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Likely Admiral Division Rewards for Early 2021
EnderW
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
This is a spiritual continuation of this thread.
With the the switch-over into November, and seeing that the January Arena rewards are again the Keldon Class starship, I'm confident to say that we can expect the Kumari for the February rewards and the USS Discovery for March. So I would recommend to plan accordingly. I say this because it seems TP-WRG is staying the course on repeating the rewards schedule for a complete year.
Obvious disclaimer: this is a prediction, not a certainty; it's one of those things that's accurate right up until it isn't. TP-WRG can changes things at their whim. But I'm confident from what we've seen over the last year that this will be how it is played out. Assuming it is how things go, we'll know if April is something new by end of January.
My normal complaint: I really hope it does change; in fact, I'd like to be wrong here. One ship (Jem'Hadar Flagship; intro'ed in August 2018) has been in the game for over 2 years without being the featured reward; while another (Enterprise A; intro'ed in November 2018) is approaching its two year anniversary. Seeing as the Arena rewards are the only reasonable way to increase a ship's level, it's pretty silly that they, and three other ships, have never been featured. If the pattern holds, there would then be nine ships (these five, plus the four introduced in 2020) that have never been the Admiral Division rewards (and that doesn't count the four 4* ships intro'ed in 2020).
This past year has been very frustrating for me because leveling the ships was one of my main goals in the game; and movement on that goal ground to a halt with the schedule they've used. So I'm desperate for a change here.
With the the switch-over into November, and seeing that the January Arena rewards are again the Keldon Class starship, I'm confident to say that we can expect the Kumari for the February rewards and the USS Discovery for March. So I would recommend to plan accordingly. I say this because it seems TP-WRG is staying the course on repeating the rewards schedule for a complete year.
Obvious disclaimer: this is a prediction, not a certainty; it's one of those things that's accurate right up until it isn't. TP-WRG can changes things at their whim. But I'm confident from what we've seen over the last year that this will be how it is played out. Assuming it is how things go, we'll know if April is something new by end of January.
My normal complaint: I really hope it does change; in fact, I'd like to be wrong here. One ship (Jem'Hadar Flagship; intro'ed in August 2018) has been in the game for over 2 years without being the featured reward; while another (Enterprise A; intro'ed in November 2018) is approaching its two year anniversary. Seeing as the Arena rewards are the only reasonable way to increase a ship's level, it's pretty silly that they, and three other ships, have never been featured. If the pattern holds, there would then be nine ships (these five, plus the four introduced in 2020) that have never been the Admiral Division rewards (and that doesn't count the four 4* ships intro'ed in 2020).
This past year has been very frustrating for me because leveling the ships was one of my main goals in the game; and movement on that goal ground to a halt with the schedule they've used. So I'm desperate for a change here.
Playing Since: 2018-02-26 Level: 99 Fleet: ÷ Battleship Yamato, Squad Leader & Fleet Officer; 16hr, 26min Voyage /wo Refuel; 1495 Immortalized Crew; Highest Event Rank: 8 (God of Thunder)
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That's a good point. I recall that happening too. However DB-TP/WRG has moved away from making active changes to the monthly rewards and use a schedule they settled on months in advance. Again, they can change things at any moment; the question is, do they want to do that? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2017-2018
Nov-18 Borg Cube
Oct-18 HMS Bounty
Sep-18 Kumari
Aug-18 Prakesh
Jul-18 IKS T'Ong
Jun-18 Sarcophagus
May-18 ISS Defiant
Apr-18 USS Discovery
Mar-18 USS Shenzhou
Feb-18 Borg Cube
Jan-18 NX-01 Enterprise
Dec-17 ISS Enterprise
2019
Nov-19 Sarcophagus
Oct-19 Pike's Enterprise
Sep-19 Xindi-Insectoid Patrol Ship
Aug-19 The Scimitar
Jul-19 USS Shenzhou
Jun-19 Cap Proton Rocket Ship
May-19 Orion Interceptor
Apr-19 Ni'Var
Mar-19 Breen Command
Feb-19 USS Reliant
Jan-19 NX-01 Enterprise
2020
Nov-20 Sarcophagus
Oct-20 Pike's Enterprise
Sep-20 Xindi-Insectoid Patrol Ship
Aug-20 The Scimitar
Jul-20 USS Shenzhou
Jun-20 Cap Proton Rocket Ship
May-20 Orion Interceptor
Apr-20 Ni'Var
Mar-20 USS Discovery
Feb-20 Kumari
Jan-20 Cardassian Keldon Class
Number of Occurrences for Each Ship Type (Dec 2017 to Jan 2021)
USS Shenzhou - 3
Borg Cube - 2
Cap Proton Rocket Ship - 2
Cardassian Keldon Class - 2
Kumari - 2
Ni'Var - 2
NX-01 Enterprise - 2
Orion Interceptor - 2
Pike's Enterprise - 2
The Scimitar - 2
USS Discovery - 2
Valdore - 2
Xindi-Insectoid Patrol Ship - 2
Breen Command - 1
D'Kora Krayton - 1
HMS Bounty - 1
IKS T'Ong - 1
ISS Defiant - 1
ISS Enterprise - 1
Prakesh - 1
USS Reliant - 1
Assimilated Voyager - 0
Borg Queen Vessel - 0
Enterprise A - 0
Enterprise E - 0
Federation Fighter - 0
IKS Negh'Var - 0
Jem'Hadar Flagship - 0
Krenim Weapon Ship - 0
The Artifact - 0
That explains why my Breen Command ship is so low, it was the reward the month after I started playing! I hope some of these vessels get some needed attention soon! Especially the ones that have never been rewards!
Thanks for your work on this @EnderW
I also haven't received schematics for the klingon T'ong in 2 years, not even from portal rewards, so it sadly sits at level 5 while i drool with envy at everyone in the arena using this ship at max level.
Yeah, the T'Ong is an oddly hard ship to get schematics. It was the last ship I fully leveled and I had to do it completely through portal pulls. Since it's not in Voyages or the Dabo Wheel, and I don't think it's ever been featured in a skirmish, it's just really hard to find.
With any 2* ships, I recommend trying the skirmish event ship packs. I know, not the best use of dilithium, but it does drop those schematics. The other thing you could do is do a lot of basic pulls for credits. Between those two actions that's how I finished my 2* ships.
The Artifact has a quick Boarding ability that might be fun. If it is tough enough to survive a Killy barrage, then it could shake up the arena. My personal expectation though is that it would be more of a novelty to play with during a skirmish.
IKS Negh'Var has an actual 4s cloak. It doesn't trigger behind a cooldown reduction or anything else. It could potentially survive a Krayton barrage by cloaking before the damage gets through. Then it has Boarding at 8s if you leave the cloak active until then. Proper crew selection could make this ship a DoT (damage over time) monster that could bypass opponent cloaks.
Warship Voyager I'm told is a very tough ship. Rumor has it that a little shield and hull repair can get this ship past a Krayton attack, then its 6s boarding and 8s immediate damage knock out its opponents.
Krenim Weapon Ship is another one that I'm told has enough shields and hull to survive heavy punishment. If it can survive to 6s, then of will start reflecting some damage back at the attacker. Kraytons are usually done dealing heavy damage before that, but some of the slower ships above might be foiled by this.
Borg Queen's Vessel is probably another skirmish novelty. With Position at 4s (that boosts crit rating by an unspecified amount), then a significant 35% attack speed at 6s, this ship can utilize some crew that don't normally see skirmish time.
That's what I'm looking forward to, anyway. The slow release of schematics and their economy is a source of frustration for me. Now that I had my fun with the recent portal update, I'm going to save my 10x pulls again. Next time, I'm not so worried about the crew. I want these new ships. I find them more exciting than a third star for Navigator Stamets.
Thank you, @EnderW for tracking all the arena rewards. I'll join you in hoping that WRG changes some things up so I can get a new ship ready for the arena.
I have noticed a few ships appearing more often for me lately, like the Enterprise A, but that may be a hold over from ShaKaRee. I haven't maxed a ship in months. (Nearly four, I checked. My Maxed Ships list was last updated Sep 3.)
I, personally, would like to see Dabo tweaked a bit. I can't see how giving schematics for maxed ships is being tailored to me. If I have all of the ships at that level in the portal, give me components or equipment in that range. I wouldn't mind. Those I could use.
You're right about The Artifact being added. After 110+ 10x pulls, I have it up to level 4. It's going to take more than premium pulls to finish that ship. I'm going to need a month (probably two) of arena rewards to make any real progress on leveling that ship up. If they rotated just the 5 new ships I listed as monthly rewards, it would probably still take nearly a year for 5% of players to come close to maxing those ships. That's a long time even with focused distribution. And 5% of the player base is a very small number, imo.
I did see someone mention they maxed the Warship Voyager; I think I've even seen it as a possible opponent. I've got to give credit where it's due: that took a LOT of pulls to get done. In addition to all the history of the prizes, I've also tracked how many drops it take to get a ship leveled. At 100 schematics a drop from the ship portal packs, someone needs 70 drops* to get a ship done. If we assume someone is really lucky, and gets one drop of the ship's schematics per pull (yeah, laughable, but bear with me), at 325** dilithium a ship pack, that comes out to:
70 x 325 = 22,750 dilithium to fully level (or about $200 worth of dilithium)
Let that sink in for everyone. And this is why the Arena is the only way to reasonably level a ship in this game.
* - Just now realizing my math doesn't quite work out that cleanly, as some levels for the ships aren't perfectly divisible by 100. But it shouldn't change the minimum required pulls by that much; probably only by 3-4 total pulls. But you get the idea: it costs an excessive amount of money/dilithium. And that's just a low ball floor; actual experience with the packs means you'd pay more.
** - This is correct, right? Ship packs cost half of a regular portal pack? I can't seem to find this confirmed anywhere; not the wiki, not in the Coms announcements, nothing. Feel kinda crazy I can't confirm the answer. Shows you what kind of "expert" I am!
How many 5* ships are in the portal now? Maybe just rotating through all of them would be an improvement?
The only 5* ships not in the portal are: IKS Negh'Var, Borg Queen Vessel, Krenim Weapon Ship, Warship Voyager, and ISS Discovery. And the only voyage trait not in the portal is Tholian (4* ship, obviously).
And as @ChaosChild points out: a full two year rotation on the Admiral Arena rewards. We'll find out at the end of January if they're breaking it.
However, in their defense, WRG Ben did say during the Jan 6th Timelines Talk that the reward schedule in the Arena is something they need to look at for updating. That is encouraging (he also said "no promises," so salt grain taken).
Unfortunately, I'm becoming very ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about this whole issue. I finished the Fed Fighter about a week ago with portal pulls, so I don't need any more voyage traits. And I only need about 900 schematics for the Enterprise E. I basically think I'm done with the ships. I feel this is very unfortunate; it all could have been handled better.
Apparently the new feature is taking up so much of WRG's attention that they can't even find the 5 minutes necessary to give us even the slightest incentive to care about the rest of the game.
Pathetic really.
Does anyone know which ships in the portal have never been Arena rewards? The Artifact would be the only one I'm sure of. Well, La Sirena for Captain Division, too.
The Enterprise A, the Enterprise E, Assimilated Voyager, the Federation Fighter and for some unknown reason the Jem'Hadar Flagship. Any of those would be a very welcome change.
Also the Artifact. So six months of different ships that could be rewards.
The 5* ships that aren't in the portal are: IKS Negh'Var, Borg Queen Vessel, Krenim Weapon Ship, Warship Voyager, ISS Discovery, and soon to be the USS Prometheus. There is a precedent for putting ships not in the Portal in as rewards, but that's 1) from 2018, 2) pre-Skirmish events and ships packs, and 3) a different company. So I doubt they'll go back to that.
At least give us a T'Ong!
Why yes, yes they are. You can't irritate the player base this much on sheer incompetence alone. It takes a concerted and directed effort to do so.
Proud member of Patterns of Force
Captain Level 99
Played since January 2017
TP: Do better!!!
Actually, today’s wheel had useful equipment & crew for me in all 11 of those positions:
I still only used credits & the ad.