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How to easily (and cheaply) get 8000 dps
alex284
Member Posts: 366 Arc User
In another thread people were talking about how difficult it is to play advanced content on STO with players who have very low DPS (defined as below 8000 dps), and a few people responded by making fun of the uber-DPS mentality, as if parsing 8000 DPS in STO were something completely impossible without sinking tons of money and time into the game to get the best gear.
As if 8000 DPS were the holy grail of the super-geared-out players on the DPS channels.
I disagree, obviously. I have been leveling up several alts recently and I've been able to be competitive in advanced content just using mk xii gear from the exchange. One of my alts was in a new ship that I never used and whose power tray wasn't even set up, and she parsed 12K dps with exchange gear in isa.
But then not everyone might know how to gear out a ship with cheap junk so that it can pew-pew decently, so here's a quick mini-guide that should apply to almost every ship out there.
****
1. Pick a play style and weapons
Do you want to run cannons on an escort? Then you'll need Dual Heavy Cannons for the front of your ship and turrets for the back.
Do you want to broadside? Then you'll need beam arrays for every weapon slot in your ship.
Do you want to face-forward and use beams? Then you'll need dual beam banks in the front and turrets in the back (yes, I know there's the kcb and omni beams and stuff, but this post is about cheap builds). Beam arrays and torps in the aft weapon slots don't help because you want to face forward!
Do you want to use a torpedo? Pick a style above and replace an energy weapon with a torpedo.
Do you want to run a torp boat? Well, I have a toon in a torp boat, and it's fun, but you'll need to do something fancy to get past shields and this guide is not about fancy builds.
Do you want to run a science build? Pick a subset of science abilities (exotic, drain, CC) and google those builds. They can be fun, but they're too fancy for this post.
Are you in a carrier? Get the pets that you want but you'll still need to pick a play style for your ship. Sitting more than 10km away from your target while your pets fight is not a viable tactic anymore.
2. Pick an energy type. All your weapons should be the same (polaron, phaser, whatever), and this is more important than picking the right energy type. If you don't know what to pick, go with disruptor or plasma because they're cheaper than antiproton right now but their procs are decent. (although, again, the most important thing is that all your weapons are the same, so using all tetryon weapons is still better than using half disruptors and half plasma weapons.)
3. Search for mk xii weapons of your chosen energy type on the exchange. Try to get the highest rarity for the ec you have, favoring [crtd] as a mod.
4. Now fill up your tactical console slots with consoles that buff that specific energy type. Get the best that you can in your budget.
5. Fill up your engineering console slots with the best neutronium alloy consoles that your ec can buy. If you have 4 or 5 eng console slots, then your ship probably doesn't turn well and divide those slots between neutronium alloy and rcs accelerators.
6. For science console slots, put in your universal consoles if you really want to use them. Or consoles that buff specific abilities if you're using a lot of science abilities. If you aren't, then get field generators; they're pricey for a reason, but the lower mark field generators aren't that expensive.
7. Buy the highest mark covariant shield you can afford, the highest mark positron deflector array you can afford, and the best warp core and impulse engines you can afford, in that order.
8. Get boffs. You'll need 4 or 5. If you're fed, get rare/blue human boffs. If you're KDF, get rare/blue nausicaan boffs. If you're rom, use boffs that you have that have the "romulan operative" trait and then get the rest of your space boffs to match your chosen alignment (nausicaans or humans). (Yes, I know there are better boffs out there, but, again, this guide is about cheap gear!)
9. Now train your boffs. You'll want 2 copies of a tactical ability to go with your build. Cannon Scatter Volley is better than Cannon Rapid Fire in most PVE content. Beam Fire at Will is generally favored over Beam Overload for beam builds, but I've gotten some mileage out of the latter. Torpedo Spread can't miss so it's nice on cheap builds. Surgical Strikes is awesome if you have an intel ship.
10. Fill up the rest of your tactical boff slots with Tactical Team and Attack Pattern (omega>beta>delta) abilities. 2 of each is enough and put the attack patters in the higher level slots. If you have more than 6 tactical ability slots, then you can have fun with the other slots.
11. Now train your eng and science boffs. 2 copies of Emergency Power to Weapons helps, but it's not necessary to get 8000 DPS. If you just want to put heals and buffs/debuffs here, that's fine.
12. Set up your power tray. If you don't already know how to set up keybinds, here's a very basic keybind script that will help manage your boff abilities:
http://pef.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=462744&TabID=3990882&ForumID=2239561&TopicID=10346373
Set up your tray's first row with abilities you use often but don't want to go off automatically. Save your build while in space.
13. Now adjust your power levels. Put 100 into weapons (if you're doing a specific science build, put 100 into auxiliary). Everything else is up to you.
14. Now read the walkthrough on STO wiki of whatever advanced queue you want to do and play the normal version first to get an idea of what's expected.
I already know a lot of the responses to this post will be along the lines of "But X could be done soooooooo much better!!!!" And well, yeah, probably.
But that's not the point of this post. The point is to show that it's possible to get 8000 dps (heck, you could get up to 13,000 dps doing this) without lobi consoles, rep/fleet gear, expensive crafting items, mk xiv [crtd]x4 weapons, or overpriced lockbox doffs.
Marion is a good doff who costs tens of millions EC for a reason, but you don't need him to play ISA.
I'm not telling anyone that they have to gear up their ships this way. If you have better ideas (my main isn't doing this, but then he's using fancy gear and parsing at 25K), then go for it. But if your better ideas result in a DPS of 3000, and for some reason your teams fail advanced content frequently... well, don't complain about how other people need to learn about teamwork.
This game is partly about DPS and any ship can get 8000 DPS. I'm running a drain build on one toon, with everything devoted to raising flow capacitors skill and draining power, but he still parses at 16K dps in ISA. You can have fun and get over 8000 DPS.
If other people have ideas for CHEAP ways to improve on this, then please feel free to post them below.
As if 8000 DPS were the holy grail of the super-geared-out players on the DPS channels.
I disagree, obviously. I have been leveling up several alts recently and I've been able to be competitive in advanced content just using mk xii gear from the exchange. One of my alts was in a new ship that I never used and whose power tray wasn't even set up, and she parsed 12K dps with exchange gear in isa.
But then not everyone might know how to gear out a ship with cheap junk so that it can pew-pew decently, so here's a quick mini-guide that should apply to almost every ship out there.
****
1. Pick a play style and weapons
Do you want to run cannons on an escort? Then you'll need Dual Heavy Cannons for the front of your ship and turrets for the back.
Do you want to broadside? Then you'll need beam arrays for every weapon slot in your ship.
Do you want to face-forward and use beams? Then you'll need dual beam banks in the front and turrets in the back (yes, I know there's the kcb and omni beams and stuff, but this post is about cheap builds). Beam arrays and torps in the aft weapon slots don't help because you want to face forward!
Do you want to use a torpedo? Pick a style above and replace an energy weapon with a torpedo.
Do you want to run a torp boat? Well, I have a toon in a torp boat, and it's fun, but you'll need to do something fancy to get past shields and this guide is not about fancy builds.
Do you want to run a science build? Pick a subset of science abilities (exotic, drain, CC) and google those builds. They can be fun, but they're too fancy for this post.
Are you in a carrier? Get the pets that you want but you'll still need to pick a play style for your ship. Sitting more than 10km away from your target while your pets fight is not a viable tactic anymore.
2. Pick an energy type. All your weapons should be the same (polaron, phaser, whatever), and this is more important than picking the right energy type. If you don't know what to pick, go with disruptor or plasma because they're cheaper than antiproton right now but their procs are decent. (although, again, the most important thing is that all your weapons are the same, so using all tetryon weapons is still better than using half disruptors and half plasma weapons.)
3. Search for mk xii weapons of your chosen energy type on the exchange. Try to get the highest rarity for the ec you have, favoring [crtd] as a mod.
4. Now fill up your tactical console slots with consoles that buff that specific energy type. Get the best that you can in your budget.
5. Fill up your engineering console slots with the best neutronium alloy consoles that your ec can buy. If you have 4 or 5 eng console slots, then your ship probably doesn't turn well and divide those slots between neutronium alloy and rcs accelerators.
6. For science console slots, put in your universal consoles if you really want to use them. Or consoles that buff specific abilities if you're using a lot of science abilities. If you aren't, then get field generators; they're pricey for a reason, but the lower mark field generators aren't that expensive.
7. Buy the highest mark covariant shield you can afford, the highest mark positron deflector array you can afford, and the best warp core and impulse engines you can afford, in that order.
8. Get boffs. You'll need 4 or 5. If you're fed, get rare/blue human boffs. If you're KDF, get rare/blue nausicaan boffs. If you're rom, use boffs that you have that have the "romulan operative" trait and then get the rest of your space boffs to match your chosen alignment (nausicaans or humans). (Yes, I know there are better boffs out there, but, again, this guide is about cheap gear!)
9. Now train your boffs. You'll want 2 copies of a tactical ability to go with your build. Cannon Scatter Volley is better than Cannon Rapid Fire in most PVE content. Beam Fire at Will is generally favored over Beam Overload for beam builds, but I've gotten some mileage out of the latter. Torpedo Spread can't miss so it's nice on cheap builds. Surgical Strikes is awesome if you have an intel ship.
10. Fill up the rest of your tactical boff slots with Tactical Team and Attack Pattern (omega>beta>delta) abilities. 2 of each is enough and put the attack patters in the higher level slots. If you have more than 6 tactical ability slots, then you can have fun with the other slots.
11. Now train your eng and science boffs. 2 copies of Emergency Power to Weapons helps, but it's not necessary to get 8000 DPS. If you just want to put heals and buffs/debuffs here, that's fine.
12. Set up your power tray. If you don't already know how to set up keybinds, here's a very basic keybind script that will help manage your boff abilities:
http://pef.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=462744&TabID=3990882&ForumID=2239561&TopicID=10346373
Set up your tray's first row with abilities you use often but don't want to go off automatically. Save your build while in space.
13. Now adjust your power levels. Put 100 into weapons (if you're doing a specific science build, put 100 into auxiliary). Everything else is up to you.
14. Now read the walkthrough on STO wiki of whatever advanced queue you want to do and play the normal version first to get an idea of what's expected.
I already know a lot of the responses to this post will be along the lines of "But X could be done soooooooo much better!!!!" And well, yeah, probably.
But that's not the point of this post. The point is to show that it's possible to get 8000 dps (heck, you could get up to 13,000 dps doing this) without lobi consoles, rep/fleet gear, expensive crafting items, mk xiv [crtd]x4 weapons, or overpriced lockbox doffs.
Marion is a good doff who costs tens of millions EC for a reason, but you don't need him to play ISA.
I'm not telling anyone that they have to gear up their ships this way. If you have better ideas (my main isn't doing this, but then he's using fancy gear and parsing at 25K), then go for it. But if your better ideas result in a DPS of 3000, and for some reason your teams fail advanced content frequently... well, don't complain about how other people need to learn about teamwork.
This game is partly about DPS and any ship can get 8000 DPS. I'm running a drain build on one toon, with everything devoted to raising flow capacitors skill and draining power, but he still parses at 16K dps in ISA. You can have fun and get over 8000 DPS.
If other people have ideas for CHEAP ways to improve on this, then please feel free to post them below.
Post edited by alex284 on
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A better question would be how can you fail to do 8k dps?
I've been parsing ISA pugs all morning. About 40% are doing around 7000. Around 40% are doing around 3000. The rest are 13-20,000.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I have been in ISA recently with 3 people under 500 dps! That was a failure obviously.
I have recently been playing around with a torpedo boat and it is FAR FAR from done and it still manages 8K dps.
What I would like to see is some guides in the game. Something to help new players with basic builds. I have seen cannons on a voquuv carrier .... Thankfully the person was helped and their DPS went WAY WAY up.
Maybe new ships should come with green or blue level equipment and the default weapon setup should be something that will work well for the ship. Same with having it come with tac, sci and eng consoles. They would of course be items you could not sell or trade to prevent exploits.
Most newbies just need some basic help and a ship that was decent by default would go a LONG ways.
LOL I joined an ISA using a sci alt I only use for ground stuff- they were desperate to start quick, and I told them Id be completely useless to them, most likely. I was on cooldown on my other alts, or I would have taken anything else.
Ground traits, random Boffs with useless skills, mkXI gear, no rep anything (except for my ground gear!), and awful lag. 6k+. It's literally the worst I could possibly do. I was a sci without gravity well, for crying out loud. Duplicate engineering skills. No points put into my BOFF skills, and some empty slots.
My main char, in service for almost 3 years, is below 8k. Before you all start calling me noob, there is a reason: half the time I don't have my enemy selected.
I'm skilled for tanking and healing, and I'm doing an amazing job at both. But healing requires you to select a team mate instead of an enemy, leading to a loss in offensive power.
However, I do support every DPS player that way. People who would die without me in their team.
As for OP, below 8k is very low? Honestly, ISA can be completed with optional if the average team DPS is 5k. I know, because I've been there. I'd say that 5k is a better border.
And remember, the average you'll find is about 3k.
Join the Deltas today!
False.
After a ridiculous amount of PUGs, and parsing them, I've found the average is in the 7-12k neighborhood. 3k is basically leeching and/or trolling.
I was actually talking to some fleetmates about this last night. We have some fleet members in the 60K or so range and even people speced for tanking with all +threat consoles and thread control speced into and doing about 15K dps or so can't hold aggro from them.
Tanking does not seem to truly work in this game.
However we did find something that does work. A drain boat does a pretty amazing job of helping the dps. You may not draw aggro but if you go full out into flow caps, energy siphon, tykens rift etc you can shut down even a tactical cube in a few seconds or stop entire groups of enemies allowing the dps to blow them apart.
Right now, due to no real aggro abilities in this game, a drain ship seems to be far more useful in assisting a dps ship. When we pair dps with drain boats the dps boats survive longer, do higher dps and take FAR fewer hits.
Which is kind of sad overall. These 60K + dps ships are FRAGILE. They put out amazing dps but they sacrificed almost all surviveability to get there.
This game really good benefit from having real tanks and CC that worked. It could also deal with some smarter enemies. Maybe more enemies that use energy drain for instance. Could have tanks pull aggro away from dps and make sure the tanks are hit with the energy drains instead of the dps.
I've seen it in TSW, where having a tank/heal and everyone else as DPS is enough for most dungeons. In SWTOR to, back when I played in vanilla. Or age of conan.
Basically, you kill the mob so fast, they can't fight back. In most game, you can even skip triggers with enough DPS.
one bit tho
for "cheap" and easy I would suggest shield emitter array and emitter amplifier as alternates here.
Hahahahah.
I realize, having a 65k tank in my signature may suggest that you have to do 65k to draw aggro.
That's not the case. I've rocked Several effective tanks that are between 15-25k.
Here's how you do it, as simply as possible (I'll ignore the survive possibility, since nobody I know that flies a 'tank' has issues surviving):
Step 1: Put at least 6 points in threat control, preferably 9
Step 2: Use at least 2 +Th science consoles
Step 3: Have FAW on global cooldown, and activate it whenever multiple bad guys are around.
Step 4: Get to new targets quickly - threat vs targets is cumulative.
Assuming they're doing 15k, I have no doubt they can come up with a decent build. As such, they should be able to do a great job pulling aggro off of, well, basically anyone. I know that, because I do that, frequently.
SCM - Hive (S) - [02:31] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 30.62M(204.66K) - Fed Sci
Tacs are overrated.
Game's best wiki
Build questions? Look here!
Maybe. If you're actively using your powers, actually catch multiple enemies in your area effects and all that, then you may be.
But one thing to keep in mind - DPS parsing can give different results depending on what mission you're doing. Infected is kinda the "standard candle", because the conditions are well defined.
But you might find that you do much worse in other missions - simply because they are paced differently, or because there are less NPCs around. A significant amount of the DPS measured 0 due to to area effects and multiple available targets. That doesn't mean it's meaningless - it's actually quite important, because with so many targets that need to be destroyed, AOEs really makes combat go quickly.
But it means you will probably not get comparable results in solo play, for example, since there won't be as many enemies around as in an Infected run.
So, if you want to know, get into Infected, and either set up your own parser or find a team mate that does it for you.
I dont think people are making fun of it because it's an impossible task, I think a lot of people are just getting a little fed up of the tiresome uber-dps attitudes.
On the front page earlier there was a thread calling for "scrubs" to banned from advanced queues. A few threads down there was the wizards of STO video boasting about their "leet" DPS scimitars. Almost every day there's a thread about DPS and it's just getting tedious now.
The thing is people are willing to learn but this DPS snobbery just puts people off.
At the end of the day people will play the game how they want to play it. It's meant to be for fun. By all means if you take pride in your DPS build then go ahead but don't expect it from others nor tell them their way of playing the game is "wrong"
This post pretty much explains exactly what i've been saying for months with my friends.
DPS is good if you want to measure how much damage you are doing constantly over a set time period, but if you're play style is for spike damage, or involves "charging up" for a specialist attack run (such as a CC build) using lots of specialist attacks, then your DPS will be low.
However you are still a highly effective player despite the low DPS.
I've seen plenty of BOP's or other spike damage builds that can wipe the floor with some of the biggest boss ships but can't get into a sustained firefight as they rely on massive spikes to kill their targets.
If everyone in the PVE or whatever was doing the same and the mission ended in a super quick time their DPS would be crazy high. But most average missions will leave this sort of build with large "down times" between combats, when their DPS is zero. They are no less effective.
Also there are a lot of build styles that don't need high DPS to be worthwhile in a team.
I've got a Pathfinder that can spit out massive multi-spawning grav wells, hoovering up & pinning down all the spheres in ISA at once. It means everyone else can safely melt the main targets without getting attacked or worrying about the mission failing. My DPS is not huge but I'm dammed good at what I do with that build and it'll keep a mission afloat.
The same build in ANRA can wipe out an entire Tholian spawn point before escorts of cruisers get into range. It's effective without having a ridiculously high DPS.
Too many "I'm so much better than everyone else why can't they be awesome like me" threads.
This is how you improve performance with instruction not boasts.
Cryptic should however be ashamed of the mess they have made of the difficulty system and whoever came up with that brainstorm should be fired immediately. (most likely a boaster)
This is way...WAY too many steps.
Step 1. Buy and upgrade as many Plasma DOT Embassy consoles that will fit on your ship.
Step 2. Buy and upgrade as many +Beam Vulnerability Locators that will fit on your ship.
Step 3. FAW all the things.
It's not that easy.
How long until there are a pack of threads complaining that the plasma doping "isnt getting me high DPS I just die more now wtf"?