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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Upgrading MkXIV items

tahnalostahnalos Member Posts: 257 Arc User
in Star Trek Online General Discussion
Hey there.

I'm not sure how the upgrading system is supposed to work, but if you have already upgraded an item to MkIV, does that mean the next upgrade is towards the rarity of the item?

I have a Crystalline Torpedo that I have pushed to MkXIV, but as it is only Rare Status, I was hoping the next upgrade would be to Very Rare. That hasn't happened. Twice. Am I missing something, or is this by design? (And if it is by design then I must be very stupid to waste 6 Omegas trying to upgrade it.)

Thanks
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Comments

  • norobladnoroblad Member Posts: 2,624 Arc User
    You have an increasing chance to upgrade the quality, meaning you will eventually get it but it could take going thru the bar many times. So say it hits xiv and is still blue, you can run it a few times and be assured it will go purple 1, then run it several more to get purple 2, until finally it turns orange.

    Unfortunately, that is how it works... you can use the quality increase chance thingys every time to ease the pain.

  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,572 Arc User
    By design. At Level XIV you start slowly building (though better from Rare to VR) a higher percentage chance to get a rarity upgrade every time you fill the Bar with Tech Points. Upon a fill you 'upgrade' so to speak the % of Quality Improvement is checked against and you either get the improvement or not.

    So if your Quality Improvement was at say 7%, when you filled up the Tech Points you would have a 7% chance to get it. Then you must start filling it up again. The accumulated Quality Improvement % is not reset and you continue improving on that until you fill in the Tech Point Bar again. So now your chance the second time though may be 14%. And so on until you get lucky and beat the percentages.

    If you get the Quality Improvement, the Quality Improvement Percentage is reset to 0% to start the run at Ultra Rare. You will now have more Tech Points needed to fill up the Bar each time for your run at UR. Then the same applies to Epic.

    It is a big big Dilithium sink to get that Quality Improvement.
    'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
    Judge Dan Haywood
    'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
    l don't know.
    l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
    That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
    Lt. Philip J. Minns
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    As others said, upgrading rarity on Mark XIV items can be very expensive.

    It can be done, but if you're going to pour resources into upgrading rarity on an item that's already at XIV be absolutely sure it's an item you really want to use because it won't be cheap.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    Best bet is to find a low Mark item and nuke it with a good research boosting addition. It's way easier to get a Mk2 to quality upgrade than a Mk12. This weekend I did 4 Very Rare Coalition Disruptor Beam Arrays Mk5s and 3 of them got to Epic before hitting Mk9. The last one defied me and took a God awful amount of post Mk14 upgrading to get to epic.

    Also did that fun uncommon "Mark 1 Phaser" Mk2 from that mission and with only 2 Omega Upgrades got it to epic Mk14. ;)
  • kayajaykayajay Member Posts: 1,990 Arc User
    "Chance" is such a dirty word in STO...
  • khazlolkhazlol Member Posts: 167 Arc User
    welcome to sto end game :P
  • samt1996samt1996 Member Posts: 2,856 Arc User
    And still better than most F2P games... the only part that annoys me is the randomness because some things are very rare and you can't easily get multiple copies to run through the system.
  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    I look at items with that 255,000 points to fill and I say no thanks. If it was just dilithium I'd do it but sitting there completing upgrade kit builds 20-40 times a go or spending hundreds of millions of ec stops me. The consoles are reasonable.
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

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  • samt1996samt1996 Member Posts: 2,856 Arc User
    Consoles and weapons are all you need at epic. Most anything else is optional, engines, deflectors and warp cores rarely get anything interesting and shields get a small boost at best.

    Buy weapons at epic or UR and take some consoles to epic and you'll be right up there with the best of them in terms of base stats.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    Consoles are pretty easy to get to Epic, they're pretty reasonable on cost.

    Weapons cost a fortune and doing something like a Warp Core is just so ridiculous it baffles the mind.

    I actually have my Spire Core at Epic because I got lucky, but I won't tempt fate ever again. Deflector and Impulse can stay at VR Mark XIV (Iconian.) The part that sucks is I have 3 weapons that didn't go Epic when crafting and they're my best weapons. They're UR CrtDx3 Pen beams. I considered biting the bullet and pushing them to epic, but unless I got lucky the cost would be just way too high.

    I do hate the way you either get the item to Epic upon crafting or you just have to dump months of resources to increase rarity.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • samt1996samt1996 Member Posts: 2,856 Arc User
    Well I've upgraded plenty of UR weapons and it ain't so bad but you'll need $10 of dilithium probably. At current exchange rates it'll be relatively cheap.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    samt1996 wrote: »
    Well I've upgraded plenty of UR weapons and it ain't so bad but you'll need $10 of dilithium probably. At current exchange rates it'll be relatively cheap.

    The Dilithium is actually less of a problem then the mats to make all those kits. I have a pretty good amount, but I doubt I have enough to upgrade 3 beams from UR to Epic. I am burned out on CCA right now, so just not feeling the motivation.

    As someone else said, if I could just upgrade it for straight dilithium cost, I would do it in an instant.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • tahnalostahnalos Member Posts: 257 Arc User
    dracounguis wrote: »
    Best bet is to find a low Mark item and nuke it with a good research boosting addition. It's way easier to get a Mk2 to quality upgrade than a Mk12. This weekend I did 4 Very Rare Coalition Disruptor Beam Arrays Mk5s and 3 of them got to Epic before hitting Mk9. The last one defied me and took a God awful amount of post Mk14 upgrading to get to epic.

    Also did that fun uncommon "Mark 1 Phaser" Mk2 from that mission and with only 2 Omega Upgrades got it to epic Mk14. ;)

    I just tried it with a Very Rare Mk II Quantum Torpedo. 4 Omega upgrades later it is now Mk XII epic.

    I feel like such an idiot wasting six Omegas trying to upgrade my Crystalline Torpedo.

    Oh wells. Still enough time to make a pile of Omegas, and save them for the next upgrade event.
    Fleet Affiliations:
    FED: Royal Federation Mounted Starfleet: SB3, TAC3, ENG3, SCI3, Win, Int, DOff(T/E/S/B)
    KDF: Parliamentary Klingon Empire: SB2, TAC2, ENG2, SCI2, Win, DOff(T)

    Interested in joining? Please send a PM to @Tahna_Los.
  • goodscotchgoodscotch Member Posts: 1,680 Arc User
    It's definitely frustrating. Some of your items will turn at 10% and some will take you to 50% before they pop.
    klingon-bridge.jpg




  • samt1996samt1996 Member Posts: 2,856 Arc User
    Yes I'll get torpedoes to go epic at 2% and then a stupid console goes to 50% before upgrading... just depends what kinda mood RNJesus is in.
  • starmanjstarmanj Member Posts: 719 Arc User
    This is good to know
  • khazlolkhazlol Member Posts: 167 Arc User
    Can just hope they let us upgrade the epics to MKXVI when the next expansion lands someday. then it's worth the time :P
  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,572 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    By then, though, they will have introduced Mucho Grande Epic. :)
    'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
    Judge Dan Haywood
    'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
    l don't know.
    l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
    That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
    Lt. Philip J. Minns
  • skrapnelskrapnel Member Posts: 75 Arc User
    Upgradeing MKXIV increases chance to improve quality, and the chance carries over, so it may take several upgrades to improve the quality or it can happen once. Sometimes that can trigger at 1% and other times it could be 20%-30%... or more
  • goodscotchgoodscotch Member Posts: 1,680 Arc User
    After the Epic rarity comes Royal which is followed by Legendary which will be followed by Unbelievable which will be followed by Unreal. Somewhere in that mix may be Phenomenal and Awestruck. Each will have its very own coloration.

    A conversation following a PvP match between players might look something like this:

    I thought I had him with my Legendary Shattering Forward Disruptor Banks, but his Unbelievable Covariant shields took the beating and he followed my initial attack with a volley of Unreal Bioneural Photon Torpedos which blew right threw my Royal Regenerative hull. In the end...I was no match. I need to start upgrading if I ever hope to beat his Phenomenal command cruiser. Doh!
    klingon-bridge.jpg




  • delaromadelaroma Member Posts: 47 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    seaofsorrows wrote: »
    As others said, upgrading rarity on Mark XIV items can be very expensive.

    It can be done, but if you're going to pour resources into upgrading rarity on an item that's already at XIV be absolutely sure it's an item you really want to use because it won't be cheap.

    Can/has anyone done the math for this? Is there a figure (can be ballpark) for the Dill , XP and tech boost required to go from say Mark X to Mark XIV?

    Also, this may sound dumb, but do the changes increase with say Fleet gear/Set gear Vs Crafted gear?
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    delaroma wrote: »
    seaofsorrows wrote: »
    As others said, upgrading rarity on Mark XIV items can be very expensive.

    It can be done, but if you're going to pour resources into upgrading rarity on an item that's already at XIV be absolutely sure it's an item you really want to use because it won't be cheap.

    Can/has anyone done the math for this? Is there a figure (can be ballpark) for the Dill , XP and tech boost required to go from say Mark X to Mark XIV?

    Also, this may sound dumb, but do the changes increase with say Fleet gear/Set gear Vs Crafted gear?

    It's hard to do a cost analysis since the upgrade chance is random. Some will have the upgrade at 4 or 5% while others will have to pump it up to 50% before it upgrades. It's hard to post solid numbers for something so random.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • mslinsenmayermslinsenmayer Member Posts: 2 New User
    > @seaofsorrows said:
    > delaroma wrote: »
    >
    > seaofsorrows wrote: »
    >
    > As others said, upgrading rarity on Mark XIV items can be very expensive.
    >
    > It can be done, but if you're going to pour resources into upgrading rarity on an item that's already at XIV be absolutely sure it's an item you really want to use because it won't be cheap.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Can/has anyone done the math for this? Is there a figure (can be ballpark) for the Dill , XP and tech boost required to go from say Mark X to Mark XIV?
    >
    > Also, this may sound dumb, but do the changes increase with say Fleet gear/Set gear Vs Crafted gear?
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > It's hard to do a cost analysis since the upgrade chance is random. Some will have the upgrade at 4 or 5% while others will have to pump it up to 50% before it upgrades. It's hard to post solid numbers for something so random.

    That's called statistics. I play torp boats, romulan, and I am an accountant, so I know the math.

    I got my romulan hyper torp to mkXIV UR, then did a rough back of paper on how much it would cost me, reasonably, to get it to epic.

    (this was back when plasma was respected)

    I forget the exact figure, but the 50% point was around $200 worth of dil /mats (that i can remember)

    yep.. no, thank you

    the cost varies depending on starting level, and quality of the item, with rep sets by far the most expensive items, so yes, if you want gold, start with VR type III's or soemthing- got some gold consoles that way
  • grandsagedragon#4335 grandsagedragon
    grandsagedragon#4335
         Member Posts: 13 Arc User
    well it actualy will let you keep upgrading the weapon after mkXIV as I just found out only the tech points and rarity increase chance both work to increasing its rarity to ultra then epic I just got a mk 14 antiproton blast assault on my xbox one account and I saw it will potentially increase the rarity upon upgrade
  • brian334brian334 Member Posts: 2,219 Arc User
    The chance for quality improvements happen as the bar fills. Filling the bar gets more expensive as the Mk number goes up. So it gets more expensive to improve quality as the Mk number gets higher.

    Begin with the highest quality item you can find or craft, and if you haven't got the improvements you want by Mk X, try again on another item. The cost to upgrade each Mk. number after that point is higher than the cost to get a second item to that level. Upgrading an item with the wrong traits or lacking the ones you want beyond Mk X is very expensive
  • spacehermitspacehermit Member Posts: 358 Arc User
    @baddmoonrizin
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    edited June 2017
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  • nikeixnikeix Member Posts: 3,972 Arc User
    Honestly, I've stopped caring about upgrading beyond XIV. After the recruitment event my rep gear comes ultra rare, and I used to buy master keys every now and then... now I only buy them as key rings and get the instant [XIV Epic] upgrade and use that on the most important weapons.
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