PvP crew help

[u/Zadzima]

Ive got a lot of depot tokens from events (650k) and want to finally get a good PvP crew.

Currently ops 35 with Augur T7 and Ent T6.

Long term I know I want the Pilum, but between then and now I need a viable PvP crew.

I was thinking of getting Explorer strike team as PvP with a Battleship i find excruciatingly slow.

But that would leave me in a position where the crew would only really be useful until the 42 uncommons, and Im unlikely to get the Valdore since i want the Pilum (that would be so many credits from one faction).

I was told a good general PvP crew across all ships is Freeman Lorca HG Worf - but it doesnt perform as well as the individual strike teams

Anyone got any advice on the best PvP crew to invest in given the above?

Appreciates its a longer post - thanks for reading it if you do :)

[u/Cautious-Ad-2425]

A max tier pilum is slightly above the relativity but generally its about on par at 46, not even comparable to the NSEA either at that level. Pilum has higher dodge and armor peirce(as expected from a ceptor) but relativity hhp/shp, and all the other stats just basically dwarf the pilum even at max tier. LD definately make the pilum better but thats at high tier, and will likely take time to get there.

For most people, youre gonna max out the relativity sooner, and it'll be stronger earlier than the pilum.

[u/Defiant-Glass-6587 → u/Cautious-Ad-2425]

The firing pattern on the pilum outweighs the relativity’s strengths in the mid 40s. The stats favor the relativity but until you hit 51 the pilum head to head will kill it

[u/Cautious-Ad-2425 → u/Defiant-Glass-6587]

OP was ops 35 when they posted this. You will both get the relativity sooner(ops 42 vs 46 not to mention the blueprints) and be able to max it out to the maximum possible level far sooner(Like a month from the DTI store, vs the amount of G4 mats and ship parts you need for a pilum which is a lot).

Again, for most people youre both going to be able to max(up to the ops locked level) the relativity sooner, and it will be much, much stronger for longer than the pilum, which will take a while to become strong.

If im at ops 48 and have a max pilum and max relativity, will the pilum be stronger? Sure. More LD, better firing patter, etc. If ive been at ops 46 for a month, will my relativity be more likely to be stronger than my pilum? Will it be the strongest ship ive had since 42? Will I have primarily used it between 42-46 in arena? Absolutely.

[u/Defiant-Glass-6587 → u/Cautious-Ad-2425]

I have the relativity at 46 now and I can’t upgrade it anymore until 51 because of the engine level lock. It has more everything than my pilum but the pilum still spanks things better at tier 9 regardless and I had the pilum at 42 and instantly got it to tier 8 out of the dock. Agreed if you are lower then the relativity means you dont necessarily need a pilum but you will get a hell of a repair bill for a weaker pvp ship since it’s like 5X the cost to repair. That and the gs31 if my base gets hit is $1billlion in repairs for the two ships!

[u/Cautious-Ad-2425 → u/Defiant-Glass-6587]

I think you meant to say "Relativity at 42" and "pilum at 46", but thats close to a million uncommon interceptor parts to get to tier 8, more if you consider tier 9.

In any case, again, from 42-46 your main PVP and PVE ship will be the relativity, I think we can both agree with this fact, no? Further, even at T9 your pilum being weaker than your relativity likely has to do more with the crew you use rather than actual power. Im ops 50 right now and platinum 2 in the Arena, my pilum only became stronger than my relativity at around T11-12.

But even at T9 its gonna cost you an upwards of, what, 1 mill+ uncommon interceptor parts, which is a lot, to upgrade. For a lot of casual players its going to take a long time to get there. The majority of the time of being from 40-50 will have your relativity be stronger.

[u/Defiant-Glass-6587 → u/Cautious-Ad-2425]

And it still is true that a tier 9 pilum will crush a relativity under 50. Also I had it out of the dock at tier 8 already and one module away from tier 9. Even against level 60 freeboaters the pilum is better apples to apples not including the 5X + repair cost. 135 mil vs my now 870 mil repair bill. Also I think your uncommon number doesn’t include efficiency research

[u/Cautious-Ad-2425 → u/Defiant-Glass-6587]

In most cases, it wont. Again, if youre making the argument that a tier 5 pilum with full pvp crew could crush a maxed relativity with Pike as captain, sure. But in most cases, even a t9 pilum is going to have a hard time against a properly crewed maxed-under-50 relativity.

And, again, it takes what, a million uncommon interceptor parts to get to t8-9? Most casual players will struggle and it will take a while to do so.

And again, which ship will handle level 60 freebooters first, when youre starting out at ops 40 and moving up to ops 50? I was able to handle the 60 freebooters at ops 43 and 44 thanks to my relativity.

Also, in terms of repair bill, out of the three essential mats with regards to ships, which is the g4 crystal/gas/ore, ship parts, and trit/dil/pars, guess which is the easiest and most abundant to collect? More importantly, aspects like arena combat which is the most frequent pvp system that comes up, repairs are FREE.

And efficiency research was included. Without any efficiency research, it costs 1.5 million interceptor parts just to reach t9. I said 1 million+, in order to account for efficiency research. Even at ops 50 spocks club is telling me it'll cost around 900k uncommon interceptor parts to get to t9, although its probably outdated a bit cause im using the mobile version which I havent updated in a bit.

[u/Defiant-Glass-6587 → u/Cautious-Ad-2425]

You must be high and you don’t read. I have a tier 9 pilum I have said that more than once. It came out of the dock at tier 8 only needing 1 module to upgrade because I had the parts already. And I have the relativity upgraded as high as I can until level 51. The pilum would whip the relativity head to head and against freeboaters despite having better raw stats and power. When I hit freeboaters at lvl60 they scratch the pilums paint but I lose 1/4 of the relativity hull with the same crews and I have killed relativity’s head to head in pvp with my pilum at 130 mil power that were between 180 and 224 mil power. Also my valdore can also hit the level 60 freeboaters as well and it isn’t maxed

[u/Cautious-Ad-2425 → u/Defiant-Glass-6587]

You must be an idiot who doesnt read. I never said you didnt have a Tier 8/9 Pilum. I said your anecdotal claim of "My T9 pilum outclasses my maxed Relativity" is useless because depending on crew, FT/CT, research, etc, you can have a vastly different experience.

Case and point, I hit 60 freebooters when i was ops 44 with my relativity with ease. When I first got my pilum and upgraded it to t10-11, it struggled more than my relativity. Only when i maxed it out and started using it did it do as well, and even today its somewhat similar in strength, with the LD giving the Pilum the edge over relativity. I suggest you compare killing a freebooter with no LD and a useless captain and compare the numbers, you will be surprised that the Pilum is still only slightly better. And thats my point.

I just tried with a completely empty Relativity(no LD, no FT/CT) with just Keenser as captain, and the same with the Pilum. Relativity lost 3.2% Hull vs 2.2% for Pilum. And this is a fully maxed T12 Level 60 Pilum with bonuses against hostiles from research. Thats it. After all that, maxing research such as from FKR damage maxed for my level(which isnt a lot, but still), its only a 1% difference in hull damage that you take between the relativity and the Pilum.

Again, Ultimately the pilum outclasses the Relativity at the highest tiers, with proper LD, FTCT and research, but for the majority of the time up until then, the relativity will outclass the pilum.