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The new PVP help and ship build thread

dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
edited April 2015 in PvP Gameplay
this thread should be a 1 stop shop for all your pvp questions. are cruisers seemingly now a joke? is this escorts online? are sci ships completely underpowered and worthless?

first of all, anyone who would make any of these claims is wrong, and is no one you should listen to or get any advice from. all 3 of these ships types have their primary roles, and in a proper team all 3 are invaluable. this is a game, its not a strict adaptation of canon, so you have to focus on what works in game, not what worked in the show.

second of all, no one is cheating or hacking, they really are just that much better at it then you. but thats the reason for this thread, to level the playing field so you can properly compete and have fun. because theres nothing in STO more fun then the space PVP, you will look at the pve you have enjoyed for so long very differently after you truly get the hang of pvp.

Thread Table of Contents


general wisdom and information

mav's cruiser wisdom

mav's sci ship wisdom

Arranging your ability tray

useful links

Key binding

station power acronyms in long form

my complete post buff AtB findings

basic cruiser build to get used to a pvp environment in

ACT log parser

originally tier 2 and 3 fleet ship shield mod analysis

Renim's resistance viewer tool

Renim's DPS widget

AtB with tech doffs, completely explained by redricky

the math behind stealth

Advanced strategies and tactics

ships and captain types

effective use of key binding and tray setup

The Jorf Guide to Not Being Terrible at Premade PvP

science ship anti-escort tactics

proper scimitar use

cheap and easy builds for getting started

basic ship build walk through

cookie cutter tac captain skill tree

useful cruiser skill tree examples

useful sci ship skill tree examples

    ESCORT
    Federation
    DDIS's defiant R
    DDIS's RA escorts and fleet RA escorts
    KDF
    DDIS's qin
    DDIS's mirror qin, somraw, retrofit scourge
    DDIS's fleet scourge
    wuusta's scourge R
      CRUISER
      Federation
      DDIS's 8 beam excelsior
      DDIS's single cannon excelsior
      DDIS's beam cannon hybrid excelsior
      mav's star cruiser/mirror assault cruiser
      mav's classic assault cruiser
      KDF
      DDIS's DHC vorcha R
        SCI SHIP
        mav's Standard Sci Recon



        more advanced builds, expensive to create

          ESCORT
          Federation
          DDIS's steamrunner
          DDIS's vet ship
          mav's advanced escort
          rudiefix1's fleet saber
          cliftona91's fleet saber
          DDIS's fleet MVAM
          DDIS's fleet akira/armatage
          KDF
          p2wsucks KDF vet ship 1
          p2wsucks KDF vet ship 2
          DDIS's vet ship
            CRUISER
            Federation
            DDIS's 2 AtB galaxy
            DDIS's 2 AtB regent
            DDIS's 2 AtB excelsior
            DDIS's 2 AtB ambassador
            DDIS's avenger
            mav's control assault healer
            mav's star cruiser healer
            mav's excelsior 101
            mav's odyssey
            renim's eng healer odyssey
            KDF
            mav's fleet vorcha
            DDIS's fleet vorcha
            DDIS's battlecruisers
            DDIS's Kamarag
            rudiefix1's fleet corsair
            mav's support negvar
            mav's pyrokinetic negvar
            rudiefix1's maximized Plas'Tinga
              SCI SHIP/CARRIERS
              Federation
              TBR sci ship
              mai kai healer nebula
              thegrimcorsair's recon sci
              rudiefix1's healer nebula or temporal sci
              DDIS's fleet nova
              Cliftona91's vampire vesta
              mav's Atrox
              mav's Tac Recon
              mav's Pyrokinetic Recon
              mav's Heal Bot Nebula
              mav's CC Nebula
              thegrimcorsair's sci disable vesta
              babyfacez's shield striping Fleet Recon
              rudiefix1's disable and slow intrepid
              renimalt's DSSV Healboat
              KDF
              TBR sci ship
              DDIS's Vo'quv support carrier
              DDIS's Vo'quv siphon carrier
              mav's Tac and Sci Karfi
              mav's Sci Bop
              mav's Sci Vampire Bop
              mav's Sci X Wing Bop
              rudiefix1 tech boff bop
              DDIS's TBR norgh
              rudiefix1 sci norgh
                CROSS FACTION SHIPS
                havam's orb weaver
                DDIS's plasma torp wells
                DDIS's mobius/Krenn
                grim's transphasic breen ship
                mav's Recluse Controller
                mav's Recluse Healer
                mav's Tac and Sci Orbweaver
                DDIS's d'kora
                rudiefix1 corvette
                DDIS's monbosh
                DDIS's S'golth
                DDIS's 2 AtB galor
                havam's Adapted Battle Cruiser
                DDIS' breen ship
                  WARBIRDS
                  DDIS's T'varo
                  DDIS's Dhelan
                  DDIS's Mogai
                  DDIS's D'deridex
                  DDIS's Scimitar
                  DDIS's vet ship
                  rudiefix1 EBC utilizing sci T'varo
                  stardestroyer001 healer d'deridex


                  if theres a topic you have a question on, and you don't see anything addressing it, feel free to ask about it.
                  Post edited by dontdrunkimshoot on
                  «13456738

                  Comments

                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    mav's cruiser wisdom

                    "I should be facerolling Escorts and bops with my Ship of the line! This isn't canon!" This is a common variation on frustrated pvpers. Often times they will post what appears to be an indepth analyisis even as to "just what makes Escorts and bops OP" When frankly, they couldn't be more wrong. The first question to ask, is a Cruiser a DPS Ship? The answer is as follows. While there are a couple of exceptions to the rule, by and large...

                    Nope unless you are following a fairly narrow Tac Cruiser build your job isn't dps (and then with a tac cruiser the best ones in my opinion, treat damage at best as an equal partner to the ships native role fedside). Your role is support, first and foremost as a cruiser. You have to keep your team mates alive through the alpha strikes coming in from the klingon attacks / enemy escorts (FvF if the latter). Once you keep your team mate alive (most likely an Escort since those are almost always priority one in pvp to kill, they are the squishiest fedside. Though, I often target Gal X's first, as nothing is so clearly a Noob Pilot as someone in any Galaxy Class Variant) then your enemy you'll find has alot less damage for around thirty seconds or so afterwards, in which case it's a slow build up back up, which is far more managable with healing.

                    Throughout this thread I will post various builds (others are welcome to post builds as well) that I recommend for use in pvp. NOTE if it works in pvp it will ROFLSTOMP any and all pve.

                    Cruisers are actually the hardest ships to kill when built properly, due to having very high native damage reduction, shield strength and hull points. Especially engineering cruisers, as they have access to a host of self heal capability that other classes do not have. When the pilot of a cruiser doesn't suck, he doesn't become a high priority/easy quick kill.
                    Use powers like Emergency Power to Shields 2, and 1, Engineering team 2 and 3, Aux to structural integrity field 3, Extend Shields 2, Reverse Shield Polarity1, and if you are a Tac, Emergency Power to Weapons1, or if you are an engineer or sci captain, Emergency Power to Aux1. For tactical slots, run Tactical Team1, and either Attack Pattern Delta1, or Tactical team 1, and Beam Overload2. (if you are a tac) Science powers, Hazard Emitters1/Polarize Hull1, and Transfer Shield strength2, or two transfer shield strengths. (1 and 2)

                    If you have an extra ensign slot, you might as well throw target engines there to assist in controlling enemy movement.

                    If you have the following powers on your ship remove them immediately because they are utterly worthless. Emergency Power to Weapons 2 and up. Emergency to Aux 2 and up, Emergency to Engines 2 and up. Aux to Battery 2. Boarding Party 1 and up, Aceton Field 1 and up. Aux to Inertial Dampeners 2 (1 is just as good as 2 is), Jam Sensors, Scramble Sensors (not really worthless but it's not a cruiser power by any means), Tachyon Beam1 or 2, (1 is terrible and you do not have the turn rate to make 2 work) Energy Siphon1, Torpedo High Yield 1 or 2 *again you don't really have the turn rate for this one, and only tacs really get the miles out of this use Torp Spread instead great for Escorts though* Beam Overload1 (only good for killing shuttles... BO2 is much better)

                    Power levels should be weapons /25 Shields /75, Engines /25 Aux /75 for healing configuration, and if you are running emergency to weapons instead of aux, weapons /75 shields /75 engines /25 aux /25

                    That's just a sample fairly standard healcruiser build it works great with the Assault Cruiser, and the gal X (as much as anything can work with that ugly, and horrible ship seriously gtfo out of it ASAP the Galaxy X is a terrible ship. It's not as bad as it used to be but it's still the worst cruiser in the game. It's a Vanity Item at best and a Bullseye creator at worst as no other ship in the game clearly marks you as a Noob as a Gal X.. cause everyone that has experience avoids it, and the Gal Retrofit like the black plague) star cruisers I'll cover later. There's a few other more advanced build options you can run, but this is a good one to learn on as it has plenty of healing for team mates, (and heal your team mates! if you save them all for yourself you are only getting your allies killed!) The Excelsior is a damage ship, but is best employed by Tactical and Science captains. Engineers need not apply unless you enjoy wasting your time. (as Engineer captains do not do DPS, nor do they do Debuffing like science captains do)

                    Emergency powers are the lifeblood of a good fedcruiser, as they enable you to greatly boost your power level for whatever emergency to X you are running at the time. Emergency Power to Shields can be chained one after another (which is why so many ships seem ''invincible'' to you) Tactical team makes all but the most fiercesome anti proton beam overload 3 crit a complete joke, even if your emergency power to shields isn't up at the time. Reverse shield polarity is used as an oh TRIBBLE button when you have already given away your transfer shield strengths to a team mate and you are almost out of shields. (it's especially useful just after you get sub nucleaonic beamed, and you pop a shield battery with it. Then you can usually save Rotate Shield freq if you are an engineer for the second sub nuc if it's coming and chances are someone's given you a sci team to clear the debuff, and an emergency power is probably also ready at that point) you should always always always if possible have an emergency power to shields up.

                    And yes you can run two emergency powers at the same time if they are for different subsystems.

                    When running at the /75 powers I mentioned emergency power 2, is enough to put your shields at full strength, which boosts your shield regen, and it's native damage reduction, it also has the pleasant side effect of almost maxing out your extend shields' damage reduction bonus. While emergency 1 almost kicks everything to capacity as well.

                    Devices I recommend keeping the following handy. Shield Batteries, (or rechargeable shield battery if you can get one) Weapon Battery, Subspace field modulator, and Aux Battery. Shield Batteries are for when you have been Sub Nucleaonic beamed. This gets your shield power right back up to 125 and gives a small shield heal in the process. For Engies this makes them even more frustrating to kill since often you can then save rotate shield frequency for either being nucced again, or just for use as your shield strength falls to roughly half. For Tacs and Sci it's a straight up life saver. Weapon batteries are to be used when a target is near death (if you aren't using emergency power to weapons1 or if it's cooldown is active), so you can cram that last little bit of DPS into the target to hopefully down it before they can get heals.
                    Subspace field modulators are good for when you are being focus fired and a shield is near critical, it increases both your damage resistance and your Defense Score, Aux Batteries are for when you are running weapon power bias (ie thats one of your /75s) or for when your EPTA (emergency power to aux1) is off, and you need that -extra- bit of healing to save someone's life.

                    Don't forget to put Distribute Shield power somewhere you can easily keep hitting it, when the enemy starts attacking you. Most people keybind it to the space bar, but honestly I shield tank worse then I run it there, because it throws off the rhythm of the shield distribution when damage comes in. Sure it's more micro intensive than what most people do, but honestly it pays dividends especially when tac team is on cool down. (and now you all know my secret for shield tanking... I'm doomed)

                    Also, pay attention to your positioning relative to the other players on your team. Cruisers should either be in the middle where they can put their extend shields outwards, or circling slowly behind the Escorts on the outside edge of combat, and adjust your throttle as you go along. Also, I recommend you move throttle control to the mouse scroll wheel. That lets you pull off fancy moves, like the reverse flat spin which is very difficult if not impossible with the default bind of it being on your keyboard, this also frees up your fingers so they can more easily hit the number rows and keep fighting, or frees up the default throttle keys for staple abilities so you do not have to hunt the keyboard and never leave WASD.

                    For example when I'm at a buddies place, and I need my sto fix and I forget to take my Razer Naga with me (which really is worth the investment if you plan on playing alot of mmos and rts games) I bind whatever my emergency power to shields is, (third ability, on the top row usually) to Q, and the second emergency power to shields to E.

                    Speaking of, if you really want to get serious in pvp without springing for a razer naga you might want to consider a keyboard layout different from the standard WASD+ Numbers and start binding various abilities to other keys, like the aformentioned E and Q. Some other good non number keys to bind powers to are also C, X, Z, V and B, just to cite some examples. This means you never leave total control over your ship, while you are hitting powers. Which is one of the reasons the Razer Naga is just so good. All the numbers are on the side of the mouse leaving your other hand free for actually moving about, hitting push to talk keys, firing weapons etc.

                    To change your control scheme press Escape, hit options, and click on the tab for keybinds. Begin arranging as desired.

                    I also recommend heavily regardless of what you do for ability activation running the 3 row power tray instead of the default one with the silly pictures of your bridge crew. The default tray is completely useless in pvp, wastes time in searching for abilities, and even worse clutters up your screen. Also, practice using the numbers instead of mouse clicking abilities. It saves your mouse for healing allies then or clicking through enemy targets.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    mav's sci ship wisdom

                    Hi everyone, some of you that have been paying attention the last few months have probably seen one of my three Cruiser Threads in this section.

                    I also play Science off and on.

                    The first important question to ask about Science, is what is it exactly that Science does well and why.

                    Science's primary role is crowd control. Even in it's most aggressive setup sci ships are built around Zone Denial, Shutdowns, and Debuffs. How a sci ship accomplishes this varies ship to ship and build to build.

                    Before we break into how some of these work, I'm going to take a moment to explain what crowd control and the subsequent terms actually are.

                    Zone Denial: This one is fairly straight forward. Zone denial is setting up an area so that it is either more difficult for the enemy to be effective in, making it impossible for them to access. Usually this is done via damage dealing area of effect. Examples of this include, Gravity Well, Tractor Beam Repulsors, Warp Plasma.

                    Shutdowns, are abilities that prevent the use of another, or disable a subsystem. Examples include Target Subsystem, Viral Matrix, Plasmonic Leech. Some shutdowns are also Debuffs. Tractor Beam

                    Debuffs: simply put Debuffs inflict a negative status effect on your target. Or remove enemy buffs. Examples include, Attack Pattern Beta, SubNucleaonic Beam, Target Subsystems, Chroniton Proc, Warp Plasma.

                    Each of these has to be balanced to some degree to healing as well. Healing is often considered the secondary role of science captains. (mind Tac Scis are expected to do less of this than Engi sci, or Sci Sci captains)

                    Doffs, are also at times extremely critical with sci ships. While for Escorts, and Cruisers they make you simply more of what you already were, for a sci captain they can potentially completely redefine your build, and how it is executed in pvp.

                    Gear: Sci are like everything else, gear is of secondary importance to your competency, power selection, and specialization. However a few pieces of gear go quite a long way to helping you. 3 Borg is always a great standby. (as you'll see in future builds to come)

                    Power Settings, this one really depends on the sci methodology you are going for. Me? I'm a Full To Guns man myself. the more energy DPS your team is cranking out the better. There are also myriads of sci abilities that for damage dealing and zone denial aux isn't as important as it used to be on.

                    But most traditional sci run aux and shield power bias.

                    Powers to Avoid: Charged particle burst. Right now everyone and their brother (that didn't do a drunken spec...) has Power Insulators. This is giving them a 75 percent resist to all shield drain attacks.

                    Tachyon Beam. For above reason.

                    Energy Siphon. 1 the drain is pitiful at best as is the boost.

                    Boarding Party. Worthless ability, take it off your ship. It literally does almost nothing, thanks to Tac team, AOE fire and it being a very crappy power to start with.
                    Jam Sensors: Anything you could think to slot other than another trash power would be better than this. Heal will save you more than JS will.

                    EPTA2, 1 is just as good as 2 is. EPTW2, same deal as EPTA. (and only certain sci builds should even bother with either in the first place)
                    Mask energy Signature. This power is not worth a boff slot. It should be an option on every ship instead.


                    Scramble Sensors. It's mind numbingly easy to resist, it's easily cleared by one of the most common shield heals in the game, it does nothing to npcs (not even torps or mines!). It's just a stupid mechanic.

                    Jam Sensors, anything this does to save you a heal will do better.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Arranging your ability tray

                    this post is going to be going over some quick and dirty ability tray layouts that I've found to be quite effective while in a cruiser.

                    Definition and term Row Through, in the context of this post Row Through, is a reference to the optimum speed and accuracy that you can rifle through your bridge officer skills without having to backtrack. Rowing Through, tremendously can affect your reaction times and ability to appropriately respond.

                    The first thing I want to mention is there isn't any one layout that will work for everyone every time. The biggest piece of advice I can give you (before showing you examples) is to find a configuration that can allow you to "row" through your powers quickly and effectively with minimal searching. Some people put their emergency powers right next to one another, or one above the other, same with Sci Teams etc. Some people (like myself) prefer a gap between Emergency powers, as the ability won't be needed till later and it sets up a clean visual way of showing which emergency power is which in terms of Priority.

                    Some people like putting their second emergency power system near the relevant bridge officer skills. (like EPTW1 next to FAW or Beam Overload, EPTA1 next to Transfer shield strength, or Hazard Emitters). As you can successively just roll from one ability to another.

                    Some people like all their emergency powers together.

                    The important thing is that you experiment, and practice with each layout you try until you find one that you can "row through" not only the fastest, but repeatedly Every Time. Anyone that's a veteran to pvp (regardless of game type.. FPS, MMO, RTS, Racing, Flight Sim etc) can tell you TRIBBLE can happen incredibly quickly so it's best to have your powers, and abilities straightened out to something that is as user friendly to you as possible.

                    The optimum Row Through time I have found is all of your abilities fired off or at least clicked in 4 seconds or less. This will make you more than fast enough to deal with whatever happens in live combat.

                    Spot reserved for screen shot of sci clickyness. http://postimage.org/image/64dbiqizp/full/ Tac Reconlayout.

                    Notice how my Row Throughs are set up for maximizing my crowd control time? This is because naturally this is where my priorities lay as a sci. Un aux dependent powers at least correlate based on #.

                    You get the idea though I think.
                    The important thing is, you lay your powers out in the order that you most often need them


                    this is how I, DDIS, arrange my tray

                    http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/578961482140969281/A23916654204781B98CFD459152DA0C6C143579C/

                    http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/578965377963282293/D66EE25AECD698F2AEA445D88F6201CF3133DA44/

                    http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576717989282253329/D80B8A930591B13CE9CF08E6454AE85970192E66/

                    it is very important to not have to spend any amount of time hunting for the right power, and intuitive layout is a must, and key binds, but thats for later

                    first few rows on the far left i have tactical and offensive abilities, to the right of them i have holds, debuffs and power increasing skills. next to those its shield heals, and to the right of that hull heals. then its evasive, batteries, and anything else thats left.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    useful links


                    skill points and respec resources

                    here is a list of important links you should refer to when seting up your build and skill tree. before you blow anymore of your respec tokens, take a look at this chart

                    https://home.comcast.net/~amicus/Skill%20Point%20Effects.htm

                    it will tell you basically what every point in every skill will do for you. before you jump in game and respec, fiddle with this tool and build it here first

                    http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/


                    weapons energy's effect on damage

                    this is a link to what weapons energy can do for your damage. there is no hard cap for weapons energy at 125, 125 is mearly the damage modifier cap. when shots take 12, 10, or 8 energy, if that weapon does not drain you below 125, it will fire at the 125 damage modifier. every shot that wont drain you below 125 will. the result is your energy wont be drained as low as a whole from a lot of energy weapons, and the higher you can keep your weapons energy, the more damage you will do during fireing cycles.

                    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Asu87Jb5VCBgdHFKbmdpZjlEMHk3YUhfNGRTbllNY0E&output=html


                    weapons damage over range

                    this is another great spread sheet showing tactical ability damage modifiers and much damage weapons deal over range

                    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Asu87Jb5VCBgdFFQLVQtdENLUVE0dlBOZnZPQ09DUHc&gid=3


                    The Hilbert Guide

                    http://hilbertguide.com/

                    this guide is tailor made for the new player, giving you all the basic information that you wouldn't necessarily even learn from playing the game for years. documentation and instruction on what to actually do and how to set yourself up is poor with regard to STO, theres such a wide variety of things you can do, and the pve in game is so easy, it basically rewards you for doing it wrong. gleam all you can from this, and go from there.


                    The Space Healing Compendium

                    this is an excellent right up on how to put together a good healing character and ship, the primary purpose of a cruiser.

                    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UbH_Vdqowb8rYAGEQPBMad_4HF_mm90TYNssyuyzv7U/edit?pli=1


                    The Anyship guide

                    these are the basic questions you should ask yourself when you put your ship together, if you can clearly answer all these questions, your build has a decent chance of working.

                    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=6491271#post6491271
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Key binding

                    here are some links to help with key binding, a very helpful, if not THE most helpful tool for you to micromanage a battle successfully

                    http://www.ifes.us/HowToKeybind/Star%20Trek%20Online%20Key%20Binds.pdf

                    if that made your brain hurt, try this tool. it can make keybinds for you. if you can press ctrl V in your chat box in game, you too can have key binds!

                    http://www.ifes.us/STOKeyBind/index.html

                    instructional video

                    http://youtu.be/_7qYGJpxkK4


                    key binds are most useful for activating all the abilites in a certain row. I for example, place all the skills i want to keep cycling at all time in row 4, and have a key bind that activates all those abilities in sequence every time the key is pressed. on that key bind, i also have the fire all energy weapons, and distribute all shields command attached to it too.

                    i have another key bind for all my tactical abilities too, to quickly fire them all off in preparation for an alpha strike. thats in my row 5.

                    all these abilities i still have on my tray as well, so at the very least i know they are working. most of the time you want to hold off on fireing all your tac buffs until you have several off cooldown to stack, so its not the best to just spam the key bind when ever APA cools down.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    i received some useful feedback on my builds from someone who looked at them, they had no idea what any of the acronyms mean. so here they all are long form, i will link this post to all my builds for a quick reference to what means what. anyone else feel free to do the same.

                    engineering

                    AF
                    Aceton Field

                    AtB
                    Auxiliary to Battery

                    AtD
                    Auxiliary to Dampeners

                    AtS
                    Auxiliary to Structural

                    BP
                    Boarding Party

                    DEM
                    Directed Energy Modulation

                    EWP
                    Eject Warp Plasma

                    EPtA
                    Emergency Power to Auxiliary

                    EPtE
                    Emergency Power to Engines

                    EPtS
                    Emergency Power to Shields

                    EPtW
                    Emergency Power to Weapons

                    ET
                    Engineering Team

                    ES
                    Extend Shields

                    RSP
                    Reverse Shield Polarity


                    Science

                    CPB
                    Charged Particle Burst

                    SE
                    Energy Siphon

                    FBP
                    Feedback Pulse

                    GV
                    Gravity Well

                    HE
                    Hazard Emitters

                    JTS
                    Jam Targeting Sensors

                    MES
                    Mask Energy Signature

                    PO
                    Photonic Officer

                    PSW
                    Photonic Shock Wave

                    PH
                    Polarize Hull

                    ST
                    Science Team

                    SS
                    Scramble Sensors

                    TachBeam
                    Tachyon Beam

                    TB
                    Tractor Beam

                    TBR
                    Tractor Beam Repulsor

                    TSS
                    Transfer Shield Strength

                    TR
                    Tyken's Rift

                    VM
                    Viral Matrix


                    Tactical

                    APB
                    Attack Pattern Beta

                    APD
                    Attack Pattern Delta

                    APO
                    Attack Pattern Omega

                    FAW
                    Beam Array: Fire at Will

                    BO
                    Beam Array: Overload

                    CRF
                    Cannon: Rapid Fire

                    CSV
                    Cannon: Scatter Volley

                    DPA
                    Dispersal Pattern: Alpha

                    DPB
                    Dispersal Pattern: Beta

                    TT
                    Tactical Team

                    TS:A
                    Target Subsystems: Auxiliary

                    TS:E
                    Target Subsystems: Engines

                    TS:S
                    Target Subsystems: Shields

                    TS:W
                    Target Subsystems: Weapons

                    THY
                    Torpedo: High Yield

                    TS
                    Torpedo: Spread
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    my complete post buff AtB findings

                    AtB parred with tech doffs lowers all running cooldowns every time you use it. now that AtB is no longer on the EPtX cooldown system, you can use 2 copies, and 2 different EPtX skills. this leads to... perhaps overpowered builds on certain ships.

                    to get good mileage you need 3 purple tech. 3 blue are easy to get, and are better then nothing wile you slowly add more purple. with only 1 AtB, anything less then 3 purples will leave gaps in your EPtS up time though. you can get unlimited purple from doffing b'tran support criticals, and 1 from the tier 4 engineering doff store on fed side.

                    1 AtB is good, it lowers the cool down of every running cooldown. kills your aux for 10 seconds though. AtB used to be on the same cooldowns with the EPtX skills, now its on the AtS and AtD cooldowns. so you can now run 2 EPtX skills without interference from AtB itself, and have full up time with them.

                    theres another thing thing you can comfortably do now, run 2 AtBs. you can actually just use 2 purple tech doffs with 2 AtB, you will get the same effect as you would get from using 3 with 1 copy of AtB, but you wont be able to use AtB every 10 seconds. at least this is the conclusion i reached when staring at all my abilities cycling for 10 minutes trying to figure out definitively whats going on. at the very least, the EPtX skills do fine with 2 tech doffs and 2 AtB.

                    but, if you use 3 tech doffs with 2 AtB, every single one of your abilities will basically be lowered down to global before you have a chance to use them again. 2 AtB cycle every 10 seconds with 3 tech doffs, so its energy buff is basically always on, though the result of the energy buff will vary greatly, the Aux doesn't instantly recharge.

                    i use a copy of EPtA with 2 AtB, because AtB does not seem to always take the aux granted by EPtA. so you basically always have some aux, not always very much, but some. enough for abilities like HE, TB, and your cloaking device to work at all. also, carry aux batts, an aux bat +HE2=1000+ healing a tic. though your aux based heals will be mauch weaker, its like you have 2 copies of them. so even using it with TRIBBLE aux will give you good overall healing.



                    AtB, and 2 AtB is not for every ship. only cruisers tend to have 2 TL level eng stations anyway. escorts with a COM and LTC/LT tac already can have 2 of every tactical power they need easily, and its not worth giveing up an ET2, EPtS2, AtS1 or RSP1 for AtB, especially if you also rely on HE and TSS for heals.

                    AtB does not help healers, as it leaves your aux in the toilet. your best heals rely on it, and periods without good aux wont make you very useful.

                    the main use for 2 AtB is on tactical captain, tactical focused cruisers. the 2 or 3 tac powers you can have at their global now, and you can use skills like RSP, DEM, and EWP very often. also TB and the sci heals. the vet ship with its wide variety of station powers is excellent with 2AtB too

                    the orb, nebula and vesta can use 2 AtB and they are sci ships, but remember any sci skill that is aux dependent will be crippled. TBR for damage, VM, ST3, these are all good aux less skills these ships can use, and use at their global.
                  • reichwald12reichwald12 Member Posts: 95 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Thanks for doing this compilation. Looking forward to contributing to it!
                  • cliftona91cliftona91 Member Posts: 254
                    edited October 2012
                    Where's that Keybind program in the Youtube Video?
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    cliftona91 wrote: »
                    Where's that Keybind program in the Youtube Video?

                    its in the post i linked right above the video link
                  • snoge00fsnoge00f Member Posts: 1,812 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    I'll add a keybind and advertise this thread when I'm done playing a match. Adding it to my siglink as well.
                    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    basic build tutorial

                    to start things off with, heres a nice simple, cheap to put together build for a cruiser. chances are your in a cruiser, and would like to pvp in it and primarily deal damage. wile thats not its primary role, it can be done, and its a good platform for learning the ropes of pvp. this will be more of a tutorial then a serious build, but it will create a very sturdy ship that you can practice taking damage and healing in.

                    tac/eng/sci captain assault cruiser

                    use 8 beam arrays of your choice, as long as they are all the same energy type.

                    tactical team 1, fire at will 2

                    tactical team 1


                    emergency power to weapons 1, emergency power to shields 2, reverse shield polarity 2, axillary to structural 3

                    emergency power to weapons 1, emergency power to shields 2, engineering team 3 (or extend shields 2, or directed energy modulation 2, or eject warp plasma 1, or axillary to structural 2)


                    hazzard emitters 1, transfer shield strength 2

                    power level presets
                    attack/speed- 100/25/50/25
                    attack/tank- 100/50/25/25
                    GTFO- 25/50/100/25
                    aux healing- 25/50/25/100

                    you have 4 available presets, i would set them up like this if i were you.


                    deflector- borg

                    engine- borg

                    shield- maco

                    its likely you have stf set pieces, maco is the best shield. the borg deflector and engine gives you an extra hull heal for more defense, but for offense you could use the omega deflector and engine and deal passive extra shield damage.

                    eng consoles
                    2 sfi, 2 neutronium

                    sci consoles
                    2 field generators

                    tac consoles
                    3 energy weapons specific to the type your using

                    DOFFs-

                    duty officers, or doffs, are the newest addition to your ships equipment, and now your most important piece of equipment. the safest bet for any ship is to get 3 shields distribution doffs, 3 green should be cheap enough, and be quite effective. you use their effect the same you you use RSP, when your shields are down to nothing. wile your taking fire, activate it and receive a good to great shield heal. for the other 2 slots, you could equip 2 conn doffs to reduce the cooldown on evasive maneuvers. do your own research on your doffs, having the right doff in combination with your station powers will make a big difference in your performance.




                    the assault cruiser is easy to get when you make admiral, chances are free if you have a token. its a simple, sturdy ship that can put down good damage over time.



                    2 tactical teams, or TT, will give you good protection from incoming damage. they balance your shield hit points to reinforce the shield facing thats getting hit, keeping you safe from hull damage. at all times you want to be manually distributing your shields as well, this is the #1, most important thing you can do in pvp if you want to survive.

                    with 8 beam arrays, fire at will, or FAW, will be good at hitting all near by targets, including spam and help clear it. its not a good skill for single target damage though.

                    emergency power to weapons and shields are very important skills. with the way their cool downs work, every 15 seconds you can activate 1 of the 4 of them and enjoy 100% up time with the bonus power they provide. emergency power to shields, or EPtS, offers extra shield resistance as well as extra shield power. no mater what ship you fly, you want to have this skill on at all times.

                    reverse shield polarity, or RSP, is an oh TRIBBLE skill, but is often misused. this skill should not be your first line of defense, but your last line. for between 5 and 15 seconds depending on grade, it converts incoming energy to shield hitpoints, as a secondary effect this makes you basically invincible. but thats its secondary effect. you ONLY want to use this skill when all your shields are down to slivers and you dont have any other shield heal ready. if you have been cycling EPtS, TT, and manually distributing, your shields should all drain at once, creating the ideal opportunity to use this skill.

                    hazard emitters, or HE, is a hull heal over time. auxiliary to structural, or AtS, is an instant hull heal and resist. it has a global cooldown of 10 seconds when you use 2 copies of it, and the resist lasts 10 seconds. with 2 copies you can have full up time with this skill too. AtS3 is only available on very rare bridge officers, but shouldn't be too hard to find on the exchange.

                    transfer shield strength, or TSS, is a shield heal and resist over time, a great skill to use when you start getting attacked. how good these 3 skills are depends on how much auxiliary power you have. if your in need of strong heals, use an aux batt or transfer energy to aux.

                    eject warp plasma, or EWP, leaves a trail of plasma behind you and acts like a snare to enemies that touch it

                    extend shields, or ES, is a shield heal over time to allies, you cant use it on your self. you would be most useful to your team if you used this skill

                    directed energy modulation, or DEM, is a small extra shield penetrating damage applied to your weapons.



                    with all these skills, you should have good damage dealing, good tanking, and good support capability. this is a cruisers role, adding their pressure damage and giving heals out to those in trouble, and keeping yourself healthy too.


                    many more builds will be salvaged from old threads soon, when i get to it
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    ACT log parser

                    ACT is a program that enables combat log parsing. It very thoroughly breaks down DPS. Want to see exactly what goes on in combat? ACT is for you then.

                    go here

                    http://hilbertguide.com//ACT.html

                    right click and save as the recommended version, go to the plugin tab and browse to the .cs file you just saved, select it and hit enable.

                    To use act type in /combatlog 1 in chat. at the end of the session type in /combatlog 0 to end it.

                    Import the combat log from the sto combat log folder.

                    Go back to the main tab
                    select your desired import zone (usually your most recent) and there you go.
                  • linkdown1linkdown1 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Nice ........
                  • havamhavam Member Posts: 1,735 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    EPtS
                    Emergency Power to Shields

                    EPtS
                    Emergency Power to Weapons

                    Typo right, there. Very nice thread. I vote stickie!
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Very good but...it's a shame you're an evil Empire Veteran!:P

                    i think it encourages players to steal the evil klingon pvp secrets. who always stomps the newcomers? evil klingon. so who would they trust information about pvp from the most? evil klingons! :D
                    havam wrote: »
                    Typo right, there. Very nice thread. I vote stickie!

                    heres proof that some one bothered to look at that chart! i didn't waste my time!


                    i'll fill this thread with builds when i have more time
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    im over due for posting something here, i'll start with a good, simple tactical excelsior build. the excelsior is one of the cheapest, and best ships you can get in the c store, and is a great ship for a tactical captain that doesn't want to use an escort. this will be a cheap and easy build, you wont need expensive doffs to make it work

                    there are 3 good weapon profiles for an excelsior, 8 beam arrays, 4 single cannons with 4 turrets, and a hybrid with a DBB, 3 single cannons, 3 turrets, and 1 beam array.

                    8 beam array excelsior

                    TT1, BO2, BO3

                    EPtW1, EPtS2, AtS2, AtS3
                    EPtW1, RSP1
                    EPtS1


                    HE1, TSS2

                    station power long form here

                    equipment

                    omega deflector
                    omega engine
                    maco shield

                    consoles

                    borg, EPS, 2 neutronium

                    2 flow cap

                    3 energy type consoles

                    doffs

                    TT cooldown reducing conn doffs, shield distribution doffs

                    this ship will be able to tank well, and throw ALL its heals to allies. it will also be able to deal good pressure damage with the tetryon glider, and have a beam overload spike every 15 seconds. i suggest using an energy type that benefits from flow capacitors like polaron and tetryon. the EPS console will help deal with that BO drain.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    4 single cannon, 4 turret excelsior

                    TT1, CRF1, CRF2

                    EPtW1, EPtS2, AtS2, AtS3
                    EPtW1, RSP1
                    EPtS1


                    HE1, TSS2

                    station power long form here

                    equipment

                    omega deflector
                    omega engine
                    maco shield

                    consoles

                    borg, 2 RCS, 1 neutronium

                    2 flow cap

                    3 energy type consoles

                    doffs

                    TT cooldown reducing conn doffs, shield distribution doffs

                    this ship will be able to tank well, and throw ALL its heals to allies. it will also have the highest DPS of all the excelsior builds, but lack any spike damage, critical at getting most kills. its a cruiser though, and contributing damage over time is its primary purpose.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    beam cannon hybrid excelsior

                    1 DBB, 3 single cannons, 3 turrets, and 1 beam array

                    TT1, CRF1, BO3

                    EPtW1, EPtS2, AtS2, AtS3
                    EPtW1, RSP1
                    EPtS1


                    HE1, TSS2

                    station power long form here

                    equipment

                    omega deflector
                    omega engine
                    maco shield

                    consoles

                    1 EPS, 2 RCS, 1 neutronium

                    borg, field projector

                    3 energy type consoles

                    doffs

                    TT cooldown reducing conn doffs, shield distribution doffs

                    this ship will be able to tank well, and throw ALL its heals to allies. a successful BO3 hit from a DBB is a very damaging attack, and backed up by the rapid firing cannons will deal good pressure damage. if a target is out or the firing arc of the DBB, theres a good chance he will be in the act of the aft beam array. this can help keep the pressure on. of all these 3 builds, this will be the best able to get kills, but be the hardest to use effectively.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    DHC vorcha R

                    the vorcha is a great cruiser to use tactically, and with a few turn consoles can sufficiently make use of narrow arc escort weapons.

                    4 DHC, 4 turrets

                    TT1, CRF1
                    TT1


                    EPtW1, EPtS2, EWP1, AtS3
                    EPtW1, EPtS2, RSP2


                    TB1, HE2

                    station power long form here

                    equipment

                    borg deflector
                    borg engine
                    KHG shield

                    consoles

                    3 RCS, 1 neutronium

                    borg, field projector

                    3 energy type consoles

                    doffs

                    evasive maneuvers cooldown reducing conn doffs, shield distribution doffs

                    the vorcha has limited tactical stations compared to an actual escort, but it has other tricks up its sleeves. your objective should be to stop your opponent movement before launching a full attack, you cant dog fight with nimble escorts otherwise. this should devastate slower targets as well. an EWP cloud is a good snare to trap any attackers nipping at your heals. using the tractor beam before or after can set someone up to be successfully trapped in plasma, or grab someone who is about to escape from the cloud. an imoble target has a very low or negative evasion score, as a result your shots will deal more damage, and score critical hits more often.
                  • allen78j20stoallen78j20sto Member Posts: 41 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Thank you for this. Im at kindergarten level with pvp and I was looking for something to help me understand it.
                  • dontdrunkimshootdontdrunkimshoot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Thank you for this. Im at kindergarten level with pvp and I was looking for something to help me understand it.

                    great to hear! im having a real motivation problem filling out this thread so far, want to make several easy solid builds before i go into some really min maxed hardcore stuff. any ship specific requests?
                  • dalnar83dalnar83 Member Posts: 2,420 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    I would post some of my builds. But since most of them are labeled as fail-builds, I won't embarass myself in public. :P
                    "Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
                  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    great to hear! im having a real motivation problem filling out this thread so far, want to make several easy solid builds before i go into some really min maxed hardcore stuff. any ship specific requests?

                    I'm still wondering how much this is going to change in the next 2-3 weeks as S7 hits...meh.

                    As an aside, I was wondering how long it took you to get used to the AtB/EPtA combo? It just feels awkward - both in how it's like a side thing being done (as opposed to the run of the mill popping things) and in how it throws the timing off (used to things being ready at certain points) for both the ship and others (lol, it's funny how long the refreshes feel on other ships).

                    I know if I can get used to it - I will feel a little evil. The potential there is pretty damn nifty on boats not needing the high Aux.
                  • snoge00fsnoge00f Member Posts: 1,812 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    dalnar83 wrote: »
                    I would post some of my builds. But since most of them are labeled as fail-builds, I won't embarass myself in public. :P

                    Do it, man. Who cares what others think. Maybe someone will take ideas from 'em.
                    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
                  • fakehilbertfakehilbert Member Posts: 252 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    http://hilbertguide.com has some solid and easy builds.
                  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    I've combined/edited/redited this post in post #39 (as well as changing my original reply there): http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=6338771&postcount=39
                  • dalnar83dalnar83 Member Posts: 2,420 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Uhm rainbow ? :-)
                    "Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
                  • dassemstodassemsto Member Posts: 792 Arc User
                    edited October 2012
                    Can this be salvaged?

                    Star Cruiser w/ Sci Captain

                    4 Phased Polaron, 2 Polarized Tetryon, 2 Plasma-Disruptor

                    in short: NO!

                    Go all weapons of the same energy type, and use damage-type specific tac consoles!
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