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Tactical help! I'm dying a lot :(

drpain#3899 drpain
drpain#3899
 Member Posts: 11 Arc User
in The Academy
Hello. I'm after some help and tips on how not die so much as a tactical officer. So I'm lvl 36 in a Defiant class and I'm getting my butt kicked, in space, working my way through the quest chain. I'm taking a lot of damage fast and I can't negate it. Fighting one heavy Mogami warbird, I died 4 times. Next mission, next strong warbird, I'm dying multiple times before I beat them. My damage seems OK and the load out is pretty standard.

I've been through these missions before as a Science officer and loved it! Had no issues besides the odd death. But as tactical, I feel like Sean Bean, I know it's in the script that I'm going to die.

Can anyone help me with some tips or pointers? I'm trying but not enjoying it and my Engineer is look good at this stage. Maybe I'm not cut out for tactical :(

Comments

  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    How would you know your damage is okay - if you blow up, this can either mean:
    - You're taking too long to kill your enemy because you don't deal enough damage.
    - You don't have enough heals and defensive buffs.

    A core thing to remember is that bridge officer powers are your lifeblood. They need to work well with your gear and combine well together.

    Not enough damage:
    - Max out your weapon power. It's the only important power level unless yo' re using a torpedo build, and at Level 34 in a Defiant, you should probably not run in a torpedo build. Remember, every time you transfer to a new ship, all the energy settings reset to the default, which is kinda the worst state to be in.
    - Use appropriate tactical buffs to buff your weapon damage. Beams need Beam Fire At Will, Cannons need cannon rapid fire or cannon scatter volley, torpedoes torpedo spread or high yield torpedo. You should stick with mostly energy type and one weapon type (e.g. mostly beams, mostly cannons) so yu get the most out of these weapon buffs and out of tactical consoles. Beam Fire At Will will also help you take out enemy mines, shuttle craft and their heavy (plasma) torpedoes. (Cannon Scatter Volley can help, too, since it also targets multiple enemies, but the firing arc is more limited.)
    - Attack Pattern Beta is a great debuff that increases your damage output significanty. Attack Pattern Omega isn't too bad for damage, but it especially shines for its defensive bonuses that you might find useful (immunity to tractor beam for example.)

    Not enough defensive buffs and heals:
    - Second most important power level tends to be Auxilliary, or shields. Not that critical at this point as weapon power, however.
    - Emergency Power to Shields grants you significant shield damage reduction. This means you take less damage from the enemy attacks and increases your survivability. It also heals and gives extra shield power. (Which also improves regeneration and gives more damage reduction.)
    - Tactical Team: Tactical Team automatically redistributes your shield strength to whatever facing is taking damage. Very useful to get the most out of your shields. If you don't have Tactical Team (be it because you don't have the space for it, or because it is on cooldown), remember to manually distribute your shields.
    - Hazard Emitters clears many damage over time effects, and provides a hull heal over time. Very useful to keep you alive.
    - Science Team: Clears some debuffs the enemy might use, and provides an instant shield heal. Use especially when you're shields are going down and you expect heavy incoming damage.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • tygerzztygerzz Member Posts: 105 Arc User
    Keep in mind that the ship your flying trades maneuverability for endurance. On your ship as well as most raiders and pilot ships, focus on staying in the rear arc, so that your opponent can only bring the rear bank into play. When at all possible stay on the edge of a fight and focus on one ship at a time. As you play a story arc try to focus your fire on a joint enemy, especially if you are being assisted by an allied NPC. You can do this by clicking on the allied npc first then firing weapons.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,689 Arc User
    Also use Evasive Maneuvers and Brace for Impact to not get crippled by exploding warp cores / singularities, or to get out of the middle of a group of ships.
  • dumas13dumas13 Member Posts: 281 Arc User
    Hit and run is a good strategy with ships that have almost all of their firepower concentrated forward, especially as enemy HP and damage increases. When I started with escorts and raptors, I tended to park in front of an enemy and shoot until it went down, but that became less viable around this level. Circling the target to keep guns on target doesn't work great, either, with DHC or DBB. You'll need four or five kilometers of distance to turn around and set up again, use the time to heal if you need to and let some cooldowns happen.
  • drpain#3899 drpain
    drpain#3899
         Member Posts: 11 Arc User
    Thank you. I've got some things to look at now. :)
  • christopher082christopher082 Member Posts: 67 Arc User
    I have had trouble flying escorts as well, mainly because I'm a tank. I tend to get close to an enemy, slow down and pound away, which escorts can't do. What has helped me is remind myself that most escorts should be flown like WW2 fighters. Like dumas13 says: Never slow down, make strafing or attack runs and try to focus on weak/blind spots.
  • drpain#3899 drpain
    drpain#3899
         Member Posts: 11 Arc User
    I retrained my engineer and science officers to give me better healing returns. This has helped massively.
  • glenn#1579 glenn
    glenn#1579
         Member Posts: 275 Arc User
    Use the "figure of eight" attack type. Eg Hit, run fast past them, turn and do it again. Make sure when you are within weapons range you keep your speed up and only stay in range long enough to unload your weapons.
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    drpain#3899 wrote: »
    I retrained my engineer and science officers to give me better healing returns. This has helped massively.
    Excellent!

    Note that when you advance further and get more reputation gear, spec traits, starship mastery traits and similar things, you might want to check if you still need all the heals you're using now - you may find that you have a lot of passives and reactives heals keeping you alive at that point, or kill enemies so fast that there isn't much damage hurting you, and you can spend more resources on killing enemies even faster.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • tarran61tarran61 Member Posts: 827 Arc User
    Look at the traits your using both ship and space, also the traits of your Boff's.
    Positive thoughts.
    NeAC.gif
  • drpain#3899 drpain
    drpain#3899
         Member Posts: 11 Arc User
    My traits are fine it's just that I needed to get the right skills on my bridge officers. On my science officers they were pretty good with default skills. But as tactical and things got harder, all I needed to do was change 2 skills and it's made a lot of difference. I'm only 2 months to the game and still have a lot to learn but it has made tactical fun and I can see why it's popular.

    Science is still better though as it feels like electronic warfare. But I'll have one of each in time :)
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,689 Arc User
    Engineer is fun on the ground, with turrets, mortars, bombs and drones. And not bad in space since they can make any ship more tanky. You should have at least one of at least one of each captain type eventually, and also one in each of the factions for the unique story episodes and different ships.
  • postinggumpostinggum Member Posts: 1,117 Arc User
    When levelling cruisers can be easier simply due to escorts being squishy and there being a lot of controls to handle at once.
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