Quote Originally Posted by Psyren View Post
EDIT with question: How necessary are the factions? Is that something I should be doing yesterday, or does it matter if I wait a bit longer to decide?
I would recommend starting the Syndicates sooner rather than later due to the Mastery Rank based standing cap (you can earn up to (MR+1)*1000 standing with syndicates every day). If you hit the cap for the Syndicate rank, it's not an issue as you can just sit there until you can afford the sacrifice, but rushing standing is hard to do without Syndicate Medallions or a high MR.

I agree with Wraith that the Syndicate weapons are fantastic - the Vaykor Marelok got me around the starchart and is only MR6 while the Vaykor Hek (MR12) just scrapes out the Hek with Scattered Justice with end-game level mods.

@Wraith: the only MR14 equipment these days is the Euphona Prime; Syndicate weapons have been rebalanced so that secondaries are MR6, melees are MR8 while primaries are MR12.