How to Setup a Defiant Mine/Torp/DHC Build.

razar2380

I have just read where mines have recently gotten a slight boost. So, I was interested in using them on a build. The issue is that I am running the Fleet Defiance, and not sure exactly how I should go about it. I now have DHCs, and 1 Torp. As anyone that has ever used DHC, and torps know, those are more spike damage weapons. So, I was thinking, "What would be the problem with adding mines to the spike damage build?"

I have a Tactical class character, and have torp skills in the skill tree maxed out, as well as the one for energy weapons. I am running Cannon Scatter Volley 3, and 2. Torp Spread 2 (2 copies), and 2 copies of Tac Team 1. I also have an Attack Pattern in 1 of the Lt Commander slots, that gets swapped depending on if I am running solo or with a team. And I have an extra Ensign Tac slot that is wasted.

I am thinking about this for Tac Boff skills:
Commander Tac - TT 1; (Mine ability here); Torp Spread 3; Cannon SV 3
Lt Commander - TT 1; (Mine ability here); Cannon SV 2
Ensign Tac - Torp Spread 1

If you think that there is something I am missing, or need to change, please let me know. Also, what mines are the best. And please keep in mind that I don't have much ec now, and also can't craft high level ones. And I am just in the Delta Quad mission arc. I do have a torp (forgot what NPC faction it was named after) but it can lay mines after exploding. I am not sure if it is any good now. I can upgrade it a little, if the game will let it be upgraded.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Razar.

questerius

The build is certainly possible, but despite the minor boost Mines are still far from achieving top tier damage.
So you can certainly make a Mine build viable and fun, but at this time it will at best only get you mediocre damage output.

At this time use of the antiproton variants of these sets is probably your best bet:
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Obfuscated_Strategist_Set#Antiproton Variant
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Temporal_Defense_Initiative_Armaments

Off course you can also forget about sets and go full DHC/Turret build and swap one turret in the back for either the tractor beam mines or nukara mines for some crowd control mixed in.

pottsey5g

questerius wrote: »

The build is certainly possible, but despite the minor boost Mines are still far from achieving top tier damage.
So you can certainly make a Mine build viable and fun, but at this time it will at best only get you mediocre damage output.

At this time use of the antiproton variants of these sets is probably your best bet:
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Obfuscated_Strategist_Set#Antiproton Variant
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Temporal_Defense_Initiative_Armaments

Off course you can also forget about sets and go full DHC/Turret build and swap one turret in the back for either the tractor beam mines or nukara mines for some crowd control mixed in.

While mines do lag behind the very top tier builds I would hardly call them mediocre damage output. At times they do more damage and wipe out enemy spawns faster then any other weapon. Mines can now put out very good DPS both spike and sustained. For some missions mines will kill waves of ships faster then canons or beams.

Saying that I do agree with you that on razar2380s build a tractor beam mines or nukara mines could work for crowd control.

razar2380 wrote: »

I have just read where mines have recently gotten a slight boost. So, I was interested in using them on a build. ….Razar.

While I prefer Quantum mines for the extra speed and extra explosion radius on your build a Tractor Beam Mine Launcher or Nukara Web Mine Launcher might synergize better.

You can get the Tractor mine from doing the “Cutting the Cord” mission and the Nukara mine from the Nukara reputation page. As for the Mine ability if you are only fitting 1 mine I would considering going down to just 1 Mine ability. Perhaps put something like Kemocite-Laced Weaponry where the 2nd mine ability would be as that would benefit the mine and all other weapons.

questerius

It's the eternal DPS vs Spike damage debate.
For small maps (cough ISA) with fast engines Spike damage can wield high DEEPS, but usually the two are mutually exclusive.
However, lets leave the debate for another time.

razar2380

Thanks for the information from you both. I know that I talked with you briefly pottsey5g in another thread. I started this one because I didn't want to hijack someone else thread about something else.

I understand the difference in the spike damage vs sustained, and how one can be better than the other in some instances. The problem I have is that I am using the Fleet version of the Defiant. That thing is like a glass cannon, and I have to keep moving to keep my defense rate up. If I slow down, I start getting toasted.

That is why I was wondering about this. I don't need to get as close as I used to years ago, because I am using the skill in the skill tree that makes energy weapons more effective at longer ranges than usual. But, the problem I have is if I do strafing runs, then at times I am taking my DPS away from the target. That defeats the whole purpose of using a forward facing build. As it is now, I can zig zag when going against slower enemies, and still keep them in my firing arc. But, mines will be different.

I have been using a mine launcher little in patrols in the Delta Quadrant (because I couldn't figure out where to go for my next mission). I found that when I am fighting swarms, they help a good bit against the smaller enemies. But to help against the bigger ones, I need to get right up on them.

I can see how a broad siding build would be better for mines, because you can get close, and keep moving while all other weapons are hitting the enemy. But, the only way I found I can use them is to get close, and stop. Otherwise, I am turning away from the target to far, and too much. I lose more DPS, because my DHCs are not firing.

It is a bit of a pain. I don't have the right stuff, and am no where near getting it, for a torp/mine boat. But, I do want to play with them more often. I am just wondering if it will take a long time to get the mine launcher that places mines in front of the ship.

Another idea I was thinking of is placing a second torp on the front of my ship. If I get the right ones, and the GCD will only cause a second or two delay, I may be able to get away with that, while running 2 DHCs. And I am tempted to swap one or both of those out for DCs, just because they can keep shields down better, because they fire longer.

I am going to play around with the build a little, while I work on getting the different mines both of you suggested. I am curious what Franken Build I can come up with. And see if it will work. But first, I need to do research online to find out where I need to go for my next mission. It is the Task Force Operations Delta Quadrant mission. Just gave it to me, said I need to meet up with the joint task force, but didn't tell or show me where they are. lol.

Thanks again,

Razar.

razar2380

Okay. So I went with all DHCs on front with Turrets and cutting beam on the back. I am at level 65, but still in the Delta Quadrant story arc. The large Vaadwaur ships were killing me quick. I died 5 times against 1 ship, while using cloak to get the slight damage bonus to my Defiant.

Then, I put the gravimetric torp and I forget the name of the other one on, and it made a huge difference. So, I popped the mine on it, and it also helped a little with DPS when I was right next to the enemy ship.

But I have a question about torp and cannon skills. I unfeunder why you shouldn't run 2 copies of the same mine skill. It causes the first batch of mines to disappear. But, is there any problems imight not know of with running 2 copies of the same torp skill?

Also, I know that Torp HY does more damage against a single target than Torp Spread. Years ago, Cannon Scatter Volley did almost the same as Cannon Rapid Fire against a single target.

For cannons, does it still work the same? Or does Connon RF do a significant amount of damage over Cannon SV to a single target?

I ask because most of the time i am in a mission, because I have a cannon build, and no CC abilities, I seem to be facing off against a single target the majority of the time. I am curious if it would be worth it to put single target attacks on for solo play, then switch to multiple target attacks before entering a queue.

Thanks again for the torp and mine help. I have MK XII weapons and gear. So the spike damage helps with tougher enemies when their shields are down.

Razar.

questerius

razar2380 wrote: »

Okay. So I went with all DHCs on front with Turrets and cutting beam on the back. I am at level 65, but still in the Delta Quadrant story arc. The large Vaadwaur ships were killing me quick. I died 5 times against 1 ship, while using cloak to get the slight damage bonus to my Defiant.

Then, I put the gravimetric torp and I forget the name of the other one on, and it made a huge difference. So, I popped the mine on it, and it also helped a little with DPS when I was right next to the enemy ship.

But I have a question about torp and cannon skills. I unfeunder why you shouldn't run 2 copies of the same mine skill. It causes the first batch of mines to disappear. But, is there any problems imight not know of with running 2 copies of the same torp skill?

Also, I know that Torp HY does more damage against a single target than Torp Spread. Years ago, Cannon Scatter Volley did almost the same as Cannon Rapid Fire against a single target.

For cannons, does it still work the same? Or does Connon RF do a significant amount of damage over Cannon SV to a single target?

I ask because most of the time i am in a mission, because I have a cannon build, and no CC abilities, I seem to be facing off against a single target the majority of the time. I am curious if it would be worth it to put single target attacks on for solo play, then switch to multiple target attacks before entering a queue.

Thanks again for the torp and mine help. I have MK XII weapons and gear. So the spike damage helps with tougher enemies when their shields are down.

Razar.

The larger Vaadwaur ships drop trico mines so closing in for a cloaked assault is a risky endeavor.
CRF has a bit more damage against a single target while CSV has a larger firing arc and a AoE. In a PVP scenario i would probably pick CRF, but in missions/queues with the NPC spam tactics CSV is arguably the better option.

razar2380

questerius wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

The larger Vaadwaur ships drop trico mines so closing in for a cloaked assault is a risky endeavor.
CRF has a bit more damage against a single target while CSV has a larger firing arc and a AoE. In a PVP scenario i would probably pick CRF, but in missions/queues with the NPC spam tactics CSV is arguably the better option.

I kept getting into missions where it was just me vs 1 ship most of the time, because all the other enemy ships kept swarming around me. So, I went ahead and tried it. I found that a combination works best for my build. I use 2 sets of CRF, 2 different MDP, and use the TS on my Garvimetric torp for the chance to pop gravity fields around the ship, so if they try to escape 1, they get slowed down by the others. Plus, if it is a large ship, and I am close enough, it will hit the ship with more than 1 of them. And I use 1 THY skill for my other torp.

Using this combination, I was able to replay a mission, and kill everything much faster than before, using all AoE skills.

I know that if I have the ability to hit more than 1 ship at a time, the AoE skills are much better. But, my weapons are at such a low level compared to the level enemies I am facing, that what ends up happening is I either need to stay about 8-10 km away to keep them in the fire arc longer (which kills a lot of damage anyway), or I need to get within effective range, but end up only hitting 1 target after the others have moved around to the sides/back of my ship. And with how many hp they have compared to how little damage my weapons do, the little damage I did to their shields is repaired before the targeted enemy is down.

I know that my biggest problem here is that I am using an escort against enemies that have scaled with my character level (Gained from the winter event, Admiralty missions, and Doff missions), but my ships weapons have not been leveled past MK XII. In a cruiser, I am able to last longer. But, it also means that it takes a LOT longer to take the enemy ships out. Cruiser would be better with beams till I can get the weapons leveled on my escort. But, this isn't going to be my main toon, so I am not wanting to waste resources on upgrades yet, because I will need all of them on my main when they get leveled up.

I am just trying to find a way of taking a ship that has 3 tac slots, and making it powerful enough with the stuff I already have, to at least complete the story missions. I only do the STFs for the marks to hit T6 on the reps I already had at T5. Not really worried about the last 6 reps that came out. I will level them on my main, when at the right level.

But I have found that with under powering weapons, it is best to have the energy weapons focus on 1 target to lower the shields so my kinetic weapons can do their jobs.

So, now I am left with 1 more question. Does anyone know how to make the DHCs fire by themselves when you press a button, and the mines and torps fire with a separate button? I tried to set it up with the keybind to fire only phasers on 1 button, but it will not work with cannons. Is there any way to do that?

Razar.

pottsey5g

razar2380 wrote: »

questerius wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

The larger Vaadwaur ships drop trico mines so closing in for a cloaked assault is a risky endeavor.
CRF has a bit more damage against a single target while CSV has a larger firing arc and a AoE. In a PVP scenario i would probably pick CRF, but in missions/queues with the NPC spam tactics CSV is arguably the better option.

I kept getting into missions where it was just me vs 1 ship most of the time, because all the other enemy ships kept swarming around me. So, I went ahead and tried it. I found that a combination works best for my build. I use 2 sets of CRF, 2 different MDP, and use the TS on my Garvimetric torp for the chance to pop gravity fields around the ship, so if they try to escape 1, they get slowed down by the others. Plus, if it is a large ship, and I am close enough, it will hit the ship with more than 1 of them. And I use 1 THY skill for my other torp.

Using this combination, I was able to replay a mission, and kill everything much faster than before, using all AoE skills.

I know that if I have the ability to hit more than 1 ship at a time, the AoE skills are much better. But, my weapons are at such a low level compared to the level enemies I am facing, that what ends up happening is I either need to stay about 8-10 km away to keep them in the fire arc longer (which kills a lot of damage anyway), or I need to get within effective range, but end up only hitting 1 target after the others have moved around to the sides/back of my ship. And with how many hp they have compared to how little damage my weapons do, the little damage I did to their shields is repaired before the targeted enemy is down.

I know that my biggest problem here is that I am using an escort against enemies that have scaled with my character level (Gained from the winter event, Admiralty missions, and Doff missions), but my ships weapons have not been leveled past MK XII. In a cruiser, I am able to last longer. But, it also means that it takes a LOT longer to take the enemy ships out. Cruiser would be better with beams till I can get the weapons leveled on my escort. But, this isn't going to be my main toon, so I am not wanting to waste resources on upgrades yet, because I will need all of them on my main when they get leveled up.

I am just trying to find a way of taking a ship that has 3 tac slots, and making it powerful enough with the stuff I already have, to at least complete the story missions. I only do the STFs for the marks to hit T6 on the reps I already had at T5. Not really worried about the last 6 reps that came out. I will level them on my main, when at the right level.

But I have found that with under powering weapons, it is best to have the energy weapons focus on 1 target to lower the shields so my kinetic weapons can do their jobs.

So, now I am left with 1 more question. Does anyone know how to make the DHCs fire by themselves when you press a button, and the mines and torps fire with a separate button? I tried to set it up with the keybind to fire only phasers on 1 button, but it will not work with cannons. Is there any way to do that?

Razar.

Press esc, go to Keybinds, scroll 1/3 way down. There should be fire all x with 6 options and no blinds. Set a key bind for the ones you need. If that is not working you will have to setup a macro which is a little more complicated. With a macro you can get hotbar 10, put just cannons on and set it up so 1 key press shoots triggers everything on hotbar 10.

I have mine set so each time spacebar is pressed it triggers the next power in line on bar 10. Only I set it up 8 years ago and cannot remember how right at the moment. But it still works, perhaps the STO wiki has a section.

razar2380

pottsey5g wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

questerius wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

Press esc, go to Keybinds, scroll 1/3 way down. There should be fire all x with 6 options and no blinds. Set a key bind for the ones you need. If that is not working you will have to setup a macro which is a little more complicated. With a macro you can get hotbar 10, put just cannons on and set it up so 1 key press shoots triggers everything on hotbar 10.

I have mine set so each time spacebar is pressed it triggers the next power in line on bar 10. Only I set it up 8 years ago and cannot remember how right at the moment. But it still works, perhaps the STO wiki has a section.

I have tried that. The problem with that is they don't all fire at the same time. I end up having to spam the button, and if I do it too fast, some don't fire till it cycles back around again. I can activate them faster if I were to click on the individual weapons in the weapons window. If I run DBBs on the front, it isn't a problem, because they are considered Phasers. But I guess cannons are in a different class all together. I can activate them faster if I were to click on the individual weapons in the weapons window.

I never really did a build like this before, because I only needed to 1 torp to keep weapon energy drain down so that I was doing more damage faster. I wish (in solo) there was a way to get the game to scale to the level gear you have, rather than the level your character is. Then I wouldn't have this problem. lol. I know that there would have to be limits, like they would only scale so low. But it is taking three times longer to finish missions I did before I increased in level.

I am still doing research on it. Seems like there will have to be a way. If not, I will just have to put DBBs on the front, with BFAW, and BO. Was really hoping not to have to go that route, because I heard that it is much weaker than DHCs after the nerf (or fix) to weapons proc with BFAW.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I had the same idea before. Since all skills don't activate at once, and it will not keep cycling through them automatically with a single push of the button, it is a bit of an issue to figure out.

Razar.

dracounguis

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

pottsey5g

dracounguis wrote: »

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

If you have Temporal Operative mines have an extra 11k hitpoints and you can give them a further 33% resistance boost with Master of the Mined. I found that stops them getting shot down from FaW.

razar2380

pottsey5g wrote: »

dracounguis wrote: »

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

If you have Temporal Operative mines have an extra 11k hitpoints and you can give them a further 33% resistance boost with Master of the Mined. I found that stops them getting shot down from FaW.

I don't have time to look yet, but I thought that those were ship traits. Or they were from something that required getting off the exchange. Is that correct?

If so, is there anything similar that can be obtained without the C-Store, or exchange?

I haven't used my character much these last few days, because I have been playing with a friend new to STO, and I rolled a new character with him. We are having a blast doing the early missions together. When I get a chance, I am going to start a torp focused build with the new character. I am an Engineer, and looking at skill trees now. I think it will be fun to try to do a torp focused build from an early start in the game.

Razar.

pottsey5g

razar2380 wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

dracounguis wrote: »

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

If you have Temporal Operative mines have an extra 11k hitpoints and you can give them a further 33% resistance boost with Master of the Mined. I found that stops them getting shot down from FaW.

I don't have time to look yet, but I thought that those were ship traits. Or they were from something that required getting off the exchange. Is that correct?

If so, is there anything similar that can be obtained without the C-Store, or exchange?

I haven't used my character much these last few days, because I have been playing with a friend new to STO, and I rolled a new character with him. We are having a blast doing the early missions together. When I get a chance, I am going to start a torp focused build with the new character. I am an Engineer, and looking at skill trees now. I think it will be fun to try to do a torp focused build from an early start in the game.

Razar.

Temporal Operative is a Captain Specialization and you can have one primary Specialization active and one secondary active. https://sto.gamepedia.com/Captain_Specialization after hitting max level you earn specialization points to spend, around half way down the Temporal Operative Specialization tree is the mine boosting power. Master of the Mined which boosts mine defence is a bonus you get for fitting 3 parts of the Obfuscated Strategist Set https://sto.gamepedia.com/Obfuscated_Strategist_Set

razar2380

pottsey5g wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

dracounguis wrote: »

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

If you have Temporal Operative mines have an extra 11k hitpoints and you can give them a further 33% resistance boost with Master of the Mined. I found that stops them getting shot down from FaW.

I don't have time to look yet, but I thought that those were ship traits. Or they were from something that required getting off the exchange. Is that correct?

If so, is there anything similar that can be obtained without the C-Store, or exchange?

I haven't used my character much these last few days, because I have been playing with a friend new to STO, and I rolled a new character with him. We are having a blast doing the early missions together. When I get a chance, I am going to start a torp focused build with the new character. I am an Engineer, and looking at skill trees now. I think it will be fun to try to do a torp focused build from an early start in the game.

Razar.

Temporal Operative is a Captain Specialization and you can have one primary Specialization active and one secondary active. https://sto.gamepedia.com/Captain_Specialization after hitting max level you earn specialization points to spend, around half way down the Temporal Operative Specialization tree is the mine boosting power. Master of the Mined which boosts mine defence is a bonus you get for fitting 3 parts of the Obfuscated Strategist Set https://sto.gamepedia.com/Obfuscated_Strategist_Set

I have seen the specialization, but never took time to look into it. I just assumed it would be different settings that you could save skill trees as, before resetting your skills. I do wish we could have different skill tree builds, without needing to use a respec each time. Then players could just load up different skill trees as they want. But I can't even imagine how much coding that would take to make work correctly.

Thanks for the information on where to find it. I am going to work on building my torp build, and when I get to high enough level, I will work on leveling up the right specialization. I so somewhat remember something about this back years ago, but I think that there were fewer specializations than this. Cool to see they are expanding something other than the rep system. This does add more to work on that can benefit you a lot.

I did have a question though. I didn't fully understand some of the stuff said in the pedia info. It says you can have 1 primary and 1 secondary. However, others that you add points in can still benefit you. I didn't understand how. Do you get the passive benefits only, but not the active one if they are not listed as your primary or secondary? Or is it saying that they will not benefit you some other way I don't understand?

Thanks again for your help. With the improvements the did make with the game, it is a lot more fun than it was before I left.

Razar.

pottsey5g

razar2380 wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

dracounguis wrote: »

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

If you have Temporal Operative mines have an extra 11k hitpoints and you can give them a further 33% resistance boost with Master of the Mined. I found that stops them getting shot down from FaW.

I don't have time to look yet, but I thought that those were ship traits. Or they were from something that required getting off the exchange. Is that correct?

If so, is there anything similar that can be obtained without the C-Store, or exchange?

I haven't used my character much these last few days, because I have been playing with a friend new to STO, and I rolled a new character with him. We are having a blast doing the early missions together. When I get a chance, I am going to start a torp focused build with the new character. I am an Engineer, and looking at skill trees now. I think it will be fun to try to do a torp focused build from an early start in the game.

Razar.

Temporal Operative is a Captain Specialization and you can have one primary Specialization active and one secondary active. https://sto.gamepedia.com/Captain_Specialization after hitting max level you earn specialization points to spend, around half way down the Temporal Operative Specialization tree is the mine boosting power. Master of the Mined which boosts mine defence is a bonus you get for fitting 3 parts of the Obfuscated Strategist Set https://sto.gamepedia.com/Obfuscated_Strategist_Set

I have seen the specialization, but never took time to look into it. I just assumed it would be different settings that you could save skill trees as, before resetting your skills. I do wish we could have different skill tree builds, without needing to use a respec each time. Then players could just load up different skill trees as they want. But I can't even imagine how much coding that would take to make work correctly.

Thanks for the information on where to find it. I am going to work on building my torp build, and when I get to high enough level, I will work on leveling up the right specialization. I so somewhat remember something about this back years ago, but I think that there were fewer specializations than this. Cool to see they are expanding something other than the rep system. This does add more to work on that can benefit you a lot.

I did have a question though. I didn't fully understand some of the stuff said in the pedia info. It says you can have 1 primary and 1 secondary. However, others that you add points in can still benefit you. I didn't understand how. Do you get the passive benefits only, but not the active one if they are not listed as your primary or secondary? Or is it saying that they will not benefit you some other way I don't understand?

Thanks again for your help. With the improvements the did make with the game, it is a lot more fun than it was before I left.

Razar.

As you spend points in a Specialization it unlocks kit modules you can buy from a shop. I assume that's what they mean. You do get a passive bonus which gets better with the more points spent in a single Specialization but only from the primary and secondary.

razar2380

pottsey5g wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

razar2380 wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

dracounguis wrote: »

Like destructible torps, mines get shot down by npcs that love faw. And with the hideous cool-down some mines have, that's a lot of missed damage when they get popped before they can hit a target. I use the nukara ones on one of my toons, I just set it to autofire and go about my business. if they hit, great, if not, eh...

If you have Temporal Operative mines have an extra 11k hitpoints and you can give them a further 33% resistance boost with Master of the Mined. I found that stops them getting shot down from FaW.

I don't have time to look yet, but I thought that those were ship traits. Or they were from something that required getting off the exchange. Is that correct?

If so, is there anything similar that can be obtained without the C-Store, or exchange?

I haven't used my character much these last few days, because I have been playing with a friend new to STO, and I rolled a new character with him. We are having a blast doing the early missions together. When I get a chance, I am going to start a torp focused build with the new character. I am an Engineer, and looking at skill trees now. I think it will be fun to try to do a torp focused build from an early start in the game.

Razar.

Temporal Operative is a Captain Specialization and you can have one primary Specialization active and one secondary active. https://sto.gamepedia.com/Captain_Specialization after hitting max level you earn specialization points to spend, around half way down the Temporal Operative Specialization tree is the mine boosting power. Master of the Mined which boosts mine defence is a bonus you get for fitting 3 parts of the Obfuscated Strategist Set https://sto.gamepedia.com/Obfuscated_Strategist_Set

I have seen the specialization, but never took time to look into it. I just assumed it would be different settings that you could save skill trees as, before resetting your skills. I do wish we could have different skill tree builds, without needing to use a respec each time. Then players could just load up different skill trees as they want. But I can't even imagine how much coding that would take to make work correctly.

Thanks for the information on where to find it. I am going to work on building my torp build, and when I get to high enough level, I will work on leveling up the right specialization. I so somewhat remember something about this back years ago, but I think that there were fewer specializations than this. Cool to see they are expanding something other than the rep system. This does add more to work on that can benefit you a lot.

I did have a question though. I didn't fully understand some of the stuff said in the pedia info. It says you can have 1 primary and 1 secondary. However, others that you add points in can still benefit you. I didn't understand how. Do you get the passive benefits only, but not the active one if they are not listed as your primary or secondary? Or is it saying that they will not benefit you some other way I don't understand?

Thanks again for your help. With the improvements the did make with the game, it is a lot more fun than it was before I left.

Razar.

As you spend points in a Specialization it unlocks kit modules you can buy from a shop. I assume that's what they mean. You do get a passive bonus which gets better with the more points spent in a single Specialization but only from the primary and secondary.

Awesome. I can't wait to start working on that with my new character.

Razar.