Crafting specs work through skill progression rather than pure character level. Technical ability's crafting path unlocks new tiers at specific ranks - uncommon at 6, rare at 9, epic at 13, legendary at 18. Getting better specs also depends on street cred, with higher ranks unlocking better stuff from vendors especially after reaching 40+.

The interesting part is how quest completion ties into this - certain iconic weapon specs only drop from specific activities or main story missions. Like if you want that carnage shotgun schematic, you'll need to take down some badlands targets.

Worth noting that since the 2.0 update, crafted gear stats are fixed per tier so a 5-star item will have the same base stats no matter when you make it. The "+" variants you find as loot will give slightly better numbers, but the core crafting system keeps things consistent now.