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Engineer or Science for decent DPS/ground tanking?
tmichc
Member Posts: 164 Arc User
Hi all,
Well, I've decided to level something else, rather than just play my Fed Tactical VA, and am looking for advice.
I'm looking to build a character with fairly good space DPS/utility and really good ground tanking abilities to be able to do what I saw recently (a guy soloing Armak on Cure Ground).
What build advice/profession choice should I go for? I have heard that the engineer is the tank-spec (if such a thing exists in STO), and Science is all about the utility. But, the guy soloing Armak was a Science guy and in chat someone said that it was entirely possible to do purely because he was Science.
So, if that's the case, what should I be looking to do? Where should I put skill points, etc?
Many thanks,
Tim
Well, I've decided to level something else, rather than just play my Fed Tactical VA, and am looking for advice.
I'm looking to build a character with fairly good space DPS/utility and really good ground tanking abilities to be able to do what I saw recently (a guy soloing Armak on Cure Ground).
What build advice/profession choice should I go for? I have heard that the engineer is the tank-spec (if such a thing exists in STO), and Science is all about the utility. But, the guy soloing Armak was a Science guy and in chat someone said that it was entirely possible to do purely because he was Science.
So, if that's the case, what should I be looking to do? Where should I put skill points, etc?
Many thanks,
Tim
Post edited by tmichc on
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Both Hyposprays are effected by the Physiology Skill, while the Vascular Regenerator and Nanite Health Monitor are effected by the Medic Skill. For Duty Officers, I equip 3 Doctors (Very Rare). Each one gives a 25% chance to boost max HP by 33 for 30 secs every time I use the Vascular Regenerator. I would like to be able to equip a Botanist or two, but they only give an 8% chance each of granting the benefits of the Hypo's to the rest of the group, so I usually go with 2 Nurses/Medics. For armor, I use Pollyalloy Weave Armor MK XII [Pla] [HP] [HPP] and for a shield, anything with [PBKB], since I usually do alot of melee and close in fighting with a pulsewave. I am using an Advanced Fleet Personal Shield with [PBKB] atm.
Hope this gives you some ideas!
However, it's entirely possible he was tanking by using a combination of shield heals, hypos, and all the healing abilities he has.
An engineer on the ground is capable of DPS via their petspam. The ones that will probably do the most damage for you are the phaser turret (a small but consistent amount) and the seeker drone, but remember not to launch one in a place where you're setting up an ambush because it will basically engage anything it sees until the timer runs out or it's been destroyed.
The other drone (forget the name) is a decent fighter as well, and the quantum mortar launcher can do damage if used right.
Your main tanking abilities will be shield repair (forget the name but it's a captain power, so you get it automatically), cover shield, and force field dome. Cover shield is an ability that is great for a captain but horrid for a BOff, so don't be afraid to use it when you get it.
The "generator" skills - Medical and shield - are good, but are better for the whole team, and are often best set up behind a Cover Shield, so they aren't really personal tanking abilities per se, but rather help the entire team survive. They CAN be helpful for tanking if you stand in their field during the fight, but I wouldn't expect them to save you by themselves. I believe that the external shielding abilities, e.g. Cover Shield, are counted under generators, although I'm not sure, but IMO they're pretty tough on their own.
While it would probably be non-optimal due to a definite lack of skill points to put into ground (especially if you want to do space combat, too), I would suggest you spec into weapon proficiency, PS generator (this is your shields, not a specific generator), Repairs, Demolitions (Orbital strike, probably your biggest single attack), Turrets And Drones (this is key for DPS), Willpower, and Combat Armor. Note Combat Armor is stupid-expensive, but set aside enough points to get at least three levels in it, I'd say.
For equipment I would suggest that you go for MACO armor (between the MACO's shield repair and your own shield repair you probably won't need shield charges at all) and go for a device loadout of a tribble, large hypos, and a horta, and the last slot is good for other options, e.g. the Pattern Enhancer, Shard of Possibilities, or the hypo to cure Borg nanites.
Another thing I should mention are Mines, but IMO they're pretty hit-and-miss, both literally and in terms of how good they are. I know someone who's fond of running up to the bad guys, dumping mines, running off, letting them get blown up and then picking the rest off with their personal weapon. I've never had luck with that myself.
For kits I would recommend Bunker Fabrication and Fabrication specialist. For
Since this is a new captain, consider your traits. Creative will probably get you far here, but I'm not sure on that one (although it seems that being an engineer is almost built for it). My personal favorites are Peak Health and Soldier. Soldier is fairly obvious, a straight-out attack upgrade. Peak Health, on the other hand, is helpful in almost any damage-dealing situation - for instance, resisting psionic and control attacks is often cheaper with a high Willpower and Peak Health with only a minimal loss of effectiveness. If it's any indication my toon is supposed to be psychic-resistant and it seems like this combo does more for him than MD. I would avoid most traits that are melee only, and almost any trait that's solely a single ability (e..g Nerve Pinch). Even if you're a role-player, in my experience many of them don't work like they're "supposed to" anyway - for instance you can do a mind meld several feet from your target.
I would avoid Andorians, because their Rage trait is probably not going to do you a lot of good, off the top of my head, but some may think better of that. Vulcans are OK-ish, but I'm pretty sure you can do better. Off the top of my head you may want Betazoid, Bajoran, Alien or Klingon.
This suggestion list is engineer-centric, although I'd imagine a good bit of it is useful for Science captains. However, if you want DPS/Tanking, Engineer is probably the way to go, as I don't think Science has much for actual damage infliction.
Good luck!
I'd just like to add my opinion to what others have said already though.
For ground tanking and DPS the engineer wins hands down because of the versatilely the class has combined with the innate captain powers that come with the package.
One kit I am surprised not to see mentioned by other posters is this bad boy:
http://www.stowiki.org/Engineering_Kit_-_Enemy_Neutralization
Its powers are mine barrier which causes moderate damage and has 50% sheild penetration, transphasic bomb which once placed can be detonated by remote and can cause massive damage, again 50% shield penetration here. Then this kit also has fuse armor which slows the target and weapons malfunction which prevents the target shooting energy weapons. A really good kit to inflict pain once you get the hang of using it.
But as I said, the beautey of playing engineer on ground is the versatilely of the class. You can equip a bunker kit and deploy a shield generator, medical generator a phaser turret and then swap to a fabrication kit and deploy a quantum morter and seeker drone and then you can swap back to the enemy neuter kit... pet spam, pet spam, and pain.
Add in the right doffs and it gets even better, chance to spawn 3 quantum morters, chance to spawn 3 phaser turrets, chance to spawn 3 support drones (support drone btw is a captain power, no kit needed here) and to add to support drones benefits a doff that enhances one of the drones powers - equipment diagnostics which can further buff ranged damage on top of the damage resistance buffs.
And of course the engineers innate powers, self shield restoration and shield resistance, cover shield to hide... cover behind, support drone as mentioned.... engineers are the most fun in this game on ground unless you're a DPS junky then it's tac all the way.
Two little tip for mines though if you go that route:
1) Pressing against a solid wall/object when you trigger mines will spawn them in a very tight group meaning more damage to a single or close group that wonders that way.
2) Mines lay in a line horizontally infront of you, if you have targets coming towards you turn to the side and lay them so in efent the mines form a vertical line to your target meaning it will walk through themm all. This is oh so very good for protecting nodes in cure ground and against borg in general.
As for the Andorian rage trait mentioned above... well it can work for an engineer if you like to play a dangerous game, think of it as a ground version of a tactical captains go down fighting. It will boost your damage when your health drops to a certain point - below half, since engineers have kits and powers to allow focus on damage resistance and shield restore/buffs, you could allow your health to drop and use it along with shield buffs to keep you alive and dish out damage.
As for the science guy soloing Armek, he was entirely solo. He ran in, leaving the rest of us outside the shield when the fight started (ballsy/stupid - you be the judge). Either way, the most we could do was spam our squad buffs (Strike Team in my case). I think he was probably using a lot of heals and the Dylovene Hypospray, as he was meleeing Armek with a high-end lirpa. Took him about 5mins or so (I could spam Strike Team twice), but he did it. It may be that he was using Mk XII kit too, as he was definitely in MACO armour, and the STF was Normal, not Elite. Either way, impressive.
Tim
He was probably fed up of being killed by people spamming pets and getting too close. If you have the med hit and nanite hypos solo amek is not that hard.
My primary toon is a SCI and I can solo all the STF bosses.
Medic Kit and Full Maco set, large hypo, large shield.
Pulse wave advanced fleet or anti proton with crit work best.
The kit has heals over time so even if dont have damage you fire them off prior.
I dont ever use melee as the DPS is always very low and these are the STFs after all.
Infected Kneel on a pipe and snipe
Cure kneel at his feet and use pulse wave.
Kit I like run in and kneel in the alcove
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