Wow, it's been a while (returning player needing help)

aphelionmarauder · December 2018

So I have not played STO in over a year. I finally have a PC that can run the game well, and I am installing the game as of the time of this post.

However, I feel like I am one of those TOS characters now pulled into a new era. I have no idea what's going on with the game, no idea what is new, and I really don't want to read through a years worth of patch notes to figure out what's going on.

Would anyone be willing to give me some info as to what's going on? Maybe ingame go over my ships with me and tell me if anything I own is still relevant? Last I remember I had a Tier 5 or tier 6 Excelsior.

Any guidance welcome.

rattler2 · December 2018

Well... we have playable Jem'Hadar, have an arc dealing with the Hur'q, and we now have Discovery era Feds and building up an arc involving J'ula.

As for build and stuff like that, we'd need more information. Luckilly you are also just in time for this year's winter event, where you can unlock a T6 Fek'lhri warship for your entire account.

aphelionmarauder · December 2018

rattler2 wrote: »

Well... we have playable Jem'Hadar, have an arc dealing with the Hur'q, and we now have Discovery era Feds and building up an arc involving J'ula.

As for build and stuff like that, we'd need more information. Luckilly you are also just in time for this year's winter event, where you can unlock a T6 Fek'lhri warship for your entire account.

Ahhh, Discovery finally showed up. I got mixed feeling on that but I'll put a sock in my mouth over it for the purpose of this post.

I remember I had a ship for each of the energy types. Is AP still the strongest and most ridiculously expensive?

rattler2 · December 2018

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

noemiecarnesir · December 2018

Something important. New level of reputation, T6. It give a sponsoring account wide, sold out, new energy type, vanity shield, buff for reputation gear and some gift for the character.

tom61sto · December 2018

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

Well... we have playable Jem'Hadar, have an arc dealing with the Hur'q, and we now have Discovery era Feds and building up an arc involving J'ula.

As for build and stuff like that, we'd need more information. Luckilly you are also just in time for this year's winter event, where you can unlock a T6 Fek'lhri warship for your entire account.

Ahhh, Discovery finally showed up. I got mixed feeling on that but I'll put a sock in my mouth over it for the purpose of this post.

I remember I had a ship for each of the energy types. Is AP still the strongest and most ridiculously expensive?

Most powerful is currently Phaser, with Disruptor being a close second, due to the Terran Task Force Reputation weapon and all the things besides just Tac consoles that buff those two types, and Sensor-Linked weapons of both types that raise the weapon Critical Damage of all the weapons on a ship for each one mounted.

Discovery stuff is coming out until at least May, as shown on their roadmap.

seaofsorrows · December 2018

rattler2 wrote: »

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

The 'meta' has been cannons for a while now, yes. They're much more powerful then beams but beams are absolutely still relevant.

As stated before Phaser is the current Meta, followed closely by Disruptor. Those energy types have the most set bonuses. Anti-Proton is still absolutely good.. I don't care what anyone says. My highest DPS character is still running AP (KDF Romulan) and it's great.

You only need to worry about the meta if you're chasing top end DPS. Otherwise run the energy type you already have or the one you want to run. As far as Beams vs. Cannons, that's a little more complicated. Cannons do more damage, but are harder to use. They definitely have a learning curve, so given everything else you're trying to get a grip on all at once, staying with Beams might be best. Cannons only reign supreme if you build for them specifically and know how to pilot effectively. Honestly, for the majority of players, Beams are probably a better idea.

Dual Beam Banks are the exception, they're currently in a very bad place and should be avoided. If you go Beams, use single beams.

aphelionmarauder · December 2018

seaofsorrows wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

The 'meta' has been cannons for a while now, yes. They're much more powerful then beams but beams are absolutely still relevant.

As stated before Phaser is the current Meta, followed closely by Disruptor. Those energy types have the most set bonuses. Anti-Proton is still absolutely good.. I don't care what anyone says. My highest DPS character is still running AP (KDF Romulan) and it's great.

You only need to worry about the meta if you're chasing top end DPS. Otherwise run the energy type you already have or the one you want to run. As far as Beams vs. Cannons, that's a little more complicated. Cannons do more damage, but are harder to use. They definitely have a learning curve, so given everything else you're trying to get a grip on all at once, staying with Beams might be best. Cannons only reign supreme if you build for them specifically and know how to pilot effectively. Honestly, for the majority of players, Beams are probably a better idea.

Dual Beam Banks are the exception, they're currently in a very bad place and should be avoided. If you go Beams, use single beams.

Is plasma and Polaron and Tetryon still up to snuff as well, or are they weaker through buffs of other types/direct nerfs?

Do turrets count as cannons?

rattler2 · December 2018

I got a friend who made a pretty lethal Tetryon build. Tetryon and Polaron may not be top tier but still very usable. Plasma has been somewhat neglected due to lack of a mission reward omni beam array.

jadz3 · December 2018

To amend what Rattler said about the energy types, Phaser is also very much up there with Antiproton and Disruptors. With the T6 rep Terran phaser variant weapons, the prolonged engagement phaser weapons, and the amount of phaser boosts in game it's doing well. THAT BEING SAID... if you don't have the phaser boosting universal consoles like the D.O.M.I.N.O. you're not likely to do AS well with phasers compared to say Antiproton.
Another thing of note concerning weapon types. Fire at Will(FaW) is really not worth using for a DPS GAIN unless it's FaW3. The accuracy Demerit of FaW1 and FaW2 generally actually result in a DPS loss. High Crit Chance builds with Beam Overload work pretty well at the current time. The time of Escorts online has returned though, cannons are currently the way to go for easy decent DPS. Turrets DO count as cannons, but good DPS Turret builds are harder to pull off than Dual Heavy Cannon Fore/ Turret Aft builds.

aphelionmarauder · December 2018

jadz3 wrote: »

To amend what Rattler said about the energy types, Phaser is also very much up there with Antiproton and Disruptors. With the T6 rep Terran phaser variant weapons, the prolonged engagement phaser weapons, and the amount of phaser boosts in game it's doing well. THAT BEING SAID... if you don't have the phaser boosting universal consoles like the D.O.M.I.N.O. you're not likely to do AS well with phasers compared to say Antiproton.
Another thing of note concerning weapon types. Fire at Will(FaW) is really not worth using for a DPS GAIN unless it's FaW3. The accuracy Demerit of FaW1 and FaW2 generally actually result in a DPS loss. High Crit Chance builds with Beam Overload work pretty well at the current time. The time of Escorts online has returned though, cannons are currently the way to go for easy decent DPS. Turrets DO count as cannons, but good DPS Turret builds are harder to pull off than Dual Heavy Cannon Fore/ Turret Aft builds.

Is Proton weaponry a developed energy type yet, or are they still special type weapons?

rattler2 · December 2018

Nope. Still just a proc for Dyson rep protonic weapons, and the Experimental Proton Rep weapon. There is also the Proton Charge Launcher console that came with the D4x BoP in the Kelvin lockbox. Feds and Romulans can get it off the exchange seperate from the ship. Other than that... proton is not really a factor.

orbitty · December 2018

Wow great comments and information. I'm always amazed at how much you all know about the fine details of the game. I'm a very leisure player who just loves trek....I'm running around having fun. I played from 2010 until about 2014 and then took a long break myself. Returned just this fall, and there seems to be so much more now!

seaofsorrows · December 2018

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

The 'meta' has been cannons for a while now, yes. They're much more powerful then beams but beams are absolutely still relevant.

As stated before Phaser is the current Meta, followed closely by Disruptor. Those energy types have the most set bonuses. Anti-Proton is still absolutely good.. I don't care what anyone says. My highest DPS character is still running AP (KDF Romulan) and it's great.

You only need to worry about the meta if you're chasing top end DPS. Otherwise run the energy type you already have or the one you want to run. As far as Beams vs. Cannons, that's a little more complicated. Cannons do more damage, but are harder to use. They definitely have a learning curve, so given everything else you're trying to get a grip on all at once, staying with Beams might be best. Cannons only reign supreme if you build for them specifically and know how to pilot effectively. Honestly, for the majority of players, Beams are probably a better idea.

Dual Beam Banks are the exception, they're currently in a very bad place and should be avoided. If you go Beams, use single beams.

Is plasma and Polaron and Tetryon still up to snuff as well, or are they weaker through buffs of other types/direct nerfs?

Do turrets count as cannons?

Poloron and Teryon are solid, Plasma is a little lacking.

The thing with energy types is the procs across the board are pretty much worthless. The one and only thing that makes these energy types viable is how many items you can find that boost that type of energy. Currently, Phaser and Disruptor have the most available boosts making them the 'top dogs.' The expansion of the Reputation system to T6 and the Gamma Reputation helped quite a few energy types including Poloron and Tetryon.

Even though Plasma has the fewest overall boosts, it's still not bad.. I run a Plasma Build on a Romulan Engineer and have no problems at all. The only Energy Type where I personally think the Proc itself is worth it is Anti-proton. Even in that case it's situational to builds with a high critical chance.

Turrets do count as Cannons in the sense that they are effected by Cannon skills like Scatter Volley and Rapid Fire. They should not however, be used in place of Cannons in your forward weapons due to their low damage. Cannon builds typically use Dual Cannons or Dual Heavy Cannons in the front and Turrets in the Aft.

aphelionmarauder · December 2018

seaofsorrows wrote: »

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

The 'meta' has been cannons for a while now, yes. They're much more powerful then beams but beams are absolutely still relevant.

As stated before Phaser is the current Meta, followed closely by Disruptor. Those energy types have the most set bonuses. Anti-Proton is still absolutely good.. I don't care what anyone says. My highest DPS character is still running AP (KDF Romulan) and it's great.

You only need to worry about the meta if you're chasing top end DPS. Otherwise run the energy type you already have or the one you want to run. As far as Beams vs. Cannons, that's a little more complicated. Cannons do more damage, but are harder to use. They definitely have a learning curve, so given everything else you're trying to get a grip on all at once, staying with Beams might be best. Cannons only reign supreme if you build for them specifically and know how to pilot effectively. Honestly, for the majority of players, Beams are probably a better idea.

Dual Beam Banks are the exception, they're currently in a very bad place and should be avoided. If you go Beams, use single beams.

Is plasma and Polaron and Tetryon still up to snuff as well, or are they weaker through buffs of other types/direct nerfs?

Do turrets count as cannons?

Poloron and Teryon are solid, Plasma is a little lacking.

The thing with energy types is the procs across the board are pretty much worthless. The one and only thing that makes these energy types viable is how many items you can find that boost that type of energy. Currently, Phaser and Disruptor have the most available boosts making them the 'top dogs.' The expansion of the Reputation system to T6 and the Gamma Reputation helped quite a few energy types including Poloron and Tetryon.

Even though Plasma has the fewest overall boosts, it's still not bad.. I run a Plasma Build on a Romulan Engineer and have no problems at all. The only Energy Type where I personally think the Proc itself is worth it is Anti-proton. Even in that case it's situational to builds with a high critical chance.

Turrets do count as Cannons in the sense that they are effected by Cannon skills like Scatter Volley and Rapid Fire. They should not however, be used in place of Cannons in your forward weapons due to their low damage. Cannon builds typically use Dual Cannons or Dual Heavy Cannons in the front and Turrets in the Aft.

What about rainbow builds? I have a rainbow turret build on an old mirror ship lying around, and for fun I did the same with a rainbow beam boat, and was working on putting as many omni's as possible on it in order to make it so that I could basically have 360 degree reach. As to my testing of it, my Rainbow turret build seemed to work really well, but my beam build needed work as it was physically behind due to me using common level consoles. Are either still in some way, shape, or form, usable?

seaofsorrows · December 2018

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

The 'meta' has been cannons for a while now, yes. They're much more powerful then beams but beams are absolutely still relevant.

As stated before Phaser is the current Meta, followed closely by Disruptor. Those energy types have the most set bonuses. Anti-Proton is still absolutely good.. I don't care what anyone says. My highest DPS character is still running AP (KDF Romulan) and it's great.

You only need to worry about the meta if you're chasing top end DPS. Otherwise run the energy type you already have or the one you want to run. As far as Beams vs. Cannons, that's a little more complicated. Cannons do more damage, but are harder to use. They definitely have a learning curve, so given everything else you're trying to get a grip on all at once, staying with Beams might be best. Cannons only reign supreme if you build for them specifically and know how to pilot effectively. Honestly, for the majority of players, Beams are probably a better idea.

Dual Beam Banks are the exception, they're currently in a very bad place and should be avoided. If you go Beams, use single beams.

Is plasma and Polaron and Tetryon still up to snuff as well, or are they weaker through buffs of other types/direct nerfs?

Do turrets count as cannons?

Poloron and Teryon are solid, Plasma is a little lacking.

The thing with energy types is the procs across the board are pretty much worthless. The one and only thing that makes these energy types viable is how many items you can find that boost that type of energy. Currently, Phaser and Disruptor have the most available boosts making them the 'top dogs.' The expansion of the Reputation system to T6 and the Gamma Reputation helped quite a few energy types including Poloron and Tetryon.

Even though Plasma has the fewest overall boosts, it's still not bad.. I run a Plasma Build on a Romulan Engineer and have no problems at all. The only Energy Type where I personally think the Proc itself is worth it is Anti-proton. Even in that case it's situational to builds with a high critical chance.

Turrets do count as Cannons in the sense that they are effected by Cannon skills like Scatter Volley and Rapid Fire. They should not however, be used in place of Cannons in your forward weapons due to their low damage. Cannon builds typically use Dual Cannons or Dual Heavy Cannons in the front and Turrets in the Aft.

What about rainbow builds? I have a rainbow turret build on an old mirror ship lying around, and for fun I did the same with a rainbow beam boat, and was working on putting as many omni's as possible on it in order to make it so that I could basically have 360 degree reach. As to my testing of it, my Rainbow turret build seemed to work really well, but my beam build needed work as it was physically behind due to me using common level consoles. Are either still in some way, shape, or form, usable?

I am assuming when you say 'rainbow' that you mean that each weapon is a different energy type and therefore a different color.

The reason I make this distinction is because some people do 'rainbow' ships that are actually all the same type. Phaser for example has many different color variations so it's possible to make a 'rainbow' ship that's actually all Phaser.

In the case of the former, where all types are different.. can it be done? Well, yes it can.. but probably shouldn't be. You could pull it off by using Tactical Consoles that boost Beams specifically or Cannons Specifically instead of boosting a specific energy type. Fleet Locator consoles for example, give you a critical hit chance, plus a boost to whatever energy type you pick. You can however, pick consoles instead that just give a boost to beams in general. This boost will be smaller then the boost on the Phaser, Distruptor, Tetryon, etc specific consoles but has the advantage of working on any beam (or cannon.)

The part where you would suffer most would likely be stacking bonuses, as most sets give a bonus only to a specific type. You could however, find ways to get creative by using Reputation items that boost multiple types such as the Universal Ordnance Accelerator from the Gamma Reputaion. That console boosts both Phaser as well as Poloron so it would boost more then one type of weapon.

Overall, you can do it, you would just have to get a little creative with your consoles. You could definitely make a true 'rainbow' that could handle any story missions and queues up to Advanced. I would recommend against it for Elites, but otherwise it's viable if that is what you want to do. I also have a Turret Boat (all phaser turrets) that I play sometimes for fun. Is it optimal? No.. and I don't take it into Elites, but I do advanced in it all the time. In regular PUG runs, it works just fine.. I kill things at a good clip and am able to be helpful to a team even using nothing but Turrets. It can certainly be done if that's really what you enjoy.

aphelionmarauder · December 2018

seaofsorrows wrote: »

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

aphelionmarauder wrote: »

seaofsorrows wrote: »

rattler2 wrote: »

I think its a tossup between AP and Disruptor. But then again I'm not a meta build person. Seems like the current meta may be migrating back to cannon builds though from what I've heard.

The 'meta' has been cannons for a while now, yes. They're much more powerful then beams but beams are absolutely still relevant.

As stated before Phaser is the current Meta, followed closely by Disruptor. Those energy types have the most set bonuses. Anti-Proton is still absolutely good.. I don't care what anyone says. My highest DPS character is still running AP (KDF Romulan) and it's great.

You only need to worry about the meta if you're chasing top end DPS. Otherwise run the energy type you already have or the one you want to run. As far as Beams vs. Cannons, that's a little more complicated. Cannons do more damage, but are harder to use. They definitely have a learning curve, so given everything else you're trying to get a grip on all at once, staying with Beams might be best. Cannons only reign supreme if you build for them specifically and know how to pilot effectively. Honestly, for the majority of players, Beams are probably a better idea.

Dual Beam Banks are the exception, they're currently in a very bad place and should be avoided. If you go Beams, use single beams.

Is plasma and Polaron and Tetryon still up to snuff as well, or are they weaker through buffs of other types/direct nerfs?

Do turrets count as cannons?

Poloron and Teryon are solid, Plasma is a little lacking.

The thing with energy types is the procs across the board are pretty much worthless. The one and only thing that makes these energy types viable is how many items you can find that boost that type of energy. Currently, Phaser and Disruptor have the most available boosts making them the 'top dogs.' The expansion of the Reputation system to T6 and the Gamma Reputation helped quite a few energy types including Poloron and Tetryon.

Even though Plasma has the fewest overall boosts, it's still not bad.. I run a Plasma Build on a Romulan Engineer and have no problems at all. The only Energy Type where I personally think the Proc itself is worth it is Anti-proton. Even in that case it's situational to builds with a high critical chance.

Turrets do count as Cannons in the sense that they are effected by Cannon skills like Scatter Volley and Rapid Fire. They should not however, be used in place of Cannons in your forward weapons due to their low damage. Cannon builds typically use Dual Cannons or Dual Heavy Cannons in the front and Turrets in the Aft.

What about rainbow builds? I have a rainbow turret build on an old mirror ship lying around, and for fun I did the same with a rainbow beam boat, and was working on putting as many omni's as possible on it in order to make it so that I could basically have 360 degree reach. As to my testing of it, my Rainbow turret build seemed to work really well, but my beam build needed work as it was physically behind due to me using common level consoles. Are either still in some way, shape, or form, usable?

I am assuming when you say 'rainbow' that you mean that each weapon is a different energy type and therefore a different color.

The reason I make this distinction is because some people do 'rainbow' ships that are actually all the same type. Phaser for example has many different color variations so it's possible to make a 'rainbow' ship that's actually all Phaser.

In the case of the former, where all types are different.. can it be done? Well, yes it can.. but probably shouldn't be. You could pull it off by using Tactical Consoles that boost Beams specifically or Cannons Specifically instead of boosting a specific energy type. Fleet Locator consoles for example, give you a critical hit chance, plus a boost to whatever energy type you pick. You can however, pick consoles instead that just give a boost to beams in general. This boost will be smaller then the boost on the Phaser, Distruptor, Tetryon, etc specific consoles but has the advantage of working on any beam (or cannon.)

The part where you would suffer most would likely be stacking bonuses, as most sets give a bonus only to a specific type. You could however, find ways to get creative by using Reputation items that boost multiple types such as the Universal Ordnance Accelerator from the Gamma Reputaion. That console boosts both Phaser as well as Poloron so it would boost more then one type of weapon.

Overall, you can do it, you would just have to get a little creative with your consoles. You could definitely make a true 'rainbow' that could handle any story missions and queues up to Advanced. I would recommend against it for Elites, but otherwise it's viable if that is what you want to do. I also have a Turret Boat (all phaser turrets) that I play sometimes for fun. Is it optimal? No.. and I don't take it into Elites, but I do advanced in it all the time. In regular PUG runs, it works just fine.. I kill things at a good clip and am able to be helpful to a team even using nothing but Turrets. It can certainly be done if that's really what you enjoy.

https://i.imgur.com/l4jUQED.png
https://i.imgur.com/vu108vJ.png

postinggum · December 2018

A significant build change is re-engineering mods, these days you can buy a pen mod weapon of choice pretty cheaply, upgrade to level 15 cheaply and change the other mods, the only really expensive part is getting quality upgrade to UR then epic. Its not like going epic is the only way to add damage, just get a colony deflector and one of the recent damage personnel traits.

There are so many set bonuses and non-tac consoles with bonus damage that you can run with all sorts of weapon mixes and do fine unless aiming for dps or pvp glory. For fed aligned toons the Honored Dead trait is very cheap and highly effective at keeping a ship alive.

Wow, it's been a while (returning player needing help)

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