Engineer

wen1503 · July 2016

STO has evolved into a DPS focus. Tactical Officers rule. The skill change has made a skill focus in Science also a potential high DPS.

A focus in engineer is a laughing stock. High survivability doesn't hold aggro because of the extreme DPS available to the other classes.

It use to be a focus in power management allowed cruisers to stay close to tacos. Ship traits have removed those needs. Almost nobody take more than a few skills in Maintenance.

The top tier maintenance skill is very mediocre.

Can you do something to help Engineers? I can get 40-50k DPS and still have a hard time holding aggro especially with Tac Roms in their ship of choice getting well over 100 DPS

Yes I use range to help.

First character since open Beta and still my main is an engineer.

The skill change had great opportunity... but missed the mark it seems.

leemwatson · July 2016

If you're doing over 15k DPS, which is the benchmark for Adv STF's....why are you complaining?? The game no longer gives rewards based on DPS performance, so why worry about your DPS? The attitude that you MUST have 50k+ DPS to be considered 'skillful' is a fallacy my friend. No point having all that power if you can't take a hit anyway. I mean God help those players that do rely on Glass tanks when the Dev's decide to make NPC's truly a challenge again! Just imagine NPC's stacked with Feedback and Reverse Shield Polarity's!

salazarraze · July 2016

I wish that when the game was developed that they left classes for ground and made all professions "equal" in space.

Unknown · July 2016

This content has been removed.

wen1503 · July 2016

That's just it, as an engineer I can take a hit just fine. Power control should make a much bigger difference. As it was in the beginning.

Engineer's should be able to bypass the current power level restrictions. That's what engineer's do. That's what would allow them to do better damage.

That and improve the end tier skill.

davefenestrator · July 2016

My Fed engineer sailed through the temporal episodes without breaking a sweat. Sure he can't win the DPS leagues or do PVP, but I don't care about making him do either.

And my Eng and Sci captains do better on the ground, especially when alone or with just 1-2 boffs.

xayss · July 2016

iam wonderfull making npc suffer and die with my enginers toons XD

kyle223cat · July 2016

I spec fully into defensive skills, but that's because I'm a pvp healer (and that doesn't mean some of the skills aren't underpowered either, I just need as much defense as possible) You are right though, Engineers need some work. One thing I think is that some Engineering abilities seem to need a boost/revamp. I just realized that my Rally Point Marker III Boff ability out heals Miracle Worker...

I feel like engineers do really well on ground though if you like building lots of turrets, drones, etc. Not so much anymore if you want to make a shield tank/heal though.

iconians · July 2016

I think some of the Captain abilities could use a second glance. Nadion Inversion in particular doesn't seem particularly competitive against Scattering Field or Fire on my Mark. Which isn't to say it's useless, since the weapon power discount is quite nice. Rotate Shield Frequency also doesn't seem as powerful in comparison to APA or Sensor Scan. I think maybe some additional duty officer abilities could maybe improve the powers, for example the Sensors Officer's ability to debuff damage output with Sensor Scan makes it particularly useful.

But yeah, I think we're going to start seeing more calls for Engineers to be buffed as Cryptic continues to pander to the DPS meta, while buffing Science with more Exotic Damage bells and whistles.

Engineers seem kind of an afterthought, or maybe Cryptic thinks they're in a good place already.

kyle223cat · July 2016

Another thought, am I the only one who thinks that the EPS Manifold Efficiency trait is really underwhelming? A whole +10 power to the other 3 subsystems for 15 seconds? Considering the "equivalent" to this on the science side is Conservation of Energy which boosts exotic damage by up to 30%, this just doesn't seem that great to me, maybe it could use a boost. Maybe it's just me though.

Can't complain about the ground trait that engineers get that boosts shield hardness though.

sonsofcain · July 2016

Engineers are capable of 200K DPS. While I concede that this is an extreme, there are dozens who have surpassed the 100K mark and plenty more who are almost there.

Engineering skills aren't underwhelming, it's that there simply isn't a need to spec too highly into them. My Fed-Tac can survive 3 or 4 minutes with up to 90% of Attacks-In in ISA. If you truly want there to be a reason for specing heavily into engineering, then hope they buff NPCs, and not just by inflating their HP. Make them hit harder. Hard enough so that people start crying about how they're too tough.

But the truth is, such a drastic change is unlikely. Not only would it require added effort from the Devs (this probably isn't a priority for them), but it just doesn't track with what we've seen as of late. HSE being a perfect example. They made it easier because people though it was too hard. It's just not going to happen.

peterconnorfirst · July 2016

Hey there, I’m currently in the top 10 of the Engineer DPS category of the metal league.

While I agree with you that Tac have the ability dish out much more DPS I hope you realize that engineers have the option to easily get in the 100k+ range being able to not only cope but also lead teams into any sort of contend in this game.

If you share your build I, as well as others, can probably help you more.

Here is the Build of my Eng-DPS-Tank. It’s not perfect but I have 10 toons I care about so have to make do with the time I have at my disposal:

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/814506c9b536256c39f9d5da16503301

Got it into the 120k+ ISA reach with it. I bet I could do a higher but would need to force the issue which I dont want to because of the said reason.

As a general note “pve-tanks” may not be needed in order to deal with the STO content. However if players chose to pursue this role I know first and second hand that it works nicely and, depending on the circumstances as in team composition, can be highly beneficial for your group.

gradii · July 2016

leemwatson wrote: »

If you're doing over 15k DPS, which is the benchmark for Adv STF's....why are you complaining?? The game no longer gives rewards based on DPS performance, so why worry about your DPS? The attitude that you MUST have 50k+ DPS to be considered 'skillful' is a fallacy my friend. No point having all that power if you can't take a hit anyway. I mean God help those players that do rely on Glass tanks when the Dev's decide to make NPC's truly a challenge again! Just imagine NPC's stacked with Feedback and Reverse Shield Polarity's!

Badlands battlezone is a notable exception. if you're not doing a significant % of the total dps you dont get rewards.

taylor1701d · July 2016

wen1503 wrote: »

That's just it, as an engineer I can take a hit just fine. Power control should make a much bigger difference. As it was in the beginning.

Engineer's should be able to bypass the current power level restrictions. That's what engineer's do. That's what would allow them to do better damage.

That and improve the end tier skill.

You make a good point.
I wouldn't mind seeing Nadion getting a +15 to subsystem cap for the duration of the ability...
Just an idea.

wen1503 · July 2016

That's a very nice build peterconnerfirst. Romulus's have a distinct advantage on the DPS race. 3 extra Boffs with Superlative operative trait not to mention your own. That's an extra 8 percent crit H just to start.

You also prove my point to a degree. You took 27 points in Tactical to get frenzy.

The maintenance top tier skill should be just as good.

Tac rocks with damage.
Science rocks with probability.
Maintenance doesn't with its top tier.

You took 12 points in Maintenance, 7 in Science and 27 in tac. Reversing those points, with the right ship/build should get me in the ball park.

Fed engineer btw

peterconnorfirst · July 2016

wen1503 wrote: »

That's a very nice build peterconnerfirst. Romulus's have a distinct advantage on the DPS race. 3 extra Boffs with Superlative operative trait not to mention your own. That's an extra 8 percent crit H just to start.

You also prove my point to a degree. You took 27 points in Tactical to get frenzy.

The maintenance top tier skill should be just as good.

Tac rocks with damage.
Science rocks with probability.
Maintenance doesn't with its top tier.

You took 12 points in Maintenance, 7 in Science and 27 in tac. Reversing those points, with the right ship/build should get me in the ball park.

Fed engineer btw

Yea u are right with the operatives. If you chase DPS on a fed toon try to get the hireachy boff from the mission “alliances” and a naussicaan engineering boff from the Asian officer in Quin’s office when you have hit tier 4 in diplomacy doffing. Both have the pirate trait and add to your DPS when stationed.

One element everybody atm seems to thrive upon is the improved feedback pulse from the anniversary ship. If you have it the + threat emitting fleet-embassy sci consoles can increase your exotic damage dealt with it (have to get them myself yet).

A friend of mine and I often pug isa. The two of us hop toons in a way that only one of us takes a tank while the other one picks a tac. Usually our tanky eng toons manage fine to grab the agro from the other tac despite the fact that he does 50k more DPS or so.

Making agro builds is a hell of a lot fun. As engineer you have the means to survive this even when you end up in a weak group.

trejgon · July 2016

if you get that much of a dps, and have difficulties of still holding aggro for yourself, then I have a bad news because you seem to be doing something wrong....

also there is bunch of content when tanking is needed/required

for example there is that borg que which is afaik a proving ground for all tanks out there on advanced difficulty level

the battle of procyon 5 elite que - if you wish to hope for haveing all optional met you need 3! tanks in a team

also even if that tac over there have technically bursted out more dps on the beginning of encounter he won't be much of use if he happens to pop out a moment later when something snoozed at him.....

and then you can make ridiculously high dps FBP tank with proper amounts of epg, krenim science vessel starship trait, and of course dose of taunts, +th stuff and other means to draw all attention to you

Engineer

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