Any advice for a new guy?

[LostAlone]

Hey

I'm new to STO, and trying to kinda get across the hump from being a total newbie but there's a bunch questions that I just can't find answers to and it's driving me crazy. I've gotten up to lvl 50 with no real problems just by following the missions but now I'm there and most of the cool content involves playing with other people I could use a few pointers to feel like I'm pulling my weight. 

I've been playing in some of the collaborative PvE areas like the Dyson Sphere which is fun but I feel like I've missed something somewhere, since I die quite a bit. I fly an Advanced Escort and have stuck with the whole escort line, but I don't see hardly any ships with cannons in these areas. There's loads of phasers though. So should I be using an all phaser array set up and maneuvering more? Is that just 'how it's done' ? 

Next up - I don't really know how I'm supposed to get new gear now. I've gone beyond anything you can buy from a vendor with credits or dilithium (as far as I have found anyway) but that means the only way to get anything new is as loot drops which feels a bit crappy. Just refitting to an all phaser fit is going to take a really long time. I've looked into the R&D system, but I can't build anything rank XI or XII without very rare materials and there's a very strong chance they will just be white anyway. I'm doing the assigments to train them up, but that's going to take forever too. So, am I missing something? What do you guys do to get better equipment? Do you just farm energy credits and use the exchange or what? 

Any help you guys can give me would really be appreciated. There doesn't seem a whole lot written for my level of the game, it's all either super-newbie or ultra-elite PvPing and nothing in between.

How do I take the next step?

[TacPaddy]

You can get new Gear through the Omega / New Romulus / Nukara / Dyson / Counter-Command Reputation Systems or by simply joining a Fleet. You can get nice Weaponry, Warp Cores, Science and Engineering Consoles from their Fleet Holdings. I suggest, you check here to get in touch with our Fleets.

[Whodat]

I don't really know how I'm supposed to get new gear now. I've gone beyond anything you can buy from a vendor with credits or dilithium (as far as I have found anyway) but that means the only way to get anything new is as loot drops which feels a bit crappy. Just refitting to an all phaser fit is going to take a really long time. I've looked into the R&D system, but I can't build anything rank XI or XII without very rare materials and there's a very strong chance they will just be white anyway. I'm doing the assigments to train them up, but that's going to take forever too. So, am I missing something? What do you guys do to get better equipment? Do you just farm energy credits and use the exchange or what? 

Any help you guys can give me would really be appreciated. There doesn't seem a whole lot written for my level of the game, it's all either super-newbie or ultra-elite PvPing and nothing in between.

How do I take the next step?

You're at a tough point in the game because as you said there isn't a whole lot of information out there for progressing. Even asking in game can be difficult because people tend to bomb you with advice... it's all really good advice but it's either hyper specific or it's flat out over whelming. So... let's see what we can do to give you a fairly simple step by step.

1. Reputation Gear - currently you need 1200ish Marks (for each faction) and it takes doing the daily 40 times to hit tier 5. Once there items cost 500(?) marks and 9000ish Refined Dilithium per piece of gear. These are the rep sets people are talking about and they can be worth grabbing up parts from.

This isn't a difficult task to accomplish, pecking away at STFs or Mark grind spots (Dyson, New Romulus, Etc ) for an hour or two every few days will get you the marks you need.

2. Fleet Gear - Hands down some of the best items in the game come from purchasing fleet equipment. It can also be some of the most difficult gear to gather up because you have a limited number of Fleet Projects running at any given time, and virtually every active member of the fleet trying to contribute to them for the Fleet Credits used to purchase items.

My recommendation here is to contribute to projects you have materials for without going out of your way to stockpile things like Fleet Marks and without hitting the exchanges for things like Doffs.

3. Crafting - You're really not late to the party on this one. I think the bulk of the player base is still below rank 14 in R&D skills. Prevailing wisdom is to do the daily R&D missions while making it a point to unlock R&D slots rather than make gear. So just plug away at it for the time being... by the time you can make anything worth having you'll have hit learned enough about the game to make personal choices in this area.

4. Builds - This is an area that's almost purely personal preference. Beam Array Boats are popular because they're easier to aim than cannon boats. Nothing more to it than that... if you're half decent with cannons and more importantly enjoy using them, then use them. The only area that makes a huge difference is energy type, if you plan to use phasers use all phasers, don't mix and match 1 phaser 2 disruptors, 1 anti proton.

In closing... everything takes time. Most of these guys you see using exotic ships doing truckloads of damage and never exploding, have been playing for years. Leveling to 50 has become a one to two week of casual play kind of thing so gearing up almost feels like a brick wall. But on the bright side you get to actually play with the veteran members rather than watch them cruise past on super mounts like most other MMO's. And with the upcoming expansion the playing field is kind of leveled as they'll all be in the process of gearing and leveling up along with you... they're just a few steps ahead is all.

[lowiekestoa]

Hi there,


I guess all of your inqueries are comprehensively covered by my former repliers, I totally agree, but I want to politely and humbly point you to [The Help Channel], a channel wich you can join on the ingame chat system. 

Simple, medium and hi-end assistance can be obtained.

Yours truly, channel owner

@lowieke

[Mal]

Just join our fleet in some missions