Ultimate Ground Gear?

lapprenticel

Anyone have any recommendations for ground gear to aim for? I realise it's somewhat subjective but I figured I'd raise the question here and see what others suggest. I generally avoid ground combat but it's a tad hard to do if completing story missions! I've also heard the Voth ground battlezone is a great place to farm - I've stuck with doffing\admiralty\space PvE in the past.

From what I've read to date the Omega, Iconian, and Species 8472 reputation gear is considered pretty good. Why not the Voth gear given it appears to provide similar defensive benefits as the 8472 armour, and provides bonuses against Voth? I saw at least one guy recommending the Na'kuhl Temporal Operative set, and likewise the Romulan Imperial Navy set, and given they're mission rewards they'd be easiest to get. From what I can see the Na'kuhl shield is fractionally better - 10 seconds of damage immunity + invisibilty is useful, but the RIN armour has higher stats, the RIN kit has some decent bonuses and I don't like miniguns, though the Na'kuhl version may be passable.

As regards weapons I'm thinking some combination of full auto and pulsewave for the expose, and some sort of rifle for the exploit - I'm a little fuzzy on which is best. I'll eventually probably try to get a TR-116B, but am in no rush - my toon with the right doff still needs to work on rep and I'm too lazy to fly my toon with sufficient rep to K13 for the right doff. For now I just stick whatever has the highest dps on my boffs.

Thoughts, recommendations? I should probably note lobi store or other paid items are likely out - mission, crafted, EC, or possibly dil based gear is my limit, and given I guess I'm more on the casual side - I've no interest in mashing tonnes of buttons or running bat files to chain shortcuts, simple is best!

peterconnorfirst

For my DPS centric PVE toons I go with the following setup:

Armor: Herald from lobi store or Advanced Fleet (with Crit D)
Schield: Nakuhl or Counter Command (set piece 1/2)
Secondary Weapon: Nakuhl or Counter Command (set piece 2/2)

Primary Weapon: Boolean Heavy Cannon/Herald Staff or Splitbeams/Pulswaves which much Crit D; Zefram & 116B for Borg & Elachi

I can’t comment on the ultimate title of your post because in 99% of the situations there is only an optimum for the task at hand. This not only varies dependent on what you do PvE/PvP but also on the enemies to fight as well as the map architecture you face. I consider my presented gear to be optimum all-rounder at best with a favor towards herald + 2 piece nakuhl combo for its defensive purposes besides the plain DPS gain over criticals.

baudl

fleet advanced armor with crtH or crtD (you could also use the imperial romulan armor for the full set bonus)
imperial romulan kit
Imperial romulan shield
the relatively rare plasma weapon that is like a mix of the split beam and a pulse wave

this combo is very cheap too, since most part come from a single mission
I'm definately not claiming that this is THE best DPS gear for ground, but it sure as hell isn't the worse, and I know it is quite popular among more experienced players too.

tempus64

As you said, it's pretty subjective although for those that do advanced/elite content there are some standard setups. Of course that also differs depending on which content they're going to run.

I don't really run that sort of content so tend to just gear up all my toons the same way. I use the Omega set upgraded to Mk XIV and then on my BOFFs I'll run maybe the Dyson set, The Delta set and then couple of the Maco/KDf Adapted sets (for the chance for shield/HP heals). I use the Commando spec and Intel simply cause that's about the only 2 I actually start filling out on my toons. I tend to also use a gambling device. When I finally got the the point where I could capture any of the points in Dyson on my own I was pretty pleased with myself lol.

xayss

adapted maco shield and armor ,wirts undine and Boolean Heavy Cannon

nimbull

My engie is running a solenee EV suit, fleet shield, TR riffle for the shield pen, and a fleet kit. Module wise I have quantum mortar, explody drone, two K-13 drones, the Lukari health/shield drone, and cover shield. That seems to keep me rolling quite nicely so far.

lapprenticel

Okay minor clarification since peterconnorfirst said that the ultimate loadout is situation dependent, and suggested a range of weapons depending on the foe faced. As said in my original post I'm thinking of a lazy\casual loadout, something I can achieve at some future date then subsequently forget about and simply do any story\PvE mission without worrying about switching gear. True it won't be ultimate for a particular map\mission\foe, however its multifunctionality means it should perform well on all maps, and against all foes, including elites if ever I get around to that. At present I'm focusing on taking a tac toon through the story missions and he's ... squishy. I'm finding dps buffs help, albeit a tad short lived, whilst grenades generally don't - enemies move out of the damage zones.

tarran61

This is what I run on my main. All upgraded to Epic.

Armor: Herald from lobi store
Schield: Nakuhl
Primary Weapon: Boolean Heavy Cannon
Secondary Weapon: Herald Staff

redvenge

lapprenticel wrote: »

Okay minor clarification since peterconnorfirst said that the ultimate loadout is situation dependent, and suggested a range of weapons depending on the foe faced. As said in my original post I'm thinking of a lazy\casual loadout, something I can achieve at some future date then subsequently forget about and simply do any story\PvE mission without worrying about switching gear. True it won't be ultimate for a particular map\mission\foe, however its multifunctionality means it should perform well on all maps, and against all foes, including elites if ever I get around to that. At present I'm focusing on taking a tac toon through the story missions and he's ... squishy. I'm finding dps buffs help, albeit a tad short lived, whilst grenades generally don't - enemies move out of the damage zones.

Everyone does have their preferred "set up and forget" gear.

Excluding lobi items, I would recommend the Omega Force set from the Omega Rep. Each piece is 500 Omega Marks, 5 Neural Processors, 9,000 Dilithium, and 40,000 EC. The weakness of the set is the fact that the shield has no energy resistance. I would recommend crafting a tactical kit with [KPerf] and [PSGres]x2. Put one point in the Shield Resistance skill and upgrade the kit to MKXIV and you will reduce the damage your shields take by about 23%. With 23% reduction in damage and 45% Dodge chance, your defenses will be fairly solid. Save up and buy a Gambling Device off the Exchange, and your Dodge goes up to 55%, and you get another 10% boost to critical chance and damage.

jaguarskx

All of my captains either use the 3 piece RIN set or the 2 piece Na'Kuhl set (not the weapon). Since they all have the kit from the RIN set, they all have a plasma weapon, mostly a Plasma Wide Beam Rifle. When upgraded to Mk XIV those two sets are decent enough even for Miner Instabilities Elite which is a rather punishing... it is all too easy to be taken down by a few sniper shots regardless of what set you are using. I do not always focus on having a exploit and expose weapon. The secondary weapon is typically a split beam rifle, typically antiproton.

rattler2

Generally anything that can be used effectively against all targets.

Right now my main is running 2 piece Delta set, as I'm playing around with the new Assault Phasers. Although I'm still a bit of a fan of the MACO set, mostly because of the Shield Capacitor. Other than that I personally think its mostly based on what you'd like.

However I WILL point out one thing. Best weapon against Borg is TR-116. Full shield pen AND kinetic damage. NO ADAPT 4 U!

legendarylycan

gee, that's a whole bunch of different people who agree that the best anti-borg weapon is the TR-116 and yet still giving excellent gear advice...guess that counters the opinion of a certain arrogant little twit who thinks anyone using it doesn't know how to build a character properly​​

redvenge

shadowfang240 wrote: »

gee, that's a whole bunch of different people who agree that the best anti-borg weapon is the TR-116 and yet still giving excellent gear advice...guess that counters the opinion of a certain arrogant little twit who thinks anyone using it doesn't know how to build a character properly​​

I don't like the TR-116, but then I crafted several stacks of instant remodulators on Defera many years ago. I do Borg content so rarely, that I still have a couple hundred on my "main" characters.

Whatever works for you, go with it. Borg adaptation is more an irritant than a serious defense anyway.

legendarylycan

are those things even still craftable? i think the ability to do so was lost when the crafting system was revamped, along with the ability to craft the 3-second remod devices as well​​

redvenge

shadowfang240 wrote: »

are those things even still craftable? i think the ability to do so was lost when the crafting system was revamped, along with the ability to craft the 3-second remod devices as well​​

Oh wow. I don't know. Like I said, mine are years old. I thought you just talked to a vendor on Defera and exchanged Borg Crafting widgets for items.

risian4

Borg 3-second remodulators can still be obtained on Defera.

Unless they changed it in the last couple of weeks.

dracounguis

Boolean Heavy Cannon with a kit that does 20% disruptor damage and one of the rep armors that buffs disruptors too... I forget which. Makes for a hard hitting gun, not sure about it's overall DPS since it has looong reload time. But when it does fire it hits real nice!

But really kits & armors can be found to buff any weapon you choose. But really the important part is to have an expose gun and an exploit gun to do their jobs. usually full auto & split beam are my go-to combo for that.

tempus64

lapprenticel wrote: »

Okay minor clarification since peterconnorfirst said that the ultimate loadout is situation dependent, and suggested a range of weapons depending on the foe faced. As said in my original post I'm thinking of a lazy\casual loadout, something I can achieve at some future date then subsequently forget about and simply do any story\PvE mission without worrying about switching gear. True it won't be ultimate for a particular map\mission\foe, however its multifunctionality means it should perform well on all maps, and against all foes, including elites if ever I get around to that. At present I'm focusing on taking a tac toon through the story missions and he's ... squishy. I'm finding dps buffs help, albeit a tad short lived, whilst grenades generally don't - enemies move out of the damage zones.

You really need a more DPS oriented, content specific setup when doing Elites. But for any other stuff, the recommendations given in the thread will work. Work on your Spec trees (Commando etc) for ground. Make sure you've set your skills up for the typical recommended ground setup (https://www.sto-league.com/skilltree-suggestion/) and of course pick appropriate ground traits including rep ones. All of that goes a long ways to improving survivability and DPS on a toon. For your Tac, buy the Graviton Spike kit from the summer event store. Pretty much "required" for Tac builds lol

nimbull

shadowfang240 wrote: »

gee, that's a whole bunch of different people who agree that the best anti-borg weapon is the TR-116 and yet still giving excellent gear advice...guess that counters the opinion of a certain arrogant little twit who thinks anyone using it doesn't know how to build a character properly​​

I think the shotgun from the one event is almost as good as the TR when it comes to borg adaptability. Not everyone has access to that like the TR though because the TR is easily available on the exchange for under 1 mill. It's a nice cheap go to weapon that handles anything especially borg. I would say the TR being "The go to weapon" is because it's mass produced and so cheap.

risian4

Well that's funny... I hadn't even read that comment yet. How cute.

I also never said that anyone who uses it doesn't know how to build a character. And of course you never bothered to counter my arguments in the thread itself (the main one being that adaptation is largely irrelevant and overestimated), instead you're trying to sneakily attack me here, in another thread, (with unnecessary language too) probably hoping I wouldn't notice because you already lost the discussion elsewhere.

So cute.

risian4

Also, two or three people isn't exactly what I would call 'a whole bunch of people'. And even if a whole bunch of people were agreeing with you, that fact alone still wouldn't necessarily mean they're right.

It's irrelevant anyway, as you've twisted my words and ignored the nuances I brought into my original comments.

risian4

To add some suggestions:

My engineers use mines. Always. I usually combine this with a Pulsewave weapon, although I am currently experimenting with using the Voth Fangs to keep bosses in place while the mines activate. Iconian shield for cleanse effect against the Borg (+vascular regenerator to counter nanites) and repel in general. When using the Iconian reputation pulsewave, you get an useful set bonus.

Trait: anything that boosts damage: berserker, vicious, hive mind. I usually go fully offensive in my trait builds and gear, with the only exception being the armour. Currently using the armour from Uneasy Allies, Lukari rep armour is something I'm considering for my other engineer as I'm going to get it for the looks anyway.

Same set up for Sci with regard to traits. Offensive armour, preferably Fleet armour with +80% CritD.
Biochemist for reducing enemy resistance when using Vascular regenerator, which is a much better power now too. I sometimes also use Causal Entanglement - it doesn't have all the flashy effects and awesomeness that most other new powers seem to must have, but it significantly further reduces enemy damage resistance.

Tacs are different and I'm sure @peterconnorfirst has some of the best advice there.


To summarise, I pick everything offensive. On a Sci I can do this by having a medical tricorder, on my engineers I just make sure I have high passive regeneration through the Imperial Romulan Armour, and sometimes if needed Regenerative Tissue. Shield recharge for emergencies, as the career-specific engineer shield heal ability takes a bit longer to activate.

peterconnorfirst

lapprenticel wrote: »

As said in my original post I'm thinking of a lazy\casual loadout, something I can achieve at some future date then subsequently forget about and simply do any story\PvE mission without worrying about switching gear.

Well if you don’t try to squeeze as much DPS as it gets out of a map there is nothing wrong with picking jack of all trades weapons. For me that was the Zefram Shotty and the 116B for well over a year past DR when I had to divert all my recourses to my space builds.

I don’t know that many player who handle themselves as good in pug environments as @risian4 does and like he already hinted only tacs tend to do most damage with guns (and therefore use most kit modules to augment them). Engineers and scis are a bit different here and do most damage with their kits directly. For engineers mines & mortars/turrets and for scis hyperonic radiation & cold fusion flash currently parse highest for me. Getting them for those classes is probably more beneficial than trying to find a good gun.

nikephorus

peterconnorfirst wrote: »

For my DPS centric PVE toons I go with the following setup:

Armor: Herald from lobi store or Advanced Fleet (with Crit D)
Schield: Nakuhl or Counter Command (set piece 1/2)
Secondary Weapon: Nakuhl or Counter Command (set piece 2/2)

Primary Weapon: Boolean Heavy Cannon/Herald Staff or Splitbeams/Pulswaves which much Crit D; Zefram & 116B for Borg & Elachi

I can’t comment on the ultimate title of your post because in 99% of the situations there is only an optimum for the task at hand. This not only varies dependent on what you do PvE/PvP but also on the enemies to fight as well as the map architecture you face. I consider my presented gear to be optimum all-rounder at best with a favor towards herald + 2 piece nakuhl combo for its defensive purposes besides the plain DPS gain over criticals.

^This is all really good advice to those that want to see gains on the ground.

peterconnorfirst

Thanks a lot @nikephorus. I think especially the fusion of offensive as well as defensive capabilities of the Nakuhl 2 piece set (not to mention the price as it’s free from story) really make it shine.

Similar benefit offers the cloaking device ground trait from reput (which is also a nice offensive/defensive fusion).

With such stuff added one gets nice windows of close to invulnerabilities to react in PvE when one pulled too much aggro by accident or the pug group is not that strong.

questerius

The thing is that there is no such thing as "The ultimate set".
Most sets are very situational. Two piece counter command and the boolian gun is an impressive combo.
TR-116 and the first contact shotgun are useful against the Borg.

Radiation gun deals wicked damage against everything except the Tholians.

One combination which i have not yet seen mentioned is the Two piece Romulan Imperial navy and two piece Nakuhl with the Piercing plasma rifle. That combination melts everything. Only drawback is that the Borg adapt to it rapidly.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Plasma_Piercing_Beam_Rifle

fovrel

The piercing beam rifle is a great weapon. Buy it at mk I at of the vendors, Delta Command for instance, and upgrade it. You need some luck to end up with a very rare or higher, but if you do you have a magnificent weapon. Its sister, the wide beam rifle is also great. Use those weapons with the kit from the romulan set that gives +20% plasma damage.

Against borg, I prefer melee. The tholian reputation sword is very good. Use the right combo's to knock 'm down or confuse them.

rattler2

questerius wrote: »

The thing is that there is no such thing as "The ultimate set".
Most sets are very situational. Two piece counter command and the boolian gun is an impressive combo.
TR-116 and the first contact shotgun are useful against the Borg.

Radiation gun deals wicked damage against everything except the Tholians.

One combination which i have not yet seen mentioned is the Two piece Romulan Imperial navy and two piece Nakuhl with the Piercing plasma rifle. That combination melts everything. Only drawback is that the Borg adapt to it rapidly.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Plasma_Piercing_Beam_Rifle

Very true. However I do have a fleetmate who made an amazing sniper kit. Something about at least a 10k crit? Its been a while, but he could potentially oneshot most things with a sniper rifle if things lined up.