I don't see the point in choosing Science, Engineering, or Tactical career for my captain. It seems like whichever you choose you always have the option to level abilities for all 3 anyway. Am I missing something?

The class choice determines what powers unlock for you as you level up, and what tactic items you can equip. Try reading this, it will help you.

Look at the skills list further down for each class; while they seem pretty similar initially - they begin to differentiate.

What ship you have, and what BOffs you choose, can help fill in abilities your Captain doesn't have, however.

Look at them for survivability, healing yourself and others, what kinds of weapons you want to use, and synergy with others if you're going to have dedicated partners for grouping.

And with alot of MMO's, frankly try them all out, and see what clicks for you. A few days invested in one character, then swapping to another kind til you find one you like, is never a bad route to take.

The only problem is that we only have 2 freaking slots. I figure they should have at least given us enough slots to try all the starfleet careers and maybe even the Klingon ones too. Honestly making us pay for something as simple as diverse characters is just... [edit]

This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Cryptic Studios Forum Usage Guidelines ~Seadgir

You get 3 slots after you unlock Klingon. Just level one character to Lt. 6 and you'll be able to make one of each Starfleet class.

From a guide I'm currently working on...

Specifically, the classes differ in the following ways:

* Each class gains one unique ’space’ ability per rank
* Each class gains one unique ‘ground’ ability per rank
* Each class has a unique group of skills that affect their performance in away missions
* Each class can equip unique ‘kits’, which grant additional ground abilities
* Each class can train bridge officers of the same class in advanced abilities (for example, Tactical captains can train Tactical bridge officers, but not Science or Engineering bridge officers)

See http://sto-intel.org/wiki/Player_Abilities for an overview of the unique abilities you get per class as you level.

See http://stowiki.org/wiki/Profession for a list of the skills for each profession and what high-level training they unlock.

See http://sto-intel.org/wiki/Category:Kits for a (small) list of kits that you can get. You can only equip your class kit.

? How do I do that!

Certain skills, when increased to level 9, allow you to train boffs in the 'Mark III' version of a specific ability - but only if your captain is the same class as the ability.

In a nutshell... Your choice of character gives you a set of ground-skills that are unique to that branch of service which you can train using your skill points as you level. In addition, choice of branch determines what set of "abilities" you pick up as you level. You gain a ground ability at level 5 and every 10 levels thereafter and you gain a space ability at level 8 and every 10 levels thereafter.

As also pointed out, some skills of your own allow you to train your BOffs if you raise your own still all the way to 9.

You can see most of the skills and abilities at http://sto-intel.org/wiki/Main_Page.

You can look at your own skills and determine what allows you to train your officers at STO-Intel as well, but I find it much easier to see that stuff (and figure out if you will ever use it) at http://sto-builder.binarybit.ch/index.php?s=0_zzzzi.