I have to cuddle my stuffed tribble at the same time.

There's nothing really in Elite missions that compare to the Borgs' OHK torpedoes, which is the primary cause of death for most people in ESTFs. Not a whole lot you can do about those.

Well if you want end-game gear you need those borg marks so.

I never played normal myself, not even coming up, and I never played for the item drops.
To me it's the same amount of time I put in (nearly) but for more marks and more dilithium.

In extension to that of course the pride of playing the hardest there is and walking all over it like a day at the park.

It's an interesting topic though because as far as I heard the reputation system was supposedly done as a favour to the casual players.
Yet you find yourself forced to play elite if you actually want the items, well..

I think people should be allowed to play what they want though, so why not let people buy their reputation items with resources from outside elite stf.

OP isn't talking about STFs, just regular missions with an adjustable difficulty scale (Normal -> Advanced -> Elite).

Sorry I am of course arrogant in assuming no one would play missions when you can play stf.

Just emphasizes the point though doesn't it, if you are going after larger rewards you are in the wrong place.

You want consoles of note you do doffing and outside that start working your way up the reputation ladder.

What in the universe is an OHK torpedo? Do you mean high yield plasma?

You haven't heard of the invisible torpedoes in ESTFs that do somewhere in the range of 70k-100k damage? Tactical cubes and Gates tend to sport these, which causes you to essentially die in one hit unless you're lucky and happen to be prepared (since you can't actively prepare for them, being invisible and all).

I decided to make the jump from normal to advanced difficulty about a month or so ago since things have been too easy since getting to VA. I won't touch elite though, that sounds like an exercise in frustration - I'll stick to the level playing field.

In regards to drops I have noticed an increase in blue loot drops since the change, these seem more common then green drops for me now. Also I've only had 3/4 purple drops during all my time playing and I believe it is due to the change as well.

Oh, those bastards. I usually get insta-killed by those. Hull can be at 100% and then boom! Insta-kill. WHere do those bastards come from? The Cubes, the Spheres, the Conduits? They are so fracking annoying.

To be honest, try jumping in elite from time to time, you might run into a team that can smash through under 12minutes

A good team usually kill things on elite & complete it with all objectives in less than 10minutes tops.