It's kind of disgusting how fast you gear your character out, but like Diablo 3, the gear grind happens steadily but then screeches to an anticlimactic halt once you start needing Division Tech to craft ilvl31, DZ50 gear. I can craft several ilvl31 items that you get patterns using Phoenix Credits with using only regular mats, which is nice, but all of my pieces are already fairly decent and the ilvl31 Sniper is a DZ recipe and requires 3 yellow Division Tech, which don't exactly drop like candy in the DZ. The amount of farming you have to do to craft one piece of shit item is such a kick in the dick. I crafted 6 of the DZ50 Sniper rifles and they were all bloody terrible compared to the PHX credit sniper recipe.
The Talent on yellow items, "Perceptive", is the only one that increases drop rates and coin drops. 25% flat increase, stacks on Scavenging. Not sure if the talent itself stacks (don't see why not, though). Though honestly Scavenging seems to do fuck-all for drop rates right now. I have nearly 200% and drop rates for me literally haven't changed, while a team mate who has no scavenging seems to get a yellow every 20 fucking minutes. #rage
BTW, if you need tips on leveling... the first Talent you should get is the XP on under Security.
After that, just go through the main missions, skip most everything else. Maybe finish a side-mission or encounter in-between that's actually on your route. Once you've actually started a mission, you can even bring in a high-level buddy who can carry you through and it doesn't impede your xp gain.
Once you reach level 30, immediately hit the DZ until everything you're wearing is capped out with good purples.
MAX OUT YOUR BASE. So many perks, talents, and skill mastery, plus the three signature skills rely on this. Should only take a day once you're level 30.
Do the daily Hard modes, even run them multiple times for an addition 15 PHX credits.
Buy the Vector 45 ACP recipe first thing. Literally everyone on my team uses this weapon now. Once you get a solid Vector roll, I'd highly suggest you start farming Lincoln Tunnel and Lexington Event Center on Challenge mode. A group of four in full yellows can clear both in 20 minutes each. Your first couple runs might take 35-40 minutes in good purples with a decent Vector, but you're guaranteed a yellow when you finish it. Each successive run I promise you will go faster and faster. Also, Lincoln Tunnel can be cheesed by using the platforms effectively, while Lexington has a few choke points where you can get pushed up a wall and bombarded with grenades, so I generally suggest Lincoln over Lexington. You'll get 50 PHX if its the daily, and 30 credits each time after that. 1 credit per minute, and a guaranteed ilvl30 yellow per run ain't bad. Fuck the General Assembly suggestion. 1 out of 4 players will get a yellow once that's finished, and it takes longer than Lincoln.
Buy the Magazine recipe for PHX credits. This will easily add 20k to your dps while doubling your magazine capacity.
Get all of the other PHX recipes.
Get level 50 in the DZ. Buy DZ ilvl31 recipes from safe houses in DZ5 and DZ6. DZ4 and under have redundant, ilvl30 recipes to the PHX recipes. There's a nice farming route in the DZ that spans between DZ1 and DZ4, and if you do it right, you're essentially running from encounter to encounter (plenty of guides online suggest the same path). Once you've got all yellows, I suggest just leaving everything on the ground except yellows if you're grinding for DZ50. Taking time to extract consumes a ton of valuable XP gain.