How's everyone doing on the reputations? I'm maxed out on Omega and Romulan, level IV on Nukara. Just bought the Web Mine Launcher, but haven't tried it out yet. I also realized recently that the "Adapted MACO shield" is not the same as the regular MACO shield. It's the Klingon set shield, actually Covariant, despite the mis-labeling in some areas. Higher capacity than the MACO regenerative. I must have it. 1,000 Omega Marks.
I haven't bothered with it much. It just doesn't spark my interest. I already have a bunch of Omega/MACO stuff, and spamming a bunch of generic starbase missions just to get back to where I was is honestly a bit off-putting. Anyway, right now I'm focusing on fleet marks so we can get the Dilithium Mine I discount. Less than 2,000 marks to go!
There's other cool stuff you get with those reputation stats. Passive attack/defense/resistance bonuses, then active abilities at tier V. Plus it's a source of dilithium once you don't need the marks for anything else.
This Omega Plasma Torpedo + Nukara Web Mine Launcher combo is pure overkill cheese, and I have to believe they are going to nerf those mines at some point, but in the mean time, I am having way too much fun with it.
I'm seven days away from Tier V Omega, nine days away from Tier V Romulan, and twelve days away from Tier V Nukara. Yes, that's what the "adapted" sets are. The "Adapted MACO" set, both ground and space, is the Klingon Honor Guard set with MACO costume pieces and vice versa. The Klingon Honor Guard/Adapted MACO space set is ideal for escorts. It's designed for fast hit and run attacks. It will not allow you to stay in a fight though. If the fight is going to last for more than a few seconds past your first strike, I would strongly recommend keeping the Resilient Shields because of their 5% pass through (all other shields allow 10% damage pass through). I use the Mk XII MACO shield in space and I can tank the Tactical Cube in ISE with absolutely no problem. That said, I am looking at replacing it with an Elite Fleet Resilient Shield. I need five thousand more fleet credits. That said, I am going to get the Adapted MACO ground set. That Klingon weapon is supposed to be absolutely devastating to the point of being over powered.
I got the adapted MACO before I stopped playing. That was before Risa, Nukara rep and Legacy. I logged in the other day for the first time in about four months. Didn't know what the hell was going on. Worth going back?
Which is exactly how you fight in a Defiant, too. I should have had the Adapted MACO Shield long ago. I won't throw out my multiple copies of the resilient shield. It has served me pretty well. LONG way away from Science tier IV in my fleet. It's still "Grind for shinies Online," but there's so much varied stuff to grind for, and so many ways to obtain it, that I can't really complain about the variety anymore. Has anyone tried the Ultra Rare warp cores you unlock in the Dilithium Mine/Refine/whatever side of the Fleet Base development? I'd like to see some stats on the options. Specifically, the Field Stabilizing Warp Cores.
OK, that set is officially in the grind queue. Just gotta finish up with that Adapted MACO Covariant beauty.
I may have changed my mind on this. Apparently, just on the ground equipment, you have to buy the regular MACO set before you can buy the Adapted MACO set, which I find to be complete and utter bullshit.
I honestly don't know about it being just on ground equipment, but yeah. You have to pay 500 marks per piece for the regular set and then 1,000 marks per piece for the Adapted pieces. So, you're looking at 4,500 marks and 63,000 dilithium (?) for the whole set.
The reason I say it's only the ground Adapted set that requires regular MACO first is because I've already got the purchase of the Adapted MACO Covariant purchase under way. I went to look for Adaped MACO ground stuff, and it's not there. I guess the couple offhand notes in the MACO item description is supposed to clue you in to this.
Hit Tier V last night. Got my Mk XII MACO set. Wasn't really all that impressed. Got the Adapted MACO set today. That weapon in the single most awesome weapon I've ever used in this game. The grenade launcher one-shot-killed four Drones and one blast from the "shotgun" took care of the two Tactical Drones that were left.
Yeah. A guy in my fleet has a nifty macro setup on his keyboard. He approaches a target at the maximum non-full impulse speed. He executes his Alpha Strike, triggers the Tipler Cylinder, and executes a second Alpha Strike with the push of one button. At that point, the other team usually goes all ragey.
Tomorrow I will have enough Zen for more inventory slots! I should be getting three doffs via commendations over the next week, too. Ooh, and I'm going to trade High-Yield Torpedo out for Torpedo Spread! Today I used my Connie to assist Sh'mar at the bottom of the map from marauding True Way people. It was a nice change of pace, getting to fly the ship in a meaningful mission and using most of my limited number of abilities rather than a few of a large number. One of these days I will reboot my Klingon character so that he is as dark and edgy as ever (and also still male), but starts out at Level 1 like he should have all along. I haven't actually done anything besides set him up, anyway.
Claimed all five days of free loot, but that Photonic Displacement console from the Rhode Island was the real crown jewel. The thing has a stealth value nearly as high as my cloak. It's like a "get out of jail free card," almost as good as a combat cloak (save for the fact that you can't shoot while it's active.) Combine that with my Romulan Tier V Quantum Singularity Manipulation cloak and my Subspace Field Modulator device, and I'm pretty hard to kill for an escort captain with zero skill points spent on driver coils. I don't even run any actual science or engineering consoles on my main toon anymore. Just five tac consoles, plus five universal consoles. Omega rep, Romulan Rep, Nukara Rep (just hit tier V ), cloak and photonic displacement. Those Elachi croissant disruptors and their Subspace Integration Circuit console are about to trigger a murderous rampage, though.
^ Well, I have a hard time imagining going without engineering consoles, because That Is Just How I Am, but hey, whatever gets you blown up least and all that. This Nebula class I got for free amuses me. The saucer blots out everything when I scroll all the way in, and putting the nacelles at an angle looks kinda neat. Still haven't decided what to call my Rhode Island mutt yet, maybe I'll stick with the random name because it's a character from one of my stories, but I dig the nacelles. Not digging the inability to use colors on the hull. No fancy stuff on there, so I guess it's a bug. Doesn't look too terrible in grayscale anyway.
What is your build? Here's mine. Edit: Well, it's almost my build. I replaced the rear torpedo with the Omega Kinetic Cutting Beam.
Mostly, the beef was my shunning of the cookie-cutter, pvp DPScort bullshit. I didn't have multiple copies of tactical team. I actually had a use for fire at will with just a single DBB. No attack patterns. Oh, and no HAZARD EMITTERS!!111oneone Plus I wasn't running all energy weapon consoles. That shit bores me. I've compromised somewhat, but still some R&D to be done later tonight, when I no longer have a need to be sober.
Honestly, that's why I don't PuG much any more. STF's are about raw damage. They're about putting as much damage as possible onto the target. When joining public groups, I would need to set my ship up to do 10k DPS to cover the new Lvl 50 that doesn't know what he's doing or the AFKer. But, when I join a premade team, I can focus on the role I like to play. I can be the tank that draws all the aggro and absorbs all the damage leaving the other four people to do my damage for me. I've found that, that is why voice communication is so important in this game. 99% of the people in the game just don't look at the chat window when they're fighting. You and ubermass are the only people I'll agree to team with if voice comms aren't already configured, setup, and agreed upon. Even within my own fleet, if you don't use our fleet's TeamSpeak server, Steam's voice chat option, or the game's built in voice comms, I'm not teaming with you on something that requires coordination.
A couple of things. 1) I finally hit Nukara Reputation Tier V last night. I should have made it last week, but I was lazy and didn't take the five minutes it would have taken to log in and set the projects in motion last week. 2) I finished up my Adapted MACO space set last night for my Fleet Defiant. Having three "cloaking" abilities will come in handy. I figure if I can't stay hidden with the Defiant's cloak, the Tier V Romulan Singularity ability, and the Adapted MACO's Mask Energy Signature ability, well, then I don't need to stay hidden. 3) My Fleet Excelsior is a nasty little beast. 60,000 Hull HP and 16,000 Shield HP. I saw my DPS double just by switching to an Aux2Bat build (with the appropriate DOFFs) and I saw it double again by sticking with AoE weapon skills (BFaW & TS). 4) I'm running a combat log parser now so I can see exactly what I and my team mates are doing. There are several skills that I thought were doing lots of damage that really weren't. So, it's helped me get a handle on that. 5) I've set this Excelsior up so it can fulfill two roles, albiet one at a time. If someone else has Aggro (hardly ever since I have bonus Threat Control), I can dish out the DPS as well as many Escorts. If I do have Aggro, I can stick to damage unless it's something big like a Tactical Cube or Gateway. Then, I can slow the damage but tank, well, everything. 6) Hive Space Elite is still bugged. I don't care what the Devs say and I have the combat logs to prove it. I was exactly where I was supposed to be last night and a Lance hit me for 733,000 damage. I had it hit me another time last night while I was at full impulse. That was supposedly fixed too. 7) I've also fallen in love with the ground side of the game since getting the Mk XII MACO and Mk XII Adapted MACO ground sets. 8) I have my "Starfleet Silver Star" (75 Successful STFs), my "Starfleet Cross" (150 Successful STFs), and I'm ~70 away from my "U.F.P. Medal of Honor" (300 Successful STFs).
Damn I've got a lot of catching up to do. Just finally got a real computer that can handle stuff and am downloading as I write this.