Do you mainly f2p players use epic weapons?

This question is for people who have spent less than $100 on the game.For me at least, getting one epic has been hard enough; getting two of the same kind to level up to tier 2 is highly improbable, at the rate I'm getting them. Because all level 20 rares are better than the level 10 epic equivalent (correct me if I'm wrong), it seems that most small spenders will only use rares. So what are you guys using?

 

I have spent so far only on VIP cause i wanted to play more instead of watching ads xD

So far got only 1 epic item which was such a disappointment. An epic duct tape! And I play a defender. Although I need 2 epic item pieces more to get a Epic Wep so hoping for the best.
Right now I am just running with UC and Rares level 20 and below. But only focusing on rares now. Until I get at least 2 epics of the same item that I want. (RNGesus, we need you)

 

I'm a pure F2P player, can only rely on free, star, daily and quest chest and praying had to get epic item or pieces. Once in awhile there is epic piece for sale in the shop, make sure to grab 1. I have to use what ever most efficient rarity items I can get on hand. I got quite a number of epic items from the past 7 months of play so you just have to be patient if you want to get epic items.

If you need some reference, I sunk a lot of my free time to farm gold and pearls currently have more than 10k battles on my profile.
Tried my best to clear and collect all free chests and quest daily. I use my farmed pearls mostly to rush crew training, to me this is better than spending on premium chest for random item I might not need.
On spending on shop, I only buy the most valuable bundle of parts and maintaining to have at least 1.4 mil on hand to get an epic perks that suits my item.
Current load out using MK5 shooter with epic sniper lv 30, mine lv 20, missle lv 30, napalm lv 27, turbo lv 19. Rare standard cannot lv 40, gear lube lv 26.
Got more that 15 epic items I'm hording in my inventory for future use, will go to them only after my main items got stuck waiting for duplicate.

Hope this is of any help, happy grinding.

 

Did you get most of your epic items before global release though? Just curious if it's harder now

 

The shop system changed to what it is now after 2.0 update, that is before global release actually.
Before the update we can get a lot of epic items from shop and 150 epic star chest, but they were used to stack fuse for experience to evolve the item to make full use of the bonus.
Overall I felt that progress is about the same. Some of the top players did comment that they waited for 3 to 4 months to find a duplicate item that they require pre 2.0.