That's really the only solution to the badness that is Tera Online. The grind in that game is fucking miserable and boring.
EDIT: FTL made me cry, today. It was only, like, one tear, but omg that game.
I unlocked the Red-Tail today, and in sector 5 I had a human gold-star pilot, a human gold-star shield engineer, a zoltan gold-star engineer, a mantis gold-star gunner, two rock gold-star close-combat fighters, and even a fresh mantis recruit. I had maxed shields, level 4 engines, a drone system with a system repair and defense droids, a hull repair droid in storage for repairs between shops, Engi Med-bots, a scrap recovery arm, and long-range sensors. My weapons kinda sucked, but just a little, and I was often still able to punch through level 3 shields with them.
By sector 7, over half my crew was dead, I was down to 10 hull points, and I was out of drone parts to repair my ship, and it all started because of a bullshit Rebel Fighter that instantly jumped away RIGHT when it's 10-health pilot walked into the cockpit my rock fighters were wrecking for the second time, after it had been repaired slightly after I completely destroyed it earlier in the fight.