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MACO Mk XII or Aegis

seekerkorhilseekerkorhil Member Posts: 472
edited August 2012 in Federation Discussion
In my fleet we have been discussing which of these sets is actually better for escorts to use in PVE / STFS. I capitalise that bit because no doubt someone will try to derail this into a pvp thread.
I know that when it comes to endgame gear people tend to use one of the following combinations:

Full MACO
Full Omega
Full Aegis
2 Piece Borg + 2 Piece Aegis
3 Piece Borg + Aegis/MACO Shield

The key determining factor being set bonuses.

We all know the 2 and 3 Borg set bonuses are good. Not as good as they used to be, but still not at all bad.
The set bonuses for the MACO set are lackluster, at least in pve, without serious investment. The 3 piece one doing poor damage and the 2 piece on only being good if you can reduce Boff power cooldown significantly.
The set bonuses that seem to consistently outshine the rest are the Aegis ones. The 2 piece bonus grants +5% defence which doesnt sound like much but you will love it when borg heavy plasma torpedoes miss you. The engine adding 5% itself I will touch on in a bit.
The 3 piece bonus grants a stacking hull resist buff. Again, good but not as good as if it effected shields. This 3 piece bonus stacks to be, in total, unless i'm mistaken, about a 30% damage resistance. Respectable. However the MACO shield resists 10% all energy damage and an additional 20% Plasma. Taking the total, while not to 30%, to a respectable alternative if you can keep your shields up.
Extensive examination leads me to believe the best setup is most likely:

Aegis Engine
MACO Shield
Aegis Deflector

The full Aegis set will have a little more shields and the full MACO set will have a little more hull but this setup gives you the resistance of the MACO shield, not to mention its stacking power settings buff, along with the total +10% defence from the Aegis Engine and 2 piece bonus.

I guess what i'm wondering is if people find, with this setup, is the MACO shield worth losing the 3 piece Aegis set bonus?

And isn't it a bit funny that overall it seems the Aegis set, a set that had been around since Season 3, is better than the Mk XII sets you have to grind so hard to get?

I also read somewhere that the Aegis gear scales with character. I wouldn't know I got mine at max level, however if this is true it would be far better than the alternatives when the level cap is eventually raised.

I'm surprised really when we see so many people flying around in MAKO and Omega sets and grinding STFs to complete them when you can aquire a borderline superior set with little effort.
Post edited by seekerkorhil on

Comments

  • baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    yes the maco shield is worth losing the setbonus of 3piece aegis, the energy gain +10% reduced dmg when hit is definitely better than the resi given by the aegis set.

    in fleet events i think they are not so much appart, but i still tend towards the m.a.c.o...since the 3 piece borg + maco have the heal and they boost graviton generators greatly for a repulsor which is just a sweet sweet thing for crowd controle.

    Aegis
    the shield is good...but can't compare to the MACO, period.
    the setboni are very good, but the borg boni are better.

    Borg
    the heals provided by this set are still very powerfull...you don't wanna miss them.
    +38 graviton generators (console and deflector)
    +5 aux
    +5 engines

    MACO

    the shield provides alone a 2 essential buffs: 10% reduced energy dmg and the power gain when hit. which stacks up to 12 i think

    conclusion...3 borg + maco shieds are superior to 3 aegis
    Go pro or go home
  • seekerkorhilseekerkorhil Member Posts: 472
    edited August 2012
    If you want to run 3 borg + MACO shield ive got no quarrel with that.

    In my personal opinion I find 2 piece Aegis better than 3 borg. Better stats on the pieces and the borg proc heals wont help you dodge an Isometic Charge or a Heavy Plasma Torpedo you didnt see.

    I'd rather they miss than 1 shot me through 100% hull.
  • mehenmehen Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Well, that and the deflectors are tailored for different ship setups. So really, a 3/1 or 2/2 split depends on what and how you're flying, as opposed to simply stats.
  • baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    If you want to run 3 borg + MACO shield ive got no quarrel with that.

    In my personal opinion I find 2 piece Aegis better than 3 borg. Better stats on the pieces and the borg proc heals wont help you dodge an Isometic Charge or a Heavy Plasma Torpedo you didnt see.

    I'd rather they miss than 1 shot me through 100% hull.

    well it is not me who likes it so much! The numbers suggest it to be superior to aegis.

    10% higher def rating doessn't mean you avoid every single plasma torp...only have a 10% higher chance to avoid one...btw i'm not even sure if torpedos can even miss it's target. also the NPC ones.

    i use 2 aegis on my shuttles...because shuttles have a insanely high def rating+10% def is worth it.

    to make a long story short: i'm sorry if i couldn't support your viewpoint, who ever said the maco +borg is the better choice was right. numbers suggest that it is the better combination in most of the combat situations.
    Go pro or go home
  • trek21trek21 Member Posts: 2,246 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    baudl wrote: »
    well it is not me who likes it so much! The numbers suggest it to be superior to aegis.

    10% higher doessn't mean you avoid every single plasma torp...only have a 10% higher chance to avoid one...btw i'm not even sure if torpedos can even miss it's target.
    They can, easily ;)

    You'll notice it most in normal PvE, either if you're running torpedoes yourself or facing an NPC that uses one. They miss part of the time, especially if you have a high defense value.

    Every single weapon in-game can miss if you have a high enough Defense value (affected by engines speed and Starship Manuevers skill). Key word is can... there's no guarentee it will at any time.
    Was named Trek17.

    Been playing STO since Open Beta, and have never regarded anything as worse than 'meh', if only due to personal standards.
  • sdkraustsdkraust Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    In my experience 2 MACO (Shield + Deflector) + 2 Borg is better than 3 Borg + MACO Shields.
    That deflector has nasty stats you should really look into.

    MACO Shields are clearly the best shields in the game (Second only to HG) purely because of their needed resistances and that Power level boost. Borg really isn't "great" but its good to tack in when you don't need the bennefits of anything better (The Engines). MACO 3 is pretty useless in this remark. So isn't HG3. That's why we use Borg Engines and the Console.
  • robdmcrobdmc Member Posts: 1,619 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    I use 2 piece maco mk xii but then I use [Positron Deflector Array Mk XII [ShdS] [Stl]] It may be only rare but the set deflector have way too much other stuff that the escorts don't need like grav generators and flow capacitors.

    This deflector has +35 to starship shield systems. On my build that works out be being about 717 per facing. 2868 total with tac team to redistribute. Very useful since the bug ship can only do 1 Field generator.

    [Positron Deflector Array Mk XII [ShdS] [Stl]]
    +17.5 Starship shield emitters
    +17.5 Starship Structural Integrity
    +35 to starship shield systems
  • sdkraustsdkraust Member Posts: 524 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    ^ I approve of this idea.

    (And look what I JUST got from a run of ISE D:)
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/66465223/DSG/~_20120806094716.png
  • maelwy5maelwy5 Member Posts: 593 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    In my fleet we have been discussing which of these sets is actually better for escorts to use in PVE / STFS.


    The set bonuses for the MACO set are lackluster, at least in pve, without serious investment. The 3 piece one doing poor damage and the 2 piece on only being good if you can reduce Boff power cooldown significantly.

    IMO the best combination is:

    + MACO Shield
    + MACO Deflector
    + Borg Engines
    + Borg Console

    The Aegis Shield is greatly outweighed by the MACO's Resilient nature combined with the -10% Energy Damage buff.

    The Defence bonus from the MACO engines looks good on paper, but is outweighed by both the MACO and Borg 2-piece set bonuses in terms of the amount of usage you get out of it - you only really get a noticable benefit from the +5% Defence whenever you're already at or near the defence cap; which means travelling at 24 Impulse Speed. In PVE, where sustained damage is generally much better than spike damage, you'll be less effective if you're constantly flying around at high speed playing "hit and run" tactics compared to just parking yourself in one place and keeping your narrow-arc weapons aimed directly at your foe (Particularly true on an Escort. Cruisers can get away with flying around something at high speed and continually 'broadsiding' it).

    The recharge buff from 2-piece MACO reduces the recharge on all your Tac Powers (+DPS) and your Buffs/heals (+Survivability). It stacks with other Recharge from the likes of Conn Officers (Tac Team) or Technicians (Aux2Bat).

    The MACO Deflector also has better survivability buffs than the Borg version (+Hull and +Shields, +Inertial Dampners etc. Plus the extra stuff that increases ETPS effectiveness).

    Concerning 3-piece Borg + MACO shield: The Borg 3-piece set bonus of shield regeneration could theoretically be fairly good, but I've found it to be fairly limited in practice because it only has a chance to kick in whenever you drop below 20% shield strength (and with ETPS, TSS and Tac Team, most ship builds tend to sit higher than that!) The 2-piece set bonus always has the potential to kick in, and not only heals but also inflicts damage resistance.


    All the above relates to Fedside obviously. On the Klingon end, I'd opt for the Honor Guard 2-piece (Shield definitely, and you've a choice of either Deflector or Engine) and 2-piece Borg. The Honor Guard Set 2-piece set bonus of +Torp Damage and +Aux is probably the best in the game.
    [ <<<--- @Maelwys --->>> ]
  • baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    KHG is preferable the engine, shield mix...engines add to power levels and have a cold start which is very nice and unique.
    KHG 2 piece is the best set ingame...the power gain is just incredible, especially AUX.

    2 maco (deflector+shield)+ borg 2piece....maco engines are TRIBBLE in my opinion, no need for sector space speed at engame gameplay...which the borg engines provide too.
    Go pro or go home
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