Ground BOff team for end-game

tribbulater · February 2017

I have not advanced very far in the game episodes, specifically I haven't gotten into Delta/Vaudwaar territory and beyond.

So far, for any ground content I have simply been using the BOffs you get for free in the first few dozen missions, and maybe a Leeta or similar that I picked up along the way. Most of them are simply using tier VI-X blue/purple gear that dropped or was granted while playing up. None of the ground content has been particularly difficult, I don't think anyone has even 'died' yet.

Question is, will I need a beefed-up ground team for later content? If so, what do people normally recommend as a decently capable ground squad? I am thinking maybe 3 engineers and a sci, and not sure what gear they might need.

Thanks for any suggestions or pointers to previous discussions.

gradii · February 2017

One of my characters does very well with an all science team (even herself, science toon). I have one BoFF specced as medic the rest spam science magic.

lowy1 · February 2017

Doesn't matter really, mainly try to get purples and some species are better than others for specific roles. My tac main uses an alien dps with superior luck and creativity. Betazoids make great medics with their empathy trait along with superior creativity. A Klingon tac and rigelian round out my team and serve as tank and dps/ off tank. I usually don't have to do much and they wipe the floor with everything.

baddmoonrizin · February 2017

I usually take a Science Officer, an Engineer, and 2 Tactical Officers. All are usually equipped with Reputation Gear that I'm not using.

jaguarskx · February 2017

You can use the free Boffs provided to you as you level up. All you really need to do is to give them proper equipment and train them in abilities that are useful. Higher quality Boffs have more superior level abilities (as opposed to normal level), but you can still do well on the ground with only green (uncommon) Boffs.

Regardless of the captain's career, the ground team I bring down with me typically includes 2 science, 1 engineer and 1 tactical. The other variation which I use on 1 or 2 captains is 2 engineers, 1 science and 1 tactical. They all have very rare Mk XII armor and shields; with the exception of my AoY captain (who has not progressed beyond the Delta Quadrant story arc), all Boffs basically use the Na'khul Temporal Agent armor and shield from The Temporal Front mission in the Future Proof story arc. Most have of them are equipped with very rare Mk XIV weapons though.

revanindustries · February 2017

BOffs are really more trouble than they're worth in most cases. However, be that as it may, when I am a Tac I usually run 2 Sci, 1 Eng and 1 Tac with me. If I'm a Sci I'll run 1 Sci, 1 Eng and 2 Tacs. If I'm an Eng, sometimes I'll just do 2 Sci and 2 Tacs. You really only need 1 fortress.

fiberteksyfir · February 2017

BOFFs are one of the few things in STO that really have no major impact at endgame. Most events you do at endgame dont include them. So its whatever cool fun team you can come up with. A full team of engineers is fun because of all the fabrication possibilities, or scis for AoE map deletion. Really have fun with it and just try different abilities. As long as you give them halfway decent gear (I throw mission sets or old sets i no longer use plus random tribbles on all mine) theyll do fine

revanindustries · February 2017

Yeah. Random Tribbles are great. Throw an IDIC tribble on one of your BOffs and you can still run a Gambling Device on yourself and get a solid buff of your choice.

bergins · February 2017

My current Away Team:
0718 Android (Sci)
K-13 Android (Eng)
Vet Android (Eng)
Nelin Exil (Sci) or sometimes a Tac officer, usually the Holographic Omega Officer.

Self-Res is nice.

Oh, and Omega Rep Shields for them, because they offer a team bonus when taking damage.

letsfadeaway · February 2017

The first thing you should look at when choosing a BOFF is what space traits they have as those are active in STFs/Battlezones which are the main endgame content. BOFF space is rather limited, when you tend to fly different ship unless you shell out some zen, so keep that in mind when building your ground dream team.
Here are some starting points and things that work for me:

The composition:
1 Sci - Healer (not really mandatory, but having a nurse running around makes it even easier)
1-X Eng - Turrets/mortars are fun, provide DPS and additional things to shoot at to make flanking easier (don't use cover shield)
1-X Tac - Grenades, buffs, Motion Acccelerator cast on demand
0-X Sci - Space Magic

My 2-man-team usually consists of a nurse and and an eng

As for the new specs: Mix and match, but once again don't go out of your way to get them specifically for ground abilities.

Equipment:
You'll probably get some okay/good equipment from reputation boxes, mission rewards and loot
No need to spend resources on reputation items just for your BOFFs. Hand-Me-Downs are good enough for them!
Mix and match expose and exploit weapons
Take the AI (or artificial stupidity) into account and give them long-range weapons
Keep 5 environmental suits around (rep boxes, "Step Between Stars" in-mission loot; handing the suit to your ground crew let's you get more without the need to replay it)
Tribbles, especially team buff ones if you can get them cheap
Remodulator (just keep it equipped then you won't forget it when you're fighting borg)
Consumables are not really needed

Interesting mission items or even sets (if you're willing to grind for them):
Mastiff summon (KDF only)
Romulan Imperial Navy - "Uneasy Allies", Armor gives 50% damage to secondary weapon attacks, shield gives damage buff
Na'Kuhl - "The Temporal Front" ; yes, BOFFs use the shield clicky ability
Jem Hadar - Cardassian Struggle; again set clicky for fun and games
Featured Mission Rerun rewards - Shard of possibilities, etc. once you fill up your four slots you should be a generous captain and give them your discarded toys

tiberious · February 2017

Right now I run 2 Sci & 2 Eng for my main Sci captain. No Tac. Mix between blue / purple boffs. Gear from last Future Proof mission on console version. Various Mark XII Rep weapons rewarded ranking up.

Make sure half weapons use expose and half use exploit. Captain carries one of each.

Been picking up good gear / kits doing Delta missions. Some Mark XIII.

Haven't tried any of the Elite ground queues yet. Haven't had a reason to do so.

warpangel · February 2017

Ground boffs don't matter. All boffs-enabled content is really easy.

nephitis · February 2017

You most definitely do not need to get Superior BOFFs, though I can still highly recommend it. And the reason why is because I personally make whatever BOFFs I use, "multirole", by giving them all copies of the same abilities Tier 1 to Tier 4. This allows me the flexibility to swap them in and out as well use whatever tier and combinations of abilities that I want.

It does mean buying and using a lot of manuals for your BOFFs, and for that sole reason it might be better to do it for Superior BOFFs right from the beginning instead of realizing at the end that you spent all your effort on low class BOFFs. Besides, getting Superior BOFFs is not that expensive anymore so it is most definitely worth it.

As for gear, I guess it depends on you. If you like to absolutely dominate the field which can be hilarious in ground combat, then you most definitely could do with better gear for all of them. And it does not need to be that very expensive either. One of the key ingredients that sets a very good ground team apart from a weaker team is what weapons they use.

For example, right now you may currently be using random weapon types for your BOFFs. But giving them long range Area-of-Effect weapons like Split Rifles (normal or reputation ones), Romulan Wide Beam Rifle, Jemhadar Minigun and the Herald/Iconian staff can increase their performance significantly. Adding better armor and shields, and in particular reputation gear, can greatly add to their survival and provide them with good set bonuses.

For instance, I don't need to do anything in the last stage (ground combat) of the current Featured Episode. My ground team absolutely tears the opposition apart. I went with four engineers but you can most definitely switch it up if you like to see some variety. Investing more into their abilities and perhaps acquiring unique ones (like Lock Box manuals) can spice up their ability repertoire even more.

Think of it like this. It doesn't need to be about survival as in dying and not dying. Instead it could be about being generally 100% successful in ground combat and absolutely dominating the field for the sheer fun of it. Personally I don't see any reasons not to give your ground team a little love.

preiko · February 2017

If we REALLY talk about a HIGH End Away Team you have to consider a few things

First What are they suppose to do ?
--> Exposing / Exploit ?
--> Damage ?
--> Healing ?

Things you have to Know
--> When you watch / observe a B.O. Figthing you find out they fire about every 6 / 6.5 seconds
--> switching between Secondary and Primary Fire Mode
... ... ... Type of Weapon does not matter
... ... ... ... Why is that important ? (you may ask)
--> activating a Damage Buff like "Battle Strategy" is mostly wasted on a B.O.

--> Bridge Officers can use and they will use a activatable Set Bonus.
... ... ... (Example: BO's use 3 Set Bonus "Hunker Down" only when their HP is low)

Whats the difference between one B.O. to any other B.O. ?
--> Traits - choose them wisely !!!
----> There are so many useless Traits out there you should avoid
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Bridge_Officer_traits

most of the Resistence are way to weak to help, or totally useless in 99.9% of the time
- Corrosive Blood - a DoT when you get bit + Toxic Resistences
- Cold Dwelling - Cold Resistences - Minus Run Resistence - Root Resistence
- Cold-Blooded - Plasma and Fire Resistences
because that happens all the time ....

Try to stick with
--> Aggressive / Superior Aggression
--> Lucky / Superior Luck
--> Soldier / Superior Soldier
--> Creative / Superior Creativity
--> Plasma Weapon Specialist (+10%)/ Superior Plasma Weapon Specialist (+15%)
(For Exploit only)
--> Covert (+10% Exploit Dmg) / Superior Covert (+15% Exploit Dmg)
--> Teamwork (+?? Exploit Dmg )

nice to know (B.O. Rarity)
Common --- 2x Basic + 2x Standard Traits
Uncommon -- 1x Basic + 3x Standard Traits
Rare --- ... -- 1x Basic + 2x Standard + 1x Superior Traits
Very Rare ----2x Standard + 2x Superior Traits
Elite - Leeta --2x Standard + 2x Superior Traits

Exception:
Purple Fleet Embassy Romulans - 4x Superior Traits (= Superior Subterfuge)
Borg Science Officer - 4x Superior Traits
--- (Superior Resiliant +7,5 % Physical and Energy Resistence ... meh! )
--- (Superior Natural Immunity + 50 Toxic and Radiation ... meh! )
--- (Superior Neural Blast ... a slow ... no damage ... meh! )
--- (Superior Borg Nanites ... 260 Shields every 5 sec ... good ... )
--- ... ---> ... with a " Reduces "TRIBBLE" Damage to shields by 20% " Personal Shield

Certain Races are limited or bind to certain Traits
Andorans have Fury - less HP = more Dmg but all come with Cold Dwelling
Vulcan - Physical Strength + Logical
Tellerites - Pigheaded + Sturdy
Human - Teamwork
et cetera ... et cetera ... et cetera
Do your homework in the exchange

My Away Team:
2x Bajoran Science Officers
--> Superior Soldier +7.5% Energy Damage and +15% CrtD
--> Superior Luck +4.5 CrtH and + 15% Expose Chance
--> Creative +30 Kit Performance
--> Spiritual (Bajoran only) = +10% more incomming Healing + 0.1 HP Reg

For Real --- it Took me 2 years to find these two .... Super-Duper Ultra Rare
always looking for more :-D

Equipment:
Omega Force Ground Set (3 of 3) in most cases
( +5% All Energy Damage and +2.5% Critical Chance and +20% Critical Severity)

3 Set Bonus:
Team Ambush Field ( Passive Team and Self Buff )
+2.5% Critical Chance and +2.5% Critical Severity and +15.1 Dodge

Devices:
- Gambling Device
- Nukara Reinforcements - Elite Reprogrammed Tholian Drones ( BEST PETS EVER )
---> Horta's for casual Enemies
- Rebreather

Abilities
Tier 1 - Cold Fusion Flash 1
Tier 2 - Medical Tricorder 2
Tier 3 - Tricorder Scan 2 / Cold Fusion Flash 3
Tier 4 - Nanite Health Monitor 2

Very Effective

i use them for Voth Combat Zone
use the Bridge Officer Commands to place them in the right spots they kill everything

By the Way If you looking for a INSANE Setup find the Bajorans with the same Traits
take 4 of them all a Boolean Heavy Assault Cannon and give them them the
[8472 Counter-Command/b] Ground Gear
Set 2: Bio-Molecular Conduits
+10% Phaser Damage
+10% Disruptor Damage
+5% Critical Chance

with a full team you wreak havoc -- first solvo -- Boom! -- everythings just dies

kjwashington · February 2017

I always run 2 sci, 1 eng, 1 tac.

The 2 science officers are healers, they keep you alive. They use medical tricorder, tachyon harmonic, vascular regenerator, and nanite health monitor. Depending on what I feel like, i'll switch out the tachyon harmonic for something from one of the specializations. Usually I'll make one or both of them intel.

The engineering officer uses weapons malfunction, fuse armor, shield recharge, and sabotage. I'll usually switch out all of these for something from the specializations. I usually give them temporal specialization powers if I do that since they have good synergy when using a lot of them (from entropy).

The tactical officer uses battle strategies, draw fire, target optics, and fire on my mark. I'll always replace draw fire with something else (usually always a buff or debuff) from the specializations. Usually I'll make them command.

When I can only have 2 BOffs, I'll bring BOffs representing the other 2 careers.

Edit: The reason why I don't use any fabrications with my engineering BOffs is because I usually find them to be pointless. Medical generator fabrication can't keep up with the healing from the science BOffs. Shield generator fabrication doesn't heal shields fast enough to be useful, especially with bleed-through damage. Turrets and mortars are great at damage, but by end-game a battle will go so fast that all the enemies will be dead just as the turret or mortar is spawning, and it just would have been faster if the BOff had fired their own weapons. Chroniton mine barrier requires the enemy to charge you, which only happens sometimes (but usually that charging enemy dies before they reach the mines).

baudl · February 2017

in my experiance, the boffs will do very little. I usually have 2 science healers around when not playing a science captain. Used to never have engineers in the party, but since some mission achievements require one, I got myself one (the Kobali one, though not that good).
Traits are the only thing that may give them value, and superior luck and superior soldier seem to have the edge here. There are other good ones, but superior luck kind of nails it as a must have trait on ground boffs.

at the end it really is of no huge importance anyway. Boffs are fun to have in missions, but really seem a little underdeveloped to this day. By that I mean that it has a huge potential, but kind of feels like a gimmik.

chastity1337 · February 2017

This thread was useful for me -
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1225221/immortal-boff-skills-combo-for-ground

But be sure you read the whole thread, not just the first post, since the OP (autumnturning) updates his suggestions a bit further down the page, and also another player adds some useful observations on Engineer BOFFs.

For me, it has worked out very well, but of course YMMV

lowy1 · February 2017

all of the trait stuff is why they need to unlock them and allow us to pick them. They could keep the species specific traits locked if necessary and add a vanilla version like they did with character traits. Then they could create another dil sink by allowing us to upgrade boffs to ur/epic. They could even go with trait manuals like boff manuals.

nikephorus · February 2017

I usually go with either 1 science healer, and 3 engineers or 2 science healer and 2 engineers. I find tac boffs to be kind of useless on the ground. I often give my ground boffs command specialization and use skills like take cover, hammer and anvil, and strategic analysis. I try to make them all support me as the main damage dealer as boffs seem to have a slow rate of attack, but they do well using spamable shield and health heals.

preiko · February 2017

(almost) all available Bridge Officer Skills:
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Bridge_officer_and_kit_abilities

B.O. Engineers are too slow most of the time, it lookds like they are made "to stall"
the animation times alone (fabrication) , Fuse Armor takes forever to kick in ,
Recharged Shields drops in no time or Bleedthrough makes them ineffective
mines are great but must be placed + time to activation before the B O O M !!!

B.O. Tactitions don´t react fast enough to take a real benefit from the Buffs they cast (most of the time)
Grenades are missing the target most of the time ,
Melee (only) fighting is not recommended (believe me ... I tested alot ... not worth it) ...
exception is a good placed "exploit Lunge"but the B.O.'s don´t get the timing right most of the time
Fire on my Mark is a Tricorder Scan - for only one target and a horrible horrible CD

B.O. Science - too many fagile control abilites , with no other efffect,
enemy debuffing with short Cooldowns, Cold Fusion Flash really turns the Sci B.O. around
Hold them in Place + do damge + chance to Freeze them (Stun) + slow
applie the AoE effects the enemies used to run out of
and of course the healing

Intelligence Ground Ability's are terrible, I just Ignore them entirely
yes even the Tripwire Drone ... because it is to slow ... it does not reach the Target (most of the time)

Command ... honestly ... i never tryed them ... but i will ( thank you guys for the input )

Temporal ... Testing in Progress ... love Paradox Bomb (reliable Gravity Well on Ground .. YEAH !!)

Ground B.O.'s from the Featured Episodes
Reman Science Officer Candidate http://sto.gamepedia.com/Reman_Science_Officer_Candidate
( Superior Telepathic , Mental Burst, Mental Discipline, Stubborn ) meh!

Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer Candidate http://sto.gamepedia.com/Jem'Hadar_Tactical_Officer_Candidate
( Shroud , Engineered Soldier , Superior Stubborn, Superior Peak Health )
-- he would be really good ... but ... he uses shroud way to much ... because of it he does not use his weapon as much as any other B.O.
--> please give me feedback --> put everone on the Team on passive and just let him act alone

Breen Tactical Officer Candidate http://sto.gamepedia.com/Breen_Tactical_Officer_Candidate
( Cryonic Visor Beam ; Superior Cold Dwelling ; Soldier ; Mental Discipline )
don´t give them the Breen the CRM 200 - the secondary fire mode is still (2 years) bugged Cooldown is way to long

Kobali Engineering/Command Officer Candidate http://sto.gamepedia.com/Kobali_Engineering/Command_Officer_Candidate
Honor The Fallen - worst B.O. Trait ever - because never active
Superior Natural Immunities - toxic res + radiation res
Superior Mental Discipline - Psych Dmg res , Confuse res, Placate Res
Teamwork - okay-ish

nickcastleton · February 2017

preiko wrote: »

Melee (only) fighting is not recommended (believe me ... I tested alot ... not worth it) ...
exception is a good placed "exploit Lunge"but the B.O.'s don´t get the timing right most of the time

Really my Caitian melee BO does quite well she actually saved me one or twice.

koppster · February 2017

...and no-one mentions: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/tspbasicboffguide

?

Ground BOff team for end-game

Comments