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Help with Bridge Officers and Abilities

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2010 in The Academy
Hi,
First off I'd like to thank your patience and time for anybody that's willing to help a newb out.
I just picked up LCDR and a new escort.

Question(s) 1:
Do I immedlately promote all Bridge Officers whenever possible?
Is there any drawback if I do? Is there any reason to hold off promoting BOs?

Question(2) 2:
For bridge officer skills, how do I get their abilities from level I to level II or IIII ? Can I upgrade abilities within the same rank?

For example, tac ENS has Photon Grenade I. as her ensign ability.
Can I get an upgrade, (to change, not add on) to Photon Grenade II and Photon Grenade III? Can I upgrade her Ensign ability to II and III? Or do I have to get it for her as additional abilities, on, say, her LT and LCDR abilities?


I'm sorry, just that abilities still have me a tiny bit confused. Thanks again for anything you can provide.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Hi,
    First off I'd like to thank your patience and time for anybody that's willing to help a newb out.
    I just picked up LCDR and a new escort.

    Question(s) 1:
    Do I immedlately promote all Bridge Officers whenever possible?
    Is there any drawback if I do? Is there any reason to hold off promoting BOs?

    Question(2) 2:
    For bridge officer skills, how do I get their abilities from level I to level II or IIII ? Can I upgrade abilities within the same rank?

    For example, tac ENS has Photon Grenade I. as her ensign ability.
    Can I get an upgrade, (to change, not add on) to Photon Grenade II and Photon Grenade III? Can I upgrade her Ensign ability to II and III? Or do I have to get it for her as additional abilities, on, say, her LT and LCDR abilities?

    I'm sorry, just that abilities still have me a tiny bit confused. Thanks again for anything you can provide.


    Question 1: There are no draw backs to promoting them as soon as you can, you just might not have enough points early on to promote thm all.

    Question 2: The abilities I, II, and III are at different grades so you will never have an ENs III ability. The earliest III that I have seen is at Lt. Cmndr. Also, most rank I and II abilities can be trained to your Bridge Officers at the BO trainer, the only way to train them in III's is by teaching them yourself (if you are the same class) or training them with other Bridge Officers that you have no made part of your crew yet.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Question(s) 1:
    Do I immedlately promote all Bridge Officers whenever possible?
    Is there any drawback if I do? Is there any reason to hold off promoting BOs??...
    It's actually advantageous to promote your BOs as soon as possible to unlock those 'Ground Combat' skills, which are not slot ranked limited, and come into play as soon as the officer is promoted...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Question(s) 1:
    Do I immedlately promote all Bridge Officers whenever possible?
    Is there any drawback if I do? Is there any reason to hold off promoting BOs?

    On an Escort you have 2 Tactical BO's. A senior and a junior one. You can promote both of them to LT but if you are short on Merits then consider just promoting one of them to LT. When you promote a BO they gain a new space and a new ground ability. Your junior Tac BO will not be able to use his new space ability because his station only supports one space ability. You will still want to promote him as soon as you have the Merits so that he can use his new ground ability but you can pospone it for a little while.
    Question(2) 2:
    For bridge officer skills, how do I get their abilities from level I to level II or IIII ? Can I upgrade abilities within the same rank?

    For example, tac ENS has Photon Grenade I. as her ensign ability.
    Can I get an upgrade, (to change, not add on) to Photon Grenade II and Photon Grenade III? Can I upgrade her Ensign ability to II and III? Or do I have to get it for her as additional abilities, on, say, her LT and LCDR abilities?

    Photon Grenade I is a different ability than Photon Grenade II. Each ability has a prerequsite rank before it can be used. So at ENS your BO has Photon Grenade I but if you promote him to LT he could have Photon Grenade I and Photon Grenade II. If you make him a LT Commander you might train him in Photon Grenade III and he would have all 3 Photon Grenade's at the same time.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Promote as soon as you can, as already stated for the ground combat capabilities. Just because you have a Ens station, doesn't mean both of your Tac officers can't be Lt. One will just not be able to use his higher tier ability whan assigned the 2nd station.

    If your low on points, start with both Tac officers as you can swap them based on mission. Similar to a Science ship going Charged particle burst for a group of cloaking Klingons BoP's one mission, and swapping back to Something else more usefull to the Gorn.

    Torpedo Spread is usefull at times in PvE / PvP especially for clearing groups of turrets, or when you need to clear minefields to free the freighters, etc. Not being usefull all the time you can swap back out.

    You'll also notice you gained 2 more slots for officers at Lt Cdr, and you'll get 2 more at Cdr.. I'd suggest to start stockpiling your new officer candidates. Lt Cdr start getting the Green / Blue officers. While all skills are the same, higher quality officers have better traits. Example, your starting offiver may have acute senses, but a Blue will have improved accute senses, etc.. Every lil bit helps..

    And 'if' you get stuck with that Pakled, you can always use it to train a 'real officer' :p

    As to their abilities, Some have better versions of a skill, but I think it's better to use one skill once per officer, and choose the tier you want it at. Photon 1, Photon 2, Photon 3, seem good, but makes you less overall capable as an officer with Photon, Smoke, Plasma grenades.

    That being said I have one Engineer with Phaser turret, and the other with Phaser turret 2, they both trade off skills at the opposite tier because I feel a Medical generator, shield generator combo with the Phasers, is more advantagious than my Engineers ploping down 4 Phasers, and watching as a plasma grenade takes that lil mini bunker down.

    Sabres a fun lil ship, bit fragile though. so learn to not charge in at full impulse, and enter the middle of a group. Use it's maneuverability to hit, turn out, and then back. It's like a little fighterplane. Jab an weave, stick an dodge.

    Welcome to the club, and good luck.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    First off I'd like to thank your patience and time for anybody that's willing to help a newb out....I'm sorry, just that abilities still have me a tiny bit confused. Thanks again for anything you can provide.

    Heh - so not a noob question!

    To help strengthen your Bo abilities, you need to make sure you invest in the right skills; see my signature for a database and thread to help.

    Cheers!
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