if you're thinking of upgrading technical ability, i suggest you read this first

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here are 5 considerations you should make before investing points to technical ability

first: by reaching level 20 in technical ability and investing 4 perk points into all relevant skills for boosting stats, armor is boosted by 5% and weapon damage is boosted by 10%. that's just sad.

second: the skill tune-up (allows you to upgrading lower components into higher quality ones), only allows you to upgrade weapon/armor crafting components, not weapon/armor upgrade components or quick-hack components. the skill should be worded differently since the items to upgrade and to craft quickhack mods are called "components" and have "qualities" which fits w/in the skill description. in addition both the act of upgrading items, and the act of crafting quickhack mods, gives exp towards crafting. another consideration is the cost for upgrading components to the next quality tier. It upgrades at a 9:1 ratio. so for example 9 uncommon = 1 rare. alternatively you can sell uncommon crafting components for 8 eddies each. 9 uncommon = 72. the cost for a rare component is 150, a net difference of 78. the final nail in the coffin for this skill is you can only do one at a time. i have 7k crafting components and 4.5k uncommon. what's worst is it's not a click it's a hold left mouse button for each one. so 7,000/9 * 2seconds = x1. [x1 + [(4.5k/9 * 2seconds)] = way tooo fucking long. the experience it gives is also abysmal (18exp for uncommon). a more apt description for the skill would be: save 50% eddies when purchasing crafting components only

third: being able to keep the mod after disassembling isn't nearly as good as you might think. first many of these mods don't stack. crit damage/chance to name 2. i have 3 x crit damage mods and 2 x crit chance mods inside clothes i've been saving up until now. they don't stack if you put them into the same clothes and they don't stack if you put them in separate clothes. you can have a total of 30% crit damage and 15% crit chance, regardless of how many you have in your clothes (you may be able to put different quality of the same upgrade so for example 15% crit chance + 8% crit chance + 5% crit chance. i'm yet to test it)

fourth: tech only governs two skills crafting/engineering, both of which are difficult level. this means less bonus perks compared to investing in other attributes

fifth is the most well established, which is why i'm mentioning it last. the amount of epic components you get from items is abysmal. at the time of writing this the crafting components i've got from disassembling (with the skill that gives you more components) is: 9 legendary, 37 epic, 155 rare 4.5k uncommon, 7k+ common. compare that to the quickhack components where i have 329 legendary, 355 epic, 904 rare 2.4k uncommon (there are no common). keep in mind i've crafted every quickhack mod from uncommon to legendary and that's what i have left over.

my conclusion is this; don't invest points into technical if you're doing it for crafting or min/maxing. sell all your crafting components instead (break down all your junk that cost 3 and sell components for ~40. and all your consumables that cost 10 for ~40). with that said the bonuses to tech weapons is very nice. since i put my first 14 points into intelligence i already broke the game, so for me the 14 into technical was fine. i just ended up respec'ing (after selling all my crafting components) and putting almost all my perk points back into int governed skills
 
I was thinking about a Monk build... Body/Int/Cool.... Non-lethal/Fist only build ... and trying a playthrough where i kill noone if thats possible...and if it made a difference....
The No tech would go in line with them rejecting implants...
 
I was thinking about a Monk build... Body/Int/Cool.... Non-lethal/Fist only build ... and trying a playthrough where i kill noone if thats possible...and if it made a difference....
The No tech would go in line with them rejecting implants...

that would cool, definitely introduce some difficulty to the game. easiest way to do a non-lethal playthrough is to play as quickhacker. contagion and overheat are both very powerful abilities that are non-lethal. most the time i just drive around, scan an enemy, breach them for the mass invulnerability then cast contagion, w/ the right specs you can easily knock out 4-5 enemies in a second or two, even on very hard. if they're particularly powerful opponents the contagion won't kill them immediately but will render enemies all but useless and lasts longer than the cooldown to use it, allowing you to just rinse and repeat. you'd never even need to punch anyone. but unfortunately you wouldn't be able to do so w/out implants :/

as a side note, if you knock an enemy out you'll immediately receive exp/street cred. you can then proceed to kill them to receive the exp/street cred again. i maxed my street cred incredibly early using this method
 
I agree with your points but they only need minor tweaks.
I am about to agree with your rant but before I do.... if technical ability really did all the things you would expect it to do, it would be a crazy overpowered, so I am not pissed I have it due to the access to spots and dialogue options as well as upgrading stuff, but I would have waiting until end game to grab it

What I think I am most upset about is the lack of crafting recipes for light machine guns and somewhat shotguns. I literally have went to every store to not find a recipe for lmg or even one to buy that's purple or above.
Also since the scaling of cost with each upgrade is so crazy I think it's 2x each time. That it is only smart to upgrade something like 4-6 times and then wait for a better base item and upgrade that.
Lastly is really awful that I have I have all these points but really am waiting until the end of the game to craft something and it doesn't display the armor value. So I really should not have put a lot of points until late game.
 
I agree with your points but they only need minor tweaks.
I am about to agree with your rant but before I do.... if technical ability really did all the things you would expect it to do, it would be a crazy overpowered, so I am not pissed I have it due to the access to spots and dialogue options as well as upgrading stuff, but I would have waiting until end game to grab it

What I think I am most upset about is the lack of crafting recipes for light machine guns and somewhat shotguns. I literally have went to every store to not find a recipe for lmg or even one to buy that's purple or above.
Also since the scaling of cost with each upgrade is so crazy I think it's 2x each time. That it is only smart to upgrade something like 4-6 times and then wait for a better base item and upgrade that.
Lastly is really awful that I have I have all these points but really am waiting until the end of the game to craft something and it doesn't display the armor value. So I really should not have put a lot of points until late game.

i didn't realize that about lmg and shotguns. hasn't been a concern for me personally since i'm playing as a netrunner. thank you for pointing that out tho, i'll keep that in mind if/when i make a new character

my biggest gripe with skills in this game is their wording and the fact that you can never undo the points you've invested into the traits. in retrospect i should have just saved up tons of trait/perk points, quicksaved, then trial and error'd my way through the different tech trees.

my hope w/ this thread was not to gripe, but to provide situations where the wording of skills were, imo, misleading, allowing people to make better informed decisions
 
I modded all my clothing to have armadilo implants, and was able to beat 4/4 of the boxing people at lvl 16...
Ive Dissembled every piece of gear ive gotten ... and ran out of materials to upgrade my iconic assault rifle i got from the shooting target dummy quest from the patriot dudes ... after upgrading it 4-5 times...at lvl 18...
I've only got like 9 in tech... and a couple skill points in it...8 in force/5refelx/9tech/10int/6or7 cool

After i got silverhand in my head... ive only done sidequests/gigs/!/? on the map... i was going to clear everything before i continue with the story... I got 45 hrs played... im lvl 18 with 35 street cred.... Ive prolly spent 150k eddies so far... on my character.. got the legs, arms... legendary brainchip.... And im trying to build my character, in such a way, to pass every attribute check a dialogue/quest gives me...take all the nomad options....

I'm thinking i might just get everything maxed out... then start doing the main quest... keeping priority on doing sidequests before main quest...
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REPLY
 
I modded all my clothing to have armadilo implants, and was able to beat 4/4 of the boxing people at lvl 16...
Ive Dissembled every piece of gear ive gotten ... and ran out of materials to upgrade my iconic assault rifle i got from the shooting target dummy quest from the patriot dudes ... after upgrading it 4-5 times...at lvl 18...
I've only got like 9 in tech... and a couple skill points in it...

After i got silverhand in my head... ive only done sidequests/gigs/!/? on the map... i was going to clear everything before i continue with the story... I got 45 hrs played... im lvl 18 with 35 street cred.... Ive prolly spent 150k eddies so far... on my character.. got the legs, arms... legendary brainchip.... And im trying to build my character, in such a way, to pass every attribute check a dialogue/quest gives me...take all the nomad options....

I'm thinking i might just get everything maxed out... then start doing the main quest... keeping priority on doing sidequests before main quest...
Show less


REPLY

i'm doing something similar. there's so many gems if you don't jsut rush through the game. i've noticed the main quests scale w/ your level. so if you wait till you're say, 40, you'll still be fighting enemies that will give you good exp. in effect, the most efficient way of leveling is the way you're going about it, since gigs/side quests do not scale. but yeah just talking to food vendors or going into clothing stores and buying literally anything, leads to events most people will miss out due to rushing through it.
 
here are 5 considerations you should make before investing points to technical ability

first: by reaching level 20 in technical ability and investing 4 perk points into all relevant skills for boosting stats, armor is boosted by 5% and weapon damage is boosted by 10%. that's just sad.

second: the skill tune-up (allows you to upgrading lower components into higher quality ones), only allows you to upgrade weapon/armor crafting components, not weapon/armor upgrade components or quick-hack components. the skill should be worded differently since the items to upgrade and to craft quickhack mods are called "components" and have "qualities" which fits w/in the skill description. in addition both the act of upgrading items, and the act of crafting quickhack mods, gives exp towards crafting. another consideration is the cost for upgrading components to the next quality tier. It upgrades at a 9:1 ratio. so for example 9 uncommon = 1 rare. alternatively you can sell uncommon crafting components for 8 eddies each. 9 uncommon = 72. the cost for a rare component is 150, a net difference of 78. the final nail in the coffin for this skill is you can only do one at a time. i have 7k crafting components and 4.5k uncommon. what's worst is it's not a click it's a hold left mouse button for each one. so 7,000/9 * 2seconds = x1. [x1 + [(4.5k/9 * 2seconds)] = way tooo fucking long. the experience it gives is also abysmal (18exp for uncommon). a more apt description for the skill would be: save 50% eddies when purchasing crafting components only

third: being able to keep the mod after disassembling isn't nearly as good as you might think. first many of these mods don't stack. crit damage/chance to name 2. i have 3 x crit damage mods and 2 x crit chance mods inside clothes i've been saving up until now. they don't stack if you put them into the same clothes and they don't stack if you put them in separate clothes. you can have a total of 30% crit damage and 15% crit chance, regardless of how many you have in your clothes (you may be able to put different quality of the same upgrade so for example 15% crit chance + 8% crit chance + 5% crit chance. i'm yet to test it)

fourth: tech only governs two skills crafting/engineering, both of which are difficult level. this means less bonus perks compared to investing in other attributes

fifth is the most well established, which is why i'm mentioning it last. the amount of epic components you get from items is abysmal. at the time of writing this the crafting components i've got from disassembling (with the skill that gives you more components) is: 9 legendary, 37 epic, 155 rare 4.5k uncommon, 7k+ common. compare that to the quickhack components where i have 329 legendary, 355 epic, 904 rare 2.4k uncommon (there are no common). keep in mind i've crafted every quickhack mod from uncommon to legendary and that's what i have left over.

my conclusion is this; don't invest points into technical if you're doing it for crafting or min/maxing. sell all your crafting components instead (break down all your junk that cost 3 and sell components for ~40. and all your consumables that cost 10 for ~40). with that said the bonuses to tech weapons is very nice. since i put my first 14 points into intelligence i already broke the game, so for me the 14 into technical was fine. i just ended up respec'ing (after selling all my crafting components) and putting almost all my perk points back into int governed skills

Didn't realise anyone would be pouring in points in this amount for this silly min-maxing instead of enjoying the game more. Especially given crafting is just a means to get ware.. you already have way, way , wat more dosh than you should probably so what's the issue? This is a non-sequitur lol. Don't worry, most of us won't be throwing it in until a couple of reruns . 20 reflexes , or if you want to do the tech/int side, engineering then, why on god's earth crafting/eddies. It's a RPG dude not the trading in the city!
 
Personally, I ranked up technical ability to 20 because my character is tech/hack centered, and it made sense. Am I regretting it? Absolutely not!
After reading the comments above, I just have to assume that people aren't looking at how things work in combination, with the right gear.

To address the op's points:

First, if you've got high TA and a tech weapon, you can set it up so that you can charge a shot, shoot through a wall/car/whatever, and one-shot that foe hiding behind it. Really, a good tech weapon does disgusting amounts of damage with the right perks. I went with Widow Maker. In addition to everything else, it shoots two rounds per shot. So those complaints that TA damage is weak? No, you're just doing it wrong.

Second, you're partially right. Tune-up is useless. It's also completely unnecessary. Buy your comps instead.
I've upgraded all of my (all legendary) gear to ludicrous levels. Where did I get those components? Well, certainly not by breaking everything down or crafting up lower comps into higher. No, I sell everything I don't need that is worth 500 or more, and break down what's under 500. That gives me lots of commons and uncommons, and piles of cash. Currently I'm over 500k with not much to do with it. I get my comps by wheeling my sacks of cash over to the weapon shops, and buying out their stocks of legendary, epic, and rare components. Every piece, every time. It gives me more than enough comps to do any significant crafting I need to do, with leftovers to do a fair amount of upgrading.

Third, getting back your mods is vital if you're switching up your look. Yes, they do stack on different gear, but sometimes you have to take it all off and put it back on one piece at a time to get it to work. It's still a bit glitchy. Just standing around (no weapon), my character (in all Legendary gear) has 81 crit chance, 221 crit damage, and 2164 armor. And the armor could be higher if I wanted to re-craft my armadillo mods, but I'm waiting to 50th (one more level) to see if I can craft gold. I've got two identically modded looks, one a rockermerc with a semimilitary look sporting the legendary Samurai tour t-shirt, and the other a high-fashion corpo look. It took a good amount of scrounging/shopping to get the first look to where I was satisfied with it. The second look required that I craft the shoes, as I wasn't finding any good 3-slot legendary formal shoes.

Fourth: neither crafting nor engineering is hard to level. Every time you do any crafting, it goes up. Keep breaking down stuff, make a bunch of what mods you can to get high-level Armadillo and suchlike, and crafting will go up. As to engineering? Tech weapons use engineering. Keep blasting away. Want to do a ton of damage in the process? Take Ubercharge (Fully charged tech weapons deal 50% more damage) and Superconductor (Tech weapons ignore armor). For added effect add on some Lightning Bolt and Tesla. I've seen 5-digit damage (10-20k) with fully charged critical head shots. Not much of the head left after that on most targets.

Fifth: again, you're doing it wrong. Don't break down stuff for those epic comps. Just buy them. Sell your rares and epics to get more than enough cash to do so.

As to the person complaining about the lack of shotgun and smg blueprints, just do some more shopping. Not counting iconics, my character can craft a legendary G-58 Dian or epic M2038 Tactician or Headsman, but why bother, when I've got multiple smg/shotgun iconics that have better stats and nifty special effects?

Sure, there are only two skills in TA, but the way they interact to let you have pimped out legendary tech weapons is ludicrous to the point of being unbalanced. Shoot through walls, ignore armor, charge for extra damage, crit most of the time, and snipe for those headshots (or take them while your foes are coughing their lungs out from Contagion), and most fights end very quickly.
 
Third, getting back your mods is vital if you're switching up your look. Yes, they do stack on different gear, but sometimes you have to take it all off and put it back on one piece at a time to get it to work. It's still a bit glitchy. Just standing around (no weapon), my character (in all Legendary gear) has 81 crit chance, 221 crit damage, and 2164 armor.
Great explanation, I couldn't say better ;)
Just one detail about this part. It's also work for me for Stealth Build (very hard). With recovered mods (and few cyberwares), i'm at 100% crit chance and about 200 crit damage (6 fortuna+2 bully. all the others mod slots are for armadillo). This is sufficient for oneshot almost all enemies (no need to do headshot) with a "simple" epic/legendary lexington. So Tech Skill is also useful for "non-tech" build :)
 
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