Class advice, thanks in advance

[Arkham Creed]

Well I had some time to kill and I’m sitting out of the game for a moment to recover from some frustration, so I thought I’d throw this out here.

I have no idea what character class to pick. Help me please.

I really don’t know how STO works in terms of classes and have only the tutorial under my belt for first-hand experience, so I’m looking for advice. I guess the only thing I can really do here is tell you what I normally play in MMOs, and maybe provide a short list, and leave it up to more experienced players to tell me what best suits my apparent style.

Basically I don’t like melee combat. At all. Ever. And I try to avoid it as much as possible. Likewise I don’t need the beefiest “tank” character, but I hate being squishy, so some degree of defense is a must. I also solo a lot, so I need a character that can give as good as he gets. Normally I prefer mage/summoner types, as well as archer/hunter/ranger types. Some of my MMO experience includes:

Guild Wars 2: A ranger; sticking mostly with bow and setting traps, supplemented by a pet.

Champions Online: Gadget character; debuffing ranged attacks and pets to do the damage.

World of Warcraft: Warlock; because I like their summons.

Guild Wars: Necromancer; total minion master build.

DC Universe Online: Mental character with hand blaster; sit back and blast away while locking foes down with control effects.

As you can probably tell I like to be the guy running around in the back line sniping enemies and debuffing, often backed up with one or more AI “pets” or companions to tank for me and do extra damage or provide buffs/healing if they can. And I greatly prefer anything stupid enough to come at me gets blown the 'eff up well before it's close enough to be a threat. Don’t care much for straight up DPS roles however; I like to have more tricks up my digital sleeves than just “Pew! Pew!”

[coval]

This game was once about classes.
Engineer for tanking and heal, science to debuff, heal and control and tactical for damage. You had to have a balanced team to master PvP and PvE Special Task Force Missions.
But once, Star Trek Online went freemium, classes bacame obsolete, because the ca$h stuff gives you tank stats and passive heals. There is only one endgame class left: Tactical.
Espacially since the last expansion "Delta Rising" you can't get enough DPS, as Cryptic increased the stats for advenced and elite enemy NPC's.
And since this game is Pay To Win, PvP is already looong dead.

[Brigandine]

The direct comparison to a Champions gadget hero (used to play Champions) in STO is an Engineer.

Engineers (in ground combat) tend to be the 'tankiest' of the three divisons. Science Captains are the buffers/debuffers/healers. And Tactical Captains can be the most melee centric; but offer higher DPS skills.

Engineers can deploy pets both non-moving (turrets/motars) as well as mobile drones. They also can place shield and health generators, and mines and set up a battlefield with them. They can also fortify their own personal shields, can withstand more punishment.

In space, none of that really matters, as any Captain, regardless of division, can pilot any ship. Engineer Captain in a Science vessel, a Tactical Captain in a Cruiser -- doesn't matter. Comes down to personal preference. Each vessel has its own bridge officer seating, which allows you to tailor that ship to your preference - you rely more on your ships seating and bridge officer powers, to really determine your role in space. As opposed to what your class is.

Having said that, each division has unique space captain skills. For example;

Engineers with Rotate Shield Frequency (buffs shields damage migitation and shield regeneration),
EPS Power Transfer(increases all ship system power)
Miracle Worker (Your ohshit power)

Tactical with Attack Pattern Alpha (weapons and critical buff + increased turn-rate)
Fire On My Mark (single target enemy debuff)
Tactical Initiative (group buff for tactical boffs power recharge)

Science with Sensor Scan (damage debuff, perception increase AoE)
Subnucleonic Beam (strips enemy of their buffs)
Scattering Field (group buff, energy damage resistance increase)

With the information provided, I think engineers will be the most comfortable, with the number of pets they have, their durability and function. With science officers being a second place. As a science officer you can depend more on your bridge officers (on ground missions) to soak up the aggro, as you stay in the back-ground healing them, and debuffing your enemies.

I reckon you would dislike playing as a Tactical officer, as they are the most DPS-centric class in the entire game, and some of their abilities are melee-range only- or bring you into melee range.

[Goreignak]

Greetings. It seems you are primarily referring to the Ground aspect of STO. So that's where I'll start. But word of warning, I am not an expert at STO by a long-shot, so my info may not be "optimal".

Anyway, to Ground. First off, in most ground missions, you will have your Bridge Officers (BOffs for short) with you. Kind of like pets, although compared to most MMOs, these are actually pretty useful, as they kind of mirror the Captain classes to a certain extent. They can all be trained with certain skills.

-Tactical BOffs tend to bring more offense to the table; depending on how they're trained, they can chuck grenades, lung into melee, beaming-down additional security forces, supress the enemy with ranged fire (debuffing), as well as rallying nearby allies (buffing).

-Engineer BOffs tend to bring a lot of utility, and are capable of fabricating shield generators, turrets, medical generators, lobbing out mine fields, helping allies regenerate shielding quicker, deploying drones and cover shields for their allies to hide behind, as well as being able to call in orbital strikes.

-Science BOffs tend to focus on healing/buffing allies and debuffing/croud-controling enemies.

As for what class to play, the info above should hopefully help you to decide, as the Captains tend to be able to get similiar/the same abilities as the BOffs depnding on how their Kits are setup.

Now, Space is a bit different. Tactical captains can dish out the most DPS using their abilities. Engineers tend to be able to absorb tremendous amounts of damage. Science captains can strip away buffs and lock-down a target that prevents it from using abilities for a short time.

But in Space, mainly it's about your ship and what your BOffs (and Duty Officers [DOffs for short]) you have active more then what class you are -- Class abilities tend to be on longish timers, so you primarily use skills that your BOffs posses.

STO has a pretty steep learning curve, so the STO wiki ( http://sto.gamepedia.com/Main_Page ) as well as the STO Academy ( http://www.stoacademy.com/ ) will be your friend. You could also look up the STO Reddit. The official forums, while having some good info can be kind of hostile.

Anyway, I hoped this helped you out some and gives you some ideas. Good luck, and good hunting.

[Mothvibe]

To summarize:

- Engineering is about pets (ground turrets/drones etc), explosives (ground), shield healing and tanking (space), but you're not locked into this playstyle.
- Science is about hitpoint healing and crowd control, also not locked in though.
- Tactical is about DPS, pure and simple. Again, not locked in though.
- Your ships aren't tied to your class (Engs can fly Tac ships for instance), but the best builds take advantage of your class/ship synergy.
- You get your ground skills from your kit, and you must choose what skills you want, and insert them into the kit to use them.

I would highly recommend an Engineer for ANY first time STOer. I think you will enjoy using the Eng mine field ground skill.

(I should tell you though, that Sci ships seem to be the best Carriers (i.e. Space Minion Ships) so far.)

[Mansen]

This recent video seems relevenant to you buddy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DVkH4bKgSU

[AbsynthMinded]

Thanks to Delta Rising everyone is equally obsolete. Pay pay pay to get to the edge, doesnt matter what class or ship. Long as its one you paid for with all enhanced equipment which you will have to pay for.

Balance to Cryptic is a brick to the face till you agree its balanced.

[highfivingbears]

From what i read,if you like minions,the a Fabrication engineer is the way to go. My level 30 curently have a support drone minion, an area shield,and a phaser turret.

[virpyre]

If you like Minion/Pet type classes in other mmo's then you should read up on these.

http://sto.gamepedia.com/Small_Craft
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Carrier_Pets
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Hangar_Pets