» Question » What Crew Skills are best for non-force users?

There are a number of different crew skills for non-force users. The main four crafting ones are as follows:

Armormech - The armor crafting skill, similar to Force User's Synthweaving. You make various types of armor to support your objectives and leveling. This skill might be ideal even to Force Users as you often rarely get a companion who will have similar force powers as yourself.

Armstech - Makes various types of blasters, rifles, sniper rifles, and cannons for your characters who can't use lightsabers. It's a good idea to consider this as you can make weapons for yourself, and your companions too.

Biochem - Potions and stim packs which will give you added power while you're out and about, making it so that you are less likely to die over time.

Cybertech - A good alternative to Armormech, as it does provide some implants and ear pieces, but relies even more so on creating armor and gear for your Companions, and not yourself.

If you're familiar with World of Warcraft, think of Armormech as being Blacksmithing or Leatherworking, Armstech as being like the weapon's side of Blacksmithing, Biochem as being like Alchemy, and finally, Cybertech similar to Engineering.

There are various associated gathering skills you will need for each too:

Armormech & Cybertech- Scavenging is the primarily source of materials for both crew skills, but mission related skills like Underworld trading help with getting rare medals to help make gear.

Armstech - Scavenging will be the primary gathering skill here too, but treasure hunting will help better for as you'll get good sources of compounds for your weapons.

Biochem - Relies heavily on Bioanalysis as a gathering profession. Dipolomacy will be the best mission crew skill as it provides you with lots of medical supplies to help you out in the skill.

Crafting skills are going to depend on a lot more than just whether you can use the force or not. Skills do more than just provide gear for your specific class. You also don't necessarily need to only choose skills that relate to your class. You can be a Sith Inquisitor and focus on making blaster rifles if you really want to. Also certain skills will involve other aspects of the game such as Diplomacy for Light/Dark side points.

If your aim is to earn credits: Slicing is a great all-around skill if your looking for credits. There are nodes to slice all over various planets, especially Alderaan, which can make you rich pretty quickly. However, trying to run missions to earn those credits is like gambling. Sometimes the cost of a mission is far more than what you'll receive in return and in the end you will find yourself spending more money on missions than you actually receive unless you have been very lucky. So stick with the nodes and you'll never have financial problems.

I've found that gathering professions are also a great way to earn some change as other players will always have a use for the materials you find. Bioanalysis, Scavenging, and Archaeology along with Slicing are all great gathering professions. And if you are experienced with the Galactic Trade Network(GTN) well enough, you can make some good credits selling the resources you find from these crew skills.

If your looking to gear your character: Armormech, Armstech, and Cybertech are great crafting crew skills. An Armormech will be able to craft armors all non-force users. Armormech uses materials from Scavenging, Investigation, and Underworld Trading. If weapons(guns in this case) are your thing, then Armstech might be the crafting skill your looking for. The Armstech uses materials from Scavenging and Treasure Hunting. And throughout the game you may love a particular set of gear and wont want to give it up so easily to uglier but better upgrades. Dont worry too much, because you may actually want to give Cybertech a shot. Cybertech allows you to enhance the gear you have through special modifications which will give you the opportunity to hang onto those prettier items and pass on the uglier ones throughout the game. Cybertech uses items from Scavenging, Slicing, Treasure Hunting, and Underworld Trading

If your looking to be helpful to others: I always found that the guy that helps the guild with crafted items/materials is the guy you wanna know the most. Every guild needs someone that has the ability to provide the guild with much needed consumables before a raid, or even various gear upgrades. Aside from the Armor, Weapons, and Mods crew skills mentioned in the section above, theres one more crew skill you may be after and that is Biochem. The Biochem is essentially the Alchemist of the SWTOR community, they provide those essential chemical buffs before your group takes on a particularly nasty raid. Biochem uses materials mainly from Bio-analysis but also receives a handful of its resources from Underworld Trading(mainly the more expensive ones).

Dont forget about missions crew skills: Every crew skill has missions, but there are a few that are particularly specialized and you should utilize these if more over the others. These crew skills are Underworld Trading, Investigation, Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting. The reason for picking up these crew skills is most if not all of them provide the rare materials that your regular gathering crew skill wouldn't normally find otherwise. This lets you make the more advanced gear/consumables in the game. A couple of them also have other uses aside from rare materials. Treasure Hunting has a chance at finding lockboxes with credits in them much in the way that Slicing does. Diplomacy can help you out in the way of going Light or Dark which towards the end of the game can be a huge factor in your ability to where gear. Investigations will give you the opportunity to find rare quests for all crew skills.

Slicing is, without a doubt, the most useful crafting skill. It allows you to walk around and find metal "treasure chests" with loads of credits in them. You can also send a companion on a mission to get you lockboxes with credits in them. Every class should level with slicing.