As has already been mentioned, take a look at http://hilbertguide.com for some basic advice. It's not specifically for Romulans and the cruiser advice is kind of outdated, but it explains the basics of pvp builds without getting into too much confusing "you need to decide between options A,B and C while thinking of D,E and F". It's a cookie cutter guide to pvp. Not more, not less.
I also have several level 50 characters and, as I have a more casual play style and only enjoy PvP between friends, also suck at PvP.
But having spent quite some time here on the forums and playing the game over the years, I can offer you some suggestions:
If you're serious about PvP, check out the PvP Boot Camp resources. I assume it's not dead and the sub-forum will have a lot of information. Read PvP guides, like Hilbert's.
Check out the Builds and Powers forum to better understand how powers work and how to put things together in a synergistic way. You'll also learn about the latest gimmicks and how to use/deal with them.
Stay the heck out of Kerrat unless you know what you're doing... it will only demoralize newbies.
Specialize. Pick some aspect of supporting a team (healing, debuffing, control, drain, etc) or attacking a group of enemies (DPS, spike, aggro tank, etc.) and specialize in it. That will focus how you allocate skills, what equipment you use, etc. Get good at that and make yourself useful before you try to tackle some other aspect of PvP. Unspecialized newbies (like me) just get dead a lot.
PvP with friends or join a fleet that does PvP. You need a team that isn't going to flame you for making a mistake. (Laughing at you is okay, though)
Finally, most importantly, have fun. Unless you're extremely competitive, winning is everything, and can focus that into becoming an elite PvP player, it doesn't pay to obsess over how bad you suck.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
anti-PvP responses, which are more or less off-topic and borderline trolling.
Hint.
Why is it I keep finding posts from you that are simply abuse of your moderation powers? Moving the thread was a good idea, but the "anti-PvP" responses are not trolling. The OP *ASKED* for options:
To wrap up this extremely long post... I'll be succinct. I have multiple captains at 50. I really suck at pvp. How do I get better? Alternately... what else is there to do?
By definition, anyone giving him alternatives to PvP are answering the question at the end of his post.
First welcome to PvP in STO. It will take you a bit to get the hang or it but its not as hard as some would like you to think.
Just remember everyone respawns now and then even vets... no one lives forever. This isn't STO PVE where you can go a week with out having to see the wonderful job the UI guys did on the respawn timer window. Having said that obviously 5s is not the normal... if she said that to you she was being very nic.... errr never mind.
The Hef is really a Tacs ship... its pretty much your standard escort with a cloak. Having said that I will give you a build for one... when you fly around in PvP you will honestly not see all that many engis on the romulan side of things. Engi in PvP is mainly a healer. I know people will argue otherwise but that really is the design. Having said that you can have some fun flying tactial and even sci ships with an engi. One of the main reasons you don't see a ton of engi captains on Rom side specificly is the Romulan ships "Warbirds" Are all sort of built to do lots of dmg as fast as possible... and not really hang out in fights against ships with more power. Engi in terms of time to kill another player is the worst of the 3 ... so the ships in general Rom side don't play into the strengths of the Engi Career.
IMO PvPing in a Engi Rom... is going to be the most fun in some of the lockbox ship options that forgo the Romulan gimicks in favor of stnadard warp cores and hulls and shields and roles that more suit the Engi class.
As I said though here is a engi Hef build... I will try and explain a few things about the build and the spec that might help you with a few little things you are doing or perhaps not doing right now.
Ok first off here is what I would do if I wanted to fly the combo you are talking about.
- Forget torpedos... they are hard to pull off in PvP... they get no bonus from any of your captain powers as an engi... so might as well skip them.
- Run 2 Rapid fires and 2 Beam Overloads... as an engi you can afford to pop a Overload every 15s in terms of power... and it will give you a nice even spike every 15s.
- hold your Omega in PvP don't always open with it unless your sure you can quickly get a kill (which won't happen often as an engi)... save it to escape tractors and or get a good hard turn to get a good shot at someone.
- Run 2 piece borg set (omega rep) The added hull heal is a good thing to have
- Keep 2-3 power presets ready to go.... standard attack should look something like 100 20 20 20... keep a full aux setting to switch to to boost your heals if needed... and keep a setting with full engines that has a high shield setting in it (so you can get some distance to escape/recloak)
- Run the KCB + Borg console (Omega rep) even on an engi this is going to increase your DPS due to the omega amp weapon proc it gives you
- Get a Fleet Shield as soon as you can... resistant (nothing else for PvP).
- Make sure you are running a Plasmotic Leech console... everyone else is so you are sort of forced to do this in PvP now.
- If you have rom consoles I wouldn't go overboard they make you weak having to dump armor and stuff... I love the singularity inverter though and mostly always find room for it on my warbirds. (if you don't have it its 500 cpoints which makes it the cheapest rom console)
- Aux to Damp... great skill to have on an escort... makes you immune to things like Gravity well... and TBR which are both very popular right now... + with the doff gives you a lot more resist a much better turn rate and is almost always up.
- DOFFs - get 2-3 Damage control doffs so you can keep both EPTS and EPTE up at all times. Also if you are going to run aux to damp you want to get one of the aux to damp matter anti matter doffs... the last slot or two is up to you... if you are new and not sure what to run... something like Hazard doffs are always a good option... when you brace for impact you will be very hard to kill which is always a good extra oh no button with doffs.
- I won't go into a ton of detail on the spec I posted... if you have questions fire away and I will answer as best I can... a few things you HAVE to spec as an engi.. 9 points in battaries ... and as a Rom warbird really 3-6 points in Driver coil. (yes full impulsing with 5 aux is dumb when you are cloaked)
Well wall of text sorry... fire away if you have questions.
not read all of the thread, so i might repeat things:
- pvp is not gear related. u can have fun and be at least a bit competitive with purple mk xi weapons, blue mk xi cons upwards and on a cloaker with battlecloak even with def/eng/shields from the exchange.
- pvp is not all about rep. i know engies without any rep that do just fine in pvp
- clickies might give u advantages, but they dont win games. at least, without clickies u got more room to get some tankyness
search for hilbertguide and take a look at pvp bootcamp subforum are probably the best advices to a newbie without writing a book by oneself .
main problem if ya ask me: the game teaches nothing bout mechanics or builds. u can do all the pve content with almost any senseless combination of spec and gear one can find ...
Why is it I keep finding posts from you that are simply abuse of your moderation powers? Moving the thread was a good idea, but the "anti-PvP" responses are not trolling. The OP *ASKED* for options:
Moving the thread was "use" of the powers, not abuse - abuse would be deleting the thread for no reason, moving out of the way, locking it for no reason.
Moving = proper use of Mod powers.
As for the comment, have you read the sig of Bluegeek. He is allowed an opinion, he is allowed to air his opinion, as long as you know (hence the sig disclaimer) it is a personal opinion.
And as the OP asked the PvP community those questions, the post belongs in the PvP forums.
What am I missing to be competitive in pvp?Is it all ships and gear?
........*snip*.......
So... is it all ships and gear on the pvp landscape?Do I need to plan on dropping 2500 zen on a ship with a huge hull value?Do I need to join a fleet and grind for the XII gear?Is that the only way I will be able to succeed in PVP?
.....*snip*.....
what else do I do at level 50?
.....*snip*.....
How do I get better?Alternately... what else is there to do?
The way it reads to me, it's a story of failed PvP with PvP related questions (highlighted above) with the main question of "How do I get better" this is for the PvP players ~ and we are trying to answer him, except all the anti PvP crowd are just clogging up the thread saying not to bother (by definition off topic / trolling the thread - as it does not answer the main question)
If this had been your thread, and people were just trying to derail it out of spite or hate, you'd be asking Blue to help - think on that.
Stay the heck out of Kerrat unless you know what you're doing... it will only demoralize newbies.
hahahahahahaha and "Admiral Quinn" says you dont enter kerrat...kerrat enters you!!!! an dif you do go you better have some tough skin cause the smack talk can get pretty deep
I started playing them yesterday, went in with what i thought was a good set up and o s--t i dont want to play this any more lol anyway on my 8th attempt after trying diff ships and kit i only die 2 times and was killing them with help so you can have fun but try and stay away from science ship in combat especially if its working with an escort they wipe me out every time, i just time myself to see how long i can last and watch what others do and learn and what weapons they use.
Okay... quick rundown on where I'm at. I just took my Romulan Engineer to 50. I have a Klingon tac 50 and a Fed engineer 31.
Engineers are the least useful career for PvP. Tac's and Sci's rule the PvP landscape. If you're going to fly an engineer you're pretty much relegated to basically only 2 options, a dedicated healer (typically a cruiser, carrier or sci-ship) or a beam-boat (typically a cruiser, carrier or scimitar).
I really blow at PVP. I logged into my first PVP match yesterday. Capture and Hold, I believe. I'm flying a Ha'feh Assault with a "meh" loadout. (2 dual cannons, quantum torp, fore and aft beam Arrays and 2 turrets. All Disruptor and with Disrupter tac consoles.). I have specced for survivability with HE, ET, EPTS and so on. I have a CAPx2 covariant purple shield. Geared towards max shield potential with my skills to recharge it. I flew my ship into the fray and...
You can't go into a PvP match with a "meh" loadout. It has to be fully optimized. You have to think about your weapons and how they can compliment each other, your bridge officer (BO for short) abilities and how they can both compliment your weapons loadout and other BO abilities, and your duty officer lineup which also depends on BO's and weapons. With your current loadout, you will never get through anyone's shields, much less destroy their ship. Not only is the weapon combination you have bad, but you can not get anywhere near a fully optimized BO layout with those weapons.
One of the worst aspects of this game is the huge gulf between what works in PvE (any-and-every-thing no matter how you mix and match) and what works in PvP (only fully optimized builds). This is why you have all these people saying don't bother with PvP. It's because they can't be bothered changing their builds and/or they don't feel they should be forced to have to use team work to win a team-oriented game. In PvE, you can complete every mission except No Win Scenario with absolutely zero team work. In PvP, you just die.
I was vaporized. Took less than 5 seconds from full shields to gone. In a crowd with teammates. I even hit EVERY SINGLE SKILL OR POWER THAT THE GAME WOULD ALLOW ME TO CLICK!!! EPTS, HE, quantum slipstream.... anything and everything with an icon.
That is not how it's done. If you want to survive, you have to time your defensive abilities to where they compliment each other, add resistance, and do not all go to cooldown at the same time, cause if that happens, you will just die.
For instance, here is a sequence of abilities you can use for better defense:
Use Tactical Team when first attacked, which will distribute your shield power to the facing that is being targeted, and try to maneuver your ship out of their firing arc
Use Emergency Power to Shields for resistance and a small shield HP boost (or have this ability constantly cycling, but that's a whole nother topic)
Use Transfer Shield Strength for resistance and a small shield boost
Now, if they get through your shield and start damaging your hull, use Hazard Emitters for hull repair
If you're still dying use Reverse Shield Polarity to refill all of your shields
If you don't have Reverse Shield Polarity available, use evasive maneuvers to get out of their firing arc and/or range
If you're getting hammered and your heals are on cooldown, use Singulartity Jump to escape the fray. Using Evasive after a singularity jump will almost always get you out of range far enough to where you can cloak
There are other ways to defend, but this is just a basic guideline that most builds will be able to use.
What am I missing to be competitive in pvp? Is it all ships and gear? While I KNOW there are many pilots who are considerably better than me, I feel like I'm a decent pilot and have some idea of how to maneuver and set up power rotations. I even have a crew of Romulan Operatives and my weapons are CRH and CRD varieties. I'm not a newb by any means. So... is it all ships and gear on the pvp landscape? Do I need to plan on dropping 2500 zen on a ship with a huge hull value? Do I need to join a fleet and grind for the XII gear? Is that the only way I will be able to succeed in PVP?
Gear does matter, but it's not the be-all, end-all. Joining a fleet to get the high-end fleet gear would be a good idea. Your build, timings, and teamwork are the most important, and from the sounds of it, you are going to need a good amount of practice, trial-and-error, and help from other PvP'ers before you can be competitive at PvP. I have no doubt you are a decent pilot in PvE, but PvP is practically a different game altogether.
ANYBODY can be good at PvP, but NOBODY is good when they first start. A lot of PvE'ers had the expectation that since they're good at PvE that they'd be good at PvP, which is not the case at all. They don't want to put the effort into learning how to PvP so they just denounce it, call it broken, and ridicule it whenever they get the chance. Learning how to be competitive in PvP is not going to be handed to you on a silver platter like all of the PvE content in this game.
good god, the antipvp crybabies never miss an opportunity to say the most vile things about the only game mode that doesn't spoon feed victory to you. its bad enough that they feel the need to say anything at all, but this straw man ego TRIBBLE they keep spouting makes them the worst kind of troll scum. as if anyone enjoys a 1 sided match, the noob or the face roller.
theres a few guides around, like mine sticked in the pvp section and linked in my sig, hilberts guide, boot camp section, all thats a good place to learn your basic entry level must have knowledge. its a good idea to join the opvp channel too, 'tribal knowledge', passed down by more experienced players is were you are likely to learn the most.
the problem is the pve, it doesn't push you to develop any skill, or put you in the right kind of danger that teaches what you need to know to survive true threats. it doesn't mater how good the tutorials are, or how many pop up help windows there are telling you how to do basic things, the npcs are simply to garbage and different from another player ship for your fights with them to prepare you for a threat equal to your own ship.
*right now anyone starting out and with bad gear should run this newest anniversary mission, that gear is by far the best engine, deflector and shield you can get for free.
*if your romulan, id suggest replaying this one elatchi mission over and over till you have farmed out as many of the caustic plasma weapons as you need. they are free and acc2
*start leveling rep, having all the passives will make a big difference, and theres plenty of good gear and sets in the rep system
*join a fleet, earn fleet credits, farm dil, and eventually buy up fleet holding console, shields and weapons
*always keep EPtS on at all times, with 2 copies of it, or with various doffs that can sustain it with just 1 copy of the skill
*if you die and you still have healthy shields in 3 of your 4 faceings, you died because you didn't use tactical team
*keybinds are your friend, multiple execute whole row binds with at least double your 'skill', especially if your computer cant run a 5v5 spam fest at a solid 60fps
Okay... quick rundown on where I'm at. I just took my Romulan Engineer to 50. I have a Klingon tac 50 and a Fed engineer 31.
I have LOVED this game. I was paying for SWTOR and then I logged into this game as a FTP guy and have really, really enjoyed playing. Recently I've been debating spending some some money for a really nice C-store ship or 2.
Which brings me to my questions.
I really blow at PVP. I logged into my first PVP match yesterday. Capture and Hold, I believe. I'm flying a Ha'feh Assault with a "meh" loadout. (2 dual cannons, quantum torp, fore and aft beam Arrays and 2 turrets. All Disruptor and with Disrupter tac consoles.). I have specced for survivability with HE, ET, EPTS and so on. I have a CAPx2 covariant purple shield. Geared towards max shield potential with my skills to recharge it. I flew my ship into the fray and...
Despite what some people tell you, gear is quite important when it comes to PvP, especially shields. A normal covariant shield array can't really handle the firepower some tac/escorts can throw at you. You want something like the elite fleet shields or MACO shield.
Also you NEED tactical team if you don't already have it. As soon as someone notices you're not using it, you'll become their number one target since your shields will be easy to breach.
I was vaporized. Took less than 5 seconds from full shields to gone. In a crowd with teammates. I even hit Miracle worker.
Sadly not much can prevent that, since vaping has gotten so incredibly easy recently, especially with proton barrage being so nuts.
You need to be cycling 2x EPTS (or one if you're only going to stay decloaked for 30 seconds), cycling 2x tactical team, use transfer shield strength. I can not understate the usefulness of tact team, since it auto-redistributes your shields super fast.
Gear wise, if you've already got it, equip the shield absorptive console as it's one of the most overpowered consoles in the game. To deal with a none vape attack, the borg 2-piece set bonus (a 25% hull heal proc) is godly. Field generators are a good idea (you can get a free green one from one of the Romulan missions). Neutronium is also a good idea.
Also try not to stay stationary for too long, that makes you an easy target for vapers.
One huge tip. Don't queue for FvK until you're holding your own in FvF. Unlike the Fed PvPer player base, which has a high variance in skill level, the majority of KDF PvPers are much better than the average Fed player and almost all of them know how to deal real damage.
The trick for PvP is to be actively buffed with resists at all or most of the time. With your ha'feh either have two copies of epts or get 3 blue or better space damage control engineer duty officers so you can cycle epts2 and epte1. For your two ensign level tac powers have TT1. For your science stations have HE1 and TSS2. This gives you the basic setup for survival in PvP.
If you're looking for builds Look up ha'feh builds (obviously) but also look up Patrol Escort builds because they have the same loadout.
From there, experiment with different powers and expect to die a lot at first while you're learning. Because the Ha'feh has a battle cloak, eventually you might be able to drop the epts for eptw, but I would recommend epts first while you're still learning.
epts = emergency power to shields
epte = emergency power to engines
eptw = emergency power to weapons
TT1 = tactical team 1
HE1 = Hazard emitters 1
TSS2 = Transfer sheild strength 2
Since I'm joining the thread rather late, most of what I wanted to say to you has already been said. I'll just touch on a few things:
If you're trying to stay alive, the absolute most important thing that you can do is learn your own heal cycles and know your emergency buttons. As Skurf said earlier, hitting all your buttons at once is probably the quickest way to die once they all go on cooldown; your enemies will pounce on you and you won't have anything to stop them. Stagger your heals; you don't want to overheal and effectively lose a part of your heals. Keep your emergency buttons ready; if you get SNB'ed, you'll have a very short time in which to react, and if you don't have an emergency power (e.g. Rotate Shield Frequency for tanking, or Evasives + Engine Battery for escaping) ready, you're toast. (You'll want to keep emergency buttons ready especially for countering SNB; RSF and Miracle Worker are some great abilities granted by the Engineer class for surviving that critical time.)
If you're determined to play an Eng in PvP, I'd have to agree with Skurf said earlier: being an eng shoehorns you into one of two roles, healer or FAW-boat. The good news is that playing as a healer is rather cheap! If you have the free Obelisk (or, if you've been around longer, the free Ambassador), both can make pretty good healboats that allow you to support the team while being tough to kill. Contrary to what most people say, you don't need the absolute best in gear to be competitive; I fly around with rare mk XI consoles and no fleet gear, and yet I'd like to think that I still do pretty well in matches. I will say, however, that reputation gear can be very, very helpful; although the Solanae 4-piece set can be great as a starter tanking gear set, you'll want to upgrade to Borg deflector + engines and a shield with built-in resists if you want to keep healing/tanking well.
I hope that you'll give PvP another try in the future, and I hope that you'll have fun with it like I do!
Thanks again everyone. This thread caught a second wind when it was (correctly) moved to the pvp forum. Whoops.
Anyway, I have 2 questions.
1.) Engineers suck for pvp? I would've thought the increased survivability would be a boon. I've already started on my reputations and I really don't want to reroll again just to have a Romulan Tac. Are engineers really "end of the world" bad at pvp? I have a 50 Klingon Tac. But I really dig the Romulans. Again... are we absolutely SURE that engineers make for a bad pvp experience?
2.) Scimitar? It seems to be the C-store ship of choice for Romulans right now. I don't want to frivolously spend money, so I'm holding off on the purchase for as long as I can manage.
pvp's not hard pve is too easy. You can literally throw whatever you have lying around onto your ship and expect to succeed. The fact that there are people who don't know putting torps, cannons and beam arrays all on the same ship is a bad idea is proof enough.
Just consider the difference between what you see in pugs vs top end. The average pug does what 3k/4k dps? That's a 2500% difference. Cryptic really needs to stop giving ships mixed weapons as a default.
Engineers don't 'suck' for PvP, they are just the weakest choice. And when there is only three classes to choose from...well, somebody has to be on the bottom of the totem pole.
But it isn't like you cannot make it with an engineer, but the pecking order just is more along the lines of sci>tac>eng, for space PvP at least.
Renim and Skurf have touched on it, you are mostly shoe-horned into either a FAW boat or a healer. But to be fair, scis are usually healers or a debuffer of some form, while tacs are only there to deal damage. So it really applies for all 3 classes.
Anyways, again, you can make it with an eng, it's just generally the weakest of the three classes. Partially they kind of lack focus on their captain powers.
Tacs have a slew of damage-boosting abilities as their focus, and tac BOFF powers go with that quite well. Scis have a large variety of team-supporting abilities and two potent debuffs in the form of Sensor Scan and SNB. Engs have...
RSF: Useful resist buff and regen buff for yourself
EPS Power Transfer: Big power level and power transfer rate boost to yourself or a teammate.
Nadeon Inversion: A large power drain resist for yourself, including weapons fire drain
Miracle Worker: A potent shield/hull heal, can be used twice every 90 seconds with the appropriate trait
Engineering fleet: A slight power boost, hull resist boost, and something else boost I think, for the whole team. A trait can make it a bit more useful by adding in a hull heal over time to your whole team.
Kind of a bit unfocused. The trait system has helped somewhat, but it isn't perfect still.
As for the Scimitar, don't worry about that. As someone starting off, if you choose to make a tac, and yes I would recommend a Romulan (though if you have a tac of another faction already, just stick with that, it'll be easier) you should go with a bit more of a 'traditional escort'. Doesn't have to be anything fancy.
Basic Ha'feh for Romulans, Mirror Qin for KDF (from the exchange), basic Patrol Escort for Feds will work well. Again, if you choose to want to make a tac and you do not have one yet.
Scimitar is an uber-strong ship, but you also have to know how to fly it, FAW build or not. IMO you cannot just hop into a ship like that and immediately expect to win. FAW is a big part of the current meta-game, doesn't mean it is gonna stay that way. So don't worry about it atm.
I remain empathetic to the concerns of my community, but do me a favor and lay off the god damn name calling and petty remarks. It will get you nowhere.
I must admit, respect points to Trendy for laying down the law like that.
Thanks again everyone. This thread caught a second wind when it was (correctly) moved to the pvp forum. Whoops.
Anyway, I have 2 questions.
1.) Engineers suck for pvp? I would've thought the increased survivability would be a boon. I've already started on my reputations and I really don't want to reroll again just to have a Romulan Tac. Are engineers really "end of the world" bad at pvp? I have a 50 Klingon Tac. But I really dig the Romulans. Again... are we absolutely SURE that engineers make for a bad pvp experience?
2.) Scimitar? It seems to be the C-store ship of choice for Romulans right now. I don't want to frivolously spend money, so I'm holding off on the purchase for as long as I can manage.
1) Suck isn't the right way to put it... don't do what you seem to be wanting to do. That is the main issue I see. Engi is not a dmg dealer, its a support class. If you want to play that role Engi is a good choice... if you would rather be the one winning 1v1s and being the dmg guy (I am just going on the ship you choose here) then engi is 100% the wrong choice. Not saying delete it enjoy my engi toons when I feel like being super healer... but to be hoenst I have 20 toons most of which are basicly farmers, my engis at this point pretty much grind ground stuff. Engi is OP on the ground.
2) Shim is a good option... and if you want to do dmg with an engi rom likely your best bet. You can play Shimitard with the tac roms. I joke here one of the more op builds right now is shim with all beam faw... super op on a tac with all the dmg bonues. Likely still painful coming from an engi with out them.
In general for STO pvp you are always best to play the right class / ship combo. You can make anything work in one way or the other... but best min max practice is to put Tac captains in Escort style ships, science toons in Science ships... and engis in cruisers. Now 4 years in STO has plenty of hybrid ships... that have Lt. Commander boff stations that give them a bit more access to the other classes skill groups. Shim is one of those ships as it would allow you to run a Lt Cmd engi or sci. We recently got a bunch of new traits that really make same ship/class selection even more advantageous. Engi get the battary power boost, so ships with 3-4 device slots are a nice thing to have... Science captains got a nice trait that boosts exotic dmg which means skills with lots of exotic skills get a nice boost (science ships or science leaning escorts)... Tacticals got last ditch, which makes hull surfing for some Go Down fighting Boom Boom much easier now in the lower hulled escorts. Also the new cruiser commands I would say benifit Engis the most as it gives them a passive way to buff shield and hull resists more (if they really need to). (there are a few hybrid ships like the Voth Bastion lockbox ship that still get a couple commands and a Hanger of pets)
Anyway bottom line... keep the engi, one nice thing about STO it doesn't take to long to level a second toon. Reputation is annoying... but if you get one toon to tier 5 you can create tokens and rep your Alt toons in half the time. To be honest to really enjoy STO I would say role one of each class Min... and honestly I would say ideally have 4-6 toons after you been playing a few months. Treat most of them like true alts... refine Dithium, use there Exchange slots to make EC ect to fund your gearing up of your main toon(s)... when they are where you want them then you can take care of the alts.
Thanks again everyone. This thread caught a second wind when it was (correctly) moved to the pvp forum. Whoops.
Anyway, I have 2 questions.
1.) Engineers suck for pvp? I would've thought the increased survivability would be a boon. I've already started on my reputations and I really don't want to reroll again just to have a Romulan Tac. Are engineers really "end of the world" bad at pvp? I have a 50 Klingon Tac. But I really dig the Romulans. Again... are we absolutely SURE that engineers make for a bad pvp experience?
2.) Scimitar? It seems to be the C-store ship of choice for Romulans right now. I don't want to frivolously spend money, so I'm holding off on the purchase for as long as I can manage.
1. They don't suck....they are just less useful in the team oriented environment that is PvP than the other two classes. The problem with the survivability boon, is that it's only a boon to yourself, and doesn't actually help the team. If Miracle Worker and Reverse Shield Frequency were castable to allies, we wouldn't be having this discussion, but unfortunately, Cryptic thinks the Engineer class has to be a tank and nothing else, which is pretty much useless in a team oriented environment.
The one best use of the Engineer is to be a 100% all-out heal-boat. When you do this, you will have enough bridge officer healing abilities to keep your team alive, while at the same time being extremely hard to kill yourself because of the Engineering Captain abilities. This is good because once people realize you are the one keeping your entire team alive, they will target you. At that point, the Engineer is good at crushing their morale as they futilely attempt to kill you.
2. As Mimey mentioned, it's a tough ship to get used to, but if you want to be a damage dealer that has survivability, the Scimitar might just be your best option for a Rommie Engineer.
In general, I'd say escorts (such as the Ha'feh) are probably the worst ship you could use as an Engineer. An escort's function is to provide high burst damage, and by far the best way to that, is to use a Tactical Captain with its multiple damage buffs in combo with Bridge Officer abilities. It doesn't hurt to have a Science captain on your team subnucleonic beam and sensor scan your target right before you do this, which of course goes back to teamwork.
PvP is very deep. It will take a long time to learn all of the little intricacies and become the best PvP'er that you can become. But hey, that's the fun in it. Learning how to become a better pilot and how to counter what other people have come up with is why we play this game. It is literally a never-ending end game, and it's truthfully the only reason I play STO.
When I first began PvP I got slaughtered, too. And this was in what most would consider to be a fairly OP PvE build: Fleet ship, fleet weapons, all end-game gear, 10K+ DPS across the 4 major ESTFs.
None of which mattered when I began PvP. I got OWNED! But instead of giving up, I opened my eyes and ears and began absorbing information.
For example, I started out with 9-10 skills all tied to my spacebar - including TT! But by the time I had become marginally proficient, that number had been reduce to just 4-5: EPtS/W, A2B(x2), and Tac Initiative.
With my key powers on manual, I started working on my timing:
1. Hold TT until attacked and pop it first.
2. Don't unload with my best offensive buffs until 15-30 seconds in to allow their defensive buffs to wear off, then STACK them: APA3 + APO1 + EPtS1 + DEM3 + FOMM3 + a weapons batter is what passes for an "alpha" strike from a beam cruiser.
3. Try to get by with my EPtX cycle and one other shield heal (usually TSS), plus TT.
4. Hold RSP in reserve as my "Oh TRIBBLE" button.
5. MOVE! Maneuver! Constantly change speed/direction/attitude. Use evasive to out-turn them, or turn INTO them...whatever gets you out of their firing arcs.
Another bit of advice: Frequent Ker'rat. This "war zone" area will give you plenty of practice against both seasoned players and less experienced ones who are there for the ec "mining."
You just need to find a fleet that is willing to share the magic trick they use.
Its not all about your ships gear its the magic trick they use to boost the gear to god like levels.
1. They don't suck....they are just less useful in the team oriented environment that is PvP than the other two classes. The problem with the survivability boon, is that it's only a boon to yourself, and doesn't actually help the team. If Miracle Worker and Reverse Shield Frequency were castable to allies, we wouldn't be having this discussion, but unfortunately, Cryptic thinks the Engineer class has to be a tank and nothing else, which is pretty much useless in a team oriented environment.
I know its off topic but making the Engi buffs castable would destroy the class. I am not kidden either. The only reason they are super healers in PvP is because there is never a good time to push them. They always have there own heals there for themselves... there is no faking out an engi healer by trying to push them in a premade match. Yes you can nuke off RSF... but there is little you can do about the double MW pop that will give his/her team more then enough time to catch up.
I know it sucks to say engi is such a niche class... but they just are. They are great Team healers only because they have the self heals. I know 95% of the time a science toon in the same ship can do the same amount of team healing... in those 5% of tight matches though, where teams are even and both pushing for openings to roll a team... the team with the sci healer is going to loose. Its just to easy to pay attention, and take down there healer and roll the rest of the team.
The one best use of the Engineer is to be a 100% all-out heal-boat. When you do this, you will have enough bridge officer healing abilities to keep your team alive, while at the same time being extremely hard to kill yourself because of the Engineering Captain abilities. This is good because once people realize you are the one keeping your entire team alive, they will target you. At that point, the Engineer is good at crushing their morale as they futilely attempt to kill you.
I think you understand it as well... Engi is the only class that can pull off super tanker and leave no openings.
You just need to find a fleet that is willing to share the magic trick they use.
Its not all about your ships gear its the magic trick they use to boost the gear to god like levels.
I quit playing STO months ago and was just swinging by here to see if any big changes had happened that might make me want to try out my former favorite game again. So some of this stuff might be out of date.
Assuming things haven't changed too drastically since I left:
1: Tanking in STO PvP (and STO in general) is a game about taking less damage to your shields. To do this you need two stats: Defense and Shield Resistance. Some of this can come from items, some can come from build. The fleet shields with the stacking resistance buff are good, and so are the MACO stf shield if you can't get the fleet shields right away.
For Defense, the most important thing to do is just to keep moving. A stationary or slow moving ship has very low Defense and will take full damage.
For Shield resistance, most PvP players favor builds with Emergency Power to Shields as a proactive defense on continuous rotation and Transfer Shield Strength as a reactive defense and heal.
Use custom power levels and switch between them. If you're trying to not die, your power levels should be to shields (at least 70 final power, so that with EPTS you'll be near 100) and Auxiliary (for heals), with the rest to Engines (to keep your Defense up). If rotating power levels is too hard right now, just live in that setting and forget about killing people for now until you get the hang of not dying.
2: Equalize your shields. Tactical Team will help when you're getting bursted down, but in general you should just be spamming a key to re-balance your shields and save Tac Team for a reactive heal.
Some people like to use Reverse Shield Polarity as a big self-heal to shields. If you're 1v1ing against a tactical officer or have extra Engineering slots, it's a good one to slot in. (Use RSP1, the skill doesn't scale noticeably with rank.)
Make sure to use RSP with Rebalance Shields, NOT Tac Team, since TT will fill the facing that's getting hit and RSP doesn't heal filled shield facings!
3: Join a pvp fleet. STO has one of the steepest learning curves in all of video gaming, and no amount of help from the forums will get you up it by yourself. Moreover, PvP gear is expensive, and fleets can help you learn how to make the ec and how to pick what pay to win items to buy.
4: Before you decide to commit to learning STO PvP, realize what you're getting yourself into: accumulating a huge amount of esoteric knowledge about a buggy and poorly documented game that will be broken and bugged in new and exciting ways every month. And grinding... a lot... forever.
Comments
I also have several level 50 characters and, as I have a more casual play style and only enjoy PvP between friends, also suck at PvP.
But having spent quite some time here on the forums and playing the game over the years, I can offer you some suggestions:
If you're serious about PvP, check out the PvP Boot Camp resources. I assume it's not dead and the sub-forum will have a lot of information. Read PvP guides, like Hilbert's.
Check out the Builds and Powers forum to better understand how powers work and how to put things together in a synergistic way. You'll also learn about the latest gimmicks and how to use/deal with them.
Stay the heck out of Kerrat unless you know what you're doing... it will only demoralize newbies.
Specialize. Pick some aspect of supporting a team (healing, debuffing, control, drain, etc) or attacking a group of enemies (DPS, spike, aggro tank, etc.) and specialize in it. That will focus how you allocate skills, what equipment you use, etc. Get good at that and make yourself useful before you try to tackle some other aspect of PvP. Unspecialized newbies (like me) just get dead a lot.
PvP with friends or join a fleet that does PvP. You need a team that isn't going to flame you for making a mistake. (Laughing at you is okay, though)
Finally, most importantly, have fun. Unless you're extremely competitive, winning is everything, and can focus that into becoming an elite PvP player, it doesn't pay to obsess over how bad you suck.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Aww why you tell him to do that?
OP you should check out Kerrat sometime its full of Beautiful Orions, and lots of fun lol.
Why is it I keep finding posts from you that are simply abuse of your moderation powers? Moving the thread was a good idea, but the "anti-PvP" responses are not trolling. The OP *ASKED* for options:
By definition, anyone giving him alternatives to PvP are answering the question at the end of his post.
Just remember everyone respawns now and then even vets... no one lives forever. This isn't STO PVE where you can go a week with out having to see the wonderful job the UI guys did on the respawn timer window. Having said that obviously 5s is not the normal... if she said that to you she was being very nic.... errr never mind.
The Hef is really a Tacs ship... its pretty much your standard escort with a cloak. Having said that I will give you a build for one... when you fly around in PvP you will honestly not see all that many engis on the romulan side of things. Engi in PvP is mainly a healer. I know people will argue otherwise but that really is the design. Having said that you can have some fun flying tactial and even sci ships with an engi. One of the main reasons you don't see a ton of engi captains on Rom side specificly is the Romulan ships "Warbirds" Are all sort of built to do lots of dmg as fast as possible... and not really hang out in fights against ships with more power. Engi in terms of time to kill another player is the worst of the 3 ... so the ships in general Rom side don't play into the strengths of the Engi Career.
IMO PvPing in a Engi Rom... is going to be the most fun in some of the lockbox ship options that forgo the Romulan gimicks in favor of stnadard warp cores and hulls and shields and roles that more suit the Engi class.
As I said though here is a engi Hef build... I will try and explain a few things about the build and the spec that might help you with a few little things you are doing or perhaps not doing right now.
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=engihefromnew_0
Ok first off here is what I would do if I wanted to fly the combo you are talking about.
- Forget torpedos... they are hard to pull off in PvP... they get no bonus from any of your captain powers as an engi... so might as well skip them.
- Run 2 Rapid fires and 2 Beam Overloads... as an engi you can afford to pop a Overload every 15s in terms of power... and it will give you a nice even spike every 15s.
- hold your Omega in PvP don't always open with it unless your sure you can quickly get a kill (which won't happen often as an engi)... save it to escape tractors and or get a good hard turn to get a good shot at someone.
- Run 2 piece borg set (omega rep) The added hull heal is a good thing to have
- Keep 2-3 power presets ready to go.... standard attack should look something like 100 20 20 20... keep a full aux setting to switch to to boost your heals if needed... and keep a setting with full engines that has a high shield setting in it (so you can get some distance to escape/recloak)
- Run the KCB + Borg console (Omega rep) even on an engi this is going to increase your DPS due to the omega amp weapon proc it gives you
- Get a Fleet Shield as soon as you can... resistant (nothing else for PvP).
- Make sure you are running a Plasmotic Leech console... everyone else is so you are sort of forced to do this in PvP now.
- If you have rom consoles I wouldn't go overboard they make you weak having to dump armor and stuff... I love the singularity inverter though and mostly always find room for it on my warbirds. (if you don't have it its 500 cpoints which makes it the cheapest rom console)
- Aux to Damp... great skill to have on an escort... makes you immune to things like Gravity well... and TBR which are both very popular right now... + with the doff gives you a lot more resist a much better turn rate and is almost always up.
- DOFFs - get 2-3 Damage control doffs so you can keep both EPTS and EPTE up at all times. Also if you are going to run aux to damp you want to get one of the aux to damp matter anti matter doffs... the last slot or two is up to you... if you are new and not sure what to run... something like Hazard doffs are always a good option... when you brace for impact you will be very hard to kill which is always a good extra oh no button with doffs.
- I won't go into a ton of detail on the spec I posted... if you have questions fire away and I will answer as best I can... a few things you HAVE to spec as an engi.. 9 points in battaries ... and as a Rom warbird really 3-6 points in Driver coil. (yes full impulsing with 5 aux is dumb when you are cloaked)
Well wall of text sorry... fire away if you have questions.
- pvp is not gear related. u can have fun and be at least a bit competitive with purple mk xi weapons, blue mk xi cons upwards and on a cloaker with battlecloak even with def/eng/shields from the exchange.
- pvp is not all about rep. i know engies without any rep that do just fine in pvp
- clickies might give u advantages, but they dont win games. at least, without clickies u got more room to get some tankyness
search for hilbertguide and take a look at pvp bootcamp subforum are probably the best advices to a newbie without writing a book by oneself
main problem if ya ask me: the game teaches nothing bout mechanics or builds. u can do all the pve content with almost any senseless combination of spec and gear one can find
Moving the thread was "use" of the powers, not abuse - abuse would be deleting the thread for no reason, moving out of the way, locking it for no reason.
Moving = proper use of Mod powers.
As for the comment, have you read the sig of Bluegeek. He is allowed an opinion, he is allowed to air his opinion, as long as you know (hence the sig disclaimer) it is a personal opinion.
And as the OP asked the PvP community those questions, the post belongs in the PvP forums.
The way it reads to me, it's a story of failed PvP with PvP related questions (highlighted above) with the main question of "How do I get better" this is for the PvP players ~ and we are trying to answer him, except all the anti PvP crowd are just clogging up the thread saying not to bother (by definition off topic / trolling the thread - as it does not answer the main question)
If this had been your thread, and people were just trying to derail it out of spite or hate, you'd be asking Blue to help - think on that.
hahahahahahaha and "Admiral Quinn" says you dont enter kerrat...kerrat enters you!!!! an dif you do go you better have some tough skin cause the smack talk can get pretty deep
purple xii kit but not in a fleet,
You can't go into a PvP match with a "meh" loadout. It has to be fully optimized. You have to think about your weapons and how they can compliment each other, your bridge officer (BO for short) abilities and how they can both compliment your weapons loadout and other BO abilities, and your duty officer lineup which also depends on BO's and weapons. With your current loadout, you will never get through anyone's shields, much less destroy their ship. Not only is the weapon combination you have bad, but you can not get anywhere near a fully optimized BO layout with those weapons.
One of the worst aspects of this game is the huge gulf between what works in PvE (any-and-every-thing no matter how you mix and match) and what works in PvP (only fully optimized builds). This is why you have all these people saying don't bother with PvP. It's because they can't be bothered changing their builds and/or they don't feel they should be forced to have to use team work to win a team-oriented game. In PvE, you can complete every mission except No Win Scenario with absolutely zero team work. In PvP, you just die.
That is not how it's done. If you want to survive, you have to time your defensive abilities to where they compliment each other, add resistance, and do not all go to cooldown at the same time, cause if that happens, you will just die.
For instance, here is a sequence of abilities you can use for better defense:
- Use Tactical Team when first attacked, which will distribute your shield power to the facing that is being targeted, and try to maneuver your ship out of their firing arc
- Use Emergency Power to Shields for resistance and a small shield HP boost (or have this ability constantly cycling, but that's a whole nother topic)
- Use Transfer Shield Strength for resistance and a small shield boost
- Now, if they get through your shield and start damaging your hull, use Hazard Emitters for hull repair
- If you're still dying use Reverse Shield Polarity to refill all of your shields
- If you don't have Reverse Shield Polarity available, use evasive maneuvers to get out of their firing arc and/or range
- If you're getting hammered and your heals are on cooldown, use Singulartity Jump to escape the fray. Using Evasive after a singularity jump will almost always get you out of range far enough to where you can cloak
There are other ways to defend, but this is just a basic guideline that most builds will be able to use.Gear does matter, but it's not the be-all, end-all. Joining a fleet to get the high-end fleet gear would be a good idea. Your build, timings, and teamwork are the most important, and from the sounds of it, you are going to need a good amount of practice, trial-and-error, and help from other PvP'ers before you can be competitive at PvP. I have no doubt you are a decent pilot in PvE, but PvP is practically a different game altogether.
ANYBODY can be good at PvP, but NOBODY is good when they first start. A lot of PvE'ers had the expectation that since they're good at PvE that they'd be good at PvP, which is not the case at all. They don't want to put the effort into learning how to PvP so they just denounce it, call it broken, and ridicule it whenever they get the chance. Learning how to be competitive in PvP is not going to be handed to you on a silver platter like all of the PvE content in this game.
Also, you should make a Science Captain.
@DevolvedOne
theres a few guides around, like mine sticked in the pvp section and linked in my sig, hilberts guide, boot camp section, all thats a good place to learn your basic entry level must have knowledge. its a good idea to join the opvp channel too, 'tribal knowledge', passed down by more experienced players is were you are likely to learn the most.
the problem is the pve, it doesn't push you to develop any skill, or put you in the right kind of danger that teaches what you need to know to survive true threats. it doesn't mater how good the tutorials are, or how many pop up help windows there are telling you how to do basic things, the npcs are simply to garbage and different from another player ship for your fights with them to prepare you for a threat equal to your own ship.
*right now anyone starting out and with bad gear should run this newest anniversary mission, that gear is by far the best engine, deflector and shield you can get for free.
*if your romulan, id suggest replaying this one elatchi mission over and over till you have farmed out as many of the caustic plasma weapons as you need. they are free and acc2
*start leveling rep, having all the passives will make a big difference, and theres plenty of good gear and sets in the rep system
*join a fleet, earn fleet credits, farm dil, and eventually buy up fleet holding console, shields and weapons
*always keep EPtS on at all times, with 2 copies of it, or with various doffs that can sustain it with just 1 copy of the skill
*if you die and you still have healthy shields in 3 of your 4 faceings, you died because you didn't use tactical team
*keybinds are your friend, multiple execute whole row binds with at least double your 'skill', especially if your computer cant run a 5v5 spam fest at a solid 60fps
Despite what some people tell you, gear is quite important when it comes to PvP, especially shields. A normal covariant shield array can't really handle the firepower some tac/escorts can throw at you. You want something like the elite fleet shields or MACO shield.
Also you NEED tactical team if you don't already have it. As soon as someone notices you're not using it, you'll become their number one target since your shields will be easy to breach.
Sadly not much can prevent that, since vaping has gotten so incredibly easy recently, especially with proton barrage being so nuts.
You need to be cycling 2x EPTS (or one if you're only going to stay decloaked for 30 seconds), cycling 2x tactical team, use transfer shield strength. I can not understate the usefulness of tact team, since it auto-redistributes your shields super fast.
Gear wise, if you've already got it, equip the shield absorptive console as it's one of the most overpowered consoles in the game. To deal with a none vape attack, the borg 2-piece set bonus (a 25% hull heal proc) is godly. Field generators are a good idea (you can get a free green one from one of the Romulan missions). Neutronium is also a good idea.
Also try not to stay stationary for too long, that makes you an easy target for vapers.
One huge tip. Don't queue for FvK until you're holding your own in FvF. Unlike the Fed PvPer player base, which has a high variance in skill level, the majority of KDF PvPers are much better than the average Fed player and almost all of them know how to deal real damage.
Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
The trick for PvP is to be actively buffed with resists at all or most of the time. With your ha'feh either have two copies of epts or get 3 blue or better space damage control engineer duty officers so you can cycle epts2 and epte1. For your two ensign level tac powers have TT1. For your science stations have HE1 and TSS2. This gives you the basic setup for survival in PvP.
If you're looking for builds Look up ha'feh builds (obviously) but also look up Patrol Escort builds because they have the same loadout.
From there, experiment with different powers and expect to die a lot at first while you're learning. Because the Ha'feh has a battle cloak, eventually you might be able to drop the epts for eptw, but I would recommend epts first while you're still learning.
epts = emergency power to shields
epte = emergency power to engines
eptw = emergency power to weapons
TT1 = tactical team 1
HE1 = Hazard emitters 1
TSS2 = Transfer sheild strength 2
Good luck and, most importantly, have fun
Since I'm joining the thread rather late, most of what I wanted to say to you has already been said. I'll just touch on a few things:
If you're trying to stay alive, the absolute most important thing that you can do is learn your own heal cycles and know your emergency buttons. As Skurf said earlier, hitting all your buttons at once is probably the quickest way to die once they all go on cooldown; your enemies will pounce on you and you won't have anything to stop them. Stagger your heals; you don't want to overheal and effectively lose a part of your heals. Keep your emergency buttons ready; if you get SNB'ed, you'll have a very short time in which to react, and if you don't have an emergency power (e.g. Rotate Shield Frequency for tanking, or Evasives + Engine Battery for escaping) ready, you're toast. (You'll want to keep emergency buttons ready especially for countering SNB; RSF and Miracle Worker are some great abilities granted by the Engineer class for surviving that critical time.)
If you're determined to play an Eng in PvP, I'd have to agree with Skurf said earlier: being an eng shoehorns you into one of two roles, healer or FAW-boat. The good news is that playing as a healer is rather cheap! If you have the free Obelisk (or, if you've been around longer, the free Ambassador), both can make pretty good healboats that allow you to support the team while being tough to kill. Contrary to what most people say, you don't need the absolute best in gear to be competitive; I fly around with rare mk XI consoles and no fleet gear, and yet I'd like to think that I still do pretty well in matches. I will say, however, that reputation gear can be very, very helpful; although the Solanae 4-piece set can be great as a starter tanking gear set, you'll want to upgrade to Borg deflector + engines and a shield with built-in resists if you want to keep healing/tanking well.
I hope that you'll give PvP another try in the future, and I hope that you'll have fun with it like I do!
Anyway, I have 2 questions.
1.) Engineers suck for pvp? I would've thought the increased survivability would be a boon. I've already started on my reputations and I really don't want to reroll again just to have a Romulan Tac. Are engineers really "end of the world" bad at pvp? I have a 50 Klingon Tac. But I really dig the Romulans. Again... are we absolutely SURE that engineers make for a bad pvp experience?
2.) Scimitar? It seems to be the C-store ship of choice for Romulans right now. I don't want to frivolously spend money, so I'm holding off on the purchase for as long as I can manage.
Just consider the difference between what you see in pugs vs top end. The average pug does what 3k/4k dps? That's a 2500% difference. Cryptic really needs to stop giving ships mixed weapons as a default.
But it isn't like you cannot make it with an engineer, but the pecking order just is more along the lines of sci>tac>eng, for space PvP at least.
Renim and Skurf have touched on it, you are mostly shoe-horned into either a FAW boat or a healer. But to be fair, scis are usually healers or a debuffer of some form, while tacs are only there to deal damage. So it really applies for all 3 classes.
Anyways, again, you can make it with an eng, it's just generally the weakest of the three classes. Partially they kind of lack focus on their captain powers.
Tacs have a slew of damage-boosting abilities as their focus, and tac BOFF powers go with that quite well. Scis have a large variety of team-supporting abilities and two potent debuffs in the form of Sensor Scan and SNB. Engs have...
RSF: Useful resist buff and regen buff for yourself
EPS Power Transfer: Big power level and power transfer rate boost to yourself or a teammate.
Nadeon Inversion: A large power drain resist for yourself, including weapons fire drain
Miracle Worker: A potent shield/hull heal, can be used twice every 90 seconds with the appropriate trait
Engineering fleet: A slight power boost, hull resist boost, and something else boost I think, for the whole team. A trait can make it a bit more useful by adding in a hull heal over time to your whole team.
Kind of a bit unfocused. The trait system has helped somewhat, but it isn't perfect still.
As for the Scimitar, don't worry about that. As someone starting off, if you choose to make a tac, and yes I would recommend a Romulan (though if you have a tac of another faction already, just stick with that, it'll be easier) you should go with a bit more of a 'traditional escort'. Doesn't have to be anything fancy.
Basic Ha'feh for Romulans, Mirror Qin for KDF (from the exchange), basic Patrol Escort for Feds will work well. Again, if you choose to want to make a tac and you do not have one yet.
Scimitar is an uber-strong ship, but you also have to know how to fly it, FAW build or not. IMO you cannot just hop into a ship like that and immediately expect to win. FAW is a big part of the current meta-game, doesn't mean it is gonna stay that way. So don't worry about it atm.
1) Suck isn't the right way to put it... don't do what you seem to be wanting to do. That is the main issue I see. Engi is not a dmg dealer, its a support class. If you want to play that role Engi is a good choice... if you would rather be the one winning 1v1s and being the dmg guy (I am just going on the ship you choose here) then engi is 100% the wrong choice. Not saying delete it enjoy my engi toons when I feel like being super healer... but to be hoenst I have 20 toons most of which are basicly farmers, my engis at this point pretty much grind ground stuff. Engi is OP on the ground.
2) Shim is a good option... and if you want to do dmg with an engi rom likely your best bet. You can play Shimitard with the tac roms.
In general for STO pvp you are always best to play the right class / ship combo. You can make anything work in one way or the other... but best min max practice is to put Tac captains in Escort style ships, science toons in Science ships... and engis in cruisers. Now 4 years in STO has plenty of hybrid ships... that have Lt. Commander boff stations that give them a bit more access to the other classes skill groups. Shim is one of those ships as it would allow you to run a Lt Cmd engi or sci. We recently got a bunch of new traits that really make same ship/class selection even more advantageous. Engi get the battary power boost, so ships with 3-4 device slots are a nice thing to have... Science captains got a nice trait that boosts exotic dmg which means skills with lots of exotic skills get a nice boost (science ships or science leaning escorts)... Tacticals got last ditch, which makes hull surfing for some Go Down fighting Boom Boom much easier now in the lower hulled escorts. Also the new cruiser commands I would say benifit Engis the most as it gives them a passive way to buff shield and hull resists more (if they really need to). (there are a few hybrid ships like the Voth Bastion lockbox ship that still get a couple commands and a Hanger of pets)
Anyway bottom line... keep the engi, one nice thing about STO it doesn't take to long to level a second toon. Reputation is annoying... but if you get one toon to tier 5 you can create tokens and rep your Alt toons in half the time. To be honest to really enjoy STO I would say role one of each class Min... and honestly I would say ideally have 4-6 toons after you been playing a few months. Treat most of them like true alts... refine Dithium, use there Exchange slots to make EC ect to fund your gearing up of your main toon(s)... when they are where you want them then you can take care of the alts.
1. They don't suck....they are just less useful in the team oriented environment that is PvP than the other two classes. The problem with the survivability boon, is that it's only a boon to yourself, and doesn't actually help the team. If Miracle Worker and Reverse Shield Frequency were castable to allies, we wouldn't be having this discussion, but unfortunately, Cryptic thinks the Engineer class has to be a tank and nothing else, which is pretty much useless in a team oriented environment.
The one best use of the Engineer is to be a 100% all-out heal-boat. When you do this, you will have enough bridge officer healing abilities to keep your team alive, while at the same time being extremely hard to kill yourself because of the Engineering Captain abilities. This is good because once people realize you are the one keeping your entire team alive, they will target you. At that point, the Engineer is good at crushing their morale as they futilely attempt to kill you.
2. As Mimey mentioned, it's a tough ship to get used to, but if you want to be a damage dealer that has survivability, the Scimitar might just be your best option for a Rommie Engineer.
In general, I'd say escorts (such as the Ha'feh) are probably the worst ship you could use as an Engineer. An escort's function is to provide high burst damage, and by far the best way to that, is to use a Tactical Captain with its multiple damage buffs in combo with Bridge Officer abilities. It doesn't hurt to have a Science captain on your team subnucleonic beam and sensor scan your target right before you do this, which of course goes back to teamwork.
PvP is very deep. It will take a long time to learn all of the little intricacies and become the best PvP'er that you can become. But hey, that's the fun in it. Learning how to become a better pilot and how to counter what other people have come up with is why we play this game. It is literally a never-ending end game, and it's truthfully the only reason I play STO.
@DevolvedOne
None of which mattered when I began PvP. I got OWNED! But instead of giving up, I opened my eyes and ears and began absorbing information.
For example, I started out with 9-10 skills all tied to my spacebar - including TT! But by the time I had become marginally proficient, that number had been reduce to just 4-5: EPtS/W, A2B(x2), and Tac Initiative.
With my key powers on manual, I started working on my timing:
1. Hold TT until attacked and pop it first.
2. Don't unload with my best offensive buffs until 15-30 seconds in to allow their defensive buffs to wear off, then STACK them: APA3 + APO1 + EPtS1 + DEM3 + FOMM3 + a weapons batter is what passes for an "alpha" strike from a beam cruiser.
3. Try to get by with my EPtX cycle and one other shield heal (usually TSS), plus TT.
4. Hold RSP in reserve as my "Oh TRIBBLE" button.
5. MOVE! Maneuver! Constantly change speed/direction/attitude. Use evasive to out-turn them, or turn INTO them...whatever gets you out of their firing arcs.
Another bit of advice: Frequent Ker'rat. This "war zone" area will give you plenty of practice against both seasoned players and less experienced ones who are there for the ec "mining."
RCK
Its not all about your ships gear its the magic trick they use to boost the gear to god like levels.
I know its off topic but making the Engi buffs castable would destroy the class. I am not kidden either. The only reason they are super healers in PvP is because there is never a good time to push them. They always have there own heals there for themselves... there is no faking out an engi healer by trying to push them in a premade match. Yes you can nuke off RSF... but there is little you can do about the double MW pop that will give his/her team more then enough time to catch up.
I know it sucks to say engi is such a niche class... but they just are. They are great Team healers only because they have the self heals. I know 95% of the time a science toon in the same ship can do the same amount of team healing... in those 5% of tight matches though, where teams are even and both pushing for openings to roll a team... the team with the sci healer is going to loose. Its just to easy to pay attention, and take down there healer and roll the rest of the team.
I think you understand it as well... Engi is the only class that can pull off super tanker and leave no openings.
~ godmode 1
oh wait that's not it
Up Up Down Down Up UP... that's not it either.
/bind space "+fireall $$ +power_exec Distribute_Shields $$ +godmode 1 $$ +unstuck"
Ya thats it I think if you try that one your golden.
Assuming things haven't changed too drastically since I left:
1: Tanking in STO PvP (and STO in general) is a game about taking less damage to your shields. To do this you need two stats: Defense and Shield Resistance. Some of this can come from items, some can come from build. The fleet shields with the stacking resistance buff are good, and so are the MACO stf shield if you can't get the fleet shields right away.
For Defense, the most important thing to do is just to keep moving. A stationary or slow moving ship has very low Defense and will take full damage.
For Shield resistance, most PvP players favor builds with Emergency Power to Shields as a proactive defense on continuous rotation and Transfer Shield Strength as a reactive defense and heal.
Use custom power levels and switch between them. If you're trying to not die, your power levels should be to shields (at least 70 final power, so that with EPTS you'll be near 100) and Auxiliary (for heals), with the rest to Engines (to keep your Defense up). If rotating power levels is too hard right now, just live in that setting and forget about killing people for now until you get the hang of not dying.
2: Equalize your shields. Tactical Team will help when you're getting bursted down, but in general you should just be spamming a key to re-balance your shields and save Tac Team for a reactive heal.
Some people like to use Reverse Shield Polarity as a big self-heal to shields. If you're 1v1ing against a tactical officer or have extra Engineering slots, it's a good one to slot in. (Use RSP1, the skill doesn't scale noticeably with rank.)
Make sure to use RSP with Rebalance Shields, NOT Tac Team, since TT will fill the facing that's getting hit and RSP doesn't heal filled shield facings!
3: Join a pvp fleet. STO has one of the steepest learning curves in all of video gaming, and no amount of help from the forums will get you up it by yourself. Moreover, PvP gear is expensive, and fleets can help you learn how to make the ec and how to pick what pay to win items to buy.
4: Before you decide to commit to learning STO PvP, realize what you're getting yourself into: accumulating a huge amount of esoteric knowledge about a buggy and poorly documented game that will be broken and bugged in new and exciting ways every month. And grinding... a lot... forever.
eng-scorts can be very(!) dangerous in pvp. it's about spec-ship-gear-boff snyergy + accolades (get as much of those as u can
you forgot IDDQD