Thing is, overnight I drop to anywhere from 20 to upper 30s, which is pretty close to the upper end of your range. If I hadn't been investing in ships I would fall farther and would have a harder time recovering. So yes, I believe I can make a statement of the differing levels of competition on our fleet shards. Also, you say you only see 4-5*, but you're not top 20 (and unfortunately we can't see fleet arena comps from rankings yet), so how do you know that top 20 doesn't have 6-7*? Perhaps you could be top 20 by just having all 4-5* ships (speculative, not accusative)?
The difference in fleet tokens isn't much on any one day, but every 4 days going to top 20 instead of top 100 (around 50, this assuming you still only get top 50 at payout on 5/5 days) you get an extra shipment (of non-gear/ability mats). That will add up over time. You also get additional ship credits per reward tier, albeit a somewhat small amount. That said, yes, they made fleet arena rewards far less incentivizing for anything but the top 10 and the bottom 200+. Which I suppose is a good thing, cause it means you don't have to be top 10 to get a decent token/crystal count like in squad arena. Maybe the extra shipments over time won't add up to much, but it's still extra rewards while helping you maintain (or increase) your relative strength, putting you in a better position to adjust to changes in your shard's competitiveness.
Yes, I said that people would care about ships a month ago, and those that I talk to most of the time do care about ships. Apparently that cannot be said for the majority of players, which is really a shame because ships are a lot of fun and offer a depth of strategy that regular battles lack. However, neither one of us knows when that apathy will change. Maybe it never will, but I doubt that. Eventually something is more than likely going to come along (raids, normal battles, events, something) that will require higher stars on ships. When that happens, people around you will be working to get their ships up. Yes, at that point so would you, but then you're at the same position as they are instead of being slightly ahead to maintain an advantage. Not to mention having to strengthen your ships at that point would potentially leave you hurting in whatever was added (either ships aren't high enough stars or just not strong enough to complete a battle). Already having strong, or at least middle strength, ships would be a good hedge against that happening.
We don't know any of these timelines - when more zeta abilities (that we care about) are being released, when new ships are being released, when more activities related to ships will be released (and what they'll require), when people will start to care about ships (probably when more stuff happens with them). So, your snark is correct in that I was wrong about this past month having people that care about ships. But since we don't know when they will start caring, or what we'll need ship star levels for, it is my belief that being ahead of the curve, even if only by 1 or 2 stars, is a safe hedge against whatever comes.
----------
Bit of math (feeling better today): Assuming all your 3-4* ships have no blueprints toward their next star (unlikely given 4 blueprints per shipment), you would need 95 blueprints for your 3* ships and 65 blueprints for your 4* ships (5* being the target simply because that gets you zeta challenge with the right comp and is in my opinion a decent middle ground for now). Because shipments are sets of 4, that's ceiling(95/4)=24 and ceiling(65/4)=17, respectively. If I assume (since I don't know your complete layout) that half of your ships are 3* and half are 4* (while you use your one 5* too), then you need 3x24 + 3x17 = 123 shipments x 400 tokens = 49,200. However, those can be both GW and fleet tokens, so let's say you split them in half (if we pretend you care about ships :tongue: ).
49200 / 2 = 24600
24600 / 1200(GW) = 20.5 days
24600 / 1275(average top 50/100 fleet) = 19.3 days
So, you could have your entire fleet to 5* in 3 weeks. In that time, you would be giving up between 185 and 220 salvage:
24600 / 550 = 44.7 -> 44 * 5 = 220 salvage
24600 / 650 = 37.8 -> 37 * 5 = 185 salvage
Assuming a 25% drop rate (some say 20%, some say 30%, but 25% is what I've observed from all of my recorded attempts), that's anywhere from 311 to 463 energy per day (most likely somewhere in between):
185 / .25 = 740 * 8 = 5920 energy / 19 days = 311.6 energy/day (minimum energy per piece)
220 / .25 = 880 * 10 = 8800 energy / 19 days = 463.2 energy/day (maximum energy per piece, at least for g8/9 which is where I'm at right now)
If you were to instead spend those fleet tokens on gear, you'd essentially be adding 387 "average" energy per day toward your gearing attempts. However, you would also extend your "ships to 5*" time frame to 6 weeks, and that's assuming you don't save some GW tokens for ally points for a tournament. We're not quite at 6 weeks yet (this upcoming Tuesday), so you'd be accessing zeta challenge mid-February at best. Yes, in that time you will have acquired 440 salvage from fleet shipments, but you risk being behind opponents in fleet arena (again, we don't know when this apathy will wear off or when new features/reasons to care will be introduced).
----------
I'm not sure 8-9 pieces of 50-count purple gear over 6 weeks is worth falling behind in not only fleet arena (if you're seeing 4-5* ships already think what you'll see in double the time from launch) but also fleet potential with respect to unknown upcoming features. Alternatively, I believe having GW tokens to spare on ally points for tournaments after a couple weeks of ships focus, as well as only missing 4 pieces of 50-count purple gear (which may not even be a full piece, like the Mk 5 Furnace, so it's not even guaranteed to be 4/6 toward another gear level), is an acceptable cost to focusing on ships first. It's the end of the year - odds weren't very high that new ships-related stuff would be added with the holidays and everything. But the next 6 weeks will be the start of the year - no major holidays, no special season, etc. I would think chances are pretty high that we'll be seeing new features for ships before the 6 weeks are up.
