Beginners guide to Skills, Abilities and Skill Points

A common question I hear on the forums and or in chat is typically the Which Deflector Dish is better? Well the answer to that question is, What SKILLS are you using? So I decided to write up this guide to help people understand this better.

For the purposes of this guide I took some screen shots of a VERY OLD copy of Pats on Tribble. So please ignore my gimped skills and abilities. :p

Also I will be taking the angle of a beginning player on the KDF side at Lieutenant level. Since this level is basically the same Federation side, this will work fine for this guide. I also will basically be going over the Space side of this. Ground Skills and Abilities are slightly different, and an entire topic all together.

Part 1: Abilities and Skills

Since I am but a lowly KDF Lieutenant, I have decided that as I continue to PvP and do PvE missions, I want to select some Bridge Officer Skills that will help me further crush the Federation Targs. After doing a number of missions and PvP I finally have enough merits and bridge officer points to select the Bridge Officer skills that will help me achieve this.

I have decided these 3 Bridge Officer skills will help me crush the pathetic Federation:

Science: Science Team I (So that I can heal myself and my team mates).
Engineering: Engineering Team I (So that I can heal myself and my team mates).
Tactical: High Yield Torpedo I (So when the enemy Federation's ship shield is down, I can finish them off).

We could discuss a bazillion different Bridge Officer Skills to start with (such as if you are playing Federation side, Jam Sensors I might be more better for PvE), but just for the purposes of this guide and because Klingon side is all about team work, I'm going to stick with these.

We first need to define what Bridge Officer skills and Captain Abilities are. Each of your Bridge Officers have Skills you can select and level up in and use in combat. In this example my Bridge Officer Nutlel has the Science Team I and Hazard Emitters II skills on him for Space Combat:



And in space look like this:



Captain Abilities are abilities you get while leveling up your Captain. For example, since Pats is a Tactical Captain, and at BG5 level she has many Captain Abilities like Fire on My Mark:



Now your CAPTAIN SKILLS:



These are the skills you put points into as you level to HELP MAKE your Captain Abilities AND your Bridge Officer Skills more effective!

Part 2: Let's get more bang with our Captain Skill points

Since I will be PvP'ing a lot, I really want to make my Science Team I heal really help myself or a team mate when in battle. So how do I do that?

With the 1.1 update we now can easily go to our Captain Skill Screen and see EXACTLY what Captain Skills help our Bridge Officers Skills and Captain Abilities!

The Science Team Skill (I and II) all use these 3 Captain Skills to make them better:



So when leveling up, be sure to put points into these Captain Skills to help the Science Team skill work even better.

As a lowly Lieutenant, we only can put points into the Captain Skill Science Team Leader. But as we continue to level we can put points into the others later on.

As pictured above, the Science Team Bridge Officer skill use Science Team Leader, Starship Deflectors and Starship Deflector Field. Let's keep that in mind as we move onto....

Part 3: Ship Equipment and Consoles

Now that we are putting points into our Captain Skill, Science Team Leader, our Science Team I Bridge Officer Skill is good, but it can be even more better when a dishonorable Federation Targ is attacking one of my brothers and sisters and needs a heal!

As we PvP and do explore mission we have now acquired quite a few badges and can buy some Consoles and Ship Equipment! Heading over to the fabulous Ganalda Space Station I decide I want a Science console on my ship that will help my Science Team I Bridge Officer Skill.

We now know that the Science Team I, Bridge Officer skill use Science Team Leader, Starship Deflectors and Starship Deflector Field to make it a better skill.

While browsing the Console vendor I spot this console:



So this will add a +3.8 to my Starship Deflector Field, and guess what? Science Team I ALSO uses Starship Deflector Field! So this is now helping my Science Team I Bridge Officer Skill even more!

It's now time to pick a Deflector Dish for my Fabulous Bird of Prey. I've narrowed down my choices to 2. Let's go over them:



OK on this one, I am not using any skills or abilities that use Starship Sensors or Starship Emitters. It does add a +7.5 to Starship Deflectors, which Science Team I uses! But let's look at the other one:



I am not using any skills or abilities that use Deflector Dish, but wow! +9.4 to Starship Deflectors! So for me, this is the one I will be using on my Bird of Prey. Obviously +9.4 to Starship Deflectors is better than +7.5.

Part 4: Summing it all up

When selecting Consoles, Ship Equipment, and wondering what Captain Skills you should put points into, put them into the Bridge Officer Skills and Captain Abilities you are going to be using.

In the previous parts, I put Captain Skill points into Science Team Leader, I bought a Science Console that added +3.8 to my Starship Deflector Field, and a Deflector Dish that adds +9.4 to my Starship Deflectors.

All of this will now help My Science Team I ability to heal even better!

With the 1.1 update there are still a few missing Bridge Officer Skills and Captain Abilities that do not show on the drop-down list of your Captain Skills. If you want to know what Captain Skills points to put in for any ability or bridge officer skill, you can still see what captain skills use them. When in Space, press the “p” key and you can browse all your current Abilities and Bridge officer Skills:



As pictured above, to make my Captain Ability Attack Pattern Beta work even more fabulous, I need to keep putting Captain Skill points into Starship Attack Vectors, Starship Combat Maneuvers, and Starship Battle Strategy.

And there you have it!

Most of you already know this, but hopefully some new fleet members might find this handy.

Hope you enjoy, and comments or suggestions are welcome!

thanks!!

Made a bump.

((That's it for the 4th episode of Star Trek: Pandora! Stay tuned for the next episode, which will be the season finale!))

A chime sounded in Oren-De's ready room, causing him to look up from his terminal. "Come in."

Captain Amana entered and Oren-De stood to greet her. Amana motioned for him to be at ease with a small smile before taking a seat herself. "Thank you again for your cooperation last night. Thanks to you and Mr. Lok, we have gained some very valuable information about an organization that could potentially be a great threat to the Federation if left unchecked. However, before I get to that... how is Mr. Lok?"

Oren-De glanced at his terminal. "Still undergoing the Joining. Several of my senior staff are waiting at Starfleet Medical and told me they would notify me once the procedure was complete."

"You're not going to wait with them?"

"No," replied Oren-De with a shake of his head. "It is not a... scenario in which I would be of much use. I intend to visit Mr. Lok once he is out of the operating room."

Amana nodded. "I understand. In that case, let me move on to the matter at hand so that I don't take up any more of your time. Computer, display all information regarding the Gnostics, authorization code 'xephyr epsilon neutron omega'." In response, the computer chirped an affirmative and the large display on one of the room's walls began filling with images and text.

"Thanks to last night's captures and subsequent interrogation, we now know for certain that one organization was behind the attack on your first officer and the murder of Rear Admiral Sadda. It also gave strong evidence that this same group is responsible for the leak of information from Kinet IV to the Klingon Empire that resulted in the attack on the science outpost."

"I'm sorry, you said 'captures'?"

A smile crossed Amana's face. "Yes, I will get to that in a moment. First, when I debriefed Mr. Lok, he informed me that the man who attacked him had called himself 'Dr. Smith' and that he had said that Mr. Lok's death was a sacrifice for 'the Gnostics' and that they served 'the Nephilim'. While I was debriefing Mr. Lok, I had my team do a check on this 'Dr. Smith'. Surprisingly, the name he gave Mr. Lok wasn't a pseudonym. Mr. Lok was attacked by Dr. Ignacio Smith, who has been stationed at Starfleet Medical for five years and serves as an emergency surgeon."

Oren-De looked at Amana in stunned surprise. "This was all perpetrated by someone within Starfleet."

"Correct... except that it wasn't just one person. The check on Dr. Smith involved going through all communications he received, which led us to Lieutenant Sally Chan, a security officer stationed at the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. She sent one of several encrypted transmissions that Dr. Smith received. The others were sent from sources that we're still pinning down. Interrogation of Dr. Smith and Lieutenant Chan have revealed that they are both members of an organization that calls itself 'the Gnostics' and confirmed the Gnostics serve some other group called 'the Nephilim'. Unfortunately, interrogation and investigation has yet to provide any additional information about the Gnostics or who the Nephilim are, exactly. However, Chan did admit to sabotaging the lift that killed Rear Admiral Sadda as well as sealing the door to Mr. Lok's quarters, and did so surprisingly quickly."

"Captain Amana, I'm unfamiliar with the terms 'Gnostic' and 'Nephilim'."

"They're terms from Human religious mythology and originate from two of its oldest recorded religions; Judaism and Christianity. From what I've read, 'Gnostic' is used to describe those who experience or possess divine knowledge, while 'Nephilim' were a group of angels that had fallen to Earth from the heavens."

Oren-De frowned. "I'm afraid I don't understand. There hasn't been an active religion in Enhasan society for nearly a millennium."

"Interesting. Well, as someone who not only comes from a deeply spiritual culture, but who also has studied groups like this as an intelligence officer, I can tell you we are most likely dealing with a clandestine cult; one that is proving to be possibly quite dangerous. They have already demonstrated a dogmatic zeal that makes them blind to the personal consequences of their actions. Additionally, we discovered that Dr. Smith and Lieutenant Chan have never met in person. Ever. Lie detection was quite clear on that point."

The frown on Oren-De's face deepened. "Someone else has not only succeeded in getting to Starfleet members and turning them, but has done so in a way such that it's highly decentralized. If they were able to get to officers on Earth, it is possible they've gotten to officers throughout the Federation."

"And possibly beyond, if the Undine are any indication of the possibility of conducting espionage within all the major galactic powers. Regardless, it is clear that the Gnostics have the potential to do great damage to Starfleet and the Federation. We need more information in order to neutralize the threat they pose. At the same time, Starfleet wishes to contain knowledge of this organization for now. With that in mind, I have been authorized to... augment... your standing mission, Commander."

Oren-De's eyebrow popped up quizzically. "Indeed?"

"The Pandora will still return to the Klingon front and its primary mission will still be to assist in all efforts to stymie aggressive moves by the Klingon Defense Force. However, you are now being given a secondary standing mission: to investigate any leads you may find regarding the Gnostics and the Nephilim. Starfleet is assigning a small number of ships across Federation space to this task, and the Pandora will cover the Klingon front. You are authorized to brief your senior staff. All others are on a need-to-know basis."

"Understood, Captain," Oren-De acknowledged with a nod. As he did, his combadge chirped to life. "Roberts to Captain Oren-De. I thought you might like to know that Mr. Lok's procedure is finished. The doctors inform us that it was a success, but he needs to remain at Starfleet Medical for a few days for recovery, monitoring, and testing."

"Understood, Ms. Roberts."

Amana stood and gave Oren-De a smile. "I'm glad to hear that. Please tell Mr. Lok that I greatly appreciate his service."

"I will, Captain," Oren-De said as he stood. Amana turned to leave and Oren-De looked at the display on his wall. Staring back at him were the faces of the two Gnostic Starfleet officers that had tried to kill his first officer. The Federation, and possibly his crew, now had one more enemy to deal with. It didn't help that something about the word 'Nephilim' gave him a very ill feeling.

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

" A compromise is an agreement where poth parties get what neither of them wanted."

"When everything is coming your way, get back into the correct lane"

"Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, today is a gift, that's why it's called the present"

Lt. Suarez entered the conference room flustered, which annoyed her more that Lt. Calvin was expecting this. Cmdr. Malek smirked and offered her a seat. “Has your client decided to confess for a plea? I'm still willing to offer 2 years confinement for his actions.”

“Lieutenant, we both know you have nothing to provide for inevitable discovery, and you have no case. Let's end this farce and drop the charges.” Cmdr. Malek retaliated, prompting Elizabeth to shift hastily in her seat.

“That won't happen. It's well defined from numerous sources that he wrote the virus. That still accounts for his treason and terrorism charges...”

“You know that's bullshit.” Eddie shot quickly to the prosecutor.

“Ed, shut up.” Rohan snapped as he brushed his client to the side looking back at a now smirking officer. “Liz, we both know you have nothing on the charges of insubordination disorderly conduct or attempted perjury. Let's drop those at least.”

Liz looked between the two men, feeling somewhat double-teamed through this. She scowled knowing that Rohan was right. “I will drop the charges on the condition that Lt. Calvin pleads guilty to the treason and terrorism charges.”

“Drop them to insubordination, different from the current insubordination charge, no time, and you have a deal.” Rohan said.

“Insubordination is too trivial for what he's done. You're lucky I decided to not go for reckless operation or murder with how he acted.”

Eddie shot to his feet ready to tackle Liz for her audacity. Rohan was just as quick to push him back to his seat. “Liz, don't be unreasonable about this.”

“I'm not being unreasonable about anything. He can end this trial with a change of plea and I'll advise for minimal punishment.” Liz began.

“I've done nothing wrong, and you will not coerce me into submission.” Eddie moved towards the door. “So if you want to drag me tooth and nail to the galley, you've got your work cut out for you.”

---

Lt. Suarez moved hastily up the steps to the prosecutor's bench. The admirals had been waiting for her arrival for a few minutes past the expected time. “My apologies, Admirals.”

Hollis spoke for Giovanni. “Lt. Suarez, were you able to find an alternative means of discovery for the information in Lt. Matoya's testimony?”

“No, I was not.” Liz confessed as she shook her head.

“Does the prosecution have any more witnesses or evidence to provide?” Admiral Zelle pressed. Lt. Suarez shook her head again. Zelle sighed in frustration. “Then the defense may call it's first witness.”

Rohan stood, eager to get rolling on the defense, starting with the biggest name he could for an opening act. “The defense calls Ensign Solek to the stand.”

Solek moved calmly across the room and took a seat at the chair. “Ensign Solek, what was your role in the Vega Colony Battle?”

“I was previously assigned to the Khittomer as a science officer.”

“And what was your specialty?”

“Cybernetics.”

“When did you first encounter the defendant during the crisis?”

Solek flinched a sign of weakness that T'nae and Liz caught at the question. “The Khittomer had been boarded, but Commander Davis was just retaking the ship. He ordered me to Transporter Room 3 to assist the 'cowboy' that helped his crew retake the ship. It was not until he arrived at the transporter room as well that I met him.”

Liz started mashing furiously into her P.A.D.D. for some information as Rohan continued his questions. “What happened next, Ensign?”

“We beamed back aboard the New Orleans to discover that the senior staff had been either taken or killed in combat. Ed..gar was the highest ranking bridge officer at the time and thus acting captain.”

“On the colony surface, did you see Lt. Calvin do anything unusual?”

Solek paused. “I would interpret it as creative.”

T'nae's vulcan scoff echoed in the silence. Rohan pressed the point. “Can you elaborate?”

“Lt. Calvin had what he called a replicator virus. He installed it to an uplink tower that had been established on the ground. It was extremely effective at disabling a large number of drones that ultimately helped retake the colony. While I didn't witness any event, it is logical to assume this disabling also saved countless colonists and officers from assimilation.”

“Thank you, Mr. Solek. I have no further questions.”

Elizabeth stood, almost smirking. “Mr. Solek, please explain the term V'tosh ka'tur.”

Among the murmors from the audience, the glares from T'nae and Zelle, the stunned audible from Commander Malek, Eddie's jaw dropped only at Solek taking a gulp at the question.

Thanks for the offer for the code, but i now have the game :). I just need to get out of the damn tutorial and i'm happy :).

I'll come on vent sometime mate.

But i'm doing good. What about you?

bfelczer wrote:

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Amazing write-up!!!!! Thank you :)

Just to clarify I DID NOT WRITE THIS, just thought it would be very useful fleet guide. :)

:bow: :bow: :bow:

Amazing write-up!!!!! Thank you :)

OMG!!! I was wondering where you were! :) You and I played quite a bit in Beta together. How are you?!

The fleet is doing awesome. Vent is almost always active and people are always chatting up a storm in-game.

The game is awesome! It has gotten really exciting with the new dificulty slider and radisodes.

If you would like, I still have a 10 day buddy code avaliable from my collector's edition so you can try out the game. PM me if you want a code :)

B

I've actually never cancelled my subscription so I'll have to check with Play NC cuz I still can only get CoV on my acct.

After reading this amazing guide on the CE from the STO forums, by author Combadge, I just wanted to have a copy of it here, especially if we do another fleet CD night (and we finally get Fleet instances).

Phases: The Crystalline Entity encounter has three phases. Any time the entity is above 66% health we’re in phase 1. Any time the entity is below 33% health we’re in phase 3. Between 66% and 33% rests phase 2. You can find yourself in any one of these phases multiple times during a battle depending on how much the Entity’s health is fluctuating.

Healing: Speaking of health, the Entity has a natural regeneration rate of roughly 3% health every 40 seconds. If your group can’t put out enough damage to remove more than 3% of the entity’s health every 40 seconds then you’ll never see the Entity’s health drop below 97%. It is very important that players remember to continually buff themselves and debuff the entity throughout the entire encounter to do as much damage as possible.

Crystals: Whenever the Entity is struck by a weapon, it produces a “Crystalline Fragment”. These Crystalline Fragments are not to be confused with “Large Crystalline Fragments” and “Small Crystalline Fragments, which behave very differently.

These normal Crystalline Fragments (which are the only type of fragment that spawn during phases 1 and 2) do one thing and one thing only: chase other players around and explode (doing direct hull damage) whenever they come within 1 km (~.75 km, actually) of an enemy object which can be targeted. In order to outrun their pursuit you need to maintain roughly 75% power to your engines. These normal Crystalline Fragments do not cause the Entity to heal in any way regardless of how they’re handled.

Let’s define “enemy objects which can be targeted” (from the Entity’s perspective), because that’s going to be an important concept to understand going forward. Examples include: player ships, NPC ships belonging to the player’s faction, mines, high yield plasma torpedoes, etc. That does not include photon torpedoes, or normal plasma torpedoes, etc. If it can’t be targeted then the fragments can’t collide with it. If it can be targeted then the fragments can collide with it. You can easily tell what object can and can not be targeted simply by trying, and by the time you reach Lieutenant Commander and get your first Crystalline Entity mission you should be familiar with this.

These normal Crystalline Fragments can be shot at and killed without creating any sort of negative side effect, other than the fact that DPS focusing on crystals fragments is DPS that isn’t focused on the Entity. This is why, contrary to popular belief, mines are actually extremely helpful, but only during phases 1 and 2. Mine laying ships can leave a trail of mines behind them causing packs of pursuing fragment to explode and be removed from the battle, while still keeping their other weapons firing at the Entity. But you need to be smart about this – if you’re laying mines you must make sure they’re all gone before the battle progresses into phase 3 (33% health and lower), and avoid using them at all during phase 3 entirely.

Why kill the Crystalline Fragments? If you can spare the DPS it’s generally helpful to have a few people mopping up the normal fragments to keep their population under control. The more fragments in the air the more difficult it becomes to avoid them. More importantly, the game seems to be able to only display a limited number of objects at once. If there are too many fragments on your display the game engine will stop rendering objects – including making the Crystalline Entity itself invisible as well as other fragments you’re about to cruise into. Fewer fragments also makes it easier to spot the much more important Large Crystalline Fragments and Small Crystalline Fragments later on (more on them in a bit).

So, the less fragments in the air, the better. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come up on a CE fight where the Entity is at 100% health, seemingly hundreds of fragments are swarming around him, and someone is repeatedly shouting “shoot only the entity, not the shards!”. In such a scenario that is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Why? Because the Entity is already at 100% health, meaning the situation can’t get any worse if you stop shooting at it. And shooting at the Entity is causing it to produce even more fragments, adding to the unmanageable number already in the air. If you have enough ships to make a serious attempt at the entity (usually around a dozen are needed to overcome his natural regeneration), your best bet at this point is to pull out past 10 km from the entity and focus your efforts on cleaning up all the fragments. If nobody continues to fire at the Entity during this mop-up procedure then it will stop producing extra fragments. That way when your group begins their serious attack run you’re starting with no fragments in the air at all; a clean slate to start from.

I mentioned Large Crystalline Fragments and Small Crystalline Fragments. These only spawn during phase 3 (however, if you dip into phase 3 and then fall back into phase 2, or even phase 1, existing Large/Small Crystalline Fragments will still remain in the battle until destroyed). During phase 3 the Entity will spawn Large Crystalline Fragments which travel faster than the normal Crystalline Fragments from the prior phases. It’s recommended that you put all power to your engines at this point and circle the Entity at maximum weapon range. By placing a larger buffer between yourself and the Entity you’re giving yourself more time to spot and react to incoming Large Crystalline Fragments.

These Large Crystalline Fragments can be safely destroyed with weapon’s fire as long as the weapon isn’t something they can collide with (like a ship, mine, high yield plasma torpedo, etc). Again, normal plasma torpedoes (and even normal/high yield torpedoes like photons and quantums) are fine. When destroyed in this manner the Large Crystalline Fragments disappear harmlessly with no negative side effects. However, if the Large Crystalline Fragments pass within 1 km of an enemy object that can be targeted they will explode into three Small Crystalline Fragments that will race back to the Entity.

Every Small Crystalline Fragment that reaches the entity will heal the Entity for 1% of its health. If you see a Small Crystalline Fragment you should focus your efforts on killing it as quickly as possible, before it reaches the Entity, and without slamming your ship into a number of other Large Crystalline Fragments in the process. Yet another example of why the “don’t shoot the fragments!” mantra is a sweeping statement and such bad advice.

Thus, every Large Crystalline Fragment, if not handled correctly, has the potential to ultimately cause the Entity to heal up by 3%. When you see dozens of them popping up into the air during phase 3, it becomes very easy to understand how the Entity’s health can go from 33% to 100% in the blink of an eye. But, if everyone is paying attention and using their head this shouldn’t happen. Rather than thinking “it doesn’t matter if I die” and flying recklessly during the first two phases, use them as an opportunity to train for the very important third phase where your death really does matter. Practice avoiding the normal Crystalline Fragments so you can repeat that performance when it counts during the third phase.

I’ll wrap this up with a summary of the three phases:

Phase 1 (100%-66%): The Entity releases Crystalline Fragments when fired upon. Interaction with these fragments is harmless beyond the fact that colliding with them causes massive hull damage. Mines work well during this phase. The Entity will fire a beam weapon (which can be absorbed by your shield) at whichever player is highest on its threat list. Engines should be at 75% power. All remaining power should be to your weapons to improve damage unless you’re tanking. Your group needs to be large enough and focused enough to strip more than 3% of the Entity’s health every 40 seconds.

Phase 2 (66%-33%): The Entity increases the rate at which Crystalline Fragments are released and discontinues firing his beam weapon. The tank can now safely shift his spare power from shields to weapons as long as the Entity remains below 66% health. Mines still work well during this phase but they need to be removed from the field of battle before the fight moves into phase 3.

Phase 3: (33%-1%): In addition to Crystalline Fragments, the Entity begins releasing faster moving Large Crystalline Fragments. Ships should expand out to maximum weapon’s range and increase power to their engines to 100%. Any spare ships can safely destroy Large Crystalline Fragments with normal weapons fire, but not using objects that can be targeted (mines, high yield plasma torpedoes, tricobalt weapons, etc). Enemy objects colliding with (coming within 1 km of) Large Crystalline Fragments will produce three Small Crystalline Fragments which will return to the Entity and restore 1% of its health each. Destroying any Small Crystalline Fragments you see is a priority.

Finally, a note on Scramble Sensors. If used on the Crystalline Entity it temporarily strips all fragments of their ability to collide/explode on enemy player objects. All Large Crystalline Fragments will also temporarily stop moving. Small Crystalline Fragments, however, remain unaffected and will continue to move towards the Entity in an attempt to heal it.

Try to become familiar with the Scramble Sensors aura so you can better identify when the fragments are in a confused state. If there are multiple vessels in your group with the Scramble Sensors ability that can coordinate a rotation, it is completely possible to lock the fragments down (which is extremely helpful during phase 3). Currently a single ship with the right Bridge Officer setup can handle this alone. However, with the upcoming changes to ability stacking/timing I doubt this will be the case much longer – which makes it more important than ever to get familiar with the encounter basics.

The more people understand the Crystalline Entity fight, the easier it will be. While the above is way too much information to ever list out in-game, going too extreme with summaries can have a negative impact. Statements like “don’t ever shoot the fragments” or “don’t ever use mines” are not only wrong, but wrong to the point of being harmful. Going into the a fight with completely wrong information is worse than having no information.

I'll be klingon when i can anyway.

I was 90% of the time on CB and OB. Looking forward to it :)

Colonel_Black wrote:

I've now bought a key for the game, and i'll most likely be playing it in a bit or tomorrow. Perhaps i'll be able to play with some of you lot.

Hope to see you in game then sweetie, or at least kill you in PvP when you get to Ra5 (I play Klingon). ;)

I've now bought a key for the game, and i'll most likely be playing it in a bit or tomorrow. Perhaps i'll be able to play with some of you lot.

Colonel_Black wrote:

I can't even join PvP in the demo to see if that's good. I enjoy PvP a lot.

Are there open PvP zones now? I have a site where i can buy the key for £12. ^^

There is no "open PvP zone" yet (There is the War Zones map, but that's kind of different). There has been quite a lot of chatter on the STO forums for this though. People really really seem to want it (as do myself).

The PvP variety at present is a bit..... sparse but it can only get better.

If you want to exclusively play only PvP I'd say wait a bit. But if you want to do a bit of both (all the Federation side story missions and do a little PvP on the side) you will have plenty to keep you busy.

War'en looked past Dr. Smith's advancing form to the other side of the room. Next to the bed, underneath his discarded Starfleet uniform, was a phaser that he'd been given by Captain Amana. War'en wished he had gone for the phaser instead of trying to escape out of the room.

"Who are the Gnostics?" he asked, trying to keep his assailant talking.

"We seek the knowledge of the Nephilim, so that we may become one with them," responded Dr. Smith, whose voice had taken on a wavering tone that almost bordered on ecstasy. "We serve them in all that we do, and AS I DO NOW!"

Dr. Smith lunged again at War'en, raising the hypospray to his neck. War'en lept to the side away from the hypospray and, though he evaded the doctor's attack, he slammed into a wall that was just a few feet from the door. By this point, however, adrenaline was fueling War'en and helped keep him focused. He spun from the wall and sprinted for the pile of clothes next to the bed. The doctor, not to be deterred, turned after him and made a grab for his legs. Both War'en and the doctor crashed to the floor. The doctor raised the hypospray one more time and brought it down on War'en's leg. War'en felt the cold touch of the hypospray again his skin just as he pulled the phaser out from under the clothes and fired at the doctor, sending him into unconsciousness immediately.

The hypospray fell from the doctor's limp hand and clattered to the floor. War'en turned over and pulled himself into a sitting position against the bed, his breathing still fast and deep as he looked at Dr. Smith's still form. He only looked up from him when he heard voices come from the other side of the door a few moments later.

"I can't open the door!"

Red...?

"Step away. I have an override code," came a quieter voice that War'en could barely hear.

"Talona, Maggie, cover me after Captain Amana opens the door. Dr. Redwing, stand by and keep watch for anyone that approaches," ordered Oren-De.

"War'en? Are you alright in there?" sounded Red's voice again.

"I'm fine..." he said, but it came out much quieter than he had intended. I'm fine...

The door slid open and a phaser rifle poked through into the room. Oren-De slid out from the frame and made a quick visual pass of the room. Upon seeing that there were no live threats, he looked over at War'en. "Are you alright, Mr. Lok?"

War'en nodded and finally found his voice. "Yes, I'm fine. This was the only attacker", he said motioning to the prone form next to him.

Oren-De motioned back to the door for the others to come in. Red rushed into the room, followed by the others. He brought his medical tricorder to bear on War'en and let out a word of relief in Navajo. "No injuries. War'en, what did that guy try to do to you?"

"He tried injecting me with something in that hypospray," replied War'en, motioning to the discarded instrument.

Red frowned and gave it a once-over with his tricorder. His eyes went wide at the reading. Talona looked at him in concern. "Red? What's wrong?"

"This hypospray is filled with 1,5-dichlorotamiryx, more commonly known as DCT. It's an incredibly potent nuerotoxin that was developed by the Cardassians for use against species like the Vorta that are immune to most other poisons. Luckily the hypospray is still full, but if he had injected you with this War... there'd be nothing left of you now..."

Everyone looked at War'en in silence until Amana spoke up. "I'm glad that you're safe, Mr. Lok. I know that you have a difficult day ahead of you tomorrow, but I would like to debrief you as soon as possible."

War'en simply nodded. Red looked up at Amana from his position next to War'en. "It wouldn't be a good idea to place stress on him this close to the Joining. I... I should stay here to monitor his vitals."

Maggie and Talona exchanged looks at the weak excuse. Oren-De studied Red before looking over at Amana. "Dr. Redwing is an excellent physician. I think you should take his advice, if only to avoid a confrontation with Starfleet Medical when they find out you used one of their dormitories as a trap for an assassin."

Amana nodded with a small smile on her face. "I understand. Thank you for the advice, Commander Oren-De. However, I request the rest of you leave while I conduct the debriefing."

Maggie, Talona, and Oren-De nodded. They said their good-byes and good wishes to War'en, then took their leave. As Amana began to question War'en, Red looked at his tricorder and thanked the spirits that War'en was still with him.

The PVP could be better. Personally I think there are some balance issues to sort out. But this is something other members might need to comment on. Am not much of a PVP player. The Klingon's seem too powerful (although I have heard someone say they aren't) as well as this, being on "lop sided" teams, where another team have more members.

As for open pvp, am not sure what this means, as I say, not much of a pvp player. But there are planets you can travel to for them, but really its the same as accessing them from the pvp que in the options menu. Hopefully someone else will be able to comment on this and give better information that I can.

Cryptic has already done the demo mate. But to be honest, the demo tells me nothing. Being a closed beta tester, then an open beta tester until launch day, doing the tutorial for the 5th time doesn't tell me if the game is anymore interesting.

I can't even join PvP in the demo to see if that's good. I enjoy PvP a lot.

Are there open PvP zones now? I have a site where i can buy the key for £12. ^^