19 replies to this topic

[Aeries]

With the new skill tree postponed to who knows when I am unsure where to go from here. My goal is to get into a unit and join FP since organized play is more enjoyable to me. That being said, I know I have read many times that it isn't recommended to join FP with a dropdeck that is not elited.

While I know that all XP and module credits will be refunded when the tree eventually does come out, what won't be is all the credits purchasing multiple variants and modifications to those variants, not to mention I do not have the mechbays currently and would have to buy them so that I can work on getting 4 chassis to elite status.

My question is should I just bite the bullet, buy mechbays and just try to grind out my dropdeck to elite, or just say screw it and get 4 chassis basic'd that I do well in and just call it a day saving me who knows how long of a grind, not the mention cash for mechbays that I know I can earn in FP without spending the dough.

Could really use some advice and your opinions on the matter, thanks.

[Roughneck45]

I would grind out the elites.

The Skill tree could get pushed back again, who knows. Also, the changes they wanted to make were to "better reflect our current investments" so spending now doesn't sound too bad.

[JC Daxion]

If you don't have any elite mechs, then i would get 3 mechs, and do it.. Then play, save money, and have fun. Russ mentioned about skill tree possibly in may? Depends on how much you play, and if they keep the whole system and such.


But nothing wrong with grabbing 7 bucks worth of MC and buying a few bays as needed. Id probably pick up something flexible, like clans, Stormcrow, hellbringer or timber.. each one of um is worth having 3 of down the road no mater what, and worth playing at elite now.

[Tarl Cabot]

If the mechs you are trying to elite are worth it, why wait, especially if you plan on playing all three variants.

[Guile Votoms]

Even with trial mechs you can do fine in faction play.

Sure, it's nice to have that little bit of extra edge,
but at the end of the day what counts the most is your skill.

[Burning2nd]

master every mech or dont even try

[Rogue Jedi]

PGI are curently targeting May for the new skill tree, but we do not know if it will arive in May or be pushed back further.

if you want elited Mechs before then buy your 3 and elite them now and deal with it if the tree is pushed back further, otherwise wait, that is all I can say.
I have stopped eliting Mechs, for now I am just playing what I feel like, I have several chassis I have not yet elited, usualy because I could not fine a loadout I liked, so I am not bothering with those until the new skill tree goes in, however I have been playing for years and have elited the majority of the chassis (with multiples of many) so I have no lack of fully outfitted (except modules) Mechs.

[Bud Crue]

Burnin2nd, on 04 April 2017 - 02:44 PM, said:

master every mech or dont even try

That was my original goal. Then PGI started nerfing some of the worst mechs in the game while leaving some of the best untouched and at that point I realized it was pointless. My bad mechs are bad and there are many more like them. Why bother with em? Just play the meta since that's the game PGI wants us to play. Now I am sorry, but you will have to excuse me while I go sell my Panthers, Wolfhounds, Firestarters and Jenners (I'm keeping the Ravens ) in exchange for a nice Cheetah. And I think I will dump all my non Grasshopper 5Ps for a Night Gyr. Aw heck, may as well dump my Hunchbacks for a nice IIc model. Yay for mech Diversity!

[TooDumbToQuit]

The new skill tree. I'll believe it two weeks after it is here. I noticed that all the Trail Mechs are Champions now. That is a shame because the XP you make on a variant is there when you buy it.

But Champions can only be bought with real money, not C-Bills.

[762 NATO]

Um. All special tags such as (S) (C) ® (I) etc apply mastery to the base model. Don't believe it? Upgrade a pack to collectors and behold. Or buy a Centurion pack. The CN9-A (C) has the same mastery as your (NCIX).

Cheers!

[Rogue Jedi]

LikeUntoGod, on 04 April 2017 - 07:33 PM, said:

The new skill tree. I'll believe it two weeks after it is here. I noticed that all the Trail Mechs are Champions now. That is a shame because the XP you make on a variant is there when you buy it. But Champions can only be bought with real money, not C-Bills.

Champion Mechs are classed as the same varient as the non champion Mech with the same designation, so for example SDR-5K(C) and SDR-5K share the same skill tree, as do all the letter in brackets Mechs and their non bracketed varients e.g. if you have the SCR-Prime, SCR-Prime(I) SCR-Prime(C) and SCR-Prime(S) at current there us just the one tree and XP pool for the SCR-Prime, and any XP earned in those other varients is added to that pool.

[Anunknownlurker]

Given the extremely negative response to the skill tree changes on PTS, I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped it completely - like role warfare and energy draw - so I'd just carry on playing as normal for the foreseeable future.

If they do bring it in? I'll be fine with it; it's just "something in a game" to deal with, no biggie.

[Sunstruck]

Untill PGI actually releases skill tree I would just assume to go about business as usual and go ahead and elite the mechs you want to use for FP/CW. Its possible PGI might push skill tree back another month, though theres a good possibility it will get released with the roughneck.

Either way you'll still need mech xp and gxp to get skill points for your mechs whenever skill tree comes out.

[Rogue Jedi]

Jimmy DiGriz, on 05 April 2017 - 01:24 AM, said:

Given the extremely negative response to the skill tree changes on PTS, I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped it completely - like role warfare and energy draw - so I'd just carry on playing as normal for the foreseeable future.

If they do bring it in? I'll be fine with it; it's just "something in a game" to deal with, no biggie.

most of the complaints with the new skill tree were;

"too expensive", which was largely adressed in the second PTS and PGI have said they will reduce the costs further

"too many clicks" again being addressed

"why do I have to take skill x to get at skill y" in most cases that did not hurt the build, the only case where it could was having to take cooldownn (faster rate of fire) to get at heat reduction, the faster rate of fire more than countering the heat reduction, the alternitaves would have been making the more valuable skills cost more, loosing potential minor improvements, or putting in a tiered skill system, as in to get at the powerfull skills like Radar Deprivation or Siesmic Sensor you had to unlock [insert number] low level skills in the sensor tree (with simular for other trees)

as for the earlier abandoned systems, the major issue is that both role warfare and energy draw had potential, they just needed more work but PGI saw the negitive reaction so abandoned months of work rather than invest a bit more time to make it work.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 05 April 2017 - 04:31 AM.

[Malrock]

PGI said they are targeting a May release potentially. But you need to know that means the end of may so basically a June release, as they always patch around the 21st ish. I say you should have plenty of time to elite up your mech stable before they are even remotely close to ready for the new skills. For the moment i would continue on with the rule of 3 , for now, especially since the mechs you are likely to purchase will make up the backbone of your FP deck anyway.

Having said all that the game actually incentives you to do a mech bay tour in FP, by getting to level 2 with all the factions and to do this as early as possible... so take your trial mechs / what ever you currently own and start grinding out starter rep.

[The Schwartz]

Don't forget about legacy XP, it's worth mastering the mechs now because you'll get refunded on all spent xp. so like my Atlas with 800k spare xp wont get converted probably but the first 62.5? kish will. also would drop gxp into the module skills to help bank. Been kind of fun to play the horrible mechs lately as when i get into my good ones i still play it like it's horrible and get near 1k in them. Whatever works though, help boost ya skillz and bank xp is my thought though.

[Xaat Xuun]

Aeries, on 04 April 2017 - 12:48 PM, said:

With the new skill tree postponed to who knows when I am unsure where to go from here. My goal is to get into a unit and join FP since organized play is more enjoyable to me. That being said, I know I have read many times that it isn't recommended to join FP with a dropdeck that is not elited.

While I know that all XP and module credits will be refunded when the tree eventually does come out, what won't be is all the credits purchasing multiple variants and modifications to those variants, not to mention I do not have the mechbays currently and would have to buy them so that I can work on getting 4 chassis to elite status.

My question is should I just bite the bullet, buy mechbays and just try to grind out my dropdeck to elite, or just say screw it and get 4 chassis basic'd that I do well in and just call it a day saving me who knows how long of a grind, not the mention cash for mechbays that I know I can earn in FP without spending the dough.

Could really use some advice and your opinions on the matter, thanks.

if it was mew, and could afford the MC to get more MechBays, I would, and elite/Master the mech of my choice.but,
If I felt the mech can do what I need without being elited and could wait till the new skill tree, I would

The choice is mostly yours, I'm one that could not advise in that area, just say what I would do if in that situation . . . . which I am

LikeUntoGod, on 04 April 2017 - 07:33 PM, said:

The new skill tree. I'll believe it two weeks after it is here. I noticed that all the Trail Mechs are Champions now. That is a shame because the XP you make on a variant is there when you buy it.

But Champions can only be bought with real money, not C-Bills.

okay, you may not have noticed, but you can buy the same non-Champion variant, and all the XP earned on that trial variant is available for the non-champion of the same variant.
let's take the Hunchback IIC, buy the 'A' and The 'B' and play the C(C) trial, specially for the X2, once you have the C-Bills, purchase the IIc, and all the XP is there.

Only Trial that I see (haven't looked at all), that I know there is not a C-Bill variant, is the Hellbringer-F, too bad. It's kinda a wasted trial mech , same build can be done on any of the HBR's, so unless one plans to Purchase the HBR-F, it's just a fill for a drop deck. Kinda seems the time is wasted using the HBR-F(C) if you can only afford C-Bill Mechs

note: I wouldn't say the HBR-F(C) is a waste of a mech, excellent choice for any dropdeck if you need a HBR

[Tesunie]

Aeries, on 04 April 2017 - 12:48 PM, said:

With the new skill tree postponed to who knows when I am unsure where to go from here. My goal is to get into a unit and join FP since organized play is more enjoyable to me. That being said, I know I have read many times that it isn't recommended to join FP with a dropdeck that is not elited.

While I know that all XP and module credits will be refunded when the tree eventually does come out, what won't be is all the credits purchasing multiple variants and modifications to those variants, not to mention I do not have the mechbays currently and would have to buy them so that I can work on getting 4 chassis to elite status.

My question is should I just bite the bullet, buy mechbays and just try to grind out my dropdeck to elite, or just say screw it and get 4 chassis basic'd that I do well in and just call it a day saving me who knows how long of a grind, not the mention cash for mechbays that I know I can earn in FP without spending the dough.

Could really use some advice and your opinions on the matter, thanks.

Do either a purchasing rotation, or plan your mech purchases to reflect and work with the limited number of starter mech bays. So, either buy 3 mechs you want to keep, then rotate the last bay to get the basics done on each of those 3 said mechs. Or, choose to level 4 mechs at once, purchase the versions you know you don't want to keep. Level them out to basics, and have the last mech in each bay being the one you keep and leveling to Elites.

It does cost time and C-bills to do this, but it's very doable. Then, do as you please with your elited mechs with double basics.

------------ OR ------------

You can purchase the 4 mechs you want, join FP anyway to earn those free Mechbays. Level your mechs are you go.


The choice is yours. Do you want to be "the best you can be" when you join FP? Or do you just want to get stuff? Either way is perfectly reasonable.

[MechaBattler]

If you want to play it safe. Find a mech weight you can run all 3 with in a drop deck. Elite them and bring one that is only basic. Best way to save time and c-bills.

[Alexander of Macedon]

Just start off with good 'mechs that have multiple variants that you enjoy playing. By the time ST launches you probably still won't have started on ones that only have one variant you like.