New players, read this before you choose your traits in S7

[philip]

Mandatory traits: Accurate & Elusive (you cannot be a competitive pilot without these)

Next best in space: Warp Theorist, Efficient Captain
Good on ground: Soldier (and/or Aggressive), Peak Health, Lucky, Creative (was improved for S7)

Good largely only for ground pvp: Acute Senses, Telepathic, Stubborn, & maybe Mental discipline (nice on Mine Trap though)

Poor: Resilient (actual protection is only about 2%), Sturdy (similarly less protection than it appears), Natural Immunities (good largely only against Tholians), Cold-blooded, Techie (minimal effect), Astrophysicist (except maybe for scis), Covert (except for tacs using operative kit), Telekinetic (minimal effect), Sure Footed (hypos do largely the same thing).

These are the old school traits, there are several new ones which i'm not covering here as they are untested.

[urulf]

So acurate and elusive, from the new ones, with are the best ?

[daBelgrave]

So acurate and elusive, from the new ones, with are the best ?

Accurate makes you more likely to hit your target. You will want this.
Elusive makes it harder for others to hit you. You will want this.

Overall, I'm seeing some interesting changes in the traits. We'll probably need to make up a comprehensive list showing exactly what each trait does, and determine its usefulness from there.

From today's patch:

Engineer:

• Space - Grace Under Fire
  • Whenever you are hit for more than 25% of your hull in a 5 second period, the cooldown on Miracle Worker is reset.
  • This effect cannot occur more often than once per 90 seconds.
• Space - EPS Manifold Efficiency
  • When you use Emergency Power to Auxiliary, Emergency Power to Engines, Emergency Power to Shields, or Emergency Power to Weapons, this trait causes all of your other power levels to gain a moderate subsystem boost.
  • When you use any Battery, this trait causes all of your other power levels to gain a large subsystem boost
• Ground -Nanomolecular Architect
  • All pets you create have increased damage resistance and regeneration.
• Ground - Shield Harmonic Resonance
  • When you take damage, your shields start to adapt to the incoming damage, giving you a stacking Resistance buff to that type of damage.
  • Only one damage type can grant this resistance at any given time.

Science:

• Space - Photonic Capacitor
  • Science powers you activate reduce the remaining cooldown of Photonic Fleet by 15 seconds.
  • This ability cannot trigger more often than once every 10 seconds.
• Space - Conservation of Energy
  • When Energy Weapons hit you, your exotic damage has a chance to be increased by 10%, stacking up to 3 times.
  • Exotic Damage includes any damage which is increased by the Starship Particle Generators skill.
• Ground -Medical Vanguard
  • All powers you use on allies give them additional healing.
• Ground -Field Researcher
  • You gain a 25% damage bonus against targets affected by Control powers or Debuff powers.

Tactical:

• Space - Last Ditch Effort
  • While Go Down Fighting is active, you gain 10% Damage Resistance to all damage types when you attack a target, stacking up to 3 times.
• Space - Crippling Fire
  • Your critical hits reduce your target's Accuracy by 2.5%, stacking up to 3 times.
• Ground - Situational Awareness
  • All of your Grenade powers now have a 25% chance to expose their target in addition to their normal effects.
• Ground - Strike Team Specialist
  • Your damaging attacks give you a 2.5% bonus to Crit chance. This buff can stack up to 3 times.

More Traits:

• Fury
  • The damage scaling on Fury has been changed.
  • It now is active at all times, but ramps slowly up to a 5% damage bonus at half health, and then scales much more quickly as your health gets closer to zero.
• Limited Telepathy
  • In addition to its previous effects, this trait will widen your own flank arc to 90 degrees up from 60 degrees, preventing you from taking Flank damage from attackers within that arc.
• Acute Senses
  • In addition to its previous effects, this trait now also reduces the damage you take from flanking attacks.
• Covert
  • In addition to its previous effects, this trait now increases the bonus flanking damage your character deals.
• Physical Strength
  • Physical Strength's bonus to melee damage has been increased from 10% up to 15%.
  • In addition to its previous effects, this trait now gives your melee attacks a chance to knock down your target.
• Mental Discipline
  • Characters with Mental Discipline now gain an additional click power with a 240 second cooldown.
  • Using this ability immediately removes all Hold effects from the character.
  • This power can be used while held.
• Efficient (Player)
  • Efficient now grants +30 Warp Core Efficiency skill, up from +15
• Stubborn
  • Characters with Stubborn now gain an additional click power with a 240 second cooldown.
  • Using this ability immediately removes all Confuse and Placate effects from the character.
• Sure Footed
  • In addition to its previous effects, this trait now makes you immune to Roots while in Aim mode and immune to Knock effects while in Crouch mode.
• Spirit Walk
  • Spirit Walk provides a strong immediate heal based on a percentage of your Maximum Hitpoints
  • The Heal over Time component of this ability ticks twice as quickly as it did before
  • The Resistance Rating bonus from Spirit Walk is now 100, up from 20
  • The duration of Spirit Walk's HoT and Resistance bonus have been reduced from 10 seconds down to 6 seconds
  • The cooldown of Spirit Walk has been reduced from 210 seconds down to 90 seconds
• Cold Blooded
  • Now provides resistance to all Plasma damage, instead of just Plasma DoTs.
• Creative
  • This trait has been slightly redesigned.
  • It now provides a 15% bonus to all Heal and Shield Heal powers, as well as a 10% bonus to all damaging Kit powers.
• Warp Theorist
  • This trait's tooltip has been clarified to better describe what type of powers it will affect.
• Techie
  • This trait's tooltip has been clarified to better describe what type of powers it will affect.
• Astrophysicist
  • This trait's tooltip has been clarified to better describe what type of powers it will affect.

From the Tal Shiar Lockbox Genetic Resequencer:

• Helmsman - Space Trait
  • +10% Flight Turn Rate
  • Evasive Maneuvers cooldown reduced by 10sec
• Precise - Space Trait
  • +25% Accuracy vs. Small Targets (Torpedoes, Mines, Fighters, etc.)
• Conduit - Ground Trait
  • Extra Shield Heal when using Shield Charges.
  • Extra Damage Bonus when using Power Cells.
• Disassembler - Ground Trait
  • +10% Damage vs. Non-Living Targets (Turrets, Holograms, etc.)

Additional:

• Completing the full Tour the Galaxy challenge now rewards the "Well Travelled" trait as a free bonus trait.
  • This trait grants your captain a permanent reduction in Transwarp cooldown.