[Cassie]

Hey there! Its been a reeeeally long time since I've played STO (like 2.5+ years), and I'm rocking (or uh... rather really NOT rocking) some old equipment and builds, and kind of getting my butt handed to me. I'd dearly appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction for ships, boff skills, equipment, reputations, etc.

My main is a Tac, flying a Hazari Destroyer (T5-U) with Radiant Anitproton dual heavies/turrets. Scatter Volley/Tac Team/Beta and a grav well build. (Is that still a thing?? Seems to be less strong than it used to be??) On the ground, she's no longer taking names either. I've got a tonne of abilities but have no idea what to use anymore. I haven't even started the Gamma, Terran, Temporal, Lukari, or Competitive reputations.

So, to break it down... What reps do I need to focus on and for what equipment? There's also been so many new ships that I have no idea what to buy. And for the love of all that is good, what do I need to do to stop dying on the ground every 2.2 seconds (this question is coming from someone who used to love STO ground... )? (I've also got eng and sci characters too- so if anyone has a build they love for those, feel free to pop a link here too!)

Thanks so much in advance for helping an old gal learn some new tricks!

[Scarlett]

ME FIRST!

Hello and welcome to rebuilding your ship Forgive me if you know about some links below.

There are a few places around here you could start. Bridger is our resident expert, so I would check the following:
https://ufplanets.com/showthread.php...hip-Builds-101 - overview to build a ship
https://ufplanets.com/showthread.php...arships-Builds - his own collection. This part will be important because you will see overlap and overlap suggests either laziness OR stuff that works.

You'll need to do a little homework by referencing gear and abilities with the STO Wiki (I can't see the site on this PC, but a Google search will land you there).

Having said that, there is also our own build discussions over the months: https://ufplanets.com/forumdisplay.p...ld-Discussions

Having said THAT, there is a reddit page dedicated to builds: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/ - I live here, frankly and just read, Read, READ. It's not really about what gear people use, it's more about the discussions within each post - there is a lot of WHY the poster chose that or that gear.

Now then, a caveat: both Bridger and the Reddit site are focused on DPS; getting the most bang for your time and money. That is not a bad thing, per se, because the faster you can destroy the target, the less damage you take, the quicker you get through queues or better helping the team. BUT, if you are not chasing numbers or have a personal goal not to spend real money, then a lot of stuff in the game will carry you through just fine.

Ok, that was space. Now for Ground.

Interestingly, there's a Reddit for that too: https://www.reddit.com/r/STOGround/ - I visit here as well, just to see what people are saying because I found what works for me as a Science Captain. For BOffs I straight up copied the guide presented here: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/w...basicboffguide I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I went to lazy route and now it's a breeze for me.

SO ... you have some homework, BUT you are not alone.

Maybe post where you are now and we can drill down some starting steps?

If I were to start somewhere, then I would certainly make a daily plan to get some Marks going. There are A LOT of Reputations now but there are three I can think of that have the best rewards for time up-front AND their gear is long-lasting:
Omega - The Kinetic Cutting Beam and the console is still a good "starter" set to have.
Nukara - Shields, Deflector, Engine combo is not only defensive, but the 2-pc is great offense.
Fleet - yes, Fleet Gear is cost effective and very decent to help get you

I would run the Fleet Starbase queue, Borg Red Alert and Tholian Red Alert each once a day. This gives you the max daily Mark rewards - playing more of these in a day is "grinding" and you get A LOT less Marks after the first run.

But really, play the Episodes. Save the drops and sell them at Drozana AND/OR convert them into Salvage (a later discussion). BUT these are practice for both Space and Ground. We can talk about that in another thread if you want.

Back to you!

[Raz Beraht]

Bridger and Reddit will lead you down the path of the min/maxorz, which is great but don't get discouraged if you see that you need 1.5 billion ec to copy their builds. In most cases a "good enough" build is literally good enough depending on what your goals are.

Bridger made us aware of this post which summarizes the current meta pretty well. Give it a look through. You'll notice most of the high end stuff required traits for expensive lobi/lockbox ships. The most important thing is it tells you which ships you need and I've been using it (recently bought the escort pack for withering barrage for all factions).

[Cassie]

After I posted my OP, I realized there was a builds sub-category. *facepalm* Once I noticed that, I did spend some time trawling it and reading it, and took at look at Bridger's builds, and made a few adjustments to both my space and ground builds, and while I'm still weak, I'm not getting my arse handed to me in the same way.

@Raz: thanks for that link! I saw the post copied and pasted (and it was a HUGE help) but the comments in that whole discussion are super helpful too!

@scarlet Thanks for all the links! I'd found a few of those on my own (mostly after I found the sub thread... haha!) but theres some I'd not seen, so thanks so much! That boff setup link, in particular, is super helpful!

I can post my current setups, but honestly I'm thinking I'm going to need to rebuild from total scratch- When I was still playing, my build was already just starting to get old. It had originally been created for elite borg STFs- grav well and CSV for probes and crowd control. Seeing as I'm now getting wiped in storyline missions, I've not hit any queues yet (for the "new" reputation marks), but now that I've made a few tiny changes, I'm going to try some easy ones tonight and see how it goes. I'm looking to buy a new ship; I've never been a min/maxer (mostly, I just can't wrap my head around all the details and the math ), but I always did enjoy the elite pve content. I know my OP was super vague in the "help help I don't know what I'm doing anymore" way, and its so hard to answer those huge vague "how do I STO now??" questions, but coming back after so long, with so many new abilities, traits, ships, skill revamps it's a little overwhelming, and hard to actually know what questions to ask! So thanks so much for the replies and the links; I'll trawl the reddit forums, but if anyone has some easy answers (or links to threads/discussions) to my big over-arching "umm how does this game work now?" questions, I'd be so grateful!

1. Of the "newer reputations" (in my case, everything after the Delta Rep, lol), any sets must-haves and any that aren't worth it? Do most sets still synergize best with particular ships/careers/builds? Are there any reps that aren't really worth the grind, or just ones I should focus on first?
2. Is there a breakdown of the new specializations (intel/temportal, etc) and their abilities (and their actual usefulness)? They'd just started coming out when I quit, and the community wasn't really sure they were useful, outside specific builds. Is that still the case, or are certain specializations/abilities "must haves" or used often? Any that most people stay far away from? Any specific synergies?
3. Is there a thread/link of ship discussions? Again, back in the day there were a few that were being flown most often (seemed like 2-3 for each) , and a handful that were considered super sub-par. With so. many. freaking. ships. is that still the case, or are most totally viable? Any outliers? (AKA don't fly this guy unless you really like the look of it)

I think thats "all" for now. Thanks for the links and your patience.

[Scarlett]

No sweat! I thought it was A LOT when I started back in 2012, then I took a 1.5 year break and when I got back ... well yeah you know.

Anyways, I haz moar answers:
1- The answer is "yes", but it really begs what you want to do. Are you going torp boat? Rad boat? DPS beam? Support? Drain build? In other words, what do you want to do with your ship?

2- In fact there is! https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/w...izations_trees - Read this. All of it. Then read the follow up page: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/w...ions_abilities These are just summaries but the notes are spot-on.

3- It depends on the ship, if I read the question right. For UFP, make a thread for your ship and start a conversation. Sure, we may have seen the ship before around here, but each season makes old stuff seem new, from a certain point of view.

Btw, are you sticking to Escorts and the Hazari Destroyer specifically? What do you want to fly?

[Patrick_W]

Cassie, you made it here eh? You rocking a T5-U ship eh? I feel for ya, Scarlett here helped me with my build and I'm still working on my build, I took almost 2.5 years off too, especially after the 12th crap went down. Read the builds here as a guide, back in the day I used to be good at suggesting builds but there is just soo many changes as of late between the REP / Traits / set bonues /etc etc etc I can't keep up.

Enjoy yourself..

[Raz Beraht]

I can post my current setups, but honestly I'm thinking I'm going to need to rebuild from total scratch-

1. Of the "newer reputations" (in my case, everything after the Delta Rep, lol), any sets must-haves and any that aren't worth it? Do most sets still synergize best with particular ships/careers/builds? Are there any reps that aren't really worth the grind, or just ones I should focus on first?

I definitely suggest that you post your build, along with your goals, in the build section. That way Bridger and Dark can poke around and offer suggestions. Maybe mention in the thread that you're a returning player without immediate access to top gear, hopefully they can give you some short and long term goals to help you survive/kill better.

Of the newer reps, the competitive rep (engine/shield, sometimes core) seem to be what people are using the most these days. Colony deflector and fleet core are also popular. The last meta included the 3pc iconian set which I have now, it's still considered "good" but not as good as above and more of a team buffing set. So I have my own personal goal of upgrading.

[Cassie]

@ Scarlet: Oh my goodness, thank you SO much for those links! I spent some time going through those links the last few days, and I'm starting to feel a bit less confused. I bought the Phantom Intel Escort (and then promptly realized that my Hazari Destroyer is actually in fact an Old Tier 6 ship... ) and am currently still using my Radiant Antiproton Cannons on it. I'd added a torp, torp spread, some aux to bats, and I'm no longer dying every 2.2 seconds, (Which, yay!) Regarding question 1 and the role, I honestly don't know. My last build was mostly just AoE DPS (Cannons) and a bit of control (grav well, ionic turbulence) for space STFs. I've not heard of a Rad Boat before, and back when I was playing last, drain wasn't viable. Seems like they've mad some big changes in the last several years.

I'll take all y'alls advice and post my current build up for some help and suggestions shortly.

Thanks everyone!

[Scarlett]

^_^

You know, I think Drain became more a thing when some gear helped make it a thing (Quantum Phase stuff anyone?), but some changes in the mechanics may have been made as well. I'm not into drain stuff so anything to it washed over me. So, if you are interested in that avenue, then links within links above should point you in the right direction

Good luck and look forward to seeing your build!

[WelshAvenger]

Cassie? Wow, there's a name I remember from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back. Good to see that you're back in game.

If you're after something a little more visual, check out Timberwolf's channel on Youtube, he generally has some common sense stuff about Set X benefiting Weapon Y and so on. If you're ever thinking about a torp build, try searching for OdinKnight as he was the king of torpedoes a while back.

[Scarlett]

^

Yes, that indeed!

[Dark]

With regards to the CSV comment earlier in this thread, I want to note that while the meta switched to beams a while back, it's actually sort of switched back to cannons.

There were various rebalancing things done that put it back on top - but the caveat is that getting all the moving parts to make it the very best will cost you an arm and a leg. My understanding is that beamboats are still the best bang for the buck, and will outperform cannons if you don't have all your ducks lined up.

Though the current enemy of the month seems like a pain for cannon ships given that they like to hump your rear.

[vonLuden]

Though the current enemy of the month seems like a pain for cannon ships given that they like to hump your rear.

Would the Kaufman Retrograde work in STO?

http://www.sfb.swa-gaming.org/node/798#comment-12235

[WelshAvenger]

Though the current enemy of the month seems like a pain for cannon ships given that they like to hump your rear.

Three words for that.. Eject Warp Plasma

[Scarlett]

Three words for that.. Eject Warp Plasma

Bless my Photon Torpedoes that is a brilliant idea!