So you wanna upgrade your kit? Upgrading your Kit Frames for Death and Destruction

GREETINGS! ABM here. Now that Star Trek Online enables you to upgrade both your Kit Frames and Devices, I thought I would make the following is a quick sheet to give you some insight into your options and what to expect when upgrading. Also is some commentary as what to avoid.


To make this easy, instead of going into excruciating detail about every kit, lets just talk about the various kit modifiers that exist in-game and what they mean. I have included the unique ones from the various specialty kits available from lockboxes as well. I'll start with the common mods and then go to the more esoteric ones. (Edit: Special thanks to CrypticSpartan for clarification of the mechanics and his hard work on making this system worthwhile!)

[KPerf] - Increases the performance of at least one aspect of your kits. It tends to be damage.
[KCD] - Reduces the cooldown time of you kit abilities.
[Will] - Adds resistance to control powers
[PSG] - Increases the capacity of your personal shield generator  
[PSGRes] - increases the "hardness" and thus reduces the damage taken by your Personal Shield Generators
[WpnDmg] - Increases the damage output of your handheld weapons
[WpnCrt] - Boosts weapon criticals
[WpnPen] Increases the penetration of your handheld weapons
[HP] - Increases your hitpoints
[Regen] - Increases the rate at which you heal when OUT of combat
[Armor] - Increases the damage resistance of your personal armor.  
[CritD] - Additional Critical damage
[CritH] - Additional Critical hit chance  
[Critx] - A little bit of CrtiH and CritD  
[PsiDoT] - Psionic Consumption which adds a psionic damage buff to the target of your kit power [PsiBuff] - Psionic Howl that gives you a psionic damage AOE that only applies to certain powers depending on your specialty.  
[PsiDmg] - Psionic Emissions that adds a flat psionic damage buff to certain powers.  
[+Pha] - [+Dis] - [+Pla] - [+Pol] - [+Tet] - [+Ap] - Bonus damage to the listed energy weapon type. [CtlDur] - Buffs the duration of the control effects of your kit devices by 20%.
[ExpDmg] - This is the increased damage you will deal when successfully landing an Exploit attack on a target that is currently Exposed.
[ExpHit] - This is your chance to inflict Expose effects on your targets in ground combat, when using an Expose attack.  
[ExpDur] - This is the duration that your inflicted Expose effects will remain on a target.  
[SonicP] - Adds the Sonic Pulse ability to non-Science captains
[VascReg] - Adds the Vascular Regenerator to non-Science captains
[BattleStr] - Adds Battle Strategies - Adapted to non-Tactical captains
[MotionAcc] - Adds Motion Acceleration to non-Tactical captains
[Undine] - Bonus damage against Undine  

Which Mods to DEFINITELY get:  
[CrtiD], [CritH] and [CritX] - These buff everything you do that deals damage. Simply the best mods next to..  
[KPerf] - This is the most useful to everyone, regardless of specialty. So much so that you cannot get an additional [KPerf] mod when upgrading a kit that already has two [Kperf] modifiers. (more on that below). At epic, you get a KPerf mod anyhow, so at least try to have one already in your kit before you upgrade. 2 is better.
[KCD] -  In my opinion, this is a strong competitor to [KPerf]. Reduction of the CD times of your kit abilities is nothing to scoff at. That said, this mod so far seems to be only available in generic kits frames, not in the specialized lockbox  ones (Though it may be available in some of the more recent kit frames available.)
[WeaponDmg] - Everyone has to pew-pew on the ground, and this will give a small boost to your damage. However, you will notice it MUCH more when you crit.
[+ whatever your energy weapon type] - This is great as it in effect acts like a [WeapnDmg] though it scales much better. That is to say, you will get a better damage boost from using one of those modes OVER a [WpnDmg] mod. However it is limited to the type you select. Currently these are only available on the Herald Kits and a [+Pla] version on the Romulan Navy Kit. So keep that in mind, as you will lose access to some of the other mods such as the Crit variants that come with the Delta Expedition kits. (The exception again being the Romulan Navy kit that comes with a [CritX] mod by default.)
[PSGRes] - Most shields have some sort of resistance in them, so this will just add to that. I think negating incoming damage is more important than the additional 30 or so points you get from the standard [PSG] mod. This is a better overall choice when it comes to shields. That said, there is no place on your paperdoll/character screen to see what - if any - additional resistance/protection you get from this modification.

*special note*
[WpnCrt] -  I am not sure about this one, as like [PSGRes], there is no visible number to see what your new CritH/D is, since it only applies to your weapons. I uses it on a couple of toons and I *think* I'm critting more and better, but not sure. After some tests, it acts like a 2/3rds CritX mod to your weapons ONLY. Certainly worth of note since it can in effect stack with other Crit mods. If you MUST use a Herald Kit, see if you can get one this mod as well.

Which Mods to DEFINITELY NOT FUCK OFF GET:
[Armor] - Not only does +30 to your armor rating do fuck all (at most you *might* see your armor rating jump up by 3 - 5 points) but currently it is bugged so you actually have your damage resistance REDUCED! This may be a display bug, but in its current state, it is easily the most useless mod here. It needs a SERIOUS buff. For some time you could get additional benefits to your armor stats by increased CritH/D if your armor offered that, but since those benefits have been singled out and removed, this mod is close to useless. Avoid with prejudice.
[HP] - Also bugged. Aside from only adding a minimal amount of HP, on many kits it IS NOT ADDING ANY HP AT ALL. This needs a buff and a fix, stat. Even then, it would have to be YUUUUUGE to be worth it. Weak.
[Will] - Control effects are of such short duration and uncommonly encountered, you wont find much utility, and even then, +30 or so resistance to control effects will do fuck all. Easily one of the two worst mods to get.
[Regen] - Only *slightly* more useful than the shite [Armor] mod, this will give you a minuscule acceleration of recovering your HP. But since it is limited to being out-of-combat, it is utterly useless in the current meta. Fail. Avoid.

The rest are situational. Use at your risk. There are some that can lead to interesting builds with Temporal and Intelligence kit modules (Such as say, [CtlDur]) Also, [ExpDmg] on paper sounds good for a CritD/Expose build, but with Cryptic math, it could also suck. Your mileage may vary. Experiment and let me know your experiences.


UPGRADING YOUR KIT: Upgrading your kit will give you noticeable accross-the-board boosts in performance if you have the best modifiers. Upgrading them is inexpensive and require Ground Gear Tech Upgrades Some things to note when upgrading:

* Unique baked-in mods will never get a second one (eg, [CritDx2, CtlDurx2, etc)
* Unique mods from Lockbox kits are not part of the upgrade modifier pool. (Duh!)
* [KPerf] will NOT be in the pool of mods if you already have 2 [KPerf] mods on your kit. So if you require [KPerf]x4, then you need to shell out the cash and find a Very Rare [Kperfx3] kit. (Edit: Here's how CrypticSpartan explained it in the ST:O Reddit subforum:

"Items cannot get more than two [KPerf] modifiers by upgrading. If they already have 3, they will retain those 3 but be unable to acquire more upon upgrade, if they have 2, they will retain those 2 but be unable to acquire more on upgrade, and if they have 0 or 1 they can acquire a [Kperf] modifier on upgrade.
That does not count the [Kp/Wpn] modifier, which is a separate modifier from [Kperf]. "

* At epic, ALL kits get [KP/Wpn} which is the same as a [KPerf] and [WpnDmg].
* Like most current gear boxes from lockboxes, starting with some time ago, opening Requisition packs with kits on lower-level characters with the hopes of getting a MK II VR kit to upgrade has been nicely thwarted by Cryptic by making anything below MK IV open up as Rare. This is not true for all, but it HAS been the case for the last couple of lockboxes. So beware.
 * I have found that some of the Spire and Romulan Embassy kits already have a decent set of mods and are at VR. They are no-brainer options and solid performers.
* Consider standard vanilla (non-Lockbox) kits as they wont have the cruft of many of these unique mods and have more options for combinations.

Well there it is. Hopefully this quick infosheet helps. Your comments and feedback are always appreciated. See you in game!

Miner Instabilities: For fun and Profit!!!!

It's been some time since I've done a Strat guide, and I kinda chuckle when I look at the old Breaking The Planet guide from years ago, as the meta has changed so much and there is so much new gear now. In light of that, I will also treat this as a "living document" and make changes as they arise.  Now to the point!
Miner Instabilities is a 5-Person cross faction queue introduced a week after the release of Star Trek Online: Agents Of Yesterday. It takes place on a 23rd Century map on the Cestus mining colony. It is a fun map and I truly believe that it hits the right balance of fun and difficulty...at times. On normal, if you just go guns-blazing or lone wolf, you will find it challenging and dare I say, annoying. But if you follow the following guide, you find it easily manageable. Trust me when I say that by following this walkthrough./strategy guide, you will save yourself MUCH time and frustration.

PHASE 1: DEFEND MINERS

There are 2 areas where 23c Romulans will appear and 3 places where they will enter the map: South, Center and West. (just think of "West" as "top"). The NPC contact will announce where they Romulans are spawning and you will need to run to that point to kill them all and protect the miners in your colony. A few things to note here:

GOAL: Protect the miners from Romulans. They have low HP and will die quickly. Many groups of Romulans will ignore you to follow their pathing AI and combat scripts to kill the miners. The amount of miners that survive relate to your final score, albeit in a small amount. Keep them alive! That said, I believe that once they die, even if you res them, they will still count as dead in the final score (kind of like in Mine Trap with the colonists...). However, I'd rather have the Romulans concentrate on a rezzed miner than a new one, so res them as much as you can.

THE ENEMY: These are scaled up 23c Romulans, with all ranks Uhlan to Sub Commander. What they lack in HP, Cryptic has decided to make up for in sheer volume. You can take them down easy enough, but they attack en-masse with plasma weaponry and grenades. If you are low on Kinetic Damage resist, you will take a beating. Be prepared, and ALWAYS be on the move to avoid those dangers, as even a maxed-out level 60 can still be crushed by 6-6 photon grenades hitting you.

PHASE 2: RESCUE GORN ENGINEERS

Goal: Rescue the Gorn Engineer mobs from their Romulan assailants.  Follow the path along either the South or "West" to the various groups. Be careful for the hot gas springs! They will throw you around like a baseball!
THE ENEMY: More small groups of 5 or so Romulans. quickly wipe them out so you can rescue as many Gorn bullet sponges as possible. The amount saved also effects your final score, albe it minimally.
As far as strategy is concerned, I would strongly suggest splitting up into two teams, with the better geared players being a 2-person team going South and the 3-person team going "west" (top). You will eventually meet in the middle. This enables you to save more Gorn and thus, increase the mark payout.

Finally, you will meet up at the out gates of the central mining camp. On both sides, the ramparts are guarded with Romulans with various types of distance rifles: Take them out ASAP and offer cover for the Gorn as they start to attack the door. IF you have engineers, now would be a good time to set up mortars by the gate. Go ahead and fire off your Tachyon Concussion T5 to rouse the Romulans sitting behind barriers on the other side and to kill them prematurely if possible.
When the first OUTER gate has been smashed through, and if you haven't killed a bunch already, where will be a shitton Romulans waiting behind chicanes and barriers...it will be a slug fest, so do your best: AoE weapons particularly shine here, and switching to a close range weapon like a Pulsewave cannot be encouraged more. There will be a second set of doors much like the first. Wash, rinse and repeat.
After this, hopefully both sides have made it into the main complex pretty quick If not, you can always open the gate from the inside with an illuminated control panel.Wipe out all resistance. You will need to "clear the map of Romulans" as an objective. Which takes us to the MOST important and difficult part:

PHASE 3: PROTECT THE GORN ENGINEER/MINER GUY

Goal: Keep the Gorn alive long enough as he casually saunters and sleepwalks his way to various waypoints doing....Gorny science stuff repairing the drills...because reasons. Here is where the Nak'Hul will start to spawn in droves.
THE ENEMY: Na'Kuhl. A seriously annoying, pain-in-the-ass enemy that has a crappy gimmick called "Time Slip" that makes them temporarily invulnerable to ALL damage while their dopplegangers are alive.  This version lasts longer than the player version from the Na'Kuhl armor set, so be aware. You need to kill the doppelgangers before the caster becomes vulnerable again. Also, they throw metric asstons of AoE and DoT weapons that will bypass shields.
Because of this reason, this is the best and most painless strategy I can offer:
Your team should fall back to one of the inner gates, preferably the one from the "West" as it gives you better line-of-site and is easily defensible. Another reason that I've noticed is that you're not exposed to as many spawn points by the "West" wall as you are on the more Southern wall, so there's a smaller chance of getting ganked by the idiots. Anyhow, STICK TOGETHER and create a kill-zone to gang-rape the Na'Kuhl as they come to you piecemeal.

"But what about the Gorn?" you say? Well here's the trick: THE GORN WILL BE IGNORED BY THE NA'KUHL. PERIOD. I know - its funny, but its true and a sad display of the limitations of the game engine or coding (take your pic). So if you literally do nothing, the Gorn dude will go about doing his business and actually has LESS of a chance to get stuck in his pathing due to all the AoEs and DoTs flying around (this has been an issue of late with this map)
So - again - fall back to inner wall and create a kill zone with supporting fire - this way also makes it easier to target doppelgangers first as you're not busy dodging Na'Kuhl that are spawning all about you as there isn't a concentration of their spawn points there. Most importantly, it also forces them to fall into a funnel of fire and better protects your deployables. After the Gorn is done repairing the drills, you will have to leave and do mop-up, but that's relatively easy at this point. Get your marks, and call it a day. be sure to do a dance emote at the end, as is custom with 8-Ball Company!!! :)

As with any guide, there is always many ways to achieve the same goal, and I'm sure some great players will find other ways to improve this. I always appreciate feedback and would ask that you give credit to me/us if you link this or copy it. Also come say "Hi!" to any of the 8-Ball Company members in-game! We're a friendly bunch of yahoos that like to joke and Pew Pew. Thanks!

Breaking Badass: Breaking the Planet for Winners (Part 1 - Weapons and Armor)

By Angry Black Man

Breaking the Planet is a 5-20 person Fleet Action. It offers both Dilithium and gear for completion. First place (per-team; 4 teams of 5 can play and 4 people can get first place) gets 2 Level Appropriate Very Rare (Purple) Ground Gear items and 960 Dilithium. That alone should be an incentive to do this fun map.(Aside from taunting other non 8-Ballers with rape):

Since you are reading this, you are obviously familiar with the mission. Before we jump right in, there's a couple of mantras I want you to remember: viualize a large black drill-Sergent type man man in front of you shouting...

ABM: "Ensign, when you are 'Breaking the planet', what are the three things to remember?!?!?!?"

RECRUIT: "Crush the enemy, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women?!?!?!"

ABM "BESIDES that, ensign!!!"

RECRUIT: "Always keep moving!!!! Crit is KING and always res your teammates, SIR!!!"

Fewer things are ever more true. Anyhow, let's jump in!!!

LOADOUT:

This is important. I will go over this for each separate division. The good thing about this fleet action is that we know what we're up against. Hence, we can prepare accordingly.
Regardless of division/specialty, I suggest the following items for your loadout:

SHIELDS:
- Any shield with a [Dis] modifier (Resistance to disruptor weapons).
- Any shield that offers resistance to ALL energy weapons is also good, but not as efficient. (The exception being the MK XII Tholian Lattice Shield).
If you don't have one, just grab the Jem Hadar shield from the Dominion mission chain. It's a good shield, it's part of a set and has the [Dis] modifier, and most importantly, it's free.

ARMOR:
This is also important. I have run this mission a gajillion times and this is where a loadout may seem counter-intuitive, but it's not. Let's have a look. (I'll explain below):

Integrated targeting Armor (Preferably Fleet versions)
Chronodynamic Armor
MACO Combat Armor
Jem Hadar Armor (an exception to the rule simply because it's free and gels with the above shield)

These are the ones you want. No others. Period. Let me explain: unlike other Fleet Actions (e.g. Romulan Temple (Big Dig) and many of the Borg missions), BtP is not a long, drawn out fight in its' current version. That is to say, with so much focus fire going on, enemies generally are killed quickly, hence you will not need the additional protections that Energy Dampening and Pollyalloy Weave offer. The key here is increased Critical Hit Damage [CritD] and Critical Hit Chance [CritH] that the above armors offer. In Space combat, it isn't as important, but in ground combat, it is EVERYTHING. In fleet actions, even more so, as it buffs DPS, and in the end, your score. Which leads me to...

WEAPONS:
 
I will list the weapons in order of preference:

Slot 1:
- Any Pulsewave Assault except the KHG/KHG Adapted (It's secondary fire isn't optimized for this mission - however if you need it for the set bonus, do so). Pulsewaves have a killer secondary that offer a 50% chance of kickback which can buy you some respite from particular baddies AND can be used to knock them into lava (so much fun...and hilarious, too!). 
- Dual Pistols, as their secondary bolt spray has an inherent chance to expose and offers some crowd control like the pulsewave. If you get a set with the [KB3] modifier, it can help.

Slot2:
Any Exploit weapon (preferably a Split Beam rifle...I'll explain later). As a brief aside, let's talk about procs; I would suggest in this order of import (I will explain):
1) Antiproton -
I put this on top because AP is the ONLY damage type that relies upon YOUR CritH chance over the weapons' CritH chance to get the proc. This reason alone makes it situationaly superior to most. (Your personal CritH score is likely higher than 2.5%...)
2) Tetryon -
I put this second because of certain baddies you see that REALLY want their shields to be taken down quickly. It is a close second to:

3) Polaron -
This is close to second simple because of those mutherfucking Swordmasters and Artillery Spotters (which are effectively Dahar Masters with different names). Since these baddies are often the culprits of team wipes, a Polaron proc can give you needed breathing space to get a heal/shield recharge going. Don't get too close to them though; they will carve out your sphincter with a bat'Leth if you are next to them while the proc is running. (Same goes for Swordmasters)
4) Phaser - 
First verse, same as the first - this is similar to the Polaron proc insofar as it has a chance to stun and slow. That said, the proc is so weak in this particular case that it holds little value.
5) Plasma -
This offers a decent DOT, but enemies get killed so quick it may be of limited value. However, if you get a Pulsewave with [CritH] [CritD]x2, there could be some utility.
6) Disruptor  -
In space, it's a great weapon; in BtP, not so much. The reasoning here is the -10 to Defense is of limited value since the baddies die so quick.

7) Hybrid Types (I personally feel losing a CritH or CritD modifier for the *chance* of a proc is not worth it. IF you do chose one, I strongly encourage ones with CritH AND CritD or at least CritDx2). Also, if you do, stick with a MK XII; they aren't too expensive on the exchange.

Anyhow, lets get away from procs and get back to weapon types...
- Any Split Beam Rifle of your choice: "Why not a sniper rifle?" you ask? Simply because the split beam's secondary exploit attack activates MUCH faster than any sniper rifle and high density beam rifles. This is important if you want to take advantage of exposes, which are key when dealing with Artillery Spotters and Swordmasters. The exceptions to this would be:
- Ghostbuster Gun!: It's secondary is an exploit weapon and it crits like a MoFo and has minimal warm-up time. It also has the benefit of chaining several local baddies, which can come in handy when dealing with Targ Handlers and their spawn. Be warned though that you will get aggroed after using its secondary.
or
- Federation Type 3 Phaser Rifle: It's secondary is also an exploit weapon with the Nadion burst which acts as a poor man's [KB2] with an additional amount of [AoE]. It also activates quickly with minimal warm up time.
Allow me to clarify - I'm not saying sniper rifles and the like won't work - I have just found that in my experience, the minimal amount of loss in DPS from not using those types is easily made up by using something with minimal warm up. All too often, by the time you line up your shot the target is dead or the expose is gone, where this weapon really shines.


 Well, that's our discussion for Weapons. In the next post, we'll discuss kits for the various classes and the reasons why they are preferable. Please PLEASE feel free to give additional input on strategies and tips that work for you.

-ABM (Feesh, etc)

Welcome, Ballers!

Welcome, 8-Ballers! I have figured that a blog was the best way for us to communicate ST:O stuff off-line and to be able to have "unofficial" discussions, so here it is. Note that I intend to do limited moderation. That is to say the harsh language and adult content may be found...a lot. The primary purpose is to complain, discuss strategies and to simply make fun of each other. Simply make comments on the postings and we'll get started!

-ABM
(You require more training)