How To Optimize Your Companion Crew Skill Bonuses In SWTOR

If you are wanting to find a resource that will help you make one of the most informed choices as to which class to play based on which set of companions and bonuses to a certain crew skill each classes companions get, you have come to the right place!


This guide is geared towards the crafting min-maxer at a medium to advanced level and will probably not make much sense to others as to why these choices matter, but if you are a person that crafting is very important and crucial to your game plan then read on.

If you are like me, you are thinking ahead to just what companion provides the best bonus for each individual crafting skill. Normally most people would pick the class they want to play first before worrying about crew skills or companion bonus choices, but for a person like me who plans on playing all classes eventually anyway, the choice of which crafting skill I plan to focus on at the time is the first choice I make before choosing class.

Another added bonus that a guide like this might provide you is the ability to get the synergy among your eight allowed character choices on your main server in tune so that you have all your crafting bases covered with optimal efficiency on gear you can make and send to all your characters.

With all the choices available this was very hard for me to figure out until I hammered this info out for myself and worked through it based on the types of characters and faction I wanted to focus on.

The best way that I can think of to break it down is by crafting skill and then by light side and dark side optimal choices in case you lean strongly to one side or the other. This should give you the ability to make the most informed choice possible on this subject.

(BTW all of this information was gathered at our awesome companion database, if you haven’t seen it already please do look at it before continuing. It is the absolute best place to look when trying to figure this strategy out 🙂 )

ARMORMECH

Light Side
Trooper companion Tanno Vik with a +5 to critical armormech and +1 to critical underworld trading
or
Smuggler companion Akaavi Spar with a +10 critical armormech and +2 critical bioanalysis

Dark SideBounty Hunter companion Blizz with a +15 to armormech and +1 to critical armstech
or
Imperial agent companion Ensign Raina Temple with a +10 to scavenging and +2 to critical armormech

ARMSTECH

Light Side
Trooper companion Aric Jorgan with a +10 to armstech efficiency and +2 to diplomacy critical
or
Jedi Knight companion Sergeant Fideltin Rusk with a +10 to armstech efficiency and +10 to scavenging efficiency
or
Jedi Consular companion Lieutenant Felix Iresso with a +2 to critical armstech and +2 to critical scavenging

Dark Side
Sith warrior companion Malavi Quinn with a +10 to armstech and +10 to diplomacy
or
Imperial Agent companion Kaliyo D’jannis with a +10 to armstech and +2 to critical underworld trading


ARTIFICE

Light side
Smuggler companion Guss Tuno with a +10 to archaeology and +2 to critical treasure hunting
or
Jedi Knight companion Lord Scourge with a +10 artifice efficiency and a +10 to archaeology efficiency

Dark SideSith Warrior companion Jaesa Wilsaam with a +5 to archaeology and a +5 to critical synthweaving
or
Sith Inquisitor companion Khem Val with a +15 to artifice and a +5 to research


BIOCHEM

Light Side
Trooper companion Elara Dorne with a +10 to biochem efficiency and a +10 to bioanalysis efficiency
or
Jedi Knight companions T7-01 with a +10 to bioanalysis efficiency and a +2 to slicing critical
and
Doc with a +5 to underworld trading and a +5 to critical biochem

Dark side
Sith Inquisitor companion Xalek with a +10 to bioanalysis and +2 to critical scavenging
or
Imperial Agent companion Doctor Eckard Lokin with a +15 to biochem and a +10 to research


CYBERTECH

Light SideTrooper companion M1-4X with a +5 to cybertech and a +5 to critical scavenging
or
Smuggler companion Bowdaar with a +10 to cybertech efficiency and a +10 to scavenging efficiency

Dark SideSith Warrior companion Lieutenant Pierce with a +10 to cybertech and a +2 to critical research
or
Imperial Agent companion Scorpio with a +10 to cybertech and a +2 to critical slicing


SYNTHWEAVING

Light Side
Jedi Knight companion Kira Carson with a +5 to critical synthweaving and a +1 to critical research
or
Jedi Consular companion Nadia Grell with a +10 to synthweaving and a +2 to critical diplomacy

Dark Side
Sith Warrior companion Jaesa Wilsaam with a +5 to archaeology and a +5 to critical synthweaving
or
Sith Inquisitor companion Ashara Zavros with a +10 to synthweaving and a +10 to diplomacy

With this list it is more clear to see which companions might be a better choice if you plan to specialize in one crafting crew skill. If you have made your mind up that you want to be an armormech for instance, and you haven’t chosen a class yet your best option appears to be a Trooper or Smuggler for the light side and possibly a Bounty Hunter or a Imperial Agent for the darkside.

There is one other choice as well that may factor into your decision of which class/companion combo to choose that bears mentioning and that would be the issue of whether or not the chosen class can actually use the items that crafting crew skill can make. Unless you are planning on running multiple crafting skill specialist characters that are on the same faction like me, then you might want to choose the class that can best make use of the gear you can create with all these new found bonuses.

From our earlier example a perfect choice for a character that wants to specialize in armormech and the making of medium to heavy armor for the light side would be the Trooper. He has a companion that has a very good set of bonuses to armormech and related mission skills and he has the added advantage of actually being able to use the medium to heavy armor made by the crafting skill armormech which outweighs the Smugglers use of light to medium armor.

With all that said I hope you enjoyed this guide and got some information from it to help you make a more informed choice for the serious crafter, stay tuned for my next guide in the crew skills series that deals with just what all these companion crew skills bonuses mean and affect in game!

Any comments or questions about this guide please feel free to leave them, I look forward to providing you with many more outside of the box thinking strategies that will help you excel in your crafting game, be sure to follow me on Twitter for notification of new general game play and crew skills guides being posted and also for news about updates to these guides.

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19 Responses to How To Optimize Your Companion Crew Skill Bonuses In SWTOR

  1. Comment by mmolucy made on December 8, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    Is there are difference between bonuses like “Armstech” and “Armstech Efficiency”? If so, do you know what the difference is?

  2. Comment by swtorcrafter made on December 8, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    working on a guide right now at this very minute that has to deal with what those bonuses mean, will hopefully be finishing it tonight. stay tuned for that! 🙂

    in short though yes there is a difference, the general crew skill name bonus like, + to armstech means that what ever your armstech skill level is that bonus adds to that, like for example if you have a skill level in armstech of 200 out of 400 and you need 205 skill level to craft a certain item, if you have a crew skill companion that has a +5 armstech you effectively have a 205 in armstech skill with that companion doing the crafting so you could then make that item.

    and the bonus like + to armstech efficiency means that you get a bonus that applies to crafting in general and the chance to craft a exceptional item or amount of items on a crit or the chance to crit.

    this is the way it was last time I guaged the skill bonuses but it is changing all the time so i dont expect it to be the same when the servers go live due to constant tweaking.

    hope that helped thank you for reading!

  3. Comment by mmolucy made on December 9, 2011 at 6:25 am

    Thanks for the prompt reply and great information.

    • Comment by swtorcrafter made on December 10, 2011 at 2:15 am

      you are welcome thank you for reading! 🙂

  4. Comment by Dimitris made on December 13, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    great guide but what would make it even better,in my opinion is a short description of the skill next/below its headline
    Biochem (medical supplies, performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants)

    • Comment by swtorcrafter made on December 15, 2011 at 3:56 am

      thank you for this input I will incorporate that next time I do an update on this guide. 🙂 sorry it took me so long to get back with you on this I have been having fits getting reliable internet lately :/

  5. Comment by Dimitris made on December 13, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    what does “+x research” does? its not a crew skill afaik,right

    • Comment by CCP Tyr made on December 14, 2011 at 2:59 pm

      I would like to know this as well, what does +x research mean?

      • Comment by swtorcrafter made on December 15, 2011 at 3:54 am

        I am going to have to get back to you on this as I am not 100% sure just yet what role research bonus plays.

        • Comment by Kissakias made on February 21, 2012 at 7:47 pm

          I have the feeling that the research has something to do with the reverse engineering

        • Comment by Lisa made on April 8, 2012 at 4:39 pm

          Wouldn’t research help with investigations?

    • Comment by swtorcrafter made on December 15, 2011 at 3:54 am

      no research is not a crew skill it is just something that some companions can have a bonus too.

      • Comment by CCP Tyr made on December 15, 2011 at 11:36 am

        It is not a skill, but +x to researching what exactly? This is a big mystery or what are we not seeing?

  6. Comment by Derimos made on December 18, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    Useful and lovely. Thank you! 🙂

  7. Comment by Dezorian made on December 20, 2011 at 8:51 am

    The information isn’t 100% anymore, I think there have been some changes. For example Corsi Riggs (Smuggler companion) now also has +5 Underworld Trading Efficiency and
    +5 Armstech Critical. Logical since for a Smuggler Armstech or ArmorMech seems to be the best option to take

  8. Comment by Naelun made on January 3, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    Hey, just thought you should know that you forgot the Jedi Consular’s first companion for Biochem.

  9. Comment by Bosun made on February 7, 2012 at 2:33 am

    Smuggler companion Akaavi Spar with a +10 critical armormech and +2 critical bioanalysis

    is wrong.. its just +10 armormech efficiency
    (not critcal)

  10. Comment by gilthanis made on February 8, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    What about profiteering? Slicing and what other skills would you thnk would be the best to make money with, without a crafting skill…I have a lvl 16 bh with slicing, diplomacy (for the bonus to light/dark side points), and treasure hunting, and I seem to make a good amount of credits especially with mako’s bonus to slicing.

  11. Comment by MrSatoV made on October 29, 2013 at 4:13 am

    Wow, you think just like I do! LOL

    Too bad I didn’t see this before spending hours creating my own charts and whatnot – essentially making a guide of my own just so I could keep all the info straight in my head. I was only considering the first companion you get, since all of my characters are just over 10 and each only have their first companion. I have only 2 characters left to create before I have the full compliment. I didn’t create them all because of crafting, but to figure out which I like best, but crafting has come into play in a big way, and now I want to hold back leveling the characters until at least my favorite characters are pimped out with purple+ gear that I made, or adaptive with adds I made.

    I can probably stop writing mine now. LOL I just would add the level at which you get the companions you list. I think that would make it the best available guide of it’s kind.