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A single Ultimate tech upgrade...What item would you upgrade?

djf021djf021 Member Posts: 1,378 Arc User
If you had a single ultimate tech upgrade, what would you upgrade? Warp core? Ship shield? Primary ground weapon perhaps?
What do you think would give the most immediate and best benefit?
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Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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  • garaks31garaks31 Member Posts: 2,845 Arc User
    rep space sets
    rep ground sets maybe

    omega ,for items that shows less quality upgrade bonus
    phoenix ,box weapons ,maybe crafted

    all the other papers are only usefull to not waste the above expansive papers to get above 90% upgrd levl ...
  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,196 Arc User
    edited July 2018
    With my current disruptor build all I need to use an ultimate on is my nausicaan disruptor beam array, but I am reluctant to do so since it has meh modifiers and cannot currently be re-engineered.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    Definitely a rep Weapon, something like the Terran Disruptor. Those can be quite pricey to push to Epic. Barring that, something else that’s really good but comes at a Mark XII VR. My choice based on my current needs would probably be Phaser Quad Cannons from the Defiant. Love those things, but without a little luck, they can cost quite a bit to max out.
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  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    garaks31 wrote: »
    rep space sets
    rep ground sets maybe

    omega ,for items that shows less quality upgrade bonus
    phoenix ,box weapons ,maybe crafted

    all the other papers are only usefull to not waste the above expansive papers to get above 90% upgrd levl ...

    Or fleet stuff? I know it's a huge pain to get mk12 stuff to quality upgrade.
    If you did AoY recruit the rep stuff you make comes out as UR Mk13, so using an ultimate would seem a bit of a waste, imo.

    And as always... go to Tribble Server to test your Ultimate Upgraded stuff to see if it was worth it before doing it on Holodeck!
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    garaks31 wrote: »
    rep space sets
    rep ground sets maybe

    omega ,for items that shows less quality upgrade bonus
    phoenix ,box weapons ,maybe crafted

    all the other papers are only usefull to not waste the above expansive papers to get above 90% upgrd levl ...

    Or fleet stuff? I know it's a huge pain to get mk12 stuff to quality upgrade.
    If you did AoY recruit the rep stuff you make comes out as UR Mk13, so using an ultimate would seem a bit of a waste, imo.

    And as always... go to Tribble Server to test your Ultimate Upgraded stuff to see if it was worth it before doing it on Holodeck!

    Fleet Gear isn't too bad because you only need to go up 1 rarity grade. Going from Mark XII to Mark XV is not bad, especially if you do it on an upgrade weekend. While it comes down to luck either way, Fleet Gear is still easier to max then a Very Rare item that needs to increase 2 grades.

    I know consoles like the Fleet Locators are really easy, I think all of mine are Epic. I would never use an Ultimate on something like that.
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  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    Don't waste your money on fleet weapons, though. They have nothing special that distinguishes them from regular weapons (and still no Pen), while costing a hell of a lot more than simply starting over. For the price of upgrading ONE fleet weapon to endgame level, you could make a dozen weapons from scratch, AND those won't be character-bound.

    Fleet Weapons are only a poor option if you insist on Pen mod or Epic Quality.

    I use them for alts that I don't want to pour a ton of resources into and they're fantastic. I just up them to Mark XV UR and they do quite well. If you upgrade the mark during an upgrade weekend, they're a very good balance of cost to performance.

    Not sure why people think Fleet Weapons are expensive to upgrade, but they absolutely aren't. The only time it can get expensive is if you insist on pushing them to Epic. That, I don't endorse. If you need Pen or Epic, craft them at Mark II.
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  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    I’ll use mine for the some spiral wave DHC & and an Experimental Protomatter-Laced Sheller. Those items are shipped at MK10/12 (VR), take a lot of tech points on the way to epic and there are no alternatives to force quality increases at low mk or to get them in higher quality on the exchange directly.
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  • jamieblanchardjamieblanchard Member Posts: 556 Arc User
    I like using those on either Jem'Hadar or Solonae space set pieces. For ground, I aim for the Omega, Jem'Hadar sets. And the One Romulan one you get in the beginning of the Iconian series.
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  • darkbladejkdarkbladejk Member Posts: 3,698 Community Moderator
    It honestly depends on what I need for the build. Usually it ends up being a warp core, a shield, or something along those lines just because weapons are easy to come by for me. I use my ultimate techs on something I know I'm going to keep and get alot of mileage out of such as a Kobali core, or a rep/mission shield or something that I find particularly annoying to upgrade for whatever reason. Definitely don't use it on something that you can't guarantee an outcome for or easily re-engineer.
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    Don't waste your money on fleet weapons, though. They have nothing special that distinguishes them from regular weapons (and still no Pen), while costing a hell of a lot more than simply starting over. For the price of upgrading ONE fleet weapon to endgame level, you could make a dozen weapons from scratch, AND those won't be character-bound.

    Gonna disagree here. Fleet weapons are a cost effective option if you just want to get a ship, build, or character going at right away. They start at ultra rare and are easy enough to flip during an upgrade weekend with phoenix techs. You don't need to the Pen mod to succeed in game today. Originally fleet weapons were the only way to get ultra rare weapons in game and even then are still very great today if you're on a budget. Not everyone has the resources that some of us veteran players may have.
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  • discojerdiscojer Member Posts: 533 Arc User
    I had one of those things from the 20 key bundle and I used it on an experimental weapon, the rail gun.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited July 2018
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    "I am poor, therefore I will squander what few resources I even have at all on a dead end" is not a recipe for good economics. If you're poor, you should be even MORE ruthless about where you put your money. This is precisely why I DON'T buy fleet weapons, because I'm not Crosis and I'm not made of money, so I don't simply have money to throw away on second-rate dead end trash. I have to be very picky about what I put money towards.

    A fleet Weapon costs 10k Fleet Marks and 8500 Dilithium for an Ultra Rare grade with all good mods that can be re-engineered.

    The fleet marks we won't even go into, those are so abundant they hardly even count.. and 8500 Dilithium is barely over a single day refinement. That is nothing for an Ultra Rare quality weapon that can be upgraded on an Upgrade Weekend for nearly nothing.

    Even when crafting weapons, you need either a Phoenix Upgrade or an Omega. You can get a few Phoenix for free during the events, but most people buy those with Dilithium. And if you want a good shot at rarity upgrade, most people use accelerators that run about 2M per weapon. Lets not pretend that upgraded crafted weapons are totally free. Sure, if you have extra account bound crafted weapons, that's obviously a better option, but if you don't and you're out of Omega's, crafting weapons gets a lot more pricey.

    I normally agree with a lot of what you post, but I definitely disagree on this topic. No one thinks Fleet Weapons are the best in the game, but 'second-rate dead end trash' is just a silly thing to say. The biggest downside of Fleet Weapons is that they're character bound, that part sucks. The weapons perform quite well, within percentage points of the best you can craft. Not having access to Pen isn't THAT big of a deal, especially if you have other sources of debuf like Cold Hearted.

    Fleet Weapons are a perfectly good alternative for people that don't need the best of the best but still want to perform well. Unless you're parsing DPS and going for records, Fleet Weapons are a great option.

    Either way though, I think we can all agree that it's a bad choice to use an Ultimate Upgrade on a Fleet Weapon.. that would be a bit crazy. :smile:
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  • where2r1where2r1 Member Posts: 6,054 Arc User
    I had one of those once....I can't remember what I used it on. But knowing me...it probably was a Hargh'peng.
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  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    Consider: According to the gear upgrade tablet, completing your fleet weapon will cost 8640K TP, or a bit shy of 85 Phoenix Upgrades, at 4K minerals per, for a total cost of 340K minerals.

    You're talking about taking them all the way to Epic, a move I already said was a bad idea.

    I use them for alts, I just wait until upgrade weekend and take them from Mark XII to Mark XV, I leave them Ultra Rare. I am not one that needs to Epic everything on all my characters, my main has all crafted Epic stuff.. but for Alts, they're great. Upgrading from Mark XII to XV on an upgrade weekend takes a couple kits per weapon.. nothing.

    If you think 8500 Dilithium is 'absurdly expensive' though, then we're on WAY different pages here. Like I said, I respect your opinion, I agree with probably 90% of what you say.. but we're way far apart on this one. I consider 10k fleet marks and 8500 Dilithium to be almost free.
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  • where2r1where2r1 Member Posts: 6,054 Arc User
    Don't let all the efficiency experts confuzzle you. It is only one item that token will work on....for one character....which in the over all picture, doesn't mean anything to them.

    You should do what discojer and I did....pick the item that you feel you would have the most FUN with in the type of ships you like to fly on your favorite character.
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  • peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    edited July 2018
    where2r1 wrote: »
    Don't let all the efficiency experts confuzzle you. It is only one item that token will work on....for one character....which in the over all picture, doesn't mean anything to them.

    Given that there isn’t such a thing as a single item that suddenly makes up for a good build I think there is all the more reason to see all you have to select from for upgrade as a whole. The ultimate upgrade of the OP could help him to save tens if not hundreds of thousands of Dil on the right item or it could virtually be wasted on the wrong one.

    Taking economic aspects into an account is the wise course of action here and the OP would do well flowing the advice given in this thread. As usual I find the one @seaofsorrows provides sound.


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    felisean wrote: »
    teamwork to reach a goal is awesome and highly appreciated
  • nimbullnimbull Member Posts: 1,564 Arc User
    The lowest quality non fleet gear item I have in this order.

    1. Rep
    2. Quest reward
    3. Crafted/Drop
    4. Fleet item

    That's how I'd do it.
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  • xyquarzexyquarze Member Posts: 2,114 Arc User
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    second-rate dead end trash.
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    The best, and therefore, the only way to go if you care about quality

    See, here's where I disagree. The very idea that "only the best is good enough for me" doesn't hold for everybody. And the idea that everything that isn't the best - phaser weapons, T5U ships - is already "trash" is plain and simply wrong. And for a player like me, who doesn't care about upgrading at all because I find it annoying and try to reduce it as much as possible, fleet weapons are just a no hassle for a quick yet efficient build because they get the job done. Dil costs are negligible - I don't farm dil but it accumulates and despite occupying a couple of top spots in my fleet's donation rankings with my toons, I always keep a couple hundred k around on toons just in case I want something with no hassle - a cannon tac flying a beam ship for the mastery as an example.
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  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    Rep shield.
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  • bubblegirl2015bubblegirl2015 Member Posts: 830 Arc User
    ruinthefun wrote: »
    CDES Rep Gear gives you the maximum return on TP saved. Runner up would be CDES Mission gear, especially if you have the AOY boost so that all rep gear starts UR anyway. If you're going to choose between CDES items, I'd look at what thing gives you an epic mod you'd actually care about. For instance, a warp core gives W->S, but if you're a science ship or a torpboat, this probably isn't of any real use to you. If your engine cannot be reengineered, then you'll be stuck with SecSpd-2, which does absolutely nothing combatwise for you and unless it's a MACO engine, won't do much in the way of sector space speed either because it will be slower than the Gamma Core/MACO engine or even the old Borg Engine or Temporal Core, and thus functionally indistinguishable from stationary anyway.

    Not recommended: Ground anything, weapons, consoles. These are all relatively cheap compared to CDES so most of your TP savings from using an ultra will be totally wasted.

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  • trennantrennan Member Posts: 2,839 Arc User
    The state of the game, from the easy mode pewpew, to at least normal mode. But, alas, upgrade tech doesn't work on that.

    And since my main is already fully set on gear all around. I have no need to upgrade anything else. So, that allows me to ignore Cryptic's attempts at distraction, by throwing a new shiny out there.

    Which right now, the game is in a fairly sorry state. The only thing that separated players from bots, is that they haven't introduced a console or kit module that plays the game for you. Which I wish they would introduce this for at least space. That way I can start an queue, then starts that console and minimize the game, to save myself eyes the pain of the visual spam they call space combat.
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  • ichaerus1ichaerus1 Member Posts: 986 Arc User
    Most likely would use it on either an infinity weapon pack weapon, a decent core, deflector, engine, shield, or probably a lobi item. A lot of the time, if I'm going to gold something however, it will be something account friendly. But I don't go dumping into upgrading gear often, as I put my resources into building up my fleet holdings/projects.
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