best way to supply a star ship for maximum effect

edgarus197

relatively new to game. need tips to maximize effectiveness with starship weapons, maneuverability, etc. general; please. thanks

seriousdave

Some general pointers.

Stick to 1 energy type.
There's nothing that prevents your from slotting whole rainbow of colors and there are even consoles that "support" such builds but the more focused a tac console is the better the boost is.

Example: +phaser energy tactical console > +beam weapon tactical console

Don't mix weapon types.
You only have a limited amount of tactical bridge officer slots to support your weapons with abilites and by throwing all types together (beams, cannons, torpedos, mines) you're gonna make sure you won't be able to support even 1 of them effectively.
You'll still do perfectly fine if you run like 6/7 beams +1/2 torps or 3 dual (heavy) cannons+1 torp+ 3 turrets but keep in mind that you'll need to focus on the thing that gets used the most (beams & cannons in this cases) but if you run 7 beams, 1 torp and only slot torpedo based powers then your performance will suffer.

Check your ship's capabilites before you purchase it and invest into abuild.
On most ships some build types work better than others and just because you can do something dosen't mean you should.

Example: the Bortasqu' (and it's variants) is a battle cruiser and has the capability to use dual/heavy cannons which have the narrowest firing arc of all wepaons. It's also one of the games biggest whales so actually using those things is more than questionable. It can do a fanatstic job at broadsiding with 7-8 beams but when you try to fly it like an escort you're seeting yourself up for failure.

The STO wiki & STO subreddit will help you a lot.

markhawkman

Yeah the "don't mix weapon types" thing is probably the most important piece of advice so far. All ship weapons do WAY more damage overall when using weapon skills.

The energy type thing is only important in certain types of builds. Those types of builds are quite common, but not all builds actually care. Especially the ones focused on exotic damage.

How nimble your ship is determines your combat strategy. Weapons with a small targeting arc either need a ship that can turn quickly or a strategy that prevents your enemies from moving out of the way. For example dropping a grav well on an enemy group then unloading on them with CSV.

odinforever20000

markhawkman wrote: »

Yeah the "don't mix weapon types" thing is probably the most important piece of advice so far. All ship weapons do WAY more damage overall when using weapon skills.

The energy type thing is only important in certain types of builds. Those types of builds are quite common, but not all builds actually care. Especially the ones focused on exotic damage.

How nimble your ship is determines your combat strategy. Weapons with a small targeting arc either need a ship that can turn quickly or a strategy that prevents your enemies from moving out of the way. For example dropping a grav well on an enemy group then unloading on them with CSV.

The only example when energy weapon type doesn't matter is science ships..Since the primary damage comes from your science bridge officer abilities not the weapons on the ship.

Easiest to outfit a science ship with All Exotic Particle Generator Consoles (You should shoot for at least 400 points) in you SCIENCE CONSOLE SLOTS..And Use Gravity Well 3..and Subspace Vortex are key go toos.

protoneous

edgarus197 wrote: »

relatively new to game. need tips to maximize effectiveness with starship weapons, maneuverability, etc. general; please. thanks

It really helps if you state your profession (tac, sci, or eng), in-game level, and current or desired type or formal name of ship.

doctorstegi

Actually before all of that you invest into the right space skills. Doing your skill points right is half the win. Plenty of guides out there look into that first.

markhawkman

doctorstegi wrote: »

Actually before all of that you invest into the right space skills. Doing your skill points right is half the win. Plenty of guides out there look into that first.

This is quite true. Certain skills are generally useful for almost every build. +ship HP? sure, why not? But in skills with 2 or 3 ranks the first rank is the most powerful, and the other/s considerably less so. Then you have things like Drain Infection which are only relevant for builds that use power drain effects.

odinforever20000 wrote: »

markhawkman wrote: »

The energy type thing is only important in certain types of builds. Those types of builds are quite common, but not all builds actually care. Especially the ones focused on exotic damage.

The only example when energy weapon type doesn't matter is science ships..Since the primary damage comes from your science bridge officer abilities not the weapons on the ship.

Easiest to outfit a science ship with All Exotic Particle Generator Consoles (You should shoot for at least 400 points) in you SCIENCE CONSOLE SLOTS..And Use Gravity Well 3..and Subspace Vortex are key go toos.

Well ok, what I was thinking of is actually more niche than I was thinking it was at first. More specifically mixing gear sets to use multiple set bonuses.

At any rate basic builds used while leveling don't really need to worry about it.

protoneous

azrael605 wrote: »

Incorrect, +beam or +cannon tactical consoles are only a few percent different from +energy type tactical consoles. Rainbow builds work just fine as long as you use appropriate consoles.

It may not make too much of a difference at end-game using beam or cannon fleet consoles on a higher tier ship with a good build and quite a few tactical console slots, but in most other cases it makes enough of a difference to be worthy of mentioning. Rainbow builds for set bonuses or other specific reasons belong at end-game in the hands of an experienced player like yourself.

Console - Tactical - Directed Energy Distribution Manifold
Console -Tactical - Phaser Relay

I'm seeing a difference of up to 33% per console (base).

protoneous

azrael605 wrote: »

Yeah, that is basically the difference between 150k dps and 60k dps, since (according to those who track that stuff) 30k is more than sufficient for Advanced that difference is negligable. Experienced players teaching these things to inexperienced players is how they get experience.

After the Personal Endeavor launch I grabbed up a VR MK XII beam of each energy type and 5 DEM consoles (also at VR MK XII) off the exchange so I can do multiple "deal x energy type damage (space)" endeavors at the same time. They are now account bound, can be swapped between whatever character I'm playing, etc. I already have all the ground weapons to do it on any character with just the Voth BZ and a couple Boffs (got 3 ground damage endeavors each a different tyoe a while ago, did ground BZ until done).

I actually made the comment with reference to those ranking up and with respect to best practices.

If you and I are doing 30K yes it's all you need for just about everything but we've been doing this for a while. Those doing better than that probably have better gear but are also better pilots.

That part where you do multiple energy endeavors at the same time takes the cake so hats off for a great idea. The fact that they're account bound is perfect when toons borrow stuff from each other.

protoneous

ruinthefun wrote: »

azrael605 wrote: »

30k is more than sufficient for Advanced that difference is negligable.

This is absolutely false. Just on math alone, the bar for ISA falls slightly shy of 60K, the minimum needed to destroy the requisite 50M HP worth of enemies in the 900 seconds alotted. Below that point it is simply mathematically imposible, so claiming this is "more than sufficient" when it is, in fact, completely inadequate, is simply wrong. Below this hard, mathematical deadline, you're not "sufficient" for anything except getting carried.

There are 5 players in ISA, so they only need average about 12K each. Five 60K players should easily wipe the map.

Below that point it is simply mathematically imposible, so claiming this is "more than sufficient" when it is, in fact, completely inadequate, is simply wrong. Below this hard, mathematical deadline, you're not "sufficient" for anything except getting carried.

Statements such as these that could imply a player is 'not sufficient' have already caused issues in the Academy section of the forum and really have no place here. Focus on best practices.