Some other things to consider when using doffs for active duty:

They are removed from your reserve roster, so you can't send them on missions. This makes their traits unimportant, so you don't have to look for someone with good traits if you are throwing them on active duty.

The usefulness of the power increases with the quality of the doff. A green doff may offer a 5% chance to do something while a purple one will offer 20%. This means if you're wanting to experiment with a power, you can try one of the lower quality ones (even the best powers are cheap to buy on green doffs) then if you like it, you can save up for a higher quality doff.

Remember to save up for the extra active duty slots at the fleet spire, they are 200% worth the investment. Even if you throw a green doff in that extra slot, that extra little boost is worth having someone in there.

Like was said before me, if you're not playing a hardcore build, your doffs won't make or break you, but you can have a lot of fun playing around with the powers. Stuff like the gravimetric scientist making extra gravity wells is pretty cool if you're just starting to play around with the gravity well. But some of the special powers on the new doffs can really change the way that your skills work. There is a voth doff that makes it so your tractor beam repulsors pull your target instead of pushing them away, which changes how you evaluate the skill. Some other doffs add bonuses on to skills, making things that may have seemed mediocre seem much cooler. Some of the hirogen doffs add a chance to take subsystems offline when using various abilities (subnucleonic beam, aceton beam, etc), this might make these powers more attractive if you build around them.

Just some food for thought :)

Steamrunner?

If you're looking for specific, high quality doffs, most of them can be found on the exchange. But if you're just looking to do some roster building, here are some tips:

The personnel officer at the academies (Starfleet Academy in the building with Lt. Ferra and Cmdr. Valia, Klingon Academy next to the exchange, and Romulan Republic command [this one is a console in the room with the bridge officer trainer]) have free missions that can be done every couple of days that award doffs. Beware the General Recruitment one because it costs dilithium, as does the Request R&D assistance (though that one is usually worth the dilithium cost). The other 4 missions though award 2-3 doffs upon completion. These are usually white quality, sometimes green (though I did once get one of the purple original ultra rares from it).

Refugee missions are great for roster building as well. Buy up some common refugees from the exchange, and then grant them sanctuary/refuge via the available doff missions. If you are playing a fed character, buy the doffs Neva something or other and Jeffery Toby Lamar. They have all 3 necessary traits for the mission, which means it will often trade the common refugee for Blue/Purple doffs. The mission is available at ESD under the ops tab, as well as in orbit of Sol System. The mission repopulates about every 36 hours, so you can do this fairly consistently to get some good doffs. If you go out in to the Sirius sector block, you'll also find grant Asylum on Vulcan/Andoria/Rigel V/Tellar Prime, there are doffs that line up well with all of these as well, but I can't remember their names offhand. If you're KDF, it becomes even better, because the Omega Leonis block/Qo'nos/First City maps almost always have 1-4 missions available that are of the grant asylum/sanctuary/refuge type that will grant Klingon, Nausicaan, Gorn, and Orion doffs.

All of the exploration clusters have a 7 part mission chain that ends by awarding a unique blue doff. Then, once those have been completed, they have a repeatable mission that on success awards a refugee (fed) or prisoner (kdf) and on critical success award a purple version of the blue doff you get at the end of the chain. (B'Tran cluster at the bottom of Gamma Orionis block awards liberated borg technicians [caitains for fed, gorn for kdf])

Doff packs are a pretty good way to grind too. Reinforcements, Fleet Support, and Romulan Surivivor duty officer packs can be found on the exchange and award 7 doffs, with special powers. These occasionally drop a purple doff, and are guaranteed to drop at least one blue doff.

Special doff requisition packs, like the Elachi Survivor, Voth Separatist, Tholian Warfare Specialist, and Dominion Duty Officer, reward 1 (2 in the Elachi pack) purple doffs with unique powers. They're pricey, but these doffs usually have traits that are good for many of the doff missions out there (most of these doffs have resolve, which is a useful trait).

Also, if you talk about doffs in the fleet chat when I'm on, I'll often mail you a bunch in the in-game mail (I have thousands of doffs and don't need most of them, so I like to help out where I can B) )

If you have any questions, there are lots of resources out there, but hopefully this gives you a little bit of an intro.

Here's the deal with doff, they can make or break high end builds but for base-mid level build they are really optional. There are doffs that allow beam overload to penetrate your enemies shields and penetrate that stacks, and doffs that create aftershock gravity wells and does not stack. It's really a matter of what your build is and (really important here) How much can you afford. In most cases Blues are satisfactory but in others you really want those purple ones.

When buying doffs check the exchange price first and find the doff you want for your faction before asking in a trade channel to avoid getting taken for a ride. Better yet ask fleeties, they may have doffs they're not using and will never use that they may be able to give away

Thanks for the Link Andrew!! Looks like alot of Channels. Can people Trade these Doffs or sell them?

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Post your replies to this thread, guessing which starship is shown behind door #24 on the calendar on the first page of this thread. Remember: only one guess per day! We'll announce the correct answer by the end of the day and an in-game e-mail with your holiday gift will follow!

Day #23 answer: Miranda class!
Day #23 winner: Saintplazma! - Prize will be sent by in-game mail.

Yup! I only use the doffjobs channel myself, but for a directory of channels in STO check this link: http://sto.gamepedia.com/Global_Channel_Directory

To join a channel you would use/type the following command into your in-game chat box and press Enter: /channel_join channel name

Example: /channel_join DOFFJobs

Thanks Andrew for the Link! Also I hear Their are Special Channels what are they for? I hope im making sense.

Check out: http://sto.gamepedia.com/Duty_officer

Not sure if it'll assist you, but if there is something you're hung up on specifically feel free to post any of your questions here and we'll try to assist as best as we can! :)

~Andrew

Hello Im trying to understand and learn this Doff System but im kinda confused. Is thier a guide or walkthru avail. Thanks for any help.

Merry Christmas, Cal! Congratulations on an amazing year as editor of the Times!

Ooh, that's looking nice, Axis.
Forgot how pretty lava lamps can be.

Anyway, here's mine to make you all jealous :P

[attachment=2753]HolyCorner.jpg[/attachment]

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Axis is correct, there is a $30 pack that can get you in the game, and then you can earn the specific ships you really want, how hard that will be is currently unknown.

Yeah that's the Completionist pack lol

I bought the $10,000 Wing Commander package ... *whistles* ...

Honestly though everything is earnable in game you can start with the cheaper starter ship and work your way up.

The Mustang Beta is one of the starters and is one of my favorite ships in the game :D

Quote by Axis

Now my fellow gaymers, share with us the spaces that make you happy at home when your playing STO, GW2, SWTOR or whatever else you play :)

too...much....dust.....oh the shame! :dry:

Quote by Tlek

I kinda share Seannwboy's sentiment, the game looks amazing, but I simply can't afford it. :(

I saw one pack is $15k :blink:

I kinda share Seannwboy's sentiment, the game looks amazing, but I simply can't afford it. :(

Bridge section and dorsal torpedo launcher of USS Reliant NCC-1864

Miranda-class