test content
  • Games
  • Social
  • Arc News
  • Support
  • Zen
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Forums > Home› Feedback› Builds, Powers, and Game Mechanics

Skill Spec Slots

speciesonespeciesone Member Posts: 41 Arc User
edited January 2014 in Builds, Powers, and Game Mechanics
With season 8.5 coming to offer us easier switching of ships and saved ship configurations we need a less expensive way to change our skills. 500 zen to respec is far too expensive if Cryptic want to actually encourage us to be changing ships and builds often.

For example:
  • Your current ship doesn't use torpedoes so you have no points in Projectile Weapons or Projectile Weapon Specialization, but your other build uses torpedos.
  • Your current ship is a Vo'quv (or some other ship without stealth) so you have no points in Starship Stealth, but your other build is for a ship with stealth.
  • Your current ship uses science powers A, B, and C but you switch your science BOFF to use powers X, Y, and Z.

I'd like to see a saved skill spec feature added, similar to costume slots, which would allow us to switch among skill sets with each of our ships or BOFF layouts. Within the new ship configuration feature coming in season 8.5 let us also assign a skill spec to a particular ship build. Cryptic can still sell us respec tokens to change a saved spec, or instead allow us to change skills sets for EC and charge us zen for additional skill slots, just as the costume tailor functions now. Separate spec slots for space and ground would allow us to do the same when switching ground sets and kits.
Post edited by speciesone on

Comments

  • bpharmabpharma Member Posts: 2,022
    edited January 2014
    There's enough points to be able to spec more than enough into each weapon type and anything more than 3 in the specializations is not really cost effective tbh.

    Speccing into stealth is a bad idea most of the time, it will allow you to get maybe 1km closer without being seen. Far better to use a boff to get +200 in that skill.

    Science, sorta true, if you're switching between countermeasures and subspace decompiler skills it is very costly. Still my science captain does alright with this spec:

    http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=talwells1_0

    by alright I mean pushes 20k in a recluse, not tried it in anything else as I don't have a JHDC on her to compare to my next highest.

    Edit: Upon closer look at it I would perhaps shift one or two things around, I'd have less in hull plating and armour and put something in ID. The specializations I find are not massively amazing and there's even questions being raised about if they even work properly.
    It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
    A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
    Has damage got out of control?
    This is the last thing I will post.
  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    To an extent, it's one of the things that in Cryptic's eyes I'm likely doing it wrong. They want us to have toons flying a bunch of ships - they've said they're surprised that's not more often the case on the data they collect. However, well - um - let's see...how often did folks change ships in Star Trek?

    There may have been upgrades - as one ship was either refit/retrofit (destroyed or not) - but folks generally weren't hopping around in different ships. We did the ship hopping part while ranking up - much like folks may have served on different ships as they ranked up. So one toon having multiple ships...just isn't very Star Trek. (Tada, multiple toons!)

    So yeah, to me - the whole ship switching stuff they're doing in of itself is a waste of resources and just another example that leaves one wondering if they've actually ever watched a single episode/film in the Star Trek franchise....

    As un-Star Trek as that aspect is, the thought of being able to do that with a toon - well - that's just unbelievable and screams that you might as well be dropping a quarter in the slot at the Putt Putt 30 years ago.

    I'd much prefer that the amount of skills the Captain has be reduced...while various skills be attributed to the BOFFs themselves. Switch BOFFs, switch skills. Along the lines of how one might switch gear for different bonuses, one would switch BOFFs for different bonuses.

    An angle on that, mind you, would be that since they're already doing the ship switching thing with the BOFFs - it would cover what the OP's asking for, eh?
  • rodentmasterrodentmaster Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    I think the ship swapping is a bad thing. Cryptic are just going to make enemy specific weapons and enemy specific ships that can't be used for anything else. That is the WRONG path to take. My borg STF gear should be just as effective against voth as it is against orions. Instead, they're making damage ONLY apply to voth, and the like.

    It's a bad step in the WRONG direction.

    I don't want to have to grind a billion ECs and a trillion dilithium to equip a dozen ships that can only be used for 1 mission each, and that's the direction this is heading. It's heading that way because they make more money off of people this way.
  • speciesonespeciesone Member Posts: 41 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    bpharma wrote: »
    Speccing into stealth is a bad idea most of the time, it will allow you to get maybe 1km closer without being seen. Far better to use a boff to get +200 in that skill.

    TBH I'm not that well versed in all the powers and their value, these are just examples I came up with from the top of my head. We can come up with as many examples as there are reasons to respec! IMHO, free or cheap respecs would be even better than skill slots but I doubt we'd get that. I do know that I'd be more enthusiastic about the new ship config feature if it didn't necessitate a watered-down skill build to really use.

    I wonder how well your science ship build would work in an escort or cruiser....
  • bpharmabpharma Member Posts: 2,022
    edited January 2014
    It works very well, I have flown different ships from carriers, cruisers and escorts to science ships. I actually got the m?bius and multivector for her specifically for STFs when it was escorts online.

    I'm sure VD will link the skill sheet if I don't get chance to edit this post to include it as I'm currently away from my PC.

    After getting skills to rank 6 you tend to be getting less for taking it to 9 as you will see. A more generalised build tends to be great for PvE. PvP some people say min/max or go home but as far as I'm concerned they should go home as many other things contribute a lot more to PvP than an extra 15 in a skill, especially when you're talking science.
    It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
    A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
    Has damage got out of control?
    This is the last thing I will post.
  • virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    1-3, 18 skill.
    4-6, 10 skill.
    7-9, 5 skill.
  • speciesonespeciesone Member Posts: 41 Arc User
    edited January 2014
    bpharma wrote: »
    It works very well, I have flown different ships from carriers, cruisers and escorts to science ships. I actually got the m?bius and multivector for her specifically for STFs when it was escorts online.

    I don't doubt it. PVE content is pretty easy; it's sad that creating a good skill build, which is a big part of the fun in other MMOs, is practically irrelevant in STO. This relates directly to the thread in your sig about damage getting out of control. It makes the skill tree irrelevant when all we're doing is fill in the blanks while levelling up and never needing to change the specs again. Cryptic needs to fix the power creep problem you spoke of then customizing our builds will matter more in PVE.
Sign In or Register to comment.