I am tired of being killed by NPCs

mullroy234 · February 2016

My ship is just not up to the job, unless there is backup. I do not like having to need backup, to take out NPCs at my level. I would like some help, or tips on making my ship better at taking out NPCs...without dying.

theraven2378 · February 2016

What NPCs are turning your ship into floating debris?

mullroy234 · February 2016

Right now, the borg. But there are weaker ships taking me out.

rattler2 · February 2016

What ship are you using, what level are you, and what gear? Also what difficulty level are you running on?

theraven2378 · February 2016

Let me guess, the Borg drain your shields with their tachyon beam then go to town on your hull

ultimatenewbie · February 2016

mullroy234 wrote: »

My ship is just not up to the job, unless there is backup. I do not like having to need backup, to take out NPCs at my level. I would like some help, or tips on making my ship better at taking out NPCs...without dying.

Hi! Welcome to STO.

Many people on this forum would be happy to help you, but without specifics such as what faction (Fed/KDF/Romulan) and level you are, what mission(s) you're playing so we know what enemies are defeating you, we can only provide some general advice.

If you're very new to the game, have a look at my New Player's Guide for more info on each of these topics.

However, in general, I suggest you do the following:

Ensure that your ship's power levels are rebalanced towards weapons. Killing the enemy quickly in this game is the best pathway to survival.
Go to the Bridge Officer Trainer under Admiral Quinn's office at Earth Spacedock (or equivalents for KDF/Romulan) and ensure that your Ship's bridge officers have useful skills - obviously you wont be able to equip all of these but you should be able to load up quite a few. For Tactical, pick from Tactical Team, Beam Overload, Attack Pattern Beta, and Beam Fire at Will. For Engineering: Emergency Power to Weapons/Shields, Engineering Team, Reverse Shield Polarity, and Directed Energy Modulation. For Science: Hazard Emitters, Transfer Shield Strength, Science Team, Tachyon Beam, Gravity Well.
In Combat, you should always be using your bridge officer skills to weaken the enemy or toughen up your ship - dont just plug away with your phasers.
Focus on using your beam weapons to bring down a single shield facing - once it is down, your beams will do significantly more damage - and fling a torpedo through it. Shields greatly weaken the impact of torpedoes on hulls, so practice your torp timing.
Playing to your ship's strengths - don't stand toe to toe with an enemy at close range if you're in a fragile escort - but dont try to turn and dance in a lumbering cruiser.

This list should help get you started - when you've given us more info we can go into specifics. Also, I'm happy to run with you in-game if you would like: just send an in-game mail to me at @ultimatenewbie1 and if I'm online I'll show you some pointers.

Good luck, and have fun!

mullroy234 · February 2016

Exploration Cruiser, Enterprise D model. Player level:52. 4 forward anti-protons. 2 aft phaser beams. 1 aft transphasic torpedo launcher. Shield array mk IV. Positron deflector array. Obelisk subspace rift warp core. Prototype gravitic modulation impulse engines.

ultimatenewbie · February 2016

mullroy234 wrote: »

Exploration Cruiser, Enterprise D model. Player level:52. 4 forward anti-protons. 2 aft phaser beams. 1 aft transphasic torpedo launcher. Shield array mk IV. Positron deflector array. Obelisk subspace rift warp core. Prototype gravitic modulation impulse engines.

OK Thanks.

Your first problem is that your shield is only Mk IV - this is fine for Lieutenant Commanders, but very much not fine for the Admiral that you are. Hop onto the exchange and buy a purple Covariant Shield Array of Mk XI or better (ideally with some [CAP] modifiers).

Shields in STO are very important - when they're down, you do the dying. Spend the 30-50k EC to buy a good shield and your ship's performance will improve greatly.

Similarly, for your other ship's equipment - your Warp Core sounds like its fine, but deflectors (such as Positron) help strengthen your shields and/or hull, so ensure that you have the highest level possible for those. Your weapons should also be as high a mark level as possible.

Also, look into getting better consoles - this will take time, but generic good modules for Science are Field Stabilisers (increase shield HP), ensure your tactical consoles support your weapons (ie, Antiproton Mag Regulators to +antiproton damage - and then make sure all your beam weapons are AP only for maximum efficiency), and your engineering consoles should be matched to give you either a more damage resistant hull (eg, Neutronium Alloy) or for increasing your weapon capability (through reputation-level gear, or certain mission rewards that increase critical chance or etc).

You'll find your ship suddenly does a lot better.

Let us know how you go!

admrenlarreck · February 2016

Are you sure your shield is mk iv (4)? At level 52 you need to use mk xii (12) Same goes for the weapons engines and deflector and all consoles on the ship. I would also suggest getting as many Anti-proton mag regulators mk xii as you can fit since you have mostly Anti proton weapons.

rattler2 · February 2016

mullroy234 wrote: »

Exploration Cruiser, Enterprise D model. Player level:52. 4 forward anti-protons. 2 aft phaser beams. 1 aft transphasic torpedo launcher. Shield array mk IV. Positron deflector array. Obelisk subspace rift warp core. Prototype gravitic modulation impulse engines.

You're also flying a T4 starship. I believe by now you have the choice of one of the stock T5s such as the Sovereign class. Higher tier ship means more HP, console slots, and another weapon slot.

I would also suggest selecting a single damage type instead of mixing Antiproton and Phaser. Selecting a single energy type can help improve your DPS as you can get the damage specific tac consoles. Torpedoes are ok to mix in as Kinetic is pretty good against bare hull, and some of them like Plasma and Chroniton have some pretty useful side effects, such as Damage over Time and Slow respectively.

marduke · February 2016

If I may make an recommendation: Try to get Elite Fleet equipment. You won't be able to get reputation gear for a long while. Just be sure to join a high-level fleet in the first place, else you would be frustrated by your inability to buy useful things.

mullroy234 · February 2016

Who else finds it hard to fight borg cubes? I got the recommendations, but the cube and even the sphere has a time with my ship.

Unknown · February 2016

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ultimatenewbie · February 2016

mullroy234 wrote: »

Who else finds it hard to fight borg cubes? I got the recommendations, but the cube and even the sphere has a time with my ship.

Yes, as @coldnapalm said, Spheres can be tough because they drain your shields - more skill points into power insulators helps change this from a major problem to an annoyance, but still its best to attack the Borg in groups*. If this isnt possible, try to split the Sphere away from the Cube by engaging the Sphere at maximum range (10km) - they'll almost always chase you, whilst the Cubes tend to be more stoic. Then you can attack one at a time, and avoid the more problematic one-two combo of shield drain and invisible-killer-torps.

Also, when engaging the Borg generally and Cubes in particular, its always good to have a bridge officer with Tactical Team - this will clear the Borg boarding parties that reset most of your bridge powers so you cant use them (your screen flashes red at the top and bottom).

*Reminds me of the old adage: DO NOT PROVOKE THE BORG!!!! etc.

twg042370 · February 2016

mullroy234 wrote: »

Who else finds it hard to fight borg cubes? I got the recommendations, but the cube and even the sphere has a time with my ship.

The Borg remain one of the tougher enemies in the game due to their massively powerful shield strippers and invisible one-shot torpedoes (an oooold infuriating game glitch). Like all of the enemies they're easier to deal with once you survive/ counter their gimmick attack. Just make sure you're far away from them when they explode or they'll take you with them.

If you're doing a Borg mission and have an NPC with you, let them take the lead and act as your meat shield. If you are alone, do not be so proud that you won't use any of your emergency movement powers and get out of range long enough to heal and have another go at them.

Even Picard ran away from the Borg before regrouping and going back. It's okay.

theraven2378 · February 2016

twg042370 wrote: »

mullroy234 wrote: »

Who else finds it hard to fight borg cubes? I got the recommendations, but the cube and even the sphere has a time with my ship.

The Borg remain one of the tougher enemies in the game due to their massively powerful shield strippers and invisible one-shot torpedoes (an oooold infuriating game glitch). Like all of the enemies they're easier to deal with once you survive/ counter their gimmick attack. Just make sure you're far away from them when they explode or they'll take you with them.

If you're doing a Borg mission and have an NPC with you, let them take the lead and act as your meat shield. If you are alone, do not be so proud that you won't use any of your emergency movement powers and get out of range long enough to heal and have another go at them.

Even Picard ran away from the Borg before regrouping and going back. It's okay.

Exactly, know when to pick your fights, play it smart and don't just rush into the fight without a plan of action

mullroy234 · February 2016

All very helpful, thank you.

mullroy234 · February 2016

coldnapalm wrote: »

Spheres and cubes combined can be nasty. Spheres strip your shield to nothing...then you get the cube's invistorp of death.

Anyways, when done right...even T4 ships, cubes and spheres on normal becomes quite trivial. So...the biggest question is, how much resources do you have to getting better stuff for your ship? There is an upgrade event happening soon...if you have access to a lot of experimental tech upgrades and dilitium, might be a good time to make some epic beams. Also what is you skills like? If you are going for beams, do you have decent EPS? So you have all the energy weapon skills upgraded? You are using two copies oe EPtW right? Do you have the tech doffs to run a A2B build (since your ship is pretty tact slot light, this can help quite a bit if you are set on that ship). Is any of this making sense or is it alphabet soup to you?

The abbreviations I do not understand, if they were full words I might understand this better.

Unknown · February 2016

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jonsills · February 2016

One BOFF ability that I've found invaluable in cruisers, with their low turn rate - Beam Fire At Will (BFAW). That lets all your beam weapons fire at any target in range, for as long as it lasts. It helps to keep you from being boxed in by enemy escort-class vessels (fast, maneuverable, but with less shield and hull than you have). Sometimes you just can't keep the cruiser's nose pointed at the bad guys, you know?

Unknown · February 2016

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mustrumridcully0 · February 2016

I would also repeat a recommendation from someone before: if you're at level 52, you should have a Tier 5 ship. You should head to Earth Space Dock and requisition either an Assault Cruiser (Sovereign Class / Enterprise E type Cruiser) if you want to keep flying Cruisers, or perhaps a Patrol Escort (if you want to give Escorts a try.)
(If you really love the Galaxy Class, you might later consider buying the C-Store Retrofit(s), but for now, I recommend to stay on free ships you can acquire in-game.).

For the Borg specifically:
Aside from better resistances to drains, you can't really do much against Tachyon Beam directly. Have a quick shield heal like Science Team or Transfer Shield Strength ready when the Tachyon Beam is over. Borg Cubes also fire a shield neutralizer weapon - it can be countered with Hazard Emitters,and Hazard Emitters will also cleanse plasma fires (and BOrg use weapons that cause plasma fires, too), and generally be useful to deal with hull damage.

theraven2378 · February 2016

OP, you may want to invest in doing the delta rep when you reach it, that delta unimatrix shield has a 50% shield drain resistance. Very useful against the Borg

javaman1969 · February 2016

Some ideas are to give one of your engineering bridge officers "Emergency Power to Shields" and "Engineering Team". Keep hitting those to heal your shields and your hull. Also, keep moving. You don't want to just stand still and slug it out with the Borg and hope for the best. Bug out when you have to. If your see your shields dropping and your hull strenght going down, get slightly out of range, do your heals and then fly back into the fight at full strenght.

rattler2 · February 2016

The problem with the Borg is they are shield rippers. They specialize in ripping your shields off no matter what. You get two things using Tachyon Beam on you... doesn't matter what your resist is... shields go pfft. And they love to spam their shield rips.

theraven2378 · February 2016

rattler2 wrote: »

The problem with the Borg is they are shield rippers. They specialize in ripping your shields off no matter what. You get two things using Tachyon Beam on you... doesn't matter what your resist is... shields go pfft. And they love to spam their shield rips.

Rattler has nailed it here in regards to the infamous Borg shield strips

OP, always good to invest in hull armour, when facing the Borg you'll find yourself 9 times out of 10 fighting without shields so be prepared to hull tank, hazard emitters, engineering team and auxiliary to structural will help in that respect.

If you find yourself in the position of being tractored by the Borg, reverse shield polarity will recharge your shields along with science team and emergency power to shields, tactical team will redistribute shields as well as removing any uninvited guests

Unknown · February 2016

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rattler2 · February 2016

Polarize Hull or Attack Pattern Omega (on a ship that can use it) will break you free of any Tractor Beam. But not Vaadwaur Anchor Beam/Drone.

I'd recommend getting Neutronium consoles for all around damage resist. Fleet Neutronium is better if you have access to it.

theraven2378 · February 2016

aux to dampeners is another form of damage limitation as well

I am tired of being killed by NPCs

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