I played in the open beta and have reached Lt. Commander. So far, I've purchased about 75% of my ship components and received the other 25% through missions. I've focused on missions almost exclusively because I find them to be the most fun.
But now I want to outfit my ship with Mark IV stuff, and I have yet to see any Mark IV loot. Where do people pick up that kind of stuff?
MIssions: so far, these don't usually give Mark IV ship components
PvE: Nothing of great value, at least at Starbase 24
PvP: Haven't tried it yet, is this the secret?
Exploration Points: Tried it in open beta, hated it, haven't done it since
Do I just need to get into PvP, or are there missions or other fleet actions where I can get Mark IV stuff? Where are the "Lt. Commander" level fleet actions? Starbase 24 is like robbing the cradle.
I played in the open beta and have reached Lt. Commander. So far, I've purchased about 75% of my ship components and received the other 25% through missions. I've focused on missions almost exclusively because I find them to be the most fun.
But now I want to outfit my ship with Mark IV stuff, and I have yet to see any Mark IV loot. Where do people pick up that kind of stuff?
MIssions: so far, these don't usually give Mark IV ship components
PvE: Nothing of great value, at least at Starbase 24
PvP: Haven't tried it yet, is this the secret?
Exploration Points: Tried it in open beta, hated it, haven't done it since
Do I just need to get into PvP, or are there missions or other fleet actions where I can get Mark IV stuff? Where are the "Lt. Commander" level fleet actions? Starbase 24 is like robbing the cradle.
Dont' buy stuff. PVP and Exploration is the best way to get stuff.
Exploration quests , 2nd order. For mark IV stuff you need to do the quests that yield 2nd order exploration badges. Great green equipment. I think the names are Hromi and Panzan cluster exploration.
I didn't start seeing good regular IV drop as loot until killing level 19 mobs, and that is a little late.
I played in the open beta and have reached Lt. Commander. So far, I've purchased about 75% of my ship components and received the other 25% through missions. I've focused on missions almost exclusively because I find them to be the most fun.
But now I want to outfit my ship with Mark IV stuff, and I have yet to see any Mark IV loot. Where do people pick up that kind of stuff?
MIssions: so far, these don't usually give Mark IV ship components
PvE: Nothing of great value, at least at Starbase 24
PvP: Haven't tried it yet, is this the secret?
Exploration Points: Tried it in open beta, hated it, haven't done it since
Do I just need to get into PvP, or are there missions or other fleet actions where I can get Mark IV stuff? Where are the "Lt. Commander" level fleet actions? Starbase 24 is like robbing the cradle.
Exploration takes too long. I buy weapons generally from level I to V. For some reason people are trying to sell level VI and higher for 30k plus which just makes me laugh. Killing things get you gear. I routinely get level V drops.
your choice of exploration and pvp. both the pvp and exploration vendors seem to sell the exact same weapons, the only difference is one wants pvp badges and one wants explore badges.
I personally leveled from 11 to 16 doing 1 explore, 1-2 pvp, repeat. The explore badges are faster to get because most of the lower level fed PvP players are in Escorts, which get eaten quickly by Cloaked escorts, but at least the games end fast. The problem with explore badges are that you have to wait 30 minutes from the time you hand in the mission until the time you can get another mission.
Do only the top two choices for PvP, both are space capture and hold. All the rest you will lose 99% of the time, because cloaking is win. Ground PvP to 40 kills takes forever now, and is not worth the time for the same amount of badges (unless you are all on a team of players that are purposefully stripping naked and running at the klingons to get the game over fast.
Exploration is the way to go. for the most part, 1 completed exploration run = 1 weapon.
What i can't buy using exploration badges, i buy off the exchange. Credits are wicked easy to make by selling on the exchange items you don't need. So buying what you do need is fairly easy.
And while you don't need amazing gear for PvE, it's satisfying as hell to utterly destroy targets in PvE because of good weapons, good consoles, and good abilities.
Comments
I didn't start seeing good regular IV drop as loot until killing level 19 mobs, and that is a little late.
Exploration takes too long. I buy weapons generally from level I to V. For some reason people are trying to sell level VI and higher for 30k plus which just makes me laugh. Killing things get you gear. I routinely get level V drops.
But I haven't bought a lot on the live game actually... I just find a way to get what I'm after for the most part...
I'm not a big fan of the exploration point system...but I can't argue that it's a decent route...
If it's any benefit... post-commander, the gear I can get , and that drops in average game-play is markedly improving...
technically if you arent doing PVP you really dont need great gear. The PVE is pretty weak.
Pretty weak is the understatement of the century.
I personally leveled from 11 to 16 doing 1 explore, 1-2 pvp, repeat. The explore badges are faster to get because most of the lower level fed PvP players are in Escorts, which get eaten quickly by Cloaked escorts, but at least the games end fast. The problem with explore badges are that you have to wait 30 minutes from the time you hand in the mission until the time you can get another mission.
Do only the top two choices for PvP, both are space capture and hold. All the rest you will lose 99% of the time, because cloaking is win. Ground PvP to 40 kills takes forever now, and is not worth the time for the same amount of badges (unless you are all on a team of players that are purposefully stripping naked and running at the klingons to get the game over fast.
What i can't buy using exploration badges, i buy off the exchange. Credits are wicked easy to make by selling on the exchange items you don't need. So buying what you do need is fairly easy.
And while you don't need amazing gear for PvE, it's satisfying as hell to utterly destroy targets in PvE because of good weapons, good consoles, and good abilities.