Romulan vs Rom Alien

khasalianus

So I'm fairly new to the game and I've been toying around with different races and such, and I think I have finally settled on the Romulan faction as my main. I'm also pretty sure I'm going to go KDF align when the time comes. However, I am not sure if I want to roll a Romulan or a Romulan looking Alien.

Looking over the traits and whatnot, are the Aliens weaker than the Romulans in terms of PvE or PvP? Is the Romulan racial trait (and the Operative and Plasma weapon traits) better than the extra trait you can get from an Alien?

I would prefer Romulan, but man, I gotta have a beard on my toon to truly be happy with it (or at least SOME facial hair), but if the Romulan traits far outweigh those of an Alien, I can forsake the beard if needed.

Also, I really am having a tough time deciding between Engineer or Tactical Officer. I know it, like the ship choices, comes down to playstyle, but I'm not sure how my playstyle would translate in the game.

Essentially, I like aggressive, hard-hitting types that are quite durable with some form of self-healing while being fast and agile. But I also want the option to Tank if I so desire. I normally play Retribution/Protection Paladins, Blood/Unholy Death Knights in Warcraft, and favor two-handed weapon Paladins and dual-wielding Rangers in D&D/Pathfinder. Hmm, Wolverine would be a good example of my gameplay. I like the option for stealth, but if it's between stealth and durability, I choose durability.

So tell me, what Career/Ship type/Race would be ideal for this playstyle?

tolmarius

First, I would suggest avoiding PvP unless you have plenty of both time and money to spend on it, or you will get annihilated repeatedly by those more devoted.

When it comes to species, I've never seen any reason to favor one over another, as its pretty even out on the Romulan side. As for career, I've heard people go on at length about only Romulan tacs being good, cause Romulans are a damage dealing faction. But, as someone who prefers rp and just having fun playing the content, it is my august opinion that having fun with your character choice is more important than min-maxing the ultimate uber deluxe half-million dps cannonboat. Also, as someone whose favorite characters are KDF Rom Sci and a Fed Engi, it is my opinion that Science and Engineering officers are often more interesting to play than Hey Diddle Diddle, Straight Up The Middle Tactical officers. (Whi seem to comprise about two thirds of the player base sometimes, there being exceptions, of course.)

chipg7

Romulans are great. There's a lot of specialiation synergy, as you said with the Plasma weapons on ground. The Romulan Operative trait in space is also great, as well as Singularity Specialist for boosting your singularity warp core abilities. Romulans also work very well with criticals, both chance and severity.

But I agree with Tolmarius - there's something to be said for just choosing a species to be, and rolling along with it. In general terms, Romulans are no better or worse than any other species, gameplay-wise.

I'm also not a big fan of Tactical, moreso because I don't enjoy the available abilities. Science and Engineering have a lot more varied gameplay. Either way, especially when you're in space, you'll be relying mostly on your bridge officers' abilities - your commander's abilities just add to the overall mix.

The key with Romulans is that we fly warbirds - not escorts, not science ships, not cruisers, just warbirds. Some ships are of course more escort-like or more cruiser-like, but as a general rule the warbird is a do-it-all. It's not as total of differentiation as being a Federation science captain trying to fly a Defiant-class - you can be a Romulan science commander and hop into basically anything. Warbirds are very versatile ships.

khasalianus

So essentially what you are saying is, that while yes, the Romulan traits are nice, they are comparable to those of the Alien and I won't be held back by picking Alien over Romulan, but regardless, I should pick the one I would enjoy the most eh?

And if I go Engineering (which I am leaning more towards anyways) and pair up with a high turn rate warbird, I should have my ideal mix of damage, agility, and durability?

Thank you for the replies.

hyperionx09

I will add that Aliens (for any Faction) do get 1 extra GENERAL Trait vs the 9 (at level 60) that all other Races have and do have more general options to play with as far as Traits goes. And if you do collect Genetic Trait Resequencers, it could affect some of how you play in space and/or on the ground.

Basically, Aliens are more flexible on that front at the loss of some specialization, whereas Romulans do have a better focused specialization (plasma weapons) at the loss of some flexibility (General Traits).

khasalianus

I do want to verify something... Everyone has 9 traits at level 60, but do Aliens get 10?

kodachikuno

I, personally, prefer tac or sci captains in general. In space their ability give you nice boosts in combat, and on ground they can be deadly. Sci captains can also focus on being healers on the ground if you want that role. For ships tho just make sure your engineer boff have emergency power to shields, and engineering team, science boffs need hazard emitters and science team. With those it doesnt matter what your Character is/does much, you have enough self heals(shield and hull) to tank regardless of warbird seating layout.

Tactical Team is a good tac boff power to aid in this as well because it automatically balances your shields as they are hit while it is active(just be careful as over reliance on it can make you lazy).

Engineers in space are kinda meh imo, the miracle worker power is great but everything else is bleh, on ground they can shine in a couple roles, personally I like to go with either a lot of drones for a lot of extra dps, or make generators and a turret so I can bunker up on the ground and make my away team pretty hard to kill.

As for race, Im not a min/max type player but Ive never seen anything in the racial traits that really put you in a 'weak' spot in pve. As for pvp, its dead in sto thankfully and what pvp does happen is chock full of min/max crit TRIBBLE that spend buckets of cash for the ultimate setup.

hyperionx09

khasalianus wrote: »

I do want to verify something... Everyone has 9 traits at level 60, but do Aliens get 10?

Yes.

tolmarius

Yes. Every species gets a species trait. The aliens replace it with a tenth swapable trait slot.

warmaker001b

If you want the most effective Racial Space Traits in the entire game that absolutely NOTHING in the KDF nor Fed races can come close to, you roll Romulan Republic for either a Reman or Romulan. Not Liberated Borg. The reason?

Remans - Infiltrator Trait
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Infiltrator

Romulans - Romulan Operative
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Romulan_Operative

Liberated Borg are actually a horrible choice if your focus is Space Combat. "Efficiency" used to be great years ago but Cryptic nerfed that trait to oblivion. When LOR hit, my very first Rom character was a Liberated Borg Romulan Engineer. I do not regret the Engineer aspect but I regret making him Liberated Borg. He did not get access to Romulan Operative.

shadowwraith77

I myself have 1 romulan, 1 reman and, 1 alien species in the RR. And, quite honestly I like all 3!

kodachikuno

I have 2 romulans, 1 reman and 1 kobali(romulan)

hyperionx09

Lib Borg was just to create a new Romulan for the Delta Recruit event (personal fanfic character idea). I do have a Romulan and a Romulan Alien, but I do need to make a Reman. I might once I get my hands on another Vaadwaur outfit; I can make him a ninja who uses smoke grenades, guns, and melee weapons (the only none Alien gen race I've found to be capable of having mostly solid black skin that could pass for a body suit with a mask on).

potasssium

I have a Romulan Tact who is my primary Tactical toon, who uses the Pilot Ships & T5U T'Varo, as well a Reman Sci & Eng.

I'm still building the Reman toons, but they really unexpectedly grew on me. Much like Ferasans in the KDF faction.

kodachikuno

potasssium wrote: »

Much like Ferasans in the KDF faction.

Who doesn't love killing hairless apes in the name of Sivar? (extra points to those that catch the reference)