At first glance, this Raid is a well thought out and put together episode that will provide a welcome challenge for groups looking for more difficult upper level content.
The first part of this episode consists of space combat centered around the destruction of a borg transwarp hub that is guarded by 3 borg nodes and a host of borg ships ranging from groups of 8-10 probes, 4-5 spheres and a final trifecta of two cubes and a tactical cube.
We have yet to complete this raid, but we did start the second phase which is a ground mission on starbase 82 where you have to fight your way through throngs of borg drones. The trick to this first part is taking out the interlink nodes that will prevent the borg from being destroyed. Then you need to target the medical drones, elite tactical drones, tactical drones then reg drones and proto-drones.
Group makeup for the initial space combat portion should go as follows: ideally you will need 2 science ships (hopefully each with scramble targeting sensors to keep the borg ships occupied amongst themselves) and at least one cruiser to take the onslaught of damage comming at the group. Past those needs, the last 2 slots should ideally be filled by 2 escorts for the heavy hitting damage to eliminate targets quickly. Two escorts are not neccisarry howver for this part just recommended.
Initial impressions for the ground phase seems to suggest the need for 2 science captains - one for healing and the other for CC of the borg drones; an engineer for tanking and fortifications and one tactical officer for, of course, DPS. For the last slot it shouldn't matter who you bring as long as those initial roles/slots are filled. Weapons loadout for the captains is important as well. The science captains should have at least 1 weapon with expose ability if not both of thier weapons slots. In reverse the tactical officer/officers should have at least 1 exploit weapon, if not 2, for the quick dispatching of enemy drones.
My personal preference for weapons is any "Split Beam" rifle as they have the highest exploit dps. As for expose weapons, again my preference is "Stun Pistols" as they not only have a chance to expose the target but they also prevent target action for a few seconds buying time for your team. Energy type for these weapons is simply personal preference based on individual play style.
As we finish this raid we will bring more information about this raid to you and the strategies to use to beat the most nefarious of all the Federation's enemies.
Hey just wanted to stop by and say I saw your blog announcement on twitter (tracking #STO) tag and I subscribed to your RSS. I am interested to see people starting up STO blogs. Good luck! I will be reading.
ReplyDeleteOn topic, I agree the Split beam is pretty rad, but I seem to have a problem switching weapons when using pistols over to the rifle... so I have lately been using a lunge exploit that is working great if you flank. So now I can just sprint over and melee people down. Good times.