right now I am making a full set of Composite for someone made from Krayt segments and it will be all HAM sliced (So I have to keep making it till I get all theright slices) I finally got the 50+ segments I estimate I will need for this and I get to build it tonight so I am kind of jazzed about that. But onto your question.

Can I sell my Newbie Armor?

Well I think first of all its arough road,I played in beta and started Armorsmith at approx. 11 AM on launch day so I think I hada huge advantage. Most of this advantage was based on the fact that when I was making Mabari Armor it was in demand (Same with Chitin/Ubese/Padded ...etc) so I could sell what I made. I pretty much sold everthing I made until I hit PA 4 and Tech 4. At that point I was falling behind and sales beganslowing plus, I just really wanted to be a Master so I asked my guild to feed me Metal/Syn Cloth/ and Hides and I ground out marbari chestplates forthe other 7 or 8 boxes in about2 or 3weeks. If you plan on taking the "sell most of what you make route" it will be very difficult as armor such as Mabari is a tough sell. This gets a lot better once you get PA 2 and Tech 4 since you can probably sell nice Chitin sets. If you happen to take the grind approach it will cost you a lot of cash and I would suggest you have a plan for feeding the grinding cash sink before you start. (Personally I think being a part time miner is a great way to supplement your cash flow)

Are you a Armorsmith or a Surveyer?

Well both I have found. When I started I did the harvester gig. and it takes time infact it takles a lot of time. So I decided that I could no longer afford to do this from a time perspective and started just buying stuff off resource dealers and the bazaar.After a while I decided the only way Icouldmake thekind of Uber armor that I wanted was if I controlled the resource harvesting and so I could get 10's of thousands of what I wanted when it drop's for a limited amount of time. So the point here is that you will spend a large amount of time gathering resouces.Now you can spend this time working with vendors or doing it your self but its a lot of time either way. Also note I am sure you have dealt with this a certain amount with being a tailor but its significantly different with Armorsmiths as the quality of the resources is vastly important.

It Says I am not Healthy Enough to Wear my Armor?

You will become very knowledgeable about HAM cost and justthe whole HAM deal. This is probably one of the things I like the least is having to constantly have to defend and discuss the benefits of armor and helping people deal with the HAM issues around armor. You will have template emails that explain HAM and HAM costs of Armor, healing wounds, stat. migration, etc.

Well All You Armorsmiths Are Rich....Right?

Well no...Infact I probably could be but I have a weakness for toys and I give stuff away to people that help me a lot, etc. but the larger issue is the overhead costs. It takes a huge amount of cash to make nice Composite Armor. Once a resouce goes scare you can pay 20-100 cr a unit for it. (Current examples are Beyllirus Copper and Neutronium Steel). Right now Wooley hides on Endor are awesome and Iasked some scouts to go pull me some. This is going to cost me 600,000 cr. Take this example times the number of really nice resouces you need and its a lot of cash. I would expect that if I sold every resouce in my house I could probably clear close to 5 Million cr but atm I have less then 1 million credits in the bank. This might seem like a lot of money but you could clear this easily as a resource dealer in a month or so without putting in 1/10 of the effort.

Lastly once you get really good at it and have aquired all the sweet resouces you willNEVERbe able to keep up. I feel really bad sometimes as people get frustrated with me because I did not get there order done or my vendor is always empty, etc.

Ok, well my post is seeming kinds of gloomy so I will say in closing I do really like it. I get a huge charge from people telling me "Wow ImeThis is Awesome Armor, thanks so much"....etc but I do think its one of the more complex/time consuming crafting professions there is.

Ok, here's my input on the subject.

I decided to go the armorsmith route because I thought it was a little less popular then the weaponsmith and I didn't want to be one in a million. I wanted to have recognition. Well, let's face it... being a casual player, and having played from day one, I still haven't mastered armorsmith. It seems that the only way to really become known in your trade is to be one of the first ones to make Master. Seeing as that's not the case, I resolved to remain in the shadow of those ahead of me.

However, the life of an armorsmith is not without it's benefits. I have a small yet loyal clientelle, and even though I'm not the top armorsmith, I still have a decent income. I try to keep the grind at a minimum by practicing doing Mabari Chest Pieces while I do my harvester runs, as well as when I travel around (especially while waiting for shuttles).

I look forward to the day I can make composite armor and join the ranks for the few Elite Masters out there.

I think one of the things you'll find out about making money is to craft what is missing and sell it on the bazaar. I hardly sell anything on my vendor (you can thank the new vendor fees for that), but I make good money from bazaar sales. Now when I reach Ubese or Padded, I may change my mind. But until then, all sales are bazaar sales.

I think one one of the keys to being a good armorsmith is friendliness and willingness to travel to your customer. Just hang around town and talk to people. Hang out at the cantina and listn to some music while grinding a few Mabari Chest Pieces.

Himrethar,

Hey I would disagree with one of your statments "It seems that the only way to really become known in your trade is to be one of the first ones to make Master".

I was not the first or 10th Master on my server. I think the trick to becoming a known i.e famous Master Armorsmith (which btw is my goal) is to provide the things others don't. I spend a lot of time working custom projects or just expaining why I recommend low HAM Mabari for unarmed combat to people, etc. Anyone can do a run of 25 full sets in their factory and post it on their vendor. It takes atrue Master to understand how theirarmorworks best for a customerand this has nothing to do with being first or having the largest bank account.