It's a great guide but bear in mind that melee is something you mainly only do when winning in Star Trek Online . By a lot. Because it's fun and more sporting. First , use your mini map. You have a map. It is mini. It shows you where your teammates are. You should try to find them. Finding your teammates takes priority over finding enemies unless you are winning by a lot. You should pay close attention to this as just because your teammates were following you a couple seconds ago doesn't mean they still are.
Second , get a split beam rifle. (and upgrade your outdated ground gear) . Disclaimer: Weapon(Star Trek Online Credits) balance is changing in Update 1. Split beams will become the #2 damage weapon when hitting a single target instead of being tied for #1 with the sniper rifle.
What weapon are you using right now? Unless you said, "Split Beam Rifle", throw it into the dumpster. Get a split beam rifle. If you're tactical with a lot of ground combat training (T3+) get two. The sniper rifle is superior in a 1evel(Star Trek Online Powerleveling)1 fight. Are you fighting 1evel 1? No, because you heeded the advice and met up with your teammates, as did your opponent. So get a split beam as your exploit weapon.
For your second weapon you might want a good expose weapon. Personally suggest a stun pistol (which has good range on the special attack) or a "full auto" weapon. The other pistols don't have enough range to do what you need them to do and the cylinder AE weapons don't hit enough targets (although they do good damage). The advice is to get a good long range cone AE expose weapon to go with your good long range cone exploit weapon. Or, as mentioned, just get two good exploit weapons, especially if you're Tactical or if you have a lot of kit-related expose abilities and therefore don't really need an expose gun.
Don't bother with melee unless you are winning by a lot. It's really not worth taking up one of your weapon positions with a melee weapon on the off chance that you might someday need it. Keep a bat'leth in your inventory and if you come across a team that's really hitting you with Weapons Malfunction nonstop, just swap in the bat'leth next time you die. It's better than nothing but it's still a terrible way to fight.
Note regarding weapon preference: there are cases where other weapons could be superior to the split beam rifle. In a wide open map with lots of enemies to shoot at, the split beam assault weapon might be superior with its wider angle and greater number of beams. In very close quarters the wide angle expose pistols can be great. Unfortunately, maps like that just don't exist for PvP at the time of this writing. All of the current ground maps have narrow but fairly lengthy corridors with no more than 5 enemy players. It's right in the sweet spot for the Split Beam Rifle.
