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in The Academy
Howdy. How's it going?
So, obviously I've slept on this game for quite a long time (10 years, as it would seem), but I've had my eye on it for a long while now.
Just a few days ago, I decided to go ahead and download it and give it a try.
There's a few general questions I've got, and I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out by answering a few.
I don't have many friends that play games on PC, so I'll probably be doing mainly everything solo.
In 4 or so days, the highest level I've managed to get to is 16. I've got 2 characters at that level, actually.
On both of them, I seem to have hit sort of a wall with leveling.
I don't really have a lot of missions I can do with either of them. The only things that are available are Task Force Operations, or things that seem to be above my level.
The ones that 'seem to be above my level' are easy enough to complete still, but all of the drops are things I'm not a high enough level to use, so I'm assuming that's what that means.
With the TFOs, I'm still not 100% sure what they even are, but from what I've gathered it's some kind of multiplayer deal.
I haven't been doing those, because I don't want to jump in a multiplayer scenario where everyone is max level with good gear, and I'm just sitting there with a tier 2 ship, and bad gear.
So the question here is this: What's a good way to go about actually leveling up?
Another question. I've looked up a few 'beginner guide' types of things, and 95% of everything they say in them just goes straight over my head.
But, I do recall in one someone saying to try and stick with certain weapon types, e.g. beam weapons or whatever.
That's not at all what I've been doing. I've just been going from drop to drop and equipping whatever has the highest DPS. Is that not what I should be doing?
I don't seem to have a lot of control over the weapon types, with the drops being random, and all that.
That's about all the questions I had for now. Thanks again if anyone can help clarify a few things for me!
So, obviously I've slept on this game for quite a long time (10 years, as it would seem), but I've had my eye on it for a long while now.
Just a few days ago, I decided to go ahead and download it and give it a try.
There's a few general questions I've got, and I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out by answering a few.
I don't have many friends that play games on PC, so I'll probably be doing mainly everything solo.
In 4 or so days, the highest level I've managed to get to is 16. I've got 2 characters at that level, actually.
On both of them, I seem to have hit sort of a wall with leveling.
I don't really have a lot of missions I can do with either of them. The only things that are available are Task Force Operations, or things that seem to be above my level.
The ones that 'seem to be above my level' are easy enough to complete still, but all of the drops are things I'm not a high enough level to use, so I'm assuming that's what that means.
With the TFOs, I'm still not 100% sure what they even are, but from what I've gathered it's some kind of multiplayer deal.
I haven't been doing those, because I don't want to jump in a multiplayer scenario where everyone is max level with good gear, and I'm just sitting there with a tier 2 ship, and bad gear.
So the question here is this: What's a good way to go about actually leveling up?
Another question. I've looked up a few 'beginner guide' types of things, and 95% of everything they say in them just goes straight over my head.
But, I do recall in one someone saying to try and stick with certain weapon types, e.g. beam weapons or whatever.
That's not at all what I've been doing. I've just been going from drop to drop and equipping whatever has the highest DPS. Is that not what I should be doing?
I don't seem to have a lot of control over the weapon types, with the drops being random, and all that.
That's about all the questions I had for now. Thanks again if anyone can help clarify a few things for me!
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gear is a bit a pain when your start. the reason stick to one weapon type is weapon buff which will be most of your dps only work on the correct weapon type, the first word of these skills tell you which that type is. so have the correct item is more important then any one item's dps.
most Episodes give you a choice of items when you turn them in, this is where your going to get most of your gear until you unlock the rep system. just replace any mismatched gear as you can and don't worry about it.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Basically just do whatever missions you can do, skip the New Romulus and Dyson sphere stuff if you can until you're level 50.
TFOs, aka STFs before they arbitrarily changed what they call them, are indeed multiplayer things. You really aren't hurting anything going into them at your level. You are upscaled and at normal difficulty they are just a matter of time to finish. Chances are you're going to be in there with people who are far beyond you and basically play the thing for you anyway. Skip them if you want, play them if you want, they are basically the endgame but don't typically give a lot of XP.
As you're leveling your equipment really doesn't matter. You're not going to get enough gear to make a cogent build, and neither do you need one. Equip whatever you want and play with it.
Once you get to level 50 you should start looking at making everything the same damage type, and worry about whether you go with beams or cannons/turrets. The reason for this is the tactical BOFF powers that only effect one or the other type.
Also once you get to 50 you also want to start looking at the reputation system and leveling all of those up for better gear with set bonuses, traits and so on.
If you haven't been doing so already, make sure you are doing the current event daily which is one of 2 missions, the STF, or the omega particle harvesting. At the end of it you'll get a free T6 ship which is not something you want to miss out on as a new player because the event ships are not something they recycle anymore. If you don't do it now, you'll never get it.
I've kind of run out of missions/episodes to do.
I've gotten a character up to level 42, and with the Episodes I've hit the New Romulus arc.
For that, it's telling me I should be at least level 50, and I can't continue anyways--something about needing a higher reputation to enter a warehouse.
Still have no idea how the reputation system works.
There was another mission about the Borg given by some sort of ambassador lady on Qo'noS, and it said I need to be a Vice Admiral to even start that one.
I was probably level 36 or 37 when I received that, haven't been able to get it to reappear since, don't know what happened there.
So... where do I go from here?
I could replay old missions to level up I guess, which I've done a fair bit already, but that's just super tedious.
They're only giving about 2k xp each, and can take upwards of 30 minutes.
The "Warehouse" mission is currently bugged, and you can use the 'Skip' button on that (and other missions as you like) but you can safely ignore any reference to the Reputation from the NPC's on New Romulus. Those missions used to be tied ito it, but they aren't any more.
Use the Episode Journal (J > Episodes) to follow the storylines, replay (as you've done) and remember to use the 'Available' tab to see if there's other missions available to you that aren't part of the main storyline. Focus on getting one character to 65 to open up all possible storylines for your other character(s) too.
Skip/Play TFO's as you prefer -- on Normal difficulty you should mostly manage ok and the game either scales the mission/TFO to you, or you to it. Your level only really dictates how much of the game is accessible to you.
You've had a few posts above offering advice, and you've clearly paid attention to it. Don't neglect your Duty Officer missions or Admiralty when it opens up at level 52 as they can help a lot with levelling -- especially the Admiralty.
And if you're ever stuck, do exactly what you've done here and ask questions. We'll try to help you as best we can.
(there will be missions you want to replay for gear, but probably not quite yet)
** No, don't worry how you will do in a group scenario... this is how you learn. Given the TFO's available at your level (i.e. Romulan Imperial Minefield) you'll most likely be with others at a similar rank. Doing the best you can is always ok
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Sadly, you will see a lot of this, someone offering tips or hints but using game shorthand as their default lingo without spelling out what they are referring to. Here "doffing" refers to duty officers. Try frequenting the Star Trek Online wiki for help with understanding the basics.
it doesn't really matter as far gameplay. a few early misssion have bonus objective for different careers, but thats it. if pressed I would say tac and sci.
though b'rel/klingon birds of prey do tend to fly in pairs in tng or later.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
STO isn't really about trinity. While you can build for synergy, the vast majority of players build their ships to be self-sufficient.
On ground, I guess it could be a slightly different matter in that Sci and Engineer are pretty good at healing, but you don't have traditional 'tanking' like you would in most fantasy MMOs(whoever can do the most damage over the widest area is generally the one who takes the most abuse).
However, based on a Rogue/Priest combo; you'd probably find a Tactical/Science Captain combo to be the closest analogy. In terms of ships, you'd probably want a 5-foreward weapon ship with 5 tac consoles for the Tactical Captain(Cloaking can be a bit rare if you opt for Federation ships) and a Science-heavy Cruiser for the Science Captain(to get access to the myriad of targeted heals available in Science and Engineering seats).
Trust me. If you really like the game and want to play DPS or PvP or even PVE at advanced and elite levels you will thank me for this.
Dude, it is not good to be telling new players to do this, not for a main character for certain. The game is designed around the Federation (like the IP) while Romulan-Alien means you miss out on Romulan Operative from having an actual-Romulan character, and that is pretty much the best species trait in the game.
Reckless?
...You mean like going and getting blown up in a TFO?
Already done that a few times, now. Quite embarrassing. >.>
At least when that happened, I usually wasn't the only one to have blown up. I played a bit of the Romulan story, but wasn't very interested in it.
I'm playing in the KDF as a Gorn character, 'cause lizards are cool. :P
That said, atm I'm not really interested in PvP or advanced PvE, anyways. Just looking to mess around and have a good time.
Good luck.
Again, I do really appreciate any replies.
So I got to level 65 a few days ago, but the episodes have become nearly impossible to complete.
Specifically space combat--the ground stuff is still pretty easy.
But it's getting to the point where it takes 4-5 deaths to take out a single enemy ship...
And if there's lots of them, it'll probably be 20+ deaths to finish the episode.
For specifics, the ship I'm using is the Chargh Temporal Warship. I've got it outfitted with 4 MK XII dual plasma cannons and a MK XII torpedo on the front, and 3 MK XII plasma cannons on the back.
I've also got on it 4 MK XII tactical consoles that increase plasma damage.
In fact, all of the gear on it is MK XII, since that's the highest I seem to be able to get atm.
I've also got the Martok Battlecruiser, equipped in much the same way, but with beams instead of cannons.
I'm on the Delta Quadrant story arc, dealing with the Vaadwaur. And like I mentioned, they can blow my ship up almost instantly.
I'm not skimping on the BOFF abilities, either. I've got several assigned that heal my shields and hull, a few that increase my damage resistance, some that increase speed, and all that.
So the question is: Why did it suddenly get so hard?
Never had any trouble before the Delta Quadrant part of the story, and there didn't seem to be any sort of ramp up in the difficulty, either.
It was easy up until there--then suddenly, boom, nearly impossible (and yes, I am playing on normal difficulty).
ships have a pretty high defense rating as well making them harder to hit. It's their bombardment and getting caught off guard or out of position that'll get ya re-spawning.
4-5 deaths per bad guy isn't any fun. It sounds like you've taken care with your gear. You're playing on normal difficulty. You didn't really mean you had plasma cannons facing backwards at the rear of your ship but were using turrets.
Perhaps a review of your bridge officer abilities or other parts of your build would help?
First they have the obvious bombardment ability. Move fast to leave the area.
Second they have some extremely frustrating holds from a couple of ships. One drops a probe and the other holds you itself. These are really hard to deal with for a cannon ship if they get behind you. Learn which one it is and focus on killing it first.
Finally, they like to drop a lot of tricobalt mines and torpedoes. These are hard to see and aren't easy to kill because by the time you see them they are already about to explode on top of you. Keep moving and don't stick to the same area for long to mostly avoid these, but you may want to run scatter volley with your cannons to 'accidentally' kill them if you're aiming in the right direction.
-Tractor Beam I, Polarize Hull II
-Target Shield Subsystems I, Scatter Volley I, Rapid Fire II, Attack Pattern Omega II
-Tactical Team I, Target Engine Subsystems II
-Engineering Team I, Emergency Power to Shields II
-Transfer Shield Strength I, Tachyon Beam II, Science Team III
Don't know exactly what you mean by build, but for specializations I have Intelligence Officer as primary for the regen/damage resistance to weakened shield faces, and Constable as the secondary.
The engineering consoles are filled with turn rate, and the science consoles with shield capacity, regen rate.
Yeah, that mine attack is horrible. Especially when they're chained together--fly out of one group of them, right into another. Thanks for the tips though, I'll keep them in mind.
Although, it isn't only the Vaadwaur that mop the floor with me. They are for sure the hardest so far, but it seems to be any space battle, now. The Voth destroy me quite a bit too, though I can -usually- survive a 1v1, there.
My ship has 42,000ish hull, and even the weaker enemy ships have 100,000+, now.
- Star Trek Online is fun! But never let yourself forget this is a game and not a lifestyle choice.
- Lots of people around here smarter than I am about this game. Good people offering good advice, too.
"Ask and ye shall recieve."
- If you really want to find out why something works the way it does, use it.
- Copy/pasting someone else's build onto your ship without understanding why they put that over there can be frustrating.
- STO Wiki will be your friend if you let it.
- Rainbow Builds/Skittle Boats are baaad. Pick one weapon type for a ship and stay with it.
NOTE: it is possible to build a faux Rainbow Boat with some weapon types, such as Antiproton. I have a build, the IKS Ab-Fab, which uses six different types of Antiproton beams. Drives the FanBois crazy when I fly it in an Elite TFO. XD
- Beams are easier to use than cannons. Both initially require less skill than torpedo boats.
However, a torpedo/Science ship can be killer when used correctly. But it takes awhile to learn how to fly and use it well.
- Nothing in this game is out of reach provided you are willing to put in the time.
- If you enjoyed yourself playing STO this time and you are looking forward to playing it next time - YOU ARE WINNING!
Welcome to The Show, Y'all! Glad you're here! I hope you enjoy this game and the people you meet because of it as much as I have since March 2012.
You do have room for temporal abilities, but they usually work best with control expertise and epg and not knowing your skill tree let's leave them out. You do have 3 science consoles though so there is room for future fun.
Also you may want to try intel primary and strategist secondary. Strategist will help you with bridge officer ability cool downs in combination with threatening stance as well as do other nice things while not threatening. You'd want to get to Attrition Warfare in the specialization tree as soon as you can. Fill the top left then the bottom left. Back fill from the bottom up.
Bring up your ship and look at your stats in non-sector space. If your resists are (roughly) in the teens (mainly the top ones) consider adding a single neutronium alloy in place of one of your two RCS consoles if you still feel squishy. It doesn't need to be purple. End game base resists once you work on your reputations and gear usually seem to be about 20-25%. Higher for some and lower for others. You're still left with a very nice base turn of >14 with one RCS.
Target sub-system powers aren't the best choice for Warships (actually most if not all ships), but can work nicely as innate abilities on a science ship.
Don't rule out attack pattern beta. It doesn't have a defensive component like APO but will make the bad guys blow up faster.
Cannon scatter volley will hit more targets than rapid fire so often the highest version of it is used.
Use as many energy specific tactical consoles as you can fit.
If you don't have 2 purple conn officer active duty duty officers slotted you'll need to double up on tactical team (TT) like this:
-Tactical Team 1, Rapid Fire I, Scatter Volley II, Attack Pattern Omega III
-Tactical Team I, Torpedo Spread 2
If you do have the purple conn officers you could get your torpedo working more. Hard to miss with torpedo spread (TS). You'll do more damage going all cannons front and turrets rear though as here we are doubling up on a weapons buff that only applies to one weapon, instead of eight.
-Tactical Team 1, Rapid Fire I, Scatter Volley II, Attack Pattern Omega III
-Torpedo Spread I, Torpedo Spread 2
Attack Pattern Beta (my preference). Debuff the enemies damage resistance. If you don't have the active duty conn officers the TS1 could be dropped for TT1 and you could go all cannon. This would rock and now you're doubled up with attack patterns for all eight of your cannons and turrets.
-Tactical Team 1, Attack Pattern Beta 1, Cannon Rapid or Scatter Volley II, Cannon Scatter Volley III
-Tactical Team I, Attack Pattern Beta 1
Engineering (your skills in quotes):
"-Engineering Team I, Emergency Power to Shields II"
"-Tractor Beam I, Polarize Hull II " (univeral boff slot)
Could look like this with 2-3 active duty doff purple damage control officers (DCE's) or without you have to double up your emergency powers to weapons. Have your ship's power preset to attack. The cannons need all the weapons power they can get. Check your ship's resist stats in non-sector space when you hit Aux to SIF. It's a nice hull heal and damage resist.
-Engineering Team, Emergency Power to Weapons II
-Emergency Power to Engines or Shields 1, Auxiliary to the Structural Integrity Field 1
Without active duty DCE doffs...
-Engineering Team, Emergency Power to Weapons II
-Emergency Power to Weapons 1, Auxiliary to the Structural Integrity Field 1
Science:
"-Transfer Shield Strength I, Tachyon Beam II, Science Team III"
You could keep Transfer Shield Strength (TSS) but science team (ST) is a good cleanse that helps regenerate your shields as well. Polarize hull let's you escape holds and increases your damage resistance. Hazard emitters (HE) is a necessary cleanse and heal usually when your ship starts glowing or is on fire. Sometimes the LtC science slot is used offensively as well. Since you already purchased ST III...
-Polarize Hull 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Science Team 3
So my suggestion would be to try something like this. No duty officer's required. No torpedo required. Build tastes vary, but this should be quite sturdy and do some damage as well.
-Tactical Team 1, Attack Pattern Beta 1, Cannon Rapid or Scatter Volley II, Cannon Scatter Volley III
-Tactical Team I, Attack Pattern Beta 1
-Engineering Team, Emergency Power to Weapons II
-Emergency Power to Weapons 1, Auxiliary to the Structural Integrity Field 1
-Polarize Hull 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Science Team 3
I'm not going to go too in depth on BOFF abilities. I'll point out, though, that having 4 different targeting modification powers is usually silly unless you really know what you're doing. You have CSV 1, CRF 2, and the two subystem targeting powers. None of those work together at the same time. This is why you either want to use a torpedo with some torpedo powers or get some of the more exotic tactical abilities like kemocite.
I will say I personally don't like APO because it has a much longer cooldown than beta or delta. AP beta is ideal for its CD being the same as your cannon powers, so it is always ready to be used with your CRF or CSV. Also APO 3 is a slot that can have CRF 3 or CSV 3 instead.
Now for CRF vs CSV, if you want to do primarily AOE damage CSV 3 is what you should run. However, with only mk 12 weapons and lacking any other real AOE power, I don't think CSV is as potent as you really want it to be. CRF will likely help you clear the field faster overall. CSV really works better with builds that are built around doing a ton of AOE damage, which yours is not. Doing too little just lets the enemy turn shield facings and regen some of that damage you've done, without actually killing much. I'd say you should still have a CSV available, but your goto should be CRF to work on actually killing a target.
With what you have laid out already, your tactics should be to tractor a target, then hit tachyon beam, CRF, and your attack pattern. Most targets should be dead after that combo or left severely wounded. Then you can play more defensively, maybe try to soften up other targets with CSV while you wait for your stuff to recharge.
Also you need another hull heal. Hazard emitters is an obvious choice, and I'd probably replace transfer shield strength with that.
For your equipment, plasma pretty much sucks to work with because it has virtually no sets until tier 6 reputations, or if you don't mind spending lobi. If you want to stick with it, that's fine, it just makes it harder in the mean time. You want to look at the lukari reputation and the undine reputation. At least early on you can get the set console from lukari rep which is great, and the hydrodynamics console from the undine rep. Once you get to tier 6 you want the DHCs from the lukari and the turret from the undine. You need to work on those every day if you want this, because I think it is going to take you 70 days of slotting those silly dailies to get to the tier 6 stuff.
You also need to have a bit of resistance/armor. A neutronium console works well, or you can run Ragnarok for the trellium d plating which is a solid alternative that does some extra useful stuff. Those of course go into engineering slots. If you get the reputation consoles, both of those I mentioned have turn rate on them, and as universal consoles, can slot into your science slots.
Now as for Voth, the big thing they do is their shields. The battleship and dreadnought are the worst because their shields reflect damage back at you, so you need to stop shooting at them if they do that. Your general strategy should be to hold off on your main attack sequence until they raise their shield, then go around to an unshielded side and unload. Most of the other stuff they do can be ignored.
Also looked at my resists, and they're all at or above 20.
...Still getting curbstomped, sadly. >.>
As for the target modification powers as you mentioned, I usually only ever used Target Shield Subsystems.
...I think.
Gonna be honest, there was a lot of acronyms there, and I don't know what 90% of them meant. ;-;
With reputations, I had been working on the Terran reputation for a few days now, 'cause I wanted the armor. :V
Here's a video that showcases how -immediately- things destroy me:
After watching it, I realized I wasn't facing any enemies for most of the time, so I couldn't even hit them with my cannons... but also, my front shields were down most of the time, so couldn't really point at them without blowing up.
...Which still happened anyways.
well if the video is how you normally fight I found the problem, your not actually using tact team. it moves your shields around so the facing actually getting shot stay up and the facings not getting shot go down instead.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Subsystem targeting and cannon/beam powers are all targeting modifications as I'm referring to them. I'm sure there's a better term, but its not coming to mind. Point is, you can't use them all at once so most of the time they are sitting there useless, and you probably aren't built towards using subsystem targeting powers well either.
Can't watch the video right now but shield facings being down is a problem of two things, one you need to use tactical team to auto redistribute them, and/or two you need stronger shields. I don't think you've mentioned what your space equipment is, shields, engines, etc. so I'll suggest you run either Midnight and get the set there (mind you Iconians are pretty tough enemies in space), or Stormbound for the set there (Tholians can be a real pain too though.)
Your skills may also be a problem, as in where you have your points and so forth. While you should be able to play fine wherever you put your points, you probably don't understand how to make the most of your skills.
This whole time, I've been trying to click on the shields to bring them back up. >.>
Currently using Covariant Shield array MK XII. That's the best I can get from mission rewards right now, and anything better on the exchange seems to cost 10 million EC, at the very least... which I don't have.
As for the skills, they are pretty haphazardly picked. I just chose whatever sounded best to me at the time, and there's a few of them on there that aren't really benefiting me any.
So don't buy shields off the exchange unless you want to get the Aegis set. It is a good set itself, but when you can get good sets for the price of running a few missions, then I'd do that instead. Eventually you may want an Aegis set as it lets new characters use a good set without having to run missions or reputations, just level them up to whatever level they need to be and slap in that shiny Aegis set. Aegis is the crafted set, but as a new player, that is very far off to craft your own set, because the R&D grind is exceptionally long.
For now though, the set from Midnight or Stormbound will give you much better space equipment with a little time investment.
As to your skills, if you can list out where you put points in the space skills, or even use https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/ it can give us a guide on how to help you use them to better effect for you. Ultimately you probably want to respec, but you'd need a better understanding first, not just of what stuff does, but what you want to do and get out of it, and how to handle your weak spots.
Should be doable, I think. I'm like 85-90% finished with it, currently.
And here's a link to the space skills, and ship eqipment I currently have:
https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/3789186e15b5be54963d36cc8c1f33b4