Are these mission really that hard?

cl4whamm3r · May 2016

Hello!

Today i wanted to play with my brother sto. We had a long break. He is lvl 52 with the engineer spy ship and iam lvl 60 with the tactical spy ship (The modules in the ship are XII).
I wanted help him to level up to 60. So we decided to play the delta quadrant missions. But we are unable to play these missions.

Even on normal difficult and even if he creates the party (So that enemies are on his level) we are dying, dying, dying and dying O.o

Are these missions really that hard? We just wanted to play them for the story. Not on highest difficult for the most epic gear or challange. We just wanted to enjoy the story missions and leveling up to 60. Currently we have no real build, but that was never a problem before in one of these story misssions before.

Did we something terrible wrong or are these missions really that hard? If yes are there are any alternatives for leveling with story?

Thanks for your help.

jadz3 · May 2016

Is your difficulty set to Advanced or Elite by chance?

cl4whamm3r · May 2016

No, it is on normal. We both have it in the gameoptions (By pressing the ESC key) and we have it in the teamsettings.

talien · May 2016

The enemies HP and damage output scale upwards past 50, so yes, the higher your level the more "difficult" they become ontop of the boost they get from more people in a group. Also you have to make sure you're actually matching his level before you start a mission, just having someone lower level start a group isn't enough.

cl4whamm3r · May 2016

talien wrote: »

The enemies HP and damage output scale upwards past 50, so yes, the higher your level the more "difficult" they become ontop of the boost they get from more people in a group. Also you have to make sure you're actually matching his level before you start a mission, just having someone lower level start a group isn't enough.

In the upper left corner of the screen it says it is downranked from 60 to 52 and the enemies are on the same level that my brother is.

davefenestrator · May 2016

By "spy ship" do you mean the intel cruiser (Guardian?) and escort (Phantom)?

It could be that your ship gear setups are not good, like mixing energy types (phaser + disruptor + tetryon), not using tactical consoles, and so on. You might want to add a Neutronium console if you don't have one already.

It could be that you are not using your bridge officer powers very well. Do you both have at least one hull heal like Hazard Emitters, a shield heal like Science Team, a shield buff like Emergency Power to Shields? Are you using attack buffs like Attack Pattern Beta, Tactical Team (to keep shields balanced), and Beam Fire At Will or Cannon Rapid Fire / Scatter Volley?

The Vaadwaur artillery barrages can hit hard, but you can do things like activate a hull hardness (Hazard, Aux to Structural Integrity) to resist them. Also split up your ships so you both don't get hit with the same barrage.

rattler2 · May 2016

davefenestrator wrote: »

By "spy ship" do you mean the intel cruiser (Guardian?) and escort (Phantom)?

Guardian's not a spy ship. The Eclipse is the Intel Cruiser. Guardian is just a standard with an Intel seat.

I also have to agree that it could be something in the build. The Delta Quadrant enemies can throw some nasty punches, especially when you work your way to the Vaadwaur and Hirarchy. Hirarchy are especially nasty because they will use Intel abilities against you and there aren't that many counters.
Also you will see a lot more Polaron and Tetryon in the Delta Quadrant than in the Alpha/Beta Quadrants, so your damage resists might be geared more towards protecting against Disruptor, Phaser, and Plasma.

Without seeing screenshots or getting any detailed info on your builds, we can only speculate right now.

nightken · May 2016

if your using intel ships. you wouldn't happen to be using cloak would you. cause that kills you shields and it takes a few secords for them to come back.

cl4whamm3r · May 2016

davefenestrator wrote: »

By "spy ship" do you mean the intel cruiser (Guardian?) and escort (Phantom)?

Yes!

davefenestrator wrote: »

It could be that your ship gear setups are not good, like mixing energy types (phaser + disruptor + tetryon), not using tactical consoles, and so on. You might want to add a Neutronium console if you don't have one already.

Iam mixing Phasers, these laser cannons (from the defiant) and quantum torpedo's. I have 2 Tech, 1 science and the rest tac officers.

davefenestrator wrote: »

It could be that you are not using your bridge officer powers very well. Do you both have at least one hull heal like Hazard Emitters, a shield heal like Science Team, a shield buff like Emergency Power to Shields? Are you using attack buffs like Attack Pattern Beta, Tactical Team (to keep shields balanced), and Beam Fire At Will or Cannon Rapid Fire / Scatter Volley?

Tech have shieldheal, hullheal and weapons buff. science has magnifing shields (I hope the translation is correct, iam playing with german language) with tractor beam and the tacical officers have phaser rapidfire/spread, cannon rapidfire/spread and torpedo spread.

davefenestrator wrote: »

The Vaadwaur artillery barrages can hit hard, but you can do things like activate a hull hardness (Hazard, Aux to Structural Integrity) to resist them. Also split up your ships so you both don't get hit with the same barrage.

It is not that specific ship, it is enough if there are more then 4 ships. If they fire together we are dead in secounds

thescottyb · May 2016

This is going to sound silly, but since you didn't mention it, it's in the realm of possibility: have you both spent your skill points since the new system was introduced last month?

davefenestrator · May 2016

Your English is good. Ignore anyone who complains about it

Iam mixing Phasers, these laser cannons (from the defiant) and quantum torpedo's. I have 2 Tech, 1 science and the rest tac officers. ... tacical officers have phaser rapidfire/spread, cannon rapidfire/spread

You will do more damage if you use only phaser cannons or only phaser beams. Right now each tactical power only helps beams OR cannons not BOTH. If you have all beams OR all cannons your power helps ALL weapons. So 2 x weapon power for ALL weapons not 1 weapon power for beam, 1 weapon power for cannon. Also, add Attack Pattern Beta.

It is not that specific ship, it is enough if there are more then 4 ships. If they fire together we are dead in secounds

Kill them first

. Beam Fire At Will (if all beams) OR Cannon Scatter Volley, Torpedo Spread.

Since you have Intel ships you might also want to try:

Electromagnetic Pulse Probe - stuns enemies - http://sto.gamepedia.com/Ability:_Electromagnetic_Pulse_Probe

... and maybe try

Kinetic Magnet - makes torpedoes and mines attack them not you - http://sto.gamepedia.com/Ability:_Kinetic_Magnet

cl4whamm3r · May 2016

Here are some screenshots:

I follow no real build, as i said, we just wanted to play the story so we used what we belived it could be usefull

Iam total noob to the sto skill system.

sthe91 · May 2016

Imho you should ditch the laser cannons and use it on another build and just use phasers and keep the quantum torpedoes or you could keep the laser cannons, upgrade them, and get some other phaser cannons to balance your build better and still keep the quantum torpedoes. Secondly, if you have some ECs after selling things through either the exchange or just discarding it for ECs when it is possible, then buy some Tech Upgrades to improve your equipment. Also, I would ditch the cannon rapidfire/volley and keep the torpedo spread unless you want to keep the laser cannons then just keep cannon rapidfire/volley, keep torpedo spread, and add Fire On My Mark. I would add Torpedo High Yield or use Beam Fire At Will. If you can, try to see if you are using tactical team, tactical fleet, tactical initiative with attack patterns such as Alpha or Beta together. look at the rank of your space equipment and see if there are any consoles that are not benefiting you as well. Thirdly, are you focusing on accuracy or critical severity? Also, since you are tactical, use tactics. Especially, if you notice the mines they fire, try to avoid them and if need be back out of the battle for awhile and heal yourself with an Engineering Team if that is on your character. I would ditch the tractor beam also and get Hazard Emitters or Science Team 1 unless that is the magnify shields ability you are talking about. You need an engineering officer (unless that is what you mean by Tech). Add a Shield Capacity and replace any Shield Emitter amplifiers that you have. I do not know the rest of your build, there is my advice. Thanks.

nightken · May 2016

cl4whamm3r wrote: »

Here are some screenshots:

I follow no real build, as i said, we just wanted to play the story so we used what we belived it could be usefull

Iam total noob to the sto skill system.

I would advise making a thread in the power and build section.

first thing pick ether beams or cannon, and fill out your traits even bad trait are better then none.

davefenestrator · May 2016

The image hosting site you use has nasty pop-up ads, I was not able to see your build

Beam arrays + Beam Fire At Will is the easy way to do good damage. Remove the Quad Cannon and buy Green (uncommon) or Blue (rare) Mark XII Phaser Beam Arrays from the Exchange. Change tactical officer Cannon power to Beam Fire At Will. Add Attack Pattern Beta.

echatty · May 2016

One movement I've found that works really well in the Delta quadrant missions is Rock and Roll. If you don't have it, get it. While you're rolling, even those Vaadwaur cluster torpedoes can't hurt you. As soon as you see those sparkly things, Rock n Roll!

kjwashington · May 2016

cl4whamm3r wrote: »

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This picture says that you're damaged. This alone could be the cause of your problems depending on how bad your ship is damaged. What you want to do is go to a shipyard, and talk to an engineer that will heal your ship.

Yes, there is a slight jump in difficulty between the delta quadrant missions and those that came before. That's why your mis-match build isn't doing so well as compared to earlier missions.

For a build, have two copies of tactical team 1, a copy of science team, a copy of hazard emitters, and a copy of engineering team, that is a good starting point for most builds. From there, choose whether you want to use pure beams, pure cannons, pure torpedoes, or want to make an intel ability ship (this will be most fun). Once you choose one of those, come back to use for more help.

bernatk · May 2016

Yep, the power curve after lvl50 is ungodly.

My usual suggestion is to stop at lvl50 and focus on reps. Rep gear and traits help tremendously. When you have that and started upgrading your weps and at least tac consoles, you can start slowly level to 60.

If it's an alt then doff and admiralty.

cl4whamm3r · May 2016

Ok, i will try that. Thank you guys.

Btw something funny, you all know this "call for a support ship 3" skill, right? The skill that warp one battleship that support you. Me and my brother keep dying, but that beast is killing all the enemy's easy!

I feel i should stop buy my ships at ikea and beam my crew into empty space...

cptskeeteruk · May 2016

Main issue i think is ur ships damaged, probably the other guys is as well. Fix that, browse the builds section of the forums for tips on ur particular ships and try to optimize them. Take OFF advanced or elite difficulty as you arnt playing normally hence the damage on your ship which makes you pop on even the easiest missions lol or was it that you dont hit anything hard, either way it needs fixing.

farmallm · May 2016

Those missions isn't really that hard. Only ships gave me issues was the artillery ships and sometimes the Hirarchy. Yeah looking at your pics. Like what the Kjwashington said. Your ship is damaged. Repair it and try again. I ran the entire story with an T5 Ambassador, T5 K'Tinga, and T5 D'Deridex. Neither had major issues taking on those missions. Other than the occasional blowing up due to the artillary ship

kodachikuno · May 2016

From what I see in those screen shots and what you've said here in the thread I think its several little mistakes piling up on you to make things harder.
Fill out your traits, and make the choices in your skills there at the bottom. There are a lot of space traits that increase damage or increase your resistances to damage, they will make your life a LOT easier.
Mixing cannons and beams makes things a little harder but still DR missions can be done that way.
Repair your ship as others have mentioned.
For engineering consoles I'd suggest neutronium instead of the ones you're using. For Science, I like Emitter Array and Emitter Amplifier but I don't know as they would change much for you.

As for fights themselves Vaadwaur are a bit weaker from behind, and seem to have fewer guns there.
Always avoid their AoE bombardment power, that will kill fast.
If you keep those cannons, try for strafing runs... go in with Rapid Fire from 7km or so, then when you are close, turn away and repeat.

Also learn your ship, what it can take, and what it cannot, often being unfamiliar with a ship can hurt your game and make things seem far more difficult than they are

kjwashington · May 2016

One think to remember about Vaadwaur is that they have abilities that will kill you really fast (sometimes instantly) if you stay still or are too slow. If you try to park and shoot them, like most people do with every other enemy, you'll die pretty quickly. Try to have some abilities that increase speed, like evasive maneuvers, and use them once you see the artillery barrage pop up. (It looks like a bunch of X's.)

warpangel · May 2016

No, the missions are not hard. It's just at some point the game begins to assume you know how to set up an effective ship build without ever actually telling players even the basics of how to do that.

kekvin · May 2016

Science toons are gd for trickymissions. Pop holo fleet and if u have the command spec u can call in an extra ship aswell. Git me out if probs with an under equiped toon loads

jadz3 · May 2016

Here's a build for your Phantom(very basic so as not to complicate with too many different types of ability): (To state, I do not OWN the phantom currently. HOWEVER, I'm an experienced builder and know how to mix DPS with survivability)
In order from left to right below:

(Ensign) (Lieutenant) (Lt. Commander) (Commander)

Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Cannon Scatter Volley 1, Torpedo Spread 3, Attack Pattern Beta 3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Cannon Scatter Volley 1, Attack Pattern Beta 2
Lt. Commander Engineer: Emergency Power to Shields 1, Auxiliary Power to Structural Integrity Field 1, Emergency Power to Weapons 3
Ensign Universal: Emergency Power to Engines 1
Lt. Science: Polarize Hull 1, Hazard Emitters 2

Fore weapons: 3x Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons, 1x Quantum(or better with an escort, PHOTON) torpedo launcher
Aft Weapons: 3x Phaser Turret OR 2x Phaser Turret and one torpedo launcher

Engineering Consoles: Generally for basic non special consoles... Neutronium Alloy
Science Consoles: Shield Capacity boosting consoles for basics
Tactical Consoles: Phaser Relay x5

Highly Recommend getting the 3 set from the mission Sunrise for a Phaser Cannon Build. It increases phaser damage by 20% with a console, includes a very nice quantum torpedo, and some great phaser cannons. When the torpedo and cannons deal damage they have a chance to drain enemy shields and heal your own. The 2 set increases the power of the drain and grants 15% bonus accuracy(makes your cannons hit all the time), and the 3 set gives you a really cool beam lance that does heavy damage over 10 seconds.

Make sure to use Tactical Team on cooldown along with Scatter Volley and Attack Pattern Beta. You should be able to use all 3 at the same time every 15 seconds. Tactical Team increases your damage output slightly, but more importantly it will redistribute your shields automatically to whichever facing is getting hit(with cannons that's likely your front facing). Tactical Team is probably the biggest ability you can use to boost your survivability. It's shield distribution happens MUCH faster than doing it manually by clicking a shield facing.

Hopefully you're able to understand all this.
I wish you good luck.

mustrumridcully0 · May 2016

There is a lot of improvement potential I see just by one screenshot.

While I am a German player, I play the game only on English, so I don't know all the power translations. There is a German forum, though, maybe you should also ask there.

My basic advice for anyone that is struggling on Normal difficulty:
(Unless you're flying a Science Vessel and know what you're doing)

Raise your weapon Power to the maximum. Remember to do this every time you switch to a different ship. Your second highest power level can be either shields or auxiliary.
Equip beams or cannons (dual cannons front, turrets aft), you generally should not mix them. You can mix them with one torpedo launcher front and/or aft.
If you use beams, your best choice as a tactical weapon buff is beam fire at will. If you use cannons, use Cannon Scatter Volley. If you use any type of torpedo, Torpedo Spread is probably the best option. On an Intel ship, Surgical Strike is also an option, especially if you mix cannons and beams, since it buffs both. (But that means you won't need Beam Fire At Will or Cannon Scatter Volley. See cooldowns below)
Equip decent Mark weapons and tactical consoles. Mark XII+ is to be expected at this level.
Learn about shared cooldowns between powers. In your screenshot I see that you have 4 cannon skills on that character. That's 2 too many. All cannon skills have a shared cooldown that makes it impossible to run more than once, and their overall cooldown is so short that you can basically never benefit from having more than 2. (The second skill is always there so you can activate it while the other has run out and is on cooldown). In your specific case: Instead for tactical powers, your build might benefit greatly from an Attack Pattern or two. Attack Pattern Omega is a mix of offensive and defensive buffs and might be best if you have trouble staying alive, Attack Pattern Beta grants enemies you shoot at negative damage resistance - which means they take more damage from everyone and everything (that means it also helps your team).
If you have trouble staying alive, my advice would be to slot for heal/survival powers. (You probably don't need all of them, I list them in order of priority):
- Distribute Shield Power. By clicking on the shield indicators, you can distribute shield power around. IF you have nothing else at the moment, use at least this. IF you click on the center of the shield indicators, you distribute your shields evenly. This is a generally a good idea. Almost all shield heals and innate shield regeneration is always per facing. A full shield facing can't benefit from healing, so if you keep your shield power evenly distributed, you ensure that you get the most out of any healing going your way.
- Tactical Team. This doesn't heal anything, but it automates shield distribution. Moderate cooldown, you can't utilize more than one.
- Emergency Power to Shields. It heals shields, raises your shield power level, and gives you shield hardness, overall making you take less damage while it'S running. Due to shared cooldowns, you cannot benefit from more than 2 Emergency Powers to Shields, and no more than 4 Emergency to X abilities.
- Hazard Emitters. An incredibly useful hull heal. Heals your hull over time, removes plasma fires, the borg shield neutralizer, and grands some damage resistance. Has a relatively long cooldown though, and the shared cooldown is also very long so that it's rarely worth slotting two.
- Science Team. Removes certain debuffs and gives you an instant shield heal. Can be particularly useful to recover after the enemy has drained your shields (and any remaining drains or shield neutralizes have been removed). The cooldown is moderate, and you can utilize no more than one.
- Engineering Team: Hull heal and also restores offline subsystems. The cooldown is moderate, and you can utilize no more than one.
- Auxiliary to Structural Integrity Field: A hull heal and brief damage resistance buff with a very short cooldown so you never need more than once.
- Transfer Shield Strength: A shield heal over time that also grants some shield hardness. Long cooldown, and the shared cooldown is also very long so that it's rarely worth slotting two.
Stay mobile. The faster you are, the higher your defenses. Some enemies also create area effects, and with speed you can get out. Evasive Maneuvers and even Ramming Speed (but be careful with that) can be a way to get out of a tough situation.
Don't forget to pick traits and to spend your skill and spec points. If you're in doubt about the skill system, my general guideline would be that many skills don't need to be maxed out to benefit from them. The first pick usually grants the largest reward already, so if you're not sure if you need or want a skill, just taking the first pick is a safe bet. Of course, ideally you get informed and figure out what build you want exactly.

[Deleted User] · May 2016

Difficulty always scales up when you team play depending on the amount of players and what rank they are> doesn't mater if you have the difficulty settings on normal youre going to get more NPCs fighting you in a team play. the point of teaming isn't to make the missions more easy nnor should it

semalda226 · May 2016

I like how everyone always says set weapon power to maximum and I pull 80k dmg with my weapon power at 15 ROFL

Are these mission really that hard?

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