Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well the latest expansion, Awakening is now live. As expected the dil:zen exchange has jumped 10 points, it's now 430:1. I just need to take a shot at the new episode to set the ball rolling, as well as the new patrols.

There's Unification which I'm at second-highest rank, the bottlenecks in fleet projects are refined Dilithium and Duty Officers- so you can contribute EC, you just have to buy DOFFS from the exchange first. Sometimes I feel I'm the only one contributing dil to the projects, as the colony leaderboard in particular attests.

[Lord Revan]

This is what Ouroboros raider looks on my klingon, that's the Honor Guard (aka borg rep) shield I'm using

[mr friendly guy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SO-SYrrd3g

The new lobi space set looks potential for plasma with 4.9% crit chance and extra renewing hangar pet. I could use my Romulan toon who already has romulan BOFFs which boost crit chance, and uses plasma, and combine with this set. Put in in a Dominion carrier with 6 hangar pets, use the Hur'q device to summon swarmer, use traits which summon hur'q swarmers, and use photonic fleet with boost (summons 4 ships instead of 3). I have 3.5% crit chance from endeavour skills, so I could potentially make a big crit chance carrier boost.

Boost crit with Lorca's custom fire control and possibly Zero-Point Energy Conduit for further quit chance and weapon strength boost.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I was a bit disappointed that the Lorca console was a tactical one instead of universal, though its crit boost still exceeds the base damage from the spire consoles. To get the most out of it I'll use with toons that have either phasers or disruptors so I can claim the 2-pc set bonus with the DBBs to offset the dmg loss from one fewer console.

If you want me to invite you to Unification just email me ingame, my username is the same.

[mr friendly guy]

My plan proceeds with my Klingon toon. Someone wanted me to join a fleet, got there and found out you needed 1 million fleet credits before you can buy stuff. Not to worry, using some dilithium and EC and in 2 days got 1 million fleet credits. Just need to wait for the higher ups to approve me.

I think I envisage raider or cruisers for my toon, with hit and run. Raiders have battle cloak, but to be honest, I have only used it once to escape. I can usually destroy the opponent, and then use regular cloak and move onto the next target. With that play style in mind, what do people suggest I use for traits for a tactical Klingon toon?

I already have the Hur'q hive defense as a space trait, and it creates extra swarmers which are useful. I am thinking of using the trait from the Hur'q Escort (https://sto.gamepedia.com/Hur%27q_Vridy ... ing_Escort) which creates nullifiers when I use a torp firing mode. I think this can allow me to better escape with battle cloak if I am temporarily protected by nullifiers. Another idea is using the torp trait from the Benthan ship which disables enemy ships, allowing me to escape and attack from behind again.

Also I imagine intelligence specialization would be the way to go for such a build. What would be the other specialization people recommend?

[mr friendly guy]

I am thinking of finally using these traits for my Klingon tactical who plays with raiders.

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Exitus_Acta_Probat - stealth and damage bonus on using jam sensors, which I will use to let me get a few good shots in. Already purchased this for a high price.

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Highly_Specialized - improves critical hits and recharge time on specialise bridge abilities. Since I use lots of tactical abilities, this is worth it I think. I purchased this.

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Concealed_Repairs - on cloaking or placating enemy eg with jam sensors I get faster recharge times on BOFF abilities and repair my hull. Still need to purchase this ability.

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Unconventional_Tactics - bonus damage on activating Brace for impact. Never used the ability, but might be useful since raiders try to destroy the opponent as fast as possible. Need to build up strategist, which will take a while.

And finally thinking about the trait you get from completing the current events with the mycelial spores TFOs. You get an Elachi ship with a nice starship trait.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Elachi_Qulash_Frigate

Invasive Maneuvers - While this trait is slotted, your evasive maneuvers will be upgraded using Elachi technologies. When you activate it, you will perform an invasive scan on the nearby foes, disabling vulnerable bridge stations for a short duration, before phasing into Mycelial Space for a short duration.

Won't completely disable the ship, but might make it hard for them to follow up and allow me to battle cloak, or at least I phase into mycelial space and escape. Undecided on this trait.
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For the ground, I have made her with Herald costume and have got a Herald staff weaponry. Since Klingons tend to love melee, I am thinking of getting the new weapon from the Kelvin divergent box, the one that converts to a sniper rifle. Use my standard iconian resistance elite (https://sto.gamepedia.com/Iconian_Resistance_Elite) for the armour as that gives lots of hit points when epic, and then use the Na'khul shields for the invulnerable period. Arm my away team with it and it triggers more often for me.

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Now that I have unlocked the admiralty system, I should be able to advance relatively quickly. Since my Klingon toon is allowed Romulan and Dominion ships, and I have some phoenix prizes left over to unlock the 4 admiralty ships, I am pretty much have 28 ships to use.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I'm doing the TFOs to get the daily event marks, options for the 60 per day are either the story mission + a patrol, 2 TFOs or 4 patrols. The story mission plus patrol I'll do once for each character to get them the BOFF, while mostly I'm doing the TFOs twice on different characters. I've been crafting additional TR-116 rifles to arm all my characters, their ability to completely ignore shields means they absolutely wreck the Elachi, taking the weaker ones down in 2-3 shots especially when upgraded.

I'll need to wait until another Phoenix Event + Upgrade Weekend to get my new rifles up to XIV Epic, I've been REing the ones I have to get better modifiers.

Now that all my characters have finally reached T6 in Discovery Rep I've sold all the Rare gear that the daily rewards gave, freeing up some much-needed inventory space. The wide angle disruptor DBB is only going to be useful to two of my characters (one of whom was the one I focused on to get to T6 first to pave the way for the rest), they'll also be the ones to benefit most from the Lorca console thanks to the set bonus.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Today saw the release of new intel science ships from out of the blue- normally it's only major content that's released on a Tuesday. The pattern is usually that new ship/s will be announced on the Tuesday, stats revealed on the Wednesday and the ships themselves are released after the weekly maintenance on the Thursday.

Fed and KDF each get one, Romulan players will have to get theirs from their respective ally. In lieu of a warbird counterpart the bundle has 5 keys and a fleet ship module. Even with the customary 20% discount it's not great value unless you really like science ships, it seems to have created some demand as the dil:zen exchange rate hit 450:1.

[mr friendly guy]

That Klingon sci ship looks fugly. I really need science ship for my Klingon toon for admiralty tasks though. Might be better ones which look better like Lobi ships.

[Lord Revan]

That Klingon sci ship looks fugly. I really need science ship for my Klingon toon for admiralty tasks though. Might be better ones which look better like Lobi ships.

The problem with klingon version is that it doesn't really look like a klingon ship. Even the discovery ships look like they could have been built by klingons while this ship doesn't look like that, it looks more like an orion or gorn ship then a klingon one.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I'm now within 2 days of claiming the latest event ship, as masteries go I'm nowhere near getting to it but it's ongoing.

Thanks to the latest sale I bought a key ring bundle so I opened a few of each of the current boxes I had kicking around. One of the things I gained which I never even knew existed is this; obviously this will go to one of my four science toons. I also got some dilithium mining claims, which this weekend are worth double their normal value.

Most significantly this latest batch brought my Lobi crystal total to 1,060 so I'm going to be doing a fair bit of research since I've never bought a ship from the Lobi store before. And with a dozen toons evenly spread through the three career paths it makes things harder, not easier. A First World problem to be sure!

[mr friendly guy]

I got a few boronite laced weaponry consoles to try for my science toons off the exchange some time ago.

I am thinking about the key ring bundle, as the bonus tech upgrade will be useful when I eventually start providing non weapon console for my klingon toon's ship. Once I get the event ship (3 days for me) I should get tech upgrades for the weapons.

I am currently playing the non fleet version of the ship you get as a 1000 day veteran, the duvqu heavy destroyer. It fits the klingon ascetic well and has a bit more survivability than the raiders I was experimenting with, yet still allows me to do the frontal attacks from cloaking Klingons do. In a few days I get my 500 zen bonus from being a lifetime subscriber, and I should be able to buy the modules to upgrade it to the fleet version.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Duvqu%2 ... _Destroyer

Of course I could just bite the bullet, buy some zen (hey does Cryptic need the money?) and get the key ring bundle and have some left over and then get the fleet version right away.

[mr friendly guy]

Tried the Kelvin divergent lockbox, and I must say the skill of augment boarding party is real useful when I don't have that many admiralty ships. Basically if the augment boarding party gets on a ship and I destroy the ship (which is quite common since my ship is loaded with cannons) I capture the ship in my admiralty slots until I use it. So quickly use the ships for admiralty quests which don't take long, and repeat.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

IMO if you really like raiders, get the D4X- best raider in the game according to its stats. I've always preferred raptors over raiders for their superior firepower and durability, the (fleet) Mat'Ha remains my favourite and is the only ship that I've bought twice for different characters.

That's the thing when the exchange rate reaches historic highs (like now)- dilithium doesn't go nearly as far as it did just a few months ago and it's easy to see why players might be tempted to use real money to buy Zen. I've built up a sizeable reserve of refined dilithium across my account and am just waiting for another Phoenix event since that always drives the price down.

The ring bundle is really the only sensible way to buy keys and the ultimate tech upgrade is a nice bonus, I've used a couple of them on crafted disruptor DBBs which I then RE'd to get better modifiers. I've been REing a few things that I've missed for one reason or another

When it comes to buying FSMs it's better to get the bundle since you get 5 for the price of 4, especially when there's a sale on. I've done this twice and still have half of them left. You may not be aware of this, but if you're at tier 6 on any of the reputations you can claim character-bound(!) FSMs once per character per reputation, and there are 13 reputations. So if for example you have a dozen characters that are all at level 6, that gives a potential total of 156 Fleet Ship Modules...

The alternative is to buy one from the exchange for 11 million Energy Credits, which may be the easiest way.

[mr friendly guy]

I didn't realise I could use my other toons to purchase ship modules. Not so useful for me, since my 4 characters with all reputation up to tier 6 aren't looking for fleet ships at the moment, but I will keep that in mind.

I thinking I am liking raptors better than raiders.

[mr friendly guy]

Well I am back up to 600 or so phoenix tech upgrades. But I got enough other special upgrades to get future weapons and most ship consoles to mark 15 epic even without the phoenix tech upgrades, but its still useful to have.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

With the new event coinciding with an upgrade weekend the dil:zen hasn't dropped as much as it normally would since it halves the demand for phoenix upgrades. Regardless it's time to buy some more Zen, as before the lion's share will go on that while I get a couple of job lots of Phoenix prize packs for the upgrade tokens. First lot I just bought dropped an epic token, which because I already have all the ships on offer is currently useless.

[mr friendly guy]

Currently flying the fleet duvqu' heavy cruiser at the moment, but I am thinking of buying the Martok tactical battlecruiser.
More survivability, cloak instead of battle cloak (since I rarely use battle cloak ability its not big loss), and its console has a nice boost to damage.

Might be worth while.

[mr friendly guy]

Now had time to put some thought into my Klingon away team. Its basically 4 female orions including my toon in Herald gear, with the other 3 just so happening to look like my toon. Basically my story is they are clones. The last member is a photonic, but I generally got her to have an orion ascetic once we put on the Orion "crown".

Managed to brush through Hur'q pretty quickly with the right team. I have upgraded armour, but the weapons are only mark 15 uncommon to very rare, and not epic. However the trick is to load them up with appropriate AoE damage and AoE control powers. Two of my away team are science orions and they each have cold flash, to slow and kill them slowly. I have also gotten temporal paradox for AoE slow damage and also a drone tripwire for massive damage and to slow them down. My tactical toon has got lots of AoE damage abilities while my engineer plays support. Medical and shield regenerators with turret manufacture, plus a ability that allows Hur'q to attack enemies.

Now supplement all this goodness with the right DOFFs to boost chance of summoning tactical teams, turrets, some Na'Khul doffs which allow healing over time from kit abilities and I think I got a nice team. Now its time to fiddle around with my kit powers. I usually have the solar gateway and sompek for all my toons. This time I have added the micro torp from terran rep (its fast, good damage and recharges). But the really nice one is the harmonic resonance device, for good AoE and damage over time.

[mr friendly guy]

Red alert Borg time. Got enough reputation marks for my Klingon that I should have enough to get to tier 5, and then get the bonus which should be enough to get to tier 6 using a bonus 20% reputation token.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Both the Phoenix and Mycelial events have passed, managed to max the dil bonus for the latter which always went to whichever character had the least amount of ore. The increased supply and lowered demand thanks to the upgrade event meant the price still didn't drop much below 415:1, but I still managed to buy 20,000 Zen while keeping the average refined dil per character around the million mark. Some is earmarked for the latest ship pack when the next sale comes around, some will be sold when the price invariably shoots up again. I can imagine many players panicking if the cap is raised, which might happen if it gets close to 500. Of course, if they did that they would also have to raise the daily refinement limit to compensate.

I need to look into which starship traits synergise best with each other, now that I have enough lobi crystals for one ship. For example, Supremacy synergises well with Withering Barrage. I'll have to hit the forums to ask about which other ones work together. Of course I'll have to decide which toon should get such a vessel. The set consoles for Lobi ships I'm less concerned with since the overwhelming majority of them can only be mounted on the ships they come with.

Not interested in the Franklin, though I'm bound to see some flying around.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Double XP weekend, which I've spent grinding Argala a bunch of times to master the Risian Corvette and the Elachi Frigate on eleven characters. I wasn't quite able to get to T5 on the frigate on all my toons but close. This takes care of the cross-faction ships, my characters will be focusing on faction-specific ones next, so that means setting up a bunch of different vessels going forward.

[mr friendly guy]

Well I created a gamma recruit with the aim of coming back to it when I have time to level him up and give the bonuses to all my toons. Frankly my Jemmies are used as dilithium and EC farmers.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

All of my toons are farming dil ore, most of which comes via the Admiralty system. The featured event is a good source too, every day you run it past the reward the dil payout is incremented by 2,500, I have whichever toon has the least ore have the honour of earning it.

[montypython]

Looked over Mudd's market for something worth buying, but I already got most of what was on sale though.