Monday Megathread - your weekly "dumb question" thread

[u/Sputnik1_1957]

Post all the questions you may have about anything STO-related. PC? Console? Everyone's welcome to post their questions here.

Last thread can be found here.

Stay safe out there and happy flying!

[u/TK11612]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a guide on crafting and upgrading gear? I can get to XV easily enough but advancing quality … I just don’t get it.

Also, are the set bonuses from groups of universal consoles (like all the ones that come with the legendary scimitar or the flagship bundle for Rom) generally worth it over having high grade engineering, tactical, and science consoles in those slots?

[u/Obviate20 → u/TK11612]

If you're just trying to get gear to Epic, my recommendation is as follows: there should be an upgrade weekend coming in the near future (normally follows the dil bonus weekend). Get lots of dil, convert to Phoenix boxes (if 40k dil = 10 pack) and convert them all down to Universal Tech Upgrades (one 10 pack will usually yield 15-20 upgrades). During Upgrade Weekend apply these to your items for a much quicker path to Epic (there is a modified approach to this when crafting from Mk II items by using Accelerators, but won't get into that here).

This applies outside of Upgrade Weekends as well, but at a slower rate.

Re-engineering is another important element to getting your gear where you want, and for that you need lots of salvage and yes more dil. But you can do it gradually later (and best way to get salvage IMO is Gon'Cra battlezone, or the patrols in Kern or Kinjer - bring your best ship and tear it up, and don't exit until you collect it all).

Your other question on set bonuses for universal consoles is highly dependent on your build, but in many cases the set bonuses really make a nice difference. I've done the Flagship set on some builds and it was fun, but personally it's not my go-to.

But there are combos considered situational or even meta: example for situational are event maps with lots of targets for instance, Discovery rep Mycelial Lightning really boosts your damage and kills, but it's less impactful against harder maps or single target bosses. For meta, many people will pair Lorca's Custom Fire Controls with Dark Matter Quantum Torp for the stacking crit severity bonus. Sci and Torp builds a whole different story.

There are too many other examples, I would recommend some time reviewing the builds used by the folks at STO Better, or (not as updated recently) DPS League.

[u/TK11612 → u/Obviate20]

Thank you. I appreciate the insight. My Romulan is about to get the 6th trait from the Legendary Scimitar, and I'm not sure what ship I'll move on to form there. I know that I want to do an energy weapon build, and to be "RP friendly" I figured I would do plasma and one torpedo launcher.

It just feels squishy, and I know there are tons of things factoring into that from BOFF abilities to slotted DOFFs and all of that. I was curious how much of an effect having 5 universal consoles slotted might have. Currently it has 2 of the Advanced Scimitar Systems and 3 Flagship consoles.

I have tons of lobi from over the years, having never spent it, and several tokens to by ability slots and cross faction consoles. This is going to be a huge puzzle I imagine. I don't have any interest in chasing max damage rankings, but I would like to pull my weight while keeping my personal Trek fantasy intact.

I'll check out those two sites. Again, I appreciate it!

[u/Obviate20 → u/TK11612]

Hah. I think half the fun is planning and building towards it. Have fun, take your time.

When I found myself with excess lobi from the campaign reward, I went all in on an AP build. Ba'ul Linked Sentry Coordination + Ba'ul Omni - the bonus lets all your AP weps chain fire, it's cool. Other great lobi consoles I like are Altamid Modified Swarm and Bioneural Infusion Circuits. I don't waste lobi on ships, they can all be bought on Ex for relative bargain prices. Boimler is a good trait on the right build.

PS: if you don't have it yet, the Ahwahnee from C-store is a must have bargain for FPNA and Type 7 shuttles. If you have a ship with 4-5 eng console slots, go all in with Isomag Distribution Manifolds and I strongly recommend an unconventional systems build to keep all your Universal Consoles on short cool downs. Stu1707 did a good video a couple years ago breaking down the advantages and how to do it, he does use one of your flagship consoles but I am only sharing it was guidance on traits and BOFF abilities to use. I did not buy all the high end recommendations, just got as close as I could on my budget and worked towards the rest over time.