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So its been quite awhile (2+ years) since I’ve last played STO.
I don’t have a lot of downtime, but I’m lately been intrigued on getting back into the game. I’ve logged in and looked around and a lot of things look different and the graphics seemed to have been updated as well. With that said, I am definitely overwhelmed with the amount of things going on (like the admiralty system, etc) and was wondering if someone could point me in a direction.
I’ve also included a screenshot of my current setup and was wondering what was irrelevant in my inventory and what I should work on next (besides getting to max level).
Wow, that ship is a bit of a history lesson 🙂 . Seriously welcome back Intrepid :).
There have been a number of updates and changes to the captains skills, ships and equipment and various systems that augment the doffing system. Taken in one big blast it seems overwhelming but on closer examination it’s intuitive and built onto old concepts with no great epiphanies on the part of the design team.
Your ship may be a little long in the tooth but is probably enough to get you started teaming with the fleet and trying working at some queues to build your reputations to earn gear.
The recommendation I push to players who have been away for a while is to start a new captain and allow yourself to grow into the new game systems. Take the time to make a TOS captain and have some simple fun before you revisit your old captains. The AoY Feds have a fresh take on the classic fed tutorial, give you an excuse to throw on some TOS costumes and get your feet wet. Save the guys who are on the brink of endgame until you can make more informed decisions. Someone is almost always in game to give a hand or answer questions that you might have.
Welcome back Intrepid !
Horrid made some good points, (re-)starting an TOS captain is less of a time-consuming grind than it appears, and it will ease you back more gently, getting you into the right story-line without spoiling or confusing you – there’s a lot of time-travel involved and that will mess with your regular captains enough as it is.
I assume you’re sitting on a big pile of zen (iirc you were lifetime) but don’t start buying elite gear before you’ve consulted with your fleet; there are some pretty nifty items you can have as mission drops and some things we encourage you to buy/grind for, like captains traits. And I haven’t mentioned new Duty Officers that are considered OP.
Basically, everything received a boost; power-creep, ship-stats (Tier 6 and Fleet Tier 6), your character via captain’s traits and even Bridge Officers – some like Romulans Boffs (+crit dmg) from our Fleet Embassy and Krenim Boffs (Engineer cd bonus) are super expensive but very juicy.
On your current build – it’s hopelessly outdated :D.
And mixing flavors is a big no-no: Stay AP. We can provide you with Mk XIV Antiproton Tac consoles and you can geta free and crafted AP Omni-beam for aft. So it won’t cost you too much to upgrade.All your gear needs upgrading (obviously) and we’d highly suggest to replace Borg with Iconian eventually. Don’t waste your dili/zen/ec on anything else for now.
Take a look at our Fleet Spire for the unique Tactical consoles, our Fleet Mine for the Neutronium (+Turn) armor, and the science consoles at our Fleet Embassy that add an extra plasma damage “kick” to every shot.
I’ll be more than happy to give you the grand tour.
The short of it is;
– Aux2Bat is out, EPTx is in due to new Krenim Boffs with Temporal Engineering trait
– The two Captain Specializations to concentrate first are Pilot and Temporal, Pilot Spec has Attack Pattern Expertise)
– Best space set right now is the Iconian Resistance one from the Iconian Reputation.
– Fleet gear is OP, crafted gear is even better.
– When you unlock the Dyson Sphere, Dilithium is very, very easy to farm: 480 dili each 3 minutes – Yes, really.
– When you have access to Admiralty (Doffing with ships) you will get a boost to farming – pick up all the free ships you can which you can then discard. The system just needs to see them once to include in the list.
– Best Space wpns are the ones crafted, not ready bought. Preferred mods; Tac captains (Dmg)x3 (Pen), Sci/Eng (CrtD)x3 (Pen)
– Best Ground wpn is the crafted TR-116B (we can craft that for you)
– Good ground shield is the mission reward Na’kuhl ground shield (it warps you out of danger when health is low)Long story short; you can still play content with your current build at Normal and maybe certain Advanced, but Elite is a no-no. Elite is not the same Elite from yesteryear.
It’s a lot to take in, but like Horrid said, best way is to start an AoY toon and just enjoy the ride 😀
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."This is really a Blackout topic 😉 , but if you are looking for a new ship, these are worth considering.
– If you like to keep it canon and are fond of the Akira design, consider the Tier 6 Alita, basically a beefed up Hvy escort carrier which can use the Akira skin.
– The Tier 6 Presidio has the must-have captain trait All Hands on Deckthat will serve all your Fed toons well over their career. Besides that it’s actually a very good, and I think, very pretty design. Hangar, good layout.
– Pilot Escorts – fast, nimble, very Tac oriented overall with the Icarus more Sci-ish and considered the best variant.
– And if you want something new, as in 26th Century new, the paladin Temporal Battlecruiser is well regarded.
There are a bunch of others too, depending on style and preference, but these should give you a good idea of what’s available out there.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."It’s been awhile since you played, so I’m just going with some basics over multiple posts (since I work for a living):
Ships
There are 2 reasons you get a ship now: weapon/skill platform and traits.In terms of platform, while its the captain that makes the ship, some ships have higher ceilings. In that regard, the highest ceiling ship the feds have access to that’s not the 23rd century constitution (1.3 billion EC), is the Cronos temporal dreadnought. It’s big and slow, but has 8 weapons and temporal ability slots. It’s a beast.
If you want to stay with your HEC, or get the T6 version (alita), that’s cool too, but it maxes out lower than the Cronos (but with enough gear, we can get your T5 ship into the ~50 to 70k DPS range which is more than enough for endgame content).
In terms of traits, in the C-store, you’ll want these 2 ships (if you’re in a position to buy them) because they have a very high impact on performance, and their abilities cannot be replaced with lesser alternatives. They essentially are best in slot ainec.
– the Presidio for All Hands on Deck (it’s amazing as it reduces -captain ability- cooldowns) and
– the Arbiter Battlecruiser for Emergency Weapons Cycle which essentially bumps your damage by 20%+ The arbiter is especially good value because as a platform, it’s probably in the Fed’s top 3, but all hands on deck is probably more important.You may also consider the Phantom Intel Escort for reciprocity which reduces tactical and intel cooldowns, but since you’re a tac officer with tac initiative, you don’t need it.
From the Lobi store or exchange, none are “must buys” (like the 2 above), but the Astika’s trait, Supremacy is fantastic.
Weapons: Cannons vs. Beams
I realize that when you played a few years ago, cannons were all the rage. However since then due to a variety of reasons, most of which involve Science embassy consoles (I’ll explain later), and something called overcap (just trust me on this), and the superiority of BFAW, beam arrays are considered to be better than cannons.
Cannons can overtake beams in situations where there are 3+ enemies on screen in the hands of a super skilled pilot and the trait from the Valiant (T6 Defiant), but it’s pretty marginal. So going forward, I’m going to assume that you’re going the beam route (FYI, torpedoes are still sub optimal, but I realize some people just love them).
Weapons: what should I get?
The best beams are generally antiproton beams with the [pen] modifier (which can only appear once). For tac officers, the best modifiers, in order are: [pen] >>> [dmg]>[crtd] >> [crth] >> [acc] >>> pretty much everything else
Your ideal antiproton beam is [Ac/Dm][dmg]x3 [pen]. That said, the difference between dmg and crtd is marginal (like 0.2% damage), and the dropoff to crth is a bit bigger (like 1% damage), really, anything with [pen] with no [acc] will be fine.
That said, Mk level is more important than mods, which means if you’re on a budget, just get some [pen] beams to mk xiv, and worry about other stuff like rarity (there is epic gear now) later.
The exception to the general rule is the Terran Reputation Disruptor Beam Array. It is the best weapon in the game, aniec. I can get 10k out of this beam on its own with BFAW (which means I could theoretically pull my DPS weight in most advanced queues in a T1 connie. Think about that).
This weapon on its own has made rainbow boats viable, and has even made me “rainbow” my ship with 7 antiproton beams and the 1 Terran disruptor array.
Deflector/engine/core/shield
The best set, without fail, is the Iconian set, so get grinding Ico rep.Consoles
For Tactical consoles Locators from the spire are best in slot. +AP or +Beam if you follow my advice on the Terran beam.
For Science, plasma infused consoles from the Embassy are not only best in slot, but best overall. At Mk XIV epic, they provide more DPS than tac consoles. Load up.
For Engineering, Leech and anything with +EPS, then DPS universals to fill it out is the general advice (e.g. assimilated Module, Tachyokinetic, Bio-infused etc.) Engineering is essentially the universal console dumping ground.
Reputation
Most of the reputation space traits that are worthwhile are awarded at tier 2. So if you’re low on time, concentrate on getting the Romulan (precision) , Dyson (advanced targeting systems), and Delta Alliance(enhanced armor penetration) reputations to Tier 2, Nukara (aux power configuration off and def) and Terran(the Terran beam) to Tier 4, and Iconian to Tier 5 (Ico set).Ideally, you want everything at tier 5, but you’ll get 95% of what you really want with the method above.
space traits
Reddit has a good ranking of space traits here: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/build_anatomy/traits/space#wiki_personal_space_traits. None of them are absolute requirements, but if you have the EC after re-gearing, Inspirational Leader is pretty fantastic.I would quickly use the R&D system to get 2 of those traits (since they don’t cost money, just time) – Beam barrage from the beam school, and Particle Manipulator from the Science school.
Ship Traits
As previously discussed, there are 2 almost game changing traits, All Hands on Deck, and Emergency Weapons Cycle. After that, other traits are fair game. I like Supremacy (from the Astika) as the 3rd, and the 4th and 5th (once unlocked) are to taste. I’m currently using Superior Pedal to the Metal and Improved Feedback Pulse, which you currently can’t get. Subwarp Sheath from the Icarus Pilot ship isn’t bad, neither is the trait from the Hestia. Not worth the actual money though, so I wouldn’t bother unless you have so much Zen you don’t know what to do with it.Welcome back, sir! All that from Marcase and Blackout is both great and spot on but might be overwhelming. I’d suggest taking your time and incrementally improving.
1) Skills – completely revamped since you last played most likely. You probably want to tackle this first, although you can run a char without skilling anything just don’t expect awesome results. I like either going sci heavy (27 skills) for the sci ultimate for non-tac toons, or 27 into tac for the tac ultimate, both are very useful clickies but there is nothing wrong with a balanced build and some claim they are better.
2) Traits – completely new for you probably. Ship traits are the shiz but don’t feel like you gotta get them right away. Replacing your ship is a good idea, but again fly what you got till you can do better. There are some rep specific traits as well which you will def want to get which leads to:
3) Reputations – probably mostly new. You will want to grind all these up eventually. I suggest doing no more than 1 mission a day (for each flavor) to get bonus marks. Then you can easily que the daily mission even on days you don’t feel like grinding for marks. You can keep grinding the same rep on a day, but without the bonus. Extra marks can be turned in for more unrefined dil, which is still the life blood of the game for most, so spend it wisely.
4) Stations – there are new stations/lines which can add more flavor and DPS when using the right ones. These will require new ships and probably lots of grinding to use and train effectively. Boffs can now be “masters of all” practically except the old tac/sci/eng option is still limited. You will want SRO rom officers if you care about DPS along with the others Marcase mentioned. You can train a boffs in everything and then modify what they can do in their actual station.
5) Admiralty – this is a great add on for extra exp/dil/credits. Highly recommended to grind what you can, which may largely depend on the ship options you have collected (esp for traits). This grind will help ease other grinds. *Sigh* I can’t believe I just said that but its true.
6) Crafting – crafted weapons are now arguably the best in the game because you can get the “right” mods, but crafting them is basically a lottery. Fortunately, it is cheap to get the skills by doing the 20h/daily research missions for next to nothing so its just a matter of time to cap them all (I did so on one char). There is also a perk as a trait for reaching lvl 15 in a line, so why not? Your old crafting mats can be converted to the new stuff, although it might be painful depending on how much you hoarded (I had a lot LOL).
7) Upgrading – new system in place allows you to go up to mk 14, Ultra-rare and Epic for even more mods! Don’t be in a rush, that’s probably the least of your concerns for the most part. Certainly not the priority at least IMO. There are also “upgrade weekends” which are worth waiting for, if you can keep your pants on.Starting a new AOY toon would not be a bad idea if that interests you.
Specializations
Specializations give you tons of little bonuses and a trait if you fill the tree. The spec trees you want to fill for the bonuses are Temporal and Strategist. The trait from Pilot is nice if you aren’t in the market for buying traits.Commando is good for ground only.
Duty Officers
There aren’t any duty officers that are must haves anymore, but the app doff from the Delta alliance pack is great, albeit super expensive BC you need to buy a $100+ pack to get it (it comes with other stuff too, but it’s all meh at this point)Bridge Officers
Tac best in slot are From tac officers from the embassy with superior romulan operative.Engineers, krenim from the research lab (very very expensive. If you can’t afford, use efficient saurians
Science, the hierarchy science officer has pirate and efficient. You can get him from a mission in the Delta story arc. Otherwise, efficient saurians.
Geex guys 😆 I didn’t expect such a big response!
Thanks for taking the time to write everything out. I think the best thing would be to start a new character and level him up a bit to get a feel for everything before jumping back into my main.
I think some of this stuff is still way over my head seeing how it took me 5+ min to figure out how to get moving 😳
Wow, what a treasure trove of information! I am in the same boat as OP (stopped playing before Delta Rizing) and also trying to catch up.
I have one related question – I keep reading that in order to unlock an Iconian Mk XIII UR stuff, I need to start an AoY alt and grind all reps to 5. Is there another way to do it (apart from upgrading myself)? I really don’t want more leveling grid if I can help it.Briarned, buff to XIII UR is available to AoY characters created during the Temporal Agent Recruitment Event (July 6 to August 24, 2016.) I think it is no longer available.
Thank you. That makes me very happy for too reasons 😀 – I don’t have to grind another character, and I did not grind another character and their rep to find out there is no benefit after the fact lol.
I did not explain it well. Characters created during that event could make a permanent account wide upgrade of reputation gear to UR Mk XIII. It is still available for players that participated. At least you don’t have to level up new character and complete 9 reputations, just upgrade the set you’re going to use. c:
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