STO: Crowd Control
Alas, we come to our final installment of the Roles of STO Space Combat. Today we’ll look at the support role of Crowd Control. This play style is all about tricks, buffs, debuffs and keeping the enemy off balance or weakened.
1. Your Player Captain
Tactical– Where Tactical captain’s dominated DPS, they still have something to add to CC. Fire on My Mark is a nice debuff to enemies damage resistance and stealth, which fits right into the role of debuffing the enemy.
Engineer– Aside from the ever useful EPS Power Transfer, the engineer does not have anything special to bring to the table.
Science– Like the tactical in DPS, Crowd Control is where the scientist shines. Subnucleonic Beam is the big winner here. Being able to clear your targets buffs AND increase the cooldown of ALL of their powers makes this an almost overpowered ability. Fighting Breen who have this power, without having a science team available to clear it, is super annoying.
In addition, Sensor Scan is very useful for locating cloaked ships and Dampening Field is great for aiding allies with increased damage resistance.
2. Ship Type
Escort– These high powered speedsters don’t really bring a lot to the table in terms of CC. The main thing they can do is to make easier use of Subnucleonic Beam, which has a 90 degree firing arc. They can also slot all of the useful Tactical BO abilities, which while not as good as Science BO’s, can still do some useful things.
The Defiant’s ability to cloak and the Prometheus’s MVAM mode shouldn’t be overlooked. More targets for the bad guys to shoot out and the ability to join the fight when you want, can be useful for support.
Cruiser– Aside from survivability, cruisers also do not add anything unique. If you want to focus on the engineering branch of BO CC abilities, cruiser is the choice for you. Similar to the MVAM, the galaxy’s saucer separation has an added bonus.
Science– Like the other two, ship choice mostly affects BO seating in the CC role. Science ships allow more science BO’s. Science ships also get the level 1 Beam Target X abilities, which are great for affecting an enemies power systems. This can be a great CC tactic.
In addition, the Nebula class has Tachyon Detection Grid which is a great way to find cloaked ships and the D’kyr Vulcan ship gives you a shuttle to heal you and provide another target.
3. Ship Equipment
There isn’t a lot that equipment can add to the CC role. There is the standard Console stacking to aid science BO abilities. But there are a things worth looking at, some that have recently been added to the C-store.
- Anti-Matter Spread– This creates a confuse and placate affect on your targets. This is the definition of Crowd Control. It can only be used on cruisers.
- Photonic Displacer– Creates a duplicate of your ship. Having more allies for a short time is always helpful. Can only be used on science ships.
- Borg Set– The borg set’s tractor beam allows you to put several ships into a tractor beam, holding them in place. Great way of keeping people from escaping or going after your weak escorts who are trying to run away.
- Polaron Beams– The subsystem power drain of this ability can be used in conjunction with others to shut down an enemy.
4. Bridge Officer Abilities
Tactical Officers– The most useful Tactical BO powers are the Attack Patterns. Attack Pattern Beta puts a damage resistance debuff on your target, Delta puts a resistance buff on you or your ally and a debuff on anyone who attacks them, and Omega buffs yourself for damage and can break anything that would lock you in place. The Beam Target abilities are also useful for draining some power from a target’s systems.
In addition, the mine field abilities can be useful. Deploying a large field of Chroniton Mines can slow down a group of your enemies, even if it doesn’t do a lot of damage.
Engineering Officers– The best Engineering CC abilities are arguably Engineerings worst abilities. Boarding Party can shut down enemy subsystems but it’s pretty easy to shoot the shuttles down before they arrive. Aceton Field can debuff weapons, but because of the 90 degree arc, if you use it in a cruiser it can be hard to line up when you need it.
Eject Warp Plasma is one that shows up again and is a good choice. In addition to the good damage it does to enemies, it also stops them. Controlling your enemies movements is key to CC.
Science Officers– Here is where the plethora of Science officer BO’s comes into it’s own. I’ll break them down in three categories:
- Movement Controls- Tractor Beam, Tractor Beam Repulsors, Gravity Well, Photonic Shockwave are all ways to slow, stop or temporarily disable your enemy. Great for keep them trapped near a minefield, or in position for an alpha strike from an escort, or to prevent them from fleeing or chasing a damaged ally.
- Power and Systems– Tyken’s Rift, Viral Matrix, Energy Siphon, Tachyon Beam, Charged Particle Burst all drain power, reduce shields or otherwise shut down particular sub systems. If an enemy has no weapons power, they can’t hurt anyone.
- Confuse– Scramble Sensors, Jam Sensors and Mask Energy Signature all serve to affect who the enemy can target. Scramble Sensors is the best option as it makes your enemy see his allies as enemies. The other two only really help you get into a fight without out notice, or out of one.
Concluding Build
Ship: Intrepid retrofit
Captain: Science
Loadout: Complete Borg, 3 Polaron Beam Arrays, Chroniton mines, Chroniton torpedoes
Bridge Officers:
Commander Science- Tyken’s Rift III, Charged Particle Burst II, Mask Energy Signature II, Tractor Beam I
Lt. Commander Science- Energy Syphon II, Scramble Sensors I, Science Team 1
Lieutenant Engineering- Boarding Party 1, Emergency Power to Auxiliary 1
Lieutenant Tactical- Attack Pattern Beta 1, Torpedo High Yield 1
Ensign Science- Hazard Emitters 1
Tactics
Use MES to get close to you close to your enemy. Activate Emergency Power to Auxiliary to boost your power and get within 5km. Drop Tyken’s Rift and a Tractor beam onto them to hold them near the rift. Then fire a Scramble Sensors and launch Boarding Parties so he won’t shoot them down so easily. Next unload Charged Particle Burst. Fire your polaron beams with Beam Target Weapons and Attack Pattern Beta. Deploy your mines a few seconds before the tractor beam ends and then a Torpedo High Yield. As soon as the global timer is up, fire Energy Siphon.
Between the energy drains from Tyken’s Rift, Energy Siphon, Polaron beams, Beam Target X and system shut down from Boarding Party you should be able to keep the target from being an effective attacker. If you have an escort coming in with you, once you’ve weakened the shields and his power, the escort has a good chance of tearing through them.
Complete Series
