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Ship loadout and survival
lame22334
Member Posts: 174 Arc User
in The Academy
Anyone got any advice they can shoot my way? ive had issues with ship surviability. Some ships i put together can just take a pounding..my tellarite carrier literally cant die...yet anytime i seem to load out an escort..take my new engineering lethean ship its literally a glass cannon. I pile on the best shields i can..max em out to 14...put shield boosters on...yet...one or two hits down go the shields and boom.
When i do borg red alert i do awesome dmg but soon as something tunks me my shields drop and i get fried. Now i know borg have that ability to shut down shields....but am i doing something wrong?
if theres a guide someone id appreciate a link to that as well.
Thanks either way.
When i do borg red alert i do awesome dmg but soon as something tunks me my shields drop and i get fried. Now i know borg have that ability to shut down shields....but am i doing something wrong?
if theres a guide someone id appreciate a link to that as well.
Thanks either way.
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By now there are various decent sources of hull resists that will boost your survivability quite a bit. Generally 1 or 2 fleet consoles won't hurt (too much), a good number of healing powers also boost your resists temporarily and there's also a sh*tload of space & ship traits which help you in that department.
I for one never leave the ground without a Conductive RCS Accelerator [ResAll] and the nukara defensive trait on my ship.
All that aside generally cruisers have the highest hp modifier and decent shields while usually escorts have the worst in both categories, so that's a thing you just have to work with.
Optionally you could just go totally insane with min/maxing so you'll join the top 1% and annihilate everything on the map before they even get a chance to fire a weapon. Not gonna say it's a fun option you'll actually enjoy in the long run but it is an option.
Shield tanking is still possible, maybe not that well against borg, but science ships with their high shield modifiers, fleet shield hp boosters and hardness booster consoles, specific shield types (dyson, competitive, etc.), consumable batteries, starship traits (shield overload), boosting shield subsystem power levels when needed, tactical team boff ability to redistribute shields, doff abilities, captain skills (shield hardness).
For escorts, need to boost defense rating, by keeping throttle high, and similar ways to boost defense rating which counters accuracy but is hard-countered by certain things like torpedo spread, control, etc., although I'm least familiar with this method.
Generally, a safe strategy is to do a bit of all 3 on demand, whenever anticipating high damage or burst damage, and there's also the route of getting shield and hull healing based on damage output as mentioned by seriousdave, so when vaporizing the whole screen in high DPS teams already even that won't be all that much needed - but I agree, it might not be very fun since it's always the same thing.
Having lots of shields is nice, but ineffective against the Borg since they use a tachyon pulse to strip your shields. You need more damage resistance and increased hull capacity. Keep in mind that consoles which adds damage resistance have diminishing returns. The more consoles you add which improves your damage resistance, the less each additional console will buff your damage resistance. I believe the absolute max you can have is 75% damage resistance.
I recommend you look into the following items, none of them are locked behind the reputation system, but some can be pretty expensive on the Exchange.
- Solanae Deflector = This is from "A Step Between Stars", a rather annoying mission because you are forced to command a T5 Dyson Destroyer which cannot be customized. This will boost you hull capacity skill by 35 points, it also boosts exotic particle generator and drain expertise skills by 35 points as well. This is basically the best deflector in the game for science characters. But for you what you are really interested in is the hull capacity skill. If you use Polaron or Tetryon energy weapons then the drain boost will help as well. The Plasmatic Leech can drain more energy from energy ships, but you would still be limited to getting at most 7.5 power per subsystem.
If you get 3 out of the 4 piece Solanae set, you gain the passive ability called Structural Integrity Leech. You have a 2.5% chance of repairing hull when firing energy weapons. Not that impressive if you ask me.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Solanae_Hybrid_Technologies#Solanae_Deflector_Array
- Very Rare Neutronium Alloy Mk XIII = This is a mission reward from "Reunion" in the Delta Quadrant story arc. This can only be selected the first time you play the mission. Replays will offer lesser rewards. Neutronium Alloy gives you resistance to all types of damage. You can also craft and upgrade your own Neutronium Alloy console or simply purchase it from the Exchange.
- The Best Defense Ship Trait = The is a mission reward from "House Pegh" in the Iconian War story arc. Attack patterns (excluding Alpha) grants +25% hull healing for 10 seconds.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_The_Best_Defense
- Sol Defense (Desperate Defense) = There is a 3 piece set (there is no warp core) from "Midnight", the final mission in the Iconian War story arc. The 2 piece set bonus gives your ship +35 Kinetic Damage Resistance Rating and +25 All Energy Damage Resistance Rating. Using all three pieces gives you the Discharge Repair Nanites ability to heal hull damage to you and 4 other friendly ships. But this has a 2 minure cooldown.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Desperate_Defenses#Sol_Defense_Impulse_Engines
- Trellium-D Plating Engineering Console = From the mission "Ragnarok", the final mission in the Future Proof story arc. This gives you energy & kinetic damage resistance and it also increases hull & shield capacity.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_Engineering_-_Trellium-D_Plating
- Reinforced Armaments Mk XII = This is from "Beyond the Nexus", I believe Cryptic moved this mission into the New Frontiers story arc. It boosts hull restoration and also hull capacity.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trilithium-Laced_Weaponry#Console_-_Engineering_-_Reinforced_Armaments
- Conductive RCS Accelerator = This is a crafted console which can be purchased from the Exchange. This is basically a RCS Accelerator that can also give you a turn rate boost and shield resistance when you heal your ship. Ultra rare versions will have a mod which can make this a very expensive console depending on what mod it has.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_Engineering_-_Conductive_RCS_Accelerator
For more hull capacity you want the [HP] mod; I have no idea how much is would cost, but I think 10 million EC (on the PC) is in the ballpark. For resistance that is basically the same as Neutronium Alloy you want the [Resall] mod. This is the version that I have on nearly all my characters. However, it is not cheap... as of last night an ultra rare Conductive RCS Accelerator Mk XII [Resall] was selling for 30 million EC.
- Exotic Particle Field Exciter = Another crafted console which can be purchased on the Exchange. It is basically a combo of a Field Generator which increases your shield capacity, and Exotic Particle Generator which increases exotic partical damage. It also provides +10 weapon power when you heal your ship. The ultra rare version has a mod; the same selection of mods that the Conductive RCS Accelerator can have.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_Science_-_Exotic_Particle_Field_Exciter
The [Resall] mod is not as desirable on this console. Ultra rare Exotic Particle Field Exciter Mk XII [Resall] were selling for as low as 18 million EC as of last night.
One thing, though, don't get Neutroniums: they're TRIBBLE. Rather, if you need extra resists, slot consoles that offer dmg resistance as a bonus. Because you need to understand that 'DPS tanking' is still one of the best ways to get the job done (aka, kill everything before they get the chance to kill you). So, if you just load up on armor resist consoles -- contrary to what you may perhaps think -- your weakened DPS only makes it harder on you.
Also, If I may impart some of my modest wisdom on you, I've found that high resists don't need to be present permanently. I get by, hovering around 35%-38% on my Escorts, and have several contingency plans in place for emergencies. Like 'Brace for Impact' *with* a purple doff to extend the dmg resists from Kinetic to Energy too. Or (a bit fancier) the Power Redistribution Module, for some insane temporary resists. And, last, but not least, 'Go Down Fighting' (Tact Captains only. Engineers, for instance, can use Engineering Team). Aux2Dampeners leaps to mind too.
Tl;dr: be prepared for emergencies, and don't treat the entire battle as an emergency.
1. Honoured Dead trait from the exchange - right now 318k for feds
2. Aux to damp 1 plus a blue anti-matter doff that boost duration and adds damage resistance for energy weapons, for Feds 500k.
Simplistic answer but it will work and nothing expensive involved.
Carry Hull Patches. Crafted in Engineering R&D or buy in Exchange. Check in with the crafting person in your Fleet if you have one.
Click on it when you need a hull boost.....fits in Devices.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Battery_-_Hull_Patch
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