I think my issue with the Mkraan legendary is that the images on the web don't have a spirit regen proc at level 5, hence it looked slightly useless to me. If it's different in game I'll probably convert the grungir over when I'm next on. Thanks very much for responding!
(Although how I'll ever actually get to rank 5 on a legendary is beyond me. That's like going from level 59 to 60 100 times...).
Yep, verify in game and you'll see what I'm talking about. By no means am I saying that Gung isn't a completely viable option for Star-Lord, since it's always a good default choice for just about every character. It's just that Star-Lord has significant health and spirit issues that Gung doesn't address, but Mkraan does.
Mkraan was buffed fairly recently which is why the screen captures you see online don't feature the changes. As far as getting it leveled to five, don't think about it. Just play the game and it will happen naturally. I played a great deal during a week off from work and it happened. I was admittedly rocking a great number of experience boosts, so your progress may differ significantly. The level five proc is massive in that it gives you strong spirit regen (and also dishes out 200K of extra free damage every 20 seconds, but LOL). You'll get there eventually and it will be a game changer, but even the initial 200 spirit gained is big.
And yes, the systems are confusing and overwhelming as hell. Apologies for my constant questions here and in game, but it's really not intuitive. Even basic stuff like terminals, and killing trash in cosmic terminals for bonus chests is *not* immediately obvious.
I took two long breaks from the game and was pretty overwhelmed when I returned. New features included: omega points, runewords, blessings, legendaries, character synergies, team ups, prestiging, relics, a raid mode, legendary quests, difficulty levels, the death of Limbo (RIP, haha), Midtown Madness, X-Defense, Holo Sim, weekly events, lots of new currencies, daily quests, etc. That's not even counting a ton of new characters that had been released in the interim.
It's basically an entirely new game. There's so many different systems to learn, and very little of it strikes me as intuitive to a new player. I don't think Gaz realizes the learning curve associated with the game, especially when most of their patches and game tuning seem to be based around making the game accessible and easy for new players. Hint: the game play is easy, the underlying systems are anything but.
Luckily, we have a good group of friendly people in the super group who are willing to help. We also have Kepow. Don't believe his lies about Metallica, soccer, or Thing.
Any whose, in terms of general upgrades - given I don't have endless time to play, what's my best options for getting those upgrades I need now? Daily shared quests, chain running cosmic terminals, Xavier defense?
There really isn't an optimal path towards upgrades. I'm running a crap top of RIF and SIF bonuses and still not always getting ideal drops. The best advice I can give you in terms of priorities with limited time would be:
1) Run the three daily quests if possible, since they give you demonfire eyes that will be useful to upgrade your items to raid tier levels in the future. They grant the same (but fewer) of these than running an actual raid, but you'll want them long-term. Once you buy a certain recipe, you can use it on all your different characters to upgrade their uniques from my understanding.
2) If you need Odin marks to purchase a legendary or blessings on your artifacts, run legendary quests. As many as you can stand. Notionally, any time you level up an alt (and you should, it's fun!) you will be running these from levels 20-60. In other words, you'll naturally accumulate large quantities of Odin marks. I have 7 x level 60 characters, which has allowed me to equip three different characters with legendaries, and my main with fully blessed artifacts. Legendary quests are the best way to get these.
3) If you are looking for specific uniques or artifacts, they are almost assuredly general drop items that you can get anywhere. I find X-Defense and Holo Sim good options, since you end up killing a metric ton of enemies and bosses, and that tends to give you plenty of chances for item drops. There are specific uniques and artifacts that only drop from specific bosses, so those you would have to purposefully farm.
4) Cosmic terminals. Personally, I don't find myself doing these all that often but they are certainly viable. If you want a specific item like GoK, then you have to farm Cosmic Kurse. The same holds true if you are looking for a particular medallion, since it will only drop off that particular boss. One area where cosmic terminals do shine is helping you better how you play as a character. If you are playing them solo, they tend to be of a similar challenge level than raid bosses. You can stand around and bang away on a cosmic boss; you have to move to avoid damage, adjust to boss mechanics, and manage resource sustainability. They are great training tools, if nothing else.
(BoyLate can be kicked).