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[White Haven]

First-off, these used to be engineering, but are now science, you want one of the +shield consoles. They don't stack, so you can't just gob up your science slots with them, but having one is invaluable. Not shield power, not shield regen, but just raw +shield (usually 35% if you're in a sovvy). DO YOUR BORG MISSIONS. This is so you can get the godawful-amazing Borg universal console from the Assimilation mission, and put that in another science slot. As for engineering consoles, unless they un-nerf the subsystem power consoles from 3.5 to 7, they're sorta silly in most cases. If you're building this to go after Special Task Forces at 50, which is basically all there is to do unless you really want to do PVP, you're going to want anti-plasma and anti-kinetic consoles in your engineering slots for survivability, mostly. Your mileage may vary, but that's a combo that's done well by me.

[charlemagne]

For eng consoles, I usually run with resists (kin + energy damage), plus an EPS flow regulator and maybe a +weapon power one. Especially the latter ones are really helpful in countering the power drain from running 6+ beams and having FAW on constant cooldown.

[tim31]

Final episode of The 2800 started wonderfully and then finished with an impossible space battle. Bracketed from every angle, respawn after respawn.

[charlemagne]

Well, you should have felt relieved when the Enterprise swooped in to save the day

[Atia]

I really like the bridge of the new Enterprise. I don't think I've seen it before. Is it new or just one from the C-Store I haven't bothered to look at?

[charlemagne]

It's not avaible to players yet AFAIK, but yeah, it looks great and like something you'd find on a behemoth like the Odyssey class.

I just had fun whiping over and over in Terradome / Deja Vu with a bunch of STO endgame noobs Good thing I finally joined a fleet, though.

[White Haven]

That last mission was great, finally a space battle outside of an STF that isn't a piss-easy yawnfest.

[Alferd Packer]

That last battle was a shit show. I blew up more times than I care to admit. But overall a fun series, though I seriously dislike runabout/shuttle missions.

[Atia]

I don't understand all this talk about the final battle being hard. What are you people doing it in? It was a fun little battle but even my my sugar-glass hulled escort preformed admirably and didn't explode once.

[White Haven]

You fly a cruiser, don't you, Packer? I mean...what was killing you? It was a bit of a challenge, but my hull was barely ever even dinged.

[Agent Sorchus]

I died more than 4 times, but that is almost to be expected since I did it in a Bird of Prey and unfortunately I drop too much threat to survive being in the middle of a Jam Hadar fleet with only half shields from the beginning. In the end I just cloaked and let the Enterprise and her constantly respawning fleet to do the work.

I have to agree that the fight just wasn't fun. The AI seems to focus fire too much since I got 2 battleships too drop torp spreads on me at once. Not like I can stop more than one usually, and 2 is impossible. Hell two torps landing on raw hull will kill me at 12k a pop.

[White Haven]

No, the fight wasn't piss-easy like almost everything else in STO. It still doesn't even hold a candle to the kind of 'this will crush my hull like a tin can' firepower that you square off against in elite STFs, but I don't either expect or want it to. It's not group content, and it's for everyone, not for those specifically looking for a serious challenge. It's a moderate to minor challenge with a well-equipped ship, scaling up to a more serious challenge if you're either poorly-equipped or still levelling.

[Agent Sorchus]

That isn't my problem with it. My problem is that A) I start at half shield strength immediately and B) that eventually no matter what I do the Enterprise will finish every single opponent. Oh and C) that what is clearly a great possibility is wasted. Theoretically the big climactic battle could've seen you in control of the station. Naturally that would be more difficult programming and creating the content for, but as it is the NPC's will win anyway and you might as well have stayed on the station for all the good you do. (If it was more difficult I could understand, but from when the enterprise showed up it is a joke.)

[White Haven]

Well, sure, if you want to stick your thumb up your ass, you could let Enterprise kill everything. Or you could man up and kill everything yourself like the Big Damned Hero that a starship captain is supposed to be.

[Alferd Packer]

You fly a cruiser, don't you, Packer? I mean...what was killing you? It was a bit of a challenge, but my hull was barely ever even dinged.

Well, for whatever reason(perhaps by design), the Dominion fleet spawned right on top of me. I mean, there were ten ships within two kilometers of me. I got demolished by the combined fire of about twenty JH ships in about 10 seconds, even with my buffs. Then I made the mistake of spamming my beam fire at will, which drew the aggro of the fleet again. Finally, once I got my act together, all other allied ships were dead besides the Defiant and the Enterprise, and I just couldn't keep up with the pounding I was taking. I would knock one or two ships out before I'd be overwhelmed, and it was only when a fresh fleet of allied reinforcements warped in that I was able to really focus and take down single targets without earning the ire of the whole fleet.

I dunno, I think my fighting mentality is geared more towards fighting the Borg. I swear, I spend half my time over in Ker'rat, because I have zero problems taking out probes, spheres, and even cubes if I have someone helping me out.

[Vanas]

I'm not seeing the problem with the battle at the end. Admittedly, I'm not playing on a difficulty over normal, but it was large, it was definitely enjoyable and my Excelsior refit din't dip below 80% hull at any point. Even after accidentally/ totally intentionally Firing at Will through the middle of the fleet. I spent my time smacking Jemmie battleships for the amusement value.

All in all, this series was pretty darn good, like the Devidian and Romulan arcs. More like this please.

[White Haven]

And when Vanas doesn't explode whilst doing something, no one does.

[Spoonist]

So what's up with the DOFF system? I get more loot and more XP passively doing DOFF missions than I do running regular missions. Especially exploration missions.

I love the DOFF feeling, but WTF, isn't it supposed to be 'on the side' and not being the prime focus?

Heck, looking at the exchange I could get more EC for a couple of DOFFs than I could for selling everything else I own.

[charlemagne]

I like that I can more or less level my tac alt through DOFF missions Also in my experience only rewards for critical success are really high, and on low level chars you won't have that many good officers to get that many crits.

[Spoonist]

Also in my experience only rewards for critical success are really high, and on low level chars you won't have that many good officers to get that many crits.

With a crit range of 10-20% that doesn't matter...
I've moved from level 30 to 40 in a couple of days with only 3 "real" missions played and perhaps 8-10 exploration ones. The rest is DOFF, and I've not bought any DOFFs or even gone event cruising like some do.
It got even worse with the new gold bordered DOFF missions.

[charlemagne]

Ok, but what exactly is so bad about that? It just means that you get the highest level rewards for missions much sooner and don't have to replay missions when you e.g. want the Reman shield at MK XI instead MK VI or whatever

Yeah, it means that you won't really get to "spend time" with a new ship before being thrown into the next tier, but let's be honest: while levelling is nice and fun, it doesn't really matter if you spend 1 week at a tier or just 2 days. All missions scale to your level, so missions won't become trivial, you can't outlevel anything. If you don't mind gimping yourself a bit you can even continue to use your favorite tier 2 or 3 ship in pve, by putting higher mark items on it it'll stay competitive enough outside of anything like elite fleet actions.

Or you can just stop doing DOFF missions

[Spoonist]

Well, it removes the feeling of accomplishment. I mean STO was really easy to level up in anyway, but this is just ridiculus. I don't mind them giving BOFF xp since that seems logical, but all the character XP just means I'll reach 50 by next week and that will be it.
Also, I'm gettting better ship/ground weapons/consoles/whatever from the DOFF system than I get as rewards for finishing missions.
Now that I got the contraband thingie going I'm even getting 3-5k dil daily without even trying hard. Feels too easy, like robbing kids outside the candy store.

[Alferd Packer]

Is there an easy way to get in on a Borg sector defense daily mission? I know they're on a timer, but I seem to have arse for luck when it comes to actually responding to one in time.

[Edward Yee]

Yeah, it means that you won't really get to "spend time" with a new ship before being thrown into the next tier, but let's be honest: while levelling is nice and fun, it doesn't really matter if you spend 1 week at a tier or just 2 days. All missions scale to your level, so missions won't become trivial, you can't outlevel anything. If you don't mind gimping yourself a bit you can even continue to use your favorite tier 2 or 3 ship in pve, by putting higher mark items on it it'll stay competitive enough outside of anything like elite fleet actions.

The problem is more that, in my experience, the difficulty scaling outstrips the rewards' scaling -- I've found that it can actually take longer for me to complete ground missions at VA50 (me and my away team wiping against a mob group isn't underheard of) than at lower levels. It's seemingly more time-efficient to level by the story missions, at least the ones whose quest rewards don't scale, than to try to get through them at VA50.

[Vanas]

And when Vanas doesn't explode whilst doing something, no one does.

Damn straight. I had actually remembered to equip my ship with guns that work and engines this time, mind.