I don't do the New Romulus ground missions, I found them boring and tedious. As such, I am left with doing the Acamar system 7 times a day, which is also boring and tedious, but it involves no moving around, and nets me 60 marks a day.
Try Nequencia (sp?). No moving at all (it's all dialogue, no combat), and once you have a good list of what order to trade stuff in (can probably find a guide somewhere), you can do each round in under 2 minutes. For 20% daily progress. :P
Try Nequencia (sp?). No moving at all (it's all dialogue, no combat), and once you have a good list of what order to trade stuff in (can probably find a guide somewhere), you can do each round in under 2 minutes. For 20% daily progress. :P
Prefer Acamar. Takes about 2 minutes as well, and has the possibility of getting some very sick drops off the D'deridex. On elite, only takes 1-1.5 more minutes, with guarantee of engine/deflector/shield drop, so can make some niiiice ECs off it.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
It is insane! No matter which faction, 500 marks per item is absurd for any casual player. For an entire set 2000 marks! If I play two or three times per week and get 20 marks per run will be 60 marks by week. Will be 33 weeks or 8 months to obtain a single set!
Want to hear how insane and TRIBBLE it is?
2 year player, 3 characters with thousands and thousands of STF's won, all my ships kitted with Mk11 and Mk12 omega & KHG/MACO plus lots of blue and purple STF salvage in inventory...
and each toon gets only 1500 omega marks. Thats... F'in it.
One item is 500.
These devturds are here telling me the years I spent doing the STFs are worth at best 3 little pieces of gear.
First, thanks for the answers. I will try to get the omega marks using others ways but only one note, to get the omega set I will need 2000 marks, and I guess it looks like another job. I will try this weekend and I will post the results here.
And Mr. Pwebranflakes with all respect, tag Epohh is really annoying! Do it is boring and repeat it is the worst job in the STO Universe! I play only for fun and raise one Epohh is like a job without payment. Please give me more space missions with better rewards or lower the prices.
It is insane! No matter which faction, 500 marks per item is absurd for any casual player. For an entire set 2000 marks! If I play two or three times per week and get 20 marks per run will be 60 marks by week. Will be 33 weeks or 8 months to obtain a single set!
500 marks is completely reasonable. If you want to run STFs for it, then Infected Space Elite is better. It gives 60 Omega Marks minimum. I think I got 130 Omega Marks from one run of ISE by doing it during the reputation bonus event, getting the optional, and the random Omega Marks bonus at the end. Also, to get one set that costs 500 Marks per item, it is 1500 Marks not 2000 since all sets now contain 3 items not 4.
Sure, everyone's reply is simply to just run Elite stfs. However, what about completely new (and undergeared) toons? Do you really expect them to do well in elites? Sure, the ground stf sets are reasonably priced. However, it's pretty hard for new toons to rely on ground stfs since nobody runs ground now.
For the same entry-level borg space set gear that any new toon could easily get in s6, new toons either have to be a drag on and completely rely on their estf teammates or have to endlessly grind out normal stfs. Congrats PWE, you just nerfed the newbies into the ground and made elite pugs even more likely to fail.
Sure, everyone's reply is simply to just run Elite stfs. However, what about completely new (and undergeared) toons? Do you really expect them to do well in elites? Sure, the ground stf sets are reasonably priced. However, it's pretty hard for new toons to rely on ground stfs since nobody runs ground now.
For the same entry-level borg space set gear that any new toon could easily get in s6, new toons either have to be a drag on and completely rely on their estf teammates or have to endlessly grind out normal stfs. Congrats PWE, you just nerfed the newbies into the ground.
Um... no?
I ran one of my new toons through an ESTF with mk IX gear, and I did better than some of my fully kitted team-mates. As long as newbies listen to instructions and follow other player's leads, they'll be fine.
An ESTF is not won completely by gear. I would know this out of personal experience. A fully decked out mk XII oddy against my mk X freebie AC. The oddy got wasted by a tac cube in under a minute, my AC lived long enough to tank it to the point where my team killed it. Gear is only about 25% of the battle. 30% is your team-mates, and 40% is you. The other 5% is what the pakleds have lots of. Dumb luck.
My first run-through on my KDF toon was in my Qin with only mk IX and X equipment, and I was able to draw aggro off of people I had flown with on my fed and I knew their setup. So no, PWE did not nerf newbies into the ground.
But I grant you I will miss those very very cheap blue quality mk XII weapons. Oh wells. But in all honesty, you only need 5 mil ECs to be able to kit a ship out to do well in an ESTF. If you go for mk XI and mk XII purples. If you just go mk XI blues, you can do it for only 2 or 3 million. And before you say a newbie won't know this? Yeah, that's true, but a good player will ask what they need to do better, and I know for a fact a lot of my ESTF veteran buddies and myself will be more than happy to help if they are willing to listen.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
For the new items, and the higher grade items, sure. Charge whatever you want for them, and people shouldn't complain.
For the old Borg set, though? No. The prices for these items are completely bonkers.
These items used to cost FIVE EDC. Say that to yourself a hundred times, then do the math of how long it takes to get five EDC vs the mats/time necessary to get an old Borg item now.
I don't know why they felt it was justified increasing the price/time investment so drastically, especially considering that theyre trying to entice/capture new players. It's silly.
The old Borg Set needs to have its price slashed, imho.
For Romulan Marks, make sure you're Epohh tagging too! That's netted me a cool 1200 Rom Marks since Season 7 launched -- only ~3 weeks ago. I would actually be up to 1600 but I decided to keep one of my Evolved Elder Epohhs as a pet I'm working on my 5th and 6th one now, which should be done by next Tuesday, for a grand total of 2K Rom Marks (or 2400 if I sold my pet).
And what are you doing for players like me who are playing exclusively SPACE content ?
Im not interested in any ground playstyle...
So for omega mark, dilith, gear, its perfect i have plenty of way to gain what i need...but for romulan marks...no way its too short..i have dailies, azure neb, vault...but all of this are rewarding far less mark than what i can have with omega.
I will not be forced to do ground stuff, not all your players do all the things the way you think they have to do !
First, thanks for the answers. I will try to get the omega marks using others ways but only one note, to get the omega set I will need 2000 marks, and I guess it looks like another job. I will try this weekend and I will post the results here.
And Mr. Pwebranflakes with all respect, tag Epohh is really annoying! Do it is boring and repeat it is the worst job in the STO Universe! I play only for fun and raise one Epohh is like a job without payment. Please give me more space missions with better rewards or lower the prices.
Ok, my results:
- For romulan marks, the winter event is OK and I get a lot of snow Epohh tags. Unfortunately it give only 200 marks for older Epohh, but it is possible for romulan marks.
- For Omega marks, it is impossible for one eventual player have a complete set, I will stop to play missions for omega marks. Well Done Cryptic!
- As result I will play less and now I am searching for others games that have less work and more fun.
100k rep divided by 2800 rep per 24 hours = 35.7 days.
Now assume that most people need sleep and 40-45 days is a fair assumption.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
I still don't see the issue. I am currently sitting about two weeks from tier 5. Maybe a little less. So right around the time I get my Chel'gret I will hit tier 5. Still not entirely sure how this is a problem.
It's not hard to get the marks needed. 15 minutes for an ISE will net you 60-75 Omega Marks, which will be enough for your daily needs. 30 minutes for Tau Dewa Sector Daily, and you will get 60 Romulan Marks. That's 45 minutes (not including travel time), and your total income will be 60 Romulan Marks, 60-75 Omega Marks, and about 170-250k ECs. Which is enough to get the commodities needed for your rep projects. Total time, about 50 minutes. Where's the issue? Just do that for a while and you'll be tier 5 in no time.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
I believe the main issue is for people who aren't doing elite STFs (either due to lack of skill, lack of confidence, or lack of desire to do 5-man space content). Rommie side, there's a wide array of things you can do, giving a wide range of marks. Omega side, there's STFs and..... well, a few crappy marks here and there from Defera or the daily Borg sector fights.
I believe the main issue is for people who aren't doing elite STFs (either due to lack of skill, lack of confidence, or lack of desire to do 5-man space content). Rommie side, there's a wide array of things you can do, giving a wide range of marks. Omega side, there's STFs and..... well, a few crappy marks here and there from Defera or the daily Borg sector fights.
The first two reasons presented are acceptable. If that's the case, just do 3 normals. The last one is no excuse. You don't want to do it, fine, don't complain about not having enough marks. There are easy ways to get Omega Marks, since tbh most ESTFs are still facerolls with a good team, regardless of how much the Borg have been normalized. And if you cannot be bothered to get an easy 60 marks after 15 to 20 minutes of work, you don't deserve to be moved up in the rep system.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
The first two reasons presented are acceptable. If that's the case, just do 3 normals. The last one is no excuse. You don't want to do it, fine, don't complain about not having enough marks. There are easy ways to get Omega Marks, since tbh most ESTFs are still facerolls with a good team, regardless of how much the Borg have been normalized. And if you cannot be bothered to get an easy 60 marks after 15 to 20 minutes of work, you don't deserve to be moved up in the rep system.
Yeah, that "with a good team" is probably another big factor (vs. "with a pug of random idiots").
(Meanwhile, I said to myself "hey, gotta do stuff to get marks" and clicked on the sector defense alert. Managed to drag our way through killing the borg with the four random people who joined; didn't even die a bunch, like I generally do.... until the end, where I died just when the boss was going down. No quest completion, no 10 marks. Sigh.)
I hate to be the one to do this to you but you know those prices are not the costs for the MK XII gear right?
All Mk XII Assimilated Set Projects
Omega Mark cost reduced from 1000 to 900
Borg Neural Processor cost unchanged at 5
Dilithium cost reduced from 36000 to 32500
I hate to be the one to do this to you but you know those prices are not the costs for the MK XII gear right?
All Mk XII Assimilated Set Projects
Omega Mark cost reduced from 1000 to 900
Borg Neural Processor cost unchanged at 5
Dilithium cost reduced from 36000 to 32500
This is for the Borg Space Set. The MACO/Honor Guard/Omega Mk XII space sets are 1000 Omega Marks. The MACO/Honor Guard/Omega Mk XII ground sets are 500 Omega Marks. I assume the Omega Adapted Borg Tech "Alt Set" is the new Adapted MACO and Adapted Honor Guard ground sets. So for a complete ground set it costs 1500 Omega Marks, for a complete STF space set it costs 3000 Omega Marks, and for the complete Borg Space Set it costs 2700 Omega Marks.
If I play two or three times per week and get 20 marks per run will be 60 marks by week. Will be 33 weeks or 8 months to obtain a single set!
What are you doing that's only 20 marks per run? I don't know of any Romulan Dailies (space) that are only 20 marks, and ESTFs are 60-115 per run. You lost me.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
If I play two or three times per week and get 20 marks per run will be 60 marks by week. Will be 33 weeks or 8 months to obtain a single set!
If you want to get it sooner, then the only option is to run Infected Space Elite. So you can get 180 marks per week or more. Its not difficult and can be done in 15 minutes with a good team. All thats needed is to all stay in a group, don't destroy the generators until they are all at about 10%, and focus on the transformer when the generators are destroyed and ignore the spheres expect doing the odd heal if you need it. Gravity Well and Tractor Beam Repulsors are useful in making sure that no nanite spheres get near the transformer. If I can do an ISE without dying, then almost anyone can do it too since my raiding skills are subpar. Of course, I don't do the other STFs unless I am with my fleet so I don't hinder people doing those STFs.
If you want to get it sooner, then the only option is to run Infected Space Elite. So you can get 180 marks per week or more. Its not difficult and can be done in 15 minutes with a good team. All thats needed is to all stay in a group, don't destroy the generators until they are all at about 10%, and focus on the transformer when the generators are destroyed and ignore the spheres expect doing the odd heal if you need it. Gravity Well and Tractor Beam Repulsors are useful in making sure that no nanite spheres get near the transformer. If I can do an ISE without dying, then almost anyone can do it too since my raiding skills are subpar. Of course, I don't do the other STFs unless I am with my fleet so I don't hinder people doing those STFs.
Problem with that attitude is when you get 3-4 non geared people in one stf
The problem with the current system is there now no "basic" stf set , It used to be 15 runs tops and you would at least have the borg set and a weapon or 2.
Now however its either farm ground or farm stfs in mostly sub par gear. I mean hell i seen someone doing under 300 a hit (they were only dpser on target and highest hit was 312.....)
500 would be fine if there was some kind of "starter set" granted after so many normal runs as with bad luck/no ec it will take ages for a space orientated captain to get a set at around 20 marks per normal. This is where the new system fails as it forces players to carry non geared players even more that in the old days.
Problem with that attitude is when you get 3-4 non geared people in one stf
The problem with the current system is there now no "basic" stf set , It used to be 15 runs tops and you would at least have the borg set and a weapon or 2.
Now however its either farm ground or farm stfs in mostly sub par gear. I mean hell i seen someone doing under 300 a hit (they were only dpser on target and highest hit was 312.....)
500 would be fine if there was some kind of "starter set" granted after so many normal runs as with bad luck/no ec it will take ages for a space orientated captain to get a set at around 20 marks per normal. This is where the new system fails as it forces players to carry non geared players even more that in the old days.
If you listen and you know what you're doing, you can win any ESTF with mk XI blue gear. I would know, since I was running ESTFs with mk XI blue gear before I got my mk XII gear. It's not that terribly hard. It's actually pretty easy if you know what you're doing.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Unlike Cure/Khitomer, you can't "fail" Infected. You can blow the optional, but you can't fail it.
The typical optional reward for an Elite Infected is as much as you get for base in a regular STF.
In that Regular STF where you're getting 15+4 or so, getting around that 20 - in Elite Infected you're getting 60+15 or even more.
I still haven't touched Hive, but I avoid Cure and Khitomer because outside of the folks that may not know what they're doing, have an accident, etc, etc, etc - there are folks that actually troll them - causing them to fail and leaving you to eat the cooldown.
Fail the optional in Infected, and it's a meh. 10-15 minutes or longer in one of the others when somebody fails it and getting stuck with the CD... yeah, expletives come to mind.
I was in an Infected recently where one guy dropped, another was AFK - it took what felt like forever for the three of us to finish it...but it was still faster than if we had done three regular STFs in PUGland.
That being said though...ahem...they kind of neglected to address the costs involved when they reduced the time to rep up. It kind of makes some of the lower gear pointless - somewhat insane to grind out the Marks/Dil for it when you may find yourself at the next level of gear before you finish the previous set...
...really think they should have gone with an upgrade path (kind of like what they're doing with some of the ships). If you have a previous set, there should be a reduced cost to upgrade to the next set. Even if they were to make that cost more than just buying the final set, it wouldn't be the ridiculous cost as if you bought every set along the way.
Yesterday, I had an ISE where for some reason only 3 people showed up for the match. I had a D/C loading the mission and came back. Failed on the first transformer so destroyed spheres, then proceeded to destroy the transformer. Other transformer went down easily and rest of the mission wasn't easy, but doable. Took about 30 minutes to finish it. Was rather impressed with that run. Of course, the runs where there is over a minute on the timer when ISE finishes are better, but that one would be more rememberable. Then there are other ISEs that were a nightmare, but that is the risk of PUG.
If you listen and you know what you're doing, you can win any ESTF with mk XI blue gear. I would know, since I was running ESTFs with mk XI blue gear before I got my mk XII gear. It's not that terribly hard. It's actually pretty easy if you know what you're doing.
However you proved my point.
Just done ISE in the time it took 3 of our team to drop ONE sphere , 2 of us dropped the other + the mass send from a 10% POP.
2 People killed more than 3 ....a lot more and a lot faster . This is part of the issue. Many DON'T turn up with MkX or higher gear let alone consoles, Could that be because the current system actually discourages people from running normal? (Old system Elites gave double reward + a chance at a higher piece , The current system Elites give 3-5 times more than a standard and thats where its screwed)
Just done ISE in the time it took 3 of our team to drop ONE sphere , 2 of us dropped the other + the mass send from a 10% POP.
2 People killed more than 3 ....a lot more and a lot faster . This is part of the issue. Many DON'T turn up with MkX or higher gear let alone consoles, Could that be because the current system actually discourages people from running normal? (Old system Elites gave double reward + a chance at a higher piece , The current system Elites give 3-5 times more than a standard and thats where its screwed)
No, it's because people are inconsiderate and don't show up with better gear when they know it's required to do quickly and efficiently. And you can run an ESTF easily with mk X gear. You only do 20% less damage base, so it's just going to take a little longer. You can run ISE with mk VIII gear tbh and still do fine. KASE can be run with mk VI and mk VII gear. CSE and HSE are the only ones that really require the more high end gear.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
No, it's because people are inconsiderate and don't show up with better gear when they know it's required to do quickly and efficiently. And you can run an ESTF easily with mk X gear. You only do 20% less damage base, so it's just going to take a little longer. You can run ISE with mk VIII gear tbh and still do fine. KASE can be run with mk VI and mk VII gear. CSE and HSE are the only ones that really require the more high end gear.
However thats still the problem.
1: The leeches , everyones seen them the ones that afk every last match yet roll need on every drop.
2: The inconsiderate , undergeared , clueless but refuse to do normals due to the poor rewards (lets face facts rewards for normals are a joke at the moment as you get nearly 4 times more reward for an elite)
3: The trolls , Everyone has seen em , the idiots that run with 10+ injurys and keep dying and ruin the stfs on purpose.
Until they bring omega inline with romulus for ground marks the best source for omega marks is Stfs , but with so many trolls/leeches ingame and no method to deal with them 500 marks per item does cause issues for honest casual players.
Comments
Try Nequencia (sp?). No moving at all (it's all dialogue, no combat), and once you have a good list of what order to trade stuff in (can probably find a guide somewhere), you can do each round in under 2 minutes. For 20% daily progress. :P
Prefer Acamar. Takes about 2 minutes as well, and has the possibility of getting some very sick drops off the D'deridex. On elite, only takes 1-1.5 more minutes, with guarantee of engine/deflector/shield drop, so can make some niiiice ECs off it.
Want to hear how insane and TRIBBLE it is?
2 year player, 3 characters with thousands and thousands of STF's won, all my ships kitted with Mk11 and Mk12 omega & KHG/MACO plus lots of blue and purple STF salvage in inventory...
and each toon gets only 1500 omega marks. Thats... F'in it.
One item is 500.
These devturds are here telling me the years I spent doing the STFs are worth at best 3 little pieces of gear.
And Mr. Pwebranflakes with all respect, tag Epohh is really annoying! Do it is boring and repeat it is the worst job in the STO Universe! I play only for fun and raise one Epohh is like a job without payment. Please give me more space missions with better rewards or lower the prices.
Sure, everyone's reply is simply to just run Elite stfs. However, what about completely new (and undergeared) toons? Do you really expect them to do well in elites? Sure, the ground stf sets are reasonably priced. However, it's pretty hard for new toons to rely on ground stfs since nobody runs ground now.
For the same entry-level borg space set gear that any new toon could easily get in s6, new toons either have to be a drag on and completely rely on their estf teammates or have to endlessly grind out normal stfs. Congrats PWE, you just nerfed the newbies into the ground and made elite pugs even more likely to fail.
Um... no?
I ran one of my new toons through an ESTF with mk IX gear, and I did better than some of my fully kitted team-mates. As long as newbies listen to instructions and follow other player's leads, they'll be fine.
An ESTF is not won completely by gear. I would know this out of personal experience. A fully decked out mk XII oddy against my mk X freebie AC. The oddy got wasted by a tac cube in under a minute, my AC lived long enough to tank it to the point where my team killed it. Gear is only about 25% of the battle. 30% is your team-mates, and 40% is you. The other 5% is what the pakleds have lots of. Dumb luck.
My first run-through on my KDF toon was in my Qin with only mk IX and X equipment, and I was able to draw aggro off of people I had flown with on my fed and I knew their setup. So no, PWE did not nerf newbies into the ground.
But I grant you I will miss those very very cheap blue quality mk XII weapons. Oh wells. But in all honesty, you only need 5 mil ECs to be able to kit a ship out to do well in an ESTF. If you go for mk XI and mk XII purples. If you just go mk XI blues, you can do it for only 2 or 3 million. And before you say a newbie won't know this? Yeah, that's true, but a good player will ask what they need to do better, and I know for a fact a lot of my ESTF veteran buddies and myself will be more than happy to help if they are willing to listen.
For the old Borg set, though? No. The prices for these items are completely bonkers.
These items used to cost FIVE EDC. Say that to yourself a hundred times, then do the math of how long it takes to get five EDC vs the mats/time necessary to get an old Borg item now.
I don't know why they felt it was justified increasing the price/time investment so drastically, especially considering that theyre trying to entice/capture new players. It's silly.
The old Borg Set needs to have its price slashed, imho.
And what are you doing for players like me who are playing exclusively SPACE content ?
Im not interested in any ground playstyle...
So for omega mark, dilith, gear, its perfect i have plenty of way to gain what i need...but for romulan marks...no way its too short..i have dailies, azure neb, vault...but all of this are rewarding far less mark than what i can have with omega.
I will not be forced to do ground stuff, not all your players do all the things the way you think they have to do !
Ok, my results:
- For romulan marks, the winter event is OK and I get a lot of snow Epohh tags. Unfortunately it give only 200 marks for older Epohh, but it is possible for romulan marks.
- For Omega marks, it is impossible for one eventual player have a complete set, I will stop to play missions for omega marks. Well Done Cryptic!
- As result I will play less and now I am searching for others games that have less work and more fun.
100k rep divided by 2800 rep per 24 hours = 35.7 days.
Now assume that most people need sleep and 40-45 days is a fair assumption.
In other words, it takes time to aquire a full set and I should not expect to have it all in about a week.
Fair enough.
It's not hard to get the marks needed. 15 minutes for an ISE will net you 60-75 Omega Marks, which will be enough for your daily needs. 30 minutes for Tau Dewa Sector Daily, and you will get 60 Romulan Marks. That's 45 minutes (not including travel time), and your total income will be 60 Romulan Marks, 60-75 Omega Marks, and about 170-250k ECs. Which is enough to get the commodities needed for your rep projects. Total time, about 50 minutes. Where's the issue? Just do that for a while and you'll be tier 5 in no time.
I believe the main issue is for people who aren't doing elite STFs (either due to lack of skill, lack of confidence, or lack of desire to do 5-man space content). Rommie side, there's a wide array of things you can do, giving a wide range of marks. Omega side, there's STFs and..... well, a few crappy marks here and there from Defera or the daily Borg sector fights.
The first two reasons presented are acceptable. If that's the case, just do 3 normals. The last one is no excuse. You don't want to do it, fine, don't complain about not having enough marks. There are easy ways to get Omega Marks, since tbh most ESTFs are still facerolls with a good team, regardless of how much the Borg have been normalized. And if you cannot be bothered to get an easy 60 marks after 15 to 20 minutes of work, you don't deserve to be moved up in the rep system.
Yeah, that "with a good team" is probably another big factor (vs. "with a pug of random idiots").
(Meanwhile, I said to myself "hey, gotta do stuff to get marks" and clicked on the sector defense alert. Managed to drag our way through killing the borg with the four random people who joined; didn't even die a bunch, like I generally do.... until the end, where I died just when the boss was going down. No quest completion, no 10 marks. Sigh.)
All Mk XII Assimilated Set Projects
Omega Mark cost reduced from 1000 to 900
Borg Neural Processor cost unchanged at 5
Dilithium cost reduced from 36000 to 32500
This is for the Borg Space Set. The MACO/Honor Guard/Omega Mk XII space sets are 1000 Omega Marks. The MACO/Honor Guard/Omega Mk XII ground sets are 500 Omega Marks. I assume the Omega Adapted Borg Tech "Alt Set" is the new Adapted MACO and Adapted Honor Guard ground sets. So for a complete ground set it costs 1500 Omega Marks, for a complete STF space set it costs 3000 Omega Marks, and for the complete Borg Space Set it costs 2700 Omega Marks.
If you are a casual player like me:
If I play two or three times per week and get 20 marks per run will be 60 marks by week. Will be 33 weeks or 8 months to obtain a single set!
What are you doing that's only 20 marks per run? I don't know of any Romulan Dailies (space) that are only 20 marks, and ESTFs are 60-115 per run. You lost me.
If you want to get it sooner, then the only option is to run Infected Space Elite. So you can get 180 marks per week or more. Its not difficult and can be done in 15 minutes with a good team. All thats needed is to all stay in a group, don't destroy the generators until they are all at about 10%, and focus on the transformer when the generators are destroyed and ignore the spheres expect doing the odd heal if you need it. Gravity Well and Tractor Beam Repulsors are useful in making sure that no nanite spheres get near the transformer. If I can do an ISE without dying, then almost anyone can do it too since my raiding skills are subpar. Of course, I don't do the other STFs unless I am with my fleet so I don't hinder people doing those STFs.
Problem with that attitude is when you get 3-4 non geared people in one stf
The problem with the current system is there now no "basic" stf set , It used to be 15 runs tops and you would at least have the borg set and a weapon or 2.
Now however its either farm ground or farm stfs in mostly sub par gear. I mean hell i seen someone doing under 300 a hit (they were only dpser on target and highest hit was 312.....)
500 would be fine if there was some kind of "starter set" granted after so many normal runs as with bad luck/no ec it will take ages for a space orientated captain to get a set at around 20 marks per normal. This is where the new system fails as it forces players to carry non geared players even more that in the old days.
If you listen and you know what you're doing, you can win any ESTF with mk XI blue gear. I would know, since I was running ESTFs with mk XI blue gear before I got my mk XII gear. It's not that terribly hard. It's actually pretty easy if you know what you're doing.
The typical optional reward for an Elite Infected is as much as you get for base in a regular STF.
In that Regular STF where you're getting 15+4 or so, getting around that 20 - in Elite Infected you're getting 60+15 or even more.
I still haven't touched Hive, but I avoid Cure and Khitomer because outside of the folks that may not know what they're doing, have an accident, etc, etc, etc - there are folks that actually troll them - causing them to fail and leaving you to eat the cooldown.
Fail the optional in Infected, and it's a meh. 10-15 minutes or longer in one of the others when somebody fails it and getting stuck with the CD... yeah, expletives come to mind.
I was in an Infected recently where one guy dropped, another was AFK - it took what felt like forever for the three of us to finish it...but it was still faster than if we had done three regular STFs in PUGland.
That being said though...ahem...they kind of neglected to address the costs involved when they reduced the time to rep up. It kind of makes some of the lower gear pointless - somewhat insane to grind out the Marks/Dil for it when you may find yourself at the next level of gear before you finish the previous set...
...really think they should have gone with an upgrade path (kind of like what they're doing with some of the ships). If you have a previous set, there should be a reduced cost to upgrade to the next set. Even if they were to make that cost more than just buying the final set, it wouldn't be the ridiculous cost as if you bought every set along the way.
However you proved my point.
Just done ISE in the time it took 3 of our team to drop ONE sphere , 2 of us dropped the other + the mass send from a 10% POP.
2 People killed more than 3 ....a lot more and a lot faster . This is part of the issue. Many DON'T turn up with MkX or higher gear let alone consoles, Could that be because the current system actually discourages people from running normal? (Old system Elites gave double reward + a chance at a higher piece , The current system Elites give 3-5 times more than a standard and thats where its screwed)
No, it's because people are inconsiderate and don't show up with better gear when they know it's required to do quickly and efficiently. And you can run an ESTF easily with mk X gear. You only do 20% less damage base, so it's just going to take a little longer. You can run ISE with mk VIII gear tbh and still do fine. KASE can be run with mk VI and mk VII gear. CSE and HSE are the only ones that really require the more high end gear.
However thats still the problem.
1: The leeches , everyones seen them the ones that afk every last match yet roll need on every drop.
2: The inconsiderate , undergeared , clueless but refuse to do normals due to the poor rewards (lets face facts rewards for normals are a joke at the moment as you get nearly 4 times more reward for an elite)
3: The trolls , Everyone has seen em , the idiots that run with 10+ injurys and keep dying and ruin the stfs on purpose.
Until they bring omega inline with romulus for ground marks the best source for omega marks is Stfs , but with so many trolls/leeches ingame and no method to deal with them 500 marks per item does cause issues for honest casual players.