Everything I've Learned in my Starfleet Career.

In Space Tactical get alot of access to two types of abilites, mostly.

Damage buffs and and debuffs. In space they are a good "all-rounder" class, and most Tac Officer abilities give buffs that help you and teammates deal damage.

"In nothing do men approach so nearly to the Gods, as in giving health to men."[/b] -Cicero
"To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when someone else is full of ____."[/b] -Neil Degrasse Tyson

Engineers eventually get access to an Orbital Cannon. You heard that right.

Character Sheets? What is this, some kind of RPG? It may as well be. Look, it's a Star Trek game. You knew what you were in for, nerd. Come join the herd. One of us. One of us. One of us.

Now your induction ceremony is complete, let's go over your character sheet, more simplified than other games, and more dynamic.

1. Learn how to manage your subsystem power levels. the higher your power when doing a specific task the better. Shields for tanking, weapons for blowing stuff up, and engines for when to retreat. Do this, and you will have truly won the captainship.

2. READ. I know this sounds stupid, but this game doesn't have every single line voiced. - Read the mission statements.
- Read the forums.
- Read the fansites. Memory Alpha, STOwiki, etc.
- Read the Subreddits.
- Read the item tooltips.
- Read the menus at the bars.
- Don't just Read books. Tear into them with a voracious hunger. Don't know what that means? If you READ, you'd know what voracious means!

Alot of people who can't be bothered reading get into hot water because they don't know what their gear really does.

2b. Do math regularly. This game has lots of puzzles buried in older missions, based off of that. You could use your calculator, but learning to work this stuff out in your head is so satisfying.

3. Choose a type of ship and stick with it for levelling. It makes it easier in the long run. switching between escorts and cruisers and science ships spends alot of resources retraining your bridge officers in the abilities that makes these ships strong.

3b. Stick with escorts for levelling. They are designed to deal damage and will get you through space missions faster. You can choose what you really want to fly when you reach 60-65.

5. Experiment. Play other careers or factions.
6. Know your firing arcs. If you're wondering why your dual heavy cannons aren't firing maybe you need to aim your ship better at the eneemy.
7. Do not underestimate your enemy. Every so often the game will throw you a curveball and you WILL fail. Don't be afraid to fail. Get smarter.

Also, use your hypo heals, tribbles, food, etc.

Cowbell's Terran Inquisitor here, and I'm here to teach you soft Starfleet magets how to fight like a redshirt and live to die another day.

So you've decided to play a redshirt. Commendable. Alot of people abhor ground combat mostly because they expect STO to be more "fluid" and "up-to-date" with other games. STO is over a decade old.

When STO was first released, there were no kits or kit modules. This means all your stat increases were from gear and your captain abilities were all you had.

As a Tactical captain you have a few viable playstyles open to you.

Your main gimmick as a tactical captain is to deal unholy amounts of damage.

Tactical Captains fit a few heroic classic tropes/archetypes.

• Infiltrators/Spies
  
• Soldiers
  
• Special Forces
  
• Command Officers
  
• Motivational Speakers/Cheerleaders
  
• Heavy Weapons

• Buff friends - Effectiveness: 5
  
• Debuff enemies - Effectiveness - 5
  
• Tank - Effectiveness - 3
  
• Melee/Unarmed - Effectiveness - 5
  
• Heal - Effectiveness - 3

Motion Accelerator
GOTTA GO FAST! Especially in massive maps like the Dyson sphere, you need to get around, and not everyone has several hundred Zen lying around for Sylvia's Charm. The Accelerator is like Volt's ability from Warframe, it makes you and your Team mates THICK MCRUNFAST.
Offense
Motivation

Rally Cry
Team heal and crit buff. No one knows what you're saying, but they'll fight someone to the death to defend your right to say it. Whether you're quoting your favorite Trek character or historical figure, or yelling "SPOON!" as you rush into battle, this ability is powerful.

Must-Have Melee/Unarmed Kits
Biotech Siphon
Biotech Siphon allows you to heal for all the melee damage you do while it's active.

Gravity Containment Unit
The GCU (No one calls it that) is from the Discovery reputation system. This ability is a great tanking/melee ability as it forces the enemies in a cone in front of you, to attack you. it's like an unfocused tractor beam, but for people.

Stabilized Folded-Space Transporter
-Teleports behind you-
"Nothin' personnel, kid" - the Kit module, in a nutshell. Teleport behind an enemy so you can stab them in the back. A favorite of Terran infiltrators.

Universal Kits
Para Bellum
When people on your team shoot your designated target, all their cooldowns on skills and kit modules are reduced.

A thing I see parroted alot by people is that the Risan Kit is the best kit, hands down. i disagree, the Risan Kit is great if you plan on speccing into spacemagic.

HOWEVER.

The Risian Kitframe is worthless if you don't need or use it.

A good kitframe to start with is a purple kitframe with [KPERF].

-Delta Expedition Kits
-Kelvin Starfleet Frontier Kits,
-Fleet Kits that let you cast abilities outside your specialization/career are also very excellent.

Don't let people who can't think for themselves tell you what the best gear for you is. If you have half a brain, you can decide for yourself what works for you.

Ship gear sheets are where the real magic happens. A well-equipped ship will bring you hours of enjoyment.

But in order for a ship to run, you need some basic parts.

"Deflector" slot - A deflector is needed on every ship. a deflector is responsible for not only "broadcasting" your ship's shields, but also to use a tractor beam, scan an area, or use Exotic Particle abilities/weaopons. A good deflector can boost Exotic particle damage, hull or shield healing, etc.

"Warp Core" Slot - A ship cannot fly without a warp core. (Trust me, I've attempted to.) There are many kinds of warp cores, but it's important to note that only Romulan characters can use singularity cores on Romulan ships. (This may have changed with the crossfaction ship usage update, which I will go over later).

"Engine" slot - A ship's ability for flight also needs an engine. Some engines are perfect for combat, others for long-range flights. All engines pretty much do the same thing, (which is enable warp speed and Full Impulse) with the higher quality engines giving extra stats.

"Shield" slot - Although shields are not as important as hull hitpoints, I'd be lying if I said you don't need a shield. All ships need shields. It's important to note that shields can also change the look of a ship, the first shield to do this being the Reman shield from the mission "Arena" (writer's note, double check this). Some shields are cosmetic only, meaning they don't provide a stat bonus or shield hitpoints like a regular shield should. Make sure to read your tooltips!
"Forward" and "Aft" weapon slots - These are you bread-and-butter ship weapon slots. A plethora of weapons can be slotted, most being, but are not limited to, beams, cannons, torpedoes, and mines. Mines can only be slotted in the aft slots. Also, a review of the "firing arcs" tutorial is in order to explain how ship weapons work. Some ship weapons, like the Omni-directional, turrets, and Wide-Arc weapons have larger firing arcs than most traditional weapons. Mines are more powerful than torpedoes, but harder to get ships to fly into. Lots of choices!

"Experimental Weapon" Slot - Some upgraded/newer ships have these. This is where an Experimental Weapon would go, if you have one.

"Universal Console" slot - This is a slot specifically for a Universal Console. Universal Consoles fit here, but can also be slotted in any console slot.

Engineering Consoles - These consoles often provide utility or, for the most part, damage resistance.
Science Consoles - More utility, with a minor focus on sheild healing/drains or Exotic Damage.
Tactical Consoles - Tactical consoles boost your weapons' damage, but can also do things like grant ship stealth, increase weapon accuracy, etc. The more common consoles usually come in "energy type" and "weapon type" flavors.

1. You, as a player, if you have half a brain and have not destroyed all your braincells with Earth Space Dock Zone Chat, are a forward/critical-thinking individual and are capable of determining what the best gear for you is. Ask your questions if you must.
2. You only really need one captain to chase DPS. That being said, chasing DPS is a rabbit hole that will have you grinding for too long, spending ridiculous amounts of money. Even when you open your wallets, you are not guaranteed to "be the best." If you can accept this, you will find more enjoyment out of the game.
3. While I have said you don't need the best gear (feel free to disregard), it is important to note that you need to learn game mechanics to succeed. Not doing so puts you at risk not only putting your character in peril, but will give you unnecessary brain problems because you didn't read the mission statements.

Cowbell's Liberated Borg Captain One of Five, here.

So you landed yourself in Borg territory. Don't panic, as Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy likes to say.
The UI comes with a built-in modulator now for when the Borg adapt to your energy weapons. This does -not- mean you don't need one! The built-in modulator is a basic, barebones modulator that is slow and interrupts combat.

There are three other modulators, one is the built-in modulator for both M.A.C.O./K.H.G. armor sets from Omega/Borg Rep, another is from the Episode "Taken By Surprise" in the Kings and Queens storyarc. The final ones can be crafted on Defera, at the Defera Invasion Zone.

More things to remember fighting the borg, in some cases, if you are killed while fighting borg, there is a chance you might become "Assimilated!" Where you lose control of your captain, and you have to watch as your captain futilly tries to kill the rest of your team, and the borg.

Borg are susceptible to physical and kinetic and Agony damage, and these damage types do not require modulation. Weapons that are good for this include:

• Melee Weapons that have no extra damage type
  
• Tsunkatse Gloves/Other Unarmed weapons
  
• TR-116B Sniper Rifle (An actual game weapon that is a reference to DS9)
  
• Zefram Cochrane's Shotgun
  
• Picard's Thompson SMG (only found in a bundle with two nearly useless ships)
  
• Leck's Throwing Knives
  
• Terran Knife
  
• Any energy weapon that deals Kinetic damage.

There are also is a Kit Module they are especially susceptible to... EMP Bombardment.

• I cannot stress enough that spacing is important.
  
• If you see red or green glowing at your feet, MOVE. This tile will kill you after three seconds of it lighting up.
  
• If you see an enemy listed as "Nanite" anything prioritize it first. Some Borg (who usually wear backpacks) will rez any borg aeround them you have disabled. You can destroy these by killing them, walking to their body, and using the interact button to remove their nanite-generating heart like the B.A. you are.
  
• It might be a good idea to work with a buddy system.
  
• some Borg TFOs require the use of the NPC voice sound channel in your settings. If you turn this off, you will be unable to hear the nodes being unlocked for you, that need to be destroyed so you can move on.

So let's say you've decided to stop this "malicious ignorance" behavior and join the subset of community members who decided to "git gud". I commend you for desiring for something better. This is your path for greatness and healing.

I'm going to look at ways that you can improve without getting too technical or specific because every player has a different play style and ship type the like.

1. Think of how you want to play. STO subcribes to the old "Trinity" style of gameplay where we have mostly tanks, healers, and DPS. There's also debuffing/buffing and carrier play, but those are for another guide.
2. The first thing you should look at is your character and ship. Keep in mind you can make new characters, but you can't change species, or careers. You can always get a new ship, and there's usually an upgraded version of your ship out there. Even the Light Cruiser has Tier 6 versions now. What are tiers? A tier is basically what level your captain is at. Captains in endgame fly T5 or T6 or Fleet variant ships. How do your ship and character play well off eachother? Can you capitalize on your character's Traits?
3. While dealing damage is great, there are other ways to help your team. Doing mission objectives, especially in space, will guarantee your success and earn the respect of the community that care about the game and your success, as well. You can also heal, tank, and buff/debuff.
4. There are several resources at your disposal if you use the internet outside of STO. Youtube has videos about STO content by knowledgeable creators as well as sites like Reddit that are good sources of surface-level information. Build videos, TFO walkthroughs, and most importantly "budget build" videos for those looking to get their foot in the door.
5. Think about your other style of interactions you wish to do. Do you want to do teamwork-focused play? Do you want to focus on RP or PVP? These decisions can help you learn the mechanics of the game, and all of these are valid and viable.
6. Build videos are a great way to figure out what you want to do because not only do you have an explanation of the build you get to see it in action.
7. TFO Walkthroughs are definitely something worth checking out. Many TFOs like Battle of Korfez and Infected: Manus or Undine Infiltration require some explanation due to some of them having "simplified puzzle mechanics." LEarning these will make you a better player, and those players who want to win will love you for it.
8. Use text/team chat. if you have trouble speaking English or german (two of the languages most used in STO), google translate can be a lifesaver. Also, the game has a voice chat function as well as there are many apps out there you can find STO groups to play with like Discord.

The Character Sheet Window (Default button "U" )

The Character Sheet window, vertically is split between four entities, your Captain, shown at the top right, your ship, just below it, your small spacecraft, below that, and finally, all your bridge officers.

Your character sheet and ship sheets are important, you will spend lots of time tinkering, swapping out gear, and changing traits/skills.

Each entity (save for your ships) will have a character gear sheet (and an "Edit Record" button where you can type a bio (One should note that the purple story-related Bridge officers, Flores, Tovan Khev, and K'Gan and the like are not fully editable, and can be re-recruited from each faction's hub , change your title or tell people you love cookies) where you compare and swap out gear, weapons and devices/consumables. It's important to note that you can only change your Bridge Officer's names, and sometimes at the cost of EC, but to change your Captain's screenname you will need a Captain Rename Token (which is purchased on the C-Store).

On the next tab is a Skills Sheet, where, on your captain you get skill trees, on your bridge officers you can swap Bridge Officer skills. It should be noted that the STO community refers to Bridge Officers as "BOFFs" and Duty Officers as "DOFFs" (Of which we will speak about later). After Level 60 you will gain access to Specializations, which can further customize the kind of captain you are.
After that is a Traits tab, where you swap out Traits for your captain and ship, and displays species traits for BOFFs.
On the Ship tab there is a "Stations" tab, where you can swap out BOFFs and change their skills, for ground and space. It should be noted that there are seperate buttons for shuttles.

It is important to note that you cannot switch gear/skills while in combat/at RED ALERT)

It is very important that you have all these slots filled with the newest gear you have available. A Mk. X item, even common quality, will outperform a very rare Mk. II.

On the captain gear tab you get a Kit Tray, which determines the skills you use in/out of combat.

There is a "Kit" slot, Kits increase your stats.

In terms of protection you get:

-"Shield" slot - Shields provide a temporary amount of damage mitigation before they deplete from taking too much damage. Once a shield is depleted the damage starts filtering through your armor and starts dealing damage to your health.

-"EV Suit" slot - this is new. You can have Armor and an EV Suit equipped and switch between them using the capsule-shaped button to the right of it. It's important to note that when the game tells you to put the EV suit on, do it! It's embarrassing to die because you forgot to put on your EV suit and walked out into space or something.

-"Armor" slot - Your armor is what determines how much damage is done to your health. Some armor boosts certain stats, and the more armors you wear the more that unlock in the costume tailor. Some armors can only be unlocked by completing "Reputation" projects or from buying from a fleet.

In terms of ground Weapons, you get two weapon slots for your captain, one for BOFFs.

Weapons can be energy, kinetic, and physical and even include melee weapons.

Weapons can be switched between by pressing "Z" or by pressing the capsule button. You can also hide your weapons by pressing the "eye" icon next to the weapon slots. You can also holster/sheathe weapons by pressing "H".

You and your Bridge Officers get device trays, which further expand the number of things you can do. Bridge Officers will use any weapon/device/skill you give them (including fire extinguishers, much to your chagrin) but you can instruct them to use certain abilities when you want them to (more on that later).

In the next Section I will go over the Ship Gear Tab.

• Make use of LFG text channels. Finding players willing to cooperate is definitely better than pugging/pubbing.
  
• Make use of your specializations. Commando is an excellent Ground choice if you tend to aim for headshots.
  
• Make use of text or voice chat, but that's entirely up to you. Google translate also helps with language barriers.

• At least one captain/player must stay behind to operate the console and defend against Borg attacks on their position.
  
• The player must also enter commands to disable the shields around the node for teammates to destroy.
  
• the Borg ship will announce when a player approaches a node's proximity, But only if you have the sound turned up, including the voice slider. Don't rely on text chat, the game will not use text to notify you.

1. You don't need a fast ship. Pilot Specialization maneuvers do help, but so do Evasive Maneuvers and Emergency Power to Engines. Another great BOFF ability to have is Tractor Beam Repulsors, they're like tractor beams but in reverse, and they can push enemy ships right into the hole.
2. Also, if you notice no one is picking up Hawking Particles (those orange globs of spheres) pick one up and deliver it to the USS Jupiter. Then just keep doing it. This is one of those TFOs where if people do their jobs, and know what to do, it's a breeze.

The biggest problem with this TFO is that unless someone belongs to a fleet with colony holding, they can get lost easily. The other problem is the Tzenkethi have numbers, and damage resistance, but a well-equipped captain can hold their own. Bring a large anti-air assault weapon like a minigun or the Photon Cannon, the Boolean Cannon (JJ-verse Star Trek Weapon) or the Phaser Cannon Special Issue (Shaxs' Lower Decks weapon, I'm gonna miss that grumpy loveable mountain of sensitivity and fury). A Blast weapon will also do. But also bring a strong ground weapon, and some kit modules that bring more guns. There are universal kits that let you spawn more turrets, you don't need to be an engineer to build them. Any Captains with Ground traits that help survivability and providing buffs after killing enemies will be useful here.

• DO NOT do pugging/pubbing unless you are fully geared and confident you can handle yourself/carry others.
  
• Not all your gear must be epic grade, (Purple/blue) Mk XV is enough.
  
• Your ship probably should be T6-X2 (Tier 6 with two ranks of experimental upgrades, totalling three Experimental Upgrades Each)
  
• Grind the Risa Event and get yourself a Rainbow Tribble. The Ground device lists you should try to get:
  1. Rainbow Tribble (provides bonuses to the entire team based off of number of teammates that are using them at once, and these bonuses stack with every added player that has the tribble)
  2. The Gambling Device (provides bonuses for yourself, but has a 50/50 chance of either buffing you, or de-buffing you.
  3. The Daring Tribble - These are insanely easy to get. Non-Klingon captains can breed these by leaving a tribble with a bottle of cream soda in their bags. Cream Sodas may be replicated in the Replicator even at level 10. These buff [KPerf] And Kit Readiness.
     
  4. Klingon captains can do a DOFF Culinary assignment in their ship's mess/canteen to attempt making [Baked Tribble] As distasteful as some might find it, Baked Tribble provides a buff to damage, as does [Dosi Rotgut]. Dosi Rotgut sounds like it could harm your health immensely, but this drink improves your damage overall.
     
  5. Bring plenty of healing items, regenerators, and spare parts. Parking yourself at a player hub where you can repair your ship or seek medical treatment also helps, because it saves you a trip limping back to the nearest starbase.

The reason why I feel the need to cover this is it took me a month to figure out how to deal with the update to Counter-Borg combat.

One of the most infuriating enemy types since the **** are the Mirror Borg.

Mirror Borg are first identified by the fact that they use Antiproton weapons which have a small proc to do an extra 10% damage.

Mirror Borg also have different vocal lines that are more aggressive than the normal Borg droning (no pun intended).

The other things you must know:

Space:
-Mirror Borg, when reaching a certain hull-health threshold possibly may self-destruct, which will be indicated by a circle around the ship, if you see this circle, stay out of it, and if you are in it, have Evasive Maneuvers or Emergency Power To Engines ready.
Ground:
Drones will also do this on ground, similarly, dendritic drones with backpacks will revive their dead teammates. You can avoid this by killing them first, and then running to their body and ripping out the nano-tech bit that allows them to regenerate/resurrect.

• First off, is this a ship you care about keeping?
  
• The first thing you want to do is look over your Ship Sheet. Is every gear and Trait slot filled?
  
• Human Bridge Officers are very good at adding extra survivability. Don't forget to train them in Damage Resistance abilities like [Polarize Hull], [Auxiliary Power to the Structural Integrity Field], and [Aux to Inertial Dampeners]. [Rally Point] in Command specialization is also helpful.
  
• The second thing you want to do is invest in survivability consoles. Neutronium Armor, Mission Rewards, Discovery Rep "Pax Consoles" provide extra hull hitpoints. Some shields and Deflector dishes increase hull hitpoints.
  
• Consider Upgrading your ship with an Upgrade token or three.
  
• Consider buying the Fleet version, and then upgrading it.
  
• There are two consumables that can be used to help with survivability.
  [Jevonite Hardpoints] and [Reactive Armor Catalysts]. Both are well worth training your Doff and R&D systems to craft.

• Don't panic! Did you bring your towel?!
  
• Again, don't panic, the starter ship is meant to be underwhelming.
  
• [RCS Accelerators] and Engineering consoles that boost Engine Power [EngPwr] really help.
  
• Borg Engines are some of the fastest.
  
• Check if you're flying the Protostar class and your gear slots are full, because if you are, you might want to submit a support ticket.

Romulans - Romulans have advanced cloaking tech that turns them invisible and makes them untargetable.
-IT BURNS!!! Rommies use Plasma weapons but the most devastating weapons they use are heavy torpedo launchers buffed with High Yield. Plasma weapons' Proc involves inflicting a damage-over-time effect called Plasma Burn.
-Romulans love science alot.
-Be aware of the ones that use Viral Matrix. It doesn't sound very threatening, but it can tear down your shields, and leave you open to torpedo attacks that will melt your hull like butter on popcorn. To counter, have a copy of Science Team on your tray to deploy antiviral countermeasures and stop the infection.
-Romulans can be honorable, depending on who you're dealing with. There's even rumor of some Romulans rejecting their former deceptive ways in favor of openness and cooperation...
-Furthermore, Romulans will retreat if they feel the odds of the fight are not in their favor.

Klingons Klingons also have cloaking tech that they stole from the Romulans centuries ago. Despite having this technology, they are a militaristic species that fight fiercely (and honorably in most cases) for their home, their family, their house, their friends, and allies. Klingons would rather die on the battlefield than off it, and have a much different philosophy on death. But this is gettign too philosphical.
-Klingons use flanking/raider mechanics to inflict spike damage. Most early ships are sort of squishy, but a well-equipped Klingon ship is a fearsome enemy... or an ally, if you are so lucky to be on the captain's good side...
-Klingons also use Disruptors. Their Proc involves lowing your damage resistance to make further attacks more effective.
-On the ground, Klingons love using melee. Their Bat'leths are known to be crafted with the finest precision, and every captain must know how to use one.
-Klingons, I mentioned earlier, are honorable. Think of them as cowboys...or samurai... or vikings... they made mistakes, but they wish to honor the empire, and honor its commitments. Still though, there are the occasional "independent thinkers" that want it all for themselves...

Klingons - DSC
Which brings me to House Mo'Kai. They were introduced with the Age of Discovery update, and are connected to that show in a way. They are skilled in deception and unauthorized equipment manipulation. They also don't care as much for some of the honorable leanings of these new TNG Klingons. But that can always change, or not. They are also masters of deception, and can even manipulate communications themselves.
-Three things you should watch out for when fighting them, are Transport Warhead, Viral Impulse Burst, and that one TFO where they send explosive shuttles to ruin your day. VIB alone is a reason to not want to fight them, but if you have a copy of engineering team or Intel Team you can remove this debuff.

Jem'Hadar
Fighting the jem'Hadar usually happens in the older storyarcs, such as "Second Wave," or "Cardassian Struggle." (Someone please explain to me why it is called that, and we are fighting Jem'Hadar.) These are usually in the smaller escorts, {spoiler]but later on you will be tasked with their more cooperative counterparts in larger ships, assisting them with a delicate, if not important matter.[/spoiler]
-Jemmies usually use Polaron weapons, and on ground have the ability to cloak at the cost of being dependent on an addictive substance called Ketracel White. They are also engineered for battle, and formidable allies, if you can befriend one.

It automatically balances your shields, shifting hitpoints away from the shields that need it least, and pumping it into shields taking the most damage at the time of its activation.

It buffs your weapons for a short time.

More importantly, if you are flying an escort, and your front shield arc is low on health, it will begin healing the front arc at the cost of the rear, left and right shield arcs.

AOEs for groups, Single-target for nuking. AOEs tend to draw aggro, so make sure your ship can take the abuse.

Tactical Captain Career Abilities
These are abilities you earn throughout levelling your character.

Utility/Support Tactical Kits
Suppressive Fire- This kit increases your firing haste while slowing down enemies, without increasing weapon accuracy whatsoever. It's a situational ability.
Rally Cry - Not really a Rally or Cry as it is a Battle Command, Your captain will shout something profound (flavor it in your head what you will), that will inspire your allies and make them do more damage to a target, while healing them
Motivation - A slightly different version of Rally Cry, It works similarly except in order to receive their healing your team must hit your target.
Motion Accelerator- The Poor Man's Sylvia's Charm, Motion Accelerator, when activated allows you and your team to move very fast for about 10 seconds. This is more helpful on larger mapst hat require you to get from place to place quickly.

On Ground, Tac Officers get more buffs and debuffs but they also get access to Unarmed kit modules, and even get access to Security Escort. Nothing like summoning some extra redshirt muscle to overwhelm the enemy.

I'm only going to list the ones I have found helpful and somewhat affordable.

The first Tribble I will list is almost the easiest to get.

Prime Borg combat is difficult enough, beyond initial encounters a captain and their BOFFs will have to remodulate their energy weapons occasionally for their attacks to continue being effective.

Three modulation ways:

• The I-MOD rifle from Mudd's if you are rich
  
• The Extirpating Modulator from "Taken By Surprise"
  
• The Fractal Modulator from farming mats and doing Ground content in the Defera Invasion Zone

Still effective are non-exotic damage melee weapons and unarmed combat.

Also effective are things like the EMP Bombardment, useful for neutralizing borg and other hostile part-robot lifeforms.

It is also to be noted to watch out for bosses combining tough individuals with borg tech. These enemies are not run-of-the-mill drones and will murder you easily if you let them.

This seems a bit broad, doesn't it?

This is a half-philosophical question... what do you want to specialize in and be good at?

Every STO player should at least have one captain that strives for pure, raw DPS. Survivability is optional.

Is your captain strong in ground combat? Are they also willing to play support? Do they play well with others, or do they often muse with the idea that they stand alone?

All of these should be going into your builds.

What is a "build"? A build is a series of intentional player choices that shape their player experience. many captains strive to not only do damage but to buff others to do more damage, but damage is not the only way to play STO.