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Trying to decide on the best Career to play
helixsunbringer
Member Posts: 249 Arc User
in The Academy
Hey guys,
I am trying to decide on the best career, race, and end game ship to play.
In most MMORPG Video Games that I have played I like to play the Ranged DPS class that uses the bow and arrow as its primary weapon. Since this game doesn't really feature that sort of mechanic, I really don't have that option, especially since ranged combat seems to be something that all classes are capable of.
In this game I originally started with a Vulcan Tactical Captain (my Avatar picture) that I got to level 50 and played using a few different Escort ships. When I did so I quickly discovered that I really dislike that sort of Captain and ships habit of dying quickly. I am of the personal opinion that a DPS Class that is dead more often than it is alive is incapable of dishing out the levels of DPS that are necessary to kill the opponent. As such I really can't say I like Tactical Captains in Escorts.
As such I am wondering if playing any of the following would be more in line with what I am used to in other RPG's:
Tactical - Cruiser
Tactical - Science Vessel
Engineering - Escort
Engineering - Cruiser
Engineering - Science Vessel
Science - Escort
Science - Cruiser
Science - Science Vessel
I am also curious what Race has the best default traits, as I really don't want to spend a TRIBBLE ton of Energy Credits to buy the traits off the Exchange until I am absolutely ready to do so.
On the other hand I already have the following characters at level 50+
Vulcan Tactical Captain - Male - Fed
Joined Trill Engineering Captain - Female - Fed
Orion Engineering Captain - Female - KDF
Alien Tactical Captain - Female - KDF
I am trying to decide on the best career, race, and end game ship to play.
In most MMORPG Video Games that I have played I like to play the Ranged DPS class that uses the bow and arrow as its primary weapon. Since this game doesn't really feature that sort of mechanic, I really don't have that option, especially since ranged combat seems to be something that all classes are capable of.
In this game I originally started with a Vulcan Tactical Captain (my Avatar picture) that I got to level 50 and played using a few different Escort ships. When I did so I quickly discovered that I really dislike that sort of Captain and ships habit of dying quickly. I am of the personal opinion that a DPS Class that is dead more often than it is alive is incapable of dishing out the levels of DPS that are necessary to kill the opponent. As such I really can't say I like Tactical Captains in Escorts.
As such I am wondering if playing any of the following would be more in line with what I am used to in other RPG's:
Tactical - Cruiser
Tactical - Science Vessel
Engineering - Escort
Engineering - Cruiser
Engineering - Science Vessel
Science - Escort
Science - Cruiser
Science - Science Vessel
I am also curious what Race has the best default traits, as I really don't want to spend a TRIBBLE ton of Energy Credits to buy the traits off the Exchange until I am absolutely ready to do so.
On the other hand I already have the following characters at level 50+
Vulcan Tactical Captain - Male - Fed
Joined Trill Engineering Captain - Female - Fed
Orion Engineering Captain - Female - KDF
Alien Tactical Captain - Female - KDF
0
Comments
Romulans go very very(too) well with that, due to their straight forward damage bonus after decloak, and the ability
to grab plenty of BOffs with the SRO trait, that bolster critchance.
This, and either a escort or dread, are pretty much fotm.
Secondly, you can greatly increase survivability with pickung up a valdore warbird, whose console it comes with is pretty
much translating your (energy weapon)offense into defense.
That combined with FAW spam is some really decent means to keep you alife with little effort.
That being sayd, i DO enjoy my KDF joined trill in his super-squishy, torpedo spamming B'Rel bird-of-prey alot more tho.
Id allso like to add, that if you just plan on staying alife no matter what, science is worth a close look.
They might not keep up in terms of DPS, but its astonishing how hard they can be to kill, plus youll turn most stuff into
a cakewalk for your team, if you use your cc-abilities wisely.
When you say "dread" are you referring to something like the "Scimitar Dreadnought Warbird [T5-U]" which the Upgraded version of the Tier 5 "Scimitar Dreadnought" which is part of the "Dreadnought Warbird Package" from the Z-Store. Or were you referring to something like the "Fleet Ha'apex Advanced Warbird [T6]" which is the Fleet version of the "Kara Advanced Warbird [T6]," both of which are part of the "T6 Dreadnought Cross Faction Bundle"
But from what you have told me, being that "ranged bow and arrow dps" kind of reminds me of you being a stealthy, yet powerful assassin type player(Although you sight ranged as a requirement, the significant damage drop off from being far away from your target makes distancing yourself ineffective in most scenarios). While the current trend to get maximum amount of dps is to hit multiple targets with BFAW spam or CSV, I personally find it as an uninteresting play style. If you want to pop almost any single target in a matter of secounds, then an escort (Preferably the intel ones) are best suited for that role. Load up on CritD instead of CritC, Beam Overload, Surgical strikes, Overide subsystem safeties, EPTW, Flanking trait(s) from intel tree, decloaking close behind the enemy, point blank trait from a story mission, and attack pattern alpha will make a quick and stealthy assassin ship. While your total dps will be less than a BFAW ship, popping almost any enemy ship (because of dreadnought sponges) I find fun.
If fun for you is flying in guns blazing vaping everything around you, then an expensive BFAW spam cruiser with very little effort hoping your ship has enough HULL (since you have paper shields against npc Tachyon beams) to tank, (preferably a t5-u Scimitar or any similar layout ship such as the sheshar) will be for you.
If you like a "fun" challenge of having battlefield awareness and picking targets carefully at the right time with a (slightly less expensive compared to a BFAW spam build) and using stealth and speed as your actual defense, and having that one precise devastating shot, then (cloaking) escort ships I recommend for you.
If you have any of the Event Ships, they can be kitted out and do well. I find the Nandi to be... visually unappealing... but it has a solid setup for damage. The Sarr Theln can be an "off-Sci" if you're playing a faction with T6 stuck at minimal (if any) Cmdr Sci seating and nothing with a Secondary Deflector anyway. Oh, actually, run to the charity thingey and go get three T6 ships for $10... quick, while they last. That's seriously about as low cost as you're ever going to get for an array of low-level ships/shuttles, Admiralty Cards, and a T6 for each faction.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9649673
Just don't procrastinate, since there's a limited number of packs available...
As to playing ranged DPS... Tactical. Space combat isn't really restricted by Profession they way Ground is, though Tac does have Attack Pattern Alpha (with the best base uptime of any of the Captain abilities, and across-the-board bonuses to offense even when using Sci powers). All Professions have access to the same builds, boff abilities, ships, and equipment in Space... so compare the Captain abilities and decide which extra nudge you want as far as your overall role. If you favor DPS elsewhere, you generally came to the right place, since a large portion of STO revolves around blowing sh... stuff up, and Tactical Captain abilities all stack freely to enable you to do so more effectively.
Just be aware that a Science Captain can SubNuc away every buff you have in an instant; that mostly applies to PvP, but even in PvE some of the tougher foes are starting to stack buffs to the point where SubNuc can serve as a useful counter to an incoming barrage.
Ground, though, actually plays differently based on Profession...
Tactical fills the roles you'd typically find DPS in (in melee, range, and stealth) as well as having access to a good amount of team buffs (though later on Command Specialization can be used to add this to any Profession). You'll want at least some investment in Squad Command; Tactical Initiative is incredibly useful to a Ground team, since it's not restricted by the type of power gaining cooldown... you can help everyone do everything much more often. That doesn't even get into spawning armies of Security Escort III's (you can have three doffs for that as opposed to the one available to the Engineer's Support Drone) or some of the lock box Kit Modules. Since most of STO is making sure something dies, there are very few situations where Tactical abilities aren't of some use to yourself or your team. "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.", etc.
Science fills the "caster" role (both in healing and damage "spells"). Decent investment in both Medic and Particle Physics will let you giveth the hitpoints and taketh them away. Typical offensive setups focus on a barrage of Kit/Captain abilities and melting your foes, though regular use of Tricorder Scan and a weapon that Exploits can be effective as well since it's the fastest innate ability of any Profession and it offers both a solid AoE debuff (with Field Researcher and a Biochemist) and an Expose chance; Tac is still better at using guns than Sci, because after all Sci is the "caster". Heal/tank builds focus more on maintaining hitpoints, and careful cycling of your heals can maintain 100% uptime on Medical Vanguard making you extremely durable. As a side note, Neural Neutralizer is extremely conditional, but it can be a great way of temporarily distracting foes so they don't interrupt Interact objectives.
Engineers are more unique to STO, since they mix positional offense/defense with shield healing. At one time they were the "tank" role, but the increasing amount of shield penetration/drains/disables have left their primary defensive pool weaker than the hitpoint healing and personal resistances of Science, not to mention that Science has Medical Vanguard to make shields more effective than with a Tac/Eng. Engineers still work very well if you know where the enemy will "step in stupid" (mostly using Mines) or keeps trying to plink away at your shields, but fall short if you can't predict enemy locations or if the enemy has a lot of shield penetrating damage. Engineer buffs/debuffs are pretty bad thanks to immunities (Weapon Malfunction, mostly), long cooldowns (though fairly long durations), etc., but if you invest in Command Specialization you gain some solid buffs to equip that work team-wide. There's also a niche build that amounts to "Ground FBP", but that requires cycling a couple of lock box Kit Modules. As a side note, Cover Shield is a neat utility ability; it can be great for blocking enemy fire so they don't interrupt Interact objectives, but it can also be used to save yourself or an ally from incoming fire, guard your generators/mortars, block a path, and more.
intel ship. Phantom is the fed, faeht is the romulan, kdf didnt get one use the sci pilot raptor for kdf.
These should be capable for a year or more, maybe much more (3 years + really).
the intel ships have over-ride super power overcap skill and surgical strikes which make them very strong even with novice gear and skills. In the right hands they can just do a fly-by and leave nothing alive on the map. The pilot raptor has 5 for weapons and can do the same while ducking and dodging with its warp 5k in any direction skills.
Isn't the KDF Qib Battlecruiser an Intel Ship? Granted it isn't an Escort like the Phantom and Faeht... but it is an Intel ship...
EDIT: Also any word on when the "Fleet Scimitar Dreadnought Warbird [T6]" will be coming out, or if there will be a standardized [T6] version that has a Mastery Ability for that particular ship?
The qib does not support surgical. Its not on par with the other 2 because it only has a lowbie seat intel seat. Its also less manuverable. The pilot raptor is a better ship.
Does too. Commander Intel, 4/4 weapons layout. You're thinking of the Mat'ha.
SCM - Hive (S) - [02:31] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 30.62M(204.66K) - Fed Sci
Tacs are overrated.
Game's best wiki
Build questions? Look here!
I hate when I do that. You are of course correct.
Dual beam banks and maybe a herald turret aft with the 2 omnis. Or whatever you think.
Cannons are fun and if you enjoy them go for it. But if you want all around performance, beams are better because beam aoe is better, and there are 5 or 10 other small things that favor beams as well.
It's odd-looking, but pretty potent.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
I don't believe I said that I wanted "Easy" anywhere in this discussion, so much as I wanted "cheap to build."
Now the real question that is plaguing me, is with the revisions to the trait system that is coming in a handful of weeks (not sure of the exact date)... I know Romulan is still going to be the "King Pin" of the DPS Race, but is it still such an overwhelming difference as to make playing other races more or less pointless?
Also, I am kind of curious... I am really enjoying my Engineer characters (Orion and Trill) on their Command Cruiser and Dreadnought respectively... would it really be inadvisable to play those characters in advanced or elite content?
I really am enjoying my engineering Captains and Beam Boats and think I will be sticking to those for the foreseeable future. Again thanks everyone
My main is an engineer and I've never regretted that choice, although it IS regrettable some people don't have the intelligence to appreciate a good engineer on their team. Tacs are way, way overrated.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
I figure that the answer to faction is probably Federation due to the surplus of Federation-based Science Vessels... but I am not sure if they have the best starting races to use?
I am also assuming that the Dyson Destroyers are the best ships to get for Science vessels due to their variable modes?
I've mained a Science guy for quite a few years and i play an Alien Fed and i dont regret that choice, as for the ship i fly i would HIGHLY recommend the Vesta multi mission, get the whole set and you have AOE heal a large scale AOE repulser that stops torpedoes dead a spinal phaser shot for damage and even 10 seconds of absolute F you i'm invulnerable at your command, it also has a LT CMD universal that lets you kit out roles depending on how you feel i generally switch between science and tactical, and if you use the given AUX dual heavy phaser cannons, not only do you get decent damage with cannons but you get to crank your aux up get good damage AND high damage and healing for all your support abilities, my hazard emitter's III heals me for 31k total or anyone i choose. and you can shield tank like a god with my MK XIV nukara shields i have 30k shield facings on each side making it fairly difficult for me to die on normal and finally to top it all off it comes with a hangar so you can use carrier pets to help your dps (i use elite obelisk swarmers things are wonderful for picking TRIBBLE off for me) or you can use other ones like delta flyers or runabouts to help lock down or shield drain depending on how you want to play it
If you want to play fed sci, get the Vesta (Multi-mission science vessel). It's also a 3-pack if you want all three. I have both the vesta and the dyson sets, and the Vesta is better. It has a hangar bay you can put elite scorpion fighters in (T5 Rom rep reward), and those fighters can do significant damage. Combine that with the aux dual phaser cannons included with it, and you can leave weapons at low, and aux at high. That boosts sci abilities AND your primary weapons. For a while it was called the 'besta'.
I have not gone back to the Vesta since T6 though, as I've been grinding starship traits from other ships. However once I finish, I'll be going back to the vesta. If you got the winter carrier last year (Sar Theln), it has a wonderful hanger heal trait.
Races are less important now than they used to be. Some races have an extra trait only for them, but otherwise they all have access to the same common traits.
EDIT:
When I first saw it, I really liked it. Then I flew it and saw it was backwards.
It would look much better if the bow and stern were reversed. However it is a decent tac ship, even on non-tac chars it does decent damage.
The game is nearly unplayable as science for anyone not a federation. Race does not matter too much. This is assuming you want to fly actual science ships, of course. My romulan has a choice... between non science ships, other non science ships, or the dyson which is outdated and sub-par (I have the bought 5 sci console one, not just the free one). I make do with semi-science ships like the breen carrier and nandi, but apparently I will NEVER be allowed to fly a t6 up to date ship that has a second deflector, 5 sci consoles, and a cmdr sci with a ltcmdr backup. KDF is just as bad, -- it has some quasi science ships and the dyson, but no t6. If you play anything but fed you will be forced to buy a lockbox ship or make do with non science or old lower tier ships (which have not decreased in price any, of course).
The dyson's mode is a gimmick. You turn a decent, interesting setup true science ship into a massively sub-par escort. The built in weapon is terrible. So you have a 3.01/3 weapon escort instead of a 5/2 or better weapon escort. And worse, it has no special seats, so you are now comparing it against intel ships as well. It would be lucky to do 50% of the dps of a real escort when in escort mode, with the same type of build (lets say all dual heavy cannons to make good use of the built in weapon against a phantom with cannons... it won't even be close!).
That said, half-science half-guns works awesome on a romulan. The nandi is a BEAST with romulan hitting power backed with some sci exotic damage. The breen carrier is very strong too. So are a few others ... anything with a ltcmdr science officer and some guns can do very well. But its not a "science" playstyle.