What every player should know, but many don't want to hear.

I do not know everything about STO. In fact, there are still things I try to test in STO. It's more than likely that you don't know everything either. But, I have found some information that is conclusive, self-evident, and provable through parses. And, not just my own - an entire community of people has been collecting data and there are some conclusions you can draw from that data. One is about DPS. The fact is, Star Trek Online is almost totally in favor of having high DPS. I REALLY love tanking, probably more than you do in all honestly, but STO is really about DPS and NOT about the so-called "holy-trinity" of MMO gaming.

With that said, many people argue about what the best way to do something is. You'll see someone ask what the best thing is in one form or another: be it best way to DPS, best way to tank, best career path to heal with, etc. People in these arguments will tend to fall back on statements like, "this is what I do and it works for me." My personal favorite is, "I don't know what you're talking about, but things just die faster when I do X, so obviously you should do X." Of course, they have no data and VERY limited knowledge. In some cases, even after playing 5 years, they still don't have the requisite knowledge to make informed decisions about what is best at one thing or another.

When someone informs these types of people that they aren't doing the right thing or the best thing, they get upset. I've seen someone saying how they did such great damage, insulting anyone that disagreed, and said that I "obviously" didn't know what I was talking about, but then I happen to do a STF with them and I do literally 4 times their DPS. As in, they are doing 10k DPS and I am doing 40k. (Which Is low for me.) And, those are ones that aren't complete frauds with damage in the 3k DPS range.

The problem with these types of arguments is that we actually have data. We have an objective method to judge what actually does work the best: parsers. There is a very well known group called the DPS League. The league displays the top damage parses and specifically chooses to base damage on the STF map, Infected: The Conduit (Advanced). The reasons for that are sound and are largely based on the idea that you can do consistent and optimal damage against, say, the Gateway in that map. It allows for one of, if not the, most fair comparison of sustained DPS between builds and different weapon types.

There are other conclusions we can draw, such as the fact that Tactical DPS potential is almost double what Science or Engineer DPS is. At the time I'm writing this, the current highest recorded DPS on that map is by SOB@spencerb96, who did 95k DPS. The highest Engineer? 55k DPS by Janna Winters@Eglar. The highest Science? 53k DPS by NMej@seddheen. The fact is, Tactical BY FAR out-paces the other two. If you go through the list, it's apparent that there are many tac parses above the highest Sci or Engi Parses.

The conclusions we can draw are that Tactical is clearly superior DPS, Science and Engineering are similar DPS, and that the difference between Tactical and the other two careers makes holding aggro with anything but a Tactical virtually impossible. That makes tanking with anything other than a Tactical Captain virtually impossible if you have a skilled and well-geared Tactical Captain in the same Team. We can also conclude that there is NO reason you cannot complete all content with an Engineer or Scientist because they are definitely capable of producing good enough damage. Tactical is just clearly better DPS.

The sooner you recognize and accept those conclusions, the easier it will be for you to excel in STO.