4+ year vet on Triumph, have a severe case of altitis so I have something in every powerset & several 50's. Used to be co-leader of an SG but left when the other co-leader made some very homophobic comments. Global is @Az'rial. I'm always on on Thursday evenings for MITF runs.

Thanks Starseed! This is really useful for me as I've been pondering switching up my space weapons recently. Cheers! :)

STO forum topic could use another bump. Last one was 04/16.

Great write-up Starseed!

WOW! Thank you so much for this =)

A player with good DPS will make life a lot easier on their teammates. Even if you are not in an escort, you can change your layout, and not spend a huge amount of skill points and still give yourself a major DPS boost. There are a few things to pay attention to before you decide where to spend your points, and which weapons to use.


A weapon's damage at 50% weapon power is calculated by taking the base damage and multiplying it by your skill bonuses. That number is then added to the weapon's mark bonus.

Your damage = (Base x Skill bonus) + Mk bonus

The mark level bonus is a certain percentage of base damage, and can be calculated using this chart:

Mk 1 = 1.082 (8.2%)
Mk 2 = 1.184 (18.4%)
Mk 3 = 1.296 (28.6%)
Mk 4 = 1.388 (38.8%)
Mk 5 = 1.490 (49%)
Mk 6 = 1.592 (59.2%)
Mk 7 = 1.694 (69.4%)
Mk 8 = 1.796 (79.6%)
Mk 9 = 1.898 (89.8%)
Mk 10 = 2.00 (100%)

The base damage can be found by looking at the damage of a weapon on an unmodified tooltip (like on the exchange or your paper doll) and divide it by the appropriate value on the chart. I found a chart that lists the base damage for each weapon.

Beam Array 100
Dual Beam Bank 133
Cannon 72
Dual Cannon 100
Dual Heavy Cannon 200.5
Turret 45
Photon Torpedo Launcher 1383
Quantum Torpedo Launcher 1447
Plasma Torpedo Launcher 1085.5
Transphasic Torpedo Launcher 1000.5
Chroniton Torpedo Launcher 1184


For example, I use Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons Mk X. It says the phaser damage dealt is 401.

401/2.00 = 200.5

The base damage for every dual heavy cannon is 200.5.

Using my skill points, I have maxed out Starship Energy Weapons Training, Starship Cannon Weapons, and Starship Phaser Weapons. That gives my Phaser Cannons a 18, 30, and 52 weapons training bonus respectively. That is a +100 skill bonus total. Each skill bonus acts as a 1% increase to your base damage. (so base x 1.01)

200.5 x (+100 skill bonus, so 2.00) + (100% of 200.5)

= 601.5

So at 50% weapons power, I will deal 601.5 damage for every shot.

Tactical consoles act as a skills/training bonus. So if you stack 4 consoles that add +30 to phaser weapons, you are getting another +120 to add to your +100.

200.5 x (+220 skill bonus, so 3.2) + (100% of 200.5)

= 842.1

So my consoles give my cannons a 40% increase in DPS.


You can choose to have a variety of energy weapon types if you want, but you cannot stack your consoles in your favour. So if you choose two cannon weapons of different types (such as Phaser and Plasma), you can only have an average of +160 weapons training on each cannon, instead of +220.

A big thing to note is that you can use less skill points by using one weapon type. Phasers and Disruptors also cost less, yet can do just as much damage. However, you would get better DPS spending 3600 points (lvl 9) on plasma weapons, than you would get by spending 3200 (lvl 8) on plasma, and 2400 (lvl 8) on Phasers.


This is another reason why it is better to use one weapon type for your energy weapons or projectile weapons.


Another aspect to keep in mind is weapon power. The wrong setup could be draining your weapon power too quickly, and you could end up firing blanks at a critical juncture in a fight. You should try to find a setup that will not drain your energy, thus decreasing the damage dealt with each shot.

I use two engineering consoles that increase my weapon power. Using this and setting my weapon power to the max means that I am dealing 2054 phaser damage from 200.5 base damage. That number becomes more significant when Attack Pattern Alpha/Omega or tactical team is applied on myself, or when Fire on my Mark and Attack Pattern Beta/Delta are applied on the enemy.

Cannons have a shared cooldown, which helps a ton in maintaining high weapon power levels. Beam weapons and especially turrets drain power much faster. Turrets do not have a shared cooldown, and always fire, which is murder on your power levels. You can fire two energy weapon types at one time without much drain, so consider only using one, if any turrets.

Because of the cooldown, you can have as much as three cannons before they become redundant. There is some debate on whether or not two cannons is the max before dual beam bank starts to give you a better dps rating, but I prefer using three cannons.

Awesome job you guys!
Thank you so much!

Amazing job Kris!!!! Can't wait to beat it again this Saturday with you **wink wink**

Here is a walkthrough that Solari and I put together (with comments from Vee, Starseed, and Ooom). It will continue to be fleshed out as we play the mission more.

Suggested Team Make-Up, Gear, and Tips


*3 Tactical Officers (and 3 Escorts), 1 Engineer (1 Cruiser), and 1 Science (1 Science Ship)
*Ground Gear (can all be purchased at Battlegroup Omega): Energy Dampening Armor Mk X (purple - there are two or three varieties, any is fine)
*Personal Shield Mk X [Pla] [Dis] [Pha] - purple,
*Your favorite Mk X energy weapons (bat'leths won't really cut it here, unfortunately) - if your science officer is running expose, everyone else can run full exploit.
* 25 Large Hypos, 10 Large Shield Charges, at least 10 Large Power Cells (NOT OPTIONAL)

Kits:

* Tac: One person should run Squad Leader, one Security Protocol, and one Close Combat Specialist (this person will be in charge of standing in the middle of oncoming droves of borg and leg-sweeping, rifle-butting, etc, to force the expose).
* Sci: Medic Kit (can you really run anything else in a raid, with only one sci?).
* Eng: Bunker Fabrication (the force-field bubble is very helpful in this mission).

Tips:


*Science Officer should have expose weapons equipped. Because of the time necessary to heal this mission, your Sci will not get many chances to shoot, but when they do, an expose will be beneficial to the rest of the team.
*Tactical Officers should listen for their Science and Engineering officers to call out that they need Tactical Initiative (which is quite helpful with Science healing timers and Engineering shield timers).
*Make sure that you stay in a close knit group, it makes it easier for the above two tips to work more effectively.


First Space Battle


You will warp in to see a glowing, spinning orb in the middle of the field. This is the Time Vortex. For now, your entire team should take out the the smaller cube, followed by any probes and Spheres. Fire on the Tactical Cube, and pull it toward one of the gates. When the cube is within 1km of the gate, kill it, and it will take down about 30% of the gate's health.


At this point, split into two teams. Your engineer and Science officers should head out to the second gate, leaving three Tac officers by the one that just got damaged.


At this point, it is essential to kill all the probes first, then kill the spheres. Probes move toward the time Vortex more quickly than Spheres (and spheres don't seem to move toward it at all once they have been hit by your team's fire). Once the enemies from BOTH gates are down, the shields will drop again (this is also on a 3 minute minimum timer, so if you're too fast, you may have to wait a bit). Fire all you have at the transwarp gateway.


After a few waves, the tactical officers should be able to have their gate down. They should take out their probes and spheres, and proceed to help the other team (which by now probably has a cube or two). Take down this gate in the same manner (except as a team). Be mindful to kill the cubes directly after the probes, as trying to kill the spheres first ends in multiple deaths (the Cubes will tractor beam you and drop your shields, and then the Spheres will kill you).


After the second gate is down and all the enemies are killed, you can use the Time Vortex. Do so.


Second Space Battle


You will warp into an area with 6 cubes. Go to the far one on either side. As each group of 3 is connected, once you aggro one, the other two will come at you. They're slow, though, so you should be able to take them down one by one. There is some decent loot in here. Kill all 6 cubes before beaming down to the surface.

Beam down


Go to the rocks on the left. Go into the doors.


Into the Facility


Go to the left or right, both lead the same place - a door centrally located behind the wall you initially see coming in. Clear out the node (which is directly to the right inside the corridor), then kill the drones. We went to the left. Take out the patrol, and run past the drones that are coming out of their alcoves. The door on your left leads to the room with their node.


This node is directly inside the door to the left. DO NOT aggro other drones in this room, and do not take out any other nodes. Once the node is down, pull back into the previous room, and take out the drones.


The next node is in this room as well, it is on the ramp immediately to the left. Take it out, and pull back into the other room to take out the drones as the filter through the door. At this point, you can ignore the other node in the room as long as you have not aggro'd the drones on the other side.


Take a right and head through the door. As soon as you get close enough, the drones beam in with their node, which will be directly in front of you. Take it out, then take out the drones (all heavy tactical - about 6 of them).


Head to the left. Another group will beam in and their node will be around the next corner to the left. While you take out these drones, you may get a beam in behind you. Be mindful to take them out as well, and not get flanked.


As you round the corner, another group will beam in. Their node is around the next corner. Again, take out the node then the drones. Be careful not to aggro the drones further down when taking out the node.


After clearing out those drones, you will see several heavy tactical drones around a doorway on the right. Their node is in an alcove to the left. Take out the node, and have your team pull into the alcove to avoid getting flanked. Take out the drones, and head into the door that was previously on your right.


There are four nodes in this room. It is best to take out one node at a time, pull back into the hallway, and kill the drones. However, you will inevitably get drones that are tethered to other nodes, and will eventually have to take out all of them to kill them. If you have an engineer with a force field shield, you can control their flow to you, allowing you to take them out fairly easily. Watch for beam ins behind you, and take them out.


Head into the room, and down the ramp. Instead of following the ramp down behind you, jump over the railing and turn around, taking out the node (which is under the platform you were just on). Head through the door that is now behind you, and take out the drones (going the other way will result in aggroing a ton more drones!) Go to the right. You can click the pylon to watch the making of an infected drone...go to the end of the hall, and take a left. Take out the patrol (watch for the beam in behind you).


Head into the very large room. Note the glowing pylon in the center, but ignore it for now. Take out the drones surrounding it (they are not tethered). Proceed to the left generator on this level - there will be a node directly behind it. Take out the node, then the drones. Proceed to the right, the node here is near the generator as well. Take out the drones in this area, then proceed upward to the top set of generators. go to the left one first, the node is up the ramp directly across from the generator. Take out the drones, and proceed right. You will need to do a little jumping to get to this generator, the node is in that area. After killing all of the drones, drop down to the bottom level. Go all the way to the right. The first node is behind a pylon that is across from the generator. Clear out the borg. The last node is in the center on this level, behind a pylon. Take it out, take out the borg, and send your engineer back to the pylon you saw upon entering the room.


Send your engineer to the entrance of the room - you may have noticed the glowing pylon when you walked in. Have the Engineer activate the correct nodes when you are near them - Starting at the bottom and working your way up can be a good strategy. Use a power cell to give you the most bang for your buck, and take down the generator as fast as possible. Your engineer may need someone to come back and give them backup in the other room, your entire team can go help him out by activating the pylon as they did early to get in. Activate the center generator to leave again. Be mindful that the bottom floor is 3 and the top floor is 1, The pylons to the left are the Alpha ones and the pylons on the right are the Beta ones, the Queen will help you out by saying Intruders detected at Pylon ... which can help you relay which pylon the engineer needs to trigger.

Once you have destroyed the last of the Pylon's you need to head up to the top level and destroy the Machine that looks like a giant MRI scanner. Your journey up there however will not be too easy as dozens of drones will beam in to try and stop you. Once this is done, you need to head back out of the room and head towards the other Machine you encountered.
Note(before you blow this one up, if you want the Borg Accolade, step into the machine but be sure you just walk far enough in to trigger it, when you trigger it, it will kill you however do not re-spawn as this will put you back at the very start, have someone bring you back and then return the favor for them when they obtain the Borg Accolade).
Once the second Machine has been taken down you will notice that the Forcefield at the end of the corridor is down and there are two patrols between you and the new room.

Having Reached the room, There are two groups of drones on either side of the room in their alcoves and the boss will be in the back center of the room. We found it best to all run into the room and head behind the platform where the boss is to take out the two nodes that are attached to the two groups of drones. When the nodes have been taken care of make a hasty retreat back out of the room and have your engineer erect a shield at the entrance to help with crowd control.

Final Ground Encounter

After these encounter you will be beamed back to the surface where you will need to speak to the person indicated on the map, after that you will be beam back to your ships.

Third Space Battle

The last space battle is pretty easy.

Initially, you will see some borg and the Boss's ship. Fire on the boss's ship until she drops some probes. Killing the probes will bring her out again. She will appear and cloak many times, just keep pounding on her until she gets down to 50% health, when she will take off away from you. Follow her, and she'll shoot out some more probes, put up another time vortex (out of which a couple of cubes and some spheres will come), and run away again. Take out the cubes first, then clean up the rest of the trash. She will now go to the other end of the map and do the same thing, just repeat.

Once this is done she will again be targetable, with 100% health. Just keep knocking her down, keeping in mind that she often materializes for two seconds only to cloak again (so don't throw your debuffs right away, make sure she's staying for a few hits). At this point, she may spawn some probes, just take them out, and get back to her. When she is finished, she drops some nice purple loot. Take it, head back through the time portal and you're done!

War'en sat on the bed of his in-patient quarters at Starfleet Medical, looking over a padd. It was full of updates from the Pandora's Engineering staff, but he was finding it unusually difficult to focus on them. Instead, his mind kept going back to the argument that he and Red had had earlier that day.

"I know damn well that once they put that thing in you that... you may not be you anymore."

With a sigh, he stood up from the bed and walked over to a full-length mirror that was mounted on the opposite wall. He looked into his own eyes and held up a hand to his reflection. What if Red was right? What if the Sadda symbiont took over completely and he stopped being himself? Even if it didn't, some amount of change in his personality was inevitable. It was all a question of how much.

A chime from the door of his quarters interrupted his thoughts. "Come in," he called out as he turned toward the door. To his surprise, the door slid open to reveal Captain Oren-De and the senior staff of the Pandora... sans the chief medical officer. War'en was hurt to see that Red hadn't come with them, but he masked it as much as he could with a smile.

"I didn't expect to see you all here!"

Will, Maggie, and Talona entered first, followed by Oren-De and Shrel at slower pace. The latter two both looked somewhat awkward and it was readily apparent that this visit had not been their idea. Still, War'en appreciated it all the same. He was especially glad to see Oren-De, if only because it meant his captain had taken his earlier advice to heart.

"Why not?" exclaimed Maggie. "You're in the hospital, so of course you're going to get a visit from us. We'd have to be heartless not to come vis--ow!"

Maggie glared at Talona, who had not-so-subtly elbowed her in the side. Talona's smile took on a rather forced nature as she realized War'en had noticed, and quickly did the first thing she could think of: shove her gift in his face.

"Here! This is for you," she said, holding a flat box out to him. "It's from all of us."

War'en took the gift and caught a look of understanding sympathy from Talona. War'en nodded in return, then looked at the group. "Thanks. This... really means a lot to me that you're all here to visit me."

"No problem," Will said with a grin before he motioned toward the box. "Come on, go ahead an open it."

War'en undid the simple wrapping job and was surprised to find that the gift was a box of Trill chocolates. He stared at the gift in amazement then looked back up at the others. "Where did you get these? The ship doesn't have them in its replicator memory..."

"I remembered that there was a Trill restaurant in San Francisco on the Embarcadero. You told me about it shortly after I first came on board, when I mentioned how much I loved the city," Talona said with a grin. War'en nodded and placed the box on a bedside table.

The group exchanged nervous conversation for a half hour before a nurse arrived to announce that visiting hours were coming to an end.

"Well, the procedure is first thing tomorrow morning, so I guess this is good-bye. ... until after it, I mean."

Talona exchanged glances with Will as Maggie gave him a smile. "I look forward to hearing about it! I've never met a Joined Trill before."

War'en gave a weak smile as the group turned to leave. They were almost out of the room when War'en suddenly called out. "Hey, Talona? Could I ask you something really quickly?"

The staff looked at Talona, who looked back at War'en and nodded. The rest of the group continued on their way, leaving Talona and War'en alone.

"Talona... could I ask you a favor?"

"Of course, War'en. Anything."

"Can you talk to Red for me? I can't leave and we had an argument right before I came here. He's not too pleased about my Joining and... I was hoping to talk to him before the procedure tomorrow."

Talona studied War'en for a moment before nodding. "Sure. I'd be happy to."

"Thanks, Talona. I'll... see you tomorrow, I guess."

"... yeah. We'll all be here tomorrow when you're done."

She gave him another sympathetic smile before exiting his quarters. War'en turned back to his bed and picked up the box of Trill chocolates that they'd given him. They were an assortment, but they contained some of his favorites. He briefly wondered if they'd still be come tomorrow...

Hi Ironmouse, we are very happy to have you here!

Thankyou for saying hello!

We are Stonewall and happy to have all our friends as part of our site!

Chat to you soon, and make yourself at home!

Zep xx

Hi guys!

Me and Solborn created this Fleet for Star Trek Online.
We are open to any alliances with other Fleets.
Check out our website for more details: http://idiconline.info :woohoo:

I'll just leave you with our haiku:
join the guardians
a fleet of the future, you
will have fun with us.

See you online B)

5+ year vet. Mostly on Liberty. Burned out on it and took almost 6 months off. Re-subbed a month ago and having a good time again. The mission architect killed it for me with the PL'ing craze. The difficulty slider when I went back is a LOT of fun. Lvl 50 controller taking on mobs spawned for 8 players set on invincible is fun! B)

Yezar wrote:

Bumbing topic...

Thank you!!

Bumbing topic...

“As you can see from the records of the briefing meeting just prior to the New Orleans arriving at Vega, it is clear that Lieutenant Calvin not only wrote the virus in a pre-meditated manner, he had full intentions to utilizing it against Borg drones at his soonest convenience. It is clear that the defendant had prior knowledge the attack would occur, and had ample time to inform Starfleet. Otherwise he wouldn’t have had time to write the virus.”

“Objection, the last two statements are pure conjecture.” Commander Malek declared as he stood promptly. Eddie fought to keep his smile under control. In the back of the court room, Solek seemed to relax into his own version of a smile.

“Sustained. Lieutenant you will keep to facts, not opinions.”

“Sorry, your honor...To rephrase, either the defendant had prior knowledge of the attack, or he had a disposition and desire to create the virus, even though it went against Starfleet Uniform Code to do so. Either way, the actions he has made were treasonous.”

Eddie had slumped slightly, knowing the uphill battle was getting steeper with every claim the prosecution made against him. Relief was only in the Admiral’s call for a one hour recess.

The courtroom emptied and Solek made his way to the brig to visit with Eddie. His intent was deflected by Malek, claiming he needed to discuss strategy with how the prosecution was shaping things in the trial. Feeling slightly dejected, Solek left the building.

“Solek, we missed you this morning, were you ill?” An elderly Vulcan monk inquired approaching the officer.

“I was not ill; I simply did not wish to attend.” He responded.

The monk furrowed his eyebrows and seemed to frown as much as any Vulcan would, “Solek, you aren’t moving away from the teachings, are you? We’ve noticed you have been spending a great deal of time with the Romulan.”

There was almost a flare in Solek’s eyes at the comment. “I am perfectly capable of retaining my grasp on the teachings. I see no risk in the interaction. Even the late Ambassador Spock believed reintegration was possible.”

“Ambassador Spock was half-human and with that came a skewed belief that Romulans could be redeemed. You would be well to remember his fate.”

“And you would be well to remember that Lieutenant Calvin is also half-human. It is only logical to notice that successful reintegration may involve this planet. Your opinions of failure are based in prejudice. Excuse me.” Solek finished and moved away from the monk. Another monk arrived to join the other.

“Is he V’tosh Ka’tur?”

“It is highly likely...unfortunate, to lose one like him to his emotions. More and more seem to be straying away from the teachings.”

“Perhaps this trial against the Romulan will act as a warning to others that this idea should be quashed.” The two monks continued walking towards a small monastery, continuing to discuss the intricacies of how Eddie’s court-martial could affect the various politics that had become muddied with the degradation of the quadrants. Solek continued his stroll down the walkway when he ran into Turek.

“Mr. Solek, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time.” The Cardassian asked, looking somewhat eager. Solek sighed with a slight exhaustion to his voice. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I sir?”

“No, it’s quite all right. What can I help you with?”

“Sir, I wanted to inform you, as the standing commanding officer of our crew, I wish to continue serving whatever crew you and Lieutenant Calvin lead.”

“A noble decision under normal circumstances, but perhaps you should wait until after the court-martial is resolved. Until a favorable decision is found for Lieutenant Calvin, I advise that neither of us acknowledge this conversation.” Solek advised as he tried to move away.

“Sir, with all due respect, my Starfleet career is as much on the line as Calvin’s. He gave me a chance to shine that no other officer would provide, and my loyalty is to him. He trusts you, so I trust you.”

Solek broke a slight smile in approval. “Hopefully your loyalty won’t be misplaced. I’ll be sure to pass along your request. As far as I’m concerned, you will be a great asset for whatever crew we end up having. ...Dismissed.”

Solek took solace in Turek’s words and loyalty as he stopped by the cafeteria to have a short meal before finally returning to the courtroom. He dreaded the next part of the trial, knowing the prosecution still had much to present, and he was losing confidence in the defense.

Hey!

I'm a 4-year vet over there. I have toons of all levels on Liberty, Triumph, Infinity and Virtue. Send me a global tell if you ever play over there. My global is @Typo Cop (heh). :laugh:

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