Star Trek Online

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Supposedly, the next Featured Episode will revolve around DS9. They're reworking all of the involved art assets including a "canon" interior pack for the Defiant like the TOS pack.

I'm glad because from what I see when playing the game, the Defiant is by far the most popular choice for End Game Escort following not to closely by the Prometheus. Also, have any of you played with the revamped Torpedo Spread skill? I played around with TS1 & 2 and liked them a lot. Then I noticed one of the Bridge Officers in my pile had TS3. It's...glorious. I can fire four torpedoes each at up to nine targets. It may be a bit overpowered because it routinely crits for upwards of 30k+ damage. But, for now, TS3 and Cannon Scatter Volley 1 will mow down a PvE mob and it's a metric ton of fun to fire it into a ball of ships in PvP.

I only mess with high yield, honestly. I'm not all that effective in fleet actions because I tend to be a loner ( ) , and I don't do all that well in fleet actions or PvP because I'm flying escort with no cruiser tank to draw fire and no science ship to heal me.

My second fed character has jujst hit VA, but they want to charge me 500 emblems for a Defiant refit. That what you had to pay?

You get a token.

When you spend all of your skill points, you will be hailed by Admiral Quinn. Go see him before going to the Shipyard and he'll give you a token that can be spent on either the Defiant-R, Galaxy-R, or Intrepid-R.

Fixed.

Had a whole lot of luck killing those Cruisers lately?

[?= Vice Admiral Dudley "Mush" Morton (VA1), CO USS Midway (NCC-97643)]



[/?]

[?= Captain Eugene B. Fluckey (VA1), CO USS Barb (NCC-91220-A)]



[/?]

Really bored now. Swapped out my green Mk XII tetryon turrets for purple Mk XI. See if the crit and DMG bonus makes up for the slightly lower base damage. I've also never really given mines a chance, so I bought some purple Mk XI quantum mines to play around with.

Here's a dumb little thing that's been vexing me. Somehow I managed to lose a part of my UI, and no "restore defaults" option I try will get it back for me. See that bit circled in red? It's gone, and I can't get it back.

No, that's not a screenshot of mine. Just an image search result.

Escape -> Rearrange HUD -> Shift + Tab should reset everything to default.

Here's what I'm running on Eugene.

With the recent change to Torpedoes, I'm thinking about moving my Aft Quantum Launcher to the bow and putting another Turret on the stern. With the reduction in Global Cool Down to 1 second, I can pretty much run a continuous repeat of TS3 and THY3.

Except for the mine launcher I just bought, that's pretty much the same basic setup I run, except my cannons and turrets are all tetryon, and I split my tactical console space between quantum and tetryon. And I don't run an EPS flow regulator much anymore. I get way more benefit from laying off of the full impulse and running mission-specific armor with the field generator.

Having recently figured out the technical differences between Alloy, Hull Plating, and Hull Armor, I have acquired 1x [Console - Engineering - Diburnium Hull Plating Mk XI], 1x [Console - Engineering - Electroceramic Hull Plating Mk XI], and 1x [Console - Engineering - Parametallic Hull Plating Mk XI]. Each give +35 Damage Resistance to two energy damage types. I am noticing at least a small perceived difference when I rotate them in, as needed, in place of my EPS Flow Regulator.

I'm thinking about picking up a [Console - Engineering - Monotanium Alloy Mk XI] to add +35 Kinetic Damage Resistance because torps are really what's kicking my tail.

You know, I'm looking, and I don't see any clear indication that we'll ever see a 1-player version of Infected, Cure, etc. So basically no hope of ever getting a hold of the Borg equipment set unless you're lucky enough not to team up with a bunch of goobers who bail on you after you've put 45 minutes into completing the fucker. That happened to me several times, until I eventually gave up on ever completing those. Kinda like the fucking Crystalline Entity mission. I will never jump into that one again.

It's a shame, too. I like the specs better on the Aegis set, but I wouldn't mind having the Warp 14 Borg engines to use in sector space while my quantum slipstream drive is recharging.

This is the thing. I just checked again and the token I got will not allow me to get a retrofit. Whereas with my first Fed character and my Klingon character could both get retrofits straight away when they ranked. It's telling me I need 500 emblems per retrofit (and that includes the Excelsiors, Explorations, Defiants, et al).

Maybe I should make an enquiry with Cryptic.

Took it up with Cryptic. It was a bug. Now have a Defiant-R for my second Fed character.

So, with that quantum mine launcher out back, I started to miss my aft torpedo launcher. Then it occurred to me how little benefit I get out of my turrets. I mean, yea, it's another energy weapon with a 360 arc, so it'll fire foreward with my cannons, but the damage is a pittiance compared to dual heavy cannons. so I swapped out one of my turrets for that mk XI purple quantum torpedo launcher I removed. So my loadout is now:

Fore:
3x Mk XI purple Tetryon dual heavy cannons.
1x Mk XI purple Quantum torpedo launcher.

Aft:
1x Mk XI purple Tetryon Turret.
1x Mk XI purple Quantum Mine launcher.
1x Mk XI purple Quantum torpedo launcher.

Jury is still out on this setup, but I think I like it. I'd be tempted to swap out that last turret for a beam array to get a little more damage out of it if I could spare the skill points. Another aft weapon slot sure would solve this whole dilemma.

Also, I would give my left nut for two more engineering console slots in my retrofit Defiant.

I've found the Defiant's winning one-two punch combo that'll take down anything short of a Borg Cube/Tactical Cube/B'Ger.

1: Activate Torpedo Spread 3 and let the countdown timer start. You've got 30 seconds to use it and it puts Torpedo High Yied 3 on a 15 second global cooldown.
2: Close to ~4km.
3: When THY3 becomes available hit Attack Pattern Alpha 3, Cannon Rapid Fire 2, and Decloak.
4: As soon as TS3 launches, activate THY3, gun the engines into a 180 turn and hit 'em with four Quantum Torpedoes from your stern tube on the shield facing your cannon's have already stripped.

Poof!

Your enemy is now space garbage.

Why only Rapid Fire 2? What you describe is the basic idea behind my own attack pattern, but I hammer down the facing shield grid with RF3 before I cut loose the torpedo salvo. And that 180 turn often involves Evasive Maneuvers and Emergency Power to Engines combined with Polarize Hull, because otherwise someone will snag me with a tractor beam. And if I'm running mines, I'll drop them just as I'm executing the turn, then another torpedo salvo as the aft launcher comes to bear. By then it's time for Emergency Power to Shields, Science Team, maybe a shields battery and the Subspace Field Modulator because my pussy-ass shields are collapsing and I need all the help I can get. The Aegis reactive shielding and hull regeneration bonuses are helping a bit there, at least. If they're not dead yet and I'm running away to heal, sometimes Brace for Impact will save my ass from the torpedoes chasing me down. Sometimes.

This is for big badasses like borg cubes and human players, of course. Before I decloak, I'm hitting every single ability I have that boosts weapon power or damage (I have like 6 or 8 of them), so anything short of a human or a big battleship is exploding before I have to turn around on that first pass. A lot of those abilities are on long timers, though, so my first pass is always the best. But god damn can that first pass be impressive if I get lucky enough to hit all my crit chances all at once. The torpedo salvos alone can rack up multiples of 20,000+ damage.

I apologize, I meant Cannon Rapid Fire 1. I use Attack Pattern Omega 3 in lieu of Cannon Rapid Fire 3. My Science choices are Science Team (Shield Heal and it defeats the dreaded SubNuceleonic Beam AND Jam/Scramble Sensors) and Hazard Emitters (Hull Heal and it defeats that nasty Borg Shield Neutralizer). So, I had to have a Tractor Beam negating skill.'

Edit: Yeah, I love the Tactical Officer's innate damage increase skills. I've also found the joy of the skill "Go Down Fighting." When I waited until my hull was below 50% to activate it, I'd die before it could really help. But, with full hull and shields, it adds +50% damage*. Tactical Fleet also adds +30% damage. Attack Pattern Alpha 3 adds +64% damage. So, between those three, I've got +144% damage.

I don't usually burn all three together unless I'm in a really bad spot though. I prefer to spread them out a little.

* - A week or so ago, it occurred to me to pop Go Down Fighting when I had ~20% of my hull left. The mouse over text said it was good for +156% damage.

Thinking of respec now that I have my Defiant R. Any suggestions? My second fed character is an engineer.

Which Character are you thinking of Respecing? The Tactical Officer in the Defiant-R or the Engineer in the...?

Go Down Fighting is one of those I hit right away. There's still a small bonus, and I start taking damage immediately anyway. The only one I wait to hit until I'm about to die is Ramming Speed.
A nice little "Fuck You! " on the way out to whoever blew me up. I've taken out a Borg cube or two that way. Once in awhile it's even effective in PvP.


You know what I wish? That I could set up macros for these skills. One "attack boost" button, one "heal my shit" button, and one "run the fuck away" button. That's how I use them anyway. I'm just scrambling to hit them all.

I don't use them, but...

Yeah, I just found that place myself. It seems what I'm looking for has been deliberately defeated.

Well, then. Fuck you very much, Cryptic.

The engineer in the Def R

I think you've picked a good combo. Peronsally, I've found that a Tactical and Science Officers can do okay in Cruisers and Engineering and Science Officers can do okay in Escorts. The only time you fail is when you try to put something other than a Science Officer in a Science Ship.

There are just a few things you need to know. As an Engineer in an Escort, you'll never be able to replicate or produce the raw burst damage per second that a Tactical Officer can in an Escort. But, you'll be a lot more survivable, so your chances of producing the same amount damage over time are much better. There are many, many times I wish my Tac Officer had Rotate Shield Frequency and EPS Power Transfer.

I'm not exactly sure how they'd work it, but it might be cool if they'd let you "roll over" a character that hits the maximum rank. Keep the skills you have but start at the beginning in a different career path. You'd have to raise the skill point requirement for rank advancement, and group them separately for fleet actions and PvP. Existing skills/ships/weapons could only become active again once you hit the rank that allows for them again. Plus I guess the AI would have to "see" you differently for the difficulty setting.


I dunno. It'd be complicated to implement, but it's also another way to add playability without introducing new content.

UA, you can buy a gaming keyboard that you can program yourself. If it's keyboard commands you have to scramble for, there's even keyboards with mini-LCD screens that you can label "HEAL MY SHIT UP" and program that key for healing.

After some serious sample grafting I have managed to kit my Defiant R out in purple Mark XI weapons (Fore - Polaron array, Polaron beam bank, Polaron dual heavy cannons & Quantum Torps) (afte- Polaron array x2, Quantum torps). I respeced accordingly and bought the applicable blue mark XI consoles for each weapon, shield regeneration, enhanced defelctor and increased turn rate. I combined all this with the Borg console and the Aegis set. I also have the Borg engines, but I prefer the Aegis ones.

The difference to my original Tac officer is astounding. I might have to work on him next.

I read somewhere on the STO board that they're gonna try to move away from energy-specific skills in one of the next updates, meaning you won't have to spec for phaser/disruptor/plasma/tetryon/polaron/antiproton, so you could mix up energy types without giving up any damage.

Might be in part due to the next Defiant variant, fitted with some kind of quad phaser cannon. I guess there's a constant energy penalty just for having the thing installed, so you may not want to do the TOS phaser trick to get more than one of them. Also heard mention of a dual forward torpedo launcher, but none of this is confirmed. I'm wary of the new Defiant (I guess it's actually called the "Sao Paulo class," after the ship that replaced the Defiant near the end of DS9), but I will of course still buy it and give it a shot. They better not take away the cloak or something as the trade off. Honestly, I'd be happy if they'd just raise the level cap, give me some more console slots, and start selling MK12/13/14 gear.

And more mission content, of course.