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'Optimal' mix of DOffs?
royalsovereign
Member Posts: 1,344 Arc User
Has anyone ever sat down and made a good list of all the DOff specialties and how many should be on your roster? I know I don't always pay attention and noticed yesterday that somehow over the past few weeks I've become inundated with Warp Theorists. So I think I'll exchange a few with Cardassia or something, but I don't know how many to hang on to...
"You Iconians just hung a vacancy sign on your asses and my foot's looking for a room!"
--Red Annorax
--Red Annorax
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And At least 3 decent diplomats (these will help with some of the best missions)
Never actually needed more than one warp theorist
The number of Botanists in the KDF is far greater than you would think.
Apparently, a ship can find a use for 10 torpedo officers even if it only has one launcher.
-Gen
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
Active Duty varies by player-captain specialty... though you can't go wrong with a Projectile Weapons Officer (such as Gul Tain) who gives you decreased cooldown on torpedos.
I, personally, play Engineers mostly, so Armory Officers, Fabrication Engineers and Explosives Experts are very nice to have on Active Duty.
For Assignments, you'll always want at least one Purple Science, one Purple Medical and three Biochemists (Dathan from the Gamma Quad Duty Officer Cadre you get after 'Facility 4028' is great for covering both the Medical and a Biochemist slot) - these are for Assembling Shield Charge Packs, Hypo Packs and Medical Regenerators.
At least one Security Officer without Aggressive, Stubborn or Unscrupulous to Turn Over Contraband.
Federation characters can never have too many Diplomats, but for Klingons, a nice mix of Projectile Weapon Officers, Energy Weapon Officers, Assault Squad Officers, Tractor Beam Officers and Transporter Officers is always welcome (Marauding Assignments, you know.)
While Rulian Mazan is great for an easy Purple DOff added to your crew, unless you're big on titles, I wouldn't bother much with Bartenders and Chefs since those Assignment Chains don't give anything besides more titles.
With enough Astrometric and Gravimetric Scientists, backed by a couple Geologists and some Development Lab and Research Lab scientists (Sensors Officers help too), you'll pretty much have most of the Science and Exploration Assignments covered.
Quartermasters (especially William Shakespeare (Fed) or Wil'yum Shak'sper (KDF), depending on your faction) and Traders - always good for the Exchange EC for Item or Item for EC assignments, depending on what you need. Especially good in the Cardassian areas (Beta Ursae, Zeta Andromedae, Alpha Trianguli and the surrounding star clusters) for Haggle assignments.
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
I distinctly recall looking at one point and finding about 12 botanists, biologists, and biochemists on board. Quite a few of them got sent off to Fleet Starbase duty.
I've got about 5 Flight Deck Officers, even tho I never use carriers. I guess they stay busy running the Scorpion Fighter one-shots I picked up in the Vault. Meanwhile I run torpedo boats most of the time, and have no torp officers...
--Red Annorax
My character Tsin'xing
ANY blue or better doff will 100% that mission...
True, you need lots of these for marauding assignments that give contraband.
Those QM are meh... you will need purple to get consistent Haggles. I personally wouldn't bother with the trade commodities missions.
Really it all boils down to the missions you like to do, need the cxp for, or that give the best rewards... just take note of the ones you do and adjust your crew accordingly.
The answer is: it depends. It depends on what assignments you focus on, it depends on what your goals are when you play the DOff system, and it depends on your build and playstyle in PvE and PvP for your active roster selection. So, there's no one right answer to this. The closest to "one right answer" I can get is: all blues and purples, no greens or whites.
On the other hand, you need Security officers who are Cunning, Unscrupulous and Seductive for espionage assignments.
Most science assignments benefit from "logical", and so on.
I kinda want to make a database of every assignments, figure out which traits are most sought, and compile a list of DOffs to best complete those assignments. But that would take effort.
I have 16 toons (17 counting my new Rommie who doesn't have doffs yet) and I often have to trim down my list back down from 100 for each one, so I am a good person to ask.
It does depend a fair bit on whether you are KDF or Klingon as there are differences in missions available. This is primarily in the Diplomatic / Marauding fields.
The first thing to remember is to focus on two things:
1. High-payoff Doff assignments
2. Getting better doffs through doff assignments
For #2 let me just say that yoiu should aggressively complete all the assignment chains that lead to valuable duty officers. "Ghosts of the Jem'Hadar," "Project Chrysalis," and the Caitian/Ferasan one (depending on which side you are on) all produce valuable purple officers with resolve. The colonization chains each produce a unique blue officer (who usually has efficient) and an opportunity to get a purple version of the same officer in a repeatable assignment. And the consular authority chains let you exchange duty officers for a random officer who is usually blue (on success) and is occaisionally purple (on crit). The same goes for refugee missions. These are all worth pursuing as much as possible.
As far as #1 goes, you want to concentrate on assignemtns that give you the maximum benefit. You may have to fly around to find them but they are worth doing. You also want to check your department heads as many of the missions pop up there; these missions change from one sector block to another so open them again when you move to a new sector. In most categories there are missions that give you 400+ CXP per mission, and many of these also give you 50 dilithium ore instead of 5. Those are the ones you want to concentrate on.
So let's go by category:
(note that this list does not address what acive duty officers you want which varies a lot by character type and ship type)
Tactical
* Conn officer - you probably only need one of these; few assignments require them. Use them when something calls for a generic tactical officer.
* Energy weapons officer - as a Fed you need one or two, and the ones you get for completing the Afehirr Nebula chain are probably enough. As a KDF you need more as marauding missions require them. Unscrupulous, aggressive, and resilient are all good traits.
* Projectile weapons officer - basically the same as energy weapons officer. You should have Gul Tain from the "Ghosts" chain plus the ones you got from the Khazan Cluster chain. As a Fed this should be enough - as a KDF you want a couple more.
* Shield Distribution officer - much like conn officer these ones are mainly going to be used for assignments that need generic tactical officers. You get ones from the Rolor Nebula chain and unless you are using them for active duty that's probably enough.
Security
* Armory officers - though they are the least useful of the security branch you chould have at least a few. There are some assignments that require generic guys from the security branch. Armory officers are also needed to complete step 4 of the colony chains. You can get good armory officers from the D'Kel Cluster chain. I usually have 2-4 of these on any toon.
* Assault Squad officer - great for military missions and also marauding missions if you are a Klingon, it doesn't hurt to have a bunch of these - half a dozen is reasonable and at least 3 or 4 is necessary. The Jem'Hadar ones you get from the Betreka Nebula Chain are very good and are also good for assignments that require shroud. You can also get holographic ones from your replicator.
* Security officer - your bread-and-butter for a lot of missions. It never hurts to have a lot of these guys. They are good for military missions and also diplomacy missions. 6 is very reasonable and 8 to 10 is fine. You will often find you run out of these guys. You can get good ones from the T'Ong Nebula colony chain. It is good to have at least one telepathic security officer, especially if you are KDF. Ironically, though security officer is listed as the success requirement for "Turn Over Confiscated Contraband" you don't actually need a security officer for that. I just use any purple duty officer who doesn?t have negative traits for this one. Why purple doffs? Because this assignment gives the best Trade CXP of any reasonable length assignment and you are going to do it anyway. Most Trade assignments give you stuff but lousy CXP so you want to maximize your rewards for this one.
Engineering
Interestingly, most of the good engineering missions require Operations rather than Engineering, so you don't need too many of these. Also most missions that require engineers give you some flexibility as to which type you need, cutting down the number of them you have to have. If you are going to be making consoles from strange alien artifacts, you want purple engineers with resolve, but it doesn't matter which type they are.
* Consultant - these guys are useful to give you a bonus to CXP so I would put one of those on active duty. No assignments require them to my knowledge though.
* Damage Control Enginer - I generally only keep one or maybe two of these. Note that you can get a good holographic one from your replicator depending on how much engineering CXP you have earned.
* Diagnostic engineer - again generally 1 is enough
* Fabrication Engineer - There are a few missions that use these so I would get a few, maybe 2 or 3. The Eridon Nebula chain (in Klingon space) can give you these but the Klingon version has unruly which makes him less than ideal for many assignments.
* Maintenance Engineer - again 1 or 2. If you got the Exocomp (Fed) or the Reman guy (KDF) then I would keep one more decent one.
* Matter-Antimatter Specialist - 1 will generally be fine.
* Systems Engineer - 1 or 2. There is a mission in the Caitian/Ferasan chain that requires two of these guys and there are a few others that use them but more than two is not necessary.
* Technician - 2 or more. These are used more often, and there are missions that specifically require them. Step 4 of the colony chains requires at least one. Early on you may want as many as 4 or 5 but once you have finished all the colony chains you can cut back to about 2 or 3. Their active duty ability is useful to anyone doing space combat. You can get these from the B'Tran Cluster colony chain.
* Warp Core Engineer - I never bother having more than 1 of these for assignments.
Operations
* Deflector Officer - these ones are used in the "Deep Space Array" assignment which is a good one but you will still only need 1 or 2. The ones you get from the Azlesa Expanse colony chain are probably enough, though those ones are telepathic so you may find yourself wanting one more plus any you want for active duty.
* Explosives Expert - at least 3. These ones are needed for the "Demolitions" assignments
(there are three: "Assist with Demolitions for Dilithium Mining," "Defuse Abandoned Orbital Mine Field," "Dilithium Mining in an Unstable Asteroid Cluster" ) that appear in your engineering list which all give at least 50 dilithium and hundreds of CXP each. You seem to be able to run them once per day. Good explosives experts are worth a lot. Ideally they will have resolve and efficient and tactful is helpful for one of them. Stubborn and unruly are bad.
* Flight Deck Officer - there aren't many assignments that need these but there are many that require generic operations officers. But the one that you want to watch for is the repeatable you get after finishing the Caitian/Ferasan chain which allows you to try and draft a new flight deck officer that could be a purple. For this reason I try to keep 3 of these on any ship (that's how many the assignment requires).
* Hazard System Officer - I normally only keep 1 of these but you could keep 2 if they have good traits.
* Quartermaster - 4 or so. These can be used for trading missions (you want ones with unscrupulous, cunning, and telepathic, and without aggressive - but you can also use traders for these). They can also be used to get more colonists. And they are also required in step 6 of the colony chain which is a repeatable assignment that gives about 500 colonial CXP and 500 engineering CXP. This is probably the best colonial assignment so if you want colonial CXP then make sure you have a few. If you have good traders you might need less quartermasters but you will always need some.
* Sensors officer - 1 is probably enough, though a second is all right if it has good traits. The Deep Space Array assignment uses them but also uses deflector officers so you won't need too many of these.
* Tractor Beam Officer - 1 for Fed. 3-4 for KDF. Feds don't need these too much but the KDF "Disable Freighter" assignments use them, and they give you contraband, prisoners, and other loot. You want to be able to run 3 or 4 of these at once, and they require one Tractor Beam guy and either an Energy Weapons or Projectile Weapons guy. Unscrupulous is the trait you want for KDF Tractor beam guys.
* Transporter officer - 1 if Fed. 2 or 3 if KDF. The raid KDF assignments require a transporter officer who is ideally aggressive and resilient and you will probably want to run more than one of them at once.
Science
* Astrometrics Scientist - 2 or 3. These ones are needed in the "Establish a Listening Post in the xxxx " assignment which gives 300 or so CXP in colonial, engineering, and espionage, so that is worth it. There are a few other good assignments that require them as well, like "Analyze Data from Unmanned Jem'Hadar Warship". You get good ones from the Hromi Cluster colony chain.
* Biologist - 2. You need 2 of these for "Additional Analysis of the Biological Characteristics of Unrefined Ketracel" Which gives over 1200 science CXP in one shot. When it crits you get crazy CXP. It takes expensive commodities but is worth it. There is also one for Shapeshifting Lockets and for Jevonite, but lately I have been saving those commodities since they are needed for the Strange Alien Artifact. Logical and Eidetic Memory are good. Stubborn and Unruly are bad.
* Botanist - at least 2. Maybe 4. You need 2 of these for "Additional Analysis of the Biological Characteristics of Bateret Incense" as well as the Ferasan Nepeta Leaves and Tulaberry versions. Traits needed are the same as with biologists above and this assignment also gives 1200+ CXP. If you want to run more than one of those assignments at once then keep 4 handy.
* Development Lab Scientist - 1 or 2. There are a couple ofgood assignments for these guys but they don't appear very often.
* Geologist - 1. Most of the assignments that use Geologists aren't worth doing, though there's a couple of engineering ones that can use them. You probably will use them for assignments that use generic scientists.
* Gravimetric Scientist - 1. Even less use for these guys than for Geologists. I keep one just in case but you could get away with having zero. You do get good ones out of the Eridan Belt colony chain though and they are probably enough. Science captains want these for their active ability, but for assignments they don't offer much.
* Photonic Studies Scientist - 1. Another type of scientist that there isn't much use for.
* Research Lab Scientist - 4-6. The only good Exploration assignments aside from "Analyze Data from Unmanned Jem'Hadar Warship" are the "Recover Artifacts from Archaeological Site in the <sector>" ones (the names vary a little). They give about 500 CXP plus data samples which are particle traces if you crit. But they require three guys of which at least two should be research lab scientists, and it helps if the third one is as well. BTW if you go into enemy space (Omega Leonis for Feds and Sirius for KDF) the versions there are slightly better. There are other assignments that use these too so they are all around useful. Good traits are efficient and teamwork; bad ones are cunning, unruly, and unscrupulous. If you are KDF you can use these for a marauding version of these assignments where cunning and unscrupulous become good; unruly is always bad for these guys. Considering how hard it is go get good exploration CXP though I usually ignore the marauding ones.
* Warp Theorist - 1. Another scientist that isn't used much. However, the Vorta Warp Theorists you get from the Zenas Expanse colony chain are very good because they have telekinesis. You are keeping those guys for the Telekinesis, not for their abilities as a warp theorist. So unless you have a bunch of them I would be inclined to keep one non-telekinetic warp theorist.
Medical
* Biochemist - 2 or 3. These ones are used in the "Evaluate Biochemical Properties of Bateret Incense" assignment - there is one for each commodity. They don't appear that often but at 1000 CXP a pop you can afford to wait. There are a few others that can use them as well.
* Counselor - 1 or 2. They are good for "Resettle Colonists." If you have a telepathic one use it for "Recover Repressed Memories from Refugee" but any telepathic guy will do ok.
* Doctor - 2 or 3. You need these for "Quarantine Colony with <disease>" and "Emergency First Aid Training" both give around 500 CXP and first aid also gives 50 dilithium. You can replicate holographic doctors based on your medical CXP level.
* Medic/Nurse - 3. You want these for "Provide Medical Support in Combat Zone." It gives over 1000 CXP and 50 dilithium. Resolve is great. Emotional, peaceful, and unscrupulous are bad.
Civilian
* Advisor - 1 or 2. They can often do things that diplomats can do, but not as well as diplomats. You can use them to debrief/interrogate prisoners. The purple telekinetic guy you get from Project Chrysalis is an advisor; I would keep one more in addition to him/her.
* Bartender - 1. You want this for "Entertain Foreign Dignitaries" and for the bartending chain. But that's all.
* Chef - 1. See Bartender.
* Colonists - 20.
* Diplomat - 4 or so for Fed. Maybe 2 for KDF. Not a lot of use for them in KDF but they are great for "Instigate Defection" which gives you blue or purple doffs.
* Entertainer - 1. See Bartender. Note you can get holographic entertainers on crit of the "Special Deal on Entertainment Provisions" assignment.
* Prisoner - 2 or 3. By this I mean the blue/purple Vorta and JemHadar prisoners you get from the "Facility 4028 Fugitives" chain and the repeatable assignment "Strike Against Fugitive Support Network". They can be used in "Debrief/Interrogate Prisoner," and the JemHadar ones can be used in "Splice JemHadar DNA." KDF could use more than Fed since they have more mean things to do with prisoners. White prisoners you want to use in assignments where you trade them in, such as "Negotiate Prisoner Exchange" and also for KDF the "Forced Labor Camp" assignments which give dilithium and the "Sell Prisoners to Orion Slavers" assignment that appears on or near QoNoS. This assignment grants you over 1000 CXP and also some Latinum. Sadly it only appears once per day. Don?t trade in your blue prisoners unless you have a surplus.
* Refugee - 1. By this I mean upper-level refugees, preferably purple. For your white ones you want tu trade them in using assignments like "Asylum on Earth," etc. But the higher level ones are used in "Recover Repressed Memories from Refugee" which is good for about 500 CXP and 50 dilithium.
* Trader - 4. There are a lot of commodity trading missions and though they don't give you a lot of EC you always make money unless you have a critical failure. Traders are the only way to get gamma quadrant commodities (aside from the exchange) and you need those for science and medical assignments (see biologist, botanist, and biochemist, above). You also need them and traders to get yourself Strange Alien Artifacts, which are worth a lot of EC and can be made into mark XII consoles. You want traders with the same traits as Quartermasters. Most of these assignments can also use Quartermasters so if you have lots of those you need less Traders.
*Phew* that took a while. Hope it was useful.
Peet
Thanks,
Gen
EDIT: an item that just occurred to me, relating to your list and the new update. Matter-Antimatter guys, if you want to do the Engineering assignment to creat a new Warp Core, you need at least two M-A Specialists.
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
Also, you might want to tack on an additional Counselor and Nurse for "Reintroduce Additional Volunteers Into Society," the repeatable from the end of the Chrysalis chain, as it's a good source of otherwise scarce Recruitment CXP.
very very nice job!
you should make a guide!
--Red Annorax
be a sticky in the academy. This is exactly what I was looking for, and couldn't find anywhere.
I would only add a few things based on my experience as a newbie to STO and Doffing.
As someone mentioned Matter-Antimatter Specialists are nice now that the new warp-core upgrades are a thing. Two are sufficient.
I would go with at least 5 if not 6 for diplomats as fed, at least, for a new guy looking to get that Diplomacy Commendation CXP for the transwarps. The more diplo assignments you can do, the faster you get it. Additionally you need 5 Diplomats and/or Advisors to have a really good chance of critting those Support Colonization Efforts for the nice duty officers. (Tactful, peaceful, efficient, teamwork)
Telepathic and Efficient are always good for Security officers, but aggressive can be bad, depending on the mission
Noone likes an aggressive trader, particularly for the Haggle missions, however, cunning and unscrupulous ones are very useful.
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
Note: Tellarites have a lower chance than the other 3.
Also, the Suliban ship being released seems like the ultimate doffing ship, specially with the non-dil sinking officer reassignment that uses only 3 doffs.
There was no mention of the active doff powers probably because of the variety, but my rule is, if you can get it off a colonial chain or pure luck off assignments, don't waste EC or dil unless you must have the doff. Also, don't bother with anything but purples because you're wasting valuable slots. If you need any active doff power that comes only from lock box doffs, then choose carefully because they are sometimes very expensive (attack pattern and cannon doff) and many times you only really need one.
Edit for extra advice. Try getting Efficient engineer doffs by using Asylum on Bajor. Those are great for building consoles and minimizing the green console chance. It used to be cheaper and easier to exchange blues for purple Tellarites on Earth, but now it's a huge dil sink and not worth it.
These particular doff's price should drop in about a month because of dil mine Warp Cores.
Bad advise, don't use diplomats or advisors for max crit. There is a Rigelian purple from getting the CXP maxed out that you can get that has 3 crit traits. Since you can only get one of those, the next best doffs come from support colonization in Delta Volanis, Eridan Belt, and Zenas Expanse (kind of a feedback loop, the more you get the more you crit). The T'Ong crit doff is great for confiscating contraband. Some of the other colonials have other great uses, I know there is one great for crits with the strike fugitive network, but I don't carry aggressive doffs anymore.
If you're looking to get a jump start on Supports, though, it's not hard to find purple doffs with two crit traits for a modest price on the exchange. There are plenty of specializations where Peaceful, Teamwork, and Tactful are not particularly useful for their specific missions, and so you can pick them up for relatively cheap and just use them for Support.
3 purple counselors, if you can get them, are almost essential to my mind.
why? because they're not really needed for all that much, but slotting 3 of them i the "resettle colonists" mission gives you a crit chance of around 20% or so, and only ties up 3 otherwise not all that stellar Doffs doing something that you should be trying to do daily if you can manage it.
colonist Doffs are trade-able for dilithium, and count as civilians for Fleet embassy & dilithium mine missions. Sending 3 purple counselors out to get them ensures that you get "high quality" colonists back for better returns on any of the several assignments that can take them as inputs.
I also recommend explosive experts by the handful/bunch. even green ones are worth your trouble, if they have tactful. Purple ones with a fail trait in one or more of the demolition assignments are usually just as good a blue with no crit traits in those assignments. a mix of explosive experts like I described above and a couple quartermasters (blue or better) lets you slot all the demolition assignments you're able to in a given period, and swapping them around to match traits with the correct missions maximizes your earning potential with little effort. Easy money
Once you're maxing out some or even all the categories (or even before, if you're greedy), your roster should be able to fill up...we'll say, 10 of your available assignment slots with assignments that offer 50 or more dil, and all 10 should be able to have a 20% or so crit chance while you're doing it.
If you can manage that, you're on easy street.
My character Tsin'xing
For ease, I made a simple spreadsheet to keep track of what you want and what you need, using smi3th's post as a base and incorporating subsequent comments. Enjoy!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqf5p2ndicrjo1o/STO%20DOffs.xlsx?dl=0
P.S. This is for Fed, so if KDF, adjust the numbers slightly (fewer diplomats, more tactical/security)
Good point. I'll do that in the future. Unfortunately, I just started STO and the forums won't let me make a new thread.
[Update]
I've updated the sheet with additional info re: traits and added columns so you can put in the number of DOffs you have by rarity. If you don't like that, just put in the number directly in the appropriate column.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqf5p2ndicrjo1o/STO%20DOffs.xlsx?dl=0