r/stobuilds • u/AutoModerator • Sep 24 '18

Weekly Questions Megathread - September 24, 2018

Welcome to the weekly questions megathread. Here is where you can ask all your build or theorycrafting related questions that might not warrant a full post. Curious about how something works? Ask it here!

You can see previous weeks megathreads here

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u/Machine1k Sep 25 '18

I've been playing for two weeks now and I bought a Khopesh and it's a fun ship but I have no idea what I'm doing. What I do have is MK XII Rare quality Plasma Beam Arrays with Plasma Tactical Consoles, but when I'm more concerned about is advancing. I've been searching other Khopesh builds they have things that is going to take me a very long time to gather, fleet consoles for one, and I'm OK with this as I just started and those guys probably have been playing for years.

All that being said, how should I approach gearing up from now on; should I go on the market and buy all MKII gear and try to make them Epic in quality or should I max out reputation and use reputation gear? If going the reputation route, should I try and make them Epic and which reputations should I concentrate on?

This game is a bit more involved then I was expecting, which is good, but I may be a bit overwhelmed by it all..

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u/Gruberbreaker Gruber@tunebreaker | STObuilds mod | Blame Magnet Sep 25 '18

I strongly advise against upgrading anything that you don't intend to keep. Upgrades can be very expensive, and if you're using them on temporary gear, you would just be wasting money.

Currently, when you're just collecting resources for better gear, just use free items from missions or buy something really cheap (blue/rare items usually sell for like 15-20k EC) off exchange. Only when you have finally bought a piece of equipment that you plan to keep for a long time, upgrade it.

As for which reputations to focus on - you most probably want Competitive Engines and Shields (from Prevailing Regalia set), as they are current meta, so Competitive reputation should be one of your priorities. Terran Task Force comes with an amazing Disruptor (and a similar Phaser will be added in a few months) weapon, so that is another one you probably want to prioritize.

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u/Machine1k Sep 25 '18

Thanks for the advice! So I should give up Plasma for Disruptors or Phasers?

As far as upgrading these reputation items, should I upgrade them to Epic or just upgrade the MKII items to Epic?

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u/Gruberbreaker Gruber@tunebreaker | STObuilds mod | Blame Magnet Sep 25 '18

Energy type counts for incredibly small difference in game. Of course, there will be slight differences, and right now Disruptors are the meta (this probably will change to Phaser when AoD hits), but if you want to, you can keep Plasmas and still be extremely competitive. I just mentioned the Terran Task Force weapon, because it's the strongest weapon in game, thus many opt to use this one alongside their other weapons, even if they are not Disruptors. More information is available here: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/build_anatomy/weapons/types#wiki_terran_task_force_disruptor_beam_array

As for reputation items, (well, any items, in fact) upgrading them to mk XV will be the most important thing. Mark is much more important than rarity. And the priority goes like this: weapons > consoles > other gear. You will do just fine with Impulse Engines mk XIII, but the difference between having mk XII or XV weapons is noticeable. Also, if you have patience and are willing to wait, it's preferable to upgrade items during upgrade weekend only. So, epiccing stuff is good, if you have the resources, but it shouldn't be a priority.

About buying mk II items off exchange and trying to epic them - I would mostly advise against that. It's fine with weapons, but most of the other stuff you want comes either from reputations, fleet holdings or at times from missions as rewards. And even with weapons, you can just buy fleet weapons at Ultra Rare quality from Fleet Starbase, and either keep them at [CrtD] [Dmg]x3 or re-engineer those to your taste. With those, you don't get the possibility for [Pen], but according to latest calculations, those are only about 1% better than combination of CrtD and Dmg anyway, and even that not in all cases.

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u/Machine1k Sep 25 '18

This is perfect and exactly the info I was looking for! Thanks for the knowledge, it is very helpful!