OK, I'm going insane thinking about my skills. I'm sure that I read somewhere that taking them all to 9 was a waste, and to set them all to 6. However, now I can't find where I read that and I'm seeing more people posting that you *should* take them to 9.
I run alot of STF's but only Infected on Elite since it seems to be the easiest one for PUG's. Below is my ship layout and my build. The ship is a hybrid layout of the suggested stuff in the front of the thread. I seriously doubt I will change much if anything there. My main area I'd like advice on is the skills setup. The only *real* issue I have is long term survivability. I can cut through stuff no problem, but often find myself tanking for a long period of time and I just get worn down over time.
Any help would be great!
If you're happy with your build, then that's all that matters.
Not maxing the skills means you can spread them to other abilities making you a "Jack-of-All-Trades". Just be cognizant that, all things being equal, you will not be able to outperform another player in certain aspects, but outperform them in other.
For example, if you didn't max your weapon damage, someone else, all things being equal, will do more damage than you. However, your debuff or other special abilities may be better than theirs (or may even be non-existent).
EDIT: Also, looking at your build, your abilities would run outpace me in every way. My build is an all cannon build, so all of my defenses, subsystem power settings, and DPS will be higher than yours. But, I can't really support another player worth TRIBBLE. Your abilities will be more effective than mine, probably keeping you alive longer (as long as you keep your buffs up).
Again, if you're happy with what you got, stick with it.
That's kind of where I'm at. I like what I have, but am I missing more/something?
Is there something I could remove that would up my DPS, or up my shields, etc...?
I.E. Should I get rid of something like... Driver Coil and add to Shield Systems or get rid of Sensors and upgrade Weapons, and so on..
Personally, I would not invest in Driver Coil.
I haven't invested any point in it, and my Tactical Escort Retrofit can travel at warp 9.97 or something like that. Of course, I can't turn with TRIBBLE, but that doesn't really concern me in Sector Space. Driver Coil does not do anything for you in combat/orbiting space (except for reduce the power drain from full impulse, which could mean energy recovery after dropping out of full impulse).
With a MACO engine, I can travel at warp 12.49, and with the slipstream drive I can travel at warp 20.49.
I have an EPS Flow Regulator and points into the Electro-Plasma systems, so my power transfer rate has pretty good power recovery after dropping out of full impulse. Coupled with a MACO deflector dish, my power transfer rate is 279%.
I do have MACO Deflector and MACO Shields, but I'm using the Jem'Hadar Engine. I like the + Weapon Power and + Turn rate and I hope they are helping me, lol. I do spend alot of time weaving to keep broadsides and torps going all the time.
The main culprits I'm looking at are; Driver Coil, Flow Capacitors, and Graviton Generators. Possibly Starship Sensors, if it's not increasing the damage of my Fire on My Mark.
I could care less about Sector Space speed, I have nothing for Flow Capacitors as far as I can tell, and I rarely use my Tractor Beam.
The main culprits I'm looking at are; Driver Coil, Flow Capacitors, and Graviton Generators. Possibly Starship Sensors, if it's not increasing the damage of my Fire on My Mark.
I could care less about Sector Space speed, I have nothing for Flow Capacitors as far as I can tell, and I rarely use my Tractor Beam.
He has dumped some points into threat control, leave that one at 0 also and put those points elsewhere. I'm avoiding posting my own skills setup but the following is pretty close.
I do have MACO Deflector and MACO Shields, but I'm using the Jem'Hadar Engine. I like the + Weapon Power and + Turn rate and I hope they are helping me, lol. I do spend alot of time weaving to keep broadsides and torps going all the time.
The main culprits I'm looking at are; Driver Coil, Flow Capacitors, and Graviton Generators. Possibly Starship Sensors, if it's not increasing the damage of my Fire on My Mark.
I could care less about Sector Space speed, I have nothing for Flow Capacitors as far as I can tell, and I rarely use my Tractor Beam.
I'll check out that link and be back!
My weapon subsystem is 125/90. If you don't have the Assimilated Console from the Assimilation mission, I recommend getting it. It gives +5 to your weapon system. I do not recommend trying to have overflow in your weapon system past 125, as it won't provide you any extra benefits.
In your skill planner, you didn't check your abilities that you use, so I checked them all and looked for the skills that had stars on them.
1) Driver Coil is only benefiting tractor beam. If you don't think you use tractor beam that much, you could ditch it.
2) Flow capacitors is only benefiting tractor beam. However, if you decide to go with a 2-piece Omega set, this is supposed to help with your Tetryon Glider damage.
3) Graviton Generators is benefiting tractor beam and fleet support. Same suggestion as the Driver Coil.
4) Starship Sensors is only benefiting Fire On My Mark. I use this ability, but I don't have any points in Starship Sensors, so I don't know how much more this skill contributes to it. However, it's pretty good on it's own.
I was rebuilding mine when you posted that and your second link is almost a dead copy of what I was doing, only he focuses on Projectile since he's a Cannon build where mine is Energy since I'm Beams.
I'm coming to the same conclusions. Tractor Beam doesn't help my Defense or Offense. Fleet Support is something that's OK, but most times if I use it, I'm about to die and it's a desperate grab. Fire on My Mark, I'm thinking the DPS I lose from dropping Sensors will be made up, and then some, by increasing points in 3 weapons categories, attack patterns, and targeting.
I was rebuilding mine when you posted that and your second link is almost a dead copy of what I was doing, only he focuses on Projectile since he's a Cannon build where mine is Energy since I'm Beams.
!
Cannons are considered energy weapons. Only torpedoes and mines are considered projectiles. Ramming Speed, Abandon Ship, torps, and mines are also considered kinetic.
So my question is why do you have 3 copies of CSV? You should only need 2 to be able to cycle it. Maybe drop one, get APO1 (for a tractor beam counter) and drop APB2 to APB1?
'cause I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. APO1 is a good idea, but I don't want to give up APB2 to do it and I have Polarize Hull to counter tractor beams. So far the best defense has been offense. They may get a tractor beam on me, but not until they're about to die. The only time Polarize Hull didn't work was when I didn't pop EM fast enough and got caught between two spheres. I would have been able to hull tank if it weren't for a rainbow of fruit flavors coming from a couple of cruisers.
Huh? I'm using Quantum but never saw them healing the borgs. They are actually pretty good at killing them..
Yea, it's been verified on a couple threads, It's not a constant thing but it's annoying when shooting cubes. I just installed Photons and they do it too.
Interesting new discussion on torps. I've been using Mk XI quantums. But, tonight I started doing Elite STFs in earnest. I know have a bright and shiny Mk XII requisition. Should I stick with Quantums or is something better for the elite runs?
I haven't been on in a few days so this is the first I've heard of torps healing...
I've never seen them do anything but blow the borg up real good. How is this showing? Green numbers instead of the usual yellow?
I haven't invested any point in it, and my Tactical Escort Retrofit can travel at warp 9.97 or something like that. Of course, I can't turn with TRIBBLE, but that doesn't really concern me in Sector Space. Driver Coil does not do anything for you in combat/orbiting space (except for reduce the power drain from full impulse, which could mean energy recovery after dropping out of full impulse).
.
Actually, you are wrong about that.
Driver coil does 4 things:
1) Increase sector space speed dramatically, especially using Borg engines or quantum slipstream.
2) Increase your normal-space flight speed while using Full Impulse
3) Increase your turn rate while using Full Impluse.
4) Prevent your power levels from dropping as much while using Full Impulse.
1-3 are fairly obvious, but I just did a respec and put 6 points into Drive Coils instead of 3 and there is a BIG difference while you use Full Impulse. My weapon, shield and even aux power only drop like 50% while in full impulse, instead of all the way down to 25 power like they normally do.
Why is this important? It decreases the amount of power your power levels have to be re-distributed, meaning it takes ~1/2 as long to redistribute power after exiting or entering full Impulse. It ALSO means you still have weapon and shield and even more Aux power during full impulse, which means you wont die as easily entering/exiting full impulse.
Is that last part important? Yes. I one-shot someone in a Defiant the other day using my Gurumba Siege Destroyer. He was in full impulse headed right at me, so I fired the Javelin after buffing up. Hit him instantly for 56000 damage and he just exploded. Without having any shield power due to full impulse being engaged, he didn't have enough shield power to absorb the hit.
This will matter in STF's if you are say flying towards a cube and it fires at you, you can get killed accidentally just because of Full Impulse. I recommend putting at least 3 points into Drive Coils, and 6 if you can afford it. Its better than putting points into Hull Regeneration or Subsystem repair right now.
I haven't been on in a few days so this is the first I've heard of torps healing...
I've never seen them do anything but blow the borg up real good. How is this showing? Green numbers instead of the usual yellow?
The torp healing thing is something to do with Torpedo Spread. It doesn't seem to be consistent though, cause mine don't seem to cause any sort of healing.
1) Increase sector space speed dramatically, especially using Borg engines or quantum slipstream.
2) Increase your normal-space flight speed while using Full Impulse
3) Increase your turn rate while using Full Impluse.
4) Prevent your power levels from dropping as much while using Full Impulse.
1-3 are fairly obvious, but I just did a respec and put 6 points into Drive Coils instead of 3 and there is a BIG difference while you use Full Impulse. My weapon, shield and even aux power only drop like 50% while in full impulse, instead of all the way down to 25 power like they normally do.
Why is this important? It decreases the amount of power your power levels have to be re-distributed, meaning it takes ~1/2 as long to redistribute power after exiting or entering full Impulse. It ALSO means you still have weapon and shield and even more Aux power during full impulse, which means you wont die as easily entering/exiting full impulse.
Is that last part important? Yes. I one-shot someone in a Defiant the other day using my Gurumba Siege Destroyer. He was in full impulse headed right at me, so I fired the Javelin after buffing up. Hit him instantly for 56000 damage and he just exploded. Without having any shield power due to full impulse being engaged, he didn't have enough shield power to absorb the hit.
This will matter in STF's if you are say flying towards a cube and it fires at you, you can get killed accidentally just because of Full Impulse. I recommend putting at least 3 points into Drive Coils, and 6 if you can afford it. Its better than putting points into Hull Regeneration or Subsystem repair right now.
The torp healing thing is something to do with Torpedo Spread. It doesn't seem to be consistent though, cause mine don't seem to cause any sort of healing.
I'd rather invest points in other skills then Driver Coil.
In STF, I don't ever fly into firing range at full impulse. Same in PvP (then again, I'm always cloaked when not engaged in combat).
In the event that I need to get from one combat zone to another (example: protecting he Kang), I don't wait for red alert to end before hitting full impulse. I hit Evasive Maneuvers and get over to the next wave ASAP. I usually get there before red alert ends.
Tractor beam has a very simple and effective offensive value: it drastically reduces the defense bonus due to speed of your target, which makes your shots hit far more often.
Of course, most people slot at least one counter to tractors, and an escort probably has better options.
Maybe this was pvp related, but in pve you don't really need tractor counters. It's pretty easy to learn which enemies will use it, position yourself properly and then let them use it. The more they keep you in one place the more damage they take. End of story.
This works on escorts if you have some sort of tss/empts + tac team, but it's more awesome on cruisers. Typhoon battleships love to tractor you, and my vor'cha loves to get tractored while offering a full broadside in return.
Though it is safer to keep an AP Omega handy, for those spheres tractor spam/cube keeping you from getting on top of it/D'deridex tractor+plasma torp spam combos which they always love to pull when my tac team is in the 5 seconds cd.
Typhoon battleships love to tractor you, and my vor'cha loves to get tractored while offering a full broadside in return.
Unless you're not an all-beam boat. Then your broadside consists of 3 turrets, while they are hitting you with all of their forward facing weapons, or possibly broadsiding you as well.
Unless you're not an all-beam boat. Then your broadside consists of 3 turrets, while they are hitting you with all of their forward facing weapons, or possibly broadsiding you as well.
If you're in an escort and got tractored from the side you're doing something wrong.
The enemy should be in your forward cannon arc. Always. If they tractor you in that position, they lose.
This is the The STF Escort Build Thread. I only gave an example of how tractor can backfire at the NPCs using it.
In the case of borg cubes and their idiotic one shot torpedo spams you need AP Omega. But I've already said that.
The main point of my post was that you don't need a specific tractor counter, like Polarize Hull and the like.
Use AP Omega, it has multiple uses, escaping from tractors is just one of them.
If you're in an escort and got tractored from the side you're doing something wrong.
The enemy should be in your forward cannon arc. Always. If they tractor you in that position, they lose.
This is the The STF Escort Build Thread. I only gave an example of how tractor can backfire at the NPCs using it.
In the case of borg cubes and their idiotic one shot torpedo spams you need AP Omega. But I've already said that.
The main point of my post was that you don't need a specific tractor counter, like Polarize Hull and the like.
Use AP Omega, it has multiple uses, escaping from tractors is just one of them.
So, you've never been tractor beamed by a sphere from the side while you were targeting another sphere? How lucky for you.
Trying to tank 2-4 spheres while being tractor beamed in Elite is suicide in an escort. APO is an important skill to have when you are broadsided with a tractor beam. You can't turn fast enough to get the offending sphere in your front firing arc. In Infected or Khitomer Accord, it's quite easy to get destroyed by spheres. Especially when you've used FAW or CSV and managed to aggro the 6 Nanite Spheres.
Trying to tank 2-4 spheres while being tractor beamed in Elite is suicide in an escort.
I agree to a a point, but I often evaluate the situation before using my escape, (APO). The Borg seem to like to hit with the tractors while I'm shooting at a node or another sphere. If I was moving the tractor helps keep me on target for a few seconds. I use their tractors as a tool to defete them when I can.
On another sour note, Almost lost another Cure normal today because of noobes. 4 noobe ships protecting the Kang with no heals, no weapons and no brains. Technicolor rainbow weapons all the way. I managed to get there and kill all the ENEMY SHIPS before the killed they Kang. I killed all the cubes with no help.
So then I decided to set back and watch and not help while they worked on the carrier. It took them 11 YES 11 minutes to kill it.
I checked their stats while watching, all 4 were VA50's with around 2500 accolade points each. I think I read somewhere they are called 'Instant Admerals'
I checked their stats while watching, all 4 were VA50's with around 2500 accolade points each. I think I read somewhere they are called 'Instant Admerals'
When will they learn. LOL
I don't think they will learn. They will whine about the game being to hard and end up playing something else.
On the other hand, they may come to the forums, or chat channels and learn. But it will be much harder for them to learn because they didn't learn the skills/mechanics as they were leveling.
I have followed your posts with great interest and regard. Am getting more happy with my Fleet escort and her setup.
I am curios, I dont see any thread with you posting you skill tree for this class of ship?
Would you mind posting it, assuming that reading through 60 pages of posts, I didnt just miss it?
Many thanks man! And of course, keep up the great work!
I posted my skill tree at one point in this thread, but I've since changed it.
I'm not including skill points because in my opinion, the current tree hasn't been completely sorted through yet by the community. There is no "perfect build" right now, and several skills we don't know exactly what they do for sure.
So, I don't feel comfortable recommending any specific builds for people.
The best thing I can do for you is recommend to read this thread about what skill points appear to be doing exactly what to your specs:
I did a combat parse of my DPS during cure elite carrier fight and I got over 9,000 DPS.
I am in a Gurumba and using Disruptors (so that my tac consoles increase the javelin damage as well. My highest javelin hit was for 105k on an Unshielded Tac cube)
My build is as follows:
KDF Tac in Gurumba
Fore: 3x Disruptor DC MK XII +borg / 1x Photon Torp Mk 12 +borg
Aft: 3x Disruptor Turret Mk XII +borg
KDF Honour Guard Mk XI Shield and Engines
Borg Deflector (not because I can't afford HG deflector but because HG 2 piece and borg 2 piece is imo better)
Tac Con: 3x Disruptor Mk XI blue / 1x Photon Mk XI blue
Eng Con: 2x Neutronium Mk XI blue / Borg Console
Sci Con: 1x Field Generator / 1x Emitter Array Mk XI blue
I find that the build is pretty tanky, and can go head to head with Donatra until she cloaks or a Tac cube until a fleety with Threat Control can pull aggro off me - provided my defense buffs are not on cooldown!
The CSV and Spread are great of groups of enemies together (in particular the Cure boss fight is prime example of hitting all the fighters and BoP spawns and one reason why that DPS number is so high). Deploying in Siege Mode when facing the enemy is fine in an STF and the Javelin shot can be huge as long as you fire it with as many buffs as possible (APA GDF TT and firing on a target that is prefferably unshielded with APB / FoMM already active).
Yes the Gurumba is expensive - but grind dilithium for a while and you can save up for something brilliant
I've got the 3 piece MACO XI set with the assimilated console. I got my second piece of Mk XII gear tonight.
Would it be worth it to go Mk XII Engine & Deflector, Mk XI Shield with Assimilated or hold out for the Mk XII shield? I also have a piece of prototype salvage. I could get a standard bord Mk XII shield. What do you guys think?
Comments
Not maxing the skills means you can spread them to other abilities making you a "Jack-of-All-Trades". Just be cognizant that, all things being equal, you will not be able to outperform another player in certain aspects, but outperform them in other.
For example, if you didn't max your weapon damage, someone else, all things being equal, will do more damage than you. However, your debuff or other special abilities may be better than theirs (or may even be non-existent).
EDIT: Also, looking at your build, your abilities would run outpace me in every way. My build is an all cannon build, so all of my defenses, subsystem power settings, and DPS will be higher than yours. But, I can't really support another player worth TRIBBLE. Your abilities will be more effective than mine, probably keeping you alive longer (as long as you keep your buffs up).
Again, if you're happy with what you got, stick with it.
Is there something I could remove that would up my DPS, or up my shields, etc...?
I.E. Should I get rid of something like... Driver Coil and add to Shield Systems or get rid of Sensors and upgrade Weapons, and so on..
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=247338
No mater what you have, someone will always challenge the setup so it's best not to worry too much about what others think.
I haven't invested any point in it, and my Tactical Escort Retrofit can travel at warp 9.97 or something like that. Of course, I can't turn with TRIBBLE, but that doesn't really concern me in Sector Space. Driver Coil does not do anything for you in combat/orbiting space (except for reduce the power drain from full impulse, which could mean energy recovery after dropping out of full impulse).
With a MACO engine, I can travel at warp 12.49, and with the slipstream drive I can travel at warp 20.49.
I have an EPS Flow Regulator and points into the Electro-Plasma systems, so my power transfer rate has pretty good power recovery after dropping out of full impulse. Coupled with a MACO deflector dish, my power transfer rate is 279%.
The main culprits I'm looking at are; Driver Coil, Flow Capacitors, and Graviton Generators. Possibly Starship Sensors, if it's not increasing the damage of my Fire on My Mark.
I could care less about Sector Space speed, I have nothing for Flow Capacitors as far as I can tell, and I rarely use my Tractor Beam.
I'll check out that link and be back!
I wouldn't waste any points in any of those.
Take a look at this build.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=ZAEbuild_0
He has dumped some points into threat control, leave that one at 0 also and put those points elsewhere. I'm avoiding posting my own skills setup but the following is pretty close.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=ZAEBUILD2_0
Both of the above builds came from the following thread.
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=255981&highlight=cure+elite
In your skill planner, you didn't check your abilities that you use, so I checked them all and looked for the skills that had stars on them.
1) Driver Coil is only benefiting tractor beam. If you don't think you use tractor beam that much, you could ditch it.
2) Flow capacitors is only benefiting tractor beam. However, if you decide to go with a 2-piece Omega set, this is supposed to help with your Tetryon Glider damage.
3) Graviton Generators is benefiting tractor beam and fleet support. Same suggestion as the Driver Coil.
4) Starship Sensors is only benefiting Fire On My Mark. I use this ability, but I don't have any points in Starship Sensors, so I don't know how much more this skill contributes to it. However, it's pretty good on it's own.
I was rebuilding mine when you posted that and your second link is almost a dead copy of what I was doing, only he focuses on Projectile since he's a Cannon build where mine is Energy since I'm Beams.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=TZBuildAgain1_0
Thanks Shook!
I'm coming to the same conclusions. Tractor Beam doesn't help my Defense or Offense. Fleet Support is something that's OK, but most times if I use it, I'm about to die and it's a desperate grab. Fire on My Mark, I'm thinking the DPS I lose from dropping Sensors will be made up, and then some, by increasing points in 3 weapons categories, attack patterns, and targeting.
Looks like I'll be hitting the respec button!
'cause I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. APO1 is a good idea, but I don't want to give up APB2 to do it and I have Polarize Hull to counter tractor beams. So far the best defense has been offense. They may get a tractor beam on me, but not until they're about to die. The only time Polarize Hull didn't work was when I didn't pop EM fast enough and got caught between two spheres. I would have been able to hull tank if it weren't for a rainbow of fruit flavors coming from a couple of cruisers.
Huh? I'm using Quantum but never saw them healing the borgs. They are actually pretty good at killing them.
One Question about skills. Does the Starship Battery skill affect the duration of the Enhanced Plasma Manifold?
And for skills discussion, if you fight a lot of Borgs, Power Insulators are quite interesting since Borgs have shield draining abilites.
Yea, it's been verified on a couple threads, It's not a constant thing but it's annoying when shooting cubes. I just installed Photons and they do it too.
I've never seen them do anything but blow the borg up real good. How is this showing? Green numbers instead of the usual yellow?
Driver coil does 4 things:
1) Increase sector space speed dramatically, especially using Borg engines or quantum slipstream.
2) Increase your normal-space flight speed while using Full Impulse
3) Increase your turn rate while using Full Impluse.
4) Prevent your power levels from dropping as much while using Full Impulse.
1-3 are fairly obvious, but I just did a respec and put 6 points into Drive Coils instead of 3 and there is a BIG difference while you use Full Impulse. My weapon, shield and even aux power only drop like 50% while in full impulse, instead of all the way down to 25 power like they normally do.
Why is this important? It decreases the amount of power your power levels have to be re-distributed, meaning it takes ~1/2 as long to redistribute power after exiting or entering full Impulse. It ALSO means you still have weapon and shield and even more Aux power during full impulse, which means you wont die as easily entering/exiting full impulse.
Is that last part important? Yes. I one-shot someone in a Defiant the other day using my Gurumba Siege Destroyer. He was in full impulse headed right at me, so I fired the Javelin after buffing up. Hit him instantly for 56000 damage and he just exploded. Without having any shield power due to full impulse being engaged, he didn't have enough shield power to absorb the hit.
This will matter in STF's if you are say flying towards a cube and it fires at you, you can get killed accidentally just because of Full Impulse. I recommend putting at least 3 points into Drive Coils, and 6 if you can afford it. Its better than putting points into Hull Regeneration or Subsystem repair right now. The torp healing thing is something to do with Torpedo Spread. It doesn't seem to be consistent though, cause mine don't seem to cause any sort of healing.
In STF, I don't ever fly into firing range at full impulse. Same in PvP (then again, I'm always cloaked when not engaged in combat).
In the event that I need to get from one combat zone to another (example: protecting he Kang), I don't wait for red alert to end before hitting full impulse. I hit Evasive Maneuvers and get over to the next wave ASAP. I usually get there before red alert ends.
Of course, most people slot at least one counter to tractors, and an escort probably has better options.
This works on escorts if you have some sort of tss/empts + tac team, but it's more awesome on cruisers. Typhoon battleships love to tractor you, and my vor'cha loves to get tractored while offering a full broadside in return.
Though it is safer to keep an AP Omega handy, for those spheres tractor spam/cube keeping you from getting on top of it/D'deridex tractor+plasma torp spam combos which they always love to pull when my tac team is in the 5 seconds cd.
I have followed your posts with great interest and regard. Am getting more happy with my Fleet escort and her setup.
I am curios, I dont see any thread with you posting you skill tree for this class of ship?
Would you mind posting it, assuming that reading through 60 pages of posts, I didnt just miss it?
Many thanks man! And of course, keep up the great work!
does Omega 3 or APB 3 offer that much that it is worth to not use CSV3 instead?
i.e.
Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, APB1 (Or omega 1), TS3, CVS3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, CSV1, TS3
If you're in an escort and got tractored from the side you're doing something wrong.
The enemy should be in your forward cannon arc. Always. If they tractor you in that position, they lose.
This is the The STF Escort Build Thread. I only gave an example of how tractor can backfire at the NPCs using it.
In the case of borg cubes and their idiotic one shot torpedo spams you need AP Omega. But I've already said that.
The main point of my post was that you don't need a specific tractor counter, like Polarize Hull and the like.
Use AP Omega, it has multiple uses, escaping from tractors is just one of them.
Trying to tank 2-4 spheres while being tractor beamed in Elite is suicide in an escort. APO is an important skill to have when you are broadsided with a tractor beam. You can't turn fast enough to get the offending sphere in your front firing arc. In Infected or Khitomer Accord, it's quite easy to get destroyed by spheres. Especially when you've used FAW or CSV and managed to aggro the 6 Nanite Spheres.
I agree to a a point, but I often evaluate the situation before using my escape, (APO). The Borg seem to like to hit with the tractors while I'm shooting at a node or another sphere. If I was moving the tractor helps keep me on target for a few seconds. I use their tractors as a tool to defete them when I can.
On another sour note, Almost lost another Cure normal today because of noobes. 4 noobe ships protecting the Kang with no heals, no weapons and no brains. Technicolor rainbow weapons all the way. I managed to get there and kill all the ENEMY SHIPS before the killed they Kang. I killed all the cubes with no help.
So then I decided to set back and watch and not help while they worked on the carrier. It took them 11 YES 11 minutes to kill it.
I checked their stats while watching, all 4 were VA50's with around 2500 accolade points each. I think I read somewhere they are called 'Instant Admerals'
When will they learn. LOL
I don't think they will learn. They will whine about the game being to hard and end up playing something else.
On the other hand, they may come to the forums, or chat channels and learn. But it will be much harder for them to learn because they didn't learn the skills/mechanics as they were leveling.
I'm not including skill points because in my opinion, the current tree hasn't been completely sorted through yet by the community. There is no "perfect build" right now, and several skills we don't know exactly what they do for sure.
So, I don't feel comfortable recommending any specific builds for people.
The best thing I can do for you is recommend to read this thread about what skill points appear to be doing exactly what to your specs:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=247338
I am in a Gurumba and using Disruptors (so that my tac consoles increase the javelin damage as well. My highest javelin hit was for 105k on an Unshielded Tac cube)
My build is as follows:
KDF Tac in Gurumba
Fore: 3x Disruptor DC MK XII +borg / 1x Photon Torp Mk 12 +borg
Aft: 3x Disruptor Turret Mk XII +borg
KDF Honour Guard Mk XI Shield and Engines
Borg Deflector (not because I can't afford HG deflector but because HG 2 piece and borg 2 piece is imo better)
Tac Con: 3x Disruptor Mk XI blue / 1x Photon Mk XI blue
Eng Con: 2x Neutronium Mk XI blue / Borg Console
Sci Con: 1x Field Generator / 1x Emitter Array Mk XI blue
Tac Cmdr: TT1, APB1, CSV2, CSV3 (veteran officer)
Tac LtCmdr: TT1, Torp Spread 2, Torp Spread 3
Eng Lt: EptS 1, RSP 1
Eng Ens: EptS 1
Lt Sci: TSS 1, HE 2
Red Matter, Subspade Field Modulator
I find that the build is pretty tanky, and can go head to head with Donatra until she cloaks or a Tac cube until a fleety with Threat Control can pull aggro off me - provided my defense buffs are not on cooldown!
The CSV and Spread are great of groups of enemies together (in particular the Cure boss fight is prime example of hitting all the fighters and BoP spawns and one reason why that DPS number is so high). Deploying in Siege Mode when facing the enemy is fine in an STF and the Javelin shot can be huge as long as you fire it with as many buffs as possible (APA GDF TT and firing on a target that is prefferably unshielded with APB / FoMM already active).
Yes the Gurumba is expensive - but grind dilithium for a while and you can save up for something brilliant
Would it be worth it to go Mk XII Engine & Deflector, Mk XI Shield with Assimilated or hold out for the Mk XII shield? I also have a piece of prototype salvage. I could get a standard bord Mk XII shield. What do you guys think?