New engineer needs help

[eaglescoutdjb]

Fastest what to get mats for crating is to do patrol missions.  Avoid fighting and get the mats, when you find a system that has the mats you need get them, leave the system without finishing the mission and go back in.  As long as you don't complete the patrol the mats should be the same every time you enter the system.

[Katarro]

Oh cool, great, thanks for the info.

[BerryRJ]

So I am in basically the same boat. I played a bit back in '14 but had major connection issues with Crypic and the ARC platform. I live in Tokyo and kept getting 'Invalid Region' errors despite Japan being a supported region. They insisted it was not an issue on there end, but anyway. It seems that the issue has been resolved and I can log in again. Yeah!

With that in mind, my KDF is lvl 50 and I would like to advance. I know this needs WORK! Man, going through all this I am amazed I got as far as I have. A mk4 console? Really?! And all the stuff to keep the crew alive and I don't think any of it really helped all that much. Anyway, what I want to do is really redo all of this into a DPS/Healer. I would like to do a bit of healing, having been a healer in WoW for many years. I assume the 'healing' system is different in this compared to WoW. I tagged along on 2 or 3 Borg group things (STF's?) but that is the extent of group play experience. Mostly I solo so a more DPS lean than heals. Maybe 60/40? That's the idea.

Now...where to go from here? I am working on getting the Krelin Science Ship so that will help...I assume. Otherwise I know I can get some stuff from the Dyson Sphere, but I never really got to explore that before I lost connection. Any help would be awesome!

no DOFFs
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=crap50_7507

[JonasBaxter]

Hi Berry, greetings to Tokio! Great city!

I can't give you a really deep insight, but i might help with first steps.
1. you're mixing cannons and beams and corps. Don't do it. Put ONLY cannons or ONLY beams. Corps might be single addition, but for the beginning i highly recommend using only one of these. So all slots filled with beams is first choice for beginners.
2. you're using three antiproton mag regulators, which are good. but then only use antiproton beams as weapons otherwise they won't have any effect.
3.science and engineer consoles are more interesting and important starting at lvl 60. But you already should run as many reputation system missions as possible. collect marks in red alerts (Nukara, task force omega and new romulus marks) and collect marks through PVE Queues. I highly recommend in pre queues to do gateway to grethor and brotherhood of sword because they give you iconic marks. the iconic space set is one of the most versatile sets you will find in this game so creat it as soon as possible.

that should be a good start. If you use all these hints, you will have a good ship which should be able to handle most of the pie missions. for the next steps, ask later

[BerryRJ]

1 & 2 Yeah, I had a full set of the anti-proton cannons but I decided to switch over to beam arrays. Doing the KDF missions was simple enough but the higher level stuff was more complex and it just wasn't cutting it anymore. It also feels much harder then the summer of '14 when I played last.
3. This is where I am not really sure about. Which do I focus on first? I was doing the Romulan stuff and the Borg stuff and tried the Nukara but that didn't work as well.

I have also decided to start over with a Tac KDF Romulan. I am still trying to figure out what abilities and sets would help with healing and DPS at teh same time. I heard there is a Kubali (?) set that is good for healing, is that right? For me, just DPS in group content gets really dull. Healing was fun but I am not good enough to just do that only. I never made it far on any of the meters.

I realize this is a different game but still. Anyway, thanks for responding. I have a long way to go, hopefully no more 'invalid region' errors

[JonasBaxter]

Hi Berry,
Well, unfortunately DPS is the most important thing now. Personally, I would like to see Science abilities a LOT stronger to have a balance. When it comes to healing, the engineer should be your choice. his dps is only okay, but his healing abilities a lot stronger than with a tac. But I'm sure you'll find the right balance. In the end, you have to try a lot of different things to find the right way for yourself to play.

I don't own a kobali set. Oh well, I have one on my main, but never ever used it yet.

regarding 3. With the Tholian Red alert you can accept a daily mission. This gives you in the end Nukara AND Romulus Marks with one red alert. So in the beginning I was doing a lot of red alerts. First THolian, getting nukara and romulus marks, after that (when the tholian was on a 30min cooldown) I did the Birg Red Alerts for Omega marks.  
Later I added Brotherhood of the sword for iconian. Do that daily and you will have four of the most important sets within 50 days.

[BerryRJ]

Hi Berry,
Well, unfortunately DPS is the most important thing now. Personally, I would like to see Science abilities a LOT stronger to have a balance. When it comes to healing, the engineer should be your choice. his dps is only okay, but his healing abilities a lot stronger than with a tac. But I'm sure you'll find the right balance. In the end, you have to try a lot of different things to find the right way for yourself to play.

I don't own a kobali set. Oh well, I have one on my main, but never ever used it yet.

regarding 3. With the Tholian Red alert you can accept a daily mission. This gives you in the end Nukara AND Romulus Marks with one red alert. So in the beginning I was doing a lot of red alerts. First THolian, getting nukara and romulus marks, after that (when the tholian was on a 30min cooldown) I did the Birg Red Alerts for Omega marks.  
Later I added Brotherhood of the sword for iconian. Do that daily and you will have four of the most important sets within 50 days.

Thx for the info, that helps. Makes me sad about Science as I was thinking of making my third character a Fed Sci focused on buff/debuffing. Oh well, maybe in the future they will get some love

[JonasBaxter]

I still hope so, too.
Right now I'm pushing a KDF science My Fed science is on a tholian carrier and yeah, it rocks! But not possible to compare it with a full build tac character on a well equipped scimitar for example.

[aaaict]

Hi Barry,

Let me give you my own feedback on this. 

However before I start, I'd like to make sure that you know that DPS is in fact not the end all be all, and that your PERSONAL PREFERENCES come before anything that I suggest. All three careers, Science, Engineers and Tactical can do perfectly great DPS (50K and upwards) , though at the very upper end the tactical characters will do more obviously. And in fact, science characters are very useful, in helping heal and debuff enemies, and Gravity well can be a very useful crowd control ability that I is a lot of fun to play around with. Now, on to your engineering build. 

For reference, here is my avenger tactical orientated (I'm an engineer) build http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillpla...erdps_7241

Here it looks like we have a basic starter build that will be built up over time into a solid endgame build. 

1) Weapons- First rule of thumb, avoid mixing differing weapons types at all cost, especially energy weapon types. This is so that your tactical consoles can give the maximum damage possible across all your weapons. Antiproton is the best for DPS, as it gives you added critical severity during critical hits. 
Second rule of thumb- stick to the same kind of weapon- don't mix beams and cannons as your powers will not be orientated most efficiently, and in the end can be a bit of a mess. So as you are a bird of prey, i'd recommend getting Antiproton dual heavy cannons with as many crtd modifiers as you can for your fore weapons, but keep the ancient antiproton and kinetic beam at the back for set bonuses or swap to turrets

2) Set- At the minute you are using the Jem Hardar set, which is a decent base set, but I would replace it as soon as possible with a reputation set, such as the Iconian set which maximises damage. 

3) Consoles- For all your tactical consoles slots, you should be looking to get the Embassy +AP vulnerabiltiy locators which will boost your DPS dramatically by adding critical chance. However, antiproton mag regulators will suffice for the time being. Meanwhile for your engineering slots, try to get some neutrinos armor at this stage, which gives you damage resistance. There is a upgraded version for the fleet dilithium mines which gives bonuses to Hull as well. You also need the Assimilated Module from the borg reputation which is essential for damage, and is very worthwhile. Later on, you can try to get the plasmonic leech console, which gives you lots of power, but it is super expensive, over 117 million EC last i heard on the exchange. For your science consoles, for the time being, field generator are nice for the shield capacity boost, but also look to get the weapon signature nullifying console, which will also give you extra plasma damage. 

4) powers- Engineering is fine, apart from I would switch EPT shields for EPT weapons for extra weapons power. 
Science- for a maximum damage ship, I would switch one of the science BOFFS to either a engineering one for added survivability, or another tactical one for extra damage powers. For you tactical powers, with the new DHC, look to get cannon scatter voley, and cannon rapid fire, as well as attack pattern beta, which debuffs enemy resistances, very useful. For the remaining science BOFF, I would get Science Team II for shield heals, as well as Hazard Emitters I for a cleanse and hull heal. 

5) Skills- i would take powers out of power insulators, inertial dampeners and sensors, they are not much use on a damage focuses ship such as the Bird of Prey with an engineer. 

I hope this helps you as you enter the endgame. Remember that the above damage advice is secondary to your own personal preferneces, and of course damage is not the most important thing, you having fun with your ship is. 

@aaaict

Captain of the USS Westminster (avenger class ship that is a DPS orientated cruiser, the KDF equivalent is the Mogh, although the T6 versions are even better now, they are a joy to fly.) 

STOA Ground Squad Administrator

[BerryRJ]

Thx for replying aaaict

This is a lot of good stuff, and I am updating my build now. So many little things all over make this all a lot harder than you would think