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princedimwitprincedimwit Member Posts: 230 Arc User
edited June 2013 in The Academy
Hey folks.

Last night, I took part in a couple of PVPs and I found myself both getting killed every 15 seconds and when I was able to maintain fire on an enemy combatant, his shields didn't even flinch.

I've gotten a lot of really helpful advice from my fleetmates but I wanted to know what some of you think about me getting fitted so I'm a little more less squishy.

What I can do: I can hold my own pretty well in all deepspace encounters. The Tholian one, I do pretty well at. Occasionally when I'm facing down multiple Recluses and support ships myself, I can go boom after a while. The Borg DSE I'm not so good at.

I'm okay at STFs. I can take on a spawning cube alone if I'm lucky but the explosion usually catches me and I'll explode along with it. Probes and spheres, no problem. My max to date DPS in an STF is about 6k.

Here's what my consoles look like:

consoles_zps801f79a4.png

I've got the plasmonic leach, Omega shields and deflector and other what I think are useful tools.

Here are my BOff's skills:

skills_zps5ea722a2.png

and my personal skills set:
respec_zps03a4b3e2.png

I imagine I have some work to do here.

What I'd like is to increase my DPS to about 10k and to be a heck of a lot less squishy in battle.

I like having cannons. I don't mind phasers and I've put a bit of time and effort into getting the fleet advanced ones so I think I'm all set with those. I just think that Federation ships should be running phasers. Just me, though.

What's been suggested is to get three purple technician DOffs to help with aux2batt and a blue Romulan tactical officer. Don't exactly remember right now. They also suggest I get a lobi store console - the tackyokinetic converter.

So, any help you can provide would be most helpful!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by princedimwit on

Comments

  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    for starters. all those skills at 9 arent really necessary, 6 gives you optimal skill points to stats ratio on skills, so 7-9 are unnecessary for most skills, you could spread those other skill points out into stuff like the hull plating and armor reinforcements, which is where you will get all your base resists from.

    also.,.. look into Mk XII shields. mk X shields just means you need more shield heal skills to keep them form getting blown through.

    the science consoles that increase shield capacity are also worth it to look into.

    Edit: Ps. your first link doesnt work, and the link to your "boff skills" is actually a link to your ship equipment.
  • princedimwitprincedimwit Member Posts: 230 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    thanks for the heads-up. corrected.

    As for skill points, don't really need them as I'm level 50 and I have quite an excess now as it it. Unless there's some other reason not to max everything out.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • hank900hank900 Member Posts: 88 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    PvP is a players game, most build their ships for one thing, DPS. They have so much defense built in, it is hard to get them. The weapons are made to strip your shields, and then take your hull down. IMO, I build mine to be heavy on shields and hull heals, hull plates only do so much. There are countless threads in here on what people do and how they build them to win. The best thing to do is keep doing PvP and dying, its how you learn what and what not to do.
    http://www.1279sto.com[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • darkjeffdarkjeff Member Posts: 2,590 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I can't really make out the icons, but are you running two Tac Teams and an Eng Team? You can only ever have 2 teams active without wasting cooldowns...
  • earwigvr6earwigvr6 Member Posts: 293 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    They also do what I would consider cheating....

    They keybind everything to the space bar so when they fire, they fire everything they havem they rotate their sheilds to the side the dmg is being dealt, they activate any buffs to defense etc...

    Basically everything with the press of one button.

    Unless you plan on doing the same then I wouldn't even bother.

    I have no interest in having everything done for me so I don't play...
  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    thanks for the heads-up. corrected.

    As for skill points, don't really need them as I'm level 50 and I have quite an excess now as it it. Unless there's some other reason not to max everything out.

    just because you have a ton of skill points, doesn't mean you can put them all in your captain skills. you have a hard cap of how many you can put in there, so where you put them IS going to matter.


    you will never ever be able to fill every single skill to max.

    maxxing out alll your lower tier skills means you will have less for the higher tier space. same with ground, never put i more than you have to if you want to be competitive in space.
  • princedimwitprincedimwit Member Posts: 230 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    darkjeff wrote: »
    I can't really make out the icons, but are you running two Tac Teams and an Eng Team? You can only ever have 2 teams active without wasting cooldowns...

    When one has begun its cooldown, it starts at 30 seconds or so, the other is also counting down but from 15 seconds.

    I use keybinds as well. Helps in STFs. Set up the keybinds and press f1 to trigger everything in the top two trays. Bottom trays are for emergency stuff and things that have a long cooldown. Also keeps my hands free for cigarettes or a soda.

    So, fewer points to a skill and I can divvy them up between more things than if I have them all maxed out, right? Are there any that you can see that I might not need if I'm wanting superior firepower and being able to tank the eff out of my ship?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    So, fewer points to a skill and I can divvy them up between more things than if I have them all maxed out, right? Are there any that you can see that I might not need if I'm wanting superior firepower and being able to tank the eff out of my ship?

    well, hull repair boosts really only matter out of combat, since your hull repair passive is negligible in combat, so that you can drop down to six.... most of your starship power related skills (engine/warp core performance/efficiency etc.) isn't necessary to have 9 points in. as its like a 2 power point difference between 6 and 9 in those. and remember, some of them only work when your TOTAL power in those systems (not setting) is under 75. so if you run standard tac "all power to weapons" you really dont need the weapon power one that high. Also, since your running plasmodic leech you can cut these skills all down to 6 and maintain a descent power level. subsystem repair isn't necessary to have all 9.

    all the ones in the sci/ops section can be cut down to 6. you could drop driver coil down to 6, since if you want higher defenses its actual starship impulse thrusters you need higher, bump that one upto 6 which will make you harder to hit.

    im not going to comment on the energy/projectile weapon ones, but i don't think you need 9 points in maneuvers since you only have 1 BO attack pattern power, so at most you will only have two. now if you had APO on one of your tac slots, i'd say keep it at 9, but you don't, so drop it to 6.

    Edit: also, something you didnt list, what are your power settings at? is it a custome setting, do you always run in attack mode? or what?

    also, i see you only got one hull heal and 3 shield heals. If you insist on running that type of setup I'd recommend a mk xii shield that has high capacity or regen, as always running EPtS will give you better shield resists and big shield heals whenever you refresh it. i'd recommending swapping out the engineering team for aux to structural integrity, as if you ever need a hull heal you'll be sacrificing your Tac team for a short while. as i see your running a dual EPtS + tac team setup. while aux to Structural isnt as effective as eng team (no debuff cleanse), it does give resistance bonuses that eng team doesnt and wont put your tac teams on cooldown.
  • lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
    edited June 2013
    earwigvr6 wrote: »
    They also do what I would consider cheating....

    They keybind everything to the space bar so when they fire, they fire everything they havem they rotate their sheilds to the side the dmg is being dealt, they activate any buffs to defense etc...

    Basically everything with the press of one button.

    Unless you plan on doing the same then I wouldn't even bother.

    I have no interest in having everything done for me so I don't play...

    Not cheating, it's a game feature, and a well documented one.
  • naeviusnaevius Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    My space bar is linked to weapons, distribute shields, two copies of tac team, and two copies of Emergency Power To Shields. So Tac Team and EPtS are up as much as possible, and I am constantly re-distributing my shields.

    This is the beginning of how to stay alive in PvP. Pop into the PvP forums and learn more!

    >>>Basically everything with the press of one button.

    That is false, since every button press still only activates one power.
    _________________________________________________
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  • princedimwitprincedimwit Member Posts: 230 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I'm a science captain flying a 10k+ DPS ship

    I replaced my engineering team I with transfer shield strength II and adjusted my levels to:

    100 weapons, 35 shields, 50 engines and 15 aux. Don't know if those are right. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

    Apparently, engineering team wouldn't work at all given I already have two "teams". I have two tactical team II's between two BOffs so the cooldown for each is reduced after activation.

    Trying to figure out how to keep my energy allocation sliders locked.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Trying to figure out how to keep my energy allocation sliders locked.

    first make sure you have one of the 4 presets selected, i usually go for balanced when making my custom slider, then select number 3 where it the 3 numbers on the power setting bar is, it'll bring up the sliders and when you adjust one to where you like it, there should be a little lock icon under the slider, click that and it will lock that one in place. once you got all four to a setting you like, click the floppy disk save icon, and presto, they will stay that way forever.... or until you switch ships.

    and a question. Why another shield heal instead of picking up a hull heal? your build now has no way to heal from Plasma DoT's or shield bleedthrough damage.

    that is why i recommended Aux to SIF. that is the only other engineering hull heal in the game. if your not going to use Aux to SIF, i at least recommend swapping your sci slot out for Hazard Emitters.
  • princedimwitprincedimwit Member Posts: 230 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Done and it's working nicely!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    well, glad i was able to help you out there.
  • darkjeffdarkjeff Member Posts: 2,590 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    You should have Hazard Emitters 1 and Transfer Shield Strength 2. HE1 is sufficient for topping you up and cleansing debuffs like the Borg Shield Neutralizer or Plasma Fires, and TSS is an excellent shield heal/resist.
    When one has begun its cooldown, it starts at 30 seconds or so, the other is also counting down but from 15 seconds.
    Yes, that's my point. Global cooldown for Teams is 15 seconds, duplicate cooldown for Teams is 30s. Looks like you've figured it out already though, so I will omit a more detailed explanation.
    So, fewer points to a skill and I can divvy them up between more things than if I have them all maxed out, right? Are there any that you can see that I might not need if I'm wanting superior firepower and being able to tank the eff out of my ship?
    First of all, there's never enough points for everything you want/need to maximize DPS and survivability, so they are a limited and valuable resource.

    While all returns scale linearly with Skill Level, Skill Ranks 7-9 give less Skill Level per rank than Skill Ranks 4-6, which give less Skill Level per rank than Skill Ranks 1-3. This means high ranks of skills give lower returns than lower ranks. What this tells us is that you shouldn't waste your points into ranks 7-9 unless it's providing a good effect.

    Starship Maneuvers and Starship Targeting Systems give Defense and Accuracy boosts, which are difficult to get from other means, so Rank 9 in them isn't a bad thing.

    At Rank 6, Starship Warp Core Potential gives +54 power at a setting of 50. At Rank 9, Starship Warp Core Potential also gives +54 power at a setting of 50. Given that systems you want to have power in (like Weapons and Shields) will be set to at least 50 power, Starship Warp Core Potential at Rank 9 is a bad thing.

    Something similar applies to Starship Warp Core Efficiency, at a power setting of 50 there is no difference between Rank 6 and Rank 9.

    The difference between Rank 6 and Rank 9 for the various Starship <System> Performance skills are only 2, so it's not that great an investment either.

    Starship Subsystem Repair has conflicting reports on if it works at all, but existing anecdotal evidence suggests Rank 9 has a negligible bonus (as in one at best) compared to Rank 6.

    It does make a difference to free up points being wasted in inefficient skills, as the freed up points can be invested in more useful things. Weapon Specialization will increase your DPS, and the damage resistance skills (Starship Hull Plating/Starship Armor Reinforcements) at Rank 6 are equal to a +12 damage resistance (magnitude) console.

    Refer to this chart so you can invest your skill points better.

    (Obviously the Driver Coil skill is a waste of points for combat, but handy for touring the galaxy and quality of life purposes.)
  • earwigvr6earwigvr6 Member Posts: 293 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    What is the point of having the extra 3 tiers if they do pretty much nothing in most cases ?
  • scurry5scurry5 Member Posts: 1,554 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    For PvP, APB is generally a less-than good idea as its debuff is cleared by TT as long as it's up. Most escort pilots generally go for APD instead. Also, I noted that you have no counters for holds, meaning a tractor beam would kill you. I suggest swapping out a torp skill for APO to deal with this.

    Also, Hazard Emitters is IMO more useful than TSS, as it clears any plasma burns along with Warp Plasma, along with removing the debuff from Energy Siphon.

    Finally, as for your skills, put some points into Electro-Plasma Systems. This boosts the effect you get from Emergency Power skills, as well as helps you recover from the full impulse power drain quicker.

    Oh, and remove those points from Driver Coil. They do almost nothing in combat.
  • zarathos1978zarathos1978 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Why the heck would one equip APO for it's hold resistance ONLY as this is what you suggest? It's Attack pattern. Use it to buff you damage, not your resistance to holds (though it does help, yes). Need hold resistance - get Polarize Hull. And you have Evasive for free (it's captain skill) and this helps too.

    And it will be best if you have both: APO for damage buff and hold resistance and PH for the time when APO is on CD.
  • scurry5scurry5 Member Posts: 1,554 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Why the heck would one equip APO for it's hold resistance ONLY as this is what you suggest? It's Attack pattern. Use it to buff you damage, not your resistance to holds (though it does help, yes). Need hold resistance - get Polarize Hull. And you have Evasive for free (it's captain skill) and this helps too.

    And it will be best if you have both: APO for damage buff and hold resistance and PH for the time when APO is on CD.

    For a couple of reasons. PH does not help in Grav Wells and EWP. APO gives complete immunity from both of these while it's up, and gives extra damage, plus added defense and mobility. Also, if I read the OP's setup right, it looks like he's using a steamrunner, which has only one sci slot. Not using that Sci slot for HE would leave him vulnerable to a host of other abilities.

    Also, I didn't mean to say it as the sole reason. The damage boost is great too, but in my opinion, it is less important than the mobility buff, especially in a PvP scenario, which is why the mobility was what I mentioned. If it was merely damage he was focusing on, why not just use higher ranks of APD instead? The resistance debuff helps everyone firing at the target too.
  • darkjeffdarkjeff Member Posts: 2,590 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    earwigvr6 wrote: »
    What is the point of having the extra 3 tiers if they do pretty much nothing in most cases ?

    It's only the power-related skills where Tier 7-9 have no benefits over Tier 6 when you're at a power setting of 50 or higher, but that doesn't mean they're completely worthless - the systems you usually set to 25 (perhaps Engines and Aux?) will get a nice boost so that abilities linked to them become stronger than otherwise.
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