As someone who's done a fair bit of PVP in Star Trek online, I've been asked by our mighty TrekBBS Armada overlords to posts some helpful information.
If anyone has any tips or corrections, please don't hesitate to post them. I am certainly in no way an expert at PVP.
Benefits of PVP:-
Whether you win or lose, you get skill points, marks that can be spent at Deepspace K7 and credits (probably the only way to aquire them outside of selling stuff).
It can be very very fun and enjoyable.
After doing PvP for a while, you'll find PvE immensly easy.
Downsides of PVP:-
It can be increidbly irritating when you're spammed with unbalanced skills that are incredibly overpowered.
Also, while I respect PVP clans can't help being so good, being blown up repeatedly with little chance of getting one point can be boring...
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Basics of the Basics
Crew:-
The amount of crew really translates into healing ability. A ship with a large crew will heal damage far faster then one with a small amount of crew.
Bridge officer stations:-
Ensign - 1 slot - lvl 1 station
Lt - 2 slots - lvl 2 station
Lt Commander - 3 slots - lvl 3 station
Commander - 4 slots - lvl 4 station
Ship summary:-
Escort = glass cannon = Blows things up a lot, but also gets blown up a lot
Science ship = Mage/Shaman = The "party healer" and buffer/debuffer
Cruiser = Tank = Takes a lot of damage yet stays standing
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General Gameplay Tips
1. Do not full impulse into combat - Full impulse sticks all available power into engines, so that when you come out of full impulse, it'll take some time for the ship to redistribute the energy back to the other systems. What that means is, is that if you full impulse into combat, you'll end up doing hardly any damage for a good 10 seconds or so.
Personally speaking, I full impulse until I'm about 15-20km away from my target, wait for my energy to recharge, then use evasive manoeuvres to bridge the distance (which doesn't use up any power).
2. Work in a Team - Seriously, this is the greatest skill you can have. All fire at the same target, heal those in need and don't stray too far. Healing others can be pretty difficult I'll admit, especially if your facing expert players where you're more concerned about keeping yourself from blowing up. Also helps to actually create a team, so you can keep a close eye on each others health and distance.
3. Do not throw yourself at the enemy - Upon having been destroyed, your team wiped out, there's an incredible temptation to head straight towards the enemy. DO NOT DO THIS, YOU WILL BE LAUGHED BY THE OPPOSING TEAM AS THEY VERY CASUALLY BLOW YOU TO PIECES. Instead regroup and try again.
4. Do not run off - I can only speak from personal experience here, but more then once I've had this happen.
A Klingon Bird of Prey decloaks conveniently just outside weapons range and an escort from your side decides it's ripe pickings, racing off towards it.
Everyone else on the your team does a collective facepalm.
No sooner had the Escort reached the Bird of prey, when four mighty Klingon Cruisers decloaked and blew it out of the sky.
5. If spiteful, self destruct - The ultimate in spite for PVP. If you're sure you're going to die, use the self destruct. It doesn't count as a point for the opponents side. Think of it as the Federations alternative to cloaking in battle.
6a. Speed is life - It's an old adage from the Starfleet Command games and applys just as much to the game mechanic of STO's space PVP. Basically the faster you go, the greater the possibility your opponent will miss.
6b. Speed is life, but reverse isn't so bad - Do not ignore the reverse options, it can be very useful method to bring ships into your weapons arc. It may also just be my imagination, but I find the turn-rate also improves when reversing. Just don't reverse for too long, it drains power.
7. Auto-fire - It may not be immediatly obvious (since there's no documentation), but there's a option to set one fore and one aft weapon to auto fire.
To activate, simply right click the desired weapon in the weapons tray. Make sure to have "auto attack" in the options set to "Toggle, never cancels".
This both lets you deal with simple threats (like mines), without having to bash the space bar repeatedly and having your weapons fire immeditatly when a ship decloaks.
I personally recommend setting fore and aft beam arrays to auto fire.
If anyone has any tips or corrections, please don't hesitate to post them. I am certainly in no way an expert at PVP.
Benefits of PVP:-
Whether you win or lose, you get skill points, marks that can be spent at Deepspace K7 and credits (probably the only way to aquire them outside of selling stuff).
It can be very very fun and enjoyable.
After doing PvP for a while, you'll find PvE immensly easy.
Downsides of PVP:-
It can be increidbly irritating when you're spammed with unbalanced skills that are incredibly overpowered.
Also, while I respect PVP clans can't help being so good, being blown up repeatedly with little chance of getting one point can be boring...
---------------------------------------------------------
Basics of the Basics
Crew:-
The amount of crew really translates into healing ability. A ship with a large crew will heal damage far faster then one with a small amount of crew.
Bridge officer stations:-
Ensign - 1 slot - lvl 1 station
Lt - 2 slots - lvl 2 station
Lt Commander - 3 slots - lvl 3 station
Commander - 4 slots - lvl 4 station
Ship summary:-
Escort = glass cannon = Blows things up a lot, but also gets blown up a lot
Science ship = Mage/Shaman = The "party healer" and buffer/debuffer
Cruiser = Tank = Takes a lot of damage yet stays standing
---------------------------------------------------------
General Gameplay Tips
1. Do not full impulse into combat - Full impulse sticks all available power into engines, so that when you come out of full impulse, it'll take some time for the ship to redistribute the energy back to the other systems. What that means is, is that if you full impulse into combat, you'll end up doing hardly any damage for a good 10 seconds or so.
Personally speaking, I full impulse until I'm about 15-20km away from my target, wait for my energy to recharge, then use evasive manoeuvres to bridge the distance (which doesn't use up any power).
2. Work in a Team - Seriously, this is the greatest skill you can have. All fire at the same target, heal those in need and don't stray too far. Healing others can be pretty difficult I'll admit, especially if your facing expert players where you're more concerned about keeping yourself from blowing up. Also helps to actually create a team, so you can keep a close eye on each others health and distance.
3. Do not throw yourself at the enemy - Upon having been destroyed, your team wiped out, there's an incredible temptation to head straight towards the enemy. DO NOT DO THIS, YOU WILL BE LAUGHED BY THE OPPOSING TEAM AS THEY VERY CASUALLY BLOW YOU TO PIECES. Instead regroup and try again.
4. Do not run off - I can only speak from personal experience here, but more then once I've had this happen.
A Klingon Bird of Prey decloaks conveniently just outside weapons range and an escort from your side decides it's ripe pickings, racing off towards it.
Everyone else on the your team does a collective facepalm.
No sooner had the Escort reached the Bird of prey, when four mighty Klingon Cruisers decloaked and blew it out of the sky.
5. If spiteful, self destruct - The ultimate in spite for PVP. If you're sure you're going to die, use the self destruct. It doesn't count as a point for the opponents side. Think of it as the Federations alternative to cloaking in battle.
6a. Speed is life - It's an old adage from the Starfleet Command games and applys just as much to the game mechanic of STO's space PVP. Basically the faster you go, the greater the possibility your opponent will miss.
6b. Speed is life, but reverse isn't so bad - Do not ignore the reverse options, it can be very useful method to bring ships into your weapons arc. It may also just be my imagination, but I find the turn-rate also improves when reversing. Just don't reverse for too long, it drains power.
7. Auto-fire - It may not be immediatly obvious (since there's no documentation), but there's a option to set one fore and one aft weapon to auto fire.
To activate, simply right click the desired weapon in the weapons tray. Make sure to have "auto attack" in the options set to "Toggle, never cancels".
This both lets you deal with simple threats (like mines), without having to bash the space bar repeatedly and having your weapons fire immeditatly when a ship decloaks.
I personally recommend setting fore and aft beam arrays to auto fire.
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