For TL, DR just skip to the last sentence.

I just went through what I consider a period of steep L2P. Having run a tac/escort I began a klink sci alt. Flying a battle cruiser through LC was a lot of fun. I ran A2ID and DHC’s and I felt like a drunk in a bar fight. If I managed to connect I would win, but sometimes I just spun in circles until the floor rose up to meet me.

Once I hit captain I was met with a string of PvP matches in which I was outclassed because as the options grew at the new tier the more experienced players had a better idea of how to optimize their builds.

I’m not sure how many pugs it took to get to grade 6, where I’m now feeling a bit more respectable about my performance, but it felt like a long time with two respecs and a change over into a BoP. I realized that I couldn’t do the things I wanted to in a cattle bruiser without tens of millions for bo’s on the exchange or lucking out with a requisition, and that my ability to train the high level science skills was being wasted.

The switch wasn’t anywhere near the only thing I realized. I’ve now seen Fed escort pilots make their ships do things I never had the skill to do when I ran mine. I’ve learned to recognize when I’ve won matches due to the other side playing terribly, and that a more experienced opponent would have taken better advantage of my mistakes. I watched PvP on youtube and learned that I was way off with how I was using EWP. Last night I swapped bo’s to ready a tractor beam and waited until this exceptional escort pilot was making an escape to subnuc and TB, it was the most gratifying hull pop since I started playing. It was the second match I’d seen him in and I had been unable to kill him the match before.

I also developed some views on teamwork. And I have two things in particular I would like to see from the devs. They involve the UI, not game balance.

All of this stuff has been a grand old time, honestly some of the best I’ve had at a game in recent years. And I file it all under L2P.

The phrase learn to play can quite easily come across as dismissive when someone has raised what they feel is a valid issue and they receive “L2P” as a response. Sometimes what this means is “Yeah, I ran into that and I figured a workaround, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.” When L2P advice is accompanied by an invitation to share builds or contact the poster in game, or any attempt at a math-based explanation, I would encourage people to take it in this manner.

While I feel that there is room for improvement regarding the casual manner in which it can be tossed around, I believe that L2P can be an honest piece of advice, and when someone suggests it on the forum one’s panties should not automatically begin to wad.

wtf is that, what is the point? lol

The point seems pretty obvious to me.

I think L2P is thrown out too much by people but there is a point to the idea that
people should not assume that they know all there is to know about the game just because they played it for a couple weeks.

I have been playing since closed beta and I am still learning things so it makes sense to always keep an open mind and a willingness to learn but on the other side of the coin telling people to L2P just because you think you are better or know better is just rude.

I think it would be much more polite and friendly to offer advice rather then just telling some one the need to L2P.

Nice post OP, glad to see you learning to play.

It can be a real kick in the pants, can't it?

Nothing wrong with understanding one needs to be humble student at all times.

True, which is why I gave him props for understanding.

DING DING DING Give this man a CIGAAAR!!!!

Agreed, while granted there was a few months were I wasn't playing in the middle somewhere I only just figured out why people say go hyper-impulse engines over combat (since seriously looking at the stats I dont see much different between the two except efficient at high or low power which didn't really say much to me and I was figuring "Yeah, I want to boost the stats of my lower powered skills" lol) but ZOOOOOOOOOOOOM! those things get you out of combat in a second.

QUOTED FOR THE DIVINE TRUTH

in each of the 5 total charatcers i have had in my time of playing STO since its global launch day(i deleted 1 of them since i saw no need for him anymore) i have gotten a tad bit better and a slightly deeper understanding of where to spec to get what i want my ship to do, which abilities are of any use, ect.

and as each character gets to VA rank, i find that they are getting exponentially more powerful, and myself able to play a PvP match without wearing my spacebar into my knees. When I look at my stat logs at the end of a match, i will often sit back and do my number crunching, find room for another tweak, and then rinse and repeat. I have also taken to using xfires recording feature to record my visual performance, and see if i can work on a new maneuver to help me avoid that extra damage(escort captain- guilty as charged).

there is no real one person who is the top PvPer in STO, because there is no rankings, and there is always gonna be some shadow ninja ship out there that shafts your stats when you least expect it

awesome post OP
I agree100%