I don't have anything fleet yet. Tbh I couldn't see a way to contribute to anything other than the fleet colony coffer and have about 2000 credits now - I assume I'd need more to buy any fleet gear? I know more is needed for the fleet ships. I did hear in chat that you can contribute to armadas though so I'll need to look into that.
I hear what you and @thunderfoot006 say about upgrading consoles - that makes sense - they give up to 37.5% on a damage type at highest quality/mark, is that right? I've only had a cursory look, but the tech upgrade points requirements seem much lower for consoles than weapons, which made me wonder if it was actually overkill to use Phoenix on them? Or do "leftover" points result in a greater chance of rarity, in a similar way to improving a critical result in the Admiralty? I will look to do all tac consoles this weekend for sure - would you say a starting point of Mk XII green/blue is fine?
Vulnerability Locators are what you're primarily looking to fill your tactical console slots with. Unfortunately, converting Fleet Marks into Fleet Credits can be a bit of a pain with how projects are structured(Dilithium typically bottlenecks all progress). While potentially an ethical quandry, you could buy 1k zen, convert it into ~400k dilithium(at current rates), and pour a bunch of that into fleet projects for more than enough Fleet Credits to get a full set of Locators and probably a number of other things. That may be considered 'spoiling the fun of earning things', if you're so inclined.
Conversely, if you'd prefer to avoid that approach/moral quagmire, I'd suggest trying to find/craft purple Mk2(not a typo) tactical consoles and use your phoenix kits on them. You'll blast through the first 10-12 marks with a single kit and have a pretty decent chance of them upgrading in quality(to UR or even Epic) by the time they're Mk15. It's FAR more efficient than trying to get mk-whatever greens/blues to epic/gold quality. Omega Kits(4x quality chance) are even better for this approach, but that's more of an Anniversary Event thing(they can be made outside the event, but it's too expensive for newer players to reasonably consider).
Don't worry about tech point overflow. If/when they increase the levelcap again, you'll already have that headstart banked for the next gear upgrade tier.
Oh, and I took the advice here and picked up V.S.S. Tanius - what a beast! +50 everything when alone? It's doing something by itself as I type. From what I read on Admiralty, once you are level 10 in each faction it seems you're kinda done with rewards from it? I'm getting close to there with Fed already.
When you max out your Admiralty Factions, you'll get unique admiralty ships/cards that will help speed things up. Each faction has a repeatable reward track that you can continue to do after maxing them.
Federation = Spec Points
Klingon & Ferengi = 20k Dilithium
Romulan = Upgrade kits
Admiralty is also an excellent source of passive exp(spec points)/dilithium/EC/Doff fodder generation.
But the TNG/DS9 era fan in me wants beam arrays and something really faithful looking for the Defiant, eventually.
I've actually mocked up a relatively screen-accurate Defiant build in the past. Very impractical, but still quite amusing(people tend to forget the Defiant was armed with beam emitters as well as both photon and quantum torpedos).
The 1500zen Sao Paulo does give you account-wide access to the ship's iconic Quad Phaser Cannons. They're very good for any Phaser cannon build and can be used on any ship capable of mounting dual cannons. (You can get Plasma/Disruptor versions from the Ar'kala Warbird and Ning'tao BoP. Even some of my KDF beamboats run the Disruptor Quad Cannons for thematic and gameplay reasons.)
I'm with everyone else on upgrading the weapon consoles first. upgrade a weapon you upgrade one weapon. upgrade a console you are upgrading ALL weapons. settle on a weapon type. right now Anti-proton, for raw crit, Disruptor for the proc and Phaser because there are more boosts for it if you have the console slots. honestly though, the raw damage output difference at Mk 12 between any two energy types is probably less than 400 DPS
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Conversely, if you'd prefer to avoid that approach/moral quagmire, I'd suggest trying to find/craft purple Mk2(not a typo) tactical consoles and use your phoenix kits on them. You'll blast through the first 10-12 marks with a single kit and have a pretty decent chance of them upgrading in quality(to UR or even Epic) by the time they're Mk15. It's FAR more efficient than trying to get mk-whatever greens/blues to epic/gold quality. Omega Kits(4x quality chance) are even better for this approach, but that's more of an Anniversary Event thing(they can be made outside the event, but it's too expensive for newer players to reasonably consider).
Don't worry about tech point overflow. If/when they increase the levelcap again, you'll already have that headstart banked for the next gear upgrade tier.
When you max out your Admiralty Factions, you'll get unique admiralty ships/cards that will help speed things up. Each faction has a repeatable reward track that you can continue to do after maxing them.
Federation = Spec Points
Klingon & Ferengi = 20k Dilithium
Romulan = Upgrade kits
Admiralty is also an excellent source of passive exp(spec points)/dilithium/EC/Doff fodder generation.
I've actually mocked up a relatively screen-accurate Defiant build in the past. Very impractical, but still quite amusing(people tend to forget the Defiant was armed with beam emitters as well as both photon and quantum torpedos).
The 1500zen Sao Paulo does give you account-wide access to the ship's iconic Quad Phaser Cannons. They're very good for any Phaser cannon build and can be used on any ship capable of mounting dual cannons. (You can get Plasma/Disruptor versions from the Ar'kala Warbird and Ning'tao BoP. Even some of my KDF beamboats run the Disruptor Quad Cannons for thematic and gameplay reasons.)