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Crusher or Kahless?
calsnowskier
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in The Bridge
I am early / mid game. I have a ton of lvl1 cards that I need to build, so buying beholds or begolds, while fun, doesn’t really add much to me at this moment (I have 15 10x pulls waiting in queue). So I have decided to save up to get Crusher or Kahless.
I initially thought I was going to go for Kahless, but I wonder if he isn’t a bit too one-dimensional. Crusher should supply a decent if not elite gauntlet performer, but provide additional depth as a med voyager (my primary weakness atm).
But everyone talks about Kahless and how Crusher gets lost in his shadow. Is this only because she gets lost in late game to other med options? Or is he more helpful outside the gauntlet than I expect?
Insight?
I initially thought I was going to go for Kahless, but I wonder if he isn’t a bit too one-dimensional. Crusher should supply a decent if not elite gauntlet performer, but provide additional depth as a med voyager (my primary weakness atm).
But everyone talks about Kahless and how Crusher gets lost in his shadow. Is this only because she gets lost in late game to other med options? Or is he more helpful outside the gauntlet than I expect?
Insight?
0
Comments
Kahless is nice for gauntlet, but with all the other gauntlet exclusive crew that you can pick up along the way, I find I do fine without him. If you're overflowing with honor, sure they're nice extra crew to have, but until then I find I have a lot of better uses for honor than either of them.
I am certainly not overflowing in honor. I actually expect it will take me at least another week or so get to the required 100k (I am at about 60k right now).
I also believe in buying begolds before cits, at least until I have more 5/5s and need my aim to be more true.
Am I understanding you correctly in saying that you disagree with the big book in rating both Kahless and Crusher as tier 3s? (Honest question)
Personally I'd wait a while at least until we know who the new mega 5 will be (should know soon) and their stats so you have 50K honor on hand to cite them right away if they turn out to be good.
Kahless by-and-large is exclusively Gauntlet (although occasionally he sneaks onto a voyage for me). But here's the thing, at 1/5 fused he is as good as he is ever going to get in Gauntlet.
Crusher definitely has the potential to be a big contributor on voyages, but at only 1/5 fused her base stats are COMMAND 572+(165–345), DIPLOMACY 248+(119–245), MEDICINE 536+(303–760).
So it all boils down to this: IF you buy Captain Beverly Crusher, are you going to invest in citing her up? If yes, I think for your stated reasons it is a justifiable course of action. If not, she is almost certainly not going to help you.
I have owned Kahless for a while now (I bought him with all the Honor I got from my VIP 14 party) and have never regretted it for a second, he is very useful in Gauntlet.
I disagree with a lot of the blindly following guides that I see here. So much so that I don't even know what you mean by "the big book" or "tier 3". I'm not saying they're bad crew, they are both very good crew. But I don't think either are necessary/required.
What I do disagree with is buying begolds over citations. It's not about being afraid of 5/5s, it's about garbage 5*. I've had plenty of begolds where all the characters are meh. Weak stats, no use in gauntlet or voyages. And with so many 5*, they are likely to stay at 1/5 just wasting space in my roster. For the extra 5k in honor, I'd much rather pick a specific 5* that will strengthen my voyage score.
You said MED is your weakest Voyage skill. What is the best Med 5* that you have? Would you rather add 2* to that crew and have a 3/5 in one slot or buy Crusher and have another 1/5? If you want to make progress on Voyages, you will eventually need to start running with more 5/5s. Putting 2 citations towards that now will help you more than having another 1/5 that will barely be stronger than the 1/5 you're replacing.
Thank you very much!
I don’t have a single 5* with the MED skill. I have BR Bashir sitting #2 in queue, though.
Glad Spock is my only 5/5, and I am still building him. I expect him to be lvl99 by this weekend.
I was at this point a few months ago. For me, it's a thing about wanting the rarest of the rare. I opted for Bev for the MED, got the DYC, but have not cited her any further so far.
To date, no Voyages, no shuttles, and only a smattering of Gauntlet where MED was the skill. I don't regret the decision, but she is not even in my top10 MED at this point.
I agree in waiting until the next Honor Hall crew get in there to make an educated decision. (And achieving one or more extra citations to have on hand)
As far as cites go???? I try to build evenly bcuz its real dissapointing when this happens.
Have you leveled her at all yet? And she isn’t voyaging for you at 2/5??
Wow.
The gauntlet is something I am still trying to get a feel for. I typically always have it going, but I have a hard time really competing and the payoffs have been less than worth it.
I do not have Mirror Picard. I have Surak, but he isn’t built up that much yet.
Right now, I have Adm. Picard, Thrax, Interfaced LaForge, Queen and Drone 7. This is pretty representative of who I run with (Surviver Kirk, Racquetball Bashir and Augment Riker are a few others who tend to get the call)
If this was a vote, mine would be:
1. Neither Honor Hall crew at this time - instead, add a star to a current 5* crew or a future recurring mega 5* who has 3 great stats. Kahless is a gauntlet luxury, and Crusher doesn't get on a ton of voyages for me even at 4/5.
2. Spend 50k honor to add a citation to your choice of 5* crew, instead of spending 45k honor on an unknown commodity. Yes, you could hit the jackpot and add a new stud 5* crew, or you could get a beGold with terrible choices.
I second this in its entirety. Cap’n Bev is more important later on when trying to maximize particular voyage combos (value-over-replacement compared to anyone else not named Reverend Phlox, for example). Kahless can be a powerful gauntleteer (even when not at 65% bonus) and is a very solid voyager at 5/5*, but you will get more bang for your buck by using citations on someone else. Bell Riots Bashir comes to mind as a good citation target, given your dearth of 5* doctors.
But before you go adding stars to Bashir, definitely wait to see at least who the next mega event recurring legendary is. A citation for a final star on whomever that happens to be could be even more valuable than a third star on Bashir. You could also wait for the next honor hall exclusive crew but they are likely to be in the same boat as Kahless and Crusher: not as valuable to you right now at 1/5* as two more stars on someone else.
Kahless was the first 5* and the only one for a long time. After much worrying and hand-wringing, Crusher was added alongside Kahless rather than instead of him.
First it was Kahless, then a long time after Bev was added. At one point they'd planned to pull Kahless when they added Bev, but then decided to leave him available. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they added another honor hall 5* at any time as it's been quite a while since Bev was added.
EDIT: Looked up the dates. Kahless was introduced April 19, 2017 (which is when the honor hall launched) and Bev was added March 13, 2018.
I wouldn’t use “stupid” as a modifier, just inexperienced. I think all of us have learned some lessons the hard way and you get to benefit from our mistakes.
Nope, not stupid at all. It's all just food for thought, but you play the game in whatever way makes you happy. There are people who only collect very select crew that they like (or at least won't keep crew of characters they dislike). This often means they might be getting rid of someone who could improve their roster, but ultimately we all play the game for ourselves and each of us is a bit different.
Last month's campaign super rare, Section 31 Phillippa Georgiou, has the second best super rare voyage total. A 1/5 Kahless' score is actually higher than a fully fused Georgiou. If you're using her on your runs, Kahless will likely make appearances too. He also (still) owns the second highest CMD/DIP/SEC voyage score. If you were to feed him citations, he would be top voyage material for any roster.
I find the "you can do without him" argument strange in how often it's applied to just these two crew. You can say that about *any* crew in the game. You could remove the top 20 voyagers from contention and still make 10 hour runs or the top 20 gauntleteers and still come out in first. You're paying a premium price for a premium crew. If a consensus elite crew like FO Burnham were in the honor hall for 100k, I imagine everyone would recommend getting her even though you can do without her as well. I've used Kahless as much as Burnham, personally, and at minimum favor him over two honor beholds. Even if you lucked into a crew who could match him when fused, they'd very rarely replicate his one star impact which means more to a new roster and less as time goes on and you find options who can approximate what he offers to a lesser degree.
As for the Big Book, that is a 5/5 rating which doesn't take the cost into account. Bev's big selling point, as was mentioned here already, is value over replacement in a niche area. Her voyage power doesn't dictate consistent work, but being one of two legendaries with a top two MED/CMD stack guarantees her at least some use and she's still strong if not dominant in the gauntlet. I don't think she's worth the price of admission (and fusion) for most established rosters, but she can help you get to that point.
I would lean more in favor of Kahless the newer you are, probably up until you stop using 4/4 crew in most areas of the game. At that point, you'll be replete with CMD/DIP/SEC options for voyages and will want to buy citations for crew with more event appearances and/or uncommon skill sets. If you don't mind ponying up for a premium crew, I think he's a fine purchase. As are citations if you have crew good enough to use them on. Just beware the roster context of advice (including mine, hah). If someone says a fused legendary is not being used then either their roster needs are much different from yours or the card is objectively terrible, which isn't the case here.
It’s one of those rare instances where you know exactly what you’re getting when you get it.
Right, if he debuted next week in an event, people would be going nuts over his proficiency and gauntlet potential. I just don't think that argument should be the lede for an obviously great crew like Kahless. If your options for honor are between +300 stats on a crew (a 1-2% improvement on an 8 hour voyage) or a crew who performs like an elite 4/4 for voyages with proven gauntlet dominance, it's not as clear as 'eh, you can live without them'. For a new roster, you cannot buy a better boost than Kahless. Whether or not it's worth the investment years down the line is something else.