thats really all it is. same with ground.

its called STO wiki, spend 15 mins and look at what you toon is meant for. than research a simple pattern of attack, and while you there play with the skills calculator. its helpful. all this in just 15 mins. and if some jerk wants to call you a elitest cause you know how to play your toon on elite or what have you, just say that you spent 15 mins looking at some forum that tells you outcomes.

ignore people that are anti-social folks, someone that sits there and tells you that you have no life over the way you play a game has issue, not you. everyone has they play styles and everyone is different and are good at different things. you dont need to be on elite to be good at this game, just need to have fun make friend and try your best at winning with them.

i heard a saying once, it goes a little like this: you win some, you lose some, but you wont win them all!

and its true. doesnt mean we cant try. if elite is too hard, than step down and try adv, if thats to hard than stay on normal. spend 15 mins to research your toon, and maybe that will change the outcomes.

If I'm chugging through the missions just to get the items for my 'toons, I keep it normal. But If I'm intentionally pseudo-farming, then I'll bust out an elite if time is not an issue. But I agree- the time investment/reward ratio isn't worth it. In short, they need to up the percentage of rare and very rare drops to make it worthwhile.

When they first came out with the difficulty slider it was well worth it to run missions on elite settings (if you were trained up in ground skills). Then folks started farming elite missions and selling a ton of purples on the exchange and next thing you know, drop rates are nerfed. That's where we are now.

Of course ground has gotten a TON easier since the 4.0 ground combat revamp, so elite is now way easier than it was before, for most if not all missions. I guess at the current risk vs. reward it's about right. You'll see a few rare drops here and there, but a very rare is actually very rare.

same thing happened to the crystiline enity to be honest with you. i remember once apon a time if you took a starship and used ramming speed, you would be down to about 20% health, but it would be dead. people would farm the rewards.

so they nerfed ramming spped so it doe 60% less damage, and can only be used when you hit 50% health.

i still feel people who abuse exploits like that should be banned. thou blowing up noobs and ESD with abandon ship was funny!