Its possible to have a char thats very good at combat and a level 3 crafter.
But why isn't the competitive scene doing this? Because it's not as effective as powerbuilds. While pro pvp dudes got their powerbuilds AND are supposedly super experienced in pvp battle because they don't do anything else, normal build players don't stand a chance when these two encounter. My fastshotting sg dude with 2x toughness and 2x lifegiver is pretty okay, can do 2x bursts in one turn with p90 +one shot with .223 pistol or throw 4 plasmagrens, yet I haven't won a single fight in an encounter. They are always over after the dude I encountered got a turn to shoot.
Today I got plasmanaded by invisible dude, shot in the eyes with plasmarifle. Both combats ended in one turn before I got to do anything. Yesterday I got pwned by 5 dudes because one of them happened to shoot me in the eyes and knock my ap down to -20 before my turn. Rest 4 of them did like 100 damage combined, but super stimpaks are no use if you don't have ap to use them. Then again encounter positioning could use some working, but still combats are over way too fast.
All these stop the power builds!!!1 threads are really "Allow more room to build "bad" chars and still compete with the well designed ones." - Which is a fair enough point, but doesn't need anything nerfing
There wouldn't be anything wrong with powerbuilds if the game wasn't so dependent on character creation and battles being over so fast. There isn't much room for strategy if you're either dead immediately or down to -20 ap. Hell I even got blinded once while fighting 2 dudes, it was fun because I could move, shoot and use stimpaks but instakill crits won't make it any funnier.
This might sound like big T_T but I'm a guy who plays a lone crafter-fighter and these are the results from my perspective. When travelling I'm usually armed to teeth and ready to face the worst so it can't be because of the equipment. If it's lack of skill, then what did I do wrong in a situation where I never was given the chance to shoot or act back?