They need to do something to jumpstart MEA MP

They killed MEA MP in the first place. Ive zero incentive to play for reduced rewards on something that was already a grind to begin with.

Improving the drop rate. Of ultra rares would help I am certain

we aint coming back..

Just needs more maps and a few tweaks on enemy stats. As for the drop rates, its pretty easy to get stuffs if you do it right. Don't buy higher level boxes until you have maxed the previous tier. I have maxed bronze, maxed silver, and now I'm working on gold drops. The wrong way to do it is "saving up" for an expensive box and hoping RNG works in your favour. I've scored top in gold matches a few times with Tier X silver gear. Just because a weapon is Gold/N7 rank doesn't always make it "good" for your play-style.

All I have been doing is just leveling the starter characters and working out a kit for each one. It's not that hard with a decent team / good host.

for me i'm already at the point where the only thing i can open is N7 UR items.  Every other card turn now is just a blue consumable card.  I've maxed all the common, uncommon, and rares (including the S weapons and Reegar Lagbine.  So all I need to get upgrades for now are the U7 Ultra rare weapons and characters.  I had already done the route of the way to open boxes.. maxing the lowest to highest boxes first.

I've noticed it doesn't hurt to open one once in a while. I've gotten the Kineticist, A couple architect levels, and the insurgent among other things doing so. I just wish there were some good assault rifles.

Cyclone / Zalkin (post patch) / Revenant / Mattock / Halberd are all good AR's. The sandstorm intially is lackluster compared to a carnifex pistol, the SD requires 3-4 shots average that the carnifex can do in 2 and in less time. So some require leveling before they get in to the "good" range.