I would play more elite, but for me they feel like a snooze fest. It's not really difficult, you're just shooting forever ad nauseam. I stick to normals and advanced to get my sto fix, and I get to the reward faster.
I'm with this guy. And i can't manage much more than 30K DPS without a single lockbox item or trait and I only have a couple of t6 ships, so not too many ship traits to choose from. Ground is more doable but only with my Sci captains. Debuffing on the ground is fun.
I merrily PUG Elite Ground queues... but Space requires such a large investment in proper equipment that I don't even bother. It just strikes me as being more trouble than it's worth upgrading a full ship with 6-8 weapon slots, 4-6 equipment slots, 9-11 console slots, Specializations, Starship Mastery and Starship Traits, etc. Increased Upgrade costs for Rep items makes it an even bigger pain in the aft.
So instead I stick to the Ground stuff, with a maximum of 5 things to Upgrade if I so choose. A decent build and some teamwork goes much further in the Ground game because there wasn't quite so much powercreep overall (it is there, don't get me wrong), and the NPC's didn't get hit quite so hard by Delta Rising's hitpoint inflation tactics. It does still tend to favor Tacs overall, but Eng and Sci captains have different but viable gameplay options as well. Ground Elites are just more fun to me and easier to gear up for than trying to chase the Space Elites.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
It doesn't quite favour tacs anymore... in 1 on 1, I've seen engineers rip apart hard targets before buffed up tacs. Buffed up tacs are great for engaging multiple targets though.
I pug so I have never tried any of the elite stuff. Pugs can barely do advanced successfully because people don't know the basic mechanics of them. So with the x100 damage, shield, and hull health in elites it isn't worth it for me. I remember some people asking for harder content, and they got it, but I'm wondering how many people actually run them in their current state.
The last time I successfully PuGed an Elite was Bug Hunt after the Delta Reputation went live. But that was also the last time I ever bothered doing Elites, because shortly after they messed with the difficulties of the Queued Events, not I don't even bother with Queues anymore.
I merrily PUG Elite Ground queues... but Space requires such a large investment in proper equipment that I don't even bother. It just strikes me as being more trouble than it's worth upgrading a full ship with 6-8 weapon slots, 4-6 equipment slots, 9-11 console slots, Specializations, Starship Mastery and Starship Traits, etc. Increased Upgrade costs for Rep items makes it an even bigger pain in the aft.
So instead I stick to the Ground stuff, with a maximum of 5 things to Upgrade if I so choose. A decent build and some teamwork goes much further in the Ground game because there wasn't quite so much powercreep overall (it is there, don't get me wrong), and the NPC's didn't get hit quite so hard by Delta Rising's hitpoint inflation tactics. It does still tend to favor Tacs overall, but Eng and Sci captains have different but viable gameplay options as well. Ground Elites are just more fun to me and easier to gear up for than trying to chase the Space Elites.
This is precisely my take on it. You can even easily get multiple Mk XIV Epic Ground Weapons / Kit setups, which is all of the diversification you need imo. Also all 3 Classes play different enough for it to be refreshing.
I disagree with Tac > Eng. I think they are on roughly the same tier. Sci might take more work, but I am very bad with it on Ground. Really depends on the map, and what the kits are.
I don't do STFs at all. Mostly I don't have the time to play. So I don't want to tie up a team, then having to leave and we didn't finish it. My time is random when I can play. This make it hard for me to be in a STF.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Korfez and Viscus Cycle in space, both are fairly easy if just know what to do. A fairly decent team can even pass the supposed "bugged" protect bethan transports stage on Korfez, I've been on teams that have passed it many many times.
On ground I do brotherhood of the sword elite, bug hunt, which isn't as hard as people think it is now, again if people just know what to do, defend reho station, which is a cakewalk even on elite, undine infaltration, and nukura TT.
Oh, and ALL pugs too. I hardly ever join or form private teams. I'm a member of the dps channels, 10k, 30k, and 50k, but I don't actually use them much if ever. I just find it faster and easier to pug. I pug a LOT of advanced queues, and those elites that I said, and they go perfectly fine a good 90% of the time. I am a Very well geared, and skilled, engineer doing over 60k dps on average in space now tho, so probly part of it is just me carrying a lot of teams through some of them, tho, no I take that back, its actually fairly rare that I join a pug and have a completely awful team, I'm usually the highest dps'r on the team, but usually everyone else is doing 15 to 30k dps too which is more then fine to get through almost any que. I'm also pretty damn good on ground, I might not be doing the highest dps, but I do very high for an engineer, and I'm usually very hard to kill.
Its really not all about dps, just knowing what to do, and how to fly your ship correctly counts a whole lot too. To be completely honest, I find this whole total hatred of everything pug by most players pretty damn stupid. I do pugs ALL the time, dozens n dozens of times a day sometimes on days where I spend many hours on, and as I said, they do go perfectly fine a good 90% of the time.
i can count on 1 hand the number of stf's i've done post-DR on 1 hand.......i just don't bother with them much anymore.
i actually prefer CC and borg disco now a days.......
You can PUG it up for Elite stuff if you want. If you want a bit more reliability there are channels where premade teams are formed up. Ask around for pointers and there should be no shortage of tips in those channels.
It doesn't quite favour tacs anymore... in 1 on 1, I've seen engineers rip apart hard targets before buffed up tacs. Buffed up tacs are great for engaging multiple targets though.
I merrily PUG Elite Ground queues... but Space requires such a large investment in proper equipment that I don't even bother. It just strikes me as being more trouble than it's worth upgrading a full ship with 6-8 weapon slots, 4-6 equipment slots, 9-11 console slots, Specializations, Starship Mastery and Starship Traits, etc. Increased Upgrade costs for Rep items makes it an even bigger pain in the aft.
So instead I stick to the Ground stuff, with a maximum of 5 things to Upgrade if I so choose. A decent build and some teamwork goes much further in the Ground game because there wasn't quite so much powercreep overall (it is there, don't get me wrong), and the NPC's didn't get hit quite so hard by Delta Rising's hitpoint inflation tactics. It does still tend to favor Tacs overall, but Eng and Sci captains have different but viable gameplay options as well. Ground Elites are just more fun to me and easier to gear up for than trying to chase the Space Elites.
This is precisely my take on it. You can even easily get multiple Mk XIV Epic Ground Weapons / Kit setups, which is all of the diversification you need imo. Also all 3 Classes play different enough for it to be refreshing.
I disagree with Tac > Eng. I think they are on roughly the same tier. Sci might take more work, but I am very bad with it on Ground. Really depends on the map, and what the kits are.
Okay, I was going to get overly detailed and write out (more than) a few paragraphs, but the short version is:
Engineers suffer from highly positional abilities and increasing amounts of shield penetrating damage. They used to be the best Ground Profession, and still rock when you know in advance where you target will be, but the increased activation time on Mines and the relatively long cooldowns of their buffs/cleanses make them less effective. They aren't far behind Tacs, but Tacs are moving ahead thanks to the various Tac Kit Modules that have been released over time, increasing the breadth of their abilities... and Tactical Initiative is just ridiculously useful. Sci isn't that far behind the other two, thanks to highly effective root-debuff-melt combinations and excellent healing, but their primary damage Skill is 3000/pip and they lack the initial spike potential of both Tac and Eng.
As you said, they do play differently enough to be refreshing. You can also round out the shortcomings of a given Profession using Specialization Kit Modules in combination with the Profession ones, which does help if you've made enough progress on that front. Also, the Coalition Tactics Traits (both the Ground and Space versions) are great with an Eng on the team (even if it's only you)... shield regen each second is handy, and all my Eng captains run that one.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Elite swords for me mostly, although I do enjoy vce and uie if and when they run ... Ground seems to be more forgiving of varied builds while space elite tends to be 'fawing cookie cutter build or gtfo', primarily as elite descends to a mere dps chase (while vce is as bad, the fact you have to do more then spam spacebar means I can use some more intresting builds, such as using mask-type abilities to deploy macos, ect)
I pug ground elites. Undine Infiltration, Brotherhood, and Bug Hunt mostly. These are not too hard for any rep set at xii really, but as always upgrading helps. Undine, sadly, is too dead these days. I think thats due to people not learning the question part and TRIBBLE it for everyone else. Brotherhood is hot right now. And Bug Hunt will fill up still too just not as much as it was right after DR. Space elites I tend to stay away from, especially pugging them. I have done them from time to time, but I usually prefer a more relaxed environment like advanced.
Comments
I'm with this guy. And i can't manage much more than 30K DPS without a single lockbox item or trait and I only have a couple of t6 ships, so not too many ship traits to choose from. Ground is more doable but only with my Sci captains. Debuffing on the ground is fun.
That was the one that was brought up. Maybe we should give that one a shot.
So instead I stick to the Ground stuff, with a maximum of 5 things to Upgrade if I so choose. A decent build and some teamwork goes much further in the Ground game because there wasn't quite so much powercreep overall (it is there, don't get me wrong), and the NPC's didn't get hit quite so hard by Delta Rising's hitpoint inflation tactics. It does still tend to favor Tacs overall, but Eng and Sci captains have different but viable gameplay options as well. Ground Elites are just more fun to me and easier to gear up for than trying to chase the Space Elites.
The last time I successfully PuGed an Elite was Bug Hunt after the Delta Reputation went live. But that was also the last time I ever bothered doing Elites, because shortly after they messed with the difficulties of the Queued Events, not I don't even bother with Queues anymore.
This is precisely my take on it. You can even easily get multiple Mk XIV Epic Ground Weapons / Kit setups, which is all of the diversification you need imo. Also all 3 Classes play different enough for it to be refreshing.
I disagree with Tac > Eng. I think they are on roughly the same tier. Sci might take more work, but I am very bad with it on Ground. Really depends on the map, and what the kits are.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Korfez and Viscus Cycle in space, both are fairly easy if just know what to do. A fairly decent team can even pass the supposed "bugged" protect bethan transports stage on Korfez, I've been on teams that have passed it many many times.
On ground I do brotherhood of the sword elite, bug hunt, which isn't as hard as people think it is now, again if people just know what to do, defend reho station, which is a cakewalk even on elite, undine infaltration, and nukura TT.
Oh, and ALL pugs too. I hardly ever join or form private teams. I'm a member of the dps channels, 10k, 30k, and 50k, but I don't actually use them much if ever. I just find it faster and easier to pug. I pug a LOT of advanced queues, and those elites that I said, and they go perfectly fine a good 90% of the time. I am a Very well geared, and skilled, engineer doing over 60k dps on average in space now tho, so probly part of it is just me carrying a lot of teams through some of them, tho, no I take that back, its actually fairly rare that I join a pug and have a completely awful team, I'm usually the highest dps'r on the team, but usually everyone else is doing 15 to 30k dps too which is more then fine to get through almost any que. I'm also pretty damn good on ground, I might not be doing the highest dps, but I do very high for an engineer, and I'm usually very hard to kill.
Its really not all about dps, just knowing what to do, and how to fly your ship correctly counts a whole lot too. To be completely honest, I find this whole total hatred of everything pug by most players pretty damn stupid. I do pugs ALL the time, dozens n dozens of times a day sometimes on days where I spend many hours on, and as I said, they do go perfectly fine a good 90% of the time.
i actually prefer CC and borg disco now a days.......
Okay, I was going to get overly detailed and write out (more than) a few paragraphs, but the short version is:
Engineers suffer from highly positional abilities and increasing amounts of shield penetrating damage. They used to be the best Ground Profession, and still rock when you know in advance where you target will be, but the increased activation time on Mines and the relatively long cooldowns of their buffs/cleanses make them less effective. They aren't far behind Tacs, but Tacs are moving ahead thanks to the various Tac Kit Modules that have been released over time, increasing the breadth of their abilities... and Tactical Initiative is just ridiculously useful. Sci isn't that far behind the other two, thanks to highly effective root-debuff-melt combinations and excellent healing, but their primary damage Skill is 3000/pip and they lack the initial spike potential of both Tac and Eng.
As you said, they do play differently enough to be refreshing. You can also round out the shortcomings of a given Profession using Specialization Kit Modules in combination with the Profession ones, which does help if you've made enough progress on that front. Also, the Coalition Tactics Traits (both the Ground and Space versions) are great with an Eng on the team (even if it's only you)... shield regen each second is handy, and all my Eng captains run that one.
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