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.