I gotta get a T6 ship because my T5 is obsolete... or is it?

alexmakepeace

I had in interesting experience yesterday when I finally finished grinding my for the Samsar cruiser. You see, went through the whole DR campaign in my T5 regent, and about halfway through I realized I was getting my butt handed to me on a regular basis. I upgraded to T5.5 and things got better, but fights were still tough and I spent the whole second half of the campaign thinking "Man, I need to get a T6 ship so I stop getting kicked around." I just had to wait for them to come out with a ship I actually like.

Fast forward to February 13, when I finally unlocked the Samsar. I moved the equipment from my Regent onto the Samsar, and went into the Battlefield to try it out. Things went slowly at first--my more powerful ship was taking everything that the baddies could throw at me just fine, but it took forever to destroy anything. It was boring. Then I realized that I hadn't set my power settings properly. Duh.

I fixed the power and went into combat with the next group of enemies. This time I did much more damage and the fight was shorter, but I still felt disconnected. Bored. I blew up once--didn't really care.

Fighting with the T6 Samsar was just more boring than fighting with the T5.5 Regent, and I think I've figured out why: T5.5 is weak enough for fighting lvl 60 enemies to be difficult, but strong enough that it's doable. It becomes a process of decisions and complexity: when do I turn, and which direction? Should I risk presenting a weakened shield facing to deliver a torpedo barrage to their weak shield? TRIBBLE! They're firing an artillery barrage! Hit evasive maneuvers, drop warp plasma and streak past them before dropping some tractor beam mines.

It was challenging, often incredibly frustrating (mostly in the DR campaign), but it was usually fun. Much more fun than I did in my new Samsar. So, for now, I think I'll stick with my Regent. If I run into issues where I'm getting curb-stomped by a million high level enemies (aka next season's campaign), I'll bring out the Samsar, but for the moment, I'm happy with my T5.5.

Who needs HP and DPS? I have fun.

davefenestrator

Yes, as long as you're playing solo so you're not letting down a team, play any ship you enjoy.

I have captains flying science ships, so less DPS. I have ships with torpedoes, so less DPS. I don't care, they're fun to fly.

alexmakepeace

I guess that's one thing I should mention: I rarely set foot in the ques. I find it boring doing the same thing over and over again, and as a consequence, I do tend to fly by myself. You are correct that doing this in a, say, Crystalline Entity run will probably not end well.

Of course, when your ship is already at the right level where it's fun to fly but not too easy, why bother with the ques anyway?

fatman592

It's not you, it's the difficulty changes. Anything above normal is just a hit point dummy. The feeling of impotence is designed to get you to upgrade your equipment. This is a trap though if your build is like something Smirk would run.

My advice play on normal, or post your build using the STO skill planner, so you can increase your DPS through advice.

onerats

Well.. first, the Tier of the ship really doesn't have that much impact on how well it performs. Assuming you're talking about an un-upgraded Fleet T5 ship, you're missing a bit of health, one boff power, and one console (when compared to a fleet/lockbox/lobi T6). In the end, a T5-U ship is only missing the boff power, which thus far hasn't proven to be all that important. I'm sure someday a ship will be released that will have that extra boff power in just the right spot so as to put the ship on par with the Scimitar.. but so far that just hasn't happened.

Also - the Samsar is a flat out terrible ship. It has almost no offensive capabilities at all, instead possessing a Lt Comm sci station - which is useless, as the ship is practically forced to run an Aux 2 Batt setup if you want it to possess a shred of offensive power.

Finally - no matter what you're flying, if you're getting your rear handed to you in solo PvE (especially on advanced, or normal) then your problem isn't the tier of the ship. The problem is in the skills you're running (and the boffs using them), the doff's you're using, and the gear you've equipped.. and/or how you're using all of the above.

davefenestrator

Right. Why mindlessly grind the same content that's in the queues when you can mindlessly grind the same content that's not in the queues.

If you're not having fun, stop playing.

farmallm

I use regular T5 ships. Yes at times it does take a little longer to wear down your target. But as I see it. It should be like that, specially on the larger ones. As your not supposed to hit a couple times and they go boom. Since the Voth, the game actually has giving me a challenge on normal mode. And I love it.

alexmakepeace

I guess what I'm saying is that I've discovered that I like having low-to middling DPS. I only run around 3000 (lower in the Samsar). I suppose it might be worth it to have a high defense build for when I'm ganged up on, but for the stuff I do normally I think I've hit a sweet spot.

Maybe this isn't relevant to most people, but I thought I'd throw it up anyway. I just like to share my thought processes sometimes. Take from it what you will, or ignore it if you wish.

sopwithsnipe wrote: »

Right. Why mindlessly grind the same content that's in the queues when you can mindlessly grind the same content that's not in the queues.

This is why I play a lot of foundry missions. It's not always all that great, but it's fun because I've never done it before.

Edit: I find it amusing that a post called " My tax declaration is more fun than STO......." is directly below this one.

lowy1

Sounds like you need to tweak some abilities and maybe some gear but everythin is doable in mk xii gear outside of elites.

hawku001x

alex, i challenge you to go some DR rounds in t4 or t3 level ships

bcwhguderian1941

alexmakepeace wrote: »

I guess what I'm saying is that I've discovered that I like having low-to middling DPS. I only run around 3000 (lower in the Samsar). I suppose it might be worth it to have a high defense build for when I'm ganged up on, but for the stuff I do normally I think I've hit a sweet spot.

Maybe this isn't relevant to most people, but I thought I'd throw it up anyway. I just like to share my thought processes sometimes. Take from it what you will, or ignore it if you wish.

This is why I play a lot of foundry missions. It's not always all that great, but it's fun because I've never done it before.

Edit: I find it amusing that a post called " My tax declaration is more fun than STO......." is directly below this one.

I also use the Regent T5-U, and Excelsior fT5-U. No gear above purple Mk XII (even retro
blue phaser banks with my Excelsior). :P Some fights take 5-6 mins. with a single opponent.
Its a blast ! From my perspective, your playing as you should be. To have fun, not comparing
everthing to what others deem "proper". I do agree though, team play requires a different
set of priorities.


BCW.

seaofsorrows

The honest truth is T5U is still very much viable, and in some areas they're even better then some T6 ships.

The Odyssey is still one of the best Fed Beam Boats out there. Sure, it lags a bit behind some T6 ships, but it's far from obsolete. The Scimitar is still one of, if not the single highest DPS'ing ships in the game, and the Chel Grett at T5U is just plain sick.

I still pull out my Sovereign every once in a while and take it into a Battlezone just because I like the look of it. It's an iconic ship and I enjoy it so I sometimes fly it. I can easily handle Advanced Ques in it as well (Gear is all MX XIV.) Sure, I put up better numbers in my Guardian, but I'm pretty sure my Sovy can out DPS my Samsar. Samsar is a good ship, might be the best tank in the entire game, but damage output is less then impressive. It's a 3 Tactical console ship without access to O.S.S. and with extremely limited tactical seating. It's fine for story content, but I wouldn't pull my Samsar into a PVE Que, I would feel like I wasn't giving my team enough in a Samsar.

Just my opinion, I'm completely unimpressed by Command in general.

nickodaemus

I flew the Khitomer STF Advanced in a T5-U tac Bortasque recently. If it has any gear above mk xii it's only mk xiii, and it might be like one piece to balance out the xi's still on it. Anyways, as soon as I zoned in, someone typed "help right" in the chat, so I went right. Tac cube was dead already, and this player was soloing a cube over there; we killed it in short order. Rest of the run was fine, and we got the optionals. Not sure why somebody left, but hey - I enjoyed the run. They are quite doable with gear that's not fully upgraded to mk xiv.

bobbydazlers

at the end of the day the only big difference I notice between T5u and T6 is the ability to gain a ship trait from mastery but as ship traits can be gained elsewhere and can be used on T5 & T5u ships IMO its just a matter of preference, if you have a favourite T5u ship you enjoy using then go ahead.

having bought the DR pack I will say there are plenty of free event T6 ships we have been given and coming up that are always worth getting that are just as good if only for the chance to gain the traits they offer.
ironically my favourite T6 ship at the moment is the breen carrier I got in the winter event.

I will deffinately agree that T5u ships are far from being classed as obsolete.

davefenestrator

crashdragon wrote: »

( also the T6 KDF ships are fugly as hell and just crappy )

The command ones and the cruiser maybe, but the Mat'Ha is a glorious instrument of destruction.

fmgtorres1979

alexmakepeace wrote: »

I guess what I'm saying is that I've discovered that I like having low-to middling DPS. I only run around 3000 (lower in the Samsar). I suppose it might be worth it to have a high defense build for when I'm ganged up on, but for the stuff I do normally I think I've hit a sweet spot.

Maybe this isn't relevant to most people, but I thought I'd throw it up anyway. I just like to share my thought processes sometimes. Take from it what you will, or ignore it if you wish.

This is why I play a lot of foundry missions. It's not always all that great, but it's fun because I've never done it before.

Edit: I find it amusing that a post called " My tax declaration is more fun than STO......." is directly below this one.

Here's where this game fails. Better offense is a greater defense than a good defense.

lieutenantusher

As I tell everyone, fly what you love. When you get to know a ship and its loadout really well the game is so much more fun. As for max deeps for some it's their thing and that's fine but in the teams I run we usually bring out ships that do 4-7k DPS.

My mains story content ship is a very close copy of the Defiant from DS9. It does TRIBBLE for damage and has some meh gear but it feels more trek and therefore is more fun.

cheesebasket

Mmhmm,

We need more AI to the DR ships...

And the vaawaur need to use GW3 with that poleron barrage
:D:D:D

jellico1

T-2 and T-3 are fun in normal content

Their fun helping new fleet mates doing story missions too

Whatever makes it fun