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Finding YOUR Playstle in Star Trek Online
vosoros
Member Posts: 343 Arc User
For me, I have a much easier time in thinking of playstyle by the good old fantasy classes that have been around for years...so let's see if us folk can help the noobs out in a conversion here shall we?
Personally, I love the hunter playstyle. You know, not the 2 dimensional DPS design, but one that weakens and disables his opponent whilst damaging them. A hunter playstyle is about being adept on your own and exploiting weakness'...
To that end, I deliberated and then chose the science class and a science ship. Why? Simply put, I can adapt and disable whilst plugging my enemies full of damage. The likes of tachyon beams and tetryon weapons are much like a pierce armour skill, breaking down your opponents defences and allowing you to beat them down. And with the most shields (akin to defence) and defence (per sae) in the game, this fits the playstyle and concept well again.
As a science type, you can chuck dirt in your opponents eyes (scramble sensors), lay a trap to slow, damage and weaken (gravity well and tychens rift), etc.
Besides which, one of the scientific disciplines is exploration. Weather that's in planetary surveys, astrometics, geology, and so on...from the roleplaying angle, dedicated explorers are more often than not from a scientific discipline.
Well, that's just my few cents worth on a hunter playstyle. I don't know if you other folk would agree or not...and if not, have your own approach to bringing the hunter playstle to life.
Regardless, what's YOUR playstle and how do you bring it to life in Star Trek Online?
Personally, I love the hunter playstyle. You know, not the 2 dimensional DPS design, but one that weakens and disables his opponent whilst damaging them. A hunter playstyle is about being adept on your own and exploiting weakness'...
To that end, I deliberated and then chose the science class and a science ship. Why? Simply put, I can adapt and disable whilst plugging my enemies full of damage. The likes of tachyon beams and tetryon weapons are much like a pierce armour skill, breaking down your opponents defences and allowing you to beat them down. And with the most shields (akin to defence) and defence (per sae) in the game, this fits the playstyle and concept well again.
As a science type, you can chuck dirt in your opponents eyes (scramble sensors), lay a trap to slow, damage and weaken (gravity well and tychens rift), etc.
Besides which, one of the scientific disciplines is exploration. Weather that's in planetary surveys, astrometics, geology, and so on...from the roleplaying angle, dedicated explorers are more often than not from a scientific discipline.
Well, that's just my few cents worth on a hunter playstyle. I don't know if you other folk would agree or not...and if not, have your own approach to bringing the hunter playstle to life.
Regardless, what's YOUR playstle and how do you bring it to life in Star Trek Online?
Post edited by vosoros on
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I dunno what traditional MMO playstyle T'Cael fits. I have made choices with him which improve strength and speed. Strength plus speed equals power. Power equates to the ability to choose when and how to respond. Properly applied, power can win a fight before it ever starts. It is very enjoyable to know I am going to win a Ground Melee before it begins and the choices I make beforehand are the reason for this. It is very enjoyable in Space to be able to pick out the largest most powerful ship as a target, soak up every last bit of its Alpha Strike and keep boring in to deliver my own.
Actually all I really try to do is have fun while playing STO. At the end of a session, if I enjoyed myself, then I played the game successfully. Of course, it is much more fun if you play well and win. However, having fun is the most important of these three IMO.
Fed - He is 50+ years old, and been around. Even fought in the Dominion War. He isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and get down to business. However he is usually slower to go into combat. As he looks around and see how best to take them down. And best way to make it out alive. Experience in the field does that to you. And willing to learn and adapt to take out new targets. Even with his old Ambassador class ship. He uses his skills to eliminate the threat and survives. I see this role more like a hunter, or very experienced warrior.
KDF - He is 30+ years old. Being a warrior he love to go in fighting. Also he uses his skills as well to take advantage of his targets. His ship is a K'Tinga, he will unleash all kinds of pain and fight full fury. Also he loves seeing the blood spill from his opponent. As he hacks into them. I see this role more like a warrior. Ready to go in and get to business.
Romulan - She is in her 20-30 range. Lived a peaceful life until that got turned upside down. Was battle harden the hard brutal way. Other words you better not cross her. But when you got her as a friend you have a loyal one. And she loves to help others as well. She is more likely to go in guns blazing, due to her lack of experience. However she is learning to be more stealthy. I see this role more like a assassin once she gets more "seasoned".
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
It would depend on the character I'm playing on.
Sophie = A human Starfleet Science Captain. My main character and many of my reasons are similar to the OP's. Its a fun playstyle to cripple and debuff your opponent whilst battering it to death with beams and torps. I've reinforced my build to provide good defence in shields and hull so she lasts a long time. It also seems as though the game kinda 'favours' the notion that Starfleet's speciality is science given how the other two factions sorely lack decent sci ships. Its also fun to roleplay since a lot of the doffing is about exploring and analysing. Its a fun play style.
Natasha = An ex-Borg human Starfleet Engineering Captain. My secondary character almost as advanced as Sophie. She focuses on being a tank basically. My build focuses on defence and survivability as she tends to battle with the idea of outlasting her opponent and being the last one standing. That being said she flies an Eclipse now that does have escortish tendencies. I've added cannons to the usual beams/torps and put in a console or two that boosts cannon output. Classically I do play warriors/paladins/tanks in RPGs so I do find it fun to play.
Elizia = A Starfleet allied Romulan Tactical Captain. She's a few levels behind the other two and I'm still about halfway through completing her reputation work but she's coming along nicely. She flies the Fey'-something or other. One of the new T6 Warbirds. Elizia's focus is all about damage and DPS. Although she does use beams and torps most of her damage comes from dual heavy cannons. I've put a bit of survivability into the build but mostly its about dealing as much damage as possible whilst staying alive. Its thouroughly enjoyable to rip enemies apart in a few seconds.
Finally we have Dorani. An ex-Borg Klingon KDF Engineer. Flies the Mat'ha. A deviation from my normal tradition as I've balanced offence and defence. The build has defence but there's significant focus on cannons. Only has Omega T5 reputation and is about lvl 53 but I do put a good amount of time and effort into her. Mostly she exists to roleplay and to experience KDF content. Still, fun to play.
Amen! That is how RPGs should be. If you enjoyed it, then the game is successful. If you didn't, then the game is a failure.
As to my play style, I tend to prefer the artillery role (wizard, spellcaster, ranged combat, etc.). But in this game, everything is pretty much ranged combat. Below is how my characters typically run
Draba- KDF allied Reman Tac officer. Melee, warrior, in your face combat.
Neri- Orion Engineer. Very much a distance stand-off character. Either uses fuse armor/weapons malfunction or builds bunkers/turrets/fortifications
Voru- Saurian Tac- Range combat, sniper. Able to stand in fiery terrain so as to hit from an unexpected angle or resist the plasma grenades.
Jeff- Human Tac- Generalist. He is my all-around character.
Jeren- Trill KDF Tac- Generalist. Another all-around character.
Helpful Tools: Dictionary.com - Logical fallacies - Random generator - Word generator - Color tool - Extra Credits - List of common English language errors - New T6 Big booty tutorial
Solid truth. It seems more players could take it to heart.
Myself, I have one charachter, Human Fed TAC. He is not an escort driver, but almost exclusivley
a Cruiser Commander. I prefer a slow "stately" pace while engaging at range with beams
set for "BO", not "FAW", Torps (for the heavy blows), and mines to dicourage "back attacks"
and soaking up enemy fire. No headlong charges, no cut and thrust manuvers. Just a graceful
dance, while dealing destruction (when compelled to do so).
This rookies approach to battle.
BCW.
My play style changes with the ship's build and toon. Sometimes that toon is flexible, and I'll use multiple styles of builds and ships. Others seem best suited for single styles.
While I was learning this game, I thought DPS was everything. It's not. While DPS will let you level faster, in the end game scenarios having multiple alts all pretending to play with essentially the same build was boring - and a massive waste of resources.
So I build to the strengths of that ship & captain.
TANK-DPS: Uruk is a Fed Engineering captain, running a Romulan Plasma build on a Guardian Cruiser. He's an aggressive tank, preferring to fly large cruisers. I had a lot of fun in a Tactical Odyssey, before i found the 'perfect' starship in the Guardian.
Perfect meaning looks and performance.
DRAIN: SciThrax is a Federation Science captain, running a Guardian at the moment for the ship Mastery, but will end up in a Scryer or Dauntless drain build. She excelled with a Vesta for the last 2 years, but in a Dauntless took first place in CCA daily. Elite Phasers.
DPS-MOB: Thrax is my main, feeling equally at home in escorts (FPER or Phantom) or in the new Guardian class cruiser. Theres a theme starting here
MOB-DPS: T'Hrax is a Reman Science captain running the new T6 Breen Carrier with the frigates. MOST FUN IVE HAD PLAYING THIS GAME IN AGES. The pets are OP, the ship is OP, and the science skills are OP. It flies like a a drunken destroyer, so I play it aggressively. Mixed polaron set - just got the breen WW warp core, and plan to rerun the breen series for the gear to see what it does. EDIT: got the gear - running advanced STF's with Mark XI gear - no problem. Might even upgrade it just for fun.
DPS-DRAIN: Thrax Al' Ghul - Romulan tac Captain. Scimidar polaron build. This one is just for fun and giggles. Nothing beats a scimidar for sheer overkill, especially when it's drainig your shields. Odd build I know, but a lot of fun.
DPS-DPS: Toran Tac KDF flying the latest in T6 Mah'Ta raptor nastiness with a AP build. sheer destructive power on a decent chassis. In terms of DPS, a close second to Scimidar.
HEALER-MOB: Tavana, KDF Science. She's had everything, but longs for a true KDF science vessel - which seems about as likely as a T5 Connie, or a True Fed Carrier. I have the T6 Breen already for her when she finishes leveled her ship mastery for her Mah'Ta raptor. I'm looking forward to her taking command of the carrier soon, especially if it's half as fun as T'Hrax's ship.
Faceroll.
Spacebar.
Listen to new VO.
Spacebar.
Faceroll.
Spacebar.
Teela, Romulan Engineer: Grew up in the aftermath of the supernova. Had to learn from an early age to make due and be able to scrap together necessities from random parts and power cells. Her hands on experience made her a natural as an engineer. Her humble beginnings made it easy to empathize with even the lowest ranking crewman, and she has garnered tremendous loyalty from her crew. Once a proud D'Deridex commander, now her and her crew fly one of the newly commissioned Aelahl battlecruisers.
Kel Shir, Romulan Science: An older man, Kel used to teach math and science at the academy on Romulus before the supernova. Circumstances forced him to helm a ship when the refugees badly needed experienced officers. He is saddened that the Romulan focus on attack ships has ended up lagging behind the Federation in terms of high technology research vessels, so he bides his time by commanding an old retrofitted T'Varo.
Alana Satis, Federation Science: A genius scientific wonder from an early age, it was no wonder she escalated the ranks quickly to prove herself one of the most capable young captains in the fleet. In fact, she was approached by Federation Intelligence some time ago and has access to some of the most technologically advanced assets in the quadrant. For fleet action, she commands one of the massive and elegant Atrox carriers, although for solitary exploration, her and her crew fly one of the new high tech Scryer science ships.
Kahla, Orion Tactical: Determined to break the mold, Kahla is a young Orion former slave girl intent on proving that she can be just as tough as any Klingon captain. She tolerates no dissent, and her tasks have always ended with her covered in the blood of her enemies. She flies bird-of-preys.
SO, when I mioved to STO I wanted to do the same and Science fit the bill ... besides I like the color blue :P Now then, STO is decent to teach a n00b how to play the game, but the inner mechanics of weapon marks and CrtH v CrtD v Dmg and Boff abilities ... these are not too easy to solve. Hail, the Wiki and these forums.
I learn quick that the "Support" Sci ship is ... not really needed in the game. The more I read the forums, the more I did not like Science ships in general. I used a Recon SV for a little bit because I liked the ship's design. the Mirror BOff seating was more appealing and when my Fleet was able I even got the Fleet Recon ... but something was lacking. In PuGs I didn't feel effective toward other players. I think it's because, in CoX, players interacted with each oher: they requested certain buffs, or notified when they didn't want one. They actively provided praise and guidance a long the way. But in STO ... silence. Even when I asked, responses were either nonexistent or curt.
In other words, I didn't feel I was contributing. Maybe it was my build, maybe it was the random people I played with. Either way (or other ways) I just wasn't the Science Captain others wanted, I guess.
After several months I decide on playing with ships I know: ships from the show. And most of them are cruisers. After LOTS of trial and error (with an unhealthy amount of time in the Shiipyards forum, I have the current build in my sig.
Yet, I'm a Science Captain ... and that's okay. I have a few Science abilities I can use in Space that helps the team. I use several debuff or control abilities on the ground. Now I know how to contribute with what I have ... and I'm having fun.
So, what's my playstyle? "Contributor" is how I'd put it. Stay to the end. Shoot what others shoot at, buff/heal/debuff what I can ... but don't stop until the job is done.
I prefer to fly rather slow (in STO terms) ships, like Cruisers or some Science ships.
Fun times with FBP and Vesta consoles.
Like the "Stone of Gol" TNG episode,
Your super weapon only works on those who wish to destroy you.
Any damage you deal upon my ship will be returned in kind + more.
I come in peace, fire on my ship at your own peril.
I would love to play a healer, using eng and sci powers to heal my team. But that is useless, because everyone can self heal well enough to make the job moot.
I would love to play a tank, but everyone can self heal and soak damage well enough to make pulling aggro and holding it to protect the other players ... pointless.
I would love to disable mobs and do crowd control, but it turns out that killing things is better crowd control than taking their systems offline for 1.35 seconds.
I would love to prepare a battlefield with mines or placeable turrets and such as a "combat engineer" but mines are of dubious value due to shared cooldowns and most of the rest of that stuff has laughable effects (aceton is nice, though).
The game simply does not encourage such ideas. The game encourages players to mash 4 or so buttons and walk out with the loot --- alpha strike, power to weapons, pattern beta, aoe, done.
For me, It's not about having uber DPS, though I have a few that are DPS-mongers. For me, it's about versatility, and Engineering Captains fit that bill perfectly.
Ship-wise, I usually play ships that aren't as popular. I do have characters that run ships like the Scimi, Avenger, Vesta, Mogh, and others, but I enjoy playing ships like the Galor, JHDC, S'golth, K't'inga, Mogai/Valdore, and the Ambassador more. Anyone can make a high DPS Scimitar, but it takes a special dedication or willingness to play one of the non-uber ships in the game and stick with it, regardless of what others may say. The "older" ships are just more fun for me. With every new batch of ships coming out, they look to be less Star Trek-like and that is disappointing for me.
Also whenever possible, most of my characters use other ships have at least one LTC Sci slot. For me, my favorite setup is Grav Well and the Gravimetric Torpedo Launcher from the Dyson Set. I am a believer in using only one ship per character. That is why I have so many characters and so many different ships for them to fly. No two characters run the same setup and if I am in the mood for a particular playstyle for a day, I can simply login that character and go... no need to change loadouts, BOFFS, Traits, or gear. I don't feel the need for Loadouts with so many different characters to choose from. It's just more efficient for me this way since I have played this way since Beta. Can't teach an old dog new tricks is alive and well with me as far as Loadouts are concerned
For me, this game is about variety and having a willingness to try different builds, themes, and storylines based on the character in question. Some of my characters have overlapping areas, but in the fine print of each character/ship design, there is always something different that separates them from each other.
Each character I roll is for a specific reason and that, I think is what keeps me playing... just being able to try something new and/or different, regardless of the BS Cryptic/PWE throws our way.
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Do STOs game Mechanics support such a playstyle?
(is FBP strong enough? for example)
It works great with the proper particle gens build.
*Bonus if you have the Vesta pack, the consoles are very complimentary, Fermion field and the kinetic dmg reflect console are awesome*
Some PvP'ers hit so darn hard and fast, they have no time to react, and cutoff their attack, often times with a 400+ PG build, they'll vape themselves on their first alpha CRF volley.
Fun stuff.
Sometimes when I do Arena, it'll feel like I've not done much of anything, only to see an 11-2 K/D ratio when the scorboard pops up.
If you're not into the DPS race, this is a good option.
But it should be noted that FBP doesnt do quite so well in PvE, but fortunatly, with high PartGens you can swap out FBP3+2 for GW1&3 or TBR's etc when doing PPvE content.
Pretty versatile really.
You and me both. I prefer the "classic" designs and am disappointed that the game is moving away from them.
And I am also in agreement. I prefer to have different characters for different styles. Unfortunately, with the accolades and the grind fest, the ease of being able to have multiple characters increases logarithmically, hence why I am stuck with 5 major and 2 throw-away characters.
I am also disappointed that the game programmers have chosen to railroad us into the DPS power builds rather than encourage creative and inventive skill combos. Variety is the spice of life, but with each new seaon and expansion, that variety slowly disappears.
My primary KDF captain is unorthodox. As an Orion, tends to shy away from the traditional KDF arsenal of Birds of Prey and battlecruisers. Focusing instead on the BUFF of the spaceship combat "world", the Vo'Quv. Unleashing a pair of elite BOPs and then continuous fire from beam arrays to support the escort pets. As an engineer, her ability to heal not only her own damage but that of her BOPs to keep them in the battle.
I do have other captains, of various professions and factions, but those are the two I play almost exclusively. My Romulan usually commands a T'Varo fit for laying mines and firing torpedoes. He keeps engine and AUX power set to maximum, grappling opponents with Gravity Well and then firing a TS3 volley, and laying down mines after his cloak reinitializes and he moves past. This approach lends well to team play, and is especially effective against the Crystalline Entity.
They make a wondrous mess of things. Brave amateurs, they do their part.
I've actually just discovered the type 7 material for the intrepid class, this (for me) makes me feel as though I can enjoy the intrepid class and imagine it as a 25 century vessel at the same time.
Sometimes the old and the new can combine quite beautifully to allow you to truly make a ship your own. With the type 6 material (T6) intrepid starship and it's voyager bridge and interior...I finally feel like I've come home. And with my crew (and myself) aptly dressed in the odyssey uniforms of the era, it just finished the look and I feel I can finally immerse myself in the role.
Darn, now I'll have to update my signature picture of the Pioneer...
:P
These are the voyages of the U.S.S. Pioneer...
Don't pay attention to the skills though, they suck... hahahaha
To me, there is nothing more satisfying, than kicking the door in, and be the only one that walks out of a world of hurt without a scratch. If you really want a good example of this in a modern setting, try the Adestus Arbites, from DH, now if built and played right, these guys are annoyingly unstoppable!!:D
I latest time my characters are playing each one in his own way
due the role (Sci/tac/eng) and faction (fed/kdf/rom). However
when they go to ground they are true Admirals ("command people").
In Dyson (example) all bridge officers attack X target when the
Admiral attack another or do a task. They always on the run to
somewhere or against an enemy.
In space, teamplayer is the base of my playstyle. We coordinate,
we win.
But the fact that one captain can fly a ton of different ships (limited by how much you're willing to spend, of course), I'm never bored.
So while, as I wrote earlier, I have multiple characters, my play style in gaming has always been that of a the wizard of necromancer, especially the latter. So logically, the one who gets the most play is my Fed science captain.