Mk12 gear to epic - cheapest approach?

postinggum

With the upgrade weekend event coming thought I'd ask about this, would like to get cores/sing that ship as mk12 to epic, have EC and dil but don't want to find myself throwing away tens of millions of ec on bought omega fragments and accelerators. Want to get a sense of how much it will cost to get a mk 12 VR to UR and then to epic.

My impression is that you upgrade to mk14 using superior upgrades and then start on premium upgrades like omega and experimental, not sure where quality accelerators come into this cost wise.

peterconnorfirst

I think I upgraded 3-4 dozen items to epic the past year. 20 alone over the last upgrade weekend and that with different approaches.

Defiantly, if you are not the gamble type use superior upgrades up to mk 14 (without quality booster).

Then you need to decide what’s more worth to you. Dilithium (& Crafting mats) OR ec (& slavage/omega).

- If it’s the former try to build superior experimental upgraders or omega and use with quality booster.
- If Dil and crafting mats aren’t an issue just pack superior upgrades.

The results end up being the same over all. For me getting Dil is not a grind and since I PvE a lot getting mats isn’t either. I will just fire hundreds of thousands of Dil at the stuff I want to have epic next weekend. Won’t feel like a loss to me because in another 6 weeks all the Dil will be back without me having the feeling to be annoyed over my in game activities (I spend my time having fun instead of playing exchange Ferengi or do the Omega game).

I also used the EC for not getting booster this time to buy the cool new mirror dread.

welcome2earf

I agree with the above poster. Sadly, Rep gear is painfully expensive. But yeah, just upgreyydd as normal to MK XIV and then consider doing it as money/dil allows. At least this way your chance rolls over for rarity.

daveyny

There is NONE.

aliguana

cheapest approach is to grind the Omegas. I have 40 omega upgrades waiting for thursday's upgrade weekend, and i'll grind another 40 for next months upgrade weekend. Also collect the upgrades from playing the featured episodes. Spec points come with playing, upgrades do not

Other than that, you're spending dil/mats/ecs, and no way around it.

nuclearwessle

But be aware that the upgrades from the featured episodes have zero rarity upgrade chance IIRC.

peterconnorfirst

Short count for this upgrade weekend so far at my end:

Quality upgraded mk14 items:

Kinetic cutting beams from very rare to epic: 5
Iconian Deflectors from ultra rare to epic: 3
Iconian Engines from ultra rare to epic: 3
Iconian Warp cores from ultra rare to epic: 4
Iconian Shields from ultra rare to epic: 3
Reputation consoles form very rare to epic: 2
Beam arrays from Ultra rare to epic: 3

8 additional items from very rare to ultra rare.

Dil cost via superior upgrades: roughly 2,3 million.

For me the decision is settled in favor of regular superior upgraders. I will not bother with salvage for experimental upgraders, boosters or the dull omega game ever again (as I did in the past). Dil is easy to get in STO and if it’s saved for upgrade weekends where one gets twice as many rolls at quality upgrades the cost are not that much of an issue for me.

If cryptic continues to do upgrade weekends in 6 weeks intervals and leaves the current mechanics to acquire Dil as they are it’s very likely that I look at all epic builds on 9 toons within the next 3 months (if I continue to bother and save dil for that).

Quality upgrades remain the biggest Dil sink this game has ever seen and that by far (lol). However under current conditions I found them not to be an impossible task to achieve. My deck of 9 toons is balanced against an average gaming time of ~2-3 hours a day.

See you in PvE guys!

rck01

Most brutal EPIC grind: Upgrading the Dyson Rep deflector from UR. Over 360K TP per attempt! I feel the 12 Omegas it took (with the weekend boost) to be well spent considering the time/dil it would have required the "regular" way.

RCK