Where should I put all my points first?

[Empirical_Data]

What's a good rule of thumb you guys use when upgrading ships?

[Mikla]

What's a good rule of thumb you guys use when upgrading ships?

 

Get 2 tiers of barrel roll before anything else.

[steyates]

First I decide which components/weapons I want to change from the stock ship. Then save up for those components/weapons starting with the defensive/evasive systems first.

 

Then I normally upgrade the evasion ability to lvl 2 (less fuel required and shorter cooldown). Then I normally start upgrading all the other components to at least lvl 1 starting with weapons and upgrade any missiles to the shorter lock on time.

[MCaliban]

What's a good rule of thumb you guys use when upgrading ships?

 

What is the ship and what are you attempting to do with it?

 

For example, I upgraded the ion cannon on my gunship before I did anything else. For my T1 scout, I focused on the engine abilities first because they allowed me to be faster and speed boost longer. For my T2 scout, I maxed all the minor components first. For my bomber, I went for all the cooldown decreasers, which were mostly level 1 or 2 upgrades, and now I'm focusing on my repair drones.

 

My MOUSE 1 weapon is always the last thing I upgrade, but that might be different if I flew a striker.

Edited February 10, 2014 by MCaliban

[Empirical_Data]

What is the ship and what are you attempting to do with it?

 

For example, I upgraded the ion cannon on my gunship before I did anything else. For my T1 scout, I focused on the engine abilities first because they allowed me to be faster and speed boost longer. For my T2 scout, I maxed all the minor components first. For my bomber, I went for all the cooldown decreasers, which were mostly level 1 or 2 upgrades, and now I'm focusing on my repair drones.

 

My MOUSE 1 weapon is always the last thing I upgrade, but that might be different if I flew a striker.

 

Striker or scout is the ship. And I'm trying to not suck with it.

 

Thanks for the tips guys.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Empirical_Data

[mr_sim]

Decrease missile lock time by 14% best choice though mostly for strike fighters.

 

Pike/Quell you should trade either concussion missiles for cluster missiles or switch protons for EMP missiles.

[Nemarus]

Get 2 tiers of barrel roll before anything else.

 

This. This will increase your survivability, but more important it will increase your travel speed significantly, meaning you can change from node to node or get back from respawn quickly.

 

If you're a new pilot, I also recommend picking up Cluster Missiles if they are available, and upgrading them to reduce their lock-on time. They are a dependable, easy-to-use weapon.

[Ramalina]

Step 1, Decide how you want to fly the ship. Are you going for close range turning battles, lobbing missiles from a distance, doing high speed slashing attacks?

 

Step 1.5 Go to the crew panel and spend 0 requisition, but make sure that your crew passives work well with your desired build. Hydrospanner is insanely good as an active once you get to the point where you're being badly damaged on a regular basis. If you're still getting blown up completely though, choose something else until your defenses improve a bit. I'd suggest maybe an ability that makes it a bit easier to hit opponents for a starter scout or strike pilot.

 

Step 2. Unlock secondary components (the bottom 4 categories) if the default ones don't match your playstyle.

 

Step 3. Unlock engine ability if the default doesn't match your playstyle (this is your big defensive cooldown usually).

 

Step 4. Spend requisition until your engine defensive cooldown has reduced cooldown time.

 

Step 5. Spend requisition on maxing out defensive secondary components. (speed/engine power and maneuverability are defensive components in case you weren't aware of that).

 

Step 6. Decide how you want to proceed from here. If you're still dying too much think about maxing out primary

components with defensive value. If you're more comfortable flying, think about upgrading your most used weapons systems, often getting to tier 3 in a primary and a secondary is better than maxing out one. If you're lucky enough to be flying with a well coordinated group on a regular basis it's even possible that upgrading a systems component would be the best overall choice (though if you're asking for advice here, I'm guessing that's not the case).

Also the point at which you can start thinking about unlocking crew members if the default ones for your character's class aren't the best for your favored ship(s). A coherent crew build in terms of passives can be more powerful than many people appreciate.

 

Doing step 1 well is really the most important part. If you only have a few ships to start with, making mistakes in terms of spending requisition on the wrong set of components can really set you back by several days to a week, in terms of effective upgrade rate. If you have a good build in mind, you have the benefit that if you make a slight mistake in prioritizing requisition spent, at least it's not being wasted on a component you won't be using in your final build.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Ramalina

[Empirical_Data]

Step 1, Decide how you want to fly the ship. Are you going for close range turning battles, lobbing missiles from a distance, doing high speed slashing attacks?

 

Step 1.5 Go to the crew panel and spend 0 requisition, but make sure that your crew passives work well with your desired build. Hydrospanner is insanely good as an active once you get to the point where you're being badly damaged on a regular basis. If you're still getting blown up completely though, choose something else until your defenses improve a bit. I'd suggest maybe an ability that makes it a bit easier to hit opponents for a starter scout or strike pilot.

 

Step 2. Unlock secondary components (the bottom 4 categories) if the default ones don't match your playstyle.

 

Step 3. Unlock engine ability if the default doesn't match your playstyle (this is your big defensive cooldown usually).

 

Step 4. Spend requisition until your engine defensive cooldown has reduced cooldown time.

 

Step 5. Spend requisition on maxing out defensive secondary components. (speed/engine power and maneuverability are defensive components in case you weren't aware of that).

 

Step 6. Decide how you want to proceed from here. If you're still dying too much think about maxing out primary

components with defensive value. If you're more comfortable flying, think about upgrading your most used weapons systems, often getting to tier 3 in a primary and a secondary is better than maxing out one. If you're lucky enough to be flying with a well coordinated group on a regular basis it's even possible that upgrading a systems component would be the best overall choice (though if you're asking for advice here, I'm guessing that's not the case).

Also the point at which you can start thinking about unlocking crew members if the default ones for your character's class aren't the best for your favored ship(s). A coherent crew build in terms of passives can be more powerful than many people appreciate.

 

Doing step 1 well is really the most important part. If you only have a few ships to start with, making mistakes in terms of spending requisition on the wrong set of components can really set you back by several days to a week, in terms of effective upgrade rate. If you have a good build in mind, you have the benefit that if you make a slight mistake in prioritizing requisition spent, at least it's not being wasted on a component you won't be using in your final build.

 

That's really good advice, thanks. I ranked my scout ship barrel roll two tiers. And I'm fast as hell. But my rapid fire guns are mosquito bites on gun ships and bombers. And I shifted my crew around a little to give a repair in spot 4 instead of lockdown. So I've almost got enough survivability as a fighter.

 

My fighter though racks up kills after upgrading to cluster bombs. Even in a dog fight strafing with cluster bombs are lethal.

[Zharik]

But my rapid fire guns are mosquito bites on gun ships and bombers..

 

Well, make sure the targeting reticule is as close to the center of your screen as possible for best accuracy, then use both your rapid fire lasers and your rocket pods. Honestly most ships won't stand still for more than 2-3 rocket pods, so get used to stopping at 3 shots, you'll conserve ammo at that point a lot. Tier 1 rocket pods are armor ignoring, which is awesome. Eats through turrets and some player ship's builds a lot easier than without.

 

If you can manage your power well, you can probably afford to change from booster recharge to something offensive. Targeting Telemetry is a solid choice, though EMP pulse has a great use vs bombers.

 

Most importantly, keep flying! Experience will make you better faster than gear will!

[Gavin_Kelvar]

That's really good advice, thanks. I ranked my scout ship barrel roll two tiers. And I'm fast as hell. But my rapid fire guns are mosquito bites on gun ships and bombers. And I shifted my crew around a little to give a repair in spot 4 instead of lockdown. So I've almost got enough survivability as a fighter.

 

My fighter though racks up kills after upgrading to cluster bombs. Even in a dog fight strafing with cluster bombs are lethal.

 

If you've got clusters and rapids your ship is more designed for dogfighting scouts or strikers at point blank and less useful against heavily armored targets such as bombers or turrets that have the armor and/or shields to tank most of the damage you dish out. Which is not to say that you have a bad build, just recognize that you've built it for a specific type of fighting so while you can use it in a pinch to attack something else it won't be as good as a build designed to destroy heavily armored targets.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Gavin_Kelvar

[Bleeters]

If you can manage your power well, you can probably afford to change from booster recharge to something offensive. Targeting Telemetry is a solid choice, though EMP pulse has a great use vs bombers.

Fully upgraded EMP is great against pretty much anyone, honestly: jamming missile locks on yourself and disabling engine abilities on enemies are incredibly useful whatever you're fighting.