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nevergaz
Member Posts: 5 Arc User
I don't understand what Im doing wrong. Previous character could handle themselves against romulan battlecruisers at lower level than my current one and I get destroyed in seconds without hardly scratching their surface. Perhaps someone can explain this to me as I am new to this game and my frustration level is now going through the roof.
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if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Make sure your weapon power is set at 100. Make sure you are using gear appropriate for your level. You don't need to use Blue/Purple stuff. But a green covariant shield at your highest usable level should make a noticable difference in survivability. In fact, green everything at its highest usable level should make you golden for the duration of your rank.
Gear is more important at lower levels than higher levels, since you don't have as many bridge officer abilities available. Whereas at higher levels, bridge officer usage is more important than gear.
Depending on just how low of a level you are, I'd recommend using Tractor Beam I on one of your science officers. Shield facings disappear very quickly at low level, the turn rate of you and the enemy you're facing is dismal, and shield facings are very slow to recharge, making High Yield Torpedos absolutely devastating. Milk that for all it's worth because the higher level you get, the more slowly shield facings deplete and the faster they replenish, making this tactic less and less viable (as even a sliver of shield health can replenish in the flight time of a torpedo launch to the point of impact).
Oh, and make sure your game difficulty is set to Normal, not Advanced or Elite.
It very much helps to have at least 1-Engineering Team, 1-Science Team and Hazard Emitters on your BOff's.
(in whatever skill levels you prefer)
I find having weapon power set at 75, Shield Power at 70 and using Combat Engines set to 25 Power with the rest going to Aux Power gets me by very well all the way to Level 50 with any of the starter ships.
It may take a bit longer to finish off the enemy, bit you'll find yourself blowing up a whole lot less.
And don't forget to click on the appropriate side (or middle) of your shield balance Icon during battle.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
That's how I deal with those pesky flying turkeys.
Do the different factions get different colored tractor beams? Like green for roms, blue for feds? I know the borg tractor beam is green.
I dont know since i dont use it as a boff skill.
That brings me to another question, is this game truly playable as free to play or is it required at higher levels to spend your way along.
Any further advice would be great. Oh I have only been playing for a little over 2 weeks.
The thing you can easily rock this game game without spending a cent, especially if you partake in the events cryptic throws all year round. You can get the shinies with real cash but you can also grind for them.
Since you're still relatively new and the game itself explains jack sh*t I guess it's more of a general set up issue. Pre lvl 50 pretty much anything goes but after that the "difficulty" (using that term very loosely here) spikes and your stuff suddenly starts to matter.
Some general rules:
-) Stick to 1 energy type
Don't mix types. While there are tac consoles that boost weapon types like +cannon,+beam, etc. energy specific consoles like +phaser, +disruptor, etc. give the biggest boost
-) don't go crazy wth your weapon types
I can't stress this enough: the default loadouts ships come with are utter garbage and train wrecks. The last thing you should do on an escort or crusier is mixing cannons, beams, dual beams, torps, etc. like those default setups do. Though on ships which only use weapons for set bonuses and rely on other stuff, like heavy sci builds, that rule is void.
Think what kind of weapon suits your ship & playstyle most and stick to them. 1 torp fore or aft won't hurt but the more wepaons benefit from your tac abilities the better. Like both turrets & cannon variations use "Cannon: Rapid Fire" & "Cannon: Scatter Volley", same stuff with beams.
-) don't slot consoles for stats you're not utilizing
Example: once met someone who had 3 particle generators (not the embassy ones, regular stuff) to boost excotic damage but not a single ability which do said exotic damage. So, yeah.....
-) balance damage output & survivability
Going over the top on one side dosen't help you or anybody on your team. Over the top glass cannons spend more time dead than shooting and over the top punching bags can neither do damage nor get the NPCs attention because of a grave lack of damage output.
-) your boffs make or break your ship
Don't choose boff powers you're basically never using or have close to no effect on enemies, also be aware of shared cooldowns. There's no point in triple slotting 1 power or several ones that trigger the same cooldown like "Emergency Power to X" does. Dual slotting may still a point in some cases but that's as far as you should go.
Other than that, having green gear will help a lot and if you're a fed, invest in the tier 1 Constitution. Those phaser banks that scale with you are golden. That's basically 2 weapons slots you don't have to keep feeding, and if you just keep calling the tier 1 connine back after dismissing it, you can get more phaser banks.
Trust me I do it all the time and it saves me a bundle on phaser arrays. Least for my feds.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
Additionally, Polarize Hull counters tractor beams as well.
The game is playable as free to play. I have two STO accounts. I purchase Zen from time to time on my primary account. However, for my secondary account (created in July 2015) is strictly F2P. On my F2P account I have a level 60 KDF Engineer that is still flying the free T5 Vorcha Battlecruiser which I received at level 40. I have a mix of rare and very rare Mk XII gear and I am currently in the Cardassian Struggle story arc. I have no reputation gear on that captain. It is challenging, but the definitely playable. However, I know I am going to have a hard time in the Delta Rising story arc because the Vaadwaur is a really tough race. While I have acquired the free T6 Kremlin Science Ship from the 2016 Anniversary Event and the T6 Vorgon Heavy Escort, I have not used them yet.
Not sure if the current XP bonus is strictly for Agent Of Yesterday captains or for everyone, but while it is nice to level up fast in the game, it also means you have less time to adjust to the increasing difficulty of the game. To me the game is pretty easy up to level 55. Starting at level 56 I begin to notice the difficulty of the game becoming more difficult. But I have been playing STO for a while and I have developed tactics that I use to help offset the fact that on my KDF captain that I am only using rare / very rare Mk XII gear.
My general advice is to buy at least rare Mk XII if you can afford it. The AoY Expansion has created a demand for a lot of different Mk XII space and ground gear so prices can be pretty on the Exchange depending on what you are looking for. Otherwise, replay previous missions to get some pretty decent and free gear. Replaying older missions will also allow you to develop and hone your combat tactics.
Once I get into the Delta Rising story arc I should be able to find out how well my T5 Vor'cha Battlecruiser can hold up against the Vaadwaur. However, from my personal experience and seeing videos of others playing against the Vaadwaur players do die against them even when flying a Tier 6 starship. The game gets easier after Delta Rising. For example, I have no problems playing the current story arc, Future Proof with the T5 Vor'cha at level 60 when those missions were offered as "Featured Missions" for a short period of time; meaning anyone can skip to those missions as long as the captain was at least level 20 to get the rewards.
Oh yeah, after lvl50 you're on your own. The Delta quadrant is a tough place. You need to be as tough as warlord Janeway the evil mistress to actually survive that place.
Get a T6 ship first. That's the bare minimum.
You need EC to purchase upgrade kits from the Exchange that is used to improve the Mk level of a piece of gear. You want to use "Superior" versions because they are the best bang for buck when it comes to the amount of tech points given, and the amount of Refined Dil the upgrade kit consumes. You can find then on the Exchange by entering the following search bar:
- Superior Beam
- Superior Shield
- Superior Science
- Superior Ground
- Superior Cannon
- Superior Projectile
You can also purchase optional accelerators to use when upgrading gear. There are Technology Accelerators that increases the amount of tech points you receive. There are Quality Accelerators that gives you a small chance to improve the quality of gear (i.e. from very rare to ultra rare). And I mean small; the higher the mark level of the gear the lower the chances of quality improvement... like less that 1% (which is displayed as 0%). Upgrading gear can be extremely expensive and also frustrating at the same time. There are basically two varieties; 1.5x and 2x. The 2x varieties are very expensive. You can search for them in the Exchange as follows:
"1.5x t" - 1.5x Technology Accelerator
"2x t" - 2x Technology Accelerator
"1.5x q" - 1.5x Quality Accelerator
"2x q" - 2x Quality Accelerator
Since you have only been playing for a little over 2 weeks I doubt you have the resources to really take advantage of the Double Tech Point Bonus Weekend. Therefore, I suggested you do a little more research on your own to familiarize yourself with it. This event happens 3 or 4 times per year.
Yes and no.
Yes, because endgame content is rather trivial and every patch and expansion tends to make content broader rather than harder. You can access and beat every mission and every queued event just by using items from drops and mission rewards. In addition to that, PvP plays such a low and unimportant role in this game that you don't have to go head-to-head with others.
No, because if you want a fully geared out, top-notch ship you'll have to spend years until you reach it by true F2P means. Prices on both the normal and the dilithium exchange have gone through the roof, while certain easy ways to obtain dilithium and EC have been removed. It takes much, much longer for a current F2P to reach certain goals, than it took for people "back in the days". Once Upon a Time, lockbox keys were 500k EC on the exchange, while 8.000 dilithium would buy you 100 Zen. Nowadays, lockbox keys are 6.5 million EC, while 8.000 dilithium would only get you 17 Zen. You can see that we've reached a point where we can't really reach everything anymore in a reasonable amount of time without spending money.
You can experience the whole game, but you won't be able to catch up to the top-tier of players without spending money.
Some T6 ships and consoles from Zen ships are nice, but you really do not need them.
I always use Defensive Energy set-up, and never seen any mission that would be any trouble on Normal difficulty.
My DPS may be low, but i survive almost anything...
And i (alright - almost) do not use any gear higher that Purple Mk XII.
My advice - once you hit level 50, and if you get the Event Dyson Sci-Destroyer - jump to Dyson Arc - the Dyson space set from "A Step Between the Stars" gets very usefull 4-piece perk... - that's what i did for my Temporal Agent.
Level 50+ Enemies have a huge upscale per level to their stats. While you can go completely free using the ship you received at Level 40, it does make a large difference to get a better one. Buying the C-Store Item that gives you T5-U status will cause you to scale like the enemy does. Alternatively, the free ships from the Summer/Winter Events will do the trick and often better. Or you can pick up a Lobi Ship, which you can get without the Lobi from the Exchange using EC --A lot of EC, but still without real-world money.
The benefit of a T6 Ship over a T5-U is the extra Trait at the end. The right ones can benefit your build regardless of the ship you switch to later. Helpful, but not required.
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Setting your Power Levels to Balanced is a bad idea. Weapon Power (if you use a lot of Energy Weapons) is where you want much of your Power to go, preferably 100-125. If you use a lot of Science, Auxiliary is where you want your Power. If you use both, mmmmm I'd say put Weapon as the top priority and Aux as the secondary, maybe with 100 and 70 settings if you can reach it.
Engineering Power is the least important. Setting it low can be compensated by equipping Combat-type Impulse Engines.
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Stick with one Energy Type (Disruptor and Anti-Proton are common choices for their Procs, but any will suffice). Make them all the same Breed (Cannons/Turrets, or Beams/Omni-Beams). Adding one Torpedo is all right, better if you fire it manually.
Using All-Torpedoes/Mines and no Energy Weapons can work. It means that you need nothing set in Weapon Power, giving you more power for your other subsystems. It can be completely devastating (I have personally hit for 200,000 damage using one). However, it requires an Advanced Build and should NOT be attempted by Newbies without thorough research.
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As many have said, Bridge Officer Abilities make a large impact at higher Levels. You usually want:
Engineering Team for Hull Heal, Tactical Team for Auto-Shield Distribution and Damage Buff, and at least one other heal slotted. Science Team heals Shields, Hazard Emitters both heals Hull as well as clearing Damage Over Time debuffs like what you get from Plasma Torpedoes. Cruisers do better with Hull Heals, Science Vessels do better with Shield Heals, and Escorts do not really make a difference in choice.
One Ability to get you free from Control Debuffs. Attack Pattern Omega will do this as well as buffing your Speed. Polarize Hull will do it and will increase your Defense.
One or two Attack Pattern abilities are recommended. Omega or Beta are common choices.
One or Two Emergency Power To __ abilities can be nice. Never more than two due to Global Cooldown as you will never get the chance to activate a third.
Auxiliary To Battery followed by Emergency Power to Auxiliary makes for a nice, simple combo to buff all of your Power Levels
Slot one or two Attack Abilities based on your equipment. If you use Beams/Dual Beam Banks/Omni-Beams then go with Beam: Fire At Will or Beam Overload. Overload is the worse choice in most circumstances. Target Subsystem __ has its uses in combos but is rarely a good choice for Bridge Officer Abilities in and of itself; if you are using a Science Ship (which has them built-in) then by all means use them.
If you use Cannons/Dual Cannons/Dual Heavy Cannons/Turrets then you want Cannon: Scatter Volley or Cannon: Rapid Fire. Both of the Cannon Skills are good.
If you use Torpedoes (or even one Torpedo) then you can use either High Yield Torpedo or Torpedo Spread. Both are good, although Plasma and Tricobalt usually work better with High Yield than they do with Spread (and do NOT be close to the target when you use those two types). Note that Cluster Torpedoes count as Mines and NOT as Torpedoes; they are buffed by Mine Abilities and Mines/Damage Type Consoles.
A Control or Drain Ability is helpful, or even a few of them. Gravity Well is a fan-favorite if you are only slotting one. Energy Siphon is good for stealing the target's power and adding it to your own. Tachyon Beam drains the enemy's shield. Tyken's Rift is good (better if coupled with a Tractor Beam, Tractor Beam Mines, or Target Subsystem: Engines if you are using Beams). --If you choose to try an All-Torpedo Boat, then you will want to specialize in these abilities and slot as many as you can--
Thank you again for the help.
I'm glad to hear our advice helped you.