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So...About Grinding...

ambassadormolariambassadormolari Member Posts: 709 Arc User
edited June 2013 in The Academy
I just have a few questions about that one seemingly inescapable MMO pastime, grinding, and how people handle it in STO. As a point of reference, I have been aiming to acquire one of the rare Lobi store ships for a while, and have been doing so by grinding EC through Foundry Farms so that I might eventually buy one off the Exchange. Whether or not this is an unrealistic goal remains to be seen.

I have a question regarding my...less than exciting quest: For those of you who have managed to get to the 60 million+ EC mark, how long did it take you to get there?
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Post edited by ambassadormolari on

Comments

  • defalusdefalus Member Posts: 4 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    For me it's an alt army that lets me grind dili up, trade for zen, buy non binding c-store items eg keys, doff packs, fleet modules and sell them on the exchange.

    Other than that, doffing can be quite lucrative, from selling doffs you get and getting desirable items like strange alien artifacts. At present I'm waiting on several Romulan boff recruitment to finish too, if my doffs do well and bring me a boff with superior Romulan operative with subterfuge I'll be very happy after I sell it. :)
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  • oldschooldorkoldschooldork Member Posts: 426 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    You might want to try doing the Tour the Universe event. That can net you around 2 million ec, give or take, if your ship is properly equipped. Also purchasing master keys and posting them on the exchange will get you around 1.44 million ec. for each one. You can buy zen with dil on the dil/zen exchange and buy keys that way. This is how I got my tal shiar adapted destroyer. As for how long it takes, well that depends on how much you had to start with and how much effort you put in.
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  • ambassadormolariambassadormolari Member Posts: 709 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    oldschooldork wrote: »
    You might want to try doing the Tour the Universe event. That can net you around 2 million ec, give or take, if your ship is properly equipped. Also purchasing master keys and posting them on the exchange will get you around 1.44 million ec. for each one. You can buy zen with dil on the dil/zen exchange and buy keys that way. This is how I got my tal shiar adapted destroyer. As for how long it takes, well that depends on how much you had to start with and how much effort you put in.

    I'd actually been considering the "selling Master Keys" option. The main drawback, though, is that the current conversion rate of dil to Zen is pretty high (100-something dil per 1 zen now, I think), so getting all those keys would take a while.

    Otherwise, I agree, doffing has proven very, very useful for me.


    EDIT: Just realized you meant buying 1 Key at a time. For some reason I thought you meant buying batches of 10. Makes sense, actually.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • canisanubiscanisanubis Member Posts: 187 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Actually the Dilithium to Zen exchange rate is as favorable as I've ever seen it, right now. Before LoR, the exchange rate was floating at around 130 d->z, and now it's at around 110 d->z. That said, getting ECs is pretty easy, just follow these simple rules:

    1) Pick up every piece of loot. Need in groups, don't discard or leave behind ANYTHING.
    2) NEVER vendor your stuff to a Ferengi.
    3) NEVER use the Replicator to buy commodities.
    4) Keep your DOFF academy missions on cooldown. Sell the DOFFs you get on the exchange, fleets pick them up in vast quantities for projects.
    5) Plan your purchases. Don't just go into the Exchange looking to see what you can get for the 7 million ECs you have burning a hole in your pocket. Know what you want, watch prices, check every day, and keep your eyes skinned for deals. Knowing your market can save you huge amounts of money.

    I'm sure cramming a bunch of alts through the dilithium grind can be quite lucrative, but I'm pretty sure I'd go insane pushing through the same missions on 2 or more toons every day, and in point of fact, you really don't need to. Keep your main busy making wrecks in space, and the drops add up to real money surprisingly fast.
  • twamtwam Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    ambassadormolari wrote: »
    I have a question regarding my...less than exciting quest: For those of you who have managed to get to the 60 million+ EC mark, how long did it take you to get there?

    Interestingly, the first time I got to 60 mil, quite some time. After that first run, things went surprisingly quickly. It turns out doing very well in fleet actions and doing lots of STF's helps. The purple mk xi/xii drops speed things up plenty (a lucky mk xii [acc]x3 phaser DHC I sold for 30 mil, for example), while the extra dil made along the way can be turned into keys or anything else you desire. Before long, I found myself sitting on more EC's and Zen than I knew how to spend.

    Edit: and check the exchange for prices on stuff you were gonna sell to vendor. Sometimes you'll be surprised.
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Member Posts: 3,894 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    The way I handle it is to not do it.

    I run one or two ESTFs now and again, and I get my nukara marks and romulan marks too. But I don't obsess about it and I don't do the same stuff over and over.

    I rerun missions, I do some foundry, and I play what I want to play. Rewards pile up and I spend them.

    In the end I'm having fun.

    This Dark Legacy comic, pretty much sums up my take on it. Granted, I'm not quite as gimpy as Donald. =)
  • ambassadormolariambassadormolari Member Posts: 709 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    gavinruneblade wrote: »
    The way I handle it is to not do it.

    I run one or two ESTFs now and again, and I get my nukara marks and romulan marks too. But I don't obsess about it and I don't do the same stuff over and over.

    I rerun missions, I do some foundry, and I play what I want to play. Rewards pile up and I spend them.

    In the end I'm having fun.

    This Dark Legacy comic, pretty much sums up my take on it. Granted, I'm not quite as gimpy as Donald. =)

    Darn you for being so very right. :D I will still grind for EC, of course, but I won't fall into the trap of letting it become the focus of my game. This means that it will probably take me forever to reach that EC mark, but I dont suppose I'm in any hurry, either.

    1) Pick up every piece of loot. Need in groups, don't discard or leave behind ANYTHING.
    2) NEVER vendor your stuff to a Ferengi.
    3) NEVER use the Replicator to buy commodities.
    4) Keep your DOFF academy missions on cooldown. Sell the DOFFs you get on the exchange, fleets pick them up in vast quantities for projects.
    5) Plan your purchases. Don't just go into the Exchange looking to see what you can get for the 7 million ECs you have burning a hole in your pocket. Know what you want, watch prices, check every day, and keep your eyes skinned for deals. Knowing your market can save you huge amounts of money.

    I agree with most of the above, except...DOFF academy missions? I hadn't even noticed that as a possible avenue for EC.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Member Posts: 3,894 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    ambassadormolari wrote: »
    I agree with most of the above, except...DOFF academy missions? I hadn't even noticed that as a possible avenue for EC.

    The average white civilian or science officer only sells for 9-12k EC, but the average for the rest is about 35k. Engineering has been dipping into the 25-30k range lately though. Prices are slightly higher on average for klingons with far higher spikes (klingon Armory officers were moving for 98k for about 6 hours last week, I have no idea why but I very happily sold 4 in that time)

    So if you run all 8 missions as a fed you'd get (using rough numbers here):
    1 vulcan, andorian, tellarite = 75k
    2 science = 22k
    2 engineering = 70k
    2 civilian = 22k
    2 tactical = 70k
    Total = 259k + 1 minipack if you also spend the dilithium (I don't recommend it)

    Now some of those might crit giving green/blue/purple doffs increasing your profits. The science MIGHT give you medical which sell for 35k-ish each instead of the much lower value science officers. And I priced the racial officers at 25k as a sort of in-between because they show up from any category sometimes civilian sometimes tactical, etc.

    Still that's not too far off.

    Also, romulans can additionally get double science, engineering, civilian and tactical because of their access to both the command center and the academy recruiting. For an additional ~184k

    It definitely adds up over time.
  • lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
    edited June 2013
    You will never get the right answer here.:)
  • milen93milen93 Member Posts: 55 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Either get rich,, or die grinding :cool:
  • bughunter357bughunter357 Member Posts: 588 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    canisanubis wrote: »
    Actually the Dilithium to Zen exchange rate is as favorable as I've ever seen it, right now. Before LoR, the exchange rate was floating at around 130 d->z, and now it's at around 110 d->z. That said, getting ECs is pretty easy, just follow these simple rules:

    1) Pick up every piece of loot. Need in groups, don't discard or leave behind ANYTHING.
    2) NEVER vendor your stuff to a Ferengi.
    3) NEVER use the Replicator to buy commodities.
    4) Keep your DOFF academy missions on cooldown. Sell the DOFFs you get on the exchange, fleets pick them up in vast quantities for projects.
    5) Plan your purchases. Don't just go into the Exchange looking to see what you can get for the 7 million ECs you have burning a hole in your pocket. Know what you want, watch prices, check every day, and keep your eyes skinned for deals. Knowing your market can save you huge amounts of money.

    I'm sure cramming a bunch of alts through the dilithium grind can be quite lucrative, but I'm pretty sure I'd go insane pushing through the same missions on 2 or more toons every day, and in point of fact, you really don't need to. Keep your main busy making wrecks in space, and the drops add up to real money surprisingly fast.

    about a month b4 LoR it was below 100 in the 90's and 80's for a long while hoping that it will get there again some day, as for the grind I do a bit of both Dil farming and the ec farm eventually I will get there and get me some of those ships always get sidetracked and do something else tho LOL
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