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Engineering is garbage. Do something about it.
emacsheadroom
Member Posts: 994 Arc User
What engineering skills are still useful to throw points in? Impulse thrusters and MAYBE power generation, that's it. Engineer captains are a joke with joke abilities. Has anyone ever hit rotate shield frequency and thought they were doing anything useful?
There's an underlying problem and here are some examples of it:
Science traits and mods augment science skills and abilities.
- Plasma explosion consoles
- Improved Feedback Pulse
- Particle Manipulator
- Psychological Warfare
Tactical traits and mods augment tactical skills and abilities.
- Plasma explosion consoles
- Vulnerability locator consoles
- Superior Romulan Operative
- Target Rich Environment
- Precision/Advanced Targeting Systems
Engineering traits and mods replace engineering skills and abilities.
- Regenerative Integrity Field
- Desperate Repairs
- Continuity
- Enhanced Hull Plating
You can get by without putting points in engineering skills at all if you have the right traits and one or two consoles. There is no console or trait that can outright replace gravity well or feedback pulse or fire at will. Heck, the engineering profession is so bad that engineering captain abilities can completely replace regular engineering healing abilities or vice-versa. The most useful engineering officer power is dual emergency power to weapons, and tac or science captains can take full advantage of it anyway.
This game is all about the damage because science and tac are now both damage-dealing professions. Engineering needs to be changed to buff damage like everything else, or Engineering needs to die and engineer captains be allowed to switch profession.
There's an underlying problem and here are some examples of it:
Science traits and mods augment science skills and abilities.
- Plasma explosion consoles
- Improved Feedback Pulse
- Particle Manipulator
- Psychological Warfare
Tactical traits and mods augment tactical skills and abilities.
- Plasma explosion consoles
- Vulnerability locator consoles
- Superior Romulan Operative
- Target Rich Environment
- Precision/Advanced Targeting Systems
Engineering traits and mods replace engineering skills and abilities.
- Regenerative Integrity Field
- Desperate Repairs
- Continuity
- Enhanced Hull Plating
You can get by without putting points in engineering skills at all if you have the right traits and one or two consoles. There is no console or trait that can outright replace gravity well or feedback pulse or fire at will. Heck, the engineering profession is so bad that engineering captain abilities can completely replace regular engineering healing abilities or vice-versa. The most useful engineering officer power is dual emergency power to weapons, and tac or science captains can take full advantage of it anyway.
This game is all about the damage because science and tac are now both damage-dealing professions. Engineering needs to be changed to buff damage like everything else, or Engineering needs to die and engineer captains be allowed to switch profession.
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So rather than make them yet another all-DPS-all-the-time profession like Science is morphing into, maybe we could get some occasional danger...
I would not count on it. People like blowing up sh*t, but their reaction to being blown up by NPCs is poor. See the Advanced/Elite fiasco from Delta Rising.
There are certainly players that would welcome such challenges, but more won't. But without the latter, the challenging content doesn't get played and the former group can expect long queue times.
Nothing is wrong with being an Engineer now. It's great and amazing if you are DEFENSIVE.
I've played STO on several accounts since Beta release. I've tried the others, but all my characters. Klingon, Romulan and Starfleet are always Engineers. Never Tactical or Science.
Starfleet Engineer is the best however.
I fly a Exploration Cruiser, T6 as an Engineer. My skills are focused mostly on Engineering as well, I've filled the bridge officer slots as well.
On ground I can create turrets, minefields and that's awesome and quite effective if you get the purple kits etc.
In space I can heal myself. Rotate shield does not do much alone, but for example with a power "Emergency power to shields" or a large battery it can restore your shields fully.
In PVP I suck balls as an Engineer, you're right. You have no use there. But in PVE and just playing the story missions, patrols, dailies etc. I am invincible.
The Engineering powers you gain, combined with traits, skills, a large cruiser ship focused on defense and healing instead of DPS. And you quickly have a ship and you have a Captain that can heal themselves again and again.
I can even take on several Borg Cube's, plasma torpedoes etc. They cannot really hurt me because of my awesome resistance levels, and if they do manage to hurt me. I can go from no shields, 30% hull to max shields and 100% hull thanks to all my engineering powers, bridge officers and abundance of engineering console slots.
The downside however is that I can only manage 14-16,000 DPS.
Engineering is not broken or garbage. You're playing it wrong.
Engineering is not about being DPS and "one-shooting" Borg Cube's.. It's about healing and support. If you don't like that, play as a Tactical.
But don't go crazy just because you can't manage to be a good Engineer, lol.
As an Engineer I might not do the most damage. Large numbers of buff' enemy ships will take a few moments to defeat. But I will NEVER be defeated because of my Engineering powers.
As a Tactical, you do a lot of damage. Same with science now. But you can easily be defeated if you can't "one-shoot" enemies quick enough.
As an Engineer you cannot be defeated if you do it right, but it'll take time to kill your enemies. But if you play PVP you instantly die and you can't do stuff. But PVP is broken anyway.
This is pretty much the main reason for me to use an engineer captain. This does not mean you will feel the same way.
- There are engineering boffs which happen to be pirates and superior romulan operatives as well. So that can not be it!
- Dragon builds, Drake builds, aux2bat builds? CD times, energy management, hull and shield heals so sci slots can be used for magic? Let’s better not underestimate that the backbone of each build has been engineering for years.
- Without the right points in the engineering tree your ship’s energy management will cost you DPS, your ship will fly like a brick and your heals will suck.
- “Emergency Weapons Cycle” ship trait is currently the #1 trait in game! An engineering trait triggered by an engineering boff power. I guess by the OP’s logic that’s for tacs only.
- True that the best uni console usually go into the engineering console slots but considering that most of them address haste, energy management, turn rates or the ship's hull one might simply accept them to do engineering stuff and call it a day. As an alternative one can also save EC for a conductive rcs accelerator + eps which happen to be the most expensive console in game, an engineering console!
Granted, the captains powers (like sci) are not overwhelming and the engineering ultimate could use some attention too but everything else?
It’s a bit sad that the devs did not simply choose to label discreet stuff like weapons range drop off, armor and shield penetration as well as any form of CD reduction on boff power to be engineering but I guess what’s done is done.
Under no circumstance I can follow the OP’s blind criticism about engineers as DPS was never their intended role.
Still I’m not at all worried that he will get his wish.
The new traits, the new console in k13… would not surprise me if STO’s players would have successfully managed to cry for a ship trait by next CCa event that simply grants 150% more DPS for 60 seconds when using engineering team while the engineering ultimate is engaged. Too bad that the average cca only takes for half that long already.
But at least everybody would be happy then... right?
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Based on a couple of Youtube videos, Molten Earth did not seem to be very effective when it was released. Shielded enemies do not suffer much, if any , damage and the molten ground only seemed to have been causing 1 - 4 points of damage per second. Has it been buffed? Or am I missing something?
All my engineers basically have the following kit modules. I generally do not bother swapping modules unless I am testing potential replacements.
- Medical Generator
- Chroniton Mine
- Shield Recharge
- Sabotage (Particularly useful for BotSE and MIE)
- Mass Gravimetric Detonation
In fact my alt engi does 50k DPS and I'm not even trying. This is with standard mission reward gear and CrtDx3 AP beams @ MK XII.
Not sure what you're doing wrong.
first, 50k is more than enough to do any PVE queue...but it ain't something to write home about.
second, the fact that you can do 50k, 100k, 200k dps is no indicator that a class has serious issues compared to the other classes.
and third, the engineer class is not broken...it lacks behind the other two. Broken would mean that you can not play the game with the class...as you pointed out, the class is perfectly viable to play any aspect of the game...the other two have just a little bit more going on for themselves in PVP and the DPS race and I think that is what the OP is trying to address.
with MIRACLE WORKER and the associated trait, even though I might suck, I almost never get blowd up. My next captain will be ROMULAN SCIENCE.
Just to mention the consoles in use...
Eng:Monotanium Mk VIII (Rare) Electroceramic Hull Plating Mk XI (Common) Tetraburnium Hull Armor Mk XI (Common)
Sci:Countermeasure System Mk IX (Common) Shield Emitter Amplifier Mk XI (Common) Nausicaan Siphon Capacitor Mk XI (Very rare)
Tac:Antiproton Mag Regulator Mk X (Uncommon) Polaron Phase Modulator Mk XII (Uncommon) Ionized Gas Sensor (Epic) Directed Energy Distribution Manifold Mk II (Rare)
Solanae deflector, impulse engine and shields, with an Obelisk Subspace Rift warp core...
All stuff I plan on upgrading (powered by Solanae deflector, impulse engine and shields, with an Obelisk Subspace Rift warp core...) but to be honest, I've no complaints with the results thus far... I've followed the 'DPS Rules' of matching weapon types rather than multitple variations of similar types, and matching consoles which will enhance those weapons... Other ships have different builds as slots allow... I've never felt that playing an engineer, was playing from a disadvantage, quite the reverse, in fact... I'd rather have Cara flying a tank, than a glass-cannon...
They can complete general pve content just as easily as the other 2 classes.
Ok, sure, Tac/Sci can soak out a bit more damage. But who cares ?
This "Garbage" issue only comes into play if you want an engi on top of the DPS leaderboards.
And in OP's view, Engi's will remain "garbage" until the time they are as capable as Tacs to sit atop the DPS leaderboard.
This is "first world problem" stuff.
Wahhh my Engi will never top the leaderboards. wahhhhh
Not a real issue or concern..
you forgot to factor in the "I suck" factor
Engi's are fine, and have a fun/unique play style.
I also fly in Ker'rat from time to time, and you can find eng captains that simply CANT be killed when 5 Tac captains (in various ship types) Fire on it.
Hell I met a guy (Old school player) on here I nearly couldn't kill in a T5 (not upgraded) Oddey (Vs my Tricked out T5U EPG Wells). The only reason I was successful is My proton barrage finally stripped 3 buffs off him (very lucky) and he (the eng capt) didn't have the regenerative integrity field console. Took 15-30 min to kill him 1 time..
Rouge Sto Wiki Editor.
They are also fun to play on the ground.
We already have the tac career, if you must do more pew pew and throw throw then play a tac. Problem solved.
Directed energy modulation and structural integrity collapse are some of the best things going right now, especially with temporal abilities being physical damage based. Forget about science! I will run circles around your stupid gravity wells and blow you to pieces! LOL