Oh, something about the cane I noticed last night, if you're phased due to your Triolic Enhancer, it doubles the lifesteal effect of the cane, and it turns into a writhing snake instead of the pimp cane.
Unfortunately, while finding this out, my enhancer crashed two of our teammates during the Infected run. Whoops.
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Just_Bri_ThanksSeething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPAregular
edited November 2010
heh
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...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
Oh, something about the cane I noticed last night, if you're phased due to your Triolic Enhancer, it doubles the lifesteal effect of the cane, and it turns into a writhing snake instead of the pimp cane.
Unfortunately, while finding this out, my enhancer crashed two of our teammates during the Infected run. Whoops.
Whoa, that's a wicked awesome homage to the original Devidians cane.
Activating it with lots of triolic energy or a phaser blast turns it into some sort of demonic lightning spewing snake monster cane in TNG.
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FandyienBut Otto, what about us? Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
That sector space improvement looks so fantastic
I wanna play my Ferengi science captain some more, now.
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FandyienBut Otto, what about us? Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
Do we still have a fleet?
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Just_Bri_ThanksSeething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPAregular
edited November 2010
yes, ask for an invite in the penny arcade chat channel.
Just_Bri_Thanks on
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Hey, long time forum lurker, got STO about 2 weeks ago, going to hit C1 tonight. So yes, I'm hooked. Looking for a fleet to hang with. Have a Bolian Engineer/Cruiser Captain.
Join the Penny-arcade channel and we'll toss you an invite. I try to do at least one STF a weekend as a fleet... We're getting pretty good at being online and such as a group...
I'm flipping through the mission replays on tribble. I got myself the phaser from past imperfect, but I remember seeing a purple engine somewhere called a Prototype something or other that I'm pretty sure was a special replay reward. Anyone remember what mission that was?
Don't know if you ran a STF or not. Sorry for dropping out. My headache came back. It was so bad last night that I ended up vomiting twice. I felt better for most of the day, but started feeling bad again around 8 and decided to call it a night before I got involved in something and had to drop out.
Maybe later this week or next weekend. The Infected or The Cure (prefer the Cure, but the more people who get The Infected done, the more who will be available for future runs of The Cure).
Greetings! I've recently resubbed to STO, and I was wondering if I could ask all the vets here some questions.
I'm a science captain currently using a DSSV; rank is Rear Admiral Lower Half (one level till Upper Half). Just set foot into the Borg sector, and, uh...it seems like a pretty hefty jump in terms of difficulty. So here are some inquiries.
-What causes the Borg drones to continuously transport in, and how do I stop it? 0.o
-I'm getting to the point where I feel I should start caring about my spec (till now it's mostly been stuff I was using at the time, figuring I'd respec when I reached this point). Any recommendations as to what's effective or what's not? I'm assuming I should spec as a medic, since there seems to be fewer of those around in general.
-My ship in general feels...ineffective. My weapons and abilities seem to make so little impact on anything bigger than a frigate. I'm not entirely sure what's changed, but I noticed it when I went from the captain ship to the rear admiral ship. Any thoughts? I've kept my equipment as up to date as possible, and trained my BOs a fair bit...
-Finally, would I be allowed to join the PA fleet? I'm not online as much as some people are, but eventually I think it'd be cool to try those STFs with you guys!
Regular drones summon the proto drones sort of the way Targ handlers summon targs. They're really weak, only about a quarter the health and half the damage of a normal drone, but they almost always spawn behind you and they can be pretty dangerous with the flanking damage.
Keep moving with borg. In earlier missions anything short of a swordmaster you could sit and tank. But borg will really mess you up with chain holds and nasty debuffs if you try that.
If there's an interlink node in a borg pull, kill that before anything. With a node up, borg become immortal. Instead of dying they go into regeneration and come back in a few minutes. Can get ridiculous fast with proto drones beaming in all over the place.
Make sure all your weapons are mkX if possible. Unless you have really good blue or purple mkIX even whites are likely to be upgrades.
Spec and loadout I'll leave to somebody with science experience. Escorts are more my thing. Make sure you're not on the all even power setting, though.
Ask in the Penny Arcade channel and just about anyone can shoot you a fleet invite.
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
Anything that slows or roots a group of targets is good against the Borg, as is direct Health heals.
The main threat from borg isn't their ranged enemies (Though a boss level NPC will give you a run for your money early on before you get geared up with purps.). It's their nanoprobe infection, which they do at melee range.
They can stack this debuff on you. It will first initiate a long hold, allowing other Borg to use it on you. Each one does a large amount of HP DoT as the infection continues. It also lowers your move speed, meaning you can't escape from the Borg that get in close.
Basically, treat the Borg like zombies in other games. Set up barricades and turrets with engineers to slow their advance down, never get into melee range against them unless it's to initiate an ability that will screw them up, and keep a science officer or two around to do direct HP heals for those who get infected. Using weapons that initiate knockback on the initiation of their special, like sniper rifles, helps too.
Compared to a tactical captain, you will have low damage output. However there's some mitigating things you can do. Pick up all power to weapons, and phaser beam overload. If you want to utterly obliterate someone in a way that's nearly impossible to defend against, pop all of your bonus to attack cooldowns, use the all power to weapons with all power going to weapons, and get in close and use phaser beam overload and attack with full weapons energy.
A good phaser attack from that range and position will usually do upwards of 7K damage in one go provided you have a MKX or MKXI phaser slotted. To give you some perspective, that's enough to halve the shields on some end-game bosses. And it's easily repeatable too (Especially if you get your hands on a tactical officer that can reduce cooldown times.).
A science officers main benefit is that they're the utility gods. They can root a ship, stun it, or outright ruin it's shielding defenses with the click of a button. Hell, if you want, you can put a goddamn rift to the Phantom Zone or something in the middle of a cube and watch as it spazzes out as it's set on fire and tries to escape. This isn't even getting into the fact that their selection of skills make them the healers of the game too. Everyone can heal others, but noone can do it as well as a science officer can.
Keep in mind that if you're doing low damage to Borg NPC's compared to others, there are special weapons available at the Battlegroup at the entrance to Borg territory that sell weaponry that have a chance to do what's basically instant kill level damage to most Borg. That might be part of the problem. If you just reached the end-game, there are others out there who have had much more time to gear up then you.
I'm back from vacation and got through the last devidian episode...'twas alright I guess...thought there would be more to it. Rewards were kinda meh in my opinion...pimp cane is neat I guess...would be nice if we had more device slots on our character so I felt more inclined to use more of this stuff.
Oh and I'm up for helping out this weekend with Infected and cure runs....may even start a science officer at some point soon now that I've maxed out my Engineer
Should be able to do The Cure this weekend... I'm just trying to run as many people through infected, like I'll be doing with The Cure....
Just gotta make sure we have a medic when we run through with my engineer...
<- I'm totally a medic.
Actually I have all of the IX Science Kits because I have so many of those exploration badges that I had no other use for them (even after buying them all, I still have a ton).
Greetings! I've recently resubbed to STO, and I was wondering if I could ask all the vets here some questions.
I'm a science captain currently using a DSSV; rank is Rear Admiral Lower Half (one level till Upper Half). Just set foot into the Borg sector, and, uh...it seems like a pretty hefty jump in terms of difficulty. So here are some inquiries.
-What causes the Borg drones to continuously transport in, and how do I stop it? 0.o Tactical Drones. They tend to summon lots of those Proto Drones. Also if there's a node, destroy it first or you'll never be able to actually kill the borg.
-I'm getting to the point where I feel I should start caring about my spec (till now it's mostly been stuff I was using at the time, figuring I'd respec when I reached this point). Any recommendations as to what's effective or what's not? I'm assuming I should spec as a medic, since there seems to be fewer of those around in general. You can heal fine with or without speccing medic. I tend to focus on space skills (basically anything that boosts Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift, Tractor Beam and Photonic Fleet).
-My ship in general feels...ineffective. My weapons and abilities seem to make so little impact on anything bigger than a frigate. I'm not entirely sure what's changed, but I noticed it when I went from the captain ship to the rear admiral ship. Any thoughts? I've kept my equipment as up to date as possible, and trained my BOs a fair bit... Look at upgrading your weapons. Cannons and dual beams have higher DPS than standard beams, but shorter arcs. On my science ships I run dual cannons up front, turrets in the back and that Breen mine reward in one of the front slots. One of the benefits of having tractor beam is that once you knock out one shield facing you can hold the enemy there and melt their hull.
-Finally, would I be allowed to join the PA fleet? I'm not online as much as some people are, but eventually I think it'd be cool to try those STFs with you guys! Yeah. Just join the PA Channel and ask there, there's usually someone on who can invite you.
Excellent tips. Looks like I have some re-jigging to do. The only thing I already knew about was the Borg nanoprobe infection...from being on the wrong end of it last night.
Yeah, the PA Channel is where you wanna be. We'll getcha covered.
Another vote for tractor beam. That skill combined with sensor scan, rapid fire or fire at will and a high yield torpedo with a dash of beam overload will see most ships turn into smoking wrecks. Science ships are maneuverable enough that even a beam build with forward and rear torpedoes can unload everything if they go broadside and latch on.
Scramble Sensors is a great skill to deal with the Borg swarms. They just love to blow each other up.
If you're particularly fond of MORE DAKKA, consider the Recon Science Vessel when you get the chance. It has three delicious tactical console slots, and that's up to 26 more points to your energy damage type of choice!
Damage type consoles stack. Love them, hug them, keep them close. They make all the difference.
And innit the vanilla drones who summon proto drones? Any which way, make sure to zap them when they pop up. A couple proto drones from behind can cause an entire party to wipe. The Ghost Buster is absolutely fantastic for dealing with those buggers in a hurry.
Umnum. What else. Oh, Elites. They gain temporary invulnerability to energy damage at 75% health, but they're still susceptible to kinetic. So if you're running a kit with Dyovelinawhatsamacallit (adds 50% or more to your melee damage) and a Bat'leth, you can just go to town on them while everyone else deals with the squishier borg.
-Kill Borg nodes first to prevent regeneration, kill regular drones (possibly tactical drones) to prevent more Borg appearing, but don't ignore Proto-Drones entirely
-Stay at range with Borg, kite with any skills useful for such
-Useful space skills: Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift, Tractor Beam, Scramble Sensors, Emergency Power to Weapons, Beam Overload, Rapid Fire/Fire at Will
-Continue my weapon upgrading (obviously), look into anti-Borg weaponry at Battle Group Omega
-Medic spec doesn't necessarily mean much more than having a medic kit
Any recommendations on types for my beemz? I'd been favouring Tetryon.
Also, is Tachyon Beam as useless as it seems to be now? It served me so well for so long, now it barely seems to make a dent.
Man, I think I AM regretting taking the DSSV instead of the Recon Science ship. I needs more firepower!
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
Tetryon is indeed a good choice.
However, keep in mind that Phasers have a chance to literally take all of a ship's subweapons and subsystems offline, per hit.
While Tetryons are better for PVP and dealing with Spheres and Probes, a well timed Phaser burst can ruin a Cube's day if you pop a set of Tricobalt mines near it, or fire a Tricobalt torp at it. If you want to go with the torpedo route (Which is largely more useful for most other factions.), you can pick it up from pretty much any end-game token/emblem vendor.
The mine layer can, as far as I know, only be obtained by doing the hidden bonus mission in the space portion of Infected. You have to avoid destroying the transmitters. By doing so, you'll get a random anti borg purple drop at the end of the space portion. Sometimes it's an antiborg tricobalt mine launcher.
Suffice it to say that if one tricobalt torpedo is dangerous, a slew of tricobalt mines heading toward's your target is downright lethal if their shields are down. They're also anti-borg, which means they have a chance, per mine, to pretty much instakill anything up to a Cube. And you can't even shoot them all down!
It seems that AntiProton beams are considered the best though to be honest with you, im not sure why...AP weapons is an admiral skill. I guess it's because it has the most chances at critical damage.
phasers are best bang for the buck since they seem to be the cheapest to level up..+ chance at disabling a subsystem. tetryons are good at dismantling shields and plasma has DoT. Disruptors have a damage resistance debuf. Polarons lower power levels..
I think beyond the supposed superiority of antiprotons...it's just a question of what effects you like the most on top some weapon skills cost more to level up than others....which..doesn't really make sense to me.
So I realize that I'm not sure if I'm helping or not...but that's what I've seen.
Personally..I've got my skill points spent on phasers, tetryons and antiprotons so I'm going to have a mix of those three weapons for a technicolor array of destruction.
For proto drones, the prototype proton rifle is awesome for them. The alt fire will kill a tight cluster of them outright.
It's just an amazing weapon all around. Higher primary DPS than all but a handful of other weapons, crazy crit severity, and a secondary fire that's good on single targets and ungodly on tight groups. Plus, against borg especially you can use the triolic pattern enhancer offensively with it - mobs get the general defense bonus from it, but also a massive weakness to the proton rifle's alt fire.
I'm using antiproton weapons currently, but to be honest, I'm not sold on them. The damage output is tangibly higher than it was with my old tetryon setup, but I had to move a lot of skill points to fit that skill. In an escort, it also pretty much forces me to drop my beam skill and focus just on cannons, which in turn means I don't really like my Defiant retrofit, since without beam overload I can't figure out much use for all those ensign tactical skills.
The damage output might be a bit higher, but take out a shield system with phasers and unload a torpedo for the same effect.
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
Ooooo, good call, good call. I'll go with phasers for now then, and maybe stash some Tetryon stuff away for later.
Tricobalt weapons! I'll try to pick up a torpedo launcher asap, and I'll remember to watch for the mine layer.
The mine layers are also pretty useful for Khitomer Accord and Infected once you know where to place them.
KA's space portion gets a hell of a lot easier once you realize you can lay down a bunch of planet destroying mines in the path of the spheres, so that they reach the mines as soon as their shields go down.
For Infected, if you use the "behind the gate" trick, you can place the mines inside the gate itself. Provided they don't aggro the gateway (Not sure if they do this. But it'd be useful if they did anyways.), the probes, spheres, and cubes will have to go through a minefield of doom to actually get to your fleet.
Edit: I think the misconception that AP weaponry is better comes from the belief that it has higher DPS. While that's true, last I checked, it was a very negligible gain compared to more common weaponry, like phasers. Pretty sure that AP weaponry also costs less at the antiborg vendors too. Though I might be wrong about that.
Either way, i'd take disabling a ship entirely over a few more points of damage. This isn't a straight tank n spank sort of game like WoW. Position, tactics, and maneuvering plays a large role. Being able to knock out someone's engines, take down their weapons, or shields, for a few seconds is a hell of an advantage if you capitalize on it.
It seems that AntiProton beams are considered the best though to be honest with you, im not sure why...AP weapons is an admiral skill. I guess it's because it has the most chances at critical damage.
phasers are best bang for the buck since they seem to be the cheapest to level up..+ chance at disabling a subsystem. tetryons are good at dismantling shields and plasma has DoT. Disruptors have a damage resistance debuf. Polarons lower power levels..
I think beyond the supposed superiority of antiprotons...it's just a question of what effects you like the most on top some weapon skills cost more to level up than others....which..doesn't really make sense to me.
So I realize that I'm not sure if I'm helping or not...but that's what I've seen.
Personally..I've got my skill points spent on phasers, tetryons and antiprotons so I'm going to have a mix of those three weapons for a technicolor array of destruction.
All I went for was color. I wanted orange beems so it was either phaser or antiprotons. I picked antiprotons so I could put those emblems to use.
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ArchonexNo hard feelings, right?Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
Antiproton ground weaponry looks like a childrens toy, however. And not even the good kind of toy, like the type two phaser rifle.
More like a "Oh shit, we made this thing out of plastic. I hope you don't try to melee with it." sort of tacky toy look.
anyone know of any good guides on character building? I'm thinking about using one of my respec tokens finally so I'm messing around with that online character planner.
My philosophy still seems to be to ignore ground combat skills. I just don't understand why you'd divide your skill points. Even when ground combat gets revamped as it supposedly will be, I just don't see the point in investing in ground combat in a Star Trek game.
Sometimes it feels like the vast majority of these skills don't matter much (including space skills). Like someone else said earlier...tachyon beam seems rather weaksauce in the upper levels of the game, but was sorta useful when I first started out. I hate spending points on skills that improve tachyon beam in the case of me finding a better BO skill and burning another token to re-optimize for that skill....unless of course I buy a retrain token from the c-store..which im sure is part of the plan.
I wish I could get phaser banks that fired the the phasers in Trek 1-6, specifically in Kahn. My Excel is desperate for them.
Since we've already got most of the TOS bases covered, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that TMP-era gear will make an appearance in the near future.
Though, speaking of TOS stuff, I'd like to see a weapon that uses the white bolt effect that phasers (and in later eps, torpedoes) used in the original series.
Posts
install folder (default c:\program files\cryptic studios\star trek online)\live\screenshots
For tribble screenshots it's playtest instead of live.
Unfortunately, while finding this out, my enhancer crashed two of our teammates during the Infected run. Whoops.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Whoa, that's a wicked awesome homage to the original Devidians cane.
I wanna play my Ferengi science captain some more, now.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Movie Collection
Foody Things
Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
This game is purty.
And flying around in the new sector space:
Maybe later this week or next weekend. The Infected or The Cure (prefer the Cure, but the more people who get The Infected done, the more who will be available for future runs of The Cure).
Just gotta make sure we have a medic when we run through with my engineer...
Movie Collection
Foody Things
Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
I'm a science captain currently using a DSSV; rank is Rear Admiral Lower Half (one level till Upper Half). Just set foot into the Borg sector, and, uh...it seems like a pretty hefty jump in terms of difficulty. So here are some inquiries.
-What causes the Borg drones to continuously transport in, and how do I stop it? 0.o
-I'm getting to the point where I feel I should start caring about my spec (till now it's mostly been stuff I was using at the time, figuring I'd respec when I reached this point). Any recommendations as to what's effective or what's not? I'm assuming I should spec as a medic, since there seems to be fewer of those around in general.
-My ship in general feels...ineffective. My weapons and abilities seem to make so little impact on anything bigger than a frigate. I'm not entirely sure what's changed, but I noticed it when I went from the captain ship to the rear admiral ship. Any thoughts? I've kept my equipment as up to date as possible, and trained my BOs a fair bit...
-Finally, would I be allowed to join the PA fleet? I'm not online as much as some people are, but eventually I think it'd be cool to try those STFs with you guys!
Keep moving with borg. In earlier missions anything short of a swordmaster you could sit and tank. But borg will really mess you up with chain holds and nasty debuffs if you try that.
If there's an interlink node in a borg pull, kill that before anything. With a node up, borg become immortal. Instead of dying they go into regeneration and come back in a few minutes. Can get ridiculous fast with proto drones beaming in all over the place.
Make sure all your weapons are mkX if possible. Unless you have really good blue or purple mkIX even whites are likely to be upgrades.
Spec and loadout I'll leave to somebody with science experience. Escorts are more my thing. Make sure you're not on the all even power setting, though.
Ask in the Penny Arcade channel and just about anyone can shoot you a fleet invite.
The main threat from borg isn't their ranged enemies (Though a boss level NPC will give you a run for your money early on before you get geared up with purps.). It's their nanoprobe infection, which they do at melee range.
They can stack this debuff on you. It will first initiate a long hold, allowing other Borg to use it on you. Each one does a large amount of HP DoT as the infection continues. It also lowers your move speed, meaning you can't escape from the Borg that get in close.
Basically, treat the Borg like zombies in other games. Set up barricades and turrets with engineers to slow their advance down, never get into melee range against them unless it's to initiate an ability that will screw them up, and keep a science officer or two around to do direct HP heals for those who get infected. Using weapons that initiate knockback on the initiation of their special, like sniper rifles, helps too.
Compared to a tactical captain, you will have low damage output. However there's some mitigating things you can do. Pick up all power to weapons, and phaser beam overload. If you want to utterly obliterate someone in a way that's nearly impossible to defend against, pop all of your bonus to attack cooldowns, use the all power to weapons with all power going to weapons, and get in close and use phaser beam overload and attack with full weapons energy.
A good phaser attack from that range and position will usually do upwards of 7K damage in one go provided you have a MKX or MKXI phaser slotted. To give you some perspective, that's enough to halve the shields on some end-game bosses. And it's easily repeatable too (Especially if you get your hands on a tactical officer that can reduce cooldown times.).
A science officers main benefit is that they're the utility gods. They can root a ship, stun it, or outright ruin it's shielding defenses with the click of a button. Hell, if you want, you can put a goddamn rift to the Phantom Zone or something in the middle of a cube and watch as it spazzes out as it's set on fire and tries to escape. This isn't even getting into the fact that their selection of skills make them the healers of the game too. Everyone can heal others, but noone can do it as well as a science officer can.
Keep in mind that if you're doing low damage to Borg NPC's compared to others, there are special weapons available at the Battlegroup at the entrance to Borg territory that sell weaponry that have a chance to do what's basically instant kill level damage to most Borg. That might be part of the problem. If you just reached the end-game, there are others out there who have had much more time to gear up then you.
Oh and I'm up for helping out this weekend with Infected and cure runs....may even start a science officer at some point soon now that I've maxed out my Engineer
Enlist in Star Citizen! Citizenship must be earned!
<- I'm totally a medic.
Actually I have all of the IX Science Kits because I have so many of those exploration badges that I had no other use for them (even after buying them all, I still have a ton).
I'll request a fleet invite next time I'm online!
Another vote for tractor beam. That skill combined with sensor scan, rapid fire or fire at will and a high yield torpedo with a dash of beam overload will see most ships turn into smoking wrecks. Science ships are maneuverable enough that even a beam build with forward and rear torpedoes can unload everything if they go broadside and latch on.
Scramble Sensors is a great skill to deal with the Borg swarms. They just love to blow each other up.
If you're particularly fond of MORE DAKKA, consider the Recon Science Vessel when you get the chance. It has three delicious tactical console slots, and that's up to 26 more points to your energy damage type of choice!
Damage type consoles stack. Love them, hug them, keep them close. They make all the difference.
And innit the vanilla drones who summon proto drones? Any which way, make sure to zap them when they pop up. A couple proto drones from behind can cause an entire party to wipe. The Ghost Buster is absolutely fantastic for dealing with those buggers in a hurry.
Umnum. What else. Oh, Elites. They gain temporary invulnerability to energy damage at 75% health, but they're still susceptible to kinetic. So if you're running a kit with Dyovelinawhatsamacallit (adds 50% or more to your melee damage) and a Bat'leth, you can just go to town on them while everyone else deals with the squishier borg.
-Kill Borg nodes first to prevent regeneration, kill regular drones (possibly tactical drones) to prevent more Borg appearing, but don't ignore Proto-Drones entirely
-Stay at range with Borg, kite with any skills useful for such
-Useful space skills: Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift, Tractor Beam, Scramble Sensors, Emergency Power to Weapons, Beam Overload, Rapid Fire/Fire at Will
-Continue my weapon upgrading (obviously), look into anti-Borg weaponry at Battle Group Omega
-Medic spec doesn't necessarily mean much more than having a medic kit
Any recommendations on types for my beemz? I'd been favouring Tetryon.
Also, is Tachyon Beam as useless as it seems to be now? It served me so well for so long, now it barely seems to make a dent.
Man, I think I AM regretting taking the DSSV instead of the Recon Science ship. I needs more firepower!
However, keep in mind that Phasers have a chance to literally take all of a ship's subweapons and subsystems offline, per hit.
While Tetryons are better for PVP and dealing with Spheres and Probes, a well timed Phaser burst can ruin a Cube's day if you pop a set of Tricobalt mines near it, or fire a Tricobalt torp at it. If you want to go with the torpedo route (Which is largely more useful for most other factions.), you can pick it up from pretty much any end-game token/emblem vendor.
The mine layer can, as far as I know, only be obtained by doing the hidden bonus mission in the space portion of Infected. You have to avoid destroying the transmitters. By doing so, you'll get a random anti borg purple drop at the end of the space portion. Sometimes it's an antiborg tricobalt mine launcher.
Suffice it to say that if one tricobalt torpedo is dangerous, a slew of tricobalt mines heading toward's your target is downright lethal if their shields are down. They're also anti-borg, which means they have a chance, per mine, to pretty much instakill anything up to a Cube. And you can't even shoot them all down!
Tricobalt weapons! I'll try to pick up a torpedo launcher asap, and I'll remember to watch for the mine layer.
phasers are best bang for the buck since they seem to be the cheapest to level up..+ chance at disabling a subsystem. tetryons are good at dismantling shields and plasma has DoT. Disruptors have a damage resistance debuf. Polarons lower power levels..
I think beyond the supposed superiority of antiprotons...it's just a question of what effects you like the most on top some weapon skills cost more to level up than others....which..doesn't really make sense to me.
So I realize that I'm not sure if I'm helping or not...but that's what I've seen.
Personally..I've got my skill points spent on phasers, tetryons and antiprotons so I'm going to have a mix of those three weapons for a technicolor array of destruction.
Enlist in Star Citizen! Citizenship must be earned!
It's just an amazing weapon all around. Higher primary DPS than all but a handful of other weapons, crazy crit severity, and a secondary fire that's good on single targets and ungodly on tight groups. Plus, against borg especially you can use the triolic pattern enhancer offensively with it - mobs get the general defense bonus from it, but also a massive weakness to the proton rifle's alt fire.
I'm using antiproton weapons currently, but to be honest, I'm not sold on them. The damage output is tangibly higher than it was with my old tetryon setup, but I had to move a lot of skill points to fit that skill. In an escort, it also pretty much forces me to drop my beam skill and focus just on cannons, which in turn means I don't really like my Defiant retrofit, since without beam overload I can't figure out much use for all those ensign tactical skills.
The damage output might be a bit higher, but take out a shield system with phasers and unload a torpedo for the same effect.
The mine layers are also pretty useful for Khitomer Accord and Infected once you know where to place them.
KA's space portion gets a hell of a lot easier once you realize you can lay down a bunch of planet destroying mines in the path of the spheres, so that they reach the mines as soon as their shields go down.
For Infected, if you use the "behind the gate" trick, you can place the mines inside the gate itself. Provided they don't aggro the gateway (Not sure if they do this. But it'd be useful if they did anyways.), the probes, spheres, and cubes will have to go through a minefield of doom to actually get to your fleet.
Edit: I think the misconception that AP weaponry is better comes from the belief that it has higher DPS. While that's true, last I checked, it was a very negligible gain compared to more common weaponry, like phasers. Pretty sure that AP weaponry also costs less at the antiborg vendors too. Though I might be wrong about that.
Either way, i'd take disabling a ship entirely over a few more points of damage. This isn't a straight tank n spank sort of game like WoW. Position, tactics, and maneuvering plays a large role. Being able to knock out someone's engines, take down their weapons, or shields, for a few seconds is a hell of an advantage if you capitalize on it.
All I went for was color. I wanted orange beems so it was either phaser or antiprotons. I picked antiprotons so I could put those emblems to use.
More like a "Oh shit, we made this thing out of plastic. I hope you don't try to melee with it." sort of tacky toy look.
Why was I not told this before? Bat'leth bought'leth'ed.
ds9 iirc.
They're kinda fun to take back to the really old fleet actions and just zoom around.
My philosophy still seems to be to ignore ground combat skills. I just don't understand why you'd divide your skill points. Even when ground combat gets revamped as it supposedly will be, I just don't see the point in investing in ground combat in a Star Trek game.
Sometimes it feels like the vast majority of these skills don't matter much (including space skills). Like someone else said earlier...tachyon beam seems rather weaksauce in the upper levels of the game, but was sorta useful when I first started out. I hate spending points on skills that improve tachyon beam in the case of me finding a better BO skill and burning another token to re-optimize for that skill....unless of course I buy a retrain token from the c-store..which im sure is part of the plan.
I just...ugh....hate this skill system.
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Since we've already got most of the TOS bases covered, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that TMP-era gear will make an appearance in the near future.
Though, speaking of TOS stuff, I'd like to see a weapon that uses the white bolt effect that phasers (and in later eps, torpedoes) used in the original series.
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I'm pretty sure he's talking about the fast-firing bolt style phasers they had for awhile (most notably in ST2).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbtvQUYXbQk&feature=related