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Help a Newcomer Build (and Fly) Better for Space Battles
ringlin
Member Posts: 4 Arc User
in The Academy
I'm getting spanked in space. Can you help?
Info for newcomers to STO is surprisingly hard to come by, but the Guide to Shuttles is more newbie-friendly than the end-game builds at DPS League. There's also good suggestions at the the 44th Fleet, though many are for level 50+.
Goal
Suffer less in space battles to 50+ (PvE, mostly solo, some TFs). Right now, I'm more Daffy Duck than Bugs Bunny.
Beginner Build Questions
Here's what I'm flying now. Lt Commander, levl 18, Federation, Science.
Level 10 Science Vessel (Tier 2? I'm new, and it'll be awhile before I can buy major upgrades). I know I don't have to match my class, but I read that Science Vessels have a fair balance of maneuverability and survivability. Is that right?
Fore Weapons: Harg'peng Torpedo Launcher Mk IV, Plasma Beam Array Mk IV
Shields: Resilient Mk IV
Aft Weapons: Phaser Beam Array Mk IV x 2. I tried slotting Mines there, but struggled to make it work well.
Officer Abilities
Torpedo High Yield I (Evelyn Savea, from the tutorial, Tac officer)
Engineering Team I (+HP)
Science Team I (+Shields) and Jam Targeting Sensors II
The last slot is empty. I have a 2nd Tac Officer and can't put her in the Ensign Science Slot. Should I replace her with another Scientist, or can I add a 5th officer and rotate between them? If I have to remove the 2nd Tac Officer, is Retiring her the only option?
Slotted Abilities
Evasive Maneuvers
Sensor Scan
Sensor Analysis
Brace for Impact
Tactics
Fly around, click stuff.
No, really: I try to keep a side with decent shields facing my enemy, and I use beams until I get a notice that enemy shields are down, then launch the Torpedo.
Engineering Team I, Science Team I, and Jam Targeting Sensors are invaluable. Most of my flights are long slogs, and I need the +Regen from these and Brace for Impact. I do use Brace Impact before a Torpedo strike if available, and Evasive Maneuvers when tractor-beamed. I'm not sure how much Sensor Analysis helps or if it has a limited range.
What else should I be doing, wise warriors of the galaxy?
Info for newcomers to STO is surprisingly hard to come by, but the Guide to Shuttles is more newbie-friendly than the end-game builds at DPS League. There's also good suggestions at the the 44th Fleet, though many are for level 50+.
Goal
Suffer less in space battles to 50+ (PvE, mostly solo, some TFs). Right now, I'm more Daffy Duck than Bugs Bunny.
Beginner Build Questions
- If I'm using mostly beams, do I still want one cannon at this stage? Is one enough?
- Should I be using Consumables in most fights? Which are most helpful?
- What officer traits are most helpful? They seem to make a big difference.
- What destroys enemy torpedoes? Even when I target them early, I have a hard time eliminating them before they hit.
- Should I run with a shield arrangement other than Balanced?
- To fill the 2nd Science Slot, do I have to Retire my 2nd Tac Officer?
- Where do Slotted Abilities come from for space battles (like Evasive Maneuvers, Sensor Scan, Brace for Impact)?
- Does my officer race matter at this stage? I can see for endgame that a 2% damage bonus can help, but for now, can I keep my current crew?
Here's what I'm flying now. Lt Commander, levl 18, Federation, Science.
Level 10 Science Vessel (Tier 2? I'm new, and it'll be awhile before I can buy major upgrades). I know I don't have to match my class, but I read that Science Vessels have a fair balance of maneuverability and survivability. Is that right?
Fore Weapons: Harg'peng Torpedo Launcher Mk IV, Plasma Beam Array Mk IV
Shields: Resilient Mk IV
Aft Weapons: Phaser Beam Array Mk IV x 2. I tried slotting Mines there, but struggled to make it work well.
Officer Abilities
Torpedo High Yield I (Evelyn Savea, from the tutorial, Tac officer)
Engineering Team I (+HP)
Science Team I (+Shields) and Jam Targeting Sensors II
The last slot is empty. I have a 2nd Tac Officer and can't put her in the Ensign Science Slot. Should I replace her with another Scientist, or can I add a 5th officer and rotate between them? If I have to remove the 2nd Tac Officer, is Retiring her the only option?
Slotted Abilities
Evasive Maneuvers
Sensor Scan
Sensor Analysis
Brace for Impact
Tactics
Fly around, click stuff.
No, really: I try to keep a side with decent shields facing my enemy, and I use beams until I get a notice that enemy shields are down, then launch the Torpedo.
Engineering Team I, Science Team I, and Jam Targeting Sensors are invaluable. Most of my flights are long slogs, and I need the +Regen from these and Brace for Impact. I do use Brace Impact before a Torpedo strike if available, and Evasive Maneuvers when tractor-beamed. I'm not sure how much Sensor Analysis helps or if it has a limited range.
What else should I be doing, wise warriors of the galaxy?
0
Comments
Also your bridge officer skills are weak.
You can retrain them at Starfleet command in the office next to Admiral Quinn
Think skills like Tactical team, Fire All Weapons, Attack Pattern Beta.
For engineering I recommend reverse while polarity Engineering Team and Auxiliary power to Battery.
For science, Science team, I like photonic officer and of course gravity well—but sci can be a little more flexible.
Once you have phaser or plasma beams you want phaser or plasma relays in all your tactical consoles...
Then you should start to see decent gameplay.
The real buildmasters will have better advice for you too.
>I'm using mostly beams, do I still want one cannon at this stage?
No you want beams or cannons. not both.
>Should I be using Consumables in most fights? Which are most helpful?
Not sure. Shield batteries? Deutronium? I don’t use a lot personally
>What officer traits are most helpful?
See my previous post.
>What destroys enemy torpedoes?
When your weapons are uniform and you are boosting same the energy type(phasers and phaser relays, plasma and plasma relays etc)— you should be doing way more damage
>Should I run with a shield arrangement other than Balanced?
Yep you want full power to weapons not shields
>To fill the 2nd Science Slot, do I have to Retire my 2nd Tac Officer?
No—jest retrain or wait till you have more bridge officer slots available To recruit a new officer.
>Where do Slotted Abilities come from for space battles (like Evasive Maneuvers, Sensor Scan, Brace for Impact)?
As you level you get more. Bridge offer skills can be changed at the Star base.
>Does my officer race matter at this stage? I can see for endgame that a 2% damage bonus can help, but for now, can I keep my current crew?
Not really at your level. that is a small difference that you can think about way later.
For now:
1)unify weapon type (for example using almost all phaser beams)
And get relevant relays.
2)Retrain your bridge officers.
3)And give more power to weapons...
You should start seeing a lot of improvement.
That's good, specific info. Thanks!
Westmetals, thanks for the further info, too. Your first post will be helpful later on.
Great, thank you.
What's the benefit to having weapons all of the same type? If it's from endgame build bonuses, does the advice apply now?
Also, Tip #4 above suggests 'one projectile weapon' in a forward slot. Does that mean I can fill 3 of 4 slots with beams and one with a torpedo? If not, do I really go with no torpedoes? The tutorial guides players towards using phasers to burn shields, then to launch torpedoes (much like in the shows).
In any case, it looks like I may be best off switching to a Cruiser or Escort when I hit 20. Any suggestions on which (given that I have 1 Science, 2 Tac, 1 Eng officers until level 30)? What abilities suit those, and can I go with phasers, or does coldnapalm's advice about cannons now apply to those ships as well?
You can run one torpedo to be just like the TV show. Photon has the fastest recharge time per shot and can be a good choice for lower levels as they can be single shot without a torpedo boff ability.
You want to save your limited bridge officer abilities for what you have the most of i.e. beam overload for your beams or cannon scatter volley or rapid fire for cannons & turrets and then add things like tactical team 1, attack pattern beta 1, and torpedo skills as boff slots become more available.
The advice to go with a non-science ship is sound for lower levels. I recently went with directed energy (cruisers and escorts) on a science toon until level 65+ until the proper gear and abilities were available for space magic and it worked great. Doing all science from level 1 is very possible but not as effective until about commander rank as noted above and would need more specific skill tree and other choices for best effect so sometimes is better left until a few more things are figured out.
Escort versus cruiser is a play style choice.
Cruisers are tanky and require less precise piloting so would be more relaxed game play. Escorts are highly maneuverable, more squishy, with far higher spike damage but need more active and precise piloting to be effective.
Equip cruisers with beams (and a single torpedo for canon TV show effect), escorts with all cannons front and all turrets rear (for best effect).
Unless getting fussy at end-game, all disciplines (tac, eng, and science toons) can fly whatever sort of ship they want. Play around while ranking up.
And I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm really genuinely confused on what or where you would find trouble with the game at that level. I've leveled several characters in recent years and even though I know the game a lot better than a newbie, getting up to 50 with a mix of weapons, weapon types, and no real effort put into BOFF selection or powers or consoles was not a problem. Its just the way the game scales.
So I really do not understand what could be giving you any trouble, especially not at level 18.
I don't doubt that these things can help, but we are talking about an absolutely tiny effect. Low level tac consoles you maybe have 2 of, and they give <10% each. Getting your weapons to all the same flavor to benefit from that is not going to make a big difference at all.
Boff powers can matter more, but you also do not have much, if any, expertise to go around to get the powers you want.
Also a lot has changed since 2013. That was before DR and a lot of other things. Leveling was slower and harder. Like I said, I've leveled a few characters in the past few years and I notice that I need to put exactly zero effort into their builds until maybe the 30s. Rainbow weapons, beams+cannons, empty console slots, low mark gear, default BOFF powers, it didn't hurt at all.
The one thing that does matter is weapon power at 100, along with ensuring those weapons are able to be put on target. That could be a bigger part of the OP's issue, as Star Trek is not a show based on continuous weapon firing with all the weapons you can, but STO is. Rear weapons aren't there in case someone gets behind you, they need to be pew pewing along with your forward weaponry as much as possible, which for most ships means broadsiding. So whether you run a tetryon cannon, a phaser dual beam bank, and a disruptor turret in the rear or 3 phaser beam arrays, they have to all be firing, as well as doing a wiggle now and again to fire a high yield torpedo barrage if you bother with torpedoes at all.
I would imagine that may be the OP's biggest problem, not using full power to weapons, and probably not keeping targets in a broadside arc.
I'm not saying they shouldn't heed build advice and match consoles and weapons, but I am saying if they are having trouble at the level they are, that is the least of their problems, as the game is not at all designed to set you up to have matching anything at low levels. But that presumes they are doing missions. If they are instead somehow queuing up for STFs and getting scaled up, they are going to suffer no matter what they do, or if they wandered into the dyson sphere where they aren't scaled up.
Most space fights. They're slow slogs, and easily my least favorite part of each mission. It's math, really: the enemy puts out more damage than I do and can take more in return. I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, but it's hard to convey how little beginner info is available.
I am broadsiding to maximize my phaser damage. I hadn't been running with Full Power to Weapons and will now try that. I'll also try matching my Tac Console to phaser damage, and to select appropriate officer traits, though I'll likely wait on that until I get an Escort at level 20. I've had a break from STO and will be back this weekend to put those into use.
Look for me in Game or @vetteguy904 and we can give you some starter gear that is very rare that you can scale to your level (IV) if you are a Lcdr (VI) if you are a commander.
No worries, welcome to STO
I'll have a go at answering some of your specific questions below - though I broadly agree with others who have already done so in this thread. Still, you may be interested in my New Player Guides linked here.
There are two elements to your issue - what your build is and how you are using it.
It sounds broadly like you're doing the right thing - using energy weapons to bring down enemy shields, then hitting them with torps - which works at the levels you are at (late game, there are specific science or even torpedo-based builds but these require very different set-ups which I wont go into here).
But there are other elements like target selection (I typically choose to kill the weakest enemy ships first just to thin them out a bit), and ship management, including power levels (by default, set your power distribution to weapons - you take less damage by killing enemies rather than enduring hits... when I first started, I had power directed to shields but it would take 15 minutes for my Intrepid to bring down a Galor class cruiser; with ship power directed to weapons it took like 30 seconds). I think this might be your primary issue - change that and let us know how you went.
But moving on to builds...
As others have said, the optimal strategy is to use a single type of energy weapon - either all beams, or cannons/turrets, not mixing both. This is because certain bridge officer skills (like cannon:scatter volley, or beams: fire at will) will then benefit all of your energy weapons rather than a subset.
Similarly, most people recommend using all the same energy type (eg, phasers, plasma) because then you can mount tactical modules that boost only that energy type (which has a higher modifer than something that benefits just beams) - in general, the narrower the base (ie, phasers) means the higher the benefit; a broader base (ie, beams) means a lower benefit. But, at low tiers, this isnt a material issue so just run with what you have.
You can, but generally you wont need to.
I have found that using shield battery can be useful if you have skewed your power levels and bridge officer abilities to offensively as it can help cover a gap; weapons battery is also very useful because at low tiers your power levels are generally so low that this can give a real boost to your energy weapons. If you are going to use these batteries, I suggest only using them against the more powerful enemies (stage bosses, bigger cruisers/battleships etc) if you cant afford to buy many of them from Earth Spacedock or etc.
The Engine Battery can be useful if you're driving a brick-like cruiser (and you'll have more consumable slots so its less important to prioritise), and the Auxiliary battery is probably the least useful of the lot at low tiers - late tier specialised science builds can find them quite helpful though!
They make a huge difference. I have suggested a few good ones in my New Player Guide linked above - check it out
You cannot destroy 'normal' torpedoes (like photon, quantum etc) before they hit you. But having shields up in that direction will greatly reduce the kinetic damage that you'll take.
There are some Heavy Plasma Torpedoes and similar things that become their own enemy targets, at which point you can click on them and try to get your beams to shoot them down before they hit (they really hurt if you dont), but if you are within about 5km and your weapons are already partway through a cycle on the main target (ship), it is likely that you're going to eat that torpedo. Instead, maintain a larger distance to the enemy, be less keen on just mashing that spacebar, and try to stay to the enemy ship's side (their torp launchers typically fire front and rear just like yours - so not giving them a good shot can help).
I click on the shield facing that is between me and the most dangerous enemy (usually the weakest shield facing) from time to time to ensure that there is some shield between me and that target (eating torps hurts!). But the bridge officer skill Tactical Team does this for you and is a particularly helpful skill because of it (and the offensive bonuses it gives).
Other than that, not sure what you mean by balanced. Unless you mean ship power levels, in which
Only at this level, yes. See more detail in my comment below. And you should do so because bridge officer skills are really important. But generally, you dont have to dismiss current bridge officers to get a few more (up to limits).
Various sources - including:
Not really at this stage - you can nudge it in a helpful direction (see my New Player Guide linked above) but it is very far from necessary... most of the time you wont notice any differences outside of late-game hardcore min/maxing builds.
I love the T2 Science ship at that level - its got the same weapon slots as a cruiser, stronger shields and is more manuverable (though lower hull HP) - I think it is clearly the strongest ship at that tier. Only problem is needing an extra science bridge officer. You can get one from Earth Spacedock under the Admiral's office (they are pretty cheap), but to do so you'd need to dismiss Kolez (dont dismiss Flores/Evelyn, she's actually pretty strong). Once you reach Commander level (30+) you should get more bridge officer slots so you dont need to continue dismissing them. Your equipment sounds fine - but again, have a look at the New Player Guide and also my Ship Equipment Guide for more info.
Anyway, I hope this info helps. Sing out if you have any further questions!
I agree with what you've said - and in particular the section above - but I still think its helpful to go through the OP's questions in a bit of detail. Explaining why things are done - even if they arent essential at low tiers - is still helpful so the player can build towards that outcome as they progress up the chain.
Okay, that should be the big change you need to feel better in space. I assume your weapon power has been sitting at 50 until now. This matters because most energy weapons drain energy when firing, after the first energy weapon, and that means with 3 beams, your first beam fires free, but the next 2 drain 10 energy each. Thus for most of their firing cycles, they are firing with only around 30 energy. If instead you put 100 power to weapons, they will be firing at 80. The difference should be night and day for you.
Later in the game you can get options for more weapon power, as well as weapon power cost reduction. Emergency power to weapons, an engineering BOFF power, is something you can get right away if you really wanted to, certainly once you hit the 20s you can look at it.
You can also end up making a build that doesn't need weapon power at all, but that is generally not viable till end game with ship traits, the right consoles, and so on.
There's plenty of other info in this thread that should help you in the long run, especially in what westmetals posted, but I'll still stand by saying the biggest thing is your weapon power right now.
I took this as a newbie having trouble and trying a scattershot approach to solving it by getting more info on everything that may or may not be important, not sure where the real problem is. While I have no doubt the OP wants to know answers to everything, the fundamental matter is finding out why space combat is going so badly. So with that in mind, the primary thing is to diagnose the problem and take things one step at a time. Once the OP finds that increasing weapon power really works then looking at the other stuff makes more sense because if frustration with the space combat persists, learning all the miscellany won't matter.
And thanks especially to UltimateNewbie for the detailed answers. That helped a lot.
I'm level 30 now and doing much better. It's a lot of changes at once - new ship, an officer in the empty slot, single weapon type - so I'm not sure yet what made the biggest difference. My guess is that putting more power to weapons was key, as suggested above. I'll play around with it a bit more and then post what I find, in case any other new players end up with similar questions.
No worries, happy to help!