Hello, Joe and STOers! I launched a Ko-Fi page to support getting the 13th Anniversary Bundle for ship reviews. It wasn’t going anywhere, really. I was actually planning on refunding the only 2 supporters I had up until the final week of the fundraiser!
I got a donation here…then there…then a huge donation! I was close enough to the end, I added a goal of 6 ship reviews, instead: the 4 new ships I originally intended to review plus the Lock Box/Promo ships that were added to put some more value into the Bundle.
Well, I did it! With the help of 7 supporters, I raised enough money to afford the Bundle! (Plus sales tax, expected personal income tax, PayPal fees, and a wee bit extra in case I underestimated my expenses…dang, those grown-up financial responsibilities! ha ha!)
I’ve taken some time to get everyone’s preferences in, prizes distributed, and my character built up for the first review.
So here we are! Your first review is the TERRAN EAGLE PILOT RAIDER!
(While I’m here, recently STOWiki has started transitioning from “Fandom” to another platform. As a result, some things may not show up properly on the new site until that transition is further along.)
BASIC BUILD INFORMATION
This build will use a Beams: Overload setup utilizing Agony Phaser Dual Beam Banks primarily with the Discovery Phaser Wide-Angle Heavy Dual Beam Bank and the Omni-Directional Agony Phaser Beam Array for the lone aft weapon.
It unfortunately couldn’t include the new console or trait.
* The console, Covert Warhead Module, has a number of bugs associated with it (LINK TO TFW NOTES FROM THIS WEEK).
* The trait, Stealth Torpedo Bomber, and console are both strictly for torpedo users, which this build isn’t doing.
It will, however, include its new Experimental Weapon, the Subspace Depth Charge. It fires a Tetryon shot that can reduce enemy shields and can fire while under Enhanced Battle Cloak, which is huge in my opinion as you’re getting effectively an Energy Weapon that can fire while cloaked! But since I wasn’t using the Enhanced Battle Cloak (it may fire during “EBC”, but my Energy Weapons can’t!), I couldn’t really take full advantage of it.
THE RUN VIDEO
Here’s my “run of record” in an Infected: The Conduit queue on Advanced difficulty on Holodeck (I feel I need to clarify that since I’ve done most of my testing lately on the Tribble test server).
I should note, I’ve tried adding a credits page to the video and blurring the chat window, but in utilizing an editing software to try and do it, I can’t get the video to export and upload to YouTube. I have a lot to learn! This review has already been on the table long enough, it needs to get out of my drafts and into your eyeballs.
THE RESULTS
Now…before anyone scrolls down to see the results, how long did you think this took? What do you think my DPS was? Did I die any?
Go on. I’ll give you a minute.
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Just a little longer…
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At this point, you’ve either scrolled on ahead or have actually thought and wondered what this “professional noob” can do.
Well, think no more! Here are the results, which is a new personal record by leaps and bounds!
160k DPS! That is by and far a new record for me! Before this, I’d never parsed above 100k DPS. My previous best may have been ~80k when the Discovery-era Constitution Miracle Worker Flight Deck Cruiser first released. That’s now been a few years. Ha ha!
For more specific information, here’s the ability-by-ability numbers.
So how did I pull off this huge-for-me number?
THE BUILD
I won’t bore you with the exact details here since those are in the video (and I have 5 other ship reviews to do, so maybe later I can put that information in text form). But I’ll point out a few things I felt either worked well or didn’t work out at all.
- Although I used the Personal Space Trait Unconventional Systems on this build, I didn’t have enough Control abilities to make the best use of it. I think I was too worried about having enough Tactical buffs/debuffs (and Beam Overloads) to have enough “UnCon procs.” If I had to re-do it, I’d trade Elnor’s seat for a Science seat with at least 2 more Control abilities or perhaps an Engineering seat with Engineering Team (for heals), Emit Unstabble Warp Bubble (control), and Eject Warp Plasma (control).
- The Agony Phasers were a personal choice. I believe the “meta” is Sensor-Linked Phasers, but this character is a Picard-era character, and Brian Tatosky (VFX Supervisor for Picard) has said the Phasers used in Picard for Federation ships are still Federation Orange. Knowing that, I figured I’d rather have a little extra damage proc’ing than a Subsystem Offline that usually has no effect on how a battle goes. Plus, a couple Events over the past couple years gave a stack of 8 Agony Phaser choice packs each, so I wasn’t out anything for the Dual Beam Banks.
- While this character does have a number of expensive Personal Space Traits, it doesn’t have some of the more expensive items: Dynamic Power Redistributor Module console (Atlas Prototype Dreadnought Cruiser); Universal Designs starship trait (Crossfield Science Spearhead Refit); Terran Goodbye starship trait (Mirror Warship); The Ruin of our Enemies starship trait (D7 Miracle Worker Flight Deck Carrier) to name a few. I’d say this would be pushing closer to 200k DPS if I had even 1 of those.
- What shocked me was the Immolating Phaser Lance off the Deimos Pilot Destroyer (which is available as an account-wide unlock via Mudd’s Fighter Pilot Choice Pack but is otherwise available for free as a 1-character claim and use via the Event Campaign prize pool or purchasable via EC and other trades in the Infinity Prize Pack – T6 Ship choice box.). That sucker put out ~21k of my DPS, ~13.25% of my overall damage/DPS. The 6 charges already on it and the quick cooldown and recharge, plus that it’s a Phaser damage ability on a heavily-Phaser build help boost its usability considerably. Just add a Universal Designs from the Crossfield Science Refit to this ship and that console/trait combo can likely do a good bit of the heavy lifting for you!
- The only thing I feel I can really report from the Eagle’s equipment itself is the Experimental Weapon, and it doesn’t seem it did well. It only contributed ~2.05% of the overall damage (and by extension, DPS) of this run, and that’s fully maxed out at Mk XV and Epic rarity. I wish I had time to do, like, 3 runs like this and 3 runs with Soliton Wave Impeller to test the difference, but suffice it to say, I don’t think 3k DPS will be worth enough to keep the Experimental Weapon on it.
- The [CrtD] on the Agony Phasers was a choice to not constantly re-roll until I hit the final [Dmg] mod each could have. As best I understand, [CrtD] and [Dmg] are fairly close to each other performance-wise, so while Re-Engineering, for the first weapon I Re-Engineered I stopped at [CrtD] [Dmg]x3. That just became the norm so that each weapon was working on roughly the same modifier basis.
- The greatest help (and hinderance) was…
The “Spam Bar”
Several abilities have relatively short cooldowns (to me, meaning under 1 minute, and likely shorter once you use cooldown-reducing traits and abilities). To get these rapid-fire-capable abilities to fire off quicker, you’d want to be able to hit those buttons as quickly as possible to maximize their up-time (as opposed to moussing over the abilities and hitting them 1-by-1, using up available time on your earliest buffs while you’re still looking for and clicking on others).
Let me introduce you to the concept of the “Spam Bar,” as it’s called in the community.
The idea of a “Spam Bar” is to put all your short-cooldown abilities onto one tray so you can go through and activate them in order and quickly. The shorter the amount of time you’re hunting for and activating abilities, the longer they can combine together and the more hits your weapons can do with more self-buffs/enemy debuffs being active.
You could just assign your 10 most used abilities on the Number Pad as 0 – 9, then you’re just running up the keys in order. But that’s 10 button presses, which is better than hunting for each ability and clicking on it, but it’s not optimal.
The best way of getting through your abilities as quickly as possible is to have 1 key execute every ability from left to right, so you’d only need 1 key being pressed 5-10 times rather than 10 keys being pressed 1 time each.
“But I’ve heard Keybinds can be ridiculous to learn.”
Not if you use STO Keybinds.
Using that app and this tutorial from MCSTu (still relevant today), you can line up your own “Spam Bar” on a specific Tray number (say, the 3rd or 4th tray) and assign the activation of those abilities to a single key press. Instead of remembering which of your 10 keys on that tray activates which ability, you just “spam” (or repeatedly press) a button for that “bar” (the specific tray on which you put those abilities) to execute everything you put there. Thus, “Spam Bar.”
One thing to keep in mind when doing that is the button press won’t execute the full tray. It’s more like a shortcut that lets 1 button act as the activation key for all 10 slots, but you’ll still need to hit that button 5-10 times to get everything to execute. Still, 1 button repeatedly is better than memorizing what all is where. 😉
Now, I felt it was both a huuuuuge help (I can’t keep track of anything to save my life, so spamming a single key over and over was immensley helpful!)…and a huge detriment. You see, I haven’t really mastered how to effectively use everything. You’ll see it in the lack of use of both D.O.M.I.N.O. and the M6 Computer. Those should be firing as often as possible (though with only 2-3 Control abilities, Unconventional Systems won’t cool them down quickly enough), yet I effectively ignored them until the very end.
If I were to re-do my “Spam Bar” (and likely will for the other 5 builds), I’d put the abilities I want to spam on a higher-numbered tray that has no keys assigned to it, then I’d move my longer-cooldown stuff to Tray 1 where I can just hit a number on my key pad and forget about it until I need those abilities again (if the queue lasts long enough to use anything in that category again, anyway).
THIS IS A SHIP REVIEW. HOW DID YOU LIKE THE SHIP?
Sorry! I figured you’d like to see the build and where there’s still room for improvement off how I was equipped and used my abilities.
There are plenty of attack buffs and opposing debuffs available to you in the mostly-Universal seating to get the damage output you’re hoping for and likely all the “UnCon procs” you could ask for. I honestly was shocked by how well I, a “professional casual noob,” was able to do with a sub-optimal setup (with a ton of passive things I didn’t have to worry about remembering. Ha ha!). I don’t think you’ll be hurting for damage output unless you’re min/max’ing to the extreme, but I’ll let other content creators discuss the ship platform as a meta choice for various build types.
The Terran Eagle is extremely quick and highly maneuverable as long as you’re not stopped. If you need to get from Point A to Point B in a map quickly and turn on a dime while flying that quickly, this is your ship.
If I’m being honest…while the DPS out of it for my skill level and availability of equipment & funds is fine, I don’t see myself using this regularly. And it has nothing to do with its capability (if I can pull 150k+ in a not-quite-meta setup, anyone can).
It’s that the ship is too small, too fast, and too maneuverable.
The size would be fine…if the weapon effects for this ship were smaller. I feel they were built for “skeletons” (what the ship skins “attach to”) larger than what the Eagle/Aquarius is. Because of this, I had a hard time ensuring my ship was pointed in the right direction for my Dual Beam Banks to hit my intended targets. This is the reason I didn’t pick La Sirena as one of my Mudd’s Fighter Pilot Choice Pack ships to be account-wide reclaimed: it’s not that it’s a bad ship, but it doesn’t match my ability to keep up with what’s going on in battles. (To be fair, neither does the Kwejian Pilot Frigate, but it has unique animations and the “Sudden Reversal” that all look amazing!)
Also, for me, it was too fast and maneuverable. Yeah, I know, that’s a downside, right!? But I’ve found a comfortable place with mid- and low-speed larger ships in terms of turn rate, speed, and ability to keep up with where they are on the map. They move just fast enough that I feel I’m not being sluggish while being slow enough I feel I can properly set up where I want to be and how to get there.
I’ll point out that this is a downside for my piloting skill. If you love zippy, maneuverable ships, you’ll absolutely love the Eagle.
It’s just a “no” from me for continued use.
Oh, one more plus before I conclude…with Pilot Maneuvers, you do have sudden maneuvers forward, backward, to the left, and to the right available to you with double-tap button presses in those directions (or I think it’s holding L3 and pushing the left stick in the direction of your maneuver for Console, but I’m not 100% sure on that). I find these add a wee bit more options for getting around the map more quickly or getting yourself back into a good firing angle at your targets. Along with the Deuterium Surplus, Emergency Power to Engines, Evasive Maneuvers, and regular out-of-combat Full Impulse, the Pilot Maneuvers that come with the ship can help you get that little extra burst of speed if your Full Impulse is offline and you’re still trying to frantically find where your Deuterium Surplus and Evasive Maneuvers are. Ha ha!
“WHAT SCORE WOULD YOU GIVE IT?”
This will be a cop-out, but…I personally don’t like scores. I don’t keep up with the meta enough to know what’s a fantastic setup, great stats, ideal Bridge Officer seating, etc., so I’d be ill-equipped to give a score for meta-based players.
So here’s what I’ll do: I’ll give a score for what I think a general audience for this style of ship would look for, then I’ll give a personal score.
If you like nimble, quick ships for any kind of build, I’d give this an 8 out of 10, with the final 2 points depending on if you’re going with a Torpedo build (which that Lieutenant Commander-level Command seat can handle with the ability to slot Concentrate Firepower III) or an Energy Weapon build (in which case, anything with a high-enough Intel specialization seat for the highest rank of Surgical Strikes would eclipse this ship). It’s likely to put out enough damage to take care of the smaller ships that could threaten you with supremacy in numbers while being able to survive a single larger attacker long enough to get a few volleys out to take care of that ship.
If you don’t like that style of game play, then I’d say a 4 out of 10 unless you’re a torpedo user, in which case this goes to a 7 out of 10. You’ll like the 5 forward weapons, and that’ll show you just how relatively weak a 4/4 ship feels, but unless you’re used to “glass cannons” (all firepower, little survivability) and have quick-enough reflexes to fly to specific areas on the map well, you’ll likely want to avoid this (and any other small, zippy ships). If you like torpedo builds, this is a Pilot ship with a Lieutenant Commander-level Command-spec seat, perfect for its own console now that it seems to be a meta choice. In fact, if I’m using and reading the STO Ship Database correctly, this is the only ship with both Pilot Maneuvers and a Lieutenant Commander-level Command-spec seat, so if you want the maximum Torpedo use from the Covert Warhead Module and Concentrate Firepower 3, this is your only ship of choice and becomes a 10-out-of-10 must-buy purchase.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
The Fundraiser
I said I’d do credits for all my supporters in each blog post (and hopefully videos at some point in the next few videos), so here they are! If you’re one of the 7 supporters below and want a change to your displayed name, let me know and I’ll go back to edit this part of the blog. I’ll be using the Ko-Fi names but I’ll also link to their Twitter, YouTube, etc., if I know who they are there.
I’ll do these in a semi-random order this time.
* Ri’Shad Shadowstar
* EndeavourGameOn
* Gina G
* Pattee
* KWolves21
* Stephen
* Spencer/CasualSAB
THE NEXT SHIP: HAIL H.Y.D.R.A.!
The next ship to be reviewed is the one I feel will be a personal favorite just because it’s effectively 3 ships in 1: the Terran Hydra, AKA “Terran Prometheus” or “Terran Hestia”! I’m looking forward to this as it’ll use the Multi-Vector Assault Module alongside the new console, so we’ll have a few Pet shenanigans to go along with the console and maybe the ship’s trait.
Until then, continue enjoying Star Trek Online and perhaps even this Bundle (or its ships) in general!
Joe and STO 