Becoming a good science pilot

[Archived Post]

Hello,

For those of you who don’t know me – I have only flown a tactical toon since joining STO (over a year ago).

Since STO went F2P, leveling toons has been a quite easier lately, and with the Doff System – I could practically level up to Vice Admiral without doing many missions – so this notion gives me no excuse but to start playing other characters!

I have started a new Science Toon, with the hopes of learning how to be a “shield stripper” and “healer”. I believe the best ship to fly for this type of play style would be the Intrepid refit (correct me if I am wrong).

I have noticed on the boards that there are many posts about building good cruisers/escorts – but not that many for Sci ships. Keeping this mainly to PVP, and for being a “shield stripper” and “healer” – would someone be able to direct me to a good skill setup or board that shares some of this information?

Thanks in advance.

[Archived Post]

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=254682

Some great information here.

[Archived Post]

Hello,

For those of you who don’t know me – I have only flown a tactical toon since joining STO (over a year ago).

Since STO went F2P, leveling toons has been a quite easier lately, and with the Doff System – I could practically level up to Vice Admiral without doing many missions – so this notion gives me no excuse but to start playing other characters!

I have started a new Science Toon, with the hopes of learning how to be a “shield stripper” and “healer”. I believe the best ship to fly for this type of play style would be the Intrepid refit (correct me if I am wrong).

I have noticed on the boards that there are many posts about building good cruisers/escorts – but not that many for Sci ships. Keeping this mainly to PVP, and for being a “shield stripper” and “healer” – would someone be able to direct me to a good skill setup or board that shares some of this information?

Thanks in advance.

there are not many sci threads because science is on a major downturn at the moment. however as hammel pointed out that matteo716 fella knows his science stuff. unfortantly he is banned and can not give help here on the forums, however im sure if you shoot him a message ingame he'll be more then happy to help :)

[Archived Post]

tbh, I'd rather assume Engi Captain being viable for a supporter/sci-ship healer.

but that is just an opinion.

Here's a lenghty post. Maybe it helps you.

Thing with sci ship build is that it is a bit more flexible in terms of abilities. It is not like tac where everything just beefs up dmg - on top of being a tac captain to beef it the epeen up more :D. Tac ships etc is pretty much straight-forward.


I suggest checking out the cadre of sci ships and fall in love with one specific one and stick to that one. Sci builds depend highly on your playstyle and healer builds are not that easy as a sci ship can't really tank forever once they are primary'ed -- talking pvp here.


It is also hard to give info too because you stumble time and again upon people with different viewpoints and cookie cutter builds - as well as such who don't even fly sci-ships.

But I can give a short rundown on stuff.

Nebula-class is somewhere nice because it has a universal LT slot; allowing you to put for instance another tac Boff for dps powers while having the other tac Boff with 2x Tacteam to ensure your shield distribution survival.
I'm certain people will disagree but tacteam is currently essential to survive a row of onslaughts.

A major problem with other sci ships is that you only have 1x tac LT BO.
Most of the time, you have to choose 1x Tac and 1x Rapid Fire 1 or FAW/BeamOverload. Either that or 2x tac, but then you will lack a power that would raise your beam/cannon dps.

It is not actually a problem as it is "game/ship balance".
Although, let us not forget that one of the T4 sci ships (not sure if it was DSSV or Recon; unless that changed a long time ago) has an extra Ensign Tac Boff instead of sci Boff. That helps.


Intrepid Refit (aka VOY Refit) is a favorite among many.
It is not THE best if you ask me, but it has style and the lore behind the design and the sense of the series was just awesome. It is stylish and imo a very well-balanced ship.
And if you avoid using some sort of pay2win, it is utmost fun to fight against challenging opponents (provided it is not some exploit/bug "brought to you by cryptic" ;D)

my 2 goldpressed latinum strips.

[Archived Post]

http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=254682

Some great information here.
Since the time Matteo was been banned, unfortunately, many offensive Sci powers have been broken, so right now the only ones still effective for PvP [IMO] are CPB, PSW and Tractor, this depreciates some of his builds (mostly the ones which use GW) and creates a limited set of actually viable builds:

Though no long completely superior to all others in BOFF layout the Intrepid is the "best" sci ship because of its ablative armor which can help with the Science ship's squishiness,
TS 1, TS 2
EptS 1, EptS 2
ST 1
Tr 1, HE 2, TSS 3
Tr 1, HE 2, PSW 1, CPB 3
(3x Development Lab Scientist DOFFs)

However with the arrival of the photonic torp console, in games in which P2W is allowed, the DSSV is much more viable as PSW is no longer needed to break extends/ablative. This also applies to premade teams with 2 or 3 sci ships where only 1 PSW may be needed,
TS 1, TS 2
EptS 1
EptS 1, ES 1
Tr 1, HE 2, TSS 3
Tr 1, HE 2, ST 3, CPB 3
(3x Development Lab Scientist DOFFs)

[Archived Post]

Since the time Matteo was been banned, unfortunately, many offensive Sci powers have been broken, so right now the only ones still effective for PvP [IMO] are CPB, PSW and Tractor, this depreciates some of his builds (mostly the ones which use GW) and creates a limited set of actually viable builds:

Though no long completely superior to all others in BOFF layout the Intrepid is the "best" sci ship because of its ablative armor which can help with the Science ship's squishiness,
TS 1, TS 2
EptS 1, EptS 2
ST 1
Tr 1, HE 2, TSS 3
Tr 1, HE 2, PSW 1, CPB 3
(3x Development Lab Scientist DOFFs)

However with the arrival of the photonic torp console, in games in which P2W is allowed, the DSSV is much more viable as PSW is no longer needed to break extends/ablative. This also applies to premade teams with 2 or 3 sci ships where only 1 PSW may be needed,
TS 1, TS 2
EptS 1
EptS 1, ES 1
Tr 1, HE 2, TSS 3
Tr 1, HE 2, ST 3, CPB 3
(3x Development Lab Scientist DOFFs)


Good advice. Some tweaking, as always, will be required for the pilot's personal playstyle.

The more the nerf-bat hits sci ships, the more flying sci becomes about timing. As stated, CPB (apparently a fix for the resist is in the pipeline, but a promise to tweak as needed came with the news :eek: ), PSW and TB, are currently the only offensive sci powers that are truly viable in PvP. Learning when to use these is way more important than knowing what powers to load out. Even less viable powers can be useful when timed well.

Throwing these powers around, all willy-nilly will get you nowhere. You must be able to identify weakened targets, and know when to debuff and how to exploit the advantage this gives you and your team to make the kill. A ship with a TSS3 buff and an ES3 buff isn't going to feel much when you CPB them. Same for Aux2ID or APO, using TB or PSW against a target using either of these powers only serves to put your powers on cooldown.

Learn to watch your target's buff-bar, learn to watch your teammates buff bars, be patient, wait for prime opportunities (or a call from a teammate that an opportunity exists), inform your team that you are about to ruin some other guys day and watch them die.

Also, don't let the scoreboard discourage you. If you are doing it right, you are setting up almost every kill your team gets. Unfortunately this isn't very apparent at the end of the match when the numbers pop up. When you tractor an appartently invulnerable (defense tanking) escort and watch him die about 1/2 a second later, put up a tic in your head, you just killed him.

I'm not just talking about premade PvP either, PUGs should always make an effort to communicate with each other. If you are not doing this, you fail before you start. The only exception to this is when you are lucky enough to be PUGged with people you know well enough, and that are good enough that you know you can follow their lead, or expect them to follow yours. Even then, this only works against less-skill/organized PUGs, not Premades.

My final advice for becoming a good science captain is simple. Find some friends in the game. Fly with them as often as possible. A good escort at your wing, that knows what your ship is capable of (and vice-versa),and a cruiser helping you both stay alive (and vice-versa) is the best way I know to see your efforts in PvP fulfilled :) Just 2 people working together can have a huge effect on the outcome of a PUGvPUG match.

OP: I know you know a lot of this already, but you won't be the only one reading this thread... hopefully :)

[Archived Post]

The more the nerf-bat hits sci ships, the more flying sci becomes about timing. So very true; I was flying with one of BMR's buddies from the Pandas today, and once the timing on our abilities started getting synchronized we were routinely one-shotting enemies when combined with the escort's alpha strike. When the target is completely locked down with Tractor Beams and chroniton procs, they are made helpless for the rest of the team to capitalize upon. I may not have gotten very good numbers, or posted a lot of kills, but I didn't hear many complaints from my teammates as to whether I was contributing effectively.