Suggestions for playing Tier 3 Missions

tiberious

Hi, recently new PS4 player to STO. Been reading guides and saw in the new player guide that the different ship class distinctions starting coming out when you reach tier 3. Well that certainly seems to be the case for me.

I was doing fine until I reach rank 19 and played "The Doomsday Device" mission last night. Keep getting my butt handed to me. Trying to use all the consoles, captain and ship skills but my shields also seem like butter. Takes about 5 hits and that section is down. Made it through the mission with my tier 2 cruiser after many deaths and received rank 20. Picked the science vessel for free tier 3 ship as I read another mission will give me a free cruiser for the tier but I am doing no better with the science vessel trying to replay the Doomsday mission. Everything on the ship is Mark IV except for 2 science consoles. Still need to fill/upgrade the slots.

Trying to take on one ship at a time but that doesn't seem to work out well. Basic bridge officers that I received in-game plus I bought a blue Bolian science officer for the new officer/science console slot that open up with rank 20.

Should I at this point be going back to replay missions for leveled rewards for this tier? Have the link to what each mission provides. http://sto.gamepedia.com/Episode_replay

Wondering if I should switch console types and see if I should be training up my blue and purple boffs. Haven't done much training as not sure what I should be training for yet. I'm a Commander now can I train my boffs up to the same level? Fire at Will I or High Yield Torpedo I for the tactical officer? Have emergency power to Aux I for engineer. Science officers are Science Team I, Tachyon Beam I, Tractor Beam II and Scramble Sensors II. Confused as to training. My science officer T'Vrell's information seems to indicate she has Gravity Well II yet I don't see it as a selectable item for her.

Any way looking for suggestions for some things I should be starting to focus on to help better with space combat. No issues with ground combat so far. Also I won't be going 'deeply' into numbers for my builds. I prefer to build by feel with just basic number adjustments and see if I like how it plays. Not chasing numbers and doing deep grinding to get min/max. "Good enough" is fine with me if I can better learn to pilot my ship(s).

Thanks for any replies!

gradii

If you're having trouble this early on it could be a scaling issue with some missions on the PS4. I play only on PC, so I havent experienced your issue myself, but it sounds to me like they made the mission too difficult, Doomsday device is supposed to be an early, low level mission.

gavinruneblade

To go through the checklist, sorry if some of these seem overly basic:

Do You have full power to weapons?

Do you have all weapons of the same type and damage? Meaning either all beams or all cannons with only one damage type (phaser, disruptor etc)?

Do your tactical consoles match your weapons?

Do your bridge officer tactical powers match your weapons? No good having beam fire at will if you use cannons.

Do you have tactical team 1, and at least one self heal either hull or shield?


It is totally possible to say no to all these questions and still have an awesome ship. But these are a good place to start.

ultimatenewbie

tiberious#6095 wrote: »

Hi, recently new PS4 player to STO. Been reading guides and saw in the new player guide that the different ship class distinctions starting coming out when you reach tier 3. Well that certainly seems to be the case for me.

Hi! Welcome to STO. I suspect you've been reading my guide, in which case thanks!! Grateful to receive any feedback you have on it.

I was doing fine until I reach rank 19 and played "The Doomsday Device" mission last night. Keep getting my butt handed to me. Trying to use all the consoles, captain and ship skills but my shields also seem like butter. Takes about 5 hits and that section is down. Made it through the mission with my tier 2 cruiser after many deaths and received rank 20. Picked the science vessel for free tier 3 ship as I read another mission will give me a free cruiser for the tier but I am doing no better with the science vessel trying to replay the Doomsday mission. Everything on the ship is Mark IV except for 2 science consoles. Still need to fill/upgrade the slots.

Trying to take on one ship at a time but that doesn't seem to work out well. Basic bridge officers that I received in-game plus I bought a blue Bolian science officer for the new officer/science console slot that open up with rank 20.

So, this is - I think - where you're doing it wrong. If memory serves, the KDF and Starfleet ships should be engaging each other. Your job is to throw Hargh'peng torpedoes down the Doomsday device's throat - not to destroy the enemy fleet. If you engage the enemy, they'll start shooing you instead of the distracting fleet. If you do destroy all the enemy ships, replacement ships warp in and start engaging again anyway.

So, play the mission again with that in mind - dont worry about the enemy ships, just destroy the devive (and dodge its Antiproton beam) and you'll be fine.

Should I at this point be going back to replay missions for leveled rewards for this tier? Have the link to what each mission provides. http://sto.gamepedia.com/Episode_replay

I dont think this is necessary - just keep going with the equipment you acquire on the way. When you hit level 50, you might want to replay certain missions for their equipment. For instance, if you want the Jem Hadar set, you'll need to play a couple of missions twice to get it. Similarly, if you want the Solanae set, then you'll need to play a mission three times (iirc). If you replay 'Colesium' for the Reman Prototype Covariant Shield when you hit Vice Admiral you'll get a good shield for early-end game play. There are some good free mission reward sets out there, but if your mission rewards doesnt have a set item you generally dont need to play it again.

Wondering if I should switch console types and see if I should be training up my blue and purple boffs. Haven't done much training as not sure what I should be training for yet. I'm a Commander now can I train my boffs up to the same level? Fire at Will I or High Yield Torpedo I for the tactical officer? Have emergency power to Aux I for engineer. Science officers are Science Team I, Tachyon Beam I, Tractor Beam II and Scramble Sensors II. Confused as to training. My science officer T'Vrell's information seems to indicate she has Gravity Well II yet I don't see it as a selectable item for her.

You should keep your BOFFs promoted up - iirc they can go up to one rank below you up to Commander. Eg, if you are a Commander, they can be Lt CDR. If you're a Fleet Admiral, they can reach Commander rank only.

I made some suggestions in my original thread as to some useful boff skills. Try equipping Tactical Team, Emergency Power to Weapons as well. If you can use Gravity Well 1 (a Lt Commander power) then absolutely use it. Gravity Well 2 or 3 (a Commander rank power) isnt available in a Tier 3 Science Ship unfortunately. You can use it on a Captain rank science ship (Tier 4) like the Long Range Science Vessel (ie, Intrepid).


Enjoy!

tiberious

Thanks for all the replies. For the Doomsday mission, the Klingons kept attacking me for some reason. I was getting hit by 7-8 green beams at once. When they didn't attack me after I die and respawn, then I would do okay but they would start attacking me again. In the beginning, where I had to destroy an escort and disable the escorted ship, five hits and I would lose half of my shields to the escort. I had a lot of level II-III on the ship.

Took a breather and reviewed everything on my science vessel. Set almost everything I had to automatic (never did that), made sure boff skills were aligned with weapons, and I went back and replayed about 5 missions to get level V/VI shields, phasers, torpedos and warp core. Probably not necessary as mentioned but doing so help with getting everything aligned.

@ultimatenewbie - yep, I was referring to your guide and have all four bookmarked to find easily and reread, particularly since PS4 version doesn't have a lot of stuff related to endgame yet. I thought they were a big help to getting started. Just lots to remember and only will retain by playing the game. Lot of good tips to go with the general information. I do have to reread your suggestions for boff skills and promote some boffs. Appreciate all the work that you put into them!

ultimatenewbie

tiberious#6095 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. For the Doomsday mission, the Klingons kept attacking me for some reason. I was getting hit by 7-8 green beams at once. When they didn't attack me after I die and respawn, then I would do okay but they would start attacking me again. In the beginning, where I had to destroy an escort and disable the escorted ship, five hits and I would lose half of my shields to the escort. I had a lot of level II-III on the ship.

Ah, OK. I've found that sometimes the KDF ships are too close to the device so that the splash damage from your Hargh'peng torpedoes hits them, so they start firing on you. Sometimes you just have to take the bad with the worse .

Took a breather and reviewed everything on my science vessel. Set almost everything I had to automatic (never did that), made sure boff skills were aligned with weapons, and I went back and replayed about 5 missions to get level V/VI shields, phasers, torpedoes and warp core. Probably not necessary as mentioned but doing so help with getting everything aligned.

Yeah, if you're a Commander level and have a lot of Mk 2-3 level gear equipped, your enemies will be able to breach your defences and your weapons wont kill them as fast as they perhaps should. Still, you dont need to pimp your ship out at these low levels to be effective. Personally, I wouldnt have weapons on automatic on that mission just incase I started firing at the KDF ships instead of the device; but I understand that a console might be easier or more difficult to control. Do whatever works!

@ultimatenewbie - yep, I was referring to your guide and have all four bookmarked to find easily and reread, particularly since PS4 version doesn't have a lot of stuff related to endgame yet. I thought they were a big help to getting started. Just lots to remember and only will retain by playing the game. Lot of good tips to go with the general information. I do have to reread your suggestions for boff skills and promote some boffs. Appreciate all the work that you put into them!

Many thanks. It is feedback like this that makes wring those tomes all worthwhile. Best of luck out there!

markhawkman

Yeah, just keep hitting the DD. I don't think I've ever not died on that. Slot boff powers for total defense. offensive abilities are totally useless. The only offense that matters is firing Harghs, and you don't have any boff powers that can affect that. About the only thing that would help offensively is lowering the cd on the hargh.

gavinruneblade

don't forget you have a cloak. use it and evasive maneuvers to get away and out of 10k range. the enemies will go back to shooting each other if you stay cloaked. then you can swing back in wait for the big guy to fire, decloak and hit him, recloak and pull away to safety.

fflymaxsterling

You probably want a console with diburnium plating, i believe it's an engineering console. Your shield should have [dis] to give you a boost to resist disruptor damage. I generally go with the resilient shields.

Just immediately lock in on the doomsday ship and concentrate on shoving torpedoes down it's throat. I believe it takes 5 torpedoes.

n7ltrobbiesan

Ultimatenewbie nailed it. Your only objective is torpedoes in the Doomsday Device's face. IIRC it take four torpedoes to defeat it.

- One thing you might want to do it turn off any auto-execute abilities. You shouldn't need to fire a shot (beams), only torps on the DD (in the very last part of the mission).

- Try to stay away from enemy units in general, at least 10KM away so you're out of their sensor range. May also want to use a science Stealth console to reduce your footprint/threat level.

- Be Ninja. This mission is about being a ninja. Move in and fire torp. As soon as you see it charging up, get out of there (easiest is just fly around it, anywhere behind it's face/mouth), then repeat.