The B'Rel Bird-of-Prey

The most recognizable Klingon ship has to be the standard Bird-of-Prey. This sleek silhouette chills the spine of any Captain as promise of short, bloody and all over the place violence - also known as "The Klingons are hailing us!" - looms over soon to be space-debris Federation ships.

It seems only natural then that the starter ships for new Klingon warriors should be the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey, the oldest and least powerful BoP model.

Do not let its age and limited weaponry fool you though. The B'Rel might not have the shields or hull of a Federation Miranda class Light Cruiser, but it packs a meaner punch, handles better and has a Cloak that allows it to close the distance easier. Unlike the later Birds-of-Prey, the B'Rel possesses only a normal Cloak, meaning it can only turn invisible out of combat. Later models have access to the Battle Cloak, allowing them to slip away even in the heat of ship to ship dogfighting if the situation turns against them.

As the Klingon Empire does not have access at the moment to any meaningful PvE content, the article will focus on flying a B'Rel in PvP, especially against the Federation Tier 1 ship - the Miranda.

Unfortunately, being less sturdy means that the BoP cannot employ the same tactics as successfully as the Federation starter ship. A Klingon Captain must make the most of the maneuverability of the B'Rel in order to win against an equally skilled Federation player. One cannot play the BoP as a Cruiser as in a broadsiding contest the Miranda wins hands down.

Instead the BoP must be flown as an Escort, sporting a rear Turret, preferably Phaser to counteract the Disruptor damage resistant shields of Federation players and a forward Dual-Beam or Cannon. Finally the standard torpedo launcher, be it Photon or Quantum, is an absolute necessity. The basic tactic is to get behind a Federation ship, under 5 kms, uncloak and start firing. Keep behind the target by using Evasive Maneuvers to counteract any sharp turns, reducing impulse speed to half to allow for better turning and if possible using a Tractor Beam I from a Science Bridge Officer to keep the weakened rear shield in your sights.

Between a Turret and a Heavy Cannon the targeted shield should drop instantly allow you to pop a High Yield Torpedo right into the exposed hull.

If the fight is not going your way, either hit Rotate Shield Frequency (Engineer only) and try to finish off your victim or switch full power to Engines, hit Evasive Maneuvers and get the hell out of there. The massive speed boost should allow you to clear the 10 km max weapon range before incoming fire tears your fragile BoP apart. If you manage to get out of range you will get out of combat and must cloak to slink away and repair your damaged ship.

All in all the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey is a versatile, if a little fragile, ship. Unlike the Miranda Light Cruiser, one must always focus on doing as much damage as possible before retreating as the shields and hull on a BoP do not last long enough for prolonged battles.

The Miranda Class Light Cruiser

Ensign, meet Miranda. Miranda, meet your new Captain. You two will be spending a lot of time together.

Now I know she doesn't look like much, in fact she's little more than a bare hull. Two forward weapon slots, one rear, a single console of each type and not enough crew for a conga line is all you get. Basic shield, basic engines, basic everything... How exactly are you supposed to take this shell of ship into combat against the Orion Syndicate or against the might of the Klingon Empire?

Well it's not as bad as it sounds. Slap on a few consoles, maybe some better Impulse Engines and Resilient Shields and you are golden. Since you still need to kill stuff you might need to boost your Phaser Arrays a bit and hopefully you can snag an early Quantum Torpedo Launcher really blow things away.


Once you've gotten rid of most of your basic gear it's time to specialize. There are many ways to fly a Miranda. Initially she is built as a Cruiser, with two 250 degrees Phaser Arrays, one back and one front and a forward facing Photon Torpedo Launcher. This is fine if all you plan on doing is broadsiding enemies with both your Phasers and launching a Torpedo once their shields collapse, but in all honestly it is a very inefficient way of dealing with multiple fast ships and overall your damage potential is limited even against larger opponents. The sole advantage in PvE is that you can rotate to keep your strongest shield facing the enemy while still keeping two Phasers peppering the target, but usually you want targets dead fast not limping around you while you try and line up a Photon Torpedo.


The second, and for me the best way to outfit the Miranda in PvE is to dump the rear Phaser Array in favor of a Turret. Turrets deal less damage than a 250 degrees Array but they fire in any direction. They can be hard to find as Federation and you might only find Disruptor Turrets but these work as well. Next try and get either a Cannon (heavy works best) or better a Dual-Beam Array instead of your basic front Phaser. Cannons have a 45 degree firing angle so that might be a little small when trying to kill Birds of Prey or Orion Frigates, but Dual-Beam Arrays have a 90 degree angle, perfectly matching your Torpedo Launcher. Beam weapons lose less damage at longer range, whereas Cannons deal little damage at ranges over 5 kms. If you manage to swing a Mark II Photon Torpedo Launcher or a Quantum Torpedo Launcher you will find that taking down even the strongest of Battleships becomes a chore rather than a challenge.

The only downside of the build above is that you will always need to face your enemy, as your only side weapon is a low damage Turret. This means that your forward shield will take the brunt of the enemy Torpedo Volleys and can and will fail, so a Bridge Officer with Emergency Power to Shields I is practically a necessity. On the other hand targets will die quickly from your combination of Turret, Dual-Beam and Torpedo fire, thus allowing you to complete missions faster and exchange your lovely Miranda for a brand new ship sooner.

In PvP the Miranda is not nearly maneuverable enough to try and pull off the Escort style of play, with all DPS concentrated in a 90 degree forward arc. Klingon Birds of Prey will circle around you and hit your unprotected sides and rear, dropping your shields fast with their Disruptors and blowing holes in your hull with their well timed High Yield Torpedoes. In PvP you want to be able to hit anything anywhere. Two 250 degree Phaser Arrays allow you to always fire on the enemy, especially while maneuvering to protect weakened sides. Another option is to carry Mines in the rear slot, but these are only effective in great number.

Whichever way you choose to fly it, the Miranda remains a very versatile, if a little poorly endowed ship. Just remember - a ship is only as good as its Captain!

Races - Custom

The ability to create a custom race is perhaps the best option for players that really want to mold their character to their personality or wish to min-max. While the Federation and Klingon races are all iconic, the traits they are required to take usually end up hurting specialist characters. If you want to make the best Space Captain or Ground PvPer you really need to pick only the traits that will suit you best. Luckily Cryptic's custom race creator is powerful enough to allow you to create almost any type of anthropomorphic alien, no matter how weird.

The traits below are all available when creating a Custom Race and can be juggled around to find the perfect mix. Keep in mind however that some traits do not stack with each other (usually mentioned here) or if they stack they suffer from diminishing returns.

Acute Senses – 20% Stealth Sight, 10% Exploit Damage – A decent PvP and PvE trait, the Stealth Detection is what draws most attention, not the Exploit damage. Realistically, if you hit a target with an Exploit, it will usually just die. 10% more death is unnecessarily mean.

Accurate (Space) – 10% Accuracy – A surprisingly useful trait as there are very few Accuracy modifiers to be found early game. Hitting more often translates into doing more damage. Add to that the fact that this is one of a handful of Space traits and you might just want to grab it on any aspiring Picard.

Aggressive – 5% Damage Bonus and 5% Threat Generation – 5% permanent damage boost is nothing to scoff at, though the Threat Generation bit may be unattractive for Science or Engineering Officers.

Astrophysicist (Space) – 10 Starship Operations Training – Improves Deflector, Emitter and Sensor Abilities – This is another decent Space trait. Deflector, Emitter and Sensor Abilities are usually Science abilities like Tachyon Beam, Tractor Beam etc. This trait is even more useful if you plan on flying Science ships and thus using higher ranked Science Bridge Officers.

Cold-Blooded – 25% Fire and 10% Plasma DoT Resistance – This is a waste of a trait unless you want to take if for RP reasons. The Fire resistance may come in handy in some PvE encounters, but there are always ways to circumvent such environmental hazards.

Covert – 20% Exploit Damage while Stealthed, 10% Stealth, 10% Stealth Perception – The perfect trait for a Tactical Officer using Stealth Kits, it can be useful on other Officers as well due to the Stealth Perception. However, if you do not plan on playing a Tactical Officer, skip it in favor of Acute Senses or other Ground feats.

Creative - 5% Damage and Healing with Kit Abilities – This is not as good as it sounds. Sure more effective Kit abilities are always a plus, but 5% is too low a number for something you use sparingly (due to the cooldown). It might turn out to be of use later on when you have access to 3 or more Kit abilities, but unless you plan on playing a Science Officer and healing, skip it.

Efficient (Space) – 5% Starship Shield, Engine, Auxiliary and Energy Weapon Efficiency – One of the best all around Space traits, the extra Power boost to all the Starship systems can be felt right away. This is a trait that will stay useful throughout the game, even if its impact is not as readily noticeable.

Elusive (Space) – 10% Defense – A bigger chance to be missed is always useful.

Lucky – 3% Critical Strike and Expose Chance – Too bad this is a Ground trait. The Expose Chance is nice, especially in PvP and the extra Critical Strike Chance is great too. Overall if you are building a Ground PvP or PvE specialist, pick this one up. The Expose Chance increase does not stack with other Expose buffs such as Telepathic.

Mental Discipline – 15% Psionic Damage Resistance, 20% Confuse and Placate Resistance – I have yet to encounter a lot of situations where these types of Resistances will come in handy. In PvP you will only likely see Psionic Damage if you are fighting Lethean Players who remember to use Rapture, and even then it will be low. On the other hand Confuse Resistance can come in handy against Orion Females and Vulcans even in Tier 1 PvP battles.

Natural Immunities – 33% Radiation and Toxic Damage Resistance – Again Resistances to damage types you rarely encounter do not make for a good trait.

Peak Health – 10% Toxic Damage Resistance, 10% Maximum Hit Points – The Toxic Damage Resistance is useless, but the 10% increase to Maximum Hit Points can be a life saver in PvP. There are numerous occasions where I survived with less than 30 Hit Points only to heal back to full with a Medical Tricorder the next second. If you plan on PvPing, you cannot go wrong with this trait.

Physical Strength – 10% Melee Damage – The feat is only useful if you are going to play a Tactical Officer specializing in Close Combat, else it will see little use.

Resilient – 5% Damage Resistance – 5% less damage across the board means 5% more uptime for you in both PvP and PvE. Those extra seconds can mean the difference between victory or death, but unless you are building a specialized Ground fighter there are more useful traits to be had both for Ground and Space.

Soldier – 5% Energy Damage, 10 Critical Severity – 5% Energy Damage basically applies to all ranged weapons, while the extra Critical Strike Damage will come in handy from time to time. As with the previous trait, 5% is a lot when you are down to the final Phaser Shot and nothing when the adversary is at full health.

Stubborn – 40% Snare Resistance, 20% Hold Resistance, 50% Placate Resistance – A pretty good trait considering the amount of Hold effects that you will encounter. The Snare Resistance also comes in handy, but the Placate Resistance has yet to prove useful to me. Overall this is a decent PvP trait that merits a serious look.

Sturdy – 10% Physical Damage Resistance, 10% Kinetic Damage Resistance, 10% Knockback Resistance – The bane of Close Combat Officers, Sturdy allows characters to better mitigate a charging Gorn or Klingon and maybe to survive long enough to react. The Knockback Resistance works against any types of Knockbacks so it will always remain useful.

Sure Footed – 40% Root Resistance, 12% Knockback Resistance – This is another mostly PvP trait. Being Rooted and shot down before you get a chance to fight back is not fun and this trait can help you avoid that. The same goes for the large variety of Knockbacks present in PvP.

Techie (Space) – 10 Starship Engineering Training – The trait increases the Repair rate of you ship, but 10% is a bit low in the heat of battle.

Telekinetic – Telekinesis – Targeted Knockback and Light Physical Damage – The fact that you need to channel this active ability for 0.75 seconds limits its use in large scale PvP, but one versus one it can be a tide turner.

Telepathic – 20% Stealth Sight, Increased Exposure Duration and Chance – The trait is the same as Acute Senses, only increasing Expose Chance and Duration rather than Exploit damage. Overall a better choice for the Away Team fan. The Expose Chance increase does not stack with other Expose buffs such as Lucky.

Warp Theorist (Space) – 10 Starship Warp Core Training – This is a feat that is almost a must have for any serious Starship Captain. The extra power is not much, but if you plan on min-maxing then you really have no better option for a Space trait.

As you can see there are actually very few traits that affect the performance of your Ship. Most traits are Ground focused, so building a dedicated Space Captain basically means picking up Accurate, Elusive and 2 other Space traits of your choosing.

Ground Captains have a lot more thinking to do, but overall traits that buff Expose Chance along with some resistance to Holds/Knockbacks/Roots work well.

Races - Klingon Empire

All Klingon Empire Races are heavily focused on PvP bonuses. For a great Ground Captain a Klingon or a Gorn make the best Close Combat fighters, while Orions are best for the player that focuses on Space Combat.

Klingon – Honorable – 5% Damage Resistance and 10% Threat Generation

- Warrior – 15% Melee and Crit Damage, 5% Energy Weapon Damage

The iconic warrior race has a lot going for it in terms of PvP Ground Combat options. Being Honorable means they can withstand damage better, while the Warrior trait greatly improves the melee damage of the Klingon as well as slightly increasing his Energy damage.

Gorn – Cold-Blooded – 25% Fire and 10% Plasma DoT Resistance

- Reptilian Strength – 18% Melee Damage and Knockback Strength

- Resilient – 5% Physical and Energy Resistance

- Bite (optional) – Melee range Physical Damage and Toxic DoT

The Gorn are another “ugly” Klingon Empire race. They have three starting traits – Cold-Blooded which improves their resistance to Fire and to Plasma DoTs, Reptilian Strength which is a large increase in melee damage and in the strength of their Knockback effects, while Resilient is simply a small increase in overall damage Resistance. While the second and third traits are useful, Cold-Blooded is a wasted slot. Bite is also an option for the Gorn that chooses to become a Close Combat beast. Unfortunately the three required traits leave the Gorn with very few customization options, which is bad considering they have no Space starting traits.

Lethean – Rapture – Hold and Psionic DoT

- Telepathic - 20% Stealth Sight, Increased Exposure Duration and Chance

The Letheans is the only race that starts with an active ability in the form of Rapture. It requires a short channel time and afflicts the target with a weak Hold (will break on any damage) and a short Psionic DoT. This can win one versus one battles, but in chaotic mass battles it is less than useful. The second trait is the generic Telepathy, same as the Betazoid one. It increases Stealth Detection and Expose Chance and Duration.

Letheans are perhaps the most versatile Ground PvP characters, especially if customized with more Ground traits.

Nausicaan - Physical Strength – 10% Melee Damage

- Pirate – 20% Stealth and 30% Exploit Damage

The Nausicaan Pirates are well known for their Physical Strength (10% more Melee Damage) as well as their increased Stealth and Exploit Damage. They are best suited as Tactical Officers using Stealth Kits and moving behind enemy lines, then opening up with Expose moves and finishing with a massive Exploit.

Orion – Seductive (Females Only) – Seduce: Confuse target for up to 12 seconds; 20% Placate Resistance and 10% Reduced Threat Generation

- Physical Strength (Males Only) – 10% Melee Damage

The green humans of the Klingon Empire are the only race to have different traits depending on gender. Orion Females get access to the Seduce ability which can Confuse a target for up to 12 seconds and cause to attack its allies. They also get Placate Resistance which can be useful especially against Science Officers. Orion Males get Physical Strength which improves their melee damage. They have three trait slots open to fill with Space bonuses, allowing them to be the most ship oriented race in the Klingon arsenal.

Races - Federation

Racial choice is the second most important choice you make when creating a character, following the type of Officer you wish to be. Most premade races have unique traits that set them apart from what you would be able to create by using the Custom Race option, but these traits are not necessarily that good. On the other hand, premade races do not have access to all the traits Custom Races have access to, so it is up to you to judge the pros and cons carefully when selecting a race or making your own.

Federation Races

From all the Federation Races available I would recommend the Humans or the Vulcans as the most versatile.

Human – Leadership (Space) – 15% Repair Rate
- Teamwork – 5% Team Exploit Damage

Humans are the predominant Federation species and they get the racial bonuses to prove it! Leadership allows for a faster Repair Rate for your Spaceship while Teamwork improves the overall damage potential of your Away Team. Unfortunately both of these traits are mostly PvE, as you rarely have time to sit and repair in PvP and you cannot take your Away Team with you when fighting Klingon Captains.

That being said these traits are extremely solid PvE options and allow you to pick out 2 more PvP traits should you wish.

Andorian – Acute Sense – 20% Stealth Sight, 10% Exploit Damage
- Fury (optional) – Once you fall below 50% Hit Points, you deal increasingly more damage the lower you get.

Besides their physical appearance there is nothing special about Andorians as a Race. Their bonus trait is a generic one and can be added to almost any race. It is of use both in PvE and in PvP, especially once you reach Tier 2 and begin to encounter Tactical Klingon Officers equipped with Stealth Kits. Andorians also have access to the Fury trait, which increases their damage the closer they are to death. While this is quite useful in PvE where it is not uncommon to fight on with 50% or less Hit Points, in PvP you are usually targeted first once you fall below 50%.

Bajoran – Creative – 5% Damage and Healing with Kit Abilities
- Spiritual – 10% Heals received and 10% Regeneration

Bajorans are one of the newer additions to the Federation. They bring with them a generic trait – Creative – which improves the damage and healing dealt by Kit abilities only (Photon Grenades, Medical Tricorder, Triage etc) and a unique trait – Spiritual – which improves their health regeneration and increases the amount of healing they receive. While neither of these traits is impressive in either PvE or PvP, they are not useless either. However if you are looking for a more efficient race, you might want to skip Bajorans.

Benzite – Natural Armor – 3% Resist Energy Damage and 10% Resist Physical Damage
- Natural Immunities – 33% Radiation and Toxic Damage Resistance

The Benzite Race is all about damage resistance. Natural Armor is unique to these blue humanoids and provides minor resistances to Physical and Energy Damage, while Natural Immunities is a generic trait and provides massive damage reduction against Radiation and Toxic attacks. The problem is in PvP you will rarely encounter Radiation and Toxic Damage, while in PvE other traits would be better suited.

Betazoid – Emphatic – 20% Reduced Threat Generation and 5% Increased Team Regeneration
- Telepathic – 20% Stealth Sight, Increased Exposure Duration and Chance

Deanna Troi would be proud of her racial traits. The Betazoids are not only great Ship Counselors, but also mean machines in PvE and PvP when it comes to ground battles. Empathic (unique trait) reduces Threat Generation and increases Health Regeneration. The Regeneration is team wide, meaning that even in PvP anyone that is in your team (important they must be teamed with you and not just on the same side) and in range (15 meters) gets the buff. The second trait is generic but still useful, improving both Stealth Detection and increasing Expose Chance and Duration. This allows Betazoids to use Expose Weapons with greater efficiency.

Bolian – Corrosive Blood – 20% Toxic Resistance, Deal Toxic Damage when Bitten
- Teamwork (optional) – 5% Team Exploit Damage


Bolians are the second blue skinned race of the Federation. They only have a single trait to their name and that is mostly useless. Toxic Resistance may come in handy, but the ability to poison mobs that bite you is poor in PvE and useless in PvP. They also have access to Teamwork, the only race other than Humans with the option of taking this trait. Even with Teamwork, there are better races to choose from.

Saurian – Circulatory Redundancies – 40% Toxic, 25% Fire Damage Resistance and 10% Plasma DoT Damage Resistance
- Acute Senses – 20% Stealth Sight, 10% Exploit Damage

These funny looking, nose lacking, purple lollipops have 2 traits to their name. Circulatory Redundancies is their unique bonus, improving various resistance that are decent in PvE but of no use in PvP. A Klingon is more likely to smash your head in or vaporize you rather than set you on fire or poisoning you. The second trait is more useful in both PvE and PvP, but the Andorians also have it and they do not have a wasted trait slot to hinder their effectiveness.


Trill – Hyper Metabolism – 10% Health Regeneration, 33% Radiation and Toxic Damage Resistance

The Trills are almost identical to Humans in appearance, unless you count the freckles on the side of the heads as something other than bad skin. Their singular trait is decent enough in both PvE and PvP, but does not really shine in any department. Luckily they have 3 empty slots to fill with superior bonuses.

Vulcan – Logical – 30% Psionic Damage Resistance, 30% Placate and Confuse Resistance
- Physical Strength – 10% Melee Damage
- Mind Meld (optional) – Channeled short duration Hold and longer duration Confuse
- Nerve Pinch (optional) – Melee range 10 second Hold

One cannot talk about Vulcans without making a reference to Spock. Now that mentioning his name is out of the way, we can discuss the traits the race receives in STO. Logical gives Vulcans 30% Resistance to various negative effects. This is reasonable useful in PvE but not so much in early PvP where people don’t usually bother with the subtleties of Psionics. The second trait – Physical Strength – makes for a great option for Tactical Officers that choose to use the Close Combat Kits.

The two optional Vulcan only traits – Mind Meld and Nerve Pinch – can make them fearsome adversaries in PvP and quite potent Away Team Captains in PvE. Nerve Pinch alone is enough to guarantee victory in any one versus one encounter and Mind Meld can be used to sow chaos in an enemy group.

Overall Vulcans are a solid choice for any type of player.

Tactical Officers

Tactical Officers can be considered the DPS class of Star Trek Online. This does not mean that DPS is all they do, but their skills are all focused on doing more damage than say – staying alive like an Engineer or providing utility like a Scientist. The first Space skill Tactical Officers get is Attack Pattern Alpha at level 8. When activated it increases the damage of your weapons and improves the ship’s turning rate. Later on such Officers can get access to Fire on my Mark which reduces the damage resistance of the targeted enemy.

On the Ground Tactical Officers receive the same type of skills as in space, although with a bigger focus on team improvements. At level 5 a Tactical Officer receives Target Optics which increases damage, critical strike chance and critical strike damage as well as having a chance to Expose enemies near the attacked target. Fire on my Mark is also present at Tier 2, while at Tier 3 the Officer receives Tactical Initiative which instantly resets the cooldown timers for weapon special attacks and kit abilities for the entire team.

Kit-wise Tactical Captains get access to Photon Grenades, Close Combat skills such as Lunge or Leg Sweep, Stealth abilities and team buffing skills. One can build a Ground Officer to be effective either as a Close Combat, in your face Jackie Chan lookalike or as a Predator style stalker, sneaking around and picking off enemies with his heavy weapons. Overall a good PvP team needs a few Tactical players to lead the charge while Engineers and Scientists bring up the rear.

I’ve talked at the beginning of this post about how the various Officer types correspond to the age-old MMO staples of Tank, Support and DPS. Fortunately for all involved, the distinction between classes is not as clear cut as that. A Science Officer can fly a Cruiser just as well as an Engineer and overall only lack a bit in survivability but dealing more damage. There is nothing stopping a Tactical Officer from flying a Science Ship and kicking ass with his DPS oriented skills. Any player can fly the ship of his dreams and be effective in it. The skills the classes provide are nice “extras” but are not required to be a successful Captain.

On the Ground the distinction between Officer types is more pronounced, especially since Kits are class specific. Engineers will always be more efficient in the back lines and as defensive characters, fortifying areas with their large number of turrets, while Science Officers will always be desired for their buff/debuff potential. Still, considering everyone can use the same weapons with roughly the same efficiency, there is no need for a Science Officer to always bring up the rear, tricorder in hand and an eye on the green health bars of the team. He can still be up in the front lines shooting phasers and launching plasma bombs at the enemy.

In conclusion – whatever class you choose, you determine how it plays. The skills you get are more of a guideline than a blueprint. The game will play the way you want to play it.

Science Officers

Science Officers are all about buffs and debuffs both in Space and on the Ground. While commanding their ships Starfleet and Klingon Defense Force Scientists have access to Sensor Scan at Tier 1, which debuffs the target and lowers its damage resistance while at the same time increasing the Officer’s Perception (Stealth Detection). Later on one can access the Subnucleonic Beam which increases the cooldown of all Captain and Bridge Officer powers of the targeted ship.

When it comes to Ground options, a Science Officer gets Tricorder Scan, simply a copy of Sensor Scan, Neural Neutralizer which Placates nearby enemies (Placated targets do no attack the Officer or his allies unless attacked first), and later on Dampening Field which debuffs the Energy damage dealt by enemies in the field.

A Science Officer on the Ground fills a variety of roles depending on his Kit, from crowd controller, debuffer to a healer. Perhaps the most important role a Scientist can play as part of a PvP team is that of Doctor. Medical Tricorder is a large, short cooldown, single target heal that also provides a huge boost to damage resistance (starting at 50%) for a few seconds. Other skills include Triage which has a longer cooldown but an AoE healing effect. On the other hand, if a Science Officer prefers a more offensive role he can pick up Stasis Field and use it to Hold adversaries in place or Sonic Pulse and other AoE Skills to damage, knockback or debuff his victims.

It is unusual to find Science Officers in the Klingon Defence Force as they have no specialized Science ships to use. Still a good Science Officer can make a scary Bird of Prey or Raptor Captain, especially when using his debuffs to compliment the incredible damage that the Escorts can put out.

Engineering Officers

The first major decision you will need to make when starting a new character in Star Trek Online is what type of Officer should it be: Engineering, Science or Tactical. Broadly speaking these correspond to Tank, Support and DPS classes from other games, although the line is far more blurry in Star Trek Online. Each class plays differently depending on the environment they are fighting in. Engineers may be the “Tanks” in Space, but they are a Utility/Pet Class on the Ground. Below you will find a quick summary of what each class is all about.

Engineering Officers have mostly Shield or Hull related skills in Space. At level 8 they get Rotate Shield Frequency I which increases Shield regeneration and greatly improves its damage resistance for a short time. This low level skill allows Engineers to easily “tank” more ships at early levels and survive, making them great for solo players and PvPers. Other Space abilities include Nadion Inversion which allows them to fire an additional Energy Weapon without consuming extra power for a short time or Miracle Worker which quickly “heals” their ship’s Hull and repairs damaged subsystems. These abilities improve the survivability of the ships commanded by Engineering Officers, no matter if they are Escorts, Science Ships or massive Cruisers. In fact, some of the best Escort Captains are Engineers as the added survivability goes complements the “glass cannon” archetype of the Escort quite well.

On the Ground Engineering Officers also receive Shield restoring abilities such as Reroute Power to Shields at level 5 which is pretty much the same as Rotate Shield Frequency. At level 15 they can create a Cover Shield which is a line-of-sight blocking force field that players can hide behind for cover. At Tier 3 an Engineer gets Support Drone which allows him to beam in a Support Drone that can attack the Officer’s targets. Finally an Engineering Admiral gets access to Orbital Strike which does AoE damage and knockbacks afflicted targets.

As all Officers the rest of the Engineer’s abilities are determined by the Kits he uses. Most Engineering Kits allow the player to create various static generators or turrets that can be used to buff or heal (Shield Generator, Medical Generator) or protect areas (Phaser Turret, Chroniton Mines). In PvP these static emplacements can be used to protect and fortify areas and at low levels allow the Engineer to fill various roles. If summoning immobile defenses is not appealing, and Engineer can also get Weapons Malfunction which temporarily disables an opponent’s weapon.

Overall an Engineer is the perfect class for defensively minded players. An Engineer is a Cruiser is almost an unkillable tank in small group PvP and PvE while on the ground Engineers can turn a room into a fortress bristling with turrets and support generators.

The next 2 posts will focus on the other 2 careers: Science and Tactical.

Welcome to Starbase 24

Hello and Welcome to Starbase 24, my Star Trek Online Blog.

The purpose of this blog is to provide objective information and tips about various aspects of STO, both PvP and PvE related. I will try to talk most about Captain and Bridge Officer skills and useful combos, Ship types and builds, Space and Ground tactics as well as walkthroughs for the more difficult PvE Episodes.

While I have been playing STO since Closed Beta and have seen most of the game content, I will try to refrain from formulating value judgments on the game as a whole until well after launch day and its necessary emergency patches have passed. In a loose translation – I will not write a review on the game based on my Beta experiences but will rather wait until things settle down 2-3 months down the road.

Now a little bit of information about me: I am a gamer. Well to be fair I am a PC gamer, I do not own and do not plan on owning a console system any time soon. I’ve been playing games for the past 20 years and will continue to pursue this hobby for as long as I can. I’ve played almost all major PC RPG titles and have at one time or another subscribed to most major MMORPG titles. I’ve seen Ultima Online back when it started, I’ve fought for Midgard in DAOC, ganked my way through Shadowbane, did the whole Everquest and SWG thing, raided until my brain went numb in WoW and experienced the “future” with AoC and WAR. My fondest memories are related to Anarchy Online and Shadowbane, though for different reasons.

On the other hand I cannot consider myself a “trekkie”. Sure I watched the shows, saw the movies and read some of the books but I never greeted anyone with “live long and prosper” nor do I pretend that my Merlot is “bloodwine”. My favorite characters in no particular order are Picard, Spock and Garak from DS9. My favorite show is DS9, especially the later seasons when the general atmosphere of the show darkens and war becomes the prevailing theme. The rest of the shows lack, in my opinion, the punch needed to stand out. Sure there are singular episodes here and there, but most of the time the plot ends on a positive note either by the liberal use of technobabble (we’ll route the plasma aftershave through the Jeffries tubes to flush out the quantum chroniton rats that have taken control of the holodeck!) or various alternate reality or time travel solutions.

That being said I play STO because I miss a good and new SF MMORPG. Anarchy Online, which I played for a number of years, is showing its age more and more and lacks the space combat I am fond of. EVE is glorious in its complexity but demands a much higher commitment from me that I am willing to give.

So now my hopes rest on Star Trek Online and its Federation-Klingon conflict. I hope Cryptic manages to pull it off in a satisfactory manner and create a multi-faction game with both rich PvE and engaging PvP.

Engage!