STO Academy Forum

Hello fellow captains,
I am the new guy who decided it would be nice to go to the Academy again. Luck me I meet you guys. So first of all thanks for the invite.
I played STO during the early days can't even remember if it was alpha or beta I started. I then played the first year and took a break till the Dysons Sphere stuff. Back then I didn't manage to acquire any sets I and only half decent stuff. A few days ago I decided to give STO another try. (Humblebundle had some STO stuff xD)
So far I am quite impressed with all the changes but at the same time, I'm overwhelmed. All skills/traits etc are reset. Everything change so much that going into missions that were still in progress ended in very fast death over and over again. Because I had no fleet and wanted to play I clicked some buttons and voila:

https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/1171...65e77ed8d4

A stupid build that helped me to get to play the game and not just send doffs on missions.  

So I like my science captain very much and wanna improve him. But I don't have a clue on how to skill him, especially the primary and secondary spec. I understand what it is but I dunno whats good whats bad. Advice on this would be very much appreciated. Or point me to a good guide.
Another problem is my gear I dunno where to get it to start my journey to greatness. Currently, I have Mk XII very rare Plasma Beam Arrays with consoles that buff the plasma damage a mix of Mk XI and XII. Let's not talk about ground gear. I saw the thread about it and trying to get to the episodes so I can get the gear that was mentioned by Attilio. But I assume I need the space gear to do the episodes. Before I forget the following ships are in my bank that could be useful Kobali Samsar Cruiser, Long Range Science Vessel, Heavy Destroyer [T6], Dreadnought Cruiser. I have a few more but I think they are all lower tier ships.
Last but not least a word of advice on how to help with the fleet and how to contribute would be awesome.

TL; DR
Need
- help with skills for fed science captain, if possible wanna fly some kind of science tank who can handle missions on his own  and a build for helping during fleet groups
- help with gear, I'm stuck on meh Mk XI and XII
- help with helping the fleet
- help with earning ec or whatever is the new hotness

Thanks in advance and see u in space!

Edit:
Seems the Question above were to complex and I try and ask an easier question.
Can someone pls point me to a build for a fed science captain to run most of the episode mission on normal without constantly dying? I am really stuck with what I have currently.
And what science ships are a must have, so I can start working on that.

Thank you!

Hi and welcome to the fleet.

There are some good builds on this site, through the skill planner and also on the build review section of the forum and also a lot of builds on Reddit. There are also guides on the DPS League website, though more geared to DPS builds the info on the sites are useful for set ups especialy when selecting DOFFs and keybinds.

If you are restarting I would just start doing the missions from the start and at this stage not worry too much about skills/ships etc. Just have fun relearn the basics see what works etc. You can get away with poor quality gear for most missions they are not hard, in fact might be a nice challenge with poor gear. In the interim crafted gear is alright for missions and will give you a strong basis - if you need any at MkII VR (best for upgrading), then let me know. 

Work on one spec at a time (those that combine space and ground). I would pick Intelligence first as primary and then secondary perhaps miracle worker - someone might have a better combo for science.

In terms of your skill tree  they do look well balanced, i might suggest more scientific readiness, as this reduces cooldown on BOFF abilities, if you are science career - but I am not expert I only play as Tactical. You can retrain later once you have decided on what ship etc.

Whilst you play you will earn dillitium and donations (any help is appreciated) to fleet will earn fleet credits. Use these to get some good BOFFS that reduce cooldowns. Once you have saved up ask before buying anything from fleetstores! There are pitfalls.

Have you thought about what T6 ship you want to use, do you have any in mind, or do you have some already? Ideally you want a specialist science ship. You might want to think on this and just collect ships as and when saving up ec for the best (can take a while as t6 ships sell at 200m generally). To get free ships do the events - Winter wonderland will be running soon and is a chance to get a free T6 ship. If you do buy from zen store only do so in sales and be warned opening a loot box will not guarantee a t6 ship, you can opens 100s and not win any.

What weapon damage type do you want to use or are using? Some missions have rewards that are very good even at end game with weapons/consoles. There are also some ground mission rewards that are really good and will last even at end game. All energy types are fine but some have better options and better mission reward drops, such as Disruptors and I think Anti-Proton. Check this thread for a guide!

Finally, do not be afraid to ask in chat at any point. 

I hope that helps - I am sure those who play science characters can help more with the specifics

(11-30-2018, 05:13 PM)Trudard Wrote: [ -> ]Hi and welcome to the fleet.

Thank you for the helpful reply.

(11-30-2018, 05:13 PM)Trudard Wrote: [ -> ][...]
There are some good builds on this site, through the skill planner and also on the build review section of the forum and also a lot of builds on Reddit. There are also guides on the DPS League website, though more geared to DPS builds the info on the sites are useful for set ups especialy when selecting DOFFs and keybinds.
[...]
Work on one spec at a time (those that combine space and ground). I would pick Intelligence first as primary and then secondary perhaps miracle worker - someone might have a better combo for science.

I did a lot of reading but natural I'm missing practice. For now, I changed a few things based on your feedback and what I read. There are still 6 points to spend and I can't decide where to put them. Since I am not sure what kind of weapons to use I can't really decide where to put the points. Don't know if I want to do Torps or Beam Weapons. On the one hand, I saw a few builds that are doing Torp tanks but I can't imagine that you can do decent damage with this playstyle to do solo PvE content. That's why currently I am leaning more towards a beam build.

(11-30-2018, 05:13 PM)Trudard Wrote: [ -> ][...]
Have you thought about what T6 ship you want to use, do you have any in mind, or do you have some already? Ideally you want a specialist science ship. You might want to think on this and just collect ships as and when saving up ec [...]

Indeed I have a few T6 ships already. What I've are Science Star Cruiser T6 (all 3 T6 variants), Heavy Destroyer, Kobali Samsar Cruiser, and Temp Multi-Mission Science Vessel.
What I'd like to use are Fleet Long Range Sci and Fleet Adv Research. Which pretty much sums up what I would like to fly. A mix of cruiser and science vessel. I wanna hop in and out of ships I like and be somewhat good in it with my skill tree.
Maybe later there is time to make a dedicated toon for just one build/ship style. For now, I like the idea of a jack of "all" trades.

(11-30-2018, 05:13 PM)Trudard Wrote: [ -> ][...]
What weapon damage type do you want to use or are using?

That is a hard question. ATM I think the best for me as a science captain would be exotic. Also, I like the idea that Gravity Well is actually viable. Last time I played it wasn't.
 

(11-30-2018, 05:13 PM)Trudard Wrote: [ -> ][...]
Whilst you play you will earn dillitium and donations (any help is appreciated) to fleet will earn fleet credits. Use these to get some good BOFFS that reduce cooldowns. Once you have saved up ask before buying anything from fleetstores! There are pitfalls. [...]

Please give me a number here. Currently, I am sitting on 100k fleet credits anything worth getting or do I need to get way more fleet credits?

(11-30-2018, 05:13 PM)Trudard Wrote: [ -> ][...]
In the interim crafted gear is alright for missions and will give you a strong basis - if you need any at MkII VR (best for upgrading), then let me know. [...]

Sadly I can't really craft weapons my R&D is mostly in science (14), engineering (15) and shield (15). Beam weapons are at level 8. I guess I have to level this up first.

As always thanks for the help and have a nice Day!

Yo

Right firstly in regards to weapon energy types, I am referring to Disruptors, Phasers, AntiProton, Plasma, Poleron, etc. You need to decide which to use and stick with that choice really - at least to begin with. There is no real wrong choice and Rob's post gives a lot of really good info. If you want advice I would say currently best two are Disruptors and Phasers  (Both have good options in terms of mission rewards and both have the sensor Linked weapons from the Disco lock boxes - downside very expensive). Personally I favour disruptors due to the volume of options available there are a lot of good weapons for it. But it is up to you and you need to think about it and ask in chat especially what works well with science builds.

In terms of what to spend your EC, I would look to getting the tactical Romulan SRO BOFF from the Embassy (be very careful only the middle value male tactical has the SRO trait)
Have a look at BOFFs that reduce cooldowns from the research lab.
I would also look at the console locators and exploiters from the Spire they are always good to have depending on if you need to improve Crit Severity or Chance. Also if you need decent Ship gear, such as shields, deflectors and do not have any rep sets the new colony sets are worth looking at.

If you need weapons crafting I can do that for you I need to know what you want in terms of energy type and whether you want beams or cannons etc.