Tier 1 PvP - Bridge Officer Skills of Choice!

If one wants to fight more than just mindless and quite often extremely weak NPCs one has to venture into one of the many PvP Scenarios and face off against cunning, deviant and downright nasty opposing faction players.

The most important choice in PvP is not necessarily the equipment your ship sports, but what Bridge Officer powers you have at your disposal. In this matter the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey has the advantage as it can bring any type of officer in any combination, while the Miranda Light Cruiser is stuck with one Science, one Engineering and one Tactical. That doesn't mean that a Miranda cannot compete with a B'Rel - on the contrary it only means that a Miranda will always have both offensive and defensive powers available, while a B'Rel can specialize.

Here is a short list of Tier 1 Officer powers you should invest in if you are planning to PvP:

Science Officer:

- Jam Sensors 1 - This extremely wonderful ability is as useful for Lieutenants in their Miranda as it is for Admirals in their Sovereign. Practically it erases you from your target's sensors (aka computer screen) for a number of seconds. You can still shoot and heal and in general act normally, except the target will not be able to see you.

Offensive use: use this when your target turns to face you to blind him while you pound away on his shields and hull.

Defensive use: Jam a target (even if attacked by multiple ones) to reduce incoming damage and maybe give you time to escape.

Counter: Science Team 1 removes all Science debuffs and if applied on the target it will clear Jam Sensors.

- Tractor Beam 1 - The Tractor Beam is an offensive tool, made to slow a target down and prevent turning in order to present fresh shield faces to incoming fire. This is a purely offensive ability best used against the side or rear of enemy ships. It is more effective the more Auxiliary Power you have, but at Tier 1 you will likely be running in full Weapon Power mode as there is little use for high auxiliary.

Offensive use: Use Tractor Beam while behind an enemy to keep it in place while you break its shields and rip through the hull. Especially useful when the enemy has a tendency to bolt if severely damaged, as is the case with Klingon Bird-of-Preys.

Counter: Polarize Hull removes Tractor Beam.

- Polarize Hull 1 - Provides a large Energy Damage Resistance bonus and makes your ship immune to Tractor Beams for the duration. This is both a situational cooldown (to be used when Tractor Beams hold you in place) and a defensive one as the damage resistance increase is significant.

Defensive use: Either use Polarized hull when focus fired by multiple ships or simply save it if you know the adversary has Tractor Beam. Of note is the fact that even though it says that the Damage Resistance only applies to your hull, it actually applies to your shields as well.

Counter: Don't use Tractor Beam if you see the enemy glowing orange. Wait out its 15 second duration then you can safely Tractor him to death.

- Science Team 1 - Provides an instant Shield boost to yourself or a targeted ally, reduces damage done to Shields for 30 seconds and has a chance of removing Science debuffs for 30 seconds. All in all this is an ability that continues to be useful all the way up to the final Ranks. The fact that it does not rely on Auxiliary or Shield Power and always functions at maximum efficiency is just an added bonus.

Defensive use: The Shield restore part of the Power make it useful no matter what the circumstances, but the real strength of this Bridge Officer Power comes from its ability to remove debuffs. At Tier 1 these are limited to Jam Sensors, but you can really muck up a Klingon's day if you remove his Jam Sensors just as he is about to flee for his life. You can also use it on any ally in a 10 km radius to boost his Shields or clear his debuffs, a useful little option that will help you much more than if you hold on to it for just yourself.

The following posts in this blog will deal with Engineering and Tactical Powers. Once those are done I will focus on some basic PvP offensive and defensive tactics - from initiating an attack to escaping to fight another day.