How many of you dont bother with ship power settings?

rustiswordz · January 2013

Just curious but in the year or so I've played STO I've never used the power settings. I stick it on max pew pew and hope for the best. This isn't a complaint at all, just a personal preference. I'm a good player I know how to do all the STf's space easy, I'm a good healer, tanker, killer when i have to be. I just dont have the time to fiddle all ther power levels when im in the middle of a scrap. All the boff abillities and my own is enough to worry about!

Who's with me?

unangbangkay · January 2013

Good for you!

But the real question in this case is what you fly. In an escort or other tac-oriented ship, that's fine. You want max to weapons. But if you're flying an SV, you're just gimping yourself and being less effective than you should be, doubly so if you're using Aux cannons on a Vesta.

I recommend finding a good power setting for each ship and saving it to your "=" slot, then sticking with that. With an SV you want high AUX and decent shields, with a beam boat cruiser you want high weapons and shields, and so on.

xigbarg · January 2013

What about Nebulas and Atrox Carriers?

This?

-25/50/25/100
-50/50/25/75

lasonio · January 2013

The power level setting of your ship is so important it's not even funny, it's the difference between a soso player, an elitist, and an elite player. Without energy or energy regen you're basically the dim light on the carnival sign that people only notice as flickering and not like all the other lights. You may not notice, because well you're the flickering light and all the other lights around you may be flickering as well but if you play with an elite level player you could easily see the difference between them and yourself. And the difference could be something as meager as energy consumption and replenishment.

I learned early on that everything you do in this game is important and steps you in the right direction. From having all VR slated Doffs to the right Boffs right down to the correct relay power settings. ATM my Tac is basically an op energy Eng with massive dps masquerading as a dps tac. I'm talking massive dps with beams 1k in none skills 5k on max and 7-8k on crits. This is with beams, beams for godsake! Can you imagne the pure onslaught i'd do if I broke down and used dhc's? madness.

Everything is important, each skill each step each set each boff, each doff all of it has to be tweaked and changed constantly to keep you in tip top shape.

my tac has a whopping natural 478% energy regen thats 17.3/1 as a tac, it takes me 2-3 seconds to get back to full energy after firing all broadsides and befaw. I haven't touched or seen a redline in months. my dps stays consistent and never drops off more then 23-24.

The energy is all the difference when it comes to dps, healing, speed, maneuverability, and repairing. And it takes about all of a minute to fine tune it so in that respect it's not understandable as to why you wouldn't do it. 60 seconds and you can be a hundred times better then you were yesterday.

If you don't know how to do it, just post here and I'll try t make it as easy as possible and get you on a better path.

zarathos1978 · January 2013

I have all four presets configured as I like, but then I use mainly two flying sci:

- combat (X) is set for PvE: 80/25/25/70 (plus bonuses) - this gives me enough power for my two beams to be a danger to enemy, while keepeing enough Aux for my sci powers: healing and tractors. PvE enemies suck, so lack of speed and shield regen does not matter much for me, esspecialy with high aux heals I have.

- eqal (=) is primary setting for PvP: 25/50/25/100 - obvious: sci is main power, no matter if I fly offensive sci (TB, Tyken) or support (ST, TSS, HE). Beams are for target subsystem, so no power in them needed. 50 in shields for some regen (boosted by EPtS and battery if needed).

The other two are slightly improved standard settings I use for PvP:

- shield setting: moved damage to aux (so it's 25/100/25/50). Use it for fast shield regen and pretty high heals (even without batteries)
- speed setting: moved aux to shields (25/50/100/25) - run for it setting, fast retreat and some decent shield regen in the meantime (with EPtS and some battery if needed).

But those two are rarely used. Standard PvP setting is enough to keep me alive and kicking. So, in general, I do not bother with setting other then switch between PvP/PvE settings. Rarely there is need to switch power in combat.

caelrassto · January 2013

I use my engines to 100 setting all the time, especially in conjunction with evasive maneuvers and dueterium burn. Since EV is a percentage based increase, setting your engines to 100 makes it much much faster and can go much further.

mustafatennick · January 2013

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Perfect World Entertainment Community Rules and Policies . ~Bluegeek

twg042370 · January 2013

I pick the best settings for my ship. And THEN I don't bother with it.

petaluma1 · January 2013

if your willing to let us know how you do it, please provide us the steps and power setting you are recommending.

shar487a · January 2013

I use all 4 power-settings, hot-keyed from F5 thru F8

Attack - 100/40/30/30
Defense - 30/100/40/30
Speed - 30/40/100/30
Full Aux - 25/40/35/100

I frequently toggle between Attack and Speed presets since I usually play escorts or the Breen Chel Grett, Defense when I want to recover shields, and full Aux when I need to heal faster.

Switching between power settings really does optimize your ship performance. As a previous poster stated, power allocation is the difference between a mediocre player and an elite player. Never using your ship's power settings is akin to driving a manual shift-car and never taking it out of 1st gear.

coupaholic · January 2013

I leave it on the weapons setting 9 times out of 10 - about the only time I change it is when I remember that I can change it to speed up impulse power, or recharge my shields faster.

Of course I never remember to set it back, and then I wonder why my guns run dry...

pwstolemyname · January 2013

Most of the time full power to weapons is all you need provided you havnt ignored the enginering skill tree. But like others have said there is a huge differance between what you need and your potential if you had more.

Personaly I am an emergency power to... adict. I am particularly attached to engines and auxilery.

Auxilery power is important to me as a science captain. Unless I am in my vesta I need my weapons power high, but auxilery power makes my abilites worthwhile. Any time I am not using an ability that draws on it I have no need for any though so Emergency to Aux is a usefull power booster on a quick recharge.

Engine power isnt just for running away. Honestly your engin power is a huge part of your offence as well as your defence. Going down fast? get some distance and energy weapons will hit you for less. Not doing enough damage? close and ramp up your own energy damage on the enemy. Engine power lets you change that distance sooner and those seconds are extra dps, weither its against you or against your enemy.

Engine Power is also key to your ability to compensate for bad team mates. in PVP. cure or KA space you may be at the oposit side of the map when somthing goes horribly wrong somewhere else. It dosnt matter how good you are, you cant fix what has gone wrong if you cant get there in time. So hit evasive and ramp up that engine power to get where you need to be without waiting for full impulse to come online, without using full impulse you can go in weapons hot and power levels high as well.

petaluma1 · January 2013

Great advice all! Managing your power level is an still in it self and can take awhile to learn on how to use them. Programming your hot keys is key and so is key binding and stacking tray 7 to work with you space bar. That an another whole layer in being a great PvP player. Many many layers the learn here. To bad you find an instructional guide to assist you as you progress. STO Wik is good but not condensed learning.

hanover · January 2013

I set it biased to weapons and leave it. I have EPS Power Transfer III and Red Matter Capacitor in my Engscort, but I rarely need them. Sometimes it's fun to pop them both at once and see how close to pegging all of my power levels I can come, though. :P

Also, I forget every to re-do my power settings every time I change ships. It annoys me that this and bridge officer assignments can't be some kind of default configuration you save with your character.

petaluma1 · January 2013

Here, Here!

shar487a · January 2013

hanover2 wrote: »

I set it biased to weapons and leave it. I have EPS Power Transfer III and Red Matter Capacitor in my Engscort, but I rarely need them. Sometimes it's fun to pop them both at once and see how close to pegging all of my power levels I can come, though. :P

Also, I forget every to re-do my power settings every time I change ships. It annoys me that this and bridge officer assignments can't be some kind of default configuration you save with your character.

Under the current patch, STO does remember all my current ship power presets, even when changing ships. You only have to chance these power settings once when you initially take the ship into space. Just remember to save each preset via disk-button on the HUD.

loverofwars · January 2013

i tend to have full power to weapons unless theres alot around me and i'm taking damage then full power shields currently in my breen ship 119 weapon 73 shield 56 engineand 41 aux regeneration of power is a bit small i use bean overloads 1 and 2 tends to reduce power to just under 50 ish takes a few seconds to come back need to work on that really

darthvicious666 · January 2013

Keybinds, keybinds, keybinds.

I have my attack preset bound to my spacebar, with other abilities of course, so I never forget to reset back my weapons power. Evasive and max engine power are on another, and max Aux is set on another for when I'm throwing heals around.

It is one of those often neglected things that greatly affect performance.

nynik · January 2013

I agree that it can greatly effect performance - when your trying to increase your performance that is. However, for the most part it feels as if we are not punished enough for not adjusting our power levels. Sure it may take longer to kill something, or slightly harder to heal damage but you'll still manage to kill it while semi-afk on 2/3 difficulty levels.

The penalty for not paying attention to this gameplay mechanic should be higher in my opinion. But I'd rather see the defunct crew mechanic addressed first.

rustiswordz · January 2013

darthvicious666 wrote: »

Keybinds, keybinds, keybinds.

I have my attack preset bound to my spacebar, with other abilities of course, so I never forget to reset back my weapons power. Evasive and max engine power are on another, and max Aux is set on another for when I'm throwing heals around.

It is one of those often neglected things that greatly affect performance.

How do you reset your keybinds?

A friend said you have to enter some code into your chat bar but i followed what he told me and it didnt work. I cant see any function in the options to change your keys either.

jadensecura · January 2013

rustiswordz wrote: »

How do you reset your keybinds?

Use this thread: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=192243

Absolutely invaluable.

lasonio · January 2013

A ships power is constantly changing.

the best way to set your power is to drop out of sector space and enter hub space like a space statuin so you can see what your combat settings will be.

Mine is a meager 90/60/35/35 but in hub space or combat space it is 125/91/46/46 and when i trigger BFI it become 125/116/71/71.

Just have to know what's important and whats not. Efficient is important. Efficient captain and two efficient boffs and your life get's easier.

Your ship will give you free stating to your systems so add and subtract accordingly. some consoles and sets give you stating aswell so add and subtract accordingly.

Myth one speed increase defense. To an extent yes. once you reach 32 parsecs def boost is topped out so anything over that speed is wasted one defense. I'm not sure if I have to sit down and go through power setting step by step but if I do just let me know and I'll post it, it's really easy once you do it once or twice then you'll find a set it and forget it setting.

Now remember it is one thing to have high eng skills to have high specced power settings but you need to also have the skills specced to replenish the energy drain or you'll simply black out and red line all the time and waste all you gained.

markhawkman · January 2013

I usaully don't bother. Most PvE doesn't need it.

thegrimcorsair · January 2013

As I'm currently in a Recon Science Vessel I find my self swapping between Aux for healing and applying E Siphon and weapons power for actually hurting stuff in PvE. In PvP I very rarely fly not in Aux-Bias mode.

igorvalentine · January 2013

thegrimcorsair wrote: »

As I'm currently in a Recon Science Vessel I find my self swapping between Aux for healing and applying E Siphon and weapons power for actually hurting stuff in PvE. In PvP I very rarely fly not in Aux-Bias mode.

Hey! I'm in a Recon Sci as well. I use ES3 and ES2. I find that I can keep my weapon power close to 100 with setting it at 25. ES3 gives me 47 and ES2 gives me 37. EPtW 1 gives me another 21, plus I use batteries if needed and use a warp core engineer doff which has a 20% to give me extra power when I use EPtX.

What kind of setup do you have?

How many of you dont bother with ship power settings?

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