This is based on the assumption you want max level gear.
Now, to explain that in detail, let me provide my general playstyle. I'd consider myself a casual player. Before the update, I would play Elite (the old Elite, now Advanced) STFs for drops and gear. My main, Sara, was at pretty much the tip of the gearing iceberg, short of Fleet Gear which is an insane investment for very little benefit unless you must have the best of the best gear. But unless you're running at higher difficulties, it's not required for the old end game.
With the new endgame, you have Normal (Casual), Advanced (Some gear), and Elite (Top Gear, lots of coordination). These roughly break down to being able to do the easier CoX task forces (Positron, Sister Psyche, any of the "beat through missions and tank and spank the last boss" ones, really), the harder CoX task forces (Imperious pre-Incarnates, Lady Grey) and the top tier Task Forces and Trials (Apex, Tin Mage, Minds of Mayhem. Stuff with mechanics that require attention and coordination or you'll wipe).
With the various patches that've begun debuffing the enemy HP totals and such in PVE, the game is slowly coming back to where it was after a brief jump where the devs seemed to think their new T6 ships would utterly break the game. But the simple fact of the matter is that I only have 1 mission reward Mk XIII piece of gear on Sara, and she's up to level 54 already. I'm kinda waiting for them to balance out the grind, as the story mission rewards of XP are deliberately designed to give you "break periods" of doing other repeatable content to level up before you can do the next storyline. The grind was a bit boring, so I went back to TOR to wait for them to fix it up. But the game hasn't changed that much. I'm just waiting for them to figure out how to rebalance around their new level cap, which is always a wait and see process.
Mechanics wise? I bought the Delta pack, so I've got T6 ships, but I've also played with T5-U ships, and the difference isn't too terribly much unless you want to use the new Intel specialties. The critical thing that graphic doesn't tell you? Unless you have a pathological need to have max gear on everything? Getting it is pointless. Get Mk XII gear, the top tier before the level cap increase? You'll be fine for story content, and Advanced STFs are only required if you absolutely must have the latest Reputation Gear set. Which is only necessary if you want to do the higher difficulty content like Advanced with the bonus objectives, or the Hardest of the Hard Elite difficulty.
Yeah, the realization that you had to grind gear to get the gear to do the grind to get the gear that lets you do the new grind... if you're just looking for story content? Then those graphs don't mean anything. You can get through the story content with Mk XII gear or whatever Mk XIII drops you get from story rewards and drops. The grind to Mk XIV everything? That's a time and effort sink. I don't play STO just to have the dick waving cred of having all purple gear of the highest quality (especially since Ultraviolet and Epic just got introduced on top of that). If I like a new ship, I'll buy it. Otherwise? I'm not in a hurry.
STO didn't ruin the game for anyone other than the 100% completionists who must have the best gear because it's the best gear. Everyone else just got slowed down a little.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
Now, to explain that in detail, let me provide my general playstyle. I'd consider myself a casual player. Before the update, I would play Elite (the old Elite, now Advanced) STFs for drops and gear. My main, Sara, was at pretty much the tip of the gearing iceberg, short of Fleet Gear which is an insane investment for very little benefit unless you must have the best of the best gear. But unless you're running at higher difficulties, it's not required for the old end game.
With the new endgame, you have Normal (Casual), Advanced (Some gear), and Elite (Top Gear, lots of coordination). These roughly break down to being able to do the easier CoX task forces (Positron, Sister Psyche, any of the "beat through missions and tank and spank the last boss" ones, really), the harder CoX task forces (Imperious pre-Incarnates, Lady Grey) and the top tier Task Forces and Trials (Apex, Tin Mage, Minds of Mayhem. Stuff with mechanics that require attention and coordination or you'll wipe).
With the various patches that've begun debuffing the enemy HP totals and such in PVE, the game is slowly coming back to where it was after a brief jump where the devs seemed to think their new T6 ships would utterly break the game. But the simple fact of the matter is that I only have 1 mission reward Mk XIII piece of gear on Sara, and she's up to level 54 already. I'm kinda waiting for them to balance out the grind, as the story mission rewards of XP are deliberately designed to give you "break periods" of doing other repeatable content to level up before you can do the next storyline. The grind was a bit boring, so I went back to TOR to wait for them to fix it up. But the game hasn't changed that much. I'm just waiting for them to figure out how to rebalance around their new level cap, which is always a wait and see process.
Mechanics wise? I bought the Delta pack, so I've got T6 ships, but I've also played with T5-U ships, and the difference isn't too terribly much unless you want to use the new Intel specialties. The critical thing that graphic doesn't tell you? Unless you have a pathological need to have max gear on everything? Getting it is pointless. Get Mk XII gear, the top tier before the level cap increase? You'll be fine for story content, and Advanced STFs are only required if you absolutely must have the latest Reputation Gear set. Which is only necessary if you want to do the higher difficulty content like Advanced with the bonus objectives, or the Hardest of the Hard Elite difficulty.
Yeah, the realization that you had to grind gear to get the gear to do the grind to get the gear that lets you do the new grind... if you're just looking for story content? Then those graphs don't mean anything. You can get through the story content with Mk XII gear or whatever Mk XIII drops you get from story rewards and drops. The grind to Mk XIV everything? That's a time and effort sink. I don't play STO just to have the dick waving cred of having all purple gear of the highest quality (especially since Ultraviolet and Epic just got introduced on top of that). If I like a new ship, I'll buy it. Otherwise? I'm not in a hurry.
STO didn't ruin the game for anyone other than the 100% completionists who must have the best gear because it's the best gear. Everyone else just got slowed down a little.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."