And where exactly - pray tell - will a new player find better gear?
Crafting? Now, you could argue about needing years to rank that up to level 20 but open your mind. Rank 10 is enough to get blue quality gear upgrades and craft rank 2 purples. Combine those 2 things with some patience and you can build a set of XIV custom purple gear over some time.
I am already in the process of doing that. I am making myself some gear that I can share among my alts so I only have to upgrade one set of weapons for all my peons. It won't be the best gear in the game, but it will be good enough for my lesser characters and allow me to enjoy the game with them.
Apart from crafting, there are cheap purples in the exchange. The crystal drops 1-2 if you can come out on top --- catch 22 if your gear stinks, but then again, maybe not, I have taken first many times with some rather badly geared characters: it is 100% luck of the draw who your competition is for a given run. There are purple mission rewards for many slots. The stuff is out there, its not hard to get gear that is good enough, but a new player won't know this stuff, it may as well be hidden.
The biggest drawback to progress for a new, free to play character is a decent ship. And that can't be solved without farming or $$.
skimmed this thread and didn't see it mentioned so i'll point it out now just in case
some patrols are currently bugged and the vadwaar heavy artillary ships are (sometimes) spawning with too many hp (aprox 900k-1mil) after the last patch, it is a known and confirmed bug and they are working on it
I wonder if some of the people replying here actually tried it out instead of just bashing out the OP.
I actually came into contact with two or three of these vessels in my D'Deridex recently. That character of mine is level 58 and at the first one I was puzzled as to why the ship's health wasn't going down. Especially since I had previusly done those missions in another character that flies and Odyssey, and it does less damage than the D'D.
My warbird doesn't do a ton of damage but until then it had managed well. Then I decided to look at how much HP the vessel had. It was over 1 million! Yes, 1 million HP on a single vessel in normal difficulty. And a vessel that REGENERATES it's health and shields. So it's not very surprising that after the time he fought it it was still in the 90% area. This appears to be bugged in two ways. The first is the hit points. The second is that once the shields get to red you can actually damage it way faster than it regenerates. Also in a mission, the first Artillery vessel has 1 million hitpoints, but then there is another that only has some 300 or 400. This is adequate, 1 million is not.
Having just faced a couple of these in separate patrols I'd say it was a definite bug, in one patrol it at 150,000 hitpoints and took a bit to kill, met a second one in the Brothra patrol, this one had 600,000 hitpoints, it took a good 15-20 minutes to kill, getting through it's shields was the hardest part as they just didn't want to drop.
I cant help but notice the fact that the MI event is currently running probably has a massive effect on player queues at the moment.
DBB and FAW?
.. why?
Honestly, I can't really advise using more than one DBB. DC/DHC and CRF kill things much better than DBB and FAW, IMO, regardless of how much bigger FAW will parse. Esp since the only way to have an aft mounted, forward facing weapon is turrets, or a ridiculously expensive omni.
None of my alts use anything more than XI blues and they still have no issues cruising through the content I've brought them through. The only ones that have any issues at all in MI are the ones in the ridiculous joke ships, like my main's T3 Thunderchild (it's a lethal joke ship) or my Klingon's T3 Kamarag (it's just a joke), and even those aren't too bad.
Once again, it goes back to the build. It's not the ship, it's the captain. You need to know what each ability on your ship does, if not "down to the specific amount of damage", at least the general idea of what it does, and if it doesnt do something you want your ship to do, get rid of it and replace it with something that does something useful. You also need to know your ship well enough to know when to start healing it before it dies.
Sorry, but if you are claiming you are defeating the DR content with rare mark 11 gear and only cannons with CRF, I'm calling bullsqueeze. the vaadwaur throw far too much crowd control and there are far too many of them not to beat without your own aoe DPS.
OP, one thing I did not see.. did you reapply your DOFFS? I know mine all take off to ten forward and I have to go corral them and get them re slotted
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the OP's build on the stoacademy skillplanner... if he/she comes back and sees the post.
I'm not going to lean one way or the other on this one, as it could have a lot to do with the build as well as the ship and pilot. Pilot error could be a lot of things, including the keybinds and the boff seating. with an improved boff seating, shield-stripping powers, a skill respec, upgraded gear (most of which can be farmed in-game without paying an arm or a leg) and a few suggestions on ships that can be picked up for cheap, this player will have generally more success.
However, at the same time, too many players fly through the first 50 levels on Doffing alone and don't have a chance to hone their skills and earn good gear through playing the content. They get to DR content and struggle. So, here's to hoping the OP chimes back in with a skillplanner build and some more info so we can be helpful and not so condescending...
CM
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." - Edwin Hubble
Sorry, but if you are claiming you are defeating the DR content with rare mark 11 gear and only cannons with CRF, I'm calling bullsqueeze. the vaadwaur throw far too much crowd control and there are far too many of them not to beat without your own aoe DPS.
Challenge accepted, ma'am.
Honestly, I haven't really thrown any of my alts into DR content. I did an (elite) run of the mission with the vadenwaffle cluster torp on a canon-style (mixed beams, torps and dual cannons) MU escort (with an engineer regularly setup for tanking - taking her main ship would have been annoying due to a noted lack of damage output expected of cruisers) with XI blues and it did fairly well. Yeah, sure, I died a few times, but that's to be expected on elite.
My main (XII fleet gear/fleet ship) blitzed through the patrols on normal without dying and the first time I died was only because I was A, holding my only shield heal back as a dispel for that bloody subnuke beam Hirogen love using just after I use sciteam and B, hirogen on elite. Again, a similar, canon-style build with mixed beams/cannons/torps/mines. Midway through the storyline, I bumped it back down to normal because I was getting tired of spending 20 minutes on a single fight and I'd rather blitz through the story and enjoy it.
As for CC... what, they only have the constrictor and their cannon barrage that I can think of. Kill the constrictor ASAP, hit evasives and set course ANYWHERE BUT HERE as soon as they prep the cannon barrage, and that's easily broadcasted, unlike the voth citadel's "BOOM YOU DIE" aceton pulse, which may just be a case of me not knowing the triggers and hints.
Have I forgotten anything else they do? I'm pretty sure they don't throw around grabhell, warp plasma or anything else that cant easily be cleared away with evasives or (the oh-so-crucial) hazard emitters.
Yeah, sure, I might sound a bit elitist. I've spent pretty much the past year and a half learning everything from some of the most intelligent people I've had the honor of knowing, and I've acquired a considerable amount of knowledge across all three factions. My social life may have suffered, but that implies I have a social life to suffer in the first place.
The vard only do 2 new things (anchor and bomb spread). Anchor is hard to see, difficult to tab target, and generally a pain for anyone not in a 360 aoe ship. Bomb aoe is easily avoided --- they even gave us a new way out of it (rock & roll) if you speced that direction. Anchor is by far the worst of their tricks in a cannon ship.
They also shoot mines which are hard hitting but we know how to handle mines. They also may shoot a trico mine warhead torp, not sure. If so, you shoot it down. Not sure if they were mine-mines or warhead mines or both.
all of it combined from 5 ships at once can get rough, of course.
Comments
Crafting? Now, you could argue about needing years to rank that up to level 20 but open your mind. Rank 10 is enough to get blue quality gear upgrades and craft rank 2 purples. Combine those 2 things with some patience and you can build a set of XIV custom purple gear over some time.
I am already in the process of doing that. I am making myself some gear that I can share among my alts so I only have to upgrade one set of weapons for all my peons. It won't be the best gear in the game, but it will be good enough for my lesser characters and allow me to enjoy the game with them.
Apart from crafting, there are cheap purples in the exchange. The crystal drops 1-2 if you can come out on top --- catch 22 if your gear stinks, but then again, maybe not, I have taken first many times with some rather badly geared characters: it is 100% luck of the draw who your competition is for a given run. There are purple mission rewards for many slots. The stuff is out there, its not hard to get gear that is good enough, but a new player won't know this stuff, it may as well be hidden.
The biggest drawback to progress for a new, free to play character is a decent ship. And that can't be solved without farming or $$.
some patrols are currently bugged and the vadwaar heavy artillary ships are (sometimes) spawning with too many hp (aprox 900k-1mil) after the last patch, it is a known and confirmed bug and they are working on it
I actually came into contact with two or three of these vessels in my D'Deridex recently. That character of mine is level 58 and at the first one I was puzzled as to why the ship's health wasn't going down. Especially since I had previusly done those missions in another character that flies and Odyssey, and it does less damage than the D'D.
My warbird doesn't do a ton of damage but until then it had managed well. Then I decided to look at how much HP the vessel had. It was over 1 million! Yes, 1 million HP on a single vessel in normal difficulty. And a vessel that REGENERATES it's health and shields. So it's not very surprising that after the time he fought it it was still in the 90% area. This appears to be bugged in two ways. The first is the hit points. The second is that once the shields get to red you can actually damage it way faster than it regenerates. Also in a mission, the first Artillery vessel has 1 million hitpoints, but then there is another that only has some 300 or 400. This is adequate, 1 million is not.
wow, how incredibly elitist of you. how DOES it feel to never struggle with anything at all ever?
why don't you come off your high horse and give the man some ADVICE? or is he just not worthy of your almighty knowledge?
Sorry, but if you are claiming you are defeating the DR content with rare mark 11 gear and only cannons with CRF, I'm calling bullsqueeze. the vaadwaur throw far too much crowd control and there are far too many of them not to beat without your own aoe DPS.
OP, one thing I did not see.. did you reapply your DOFFS? I know mine all take off to ten forward and I have to go corral them and get them re slotted
I'm not going to lean one way or the other on this one, as it could have a lot to do with the build as well as the ship and pilot. Pilot error could be a lot of things, including the keybinds and the boff seating. with an improved boff seating, shield-stripping powers, a skill respec, upgraded gear (most of which can be farmed in-game without paying an arm or a leg) and a few suggestions on ships that can be picked up for cheap, this player will have generally more success.
However, at the same time, too many players fly through the first 50 levels on Doffing alone and don't have a chance to hone their skills and earn good gear through playing the content. They get to DR content and struggle. So, here's to hoping the OP chimes back in with a skillplanner build and some more info so we can be helpful and not so condescending...
CM
Challenge accepted, ma'am.
Honestly, I haven't really thrown any of my alts into DR content. I did an (elite) run of the mission with the vadenwaffle cluster torp on a canon-style (mixed beams, torps and dual cannons) MU escort (with an engineer regularly setup for tanking - taking her main ship would have been annoying due to a noted lack of damage output expected of cruisers) with XI blues and it did fairly well. Yeah, sure, I died a few times, but that's to be expected on elite.
My main (XII fleet gear/fleet ship) blitzed through the patrols on normal without dying and the first time I died was only because I was A, holding my only shield heal back as a dispel for that bloody subnuke beam Hirogen love using just after I use sciteam and B, hirogen on elite. Again, a similar, canon-style build with mixed beams/cannons/torps/mines. Midway through the storyline, I bumped it back down to normal because I was getting tired of spending 20 minutes on a single fight and I'd rather blitz through the story and enjoy it.
As for CC... what, they only have the constrictor and their cannon barrage that I can think of. Kill the constrictor ASAP, hit evasives and set course ANYWHERE BUT HERE as soon as they prep the cannon barrage, and that's easily broadcasted, unlike the voth citadel's "BOOM YOU DIE" aceton pulse, which may just be a case of me not knowing the triggers and hints.
Have I forgotten anything else they do? I'm pretty sure they don't throw around grabhell, warp plasma or anything else that cant easily be cleared away with evasives or (the oh-so-crucial) hazard emitters.
Yeah, sure, I might sound a bit elitist. I've spent pretty much the past year and a half learning everything from some of the most intelligent people I've had the honor of knowing, and I've acquired a considerable amount of knowledge across all three factions. My social life may have suffered, but that implies I have a social life to suffer in the first place.
Likewise. Although, considering the whole "elite battleships spawning in normal", I get the feeling the issue has been solved.
They also shoot mines which are hard hitting but we know how to handle mines. They also may shoot a trico mine warhead torp, not sure. If so, you shoot it down. Not sure if they were mine-mines or warhead mines or both.
all of it combined from 5 ships at once can get rough, of course.