Has anyone reached Duke or Rear Admiral without grinding?

[Viking84]

As I sit here at HIP 10716 waiting for Cut the Power missions I have some time to think... has anyone actually reached one of the level 12 ranks (Duke, Rear Admiral) for either navy without grinding of some kind? As far as I can tell just playing regularly, taking missions here and there for the right power, will require an extreme amount of time to get you anywhere.

So - have you reached the higher navy ranks without grinding, and if so: how many hours have you played, and what where you doing?

 

[Flash_Baggins]

I have reached Marquis without a single bit of a grind- whenever Im in Empire space Im offered a naval mission (mostly because of the fact I participated in a lot of the Cemiess exploration CG's and with that sold a lot of data, boosting my rep a lot)

 

[Forlorn]

Back in 1.2, I got to Rear Admiral just by running the heck out of the Pirate Lord missions. I really miss them...

Edit: I don't consider that a grind, 'cause I ran them for fun not a rep reward.

 

[Viking84]

Should have clarified - looking for people who have ranked up most of their stuff after the 2.0 nerf

 

[Rado]

Elite and no grind? Blasphemy!

 

[happyfunball]

Depends on your definition of "grind". I didn't just do one type of mission from one station if that's what you mean. I did have a few systems (e.g.: Cemiess, LTT 9810) that I would reset to when I run out of missions because they have all Empire aligned factions. For the most part I took delivery, smuggling, and courier missions with occasional kill n pirates and donations as they pop. I ranked up after 1.5/2.0 from Viscount to Duke this way.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

All my Fed ranks and some some Empire Ranks came from "old times" w/o any grind. Back when occasional handing in of accumulated Bounty Vouchers also worked for your Rank Progression in the background.

But I have to admit, moving beyond Baron to Duke (well one day I might want to try a Cutter - or fulfill some important/interesting Engineer's requirements) I tried the "old ways" and quickly found out... this would have taken months. Literally.
So I went to grind most of those. Painful, but at least it worked. Won't be doing that again, though
Lore-wise, being an Independent just looking "for the keys to their Shipyard" , I was kind of okay with running a 'Donation Drive'.

Still wish the handing in of accumulated Bounty would still count, like in the old days when Navies were "primarily looking for Combat Pilots". Nowadays it doesn't seem to do anything for Ranking anymore.
Heck, I'd even scan Data Links and collect "Intel Packages" - but these don't seem to do anything at all.

PS.
I remember in the far past, we all laughed about those "Feeding the Beast" 4M Cr Donation Missions, friendly labeled "ELITE's own 419 scam"...
Gotta admit, would have liked to see one of these again

 

[Viking84]

Depends on your definition of "grind". I didn't just do one type of mission from one station if that's what you mean. I did have a few systems (e.g.: Cemiess, LTT 9810) that I would reset to when I run out of missions because they have all Empire aligned factions. For the most part I took delivery, smuggling, and courier missions with occasional kill n pirates and donations as they pop. I ranked up after 1.5/2.0 from Viscount to Duke this way.

Cool, any idea how long this took? I have been running missions for Empire factions for ages but the progress seems shockingly slow with anything but the traditional charity or ground attack stuff.

 

[Broon]

I just played the game as it came and and Admiral and King just made their way across my path.

 

[Mohrgan]

I started plying at release, I am @ V-Adm +31%, and Duke +4% without ever grinding any of the exploits. My measly 200k Cr are a testament to that. When ever I land in a station I look at the BB for charity missions, and I focus my energies on Fed related missions/tasks but, that's coming from an RP rational. But, I play often, and with focus. I don;t believe I grind, unless simply playing is the grind to you.

Time played since Nov. 18 2014 = 8w 4d 23hr = 1463 hrs total

 

[happyfunball]

Cool, any idea how long this took? I have been running missions for Empire factions for ages but the progress seems shockingly slow with anything but the traditional charity or ground attack stuff.

It took 433 missions for me to go from Viscount to Duke. Here's my raw data: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A9190BEC6015D832!160&authkey=!ALVXKFYCW2NQOf4&ithint=file,xlsx

Check out this thread for some discussions on the % rank of various types of missions: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=238522

tl;dr: Classified Data Courier, Timed Courier, and mission specific cargo deliveries (Above and Beyond, Fast and Fearless) seem to give best % increase per mission for delivery type missions. They seem to scale based on distance to target system, with 30-40ly being a sweet spot, and flattening out after that. Kill n targets seem to scale witn the number n. Advantage of ground attack missions is that you can stack them. Advantage of donations is that they're quick to complete.

 

[evoelise]

Kind of, depends on what you mean by grinding. I'm Duke (74%) & Rear Admiral (47%) just from doing missions I felt like doing as I was doing either combat or trading. Only ever done the charity missions as they came up in systems I was in already, never done the relog thing to refresh missions either.

One thing I do is find a Compromised Nav Beacon and cycle through the nearby systems as I return rearm and to pick up pirate missions for the CNB system. These missions gain you a a lot of money from combat (esp. the kill 50+ ones) and also seems to boost your rank along quite fast. YMMV.

 

[Viking84]

Thanks for the input guys Could you add your total time played to your comments? Would be interesting to see where you "naturally" get these ranks, compared to those of us who are grinding ourselves to oblivion

 

[EdzUp]

Well I am ranking in fed stuff just for doing what I love doing hunting

 

[Viking84]

I don;t believe I grind, unless simply playing is the grind to you.

No definately not, by grind I mean the "fast ranking" thread style grind where you find the one and only mission that gives the most rank and do it until you cannot stomach it any more Basically what I am currently doing at HIP 10716, stacking ground assault missions for an hour, flying for 10 minutes, then stacking again. I want that Cutter so badly....

 

[happyfunball]

Thanks for the input guys Could you add your total time played to your comments? Would be interesting to see where you "naturally" get these ranks, compared to those of us who are grinding ourselves to oblivion

I don't think that'd be a good comparison. For example, I've been logged into ED all day today (8+ hours) but only traveled a couple of stations. Been doing house chores and doing work the rest of the time. I do that a lot so my total time played (4W 5D 19H 35M) isn't really total time played. I've probably afk'ed more time than I've played by a large margin.

BTW, I am Duke (3%) and Post Captain (100%). I just haven't taken a Rear Admiral rank up yet since right now I'm flying in Empire space.

 

[Mohrgan]

No definately not, by grind I mean the "fast ranking" thread style grind where you find the one and only mission that gives the most rank and do it until you cannot stomach it any more Basically what I am currently doing at HIP 10716, stacking ground assault missions for an hour, flying for 10 minutes, then stacking again. I want that Cutter so badly....

Yeah, you have to judge against your goals. I can see being overwhelmed by a desire, but I haven't been troubled by that. In the end, I don;t even have the Cr's to buy a Cutter, or a 'Vette. That's the real price I pay for not succumbing to the grind.

 

[Bacalao]

Yes sir, all the way to rear admiral just killing pirates, delivering data, smuggling, trading. All that I needed was to know it was for the federation. It took a while but it happened and that was why it wasn't a problem, I knew it would happen, and I didn't need it to happen right now. The only reason to grind the rank is if you feel the need to have that cutter or corvette this instant, otherwise enjoy the ride and play the game because there isn't an actual need to have them.

 

[Viking84]

I don't think that'd be a good comparison. For example, I've been logged into ED all day today (8+ hours) but only traveled a couple of stations. Been doing house chores and doing work the rest of the time. I do that a lot so my total time played (4W 5D 19H 35M) isn't really total time played. I've probably afk'ed more time than I've played by a large margin.

BTW, I am Duke (3%) and Post Captain (100%). I just haven't taken a Rear Admiral rank up yet since right now I'm flying in Empire space.

Yeah I can see that being an issue - people play at different paces However, it would at least give a vague idea of what stage FDev where actually intending people to get access to these ships. Personally I have played for 420 hours (2W, 3D, 13H), and have reached Earl, 26%, with a fair bit of grinding at Cubeo and HIP 10716.

 

[Elpapo]

I did not grind for my Empire rank. It came by itself kinda "naturally", I just where sometimes smugglin... and killin at CZ/HRES on certain imperial system from time to time.

From Viscount > Count > Earl > Marquis > Duke it went really fast. I did it in like 4 hrs, by just doing two FEHU runs, picking any Empire Proggres missions that would spawn along.