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What is the best way to get good weapons?
stveweneflmingo
Member Posts: 2 Arc User
in The Academy
How do u get good weapons and equipment in sto? Do u buy them with dilithium? If so where do u find a good weapons dealer I never find anyone that sells decent weapons at starbases
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"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" - Agatha Heterodyne
If by "good" weapons you mean weapons that are reasonable enough to get you by, mission replay is probably a good start. Find a mission (or several depending on your preferences) that awards a weapon that you like and replay it until you have enough of them. Most mission replay rewards are level matched, so you can use this while leveling up to "upgrade" your equipment even up to MkXII for level 50. Once you've got that far, you can start working towards the "end-game" level of good. You have several options and it generally comes down to preference and how much you're willing to work.
The "easiest" method at least when it comes to finding what you want is to go to the Exchange. However, if you're looking for min-max weapons to copy someone's build expect to need a lot of Energy Credits.
Reputations have an interesting array of weapons, once you get to a certain reputation tier you'll be able to buy their particular flavor of weapon using Dilithium from the reputation store. Most reputations also offer a few unique weapons as rewards from requisition projects, after you reach certain tiers, these require Marks for that specific reputation, Dilithium, Energy Credits, and special token items also specific to that reputation that you can earn from specific missions. These unique variants form sets which can be a good source of additional damage or utility.
Fleets offer reasonably strong weapons in all basic energy types, but you'll need to be in a Fleet that's high enough level and you'll need enough Fleet Credits and Dilithium to purchase them. If you don't have access via your current Fleet or aren't in one at present, you could ask in chat for a Fleet to give you temporary access, just don't forget the Fleet Credit requirement.
Finally, you could attempt to craft them yourself. The preferred method is to level your weapon crafting skill high enough that crafting a MkII weapon is guaranteed a Very Rare with a chance at Ultra Rare. From there, craft and apply Superior upgrade kits until it's an Epic MkXIV weapon with the weapon mods you desire. If you craft a weapon with a mod set you don't like, you could attempt to sell it on the Exchange or just ditch it at a vendor for some Energy Credits. MkII weapons are exceptionally cheap to craft and give you the greatest chance of Ultra Rare outcomes immediately, which will reduce your upgrade kit requirement down the line, and also maximizes the chance you'll get a rarity upgrade by the time it reaches MkXIV.
Regardless of the method you choose, you'll still need to acquire upgrade kits and apply them to your weapons to reach maximum strength.
The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" - Agatha Heterodyne
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Episode_replay
By 'best' I mean in this case, I mean least expenditure of character assets. Crafted and looted gear is available on the exchange, including lockbox weaponry.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
I don't know of any sites that has build templates on them other than STO Academy but the problem with that is any fool can put a build up there and say that it's a 20k or 50k DPS build or whatever. In our fleet we always offer help and advice to anyone who needs it or wants it. I would say find yourself a good fleet and get to know some of the better players in there and try and get on to voice to talk to them.
EDIT:
FYI, you are more than welcome to join our fleet if you like. Just register on the website below and an invite will be sent to ya!
=/\= ========================================== =/\=
Fleet Admiral Winters - Priority One Armada
U.S.S. Wolverine - NCC 831216
=/\= ========================================== =/\=
Armada Leader // Executive Producer // Host // Priority One Podcast
Base DPS modifiers to consider to boost:
1) - Mk XIV weapons are a LOT more effective than MK XII. Biggest reason for the tech upgrade market.
2) Are you using a weapon set that is being reinforced by tactical consoles (there's some special cases, but raw numbers will be better with all phasers and phaser consoles (or whatever flavor of the rainbow) versus say, phaser, disruptor antiproton and +beam tactical consoles). Also, because of how tactical abilities work - you generally want beam arrays or cannons/turrets to maximize bridge officer effectiveness for energy weapons (all beams - them beam fire at will (beam overload has some problems since it only effects one, and drops your weapons power, which makes all your other beams less effective) maximizes effectiveness, same with the cannon abilities)
3) Are you feeling not effective in something's melting everything REALLY fast, or just feel you're not punching through shields? There's people really, really good at mulching the queues.
4) What traits are you running? They can have a noticeable effect.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
The retrofit phaser beams level with the player. Once you reach level 60, right click and upgrade to get them to Mk XII.
Mix in some of the post level 50 mission rewards and you should be fine for any advanced PVE, providing you have the skill to fly your craft.
Honestly, you can get very good weapons for very little 'money'. As with most things in games, as the quality increases the costs increase exponentially. Just depends on how much time/'money' you want to devote to your pew-pew'ing.
Another option is to simply purchase gear from the Exchange. That is exactly what I have done for a level 56 KDF engineer captain I have created on a secondary STO account for the express purpose of playing STO without spending real money. I did not have enough EC to outright buy Epic quality Mk XIV gear. Instead I purchased ultra rare Mk VIII tactical consoles and weapons that people were selling for a relatively cheap price of less than 1 million EC each. They were relatively cheap because the weapons did not have the best "ideal" mods (for weapons), or they did not reach epic quality (tactical consoles) when the person used the Omega Tech Upgrade Kits. The energy weapons I purchased were all Disruptor Beam Array Mk VIII [CrtD]x3 [CrtH]. I basically spent about 7 or 8 million EC on 3 ultra rare tactical consoles and 6 beam weapons. I also use a fore and aft Mk XII torpedo. In contrast, the asking price for a single epic quality Mk XIV weapon is 25 million EC or more.
I made my purchases about a week or two after the last 2x tech point upgrade weekend so there were a lot of "throw away" weapons on the Exchange. I am sure the price has increased since then as the supply of throw away weapons decreased. This coming weekend is another 2x tech point upgrade event. The best advice I can give is to sit tight and wait for the Exchange to be flooded again with "throw away" weapons.
I will be using this coming weekend to upgrade the consoles and weapons I have purchased; likely to Mk XIV. I do not have enough funds to attempt to upgrade the rarity to Epic though. That will take a lot of Dil and EC. I am not going to bother upgrading my torpedoes at this time. I will replace them with torpedoes from the reputation system when I advance far enough to obtain them.
Of course there are weapons that can be purchased from the reputation system once you unlock the appropriate tier in the specific reputation. They are awarded as very rare Mk XII weapons. But the downside is that since they are already Mk XII weapons, it is very difficult to upgrade the rarity. The higher the Mk level, the lower the chances of improving the rarity. That means you need to spend a lot of EC (superior upgrades and quality accelerators) and Dil to upgrade the rarity.
While increasing the rarity of a weapon can improve the base damage output, the most base damage increase is from increasing the Mk level. So a very rare Mk XIV weapon can do higher base damage compared to an epic Mk XII weapon. The "effective" damage of weapons would be modified by the [CrtD], [Dmg] and [Pen] mods. Thus, an epic Mk XII [Ac/Dm] [CrtD]x3 weapon will cause more critical damage than a very rare Mk XIV [Acc]x3 weapon on a critical hit, but will do less damage on a "normal" hit.
Thnx for the tip
Its in the menu where duty officers are found.
You don't need much. Its actually best to craft mark 2 weapons and upgrade them to see what mods they get. This costs you an upgrade token which is about 150k a pop in the exchange until you can craft them. Later you can make your own and sell them to make back any investment while making your guns.
Here is what you do.
- pick a damage type you want to use for a while. Antiproton is highly recommended.
- pick a weapon type you like. I use dual beam banks mostly.
- decide what you can live with. I stopped at critdx3. Some people go for the full critdx4 package which is significantly more difficult to obtain (make more guns total, spend more upgrades, etc).
- evalate the crafted only mod options and decide if any of them suit you beyond the standard mods.
- make weapon. Takes cheap low level materials and very short amount of time at MKII. At higher marks it takes longer, is harder to get purple quality, costs more expensive materials, and has the same chance to be horrible as mark II weapons.
- evalutate it. is it purple quality with critd X3 (or some other combination of mods that appeal to you; I have a couple of critdx2/over that I upgraded to critdx3/over)? If it has potential, and most of them WILL NOT, you burn an upgrade on it to see if it gains a rarity level.
- If it does not gain a rarity level or is no good, you vendor it (exception: if it was super good to start out, you may continue to try to upgrade rarity, such as critdx3 to start out).
This will take time. Maybe even a couple of months. Its a long term strategy. Advantages are better weapons that can be shared across characters via shared bank. Disadvantage is time, aggravation, and expense required to get there.
Science ship, T6 Pathfinder: Forward slots = the Krenim Chroniton array from it's mission set, the Advanced Thoron Array from the Reputation set, and the Neutronic Torpedo from the same set as the Thoron.
Aft: Omnidirectional Chroniton Polaron array from the Krenim missions set, a crafted omnidirectional Polaron array with (of all mods) [SNARE] because it was hyper-cheap, and the Krenim Chroniton Torp to round out that set.
For the most part, because I'm not hyper-concerned with "efficiency", I've been using the "feature episode rewarded" upgrade kits to spike the parts up to Mk XIV, then later on upgrade weekends taking a couple of shots to make them gold. This weekend resulted in the first one of them (the Chroniton Array) going gold, and one of my torps went UR from VR...
BUT, to make this all "extra effective", I've spent some other moneys - namely dilithium and fleet credits - at a neighborhood fleet spire to get me the Vulnerability Locator consoles, Polaron Flavor, that give me a few extra critical hits. And, as I'm sure might be pointed out, using these weapons keeps me "competitive", but not a member of the "DPS race"...
For that DPS race, remember the following:
Antiproton Mk XIV [CritD]x3 [PEN] is the only "acceptable" combination on a beam weapon. Anything else (cannon, different energy type, modifier combination) is "fail" and will not yield ultimate DPS. The maths and experimentation have said so... (unless I missed an update.) As such, the "cheapest" method to collect a set:
Craft yourself a Mk II Antiproton weapon. If it's not UR with CritDx3 or CritDx2 Pen, repeat this step.
Spend one Experimental Superior Beam Weapon Upgrade Kit. Said kit will take the weapon to Mk VII (normal times) or Mk VIII (upgrade weekend) in one shot, yielding 5-6 "rolls" for quality upgrade(s).
If the results of the one kit did not yield a golden weapon with the CritDx3 Pen combo, dispose of weapon. If it's not gold at this point, the costs to go gold and the odds of getting the desired mod are "too low" for the resultant investment. If it went gold with the "wrong" modifier, obviously it ain't gonna change...
Repeat till all weapon slots filled. This means anywhere from 6x (science ship / many carriers) to 8 (max weapons on a ship in game)
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Just so that you are aware, leveling up in crafting is a slow process. Generally speaking you want to shoot for getting to level 15; the max level is 20. At level 15 each crafting school is give your captain a selectable ground or space trait and all Mk II gear you craft is guaranteed to be very rare with 3 random mods unless the piece of does not have any mods like the Disruptor Induction Coil tactical console to increase disruptor energy weapon damage.
It can take a while to level up one school to level 15. Each school has a 20 hour daily project that will give you 6,000 XP for that specific school. You need 630,000 XP in total to get to level 15 in a specific school. That means it will take you 105 days to get to level 15. There is a small critical chance to get an extra 1,000 XP; the critical chance can be increased the higher the quality of the Doff that is used for the project. Assuming you have very rare Doff and you always get critical success for 7,000 XP, then it would take 90 days to get to level 15 in a specific school. This also assume you only do one daily 20 hour project for that school per day. When first introduced you could only slot daily project per school, but that has changed, I think you can devote up to 3 slots for daily projects in one school. You start with one slot and you can have up to 5 slots as you begin to level up. A 6th slot can be purchased if your are in a fleet.
Beyond level 15 the critical chance of crafting multiple components used to craft gear increases. For example, say a Firing Sequencer costs 3 Z-Particles and 2 Beta Tachyon Particles to craft. You have a small critical chance at level 15 to craft 3 of them instead of just one using the same amount of materials. That critical chance increases a little every level beyond level 15. I think it maxes out at something like 25% or 30%.
Using very rare Doffs to craft gear will improve your chances of crafting very rare gear. I believe a very rare Doff will give you a 9% bonus, that means if you can use a very rare Doff to craft a Mk II piece of gear, then it is possible to have a 100% chance that the gear will be very rare when your crafting school level is only 12.
Getting to level 15 also opens up recipes to craft special gear. These special gear will all be Mk XII. Additionally, you need a specific Doff to be able to craft these gears. They can be purchased from the Exchange for several million EC, or you go to your faction's recruiting station to purchase a "R&D package" for 2,000 refined Dil that will give you some crafting materials, perhaps some components and a very small chance to get a random Doff that allows you to craft special gear in one of the crafting schools.
The reason why you want to craft Mk II gear is because they will give you the best chances of increasing the rarity of the gear when you use "Superior Upgrade Kits" and "Quality Accelerators". The higher the Mk of an item, the fewer the chances you will get to increase the rarity and the lower the possible rarity chance... which is very low to begin with.
To increase DPS people craft weapons and the appropriate tactical console to increase damage output. Tactical consoles are the easier of the two to upgrade since there are no mods involved; you simply go from very rare to ultra rare to epic. If I am not mistaken, each rarity level increases damage by 2.5% and Mk level increases damage by 2.5%. So damage increase is pretty consistent. Crafting weapons is more expensive and frustrating because of the fact mods are involved. First of all, when you craft a very rare Mk II weapon the 3 mods it gets are random if you do not like the mods, then it is junk. Then assuming you get craft a weapon with mods that you like, you then need to go through the upgrade process for the small random chance the weapon will be ultra rare. At that point the 4th mod the weapon is random. If it is not the mod you want then you may or may not consider it junk. You decide if you want to continue to upgrade it, or to put it up on the Exchange so that hopefully someone will buy it and you start the crafting process again. All weapons upgraded to epic quality will receive the [Ac/Dm] mod which improves accuracy and damage.
The biggest increase in damage happens when you push a weapon to Mk XIV regardless of the quality of the weapon. I am just making up numbers here, but it illustrates the point. Say Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII causes 400 point of damage excluding any bonuses (like from tactical consoles), at Mk XIII the damage increases to 425 and at Mk XIV the damage jumps to 500.
The best combination of weapon mods once rarity reaches ultra rare varies from person to person it can also depend on the specific ship build. Some favor [CritD]x4 while others may perfer [CritD]x3 [Pen] or [Dmg]x3 [Pen]. I never seen any comments about [Dmg]x4 though. Some like to get [Over] as a mod. Other mods includes [Acc] [Thrust], [CrtH], [Rapid], and [Spr]. Personally, I am fine with [CritD]x3 [CrtH]; but I will gladly take [CritD], [Dmg] or [Pen] instead of [CrtH].
[Acc] = +10% Accuracy
[CritD] = Critical Damage (if you get a critical hit]
[CritH] = Critical Hit which improves chances of causing critical damage
[DMG] = Extra Damage; not sure how much / or the percentage
[Over] = Beam Overload which causes a lot of damage, but not sure if it drains weapon power; ~ 7.5% chance
[Rapid] = Cannon Rapid Fire - 3 second burst I think; ~ 7.5% chance
[Spr] = Torpedo Spread; ~7.5% chance
[Thrust] = ?? Extra speed when firing cannons ??
crafting - craft MK IIs and upgrade them (either Omega Events or regular Upgrades) and do that during UPGRADE WEEKEND - you have a decent Chance of going beyond purple.
finish Reputation (tier5) and then do the hourly marks to Dil Things - and frequently you get decent XII gear, that you can upgrade. This may take some time but is the cheapest way (you also get Dilithium)
coming first in CCAs also sometimes rewards nice weapons/consoles.
KDF: 2 tacs, 2 engs, 3 scis
KDF Roms: 3 tacs, 1 eng, 1 scis
FED: 2 tacs, 1 eng, 2 scis
TOS: 1 tac
all on T5 rep (up to temporal)
all have mastered Intel tree (and some more specs Points)
highest DPS: 60.982
I noticed that you got a bunch of engineers, how long did it take you to max their gear out. I just rolled a KDF engineer. I really want to spend time with this toon
Rouge Sto Wiki Editor.
My character Tsin'xing
Yes, normal difficulty gives Mark X, but just buy some superior upgrade tokens.