If you cant even get your beam faw cruiserto do dmg than you want be happy with an escort. The long list of buffs means you have to constantly click or keybind use them and in the right order at the right timing and all that. Piloting an escort is much harder than a cruiser.
Not saying you shouldnt try but dont expect to get there just by switching the ship. Also you want to be tac.
Well you didnt really need to max out everything. Certain things like offensive abilities you want to max out. But defensive and healing abilities you can get away with just 6 bars/ranks.
Click on that and then look at the skills tab. Only thing i didn't put in there are torpedo boosting skills. Also i did max out your flow caps in case you ever decide to get a plasmonic leech, or the Maco shields. And i also put points in aux power so if you decide to get a fleet warp core with the AMP modifier it will be a little easier to get the AMP bonus.
Well you didnt really need to max out everything. Certain things like offensive abilities you want to max out. But defensive and healing abilities you can get away with just 6 bars/ranks.
Click on that and then look at the skills tab. Only thing i didn't put in there are torpedo boosting skills. Also i did max out your flow caps in case you ever decide to get a plasmonic leech, or the Maco shields. And i also put points in aux power so if you decide to get a fleet warp core with the AMP modifier it will be a little easier to get the AMP bonus.
Thanks. Oddly now that you've filled it in I can click on each one and move the bars up and down. Didn't do that for me initially!
I did a Borg Red Alert a short while ago (about 30 minutes ago, possibly an hour) after retraining my Engineering bridge officers to have Emergency Power To Weapons II skills on each, and I used Beam Fire At Will a bit more and I actually think I did better. Although perhaps I'll do Mirror Universe and find I'm not actually doing better...
I'm wondering if my problem is that I didn't have emergency power to weapons II on either engineer and that I tend to use Beam Overload instead of Fire At Will (the only time I've considered using Beam Fire At Will is when I've got Scorpion fighters or cloaked tractor mines around me) - I don't like the random aim so I've stayed away from using it, but it does seem to fire the beams quicker, so if I can keep the ability recharging quickly I get faster firing beams more often.
One of the problems with your beams is that you are running with the MK XI. Those were nerfed hard before DR came out. Almost all MK XI and lower weapons were nerfed before DR came out. In fact, using three different parsers, they all showed a decline in DPS from them.
The AP weapons are good, but only if you have a high crth. If not, then you might want to go with something that will have a proc to weaken the enemy like Polarons, or Disruptors. I personally prefer the Polaron.
Also, running with Dual Beam Banks (DBB) with turrets on the back will not hurt any. Also, running with Beam: Fire at Will (FAW) 2, and Beam Overload (BO) 1 will help. Use the FAW to take down shields, and then use the BO to kill the hull.
I use the Ambassador class cruiser. Even though it can't be upgraded, it still does really good for tanking and good DPS. I think your ship will be able to do much better with both. I would suggest a few changes for some other BOFF skills though. Some of these have already been mentioned.
Commander Engineer.
Emergency Power to Shields 1 (EPTS), Aux to Structural 1 (ATS), Reverse Shield Polarity 2 (RSP), Directed Energy Modulation 3 (DEM) (Trainable by Engineering captain).
Lt. Commander Engineer.
Emergency Power to Weapons 1 (EPTW), Engineering Team 2 (ET), Aux to Structural 2 (ATS).
Lt. Science
Hazard Emitters 1 (HE), Science Team 2 (ST)
Lt. Tactical.
BO 1, FAW 2.
Ensign Tactical
Tactical Team 1 (TT).
Also, the Duty Officers (DOFF) I recommend are:
Engineering: Damage Control Engineer
Chance to reduce the recharge time for Emergency Power to subsystem abilities (x3)
Engineering: Warp Core Engineer
Chance of temporarily improving your ship power on use of any Emergency Power ability (Can only equip 1).
Here is how it will work.
When you are in combat, you will activate the ATS, EPTW, EPTS every time they come off cool down. The ATS will not use up your Aux power when activated, gives a hull heal, and also an increase damage resistance to your hull. With two copies, you can have this skill active all the time. It works for 10 seconds, and has a cool down of 15. But the second copy has only a 10 sec cool down.
The EPTW has a 30 second effect, and has a cool down of 30 sec. The EPTS works the same. You can only activate one at a time because they share a cool down with each other. I recommend using EPTW first to help with tour first initial damage output. The DOFFs will help decrease the cool down of the skills, so that they can run constantly.
The one BOFF that has a chance to increase power levels with the use of an EPT skill will help out with all power levels, including engines, Aux (which increases the effectiveness of heals), and even weapons and shields on top of the increase the skills are already giving.
Hazard Emitters will mainly be to stop hull burn, and help with heal over time, if needed. Engineering Team will help with instant heals that the ATS may not be able to keep up with. The Science Team is to give a burst of shield heals, if the start to go down. Reverse Shield Polarity is a last chance shield heal. It can also be used to replenish all shield facings if you reroute shields evenly as you get hit.
By using this setup, you can survive longer, and do more damage. And if you decide to go with a forward facing build, then you I recommend the Polaron DBBs. They are very cheap for the MK XII purple, because a lot of players don't realize how good they really are. Especially when they proc, and you bring the enemy to a halt, and your crts go up from it.
If you want to run an escort, I would recommend going with a quick kill build, which is what it sounds like the person you saw had. They get lower DPS for the total mission time, but can kill quickly. A single target attack build is able to drop any single enemy very quickly, and is more accurate than cannon scatter volley. Though when doing mirror on normal, all of the enemies drop fast when hit with a cannon scatter volley. You will see the biggest difference when doing the advanced missions.
Also, there is a way to sacrifice a little DPS in an escort for survivability, if needed. And running with Dual Heavy Cannons (DHC) with one DBB can be very powerful if you have BO 2, and 3, and run with Canon Rapid Fire 2, and 3. I put Attack Pattern Beta on the Lt. slot for a little rebuff on the enemy.
A few tricks with tractor beams. If you are hit by one, and don't have a skill that is designed to escape it, you can always hit Evasive Maneuvers to run outside of the 7km range it has once activated. At that point, it will still be shown on you, but it will no longer have any effect. Or, I will put my ship in reverse, and turn my weapons to the enemy. (In reverse, you can turn faster with a tractor beam on you). If you hit reverse, and Evasive Maneuvers together, you can bring your weapons on the enemy much faster. This eliminates needing to use a skill slot just to get out of tractor beams.
I hope that some of this is helpful.
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A few tricks with tractor beams. If you are hit by one, and don't have a skill that is designed to escape it, you can always hit Evasive Maneuvers to run outside of the 7km range it has once activated. At that point, it will still be shown on you, but it will no longer have any effect. Or, I will put my ship in reverse, and turn my weapons to the enemy. (In reverse, you can turn faster with a tractor beam on you). If you hit reverse, and Evasive Maneuvers together, you can bring your weapons on the enemy much faster. This eliminates needing to use a skill slot just to get out of tractor beams.
I hope that some of this is helpful.
Thanks, yes I had noticed Evasive Maneuvers helps get out of tractor beams. I try to stay out of range anyway.
I've just had a go at the mirror universe PVE (on normal) again and using Emergency Power To Weapons II (cycling between each Engineer), and occasionally beam fire at will, I was popping Miranda class ships quicker.
It actually seemed like I was getting them done in a shorter time than before and didn't feel like I was endlessly circling them.
Thing is I now have my Engineers each with Reverse Shield Polarity II (I read that on another Sovereign build) and Emergency Power To Weapons II, Eject Warp Plasma (It's either that or Acetone Beam, neither I feel are useful), Engineering Team 1 and Emergency Power to Shields I and that has lead to another slight problem - I noticed that my hull heal didn't seem as good as it was, thus my hull % seems to get low quicker than before if I didn't keep my shields up.
One of the problems with your beams is that you are running with the MK XI. Those were nerfed hard before DR came out. Almost all MK XI and lower weapons were nerfed before DR came out. In fact, using three different parsers, they all showed a decline in DPS from them.
The AP weapons are good, but only if you have a high crth. If not, then you might want to go with something that will have a proc to weaken the enemy like Polarons, or Disruptors. I personally prefer the Polaron.
Thank you for the Polaron tip.
I've just changed to polaron beam arrays with polaron phase modulator and even with green MK XII's I'm getting more dps (according to the tooltips) than I was with either phaser or antiproton. Seems to work well in Mirror Universe. Not tried it against Borg yet though.
I can only imagine the DPS I should be getting with Blue or purple MK XII Polaron beams. I looked at Blue MK XII Polaron beams with CRTDx2 on them and they're 300k each on the exchnage, which is a bit of a downside but I can only imagine the damage they'd do.
Yeah it's possible that it was one of those (the Mirror Patrol Escort looks similar also).
So, how then do I check the DPS I'm doing in one volley of shots (either with beam or cannons) - is there a tool, website, equation to use or is it a case of looking at the numbers coming off the target, and trying to keep a note and add them up?
program called combatlogreader. People use it on ISA since thers no training dummy. So it's became the...way to judge yourself to what others get i guess.
He may have seen me I've been pugging the invasion for funzies. In MIN I dont even stop moving most of the time, my first volley of DBB fire destroys everything even up to typhoons.
Well atm STO is all about beam boats, you will have people that argue cannons over beams, but one thing for sure is no one is hyping torps, for a very good reason.
Personally, I'm part of the threatened-with-extinction torpedo players. In fact, my flagship runs with 2 frontal 1 aft quantum launcher. Torpedoes are the first things I have begun upgrading. And my lt cmdr tac has a spread III. Those things hurt. But then, I'm a tank in teams of DPS: other people can breach shields while I royally frak up an enemy hull. She also stands her ground in single combat against others, with quite some successs. Could I draw more DPS out of her? Yes, but I don't feel like it.
As for OP: a quick browse through the wiki should give you a nice list of escorts. Quickly go through them and compare to what you saw. Although I would not buy it atm. The Intel Escort is of discussable beauty, I cannot say anything about effectiveness at this point. But your best bet right now is to wait for a good T6 escort to show up, or a good T6 lockbox escort, or to get a Breen ship during the winter event to start building on.
The last couple of days I decided to do some PVE stuff, despite saying previously that I'm not interested in it, mainly because I noted that having reached past level 50 I can now get Dil for Omega Marks.
Whilst doing Mirror Universe (normal) I saw a guy with a ship that I really, really, liked the look of, not sure what class it was, think it was a patrol escort, but I liked it for a couple of reasons -
1. My Sovereign build is a beam boat with an occasional quantum torpedo shot (I usually use Torpedo Spread II) and is becoming rather boring (although I'm still upgrading it to antiproton beams). Having recently watched the entirety of the TV shows and films (except for Voyager which is pants) I have come to the conclusion that beam boats don't really seem right. The TV shows were either a torpedo fest (presumably because Star Trek is essentially a submarine saga in space) or like in DS9 a "fighter" fest.
2. The ship I saw seemed to be able to repeatedly get into range quickly and destroy a ship (it looked like he could do it up to about Typhoon class) in one pass. It looked just like how you see the Defiant shooting down Jem'Hadar ships in DS9.
3. Obviously as a result of destroying ships quickly he took very little damage, or seemed to, and if he did was able to get back into the fight within a few seconds, seemingly without waiting (when I have to run for it I end up spending about 30secs to a minute out of combat).
That's how I want to play. Currently I spend at least a minute just to take down even a Miranda class ship (in most cases) and I feel I'm taking far too long with my Sovereign beam boat to take down targets and it's getting very boring very quickly.
Now I know that he most likely had reputation system gear on his ship, and he had a huge string of buffs listed next to his ships icon on the team list,
However I'm wondering if it's possible to build a similar ship without having to grind through the reputation system.
So can a similar ship be built without spending ages grinding through the rep system?
Can a similar ship be built using a type that is more of a canon ship (like the Defiant class, Sovereign class etc., ships you see in the TV shows)?
Could be an Escort (Defiant, Phantom, Xindi Escort and so on) or a maneuverable battle cruiser (Avenger, Eclipse, Vor'Cha and what-you-have). Build it with DHCs in the front and Turrets or Omni Arrays in the back, and use Bridge Officer powers like Cannon Rapid Fire, Attack Pattern Omega or Beta. Optionally with either a Torp and Torpedo Spread, or with a Dual Beam Bank with Beam Overload.
That said, destructive beam builds are possible, too, you may simply be using suboptimal powers.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
The last couple of days I decided to do some PVE stuff, despite saying previously that I'm not interested in it, mainly because I noted that having reached past level 50 I can now get Dil for Omega Marks.
Whilst doing Mirror Universe (normal) I saw a guy with a ship that I really, really, liked the look of, not sure what class it was, think it was a patrol escort, but I liked it for a couple of reasons -
1. My Sovereign build is a beam boat with an occasional quantum torpedo shot (I usually use Torpedo Spread II) and is becoming rather boring (although I'm still upgrading it to antiproton beams). Having recently watched the entirety of the TV shows and films (except for Voyager which is pants) I have come to the conclusion that beam boats don't really seem right. The TV shows were either a torpedo fest (presumably because Star Trek is essentially a submarine saga in space) or like in DS9 a "fighter" fest.
2. The ship I saw seemed to be able to repeatedly get into range quickly and destroy a ship (it looked like he could do it up to about Typhoon class) in one pass. It looked just like how you see the Defiant shooting down Jem'Hadar ships in DS9.
3. Obviously as a result of destroying ships quickly he took very little damage, or seemed to, and if he did was able to get back into the fight within a few seconds, seemingly without waiting (when I have to run for it I end up spending about 30secs to a minute out of combat).
That's how I want to play. Currently I spend at least a minute just to take down even a Miranda class ship (in most cases) and I feel I'm taking far too long with my Sovereign beam boat to take down targets and it's getting very boring very quickly.
Now I know that he most likely had reputation system gear on his ship, and he had a huge string of buffs listed next to his ships icon on the team list,
However I'm wondering if it's possible to build a similar ship without having to grind through the reputation system.
So can a similar ship be built without spending ages grinding through the rep system?
Can a similar ship be built using a type that is more of a canon ship (like the Defiant class, Sovereign class etc., ships you see in the TV shows)?
hit print screen next time, tends to do life much easier.
Heh I do exactly that with my engineer main in a phantom escort. I don't have the benefit of attack pattern alpha but I can repair through pretty much anything and just streak through mobs of typhoons and other ships, mowing them down with CSV, TS (grav torp) and either APB or APO and constantly coming around for pass after pass.
Thanks for the advice guys. Just to note, nobody who says "it might have been me" is correct so far. The ships name began with an A. Still can't recall what it was though. Thanks all the same though, I appreciate being able to look at your builds. I've seen a number of ships since I posted this thread with similar builds to the one I saw dealing death on the first run so it's obviously not an uncommon type of build.
Anyhow I've been doing some more PVE and I'm doing quite well I think. I've upgraded to MK XII Polaron Beams with CRTDx2 on them and I'm popping Mirandas in Mirror Universe quicker and I'm actually taking down Borg ships. A week or so ago when I was trying to take down Borg I was failing miserably.
I will probably build a cannon based Defiant-R when I get the Dil, but for the moment my Sovereign now appears to be working OK for me.
Now, I need to address my Klingon BoP build with the same treatment if possible...
Comments
Not saying you shouldnt try but dont expect to get there just by switching the ship. Also you want to be tac.
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=ravenmorpsovskills1_0
Click on that and then look at the skills tab. Only thing i didn't put in there are torpedo boosting skills. Also i did max out your flow caps in case you ever decide to get a plasmonic leech, or the Maco shields. And i also put points in aux power so if you decide to get a fleet warp core with the AMP modifier it will be a little easier to get the AMP bonus.
Thanks. Oddly now that you've filled it in I can click on each one and move the bars up and down. Didn't do that for me initially!
I did a Borg Red Alert a short while ago (about 30 minutes ago, possibly an hour) after retraining my Engineering bridge officers to have Emergency Power To Weapons II skills on each, and I used Beam Fire At Will a bit more and I actually think I did better. Although perhaps I'll do Mirror Universe and find I'm not actually doing better...
I'm wondering if my problem is that I didn't have emergency power to weapons II on either engineer and that I tend to use Beam Overload instead of Fire At Will (the only time I've considered using Beam Fire At Will is when I've got Scorpion fighters or cloaked tractor mines around me) - I don't like the random aim so I've stayed away from using it, but it does seem to fire the beams quicker, so if I can keep the ability recharging quickly I get faster firing beams more often.
The AP weapons are good, but only if you have a high crth. If not, then you might want to go with something that will have a proc to weaken the enemy like Polarons, or Disruptors. I personally prefer the Polaron.
Also, running with Dual Beam Banks (DBB) with turrets on the back will not hurt any. Also, running with Beam: Fire at Will (FAW) 2, and Beam Overload (BO) 1 will help. Use the FAW to take down shields, and then use the BO to kill the hull.
I use the Ambassador class cruiser. Even though it can't be upgraded, it still does really good for tanking and good DPS. I think your ship will be able to do much better with both. I would suggest a few changes for some other BOFF skills though. Some of these have already been mentioned.
Commander Engineer.
Emergency Power to Shields 1 (EPTS), Aux to Structural 1 (ATS), Reverse Shield Polarity 2 (RSP), Directed Energy Modulation 3 (DEM) (Trainable by Engineering captain).
Lt. Commander Engineer.
Emergency Power to Weapons 1 (EPTW), Engineering Team 2 (ET), Aux to Structural 2 (ATS).
Lt. Science
Hazard Emitters 1 (HE), Science Team 2 (ST)
Lt. Tactical.
BO 1, FAW 2.
Ensign Tactical
Tactical Team 1 (TT).
Also, the Duty Officers (DOFF) I recommend are:
Engineering: Damage Control Engineer
Chance to reduce the recharge time for Emergency Power to subsystem abilities (x3)
Engineering: Warp Core Engineer
Chance of temporarily improving your ship power on use of any Emergency Power ability (Can only equip 1).
Here is how it will work.
When you are in combat, you will activate the ATS, EPTW, EPTS every time they come off cool down. The ATS will not use up your Aux power when activated, gives a hull heal, and also an increase damage resistance to your hull. With two copies, you can have this skill active all the time. It works for 10 seconds, and has a cool down of 15. But the second copy has only a 10 sec cool down.
The EPTW has a 30 second effect, and has a cool down of 30 sec. The EPTS works the same. You can only activate one at a time because they share a cool down with each other. I recommend using EPTW first to help with tour first initial damage output. The DOFFs will help decrease the cool down of the skills, so that they can run constantly.
The one BOFF that has a chance to increase power levels with the use of an EPT skill will help out with all power levels, including engines, Aux (which increases the effectiveness of heals), and even weapons and shields on top of the increase the skills are already giving.
Hazard Emitters will mainly be to stop hull burn, and help with heal over time, if needed. Engineering Team will help with instant heals that the ATS may not be able to keep up with. The Science Team is to give a burst of shield heals, if the start to go down. Reverse Shield Polarity is a last chance shield heal. It can also be used to replenish all shield facings if you reroute shields evenly as you get hit.
By using this setup, you can survive longer, and do more damage. And if you decide to go with a forward facing build, then you I recommend the Polaron DBBs. They are very cheap for the MK XII purple, because a lot of players don't realize how good they really are. Especially when they proc, and you bring the enemy to a halt, and your crts go up from it.
If you want to run an escort, I would recommend going with a quick kill build, which is what it sounds like the person you saw had. They get lower DPS for the total mission time, but can kill quickly. A single target attack build is able to drop any single enemy very quickly, and is more accurate than cannon scatter volley. Though when doing mirror on normal, all of the enemies drop fast when hit with a cannon scatter volley. You will see the biggest difference when doing the advanced missions.
Also, there is a way to sacrifice a little DPS in an escort for survivability, if needed. And running with Dual Heavy Cannons (DHC) with one DBB can be very powerful if you have BO 2, and 3, and run with Canon Rapid Fire 2, and 3. I put Attack Pattern Beta on the Lt. slot for a little rebuff on the enemy.
A few tricks with tractor beams. If you are hit by one, and don't have a skill that is designed to escape it, you can always hit Evasive Maneuvers to run outside of the 7km range it has once activated. At that point, it will still be shown on you, but it will no longer have any effect. Or, I will put my ship in reverse, and turn my weapons to the enemy. (In reverse, you can turn faster with a tractor beam on you). If you hit reverse, and Evasive Maneuvers together, you can bring your weapons on the enemy much faster. This eliminates needing to use a skill slot just to get out of tractor beams.
I hope that some of this is helpful.
Thanks, yes I had noticed Evasive Maneuvers helps get out of tractor beams. I try to stay out of range anyway.
I've just had a go at the mirror universe PVE (on normal) again and using Emergency Power To Weapons II (cycling between each Engineer), and occasionally beam fire at will, I was popping Miranda class ships quicker.
It actually seemed like I was getting them done in a shorter time than before and didn't feel like I was endlessly circling them.
Thing is I now have my Engineers each with Reverse Shield Polarity II (I read that on another Sovereign build) and Emergency Power To Weapons II, Eject Warp Plasma (It's either that or Acetone Beam, neither I feel are useful), Engineering Team 1 and Emergency Power to Shields I and that has lead to another slight problem - I noticed that my hull heal didn't seem as good as it was, thus my hull % seems to get low quicker than before if I didn't keep my shields up.
Thank you for the Polaron tip.
I've just changed to polaron beam arrays with polaron phase modulator and even with green MK XII's I'm getting more dps (according to the tooltips) than I was with either phaser or antiproton. Seems to work well in Mirror Universe. Not tried it against Borg yet though.
I can only imagine the DPS I should be getting with Blue or purple MK XII Polaron beams. I looked at Blue MK XII Polaron beams with CRTDx2 on them and they're 300k each on the exchnage, which is a bit of a downside but I can only imagine the damage they'd do.
Not very federation looking but hey ho.
program called combatlogreader. People use it on ISA since thers no training dummy. So it's became the...way to judge yourself to what others get i guess.
The phantom I fly has the eclipse nacelles.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=sickphantom_0
JKHFKLAJ TORPEDOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Personally, I'm part of the threatened-with-extinction torpedo players. In fact, my flagship runs with 2 frontal 1 aft quantum launcher. Torpedoes are the first things I have begun upgrading. And my lt cmdr tac has a spread III. Those things hurt. But then, I'm a tank in teams of DPS: other people can breach shields while I royally frak up an enemy hull. She also stands her ground in single combat against others, with quite some successs. Could I draw more DPS out of her? Yes, but I don't feel like it.
As for OP: a quick browse through the wiki should give you a nice list of escorts. Quickly go through them and compare to what you saw. Although I would not buy it atm. The Intel Escort is of discussable beauty, I cannot say anything about effectiveness at this point. But your best bet right now is to wait for a good T6 escort to show up, or a good T6 lockbox escort, or to get a Breen ship during the winter event to start building on.
Join the Deltas today!
Could be an Escort (Defiant, Phantom, Xindi Escort and so on) or a maneuverable battle cruiser (Avenger, Eclipse, Vor'Cha and what-you-have). Build it with DHCs in the front and Turrets or Omni Arrays in the back, and use Bridge Officer powers like Cannon Rapid Fire, Attack Pattern Omega or Beta. Optionally with either a Torp and Torpedo Spread, or with a Dual Beam Bank with Beam Overload.
That said, destructive beam builds are possible, too, you may simply be using suboptimal powers.
hit print screen next time, tends to do life much easier.
Anyhow I've been doing some more PVE and I'm doing quite well I think. I've upgraded to MK XII Polaron Beams with CRTDx2 on them and I'm popping Mirandas in Mirror Universe quicker and I'm actually taking down Borg ships. A week or so ago when I was trying to take down Borg I was failing miserably.
I will probably build a cannon based Defiant-R when I get the Dil, but for the moment my Sovereign now appears to be working OK for me.
Now, I need to address my Klingon BoP build with the same treatment if possible...
I dunno about the guardian but i'm grooving the Eclipse.