A Guide for Beginers

Welcome!

I started this Blog because I've found that there is a real lack of useful information with well-reasoned opinions for players of Star Trek Online to figure out how to succeed at challenging content or just improve their characters. On this site, I want to provide information on how to generally improve your character/gameplay. I'll be posting conceptual ideas, tips, tricks, and even character build guides. The build guides will likely be a big help as they will provide in-depth information about how to build a solid character.

If you already are in the 75k DPS channel or have billions of Energy Credits stored in Keys and/or other commodities, this site won't help you and, frankly, it's not intended to. Why would such a person need help? It's for people who are struggling with content or just want to know how to get better. I'm here to help.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Race Guide: What race should I pick?

Look, any race can be successful in STO. Any race can do good damage in STO. But, if you want to know which race is really the BEST, it's Romulan.

Why do I say that? First, let me explain a foundational principle of how this game actually parses out.

In case you haven't figured it out, from seeing someone seemingly one-shot an enemy it would take you 30 seconds to kill, this game has such crazy damage potential that damage really takes over the game. The traditional "holy trinity" of Tanks, Healers, and Damage-dealers isn't the foundation of current gameplay in STO - it's about maximizing damage and getting as much survivability as you need or can squeeze into your build. It's a very damage-centric game. I know this will ruffle some feathers, but it's the truth. I LOVE tanking and tried to be a tank in STO when I first started, but this game doesn't make good use of tanks, period. Damage output in this game far outweighs group healing and, even more so, tanking. The DPS (Damage per second) numbers are just too huge. Even if you refuse to accept that truth and want to tank in spite of my warning, you've still gotta hold aggro, so Romulan is still the way to go.

With the above in mind, the best race for damage output is Romulan. A case can be made for Remans and even Romulan-aligned Aliens, but whichever you pick, the best DPS potential is going to come from the Romulan faction. The primary reason for this is simple: Romulan BOFFs (Bridge Officers). The Romulan BOFFs can have a trait called SRO (Superior Romulan Operative) that gives +2% critical chance and +5% Critical severity, per BOFF. By the time a player reaches lvl 50, they will have access to ships with 5 BOFF stations, meaning these BOFFs with SRO can account for +10% critical chance and +25% critical severity. That is nothing short of HUGE! There are other BOFF Races available that will increase damage, such as Nausicaans and their "Pirate" trait that adds +1.5% damage, but nothing is going to out-weigh what 5 SRO BOFFs provide. Romulan captains can get RO (Romulan Operative), which is just a little less effective than SRO. As you stack the Romulan captain with 5 BOFFs, the crit numbers get staggering.

Many newer players worry about the loss of 10 power per subsystem that comes from using Romulan ships. Don't be. To compensate, Romulans should max the skill Flow Capacitors and use the Plasmonic Leech Universal Console. KDF (Klingon Defense Force) players simply have to buy a Vandal Destroyer from the Zen Store for 1,000 Zen, while Feds (Federation players) have to get them from lockboxes, which is pretty expensive. (For Feds, the console can be purchased for BREATHTAKING amount of energy Credits on the exchange, it will be called "Console Pack - Plasmonic Leech")

Advanced tip: Power levels are even more important in the end-game because of things like Fleet Warp Cores with the "AMP" mod, which gives +3.5% damage for each power level above 74. Having bonuses to power levels and temporarily buffing or adding to all power levels can increase your damage output from numerous sources. Because of that, Plasmonic Leech is really an essential part of building almost any character, especially energy weapon-based Romulans.

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