So I have just got a level 50 jedi sentinel that I deleted years ago restored, problem is he has artifice and I prefer biochem nowadays for the reusables.

 

My question is what would be the quickest way to level up biochem and it's gathering skills, do I have to go back through all the planets again?

Edited August 23, 2014 by Evality

The answer is "not for Biochem, yes for Bioanalysis, but you may not need Bioanalysis."

 

The skills are Biochem (crafting), Bioanalysis (gathering), and Diplomacy (missions). To level them up you need:

 

- Biochem: go to the Fleet and buy mats from GTN and recipes from the Biochem trade vendor, and make whatever items you need to level up. You can spam it to max in a few hours, but it will cost you a couple million in mats. You will then have to "research" the recipes you want from green -> blue -> purple by making and disassembling the items in question, which requires a lot of mats and thus may cost you 4-10 million.

 

- Diplomacy: gives you the blue mats that are not gatherable, that you need for making blue or purple quality items. You can find these on the GTN or level up diplomacy by sending 5 of your companions on Diplomacy missions constantly over a few days. Initially the missions take 3-5 minutes, but as you go up in Diplomacy level, they can take 30 minutes - 1 hr, so towards the end you'll be logging in, setting missions, and logging out for an hour or so to play a different character as you wait.

 

- Bioanalysis: this gives you the green mats. The fastest way to level is to go to the planets and gather plants and such; kill animals and gather off the corpses if you can manage to agro a whole bunch of them and AOE.

 

My recommendation would be to just level up Biochem, worry about the other two skills later. The leveling process requires stacks and stacks of mats 400-800 of each kind, and there's no way you're going to gather those amounts in any reasonable amount of time. Level up Biochem with mats from the GTN so you can take advantage of its recipes right away, then as time permits go about Diplomacy and Bioanalysis.

 

Although, honestly, when you craft stuff for your use, you'll need 8-10 of each mat per item you craft, and it will be more efficient to buy the mats from the GTN than to gather them. So you may never get around to leveling Diplomacy and Bioanalysis.

 

Also, you can transfer mats between alts via email, so if you make any new level 1 alts, have THEM do the gathering as they level up, and send the mats to your Biochemist. You go through the planets anyway as you level up, might as well take all 3 gathering skills and supply your high level crafters while you're going through the planet and storyline quests.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Merouk

You can run missions for bioanalysis, but of course that costs credits. It's not real hard to run through the lower planets and pick up plants and kill creatures (strongs or elites) for mats. It depends on whether you'd rather spend time or credits. Start with Coruscant and when you stop gaining levels move on to Taris, etc.

Thanks for replying, I had started running around low planets when I posted this and have all 3 skills at around 150 so I may aswell keep going.

 

It's been going quicker due to the mats I have in the legacy bank and having all my crew at 10k affection.

 

I am up to tatooine so I have a ways to go.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Evality

kill animals and gather off the corpses if you can manage to agro a whole bunch of them and AOE.

Just remember, you can only gather mats from corpses of "Strong" or higher difficulty creatures. If you go this route, you'll do best if you go to a heroic area where there are a lot of high-difficulty creatures in a small area (so start someplace like Savrip Island on Ord Mantell, for Rep side).

Thanks for the tip.

alternatively you could simply switch your crafting skill, ignore the gathering/mission skills, and power level with mats bought on the GTN.

You'll actually reach 450 much faster that way since you can have 5 companions crafting at once while you run dailies for comms you can actually use...

 

This swtor-biochem-leveling-guide gives you a complete shopping list of the mats you need, what to make and how many to get you to 400. Just repeat the pattern for 400 - 450.

Once that's done, if you really want bioanalysis/diplomacy you can power level those while doing dailies also.

This swtor-biochem-leveling-guide gives you a complete shopping list of the mats you need, what to make and how many to get you to 400. Just repeat the pattern for 400 - 450.

Once that's done, if you really want bioanalysis/diplomacy you can power level those while doing dailies also.

 

That site has some very useful guides for levelling crafting skills, I use them for any alts I have that don't go with biochem.