I like how you keep talking about the newer players not knowing things, meanwhile, I have been playing since around launch and I am amazed at how suboptimally I play the game. :D
The video series is really helpful for me. I am so thankful that you did them. That being said, IMHO, it would be a lot easier for the newest players to watch tutorial videos that are recorded with a brand new character -vs- a top level one. Show us "how to" with an actual new toon in a new ship. Guide us from the beginning and not the end. Show beginning traits, talents, etc. and how to select the next one. Show a new ship built from the absolute ground up and what to select as the player advances in the beginning. Otherwise, it is not truly a "beginners guide" to playing the game with so many things assumed or overlooked. Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion. ~Mark
"this is probably going to be somewhat basic to people who have been playing the game" Dude, I've been playing since it went free to play, assumed this was how it worked, but it's nice to hear that yes this is the way it works.
My question is how do you get abilities auto firing in the first place? What is a spam bar? I spend so much time clicking abilities I can hardly pay attention to flying my ship.
@@valroniclehre193 I know this is a bit late but there is a program called StoKeybind that will make this easy for you. You set it up in there and it creates a bind file that you post in the chat and it will set a tray to activate on whatever button you want.
The way I do my boosts is based on time they're active. 30 second abilities first, then 20 seconds, and finally ending with the beam overload at 10 seconds.
Firing modes should always be the first thing activated to avoid misfiring and the way STO works damage is updated real-time with buffs after the modes are activated. Especially with a BO build. I also keep other firing modes away from BO specifically and activate CSV manually for the Pref Targeting trait bufg.
"Firing modes should always be the first thing activated " -- this might depend on a players preferred type of engagement / beginning of combat . Some prefer to close the distance and then start shooting, others like to power up even before they enter the 10km range, while others start hammering the spam bar after they entered the 10km range . My current preference is EPtW II or III first (to minimize the power drain from my first salvo) and then APB or APA followed by firing modes .
Im back and forth, I find some time if fire mode is first following activations can interrupted the fire cycle. This is really going to depend on the build.
The ability to create a spam bar on console would be so great. I've gotten used to having skills in certain spots that I have to manually activate (since the auto activation doesn't always proc & usually procs at the wrong time when it does, lol)
Hi MCStu. How would you star a character? Would you level up your character first to say commander level then do the story or would you do the story first? Thanks Michael
I don't really run for DPS anyway, but my primary clickies are fire modes, (spread, scatter,beam, etc.) At the opposite end I have heavy special weapons, like dark matter launcher for example. Second, secondary weaponry, less powerful secondary weaponry. (Torp 3, beam spray under focus beam overdrive, repulsors, ice beam from eng.) At the bottom I have all boosters to weapon powers. To the right, second box, is primarily defense, with some launch slots near the bottom. I have been running Pilot lately, or if I use the Manheim, I try to keep them next to eachother in a sort of 'ship movement' category.
Cryptic needs to make a decision one way or the other with the spambar business. Either let us right click everything to make it auto-fire (which is already the case on console) or disable the ability to just bind everything to spacebar and slap the keyboard like a rat in a skinner box.
I right click all my weapons to set them to auto fire. The spacebar is set up to activate a chain of abilities/buffs and fire mode, two different things. Also, there a lot more to it then setting up a key bind and slapping away. I think more choices are better, no has to use any of these things, play the game the way it makes you happy.
When I say auto-fire I am talking about ability activation. Like with hangar pet launching. You can right click that to make it automatic just as if it were a weapon. Binding an entire row (or multiple rows) to the spacebar and slapping away is how a lot of people are playing the game and it contributes to lag.
Hi MC Stu. I love your videos they are easy to follow & I’m learning a lot. I actually feel like I’m getting somewhere now - thank you for this. I know your busy & probably missed my question - but I’m interested in the skill tree you were using on your agony Mirror Gagarin Warship build from 3 weeks ago. Cheers
Thx for your kind words, appreciate it. Take a look at this vid this is the same one im usings in the Mirror Gagarin vid. Also, note that I would never change my skill tree based on using a particular ship. The one in this vid is good for mid level dps builds. th-cam.com/video/z_J7aT5TBrk/w-d-xo.html
Do you have "fire all weapons" bound to the spam bar key as well? After hitting every spot on bar #8, I mean. I only recently switched from having the firing mode first and the boosts second. What I noticed was my weapons now start firing while boosts are activating, and then I miss a few seconds of the firing mode (BO or CSV). Though I suppose having the firing mode activate first, unbuffed, and then fire for two more cycles... isn't all that different.
Thanks for another great video! I was curious if you had any video on the different weapon (beam) types and how one would go about deciding that would be the fit for them?
Thank you for the suggestion. I would get some different weapons cheep (white quality) off the exchange and see what you like. Its all personal preference.
I keep telling myself to set up everything on a spam bar so I'm not wasting time looking for abilities. (They are ...mostly organized lol) I wish there was a clear function so that you could wipe everything and start over.
I put this comment on another video, but I would like to learn how to reset my skill tray so I can put Boff abilities in the right order as in this video. I would like to clear it and start over with the right or better order. Thank you kindly.
I've only just started playing, (re my late comment) Thanks for the video, but noticed a lot of the hot bars have key-binds so if you set every hot bar key 1-9 in the spam one to a single key, would that not trigger all at once ? (I not tried it) if they dont allow more than one key hit per button, an alt would be be a mouse macro, with micro seconds between triggering all that one needs however it takes a bit longer to set-up. PS (I value my keyboard to much to mash a single button tons of times a second.)
Your abilities have either a shared or global cool down with each other ranging from .5 - 15 sec. so it is not possible to trigger them all at the same time even if you used different keys.
how is your fire all weapons button green and the ones under it mine are not and i set mine up like yours, it stops firing all the time i have to mash the space bar all time
Is there any way to prevent or mitigate the abilities from misfiring on the spam bar? I'm trying a A2B build, and every other cycle the ability misfires leaving my abilities further from cooling back down.
Thanks for explaining this topic so clearly! I only just learned how to set up a spambar (or "Attack Pattern Spacebar" as I've heard it called) but it took me a little while to figure out which abilities to slot, and where to place them. I ended up making my spacebar light off everything in Row 6, fire weapons, and then light off Row 7. I put things like damage buffs in Row 6 so they'd be active when the weapons fired, then cooldowns, defensive buffs, and speed/turn boosts in Row 7 for when I need to get away. But it didn't occur to me to put the abilities with longer active durations first. I have some rearranging to do. (Having them on multiple rows makes that a lot easier.) I have a question though. Do firing modes take effect the next time a weapon auto-fires? Somewhere I got the idea that they had to be fired manually after activating a firing mode. If they kick in on the next auto-fire, that saves me a step in the spambar script.
I an not completely sure about that, It either interrupted the current cycle resetting it with the fire mode, or is applies to the next. I would lean towards interrupted and restart, but don't quote me.
@@MCStu I am a newer player, and you have just left me very confused. This didn't clear things up for me at all. What is a Boinler, What is a Photonic Officer? What is a fire mode, what is a fire cycle? How do you get the space bar to activate the powers in your bar? When I push it, my ship just starts shooting. My ship is Mark XII and is doing a few hundred dps, how do you get to thousands?
@@rogerwilco2 I have linked a vid on how to setup keybinds. I have also included a link to the beginners guide playlist. You may want to start at the beginner. th-cam.com/video/h387de6N28A/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/play/PLXRniClXbLvMzBFRSKsPX9EekEWjh2sIv.html
So much for A2B. I'm guessing with Boimler effect you don't need it? Which probably means you don't use Cold Hearted trait. What traits are you using for this cannon build?
Cold Hearted works with Pilot abilities as well. I recently switched my Tank character to the Fleet Miranda. So far, testing has been very positive. I seem to be doing less damage though, and I think that's because A2B was keeping my Weapon sub-system overcapped. I believe that A2B still has a place in the meta. Having Boimler gives us more options, which is always welcome, but it is not always the best one for a given build.
I am a newer player, and you have just left me very confused. What is a Boinler, What is a Photonic Officer? How do you get the space bar to activate the powers in your bar? When I push it, my ship just starts shooting. My ship is Mark XII and is doing a few hundred dps, how do you get to thousands?
Here is how to do Keybinds: th-cam.com/video/h387de6N28A/w-d-xo.html I would suggest watching the new player guide play list from the beginning: th-cam.com/play/PLXRniClXbLvMzBFRSKsPX9EekEWjh2sIv.html
Since PO incrementally increases its potency over time, it might. I think that we all got used to putting cool down management at the end because of Aux2Bat. Something to test, at any rate.
There is a trade off. PO at the beginning will give a larger cool down per tick of the following abilities as PO reduction is a percentage of an abilities remaining cool down. However PO's cool down is 30 sec (no way to shorten this) and effect only runs for 20 sec, so 10 sec of no effect. Having it at the end gives you a longer deration of effect on the other boff abilities and for me this works better. I you have a lot less stuff on your spam bar or activation sequence then having it at the beginning may make sense. You will need to try it and see what works best for you.
@@MCStu Good points. I've been playing with Improved Photonic Officer, so I am considering putting PO in the middle of the chain. See if that has any effect.
Nice vid in concept (and there is a lot to take away here) , but considering that Boimler is out of bounds (cost wise) for many new or F2P players , I'm not sure that bleeding edge meta and keybind use for "medium level" players , mix . But you've got time, so perhaps in the future you'll make a future version of this vid, with basic / newbie + advanced / aux2bat + top end / Boimler + PO set ups . Not meaning to criticize , just my thoughts . :)
All you have to do is ignore Boimlers in the vid, That why I included photonic officer. This is a concept vid on activation sequence (Boost -> Firing Mode -> Cool Downs). If you are interested in vids on cool downs these two links should be helpful: Photonic Officer th-cam.com/video/gkMAOUM4I0c/w-d-xo.html Aux2Bat th-cam.com/video/5fviLG8jWhc/w-d-xo.html
In earnest, Boimler is great...when it procs. I've noticed it not proc'ing for entire cycles and the slower recharge kills my tanking efficiency. I think that Boimler would be great with a passive cool down management system, like high Readiness skills + Chrono-Capacitor + Bio-Neural Gel Packs + (insert other Gear like Prolonged Engagement or MACO set bonuses). That way, if Boimler fails to proc, you at least have a reasonable CDR. For me, I'm going to stick with the Ol' Reliable sources like A2B or PO.
I end up filling it with useless shit from universal consoles lol Wow, never knew there was a spam bar. Most mechanics are easy to avoid though, played wow for ages mytic raiding, just move out of red when it appears. Not tired elite stuff on sto yet though. Easy and advanced is just damn good fun.
This video tutorial is underrated. It should be pinned by STO as beginner tutorial.
I like how you keep talking about the newer players not knowing things, meanwhile, I have been playing since around launch and I am amazed at how suboptimally I play the game. :D
All that matters is that your having fun!
The video series is really helpful for me. I am so thankful that you did them. That being said, IMHO, it would be a lot easier for the newest players to watch tutorial videos that are recorded with a brand new character -vs- a top level one. Show us "how to" with an actual new toon in a new ship. Guide us from the beginning and not the end. Show beginning traits, talents, etc. and how to select the next one. Show a new ship built from the absolute ground up and what to select as the player advances in the beginning. Otherwise, it is not truly a "beginners guide" to playing the game with so many things assumed or overlooked. Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion. ~Mark
Thanks for this. I've been playing since 2015 and this is the first I'm hearing this!
You are welcome.
"this is probably going to be somewhat basic to people who have been playing the game"
Dude, I've been playing since it went free to play, assumed this was how it worked, but it's nice to hear that yes this is the way it works.
Excellent vid! When I see something isn't working, I go back to the basics, build from there. I tend to forget adding Hazard Emitters to my spam bar.
My question is how do you get abilities auto firing in the first place? What is a spam bar? I spend so much time clicking abilities I can hardly pay attention to flying my ship.
th-cam.com/video/h387de6N28A/w-d-xo.html
Stu describes how to set up STO Keybinds, which is what is used to make a "spam bar."
I just started on pc and I want to know this too. I can't even see the one other reply.
keybind programs
@@valroniclehre193 I know this is a bit late but there is a program called StoKeybind that will make this easy for you. You set it up in there and it creates a bind file that you post in the chat and it will set a tray to activate on whatever button you want.
The way I do my boosts is based on time they're active. 30 second abilities first, then 20 seconds, and finally ending with the beam overload at 10 seconds.
Firing modes should always be the first thing activated to avoid misfiring and the way STO works damage is updated real-time with buffs after the modes are activated. Especially with a BO build. I also keep other firing modes away from BO specifically and activate CSV manually for the Pref Targeting trait bufg.
"Firing modes should always be the first thing activated " -- this might depend on a players preferred type of engagement / beginning of combat .
Some prefer to close the distance and then start shooting, others like to power up even before they enter the 10km range, while others start hammering the spam bar after they entered the 10km range .
My current preference is EPtW II or III first (to minimize the power drain from my first salvo) and then APB or APA followed by firing modes .
Im back and forth, I find some time if fire mode is first following activations can interrupted the fire cycle. This is really going to depend on the build.
I didn't know this one. Thanks for the tip
The ability to create a spam bar on console would be so great. I've gotten used to having skills in certain spots that I have to manually activate (since the auto activation doesn't always proc & usually procs at the wrong time when it does, lol)
Hi MCStu. How would you star a character? Would you level up your character first to say commander level then do the story or would you do the story first? Thanks Michael
I've been playing with a non optimized spam bar 0.o Thanks for the info, now to tweak the order of my Boff abilities.
Been looking for this! Again love these beginners guides!
I don't really run for DPS anyway, but my primary clickies are fire modes, (spread, scatter,beam, etc.) At the opposite end I have heavy special weapons, like dark matter launcher for example. Second, secondary weaponry, less powerful secondary weaponry. (Torp 3, beam spray under focus beam overdrive, repulsors, ice beam from eng.) At the bottom I have all boosters to weapon powers. To the right, second box, is primarily defense, with some launch slots near the bottom. I have been running Pilot lately, or if I use the Manheim, I try to keep them next to eachother in a sort of 'ship movement' category.
Cryptic needs to make a decision one way or the other with the spambar business. Either let us right click everything to make it auto-fire (which is already the case on console) or disable the ability to just bind everything to spacebar and slap the keyboard like a rat in a skinner box.
I right click all my weapons to set them to auto fire. The spacebar is set up to activate a chain of abilities/buffs and fire mode, two different things. Also, there a lot more to it then setting up a key bind and slapping away. I think more choices are better, no has to use any of these things, play the game the way it makes you happy.
When I say auto-fire I am talking about ability activation. Like with hangar pet launching. You can right click that to make it automatic just as if it were a weapon.
Binding an entire row (or multiple rows) to the spacebar and slapping away is how a lot of people are playing the game and it contributes to lag.
Hi MC Stu. I love your videos they are easy to follow & I’m learning a lot. I actually feel like I’m getting somewhere now - thank you for this. I know your busy & probably missed my question - but I’m interested in the skill tree you were using on your agony Mirror Gagarin Warship build from 3 weeks ago. Cheers
Thx for your kind words, appreciate it. Take a look at this vid this is the same one im usings in the Mirror Gagarin vid. Also, note that I would never change my skill tree based on using a particular ship. The one in this vid is good for mid level dps builds. th-cam.com/video/z_J7aT5TBrk/w-d-xo.html
Do you have "fire all weapons" bound to the spam bar key as well? After hitting every spot on bar #8, I mean. I only recently switched from having the firing mode first and the boosts second. What I noticed was my weapons now start firing while boosts are activating, and then I miss a few seconds of the firing mode (BO or CSV).
Though I suppose having the firing mode activate first, unbuffed, and then fire for two more cycles... isn't all that different.
Thanks for another great video! I was curious if you had any video on the different weapon (beam) types and how one would go about deciding that would be the fit for them?
Thank you for the suggestion. I would get some different weapons cheep (white quality) off the exchange and see what you like. Its all personal preference.
@@MCStu Thanks for the reply!
Exactly what I needed, thank you kindly!
I keep telling myself to set up everything on a spam bar so I'm not wasting time looking for abilities. (They are ...mostly organized lol) I wish there was a clear function so that you could wipe everything and start over.
love your channel. thank you for all the hard work!
I put this comment on another video, but I would like to learn how to reset my skill tray so I can put Boff abilities in the right order as in this video. I would like to clear it and start over with the right or better order. Thank you kindly.
If you have discord, PM me and I will send you some screen shots of how to reorganize your skill tray
On it.
Totally going to mess around with my spam bar once I log back into game in a few mins 😳
I've only just started playing, (re my late comment) Thanks for the video, but noticed a lot of the hot bars have key-binds so if you set every hot bar key 1-9 in the spam one to a single key, would that not trigger all at once ?
(I not tried it) if they dont allow more than one key hit per button, an alt would be be a mouse macro, with micro seconds between triggering all that one needs however it takes a bit longer to set-up.
PS
(I value my keyboard to much to mash a single button tons of times a second.)
Your abilities have either a shared or global cool down with each other ranging from .5 - 15 sec. so it is not possible to trigger them all at the same time even if you used different keys.
thank you very much for this video. this information is very useful to me.
How do you get different ship's? And is there a free roam mode where you fight pvp? Great video
Im excited ty for this
how is your fire all weapons button green and the ones under it mine are not and i set mine up like yours, it stops firing all the time i have to mash the space bar all time
Is bar 8 running on the spambar as well at the end of bar 7, or do you click bar 8?
I have 7 and 8 set to my spacebar
Is there any way to prevent or mitigate the abilities from misfiring on the spam bar? I'm trying a A2B build, and every other cycle the ability misfires leaving my abilities further from cooling back down.
How about how weapons firing arcs work, for best positions to hit/aim
Thanks for explaining this topic so clearly! I only just learned how to set up a spambar (or "Attack Pattern Spacebar" as I've heard it called) but it took me a little while to figure out which abilities to slot, and where to place them. I ended up making my spacebar light off everything in Row 6, fire weapons, and then light off Row 7. I put things like damage buffs in Row 6 so they'd be active when the weapons fired, then cooldowns, defensive buffs, and speed/turn boosts in Row 7 for when I need to get away. But it didn't occur to me to put the abilities with longer active durations first. I have some rearranging to do. (Having them on multiple rows makes that a lot easier.)
I have a question though. Do firing modes take effect the next time a weapon auto-fires? Somewhere I got the idea that they had to be fired manually after activating a firing mode. If they kick in on the next auto-fire, that saves me a step in the spambar script.
I an not completely sure about that, It either interrupted the current cycle resetting it with the fire mode, or is applies to the next. I would lean towards interrupted and restart, but don't quote me.
@@MCStu
I am a newer player, and you have just left me very confused. This didn't clear things up for me at all.
What is a Boinler, What is a Photonic Officer? What is a fire mode, what is a fire cycle?
How do you get the space bar to activate the powers in your bar? When I push it, my ship just starts shooting.
My ship is Mark XII and is doing a few hundred dps, how do you get to thousands?
@@rogerwilco2 I have linked a vid on how to setup keybinds. I have also included a link to the beginners guide playlist. You may want to start at the beginner. th-cam.com/video/h387de6N28A/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/play/PLXRniClXbLvMzBFRSKsPX9EekEWjh2sIv.html
Aye McStud you made it, right on thanks for the informative video this is definitely a big help!
Glad it helped!
So much for A2B. I'm guessing with Boimler effect you don't need it? Which probably means you don't use Cold Hearted trait. What traits are you using for this cannon build?
A2B with Cold hearted still works very well. Boimler just offers another choice for cool downs.
Cold Hearted works with Pilot abilities as well. I recently switched my Tank character to the Fleet Miranda. So far, testing has been very positive. I seem to be doing less damage though, and I think that's because A2B was keeping my Weapon sub-system overcapped.
I believe that A2B still has a place in the meta. Having Boimler gives us more options, which is always welcome, but it is not always the best one for a given build.
I am a newer player, and you have just left me very confused.
What is a Boinler, What is a Photonic Officer?
How do you get the space bar to activate the powers in your bar? When I push it, my ship just starts shooting.
My ship is Mark XII and is doing a few hundred dps, how do you get to thousands?
Here is how to do Keybinds: th-cam.com/video/h387de6N28A/w-d-xo.html
I would suggest watching the new player guide play list from the beginning: th-cam.com/play/PLXRniClXbLvMzBFRSKsPX9EekEWjh2sIv.html
Where do you get a Dual Heavy with base DPM of 2900? The best I have at Elite is around 1600?
Fully updated, overall build and endeavors.....
Would photonics officer be best served as the first ability to go off?
Since PO incrementally increases its potency over time, it might. I think that we all got used to putting cool down management at the end because of Aux2Bat. Something to test, at any rate.
There is a trade off. PO at the beginning will give a larger cool down per tick of the following abilities as PO reduction is a percentage of an abilities remaining cool down. However PO's cool down is 30 sec (no way to shorten this) and effect only runs for 20 sec, so 10 sec of no effect. Having it at the end gives you a longer deration of effect on the other boff abilities and for me this works better. I you have a lot less stuff on your spam bar or activation sequence then having it at the beginning may make sense. You will need to try it and see what works best for you.
@@MCStu Good points. I've been playing with Improved Photonic Officer, so I am considering putting PO in the middle of the chain. See if that has any effect.
@@MCStu sweet I’ll try it out mate thank you🇮🇪👍🏻
Nice vid in concept (and there is a lot to take away here) , but considering that Boimler is out of bounds (cost wise) for many new or F2P players , I'm not sure that bleeding edge meta and keybind use for "medium level" players , mix .
But you've got time, so perhaps in the future you'll make a future version of this vid, with basic / newbie + advanced / aux2bat + top end / Boimler + PO set ups .
Not meaning to criticize , just my thoughts . :)
All you have to do is ignore Boimlers in the vid, That why I included photonic officer. This is a concept vid on activation sequence (Boost -> Firing Mode -> Cool Downs). If you are interested in vids on cool downs these two links should be helpful:
Photonic Officer th-cam.com/video/gkMAOUM4I0c/w-d-xo.html
Aux2Bat th-cam.com/video/5fviLG8jWhc/w-d-xo.html
In earnest, Boimler is great...when it procs. I've noticed it not proc'ing for entire cycles and the slower recharge kills my tanking efficiency.
I think that Boimler would be great with a passive cool down management system, like high Readiness skills + Chrono-Capacitor + Bio-Neural Gel Packs + (insert other Gear like Prolonged Engagement or MACO set bonuses). That way, if Boimler fails to proc, you at least have a reasonable CDR.
For me, I'm going to stick with the Ol' Reliable sources like A2B or PO.
How do you combat abilities misfiring?
Say a prayer
I’m a special somebody, just on console though.
im stuck at 30 to 50k dps 8000 dilithium mine stinks takes so long they need to fix the zen to dilith ability
i activate in ability uptime xd
... 30s>20s>15s> ...
I end up filling it with useless shit from universal consoles lol
Wow, never knew there was a spam bar. Most mechanics are easy to avoid though, played wow for ages mytic raiding, just move out of red when it appears. Not tired elite stuff on sto yet though. Easy and advanced is just damn good fun.
lmao, i Just Spam everything when my Hull is at 25%
game needs macros