Everyone always seems so disappointed when Elites pop up in their tab...to me, that sounds like a GOOD thing...

So for the sake of my sanity, and everyone else who's probably confused, what is it you look for in an NPC run? What are some of the ideal NPCs to run across, and how do you gauge the success of the run?

The planet-drop NPC's are the most sought after: T.O Troop Carriers are the most, LabPods and Blade Harvesters. Mny people also look for the 2 mission starting NPc's: Caelon and the Silithion Hybrid Larvae.

The reason most don't like elites are because it doesn't take long to get all the drops, and you end up with energy-sinks clogging slots on your BT until your legion can kill them

I love when I get elites as well, I think the main problem is when you get elites in all your slots and you have to wait for someone else who can see them to come online to kill them to free those slots up and in the meantime all your buffs are slowly ticking away.

It is best to hunt when you have 2 people online clearing your 3 person elites with you.

Hives might be the worst.
- drop nice modules
- most little ranks need them still so big guys ignore hives giving them a chance
- hives usually last 12-24 hours
- usually end up doing a bunch of damage to them to cover the ranks 200-250 who are hurting to lock all the elites

Xavox and XRP prototypes are lousy 3 person ones, easy enough to kill when you are big but awful when you are a little guy.

Queens and fab plants are the best, they last maybe a minute.

Superhaulers are nice, a bit chewy so when a smaller person jumps on one, it takes them 5-10 minutes to lock

Xiloy and the Telarys are also usually needed by lower ranks so these can linger a bit before the higher ranks descend upon them

Warp stations are only worth alerting in some legions, probably most legions below top 50 can't deal with them.

DCN are fun because of the caches even though the caches are super rare nowadays.

Hypers are crappy. I warp them away if i get one at the start of my hunt.

Then just about any rare you get on your tab is good.

Its nice when you replace any buffs you use during a hunt like the amp, shockpulse, and RSL

Its unfortunate when you get a bunch of the stryll trappers and they keep debuffing you making you use cages.

If you are autoranking you want to see alot of the rsl things, they are great for XP

Also, if you are alerting too many elites too often, people start to get bored with them and just stop hitting them.
They start thinking "i will just hit the next one"

A good run is when your hand cramps up from all the clicking and the legion is thanking you for all your alerted elites.

I also apologize for the big post

Wow, I wholeheartedly agree with everyone on this page.

Recently I finished the Dark Smuggler Chassis mission, which costs 4k ctp. With 8k attack, most 3-4 person elites are worth the lock, especially considering most drop between 10-30 ctp each.

Personally, I don't consider a run a success unless I replace all the buffs I use, and if I choose to use a e-refill, then it is only a success if I get at least one planet upgrade unit. I have the mission exotic, so I no longer really need troop carriers. I find the toxic purifiers and data optimizers more desirable. Credits are nice to have, esp if you need to upgrade or redesign planets.

Plus I agree with everything in the nice long list above.

^^^
quite relevent...

Very

I would have to say once you get to a VERY high rank, that it's only the Nexus's and Fab's that mean a lot, Granted the energy is nice, but they have extreme energy bars that 100 energy isn't gonna do much in proportion to their whole energy bar.