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Asking the Pros

aveimperatoraveimperator Member Posts: 319 Arc User
edited May 2013 in PvP Gameplay
Alright. Let me start this off by saying that I have not touched PvP with a 10' pole since the very early days of STO, the occasional casual fleet duels notwithstanding. I know that PvE is ridiculously easy and, therefore, any PvP will completely and utterly dominate any PvE encounter. That's why I'm here. I'm a long-time vet of this game but by no means an expert. My Romulan character has just hit 50 and now I come to you PvP veterans who know the game inside and out for advice on how to optimize my end-game ship.

Way back in the day, I was a big fan of cruisers, as I've always favored battleships over fighters. I want to play Star Trek, not Ace Combat. However, cruisers take 10x the work to be effective, whereas lolscorts are simply point and shoot. For a long time, I flew carriers (Atrox and then the JHDC) to still get that "battleship" feeling.

Right now, I have access to the T'Varo Retrofit/Refit from the Starter Pack, which I understand can do a sort of stealth bomber build. I've never run a torpedo boat before, though, so I have no idea how that works. I also have 2500 Zen saved and ready and have not used my VA ship token yet, so I'm contemplating between getting the Haakona Advanced Warbird, or using my VA ship token to get the D'Deridex Retrofit and using Zen to buy the D'Ridthau Refit for the 2-console bonus.

Since I just hit 50, I don't have any Rep yet with any faction. I'll state for the record that I know how great the Romulan plasma weapons are, I don't care, I hate the look/sound of plasma weapons. Plus, Romulan ships used disruptors in the shows, so I got myself 4 Nanine Disruptor Beam Arrays and a DBB all Mk XI, which I've been using on my Ha'apax.

I intend to start off very slowly in PvP, probably sign up for one of the upcoming PvP bootcamps once I feel comfortable with my ship setup. I'm the first to admit I'm a total newbie at PvP and don't really know TRIBBLE about shipbuilding. I've always just kinda winged it and did well in PvE. Asking for your help, pros. Ready to learn. :)
Post edited by aveimperator on

Comments

  • mimey2mimey2 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Well, at the very least, a new boot camp is starting today.
    I remain empathetic to the concerns of my community, but do me a favor and lay off the god damn name calling and petty remarks. It will get you nowhere.
    I must admit, respect points to Trendy for laying down the law like that.
  • thisslerthissler Member Posts: 2,055 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Well, at the very very least there's this,

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAAgaD-zbotq2By_2-8qqIg?feature=results_main

    There's a bunch in there about effectively using battlecloaks.

    And stuff.
  • aveimperatoraveimperator Member Posts: 319 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Nobody? :(
  • adamkafeiadamkafei Member Posts: 6,539 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    If you are going to run a stealth bomber you will want max points in weapon proff, and all other torp related skills, also embassy consoles I think work with torps (don't quote me I haven't tested it). If you are going to do this start weighing up transphasics (wither Fleet or Rapid fire) and Quantums, (photons vs shields aren't worth the power to fire them and most others suffer some kind of major drawback, the Chronies for example lack damage potential).

    Another thing to bare in mind is you never want to decloak or be decloaked so use high engine and aux power, if all goes well you won't need shields and weapon power is worthless to a torp boat anyway. (on a side note keep an EPtS and/or EPtE handy in case you do get decloaked).

    You may want to look into Attack pattern beta, you can have 100% uptime on it and I believe torps can apply it's debuff (again, don't quote me, I haven't tested the debuff), the disadvantage being that the effectiveness is governed by enemy tactical teams, AP: Delta is another option with slightly lower uptime but can be used on allies under fire. If you decide to run attack patterns then 6 points on the skill table is enough to make them worth having.

    Alternatively you can take every damage buff under the sun and use DHCs and run a decloak-alpha machine which can make use of the decloaking damage buff which can lead to 3 second long engagements with some practice, though I'm working on one myself knocking the kinks out of it so I'm not the guy to got to, thissler however is the authority on this to my knowledge.
    ZiOfChe.png?1
  • aveimperatoraveimperator Member Posts: 319 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Well, I tried running a torpedo boat (2 transphasics, 1 quantum, 1 plasma) in Normal Infected: Space earlier. I don't know how the B'rel's Advanced Battle Cloak works, but the T'varo apparently decloaks itself while keeping shields offline when it fires torpedoes. I thought the entire point was to be able to fire torpedoes while remaining cloaked, but when I fired, I became visible and my shields stayed offline, getting my hammered by any Spheres that looked at me.
  • bitemepwebitemepwe Member Posts: 6,760 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Well, I tried running a torpedo boat (2 transphasics, 1 quantum, 1 plasma) in Normal Infected: Space earlier. I don't know how the B'rel's Advanced Battle Cloak works, but the T'varo apparently decloaks itself while keeping shields offline when it fires torpedoes. I thought the entire point was to be able to fire torpedoes while remaining cloaked, but when I fired, I became visible and my shields stayed offline, getting my hammered by any Spheres that looked at me.

    The B'rel.works the same way. Decloaking shieldless to fire then recloaking. The action lasts about 2-3 seconds I believe.
    Leonard Nimoy, Spock.....:(

    R.I.P
  • adamkafeiadamkafei Member Posts: 6,539 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    bitemepwe wrote: »
    The B'rel.works the same way. Decloaking shieldless to fire then recloaking. The action lasts about 2-3 seconds I believe.

    Well that kinda makes the enhanced battle cloak worthless...
    ZiOfChe.png?1
  • maicake716maicake716 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    adamkafei wrote: »
    Well that kinda makes the enhanced battle cloak worthless...

    if thats what you think.


    ive seen it in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it.
    mancom wrote: »
    Frankly, I think the only sound advice that one can give new players at this time is to stay away from PVP in STO.
    Science pvp at its best-http://www.youtube.com/user/matteo716
    Do you even Science Bro?
  • darkfader1988darkfader1988 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    adamkafei wrote: »
    Well that kinda makes the enhanced battle cloak worthless...

    Mine only decloaks for 1-2 secs or so. I think stealth might decrease the time of decloak.
    MT - Sad Pandas
  • aveimperatoraveimperator Member Posts: 319 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    So I've kinda sworn off the torpedo boat idea. That leaves a Haakona or D'Deridex retrofit. I know cruisers are...not well-received by the masses, but I know there are those among the PvP community that can use them to great effect, although Thissler's video of instagibbing a Star Cruiser makes me shake my head at the laughable "balance" in this game...
  • orondisorondis Member Posts: 1,447 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It's mostly fed cruisers that aren't well received, due to the combination of poor turnrate and lack of real bite. That said, with the changes to EPTW cruisers may get a new lease of life. I'm actually thinking about giving them a go again.
    Previously Alendiak
    Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
    Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
  • darkfader1988darkfader1988 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    So I've kinda sworn off the torpedo boat idea. That leaves a Haakona or D'Deridex retrofit. I know cruisers are...not well-received by the masses, but I know there are those among the PvP community that can use them to great effect, although Thissler's video of instagibbing a Star Cruiser makes me shake my head at the laughable "balance" in this game...

    A torp boat can still work, but thats going to be either transphasics (Assuming you can buff them up enough in a cruiser to make them viable)

    Or Chronitons for the proc, Quants and stuff are only good for well timed alphas and stuff really, i wouldnt bother with that on anything but a fast ship :D
    MT - Sad Pandas
  • aveimperatoraveimperator Member Posts: 319 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    orondis wrote: »
    It's mostly fed cruisers that aren't well received, due to the combination of poor turnrate and lack of real bite. That said, with the changes to EPTW cruisers may get a new lease of life. I'm actually thinking about giving them a go again.

    Maybe so, but the Haakona and D'Deridex have less-than-Fed-cruiser turn rates, so that has to be considered.
  • eisenw0lfeisenw0lf Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    So I've kinda sworn off the torpedo boat idea. That leaves a Haakona or D'Deridex retrofit. I know cruisers are...not well-received by the masses, but I know there are those among the PvP community that can use them to great effect, although Thissler's video of instagibbing a Star Cruiser makes me shake my head at the laughable "balance" in this game...

    There are only two ways I can think of of how to outfit an D'Deridex. You can either make the standard tanky Beamcruiser many people seem to love so much or you get your hands on 3 purple Technician DOffs and make an Aux2Bat + DHC/Turret build. Combined with almost 100% uptime of Directed Energy Modulation III, Nanite Disruptors, EPtW1 and the new shield penetration trait from Nukara Reputation this could make a decent decloak alphastrike (don't use an Engineer character) and could also use Viral Matrix to mess with your victim. You would essentially fly this iconic ship like an oversized escort. A battleship, so to speak. However you would be highly dependant on the turnrate buff of your battlecloak. This means you would make your attack and then cloak again to reposition your ship for the next strike.
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