[Liberator]

Yeah, if you are flying a cruiser, broadsides are your money shots, to the point where you might want to switch from torps to all beams for better damage throughput.  That said, it is terribly satisfying to watch a Heavy Tricobalt Device hit a, unshielded ship and watch said ship go POOF!

[BloodEagle]

I found a Golden Lock Box off of some dead Cardassian.  Now I just need to save up ~23k dilithium to open it. :/

[TwentyPercentCooler]

Yeah, if you are flying a cruiser, broadsides are your money shots, to the point where you might want to switch from torps to all beams for better damage throughput.  That said, it is terribly satisfying to watch a Heavy Tricobalt Device hit a, unshielded ship and watch said ship go POOF!

I actually found that, perversely, it was easier to show my ass to an enemy than my front. So, phaser banks in the front, torp in the rear, no problem! I still have a little noobie ship with only 2 front/1 rear weapon banks, though.

[Liberator]

A Shi'Kahr?  Looks like a Miranda sorta?

[Retsof]

A Shi'Kahr?  Looks like a Miranda sorta?

That sounds like mine actually...

[NGTM-1R]

I found a Golden Lock Box off of some dead Cardassian.  Now I just need to save up ~23k dilithium to open it. :/

They're cheaper off the exchange, 1mil or so.

[BloodEagle]

I guess I should look into how the game's economy works.  Because I'm pretty poor, regarding energy credits.

[Scourge of Ages]

I've been having great fun just playing the exchange. If you're just into making EC as efficiently as possible, look into buying and selling regenerators and components. But don't get in my way, I will drink your milkshake!

[Liberator]

A Shi'Kahr?  Looks like a Miranda sorta?

That sounds like mine actually...

Yeah, that's the ship you start out as captain of.  You'll get something better when you hit LTC.  A cruiser, which is basically a variation(as much as you want it to be) of the Constitution refit from the TOS movies, a science vessel like a Nova(think the one from Voyager, tho that one has been immortalized as a CPoint refit for a higher tier) or an escort which are all variations on the Steamrunner class.  Again, your choice will be very much related to the specialization you chose. Tac = Escort, Engi = Cruiser, Sci = Science.

I'm sometimes tempted to do some of the missions I'm working on in my Conny, except that the mobs have an absolutely ridiculous amount of HP after they're shields go down, so you'll be sitting there watching your beams and torps do hundreds and thousands of damage on an unprotected hull, even after they go critical, that you need all 8 weapons from a Sovvy to get anything like quick kills.  A Soverign with Anti-Borg AP beams and Quantum Torpedos should NOT have to trade fire with a frigate for 2 minutes.

[Ravenholme]

Heh, I run a cruiser as a Tac and I find it works fine.

[crizza]

I don't get the difference between escorts and cruisers in Star Trek...are cruisers smaller and pack a meaner punch or what?

[SpardaSon21]

No, cruisers are bigger and have an additional engineering station for more repair buffs and such.  Escorts are all in the vein of the Defiant with quick maneuvering, attack patterns and weapons buffs, and frontal pulse cannon batteries.

[Crybertrance]

Whats the difference between a Frigate and a Cruiser on STO, Frigates are supposed to be far more powerful than a Cruiser, right? It seems to be the reverse in-case of STO, You can easily beat multiple frigates with ease even with that beat-up cruiser you get at the begging.

Also, what does USS stand for?? United Space ****? 

[crizza]

Whats better, phaser cannons or that phaser beam thingy?

[BloodEagle]

If you look at the tooltip for a weapon, it will tell you the Damage, Damage Per Second, and Firing Arc.

Personally, I find Firing Arc to be the most important.

Also, like someone mentioned above, I find myself turning tail fairly often in the level 15+ missions.  So if you do want a limited Firing Arc (it will save you weapons power, if you don't fire a bunch of beams at once), be sure to place them on the rear hardpoints.

P.S., It bugs me that they don't explicitly tell you the fire-rate.

[crizza]

I was considering placing the torpedos on the rear hardpoint(I'm still stuck with that first ship)

[Liberator]

The tricky thing about torpedos is when you fire one, the rest also go on CD for 5 sec.  So you won't ever see a torpedo boat that just chews through stuff.

[Retsof]

Urgh, how long do you stay a "new Account" before you can use zone chat?

[BloodEagle]

20 hours, I think.

--

Try setting torps to autofire, and it might fire more than one.

[Liberator]

I think that's a DOff thing, sometimes mine do it too, more with photons than quantums.