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[Nikkuthulu]

If you're talking about the absolute king of DPS, min/maxing sort of things. Yes, beams of all things, became the go to mechanic. More specifically it's Anti-Proton, Romulan Plasma and Disruptor.

All for the sort of same reason in that they increase your damage. Anti-Proton with the insane crit damage boosting affix, Disruptor for making enemies weaker per shot, and Romulan Plasma for basically being a Disruptor with some fire proc.

Now add this in to the Fleet Spire consoles, which give Critical Hit Chance.. AND the reputation early stuff to get more crit hit chance.. and a very strong buff to Fire all Beam Arrays...


Well it's easy to see the monster that beams have become, not to mention it's incredibly easy to keep power levels up, as the KDF even lost the exclusiveness of the Leech, and in general power levels are much higher so even if you're firing 8 beams and you SHOULD be drained, you're not. However, what people don't often say is that while the burst is scary, it is uncontrollable, so you may be shooting targets you don't want. Let alone we haven't even added in DOFFs who can make power levels even higher with more damage / effects.

For an Elite Run of that one borg mission, where you don't want to shoot the generators until you're good to go, this is a problem. Where Cannons are still the more controlled target, take less work and effort to get off the ground and still be good. It's just cannons have not really had a buff in ages, since well... no one's ever really said cannons suck.

 

[Sax Russel]

For an Elite Run of that one borg mission, where you don't want to shoot the generators until you're good to go, this is a problem.

Pfft, my Avenger can take out those generators and the transformer in like one FAW volley ;D

 

[Shouta]

I don't mind at all personally, I loved Arrays since the beginning, lol.

 

[Nikkuthulu]

Pfft, my Avenger can take out those generators and the transformer in like one FAW volley ;D

See yeah, I forgot that a lot of excellent builds can wreck it no problem even with the random shots. Knowing me? My luck would have all the beams on the arrays and I'd just be sighing.

 

[Shouta]

Got my account back but apparently I didn't have an mvae or a Odyssey with Chevron separation. I swore I did though =(

 

[DarthWoo]

Got my account back but apparently I didn't have an mvae or a Odyssey with Chevron separation. I swore I did though =(

Check to see that you can't just claim one for free in the C-store?

 

[Walshicus]

Looks pretty certain that Season 10.5 is launching tomorrow. Like the idea of Nog, Tom Paris and 7 of 9 voice acting together in one episode...

 

[tunebreaker]

Sharing my guide to STO ship building. Saying it's finished would be an exaggeration since I plan to write something more, but I think it's totally readable and followable in current state as well.
https://goo.gl/NjT1If

If you have any comments/suggestions/critics, those are always appreciated.

 

[Hellers]

I'm in the mood to come back and play again. My characters are all at the old level cap in T5 ships. What's the best thing to do next. Can I level easily the rest of the way with story? How do I go about upgrading my Avenger to a T6?

Is there anything I really need to know?

 

[Walshicus]

There are some T6 ships that can be got for free, from events like winter and summer festivals. To get a new Avenger class will cost you either Zen for the T6 version or fleet ship modules (Zen or EC from exchange) to buy the T6-Fleet version of it.

Come back online and someone in the fleet will help you out there.

 

[Hellers]

Unless someone`s kicked me out of the fleet I think I`ll just upgrade unless there`s some massively more fun ship in the Zen store. I do love my Avenger.

Are there any good T6 ships worth spending the money on? I`m not so much worried about getting the absolute best ship for combat. Just one I`ll have fun with and that looks good

 

[Walshicus]

The new pilot ships are hugely fun to fly. While you've been gone the game has added "specialisation" classes for captains and BOFFs; you now get ships with "Intel", "Command" and "Pilot" seating, with new BOFF powers to go with them. The pilot ships look a little bit like the Defiant, but they come with some cool manoeuvre powers.

 

[Hellers]

Nice. I`ll have a good browse of the store when I get home from work tonight.

 

[Walshicus]

I just paid 1.8 million EC for a Vaadwaur Polaron Emitter Array Mk XII [DMG]x3. Bad move?

 

[tunebreaker]

I just paid 1.8 million EC for a Vaadwaur Polaron Emitter Array Mk XII [DMG]x3. Bad move?

It seems pretty much for just a mk XII weapon.

Are there any good T6 ships worth spending the money on?

If you like Avenger, check out Arbiter. I personally love it. It's basically Avenger with stronger hull and ability to have GW on it.

 

[Hellers]

So I finally got around to logging in. For some reason I have 7881 zen. I figure I must have added a load ages ago and just forgot about it when I last quit.

SPACESHIP!

But which one. I'll have a look at the Arbiter first since I do love my Avenger but I have two other level 50 characters. One has the Dauntless Experimental class from the last time I played but what to get my third character?

*Edit* For reasons I can't quite remember I was running my Avenger with cannons. Can I still do that easily with the Arbiter?

 

[tunebreaker]

*Edit* For reasons I can't quite remember I was running my Avenger with cannons. Can I still do that easily with the Arbiter?

Absolutely! They have identical weapon layout and turn rate.

And maybe you'd like to get a T6 escort to your 3rd toon? Since when you decide to get Arbiter, you would already have a cruiser and a sci vessel.

 

[Hellers]

I think a T6 escort sounds like a splendid idea.

So I transfered all my stuff over to the new Arbiter which now has lots of spiky green bits and went into my first episode. I saw there was a featured one so I thought what the hell and went to fight the Iconians.

Woo. That's a big fleet. Yes. Space combat is as fun as I remember despite me not remembering what any of the buttons do. OWWWW. SOLAR GATEWAY.

Lots of ship explosions later and....

Dear god. Has the ground combat got even worse? I mean I know it didn't help me taking in my Borg ground team (All sniper rifles and one melee) but could Cryptic please fix this stuff?

Going out for doughnuts and chips and then I'm going to get caught up on story starting with the Dyson sphere.

Oops. Might help if I notice it has reset my traits

 

[Walshicus]

Get one of the Pilot Escorts for your next T6 ship. You seriously won't regret it.

 

[Hellers]

Where can I buy weapons for dilithium these days?

 

[tunebreaker]

Where can I buy weapons for dilithium these days?

Weapons in Reputation Stores cost dilithium. Also, you can contribute your dil into fleet projects and then buy weapons from Fleet Starbase.

 

[Hellers]

I`m having so much fun playing again. Just dumped a load of resources into fleet projects and tonight I`m going to beef up my ship a bit. Will I be ok sticking with advanced fleet anti-proton beams? I generally just PvE or do STFs. What`s a good loadout for non-Borg ground combat these days?

What group content is worth running for marks these days? Since I`m not at level cap do I need to go back to running normals or can I carry on doing elites?

I did like that they worked the Sol Spacedock rebuild into the plot by smashing the living crap out of it. Screw you Undine. We`ll build a new spacedock. With blackjack and hookers.

Are there any good beginner guides for R&D?

Any tips for a returning player? Any chance Cryptic might up the Vet rewards past 700 days?

 

[Sax Russel]

I haven't been really getting on much lately, playing other games, so I only just now did Broken Circle. Man, their story mission content is just so well done. This game gets the feel of Star Trek so right. That new season trailer has me pretty hyped too, assuming they deliver on actually making exploring relevant.

 

[Nikkuthulu]

Any tips for a returning player? Any chance Cryptic might up the Vet rewards past 700 days?

Well the Vet rewards go up to 1000, but they've basically quit adding new tiers and this was ages ago. They also quit at 1000 like they did with Champions Online.. so it's safe to say it's not happening.. however they did a few new rewards to the list, usually when there's a lifetime sale. I remember they added the EV Suits that use to be C-Store purchase, and just recently the T6 version of the 1000 day ships.


Tips, let's see.. some of the newer mission reward stuff, like the Romulan Armor set can upgrade R&D for free. So it can pay to get them early since they'll always level up with you. Your Fleet APs are pretty much some of the best you can get, they're still one of the best weapons in the game. Add in some Fleet Spire consoles that boost your AP and give chance to critical hit and you'll be doing more damage then 70% of the players in the game.

Ground Set-up? Whatever you're comfortable with really. An expose and Exploit Weapon tend to be pretty good. The Voth gun from the reputation was nice last time I checked. I run a little bit of everything though. KDF is sword / melee build, Rom uses anti carbine rep gun. The delta recruits for the event hing I labeled just use the Romulan military set stuff from the featured episode and it handles fine. BOFF wise, Pulsewaves wreck face, and I tend to favor Engineers for shield heal and science for health heals.

 

[tunebreaker]

I`m having so much fun playing again. Just dumped a load of resources into fleet projects and tonight I`m going to beef up my ship a bit. Will I be ok sticking with advanced fleet anti-proton beams? I generally just PvE or do STFs. What`s a good loadout for non-Borg ground combat these days?

What group content is worth running for marks these days? Since I`m not at level cap do I need to go back to running normals or can I carry on doing elites?

I did like that they worked the Sol Spacedock rebuild into the plot by smashing the living crap out of it. Screw you Undine. We`ll build a new spacedock. With blackjack and hookers.

Are there any good beginner guides for R&D?

Any tips for a returning player? Any chance Cryptic might up the Vet rewards past 700 days?

If you are not level 60 yet, you can't even do elites - and most of space elites are pretty horrible. Advanced, however, are totally doable if you have some understanding what's going on and you're not running a failpugger rainbow gear.
Ground elites are totally another case though, I find them very easy.

My guide for getting marks would be...
Omega - Infected / Khitomer / Cure Space
Nukara - Crystalline
Romulus - Defend Rh'lhho Station / Japori system patrol (in Japori Sector, Beta Quadrant)
Dyson - Dyson Sphere Ground Battlezone / The Breach
Undine 8472 - Dyson Sphere Space Battlezone / Undine Infiltration
Delta - Bug Hunt / Borg Disconnected
Iconian - I find all of them quite tedious to do... but Brotherhood of the Sword and Gateway to Gre'thor are a bit better than Herald Sphere.
Fleet - Fleet Alert

R&D... I just do Research project - X technology stuff. Those projects that give 6k XP normally and 7k on critical.

Tip: If you need XP for next specialization point or ship mastery, hang out in Beta Quadrant and wait for Red Alert notifications. Borg Alert is ok, but Tholian gives really good amount of XP.

And I think Nikkuthulu covered everything else.

 

[Hellers]

I`ve dropped the science ship and I`ve switched to my Arbiter. More beams MORE. I have the ancient 360 beam and a borg kinetic cutting laser too.

I ran a couple of Borg space advanced last night and had great fun in the Dyson ground battle zone. I found out this morning I could convert my old crafting mats into lots of shiny new ones and I`m keeping the 20 hour 6000xp jobs running so I can unlock more slots.

I think for now I`m going to focus on finishing a few reps. I`m nearly at tier 4 for Borg, Romulan and Nukara. Dyson is going to be nice to muck around in. Not sure I`m going to bother with Delta or Iconian though.

New episode on Thursday too. Butterfly.

*Edit* And of course I meant 1000days for vet. I`ve been a lifer since launch for my sins

 

[Hellers]

Took my arbiter out for a spin into The Conduit advanced. According to the DPS output at the end someone posted I`m doing 5k. Hmmm. I think something needs tweaking. I should be doing more than that.

 

[Walshicus]

Very much looking forward to Butterfly if it's anything like the leaks suggested it was from a few months back:

Spoiler

Tampering with time to remove the Iconians ends up with New Romulus invaded by the Borg...

Actually, on the subject of this Iconian/Time Travel story arc, I really hope that

Spoiler

we end up with Old Romulus brought back, since it was destroyed by Iconians in the first place. The STO developers originally had Romulus in the game, only for it to be removed when JJ decided to blow it up for the new movie. Would be fitting for them to undo his damage.

 

[tunebreaker]

All those Research Lab weekly bonuses look pretty sick.

 

[Walshicus]

Don't forget to pick up a free Section 31 costume from the Zen store today.

 

[Nikkuthulu]

Don't forget to pick up a free Section 31 costume from the Zen store today.

One of my favorite costumes that I put my feds in when I actually play one.

 

[Wyndstryker]

Free clothing is always good.

 

[Walshicus]

Today's bonus is 2 specialisation points... and it's per character, not per account! Go get!

Also, the new episode is brilliant. Get the science console as pretty much one of the best consoles in the game now.

 

[Hellers]

Oh man. Did the new episode and loved it. Then decided I fancied taking one of my other ships for a spin. Settled on my old free Obelisk that I've never tried. Kitted it out with some disrupter castoffs I had lying around, bought some cheap blues from the exchange for the rest and hit up Crystaline Entity advanced.

Lol. I had no idea what I was doing. My rear three weapons never hit the thing and I still got first place.

Should I shove some turrets on the back?

 

[Walshicus]

With the Obelisk you probably want to run all beam arrays and "broadside" by keeping the enemy in your side arcs so the weapons can fire.

Alternatively you might be able to get away with Dual Beam Banks up front with Omni beams in the back.

 

[Wyndstryker]

I went the omni rear/duals in front on my obelisk and was able to get 1st in crystalline quite often.

Actually with another omni weapon in the pipeline, I wonder if I can go full rainbow omni carrier, or at least mostly omni.

 

[Hellers]

I've put dual beams and a torp up front. One omni at the back and two nanite disruptor turrets at back. Now to give it a try

 

[Hellers]

So I had so much fun with a front facing carrier I went and bought a T6 Heavy Escort carrier. It's very nice and turns real good too I had a purple set of peregrines in my bank from somewhere so I equipped those too. Running three beam banks and a torp up front, omni, cutting beam and a turret on the back.

Very nice rank five trait for that one too.

 

[Hellers]

I have some tier 5 upgradeable ships and a single upgrade token (No idea where it came from). Which of these would you guys upgrade?

Multimission Reconnaissance explorer
Fleet Battle Cruiser
Tactical Escort Retrofit
Chimera

I already have a T6 battle cruiser so I don't think I'm going to upgrade that. The defiant retrofit is tempting but so is the Chimera

Also I just found the loadout system. Dear lord. It's a revelation. That makes things sooooo much easier.

 

[Nikkuthulu]

Let's see.. I don't really think you need to use it on the Chimera, since the T6 version the Manticore is available to you as a lifer. The others I haven't really tried before.

 

[Hellers]

Free Manticore? Oh nice. I`ll be having one of those certainly.

I`m tempted to use it on the Defiant retrofit to be honest. It`s a sexy looking ship. Do T5-U ships have tiers to unlock? The trait unlock at tier 5 might be the decider there.

 

[Walshicus]

T5U gets the first four mastery tiers, but no tier five trait.

 

[OneEightZero]

So I got one of these emails today:

I'm super stoked since I had no idea what the hell I was going to do to get a Tier 6 ship. And it's one of my favorite classes too, being a Galaxy variant and all. ^_^

 

[Walshicus]

Yeah they ran a come back email which looks like it worked. The Andromeda is a pretty cool ship.

 

[SolarMystic]

I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but only lukewarm towards MMOs. Couldn't stand wow, played Rift for only a month, didn't get past 2 weeks with lotr online. I can somewhat play ESO due to my love for the lore and franchise.

How well does Star Trek Online play for people mainly interested in single player activities?

 

[Walshicus]

Pretty well. There are thousands upon thousands of player made missions to go through in addition to the main story arc which can be done solo. There are some open world planets (Nimbus, Nukara, Defera, New Romulus, Kobali Prime and the Dyson Sphere) where teaming is optional, and you get auto teamed when joining queued content.

Come try, or wait until October for the new season which will finish up their revamp of launch content through the Cardassian arc. Either way let us know your player@account handle so we can invite you into the fleet (no obligations, just benefits).

 

[SolarMystic]

Pretty well. There are thousands upon thousands of player made missions to go through in addition to the main story arc which can be done solo. There are some open world planets (Nimbus, Nukara, Defera, New Romulus, Kobali Prime and the Dyson Sphere) where teaming is optional, and you get auto teamed when joining queued content.

Come try, or wait until October for the new season which will finish up their revamp of launch content through the Cardassian arc. Either way let us know your player@account handle so we can invite you into the fleet (no obligations, just benefits).

I'll do that, thanks! The launch content as in early game? I'll probably wait until then.

 

[OneEightZero]

Pretty well. There are thousands upon thousands of player made missions to go through in addition to the main story arc which can be done solo. There are some open world planets (Nimbus, Nukara, Defera, New Romulus, Kobali Prime and the Dyson Sphere) where teaming is optional, and you get auto teamed when joining queued content.

Come try, or wait until October for the new season which will finish up their revamp of launch content through the Cardassian arc. Either way let us know your player@account handle so we can invite you into the fleet (no obligations, just benefits).

I'm giving some thought to doing this. I was worried with how sporadic I play that I wouldn't be able to meet certain fleet obligations. Is it super casual? I'd be willing to help with what I can, but I tend to play in small stretches.

 

[Hellers]

There aren't any obligations. GAFleet is super nice

 

[Wyndstryker]

GAFleet is carried by a select few. I try to contribute but I rarely contribute dil since I'm always upgrading gear

So don't worry too much on obligations.