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Hello newb advice
welfarebob
Member Posts: 42 Arc User
I just download the game never played and I am a fan of star trek. What class would you recommend? Klingon, federation or Romulan? Engineer? Tactical? Science?
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Careers are mostly important for the ground part of the game. In space, you can fly any ship of your faction, regardless what career you are.
There's a lot of tactical officers in the game because it's easier for them to do high damage, which is quite important in the game though.
I've always been very interested in the Science career because it offers a lot of flexibility on the ground. But all careers have their advantages and some unique abilities.
Oh and welcome to STO btw
as for factions pick the race you want to be and go from there. Fed have the largest selection of ships, but rom and kdf have some of the better
ships .
Rayzee
excellentawesome#4589
torgaddon101
raeat
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
And if you find that you most like the Romulans and the Engineering career, but now your Romulan is a tactician end your engineer a Klingon - well, either drop one and start anew or get a fourth or, well, whatever you feel like.
Federation Tactical Captain - master of ALL.
RRF-Fed Tactical Captain - if you are min/max.
Science Captain - only good as ground healer.
Engineer Captain - only good as ground bomber.
Tactical Captain outperform them in ground and SPACE combat.
Heck... Tactical Captain can use Science ships and science boff skills better then Science Captain...
Also... choose klingons ONLY if you are huge klingon fan.
Ignore advice like this:-
......because all that is hog-wash.
Tactical is great for DPS, but unless you want to spend life eternally blowing up yourself, you need survivability, which both Sci and Eng do very well. Although Sci's and Eng can't match the ultimate DPS output, Sci's have many AoE abilities and 'Summon Photonic Fleet', which is IMO one of the best abilities in the game for varying reasons. Eng's are great with healing and boosting the power output of your warp core, making the ship hit hard, move fast and turn quicker just from 1 ability.
On the ground Tac's again DPS, Sci's AoE abilities and Eng's Turret Fabrications are all equally favourable.
Start as a Fed, but choose a character to suit you, not someone else's opinion. Look at each race within the faction as they all have inherent traits affecting differing situations. The most important advice I can give to a new starter, regardless of choice is DON'T SKIP THE TUTORIAL! It will save you loads of time from asking everyone how to do things. The tutorial is well put together and will give you information when you actually need it, not before. There is alot for a newbie to take in, so they spread certain aspects of the game throughout your career, so you don't get over-whelmed.
It's okay for you to ask advice, but believe me (I'm an instructor of Martial Arts), take time to look around, let things sink in, because the last thing you want is to end up playing a character that someone else effectively built for you. Your in-game experience will be far more immersive and rewarding than if you just 'copy & paste'. At the end of the day, it's the player that makes the character, not the other way round.
And lastly, when you are able, join a fleet that will give guidance and advice at your pace.
I will suggest two things to you :
First..take your time while playing Star Trek Online. Resist the rush to Level 60 and a Tier 6 ship. There is a huge amount to learn here (nearly 3 1/2 years later I'm still learning new things!) and learning those skills will improve the gameplaying experience no end.
Secondly and perhaps the most important thing of all.....just have fun.
As far as your class goes, you'll get lots of opinions on that, you already have. I'll just say my favorite combo so far is flying a Tac ship with an Eng captain. Lots of Pew Pew Pew going in, and Miracle Worker (an Eng ability) to keep you in.
As to race, for my first toon, I tried to recreate me, so it's a Human. (Really, that's also how I landed as an Eng, as I have a bit of a slant towards engineering IRL.) I then decided it'd be more fun to watch the backside of someone i might be attracted to running through the game, so i made an Orion female, but it turns out i was wrong. I've had a lot of fun recently, though, running around as a Benzonite. I guess that sort of leads to the best advice I can give:
Whatever you do, make sure you have fun.
A Tac CPT will not outperform an Engineer on the ground. You might get a little more spike, but you won't sustain as well as an Eng both DPS AND survivability.
STO casuals advices always make me laugh XD
Good Tactical Captain will always outperform Engineer on the ground...
Federation has the most variety of ships. Tactical officers have the easiest time blowing stuff up real good. Romulans have easy access to bridge officers with the "romulan operative" trait.
I would also recommend getting a lifetime subscription if you can afford it. Among the many other benefits, this gives you access to the Tier 6 "Veteran" ships. If you don't want to agonize about your choice of endgame ship, those are excellent for "jack of all trades" builds.
It may be better suited to help somebody who also would be a casual. I don't know if the OP is or would be, but people who consider themselves experts, either because they are or because Mr. Dunning and Mr. Kruger were right, may lose touch with what non experts like in a game (case in point: the ongoing Mirror Event AFK discussion)
If you want to start with the very familiar, the Federation is the obvious choice. Being there, you can also play a Human. (If ou later want the most option in looks and in traits, Alien might be better).
The best story in my opinion is the Romulan starter storyline. It has a relatively tight focus, some memorable (if a bit overacted) antagonists, and a good motivation to jump into all this trouble.
What class:
My first character was Science, and he flew Science Vessels. That was many years ago, when the mechanics of many powers were significantly diferrent than they are now, and I was a noob anyway and didn't know what I was doing. (At least now I am not a noob anymore, won't say much about the latter). I still love Science and Science Vessels. But you can play any career in any ship class, so don't feel restricted.
Generally speaking:
Engineering class skills in space mostly add healing and buffing abilities. That can be helpful if you are still learning the ropes and try to surivive. But - with the right tips you shouldn't struggle that hard.
Science class skills in space are either debuffing or self/area (resilience) buffing. It's most important power can also be its least important. In PvE, the power is of a lot less use than PvP.
Tactical class skills in space are pretty much all damage buffs. That means you kill your enemies faster than anyone else, and if you know how to survive with bridge officer skills, distributing shield powers, it might be the fastest way to level.
What Ships
This really depends also on the faction.
Cruisers:
All Enterprises since TOS were Cruisers. So you will see a lot of familiar ships in here on the Federation side.
Cruisers have a lot of engineering powers, which tends to make them durable, but doesn't add so much for damage output. That said, there are ways to make them perform well - they tend to have the most weapon slots per ship, and with Cruiser Commands, engineering powers an a small set of tactical powers you can get incredibly far.
Battlecruisers: KDF has mostly Battlecruisers instead of Cruisers. They are very similar, but tend to have a bit better turn rate and can use dual cannons. And Cloak.
Flight Deck Cruisers: Also something the KDF has thanks to its Orion allies. C-Store only. Very similar to Cruisers, but with a hangar bay.
Escorts:
The Defiant was the first canonical escort, the hero ship of Deep Space Nine. Escorts are designed around damage, speed and maneuverability. The gameplay is closer to a fighter craft than a Cruiser. That can be a lot of fun. They are less tough than Cruisers.
Science Vessels:
The Voyager was a Science Vessel (Well, that's how Cryptic interpreted it). Science Vessels are a bit like "space wizards" - they have a lot of crowd control and area effect powers and debuffs, but also quite a few important buffs and heals. Can be challenging to play, but also very fun. They are one of the few classes that don't neccessarily focus on energy weapons as their main source of damage, and particular at endgame, there are potent builds around exotic damage and torpedoes.
Science Vessels can be very tough thanks to their shields, but have lower hull than Cruisers.
Bird of Preys / Raider:
Mostly a Klingon ship. The famous B'Rel (Martok's ship, the ship in Startrek III, IV, VI, VII) represents this group in canon. These ships have battle cloak, that means they can cloak even when your ship is taking damage and still in red alert. Decloaking gives a damage bonus for a short time, and Raiders also have the ability to flank enemies - attacking the backside deals extra damage. Even more maneuverable (and fragile) than Escorts.
Carrier:
Carriers are generally slow with poor maneuverability, and become only available towards the higher levels. They have 2 hangar bays, and launch all kinds of fighter and shuttle craft. Mostly a Klingon ship, otherwise only C-Store or maybe event/promo/Lockbox ships.
Warbird:
This is what the Romulans fly. If you look closely, they also tend to have escort, cruiser and even science vessel type ships under the Warbird name, but they are different in some important aspects. They have singulariity cores instead of warp cores, which gives you a small repertoire of additional powers that unlock during combat. And they have romulan battle cloak. They tend to be potent, but also somewhat fragile - which is rarely a problem considering how fast you can often take care of your enemies in them.
Other ADvice
Put all Power to Weapons. The benefits weapon power gives your damag eoutput is much higher than the benefit other energy levels bring. The only exception would be science vessel torpedo builds.
Distribute your Shield Power regularly. An open shield facing can kill you, even if all the other shield facing looks fine. Also, all shield healing and regeneration is per facing -that means if you have a facing maxed out, the heal there goes wasted. You don't want to waste heals! Later on, you might want to use Tactical Team for the same reason - it automatically redistributes your shields to whever you are taking damage.
Good starting powers might be: