test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Pretty new to game. What is a good bridge officer set up?
reigndance
Member Posts: 10 Arc User
My captain is an engineer flying a cruiser. Just trying to be a tank, I guess. I just feel overwhelmed by everything and don't know what I'm doing. What skills would you suggest for my bridge officers to have? I currently have slots on my ship for one ensign science officer, one ensign tactical officer, one ensign engineer officer, and one lieutenant engineer officer.
Post edited by reigndance on
0
Comments
Go back to the main forum directory and look for the specific shipyard subforums. There is a shipyard forum for Federation, Klingon and Romulan subfactions. Also click on the link below and fill out what you already have. At the very least include your ship equipment that you currently have and the skill point layout you have.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/
You'll get the hang of it fairly quickly.
I tend to run cruisers quite a bit; beam arrays and torps.
A lot of things will depend on your play style and what fits what you do.
You will find a lot of information on the STO Wiki...gives a pretty good break down on things.
That said, I'd go with:
Lt Eng: Engineering team, auxiliary to batteries.
Ens Eng: Emergency to shields.
To start with, and see if it fits what I want the ship to do.
Sarah Knightly - Co-leader; Frontier Explorers - U.S.S. Witchblade
Rias Gremory - Leader; Frontier Marauders - I.K.S. B'ullwinkle
Emergency Power To Weapons works the same way, in this case giving you a flat damage bonus to weapons fire and extra energy to reduce the effects of drain from firing multiple weapons, thus hitting harder. A common new-player setup (once you get to level 30), generally known as the Dragon Build, uses two copies of Emergency To Shields (EPTS) and two copies of Emergency To Weapons (EPTW), alternating between them every 15 seconds. Once you get into using duty officers (Damage Control Engineers or Technicians), the Dragon Build is obsolete and outclassed, but as 'training wheels' to get used to dedicated cruiser combat, its useful.
The Science ability Hazard Emitters is the go-to for clearing status effects. Not all of them, but most. It also gives a good hull heal. Its one of those skills you always want to find a slot for.
Tactical Team is the other big defensive go-to, to the point that many escorts carry two copies. When active, it rapidly redistributes your shield facings to the direction being hit, effectively quadrupling your shield strength on that facing. It also clears the few tactical-based debuffs, but thats mostly a PVP thing. Only use the level 1 version though, as the level 2 and 3 versions give only a very very slight skill boost but don't do anything else, making them wasted slots.
That said though (and re-reading your original post though, so some of this stuff doesn't apply yet), a straightforward build for where you are right now, I'd look at:
Lt Engineer: Emergency To Weapons 1, Emergency To Shields 2
Ensign Engineer: Engineering Team 1
Ensign Tactical: Either Torpedo High Yield 1 (as your 'finishing move') or Beam Fire At Will 1
Ensign Science: Science Team 1 (You shouldn't be facing any debuffs yet, so the short cooldown is more useful than Hazard Emitters)
Also, mess around with your power settings some. Your weapons energy default at 50 is just a baseline, but pushing it up to even 75 will boost your damage by half again. By endgame, you'll be keeping it around 120+, so may as well start learning now.
Yes the learning curve seems steep but you will get the hang of it.
That being said as you play you will get a feel for what you want need, a key is to really read every Boff ability and try to find what will help you the most. As others have mentioned survivability skills most likely are your best bet. At least until you have more experience, Keep asking questions and hopefully the community will help. Posting your ship build, playstyle(wich you are still figuring out), and any other details can help with advice. I hope you stick with it and we can help you
Derrick - Fed Eng