Tips for the noob VA

atticusmas

I made VA about a week ago, and I still consider myself a noob.

I have the tactical vesta, and I like it to an extent, but since I am not a science officer(I am a tactical), it is kind of difficult to use, but nonetheless, I have it set up so I have pretty much impossibly strong shields, but my hull remains pretty weak at around 30k. Essentially I think the problem is simply that my gear isn't good enough. I realize that you can get some really good gear from the rep system and obviously the exchange and crafting, however, I am somewhat inexperienced when it comes to EC and crafting.

First off, Crafting:
I find that it is very, very hard to get a lot of development xp and it is equally harder to get the materials for it. Specifically, the particle traces, mineral samples and the likes. I know I can get most of these on the exchange, but they are kind of expensive, which brings me to my next topic...

Exchange:
I think the exchange is very well done, considering the economy isn't regulated, yet we still have established prices that fluctuate, but still remain mostly constant which cannot be said about some other game economics, however, I find that it is quite difficult to reach these prices. I am not complaining about the prices, but rather I ask for some tips on getting EC. I can do daily PVP which gives me some 10k ec but that's not a lot. I've been usually just farming and recycling the mk X and XI gear that I get, that I don't want, and when I recycle an inventory full of the likes of those items, I can get about 200k EC which isn't bad, but I am nowhere near having some 60-80 mil that is required to buy, say, a timeship.

The problem that I am having is simple: How is it even possible to get that much EC? Simply do what I am doing, and grind for a long, long time? Or is there another way?


Any help is greatly appreciated.

thecosmic1

Most of the good gear comes from doing the end-game Rep system stuff: Romulan, Omega, etc. So if you want the best gear you need to start doing the Omega STFs and grinding your way into the best gear. Likewise with the Romulans. The Crafting sets aren't as good as the gear you earn from the various Rep systems.

As far as earning EC, it's just a question of doing things as a VA. By the time you've done your 100th STF you've earned a few million EC. You can do a Tour The Galaxy event and earn a million or more during 1 event. And there's always drops that other want. Plus Doffing and selling rare doffs.

ursusmorologus

Science ships have very large shield multipliers but very weak hull. You are where you are supposed to be. You can add hull strength by filling your engineering slots with alloy.

Dont bother with the crafting system, everything you can make can be bought on the exchange for less time and money.

Easiest way to get end-game gear quickly is to replay the missions that give the Jem'Hadar Mk XI purple pieces, and get the set together.

Once you have that and the alloy pieces, work the Omega and Romulan reputation systems, and join the associated queues. Sell the loot drops, refine and save the dilithium, and turn the marks for reputation EXP. You can get Borg console piece from Tier-1 omega, and the Romulan console from the T2 rom rep, that is just a few days of effort. After a few weeks of grinding Omega you can buy Mk XII set pieces from Borg, Omega, MACO, and Adapted MACO (which is the KHG relabeled). The Jem'Hadar set willl take you all the way there.

frontline2042

For money the best way to get it is run space foundry grind missions. My favorite is Klingon nebula by flacks. There's a cap to how much you can get out of the foundry each day so once you hit that stop. The nebula can be a bit tricky, its 25 Klingon cruisers stacked on top of each other in a nebula (so they don't have shields, you can sit outside the nebula to keep your shields though). The goal is to start a chain warp core explosion, but remember you'll only get loot from guys you damaged yourself so cannon volley and torpedo spread.

And don't recycle gear, sell it to a vendor. You'll get more out of it.
Alternatively, make a Klingon and grind the marauding doff missions for contraband and sell it in the exchange. I think they're worth 80k each?

atticusmas

Thank you for all the help, I just have one more question....

How do I do 'tour the universe' ?

thecosmic1

atticusmas wrote: »

Thank you for all the help, I just have one more question....

How do I do 'tour the universe' ?

Tour the Galaxy is an Event that comes up every so often. When you bring up your Mission Journal the first page, near the bottom, generally lists what Event currently going on and you can use the arrow to see what events are forthcoming to let you know what's happening later - or what happened earlier. You can read about it on the STO Wiki here.

dracounguis

thecosmic1 wrote: »

you need to start doing the Omega STFs

And please read about the tactics for elite STFs before going in. You'll save yourself the grief the others will heap upon you when you TRIBBLE it up.

Plus, a correctly executed ISE takes 1/2 to 1/3 as long as a bungled one.
~~~~~~~~~~~

As for EC, no easy way to get it w/o buying Zen. People buy the lockbox keys and sell on exchange for ~1M each. Doff missions for contraband are good, but not a fast way to EC. Unfortunately, the big EC scores require luck. Lockbox ships, VR desired doffs, etc.

You can make EC, just requires work and time (shocking I know)

sander233

Tac Captains driving Vestas can be all kinds of nasty evil if they're set up right. Try stacking Attack Pattern Alpha on a Grav Well III and you'll see what I mean.

frontline2042 wrote: »

For money the best way to get it is run space foundry grind missions. My favorite is Klingon nebula by flacks. There's a cap to how much you can get out of the foundry each day so once you hit that stop. The nebula can be a bit tricky, its 25 Klingon cruisers stacked on top of each other in a nebula (so they don't have shields, you can sit outside the nebula to keep your shields though). The goal is to start a chain warp core explosion, but remember you'll only get loot from guys you damaged yourself so cannon volley and torpedo spread.

And don't recycle gear, sell it to a vendor. You'll get more out of it.
Alternatively, make a Klingon and grind the marauding doff missions for contraband and sell it in the exchange. I think they're worth 80k each?

Try "Admiral BoBo Goes To War" - you will thank me.

amaresh1

I cannot speak on the vesta. I imagine it is a pretty awesome ship. However, if you are going to do PVE, the goal is to get through as soon as possible. I use the Andorian escorts and the high dps saves a ton of time and I just love watching cannon scatter volley destroy a load of Borg spheres in Infected Space Elite. Here is my suggestions depending on the time that you have for the game.

1. First off, time to join a fleet. If you want to try out other ships, the fleet versions are very good. I like the fleet advanced escort with 5 tac consoles.

2. You are going to need fleet marks, Romulan marks, Omega Marks, Experience, and Dilithium. (Here comes the grind part.)

3. Omega Marks: Do infected space elite till you can do it in your sleep. ISE is an excellent time investment. (10-15 minutes top) If you have 5 alts like me, you can just rotate through them. You will end up getting 980 dilithium, 75-115 omega markets if you get the optional. And you get gear to sell to vendors or the exchange. As you get stronger do, KA Space and maybe Hive Space. Cure space is incredibly frustrating and not worth the time investment.

4. Romulan Marks. Epohh tagging is the way to go. Sit on Romulus at the epoch fields and tag and raise eppohhs every day. You can get 400 marks for a elder epoch. Takes about 10 minutes a day so very good return on time and about 9 days to get an elder epoch. (The problem is that you don't get much exp) Don't bother for anything else for Romulan Marks, not a good return for your time.

5. Dilithium: Do ISE (980) and KA (980) then do the satellite repair (480), do the the Delfera daily (Around 2000) and a few foundry missions, events, or PVP and you get to 8000 cap.

6. Experience: You are going to burn through experience like there is no tomorrow on the Romulan and Omega Reputation system. Best place to get exp is Mirror Events. You can do up to 10 in the 1 hour that the event is active. So you get 4000k dilithium and probably about 80-100k experience. So always do the mirror events and try to get as much as you can in the hour that it is active.

7. Commodities: Buy in bulk from the vendors because it costs more to replicate them. You are going to buy about $2 million worth of commodities to get to the top of the Omega and Romulan rep systems. If you join a decent fleet, there is a discount commodity terminal in the shuttle bay on the Embassy on New Romulus that you can get the EC cost down.

8. Weapons: You really need to decide what weapon type that you want to use build around that. I originally used antiprotons but I am now a phaser guy. The reason is that the elite fleet are phaser only, I am using quad cannons, and Andorian phasers. (Pay to win!) But you have to build your ship around the 1 type. If you are running a "rainbow" boat than people will give you hard time. You can get the level XII purples either at the fleet star base (But you will need a tone of fleet mark), Omega/Romulan Reputation. (Ton of Dilithium). You can also buy XII purples on the exchange. (Ton of EC)

9. Fleet Markets; Run the PVE queues, but only really do it during fleet events since they seem to happen 2 to 3 times a day for 2 hours. I think the best return for fleet marks is the ground missions, but someone can disagree with me on that.

Hope this helps.

sollvax

Don't rush

bi9t

Join a fleet. A good fleet will make your experience much more enjoyable and will have helpful ppl a quick chat away.

gavinruneblade

frontline2042 wrote: »

For money the best way to get it is run space foundry grind missions. My favorite is Klingon nebula by flacks. There's a cap to how much you can get out of the foundry each day so once you hit that stop. The nebula can be a bit tricky, its 25 Klingon cruisers stacked on top of each other in a nebula (so they don't have shields, you can sit outside the nebula to keep your shields though). The goal is to start a chain warp core explosion, but remember you'll only get loot from guys you damaged yourself so cannon volley and torpedo spread.

And don't recycle gear, sell it to a vendor. You'll get more out of it.
Alternatively, make a Klingon and grind the marauding doff missions for contraband and sell it in the exchange. I think they're worth 80k each?

Contraband prices have been low for the last couple months. Going price is about 34k each. However, many people don't search within the category. If you have the auctionhouse set to "all" the lowest price you'll find runs about 65k. If you have the auctionhouse set to "contraband" you'll find the more affordable ones.

This is also true for the crafting materials.

To augment the foundry missions, I like to sell unreplicatable materials with the dilithium I earn.

Also, selling duty officers is a really reliable source of money. Especially for Klingons.

vamank

Personally I don't understand why people sell Contraband on the exchange at all. Its a lot more valuable then it is selling for. Turning Contraband into Dil is one of the easiest ways to hit the cap on several characters each day. It's a bit expensive but its worth it.

nightelf34

atticusmas wrote: »

I made VA about a week ago, and I still consider myself a noob.

Your not a noob, I'm almost certaint of it.

You might be a newbie, but that is not to be mixed up with a noob.


Noob is a player that never learns. The newbie is just new at the game but is willing to learn.

I know this since I got called a noob in my early days as a MMO player, I did not know what a noob was so I googled it.

Hope to see ya ingame!

//Cheers