The Baby Step Series Part 1: The First Step - Level 40 T5 Assault Cruiser Leveling Build

Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/k8ultu/the_baby_step_series_part_2_the_next_step_fresh/

Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/k9jct6/the_baby_step_series_part_3_the_last_step_level/

Build Info

"Hi, and welcome to part 1 of the Baby Step Series!

STO is terrible at teaching new players how to build their ships and unfortunately there is a lot of junk for them to sort through in order to figure it out. In this post I hope to give an example of what a good ship build looks like using the best basic gear, that can be used as a template for free/scaling T6 ships from low levels up to level 50 on normal difficulty, and allow new players to push forward on to more advanced builds.

I chose the T5 Assault Cruiser as the base since the Sovereign is a fan favorite, is performancewise one of the better options to choose from at level 40, and is arguably a better platform than the Galaxy option given at level 61. Cruisers using beam array (BA) broadside builds are also typically the best option for new/less experienced players. They have a lot more wiggle room concerning weapon firing arcs (easier to keep fire on targets), hull values (higher hull capacity and damage resistances), and access to engineering bridge officer (boff) abillities that can help with survivability.

In my opinion, escorts using dual cannons (DC)/dual heavy cannons (DHC) + turrets would be the next step after mastering cruiser play, with science vessels using exotic abilties and torpedoes (scitorp) being the next step after mastering escort play. Of course, this is just my opinion. You can start off in a science vessel or escort and master those kinds of ships first, but the learning curve would probably be a bit steeper.

Let's go to school!"

Player Information

Player Info	--------------
Captain Name	All da capitans ;)
Captain Faction	All, though KDF and Rommys will be a bit different as this is focused on a FED ship and phasers.
Captain Race	All. Captain race is unimportant outside of space barbie, though aliens are generally better because they get a 10th personal trait.
Captain Profession	All. Captain career has nothing to do with ship choice or build. If you want to chase DPS, go tac.
Primary Specialization	None because noobs won't have this yet.
Secondary Specialization	""
Intended Role	To not suck while leveling.

Skill Tree

		Engineering		Science		Tactical
Lieutenant		Hull Restoration	Hull Capacity	Shield Restoration	Shield Capacity	Advanced Energy Weapon Training	Advanced Projectile Weapon Training
Lieutenant Commander		Improved EPS Flow	Improved Impulse Expertise	Control Expertise	Drain Expertise	Improved Targeting Expertise	Improved Defensive Manuvering
5 Points
Commander		Hull Plating		Shield Regeneration	Shield Hardness	Advanced Weapon Amplification	Advanced Weapon specialization'
15 Points
Captain					Advanced Long Range Targeting	Advanced Hull Penetration	Advanced Shield Penetration
25 Points
Admiral		Warp Core Potential	Engineering Readiness		Scientific Readiness	Coordination Protocols	Tactical Readiness
35 Points						Defensive Coordination
		Warp Core Efficency				Offensive Coordination
Total of 46 of 46 Points		Engineering Points:	10	Science Points:	10	Tactical Points:	26

Skill Tree Unlocks

Points to unlock	Engineering Unlocks	Science Unlocks	Tactical Unlocks
Unlocks After 2	Training Manual:	Training Manual:	Training Manual:
Unlocks After 5	Battery Expertise	Sector Space Travel Speed	Threat Control
Unlocks After 7	Training Manual:	Training Manual:	Training Manual:
Unlocks After 10	Maximum Hull Capacity	Maximum Shield Capacity	Projectile Critical Chance
Unlocks After 12
Unlocks After 15			Energy Critical Chance
Unlocks After 17			Training Manual:
Unlocks After 20			Defense
--------------	--------------	--------------	--------------
Unlocks After 24 (Ultimate)			Focused Frenzy
Unlocks After 25 (Ultimate)			Frenzied Assault
Unlocks After 26 (Ultimate)			Team Frenzy
Unlocks After 27 (Ultimate)

Skill Tree Information

"My balanced tactical ultimate for leveling. First of all, in most cases the tactical ultimate skill tree is the best option from a performance point of view. This is because taking most of the nodes in the tac part of the skill tree is a significant boost to damage, which is basically what space combat in STO is all about, and the added clicky damage ability 'Focused Frenzy' doesn't hurt either. Then, by taking 10 points each in eng and sci I'm still able to get a decent amount of added skills to enhance my non-damage catagories like hull, shields, resistances, power, mobility, as well as the hull/shield cap unlocks at 10 points spent. The 3 nodes in Coordination Protocols are also great for group content as a whole team of players using these will give nice buffs for everyone. For a leveling build I also take a point each in the readiness skills, because boff ability cooldown reduction (cdr) is super-important for high-performance, and with these points taken and used along with the science boff ability Photonic Officer (PO), abilities are often at or close to their minimal cooldowns (more on this in a bit).

When building a skill tree for directed energy weapon (DEW) builds, two things outside of the tac tree must be taken. In eng always take Improved EPS Flow as this basically helps weapon power recharge faster after a firing cycle. Next in sci, always take Advanced Long Range Targeting Scanners as this is a significant boost to damage dealt by energy weapons at range. In testing by other players over the years, it's been found that Damage Control is mostly useless, Subsystem Tuning's power increases are generally too small to matter much, and Shield Mastery is mostly a noob trap as enemy NPCs don't crit that much to make spending points in it worthwhile. Also, due to heavy diminishing returns on the Armor skill, most will not take Energized or Ablative Hull Plating. "

Build Description

"The following build is certainly FED focused and uses phasers as these are generally easy to get as a new FED player. For new KDF or Romulan players I'd recommend going with disruptors and plasma respectively as the game gives you a lot of options to use these damage types early on in the game with those factions.

Weapons in STO require focus. This means two things. One, focus on one energy type like phaser, disruptor, or plasma, don't build rainbow boats using different flavored weapons. It can work but is ultimately going to gimp you in the end. Weapon procs are mostly useless due to their low proc rate, focus on an energy type you like the look or sound of. Two, focus on the actual weapon type. All beam arrays, or all dual cannons, or all torpedos. You can mix a little but you'll need to focus on just one. Gear, especially weapons and tac consoles, should always match your level. At level 40 that means mark 9-10. At low levels gear mark is far more important than gear quality (eg. uncommon, rare, very rare, etc). At level 50+, ideally you want your gear to be as high mark and quality as possible. Mark 11 and 12 gear should start dropping at this point and should be more than capable in normal difficulty content. Crafting at low levels isn't really a great idea but if you want to try, you can. Recommend building up the Beam R&D school first using the Research Projects found at bottom of the project list (can run up to 3 a day).

Subsystem power should be set to something along the lines of: Weapons 100 / Shields 50 / Engines 25 / Auxiliary 25. The best way to do this is push the weapons subsystem power button found at the top of subsystem power UI box. When an energy weapon fires at 100 weapon power, it does 100% of its potential damage. At 125 it'll do 112.5% and at 50 it'll do only 75%. With Emergency Power to Weapons up, decently high EPS, and some power drain mitigation, one can keep weapon power above 100 with all 8 weapons firing, allowing them to do as much damage as possible.

Use your cruiser commands, namely Weapon System Efficiency. This will help your energy weapons do more damage.

Most boff ability training manuals can be purchased at boff trainer NPCs found in all the major hubs. Rank 3 abilities such as Emergency Power to Weapon 3 (ETPW) and Reverse Shield Polarity 3 (RSP) I have listed in this build are usually best purchased from the exchange, training manuals can be made from a boff candidate that already has it, or from an in-game friend who has the ability to craft it for you. Ability cooldown reduction is handled by the lieutenant rank sci bridge officer ability Photonic Officer 1 (read about it below), as well as a point each in the readiness skills to help it along, which I already mentioned. When using boff abilities it's important to figure out which ones work well together or can be used one after the other, this is called chaining. In particular for this build, Attack Pattern Beta 1 (APB) and the chosen firing mode Beam Overload (BO) or Beam Fire at Will (BFAW) should always be used at the same time. Abilities like Emergency Power to the Weapons (ETPW) and Emergency Power to the Engines (EPTE) share a cooldown and should be cycled together hitting the first one, then the other when it's off cooldown, and repeating to keep these up full time while in combat.

Personal space traits are basically the best free ones available and Reputation and Starship traits are blank as new players won't have access to these at this point.

One thing you'll see here and there in the Baby Step posts and others is the reference to Cat1/A or Cat2/B damage. Put simply, Cat1/A boosts your base damage with modifers like '25% Directed Energy Damage' and '15% Phaser Damage', whereas Cat2/B boosts your damage after those Cat1/A boosts and is generally signified in tooltips using the word 'Bonus' in the description such as '10% Bonus All Damage' and '5% Bonus Disruptor Damage'. You might hear players say things like, 'You gotta stack that Cat2!', and they're right. But the truth is you need both. In general, Cat1 boosts will come from gear and Cat2 boosts will come from traits. As the following build is pretty basic, this isn't something to concern yourself with too much. For the next two builds after this, you'll start to see Cat1/2 and 'Bonus' in more of the descriptions. As this is a pretty technical part of game mechanics (and somewhat outside my purview), you can read more about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/math/damage_categories

As mentioned, this build can be adapted to lower level cruisers, scaling T6 cruisers, and somewhat to pre-level 40 escorts and science ships. However, I do not recommend adapting this build to science ships at level 40 and above as these kinds of ships require different methodology to make work well. And while escorts can use beams well enough, they shine using DCs/DHCs and turrets. Both escorts and science ships also have fairly different boff layouts compared to cruisers and would need careful adaptation to make work well. "

Basic Information	Data
Ship Name	USS I Blows Stuff Up and Doesn't Die!
Ship Class	T5 Assault Cruiser

Basic Information	Component	Notes
Fore Weapons: 4	Phaser Beam Array MK X	Comes from mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. You can buy odd mark commons from the equipment vendor for cheap, just sell your loot to the vendor. The best mod on weapons when leveling will be Crth (Critical Chance) as your low level build will have very little of it in the first place. You dont need to worry about this too much, just that when you're leveling and you get a weapon that matches your build with a Crth mod, you'll want to keep it. As you advance and begin to get more Crth from other sources, you'll want the mods on your weapons to be either all Crtd, all Dmg, or a mix of both.
	Phaser Beam Array MK X
	Phaser Beam Array MK X
	Photon Torpedo Launcher MK X	Comes from mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. You can buy odd mark commons from the equipment vendor for cheap, just sell your loot to the vendor. This is mostly here to help with weapon power drain. It can help with a little spike damage here and there. Remember that at low levels Crth (Critical Chance) will be the mod you want here. As you advance your build, Crtd (Critical Damage) is typically the best mod for torpedos.
--------------	--------------	--------------
Aft Weapons: 4	Phaser Beam Array MK X
	Phaser Beam Array MK X
	Phaser Beam Array MK X
	Phaser Beam Array MK X
--------------	--------------	--------------
Deflector	Positron Deflector MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Best for a leveling build focusing on energy weapons because they tend to give bonuses to hull and shields for survivability purposes. Other deflectors tend to give bonuses to CtrlX and DrainX which most won't need.
Impulse Engines	Combat Impulse Engines MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. You're probably going to be running your engine power fairly low which is good for these engines as they work more efficiently at lower power.
Warp Core	Deuterium-Stabilized Warp Core MK X	From mission drops, crafting, and the exchange. Probably best to try and buy one from the exchange (remember, quality isn't as important at this point, common/uncommon will be fine). Take for the very nice -15% reduction in weapon power drain.
Shields	Resilient Shield MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Halves shield bleedthrough damage compared to all other sheilds. Don't worry about cap or regen. This is the kind of shield you want :)
Devices	Weapons Battery	From equipment vendors and mission drops. Even though you may be sitting at 125 weapon power using Emergency Power to Weapons 3, there is an overcap. It's not as great as it once was but you want that overcap. With high EPS it'll refill your weapon power fast and help keep power above 100 while firing.
	Battery of your choice either Shield, Engine, or Auxiliary	From equipment vendors and mission drops. Chain one of these with the weapons bats. Hitting a weapons bat will put this on a 30 second cooldown. Once that cooldown is finished hit this bat and repeat. I often choose engines to keep me fast or Aux to help juice aux-scaling abilities.
	Nimbus Pirate Distress Call	From the mission Installation 18 in the Wasteland arc. Signals for a strike team of three Nimbus Pirate vessels to assist you in combat for 45 sec. This, along with all other reinforcement beacons, can be used from inventory and doesn't need to be slotted in devices.
--------------	--------------	--------------
Engineering Consoles: 4	Neutronium Alloy Armor MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Gives all damage resistance. All you need is one. Stacking armor in STO is not a thing.
	RCS Accelerator MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Cruisers turn slow. This makes turning better.
	RCS Accelerator MK X
	EPS Flow Regulator MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Helps weapon power recharge faster when firing, thus increases damage.
--------------	--------------	--------------
Science Consoles: 2	Emitter Array MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Makes shield heals better. Field Generators (to increase shield cap) are good here too but difficult to find (you could try to craft some, but probably not worth using resources on). Might as well just use the simple easy-to-get consoles here for now as these will be first to be replaced as you get better stuff.
	Emitter Array MK X
--------------	--------------	--------------
Tactical Consoles: 3	Phaser Relay MK X	From mission drops, rewards, crafting, and the exchange. Always stack consoles here that increase the damage of your chosen energy flavor. Phasers = Phaser Relays / Disruptor = Disruptor Induction Coils / Plasma = Plasma Infusers / etc. These can be difficult to get early on in the game as mission rewards or drops. You can check the exchange for cheap commons or try crafting your own.
	Phaser Relay MK X
	Phaser Relay MK X

Officers and Crew

Bridge Officer Information	Power	Notes
Officer 1: Commander ( Engineering )	Emergency Power to Engines 1	Plus 40 flight speed, +2 turn rate, +20 engine power. Keeps you fast.
	Auxiliary Power to the Structural Integrity Field 1	Auxiliary scaling heal and added damage resistance rating. Short cooldown and one of the better boff heals in the game.
	Emergency Power to Weapons 3	Plus 40 weapon power and 16.6% all energy damage. At any rank a must for energy weapon builds. Can be purchased off the exchange, a training manual can be made for it out of a boff candidate that already has it, or it can be crafted by engineering captains.
	Reverse Shield Polarity 3	Converts incoming energy damage to shields, lasts 20 seconds. Basically makes you invulernable while it's up, though things like kinetic, exotic, and physical damage will still hurt you. Works great against Vaadwaur Polaron Barrages. Can be used with a special and expensive Fabrication Engineer doff from the exchange to increase uptime. Must be purchased off the exchange or a training manual can be made for it out of a boff candidate that already has it.
Officer 2: Lt. Commander ( Engineering )	Engineering Team 1	Small hull heal, repairs offline subsystems and can clear some other debuffs like movement ones from the Voth and Mokai.
	Auxiliary Power to Inertial Dampeners 1	Auxiliary scaling kinetic damage resistance, +50%flight speed, +100% turn rate for 15 seconds. Shares a cooldown with A2Sif above. Just a filler ability, it'll eventually be replaced.
	Directed Energy Modulation 2	7.5% energy weapon shield penetration and 7.5 to Armor penetration for 30 seconds. Just a filler ability, it'll eventually be replaced.
Officer 3: Lieutenant ( Tactical )	Tactical Team 1	Distributes shield strength to shields receiving damage (why its used), +18 to both Weapon and Projectile training for 10 seconds. Clear hostile boarding parties and tactical debuffs. Vets will forgo this ability for something that gives more damage but Tac Team is a must for new players. It really helps with survivability. Never have to use higher than rank 1. The butter...
	Attack Pattern Beta 1	-20 all damage resistance to target. The bread...
Officer 4: Ensign ( Tactical )	Beam Overload 1 or Beam Fire at Will 1	Beam Overload 1 will increase damage 3x and decreases firing rate by half. Beam Fire at Will 1 hits all available targets within a beam array's arc but each beam only does 80% of its base damage and has its accuarcy skill decreased by 50. Both are viable, just your choice between being single or multi target focused. BFAW is great for clearing multiple targets at once and drawing threat as a tank. Because it draws a lot of threat, it can get you killed if you don't know how to manage a lot of incoming damage FYI. For most if not all builds, it's important to take the highest rank of these abilities. In this case, because we want to use APB1 in the LT spot, the beams' main firing mode is relegated to rank 1 for now. The meat...
Officer 5: Lieutenant ( Science )	Hazard Emitters 1	Aux scaling heal-over-time, adds all damage resistance, clears plasma fires and other hazard debuffs.
	Photonic Officer 1	Super-Important Part of the Build Reduces recharge times of bridge officers by 2% each second for 20 sec. Used in conjuction with a point each in the readiness skills will keep your boff abilities cycling quicker allowing for their use more often.

Duty Officer Information	Power	Notes
No Duty Officers Needed

Character, Reputation, and Starship Traits

Personal Space Traits	Description	Notes
Accurate	+10% Accuracy
Beam Training	+5% Beam Weapon Damage
Elusive	+10% Defense
Fleet Coordinator	+2% All Damage per Team member (Self included), up to 10%
Innocuous	+1.5% Critical Severity -25% Threat Generation
Operative	+1% Critical Chance, +2% Critical Severity
Projectile Training	+5% Projectile Weapon Damage
Techie	+20 Hull Restoration (Improves Hull Healing) +20 Hull Regeneration (Improves Passive Hull Regeneration)
Warp Theorist	+10 Warp Core Potential (Improves Power Levels) +10 Electro-Plasma System Flow (Improves Power Transfer Rate)

Space Reputation Traits	Description	Obtained from
None as you won't have reps open yet.

Starship Traits	Description	Notes
None as a new player won't have access to any yet.

Concluding Remarks

" Aaannnddd... that's it! I hope this can make your leveling experience a little easier and perhaps more enjoyable. If you found this post helpful bookmark it, and don't be shy in linking it to your friends or others in need. Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2 of the Baby Step Series entitled: The Next Step - Fresh 65 T5 Assault Cruiser Free DPS, where I'll show you how to evolve this build using freely gotten gear/etc that will allow you to jump into advanced difficulty content and begin to build your max-performance ship!

Stay safe and have fun out there kiddos ;)

Did I leave anything out? Feel free to leave constructive comments on basic leveling builds below. Thanks for reading!"