The game has a built-in log system which you turn on using the command "/combatlog 1" and off using "/combatlog 0". You then read the generated text log files using a third party program like SCM or CLR or if you like math, manually read the file with notepad.
The highest level players usually aren't doing anything any differently than a normal player. In fact, their huge damage values usually is the result of a protected secret, in discovering a bug, exploit or oversight in how STO calculates numbers.
This is one of the dumbest things that has ever been vomited onto the forums.
I hope he doesn't mind me using his name here, but I run missions with @peterconnorfirst all the time. We use very similar builds yet he easily doubles my DPS. Why? Because he's a good pilot and I am not.. that simple. We use the same gear, I understand the build just as well as he does.. he's just simply better. To try and claim that the DPS guys 'protect' any knowledge is absolutely absurd and your saying it just shows how incredibly clueless you are.
Guys like Connor, @tunebreaker and others are some of the most helpful and quick to share knowledge of anyone you will find. To imply that they only get their numbers because they horde knowledge of how to cheat and exploit the game really shows how little you understand not just about them, but about the game in general.
If this is really what you believe, then by all means.. feel free to wallow in your delusion, but don't peddle your **** here.. it's not going to fly. Those guys spend a lot of time helping people get better performance and you just come along and try and **** all over it.. not going to happen.
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sea. I agree with what you wrote except for you not being a good pilot which is simply not true.
I’m also fascinated each time when I play with Feli and Hellspawny to what kind of perfection players can time and chain abilities at the right spots so precisely that the numbers get magical. Sadly the prospect of such numbers also has downsides you know. Downsides a lot of players don’t let themselves be hindered by when going into PvE. Perhaps you noticed it? The moment you want to attack the ISA spheres they are already gone because somebody camped there not contributing to the L/R sides of the map and just waiting to set the perfect spike onto the most lucrative targets. Or very high (but still allowed) parts of the DPS contribution done onto the ISA gate. That thing regenerates its hit points for major parts of the match duration providing numbers that are not supposed to be there. Such stuff happens almost in every second run I do.
“Piloting” a starship indeed takes a lot whole of practice, something so many players will never understand. But experience also has the danger of just fabricating DPS at the expanse of your team. And that, Sea, is something you have never done when we ran together. Those numbers you do are not only good enough to beat every map of the queue list in all difficulties, but your team can also always rely on the fact that you dedicate them towards the sensible completion of a map and not a just a combat log.
Don’t know about the others but that is what I call a good pilot.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
The highest level players usually aren't doing anything any differently than a normal player. In fact, their huge damage values usually is the result of a protected secret, in discovering a bug, exploit or oversight in how STO calculates numbers.
This is one of the dumbest things that has ever been vomited onto the forums.
I hope he doesn't mind me using his name here, but I run missions with @peterconnorfirst all the time. We use very similar builds yet he easily doubles my DPS. Why? Because he's a good pilot and I am not.. that simple. We use the same gear, I understand the build just as well as he does.. he's just simply better. To try and claim that the DPS guys 'protect' any knowledge is absolutely absurd and your saying it just shows how incredibly clueless you are.
Guys like Connor, @tunebreaker and others are some of the most helpful and quick to share knowledge of anyone you will find. To imply that they only get their numbers because they horde knowledge of how to cheat and exploit the game really shows how little you understand not just about them, but about the game in general.
If this is really what you believe, then by all means.. feel free to wallow in your delusion, but don't peddle your **** here.. it's not going to fly. Those guys spend a lot of time helping people get better performance and you just come along and try and **** all over it.. not going to happen.
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sea. I agree with what you wrote except for you not being a good pilot which is simply not true.
I’m also fascinated each time when I play with Feli and Hellspawny to what kind of perfection players can time and chain abilities at the right spots so precisely that the numbers get magical. Sadly the prospect of such numbers also has downsides you know. Downsides a lot of players don’t let themselves be hindered by when going into PvE. Perhaps you noticed it? The moment you want to attack the ISA spheres they are already gone because somebody camped there not contributing to the L/R sides of the map and just waiting to set the perfect spike onto the most lucrative targets. Or very high (but still allowed) parts of the DPS contribution done onto the ISA gate. That thing regenerates its hit points for major parts of the match duration providing numbers that are not supposed to be there. Such stuff happens almost in every second run I do.
“Piloting” a starship indeed takes a lot whole of practice, something so many players will never understand. But experience also has the danger of just fabricating DPS at the expanse of your team. And that, Sea, is something you have never done when we ran together. Those numbers you do are not only good enough to beat every map of the queue list in all difficulties, but your team can also always rely on the fact that you dedicate them towards the sensible completion of a map and not a just a combat log.
Don’t know about the others but that is what I call a good pilot.
Thanks Connor, coming from one of the best, that means a lot.
Almost the entirety of what I know, I have learned from the people that others claim 'horde' knowledge or exploit secrets. It's just simply not true, one thing this game has going for it is how open everyone is with information and how willing they are to provide help.
I have never once asked one of the 'big dogs' for advice and not had them happily give it. We all started at zero at some point, but those that asked for help and opened their minds to new ideas improved, those who blamed the game and closed themselves off continued to struggle.
It's incredibly easy to get help in this game, all you have to do is ask. I get annoyed when people try and paint the DPS guys as some heiarchy sitting on a throne and looking down their noses at the rest of the player base. It simply isn't true.
Ok, if I'm reading this correctly, my dps is somewhere around 260...?
I'm reading from this program called CombatLogParser, in the OutDPS column? I assume this is it averaged over all battles.
Oh wait... it looks like this is a combat log from 2014. Now I have to figure out how to make it generate a new one...
Hmmm... because the forum ate my posts (due to all the links I provided).... Retyping without links:
You'd want to parse an entire run of Infected Conduit Advanced to get a baseline "standard" parse. Usually, you'd want to get 10 or more parsed runs so that you can get an average of your DPS (since that will vary depending on how good a team is). If you can parse between 30-50k in ISA, you're good to go on something like Hive Onslaught Elite without being carried. For something like Korfez, you'd want to be above 75k in ISA;
For solo parses, you can parse "DPS Mark", a foundry mission meant to be run solo in Advanced. If you want a bigger challenge, you can try "DPS Under Fire" which is again a foundry mission, this time meant to be run solo on Elite. That last one is probably one of the most difficult maps out there.
Seems I couldn't post the links. You'll have to Google STO Combat Meter (SCM) or Combat Log Reader (CLR) from the different DPS leagues. I recommend you use either (or even both) of them.
IMHO, as many MMOs that I play, One really sticks out to me that is different than most of the others. Warframe. Reason I mention this is because the enemies and bosses in the end game aren't that much different than the enemies and bosses in the early game. The bosses in the latter part of the game require more strategy and teamwork to take down. You have to communicate with your teammates to know when to use certain abilities and at what time. It's not all about burning down the enemies as fast as possible all the time. Some bosses even have stages at which they are invulnerable to attack, as well as weakspot that show only at certain times.
Now as for STO, I have noticed a very bad trend since I've started playing just before LOR. The enemies in the late game are EXACTLY the same as the early game but with almost millions more HP. They do the EXACT SAME STRATEGY over and over again.
As for the guides on ship building, It's really just another way of saying "Unless you build this way, you're doing it wrong". The devs really just got rid of build your ship how you want in favor of pick either this or that. There hasn't been true build how you want when they changed the skill tree.
I still can't figure out how you have MORE choices with LESS to choose from. Last I checked Soda/Pop (depending on where you're from) comes in thousands of flavors, But if the Soda industry removed all but 2 flavors, and them telling you that you have more choices now is the same thing.
The highest level players usually aren't doing anything any differently than a normal player. In fact, their huge damage values usually is the result of a protected secret, in discovering a bug, exploit or oversight in how STO calculates numbers.
This is one of the dumbest things that has ever been vomited onto the forums.
I hope he doesn't mind me using his name here, but I run missions with @peterconnorfirst all the time. We use very similar builds yet he easily doubles my DPS. Why? Because he's a good pilot and I am not.. that simple. We use the same gear, I understand the build just as well as he does.. he's just simply better. To try and claim that the DPS guys 'protect' any knowledge is absolutely absurd and your saying it just shows how incredibly clueless you are.
Guys like Connor, @tunebreaker and others are some of the most helpful and quick to share knowledge of anyone you will find. To imply that they only get their numbers because they horde knowledge of how to cheat and exploit the game really shows how little you understand not just about them, but about the game in general.
If this is really what you believe, then by all means.. feel free to wallow in your delusion, but don't peddle your **** here.. it's not going to fly. Those guys spend a lot of time helping people get better performance and you just come along and try and **** all over it.. not going to happen.
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sea. I agree with what you wrote except for you not being a good pilot which is simply not true.
I’m also fascinated each time when I play with Feli and Hellspawny to what kind of perfection players can time and chain abilities at the right spots so precisely that the numbers get magical. Sadly the prospect of such numbers also has downsides you know. Downsides a lot of players don’t let themselves be hindered by when going into PvE. Perhaps you noticed it? The moment you want to attack the ISA spheres they are already gone because somebody camped there not contributing to the L/R sides of the map and just waiting to set the perfect spike onto the most lucrative targets. Or very high (but still allowed) parts of the DPS contribution done onto the ISA gate. That thing regenerates its hit points for major parts of the match duration providing numbers that are not supposed to be there. Such stuff happens almost in every second run I do.
“Piloting” a starship indeed takes a lot whole of practice, something so many players will never understand. But experience also has the danger of just fabricating DPS at the expanse of your team. And that, Sea, is something you have never done when we ran together. Those numbers you do are not only good enough to beat every map of the queue list in all difficulties, but your team can also always rely on the fact that you dedicate them towards the sensible completion of a map and not a just a combat log.
Don’t know about the others but that is what I call a good pilot.
Thanks Connor, coming from one of the best, that means a lot.
Almost the entirety of what I know, I have learned from the people that others claim 'horde' knowledge or exploit secrets. It's just simply not true, one thing this game has going for it is how open everyone is with information and how willing they are to provide help.
I have never once asked one of the 'big dogs' for advice and not had them happily give it. We all started at zero at some point, but those that asked for help and opened their minds to new ideas improved, those who blamed the game and closed themselves off continued to struggle.
It's incredibly easy to get help in this game, all you have to do is ask. I get annoyed when people try and paint the DPS guys as some heiarchy sitting on a throne and looking down their noses at the rest of the player base. It simply isn't true.
Regarding those last few lines: it's probably because they have encountered a jerk when playing, who tried to impress the team by posting a parse result when no one asked for it - just to show how much better they were and with no intention to actually help if someone did less well. Sometimes they even post them after they over-estimate themselves and try to solo one side in ISA for example, failing half the mission for everyone else.
For me it's not difficult to see then why the top-DPS'ers, who use the same tools to measure their DPS as the jerks, are perceived as something bad. I can understand the anger from the more average player to some extent in such cases, even if the person they encountered may be totally different from the actual DPS kings. It may not be justified, but that's probably the rationale behind the DPS = evil notion that some players have developed.
Or it may have to do with bad experiences with overperforming players in general. Most people understandably do not like it if one 100k+ player - who can do as much damage by himself as a full team would on average need - enters a public instance and destroys everything before the rest of the team can do something and get the idea that they are helping too.
So, some of this slandering of DPS'ers may not be justified, certainly not for the helpful ones. But if a 'normal' player has a (or multiple) bad experience(s), sees someone post a log result and then hears about how someone else has posted a result from an instance where he broke through the 500k DPS barrier (just an example) then the link between the unpleasant behaviour of some overperforming players and the rest of the DPS'ers is quickly made - even if it's not justified, there is probably some reasoning behind it where those developing or using the tools are seen as responsible for bad attitudes that develop as a result of the usage of DPS parser programs.
As for the guides on ship building, It's really just another way of saying "Unless you build this way, you're doing it wrong". The devs really just got rid of build your ship how you want in favor of pick either this or that.
This is another argument that I see a lot and still don't really get.
No one is telling people that they have to build a certain way or be 'wrong.' Every game, at least every one that I have ever played, requires you to use some form of logic in your build or tactics. Enemies get harder as you go up in levels, and the combat is scaled in a way where they expect you to keep getting more powerful and then use that power at higher levels. I haven't played Warframe, but I'm sure there are powers and skills that you get when you increase in level like most games. Maybe you put points into certain skills and when you do, you pick skills and abilities that fit your play style. Star Trek Online is no different.
The problem in STO is that what skills to take or how to use certain abilities isn't always clear to people. That's why you have players running around with a Dual Heavy Cannon, a Torpedo launcher, a dual beam bank and an omni in their fore weapons.. because not only does the game never teach you that this is ineffective, but most of the ships you buy come equipped in a similar horrible fashion and lead you to believe that this is how it's done.
Like any game, Star Trek Online is about building your ship in a logical and effective manner. That doesn't mean you have to pick between build A or build B and everything else is wrong, far from it. Personally, I don't run the exact same build as a lot of the DPS guys, I make changes based on my own style and what works for me, as does everyone else. Yes, some core concepts are the same.. use the same type of energy, use consoles that boost that type, slotting consoles and bridge powers that work together and make sense.. etc. It's like that in any game though, if you have a shooter style game and you put all your points into shotguns and heavy armor and then you fight the end boss with a pistol and light armor.. you get crushed.
Build synergy isn't about doing it 'right' or picking a carbon copy build. It's about finding out what works for you, what style you want to play and then building your ship in a way that facilitates that style. Rather you're flying a zippy escort, a tanky cruiser, a carrier, using 'space magic'.. or even hybrid builds.. you can do what you want in STO. It's just about making sure you use items and skills that actually do what you need them to do. Star Trek Online has all the build variety in the world, people just tend to suggest more common builds to new players who are just looking to get better. Once they master those basic concepts, they are then in a position where they have the knowledge needed to make the changes that fit them personally.
All the DPS build are clearly listed as suggestions, they're designed to be outlines, not a list of the only way to do it.
The highest level players usually aren't doing anything any differently than a normal player. In fact, their huge damage values usually is the result of a protected secret, in discovering a bug, exploit or oversight in how STO calculates numbers.
This is one of the dumbest things that has ever been vomited onto the forums.
I hope he doesn't mind me using his name here, but I run missions with @peterconnorfirst all the time. We use very similar builds yet he easily doubles my DPS. Why? Because he's a good pilot and I am not.. that simple. We use the same gear, I understand the build just as well as he does.. he's just simply better. To try and claim that the DPS guys 'protect' any knowledge is absolutely absurd and your saying it just shows how incredibly clueless you are.
Guys like Connor, @tunebreaker and others are some of the most helpful and quick to share knowledge of anyone you will find. To imply that they only get their numbers because they horde knowledge of how to cheat and exploit the game really shows how little you understand not just about them, but about the game in general.
If this is really what you believe, then by all means.. feel free to wallow in your delusion, but don't peddle your **** here.. it's not going to fly. Those guys spend a lot of time helping people get better performance and you just come along and try and **** all over it.. not going to happen.
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sea. I agree with what you wrote except for you not being a good pilot which is simply not true.
I’m also fascinated each time when I play with Feli and Hellspawny to what kind of perfection players can time and chain abilities at the right spots so precisely that the numbers get magical. Sadly the prospect of such numbers also has downsides you know. Downsides a lot of players don’t let themselves be hindered by when going into PvE. Perhaps you noticed it? The moment you want to attack the ISA spheres they are already gone because somebody camped there not contributing to the L/R sides of the map and just waiting to set the perfect spike onto the most lucrative targets. Or very high (but still allowed) parts of the DPS contribution done onto the ISA gate. That thing regenerates its hit points for major parts of the match duration providing numbers that are not supposed to be there. Such stuff happens almost in every second run I do.
“Piloting” a starship indeed takes a lot whole of practice, something so many players will never understand. But experience also has the danger of just fabricating DPS at the expanse of your team. And that, Sea, is something you have never done when we ran together. Those numbers you do are not only good enough to beat every map of the queue list in all difficulties, but your team can also always rely on the fact that you dedicate them towards the sensible completion of a map and not a just a combat log.
Don’t know about the others but that is what I call a good pilot.
Thanks Connor, coming from one of the best, that means a lot.
Almost the entirety of what I know, I have learned from the people that others claim 'horde' knowledge or exploit secrets. It's just simply not true, one thing this game has going for it is how open everyone is with information and how willing they are to provide help.
I have never once asked one of the 'big dogs' for advice and not had them happily give it. We all started at zero at some point, but those that asked for help and opened their minds to new ideas improved, those who blamed the game and closed themselves off continued to struggle.
It's incredibly easy to get help in this game, all you have to do is ask. I get annoyed when people try and paint the DPS guys as some heiarchy sitting on a throne and looking down their noses at the rest of the player base. It simply isn't true.
Regarding those last few lines: it's probably because they have encountered a jerk when playing, who tried to impress the team by posting a parse result when no one asked for it - just to show how much better they were and with no intention to actually help if someone did less well. Sometimes they even post them after they over-estimate themselves and try to solo one side in ISA for example, failing half the mission for everyone else.
For me it's not difficult to see then why the top-DPS'ers, who use the same tools to measure their DPS as the jerks, are perceived as something bad. I can understand the anger from the more average player to some extent in such cases, even if the person they encountered may be totally different from the actual DPS kings. It may not be justified, but that's probably the rationale behind the DPS = evil notion that some players have developed.
Or it may have to do with bad experiences with overperforming players in general. Most people understandably do not like it if one 100k+ player - who can do as much damage by himself as a full team would on average need - enters a public instance and destroys everything before the rest of the team can do something and get the idea that they are helping too.
So, some of this slandering of DPS'ers may not be justified, certainly not for the helpful ones. But if a 'normal' player has a (or multiple) bad experience(s), sees someone post a log result and then hears about how someone else has posted a result from an instance where he broke through the 500k DPS barrier (just an example) then the link between the unpleasant behaviour of some overperforming players and the rest of the DPS'ers is quickly made - even if it's not justified, there is probably some reasoning behind it where those developing or using the tools are seen as responsible for bad attitudes that develop as a result of the usage of DPS parser programs.
Tbh real prob of getting Space Whales on public queue's at low lvls isnt their dps (well, ofc that matter too) but their speed, happened a couple of times to even get 2 hours penalty for "being AFK" cuz there was a Whale flying around at x10 times your max speed and 1 hitting everything (in Gorn Minefield, ofc in Starbase 24 this cant happen).
Ps: a solution for low lvls that see Space Whales in Gorn Minefield, at start go down on the left, there's a mine kinda near where no one ever go, that way you wont get the 2 hour penalty nm how fast it get cleared.
I find this interesting. Back when I started, I wasn't a DPS'er and whenever someone posted parses, I found it helpful since I did not know how to parse myself.
Regarding those last few lines: it's probably because they have encountered a jerk when playing, who tried to impress the team by posting a parse result when no one asked for it
As I stated above, some players find it helpful (though I don't post parses myself unless asked). My question is then, for players that don't really care about their DPS, why would they get offended when someone posts a parse?
I'm starting to think that the anti-DPS sentiment is all about ego, and it's starting to look like that some of the players that hate DPS'ers because of their perceived ego actually do so because of their own hurt ego.
Or it may have to do with bad experiences with overperforming players in general. Most people understandably do not like it if one 100k+ player - who can do as much damage by himself as a full team would on average need - enters a public instance and destroys everything before the rest of the team can do something and get the idea that they are helping too.
This is understandable. But this is a public queue. Just like how people can't complain about really under-prepared players in Advanced/Elite content, I do not think players should complain about high-end players entering public queues. There cannot be a double standard there. It's elitist and entitled thinking from both sides.
I hope you don't get me wrong.. .I'm sincerely trying to understand that mode of thinking, since I never shared those feelings even before I started building ships seriously.
As for the guides on ship building, It's really just another way of saying "Unless you build this way, you're doing it wrong".
I don't think any of the ship guides imply that? At least not in /r/stobuilds. In fact, many ship builds there and guides give various options you can take on certain builds.
A few days (maybe weeks?) ago, someone posted a similar sentiment against "cookie cutter" builds in the STO Facebook group, so there definitely seems to be some disdain for ship builds being posted...
However, I do not understand why? Nothing in those builds state that you have to build it exactly that way.
The way I see it, those "cookie-cutter" builds are actually helpful to the community by providing a template for easy entry in building ships that perform adequately in Advanced and Elite content for new players.
I know how difficult it can be to experiment on your own and prod around the mechanics to find out how it works by yourself.
Back when I started building my own Science ships, there weren't any real "guides" for building Sci-Torp boats. There were snippets of information out there but with no real way to tell what was right or wrong. As something that wasn't within the meta, not a lot of people paid attention to torpedoes and exotic damage builds. I spent a lot of EC and Dilithium on mistakes to get where I am now. For me personally, I wanted to help players coming into exotic builds, so I made The Science Ship Build Thread here as a repository of builds me and other players use.
The devs really just got rid of build your ship how you want in favor of pick either this or that. There hasn't been true build how you want when they changed the skill tree.
I do not think this is true at all. Builds have been more diverse than ever. While some build archetypes do need help, we are no longer sitting in a BFAW or GTFO meta, neither are we inside Escorts Online anymore. Something as simple as weapon energy type has (for better or worse) been equalized to the point where you can choose any of the energy weapon flavors and be effective. Beam/Torp/Cannon builds are all effective. On the science side, Exotic and Drains are now viable end-game builds more than ever. Even carrier builds are doing well with the pet buffs. On the engineering side, Tanks may need help (threat scaling is an issue) but they are able to function adequately. The same with healers, which I am seeing a resurgence of in the past months. Both tanks and healers are welcome especially when you start dabbling in Elite while in a pre-made.
I still can't figure out how you have MORE choices with LESS to choose from. Last I checked Soda/Pop (depending on where you're from) comes in thousands of flavors, But if the Soda industry removed all but 2 flavors, and them telling you that you have more choices now is the same thing.
The fact that there is no single meta right now (there really isn't) just shows that we do have a lot of choices right now in terms of building ships. Granted, you can't just slap anything on a ship and expect to run Advanced/Elite, but that is to be expected.
> @nikephorus said:
> azrael605 wrote: »
>
> Any ship can be used for any content in this game. Gear is mostly irrelevant, this game is just plain easy.
>
>
>
>
> Take a slapstick build into Battle of Korfez or Hive Elite and let me know how irrelevant it is...
It's irrelevant if your gear is "all epic mk xiv" or if you still have some VR mk xii stuff in there, irrelevant if its AP, disruptor, phaser, etc. With the right setup you can even rainbow it and still be able to handle BKE just fine. You don't need to confine yourself to any specific items of Rep gear, Fleet gear, kinds of weapons, and so on.
As for Korfez, I love that you have to work to succeed at the mission now, its the best thing about Korfez.
That wasn't really what I meant. I'm just annoyed that people make piloting skill the end all of this game when it isn't. It's a large component of being successful for sure, but your overall ship build (Skills, traits, consoles, ...etc) all make a huge difference as well. And slapping together a garbage build will cause you to fail elite missions and make things difficult for your in advanced.
A little off topic, but I feel like I need to address rainbow builds since some people keep posting about being successful with one as being super great. Rainbow builds have been easy and good since the release of the spire tactical consoles. So making a good rainbow build isn't any kind of accomplishment IMO. I've been using [beam] tac consoles for a while now since I run an AP build along with the Terran Disruptor. It's not like that's revolutionary.
The highest level players usually aren't doing anything any differently than a normal player. In fact, their huge damage values usually is the result of a protected secret, in discovering a bug, exploit or oversight in how STO calculates numbers.
This is one of the dumbest things that has ever been vomited onto the forums.
I hope he doesn't mind me using his name here, but I run missions with @peterconnorfirst all the time. We use very similar builds yet he easily doubles my DPS. Why? Because he's a good pilot and I am not.. that simple. We use the same gear, I understand the build just as well as he does.. he's just simply better. To try and claim that the DPS guys 'protect' any knowledge is absolutely absurd and your saying it just shows how incredibly clueless you are.
Guys like Connor, @tunebreaker and others are some of the most helpful and quick to share knowledge of anyone you will find. To imply that they only get their numbers because they horde knowledge of how to cheat and exploit the game really shows how little you understand not just about them, but about the game in general.
If this is really what you believe, then by all means.. feel free to wallow in your delusion, but don't peddle your **** here.. it's not going to fly. Those guys spend a lot of time helping people get better performance and you just come along and try and **** all over it.. not going to happen.
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sea. I agree with what you wrote except for you not being a good pilot which is simply not true.
I’m also fascinated each time when I play with Feli and Hellspawny to what kind of perfection players can time and chain abilities at the right spots so precisely that the numbers get magical. Sadly the prospect of such numbers also has downsides you know. Downsides a lot of players don’t let themselves be hindered by when going into PvE. Perhaps you noticed it? The moment you want to attack the ISA spheres they are already gone because somebody camped there not contributing to the L/R sides of the map and just waiting to set the perfect spike onto the most lucrative targets. Or very high (but still allowed) parts of the DPS contribution done onto the ISA gate. That thing regenerates its hit points for major parts of the match duration providing numbers that are not supposed to be there. Such stuff happens almost in every second run I do.
“Piloting” a starship indeed takes a lot whole of practice, something so many players will never understand. But experience also has the danger of just fabricating DPS at the expanse of your team. And that, Sea, is something you have never done when we ran together. Those numbers you do are not only good enough to beat every map of the queue list in all difficulties, but your team can also always rely on the fact that you dedicate them towards the sensible completion of a map and not a just a combat log.
Don’t know about the others but that is what I call a good pilot.
Thanks Connor, coming from one of the best, that means a lot.
Almost the entirety of what I know, I have learned from the people that others claim 'horde' knowledge or exploit secrets. It's just simply not true, one thing this game has going for it is how open everyone is with information and how willing they are to provide help.
I have never once asked one of the 'big dogs' for advice and not had them happily give it. We all started at zero at some point, but those that asked for help and opened their minds to new ideas improved, those who blamed the game and closed themselves off continued to struggle.
It's incredibly easy to get help in this game, all you have to do is ask. I get annoyed when people try and paint the DPS guys as some heiarchy sitting on a throne and looking down their noses at the rest of the player base. It simply isn't true.
Regarding those last few lines: it's probably because they have encountered a jerk when playing, who tried to impress the team by posting a parse result when no one asked for it - just to show how much better they were and with no intention to actually help if someone did less well. Sometimes they even post them after they over-estimate themselves and try to solo one side in ISA for example, failing half the mission for everyone else.
For me it's not difficult to see then why the top-DPS'ers, who use the same tools to measure their DPS as the jerks, are perceived as something bad. I can understand the anger from the more average player to some extent in such cases, even if the person they encountered may be totally different from the actual DPS kings. It may not be justified, but that's probably the rationale behind the DPS = evil notion that some players have developed.
Or it may have to do with bad experiences with overperforming players in general. Most people understandably do not like it if one 100k+ player - who can do as much damage by himself as a full team would on average need - enters a public instance and destroys everything before the rest of the team can do something and get the idea that they are helping too.
So, some of this slandering of DPS'ers may not be justified, certainly not for the helpful ones. But if a 'normal' player has a (or multiple) bad experience(s), sees someone post a log result and then hears about how someone else has posted a result from an instance where he broke through the 500k DPS barrier (just an example) then the link between the unpleasant behaviour of some overperforming players and the rest of the DPS'ers is quickly made - even if it's not justified, there is probably some reasoning behind it where those developing or using the tools are seen as responsible for bad attitudes that develop as a result of the usage of DPS parser programs.
Or, simpler explanation, it's petty jealousy at other players being better than them. Happens in every game. There's always someone crying "cheat" whenever they lose.
As I stated above, some players find it helpful (though I don't post parses myself unless asked). My question is then, for players that don't really care about their DPS, why would they get offended when someone posts a parse?
I'm starting to think that the anti-DPS sentiment is all about ego, and it's starting to look like that some of the players that hate DPS'ers because of their perceived ego actually do so because of their own hurt ego.
Maybe a bit of both. But there was a time (haven't seen it in months though) when I regularily saw people post parses post STF and the berating the guy with the lowest numbers, even if said numbers were perfectly fine for the content at hand, or otherwise being very smug about themselves. Often these were the same guys complaining about missed optionals when they were the ones (as has been mentioned in this thread before) not playing the queue but the parser, i. e. move to where the damage could be dealt not where they were needed. These kind of players I didn't like very much.
A little off topic, but I feel like I need to address rainbow builds since some people keep posting about being successful with one as being super great. Rainbow builds have been easy and good since the release of the spire tactical consoles. So making a good rainbow build isn't any kind of accomplishment IMO. I've been using [beam] tac consoles for a while now since I run an AP build along with the Terran Disruptor. It's not like that's revolutionary.
It is common knowledge in zone chat that rainbow builds suck and don't work. In other words: you're correct, they're just fine. They may not be able to scratch the DPS records, but if you know what you're doing and don't depend on "+disruptor" consoles or similar, rainbow and skittles will kill. Try to explain that to the combined wisdom of the beta quadrant though.
My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
That last problem is a staging one on your part. You can stop outside the 10km combat range and let your fighters catch up. Or bring them to dock. Or just launch new ones. You can begin to send them to attack from 15km. So why rush into the kill box in a carrier?
I wouldn't mind doing that, but in group content where everyone just rushes from one enemy to the next with full impulse there is no way to keep up if you have to always dock/relaunch fighters or wait for them to catch up to you.
As far as all this talk about "You're building your ship wrong and you're not using it right", this is pretty much the standard response you expect from the community of a game that has been unbalanced for so long that everyone who minds has moved on.
Reality is, I have no problem making builds in other games, even games that have extremely complex build systems like Path of Exile or The Secret World. Heck, I can figure out a unique build that works in D&D 3.5. Not everything I come up with in those games is the most amazing meta-build there ever was, but it's always viable at least.
In this game the divide between a meta build and something you just come up with by yourself is a gaping interstellar void. It's not even close, and I'm not going to take "STO is just the smartest game there ever was so follow this instructional video and don't do your own thing" as an answer.
Game balance is a balance between people's ability to play how they like and ability to compete. A game that doesn't allow people to play how they like is badly balanced, plain and simple.
A little off topic, but I feel like I need to address rainbow builds since some people keep posting about being successful with one as being super great. Rainbow builds have been easy and good since the release of the spire tactical consoles. So making a good rainbow build isn't any kind of accomplishment IMO. I've been using [beam] tac consoles for a while now since I run an AP build along with the Terran Disruptor. It's not like that's revolutionary.
It is common knowledge in zone chat that rainbow builds suck and don't work. In other words: you're correct, they're just fine. They may not be able to scratch the DPS records, but if you know what you're doing and don't depend on "+disruptor" consoles or similar, rainbow and skittles will kill. Try to explain that to the combined wisdom of the beta quadrant though.
Zone chat is the virtual equivalent to random people shouting at eachother on the street. Wisdom it isn't.
That last problem is a staging one on your part. You can stop outside the 10km combat range and let your fighters catch up. Or bring them to dock. Or just launch new ones. You can begin to send them to attack from 15km. So why rush into the kill box in a carrier?
I wouldn't mind doing that, but in group content where everyone just rushes from one enemy to the next with full impulse there is no way to keep up if you have to always dock/relaunch fighters or wait for them to catch up to you.
As far as all this talk about "You're building your ship wrong and you're not using it right", this is pretty much the standard response you expect from the community of a game that has been unbalanced for so long that everyone who minds has moved on.
Reality is, I have no problem making builds in other games, even games that have extremely complex build systems like Path of Exile or The Secret World. Heck, I can figure out a unique build that works in D&D 3.5. Not everything I come up with in those games is the most amazing meta-build there ever was, but it's always viable at least.
In this game the divide between a meta build and something you just come up with by yourself is a gaping interstellar void. It's not even close, and I'm not going to take "STO is just the smartest game there ever was so follow this instructional video and don't do your own thing" as an answer.
Game balance is a balance between people's ability to play how they like and ability to compete. A game that doesn't allow people to play how they like is badly balanced, plain and simple.
Please go into ISA and when you team with a guy in a similar ship, talk to him/her. Your belief in the correctness of your logic is the single thing holding you back. I know, because some time back I was in exactly the same spot you are in now. Talking to guys who were doing what I wanted to do changed the game for me.
I don't run a typical build in my science torp boat. I've split my focus between drain and exotic, and on occasion I use Chroniton torps instead of my quantums. I use Mk XI Plasma Beam Arrays [Acc]x3 fore and aft running at 15 (25 after bonuses) weapon power. I am a sub-optimal performer. My major powers are Gravity Well 3, Tykken's Rift 2, and Photonic Shockwave 1&2. (Okay, we'll pause while the DPS guys laugh a bit.)
Finished? Okay.
This suboptimal build eats anything Advanced or lower content can throw at it, and I haven't respawned since I last parked in front of a Na'kuhl Destroyer. Oh, I didn't mention what ship this is? It's a T5 Reconnaissance Science Vessel. The freebie, not the Fleet version.
There is no 'One Build' or even a small group of them. Build Meta is an ever evolving game. I have seen Invulnerable Tanks as the top meta, and Sci/scorts, (Damn you Bugship pilots!) and Cloak and Kill, and Cannon Escorts, and Aceton Assimilators, and speed escorts, and Science all at the top of the build ladders at one time or another. When you see a single Meta as 'The Build' with everyone copying it, that is because someone, after months of work, has refined a particular build to tweak out the next 1% of DPS and everyone is trying to do it better. Sooner or later someone will create the next meta, rendering the current meta passe, but not rendering it ineffective.
When you begin your actual research you will discover there are hundreds of potential builds, all still viable in game, which at one time were contenders for the top spot. The only way one can claim that there is only a limited number of viable end game builds is to restrict the pool to the top 1% of damage dealers, because at 5% there are many different builds, and you don't even need to be above the bottom 10% to do Advanced content.
Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm still running with my first two green BOffs, the Andorian Tac from the old starter quest and the Andorian Eng I got at Tier 2. What can I say, they helped me through a bad time and I never had the heart to space them. I keep waiting for when we can assign BOffs to be captains in our fleets. (It's been a long wait...)
> @nikephorus said:
> azrael605 wrote: »
>
> Any ship can be used for any content in this game. Gear is mostly irrelevant, this game is just plain easy.
>
>
>
>
> Take a slapstick build into Battle of Korfez or Hive Elite and let me know how irrelevant it is...
It's irrelevant if your gear is "all epic mk xiv" or if you still have some VR mk xii stuff in there, irrelevant if its AP, disruptor, phaser, etc. With the right setup you can even rainbow it and still be able to handle BKE just fine. You don't need to confine yourself to any specific items of Rep gear, Fleet gear, kinds of weapons, and so on.
As for Korfez, I love that you have to work to succeed at the mission now, its the best thing about Korfez.
That wasn't really what I meant. I'm just annoyed that people make piloting skill the end all of this game when it isn't. It's a large component of being successful for sure, but your overall ship build (Skills, traits, consoles, ...etc) all make a huge difference as well. And slapping together a garbage build will cause you to fail elite missions and make things difficult for your in advanced.
Honestly, I really *do* believe piloting skills are the end-all-be-all of this game. Naturally, you can give a very good player a really crappy build and loadout, and his/her DPS output would start to tank too. But the point is, for every X build where I do Y dmg, a good pilot will do Y times 3 dmg with the same setup.
Me? I have everything Epic, and the fanciest Lobi sets known to STO. And the best Traits out there. Does it make a difference? A bit, of course. But nothing scales like piloting skills. Nothing.
As far as all this talk about "You're building your ship wrong and you're not using it right", this is pretty much the standard response you expect from the community of a game that has been unbalanced for so long that everyone who minds has moved on.
Yeah, I did say you're doing it wrong, didn't I?! And, as brian334 astutely observed shortly thereafter, it's hard to say a thing like that, without it sounding like a personal attack. But the simple, objective truth of the matter is, that a single Brushfire battle (on Normal) taking you HOURS, *is* you doing it wrong (and then assume it wasn't someone on the Internet telling you so).
When I first started to play, a guy in ISA told me "You're only using your weapons 'normally', unbuffed." I got all smart alecky, and retorted with something like "Why, you sugggest I play abnormally?!" After that day, though, I figured maybe it really was time to consider I was doing it wrong. And boy, was I ever! Be open-minded. To paraphrase Q, getting better is not about mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of gameplay. And that includes accepting that you are currently doing it wrong.
As far as all this talk about "You're building your ship wrong and you're not using it right", this is pretty much the standard response you expect from the community of a game that has been unbalanced for so long that everyone who minds has moved on.
Yeah, I did say you're doing it wrong, didn't I?! And, as brian334 astutely observed shortly thereafter, it's hard to say a thing like that, without it sounding like a personal attack. But the simple, objective truth of the matter is, that a single Brushfire battle (on Normal) taking you HOURS, *is* you doing it wrong (and then assume it wasn't someone on the Internet telling you so).
When I first started to play, a guy in ISA told me "You're only using your weapons 'normally', unbuffed." I got all smart alecky, and retorted with something like "Why, you sugggest I play abnormally?!" After that day, though, I figured maybe it really was time to consider I was doing it wrong. And boy, was I ever! Be open-minded. To paraphrase Q, getting better is not about mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of gameplay. And that includes accepting that you are currently doing it wrong.
Uhm pardon this question. But what does buffed mean? Or normally?
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
As far as all this talk about "You're building your ship wrong and you're not using it right", this is pretty much the standard response you expect from the community of a game that has been unbalanced for so long that everyone who minds has moved on.
Yeah, I did say you're doing it wrong, didn't I?! And, as brian334 astutely observed shortly thereafter, it's hard to say a thing like that, without it sounding like a personal attack. But the simple, objective truth of the matter is, that a single Brushfire battle (on Normal) taking you HOURS, *is* you doing it wrong (and then assume it wasn't someone on the Internet telling you so).
When I first started to play, a guy in ISA told me "You're only using your weapons 'normally', unbuffed." I got all smart alecky, and retorted with something like "Why, you sugggest I play abnormally?!" After that day, though, I figured maybe it really was time to consider I was doing it wrong. And boy, was I ever! Be open-minded. To paraphrase Q, getting better is not about mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of gameplay. And that includes accepting that you are currently doing it wrong.
Uhm pardon this question. But what does buffed mean? Or normally?
Basically, LOL, I was just firing my weapons, without buffing them with abilities, like BFAW. or Attack Patterns. I remember having some abilities on my tray, that I occassionally pressed, for good measure, but had no clue otherwise. Yeah, it was bad.
Okay. I pretty much just use BFAW on my connie and toss out sci skills or the like since I don't have much room for attack patterns. (And sadly they confuse me.) On single targets I broadside and hit my red matter capacitor to put my energy levels high.
Hopefully this is not sneer worthy. . .
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
how is the concept of 'push butan, get buff' in any way confusing? that's all attack patterns are - buffs (or debuff in the case of beta)
Toggle X and for Y seconds gain Z, target gets Z-B. As people have said it is about piloting, knowing what you have and when to use it. BFAW I use for swarms of ships, anti-fighters (I know a different swarm) Other wise I dive in forward four phasers firing and let a torpedo loose. at 5km I try and turn to bring all phasers to bear. Close enough to hurt but not close enough target detonating kills me too.
In the case of a unimatrix I hug the hull firing and triggering everything but my photonic fleet or Nimbus group. When it hits 0% hull I pull up and after three seconds initiate a barrel roll so I am immune to the explosion damage.
Oh and because using the pilot school I am at max throttle all the time.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
> @nikephorus said:
> azrael605 wrote: »
>
> Any ship can be used for any content in this game. Gear is mostly irrelevant, this game is just plain easy.
>
>
>
>
> Take a slapstick build into Battle of Korfez or Hive Elite and let me know how irrelevant it is...
It's irrelevant if your gear is "all epic mk xiv" or if you still have some VR mk xii stuff in there, irrelevant if its AP, disruptor, phaser, etc. With the right setup you can even rainbow it and still be able to handle BKE just fine. You don't need to confine yourself to any specific items of Rep gear, Fleet gear, kinds of weapons, and so on.
As for Korfez, I love that you have to work to succeed at the mission now, its the best thing about Korfez.
That wasn't really what I meant. I'm just annoyed that people make piloting skill the end all of this game when it isn't. It's a large component of being successful for sure, but your overall ship build (Skills, traits, consoles, ...etc) all make a huge difference as well. And slapping together a garbage build will cause you to fail elite missions and make things difficult for your in advanced.
Honestly, I really *do* believe piloting skills are the end-all-be-all of this game. Naturally, you can give a very good player a really crappy build and loadout, and his/her DPS output would start to tank too. But the point is, for every X build where I do Y dmg, a good pilot will do Y times 3 dmg with the same setup.
Me? I have everything Epic, and the fanciest Lobi sets known to STO. And the best Traits out there. Does it make a difference? A bit, of course. But nothing scales like piloting skills. Nothing.
From my personal experience as a mediocre pilot I believe I am proof that a well built ship with good traits, skills, gear, ...etc can do well in both PvE and PvP.
Let me give an example. My main character which has the majority of the best ships, gear, traits, ...etc can manage very high dps. Now if I switch to one of my alts using essentially the same build, but with lower quality gear (nothing epic) and none of the fancy traits my dps is significantly lower. Ridiculously lower. My piloting skills have not changed at all, but my gear, traits, all that good stuff are inferior and my damage suffers considerably to the point that my dps is about 20% that of my main character. By your estimation I should be doing nearly the same damage since everything is about piloting and neither gear not traits or anything else really matters that much. It's just not been my experience at all.
Uhm pardon this question. But what does buffed mean? Or normally?
Buffing is using abilities, consoles, traits, etc. to improve performance while normal is using the gear without consideration of how other abilities interact with it.
As an example, untill recently Subsystem Targeting powers only benefitted beam weapons while it now benefits beams and cannons, but not torpedoes, mines, or other powers. But a true buff improves some aspect of your build, such as energy type consoles buffing weapons which use that particular energy type, or torpedo consoles buffing some, but not all, torpedoes.
To achieve what is called Synergy, one must provide multiple stacking buffs. As an example, take my Cannon Bird of Prey:
Forward is four Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons, (Mk XIV w/Dam and CrtH modifiers.) Aft is one Mk XII Coalition Disruptor Turret, (Accx3) and one Kinetic Cutting Beam. (Earned via repeated trips for salvage, not bought in the Rep store!)
This 'normal' setup benefits from the Coalition Disruptor proc which reduces resistance to Disruptors when it 'procs', (2.5% chance per hit for a stacking 'debuff' on the target.) The regular disruptors generate a smaller stacking debuff on the target versus all energy types.
Looks good on paper, right? But this alone is not going to do much to anything beyond the challenges in the episodes. I need Synergy to enhance my attacks.
So, I have 3 disruptor consoles which improve, (buff,) my raw damage. Each provides diminishing returns, so the second one only buffs half as much as the first, and the third only buffs half as much as the second. (The actual formula is in a tutorial in The Academy, where experienced players post advice and answer new guy questions.)
Again, this looks good, but it's still far from maximizing my potential. Need more Synergy!
So, I'm going to expose my Big Secret! Stacking powers. Before I drop my cloak, I trigger Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Team, Cannon Scatter Volley or Cannon Rapid Fire, Emergency Power to Weapons, and either Attack Pattern Delta or Attack Pattern Omega.
But there's more! I fly a Raider, and Raiders get a flanking bonus to damage. So I shoot them in the rear arc unless there is some reason not to, and gain a 25% bonus on the damage I inflict. Whoot!
And did I mention Power Level Settings? Naturally, weapons come first, then engines. When I feel the need for more power or need to clear a damage debuff I pop a Weapons Battery, and I always keep an Engines Battery or Deuterium on hand for when I have to run away. Which I do. A lot. Because my shields are TRIBBLE and my hull is made of wet tissue paper. (Because power settings matter a lot in each category, but you have to choose between mediocrity in everything or being good at one thing and less so at the others.)
But that's not all. I have cannon Duty Officers to reduce the cooldown times of my cannon powers, and my traits and skills have been selected specifically to benefit a fast-flying, hard hitting Alpha Strike ship. It is a one-trick-pony, but very little can survive my Alpha Strike except obvious bosses like the Borg diamond in that one mission which regenerates almost as fast as I can shoot! Oh, and players in well built, or even moderately well built ships.
My 400 DPS cannons get a minimum of three times the rated damage with my setup, and I'm not even a very good player. I'm certainly not a build master by any stretch of the imagination. A full Alpha Strike generally results in me dodging a warp core breach.
Let me be clear: THIS IS NOT AN OPTIMAL BUILD! You can do much better with the investment of time, effort, and an honest but critical analysis of your build and playstyle. But my build is sufficient to accomplish any task in the game, except PvP versus guys who know how to shrug off an Alpha Strike and immobilize my ship.
But it doesn't stop there! There's more!
Most Tactical powers are 15 seconds or 30 seconds in duration, so knowing when to pop them is key to maximizing performance. Attack Pattern Alpha when used at random in the middle of a firefight really isn't much help, but when stacked with other powers it makes an impact. And timing isn't restricted to popping powers. Knowing when to strike is another key to victory.
The very best time to decloak on a foe's rear arc is right after a Science Captain uses a Subnucleonic Beam on it. Second best is when another ship has engaged it and forced it to draw power for its abilities. With its buffs down, most ships are easy marks. When you play Elite content with a group of team players, it's like being a part of a band, playing your score to enhance what the others are playing. Synergizing with other players is where the real power of your build will shine.
As an example, I purposely rejected Coalition Disruptors all around, dispite their ability to maintain a maximum disruptor resistance debuff stack on my target, because if I have to fly away from a badly damaged target before I can kill it, anyone using any energy type can benefit from the normal disruptor proc and finish off the cripple for me. Yay teamwork!
My personal view of the importance of any aspect of starship combat in STO is:
Teamwork. Teamwork is King of the Battlefield. Period. There is no other single aspect of the game which can compare to the power and synergy a team can unleash on a foe.
Piloting. The ability to be in the right place at the right time maximizes your own potential and that of your allies as well. A crappy build with a good pilot is rare, but I see a lot of crappy pilots with good builds out there, (myself included,) who could benefit from a bit of coaching.
Build Synergy. When you can triple or better your damage output, or healing ability, or ability to control the flow of the battle you gain huge advantages in combat.
Gear. I'm not saying it isn't important, but it is the bottom of the list of how it impacts a battle. Good gear is important, and better gear is better, but it will almost never mean the difference between victory and defeat so long as you are using Mk XII or better for Advanced and Mk XIV for Elite.
Now, I hope you understand when I say the problem is not your gear, but your programming. Also, I hope you gain a bit of appreciation for the complexity of the interactions of each aspect of a build, including playstyle. Finally, I hope you have an understanding of why I strongly recommend a mentor, because this little essay has not even scratched the surface of the potential of the STO build game.
Uhm pardon this question. But what does buffed mean? Or normally?
Buffing is using abilities, consoles, traits, etc. to improve performance while normal is using the gear without consideration of how other abilities interact with it.
As an example, untill recently Subsystem Targeting powers only benefitted beam weapons while it now benefits beams and cannons, but not torpedoes, mines, or other powers. But a true buff improves some aspect of your build, such as energy type consoles buffing weapons which use that particular energy type, or torpedo consoles buffing some, but not all, torpedoes.
To achieve what is called Synergy, one must provide multiple stacking buffs. As an example, take my Cannon Bird of Prey:
Forward is four Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons, (Mk XIV w/Dam and CrtH modifiers.) Aft is one Mk XII Coalition Disruptor Turret, (Accx3) and one Kinetic Cutting Beam. (Earned via repeated trips for salvage, not bought in the Rep store!)
This 'normal' setup benefits from the Coalition Disruptor proc which reduces resistance to Disruptors when it 'procs', (2.5% chance per hit for a stacking 'debuff' on the target.) The regular disruptors generate a smaller stacking debuff on the target versus all energy types.
Looks good on paper, right? But this alone is not going to do much to anything beyond the challenges in the episodes. I need Synergy to enhance my attacks.
So, I have 3 disruptor consoles which improve, (buff,) my raw damage. Each provides diminishing returns, so the second one only buffs half as much as the first, and the third only buffs half as much as the second. (The actual formula is in a tutorial in The Academy, where experienced players post advice and answer new guy questions.)
Again, this looks good, but it's still far from maximizing my potential. Need more Synergy!
So, I'm going to expose my Big Secret! Stacking powers. Before I drop my cloak, I trigger Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Team, Cannon Scatter Volley or Cannon Rapid Fire, Emergency Power to Weapons, and either Attack Pattern Delta or Attack Pattern Omega.
But there's more! I fly a Raider, and Raiders get a flanking bonus to damage. So I shoot them in the rear arc unless there is some reason not to, and gain a 25% bonus on the damage I inflict. Whoot!
And did I mention Power Level Settings? Naturally, weapons come first, then engines. When I feel the need for more power or need to clear a damage debuff I pop a Weapons Battery, and I always keep an Engines Battery or Deuterium on hand for when I have to run away. Which I do. A lot. Because my shields are **** and my hull is made of wet tissue paper. (Because power settings matter a lot in each category, but you have to choose between mediocrity in everything or being good at one thing and less so at the others.)
But that's not all. I have cannon Duty Officers to reduce the cooldown times of my cannon powers, and my traits and skills have been selected specifically to benefit a fast-flying, hard hitting Alpha Strike ship. It is a one-trick-pony, but very little can survive my Alpha Strike except obvious bosses like the Borg diamond in that one mission which regenerates almost as fast as I can shoot! Oh, and players in well built, or even moderately well built ships.
My 400 DPS cannons get a minimum of three times the rated damage with my setup, and I'm not even a very good player. I'm certainly not a build master by any stretch of the imagination. A full Alpha Strike generally results in me dodging a warp core breach.
Let me be clear: THIS IS NOT AN OPTIMAL BUILD! You can do much better with the investment of time, effort, and an honest but critical analysis of your build and playstyle. But my build is sufficient to accomplish any task in the game, except PvP versus guys who know how to shrug off an Alpha Strike and immobilize my ship.
But it doesn't stop there! There's more!
Most Tactical powers are 15 seconds or 30 seconds in duration, so knowing when to pop them is key to maximizing performance. Attack Pattern Alpha when used at random in the middle of a firefight really isn't much help, but when stacked with other powers it makes an impact. And timing isn't restricted to popping powers. Knowing when to strike is another key to victory.
The very best time to decloak on a foe's rear arc is right after a Science Captain uses a Subnucleonic Beam on it. Second best is when another ship has engaged it and forced it to draw power for its abilities. With its buffs down, most ships are easy marks. When you play Elite content with a group of team players, it's like being a part of a band, playing your score to enhance what the others are playing. Synergizing with other players is where the real power of your build will shine.
As an example, I purposely rejected Coalition Disruptors all around, dispite their ability to maintain a maximum disruptor resistance debuff stack on my target, because if I have to fly away from a badly damaged target before I can kill it, anyone using any energy type can benefit from the normal disruptor proc and finish off the cripple for me. Yay teamwork!
My personal view of the importance of any aspect of starship combat in STO is:
Teamwork. Teamwork is King of the Battlefield. Period. There is no other single aspect of the game which can compare to the power and synergy a team can unleash on a foe.
Piloting. The ability to be in the right place at the right time maximizes your own potential and that of your allies as well. A crappy build with a good pilot is rare, but I see a lot of crappy pilots with good builds out there, (myself included,) who could benefit from a bit of coaching.
Build Synergy. When you can triple or better your damage output, or healing ability, or ability to control the flow of the battle you gain huge advantages in combat.
Gear. I'm not saying it isn't important, but it is the bottom of the list of how it impacts a battle. Good gear is important, and better gear is better, but it will almost never mean the difference between victory and defeat so long as you are using Mk XII or better for Advanced and Mk XIV for Elite.
Now, I hope you understand when I say the problem is not your gear, but your programming. Also, I hope you gain a bit of appreciation for the complexity of the interactions of each aspect of a build, including playstyle. Finally, I hope you have an understanding of why I strongly recommend a mentor, because this little essay has not even scratched the surface of the potential of the STO build game.
Okay so some of this I am already doing. Others I need to work on if I want to build/fly better. Like I said my connie has a sci captain and I throw grav wells or tykens. I also use the deconstruction beam from the temporal portion of the ship along with a destabilizer. I try and keep the tactical consoles only for Phaser boosting consoles. So everything sounds like I am close but not as good as I could be.
Thank you.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Comments
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
Thanks a lot for the kind words Sea. I agree with what you wrote except for you not being a good pilot which is simply not true.
I’m also fascinated each time when I play with Feli and Hellspawny to what kind of perfection players can time and chain abilities at the right spots so precisely that the numbers get magical. Sadly the prospect of such numbers also has downsides you know. Downsides a lot of players don’t let themselves be hindered by when going into PvE. Perhaps you noticed it? The moment you want to attack the ISA spheres they are already gone because somebody camped there not contributing to the L/R sides of the map and just waiting to set the perfect spike onto the most lucrative targets. Or very high (but still allowed) parts of the DPS contribution done onto the ISA gate. That thing regenerates its hit points for major parts of the match duration providing numbers that are not supposed to be there. Such stuff happens almost in every second run I do.
“Piloting” a starship indeed takes a lot whole of practice, something so many players will never understand. But experience also has the danger of just fabricating DPS at the expanse of your team. And that, Sea, is something you have never done when we ran together. Those numbers you do are not only good enough to beat every map of the queue list in all difficulties, but your team can also always rely on the fact that you dedicate them towards the sensible completion of a map and not a just a combat log.
Don’t know about the others but that is what I call a good pilot.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Thanks Connor, coming from one of the best, that means a lot.
Almost the entirety of what I know, I have learned from the people that others claim 'horde' knowledge or exploit secrets. It's just simply not true, one thing this game has going for it is how open everyone is with information and how willing they are to provide help.
I have never once asked one of the 'big dogs' for advice and not had them happily give it. We all started at zero at some point, but those that asked for help and opened their minds to new ideas improved, those who blamed the game and closed themselves off continued to struggle.
It's incredibly easy to get help in this game, all you have to do is ask. I get annoyed when people try and paint the DPS guys as some heiarchy sitting on a throne and looking down their noses at the rest of the player base. It simply isn't true.
Hmmm... because the forum ate my posts (due to all the links I provided).... Retyping without links:
You'd want to parse an entire run of Infected Conduit Advanced to get a baseline "standard" parse. Usually, you'd want to get 10 or more parsed runs so that you can get an average of your DPS (since that will vary depending on how good a team is). If you can parse between 30-50k in ISA, you're good to go on something like Hive Onslaught Elite without being carried. For something like Korfez, you'd want to be above 75k in ISA;
For solo parses, you can parse "DPS Mark", a foundry mission meant to be run solo in Advanced. If you want a bigger challenge, you can try "DPS Under Fire" which is again a foundry mission, this time meant to be run solo on Elite. That last one is probably one of the most difficult maps out there.
Seems I couldn't post the links. You'll have to Google STO Combat Meter (SCM) or Combat Log Reader (CLR) from the different DPS leagues. I recommend you use either (or even both) of them.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
Now as for STO, I have noticed a very bad trend since I've started playing just before LOR. The enemies in the late game are EXACTLY the same as the early game but with almost millions more HP. They do the EXACT SAME STRATEGY over and over again.
As for the guides on ship building, It's really just another way of saying "Unless you build this way, you're doing it wrong". The devs really just got rid of build your ship how you want in favor of pick either this or that. There hasn't been true build how you want when they changed the skill tree.
I still can't figure out how you have MORE choices with LESS to choose from. Last I checked Soda/Pop (depending on where you're from) comes in thousands of flavors, But if the Soda industry removed all but 2 flavors, and them telling you that you have more choices now is the same thing.
Regarding those last few lines: it's probably because they have encountered a jerk when playing, who tried to impress the team by posting a parse result when no one asked for it - just to show how much better they were and with no intention to actually help if someone did less well. Sometimes they even post them after they over-estimate themselves and try to solo one side in ISA for example, failing half the mission for everyone else.
For me it's not difficult to see then why the top-DPS'ers, who use the same tools to measure their DPS as the jerks, are perceived as something bad. I can understand the anger from the more average player to some extent in such cases, even if the person they encountered may be totally different from the actual DPS kings. It may not be justified, but that's probably the rationale behind the DPS = evil notion that some players have developed.
Or it may have to do with bad experiences with overperforming players in general. Most people understandably do not like it if one 100k+ player - who can do as much damage by himself as a full team would on average need - enters a public instance and destroys everything before the rest of the team can do something and get the idea that they are helping too.
So, some of this slandering of DPS'ers may not be justified, certainly not for the helpful ones. But if a 'normal' player has a (or multiple) bad experience(s), sees someone post a log result and then hears about how someone else has posted a result from an instance where he broke through the 500k DPS barrier (just an example) then the link between the unpleasant behaviour of some overperforming players and the rest of the DPS'ers is quickly made - even if it's not justified, there is probably some reasoning behind it where those developing or using the tools are seen as responsible for bad attitudes that develop as a result of the usage of DPS parser programs.
This is another argument that I see a lot and still don't really get.
No one is telling people that they have to build a certain way or be 'wrong.' Every game, at least every one that I have ever played, requires you to use some form of logic in your build or tactics. Enemies get harder as you go up in levels, and the combat is scaled in a way where they expect you to keep getting more powerful and then use that power at higher levels. I haven't played Warframe, but I'm sure there are powers and skills that you get when you increase in level like most games. Maybe you put points into certain skills and when you do, you pick skills and abilities that fit your play style. Star Trek Online is no different.
The problem in STO is that what skills to take or how to use certain abilities isn't always clear to people. That's why you have players running around with a Dual Heavy Cannon, a Torpedo launcher, a dual beam bank and an omni in their fore weapons.. because not only does the game never teach you that this is ineffective, but most of the ships you buy come equipped in a similar horrible fashion and lead you to believe that this is how it's done.
Like any game, Star Trek Online is about building your ship in a logical and effective manner. That doesn't mean you have to pick between build A or build B and everything else is wrong, far from it. Personally, I don't run the exact same build as a lot of the DPS guys, I make changes based on my own style and what works for me, as does everyone else. Yes, some core concepts are the same.. use the same type of energy, use consoles that boost that type, slotting consoles and bridge powers that work together and make sense.. etc. It's like that in any game though, if you have a shooter style game and you put all your points into shotguns and heavy armor and then you fight the end boss with a pistol and light armor.. you get crushed.
Build synergy isn't about doing it 'right' or picking a carbon copy build. It's about finding out what works for you, what style you want to play and then building your ship in a way that facilitates that style. Rather you're flying a zippy escort, a tanky cruiser, a carrier, using 'space magic'.. or even hybrid builds.. you can do what you want in STO. It's just about making sure you use items and skills that actually do what you need them to do. Star Trek Online has all the build variety in the world, people just tend to suggest more common builds to new players who are just looking to get better. Once they master those basic concepts, they are then in a position where they have the knowledge needed to make the changes that fit them personally.
All the DPS build are clearly listed as suggestions, they're designed to be outlines, not a list of the only way to do it.
Tbh real prob of getting Space Whales on public queue's at low lvls isnt their dps (well, ofc that matter too) but their speed, happened a couple of times to even get 2 hours penalty for "being AFK" cuz there was a Whale flying around at x10 times your max speed and 1 hitting everything (in Gorn Minefield, ofc in Starbase 24 this cant happen).
Ps: a solution for low lvls that see Space Whales in Gorn Minefield, at start go down on the left, there's a mine kinda near where no one ever go, that way you wont get the 2 hour penalty nm how fast it get cleared.
As I stated above, some players find it helpful (though I don't post parses myself unless asked). My question is then, for players that don't really care about their DPS, why would they get offended when someone posts a parse?
I'm starting to think that the anti-DPS sentiment is all about ego, and it's starting to look like that some of the players that hate DPS'ers because of their perceived ego actually do so because of their own hurt ego.
This is understandable. But this is a public queue. Just like how people can't complain about really under-prepared players in Advanced/Elite content, I do not think players should complain about high-end players entering public queues. There cannot be a double standard there. It's elitist and entitled thinking from both sides.
I hope you don't get me wrong.. .I'm sincerely trying to understand that mode of thinking, since I never shared those feelings even before I started building ships seriously.
I don't think any of the ship guides imply that? At least not in /r/stobuilds. In fact, many ship builds there and guides give various options you can take on certain builds.
A few days (maybe weeks?) ago, someone posted a similar sentiment against "cookie cutter" builds in the STO Facebook group, so there definitely seems to be some disdain for ship builds being posted...
However, I do not understand why? Nothing in those builds state that you have to build it exactly that way.
The way I see it, those "cookie-cutter" builds are actually helpful to the community by providing a template for easy entry in building ships that perform adequately in Advanced and Elite content for new players.
I know how difficult it can be to experiment on your own and prod around the mechanics to find out how it works by yourself.
Back when I started building my own Science ships, there weren't any real "guides" for building Sci-Torp boats. There were snippets of information out there but with no real way to tell what was right or wrong. As something that wasn't within the meta, not a lot of people paid attention to torpedoes and exotic damage builds. I spent a lot of EC and Dilithium on mistakes to get where I am now. For me personally, I wanted to help players coming into exotic builds, so I made The Science Ship Build Thread here as a repository of builds me and other players use.
I do not think this is true at all. Builds have been more diverse than ever. While some build archetypes do need help, we are no longer sitting in a BFAW or GTFO meta, neither are we inside Escorts Online anymore. Something as simple as weapon energy type has (for better or worse) been equalized to the point where you can choose any of the energy weapon flavors and be effective. Beam/Torp/Cannon builds are all effective. On the science side, Exotic and Drains are now viable end-game builds more than ever. Even carrier builds are doing well with the pet buffs. On the engineering side, Tanks may need help (threat scaling is an issue) but they are able to function adequately. The same with healers, which I am seeing a resurgence of in the past months. Both tanks and healers are welcome especially when you start dabbling in Elite while in a pre-made.
The fact that there is no single meta right now (there really isn't) just shows that we do have a lot of choices right now in terms of building ships. Granted, you can't just slap anything on a ship and expect to run Advanced/Elite, but that is to be expected.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
That wasn't really what I meant. I'm just annoyed that people make piloting skill the end all of this game when it isn't. It's a large component of being successful for sure, but your overall ship build (Skills, traits, consoles, ...etc) all make a huge difference as well. And slapping together a garbage build will cause you to fail elite missions and make things difficult for your in advanced.
A little off topic, but I feel like I need to address rainbow builds since some people keep posting about being successful with one as being super great. Rainbow builds have been easy and good since the release of the spire tactical consoles. So making a good rainbow build isn't any kind of accomplishment IMO. I've been using [beam] tac consoles for a while now since I run an AP build along with the Terran Disruptor. It's not like that's revolutionary.
Maybe a bit of both. But there was a time (haven't seen it in months though) when I regularily saw people post parses post STF and the berating the guy with the lowest numbers, even if said numbers were perfectly fine for the content at hand, or otherwise being very smug about themselves. Often these were the same guys complaining about missed optionals when they were the ones (as has been mentioned in this thread before) not playing the queue but the parser, i. e. move to where the damage could be dealt not where they were needed. These kind of players I didn't like very much.
It is common knowledge in zone chat that rainbow builds suck and don't work. In other words: you're correct, they're just fine. They may not be able to scratch the DPS records, but if you know what you're doing and don't depend on "+disruptor" consoles or similar, rainbow and skittles will kill. Try to explain that to the combined wisdom of the beta quadrant though.
I wouldn't mind doing that, but in group content where everyone just rushes from one enemy to the next with full impulse there is no way to keep up if you have to always dock/relaunch fighters or wait for them to catch up to you.
As far as all this talk about "You're building your ship wrong and you're not using it right", this is pretty much the standard response you expect from the community of a game that has been unbalanced for so long that everyone who minds has moved on.
Reality is, I have no problem making builds in other games, even games that have extremely complex build systems like Path of Exile or The Secret World. Heck, I can figure out a unique build that works in D&D 3.5. Not everything I come up with in those games is the most amazing meta-build there ever was, but it's always viable at least.
In this game the divide between a meta build and something you just come up with by yourself is a gaping interstellar void. It's not even close, and I'm not going to take "STO is just the smartest game there ever was so follow this instructional video and don't do your own thing" as an answer.
Game balance is a balance between people's ability to play how they like and ability to compete. A game that doesn't allow people to play how they like is badly balanced, plain and simple.
Please go into ISA and when you team with a guy in a similar ship, talk to him/her. Your belief in the correctness of your logic is the single thing holding you back. I know, because some time back I was in exactly the same spot you are in now. Talking to guys who were doing what I wanted to do changed the game for me.
I don't run a typical build in my science torp boat. I've split my focus between drain and exotic, and on occasion I use Chroniton torps instead of my quantums. I use Mk XI Plasma Beam Arrays [Acc]x3 fore and aft running at 15 (25 after bonuses) weapon power. I am a sub-optimal performer. My major powers are Gravity Well 3, Tykken's Rift 2, and Photonic Shockwave 1&2. (Okay, we'll pause while the DPS guys laugh a bit.)
Finished? Okay.
This suboptimal build eats anything Advanced or lower content can throw at it, and I haven't respawned since I last parked in front of a Na'kuhl Destroyer. Oh, I didn't mention what ship this is? It's a T5 Reconnaissance Science Vessel. The freebie, not the Fleet version.
There is no 'One Build' or even a small group of them. Build Meta is an ever evolving game. I have seen Invulnerable Tanks as the top meta, and Sci/scorts, (Damn you Bugship pilots!) and Cloak and Kill, and Cannon Escorts, and Aceton Assimilators, and speed escorts, and Science all at the top of the build ladders at one time or another. When you see a single Meta as 'The Build' with everyone copying it, that is because someone, after months of work, has refined a particular build to tweak out the next 1% of DPS and everyone is trying to do it better. Sooner or later someone will create the next meta, rendering the current meta passe, but not rendering it ineffective.
When you begin your actual research you will discover there are hundreds of potential builds, all still viable in game, which at one time were contenders for the top spot. The only way one can claim that there is only a limited number of viable end game builds is to restrict the pool to the top 1% of damage dealers, because at 5% there are many different builds, and you don't even need to be above the bottom 10% to do Advanced content.
Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm still running with my first two green BOffs, the Andorian Tac from the old starter quest and the Andorian Eng I got at Tier 2. What can I say, they helped me through a bad time and I never had the heart to space them. I keep waiting for when we can assign BOffs to be captains in our fleets. (It's been a long wait...)
Honestly, I really *do* believe piloting skills are the end-all-be-all of this game. Naturally, you can give a very good player a really crappy build and loadout, and his/her DPS output would start to tank too. But the point is, for every X build where I do Y dmg, a good pilot will do Y times 3 dmg with the same setup.
Me? I have everything Epic, and the fanciest Lobi sets known to STO. And the best Traits out there. Does it make a difference? A bit, of course. But nothing scales like piloting skills. Nothing.
Yeah, I did say you're doing it wrong, didn't I?!
When I first started to play, a guy in ISA told me "You're only using your weapons 'normally', unbuffed." I got all smart alecky, and retorted with something like "Why, you sugggest I play abnormally?!" After that day, though, I figured maybe it really was time to consider I was doing it wrong. And boy, was I ever! Be open-minded. To paraphrase Q, getting better is not about mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of gameplay. And that includes accepting that you are currently doing it wrong.
Uhm pardon this question. But what does buffed mean? Or normally?
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Basically, LOL, I was just firing my weapons, without buffing them with abilities, like BFAW. or Attack Patterns.
Hopefully this is not sneer worthy. . .
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Toggle X and for Y seconds gain Z, target gets Z-B. As people have said it is about piloting, knowing what you have and when to use it. BFAW I use for swarms of ships, anti-fighters (I know a different swarm) Other wise I dive in forward four phasers firing and let a torpedo loose. at 5km I try and turn to bring all phasers to bear. Close enough to hurt but not close enough target detonating kills me too.
In the case of a unimatrix I hug the hull firing and triggering everything but my photonic fleet or Nimbus group. When it hits 0% hull I pull up and after three seconds initiate a barrel roll so I am immune to the explosion damage.
Oh and because using the pilot school I am at max throttle all the time.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
From my personal experience as a mediocre pilot I believe I am proof that a well built ship with good traits, skills, gear, ...etc can do well in both PvE and PvP.
Let me give an example. My main character which has the majority of the best ships, gear, traits, ...etc can manage very high dps. Now if I switch to one of my alts using essentially the same build, but with lower quality gear (nothing epic) and none of the fancy traits my dps is significantly lower. Ridiculously lower. My piloting skills have not changed at all, but my gear, traits, all that good stuff are inferior and my damage suffers considerably to the point that my dps is about 20% that of my main character. By your estimation I should be doing nearly the same damage since everything is about piloting and neither gear not traits or anything else really matters that much. It's just not been my experience at all.
Buffing is using abilities, consoles, traits, etc. to improve performance while normal is using the gear without consideration of how other abilities interact with it.
As an example, untill recently Subsystem Targeting powers only benefitted beam weapons while it now benefits beams and cannons, but not torpedoes, mines, or other powers. But a true buff improves some aspect of your build, such as energy type consoles buffing weapons which use that particular energy type, or torpedo consoles buffing some, but not all, torpedoes.
To achieve what is called Synergy, one must provide multiple stacking buffs. As an example, take my Cannon Bird of Prey:
Forward is four Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons, (Mk XIV w/Dam and CrtH modifiers.) Aft is one Mk XII Coalition Disruptor Turret, (Accx3) and one Kinetic Cutting Beam. (Earned via repeated trips for salvage, not bought in the Rep store!)
This 'normal' setup benefits from the Coalition Disruptor proc which reduces resistance to Disruptors when it 'procs', (2.5% chance per hit for a stacking 'debuff' on the target.) The regular disruptors generate a smaller stacking debuff on the target versus all energy types.
Looks good on paper, right? But this alone is not going to do much to anything beyond the challenges in the episodes. I need Synergy to enhance my attacks.
So, I have 3 disruptor consoles which improve, (buff,) my raw damage. Each provides diminishing returns, so the second one only buffs half as much as the first, and the third only buffs half as much as the second. (The actual formula is in a tutorial in The Academy, where experienced players post advice and answer new guy questions.)
Again, this looks good, but it's still far from maximizing my potential. Need more Synergy!
So, I'm going to expose my Big Secret! Stacking powers. Before I drop my cloak, I trigger Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Team, Cannon Scatter Volley or Cannon Rapid Fire, Emergency Power to Weapons, and either Attack Pattern Delta or Attack Pattern Omega.
But there's more! I fly a Raider, and Raiders get a flanking bonus to damage. So I shoot them in the rear arc unless there is some reason not to, and gain a 25% bonus on the damage I inflict. Whoot!
And did I mention Power Level Settings? Naturally, weapons come first, then engines. When I feel the need for more power or need to clear a damage debuff I pop a Weapons Battery, and I always keep an Engines Battery or Deuterium on hand for when I have to run away. Which I do. A lot. Because my shields are TRIBBLE and my hull is made of wet tissue paper. (Because power settings matter a lot in each category, but you have to choose between mediocrity in everything or being good at one thing and less so at the others.)
But that's not all. I have cannon Duty Officers to reduce the cooldown times of my cannon powers, and my traits and skills have been selected specifically to benefit a fast-flying, hard hitting Alpha Strike ship. It is a one-trick-pony, but very little can survive my Alpha Strike except obvious bosses like the Borg diamond in that one mission which regenerates almost as fast as I can shoot! Oh, and players in well built, or even moderately well built ships.
My 400 DPS cannons get a minimum of three times the rated damage with my setup, and I'm not even a very good player. I'm certainly not a build master by any stretch of the imagination. A full Alpha Strike generally results in me dodging a warp core breach.
Let me be clear: THIS IS NOT AN OPTIMAL BUILD! You can do much better with the investment of time, effort, and an honest but critical analysis of your build and playstyle. But my build is sufficient to accomplish any task in the game, except PvP versus guys who know how to shrug off an Alpha Strike and immobilize my ship.
But it doesn't stop there! There's more!
Most Tactical powers are 15 seconds or 30 seconds in duration, so knowing when to pop them is key to maximizing performance. Attack Pattern Alpha when used at random in the middle of a firefight really isn't much help, but when stacked with other powers it makes an impact. And timing isn't restricted to popping powers. Knowing when to strike is another key to victory.
The very best time to decloak on a foe's rear arc is right after a Science Captain uses a Subnucleonic Beam on it. Second best is when another ship has engaged it and forced it to draw power for its abilities. With its buffs down, most ships are easy marks. When you play Elite content with a group of team players, it's like being a part of a band, playing your score to enhance what the others are playing. Synergizing with other players is where the real power of your build will shine.
As an example, I purposely rejected Coalition Disruptors all around, dispite their ability to maintain a maximum disruptor resistance debuff stack on my target, because if I have to fly away from a badly damaged target before I can kill it, anyone using any energy type can benefit from the normal disruptor proc and finish off the cripple for me. Yay teamwork!
My personal view of the importance of any aspect of starship combat in STO is:
Teamwork. Teamwork is King of the Battlefield. Period. There is no other single aspect of the game which can compare to the power and synergy a team can unleash on a foe.
Piloting. The ability to be in the right place at the right time maximizes your own potential and that of your allies as well. A crappy build with a good pilot is rare, but I see a lot of crappy pilots with good builds out there, (myself included,) who could benefit from a bit of coaching.
Build Synergy. When you can triple or better your damage output, or healing ability, or ability to control the flow of the battle you gain huge advantages in combat.
Gear. I'm not saying it isn't important, but it is the bottom of the list of how it impacts a battle. Good gear is important, and better gear is better, but it will almost never mean the difference between victory and defeat so long as you are using Mk XII or better for Advanced and Mk XIV for Elite.
Now, I hope you understand when I say the problem is not your gear, but your programming. Also, I hope you gain a bit of appreciation for the complexity of the interactions of each aspect of a build, including playstyle. Finally, I hope you have an understanding of why I strongly recommend a mentor, because this little essay has not even scratched the surface of the potential of the STO build game.
Okay so some of this I am already doing. Others I need to work on if I want to build/fly better. Like I said my connie has a sci captain and I throw grav wells or tykens. I also use the deconstruction beam from the temporal portion of the ship along with a destabilizer. I try and keep the tactical consoles only for Phaser boosting consoles. So everything sounds like I am close but not as good as I could be.
Thank you.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.