Best starting race?

[Iceygrave]

I'm creating a new character for the first time in ages, and I'm wondering what the best starting race is? Any advice about specialisations also welcomed.

[Caribear]

There is no "best" race. I asked the very same question when I started out and was told the same thing. I discovered the truth of it for myself. The phrase "best race" implies that some race has an advantage over another and whilst TECHNICALLY Romulans have advantages over other races (for example), the scope of that advantage is so utterly miniscule as to completely not matter at all. Some people will tell you going as an Alien is good since you get an extra trait. Meh ... I can't tell you how many times I "forgot" to set traits (either ground or space) and never even knew it since I coudl hardly tell if it made a difference or not.

What is "best" (in all facets of STO) is very much a non-issue in STO as a whole.

My advice would be to pick a race via Role-Playing methods. Pick a backstory for yourself and play your character that way, you'll get much more enjoyment out of the game.

As far as specializations go, I am not sure what you are referring to. Carreer maybe? As in Tactical, Engineer or Science?

[Firewalk]

Ishanda I have to disagree. Romulans are superior to both Feds and Klingons due to their OP traits. They have inherently higher crit chances and severity (not to mention cloak skill). This will stay this way until they might revamp character and BOFF traits FOR EVERYONE.

To be fair, Feds got the ship variety and tons of items and customization to pick from. Klingons are the ones that need more people to play them but nobody wants to.

[Iceygrave]

Sounds like I should play a Klingon just to make up the numbers :D

[Caribear]

@Xeno:

Let me stretch my opinion a bit. I AGREE that Romulans have OP traits, HOWEVER...

It doesn't matter.

Here is why:

Your "power" as a player in STO is the result of a combination of things. Racial traits are only one of those things. By themselves, any one thing in STO that makes you "powerful" is not sufficient enough to outweigh (in my opinion) other considerations, such as RP aspects or pure "fun factor" elements. (more on that later)

Allow me to provide some examples of what I am talking about:

* If you spec your ship for FAW / A2B you will be OP... racial traits or not.
* If you spec your ship for alpha strike DBB with BO (the new "use no weapon power" version), you will be OP ... racial traits or not.
* If you spec a 5 fwd wpn ship all DHCs with revlevant consoles and the relevant Borg stuff, you will be OP ... racial traits or not.

The list can go on and on, but here is the kicker: you don't NEED any of that stuff. AT ALL.

The reality of the situation in STO is that unless you 100% WANT TO be as OP as possible, there is no need to "uber-max" anything, because the nature of the game, content design included, allows you to do any of the following (not exhaustive list) and still be perfectly ok playing anything (bar PvP, but that is completely broken anyway):

* Rainbow beam ship
* Playing end game content with nothing but Mk X Green drops
* Completely ignoring rep gear
* Completely ignoring fleet gear
* Using a bog standard lv40 ship
* 100% torp build running mines at the back (!!)

I mean, most everyone has an opinion based on what is efficient and what is not and every single one of those "efficient" opinions will tell you running a rainbow beam ship (for example) is totally inefficient. That is mathematically and factually correct of course, but not everyone plays the game for the same reasons. My fleet is made up of a mixture of hardcore grinders, theorycrafters, RP-ers and casuals and they all have different reasons and more importantly WAYS of playing the game. The beauty of STO is that the game can accomodate ALL of them. There is even a group in operation currently that artificially limits gear on ships by CHOICE in order to have more co-operative and challenging STF runs.

Just by way of another example, I outfitted a Risa Corvette with rainbow beams just for lols and made a joke about it in fleet chat (something to the effect of "ooh... the pretty colours"). One fleet-mate responded with "Are you serious?", and he was very serious about his question, whilst another went with, "Cool, I have to try it myself".

Now of course I know (as I have said) that everyone plays for their own reasons, I can only speak about my own experience and hence offer my own opinions. I visit the dev forums regularly and there is a constant outpouring of tears over "lack of challenging new content", with the words "power creep" in there somewhere. I can totally see all of that in the game too and it will only become worse with XP2 (ignore the dev talk about power creep being a non-issuie in future), however, I feel it is short sighted to lay the blame solely on the dev's shoulders for this situation. Yes, I do understand humans, and if you make something possible, more than a few are going to go with what is possible, i.e. super OP builds that can wipe Borg cubes in 5 seconds flat. Yet, I can't help wondering what the point of that is in the long run if one is going to cry about "more challenge". I stopped playing the "power" game because ultimately it leads to boredom and a lack of challenge. I create my own challenge by choosing to do so.

I replaced that with semi role-playing and am MUCH happier for it. I have had an equal amount of amazing fun running a Rommie outfitted with "canon" gear only and an Orion Syndicate "slave trader" hell bent on personal gain flying nothing but BoPs, using pure hit and run tactics only.

Personally I am quite grateful the game allows this sort of "hodge-podge" approach, unlike a certain other Cryptic game for instance.

enough of the rambling.

[The FNAF Gamer]

Klingon definetly it has more story than starfleet or romulon choose between them two

[Shufflecat]

Ishanda is basically right. While some races might technically have more stat bonuses than others, the game in general is so forgiving that it makes no noticable difference. Pick whatever's most pleasing to you visually or lore wise.

[DarthHammer]

Any race is best as long as its not Cardassian.

[Kitsune Aoi]

I have to agree with the No Best Race in general. The Best races are teh ones that you enjoy the most. In my case that is Joined Trill, Romulan and Orion. I do have a toon for the Betazoid race and a couple of the Basic Trill (Free version). But for the most part I tend to stick to the first 3 races I named even for my bridge officers.

The racials can be nice from some of them but they are not significant enough to worry about. Just find one that suits you and your tastes then have fun.

[Mr. Shaggnificent]

Originally posted by DarthHamer:

Any race is best as long as its not Cardassian.

I want playable Cardassian faction. I want Romulans to have their own faction too. Two sided PvP is boring. I want even more playable factions like Ferengi, and they should have apropriate missions, like getting paid. Cardassian missions would probably revolve around being jerks. Romulans should be sneaking around trying to screw with everyone else. And why the hell can I not join the Tal Shiar!?

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Any race on the KDF side!

Could always use more Gorn and there are way too many FED players as it is. That and KDF has some of the most fun ships in the game.

[CloudJumper190]

Romulan is probably the easiest for a new player to start out with. Leveling is quick. Duty Officer build up is fast, which means more in game currency earlier in the game. You also get to choose either KDF or Federation once you reach a certain level. You get a nice basic feel for the games mechanics by then. My opinion.