We load you up on the latest and greatest happening in STO, learn the advantages to the Aegis and Borg sets.. And if combining parts from the set can give you that extra boost of fire power!
PLUS – We look at the new remastered Stranded is Space mission, discuss the new Earth Space Dock upgrades.
Then – We wrap up our latest community feedback question, and share your suggestions for great STO online portals!
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Show Notes:
NEWS
SS Azura – Remastered
REVIEW
Tribble Updates https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=198038
ESD Revamp
Balance changes that we mentioned last week
Aegis change to 2-piece Defense Bonus
Several Foundry Missions being manually moved to Holodeck
“The Longing”
“Tipping Point”
“Unholy Alliances (Part 1)”
“The Syndicate Extraction”
Sad news for shuttle “hot swap” idea: https://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3296221&postcount=31
Holodeck patch coming Jan 27th:
Space rebalancing
ESD Interior
New font
Stranded in Space – Remastered
XP Boost Devices added to rare drop tables
Psi Velorum opened for KDF
MORE upcoming changes:
1-Year Anniversary Celebration begins on Feb 2nd
Tentative date for Foundry on Holodeck – Feb 24th
A C-Store Prometheus? Does this spell MVAM?
TOS Bundle Pack (Costume, Bridge Pack, SHIP INTERIOR pack) — March
Lifetime Sale in celebration of Champs F2P and 1-Year Anniversary
COMMUNITY FEEDBACK
Borg Set Reference
Aegis Set Reference
Console:
There’s only one choice, and it’s worth it. The Borg Universal console can be obtained by running “Assimilated” in the Undine Front. This mission can be solo’d, but it requires some finesse to get the ground portion done.
The first ground map, known as “The Maze” consists of many different corridors lined with borg sitting passive in their alcoves. If any of these borg are attacked, they will retaliate. This is a VERY bad thing, as you’ll also be taking on patrols and a few stationary groups. Adding these passive borg to any combat situation is likely to get you killed.
So you have two choices: Avoid aggroing them, or kill EVERYTHING along the way. There are approximately 200 borg on this map though, so I recommend the first choice.
To avoid aggro’ing them, make sure you and all of your boffs are only using single-target weapons and abilities. Compression Pistols and Sniper Rifles. AOE abilities like grenades and geothermal vent don’t always aggro them, but it might be smart to avoid them anyway. Also do not bring turrets as they target enemies indiscriminately, but Support Drones are fine.
If you follow the corridors and click on the right teleporter you’ll be sent to a central room with a boss in the middle. I recommend clearing out the perimeter of the room before engaging him.
Deflector Dish:
There are 3 factors to consider:
- Skill Bonuses (Sensors vs. Deflectors)
- Power Bonuses (Shields vs. Aux)
- Set Bonus activation
This last point is actually the most important of the three. The set bonuses of either set are more powerful than skill considerations or power levels. Read further for calculations on the effectiveness of these set bonuses.
The Borg dish can be obtained by running the STF “The Cure”
For hints on defeating “The Cure” check out the following links:
- Steelthorn’s Tips
- f1restarter’s Noob Tips
- MoistGaming Video Walkthrus: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Engines:
Aegis a clear winner here, as it is faster and offers a substantial boost to the “Combat Maneuvers” skill which few captains max out on their own.
The only situation where the Borg engine exceeds the Aegis, is when traveling in Sector Space since it enables a higher top Warp Speed.
So… get BOTH engines, and use the Borg while traveling. Be sure to switch back to the Aegis engine when faced with space combat.
The Borg Engine can be obtained by running the STF “Infected”
For tips on defeating “Infected” check out the following links:
Shields:
This is the biggest difference between the two sets, and comes down to Regenerative (with very nice regen/healing bonuses) and Covariant (with decent defensive boosts).
Now, if you recall from our “Master Your Shields” math segment, you’ll know that I’m very much in favor of Covariants. However, the bonuses of BOTH of these shields warrant examining the choice in further detail.
The most important factor here is Set Bonuses, as the Borg shield is only reliable if both it’s 2- and 3-piece set bonuses are intact. The 2-piece bonus supplies a nice hull heal, and the 3-piece bonus further amplifies the regenerative capacity of this shield. Without both of these bonuses, this shield does not perform well in a sustained firefight.
However, both of these set bonuses have been seen to activate multiple times in even short battles, causing most players to consider them RELIABLE as a further form of survivability.
But, because this is still a Regenerative Shield, it requires that you run your shield energy very high to benefit fully from its regeneration rate, AND maintain enough maneuverability to be able to spread out incoming damage to all four shield quadrants.
The Borg shield can be obtained by running the STF “Khitomer Accord”
For tips on completing “Khitomer Accord” check out the following links:
- JDiesel17’s Walthru and Strategy
- MoistGaming’s Video Walkthrus: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Set Bonuses:
The Borg Hull and Shield Heals are substantially more powerful than the Aegis set’s defensive boosts.
Firstly, the Aegis 2-piece bonus offers a reliable boost to your ship’s Defense skill. This skill is percentage-based, and is more effective at higher speeds (Escorts/Birds of Prey tend to fly faster). A high defense skill will cause enemies to MISS your ship, dealing zero damage.
All of the other set bonuses require that you sustain damage in order for them to have a chance to activate, meaning that this bonus actually INHIBITS others from activating. However, this is offset by the slight reduction in damage from all those missed shots. The actual effectiveness of this boost varies by ship, engine, and tactics, but due to some recent re-balancing, will generally effect all captains approximately the same amount.
As for the Aegis 3-piece bonus, you’re looking at a real letdown. The resistance boost seems substantial at 10%, especially since it can stack up to 10 times. However, each stack past the first suffers from standard diminishing returns on resistances resulting in much smaller of a benefit than is portrayed on the tooltip. Furthermore, this resistance bonus actually applies to HULL damage, not shield damage. And since the boost requires your shields to be UP in order for it to activate, chances are that you will be receiving very little benefit from this reduction in incoming hull damage.
Meanwhile, the Borg 2-piece bonus offers a 52% hull heal (approx. 20,000 hull points on a T5 Cruiser) and will tend to fire off at least once per battle. With such a substantial heal, the amount of bleedthrough damage trickling through your shields is likely to be a non-issue. And if your shields are down for any reason, you can potentially benefit even MORE from this sudden heal as it also includes a decent hull resistance boost.
The Borg 3-piece set has also been rated as reliable by many players, tending to go off 2-3 times per group of enemies. Each time regenerating a bit less than half of your overall shield strength (if using the Borg shield), and making you more resistant to incoming shield damage.
Mixed Sets:
The only reason to use the full 4-piece Borg set, is for the Tractor Beam ability. From all accounts I’ve read, it’s a fun toy but not nearly powerful enough to turn the tide of any battle. Meanwhile, the mixed bonuses you can receive from going with only 2- or 3- pieces of one set can be substantial.
If you choose to use the Borg Shield, I recommend the following mixed set:
Borg Shield, Borg Deflector, Borg Console, Aegis Engine
This keeps the Shield and Hull regen boosts intact, and gives you the better engine from either set.
If you choose to use the Aegis Shield, I recommend the following mixed set:
Aegis Shield, Aegis Engine, Borg Deflector, Borg Console
This set up gets you the better engine and tougher shield, while keeping two separate 2-piece bonuses intact (Borg Hull Regen, Aegis Defense Boost)
As a matter of personal taste, the Deflector and Engine could be swapped, leaving:
Aegis Shield, Borg Engine, Aegis Deflector, Borg Console
Which would net you +5 Engine and Shield power and change up some Science skill boosts, at the cost of a some speed and a boost to Combat Maneuvers, without sacrificing the two separate 2-piece set bonuses.
And finally, it’s also possible to use the following mixed set:
Aegis Shield, Borg Engine, Borg Deflector, Borg Console
This strange mix gives you all of the regenerative/healing abilities of the borg set, and the very tough outer shell of the Aegis shield. The sole downside to this is the lack of that nice boost to Combat Maneuvers. There’s an argument to be made that keeping the 3-piece Borg set bonus intact is worth that loss…. and I would agree.