team build advice

kermit1013

so, I've recently gathered up a few old friends, and formed a fleet - most of us have varying degrees of experience soloing thru STO, and some decent builds that support solo play based on our classes - but now we have enough to form a decent core group - but, as expected, our various gear, classes and skills have no synergy, because we've never had any experience beyond pugging before

so, I'm reaching out to the community with long term experience fielding teams for end-game content (pve mostly, STF's and such, with PVP as secondary) for some advice not only on how to build any single character/ship, but how to build a team

our current primary loadout is two tac captains, two sci captains (all Fed)
I have a build for end-game cruisers (AC, Odyssey - using the ubiquitous but still useful rotating eptw/etps type builds) and an end-game escort (defiant retrofit)

I have, sadly, less detailed info on my squadmates - my fellow tac is using an advanced escort so far, using, as he describes it, mostly single target dps skills

of my two sci-captains, one is running a self described "shield stripper/crowd control" set up in a DSSV, and the other is running a sci-dps build in an Atrox (again, self described)

I know it's a rather odd setup, but, given 2 sci captains, 2 tac captains, with at least 1 tac captain with cruiser experience, are there any suggestions people might have for how to layout various powers amongst ALL the group members so that we can coordinate with each other's powers with a little more...precision?

I can try and provide more info if people need it

maelwy5

kermit1013 wrote: »

I know it's a rather odd setup, but, given 2 sci captains, 2 tac captains, with at least 1 tac captain with cruiser experience, are there any suggestions people might have for how to layout various powers amongst ALL the group members so that we can coordinate with each other's powers with a little more...precision?

I can try and provide more info if people need it

Assuming PVE (PVP premades are another story entirely and not something I have exerience with) there's quite a lot of synergy on the Ground maps between Scis and Tacs; on Space maps it depends more on your ship than your captain job.

In Space, general synergy points would be to go for Damage Resistance Debuffs (Attack Pattern Beta III, Disruptor Weaponry on at least one person to keep the Proc up, etc) and Cross-team healing abilities (Transfer Shield Strength, Hazard Emitters, Extend Shields, etc.) You can get a little more involved by combining certain abilities as well (example: a Gravity Well to draw foes in and a Torpedo Spread to hit everything in it with multiple overlapping AoEs). Ideally you'd want at least one person to specialise in AoE damage (Cannon Scatter Volley, TS, etc). Communication between team members is key though - if you're all focus-firing your targets and healing each other then things will go VERY smoothly.

On the ground, the best bet is to make sure one Sci runs with a Healing Kit and another with Tachyon Harmonic (or better yet, both using "Borg" Medical Kits). Tacs should use Tactical Initiative to reduce everyone's cooldowns, and spike damage abilities such as Ambush + Grenades (Tachyon Harmonic to strip shields followed up with a few well-placed Grenades utterly destroys things). Another thing to try is if you can get everyone to use the Omega Set: IIRC the 3-piece set bonus "Team Ambush Field" stacks really well from multiple sources.

kermit1013

good start so far...

yes, I just recently came across the thread for tactical initiative - I usually pop it when I remember to, but I've never felt like it got used by other teammates - it's nice to know it's so thoroughly useful - now I just gotta remind my teammates to watch for it and exploit it

i've always been suspicious of ambush - if I read the description correctly, it only applies to your opening attack - that seemed rather limited to me - but, I'm hearing numerous people recommending it - I'll see about giving it a shot - i've generally been running the team leader kit - i've tried to build up on team survival kits, because high-dps spike kits don't seem to be able to outlast massive focus fire from large groupings, which is the only thing that seems to really kill any group i'm with - but, sadly, the team-survival kits don't seem to stop that either - maybe I should try and give opening strike dps a try after all

there's a host of healing sci skills that I'm familiar with (because I load my boffs with them) but I'll admit to less familiarity with the sci-captain skills, the non-healing skills, and the space skills in general (flying escorts and cruisers, I've always been a bit light on sci-skills)

thanks for the input so far - looking for anything else folks might have as far as team skill synergy might go and whatnot

dudeman32569

The thing about ambush is that, although it does only give a damage bonus to a single attack, this attack doesn't have to be your opening attack. Try using ambush mid-battle just before you line up a sniper exploit. Ambush also can do some massive damage when combined with a pulsewave's cone expose shot at close range against a group of enemies. Using as many damage buffs and resistance debuffs as I can (Fire on my target, battle strategies, etc.) with a pulsewave, I've been able to one-shot the Klingon holographs that pop up during Academy events quite a few times without even scoring a critical hit, which I've never been able to do until I started using Ambush.

hjorlwulf

I've been wanting to start such a thread for a long time, but kept getting the "It's not the arrows, it's the Indians" speech from any old players I've talked to. I've started my own Klingon House, and would dearly love any SOP's, ship builds, BOFF powers and assignments, etc. where the ENTIRE idea is a team build.

It is amusing that my initial idea for a space flight was a Tac and a Sci as a team, two such teams being overwatched/healed by an Engr being nearly the same thing you are trying! On the ground, I think the squad would be 2xTac/Engr team with Sci as overwatch/healer.

Since I am Klingon, the base ship for the Tac would be an escort, the Sci a carrier and the Engr in a cruiser.

Thoughts?