I just started the game. I am the first to say I have no idea what I am doing.
My class is Science, and I normally play Pure Healers in games so I am good with support. I don't think Pure Healers are possible at all on this game, so I made a built around the idea of having the most possible skills so I can have the most options on each situation.
Please, tell me if this build is ok, or if it is a fail one:
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Pure healers are only possible to some extent. On ground combat you can always let your away team fight, while you heal them. You will inevitably do missions where you are alone, with no away team, and have to fight enemies. You have a good plan for your skills. I would suggest a few changes, and I have outlined those changes here. Always remember that a well rounded player does not excel in any skill set. Options are good, but you fill find it more difficult to get into a "groove" or style of play. If you choose to, you can always find your style of play first, and then use a respec token to change your skills to suit that style of play.
For the space skills: You generally do not need many/any points in the Attack Patterns skill as they are less useful than other tactical skills. Place a few skill points into Starship Electro-plasma systems to improve your power transfer rate. You will likely be transferring power a lot early on in the game (shields recharge faster at higher power levels). I also suggest you consider a few points in Starship Maneuvers which makes you harder to hit.
For ground skills: You may find that Probability logistics is relatively worthless. I do not recall many science ground skills that utilize any placate, root, hold, knock, or confuse sections. I may be wrong though. If you use those skills, or if you plan to, you should keep points there. I also suggest more points in PS generator and Ground Armor. You are not doing your team any good if you can't stay alive long enough to heal them. Good job keeping skills out of the damage increasing skill as enemies will ignore you more.
I suggest re-thinking your Bridge officer abilities to include Science Team and Polarize Hull (these are both ensign level abilities from the science side) which improve your survivability and viability in a fight. You will need to be able to do a lot of damage and take a lot of damage to survive space combat. Keep abilities that heal yourself and others and use the turn rate of your ship to keep strong shields toward your target.
I have tried to redo the building as you suggested. I seem to have stumbled upon the point caps so I couldn't follow your suggestions to the letter.
And as for Bridge Offices, I have no idea how to configure them or what I should be looking for in one. I am very much restricted to what the game has been giving me as a reward for quests and promotions. Help would be appreciated.
Based on the ship you are using, you'll build your skills and Bridge Officers around that. Here is a basic idea of each ship type:
Cruisers: Strong hull, faster repair rate.
Escorts: Strong weapons, fast.
Science: Strong shields, a good balance in speed.
You want your skills and abilities to strengthen the weaknesses before anything else. If you can also improve on your strong points then go ahead and do so. So based on what I put above and the fact that you want to be a healer, you'll be going with Science ships.
I would say your focus should be on defensive and healing skills and abilities. You'll want to improve your defenses in order to last longer in battle, which means you can heal your allies and won't have to worry too much about defending yourself.
The best thing to do is read the descriptions of all the skills and abilities and really try to understand them. I know it can be confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it. One thing that might be confusing is that an ability could say (for example) +25 Starship Sensors. This is talking about the actual space skill that your captain has in the skill tree. So it boosts that skill.
I'm not much of a science player, I'm only giving my advice based on what I know. I hope it helps.
Any advice helps, but the problem is, I don't know what my strengths and weakeness are, so I can't plan around it.
I read the description of all skills, but what they do is not clear at all. In example, what do flow capacitors do? What's the point of increasing such skill?
Let me see if I can help more.
When you are looking at the skill selection screen if you click on a skill's description it will describe what it does and what types of abilities it affects. If you hover over that skill's name, it will explain things as well. You also might want to click on the drop down menu to the right of your name at the top of the window where it says: "-Select Ability-". You will see a list of your captain's abilities on this menu, and if you select an ability you will see a yellow border around the name of the sill that affects it. For example, if you select "Tricorder Scan" you will see a box drawn around the "Scientist" skill so you know that the Scientist skill affects the "Tricorder Scan" ability. For "Flow Capacitors" skill, that helps your shield and power drain ability, for example the Tachyon Beam. For your bridge officer abilities, take some time and look through the bridge officer skill trainer on Earth Space Dock and read about some of the skills your bridge officers can get.
As far as your strengths and weaknesses, that is something that you have to discover for yourself. Aside from the general strengths in each type of ship, you may play another way. If you don't stay on the move, you may want to increase your hull's integrity because your enemies will quickly beat down one facing shield. Play for an hour and really pay attention to how you function in battle. Examine the tactics that you use, and the weapons you use.
Let me explain my style, as it might help you find yours. I stay on the move in battle. I usually stay around full throttle. I start off from a distance with an attack run where I start weakening shields with my Tachyon Beam ability, at the same time I fire forward beam weapons. As I close distance I launch a torpedo from my forward launcher. As I start to get real close, I throttle down to about half to increase my turn rate and turn away from the target. This gives me a full beam broadside, and I launch shuttles from my Boarding Party ability when I'm close as well. The shuttles spend less time enroute to the target and are therefore less likely to be destroyed. As I fall back for an attack run, I continue firing my aft beam banks, and send a Photon "parting gift" :lol: to their already weakened shields. Based upon this tactic I would pick skills that increase my ships damage, shield strength and shield recharge rate. I like to keep moving so if my shields recharge faster, I simply turn my strongest shield face to my enemy and let the others recharge.
I hope that helped.
> Examine the tactics that you use, and the weapons you use.
I used to use turrets. They have 360º firing arc. I set up them on autofire and just coordinate the torpedoes when the shields are down. However, now that I was promoted to Lt Commander, it seems to me that my abilities only work with beams, so I am moving back to beam arrays. I tend to favor weapons that hit low and often, so I will stick to single beams with their 250º firing arc instead of dual beams with their smaller 90º arc.
I usually approach with tachyon beam, high yield torpedo (preloaded) and firing everything I can so I drain as much of the shield I can as soon as possible, and then my constant weak beating prevent the shield from ever recharging, slowly wearing down the enemy. I drop a torpedo every now and then, and if I see that an enemy will lose his shield, I tap the High Yield Torpedo for a double shot. For now, it is working, and the only mission I was defeated was one against a Gorn ship that released a green mist that caused damage straight to the hull. Took me a while to understand that the mist wasn't just for show.
I tend to not to move a lot because it is hard to keep the torpedoes within the firing arc if I am running around. I am usually at half throttle.
I have a question. If I have more than one torpedo, does High Yield improve the next shot of all of them?
A more defensive build:
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leahnnovash Wrote:> Examine the tactics that you use, and the weapons you use.
I used to use turrets. They have 360º firing arc. I set up them on autofire and just coordinate the torpedoes when the shields are down. However, now that I was promoted to Lt Commander, it seems to me that my abilities only work with beams, so I am moving back to beam arrays. I tend to favor weapons that hit low and often, so I will stick to single beams with their 250º firing arc instead of dual beams with their smaller 90º arc.
I usually approach with tachyon beam, high yield torpedo (preloaded) and firing everything I can so I drain as much of the shield I can as soon as possible, and then my constant weak beating prevent the shield from ever recharging, slowly wearing down the enemy. I drop a torpedo every now and then, and if I see that an enemy will lose his shield, I tap the High Yield Torpedo for a double shot. For now, it is working, and the only mission I was defeated was one against a Gorn ship that released a green mist that caused damage straight to the hull. Took me a while to understand that the mist wasn't just for show.
I tend to not to move a lot because it is hard to keep the torpedoes within the firing arc if I am running around. I am usually at half throttle.
I have a question. If I have more than one torpedo, does High Yield improve the next shot of all of them?
Turrets are only useful on Escort ships. I would recommend against using them on any other ship. That green "mist" is a plasma cloud, bridge officers can get that ability too. Definitely stay away from them. Nothing in battle is just for show
lol High Yield improves the next shot, that's it. Not all of your torps, just the next one to fire.
leahnnovash Wrote:A more defensive build:
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I'll take a look at it when I get a chance. Perhaps someone can review it sooner.
In regard to your tactics, I approve. I think that you should stick with using skills, abilities, and that enhance that style of play. Stick with photon torpedoes because you can fire those more often. Pick a shield that regenerates fast, and select skills that help your shields regenerate fast so you can expose your same side to your target more often. I agree with Attilio that you should avoid turrets like the plague. I don't even use turrets on my KDF tactical captain. Single beams are just fine, and if you can get all 4 firing in a broadside; they do more damage than the dual beam banks.
Regarding your particular skill point build; I say that you might be on the right track. Your build is very defensive, but that draws away from your own ability to do damage with your weapons. I think your first build was more even. If your are searching for a "Paladin" type character, you were closer with the first build. If you are looking to "take a licking and keep on ticking" you might have found it! With this build you will do great with all of your bridge officer abilities that use auxiliary power. Your power levels will be high in most systems, except for engines, while your ship will be able to really take damage and repair quickly. If you are a gold member, I say give it a shot, see if you like it. If you are a silver member, try to even things out a bit before you finalize it. See what others think, and more specifically, what you think.