The new PVP help and ship build thread

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

reichwald12

Thanks for doing this compilation. Looking forward to contributing to it!

cliftona91

Where's that Keybind program in the Youtube Video?

dontdrunkimshoot

cliftona91 wrote: »

Where's that Keybind program in the Youtube Video?

its in the post i linked right above the video link

snoge00f

I'll add a keybind and advertise this thread when I'm done playing a match. Adding it to my siglink as well.

dontdrunkimshoot

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

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

linkdown1

Nice ........

Unknown

This content has been removed.

havam

dontdrunkimshoot wrote: »

EPtS
Emergency Power to Shields

EPtS
Emergency Power to Weapons

Typo right, there. Very nice thread. I vote stickie!

dontdrunkimshoot

starwrathforever wrote: »

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!

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

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

dontdrunkimshoot

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.

allen78j20sto

Thank you for this. Im at kindergarten level with pvp and I was looking for something to help me understand it.

dontdrunkimshoot

allen78j20sto wrote: »

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?

dalnar83

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

virusdancer

dontdrunkimshoot wrote: »

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.

snoge00f

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.

fakehilbert

http://hilbertguide.com has some solid and easy builds.

virusdancer

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

dalnar83

Uhm rainbow ? :-)

dassemsto

virusdancer wrote: »

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!