Why do I keep dying ?

vaylotte

Hello i'm new to this game. I'm level 28 and have fluked my way through so far. I have a heavy escort ship (thats all I know) with 20k hull and 4.7k shields. I keep dying the last few missions to the point that I almost couldn't finish the last mission as the borg cube kept ripping my shields off me and pulverising me to death within a few seconds. I eventually killed the cube by respawning and attacking him before he could heal - took me about 10 attempts though ...
Is my ship too cruddy ? Can anyone recommend a better one ?
Thanks

protoneous

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Akira_Heavy_Escort

If this is your ship it's fine. It's a nice choice actually. Escorts are fun. Some things take practice is all.

Standard stuff: set your power levels set to "attack" (max power to weapons), try and put energy specific tactical consoles in your ship's tactical slots (i.e. ones that say "phaser"), keep weapons all the same energy type, pick all beam arrays or all cannons front & turrets rear, no more than one torpedo if you want to use one, choose bridge officer abilities that buff the majority of your weapons (see below), cheap positron deflectors work good, on your next promotion and new ship try and fit in Attack Pattern Beta 1 if you have room.

Suggested Bridge Officer Stations for your ship -

Tactical - Tactical team 1, Beam Overload (if using beams) or Cannon Scatter Volley /Rapid fire (if using cannons), another higher copy of the same beam or cannon skill.

Tactical - Tactical team 1 or torpedo skill (torpedo high yield or spread 1)

Engineering - Emergency power to weapons 1, emergency power to weapons 2

Science - Polarize hull 1, Hazard Emitters 2 (you can substitute or try Science Team instead of Polarize Hull)

Offense - Use emergency power to weapons > cannon or beam skill > tactical team to distribute shields and repeat.

Defense - Polarize Hull if tractored to escape or for extra damage resistance, Hazard Emitters to restore hull.

millefune

protoneous wrote: »

Defense - Polarize Hull if tractored to escape or for extra damage resistance, Hazard Emitters to restore hull.

This is how I got past the Borg. I added AP:Omega when dealing with getting stuck by Vaadwaur Anchors even after using Evasive Maneuvers and Polarize Hull, and having them on cooldown. So many of those things!

foxrockssocks

I'm not sure why you'd be fighting a Borg cube at 28, but with all the missing story, I guess that might be possible. Lower level Borg are still easier than higher, though so its best to learn their tricks.

Cubes have a shield neutralizer that will drain any ship's shields to nothing very quickly. If you have that on you, you'll want to hit hazard emitters quickly. They also shoot some very devastating heavy plasma torpedoes, sometimes they may be invisible, but most of the time you can see and destroy them, if you're fast enough. And if you're too close they will tractor beam you which makes you a sitting duck.

Still, you should be able to kill them quickly. Keep weapons power at 100% and use your BOFF abilities and they shouldn't be a real problem while you're leveling.