Star Trek Online (Now for free and people are still playing!)

[Darkseid]

do note, -most- cruisers are better off with beam arrays as it allows them to broadside (fly side on) to their target and hit them with 8 weapons at once.

This requires a constant use of emergency power to weapons and a high weapon power setting.


Dual beams are fine if youre nose onto your target most of the time, the excelsior cruiser turns like a science ship and as such, can do quite nicely with duals up front. But the assault/heavy/star/ody cruisers do better with 6-8 beam arrays and some torps. If you dont want to put points into torp skills, but would like one for annoyance purposes, then run last klingon episode and get a har`pengh. It doesnt benefit from torp skills, but it fires relatively quickly, does solid kinetic damage, but the radiation dot it leaves on targets kills crew members as well as does damaeg. No crew means slow repairs, slower to regain working subsystems and less effectiveness.

A borg tac cube energy drained and radiation dotted is almost pathetic

 

[Cabal]

If you have no shields and there is a torp volley inc, 32 kinetic resist is not going to save you if you are in an escort.

Brace for impact worked the 2 times I was being lazy and wanted to tank through something and have more uptime.

I use the Ablative, because who knows what damage type that bloody cutting beam is. Friendship damage?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Thanks all. I've been using all beam arrays + broadsides which has worked (if slowly) in PVE with my slow cruiser turn speed. Taking out a fighter cluster or set of siphon drones with Fire at Will never gets old

Changing the ship power, upgrading parts, improving my console set should all help. I wonder about the torpedo launcher though -- you get 1 massive spike, but in a cruiser you might miss out on 10-20 beam hits to get it by giving up the beam array. Especially since my consoles are +21/24% to phaser damage.

 

[Suichiro]

I use the Ablative, because who knows what damage type that bloody cutting beam is. Friendship damage?

Cutting Beam from Borg cubes is Antiproton damage.

I wonder about the torpedo launcher though -- you get 1 massive spike, but in a cruiser you might miss out on 10-20 beam hits to get it by giving up the beam array. Especially since my consoles are +21/24% to phaser damage.

You cannot do as much damage to hull with regular beams as you can with a torpedo backed up with High Yield. If you pump one single beam with Beam Overload, then you can compete, but the CD on it is high, and you'll lose all your damage afterwards due to weapon power drain. A torp can hit as hard when you're also still firing your beams.

If this was a situation where the enemy stayed stationary and you could guarantee you're always hitting an unshielded side, then just going with the beams isn't a bad idea, but in real combat, you don't have that luxury. Getting in a good torpedo salvo when you have the opportunity means dealing with one less ship hammering on your hull.

In my experience, the only ships that can actually make due without torps are escorts, because Dual Cannons just do that much damage. But even they don't *want* to drop their torps because doing so kills their burst damage. Torps are good. Love your torpedo.

 

[Cabal]

There is no way another Dual Heavy could compete with my Torpedo launcher. An extra gun means more power suck, and with my skills, every Torp CD is used with a High Yield. I'll often see multiple 10,000+ hits on one salvo, plus the 1000 bonus damage PER TORP due to [BORG] suffix.

./me hugs his Quantum launcher.

 

[Biff]

I've been tempted to try the flak carrier idea recently..mostly just for fun. 6 turrets + rapid fire/cannon spread could be entertaining. I usually have 4 Birds of Prey deployed in addition to the carrier's fire power.

 

[ElTech]

Seems some on the official forums are none too pleased with some of the updates with this latest patch, especially the progressive respawn timer for STF's. Right now, I really have no desire to do STF's (as a relative noob, they sound a bit intimidating, what with certain things needing to be done in certain order), and I'm only about 2/3's of the way into the Romulan episodes, so I've got plenty of play left. I may ask for an invite to the Ars fleet when I'm ready for STF's (I have a feeling most of you would be more forgiving of noob errors, as long as it isn't something ridiculously pants-on-headed).
In other news, blew most of my dilithium buying a Defiant, and loading her up with blue Mk X tet weps. Only done a few deep space engangements so far, but man, it's like going from a Caddy with a shotgun stuck out the window, to a Ferrari with a roof-mounted machine gun.

 

[Starbuck79]

STF's are actually not all that bad. I was intimidated at first but just signed up for the Normal version once I got to 50. I had no idea what i was doing so I just followed the crowd. You may fail the optional mission but should almost always finish the main quests. Once you do it 2-3 times you should have a very good for for what is needed. Since I run an escort, I generally take it upon myself to focus on the optionals.

Cure - Protect the Kang
Infected - Kill nano Probes and Spheres before the can heal
Khitomer - Kill probes before they reach gate.

On you first STF's don't worry about the optionals, assume that someone else will do them until you get a feel for them. Just follow the crowd and attack what other people attack.

Also, fee free to ask for an fleet invite before you get to 50. The guild bank is very generous with green/blue level 45-50 stuff and helps the initial jump at 50.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yes, there is a nice selection of Rear Admiral and above gear in the Fleet bank. So far I've only taken out one phaser console and put in a couple of other parts, but there is a good selection of ship items especially for nimble escorts that can use dual beams, cannons, torpedo and mine launchers.

I'm up to RA ~45 myself now so should be able to try a fleet action sometime this month.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Is there any consensus on the merits of different torpedo and mine types: photon, plasma, quantum, chroniton, etc.?

I'm curious about torpedoes for following the advice from last page to add 1 or 2 launchers to my beams-only cruiser.

For mines it's partly idle curiosity and partly wondering if some of them should be cleaned out of the fleet bank to make room. Is there any value to chrontion bonus of slowing ships, or is some other type always a better choice?

In the PVE groups I see people launching clouds of mines. When does having a launcher for your ship make sense?

 

[Arbelac]

Chroniton's are a PvP torp.

Photon or Quantums for PvE. I use Quantums now. I did run with Transphasics, but Quantums pack more punch.

 

[Suichiro]

I'm gonna go on record here and say that mines are largely useless. Despite the possibility of getting way more damage out of them than a standard torpedo, their lack of direct fire, uncontrollable attack vectors, and the nature of kinetic damage on shields makes them unfavorable compared to a torpedo of any type. While you can line up a torp hit directly on hull with your own skill and timing, mines will almost always hit shield instead. It's simply too hard to keep a ships shields down on all sides, at the specific time a ship is passing near enough to them to trigger their attack. Science heavy ships have an easier time of this in general, so it's possible to make alright use of mines, but that ship could have also just hit them with a high yield quantum burst as well.

Tractor Beam mines are a special case and not included in this particular assessment.

I mean, I know that Dispersal Pattern Beta 3 leaves a TON of mines around. I've done plenty of playing with mines on all three (actually four) types of ships and had success with them. But the fact remains that in my experiences I was always better off with straight torpedoes due to a combination of server lag, shield regeneration and natural ship drift. You can get a great return on them if they're in the right spot, at the right time, with the right powers, but they're just not useful enough in enough varied situations. You're almost always better off with another energy damage weapon or a torp. If transphasic mines only did enough actual shield penetration... :/

 

[pantsparty]

I generally see people running quantum torps for damage. Photon torps have higher listed dps, but quantums with their higher per-volley damage synergize better with bridge officer torpedo-boosting skills.

 

[i2hellfire]

on a semi-related topic, i miss having an online armory of sorts (specifically the wow armory) to peruse other peoples gear as well as my own. so i decided to throw one together for my ships. feel free to peruse my current gear and abilities. they complement my specific playstyle of firing at things and dying in a blaze of glory. maybe i should rename my escort the u.s.s. shofixti.

Spoiler

FORE ap dual heavy cannons x3, quantum torpedo x1
AFT ap turrets x3
DEF/IMP/SHI borg deflector and engine, maco shield
ENG electroceramic hull, neutronium hull, eps flow
SCI field generator, borg console
TAC ap x3, zero point

boff abilities include tac team x2, rapid fire x2, cannon spread, torpedo spread, high yield, etc etc

Spoiler

FORE ap dual beams x2, ap beam array x1, quantum torpedo x1
AFT ap beam array x4
DEF/IMP/SHI borg deflector and engine, maco shield
ENG electroceramic hull, neutronium hull, eps flow, rcs
SCI field generator x2, chevron separation, borg console
TAC ap x2

boff abilities include tac team, fire at will, torpedo spread, directed energy mod, transfer shield, reverse shield polarity, etc etc

 

[ElTech]

I've got all these materials stuffed into my meager bank space. I've read a bit about crafting, is it worth it, or am I better off trying to grind and buy what I need?

 

[DeedlitCryogenic]

STF's are actually not all that bad. I was intimidated at first but just signed up for the Normal version once I got to 50. I had no idea what i was doing so I just followed the crowd. You may fail the optional mission but should almost always finish the main quests. Once you do it 2-3 times you should have a very good for for what is needed. Since I run an escort, I generally take it upon myself to focus on the optionals.

Cure - Protect the Kang
Infected - Kill nano Probes and Spheres before the can heal
Khitomer - Kill probes before they reach gate.

On you first STF's don't worry about the optionals, assume that someone else will do them until you get a feel for them. Just follow the crowd and attack what other people attack.

Also, fee free to ask for an fleet invite before you get to 50. The guild bank is very generous with green/blue level 45-50 stuff and helps the initial jump at 50.

Good enough for normal STFs, wrong(ish) for Elite.

For elite it should read:
Cure - Intercept BOPS before they get within firing distance of Kang. If someone is an idiot and pops one of the cubes early, use tractor repulsors or gravwell to keep the Raptor or warship spawns outside of firing range on the Kang.

Infected - Take down Nanite Generators at the same time, then kill the nanite transformer before the nanite spheres get in healing range. IF YOU TRY TO KILL THE NANITE SPHERES LIKE YOU COULD IN NORMAL YOU WILL FAIL. Also, tractor repulsors and gravity well can make up for coordination.

Khitomer - Dedicated defenders keep the probes out of the vortex. If you don't have dedicated defeders, expect to fail. Also, you want to take the two gates down as simultanious as possible to avoid the massive spawning of killer spheres from borgia.

I could get into slightly more advanced tactics, but the above will work most of the time.

 

[Cabal]

So what strat do people actually use for Armek on Cure ground? I have read the strats on the wiki, but upon executing, Armek does all the shit the strat says he wont. For instance, the 1 melee strat, he seems to still pick people off with his cannon. As for the sniper trade agro strat, I don't get that at all. He can hit anywhere in that arena with his ranged attacks so snipers are not safe.

 

[i2hellfire]

cure...ground? ground? how does my ship land?

 

[RyricKrael]

cure...ground? ground? how does my ship land?

I resisted the urge to post something similar.... Some day I will do a ground STF with arsians... For now they only serve to confuse me when I join the wrong mission... x_x

 

[Gendou]

cure...ground? ground? how does my ship land?

It's limited to Intrepid-class and Nova-class science vessels, though the Galaxy-class Retrofit can do it... once.

"Ooooooh shit."

 

[Keen]

cure...ground? ground? how does my ship land?

It's limited to Intrepid-class and Nova-class science vessels, though the Galaxy-class Retrofit can do it... once.


"Ooooooh shit."

Hahaha, we've been discussing how Riker got in command and immediately lost the ship to a BoP over in the Lounge ST thread.

 

[Gendou]

Hahaha, we've been discussing how Riker got in command and immediately lost the ship to a BoP over in the Lounge ST thread.

Yeah, I've been following it.
That's the thread that makes me wish I were a subscriptor again.

 

[Darkseid]

the new shuttle only hourly event was... underwhelming, the 500 strong queue being fucked up by idiots not being in shuttles before they queued didnt help either

after 3 fails in a row, I went fuckit and logged out to go play Lotro.

 

[Suichiro]

So what strat do people actually use for Armek on Cure ground? I have read the strats on the wiki, but upon executing, Armek does all the shit the strat says he wont. For instance, the 1 melee strat, he seems to still pick people off with his cannon. As for the sniper trade agro strat, I don't get that at all. He can hit anywhere in that arena with his ranged attacks so snipers are not safe.

Armek is too hard for his own good. The fight isn't fun and it's tuned way too high for the encounter on Normal. The solution is to not do it.

Having said that, the way I managed to do it was to have one person tank him, while everyone else stayed away and moved as needed to avoid orbital death beams. The key is to have someone who can engage in melee specifically, not someone in melee range with a ranged weapon. That'll get him to attack with his fists instead of his chain lightning and deathbeam. Whomever is tanking needs strong melee armor, lots of resist abilities or healing (engineer or science) and appropriate hypos to counter being assimilated.

It took a while of practice, but this worked for my team. I tanked him with my Gorn Engi and spammed Orbital Strike on him whenever it was up to try and keep his attention on me, instead of the other teammates. If they pulled aggro, they had to stop shooting so I could re-establish. This is similar to a WoW raid in that it's the DPS's responsibility to not pull aggro, as much as it's the tank's to keep it. Cycling everything from Eng Proficiency to ForceField and hypos to stay up. I can see it being much easier as a Science with self heals and HoTs.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I just reached VA, woohoo! (And d'oh for no more new levels or skill points.)

I'm curious how people buy Odyssey cruisers with dilithium, since they only show as c-points for me, is that a benefit of being a past paid subscriber? Not that I really want to grind dil for a couple of months to get one, I'd probably break down and spend real-world money.

Is there any consensus on which Odyssey is best? Tactical seems better on paper for PVE since you get an extra +damage tac console, but I'm still a n00b so please enlighten me.

 

[Gendou]

I'm curious how people buy Odyssey cruisers with dilithium, since they only show as c-points for me, is that a benefit of being a past paid subscriber? Not that I really want to grind dil for a couple of months to get one, I'd probably break down and spend real-world money.

You can convert dilithium into C-Points, but it would take something on the order of 1,000,000 dilithium to get the 4000 C-Points necessary for the Odyssey Bundle.
At a maximum processing of 8000d per day, it would take you 125 days of maxed-out dilithium processing to earn the C-Points, assuming you spent no dilithium and the price of points to dilithium doesn't go up (which it has been - it's close to 275d per c-point now, when it was less than 160 just three months ago).

Is there any consensus on which Odyssey is best? Tactical seems better on paper for PVE since you get an extra +damage tac console, but I'm still a n00b so please enlighten me.

Consensus is to buy the set, use all three consoles for the set bonus, and then use the Science version because it comes with Sensor Analysis, which is a stacking debuff.
If you only buy one (why would you?), it's a toss-up between the Engineering version (Chevron Separation is a decent ability) or the Science version (Sensor Analysis is overpowered on a cruiser, and the Work Bees aren't completely useless if they're used right).

 

[Kesh]

I'm curious how people buy Odyssey cruisers with dilithium, since they only show as c-points for me, is that a benefit of being a past paid subscriber? Not that I really want to grind dil for a couple of months to get one, I'd probably break down and spend real-world money

Yeah, you can sell Dilithium in exchange for C-Points via the Dilithium Exchange. However, last night the cheapest was 280 Dilithium per one C-Point. At that rate, you'd need 1,120,000 Dilithium to buy the Oddy pack.

 

[Kesh]

Is there any consensus on which Odyssey is best? Tactical seems better on paper for PVE since you get an extra +damage tac console, but I'm still a n00b so please enlighten me.

Consensus is to buy the set, use all three consoles for the set bonus, and then use the Science version because it comes with Sensor Analysis, which is a stacking debuff.

That's the best for PvE. For STFs or PvP, though, you're better off setting the consoles aside entirely to make room for stuff that boosts your damage & damage resistance. The set bonus isn't worth losing three slots in an STF, where DPS is king.

 

[i2hellfire]

just from personal experience, using all three felt like a waste because you can't use all three at once. that was a bit of a surprise bummer.

if you want to be nothing but a tank and don't mind hitting like really wet turd, you could hypothetically use the consoles in the two tactical slots (and one other console slot...probably science) to take advantage of the bonus buffs (+12 to hull plating, armor reinforcements, and electro-plasma system). otherwise the turn rate bonus (+0.5) is negligible...the ody still turned like a drunken sorority girl. you'd get some dps back via use of the aquarius escort (you only lose 50 crew), but you're still pretty gimped dps-wise. other potential slots to use are science (if you're using 3-piece borg, the borg console is likely using one of these tho)

i currently use the chevron separation on a science variant because not only does it provide extra dps, but you also become highly maneuverable (+8 turn). just don't expect to tank (tho if you take sustained fire you can just quickly recall your chevron). if you were to buy just one, i'd go for the science ship solely for the aforementioned sensor analysis (and the worker bees are probably the most pragmatically useful of the consoles).

 

[Gendou]

That's the best for PvE. For STFs or PvP, though, you're better off setting the consoles aside entirely to make room for stuff that boosts your damage & damage resistance. The set bonus isn't worth losing three slots in an STF, where DPS is king.

I can't speak about PVP, but the set bonus can be worth it in an STF, especially if you're flying the science ship as anything but a science officer - you don't need four science slots filled with shield consoles for STF's.
Even if you're tanking, the Oddy is better at hull tanking anyway.
(keep in mind that I'm not speaking from direct experience here, but only based on the countless threads I've been reading on the STO forums about the Oddy and Bort)

 

[Kesh]

That's the best for PvE. For STFs or PvP, though, you're better off setting the consoles aside entirely to make room for stuff that boosts your damage & damage resistance. The set bonus isn't worth losing three slots in an STF, where DPS is king.

I can't speak about PVP, but the set bonus can be worth it in an STF, especially if you're flying the science ship as anything but a science officer - you don't need four science slots filled with shield consoles for STF's.

Oh yeah, Science really shouldn't be flying an Oddy anyway. Too many abilities with a 90' front arc. Sci needs to fly a science vessel or escort. Cruisers are generally a bad idea.

Tac captains will want to fill up with tactical consoles to maximize damage output, EPS Flow Regulators for power management, and RCS consoles for turn speed. That doesn't leave a lot of room left for the set.

Engies, I can see it being more useful. After tossing on some armor consoles, they don't really have to worry about much.

 

[Gendou]

That doesn't leave a lot of room left for the set.

That's what science console slots are for!

 

[DaveSimmons]

My VA is Engineering so extra science consoles might not help as much.

While I'm asking n00b questions: are purple bridge officers really any better than blue or green unless they have some skill you plan to use? I have a couple in my holding pen and I'm not seeing how switching to them would help.

Duty officers you get the safety over whites of not dying, and bonus chance for success or critical success, but I'm not seeing where the +10% / +20% is for boffs.

 

[Gendou]

My VA is Engineering so extra science consoles might not help as much.

Right, which is why you fill those science console slots with the 'Universal Consoles' that give the Oddy it's special zing.

While I'm asking n00b questions: are purple bridge officers really any better than blue or green unless they have some skill you plan to use? I have a couple in my holding pen and I'm not seeing how switching to them would help.

Purple bridge officers have three things going for them:
1.) They have one or more 'rare' skill in their Lt. Commander or Commander rank slots.
2.) They have better traits (Superior Telepathy rather than Basic Telepathy, etc.)
3.) They're purple.

Now me, I go all purple all the time. When I roll an alt, I send it a full complement of purple officers. Those extra traits help a little, and there's not much else to do with EC anyway.
Other people, however, don't care and are still using their original white bridge officers they got from leveling.

 

[Darkseid]

purple ones tend to be more effective and they have superior traits, for example the freed borg BO you can get for 220 C has effecient as a trait

thats 10% more warp effeciency rating, which translates to +1.4 all power settings, not huge, but 2 or 3 of those and well....

 

[algebraist]

What's the best way of getting purple bridge officers? So far best i've found is redeeming EDC's from STF's. Can you slowly grind your way up through the duty officer missions?

 

[Darkseid]

There are recruit missions that pop up, some explore chains have them, some are on the AH, some are quest rewards, some are `hidden` gimmes like the liberated borg for doign clear space ground and jumping into one of the converters...

 

[ElTech]

Anyone else having trouble with the confiscate contraband from crew Doff mission? I've run it four time now, with green quality doffs, each with one critical success trait, and I alway fail. Hell, one mission they both ended up in sickbay. Either it's bugged, I'm terribly unlucky, or I have one badass crew.

 

[sliver7]

Anyone else having trouble with the confiscate contraband from crew Doff mission? I've run it four time now, with green quality doffs, each with one critical success trait, and I alway fail. Hell, one mission they both ended up in sickbay. Either it's bugged, I'm terribly unlucky, or I have one badass crew.

Watch out for the inevitable mutiny.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Anyone else having trouble with the confiscate contraband from crew Doff mission? I've run it four time now, with green quality doffs, each with one critical success trait, and I alway fail. Hell, one mission they both ended up in sickbay. Either it's bugged, I'm terribly unlucky, or I have one badass crew.

I just completed one a few minutes after this post -- 1 contraband and a small hypo. So, just the odds catching up with you I guess.