I like how everyone always says set weapon power to maximum and I pull 80k dmg with my weapon power at 15 ROFL
This thread is to help someone trying to make a simple beam or cannon boat build work with basic tactics, it's not an expert's exotic damage build or torp boat thread.
Couple of thoughts from what I see that haven't been mentioned much already:
While your arraignment looks on the surface like a "prototypical Cryptic Build" - there's some serious lack of efficiency in that type of build. I would:
1. Swap to either an all cannon/turret with 1 torpedo fore & aft build, or an all beam w/torps build. On a Beam Build, Dual Beam Banks are considered "stand ins" for the Dual Cannons (tighter arc but bigger hit per shot). Make sure the build uses all one "type" of energy - all your beams/cannons/whatnot should be say Phaser, and your torps say quantum or photon.
2. These builds (all cannon-power or all beam-power) allow you to run the aforementioned 2x energy weapon powers and 2x torp powers. Many people love a Scatter Volley / BFaW & torp spread pairing, because they are great Area of Effect killers with increased damage against single targets, while some go for the "vaper" (as in vaporize) build that tries to squish single targets in one pass - Rapid Fire & Torp High Yield, (Beam Overload is not built to really do a good vape, since it only modifies one weapon for one shot and not the entire weapon loadout...) Myself, since my Tac alt in her escort isn't built for DPS recording, I actually run a "spread" set of Cannon Scatter Volley III & Torp Spread II, alongside a "crusher" set of Rapid Fire II / High Yield Torpedo I - and alternate between the two leading with what's appropriate to the enemy at hand (spread set to start killing frigate packs, then a crusher run to kill a straggler or two, or a "crusher" run to do massive damage to a cruiser's or boss's shields, then whack with some increased damage complements of the "spread" set while waiting for the cooldowns to expire on the crusher powers...
3. Once you switch to single energy type, you update your tactical console loadout to run nothing but 5x of your most common energy type consoles - since right now you're already phaser-heavy, swapping those 3 arrays into another phaser cannon (fore) and phaser turrets (aft) or swapping the cannons for phaser arrays then swapping all your mix-matched consoles (I think I see a beam enhancer, a cannon enhancer, a phaser enhancer, a generic torp console and a quantum console) to be even "Blue Phaser boosters at Mk XII" would practically double the damage your energy weapons do (cause you'd be getting the entire 5x+25% "bonus" phaser damage applied to all 5 phaser weapons over +16% on the beams, +18% on your cannons, +25% on anything that says phaser, etc.
4. When exchange shopping, the stuffs that are "not DPS-master approved" are frequently extremely cheap. Mods like [Rapid] (if a vaper) or [Snare] aren't going to "kill" your build, as long as the other mods are somewhat thought out like [Acc] [Dmg] or [CritD]x2 - don't grab [CritH][Dmg][Rapid] for a Scatter Volley Build... Same with the consoles, a set of blue Mk XII phaser enhancers have better bonuses than even purple beam enhancers.
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
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]
I like how everyone always says set weapon power to maximum and I pull 80k dmg with my weapon power at 15 ROFL
That's why I like to put my disclaimer "Unless you know what you're doing". The OP obviously doesn't think he does yet, otherwise he wouldn't ask us for advice. Once you know what you're doing, new opportunities present themselves.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Recommend switching to beam or cannon weapons fully so you have less duplication of effort - you have several high-rank tactical officer abilities that only enhance a single weapon point right now. You could swap out the beam and move in a tactical team (which is very useful, it helps shield distribution automatically in the duration, which helps a lot for durability by feeding shield energy to the combat facings).
This won't be a major shift, but you have several trait slots empty, fill them with damage and power boosting abilities.
On a similar note, have you started using the specialization system? They can give some real boosts.
Upgrading your weapons and tactical consoles to tier XIV will provide a significant damage boost - doing the same to engineering consoles will also help durability.
The Vaadwaur have two ugly abilities - tricobolt (which can stun) and their polaron barrages. You don't have much durability boosts in skills it looks like, so use your maneuverability and damage: Vaadwaur ships are much, much more dangerous in their forward arc. Get behind them and gun them from there.
Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Well yes while I do fly a Exotic Torpedo ship the fact is he doesn't HAVE to go BFAW. Fact is he could build a plasma Torp boat to melt hulls extremely cheaply (and I mean really cheap) and toss in some TS or HY to make it easier while focusing on hull heals and shield heals to keep him alive. And that would allow him to pour his power into shields engines and a little Aux for healing. Reverse Shield Polarity is good for those polaron barrage attacks too.
One thing I havent heard much said about the Vaadwaur is that thier AOE attacks aren't all that effective at point blank range, so close the gap ASAP, and take them out, face to face.
Actually that was always my strategy. I was literally eating their engines (in my R'Mor back in those days) and firing torps directly into their backsides while using TBR and GW.
One thing I havent heard much said about the Vaadwaur is that thier AOE attacks aren't all that effective at point blank range, so close the gap ASAP, and take them out, face to face.
distance doesn't affect the damage of their artillery barrages in that manner, and you get too close to them you're likely to eat a face full of tricobalt mines
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
Speaking from experience, the first time I went into the Delta Quadrant in the game was a real wake-up call for me as well. But I've noticed from playing through it a few times that the Delta area is really anti-cruiser. Tank types just melt there, they're too big and too slow to handle it, especially if they use (as I tend to) a defensive build. The Vaadwar and Hierarchy both use a lot of non-standard damage and sensor tricks to TRIBBLE with targeting, as well as have attacks that will melt shields very quickly, and a hull just as fast. The Vaadwar counters also rely pretty heavily on maneuverability, which is the one thing a cruiser can't do, and the Hierarchy counters rely on having a science pool to pull from.
Basically my engineer rolled into the Delta quad with a T6 Guardian cruiser and got wrecked. I've since gone in with science vessels and had a pretty good time of it (I'm no good at escorts and their heavy DPS builds). So a lot of it seems to be what you play as too. Every cruiser I tried to run there gets destroyed, but other class ships seem to do pretty well there. if you're someone like me, who finds reputation grinds to be a cancer to avoid at all cost, then your best bet is to go in with a different ship class. Like I said, Cruisers just seem to get wrecked.
Sorry but no, I only fly cruisers and I have no problems in the Delta Quad, ship type is irrelevant.
Different experience then. I primarily fly Cruisers, and just setting foot in the Delta quad gets me wrecked. I have to go in with a science vessel or face a steady wall of frustration.
That is essentially why I say that ship type is irrelevant, if I fly a sci ship I die, again and again and again, but for others they are fantastic, some people struggle with cruisers, I can merk any npc in the game with them (damn near vape Krenim and Na'khul). Same with escorts, raiders, carriers, some people rock with them, some don't.
I can agree with that. I would liken the Delta Quadrant to trying to fight the Borg, in an offhand way, just a step up. A lot of attacks that are good at stripping your defenses and leaving you exposed for their big attacks. With a cruiser, this usually leaves me frantically trying to spam my heals and fighting a losing battle... on a Sci I can usually do some drains to cover the gap and keep my defenses at least partially up for the incoming hard attack. Plus the increased speed and turning of a sci-ship lets me avoid some of the attacks you can dodge.
That said, Pilot tree with a cruiser is a blast. The Barrel roll on a cruiser is hysterical.
The issue with whatever ship you fly is your build and how you use it. You can be successful in any ship type, you just have to put the effort into developing your build to fit your skill set. I fly cruisers almost exclusively (I have one alt that uses Escorts) and I have never had any issue melting enemies in the Delta Quadrant in seconds flat.
The issue is definitely not cruisers. It just depends on the player, different players are better with different types of ships.
I think a bit of an adjustment is needed if you flew at Tier 5 against the usual opponents for a long time.
But the Vaadwaur are among the most fun enemies to fight, IMO. I wish there was more content with them.
But the worst enemies are the Kazon, anyway. Using Aux2Dampeners against Grav-Well builds is OP. How am I supposed to fight enemies that don't get clumped together in a ball of death?I guess that's why Cryptic invented Subnucleonic Wave? (Not that I ever used it so far...)
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I think a bit of an adjustment is needed if you flew at Tier 5 against the usual opponents for a long time.
But the Vaadwaur are among the most fun enemies to fight, IMO. I wish there was more content with them.
But the worst enemies are the Kazon, anyway. Using Aux2Dampeners against Grav-Well builds is OP. How am I supposed to fight enemies that don't get clumped together in a ball of death?I guess that's why Cryptic invented Subnucleonic Wave? (Not that I ever used it so far...)
Actually, SNW is of limited usefulness against the Kazon since it is a PBAOE with only 5km range.
Yeah, Kazon may not be one of the most dangerous foes, but they are interesting to fight.
I think a bit of an adjustment is needed if you flew at Tier 5 against the usual opponents for a long time.
But the Vaadwaur are among the most fun enemies to fight, IMO. I wish there was more content with them.
But the worst enemies are the Kazon, anyway. Using Aux2Dampeners against Grav-Well builds is OP. How am I supposed to fight enemies that don't get clumped together in a ball of death?I guess that's why Cryptic invented Subnucleonic Wave? (Not that I ever used it so far...)
Actually, SNW is of limited usefulness against the Kazon since it is a PBAOE with only 5km range.
Yeah, Kazon may not be one of the most dangerous foes, but they are interesting to fight.
Well, for a Grav-Well/AoE Torp build at least. You need to time more carefully and of course this tends to drag out the fight a bit since you can't fire your big gun at the beginning.
I think for the more typical BFAW or maybe CSV builds not that much changes really.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
But i think we are on a sinking ship. I dont want to make my ship Tier 5 (Or whatever) Raid ready just to play the missions in "story mode".
Meh to complex for me, i just want to make pew pew pew with my ship and enjoy the story. Maybe iam lucky and perfect world or cryptic or arc or whovever currently owns STO makes an additional easy story mode for people like me.
But thanks again for letting me know that i did nothing wrong in the party settings that made the missions "accidently" so hard.
But i think we are on a sinking ship. I dont want to make my ship Tier 5 (Or whatever) Raid ready just to play the missions in "story mode".
Meh to complex for me, i just want to make pew pew pew with my ship and enjoy the story. Maybe iam lucky and perfect world or cryptic or arc or whovever currently owns STO makes an additional easy story mode for people like me.
But thanks again for letting me know that i did nothing wrong in the party settings that made the missions "accidently" so hard.
You don't need to go all the way. You can start somewhere and see if it helps. That's why I usually post my advice in a manner that starts with the most simplest and goes up to the more complex things.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
But i think we are on a sinking ship. I dont want to make my ship Tier 5 (Or whatever) Raid ready just to play the missions in "story mode".
Meh to complex for me, i just want to make pew pew pew with my ship and enjoy the story. Maybe iam lucky and perfect world or cryptic or arc or whovever currently owns STO makes an additional easy story mode for people like me.
But thanks again for letting me know that i did nothing wrong in the party settings that made the missions "accidently" so hard.
At least fill out your trait slots.. that by itself will make a difference... but Really none of the stuff suggested was about getting min/max out of your ship, just the basics.... if thats too much effort, coldnapalm is right.
Comments
personally I prefer shield and aux over weapon but I like a bit of tank-ness to anything
This thread is to help someone trying to make a simple beam or cannon boat build work with basic tactics, it's not an expert's exotic damage build or torp boat thread.
While your arraignment looks on the surface like a "prototypical Cryptic Build" - there's some serious lack of efficiency in that type of build. I would:
1. Swap to either an all cannon/turret with 1 torpedo fore & aft build, or an all beam w/torps build. On a Beam Build, Dual Beam Banks are considered "stand ins" for the Dual Cannons (tighter arc but bigger hit per shot). Make sure the build uses all one "type" of energy - all your beams/cannons/whatnot should be say Phaser, and your torps say quantum or photon.
2. These builds (all cannon-power or all beam-power) allow you to run the aforementioned 2x energy weapon powers and 2x torp powers. Many people love a Scatter Volley / BFaW & torp spread pairing, because they are great Area of Effect killers with increased damage against single targets, while some go for the "vaper" (as in vaporize) build that tries to squish single targets in one pass - Rapid Fire & Torp High Yield, (Beam Overload is not built to really do a good vape, since it only modifies one weapon for one shot and not the entire weapon loadout...) Myself, since my Tac alt in her escort isn't built for DPS recording, I actually run a "spread" set of Cannon Scatter Volley III & Torp Spread II, alongside a "crusher" set of Rapid Fire II / High Yield Torpedo I - and alternate between the two leading with what's appropriate to the enemy at hand (spread set to start killing frigate packs, then a crusher run to kill a straggler or two, or a "crusher" run to do massive damage to a cruiser's or boss's shields, then whack with some increased damage complements of the "spread" set while waiting for the cooldowns to expire on the crusher powers...
3. Once you switch to single energy type, you update your tactical console loadout to run nothing but 5x of your most common energy type consoles - since right now you're already phaser-heavy, swapping those 3 arrays into another phaser cannon (fore) and phaser turrets (aft) or swapping the cannons for phaser arrays then swapping all your mix-matched consoles (I think I see a beam enhancer, a cannon enhancer, a phaser enhancer, a generic torp console and a quantum console) to be even "Blue Phaser boosters at Mk XII" would practically double the damage your energy weapons do (cause you'd be getting the entire 5x+25% "bonus" phaser damage applied to all 5 phaser weapons over +16% on the beams, +18% on your cannons, +25% on anything that says phaser, etc.
4. When exchange shopping, the stuffs that are "not DPS-master approved" are frequently extremely cheap. Mods like [Rapid] (if a vaper) or [Snare] aren't going to "kill" your build, as long as the other mods are somewhat thought out like [Acc] [Dmg] or [CritD]x2 - don't grab [CritH][Dmg][Rapid] for a Scatter Volley Build... Same with the consoles, a set of blue Mk XII phaser enhancers have better bonuses than even purple beam enhancers.
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]
This won't be a major shift, but you have several trait slots empty, fill them with damage and power boosting abilities.
On a similar note, have you started using the specialization system? They can give some real boosts.
Upgrading your weapons and tactical consoles to tier XIV will provide a significant damage boost - doing the same to engineering consoles will also help durability.
The Vaadwaur have two ugly abilities - tricobolt (which can stun) and their polaron barrages. You don't have much durability boosts in skills it looks like, so use your maneuverability and damage: Vaadwaur ships are much, much more dangerous in their forward arc. Get behind them and gun them from there.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
distance doesn't affect the damage of their artillery barrages in that manner, and you get too close to them you're likely to eat a face full of tricobalt mines
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Basically my engineer rolled into the Delta quad with a T6 Guardian cruiser and got wrecked. I've since gone in with science vessels and had a pretty good time of it (I'm no good at escorts and their heavy DPS builds). So a lot of it seems to be what you play as too. Every cruiser I tried to run there gets destroyed, but other class ships seem to do pretty well there. if you're someone like me, who finds reputation grinds to be a cancer to avoid at all cost, then your best bet is to go in with a different ship class. Like I said, Cruisers just seem to get wrecked.
Different experience then. I primarily fly Cruisers, and just setting foot in the Delta quad gets me wrecked. I have to go in with a science vessel or face a steady wall of frustration.
I can agree with that. I would liken the Delta Quadrant to trying to fight the Borg, in an offhand way, just a step up. A lot of attacks that are good at stripping your defenses and leaving you exposed for their big attacks. With a cruiser, this usually leaves me frantically trying to spam my heals and fighting a losing battle... on a Sci I can usually do some drains to cover the gap and keep my defenses at least partially up for the incoming hard attack. Plus the increased speed and turning of a sci-ship lets me avoid some of the attacks you can dodge.
That said, Pilot tree with a cruiser is a blast. The Barrel roll on a cruiser is hysterical.
The issue with whatever ship you fly is your build and how you use it. You can be successful in any ship type, you just have to put the effort into developing your build to fit your skill set. I fly cruisers almost exclusively (I have one alt that uses Escorts) and I have never had any issue melting enemies in the Delta Quadrant in seconds flat.
The issue is definitely not cruisers. It just depends on the player, different players are better with different types of ships.
But the Vaadwaur are among the most fun enemies to fight, IMO. I wish there was more content with them.
But the worst enemies are the Kazon, anyway. Using Aux2Dampeners against Grav-Well builds is OP.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Yeah, Kazon may not be one of the most dangerous foes, but they are interesting to fight.
My character Tsin'xing
I think for the more typical BFAW or maybe CSV builds not that much changes really.
Thank you very much, you people are very helpful!
But i think we are on a sinking ship. I dont want to make my ship Tier 5 (Or whatever) Raid ready just to play the missions in "story mode".
Meh to complex for me, i just want to make pew pew pew with my ship and enjoy the story. Maybe iam lucky and perfect world or cryptic or arc or whovever currently owns STO makes an additional easy story mode for people like me.
But thanks again for letting me know that i did nothing wrong in the party settings that made the missions "accidently" so hard.
You don't need to go all the way. You can start somewhere and see if it helps. That's why I usually post my advice in a manner that starts with the most simplest and goes up to the more complex things.
At least fill out your trait slots.. that by itself will make a difference... but Really none of the stuff suggested was about getting min/max out of your ship, just the basics.... if thats too much effort, coldnapalm is right.