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Is there any point in playing anything but a Tactical Character?
induperator
Member Posts: 806 Arc User
As the title states, is there?
After watching other players in Kithomer accord pop Attack pattern Alpha and obliterate everything in their path I can't help but feel... Completely useless, should my Science captain throw in the towel?
After watching other players in Kithomer accord pop Attack pattern Alpha and obliterate everything in their path I can't help but feel... Completely useless, should my Science captain throw in the towel?
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That thing is the be-all and the end-all of PVP. With it, you can turn the tankiest cruiser into cheese, turn the hungriest, most vicious DPSscort into a mewling kitten, and turn a terrifying Scimitar into a laughable Scimitard.
Plus, it works GREAT on certain boss ships. When a tac cube's firing up torp HY? Subnuc, there goes a damage wave that could wipe a bad team. When a gateway's firing up BFAW? Subnuc.
Tac has a slight advantage at the moment, but in PVP sci is actually slightly better.
Depends....Sci and Engineering have some uses in PvE, but not a whole lot. However they can be very useful in PvP. And attack pattern alpha is one of a bunch of skills they are using, the rest of which are available to you, and hint: tac abilities boost sci powers
Ever...
I always tend to favor Engineering but then again I'm not a DPS max'er either.
My character Tsin'xing
a group of all tacts cant stop nanite spheres in their tracks or push assimilated klingon ships away from the kang.
sure some tacts fly sci ships and get them but you are far more effective at it than anyone.
And lets not forget photonic fleet, no tact can spawn 3 or 4 battleships.
the key is not to care how much damage you do but how to contribute to the overall success of the mission.
"It appears we have lost our sex appeal, captain."- Tuvok
You're absolutely right, and do you know what is fun?
Not being useless!
I already have and sufficed to say Science and Engineering seem to be completely inferior
Yes they can it's called Tractor Beam Repulsors, Escorts can easily use Science abilities sometimes even better than Science characters because Tactical abilities boost Science ability damage.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for the laughs...
Well, there is your problem. If you DONT play for fun, then, no, there is no point on using another class.
That is true, however repulsors can also be a pain in the wrong hands.
When I do fly my Sci's I have to say there is nothing more satisfying in ISE than GW3 + TS3 + Dyson Grav Top on the spheres. Amazing how quickly they can be mopped up by the team when you launch that.
Use attack pattern alpha while you launch that torpedo spread and the team won't have to mop up anything.:P
I'd forgotten that lol
what? your saying science is useless, have you even explored how useful the different trinity classes are? obviously you got tactical but thats not the point, some players are always going to be better then you in game and show you how to get it done, naturally you see it in envy. focus on your own efforts instead of wondering if you made the wrong choice.
engineers can be used to great effect on ground with the right kit powers, manipulate the ai into attacking something else, funnel enemies into one way through the cover shield and blow the TRIBBLE out of them with mines, force away a lot of enemies with forcefield domes, survival turrets and shield and hp regens. in space the eps and other chunky powers are at work including ewp and a2b.
science players can cause utter destruction over a small area in no time if left with the right stuff, on the ground you can create eifs, radiation clouds, debuff enemies considerably with nanites, slow em up and heal yourself. in space you got a whole host on control effects to work with, combine that dyson torp in hy with gw3, scramble sensors, sensors scan. you got yourself one of the most destructive potential on the game.
go back do some research and then come back and ask that again.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
However, Tactical just does everything faster as the game is primarily DPS centered.
You also don't need to fly a Science ship with a science captain - you can put a sci in a tactical focus ship and do nicely.
But the "Trinity" of needing DPSers/healers/command and control is LONG gone out of STO and will never come back.
You can do that with any class.
PvP - Sci
Unfortunately, Engs are fairly... well, they are only better at staying alive, and well, staying alive isn't exactly an issue in modern PvE STO.
although tacs can use sci abilities they cant use as many or as well as science caps unless they run in a sci ship.
most tacs who use escorts have healing abilities in their layout cause they normally have only Lt sci brigde off slots at beast.
and news flash Science can use tac abilities to to boost their damage.
If all you care about is high damage then go delete all your sci's and engis, but dont start crying when you die of bordem after a week.
"It appears we have lost our sex appeal, captain."- Tuvok
If your primary goal is to blow through the enemy. Sure. But even as a Tactical Captain. I still enjoy rolling out my Discovery Class Science Vessel and taking my time.
Respec the sci for ground; make loads of money doing ground ESTFs for the purple materials. A sci specced to toss out Exothermic Induction Field, Hyperonic Radiation, Gravimetric Shift can lock enemies down and wipe out piles of mooks pretty quickly. I find the Ground Battlezone to be something of a joke with my sci.
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
- You have so many more build options with Science ships and therefore provide my play variety... Healer, Shield Drainer, Power Drainer, Interrupter...
With Engineering or Tactical you are pretty much tied to a select few builds, Escorts Beams or Cannons, Engineer, Tank etc
- A good Science Toon in a Science ship can Alpha strike also, maybe not as well as a Tactical in an Escort, but I have taken down a Tactical Cube in quick time, or a group of NPCs.
Science all the way in my view :-)
Anything else but a tactical oriented ship (Cruiser and sci vessel with a ltdcmdr Tac boff)? not really. At least not if you want to do PVE missions in a reasonable amount of time.
If you want to blow things to smithereens quickly and brag about your DPS output (not necessarily a bad thing if that's what you like) then play a tac captain.
If you want to be menacing in pvp and reasonably fast blowing things up in pve, then a sci captain, particularly, though not necessarily only, in an escort is a good choice. I like watching subnucleonic beam hit things, especially a high-output addicted dps'er. I often don't even try to destroy them afterwards. (I guess I'm sort of like a mean little kid who pulls wings off of flys so he can just watch them spin around, in that respect anyway).
If you don't mind grinding down an opponent and staying alive in pve, then an engineer is a good choice. In pvp (which I don't play a lot, but some) I just like to be an annoying pain who supports his team so they can destroy everything else. As an eng in a cruiser with lots of survivability, I just throw out mines (tractor mines and transpashics are my favorites), eject warp plasma, activate the ever-so-populat anti-matter spread console and try to heal team mates as much as possible. I just want to be so annoying in pvp that other players try to destroy me just to stop my torments and irritations, thus leaving my teammates free to dps to their hearts' content. For "spawn campers" I have a keybind that activates TT, RSP, EPtSh, Shield battery, ( and if I have the "boff room" to spare "feedback pulse) and anti-matter spread then eject plasma, mines and FAW and miracle worker (Repeat if possible). This is a challenge I often enjoy and it enables my teammates to escape the spawn point fairly often. Engineers are perfect for this.
I have to disagree (respectfully and without arrogance) about sci officers and eng in ground combat. For every ground scenario except fighting Armek (where a good "melee" sci officer is almost mandatory), a properly equipped eng captain is superior and generally (with hypos) maybe a bit more "durable" than a sci captain.
In Summation:
If you enjoy DPS output and blowing things up all the time in space pve and pvp, and having decent use in ground combat: tac captain.
If you prefer respectable dps and devasting buff/debuffing in space pve and pvp; as well as good ground survivability (exceptional survivability against Armek) together with good ground combat dps: sci captain. With a sci though, ground survivability tends to (but with the new modular kits, does not inevitably) decrease dps and vice versa, so the right ground kits are very important.
If you enjoy surviving a fight without seeing the "respawn" button all the time, and in both space pve and pvp, if you don't mind "whittling down" an opponent in a fight and if you enjoy throwing damage control/repairs on your teammates (whether they realize or appreciate it or not, for some reason I just love throwing eng 3 on scimitars) and you enjoy being just downright irritating to your opponents in pvp, (especially spawn campers, as much as is possible anyway) then the eng is your best bet.
I have and like playing characters of all 3 careers, depending on my mood, and since I am generally just an annoying pain in the a** in RL, I think I like the eng class the best.
When I casually run STFs where there's probably only one other person doing over 10k DPS, Miracle Worker is a lifesaver when I aggro the whole bloody map. When I run it with 20k DPS people, it's pretty superfluous.
I know that when I pug, I prefer playing Science Vessels - a Gravity Well can probably save us against poor DPS. But... I suppose if I brought a tricked out Scimitar, I wouldn't need that either.
But with an Engineer, you seem pretty helpless in that situation. Maybe Eject Warp Plasma could help similar to how GW helps, but EWP is much harder to use effectively (particularly in low turn rate cruisers). Miss just one Nanite Probe...
strong enough beams, a2b, tt and eps can be very useful with bfaw. not much different from a tac using apa instead of eps, yeah dump down ewp it will slow em up enough to make a large enough dent with beams.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.