Event Prep Dilemma
Ironagedave
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Looking for advice on my SR Event crew.
I'm guessing the best option is to level my 2/4s and Ardra first - but is there anyone else I should focus on.
NBs I also have M Picard Immortalised as event crew.
I still have the 2.5k msg (worth pulling to aid levelling or no?)
I have a ton of blue Klingons in Cryo I can't release.
EDIT - I somehow missed off Captain Kurn (1/4) Level 60
I'm guessing the best option is to level my 2/4s and Ardra first - but is there anyone else I should focus on.
NBs I also have M Picard Immortalised as event crew.
I still have the 2.5k msg (worth pulling to aid levelling or no?)
I have a ton of blue Klingons in Cryo I can't release.
EDIT - I somehow missed off Captain Kurn (1/4) Level 60
[was on Sabbatical/Hiatus] Currently a trialist at Galaxy SquadronSTAY SAFE and KBO
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~Captain Picard ST:TNG Chain of Command
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ST:TNG Crew Addition Wish List:
Mariachi Q - Déjà Q Quote - But I feel like celebrating! - Thank You!
H.M.S. Pinafore Data - Insurrection Quote - And his fist be ever ready for a knockdown blow. - Thank You!
Rascal Picard/Guinan - Rascals Quote - I want to see my father!
Kivas Fajo - The Most Toys Quote - What a marvelous contradiction. A military pacifist!
Batai - The Inner Light Quote - This tree is our symbol. Our affirmation of life.
Irumodic Syndrome Picard - All Good Things Quote - You said it was earl grey. I'd swear it was darjeeling. - Thank You!
B-4 - Nemesis Quote - Why do you have a shiny head? - Thank You!
Zero G Worf - First Contact Quote - Assimilate this!
So true her gold uniform especially (twice) I just said turf it i'm replicating it (twice). So glad I've finished her.
So now on to Mirror Phlox who is equally getting trickier.
- Key Crew: specific event crew I might have, in this case Ardra.
- Associated crew: any variants of the event crew.
- Trait crew.
Then, when levelling those crew I take (base) skills into consideration, especially if a crew has skills (or skill combo) that are not common to the other event crew.
I might take into consideration the fuse level for the trait crew, but that almost always ties in to what I wrote above. Normally, I don't really consider fuse level much (and hence I have a bunch of FE 1/4s) or if they are available in the portal or not.
Finally I'll take ease of levelling into account and the fact that they all might be the same type of crew ... so for this weekend I'd make sure to mix up Mirror and Klingon crew a bit otherwise I might be forced to run certain shuttles if I completely run out of Klingon gear.
Looking at your list I'd level them in the following order (top 3 highlighted):
- Ardra, goes without saying.
- Mirror Phlox, without a doubt top priority - MED skill, very few MED bonus crew, can use in Gauntlet after.
- Antaak/Kurak, MED and SCI skills are limited across bonus crew (personally I'm still looking for these two!) ... these will be on shuttles for sure (Kurak will have a SCI of 1200! and Antaak won't be as good, but still might be of use depending on your other non-event related crew).
- Jen Sisko, SCI/ENG combo and not bad after the event for Voyages.
- Amb. K'Ehleyr (Liaison Torres), decent to good DIP.
- Klingon Torres, good SEC base.
- Barak, good CMD base.
...
- the rest - Duchamps, Archer, Kolos etc. are just not worth it when you consider their skills (mainly CMD, DIP, SEC) and how they stack up to who you already have ... multiply their FE base skills by 2 and see how they fit within your overal crew, chances are they probably won't make top 10.
You might consider making lists based on base stat levels instead of fuse levels, especially for Faction events.
EDIT: Of your "blue" Klingons in cryo ... the only ones to really consider unfreezing are Klingon Dukat (1000+ CMD base) and Mara (800+ SCI), the rest are just not good, even when compared against your 1/4s.
TS Kes might be a consideration depending on the shuttle slots and how decent your MED crew is (she'll have between 900-950 MED base depending on your Starbase bonus).
EDIT 2: Do you not have Will Scarlett? We all got him for free ... this is one of his only chances to shine! Dust him off and get him ready.
Yes I’ve been meaning to level mirror phlox but something has always turned my attention away from him, glad to say he’s now up to 90, ardra is a bit of a pain but I will persevere on her obviously.
I’ve now realised the folly of my lists I do have their stats but I only noted their FF ones and not what fusion I have them at currently, I will amend this for the future.
No worries ... at least you have lists and that is the important thing.
I also had Mirror Phlox at level 1 for eons, as a 1/4 ... but then we had an event with Phlox so I just levelled him ... he really is used quite a bit, even on Voyages he's good.
As for ol' Will ... he's not that great (low stats, 2-skill, decent rolls), you could leave him there ... but then why would you ever take him out if you don't for a Klingon featured event?
Mirror Jen is not bonus crew - she has Mirror Universe, not Terran Empire.
Naturally, you're right Dralix ... not paying attention ... was going by the Ironagedave's original post (he has her listed as 2/4 lvl 8). Just checked my crew list, she's still frozen so didn't make the mistake to defrost her.
Using the wiki history as a reference. It looks like she got the Mirror Universe trait added for the Smoke & Mirrors Mega event in December, but never had the Terran Empire trait before that.
Puzzling I used the search function in game a couple of days ago and I'm sure she came up with Terran Empire, but I've checked today and can see it's no longer there.
- Antaak: For once the number of MED slots is really low and can be covered by Mirror Phlox only with ease. However, there are very few other MED options.
- Will Scarlett: his skills are covered by others you have ... I personally have not used him once and he's at 2/5 for me.
- Mirror Janeway: I've ended up using her each round of shuttles so far! She has a SEC/CMD combo that fits into SEC & CMD shuttles (AND slot issues) ... and I have her at 1/4, imagine if she'd be 2/4 for me.
Takeaway
So what is my takeaway from this?
- I stand by my opinion of the prioritisation of levelling crew with more unique skill combos, e.g. Antaak, after specific event crew (Ardra). Both Mirror Phlox and Kurak at 1/4 would find a shuttle slot each time around.
- As long as DB does not fix the AND slot issue on shuttles, I think that this needs to be taken into account when levelling crew for events ... so, you need a CMD/SEC crew to go with your SEC/CMD crew just so you can potential fill both CMD & SEC and SEC & CMD slots with event crew ... I hadn't taken this into account.
Not a post specifically at you Ironagedave, just for those who might use this thread as a reference in the future.
NB I did freeze seska only for Tieran Kes to take her place lol just need to win the clothing threshold and she will be immortal.
NB, NB: The takeaway from this is I am never doing faction events ever for rank, threshold and out at most (probably skipping merits reward)
Why?
Despite all my prep I missed out on the sub 1k rank - could I have done better - perhaps a small amount (but not nearly as much as my shuttles). How an immortal Miror Picard and 2 event purples 4/4 kes, 3/4 Ardra, Can cause a mission to fail I will never know but eh it just happens right - your just unlucky right.
Sorry but when one pushes so hard and misses out by a close margin and all you get to show for it is 600 honor from your 3 left over Ardras and 3 rare (single) portal boxes, and the stuff you forget about because you already have ample. Compared to the effort put in - I've learned my lesson, sorry if I was being foolish on thinking I could compete - quite clearly I can't, fair enough. But all this means is your losing your trickle money DB - whether you care about that or not, well I guess is no consequence to me.
So what would improve things a consolation prize - a midway prize instead of such a cavernous drop perhaps would be nice?
Anyhow as this is an edit very few people will probably read this - probably better this way - just needed a place to rant and I guess where better than my own thread on the event I shall revert to obscurity the rank one thousand and something, somethings
I don't usually complain about mission fails because the're part of the game, but I did notice an unusually high amount of 90%+ fails this last time around. Since there were so many bonus crew, virtually every shuttle I sent out was 90%+, but I still seemed to fail 1 out of 4 every time after the kickstart.
~Captain Picard ST:TNG Chain of Command
Link to my list of helpful spreadsheets, websites, threads, and help for all players!
ST:TNG Crew Addition Wish List:
Mariachi Q - Déjà Q Quote - But I feel like celebrating! - Thank You!
H.M.S. Pinafore Data - Insurrection Quote - And his fist be ever ready for a knockdown blow. - Thank You!
Rascal Picard/Guinan - Rascals Quote - I want to see my father!
Kivas Fajo - The Most Toys Quote - What a marvelous contradiction. A military pacifist!
Batai - The Inner Light Quote - This tree is our symbol. Our affirmation of life.
Irumodic Syndrome Picard - All Good Things Quote - You said it was earl grey. I'd swear it was darjeeling. - Thank You!
B-4 - Nemesis Quote - Why do you have a shiny head? - Thank You!
Zero G Worf - First Contact Quote - Assimilate this!
However what's done is done, time to move on, but i have to say my confidence in the event type is irrevocably tarnished so much so I will just play a different system one that won't lead to such disappointment, just lower expectations.
Given: n = number of your shuttlecrafts
VP=3500 x n > VP=4000 x (n-1) + 0.2 x 4000
3500n > 4000(n-0.8)
-500n > -3200
n > 6.4
As we are limited to a maximum of n=4, I think of this as a disincentive to achieving maximum VP per shuttlecraft (EDIT: given the vagaries of RNG). I will sometimes "lock in" on the 3500 tier after enough successive failures at 4000, usually during the final 12 hours of the event. 🤞🏻🖖🏻
Yes i did take the bug into consideration, for sure, although with Kes it was kind of unavoidable but I judged that her 3* bonus should carry her over even if the primary and secondary skill sets were the "wrong way round", I could try the 3500 tier next time. But I am loathe to buy into boost packs with this level of uncertainty.
I ran, almost exclusively, Terran missions, as they fit my crew quite well. I even ran the 5-seat ones to get the most out of the better crew I had, this was because Kes did not fit well into any Terran shuttles, except for CMD only slots, which is also where I put Mirror Picard ... and there weren't that many CMD only slots available on Terran shuttles (the wiki is down so I cannot give exact examples).
Ardra exclusively went into one of two SEC AND DIP slots on Terran shuttles, where I used a 3* SEC boost each time (other slots also had SEC). She was never on the same shuttle as Kes or Picard.
Kes (and Mirror Picard) went exclusively into CMD only slot (including OR slots) ... but I didn't really start using Kes until Sunday when I finally had her FE ... in the past I'd use threshold rewards once they hit lvl 70 approx. but this time I had a bunch of other bonus crew and the slots just didn't fit Kes well.
In summary ...
1. All I can say is it really is the AND slots (see point 2 in the Takeaway above) ... when I didn't know about the issue (e.g. Fire with Fire event - had old 4* card and tonnes of event crew) I ranked around 5.700 even with a full event of shuttles, shared crew and proper ramp up (I really wanted to do well to add a star to Kirk) ... this time I ranked 2.600 approx while missing all of Sunday (8 shuttles only sent!) and a weak ramp-up (didn't care because I had Ardra immortalised already) and no shared crew because my squad leader was/is AWOL. My shuttle pass/failure approximately reflected the percentages shown (just over 80%).
2. Spread your key/best crew around a bit over your shuttles and hit their skills with boosts ... all your eggs in one basket means that if that shuttle fails then you've probably had a poor run, because you've sent out your other shuttles weaker too. This means you'll linger at lower VP shuttles for longer (failures drop you 1.5 in the VP category ladder).
I have 4 shuttles and if there are a low number of bonus crew (e.g this weekend) I try to concentrate them into 3 shuttles ... and have one weak shuttle ... with success/failures I can still, on average, climb to higher VP shuttles (1/3 --> lose 3.5, 2/2 --> lose 1, 3/1 --> gain 1.5).
EDIT: As another side note: Faction events are the only events I've ever ranked sub-1000 and I feel that, should I devote my weekend to the game instead of life around me, I could do it again. I don't have many 5*s, or good crew, but I've got a tonne of FE crew (at various fuse levels).
The thing is, it took a while to get there ... because I do not spend money on the game ... but also because it just takes time to level crew. Rarely do I have more than 1 or 2 crew to level prior to an event (this time only the free EV Suit Archer we all got - just got him to 100, not FE yet - I have 10 total crew eligible for bonus (I'll only use 6-7 of those depending on how useful Hockey Kim turns out to be)).
For the previous event, where you had 15 to level, I had 3 (of the 49 across all star levels I had eligible for the event).
I know the AND is bugged, but i would have thought the event bonus would have carried enough weight - which may lead me to think that even event bonus on those seats are not being applied either (at least maybe not fully)