I want to play a carrier/pet build need some help/advice.

[D92C]

hello, i wonder what career i should choose and such.
Does faction matter etc? i have just dabbled in the game for a few hours.

[Moonfear]

good luck... i have that dream for years... and pure torp boat :D either "cannons go BRRRRR" or have fun with something sub-par :/

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by D92C:

hello, i wonder what career i should choose and such.
Does faction matter etc? i have just dabbled in the game for a few hours.

Career doesn't matter. Faction no longer matters (its no longer easier to get certain traits on one faction than another).

To perform well as a carrier captain it requires more specialized "gear" than most other ship setups as there are very few pet-boosting consoles, traits, skills, etc as compared to any other source of damage. Thus, it's more expensive to aim for a good carrier build than most other types of builds.

Hangar pets are also one of the most expensive things to get upgrades on, requiring much higher fleet marks and dilithium to get the elite versions, and requiring you be part of a fleet that has the appropriate holdings built to the necessary tier to even be capable of purchasing them.

For a brand new player building an effective carrier is... unrealistic. You can set your sights on it for a long-term goal, but you're far, far, far better off building yourself an energy weapon ship... escort or cruiser... and leveling up to max level, maxing out reps, etc. Then you can look at the billions of EC it'll take to secure the various traits and consoles.

[Tashrinbackup]

When I really got started, I bought a carrier, and went at it. Speck for tanking and boosting your pets when the options in skills are opened and.... well.... I completed the story lines rather nicely. If you can get a t-6 to go with ya and grow in power as you level up.

Its not meta or anything but I know I found it fun and only a few missions really gave me trouble. If you focus on a weapon type and remember to not use duel cannons or beam weapons (thanks to poor coverage) you'll likely have a easier time then I did lol. My character was a mess XD But again, I know I had fun starting off with a t-6 carrier

[Maj_Cyric]

I remember long long long ago I gave the Vo'Quv-class Carrier a try... It wasn't remotely compatible with my playstyle or my mindset and desire to press buttons and watch things melt and blow up... I was almost tempted to try Carriers again when I pulled the Herald Vonph from a Herald box, and to open and use it cause that ship was huge and purdy.. Plus it was the "new shinny" ship at the time.. The 690 million EC I got for selling it ended up being much more useful in the long run though..

I've stuck to mostly driving Battlecruisers and Dreads since.. With a Sunday drive once in while in a Herald Baltim or Husnock..

Carriers can work though, but to get all the "meta" things needed for a great build are somewhat niche and not easy or cheap to get..

[Dave of Infamy]

so i have a sci build t6 jupiter class carrier with elite delta flyers and using all integrity linked phasers no torps i can tank pretty damn hard in it but any build for carrier the traits are where its at and some of them are quite pricey

[D92C]

eh, decided to go Kdf engineer and ill just fly around and see what i do..
i dont rly care about "meta" or best builds n such, i just wanna have some minions do stuff for me and support my friend when we are playing.
So from what you guys say it will cost quite a lot of cash to get the good stuff but isnt that the case with most of the meta builds?

[Xautos]

I tried carriers previously and i found them slow, limiting in ability for direct conflict, too few of them with enough flavour (regarding the holy trinity). their boff slots are more defensive orientated.

if carriers are to be worth the time, they need to be a little more friendly to front line conflicts, rather than sitting back and waiting on nerfed pets to finish the job. how i miss watching BoP go out and destroy targets with nice big hits, they were very useful before all the changes.

[D92C]

Suppose ill just try out the vo'quv carrier and see how it is to fly one.
a side question about ships.
Do i need to keep buying new ships every time i can? or can the earlier ships still be competitive, or will they fall off in dmg/hp becuase they do not have enough weapon/Device slots?

[Maj_Cyric]

In the "early game" as you level up and get the next free ship, it's going to have better base stats (slightly), and normally 1 more console slot and/or weapon slot than the ship in the tier before..

I've had fleeting thoughts of a slight desire to pull out my old Ning'tao and slap the best gear i have that will fit on it and take it into some Adv random TFOs..
Long long ago STO's sector space map was "tiny" and there was a zone between Fed space and KDF space.. The Neutral Zone where PvP Q'ing took place (other then scan for traces in nebulas or doing the same patrol mission, PvP was 60% of the finish KDF content at game release...

Anywho, the Ning'tao was such boss Ninja killer ship.. It was the best looking BoP and it comes with the Quad Cannon.. Stalking targets with battle cloak masking yourself.. Laying mines at the right times when your team starts to enter weapon range, to then drop the cloak with all the Boff abilities burning as you make a quick kill.. And then recloak basking from the Fed players ranting about losing their strongest ship like that and having to wait for respawn timer to end.. Which by then that fight ended and each side is planning which points to flip/defend next.. those were the day.. before so much new content was added which broke/unbalanced combat.. Profits B4 Balance..

Breaktime is over.. time to move my mouse up and down as i play more DDR Star Trek edition.. Dj S3RL's mixes does make it a lot less painful to grind though..

[✨Saint✨]

The previous event gave a F e k'Ihri shp (t6) for free, with some fancy pets and claimable by all your toons on your account (and new future ones). That would have been the perfect ship for you OP, hopefully it will get back some day for those who missed it.

In the mean time, just go with what you get, keep on making Zen and you will be able to buy your favorite ship, the more you lean about the game, the more fun it actually is to play.

[djwaldo01]

If you get a carrier get something with Command Sci Boff seat so you can run Photonic Officer 3 for cool down. A2B will drain your Aux which hurts pet launch cooldown and also works against Aux 2 Damp.

[Kubric-khan]

T5's still viable if you use an "U" upgrade. Moreso with the X tokens, too. Either way, the Fleet versions of the ships are better if you don't care about the special console or ship trait from the store version.

DPS wise, dreadnoughts or the battle cruisers with a single bay of fighters is better if you still want pets compared to carriers. Overall, though, fly what you want, upgrade your gear, and worry about that extra dps only if you're one of the few that play the elite difficulty for TFOs. You can handle the story missions in white gear if you have them at your current level.

[D92C]

yea, thanks for all the info, still only lvl 19, got some t6 ship from the klingon reqruitment stuff that seems quite decent.
so far i just gotta remember to put out my skill points. Coordination Protocols/Defensive coordination and offensive coordination for the pets dmg and then the 2 unlock "perks" from tactical and engineering..
Should i try to focus on either Shield or hull in the skill tree?

[Jaynoble55]

Carriers are the most expensive build/playstyle in the game. Bar none. You need Scramble, Voth Synergy, SaD. Wingmen personal space trait, Holographic personal space trait, and there are some expensive optional purchases such as the Jem'Hadar t6 carrier (lockbox...forgetting the name) and some cheaper ones such as Co-ordianted Assault.

And im sure Im missing a few things. All in all you are looking at 2+Billion EC just to reach meta level.

Thats not factoring in the carriers are not top DPS and suffer from a few bugs such as pet AI and losing pets while in full impulse.

That being said. I love carriers. I focus on them. They can be rewarding to play but do not get into them expecting meta results without a LOT of EC/luck (lockboxs).
If you dont care about meta and just want to bounce around in the normal difficulty settings you can do so without any investment past the carrier itself. If you are going to play advanced, then you will need/want some of what ive listed.

[D92C]

eh, i dont rly care about anything meta atm, i just wanna fly around and shoot at ships.
we will see how far i go, might even find the carriers to be boring.. we will see when i get my first one.