Thoughts on the Beginner SOE Epic Arc -- The Blood-Stained Stars

While I'm waiting on skills to train, I decided to spend some time working up my faction and loyalty points for Sisters of EVE.  I like their ships and would like to be able to obtain one or more of them through the loyalty points store eventually.  With my particular part of the galaxy being light on Level 1 SOE Agents, one of my primary goals starting out was to get my standing with SOE up to 1.0 so that I can use the relatively closer Level 2 SOE Agents.  I thus decided to try out the SOE Epic Arc The Blood-Stained Stars, and have since finished it.  Without giving anything significant away, here are some thoughts on it:

Difficulty Level is Low

I completed the entire arc pretty easily using a Destroyer with mediocre skills.  Only the final mission gave me any difficulty, but a few rearrangements of my Destroyer fit and I was good.

Standing Increases Are Good And Bad

Individual missions you do for the SOE agents give you decent standing increases for someone who otherwise only has access to Level 1 agents.  The increases for completed SOE agent missions in the arc is often close to 0.5 +/- 0.2.  However, several large parts of the arc send you to agents in other corporations.  While you are working those missions, you get standing increases for those other corporations and not for SOE, which sucks.  It really brings down the average standing increase per mission, but I think it's still better than just doing regular Level 1 missions (I did a couple of Level 1 missions that only gave me 0.1 standing increase). 

For the whole epic arc, I got a cumulative standing increase of just above 1.0 with a Social skill level of 2.  These missions do count towards the bonus standing missions that occur every 16 missions or so. 

No Loyalty Points

Sadly, you do not get loyalty points for the epic arc.

Lots of Travel

This Epic Arc send you traveling about on multiple occasions.  It's not a bad idea to use a relatively quick ship and be prepared to be away from your home base for an extended time.  Take extra ammo and supplies that you don't want to have to buy on the road.

In Closing...

All in all, I enjoyed the arc.  It got me above 1.0 standing which was my goal in doing it (outside of just having fun, but that's always a given).  If you are looking for loyalty points or just like staying close to home, this arc might not be for you.  If you are looking for standing increase, it's probably only worth it if you currently only have access to Level 1 agents.  But if neither of those situations apply, then you might give it a go.

Have fun!