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Greetings and Salutations fleet !
First week of March, here’s your monthly 44th Fleet Review.
And as always, first a special welcome to our newest members who joined last February:
@Lord Arcane (Shawn) from Arizona
@Nexodusrex (Tom), EST
@Toragan#4344 (Chris) from Texas
@BreakingForce (Jon) from Ohio
@Firely (Andrea) from Torino, Italy
@Boos1318 (Daniel) from Sweden
@HOWLINmad22 (Josh) from the UKBefore I get Tribble-deep in our 44th PC Fleet adventures, I like to point out that we’re starting a 44th presence on the PS4 – the 44th Psi Fleet. Unlike Xbox, STO’s PS4 version is free to play and join so if you consider playing on console (or know someone who does) contact @JamesMaxwell and help form a 44th Fleet in the alternate PS4 universe. Unfortunately PS4/Xbox/PC versions still can’t interact but this 44th-website will also serve future console players, we will make adjustments as our console presence evolves.
On our trusty PC version, the “Arena of Sompek” event has ended, and that certainly was an eye-opener for some as ground combat is still STO’s version of that unloved smelly cousin of a nasty aunt you try and often fail to avoid. STO’s ground mechanic may not be up to the level of other contemporary games, but it’s still decent enough to give you soggy armpits trying to deal with spawning hordes of all the evil Star Trek can throw at us. For those lucky enough to get the Sompek Lightning Kit reward – the Event’s time was (too) short for many – it is not nearly as strong as the Arena’s version, and unbuffed it doesn’t even put a dent in most NPC hordes (Advanced level and up). We need some more testing and number crunching, but it looks like it’s another one of those nice-to-have and not OMG-must-have kits. Thanks to fleetie @Mongo94 for testing it 1v1.
Edit: Kit upgraded per March 2nd:
Still, the Arena was fun to do as it got Fleeties together doing a simple but hectic grind-fest, with titles to win if only for bragging rights.
The Arena event did confirm once again what’s generally accepted – the Boolean heavy assault cannon and Herald Beam Projector (50 Lobi each) are amongst the best weapons for ground combat, the Nakuhl Temp Operative ground shield is a must-have, and the Solar Gateway kit is very handy; not so much for its damage but it holds and confuses an enemy giving you valuable time to either break contact or pump extra DPS into your hapless target.
Personally I reached 49 with a 44th Fleet team and 54 with a (lucky) pug. What are your scores ?
Right about now the new revamped “Into The Breach” Event is back – and they updated it removing most of the previous annoying parts. Unlike Arena of Sompek, the Breach does reward some serious dilithium and choice of marks, and besides that STO’s variant of a certain famous “trench run” is a fun rollercoaster. Since everyone will probably be doing it shout out in 44th-diplo chat if you’re doing your daily and team up.
Fleet wise *drumroll* our K-13 has been fully completed on our main fleet, with 44th Delta and KDF versions not far behind. A big thanks to everyone who contributed as K-13 was no different compared to the previous fleet holdings with an equally voracious appetite for marks, Doffs and especially dilithium. We’re again ahead of the pack compared to many other fleets (including those in our Armada). Yes, bragging rights count. 🙂
There are some useful items to be had from the K-13 fleet stores, although for now there are no real game-changers in there like our Fleet Spire’s Tactical consoles. Things that jump out are the Xenotech Engineering consoles that add Hull Penetration and the Nomad / Methusalem drone pets (kits). The Kligat (kit) weapon has been nerfed, which is unfortunate, but as some found out during 1v1 ground PvPs that thing was seriously overpowered (max Crit hit and able to throw it while stealthed – yeah, no fun).And this brings me to a STO topic that will be at the forefront in the coming weeks: there is a serious re-balancing of the game-mechanic in the works.
Ground has already been modified and although nothing jumpes out as of yet, the number-crunchers out there are seeing some changes already, which may alter which weapons, kits and abilities be the next ground Top Guns, in the near future. This will mostly affect the DPS-League min-maxers out there and probably have no real impact for most casual players, but it’s something to keep an eye on, especially if you’re planning to buy expensive zen/Lobi kit.
Star Trek Online’s strength and main selling point is of course its space combat, and messing with its “jewel in the crown” is a risky bet. Let’s make it clear: a certain rebalancing is needed due to the ever-growing power-creep since Delta Rising, and (hopefully) an attempt of sorts to fix space PvP (it’s in the works according to the Devs), but it may mean that all the shiny kit you have heavily invested in recently may lose some of its glamour. I remember when way back (ACC)x3 weapons were “must haves” and everyone invested in those, and suddenly (CrtD)x3/(Dmg)x3 became the standard, which was a bit of a slap in the face. However, I’m confident that won’t happen this time – yes, Cryptic proved they do learn, see the skill-tree revamp.
We will keep you further updated as things unfold as we’re watching Reddit and monitoring Podcasts, but do let us know if you come across something interesting we may have missed.
On to fun stuff then ! On our shiny website the weekly “Search for Soolin” will of course continue and with the return of the-Fleetie-formerly-known-as-Resto aka @Paradoxical we’ll see some more contests soon. As always all our contests are open to new and veterans alike, and the current one is about your Captains back-story. Either your Main toon and/or alt, share your RP universe with us ! Paradoxical posted his already and I’ll add mine as well (neither of us will compete of course). There will be a poll where you can vote for your favorite back-story.
In the coming weeks I will add some new contests that will appeal to the Hidden Space Barbie in all of us – a new in-game Fleet Uniform and a fleet patch re-design. Both of these will be optional and especially the fleet patch will return to the trusted current 44th one eventually, but it will be interesting to see what you guys can come up with. More on this soon.
I’ve extended our Fleet PvP with another week to have the final battles resolved: I know timing is an issue as some are from different continents but I’m sure we can announce a winner and new Red Squad member in the coming week(s).
As always, questions, comments and bad jokes welcome.
See you out there captains !
MarcasePicture of the Month: USS ThunderCougarFalconBird by Tacofangs (STO’s environmental artist)
Podcast: Mission Log (TNG era)
Youtube: Timberwolf (PS4)Zen/dilithium rate: ~290
Calendar:
March 02 – 23: Into The Breach Event
March 16 – 20: Upgrade Weekend
Previous State of the Fleet (February)
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."Thanks for the updates, Marcase!
For those of you planning to update your gear, I’ll add that there’s an upgrade weekend from March 16-20. Your upgrades (and dilithium!) will go twice as far that weekend, so it will be especially worthwhile to hold off on any rarity upgrades you may have planned for another couple of weeks.
The player maintained event calendar under the news tab is a pretty good way of keeping track of what’s been announced as well as getting a sense for how often each of these events has run in the past.
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