I have to say that I was exited to be a part of this group. I joined the KDF annex of Freedom fleet and boy it wasn't fun anymore. The players in the Freedom Fleet team speak are super rude, name callers, and seem like they hate jokes.
I expected better. I hope players see this post before joining Freedom Fleet and being bad mouthed for trying to have fun.
My apologies for your experience with the fleet.
But I do want to be clear that STB is first and foremost a channel/community. STB does have fleets that support STB which they have given access to SB's & team speak.
I personally DO NOT and WILL NOT have any of your experiences happen in chat as I want to keep STB as clean as it is now.
Again I hope that it does not turn you off from STB as STB does not stand for that type of behavior.
Next time your online LMK so we can further discuss and I can see that your experience gets to the right person(s).
So how are you guys gonna handle DR with the assortment of non-canon T6 starships and the game's increasing emphasis on everyone being a DPSer?
We actually have been talking about that in chat since DR was announced and ATM here is my take on it.
I will personally do nothing yet in regards to changing any of my builds UNTIL I have personally tested all the new content. I will be honest that I have upgraded a couple of things but after some thought and before I invest anymore of my resources I've decided to wait until I have first hand experience.
Also, with one of the latest HIVE Elite I did with a full group of STB members it gave a feeling that for me at the very least I will be able to do the Advanced settings without any further upgrading. I did that in a Sao Paulo and died maybe a total of 3 times along with my other team mates and did the mission in under 15 mins... the new "Elite" will be interesting as the enemies have more HP & there are timed options that must be met in order to proceed.
One of the goals is NOT to melt things and blow thru the mission in 2 mins. That will be a different story if it takes us 2 hours which then at that point we will make the necessary changes and increase the DPS as required but that also will be subject to how we feel as a group.
If I can take a Constellation into ISE and NOT get blown up in a PUG group Im sure I can take my T5, non upgraded, ships into the new content with no problem... IMO. DPS will just mean things die quicker which is something that I/we sometimes DO NOT want.
But again we will have to wait and see what DR has in store for STB. I look forward to the challenges it will bring and I plan on still flying all the ships I currently own here and there long after DR. I am looking at 2 possibly 3 of the new ships but even those I'm on the fence about .... for now.... it's NOT the ship/gear but it's the Captain behind his ship that will determine how good/bad he/she does.
Thank you for your question and I hope I answered your question.
So how are you guys gonna handle DR with the assortment of non-canon T6 starships and the game's increasing emphasis on everyone being a DPSer?
As I see it, the only real reason we keep our damage within certain limits is to not tear through the content too fast. If the new advanced/elite queues require higher damage numbers to not fail, then great! We don't have to hold our ships back (as much) anymore. It's always been about the canon-like loadouts to me, and I don't think higher difficulty will make it impossible to do well with one.
As for the new ships, I personally can't wait to try out the Faeht. I'm in love with the T'varo stealth bomber play style, and the Faeht looks like an improved version of that. The new intel abilities should be fun to play around with, too.
This initiative sounds like good fun; I have been reading most of this thread and I think it might be good fun to join in since I am no dps kinda guy...
I have 6 toons; 2 fed (eng and sci), 1 fed/rom (tac in her t'varo retrofit), and 3 kdf (eng, tac and sci)
For all I care, they can all join in on the fun.
But I think I will mostly use my romulan toon, since I like killing things with cannons (and it should be canon I think...). Otherwise I will have to adjust my ship accordingly.
My handle is T'Pau@m4tth3wk4n3 (this is my romulan toon)
As for the new ships, I personally can't wait to try out the Faeht. I'm in love with the T'varo stealth bomber play style, and the Faeht looks like an improved version of that. The new intel abilities should be fun to play around with, too.
I thought the rule though was that it had to be canon ships, canon-ish loadouts? (Why I never joined, didn't want to restrict my builds even though I like dialing back the damage)
I thought the rule though was that it had to be canon ships, canon-ish loadouts? (Why I never joined, didn't want to restrict my builds even though I like dialing back the damage)
Just the weapon builds are limited. We've run all variety of ships. Depending on what I feel like flying, I'll switch between ships like the JHAS, JHDC, Tholian Recluse, Risan Corvette, or the multitude of Fed ships I have on my roster.
Fed = Phaser (AP for Wells, Mobius, and Aeon), Photon, Quantum, or TriCobalt
KDF = Disruptors and primarily Photon (though some argument can be made for other types)
RR = Plasma all the way around (RSE = Disruptors and Plasma)
JH = Polaron and Quantums
Tholian = Tetryon and Thermalitic
And that is just the basics. I know I am forgetting the Hirogen, Xindi, Breen, and Modified Undine ship starting builds, and probably a few other ships as well.
Fly the ship you want, its just that we want to weapons to look like what we see on-screen and to not simply melt things as fast as possible.
Star Trek Battles: For those who want to Play Star Trek Online as it WAS MEANT TO BE!!!
Well DR is just around the corner... I cannot wait to once again eperience what STO/DR can throw at STB.
I just wanted to take this time to thank all who are a part of or support STB, to thank also all the Captains I've met because of STB. I truly have enjoyed this game much more because of you Captains.
I have no doubt that our teamwork will prevail over all the new missions in store for us. We may need to adjust our builds here and there but overall I think what will make it for us is the teamwork we incorporate in our missions.
Some have upgraded their builds in STB and I have made some slight changes but in the end... STB will first and foremost be about having fun in STO. As much as we parse our runs to keep ourselves in check.... I think we all know what it is we are trying to do everytime we run a mission and that's just to have fun and play STO like ST.
Sorry if this has been asked & answered , but I'm curious , how do the STB folks plan to deal with DA -- both in terms of the inherent power creep (new captain / ship traits & mastery's) and the supposed need for 15K DPS per ship for the new Elite STF's ?
Again , sorry if this has been asked before , and if you just want to link the relevant post , I won't take offense .
EDIT : found trizeo1's latest comment on the topic , so I guess that will have to do for now .
Trizeo said he'd write a post about our experiences last night today, so I won't steal his thunder but I'll put a few of my opinions down:
Story Content: Superb -- I'm running through this on elite and it feels more challenging than story elite used to, but still very fair. The toughest enemy I've fought in space so far are the Voth, who seem to see right through my cloak now and required me to use some hit and run tactics, picking off weaker ships and falling back to heal up before going in for another kill. Excellent, certainly beats the mass slaughter most story missions used to be (except when Kazon are involved, heh).
T5-U/T6 Ships: I'm sure that these are better than the T5s (I mean, they have to be, with an extra console and an extra boff station), but they don't feel dramatically so. I'm certain my old Mogai build from before I joined STB would outperform my new Faeht with its current build, but I'm sure the latter has more potential once I figure something out. What we said back when they were announced applies, a T6 to a T5 is like a T5 to a T4 -- the latter's still very viable with the right build.
Intel Abilities: Tough call here, there are some that seem pointless to me, some pretty cool, but are they really worth giving up a tried and tested eng/tac ability? I think EMP Probe is my current favorite. I haven't tried surgical strikes yet (extra accuracy always seemed pointless for PVE) but I've been told it's good. Transport warhead is such an awesome concept but it doesn't really give enough feedback to tell if it's helpful or not.
Advanced Queues: Conflicted on these. I've always felt that none of the old Elite content justified the gear available. I wanted to improve my gear, but at the same time, there was zero need to. These queues certainly change that and it's welcome for me, but I personally think the bar has been set too high for the average player. I've seen the builds random players in queues use and the numbers they pull with them. I'm fine with these staying as-is, but the rep trinkets like BNPs and maybe very rare R&D mats need to be added to the normal queues if this is the case. Personally, I've always felt rewards should be synced across all difficulties -- the higher challenge level should be reason alone to play the Advanced/Elite queues.
This Channel: I think there's been too much emphasis on "low" DPS by some people, it's never been about that to me, it's been about the loadouts and the looks and not melting things in seconds. The damage limit was only in place to keep the game fun for us, and it's no longer required (or it'll be set much higher). A few of us have proven that canon-like loadouts can hit the numbers required by these STFs. Looks are debatable, unfortunately, I think we might end up having to stack more energy weapons of the same type (nearly every one of my KDF ships uses a hybrid of beams and cannons) and play a little smarter with our abilities. We'll see. We always used good teamwork with a mix of roles so that won't change, debuffs/CC and tanks are still very welcome.
Ok, that probably did steal his thunder. Oops, came out longer than I intended.
Trizeo said he'd write a post about our experiences last night today, so I won't steal his thunder but I'll put a few of my opinions down:
Story Content: Superb -- I'm running through this on elite and it feels more challenging than story elite used to, but still very fair. The toughest enemy I've fought in space so far are the Voth, who seem to see right through my cloak now and required me to use some hit and run tactics, picking off weaker ships and falling back to heal up before going in for another kill. Excellent, certainly beats the mass slaughter most story missions used to be (except when Kazon are involved, heh).
T5-U/T6 Ships: I'm sure that these are better than the T5s (I mean, they have to be, with an extra console and an extra boff station), but they don't feel dramatically so. I'm certain my old Mogai build from before I joined STB would outperform my new Faeht with its current build, but I'm sure the latter has more potential once I figure something out. What we said back when they were announced applies, a T6 to a T5 is like a T5 to a T4 -- the latter's still very viable with the right build.
Intel Abilities: Tough call here, there are some that seem pointless to me, some pretty cool, but are they really worth giving up a tried and tested eng/tac ability? I think EMP Probe is my current favorite. I haven't tried surgical strikes yet (extra accuracy always seemed pointless for PVE) but I've been told it's good. Transport warhead is such an awesome concept but it doesn't really give enough feedback to tell if it's helpful or not.
Advanced Queues: Conflicted on these. I've always felt that none of the old Elite content justified the gear available. I wanted to improve my gear, but at the same time, there was zero need to. These queues certainly change that and it's welcome for me, but I personally think the bar has been set too high for the average player. I've seen the builds random players in queues use and the numbers they pull with them. I'm fine with these staying as-is, but the rep trinkets like BNPs and maybe very rare R&D mats need to be added to the normal queues if this is the case. Personally, I've always felt rewards should be synced across all difficulties -- the higher challenge level should be reason alone to play the Advanced/Elite queues.
This Channel: I think there's been too much emphasis on "low" DPS by some people, it's never been about that to me, it's been about the loadouts and the looks and not melting things in seconds. The damage limit was only in place to keep the game fun for us, and it's no longer required (or it'll be set much higher). A few of us have proven that canon-like loadouts can hit the numbers required by these STFs. Looks are debatable, unfortunately, I think we might end up having to stack more energy weapons of the same type (nearly every one of my KDF ships uses a hybrid of beams and cannons) and play a little smarter with our abilities. We'll see. We always used good teamwork with a mix of roles so that won't change, debuffs/CC and tanks are still very welcome.
Ok, that probably did steal his thunder. Oops, came out longer than I intended.
Thank you for your reply and no you did not steal my thunder...
So here are my thoughts so far with regards to STB & DR.
I have just done the 1st story mission and enjoyed it... I loved the VO work as it just made it feel all the more ST. I got my butt handed to me when I did the final ground part of the mission but other than that ... well the fight with the Undine was well..... annoying but that's MO.
For the new ques...
Borg disc - Had a full group but only did normal. Was a fun mission but found that the last part where there were 3 DN's was something we could not finish even on normal. I had not yet tweaked my build yet with the exception of raising the weapons power and taking out APO and replacing it with APB. The last part WILL require a high amount of DPS which can be looked at 2 ways which I will expand on a bit below.
ISA - Had another full group from STB go in and we made sure we communicated what we would do going in. The team work aspect of taking down the gens didn't worry me as we have pretty much mastered that portion but we made sure that we called out ready when all the gens were at 30%. Upon entering.. well the change was clear... I blew up already after I drew aggro and some others as well. Took us a good 4 mins I think then we moved onto the gens... 1 gen was prematurely popped but we blew up the transformer at around the 8 min mark. Clearing the spheres took time but by the time we finished the 2nd side we had about 3 mins left... we decided to take out the cube first as we normally do but we did not take it down fast enough as after that we still had the spheres and gate so we did not get the optional. Again... a high amount of DPS will be required but my thoughts are if we focused fire from start to end we might have done a bit better but hard to say really. I think it's doable going in with ships at the 10k mark with canon builds.
CCA - This we got down to 33% but failed the optional so people starting leaving and by that time I myself had to call it a night.... we had the CC but probably needed the debuffs which I think it's still doable but hard to say.
The following is entirely my opinion... on the one hand it's good as Kin mentioned above as it will require us to challenge ourselves build wise and yes... RAISE the dps to match the new ques difficulty. On the other hand it's again another DPS race which for me is a turn off as to get the highest dps go FAW or go home, again MY OPINION only but I've already seen some suggested DR builds which basically is spamming FAW. My build pre DR was leaning more towards screen accuracy so 1 BA & 2/3 torps fore & aft along with more single attack powers. I do this purely for the looks as that is what I've seen on screen as well as some of the games I've played over the years.
Another thing I noticed was... I felt... sleepy in the matches.. could've been because it was late but it was the same feeling I got when I got bored of the missions pre STB. It does speak to some of the opinions I've seen regarding the new difficulties.... long, drawn out fights that the fun factor is lost.
So for now.. it's back to the drawing board for me in terms of tweaking my builds. As far as the question for STB's dps cap... it will need to be lifted as now we are facing higher hulled enemies. Having said that, I will try to keep my build as close to what I have now to try to keep the screen accuracy.
Ill prolly edit this more but those are my initial thoughts on DR thus far... more to experience tonight.
I admit I was one of the guys that were very partial to DR. And I must say: I'm impressed. Playing the new episodes is challenging yet not too boring even in my high DPS ship.
And seing the "+960xp" floaters just feels good imho. I got a reason to play the mission and kill these bad bad guys (i won't spoiler, but, dudes, Darth Vader is a Saint in comparison!)
I only did three ISAs so far, a PuG when i first logged in (in my T5 regent, nothing changed), a run with PESTF in the new new guardian cruiser, and an STB run.
All but the STB group got the otional with 2-4 minutes left. Average DPS was indeed the predited 15k.
The STB group didn't get the optional, but that was more or less expected for a not prepared team. Just as it should be. we had no problems whatsoever to accomplish the mission though. One Generator popped early. i called out "**** CC!!!!" and it was dealt with quickly! Good old STB teamwork!
There is one thing want to remind everyone:
We are NOT playing endgame chars anymore!
Mk XII purple is the new Mk XI blue, as you will see in the mission rewards.
And: Just because advanced is hard now, doesn't mean it will be hard at lvl 60.
No one is at lvl 60 yet, and the ship traits system is just starting. I bet in 6 months from now we'll be doin ISA in T3 ships and we buy cheap ship traits from the exchange.
DR and STB: I think a really good team can make advanced with 10k average.
We might have to get back to a bit more beam spam and less show accurate builds. but it's only a matter of time until powercreep will play in our favor.
But hoestly, my STB torp builds made 8k before DR, might just be a bit more expensive to go screen accurate. But hey, isn't that something to work for?
Last but not least i want to thank you all for making this game fun for me! I surely wouldn't be here without you guys and gals!
Finished up the story and hit level 60 on Kinanra, so I'm probably going to be getting back into the queues more now. That ISA we ran last night was pretty fun; nice to see the Faeht doing well with the same intel abilities I settled on for story elite missions. I'm curious what the lowered shields and enemy health being reduced to 70% will do, hopefully it sounds more drastic than it actually is. Honestly, though, at this point I'll put personal feelings on gear/builds aside to get the advanced queues a little more active. I miss when it wasn't pulling teeth to get a run together.
One thing I've noticed is that normal queues feel even easier than they had been before. I'm taking my unaltered STB builds into them, parsing my usual 5k and feel like I'm melting everything. I know we played elites more often than normals, but when we did run normals, it never felt like that before. It just felt easier, not faster. Dropping normal health to 80% is going to be ridiculous. The only thing that feels remotely beefy in normal STFs are tactical cubes.
And I should note that ground content (baring that last story mission!) is as easy as ever, even on Advanced. If the space difficulty is turning you off, beam down and shoot some bugs with me. I have fire. Lots and lots of fire. (disclaimer: the plasma flamethrower actually sucks for bug hunt, much like it does everywhere else)
I came up with an idea to get a team together, a proper team, not just "5 people grouped up", and to run some of the Delta Quadrant patrol missions in lower tier ships.
Flagship - a T3-4 (Cheyenne/Excel/Galaxy/Ambassador) cruiser designed to not die and soak up damage so that the entire group doesn't just crumple and explode when an enemy (other than the Kazon) shows up.
Main DPS - a T3-4 (Akira/Defiant) escort to actually kill stuff
Support - a science ship that focuses on supporting the group - healing the rest of the group and debuffing enemies, shield stripping, CC, etc.
The other two aren't really required to be any specific ships, but another deeps and perhaps an aux2bat exeter would be good, because surely someone would want to bring their ridiculously OP exeter with the TMP Connie skin.
No fleet/retrofits, because bringing a fleet ship to a T3 match is sort of defeating the point. No gear limits because gimping ourselves to XI blues would be ridiculous since they're the equivalent of IX blues now. Standard STB-type builds, beam/torp fore/aft, etc.
I came up with an idea to get a team together, a proper team, not just "5 people grouped up", and to run some of the Delta Quadrant patrol missions in lower tier ships.
Flagship - a T3-4 (Cheyenne/Excel/Galaxy/Ambassador) cruiser designed to not die and soak up damage so that the entire group doesn't just crumple and explode when an enemy (other than the Kazon) shows up.
Main DPS - a T3-4 (Akira/Defiant) escort to actually kill stuff
Support - a science ship that focuses on supporting the group - healing the rest of the group and debuffing enemies, shield stripping, CC, etc.
The other two aren't really required to be any specific ships, but another deeps and perhaps an aux2bat exeter would be good, because surely someone would want to bring their ridiculously OP exeter with the TMP Connie skin.
No fleet/retrofits, because bringing a fleet ship to a T3 match is sort of defeating the point. No gear limits because gimping ourselves to XI blues would be ridiculous since they're the equivalent of IX blues now. Standard STB-type builds, beam/torp fore/aft, etc.
Any interest?
Greetings Kylie 07
I would TOTALLY be down for this... I love the idea... kinda like what we were doing beforeish... haha.
I wanted to apologize to you and to all as lately I've been concentrating on the story... really just want to take my time in doing so to try and enjoy it.... NOT that I enjoy patrol missions but there's numerous threads about that so I won't go on here about it... LOL
I do plan on however putting the rest of my Captains thru the content and lvl them to 60. But please feel free to still ask to run missions... I try to get at least one in before doing story content.
Going back to your idea Kylie... this actually would help me and others level up their Captains.
Also to all STBers... be on the look out for the new guidelines for STB. I will be redoing that sometime in this weekend or week which has my personal views of how STB will move forward since DR.
Thanks again for the great suggestion... I look forward to trying it out.
Alright people, you got my attention here. Now, in-game, how do i find you and where? I have 4 toon, 2 Federation, 2 KDF and i already belong in a fleet, in all 4 of them. So how do i contact you?
Alright people, you got my attention here. Now, in-game, how do i find you and where? I have 4 toon, 2 Federation, 2 KDF and i already belong in a fleet, in all 4 of them. So how do i contact you?
All of your Captains/Generals are welcomed to STB. In a fleet or not your welcomed to be in chat and just have fun.
My handle is @trizeo1 and there is also a list of the admins on the first post. I will try to contact to you by using your forum name.
Or if that is not it leave your handle here and either myself or one of the admins will toss you an invite.
Just replied in that thread, but if you want a tl;dr -- put tactical consoles in your tactical slots.
I suppose the bio-neural is STO canon on a KDF-aligned Romulan.
---
We had some great Advanced runs last night. Infected Space and Borg Disconnected with full STB teams, where we got the optionals with plenty of time to spare, and Infected with a random where we still got the optional, and another Disconnected where we didn't get the optional because the Queen decided to get revenge for all those Hive runs... Not to mention Bug Hunt Advanced (though we've been tearing through Elite with no issue).
I do think team composition is something we should be considering for every Advanced run now, though. Based on last night, I'm thinking a max of two supports with three damage dealers. Of course, any ship that fits those roles is acceptable. I just think it's more important to consider the team as a whole now, I know before I'd just bring whatever I felt like flying for any given run.
I... would seriously join this, and I'm not even an STB player. What about an STB-equipped Prometheus (mirror patrol escort)? It's the lowest-tier I have available outside of a Connie. She doesn't even have the MVAM thing.
Also, I'm curious about the Corrosive Plasma space weapons. They fire yellow, like Phasers, and I'm currently using them on my Romulan.
Has STB taken on the Advanced STFs? It would seem that some new strategies need to be developed to take-on all the STFs since the maps and NPCs have changed.
Thanks!
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Advanced is completely doable with canon loadouts. We just had to get rid of the 3-7k DPS restriction, because the enemies themselves stop us from melting them now. Three players at or over 10k and a couple supports works well for getting the optional in ISA, but we can not fail it with lower (it feels a bit tedious and I personally don't enjoy it as much, though). The people claiming you need each player to be doing over 13k are wrong, little teamwork and awareness is all it takes.
I've personally completed all of the space queues except Undine Assault and the two Voth ones in ships that comply with STB guidelines. We've done full STB runs of all the Borg ones (including Disconnected -- we only failed Hive), and I think Azure Nebula (forget if that was a full team or 4 and a random). We've also done full STB teams for Bug Hunt and Defend Rh'Ihho Station Elite.
For my builds, I grabbed some better consoles and turned my weapon power back up to max. I run less torps than I used to on some ships, but most are unaltered, since I was never as hardcore about the one beam thing as Trizeo. I had maybe two ships set up like that. They still look pretty canon to me.
Advanced is completely doable with canon loadouts. We just had to get rid of the 3-7k DPS restriction, because the enemies themselves stop us from melting them now. Three players at or over 10k and a couple supports works well for getting the optional in ISA, but we can not fail it with lower (it feels a bit tedious and I personally don't enjoy it as much, though). The people claiming you need each player to be doing over 13k are wrong, little teamwork and awareness is all it takes.
I've personally completed all of the space queues except Undine Assault and the two Voth ones in ships that comply with STB guidelines. We've done full STB runs of all the Borg ones (including Disconnected -- we only failed Hive), and I think Azure Nebula (forget if that was a full team or 4 and a random). We've also done full STB teams for Bug Hunt and Defend Rh'Ihho Station Elite.
For my builds, I grabbed some better consoles and turned my weapon power back up to max. I run less torps than I used to on some ships, but most are unaltered, since I was never as hardcore about the one beam thing as Trizeo. I had maybe two ships set up like that. They still look pretty canon to me.
I will probably have to post my build. My Fed Eng has never gotten over 8K in a cruiser. I believe I have my skills, DOffs, BOffs and consoles all in order. I usually fly a Fleet Excelsior and Fleet AC, I have other ships too. I'll post ASAP.
Star Trek Battles Channel - Play Star Trek like they did in the series!Avatar: pinterest-com/pin/14003448816884219Are you sure it isn't time for a "colorful metaphor"? --Spock in 'The Voyage Home' SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Has STB taken on the Advanced STFs? It would seem that some new strategies need to be developed to take-on all the STFs since the maps and NPCs have changed.
Thanks!
Kin had already answered your question I believe.
Also I have updated the OP to reflect the current guidelines of STB post DR.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to comment here and either myself or one of the Admins will try to answer the questions.
Always looking forward to meeting new Captains to be able to enjoy STO the ST way.
Already have most of this gear in an inferior state from the rep boxes; these are my idealized mods.
Romulan plasma is used because the ship came with plasma and Romulan is green, which looks more canon. Would rather not run the gravimetric for looks, but you can't really pass that thing up. The bio-molecular photons are only used because these ships fired green photonic torps in Enterprise, but the bio-molecular incubation proc doesn't seem to bad. Didn't go for the enhanced bio-molecular since the ship wouldn't benefit from the set and I'm not running high yield.
I'm iffy on the Zero-Point console -- I'm currently running Enhanced Monotanium and an energy type console, and I'm not sure the extra plasma damage and power is worth the resistance tradeoff. I hate armoring my ships with universal consoles.
This... really saddens me... and reminds me why we are doing this, and if I was a pvp'er, I would join that "Vanilla PVP" thingy. I'm glad that this sort of thing has spread there too.
In an unrelated topic(ish), I'm sorry I havn't been arount for a while, but I've just been busy recently, (and playing other games) so I've only got one Mirror thingymajig. (Still missing old mirror!:):()
Comments
My apologies for your experience with the fleet.
But I do want to be clear that STB is first and foremost a channel/community. STB does have fleets that support STB which they have given access to SB's & team speak.
I personally DO NOT and WILL NOT have any of your experiences happen in chat as I want to keep STB as clean as it is now.
Again I hope that it does not turn you off from STB as STB does not stand for that type of behavior.
Next time your online LMK so we can further discuss and I can see that your experience gets to the right person(s).
We actually have been talking about that in chat since DR was announced and ATM here is my take on it.
I will personally do nothing yet in regards to changing any of my builds UNTIL I have personally tested all the new content. I will be honest that I have upgraded a couple of things but after some thought and before I invest anymore of my resources I've decided to wait until I have first hand experience.
Also, with one of the latest HIVE Elite I did with a full group of STB members it gave a feeling that for me at the very least I will be able to do the Advanced settings without any further upgrading. I did that in a Sao Paulo and died maybe a total of 3 times along with my other team mates and did the mission in under 15 mins... the new "Elite" will be interesting as the enemies have more HP & there are timed options that must be met in order to proceed.
One of the goals is NOT to melt things and blow thru the mission in 2 mins. That will be a different story if it takes us 2 hours which then at that point we will make the necessary changes and increase the DPS as required but that also will be subject to how we feel as a group.
If I can take a Constellation into ISE and NOT get blown up in a PUG group Im sure I can take my T5, non upgraded, ships into the new content with no problem... IMO. DPS will just mean things die quicker which is something that I/we sometimes DO NOT want.
But again we will have to wait and see what DR has in store for STB. I look forward to the challenges it will bring and I plan on still flying all the ships I currently own here and there long after DR. I am looking at 2 possibly 3 of the new ships but even those I'm on the fence about .... for now.... it's NOT the ship/gear but it's the Captain behind his ship that will determine how good/bad he/she does.
Thank you for your question and I hope I answered your question.
As for the new ships, I personally can't wait to try out the Faeht. I'm in love with the T'varo stealth bomber play style, and the Faeht looks like an improved version of that. The new intel abilities should be fun to play around with, too.
This initiative sounds like good fun; I have been reading most of this thread and I think it might be good fun to join in since I am no dps kinda guy...
I have 6 toons; 2 fed (eng and sci), 1 fed/rom (tac in her t'varo retrofit), and 3 kdf (eng, tac and sci)
For all I care, they can all join in on the fun.
But I think I will mostly use my romulan toon, since I like killing things with cannons (and it should be canon I think...). Otherwise I will have to adjust my ship accordingly.
My handle is T'Pau@m4tth3wk4n3 (this is my romulan toon)
greetings
*EDIT* My timezone = GMT +1
I thought the rule though was that it had to be canon ships, canon-ish loadouts? (Why I never joined, didn't want to restrict my builds even though I like dialing back the damage)
Just the weapon builds are limited. We've run all variety of ships. Depending on what I feel like flying, I'll switch between ships like the JHAS, JHDC, Tholian Recluse, Risan Corvette, or the multitude of Fed ships I have on my roster.
Fed = Phaser (AP for Wells, Mobius, and Aeon), Photon, Quantum, or TriCobalt
KDF = Disruptors and primarily Photon (though some argument can be made for other types)
RR = Plasma all the way around (RSE = Disruptors and Plasma)
JH = Polaron and Quantums
Tholian = Tetryon and Thermalitic
And that is just the basics. I know I am forgetting the Hirogen, Xindi, Breen, and Modified Undine ship starting builds, and probably a few other ships as well.
Fly the ship you want, its just that we want to weapons to look like what we see on-screen and to not simply melt things as fast as possible.
Our Battles
Well DR is just around the corner... I cannot wait to once again eperience what STO/DR can throw at STB.
I just wanted to take this time to thank all who are a part of or support STB, to thank also all the Captains I've met because of STB. I truly have enjoyed this game much more because of you Captains.
I have no doubt that our teamwork will prevail over all the new missions in store for us. We may need to adjust our builds here and there but overall I think what will make it for us is the teamwork we incorporate in our missions.
Some have upgraded their builds in STB and I have made some slight changes but in the end... STB will first and foremost be about having fun in STO. As much as we parse our runs to keep ourselves in check.... I think we all know what it is we are trying to do everytime we run a mission and that's just to have fun and play STO like ST.
I look forwrad to seeing you all in DR.
TC and Have fun Captains 07
Captain Trizeo, ZED/Commander Tuzak/General J'war out!
Again , sorry if this has been asked before , and if you just want to link the relevant post , I won't take offense .
EDIT : found trizeo1's latest comment on the topic , so I guess that will have to do for now .
Story Content: Superb -- I'm running through this on elite and it feels more challenging than story elite used to, but still very fair. The toughest enemy I've fought in space so far are the Voth, who seem to see right through my cloak now and required me to use some hit and run tactics, picking off weaker ships and falling back to heal up before going in for another kill. Excellent, certainly beats the mass slaughter most story missions used to be (except when Kazon are involved, heh).
T5-U/T6 Ships: I'm sure that these are better than the T5s (I mean, they have to be, with an extra console and an extra boff station), but they don't feel dramatically so. I'm certain my old Mogai build from before I joined STB would outperform my new Faeht with its current build, but I'm sure the latter has more potential once I figure something out. What we said back when they were announced applies, a T6 to a T5 is like a T5 to a T4 -- the latter's still very viable with the right build.
Intel Abilities: Tough call here, there are some that seem pointless to me, some pretty cool, but are they really worth giving up a tried and tested eng/tac ability? I think EMP Probe is my current favorite. I haven't tried surgical strikes yet (extra accuracy always seemed pointless for PVE) but I've been told it's good. Transport warhead is such an awesome concept but it doesn't really give enough feedback to tell if it's helpful or not.
Advanced Queues: Conflicted on these. I've always felt that none of the old Elite content justified the gear available. I wanted to improve my gear, but at the same time, there was zero need to. These queues certainly change that and it's welcome for me, but I personally think the bar has been set too high for the average player. I've seen the builds random players in queues use and the numbers they pull with them. I'm fine with these staying as-is, but the rep trinkets like BNPs and maybe very rare R&D mats need to be added to the normal queues if this is the case. Personally, I've always felt rewards should be synced across all difficulties -- the higher challenge level should be reason alone to play the Advanced/Elite queues.
This Channel: I think there's been too much emphasis on "low" DPS by some people, it's never been about that to me, it's been about the loadouts and the looks and not melting things in seconds. The damage limit was only in place to keep the game fun for us, and it's no longer required (or it'll be set much higher). A few of us have proven that canon-like loadouts can hit the numbers required by these STFs. Looks are debatable, unfortunately, I think we might end up having to stack more energy weapons of the same type (nearly every one of my KDF ships uses a hybrid of beams and cannons) and play a little smarter with our abilities. We'll see. We always used good teamwork with a mix of roles so that won't change, debuffs/CC and tanks are still very welcome.
Ok, that probably did steal his thunder. Oops, came out longer than I intended.
Thank you for your reply and no you did not steal my thunder...
So here are my thoughts so far with regards to STB & DR.
I have just done the 1st story mission and enjoyed it... I loved the VO work as it just made it feel all the more ST. I got my butt handed to me when I did the final ground part of the mission but other than that ... well the fight with the Undine was well..... annoying but that's MO.
For the new ques...
Borg disc - Had a full group but only did normal. Was a fun mission but found that the last part where there were 3 DN's was something we could not finish even on normal. I had not yet tweaked my build yet with the exception of raising the weapons power and taking out APO and replacing it with APB. The last part WILL require a high amount of DPS which can be looked at 2 ways which I will expand on a bit below.
ISA - Had another full group from STB go in and we made sure we communicated what we would do going in. The team work aspect of taking down the gens didn't worry me as we have pretty much mastered that portion but we made sure that we called out ready when all the gens were at 30%. Upon entering.. well the change was clear... I blew up already after I drew aggro and some others as well. Took us a good 4 mins I think then we moved onto the gens... 1 gen was prematurely popped but we blew up the transformer at around the 8 min mark. Clearing the spheres took time but by the time we finished the 2nd side we had about 3 mins left... we decided to take out the cube first as we normally do but we did not take it down fast enough as after that we still had the spheres and gate so we did not get the optional. Again... a high amount of DPS will be required but my thoughts are if we focused fire from start to end we might have done a bit better but hard to say really. I think it's doable going in with ships at the 10k mark with canon builds.
CCA - This we got down to 33% but failed the optional so people starting leaving and by that time I myself had to call it a night.... we had the CC but probably needed the debuffs which I think it's still doable but hard to say.
The following is entirely my opinion... on the one hand it's good as Kin mentioned above as it will require us to challenge ourselves build wise and yes... RAISE the dps to match the new ques difficulty. On the other hand it's again another DPS race which for me is a turn off as to get the highest dps go FAW or go home, again MY OPINION only but I've already seen some suggested DR builds which basically is spamming FAW. My build pre DR was leaning more towards screen accuracy so 1 BA & 2/3 torps fore & aft along with more single attack powers. I do this purely for the looks as that is what I've seen on screen as well as some of the games I've played over the years.
Another thing I noticed was... I felt... sleepy in the matches.. could've been because it was late but it was the same feeling I got when I got bored of the missions pre STB. It does speak to some of the opinions I've seen regarding the new difficulties.... long, drawn out fights that the fun factor is lost.
So for now.. it's back to the drawing board for me in terms of tweaking my builds. As far as the question for STB's dps cap... it will need to be lifted as now we are facing higher hulled enemies. Having said that, I will try to keep my build as close to what I have now to try to keep the screen accuracy.
Ill prolly edit this more but those are my initial thoughts on DR thus far... more to experience tonight.
See you in game 07
And seing the "+960xp" floaters just feels good imho. I got a reason to play the mission and kill these bad bad guys (i won't spoiler, but, dudes, Darth Vader is a Saint in comparison!)
I only did three ISAs so far, a PuG when i first logged in (in my T5 regent, nothing changed), a run with PESTF in the new new guardian cruiser, and an STB run.
All but the STB group got the otional with 2-4 minutes left. Average DPS was indeed the predited 15k.
The STB group didn't get the optional, but that was more or less expected for a not prepared team. Just as it should be. we had no problems whatsoever to accomplish the mission though. One Generator popped early. i called out "**** CC!!!!" and it was dealt with quickly! Good old STB teamwork!
There is one thing want to remind everyone:
We are NOT playing endgame chars anymore!
Mk XII purple is the new Mk XI blue, as you will see in the mission rewards.
And: Just because advanced is hard now, doesn't mean it will be hard at lvl 60.
No one is at lvl 60 yet, and the ship traits system is just starting. I bet in 6 months from now we'll be doin ISA in T3 ships and we buy cheap ship traits from the exchange.
DR and STB: I think a really good team can make advanced with 10k average.
We might have to get back to a bit more beam spam and less show accurate builds. but it's only a matter of time until powercreep will play in our favor.
But hoestly, my STB torp builds made 8k before DR, might just be a bit more expensive to go screen accurate. But hey, isn't that something to work for?
Last but not least i want to thank you all for making this game fun for me! I surely wouldn't be here without you guys and gals!
One thing I've noticed is that normal queues feel even easier than they had been before. I'm taking my unaltered STB builds into them, parsing my usual 5k and feel like I'm melting everything. I know we played elites more often than normals, but when we did run normals, it never felt like that before. It just felt easier, not faster. Dropping normal health to 80% is going to be ridiculous. The only thing that feels remotely beefy in normal STFs are tactical cubes.
And I should note that ground content (baring that last story mission!) is as easy as ever, even on Advanced. If the space difficulty is turning you off, beam down and shoot some bugs with me. I have fire. Lots and lots of fire. (disclaimer: the plasma flamethrower actually sucks for bug hunt, much like it does everywhere else)
I came up with an idea to get a team together, a proper team, not just "5 people grouped up", and to run some of the Delta Quadrant patrol missions in lower tier ships.
Flagship - a T3-4 (Cheyenne/Excel/Galaxy/Ambassador) cruiser designed to not die and soak up damage so that the entire group doesn't just crumple and explode when an enemy (other than the Kazon) shows up.
Main DPS - a T3-4 (Akira/Defiant) escort to actually kill stuff
Support - a science ship that focuses on supporting the group - healing the rest of the group and debuffing enemies, shield stripping, CC, etc.
The other two aren't really required to be any specific ships, but another deeps and perhaps an aux2bat exeter would be good, because surely someone would want to bring their ridiculously OP exeter with the TMP Connie skin.
No fleet/retrofits, because bringing a fleet ship to a T3 match is sort of defeating the point. No gear limits because gimping ourselves to XI blues would be ridiculous since they're the equivalent of IX blues now. Standard STB-type builds, beam/torp fore/aft, etc.
Any interest?
Greetings Kylie 07
I would TOTALLY be down for this... I love the idea... kinda like what we were doing beforeish... haha.
I wanted to apologize to you and to all as lately I've been concentrating on the story... really just want to take my time in doing so to try and enjoy it.... NOT that I enjoy patrol missions but there's numerous threads about that so I won't go on here about it... LOL
I do plan on however putting the rest of my Captains thru the content and lvl them to 60. But please feel free to still ask to run missions... I try to get at least one in before doing story content.
Going back to your idea Kylie... this actually would help me and others level up their Captains.
Also to all STBers... be on the look out for the new guidelines for STB. I will be redoing that sometime in this weekend or week which has my personal views of how STB will move forward since DR.
Thanks again for the great suggestion... I look forward to trying it out.
07
All of your Captains/Generals are welcomed to STB. In a fleet or not your welcomed to be in chat and just have fun.
My handle is @trizeo1 and there is also a list of the admins on the first post. I will try to contact to you by using your forum name.
Or if that is not it leave your handle here and either myself or one of the admins will toss you an invite.
Hope to see you in game :)7
any body got ideas on how to improve this?
My character Tsin'xing
I suppose the bio-neural is STO canon on a KDF-aligned Romulan.
---
We had some great Advanced runs last night. Infected Space and Borg Disconnected with full STB teams, where we got the optionals with plenty of time to spare, and Infected with a random where we still got the optional, and another Disconnected where we didn't get the optional because the Queen decided to get revenge for all those Hive runs... Not to mention Bug Hunt Advanced (though we've been tearing through Elite with no issue).
I do think team composition is something we should be considering for every Advanced run now, though. Based on last night, I'm thinking a max of two supports with three damage dealers. Of course, any ship that fits those roles is acceptable. I just think it's more important to consider the team as a whole now, I know before I'd just bring whatever I felt like flying for any given run.
Also, I'm curious about the Corrosive Plasma space weapons. They fire yellow, like Phasers, and I'm currently using them on my Romulan.
Has STB taken on the Advanced STFs? It would seem that some new strategies need to be developed to take-on all the STFs since the maps and NPCs have changed.
Thanks!
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
I've personally completed all of the space queues except Undine Assault and the two Voth ones in ships that comply with STB guidelines. We've done full STB runs of all the Borg ones (including Disconnected -- we only failed Hive), and I think Azure Nebula (forget if that was a full team or 4 and a random). We've also done full STB teams for Bug Hunt and Defend Rh'Ihho Station Elite.
For my builds, I grabbed some better consoles and turned my weapon power back up to max. I run less torps than I used to on some ships, but most are unaltered, since I was never as hardcore about the one beam thing as Trizeo. I had maybe two ships set up like that. They still look pretty canon to me.
I will probably have to post my build. My Fed Eng has never gotten over 8K in a cruiser. I believe I have my skills, DOffs, BOffs and consoles all in order. I usually fly a Fleet Excelsior and Fleet AC, I have other ships too. I'll post ASAP.
SCE ADVISORY NOTICE: Improper Impulse Engine maintenance can result in REAR THRUSTER LEAKAGE. ALWAYS have your work inspected by another qualified officer.
Kin had already answered your question I believe.
Also I have updated the OP to reflect the current guidelines of STB post DR.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to comment here and either myself or one of the Admins will try to answer the questions.
Always looking forward to meeting new Captains to be able to enjoy STO the ST way.
Take care :)7
-edit-
Or worse, the aux power on my science vessels! :P
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=dkyrt5uexotic_8030
Already have most of this gear in an inferior state from the rep boxes; these are my idealized mods.
Romulan plasma is used because the ship came with plasma and Romulan is green, which looks more canon. Would rather not run the gravimetric for looks, but you can't really pass that thing up. The bio-molecular photons are only used because these ships fired green photonic torps in Enterprise, but the bio-molecular incubation proc doesn't seem to bad. Didn't go for the enhanced bio-molecular since the ship wouldn't benefit from the set and I'm not running high yield.
I'm iffy on the Zero-Point console -- I'm currently running Enhanced Monotanium and an energy type console, and I'm not sure the extra plasma damage and power is worth the resistance tradeoff. I hate armoring my ships with universal consoles.
The ensign station is actually tactical with TT1.
This... really saddens me... and reminds me why we are doing this, and if I was a pvp'er, I would join that "Vanilla PVP" thingy. I'm glad that this sort of thing has spread there too.
In an unrelated topic(ish), I'm sorry I havn't been arount for a while, but I've just been busy recently, (and playing other games) so I've only got one Mirror thingymajig. (Still missing old mirror!:):()
07.
I actually like Delta Rising.