Who is outstanding for the arena?
Lady Gaghgagh
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
While I think the arena is a stale aspect of the game, the one upside is the provision of schematics for ships many people don't already have. (I'm personally hoping June or July will have Shenzhou schematics again).
So even though I don't care all that much for the arena, I still want to do relatively well to get better ships or to level existing ships so I can continue to maximize my voyages.
What are some crew you find invaluable to your arena battles and why? You can also list ships if you'd like.
An example question, do you specifically choose crew which get bonuses according to what statuses your ship grants (i.e. Positioning, Cloaking, Boarding) or do you seek out crew which are applicable with no regard to status? Do you load your slots with more attack-based, accuracy-based, or evasion-based crew? Does it matter for you at all? So those are some of the ideas I'm looking for.
So even though I don't care all that much for the arena, I still want to do relatively well to get better ships or to level existing ships so I can continue to maximize my voyages.
What are some crew you find invaluable to your arena battles and why? You can also list ships if you'd like.
An example question, do you specifically choose crew which get bonuses according to what statuses your ship grants (i.e. Positioning, Cloaking, Boarding) or do you seek out crew which are applicable with no regard to status? Do you load your slots with more attack-based, accuracy-based, or evasion-based crew? Does it matter for you at all? So those are some of the ideas I'm looking for.
Admiral of the Haus of GaghGagh, Starbase level 94, we are not accepting members at this time.
Captain of the voyage vessels: Queen of Bashir, Landsknecht, and Sunspear, the first luxury starship cruiseliners.
Amenities include wifi, fully-functioning holodecks, a full-service bar, 3 party decks, a Trill spa, and a business centre.
Fun fact: The ships are propelled by bouncy castle technology.
Captain of the voyage vessels: Queen of Bashir, Landsknecht, and Sunspear, the first luxury starship cruiseliners.
Amenities include wifi, fully-functioning holodecks, a full-service bar, 3 party decks, a Trill spa, and a business centre.
Fun fact: The ships are propelled by bouncy castle technology.
0
Comments
For the Captain Division, Lore and Mirror Phlox are in every lineup. I would very much like to freeze Lore because he has little use elsewhere, but he's an arena champ.
For the Admiral Division, agree with Spocky and Gib on T'Kuvma. Mirror Phlox is usually a lock here too.
I have usually leaned towards using ships & crew with the cloaking bonus, though this is likely in part due to having better crew for the cloaking bonus. Never had much luck with position status, and have never had the crew to make boarding status killer.
In general, it seems like most people load up on evasion, so I like to use accuracy to compensate. But it ultimately depends on the ship and crew I have on hand.
I am currently using Sphere 878 in the Captain Division, because the 4th crew slot is a superior advantage. It's more competitive even at Level 7 than the D'deridex at Level 9. Full line up there is Sarek, Lore, Mirror Phlox, and Valeris. I can stay near the top 1%/5% threshold with minimal effort.
And I'm currently using the Borg Cube in the Admiral Division. What I've found effective is to go for crew with a large crit bonus since there's so much more variance of strategy in this division. I can regularly take the top spot with my current lineup, but I'm usually out of the top 1% within a day.
For Commander Division, the only pair that works is Commander Kang plus whoever. Smiley O'Brien, Mendon, and Talior Garak are all good choices.
Captain Division, you have much more variety since the pool for 4* and 5* are much bigger. I have an "aim for the jugular" approach. Romulan Warbird with Assimilated Tuvok for big damage, Mirror Phlox or Vok for burst damage (in addition to the Warbird's burst ability).
Admiral Division; the Bounty with Assimilated Tuvok again for damage, Mirror Beverly for hull repair and evasion, T'Kuvma for burst damage and Graduation Burnham for accuracy boost.
Scotty's single redeeming features is his ludicrous passive accuracy boost, he's a permanent fixture.
I don't bother with Commander or Captain Divisions
Second Star to the Right - Join Today!
Fleet for Serious Gamers/Trekkers
Officer - VIP 0 Heroes (SkinterTailor)
Officer - VIP 0 Champions (SkintestTailor)
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
I use the same Commander Division setup as everyone else. I tried going without Smiley for a while, substituting someone else (Maquis Torres, I believe) to save a crew slot but then I went from hovering around 1000-2000 to cratering past rank 8000, and there have been some reward ships that I've actually wanted.
Captain Janeway and Undercover O’Brien join Rura Penthe Reed on my D’deridex in the Captain Division. The timing of their skills matches up well with both the cloak and the plasma torpedo, not to mention the value of O’Brien’s huge crit bonus.
Rura Penthe Reed also gets use alongside 1701 Jadzia, Captain Scott, and Crell Moset in the Admiral Division. Their skills give me a sustained damage output that tends to outlast opponents’ evasion skills, especially when so many have used slots on instant-damage crew like T’Kuvma, Mirror Phlox, and even Commando Crusher. You know who I don’t see anymore? Kal-if-fee Spock...which is quite alright, because the long initialization timer actually is harder to get around than the short timer that T’Kuvma has.
Captain: Borg Sphere and I use mirror phlox, kal-if-fee spock, rura penthe reed, and undercover o'brien. I win 99% on matches and usually hold my position well with that.
Admiral: Really depends. There are a lot of evasion users, so I stray away from burst heavy crew for all slots. I go with the BoP with rura penthe reed, mirror phlox, undercover o'brien, and Dr. Chaotica. When I actually plah, it seems to do me well.
Captain: Currently Sphere with Plato Kirk, Undercover O'Brien, RP Reed and Commando Crusher. I'm not having as much luck with it as I did the D'Deridex though so I'm gonna switch back - the cloak negates at least one crew from a Sphere attack also.
Admiral: Still love my ISS with the same crew as in Captain division - I'm at number one several times a night with it too
https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/5023/qh-the-oldest-fleet-in-timelines-l91-starbase-daily-targets-met
Captain: Love the Defiant. Klaa+Ardra+RAF Bashir. Hardly any defence so it regularly drops in rank, but it murders romulans and can cut through the Borg on occasion. Now that the Borg Sphere is more widely available I may switch, but the Defiant is just so fun.
Admiral: I mix it up a bit more here, but lately I've been using Bounty, utilizing the cloak defensivly to avoid T'Kuvma, then Miral Torres+Feezal Phlox+AoS Crusher to try to out crit whatever I'm up against, with 1701 Dax providing post-combo defence. Not the flashiest combo, I've been getting good results lately.
These are my heavy hitters. Keep in mind many of them will not be exceptional until becoming FF. A few others I have in cryo that are great. Ardra, Rura Penthe Reed, Princess Jadzia Dax, 1701 Jadzia Dax, and 4* checkov.
These are my current crew setups, I can take 1st place with both when I feel like using my arena tickets which isn’t very often. If you have O’Brien active with damage +9 and get a critical hit with the 350% damage ability. It will be an instant kill even on an enemy with full shields. Rura Penthe Reed is better here than Shras in both divisions, but his regular stats **tsk tsk** so I use Shras instead. Also taking out Spheres at the highest level is very difficult and requires exact timing, but is totally doable and very satisfying.
I've never fought against her, so I don't know how well she defends when the computer runs her, but when timed right, she adds to shield integrity. I have a level 9 cube as my best ship and hover around 8000 in the Admiral Division. No other level 9 ships are close to me, so far as I see.
I win close to half my battles. I especially like fighting the Bounty when it has two accuracy crew and two power crew. I wait for the cloak to end and fire everything I have, staring with the Duras Sisters.
HMS Bounty - T'kuvma, Chaotica, Degra, Mirror Phlox
I aim for anyone who doesn't have any blues (particularly Cubes) and hope I can hit them with enough crits to knock them out before they get me. It's great for climbing the ranks, but terrible for defending your position as the computer is terrible at utilizing the cloak effectively.
Ideally I'd make my way to the top 1% and then stick some good defensive crew to try and maintain, but I haven't fiddled with it enough to determine the best crew available for defense.
As for Captain division:
Warbird - Platonian Kirk, Formal Dress Wesley, Assimilated Tuvok
Cloak to avoid any crits, hold off on the plasma torpedo until I've activated Kirk and Tuvok then fire away and watch Tuvok finish them off
Captain Division: My sphere 878 is only 7/9, so I've got the Warbird with Klaa, Lore and Civil War Worf. It's not a great defensive combo, but against Warbird the combo is deadly. I'm still working on a solution to the wall of Sphere 878s.
Admiral Division: I'm still working to build my IKS T'Ong to 10/10, so for now I have the HMS Bounty. I'm using Klaa, Suus Manha Sarek, Wrathful Kahn and Mirror Phlox, but any yellow or blue with a damage modifier will do well with Klaa.
I haven't played Captain Division in a while because the last few ships obtainable there I've already had maxed. For what it's worth though, I used the Warbird with Captain Proton, Ardra (she has quick initialisation) and Rura Penthe Reed.
For Admiral Division I use the Bounty with Mirror Bashir, Labourer Spock, Formal Dress Wesley and Mirror Phlox. If you activate Spock when Wesley runs out, the cloak when Spock runs out, then Wesley again, you can pretty much maintain a constant evasion bonus. Comes in handy against the power ships. I try to avoid ships with T'Kuvma whenever I can though as he seems to blitz through everyone and everything when he's on form.
In all divisions, I find it has more to do with how/when the crew are used, both to defend against certain crew and for complimentary offensive skills to be stacked. I find the bonus skills are more important than just the primary skill, as that is where the real difference is made, especially when multiple bonus skills are stacked (ie: 200% damage & speed +20%).
I also wonder how well my ship does as an auto-piloted defender, compared to when I'm controlling it myself, since so much of the success is dependent on timing of each ship skill and crew.
Commander: Bird of Prey - Kang & Lursa (I only keep 5 or 6 of the 3* cadets active, so Lursa is my best option, and I avoid the Kang/Smiley combo)
Captain: Romulan - Assimilated Tuvok (attack +9) & Mirror Phlox (accuracy +7 / 200% damage) & AU3947 (evasion +6 / speed +20%) --> activate all 3 crew after cloak finishes, then activate ship's plasma torpedo (accuracy +1 / 300% damage) once Phlox is done (total of 8 seconds of super boost damage: att+9, acc+7/1, damage +200%/300%, speed +20%)
Admiral: Bounty - Assimilated Tuvok (attack +9) & Mirror Phlox (accuracy +7 / 200% damage) & Voq (accuracy +7 / 200% damage) & AU3947 (evasion +6 / speed =20%) --> wait 2 extra seconds before activating cloak (T'Kuvma is completely nullified), then activate Tuvok/AU3947/Phlox after cloak finishes, then activate Voq once Phlox is done (total of 10 seconds of super boost damage: att+9, acc+7, damage +200%, speed +20%)
Laborer Spock is quite good, I used him for a while too. Rare you can find someone who can restore shields limitlessly, usually shield restores are limited to 1-3 uses per battle.
Captain of the voyage vessels: Queen of Bashir, Landsknecht, and Sunspear, the first luxury starship cruiseliners.
Amenities include wifi, fully-functioning holodecks, a full-service bar, 3 party decks, a Trill spa, and a business centre.
Fun fact: The ships are propelled by bouncy castle technology.
I found the descriptions of tbe "how" far more useful than tbe "who". I've been trying and failing to get better for months and I just can't seem to get a handle on the admiral division, as usually I get completely roasted instantly from near full, which makes doing any post-fight analysis difficult.
I will say I must have horrible RNG luck, I get very tired of getting roasted by a ship with only 10 Attack after I boost my Evasion to 17. Really makes me think Evasion is overrated.
I will study this thread and do some testing.
Graphically the interface is ok but the ships just orbit each other in a rather pre-programmed pattern and it is a rather dull aspect of gameplay; particulary in skirmishes where a robot could play.
I think they could do a lot by just cutting the animations between rounds and save the rewards until the end based on how long you lasted for.
Victory really depends on the number of insta damage crew (killy, Tuvkuma etc) and not the skill of the player; the AI is rather horrendous and doesn't know not to fire the crew when the opponents ship is cloaked.
K'tong still attacks while the opponent ships is cloaked. Shield disruption work when the opponents ship is cloaked.
Lots of little glitches with them, oh and did i mention that they were dull?
COMMANDER: BoP, Kang, Smiley
CAPTAIN: U.S.S. Defiant with Incognito Kirk (gets a Position bonus), Assimilated Tuvok, and K'Mtar (gets a Cloaked bonus)
ADMIRAL: D'Kora Krayton with Polywater Yar, Captain Proton, Siranna, and Assimilated Tuvok. The basic idea is to abuse the Krayton's cooldown reducer to get two uses out of Proton, 2 ship damage abilities, and lots of hull repair. It works great or it gets PWNed, there is no in between.
Nearly a year later, my Admiral division strategy is the same but the people have changed a bit. Jadzia was replaced by Lieutenant Chekov (trading some of those nutty passive bonuses for a better crit rating) and Reed was replaced with Mirror Mayweather. Scotty has an extra star, too.
In the Captain division, I joined the herd and now run a Borg Sphere 878. Although half of my crew are the same as what I use in the Admiral division - Chekov and Mayweather are joined by Valeris and Mirror Phlox - they seem more suited to defense rather than offense. I can win one or two battles a week and stick around in the mid-2000 ranks (on average, with a range of 1800-3300)...which is good, because I can only win one or two battles a week in this division. I could probably do better on offense if I swapped Phlox for T’Mir but I don’t care enough about this division to waste the crew slot or to switch to the ISS Avenger.
The Commander division remains stagnant. I think I could count the number of times I’ve seen a ship other than the BoP in the last year on the fingers of one hand - either they don’t do very well or do well enough to stick around in the top 500...running one battle a day keeps me between ranks 600 and 2000.
Captain
Admiral
In Commander and Captain, if you don't run these setups, you just put a target on yourself for everyone to attack you.
In Admiral, Killy is the BOSS. If you see two Killy's... run. She can be in any ship and be a viable threat. Then, you just work with whatever crew you have to support her.
Key here is you have to know the instant damage crew and their timing.
Killy's instant damage, if she is the first crew from left to right will occur at 6 seconds. That is the exact time that the Bounty is able to cloak.
The problem here is the cloak only lasts 6 5 seconds.
(Edit: added all this below)
That means any instant damage crew coming in at the 12 seconds will hit. If there are two, they could knock you out, if you do not uncloak earlier and kill them. Or, try a later evasion crew to help against them. Also at 22 seconds the Killy's will have their next attack. Usually if you do not finish any battle before this time you usually are going to lose the battle anyhow.
I have later evasion with undercover O'Brien, evasion 7. But anyone higher will do. Keep in mind if you go the Admiral Janeway route you are planning an offensive attack that should probably complete before 12 seconds. That is, destroy your opponent, provided the evasion of Killy's work. If you see two Killy's and a early accuracy crew such as (Mirror Spock, Captain Scott, or Ardra. Probably should have the Bounty and cloak before the Killy's. In this case there can only be one instant damage crew to follow. You should survive that. Just the matter of your crew providing enough attack power to destroy them before 22 seconds. But I must admit Captain Scott could make it difficult on the later instant damage crew. I think the instant damage can Crit but not sure.
Did the ship battle interface change? I am not getting the option to change ship. I guess I am confusing it with arena and skirmish.
Also keep in mind, I do not believe there is any ship or crew that will always win battles. RNG will always play a role. Just that better setups will let you win most of the battles.
If one can put together a quick attack, they may be good defensively too. I think the Borg cube would be the one that can do the most damage. Therefore, I would expect that it would stand the best chance of winning a battle in 6 seconds. Probably would have to have a FFFE T'Mir or Polywater, a FFFE Captain Scott or Mirror Spock, a FFFE Locutus, I am not sure about the last. Maybe having both FFFE T'Mir and Polywater in crew might do. But, if this cannot destroy your opponent by six seconds and they cloak to avoid the cubes instant damage it will most likely be over. On the offensive side, once the cloak becomes inactive then hit borgs instant damage. Or you can try mashing on that instant damage hoping to get your shot in. I tried but cloak always activated before.
Funny enough, IKS T'Ong with Killy & T'Kuvma is the ship that I target in Admiral, mainly due to the auto-timing of activation being easy to block with my own T'Ong.
I find the key is stacking complimentary skills (ie: high +Attack & 20% speed burst & xxx% damage multiplier) to maximize your attack, while also avoiding the brunt of the opponent's attack.
I even sit high in the 5% bracket in Captain with a Romulan Warbird, only running 1-3 Captain battles per day. The only Borg ships that give me a problem are ones with T'Mir, due to her early activation before the Romulan cloaking device can be activated.