Did alot of azura nebula these last weeks...it is sad to see people get blown up in there.:(.
Funny you should say that, I got told today in Azure Nebula that I shouldn't bother disabling tractor beams and just shoot everything in sight because "you get the same marks anyway"
I also got called a noob, for not knowing this "obvious" point.
I find this discussion illuminating because it relates directly to my recent experiences.
I am brand new to STO and F2P. Perhaps the fresh perspective of someone new to the game will aid in a better understanding for the experienced and jaded.
I agree with many who in this thread say that the game needs to do a better job at teaching you mechanics and skills and strategy.
I rolled a toon about a week before LoR dropped and did the tutorial. It was brief, the amount of infomation it threw at your was immense, and it didn't cover any battle tactics/strategy. In short, the opening introduction that new players get to this game is information overload, throwing all kinds of information at you in a relatively short periiod of time, while alomst completely avoiding anything related to BOff abilites/setups/skill point allocations/tactics/strategy etc.
I'm level 50, and got there in a week. I've been playing for a month now and I just learned YESTERDAY that there are Doff assignments on your ship. I never even went inside my ship before because it just says 'visit bridge', which, to me, implies I can go do a little RP and sit in my captains chair.
I did a cultural exchange at Starfleet academy running around at level 4-5 (not part of the tutorial, by the way) but did not realize until this week that you could repeat those missions. I thought you got one free vulcan/andorian/tellerite and that was it.
I did STFs on normal. To learn and get a feel for strategy. I figured I had picked up what to do/how to do it well enough, so I stuck a toe into an elite STF. First off, 1 shot 1 kill will heavy plasma torp from a cube whilst killing its nanite regeners. Respawn. Happens again, so not a lucky crit. Stuff hits alot harder in here, and the price of those mistakes was ship damage for the first time ever. Luckily I had some major components saved. And just as I learn to dps from underneath the generators to be out of the cube's range, the Kang dies to some escaped raptors, and I've somehow cost the rest of the pug the victory because I'm in an escort and should be on Kang duty. That was not said anywhere in the guides. S I'm just too undergeared. But I had heard, if you know the strategy of what to do, gear doesn't matter. I'm in no mk XII stuff, but mostly blues XI and a couple greens. o to recap - normal STFs I dont die don't have to use my precious few major components, and we can beat the mission and get marks. So I still do STFs on normal.
I relied on the tool tips on my skill points to guide me in picking where I wanted to put my points. Shields and pew pew seemed a safe bet so in went points to shield emitters because it improved shield repair. Then around level 40 or so, I realize that's not just a general passive buff for better shields that's for specific healing abilities! I'm a tac officer, I only have one guy that heals my shields with one ability, I'm not wasting precious points in that. I'll just take points in shield systems instead. But I should re-spec because those points in emitters are going to cost me a rank or two in something I need later. So I payed for a respec. Then I get to 50, do significant research into skill builds, and find out, oh yea, even though 2 of your 15 abilities as a tac officier are shield heals, you should put points in shield emitters to make those heals better.
Speaking of researching builds, that is far easier said than done. I've lurked on the forums/academy, read through he wiki, and sat down and made a frickin excel spreadsheet of the skill tree taking the top 7 rated builds shared by players and then added on the recommendations found in an academy guide, and you know what I learned? Points in weapons training, targeting systems, energy weapons and shield systems everyone agrees should be maxed. Ok good I figured that out on my own. All the other skills? disagreement, sometimes significant. Every person put different points in different skills. One guy put 2 in power insulators, one guy put 3, and the others didn't put any. A couple people maxed out projectile weapons, some had it to 5 or 6, and 2 avoided it entirely. In short - clear as mud.
And gear? Dont get me started on the competing ideas, perspectives and opinions on gear. "Everyone agrees" on nothing. Aegis is good/bad. Borg adapted is the best/weaksauce. MACO was the best now X is. Eventually all gear guides just offer competing theories and then put some game tooltip information up on each piece of gear and say - now use what you've learned and decide for yourself.
Discussions and guides regarding gameplay/strategy/ship kitting offer such competing and dissonant perspectives, reading them in an attempt to understand where to focus largely amounts an exercise in frustration. For example, this is what I learned from reading the forums and guides on BOFF abilities:
A: Definitely take THY
B: No no, take torp spread.
C: No! Take both and use them situationally, NO! take neither, use the Harh'peng - that frees up a tac BOff slot for APB.
A: APB? You don't want that, everyone has it and it doesn't stack, you're better off going with APOIII to synergize with your CRF.
B: CRF? Nooo you do way more dps with CSV and torp spread.
A: Yea you do more dps, but it doesn't kill stuff as quickly because it's spread out over multiple targets, and forget being able to burn down a tac cube.
B: Well you just need to put points in SCI/ENG Team to heal through the attacks on single target bosses.
C: No, those share a cool down with Tac Team, which you should have two of and keep always up/rotating.
A: No no, take one tac team get the cooldown reducing doff, and have 2 EPtS always up/rotating.
B: Well whatever BOff abilities you pick, just make sure when you gear out to get DHC plasma, those do the most dps.
A: No they don't the energy drain is too high and the proc is trivial damage. you really want 2 DHC 1 DC and 1 torp, and go with polaron/disruptors, your kill time will be quicker.
B: The DHC dont get off as many shots and they take longer between volleys. Try 2 DC and 1DHC when you pop CRF it'll just be awesome.
C: Well you know what's even more awesome? No torpedo, all cannons, that way you can stack an extra tac console on there to boost your cannon dps even more, save your BOff skill point in THY/S and focus everyone on cannon damage.
A: No no the energy drain will be too much, when that forth cannon goes it'll be shooting at a 60 power level if you have all heavys.............
So TL;DR - This game is fun and easy to play hard to master. For a new player, from the start they are overwhelmed with a lot of information, and still don't get half the information they need. When they turn to the forums or wiki or academy for guides, they get a lot of outdated or conflicting opinions. When they try to learn by doing, they TRIBBLE up, and the pug fails and the team blames the player. So yes some STF tutorial, skill point/BOFF abilitiy/gear explanation/tutorials would be greatly appreciated by any new player who wants to learn and get better not just absentmindedly press spacebar while munching doritos and watching Barney Miller (that's a great show, btw)
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::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
yea I get that and I don't disagree, however there is no funneling mechanism to it. In my experience those who can't be bothered to check a website or ask around aren't gonna do bootcamp either.
Thanks to the rep/fleet system now there is absolutely no normal play progression anymore to get peoples feet wet.
I agree with your point but also when someone asks for help and they get picked on by being called Noob all the time they get tired of asking. I just wonder whatever happened to common decency? to treat everyone the same?
I will admit i know i am not great at playing STO though i play it the way i want to. I have aksed on serveral occassions for a good build of ship etc and got nothing but bullying off of here so I quit asking.
As for fleets some fleets are no help or they say join us and we will help as long as you help build our fleet base. Then they never help, or they say you are no good leave or just never help. So that is why people are fed up with a lot of this, there needs to be an overhaul on how people in this game treat other players.........
Earlier today, there was an amusing troll thread about elitists in the game, which was locked in good order. Normally, I'd toss rambling like that back under the bridge from whence it came, but a few of the rambling points brought up by the troll are worth discussing.
Everyone knows that the later Romulan missions, particularly the Defense of New Romulus, are far more challenging than the "destroy four groups of badly set up PVE enemies" that were the fare for most of the non-featured series PVE encountered prior to that point. A few people have also found the remastered Klingon early series missions to be challenging. And consistently, we have no end of people in zone chat complaining about elite STF's and how 'noobs' come in and ruin them, or how low DPS types cause failures in the Fleet Alerts.
One concept that gets tossed into this repeatedly is 'elitism'. I've never really grasped the reason why people dislike elitism, and that's not because I have some over-inflated opinion of myself and think I'm 'elite'. An elite is just that: A group of people considered to be the best in a particular society or category.
The new PVE missions were not that hard for me to beat, but then again I was rolling around in a fleet ship for one and the adapted TSD for the other, with lots of high level gear since I have tons of Dil, EC and ZEN saved up.
That does not mean the missions are 'fair'. For a person just starting the game with no good history of fighting and knowing exactly how the skills work, I suspect the Defense of NR must be nightmarish. The PVE in the game leading up to that point simply does NOT teach a player HOW to handle situations like that (manuver, use the battle cloak and EM, let the self-repairing NPC ships soak, kill off the small fry and disengage when you get too beat up, heal outside 15k, etc).
There are guides and threads , but the common tone we get in conversations about these kind of missions is that people need to learn to play. And that's certainly true. There's a gigantic wiki full of information, dozens of threads, and plenty of fleets willing to help players be better.
On the flipside, though, this perceived elitism is not helping anything. Encounters in PVE tailored to the people who are experienced and geared out are just punishingly hard to those who are not. The counter arguments -- "n00bs won't listen / I got through so can they / back then the STFs were harder" -- are all valid, but they don't remove the reality of the situation.
I think there needs to be more content in the early part of the PVE storylines that teaches players how to handle tougher content. And there needs to be access to gear that allows players to participate in the STF's without being one-shotted constantly. I got my mk XI stuff for STF's in the old method in under a week. I dare anyone to play only a couple of hours a day and gear their toons up that quick with the current system starting from scratch.
Thoughts?
my thoughts on elitism? i have recently let myself think myself arrogantly above anyone else in game, talked down to them or failed to just get involved in teams on purpose (strictly to find out what it is like on the other side), its a horrible horrible thing to do to simply call a person a noob and bait them about it...
i was right on my initial thought; get your head out and help these players instead of complaining about them. is it so hard to type on your keyboard to the team? or even offer free equipment to help them out? are people really that distrustful and greedy that they cant do something to help themselves by helping others, that sort of thing.
so my opinion on elitists is simple, dont become one.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I actually don't mind the game not really enforcing teaming, but more build help would be good as the tips dont' really make it clear what's a good idea what to do.
I agree the game it self does not do enough to ready players for the slightly more difficult content in the game..... No player should have to "educate them selves" by going to third party sites and reading guides or watching video's because at that point it stops being a game and becomes more like A job. The game needs to have several tutorials through out the game which can only be skipped when you do them at least once.
If you have problems with "noobs" (An Elitist insult) then don't do PuG's, Join a fleet or make one, make some friends that are as good if not better than you are at the game and do all the more difficult content with them..... problem solved.
There is a difference between someone who is Elite, and someone who is an Elitist. An Elite player is generally experienced, doesn't stomp on newbs for being newbs. An Elitist is a rage clown that thinks he is superior because he has been around longer and it doesn't imply he is by any means elite.
A: Definitely take THY
B: No no, take torp spread.
C: No! Take both and use them situationally, NO! take neither, use the Harh'peng - that frees up a tac BOff slot for APB.
A: APB? You don't want that, everyone has it and it doesn't stack, you're better off going with APOIII to synergize with your CRF.
B: CRF? Nooo you do way more dps with CSV and torp spread.
A: Yea you do more dps, but it doesn't kill stuff as quickly because it's spread out over multiple targets, and forget being able to burn down a tac cube.
B: Well you just need to put points in SCI/ENG Team to heal through the attacks on single target bosses.
C: No, those share a cool down with Tac Team, which you should have two of and keep always up/rotating.
A: No no, take one tac team get the cooldown reducing doff, and have 2 EPtS always up/rotating.
B: Well whatever BOff abilities you pick, just make sure when you gear out to get DHC plasma, those do the most dps.
A: No they don't the energy drain is too high and the proc is trivial damage. you really want 2 DHC 1 DC and 1 torp, and go with polaron/disruptors, your kill time will be quicker.
B: The DHC dont get off as many shots and they take longer between volleys. Try 2 DC and 1DHC when you pop CRF it'll just be awesome.
C: Well you know what's even more awesome? No torpedo, all cannons, that way you can stack an extra tac console on there to boost your cannon dps even more, save your BOff skill point in THY/S and focus everyone on cannon damage.
A: No no the energy drain will be too much, when that forth cannon goes it'll be shooting at a 60 power level if you have all heavys.............
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Not true. While rare, I have obtained a total of 2 from non-elite STFs
Aye, I have about 15. I haven't touched an elite since S6 made it impossible to get MACO/Omega/KHG/Borg gear without buying them thru the rep system. Normal STF's are simply another dilith farming mission. Heh, I've even de-tuned my ship because using a Mk 12 omega set makes it too easy, but training noobs is fun.
Aye, I have about 15. I haven't touched an elite since S6 made it impossible to get MACO/Omega/KHG/Borg gear without buying them thru the rep system. Normal STF's are simply another dilith farming mission. Heh, I've even de-tuned my ship because using a Mk 12 omega set makes it too easy, but training noobs is fun.
Personally, I use non-elite STF runs as a "how crazy can I be and still not fail the optional" relaxation technique when I don't feel like having to run the risk of carrying an ESTF team.
Personally, I use non-elite STF runs as a "how crazy can I be and still not fail the optional" relaxation technique when I don't feel like having to run the risk of carrying an ESTF team.
Heh, I tried that but after a few dozen drops were slaughtered by leavers I had to equip sensibly enough to carry a team 2 guys short if needed, but still not OP enough to be able to do it alone.
It gets to be real fun doing a 3-man run in a beam only cruiser.
Heh, I tried that but after a few dozen drops were slaughtered by leavers I had to equip sensibly enough to carry a team 2 guys short if needed, but still not OP enough to be able to do it alone.
It gets to be real fun doing a 3-man run in a beam only cruiser.
I take the exact opposite tack and roll in fully kitted, then see what sort of shenanigans I can get up to. You'd be surprised the kind of hilarious group talk that happens when you start dogfighting all six ambushing Raptors in Cure Space.
Speaking of researching builds, that is far easier said than done. I've lurked on the forums/academy, read through he wiki, and sat down and made a frickin excel spreadsheet of the skill tree taking the top 7 rated builds shared by players and then added on the recommendations found in an academy guide, and you know what I learned? Points in weapons training, targeting systems, energy weapons and shield systems everyone agrees should be maxed. Ok good I figured that out on my own. All the other skills? disagreement, sometimes significant. Every person put different points in different skills. One guy put 2 in power insulators, one guy put 3, and the others didn't put any. A couple people maxed out projectile weapons, some had it to 5 or 6, and 2 avoided it entirely. In short - clear as mud.
And gear? Dont get me started on the competing ideas, perspectives and opinions on gear. "Everyone agrees" on nothing. Aegis is good/bad. Borg adapted is the best/weaksauce. MACO was the best now X is. Eventually all gear guides just offer competing theories and then put some game tooltip information up on each piece of gear and say - now use what you've learned and decide for yourself.
Discussions and guides regarding gameplay/strategy/ship kitting offer such competing and dissonant perspectives, reading them in an attempt to understand where to focus largely amounts an exercise in frustration. For example, this is what I learned from reading the forums and guides on BOFF abilities:
A: Definitely take THY
B: No no, take torp spread.
C: No! Take both and use them situationally, NO! take neither, use the Harh'peng - that frees up a tac BOff slot for APB.
A: APB? You don't want that, everyone has it and it doesn't stack, you're better off going with APOIII to synergize with your CRF.
B: CRF? Nooo you do way more dps with CSV and torp spread.
A: Yea you do more dps, but it doesn't kill stuff as quickly because it's spread out over multiple targets, and forget being able to burn down a tac cube.
B: Well you just need to put points in SCI/ENG Team to heal through the attacks on single target bosses.
C: No, those share a cool down with Tac Team, which you should have two of and keep always up/rotating.
A: No no, take one tac team get the cooldown reducing doff, and have 2 EPtS always up/rotating.
B: Well whatever BOff abilities you pick, just make sure when you gear out to get DHC plasma, those do the most dps.
A: No they don't the energy drain is too high and the proc is trivial damage. you really want 2 DHC 1 DC and 1 torp, and go with polaron/disruptors, your kill time will be quicker.
B: The DHC dont get off as many shots and they take longer between volleys. Try 2 DC and 1DHC when you pop CRF it'll just be awesome.
C: Well you know what's even more awesome? No torpedo, all cannons, that way you can stack an extra tac console on there to boost your cannon dps even more, save your BOff skill point in THY/S and focus everyone on cannon damage.
A: No no the energy drain will be too much, when that forth cannon goes it'll be shooting at a 60 power level if you have all heavys.............
So TL;DR - This game is fun and easy to play hard to master. For a new player, from the start they are overwhelmed with a lot of information, and still don't get half the information they need. When they turn to the forums or wiki or academy for guides, they get a lot of outdated or conflicting opinions. When they try to learn by doing, they TRIBBLE up, and the pug fails and the team blames the player. So yes some STF tutorial, skill point/BOFF abilitiy/gear explanation/tutorials would be greatly appreciated by any new player who wants to learn and get better not just absentmindedly press spacebar while munching doritos and watching Barney Miller (that's a great show, btw)
This is actually a very good thing. It means that there is no one build to rule them all. It means lots of things are viable.
This is actually a very good thing. It means that there is no one build to rule them all. It means lots of things are viable.
Perhaps that's what it means. Even if so, there's a difference between good and passable. I think several of the people in this thread actually made the point that ANY build/gear is viable in anything other than ESTFs.
Most importantly, though, as that illustrates, is there are so many things that are related and interdependent on each other that certain builds only work for certain play styles, or X skill is only good if taken with skills Y and Z, or using X weapon is useless unless you have Y gear/console to buff it, etc. Some of THAT is never really explained and all of that is exactly what I am looking for from either the game or the guides.
So how do I know if the set up I picked is only viable? How do I know that I could do 4k more dps is I'd only max out X skill etc etc. This kind of information is good and necessary, and generally lacking, especially in game.
Thus the thread's central point, and my concurrence: More tutorials/explanations/information available in game please.
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::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
I think that a huge part of the problem is that usually people have a hard time remembering. When you are better at something you seem to forget times in which you were terrible at it.
Also people tend to think that everyone else needs to have the same approach to the game as they do. Well, not everyone wants to be the best of the best nor do they want to know every little aspect of the game and know every little equation to give a plus 0.00000000001% increase to shield stregth or whatever. Some people like to press a button and see everything blow up, others want a more "realistic" feel of strategy and action. Others, even, something in between. All is fine, and this should be achieved via the game difficulty, but unfortunately it's not.
As someone said (although it's a bit of semantics) elite is not exactly the same as elitist. I believe most elitists think they are elite. Most elite are thought to be that by others, not themselves.
Oh and about borg neural processors, you do get them in normal STF's. I only do normal STF's and I had 49 (already spent 20) in my main toon. I have a few more on my Romulan. Sometimes you get 5 at a time, but usually when you do get them is only 1.
Oh and about borg neural processors, you do get them in normal STF's. I only do normal STF's and I had 49 (already spent 20) in my main toon. I have a few more on my Romulan. Sometimes you get 5 at a time, but usually when you do get them is only 1.
There's no way to reliably farm them from normal STFs. You will get either 1, 5 or 11 very occasionally as a random bonus drop at the end.
The best way to get them is to run Elites, where you're guaranteed one per run.
So the biggest suggestion out of this topic so far is for there to be detailed information on how to play "correctly" built into the game for folks to read as they level? You're actually wanting players to pause in their playing and "RTFM"? Seriously?
Don't ya'll know the old saying - "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink?"
Play YOUR game YOUR way and leave others to play THEIR game THEIR way. Eventually you'll both learn to get along together to have fun.
That or your parents will get in a knock-down, hair-pulling, bottle throwing free-for-all! :eek:
First of all, welcome to the game. Hope you stick around.
I only started playing about a year ago, and had the same situation as you. I didn't level up quite as fast, but it only took me maybe 3 weeks of casual play. I jumped in a brand new Multi Vector Advanced Escort and started dipping my toe into STFs (at the time, this was the only thing to do at end game). I also started reading the forums. Here's a list of things the game did not teach me, that I had to either learn the hard way or from other players:
1. Beam arrays are not appropriate on escorts. DHCs up front, turrets in the back. Include dual beams, torpedoes and mines to taste.
2. What the hell my Boff abilities do, what compliments/stacks with what, and the fact that you can cycle two copies of something.
3. What the hell my captain abilities do, and how they relate to the above
4. How to choose good active duty Doffs and how important they can be to a build
5. The sacred holy tenet of not exploding in an escort: cycle Emergency to Shields and Tac Team
6. What actually matters in your skill tree and how to choose gear that compliments it
7. Why I should give a damn about the KDF
Most of what I had to learn the hard way is now covered in the very handy Hilbert Guide! If you wanted that simple, cookie cutter, "Here, just do this" baseline, the Hilbert Guide is it. It's framed as a guide to PvP, but a build that works in PvP will be great in PvE too. Hilbert Guide, read it, live it, love it. Once you've got that down, you can start to look at people's wildly differing opinions on the details and make your own educated judgements on them.
I am still learning a lot, and I've figured out some, but things like
4. How to choose good active duty Doffs and how important they can be to a build
and
6. What actually matters in your skill tree and how to choose gear that compliments it
7. Why I should give a damn about the KDF
are still giving me trouble. I think the game is very fun, and not nearly as grindy as it could be. I haven't even done half the quests. I got to 50 so quickly because I would do more Starbase 24s and Mirror Universe events than I would do quests just because that was so much fun. The fast leveling was an unexpected and happy byproduct.
Thanks for the Hilbert Guide tip. I stumbled across it earlier and just bookmarked it for use on keybinding stuff to the spacebar (which is awesome). I didn't see it as a PvE guide for gear/skills, so I ignored his PvP recommendations. I'll have to go back and give it another look.
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::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
The sad fact is, there is 'elitism' on this game (Il shall explain my meaning in a sec).
Its all too evident in PvP, someone new to it asks a question and either gets a 'Lol noob' back or 'Do PvP bootcamp'. Sorry, thats a lazy way of brushing someone off because you cant be bothered with giving pointers to a newer player.
My explanation to elitism is as follows.
Elitism is where a member of a 'community' places themselves higher than others, or they think their skillsets are better, it is also when this top end person abuses or insults others due to their lack of knowledge but further goes on to not actually help further the others knowledge.
It can also be put down to people who think they are superior because they have paid more money for items/kit/subs, whatever. (Minority number of gold members, this means you, by minority I mean a tiny amount).
Elitists also tend to have a small number of 'fanboys' following them, they will also cry, scream and kick until something goes their way.
Controversially (from witnessing behaviour in the past on here, on the game and across other hobbies) they have also been known to use less than above board tactics/kit/gear (in regards to bugs/glitches/known issues) etc to maintain dominance in what ever field they run.
Sadly, elitism is in all walks of life, no matter where you go.
Two of my hobbies both have elitists in them.
Strangely all of the above is applicable.
level progression is just to fast for the players to actually learn the game by the time they get to the level 50 cap and end game.
1. slow down the amount of time it takes to level. It's just way to fast.
2. More low level content is needed for the Romulan and KDF progression so these two factions level at the same rate as the Federation faction players (who do have a great deal of additional content available..that became "misplaced" when the mission guide was introduced)
3. Some additional in game tutorials to introduce players to new capabilities, with a much better explaination of some of the game mechanics. (after 3 years of play much of them are still pretty obscure even to we vets..far to much is "tribal Knowledge" and if a new player doesn't have a vet player around to talk to ..that has that knowledge.. they're simply not going to learn the little tiny, important little mechanics.
Comments
Funny you should say that, I got told today in Azure Nebula that I shouldn't bother disabling tractor beams and just shoot everything in sight because "you get the same marks anyway"
I also got called a noob, for not knowing this "obvious" point.
I am brand new to STO and F2P. Perhaps the fresh perspective of someone new to the game will aid in a better understanding for the experienced and jaded.
I agree with many who in this thread say that the game needs to do a better job at teaching you mechanics and skills and strategy.
I rolled a toon about a week before LoR dropped and did the tutorial. It was brief, the amount of infomation it threw at your was immense, and it didn't cover any battle tactics/strategy. In short, the opening introduction that new players get to this game is information overload, throwing all kinds of information at you in a relatively short periiod of time, while alomst completely avoiding anything related to BOff abilites/setups/skill point allocations/tactics/strategy etc.
I'm level 50, and got there in a week. I've been playing for a month now and I just learned YESTERDAY that there are Doff assignments on your ship. I never even went inside my ship before because it just says 'visit bridge', which, to me, implies I can go do a little RP and sit in my captains chair.
I did a cultural exchange at Starfleet academy running around at level 4-5 (not part of the tutorial, by the way) but did not realize until this week that you could repeat those missions. I thought you got one free vulcan/andorian/tellerite and that was it.
I did STFs on normal. To learn and get a feel for strategy. I figured I had picked up what to do/how to do it well enough, so I stuck a toe into an elite STF. First off, 1 shot 1 kill will heavy plasma torp from a cube whilst killing its nanite regeners. Respawn. Happens again, so not a lucky crit. Stuff hits alot harder in here, and the price of those mistakes was ship damage for the first time ever. Luckily I had some major components saved. And just as I learn to dps from underneath the generators to be out of the cube's range, the Kang dies to some escaped raptors, and I've somehow cost the rest of the pug the victory because I'm in an escort and should be on Kang duty. That was not said anywhere in the guides. S I'm just too undergeared. But I had heard, if you know the strategy of what to do, gear doesn't matter. I'm in no mk XII stuff, but mostly blues XI and a couple greens. o to recap - normal STFs I dont die don't have to use my precious few major components, and we can beat the mission and get marks. So I still do STFs on normal.
I relied on the tool tips on my skill points to guide me in picking where I wanted to put my points. Shields and pew pew seemed a safe bet so in went points to shield emitters because it improved shield repair. Then around level 40 or so, I realize that's not just a general passive buff for better shields that's for specific healing abilities! I'm a tac officer, I only have one guy that heals my shields with one ability, I'm not wasting precious points in that. I'll just take points in shield systems instead. But I should re-spec because those points in emitters are going to cost me a rank or two in something I need later. So I payed for a respec. Then I get to 50, do significant research into skill builds, and find out, oh yea, even though 2 of your 15 abilities as a tac officier are shield heals, you should put points in shield emitters to make those heals better.
Speaking of researching builds, that is far easier said than done. I've lurked on the forums/academy, read through he wiki, and sat down and made a frickin excel spreadsheet of the skill tree taking the top 7 rated builds shared by players and then added on the recommendations found in an academy guide, and you know what I learned? Points in weapons training, targeting systems, energy weapons and shield systems everyone agrees should be maxed. Ok good I figured that out on my own. All the other skills? disagreement, sometimes significant. Every person put different points in different skills. One guy put 2 in power insulators, one guy put 3, and the others didn't put any. A couple people maxed out projectile weapons, some had it to 5 or 6, and 2 avoided it entirely. In short - clear as mud.
And gear? Dont get me started on the competing ideas, perspectives and opinions on gear. "Everyone agrees" on nothing. Aegis is good/bad. Borg adapted is the best/weaksauce. MACO was the best now X is. Eventually all gear guides just offer competing theories and then put some game tooltip information up on each piece of gear and say - now use what you've learned and decide for yourself.
Discussions and guides regarding gameplay/strategy/ship kitting offer such competing and dissonant perspectives, reading them in an attempt to understand where to focus largely amounts an exercise in frustration. For example, this is what I learned from reading the forums and guides on BOFF abilities:
A: Definitely take THY
B: No no, take torp spread.
C: No! Take both and use them situationally,
A: APB? You don't want that, everyone has it and it doesn't stack, you're better off going with APOIII to synergize with your CRF.
B: CRF? Nooo you do way more dps with CSV and torp spread.
A: Yea you do more dps, but it doesn't kill stuff as quickly because it's spread out over multiple targets, and forget being able to burn down a tac cube.
B: Well you just need to put points in SCI/ENG Team to heal through the attacks on single target bosses.
C: No, those share a cool down with Tac Team, which you should have two of and keep always up/rotating.
A: No no, take one tac team get the cooldown reducing doff, and have 2 EPtS always up/rotating.
B: Well whatever BOff abilities you pick, just make sure when you gear out to get DHC plasma, those do the most dps.
A: No they don't the energy drain is too high and the proc is trivial damage. you really want 2 DHC 1 DC and 1 torp, and go with polaron/disruptors, your kill time will be quicker.
B: The DHC dont get off as many shots and they take longer between volleys. Try 2 DC and 1DHC when you pop CRF it'll just be awesome.
C: Well you know what's even more awesome? No torpedo, all cannons, that way you can stack an extra tac console on there to boost your cannon dps even more, save your BOff skill point in THY/S and focus everyone on cannon damage.
A: No no the energy drain will be too much, when that forth cannon goes it'll be shooting at a 60 power level if you have all heavys.............
So TL;DR - This game is fun and easy to play hard to master. For a new player, from the start they are overwhelmed with a lot of information, and still don't get half the information they need. When they turn to the forums or wiki or academy for guides, they get a lot of outdated or conflicting opinions. When they try to learn by doing, they TRIBBLE up, and the pug fails and the team blames the player. So yes some STF tutorial, skill point/BOFF abilitiy/gear explanation/tutorials would be greatly appreciated by any new player who wants to learn and get better not just absentmindedly press spacebar while munching doritos and watching Barney Miller (that's a great show, btw)
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
I agree with your point but also when someone asks for help and they get picked on by being called Noob all the time they get tired of asking. I just wonder whatever happened to common decency? to treat everyone the same?
I will admit i know i am not great at playing STO though i play it the way i want to. I have aksed on serveral occassions for a good build of ship etc and got nothing but bullying off of here so I quit asking.
As for fleets some fleets are no help or they say join us and we will help as long as you help build our fleet base. Then they never help, or they say you are no good leave or just never help. So that is why people are fed up with a lot of this, there needs to be an overhaul on how people in this game treat other players.........
my thoughts on elitism? i have recently let myself think myself arrogantly above anyone else in game, talked down to them or failed to just get involved in teams on purpose (strictly to find out what it is like on the other side), its a horrible horrible thing to do to simply call a person a noob and bait them about it...
i was right on my initial thought; get your head out and help these players instead of complaining about them. is it so hard to type on your keyboard to the team? or even offer free equipment to help them out? are people really that distrustful and greedy that they cant do something to help themselves by helping others, that sort of thing.
so my opinion on elitists is simple, dont become one.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
If you have problems with "noobs" (An Elitist insult) then don't do PuG's, Join a fleet or make one, make some friends that are as good if not better than you are at the game and do all the more difficult content with them..... problem solved.
| Join Date: January 2009 | Computer | Fleet: Broken Wings |
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Aye, I have about 15. I haven't touched an elite since S6 made it impossible to get MACO/Omega/KHG/Borg gear without buying them thru the rep system. Normal STF's are simply another dilith farming mission. Heh, I've even de-tuned my ship because using a Mk 12 omega set makes it too easy, but training noobs is fun.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
Personally, I use non-elite STF runs as a "how crazy can I be and still not fail the optional" relaxation technique when I don't feel like having to run the risk of carrying an ESTF team.
Heh, I tried that but after a few dozen drops were slaughtered by leavers I had to equip sensibly enough to carry a team 2 guys short if needed, but still not OP enough to be able to do it alone.
It gets to be real fun doing a 3-man run in a beam only cruiser.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
I take the exact opposite tack and roll in fully kitted, then see what sort of shenanigans I can get up to. You'd be surprised the kind of hilarious group talk that happens when you start dogfighting all six ambushing Raptors in Cure Space.
This is actually a very good thing. It means that there is no one build to rule them all. It means lots of things are viable.
Perhaps that's what it means. Even if so, there's a difference between good and passable. I think several of the people in this thread actually made the point that ANY build/gear is viable in anything other than ESTFs.
Most importantly, though, as that illustrates, is there are so many things that are related and interdependent on each other that certain builds only work for certain play styles, or X skill is only good if taken with skills Y and Z, or using X weapon is useless unless you have Y gear/console to buff it, etc. Some of THAT is never really explained and all of that is exactly what I am looking for from either the game or the guides.
So how do I know if the set up I picked is only viable? How do I know that I could do 4k more dps is I'd only max out X skill etc etc. This kind of information is good and necessary, and generally lacking, especially in game.
Thus the thread's central point, and my concurrence: More tutorials/explanations/information available in game please.
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
Also people tend to think that everyone else needs to have the same approach to the game as they do. Well, not everyone wants to be the best of the best nor do they want to know every little aspect of the game and know every little equation to give a plus 0.00000000001% increase to shield stregth or whatever. Some people like to press a button and see everything blow up, others want a more "realistic" feel of strategy and action. Others, even, something in between. All is fine, and this should be achieved via the game difficulty, but unfortunately it's not.
As someone said (although it's a bit of semantics) elite is not exactly the same as elitist. I believe most elitists think they are elite. Most elite are thought to be that by others, not themselves.
Oh and about borg neural processors, you do get them in normal STF's. I only do normal STF's and I had 49 (already spent 20) in my main toon. I have a few more on my Romulan. Sometimes you get 5 at a time, but usually when you do get them is only 1.
There's no way to reliably farm them from normal STFs. You will get either 1, 5 or 11 very occasionally as a random bonus drop at the end.
The best way to get them is to run Elites, where you're guaranteed one per run.
Kirk's Protege.
I know it's not a given. But people said you HAD to do Elite to get them. You don't
Don't ya'll know the old saying - "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink?"
Play YOUR game YOUR way and leave others to play THEIR game THEIR way. Eventually you'll both learn to get along together to have fun.
That or your parents will get in a knock-down, hair-pulling, bottle throwing free-for-all! :eek:
First of all, welcome to the game. Hope you stick around.
I only started playing about a year ago, and had the same situation as you. I didn't level up quite as fast, but it only took me maybe 3 weeks of casual play. I jumped in a brand new Multi Vector Advanced Escort and started dipping my toe into STFs (at the time, this was the only thing to do at end game). I also started reading the forums. Here's a list of things the game did not teach me, that I had to either learn the hard way or from other players:
1. Beam arrays are not appropriate on escorts. DHCs up front, turrets in the back. Include dual beams, torpedoes and mines to taste.
2. What the hell my Boff abilities do, what compliments/stacks with what, and the fact that you can cycle two copies of something.
3. What the hell my captain abilities do, and how they relate to the above
4. How to choose good active duty Doffs and how important they can be to a build
5. The sacred holy tenet of not exploding in an escort: cycle Emergency to Shields and Tac Team
6. What actually matters in your skill tree and how to choose gear that compliments it
7. Why I should give a damn about the KDF
Most of what I had to learn the hard way is now covered in the very handy Hilbert Guide! If you wanted that simple, cookie cutter, "Here, just do this" baseline, the Hilbert Guide is it. It's framed as a guide to PvP, but a build that works in PvP will be great in PvE too. Hilbert Guide, read it, live it, love it. Once you've got that down, you can start to look at people's wildly differing opinions on the details and make your own educated judgements on them.
I am still learning a lot, and I've figured out some, but things like
and
are still giving me trouble. I think the game is very fun, and not nearly as grindy as it could be. I haven't even done half the quests. I got to 50 so quickly because I would do more Starbase 24s and Mirror Universe events than I would do quests just because that was so much fun. The fast leveling was an unexpected and happy byproduct.
Thanks for the Hilbert Guide tip. I stumbled across it earlier and just bookmarked it for use on keybinding stuff to the spacebar (which is awesome). I didn't see it as a PvE guide for gear/skills, so I ignored his PvP recommendations. I'll have to go back and give it another look.
::WARNING:: This game is not intended for use as a source of self-esteem.
Its all too evident in PvP, someone new to it asks a question and either gets a 'Lol noob' back or 'Do PvP bootcamp'. Sorry, thats a lazy way of brushing someone off because you cant be bothered with giving pointers to a newer player.
My explanation to elitism is as follows.
Elitism is where a member of a 'community' places themselves higher than others, or they think their skillsets are better, it is also when this top end person abuses or insults others due to their lack of knowledge but further goes on to not actually help further the others knowledge.
It can also be put down to people who think they are superior because they have paid more money for items/kit/subs, whatever. (Minority number of gold members, this means you, by minority I mean a tiny amount).
Elitists also tend to have a small number of 'fanboys' following them, they will also cry, scream and kick until something goes their way.
Controversially (from witnessing behaviour in the past on here, on the game and across other hobbies) they have also been known to use less than above board tactics/kit/gear (in regards to bugs/glitches/known issues) etc to maintain dominance in what ever field they run.
Sadly, elitism is in all walks of life, no matter where you go.
Two of my hobbies both have elitists in them.
Strangely all of the above is applicable.
1. slow down the amount of time it takes to level. It's just way to fast.
2. More low level content is needed for the Romulan and KDF progression so these two factions level at the same rate as the Federation faction players (who do have a great deal of additional content available..that became "misplaced" when the mission guide was introduced)
3. Some additional in game tutorials to introduce players to new capabilities, with a much better explaination of some of the game mechanics. (after 3 years of play much of them are still pretty obscure even to we vets..far to much is "tribal Knowledge" and if a new player doesn't have a vet player around to talk to ..that has that knowledge.. they're simply not going to learn the little tiny, important little mechanics.