Basic skirmish strategy question
BadTrekDad
✭✭
in Ready Room
Hi All,
As I've mentioned elsewhere I played STTL in 2017 and then took a break returning a couple months ago. I've been in a couple skirmish events since returning but sort of felt like I didn't know exactly what I was doing. Here is my main question:
On Elite difficulty I can win the 5 battles in a skirmish easily with no hull damage in a very short amount of time. On Epic difficulty I usually win all 5 (say 75-80% of the time) but each battle takes a while and it gets boring faster.
My goal is to get all the threshold rewards and I don't really care about overall rank. So, is there any reason not to just spam Elite battles? (recognizing I get fewer VP for each successful skirmish).
Thanks,
Roghaltz
BadTrekDad
As I've mentioned elsewhere I played STTL in 2017 and then took a break returning a couple months ago. I've been in a couple skirmish events since returning but sort of felt like I didn't know exactly what I was doing. Here is my main question:
On Elite difficulty I can win the 5 battles in a skirmish easily with no hull damage in a very short amount of time. On Epic difficulty I usually win all 5 (say 75-80% of the time) but each battle takes a while and it gets boring faster.
My goal is to get all the threshold rewards and I don't really care about overall rank. So, is there any reason not to just spam Elite battles? (recognizing I get fewer VP for each successful skirmish).
Thanks,
Roghaltz
BadTrekDad
0
Comments
That chron rebate is lower on elite than it is on epic. So not only will you have to farm more intel since you have to run more skirmishes on elite versus epic to get the same vp, but you'll get less chrons from the skirmish loot boxes.
That being said, if its uncertain that you'll win the fifth battle on epic or you are willing to spend a few extra chrons to have easier skirmishes, go ahead and do elite, its not a huge difference if you are just going for thresholds.
Skirmish strategy is a little different from Arena strategy. In the arena, defense should at least be considered and the time of any individual battle isn’t very important, while you want to finish Skirmish battles as quickly as possible with little regard for how Crew abilities are timed when you’re not around to maintain rank.
For example, I use crew with quick initialize times in Skirmishes: 2/5* Captain Killy, 1/5* Locutus, and 4/4* Lieutenant Valeris (the fourth slot is reserved for whatever event crew I have regardless of skill) on a Borg cube. I use Locutus right away for a quick damage boost and wait to trigger Valeris until both Killy and the cube’s Laser Cutting Beam are ready. Sometimes, there will be a critical on either one of those instant damage attacks and the battle is over immediately. Most time, they wipe out a majority of the shields and hull of my opponent and a few more seconds of regular attacks finishes them off. Sometimes, they both miss and I have to wait for them to recharge. I don’t lose battles unless I nod off during one of them, and even then the cube usually has enough hull to get through the battle so I can make repairs.
Two of those three crew I mentioned are probably a little hard to come by unless you have been lucky. There should be many others out there that can work just as well.
Look through your crew’s ship abilities and see what others you might have. Skirmishes are one of the few places where we really get to mix and match crew to see who works well together...honest strategy. Granted, once you have that strategy set it becomes a click-fest, but there is plenty of opportunity for trial and error to see what combination is best for you.
^ This, and if you don't care about overall rank, consider skipping the 5th battle since it gives you nothing but VP and takes up time that could better be spent farming. Longer to get to your threshold, yes.
In addition to the as-much-damage-as-quickly-as-possible instant damage approach (whether by immediate damage or early/large accuracy or attack boosts, or both), I try to keep one seat with a crew with massive passive scores, since these will be active from the second you start through to the end. Captain Scott's passive scores give a *40%* boost to the T'Kong (+22% to Accuracy, +10% to Evasion, +2% to Crit Bonus and +8% to Crit Rating). That immediate/permanent Accuracy bump is pretty nice, and that's even before his normal Accuracy boost kicks in after 4 seconds and stay on for 14 more. There are a few other crew with strong but not quite as epic passives as Scotty, adding +20-29% to T'Kong "reference" scores - Scientist Degra, who also has a small (150%) immediate damage with instant start, Captain Proton, T'Mir, Undercover O'Brien, Klingon O'Brien, Changeling Founder, Colonel Karr, Mirror Jennifer Sisko, Kazon Seska, and Ushaan Shran. Not all are great, some are worth looking at. Shran's is loaded up on the accuracy side (+10%) which is nice, and he has a decent attack boost with a reasonable (6s) activation and good duty cycle (10s on / 8 cooldown). Individually, not great, but together they make an OK skirmish crew if you're stretched. Going for one seat of passives in skirmish is probably controversial, really depends on your ships and other available crew.
If you're crew-limited and Epic battles are getting draggy, and if you have a high level D'Kora Krayton, you might also experiment with her. She has a nice ship skill which accelerates your crew's cooldown rates, which if used in the right sequence can shave a few seconds off the end by speeding up the 2nd insta-damage cycle. Once you get enough early damage crew you won't need the a 2nd cycle except when up against tanks, but if you're on the cusp, it's something to try out...
Also, do not underestimate the power of 1* Ensign Ogawa. She is amazing. She gives a 35% hull repair. Add that to a massive hull damage ship like the cube and you are in good shape. I no longer use her because, while my crew does not include the super crew like Killy, it is better than my first skirmish.
^This. I do not have any of the really powerful guys or any of the ones that can trigger insta-damage off the cloak or positioning so the Bounty and other ships everyone uses don't work for me. I use a level 10 Krayton with Tierran Possessed Kes, Warship Yar, and Captain Kurn, and then the event crew for maximum bonus which will be Kol this week.
Kes is only attack 7 and this will never be as fast as the folks that have one shot killers, but this combination allows me to rip through the skirmishes on Epic easily.
Generally I find the HMS Bounty works best it has it's own hull repair, + if you have any hull repair crew (I usually have Bell Riots Bashir in the MED slot) - it really does depend on the strength of your ship and indeed crew though. Then I tend to run with my heavy hitters usually Penthe Reed or Killy or preferably both and leaving an accuracy crew usually Surak to ensure the devastating blows hit. Then it is a case of swapping in a bonus crew usually sacrificing Reed or Killy I usually go with Reed because Killy's burst sometimes miss fires.
As to farming pop a supply kit and run missions that yield those 2* / 3* items et al that will give you heaps of intel (preferably mission chronitons that are divisible by 4 so that you get the most out of the supply kits cost percentage reduction on chronitons). Incidentally there are also quite a few 0* an 1* items that you can farm as well at roughly the same efficiency as away missions, e.g. the mission 'on their heels' yields great return of clothing patterns that you will always need on a rainy day. Skirmishes has taught me quite a few things don't always go by the pips (drop rate indicator) and don't always assume away team missions are better to farm because they are on top of the list.
Generally I find it best to run the supply kit on the day you know you can binge skirmishes so that you can continue to farm on the supply kit to top up your intel and capitalise on the chroniton rewards you get. Also make full use of adwarps on 24c space battles every half hour.
Some people say skip the 5th battle but if you still want to be sure to hit thresholds or do it as quickly as possible, I don't see the point skipping the last battle unless you are approaching the end of Phase 1 or Event end and your just in it for the bonus rewards. Just remember that one battle equates to half a complete run of skirmishes if you skip it. So as for saving time (i'm not convinced) if you are just in it for the rewards and wanting to cycle through them as quickly as possible then yes skip the 5th battle. But if you are looking to threshold and out as soon as possible then doing the 5th battle makes more sense.
Just my two cents here but if you happen to have T’Kuvma, he’s a good insta-damage choice as well. Takes a little longer than others to activate but can definitely blow the other ship out of the stars. Also, Ambassador Shras doesn’t do instant damage but he does have a hefty bonus to the Damage output of your ship and is only a 4 star crew.
There are, of course, tons of insta-damage characters now, so just look through your roster, try some of them out in the Arena, and see who fits best. Also, I’ve found that who you pair your damage guy with in Targeting and Evasion can also be really important so give it all a trial run or seven and see who works the best for your own situation.
This is my approach in the arena. Mirror Mayweather, 1701 Jadzia, Crell Moset, and my 2/5* Captain Scott make for a deadly combination on the HMS Bounty. Battles are not fast - usually 12-15 seconds pass by before the party really gets started - but I get ten full seconds of +9 attack, +8 accuracy, and +7 evasion after the cloak shuts down, +6 accuracy until the cloak is ready to go again, a huge crit bonus, and monster passive bonuses from Scotty and Jadzia. Most battles go pretty quickly after that long initial wait to avoid opponents’ instant-damage crew.
Sorry must have missed this but out of the Super Rares I would say
Reed
Duras Sisters
Warship Yar
Ambassador Shras
Commando Shran
Voq
Ardra
T'mir
Klingon O'Brien
Undercover O'Brien
are all good options.
I did also use RAF Bashir but unlike Bell Riots Bashir he doesn't have hull repair.
If you don't have many heavy hitters I would say go with the ISS Enterprise - the cube can be a sitting duck if you don't have the right crew.
Captain Level: 95
VIP Level: 12
Unique Crew Immortalized: 525
Collections Completed: Vulcan, Ferengi, Borg, Romulan, Cardassian, Uncommon, Rare, Veteran, Common, Engineered, Physician, Innovator, Inspiring, Diplomat, Jury Rigger, Gauntlet Legends
It will only benefit you if you need their skills. You only need one bonus crew for the top VP
- Chief O'Brien has good accuracy and his skill is 2-tiered, so I would try to build around that ... no use having him do nothing while you are waiting for your crew to become active.
- I feel Kol might be a bit slow at 12 seconds for his ability to kick in, but haven't tried him out.
Just use one of the two, personally I'll be trying out O'Brien first, especially with some good fast burst damage crew.
Kol has a 400% damage at 12s, use him. He will also double your VP.
Using Kol (or other main event crew) you should get 6000VP per skirmish series (+bonus rewards) at elite. 22 skirmish series (110 battles) will get the final Chekov. Pace yourself, do 6 skirmishes (30 battles) a day, rather than the whole lot in one go.
I believe elite is 4800 per skirmish and epic 6000. I did elite on a several month old free to play alt account last skirmish event and the 4800 is what I remember.
Just like I thought ... Kol is too slow for most (75%) battles. Most are over before T'Kuvma (10 second ability) comes online.
Am using:
IKS T'Ong - lvl 9
T'Kuvma (4/5): Killy (1/5): Ardra (4/4): Chief O'Brien (4/4).
I'm sure there are better crew, but you don't need them really. This set-up has me sitting top 100 as I write this ...
Just remember ... always tap ACCURACY crew right before you tap ATTACK crew (e.g. Ardra then Killy)... would hate to have that Killy burst attack miss
Don't worry about hull repair or evasion, not needed.
Good luck!
Borg Cube with T'Kuvma, Chief O'Brien, T'Mir, Lt Valeris
Good luck to all.
BadTrekDad
Normal 3000 (1500) VP
Elite 4000 (2000) VP
Epic 6000 (3000) VP
Numbers are with double bonus crew, and no bonus crew in brackets.
Don't forget to trigger a supply kit before farming, and try and farm the intel you need in the 24 hours after triggering.
I would suggest always choose rewards rather than hull repair, get the chrons, VP and intel.