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virtis9
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
As I muddle my way through the ranks of STO, I'm finding lots to do and lots more questions to ask.
My goal is always to enjoy endgame, usually as some sort of tank. My engineer is now 16, and I expect I'll respec around 45ish for STFs. I gather STFs are the equivalent of 5-man heroic/hardmode dungeons. Am I on the right track?
With endgame as the goal, should I just save all/most of my dilithium for now? If not, what would I spend it on?
Am I gimping myself by not skilling up crafting/research in Memory Alpha? Or can I continue to play solo until 45 just relying on quest/PvE rewards?
I'm still reading a lot, so go easy on me.
My goal is always to enjoy endgame, usually as some sort of tank. My engineer is now 16, and I expect I'll respec around 45ish for STFs. I gather STFs are the equivalent of 5-man heroic/hardmode dungeons. Am I on the right track?
With endgame as the goal, should I just save all/most of my dilithium for now? If not, what would I spend it on?
Am I gimping myself by not skilling up crafting/research in Memory Alpha? Or can I continue to play solo until 45 just relying on quest/PvE rewards?
I'm still reading a lot, so go easy on me.
Post edited by virtis9 on
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So you're on the right track.
The story content can easily be played with just basic reward stuff.
There's also the added bonus that when you replay missions at higher levels, you get level apropriate rwards.
In case of the last character I leveled, I just redid "Diplomatic Orders" twice every ten levels for a pair of green-level Quantum Torpeodes.
And as soon as the mission becomes available you can do the same with the "Everything Old ins New" missions for blue-level Phaser Arrays.
Various other missions will provide you with most of the consoles you might feel useful, but fighting enemies is so easy most of the time, you probably won't notice that you might lag 10 levels with some of them until endgame.
So there's no need to craft anything or visit the Dilithium Store until endgame and even then it might be easier to just use what's availalbe from mission rewards until you level one of the new Reputation Systems to get to Mk XII level equipment.
That's all I think of right now....except of course "Welcome to STO"
From my level 15 point of view:
On Dilithium, unless you are in a Fleet, then its ok to save it. But I would consel to just use it if you have it to make your game play more fun for you. If you want that phaser array, but it costs 2K Dilithium, then just buy it. If you want to save the D for a rainy day (whatever that means to you) then save it.
On crafting, I'm just at the tip of the iceburg myself, but I still have an opinion on it - you are not gimping yourself. Crafting is a way for you to get the item on your time. Otherwise, its just rewards from quests are random drops, and that is the rub: random. In other words, *you* do not control what or when you get the item.
All this is rendered moot on the Exchange, but the caveat is two-fold: 1) You have to hope or wait for someone else to sell the item, 2) you are paying a player-price which fluctuates.
The grand alternative is paying the games price which is static and always available.
I hope this helps. If its conversation you already knew, then I appreciate your patience as I worked it out myself here
What about doffs and boffs? I currently only have 4 bridge slots. Does that mean I have to lose one in order to get new ones? Or can I "demote" the ones I want to save for later (ie. when I switch to a cruiser and a more tanky playstyle someday, can I save my current unused engineer boffs)?
Do the doff assignments yield anything that will help in endgame, that I can't get anywhere else? I'm enjoying sending them out anyway, but wondering if I should aim for something specific. I gather that some can reward very rare officers, but do these necessary to succeed in endgame?
Can reputation gains be respecced? If I start grinding rep with Romulan Star Empire and/or Task Force Omega now, and choose DPS abilities while I'm leveling up, can I switch them to tank abilities when I get to level 45?
Is the loot in temporal lock boxes worth buying keys for?
You currently have 4 slots. I believe you will get more as you level. You can buy more from the Zen store. When you requisition BOffs (or gain them as a reward) you have to manually join them to your crew. Otherwise they sit ... somewhere ... where you can look at their traits/skills/abilities.
I'm not sure if you can demote them to save later. I do not think so. I have on this board that you really do not even need to replace any white BOffs (common) with higher rarity BOffs. That is personal choice though.
Yes, they will help in your game now. Assign a few to your bridge and they may provide buffs or procs, depending on the DOff. Here I strongly recommend you actually *read* the DOffs dossier. It may be a lot of reading (and some have interesting quotes), but it will be worth the time investment, I think.
Ultimately, DOffs are a mini-game that is not required at all. They and a dimension to the game that can be a source of stress AND fun at the same time. STO Wiki is a very valuable resource to help
Someone at that level will need to speak up on this question. Good one too because I would like to know myself!
Powderkeg question. Read around here and you may get the impression *NO*. For my part, I disagree. In my career I may have gotten about 20 LB and 3 of them had Temporal ships which I sold on the Exchange (because I do not want to use one). EC prices mean nothing to me know. I have also gotten my entire DOff compliment through Lockboxes and plenty of upgrades I was able to use or sell for even more EC. For my game I have had no problem spending the what ... $25 ... for a positive experience with them so far.
Lockboxes are a fact of the game. You do not need what is inside them. So you should decide if you want to spend money on the game or not. If yes, then just do it. If no, then don;t! I do not mean to saound trite about it, but it is that simple (to me).
What you could do is buy a set of 10 keys. Open the first 10 LB you get. If you like it, then rock on. If not, then all you spent was $11.25 to try something. That is the price of a decent meal plus drink at a place like Applebees.
No, you cannot do a reputation respec. Personally I'm going for tanking.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
To answer your questions (I have several lvl 50 characters across both factions and in all careers);
- Yes, STFs are the equivalent of dungeons in other MMOs. Tanking is good for some of them (Donatra is one example), but be aware to get Optional objectives it is mostly a pure DPS race.
- Save your dilithium! I advise this even if you are part of a fleet. In most larger fleets, there will be end level players who *usually* can afford to donate some dilithium to projects. However, if you have a surplus of it, or are feeling somewhat selfless, then by all means donate it. At endgame, dilithium is required for quite a lot of things (mainly getting good consoles if you don't have the Energy Credits) and also buying things from provisioned Fleet Stores (assuming you join a fleet).
- You aren't gimping yourself by not crafting. Most of the high-end consoles, as cmdrscarlet pointed out, are available on the Exchange, or from the dilithium store. The dilithium price is fixed, but the Exchnage price fluctuates, as you'd expect. If you're part of a fleet, then usually there's at least one or two who have maxed their crafting ability, so can craft items for you. I craft for my fleeties, and 'charge' them the cost of the Unreplicatable Materials (which require dilithium/lots of EC).
- BOffs stay with you. If you have several that are still packaged up, you can mail them to yourself (go to a mail station and drag & drop them into the item slots), which can prevent clutter. You get more slots for BOffs as you level up, but you will usually find that you have more BOffs than BOff slots, unless you buy more slots from the C-Store. To my mind, there is no need to 'dismiss' your BOffs that you currently have (i.e. getting rid of a white quality BOff to replace with a blue quality one). With your BOff stations, you decide on the BOffs that go there, and the rest merely hang around your ship, doing nothing, unless they're part of your away team.
- DOffs are something else entirely. Playing the DOff game is a great way to level up, should you get bored by a section of the story and wish to bypass it, or you are levelling up alts. Plus, from several missions you can get little things like data samples, contraband (5x contraband will net you 2000 dilithium from a security officer on DS9), and dilithium. If you get a 'Critical Success' from a mission, you get more dilithium (usually 125dil up from 5dil) and better rewards. Missions in the 'Personal' tab can also affect your capabilities if they get a critical success (example; you get a boost to your shields, or driver coil, or attack patterns), and the skill that is boosted is displayed in green in the mission's blurb.
- DOffs are also useful when put on Active Space/Ground duty. Read, very carefully, the DOff's ability. For example, I currently slot 2x purple quality Shield Distribution Officers, which can proc when I use Brace For Impact and regen part of my shields. As you go on, you will pick up DOff ideas, and know what works well for you. It is a bit of fun in its own right, so have fun with it!
- You cannot respec your Reputation rewards, so choose wisely.
- Temporal boxes are an interesting thing. You mileage may vary with them. Personally, I buy 10 keys every now and then, and open 10 boxes. The stuff inside can be useful, and you may even get the newest shiny ship (the Wells/Korath class in this case). The Lobi crystals you collect can also be used to buy stuff from a Lobi store, which has some pretty nice 'fluffy' stuff (the array of Sehlats/Targs that some people have trailing them as they run around, and bits of uniforms). Some people say they are the Devil's own spawn though. My advice, as cmdrscarlet said, is buy a 10-pack and open 10 boxes. If you like what you get, then all good. If you don't like it, then resolve never to open another box again and sell the boxes on the Exchange!
Have fun!
Tim
What are current pros and cons of playing one faction versus the other? I figure most differences are cosmetic, and any mechanic advantages of playing one would be minor (small bonuses to dps for one vs small bonuses to survivability for the other, maybe)? Is there a population imbalance that would favor raiding on the more populated faction, or queueing for pvp on the other less populated one? Is there faction-exclusive content?
Happy gaming!