How did you guys find a playstyle to fit in to?

novathelegend · April 2013

Hey guys,

I just had a general question for the PvP community. Please excuse me if I get a bit Wall-o-Texty after a while

First a little background about myself, and why I'm asking the question in the title...

I've been playing the game since closed beta.

My main is a Fed Tactical Captain. Though, I have about 15 end game alts between KDF and fed, with at least 3 alts of each class type.

With my fed tac, I own every ship in the game. This includes all Fleet ships, all C-store ships, and all Lock Box ships.

I leveled my tac primarily in science vessels, only switching to Escorts at VA along side my intrepid-R.

My tac is the richest of my toons (pretty close to a billion ECs and a couple hundred thousand Dilithium) and the only one with full t5 rep in both Omega and Romulan. My KDF Engineer has t3 in Omega only, but that's about it for rep with my alts.

I have access to the highest gear the game has to offer, but I'm average at best. And here is why...

I switch ships.. A lot. Sometimes even daily. I've never felt a role to fit in to. I'm my Fleet's leader so for some strange RP purposes, I feel like I want to be in a Capital type ship. Though, as a Tac, I feel obligated to fly escorts. I'm a decent Escort pilot, not great, but decent, but they tend to bore the hell out of me. I can pull pretty decent damage out of them, but I tend to think it is mostly due to the gear I have more so than my piloting ability. I like the look of cruisers, but the damage is really lack luster, and beams disappoint. I flew my Excelsior for a while because it seemed to be THE choice for tac captains wanting to fly cruisers, but I really don't like how old it is and how it looks. I know, I can be picky. I like being able to control the battle field with science vessels, but again, the damage is poor, and aside from gimmick builds, I don't know if they are any good for general gameplay. My fleet does not like PvP and I'm the only one that does, so I pug almost always. But I would also like to master a ship I can use for PvE also, which is what my fleet does.

I know the reason I'm Average at best at each ship class is because I never really stick with anything long enough to master it. But I have a very hard time deciding on which play style I like best.

My engineers are in cruisers and my sci captains are in sci ships, but I dont play them enough for them to be good enough, have the gear, the rep bonuses etc. I contemplated just switching to an alt to use full time over my tac, but I wasn't sure and I really did not feel like grinding the rep again and accumulating all that I have on my main.

So really, my question is, how did some of you decide on which ship class you fly and mastered?

Was it because of game mechanics and best synergy like Tac/Escort, Eng/Cruiser etc.? Or, did you find a play style that you thought was really fun and worked around it to create the best build you could?

I'm sorry if this came off a bit ranty or whiney, but I think three years or so is long enough for me to be just average. It is time for me to master something, and I guess I'm just looking for advice or guidance in how to do so. I'm quite knowledgeable about the game, it's mechanics, synergies, etc. I just can't pick a damn ship for myself.

Thanks in advance for reading.

dabelgrave · April 2013

At launch I leveled my tac in a cruiser since everything I read on the forums consisted of folks claiming the escorts were glass cannons. When they raised the level cap, I decided to be different, and switched to escort. Battles went from slow and sure to quick and dangerous. I shelved my tac and stopped playing him.

I leveled my science officer in a science vessel since that was the one ship class I hadn't yet tried. It was enjoyable, and my sci became my main. However, I didn't find it much better than my tac's cruiser.

Then a friend challenged me to try killing his kdf carrier, which I almost declined since at the time the forums were full of opinions on the invincibility of carriers. My first attempt (1v1) was unsuccessful, although I came close a few times. My second try (2v1) we managed to kill the carrier with two of us working together. I then decided to try something completely different. After a week of carefully planning a respec and outfitting a new ship, I came back in an escort to kill the carrier. That was when I found my playstyle (and initiated my interest in pvp). DPS and all those nasty science debuffs... I love my sciscort, and have been practicing it ever since!

My advice is to challenge yourself. Find a goal that (to you) seems impossible, and find a way to reach that goal. In my case, reaching my goal made me discover my playstyle.

snoge00f · April 2013

Simple.

I just tried every career and a bunch of different builds until I found something I was satisfied with.

novathelegend · April 2013

dabelgrave wrote: »

At launch I leveled my tac in a cruiser since everything I read on the forums consisted of folks claiming the escorts were glass cannons. When they raised the level cap, I decided to be different, and switched to escort. Battles went from slow and sure to quick and dangerous. I shelved my tac and stopped playing him.

I leveled my science officer in a science vessel since that was the one ship class I hadn't yet tried. It was enjoyable, and my sci became my main. However, I didn't find it much better than my tac's cruiser.

Then a friend challenged me to try killing his kdf carrier, which I almost declined since at the time the forums were full of opinions on the invincibility of carriers. My first attempt (1v1) was unsuccessful, although I came close a few times. My second try (2v1) we managed to kill the carrier with two of us working together. I then decided to try something completely different. After a week of carefully planning a respec and outfitting a new ship, I came back in an escort to kill the carrier. That was when I found my playstyle (and initiated my interest in pvp). DPS and all those nasty science debuffs... I love my sciscort, and have been practicing it ever since!

My advice is to challenge yourself. Find a goal that (to you) seems impossible, and find a way to reach that goal. In my case, reaching my goal made me discover my playstyle.

Not a bad idea Dabelgrave. Now, if only I can come up with a challenge lol.

@snoge

I wish it was that simple for me. Though maybe I need to play my alts a bit more to see if I like any of them better. I really haven't been satisfied as of yet.

webdeath · April 2013

Hmm.. My play style was more of an adaption from a previous style from the Game City of Heroes (May it RIP) called the Mastermind.

The Mastermind class was designed around Pet control. Where you'd have pets you'd summon, and they were your main form of damage, while you had secondary abilities that could either let you heal, buff, or debuff depending on what you choose while still focusing on the Pets themselves. And the Pets would help you survive because of a link where damage delt to you was distributed among your pets.

I liked controlling pets. Using them to kill and to defend me from enemies. So a Carrier was the best place for me. Tanky yet powerful, and with Pet controls that could do different things, even kill.

Gravitating how ever, in a desire to learn more about the ships that were also good at killing me, not to mention my favorite class of ships in STO, was towards the Cloaking ships which, after Joining RzR fleet for a few months led me to my second favorite ship: The Bird of Prey.

On the Fed side, I also like to be abit more survivable, which led me to fly for the most part an Engineer/Escort. Especially since they introduced the Defiant with it's innate Cloaking device (Before Consoles were later introduced) and it was a tactic that I enjoyed, which also helped my playing of the Bird of Prey.

So the short short version:

Sci/Carrier is my favorite to fly thanks to City of Heroes

Tac/Bop or Engi/Defiant is secondary due to Cloak and hit and run tactics thanks to RzR Fleet.

captiandata1 · April 2013

for dps cruisers i would go for galaxy refit, tactial ossysse, ambassador class, excelior class, sovy class and sovy retrofit, ambassador fleet fhip, even science oddyse. currently i have settled on the tier 5 ambassador class because it can dish out a good pounding and take a tough beating and has good engineering tactial abilities and good enough science to have fun with. same thing with the kamerag as tier 5 ambassador.

my science main want to settle in the either the fleet or retrofit tier 5 olympic class

my tactial character want to be in an escort like the tier 5 amirage but my engingeering character might be able to hang in a fire fight longer.

my klingon character is current flying the kamirage but he has flown in carrier with the bird of preys which is a strong tank and the ka'fari carrier more fire power but suffer in staying power.

snoge00f · April 2013

novathelegend wrote: »

@snoge

I wish it was that simple for me. Though maybe I need to play my alts a bit more to see if I like any of them better. I really haven't been satisfied as of yet.

You gotta, man. I had no clue whatsoever where this game would lead me. I did play healers in other games, but I didn't really feel like a healer from the start. I played mostly Tac/Cruiser/Escort.

novathelegend · April 2013

snoge00f wrote: »

You gotta, man. I had no clue whatsoever where this game would lead me. I did play healers in other games, but I didn't really feel like a healer from the start. I played mostly Tac/Cruiser/Escort.

in other MMOs, mainly fantasy based ones, I've always played a tank main, and a warlock or other pet command types like webdeath mentioned.

Admittedly, when I first started STO, I picked the tac because I thought I could make a dps tank out of it, it wasn't long after that I found out I was wrong lol. But I stuck with the tac for my main without having other alts for a while.

captiandata1 · April 2013

my future romulan character hopes that if it is true that he will be simply upgrade in the romulan tos bird of preys light warbirds to tier 4 then transfer in to a d'drex class battle cruiser warbird then in to a tier 5 rerofit d'drex on rotate into a tier 5 retrofit tos romulan warbird.

a romulan d7 warbird would be cool too even the tier advanced wardbird look cool but still not tos romulan bird of prey of the mighty d'drex classes.

i am not really a big fan of the morgi class because the canon name is the valdro class. fighting the npc morgi/valdro class ships in game are also most as foritable opponent strangth wise as the might d'drex class.

if the tos romulan bird of preys get i tier 5 retro could starfleet be willing to offer the new romulan republic some of the conni constitution tier 1 and tier 5 class and the mirenda class tier 1 and tier 5 class ships til they could rebuild their fleet fleet size. while having the clause of having to be returned to starfleet in the event that any of the conni constitution or or mirenda ships ever were to be used against starfleet home worlds?

virusdancer · April 2013

PreS7 was a different world.

I pretty much rerolled guys every two weeks. You could 1-50 and Mk XI STF gear in a weekend. It made it very easy to roll all sorts of things and try it out.

Tac/Eng/Sci - all the RA ships, even the Mirror Ships - cause EC was plentiful without dumping it in Rep Projects.

Definitely made it somewhat easier to get an idea of what one liked and did not like. Left plenty of room to think and play outside the box - do some of the flakiest things that shouldn't work...but somehow did.

It's rougher for folks now - more involved - more complicated. It's only going to get rougher with the Romulans. It's a trip partaking in some of the threads over in the PvE areas discussing them. Folks have their minds made up that they're going to do X, Y, Z - ignore A, B, C...without having touched it. Closed-minded...a shame, imho. But it will be rough trying to experiment...

...will have to try to find something there - from what was found PreS7.

Will I be able to find my wheee builds? My Fast Wheee? My Slow Wheee? My Teehee Wheee? That beam escort...that no TT battle cruiser attrition build...that no-Tac BoP?

Perhaps as much time spent as possible during the beta bits - try to experiment there - who knows? Maybe there will be a new wheee - maybe a composite wheee...

...I miss PreS7.

captiandata1 · April 2013

the ambassador has more then enough tactial and science to damage and defuff while still having enough engineneering to stay in a fight. as for weapons i like using both distruptors and plama on the same ship with one harg'pang and the borg cutting beam. or harg'pang and 3 plasma torpedoes front and 1 tretyons turrets borg cutting beam and 2 distropter-poloron hybird. cause the plasmas burn, the harg'pan deal good knectic damage and burn over time with primary and secondary explosion. the tretryon turret to drain shields. the distruptor-poloron for disrutor and ppoloron damage. the borg cutting beam for 360 degrees of knectic damage. with the cutting beam and the harg'pang both save enery power to have for the for the 6 enery weapons.

hurleybird · April 2013

Uh, use common sense to figure out what works, what doesn't, and iterate? There only so many valid play-styles at each stage of the metagame after all.

novathelegend · April 2013

hurleybird wrote: »

Uh, use common sense to figure out what works, what doesn't, and iterate? There only so many valid play-styles at each stage of the metagame after all.

I can make any ship work for it's purpose. Honestly, I'm pretty experienced when it comes to ship building for PvE and PvP. I've played pretty much every combo and I can be efficient enough, but I'm not entirely satisfied with anything and I can't stick with a play style to master it. For example, I just finished about 6 PvP matches in my Kumari (which is not the ship I normally fly). I averaged about 900K+ damage per match, maybe had 2-4 deaths total, and the majority of the kills. I can be a robotic alpha strike tac/escort. That's not really what this thread is about.

I want to be able to say "I'm a _______ (escort, vesta, cruiser, etc.) captain" and honestly, I can't do that.

snoge00f · April 2013

Then you're the jack of all trades.

Nothing wrong with that. Try playing your worst class and try to do well with it. Maybe you'll fall in love with it.

novathelegend · April 2013

snoge00f wrote: »

Then you're the jack of all trades.

Nothing wrong with that. Try playing your worst class and try to do well with it. Maybe you'll fall in love with it.

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Thought about equipping a golf ball ship with my tac and making due with that lol

virusdancer · April 2013

novathelegend wrote: »

I want to be able to say "I'm a _______ (escort, vesta, cruiser, etc.) captain" and honestly, I can't do that.

So what you're saying is... you're versatile. And you're thinking that a bad thing?

virusdancer · April 2013

novathelegend wrote: »

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Thought about equipping a golf ball ship with my tac and making due with that lol

Engineer in an Aquarius < Tactical in an Aquarium.

bobtheyak · April 2013

This may be stating the obvious, but if you're a jack of all trades then just play whatever toon suits your mood at the moment. If you notice yourself favoring a certain class/ship most of the time, then gear the hell out of it and you can switch to that one character when you can't decide on which role to focus.

maicake716 · April 2013

i picked science because i like the color blue...

seriously.

and i was a pve hero to start that enjoyed not dying in pvp. i never did much damage, i was just a survivor.

naz4 · April 2013

Don't be too bothered if you feel like you haven't found your calling. I have played since open beta and still not found my calling yet.

To keep the game varied for myself I switch captains regularly when I pvp. Last couple of months, I have been an escort class player in the Pandas. Instead of using cookie cutter builds to do this role, I have created different classes of none standard dps machines to perform this functions effectively.

Now I am getting bored of this role, I will very soon be moving to a science role to keep the game varied for myself.

I would have also jumped to an engineer role, however this class has no effective function in pvp right now so it would be pointless for me to do anything with them at this point in time.

What I'm trying to say in summary is that certain people never have a true calling of sorts in this game and will end up floating from one role to another. So don't try and force yourself to achieve this. Just play what you feel like that day, week or month. Just enjoy playing the game the way you like and not force yourself into something you may not want to be or do.

khayuung · April 2013

I found my calling -- doing 50,000 damage in a single salvo.

And then it took an arrow to the knee.

So now I'm looking for another calling...

zarathos1978 · April 2013

I'm more a ship captain then a class captain. I like cruisers. I love cruisers. Played eng in cruiser, played sci in cruiser. Currently leveling tac... for cruiser. I also miss pre-S7 times as I could levle a toon one after another and still be competitive. No need to worry about rep, DOFFs... sigh.

Anyway - for me it was always more a feel of a ship, a Trek feel, then everything else. I wanted to be Kirk in his mighty starship, not Luke Skywalker in oversized starfighter. And magic in space (sci) felt weird enough for me to abandon the idea of sci/sci builds (I try them from time to time, but rarely can force myself to level them to VA50). I may try tac or eng in Vesta tough. That ship looks pretty much like cruiser.

capnmanx · April 2013

I just find things I enjoy and stick with them. It's up to the whims of the nerf gods just how good those things are at any given time. I can live with that; it keeps life interesting.

drkfrontiers · April 2013

This is easy. I am finest escape pod pilot that has ever lived!

zorena · April 2013

Well I tryed healing except im the worst healer ever cruisers doesn't look sexy anyhow and they turn too slow its like watching paint dry in slow motion.

I've also tryed science/science is too complicated and I didn't like the lab coat and the lab rats , but I do love to kill people, and that is what I do

dummyname · April 2013

Our fleet was looking to expand into PvP and I looked around at all the tacs and thought to myself, ' Well that's not gonna go over well!"

So I rerolled to be a healer and while I can try to deny it is not my calling but a sacrifice I made for the good of the fleet....upon reviewing previous MMO choices (EQ Shaman, WoW Resto Druid / SWTOR Sith Inquisitor etc etc...) it is painfully clear that this is my thing....this is what I do.

Unknown · April 2013

This content has been removed.

captiandata1 · April 2013

for escorts i mostly like that larger escorts in the 200 meter and larger size and the saber class. cause the defiant is fun to fly but is a little thine in stay heals for me liking and has until a few patches ago i find to be too twitchy turning and ciming of turning. i do not own any tier 5 difiants cause i do not like having 3 tactials officer on one ship due to boff cool down. if the enign tactial boff was at sciene or engineneering or univeral that would be cool.

artimus2017 · April 2013

novathelegend wrote: »

I can make any ship work for it's purpose. Honestly, I'm pretty experienced when it comes to ship building for PvE and PvP. I've played pretty much every combo and I can be efficient enough, but I'm not entirely satisfied with anything and I can't stick with a play style to master it. For example, I just finished about 6 PvP matches in my Kumari (which is not the ship I normally fly). I averaged about 900K+ damage per match, maybe had 2-4 deaths total, and the majority of the kills. I can be a robotic alpha strike tac/escort. That's not really what this thread is about.

I want to be able to say "I'm a _______ (escort, vesta, cruiser, etc.) captain" and honestly, I can't do that.

What kind of build do u have for kumari,i'm just curious.

saxfire · April 2013

Hi there, I have played since second play of F2P, First thing I wanted to do was a torpedo boat, so I still have a torpedo boat and it's awesome, klingon as I am, B'rel is perfect for it, it is a tac ofc. After that I made another tac, with no purpose ofcourse, I ended up building all kinds of "sciencey spam builds" because they are awesome. I never wanted to follow the pattern everybody else used. I guess my playstyle is exotic damage dealer.

stardestroyer001 · April 2013

Well, when I came to this game in F2P, I had just left Battlestar Galactica Online. I was dissatisfied with the emphasis away from Vipers and on really stupid mini-Battlestars. I used to be a Viper pilot (partly the reason I still call players in ships "pilots") and used to the high damage roles in a fighter.

Well, I decided to do something different. After flying a bunch of similar ships like the Viper, with high damage output and turn rates, I eventually decided that the best ship is a cruiser, at least for me. I liked the looks, I liked the survivability, I liked the tankiness.

13 months later, and I'm still flying cruisers. Despite the nerfs, until true cruiser piloting becomes infeasible and dangerous, I'm sticking to cruisers.

How did you guys find a playstyle to fit in to?

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