= 44th State of the Fleet, June 2017 =

[Marcase]

Greetings fleet, first weekend of June, here’s your monthly fleet review.
As usual, we start by welcoming our newest members who enlisted in May;

@zarenqt (Mark) from the UK
@cygni1 (Robert) from Croatia
@avelocnovavarii (Joshua) from the US (GMT-8)
@quiller#9655 (Steve) from Bournemouth, UK
@captainchancewilson (Ricky) from Arkansas
@nomad#3155 (Nick) from the Eastern US
@Saborstrike (Michael) from Kentucky
@Briartrekkie#5401 (Stefan) from Denver, Colorado
@Ashes2049 (Ashley) from the UK

44th greet these new recruits with a friendly Welcome aboard by sending them a friend invite.

If you are new to Star Trek Online, take a look at the FAQ, and if you have questions, always ask your fleet in 44th-diplo chat, or post your questions here on this website. There is years of experience available in the fleet which we are more than willing to share. Remember that the only ‘stupid’ question is the one never asked. 😉

Things like when you’ve just reached level 50, and you’d like a shiny new T6 ship ? The Paladin Temporal Battlecruiser T6 is listed in the c-store for 3,000 zen, but you can get the same one when you buy the Temporal Agent Starter pack for just 2,000 zen, plus extra’s like the Constitution class, 0718 Boff etc. That’s a 1,000 zen discount on a fairly decent T6 ship with 2 temporal seats.

Also things like crafted gear is something the fleet can do for you; if you haven’t reached R&D level 15 yet but you really want that TR-116B sniper rifle (very good vs Borg and Elachi), ask around in diplo-chat and we can help you out: you only have to provide the required materials, which you pick up just playing the game anyway. And as a rule, we will craft it for free (though no guarantees on any of the -always random- Mods).

Your command staff appreciates your interaction and rewards your activities on our beautiful website – thank you VAdm Palcioz ! – with commendation ribbons, but you are free to personalize your avatar and signature as you see fit (within reason). If you like a cool banner, but are as artistic as a Horta with a spray-can, our fellow fleetmate Huckabee has volunteered to create a forum sign for you.

Risa rising

Summer is here ! It is time to dust off your flimsy beach wearables and parade on Risa once again. The annual Lohlunat Summer Event runs from June 8 to July 20th, and this time is rewarding a Vorgon Ryn’Kodan Carrier [T6] (ship stats). So far, all event ships have turned out to be pretty nice ones, and if this one matches the previous Breen T6 carrier it will be a nice ship indeed.

Risa will also have a new racing event called the Biathlon. Like all events the Lohlunat Event has it’s daily grind in the form of a Lohlunat pearl hunt, but since you can use a flyer it is much less stressfull.
Pro-tip, if you don’t have a “floater” from a previous event, just use the ‘loaner’ version; it’s slower but the only floaters worth investing in are the elite ones, especially as a long-term investment, and you can get enough credits fairly easy to pick one up. Same for the hoverboards.

Downside is that due to the new Lighting 2.0 update, Risa (and Bajor as well) no longer have a day/night cycle. Risa at night was always nice to see and there were certain accolades (‘fireworks observer’) that were only available during a Risan evening. So that’s a bummer, but overall Risa still is a nice place to visit and is a nice break from all the pew-pew.

You can skip the Risa Event altogether of course, or don’t do the daily and just enjoy life on the beach. But this event is a good way to get plenty of ‘choice of marks‘ to complete that hard to fill Reputation – I have alts that completed for example the entire Nukara Rep without ever setting foot on Nukara Prime. Also, you only have to complete the ‘floater’ event on ONE toon, and that will unlock the event ship, admiralty card and other goodies for your other (future) alts. We’ll come back with tips and tricks when the Summer Event goes live, or just see this Risa map for the accolades.

What’s very nice this time is that the previous Captain-only Risa event kits are now available as Training Manuals for your Boffs – Graviton Spike, Hurricane turret and Molten Terrain, among others, are very, very nice to have in your away team. Your fleet recommends to try and complete this event, as it is worth the time investment, especially in the long run.

MACO Strikes Back

Speaking of good investments, space setups after the rebalance have settled down, and it looks that the ‘best’ setup is now more fluid; you now have more freedom to mix and match various space sets instead of a single ‘meta’ build you had to follow. There’s not one, but several good space set combinations that will serve you well besides the Iconian eng/def/warpcore/shield (whcih is still a good one to have). Surprisingly, one shield that is making a come-back is the old Omega Reputation MACO shield.

This shield used to have a serious b!tch-fight with the Plasmonic leech console as they didn’t work together due to a bug that had been around for years. But the Leech got nerfed and the MACO shield is now fixed, resulting in a much better and stable relationship. The MACO shield will drain power as long as you are attacked, and this in combination with the Leech console brings back a little of the overpowered days of glory. So if you are looking for an extra DPS boost you may want to consider a 2pc Nukara Strikeforce set (Engine/Deflector) for extra damage, and the MACO shield plus the Plasmonic Leech console for higher power levels (stronger shields, better weapons).

When talking about builds in general and damage in particular, a question that always returns is what Crit Chance and Crit Severity your ship/build should do. For the exact math I’ll defer to Reddit and its many discussions, but rule of thumb is, when measured in system space (ie ‘in orbit’ of a planet/ESD etc) ideally your ship should have –
a Crit Chance of 18-20%
a Crit Severity of +110%

Anything more is wasted really. You can boost both your Crit % by using certain Tac consoles (Locators and/or Exploiters from your Fleet Spire), various traits (see this terrific post by tilor, h/t VAdm Damix) and by using certain Bridge Officers. You should be familiar by now with the Superior Romulan Operative boffs from your Fleet Embassy, as they are highly recommended, and KDFs have access to Nausicaan pirates.

Fun fact – Federation captains can have one too.

Free Nausicaan ‘pirate’ Boff for Federation captains

After reaching Tier 4 in your diplomatic Commendation tier, you are rewarded a Diplomatic corps uniform, plus you get to choose a single bridge officer candidate from an enemy faction – choose a Nausicaan !

They have the Pirate trait which gives a +1.5% bonus to ALL damage. Go see Ambassador Jiro Sugihara on ESD once you’ve reached Tier 4. In case you find the Nausicaan too ugly, or has bad breath, the tailor provides a handy facemask or just plant any helmet on his dreads.

Remember, free bonus +damage is free bonus +damage, and it’s the only way Federation captains have access to a second Pirate (the first of course is the free/reward Hierarchy intelligence/science Boff, aka Mister Potato Head).

Another option for the serious DPS min-maxers are the Superior Trait Enhancements (for Beam/Cannon/Projectile) from your Fleet’s K-13 station; they cost a whopping 100,000 Fleet Credits and 22,750 dilithium, so you have to decide for yourself if they are worth it.

44th Fleet Activities

With all the grinding marks and dilithium for the shiny items, don’t loose sight that this is still a game, and not a job. If it feels you just log on to grind, take a break. There is a lot to do in STO so change gears and rediscover what you find fun. Besides space pew-pew to bashing Borg on ground, (re-)playing the episodes or just enjoying ‘space barbie’, there are many other places to see and aliens to kill befriend.

If that isn’t enough for you, VAdm Paradox has a number of new fleet events and contests lined up – we will keep you informed via in-game fly-in and fleet mail. Besides some nifty rewards, some will be something unique and 44th Fleet related. Because of this ‘Search for Soolin’ will take a back-seat for now.

Overall the Mighty 44th is in good shape, as always. We’ve welcomed more new recruits (some of which should be Fleet Lieutenant rank by now), welcomed back a number of veterans, our Fleet provisions are well stocked and overall fleet activity is high – so make sure you ask around in 44th-diplo chat if you want to run some missions or want to re-run episodes: even a single fleetie as wingman in a pug makes a nice difference. A full fleet team is always fun, especially if when everyone flies squishy underpowered Tier 1s, or is stuck in a tiny smelly shuttle 😉

Calendar:

June 6: 44th Fleet activity
May 18 – Jun 8: Mirror Invasion Event
Jun 8 – Jul 20: Lohlunat Festival Event
June 15: 44th Fleet Activity

Zen rate: ~298 dilithium
Youtube #1: Star Trek Discovery official Trailer
Youtube #2: The Orville (Galaxy Quest!) 😀

Blog: Horridpersons‘ lair: Void Spaces (beware: cats)

Previous Fleet Review: May 2017.

That’s it 44th ! As always, any questions, comments or tasty Tribble recipes, let us know.

See you at the beach !

Marcase

"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."

[Captain Huckabee]

As always, great monthly update Admiral!

[KirksFavoriteSon]

Thanks for the in-depth report Marcase! It’s always appreciated.

I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in Sickbay lately — nothing serious, but it does keep me sidelined to a degree — so I haven’t been logging in as often I typically have, but I’m still out here, and I still play each month.

Cheers all,

Shaw

aka @CobaltBlueHero

[Marcase]

Take your time Shaw, health (and family) first. Regardless you’re not forgotten 😉

"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."

[Author]

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