Advice needed for ground away team build

hawkrunner

Hey, so I'm looking for some advice on my ground away team set-up. Right now I'd say it's so-so because I'm still picking up 2-3 injuries on some of the New Romulus missions on elite, so I know that it can be improved.

This is my build: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=hawkrunner_0

Since I cannot figure out how to save the boff info, it's below:

Orion Eng w/ Dyson Mk 12 set and CMB 1, Shield Recharge 2, Equip Diag 1, Quantum Mortar 2

Vulcan Sci w/ Maco set mk 11/12 and Med Tric 1, Tachyon Harmonic 2, Tric Scan 2, Vasc Reg 3

Elisa Flores Tac w/ Jem'Hadar set mk 11 and Photon Grenade 1, Target Optics 1, Battle Strategies 3, Lunge 3

Nelen Exil Sci w/ Maco Mk 11 armor, blue personal mobility shield mk 11, VR bio-molecular disruptor split beam rifle mk 12 and Dylovene 1, Med Tric 2, Vasc Reg 2, Nanite health 1


Any suggested changes would be much appreciated!

janus1975

Those away missions are some of the more challenging ones in STO so personally I've found it easier to pick up injuries in those missions compared to others (in general, I consider any need to respawn or wait for revival a fail, on these I'd consider 1-2 perfectly acceptable). Personally I don't consider those injuries "as badly" as I would on others. These missions also benefit more from "steady as she goes" strategic approach rather than the 'Rush in & kill" which works fine for most missions.

Having said that, I've found two things help:

First, bunkering teams seem to be more effective overall, and using skills that don't need the enemy to stand still certainly helps. I'd suggest that, as you're tactical, you have one medical science boff, and at least one more engineer (maybe even two for three engineers, and removing the second tac altogether). Personally, my favored bunkering team setup is:

• 3 X Engineers with Chroniton Mine Barrier 1, Shield Generator 1, Medical Generator 1, Turret Fabrication 3
• 1 X Medic with Dyvolene 1, Dyvolene 2, Medical Tricorder 3, Vasular Regenerator 3
• 1 X Tactical with Photon Grenade 1, Smoke Grenade 1, Battle Strategies 3, Stun Grenade 3
• Captain taking the place of whichever career and bringing those extra skills

Some of those skills will require trading with other players to train your boffs. For a bit of context on this team, I also have e.g. a Chief Science Officer who has an analytical focus, as well as a more aggressive "enemy disabling" boff. Same with other careers, it allows building an away team to match whatever mission it is (in some missions, bunkering just doesn't work effectively so the engineers of the bunker corps stay on ship for those).

Second, a lot of the success in those missions comes from your ability to ambush enemies on your terms. I don't know what mission you're up to so rather than giving away spoilers I'll stick to the first one in the mountain pass: you rescue the first set of Romulans, and have to go up to the second camp. In your way is a roving patrol. In a bunkering team, you would watch that patrol going up the hill, rush up and place a whole load of mines in their way, then go back down, park the whole away team, deploy mines, then shields, then medical generators, then the turrets. The patrol first runs into the first line of mines, then gets hit by stun, while getting hit by turrets and away team sniper rifle fire. Plasma grenades will be a problem, but you then shift your away team and re-lay your bunker.

This format of "ambush, retreat to tactically defensible position, then bunker and snipe" works in most New Romulus areas. Make sure also that you have a full set of minor and major medical heals ready for these (they get difficult, then impossible with a team full of injuries), and I've also found that boffs love Large Shield Batteries and Large Weapons Batteries on these missions which helps with survival.

lindaleff

I prefer 2 Medics and 2 Engineers, and no exceptions. As for weapons, that depends on the map. If you are in a wide and open location, like STOrassic Park, then I suggest Full Auto assault rifles. If you find yourself in an enclosed and tight location, like ship interiors, Pulsewave shutguns are the more useful.

deaftravis05

I do a 2 eng team. One does explosive damage, the other does healing. A sci officer for healing and AOE debuffs. The tac member tosses in debuffs and buffs that I, as a tac cap don't have. As a result, we have a pretty diverse team. We charge in, cover each other's backs, inside the generators and hold our positions. It's pretty effective.

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hawkrunner

Wow! Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful suggestions. You've given me a lot to think about.

I know that many people will disagree with me here, but I've found that shield and medical generators are too easily destroyed and don't provide enough healing to counter some of the attacks on elite. For example, the shield generator gives around 10 shield heal/second, but some enemies will completely wipe out my shields (300+ damage) in around 2 or 3 seconds. Also, a single plasma or photon grenade would be enough to quickly destroy the generator, leaving the engy stuck on a long cooldown. It was times like this, and watching multiple team wipes, that I decided to move away from generators and use Shield Recharge and other directed abilities. That seemed to work a lot better for me. Maybe someone can explain what I was doing wrong with the generators?

Having said that, I think for now I'll replace my tac boff with another engineer similar to the one I'm already using and see how that goes.

Thank you very much!

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corelogik

I use;

Tac - x2
Eng - x1
Sci/Med - x1

I give the Tac's auto rifles, Eng minigun, Sci sniper and i use a split beam,... always seems to be fairly effective for me. Maybe not the highest DPS/most effective team, but I rarely die.

rodentmaster

Here is my thinking:

For engineers, prioritize turrets over mortars. Mortars take too long and if the target is running it will miss. Turrets fire instantly with little delay. If you're going to stock both, okay. If you're just looking to load one? Run a turret instead.

I tend to want to split up my bunkers and my boomers to be distributed amongst 2 ENG boffs. If one goes down I don't want to be without. Also, some missions/areas give you less boffs, and if I want just 1 ENG on my 2-boff team, I'd want a cross-sampling of boff skills to use with it.

I will often put 1 or 2 heals on a ENG boff along with 1 or 2 attacks. For example, mines/turret1/mortar1/med gen3 for my first ENG and weapon malfunction/cover shield/shld gen/turret3 for my second. That way a single boff can heal/defend and still lay down the DPS. If I only get to choose one, or if one dies in combat, I can still be effective.

I like to follow a similar pattern on my sci boff. I tend to just run one of these. Tachyon Harmonic is just too nice to pass up, so I always give them that. Outside of that, I put 2 of med tric/NHM/vasc. regen on there and maybe another offensive skill like tricorder scan. All of the holds are fragile, which sucks. They go away if you keep hitting a target. Most of the debuffs are fixed locations, where the enemy promptly run away and are no longer debuffed.

I find there really are only the following sci boff skills that are useful in combat: tachyon/Med Tric/Sonic pulse (debatable, not overly good)/Tric scan/Vascular regen/NHM. Of that I'll take Tachyon and either 3 heals or 2 heals plus a debuff.

In short, it comes down to:
Tachy1/Med Tric2/Tric Scan2/NHM1
or
Med Tric1/Tachy2/Vasc Regen 2/NHM1


On the TAC front, I have lately decided that grenades aren't as important to me as I once thought. I have begun prioritizing team-wide buffs and enemy debuffs rather than boff-only-enhancing skills that only help that TAC boff. In short, I want to run Overwatch instead of plasma grenade.

This is all subjective, but I tend to like (at least most recently): Battle strategies, overwatch, target optics, suppressing fire, fire on my mark, ambush, and sometimes stealth module (though I am phasing those out more and more). Any of those in combination with each other seem to make a powerful boff.


Just some food for thought.

mimey2

What I like to do if I have a full away team (like for leveling missions) is to do the following:

1 Tac
1 Sci
1 Eng
1 X

Where X is whatever class you are.

If I have two BOFFs, like on the ground BZ, I prefer:

2 X

Again where X is whatever class you are playing.

If I have only one BOFF, I like to have:

1 Y

In this case, Y is whatever BOFF you feel you need to shore up any weaknesses you have by yourself.

Now as for strategies...

If I have a full away team of four, I set them up to amplify whatever it is you are doing. So for whatever strategy you choose for yourself, have your four BOFFs focus entirely on helping you with that.

For example, my Fed engineer focuses on hard AoE damage, ripping through groups and moving on. So my primary focus for my BOFFs is to buff my damage in that regard. I've got an Orbital Chasing Beam that can do 700+ damage per second (ignoring crits, flanks, and debuffs) on anything it hits.

If you have two BOFFs, my recommendation is to have be extensions of what you are doing. Or in other words, if you are running a healing sci character, have your two BOFFs be scis and also focused on healing. So you can run around as a cohesive unit healing and helping those around you.

And finally if you have a single BOFF, focus it on shoring up a weakness. Like if you play a tac, bring a sci with some heals, or if playing as sci, bring a tac. Or for an eng, either will work.


You don't have to stick to the exact formula I use there. Like my tac Lethean doesn't use a team with an eng in it. I use two sci and two tac on his full away team.

prediwave1

4 boffs with pulsewaves usually means most of your enemies will be on their butts most of the time.

rodentmaster

It also means your boffs have to run point-blank into the kill zone to use their weapons. Split beams or compression rifles mixed with full auto rifles and/or pulsewaves are the best combinations. That allows them to engage at longer ranges.

hawkrunner

Hmmmm.. lots of good advice here, and some very different opinions and strategies too. I guess I'll have to experiment with some of these ideas and see what works best for me.

Thank you all very much!

rodentmaster

That is really the best way to do it! :cool: