STO Tips and Strategies Thread

[SFRabid]

Since there are some knowledgeable, intelligent and helpful people here I thought this would be a good place for a tips and strategies thread. It would be especially helpful to spread knowledge among the BBS Fleet. I did not play beta and am still learning a lot about the game but I will share what I know and edit in any new information.

I do suggest that people put a heading on each post to make it easy for people searching for specific information.

 

[SFRabid]

Ground Strategies – Solo Engineer and Kits

Solo ground missions are not usually hard but things can get hectic with officers running around without any real control. I’ve developed a tactic that helps keep my group together and changes the flow of battle. I’m using an engineer but this strategy can most likely be adapted to any character.

First, prepare your kit and put all kit options in the character action bar. I currently use a Mk IV kit giving me the option to set up shields, healing and phaser arrays. If you don’t edit your action bar you will only have access to one of the three options. To make room in my action bar I replaced inventory slots with kit option slots. Once I started using this kit I never had a need for hypo’s, battery chargers, etc… The one remaining inventory slot can be used for special items such as fire extinguishers.

There is a sweet zone between you and your ground target where you are close enough to fire weapons but not close enough to draw agro. Learn this distance and make use of it. I set up a triangle of devices from my kit in this zone. At the furthest point from the enemy I put a shield unit and a healing unit side by side, then move up a bit and create my phaser array. If you don’t move around too much while doing this your officers will not wonder into agro range and battle will not begin until you finish building the turrent. Once completed it will start firing at an enemy.

The more devices you build the more enemy soldiers will rush in and try to take them out. This pulls the enemy to you and has some very good results. Some enemy soldiers will concentrate damaging devices instead of damaging officers. You can focus on knocking them off of their feet with hand to hand combat. This can also put them in the middle of a circle of your officers giving your team a lot of bonus damage created with side and back shots. I notice my engineering officer repairing the devices which was a nice touch.

When the battle is over, move on. Don’t try to draw more mobs with range of the devices. They have a timer and will disappear soon after one encounter. Note, common kits only have one or two options. Search the market and pay extra for a kit with three options at a good deal. I’ve more than paid for my kit by selling the hypo’s and shield rechargers that I no longer use.

 

[SFRabid]

The Exchange

You should have noticed by now that there is no sort features on the exchange. While this is a major hassle you can make it work for you. When buying a kit and other items for my engineer I notice the wide range of prices. The prices for my chosen kit ranged from 1,400 to 30,000. Even using level filtering and text searching there were pages and pages of kits to look through. It is a time consuming process and many player don’t bother looking at every page. In addition, new items tend to go to the end of the list. The last page. Noting that most sellers look at prices and try to price their items just below the competition it leads to finding better prices towards the end of the list. Thus, if there are 10 pages of items to look through it will take a while but you will usually find the best prices on the last three pages. I guess many players give up and buy something beforfe getting that far. I also noticed that I can sometimes find items below the amount the vendors will pay. Each item has a listed value in the description and a vendor will pay one half of the amount. When I see a shield that lists a value of 5,000 on the market for 2,000 I buy it and sell it to a vendor for 500 profit. This leads to another point. Don’t get so caught up in price wars that you price something below 50 percent of the listed value. If you are going that low, sell it to a vendor.

If you have plenty of money and want an item with bonus effects it is easy to search for those items. They are denoted by a pair of brackets enclosing the label of the effect. In text search add a bracket to the end of the description to see only these items. Example, “Combat Engine Mk IV [“ with show combat engines with extra speed, turning, etc…

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Well when fighting a Bird of Prey squadron I can offer this advice, you should approach them slowly so you can get one ship in weapons range before the others are in range and you blast the f@#ker with everything you have as well as any bridge officer abilities that will damage and/or otherwise weaken you target. This should allow you to take one out quickly so they don't gang up on you and take you out.

 

[aelius]

Also, if you are running out of space on your hot bar, you can expand it to two or three bars using the tabs labeled 1, 2 and 3 in the upper right corner of the bar.
I usually expand it to three bars and then create hot keys in the options, then shrink it back down to 2. This enables me to control multiple abilities from multiple officers and still have plenty of space on my screen.

 

[NickInABox]

Okay, so I was wondering if someone could help me out here. I'm using disruptor arrays as my main beam, and quantum mark two's for my projectile. I'm a Tier 2 escort with a mark IV shield.
I'm playing 'City on the Edge of Never' and I am getting RAPED by the Klingons. I can't even get one shield down before my hull is below 50%. I'm using the same strategy that I've used before, and haven't had a problem until now. Is this a bug that they're impossible to beat? Or does anyone have a tip?

 

[Amaris]

^ Ditto, except for me it's my ground game. It takes less than two minutes to completely incapacitate my team, and we're all armed to the teeth. It is downright brutal!

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

An easy trick to handle superior ground numbers is to concentrate the whole teams fire on one target.
Give most if not all your crewmembers expose attacks, so the chance to expose the enemy is maximized.
Carry at least one efficient exploit gun with you and wait for the right moment to vaporize him.
Pick next target and repeat...

Cover yourself with shield and healing generators.

If your on closed terrain like a base or a ship stand at the wall, so no one can flank you from behind.

In open terrain use the projected cover to keep your back clear.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

A good thing to have in space battles with Romulans is a mine launcher, the mines can actually act as a flak barrier and intercept heavy plasma torpedos. Plus when the Romulan ship or ships get in range they can get hurt pretty bad making them easier to take out.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Has anybody yet foudn a way to counter the Viral Matrix skill?
It happens everytime to me I fight at least a D'deridex or a Scimitar that I get hit by this nasty purple shit and get completely immobilized for what feels like forever.
If I get lucky I'm not alone and not shot at that much during that period, so my shields hold until I can move again.

Is there a protective skill that shields me against it?

 

[aelius]

^ Ditto, except for me it's my ground game. It takes less than two minutes to completely incapacitate my team, and we're all armed to the teeth. It is downright brutal!

I find the best bet on the ground is to give most of my people area effect expose weapons, while I carry two area exploit weapons.
It gives me two immediate heavy damage area attacks and with two guns I usually have one charged if enemies are exposed. In one battle I vaporized 5 Klingons at once.
Also when you start fighting Romulans some of them have this very annoying ability to recharge their shields. I have a technique to stop this which works, but is...odd for Starfleet officers. I try to pin them up against a solid object and repeatedly butt stroke them. After 3 to 5 smacks they usually become exposed at which point I vaporize them. This prevents them from recharging the shield and eliminates the threat quickly.
But it does look very brutal. I run up and smash them in the face with my rifle butt several times and then disintegrate them. I had to laugh the first time I got frustrated enough to do it. Originally I was just trying to keep them from recharging by subjecting them to a physical attack, which can disrupt the recharge ability.

 

[Brolan]

Has anybody yet foudn a way to counter the Viral Matrix skill?
It happens everytime to me I fight at least a D'deridex or a Scimitar that I get hit by this nasty purple shit and get completely immobilized for what feels like forever.
If I get lucky I'm not alone and not shot at that much during that period, so my shields hold until I can move again.

Is there a protective skill that shields me against it?

From the description it would seem a tactical officer with Tactical Team I would stop it. Haven't tried it yet however.

 

[Ayelbourne]

You can counter Viral Matrix with Science Team.
Attack Pattern Omega is said to work as well.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Also when you start fighting Romulans some of them have this very annoying ability to recharge their shields.

Plasma weapons are also a good way to deal with Romulans on the ground because some damage will get past their sheilds.

 

[Ayelbourne]

^Melee weapons are useful too as they ignore shields completely.
In fact, when I got my Luna class, I switched out my second sci BO for the second tactical BO. Gave him a nice Mk X Bat'leth and some martial arts skills.
Now I always send him to attack shielded enemies.

 

[Further]

In space battles, the best strategy is to fly directly into the group of enemy ships, target one and spam weapons (spacebar) until your ship is destroyed, then wait 5-10 seconds for your ship to respawn, and rinse, repeat.

 

[Destructor]

In space battles, the best strategy is to fly directly into the group of enemy ships, target one and spam weapons (spacebar) until your ship is destroyed, then wait 5-10 seconds for your ship to respawn, and rinse, repeat.

This is probably the worst advice anyone could ever give you. I have never once touched spacebar in over a month of space combat. In the time your ship respawns and makes it back to the site of battle, your enemies will COMPLETELY REPAIR THEMSELVES. This is Sisyphean logic at it's finest- an endless battle.

The best strategy is to stay on one side of your chosen target, punch a hole in the shields and lob some high-yield torps into the hole- preferable with a mate backing you up.

 

[Biggshow]

What do you do with all the anomalies, etc.?

I have collected tons of this stuff and Romaine is no help. Is this a bug in the game? Or have any of you had success with using them to upgrade equipment?

 

[Rincewiend]

What do you do with all the anomalies, etc.?

I have collected tons of this stuff and Romaine is no help. Is this a bug in the game? Or have any of you had success with using them to upgrade equipment?

In the same room there is a computer you have to acces, after that you can exchange them for equipment.

 

[Further]

In space battles, the best strategy is to fly directly into the group of enemy ships, target one and spam weapons (spacebar) until your ship is destroyed, then wait 5-10 seconds for your ship to respawn, and rinse, repeat.

This is probably the worst advice anyone could ever give you. I have never once touched spacebar in over a month of space combat. In the time your ship respawns and makes it back to the site of battle, your enemies will COMPLETELY REPAIR THEMSELVES. This is Sisyphean logic at it's finest- an endless battle.

The best strategy is to stay on one side of your chosen target, punch a hole in the shields and lob some high-yield torps into the hole- preferable with a mate backing you up.

Nonsense, it is the perfect strategy for this game the way it is currently designed. If you charge into a group of ships, and spam your weapons at one target, in all likelihood you will destroy or at least severely damage it.

It then takes at most 30 seconds to get back into battle with full shields and 100% hull, where you will either have one less ship to fight, or a ship which probably has not fully recovered from your last onslaught which you can target again.

In reality, your strategy is very little different than mine, the worst strategy ever. If your ship is destroyed during battle, what exactly do you intend to do next? My guess is that you'd fly back into battle and continue the fight.

The only difference between our two strategy's is that when near death, you would probably try to extract yourself from battle, heal, and then return, where I would continue dishing out as much damage as possible, fully knowing that it takes less time to die and reappear with 100% health, than it would to survive and wait for shields and hull damage to be repaired.

And exactly why do you choose not to use the spacebar? No matter how you decide to fight, spacebar targets as many weapons as possible onto the enemy, meaning you do not have to worry about firing arcs, and can easily fire multiple weapons at the same time if in the correct position.