Advice for a budget plasma monster please

Comments

• tunebreaker Member Posts: 1,222 Arc User

  November 2018

  Ok, I'm going to nudge you towards Khopesh, mainly for 3 reasons, with first one being the most important.
  1. I already have a build for it that can very well serve as a baseline.
  2. Flagship consoles, 2 of which are definitely worth equipping, are something you already own, thus no further expenses in that regard.
  3. It's objectively one of the best, if not *the* best ship in game.
  
  First of all, you're a romulan, go grab Dynamic Power Redistributor Module from exchange. Yes, it's ~7m, but that's an investment you definitely want to make.
  
  With that being said, here is my build. Don't run away yet, seeing phasers and all the expensive gear! Yes, I know my build follows the ultimate current meta, but it's only a baseline here.
  
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  So let's talk about the differences:
  
  Weapons
  You said you wanted to use plasma, absolutely. Replace the weapons with Plasma Dual Cannons (or Dual heavies, there's no difference) and turrets. Any plasma variant will do. You could also use a single torpedo as you definitely have Super Charged Weapons and possibly miss at least something like Promise of Ferocity or Withering Barrage.
  
  Reputation gear replacements
  To replace reputation items, I'd probably direct you to Bajor Defense for Impulse Engines and Shields, as it's 2pc gives also damage boost to Plasma. Of course, Solanae would also be good alternative, having pretty mince 2pc set bonus, but very good standalone stats for both shields and engines, considering they're only mission rewards.
  
  As for replacing Ordnance Accelerator, if it fits into your budget, buy Disruption Pulse Emitter (in the same console pack you got DPRM from, so it'll be another ~7m). If not, not a problem at all, you can get Temporal Disentanglement Suite for free as a mission reward, or you can invest into more survivability instead and slot either Reiterative Structural Capacitor or Protomatter Field Projector there.
  
  BOFFs and Cooldown reduction
  You being a sci, you can't rely on those "cheap" tricks I've been using (with Tactical Initiative and all that). If you can afford technicians and want to pursue Auxiliary to Battery route, you definitely want 3rd Technician, and maybe also second copy of Auxiliary to Battery. You can grind either B'tran Cluster doffing chain for Technicians or buy VR Engineering Duty Officer packs from fleet starbase (any character on whom you have lots of FC will do, as you can send the DOFF to your other toon and sell rest of the doffs) and hope for a Technician, if exchange prices scare you. I think I got my 2 after ~20 packs, but I might've just been lucky.
  Going that route, your BOFF layout would look something like this
  However, for the cheapest budget option, you can very well go something like this.
  
  Personal Traits
  You probably don't have all the expensive stuff I do, so I'll just leave you this guide. Get whatever you have and seems relevant for your build. Fortunately Fleet Coordinator and Cannon Training are free.
  
  Ship Traits
  If you have any of the traits I use on my build, absolutely, go and use those, unless you opted to go full budget route (no technicians and no a2b), then don't use Cold Hearted (as it came with event ship, I'd assume you have at least that one). Romulans can now fly all of their allies' ships, so you might very well be able to get something that way.
  
  However, you probably don't have everything, so - as mentioned before, Super Charged Weapons is a very decent trait. Command Frequency and Unconventional Tactics are excellent and just require specialization point grinding. Honored Dead is very good survivability trait and costs ~1m if you're fed-rom.
  
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  And I guess that's all. If I missed listing alternatives to anything you can't obtain, please let me know and I'll be sure to help out with that, too.

  
  
  U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
  R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
  
  My Youtube channel containing STO videos.

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• arionisa Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User

  November 2018

  @tunebreaker
  
  Thank you for the advice. Definitely going to have to fudge a few things, such as using beam skills instead of cannons until I can me a decent set of plasma cannons (already have almost a full set of vr/epic beams/dual beams but no cannons) but going to get it close and give er a spin.

  LTS and loving it.
  
  

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