I have switched nearly all my captains into escorts filled to the brim with dual heavy cannons, a dual beam bank and turrets in the rear. All my engineer console slots are filled with armour and as the power consoles are pretty useless now, I concentrate on high dps with good survivability
I now kill stuff much quicker and out tank nearly all cruisers and sci vessels in the stf's
I has some fun in a nebula the other night with my sci captain, but for me, escorts are the only thing id use for stf's..
1. You've got a nice little cruiser. But every Excelsior-R can easily outdamage you with 8 arrays, 2 * EPtW1, DEM etc.
It's not a cruiser, it's an escort. Additionally, your slow turning Excelsior-R would bring 4 beams to bear on me versus my 7. I'm doing the math, but can't figure out how it works out. When I take into account that it only has 3 tac consoles and 1 tac Lt. Commander Boff, I'm utterly dumbfounded. The Excelsior can easily out heal this build, but it's a cruiser and that's the point of a cruiser -tank.
2. You use 4 BO skills that share the same cooldown. The Tac Ensign slot that has little to no use in your build, right? How often do you use BFaW1? I'd prefer the Fleet Escort with an Eng slot (i.e. EPtS1 or another EPtW1 if you like it so much).
I use the Tactical Ensign slot every single time a shield facing drops around 20% to buff it and receive extra DPS.
3. Every tried an EPS console instead of one of the armors? It really helps to increase your weapon weapon power by regenerating the power drain faster since your beams' cooldown will overlapse.
As far as I know, the +18 to energy weapons helps shields, but I could be completely wrong and thus I will experiment more. I admit, the 2 Neutroniums are possibly the weakest part of the build, but BOTH of them help when mobbed and receiving beam damage.
4. SB24 is no real reference.
It references the amount of DPS dealt.
5. Do you play elite STFs? Guess not.
Yes.
6. Beam Escorts are superior in 1on1s since you fire on your target almost all the time while a cannon escort has problems to get you in the front arc. No doubt about it.. But it suffers against multiple opponents.
How's your damage compared to someone with 2 DHC / 3 Turrets who cycles Rapid Fire or Scatter Volley 1 and 3, a DBB with two Beam Overload 3 and a Quantum launcher with Torpedo Spread 1 and 2? my guess is around 45-55%.
I don't have the dilithium for a fleet escort. Furthermore, the fire at will has a 15 second cool down before the other one is available. I use these more often than the beam overload for 2 or more targets. When I need more DPS on a single ship, I'll use the beam overload. Additionally, the reason I have the Beam Arrays is the fire arc and I have noticed that the DBB has the same draw backs as the DHC's.
7. I'd drop the cloaking device. How often do you actually use it in an STF?
I use this between each set of mobs/gates/etc. in the STF's. (So A LOT) Combined with fire at will and attack pattern omega, I do Massive overall DPS.
Again, try it out before you knock it. I don't know why or how, but I crit for over 14,000 on every target I get into hull. A sudden crit of over 14,000 takes the place of a well placed torpedo assault.
However, if you want to win in Station 24, you HAVE to use Torpedo spread. Massive critical hits with splash damage will defeat any sort of beam build.
To answer that, the consoles for resistances all have diminishing returns with the equations targeting 40% softcap. Stacking all of one console type usually gives less of an overall benefit over spreading things out. I'll admit that, yes, if you used three eletroceramic plates, you'd get somewhere in the margin of 43-45% plasma resist, but... And this is a big but.
Using 1x Monotanium, 1x Neut, 1x Electro, and even before taking skills like Hull Reinforcement and Armour Plating into account, you can sit on 34-36% resists EACH (Plasma, Kinetic). Count the armour perks if you have them, and the skills, once they're all fixed, you can potentially sit on 40-45% Plasma, Kinetic with 25-27% in the unfocused damage types.
I agree, but assuming you are going with a more balanced build, and only have one Eng slot to use for an armor resist console, electroceramics would be the best ones to use if you're using the ship to play STFs right? Assume 3 Eng console slots- 1 is for Field Generator (balanced/shield build), 1 is for monotanium (kinetic resist) and the 3rd is electroceramic (plasma resist).
If you devote multiple Eng console slots to armor resists, then definitely the neutronium makes sense. But for a pure STF/Borg build, the electroceramic is the best in the case that you only have a single Eng console slot to devote to armor resist
Engineering Consoles: EPS Console, Neutronium Console, Field Generator MK XI (+35% shield capacity)
Science Consoles: Science Consoles: Assimilated Module (Borg Console), Biofunction Monitor (Or Grappler OR Impulse Capacitance Cell)
Tactical Consoles: 4x of the Energy Weapon type you are using (Ex. Phaser Relay, Plasma Infuser, etc.)
Devices: Subspace Field Modulator (defensive buff, similar to Brace for Impact) plus one of the Following - Red Matter Capacitor, Rechargeable Shield Battery, Scorpion Fighters, or Shield batteries
Bridge Officer Skills -
Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Target Shield Subsystems 2, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Attack Pattern Omega 3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tac Team 1, Fire at Will 2, Beam Overload 3
Lt. Science: Transfer Shield Strength 1, Hazard Emitters 2
Lt. Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 1, Reverse Shield Polarity 1
Ensign Engineering: Emergency Power to Weapons 1
Run FULL power to Weapons for your power levels.
My testing of this build:
I had to use Polaron beams cause well, thats what I have, and not all of them were purple mk xi. I also had 4x Polaron tac consoles. I DON'T have Target Shield Subsystems 3, and if I did I'd switch that and the Attack Pattern Beta.
I first tested in Station 24 as suggested, received 2nd place even though I entered late. Tried again later, got first place. The good thing about this build for Station 24 is hitting multiple targets at once, but you don't KILL them very quickly like with a scatter volley/torp spread build. I strongly suspect my normal build will easily beat this build in Station 24.
I next tested it in Cure Space Normal. Damage was sufficient to kill BoP's and Raptors headed to the Kang. I could also do significant damage to the Probes under the cubes due to Power to Weapons along with the Attack Patterns. I could also TRIBBLE the Cubes shields with the beams and Target Shield subsystems, which is nice. The Overload 3 is also good for big hits against single targets, more damage than your average torpedo hit but at the cost of loosing weapon power for a little while (best for finishing off targets).
After that, I tested it on Infected Space Elite. It did quite well at tanking most everything even the Tactical Cube at the end. I spend FAR MORE time with this build at FULL IMPULSE than with the other builds, meaning using this setup you can do MORE damage while going FAST and keeping up your +miss stats. Also with the tac cube, damage is way down but the shield stripping ability and additional Attack Patterns makes this pretty effective against large single targets. Its a VERY good layout if you run in a quality team consistently as it works best as a Team-player build.
Lastly, I tested it in Khitomer Accord Space Normal. I wanted to see how well I could SOLO one side like I do with my normal build. It did pretty well, however I didn't do as much damage and ended up fighting one extra wave of Probes during the same amount of time it takes me to take down one Transformer myself (I have a specific pattern I use when SOLOing a side in KA space, it works damn well). I had slightly more defense due to being able to keep moving, but killing the Probes and Spheres was more difficult (Can't 1-shot a GROUP of probes with this build!).
Overall... I say this build IS worth trying out, and I'm going to add it to the list
Note: Running this build is WAY WAY WAY better than some of the other mixed-beam builds people have posted. I've tried those before, and they just don't work well at all. Try this instead if you hate cannons.
Engineering Consoles: EPS Console, Neutronium Console, Field Generator MK XI (+35% shield capacity)
Science Consoles: Science Consoles: Assimilated Module (Borg Console), Biofunction Monitor (Or Grappler OR Impulse Capacitance Cell)
Tactical Consoles: 4x of the Energy Weapon type you are using (Ex. Phaser Relay, Plasma Infuser, etc.)
Devices: Subspace Field Modulator (defensive buff, similar to Brace for Impact) plus one of the Following - Red Matter Capacitor, Rechargeable Shield Battery, Scorpion Fighters, or Shield batteries
Bridge Officer Skills -
Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Target Shield Subsystems 2, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Attack Pattern Omega 3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tac Team 1, Fire at Will 2, Beam Overload 3
Lt. Science: Transfer Shield Strength 1, Hazard Emitters 2
Lt. Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 1, Reverse Shield Polarity 1
Ensign Engineering: Emergency Power to Weapons 1
Run FULL power to Weapons for your power levels.
My testing of this build:
I had to use Polaron beams cause well, thats what I have, and not all of them were purple mk xi. I also had 4x Polaron tac consoles. I DON'T have Target Shield Subsystems 3, and if I did I'd switch that and the Attack Pattern Beta.
I first tested in Station 24 as suggested, received 2nd place even though I entered late. Tried again later, got first place. The good thing about this build for Station 24 is hitting multiple targets at once, but you don't KILL them very quickly like with a scatter volley/torp spread build. I strongly suspect my normal build will easily beat this build in Station 24.
I next tested it in Cure Space Normal. Damage was sufficient to kill BoP's and Raptors headed to the Kang. I could also do significant damage to the Probes under the cubes due to Power to Weapons along with the Attack Patterns. I could also TRIBBLE the Cubes shields with the beams and Target Shield subsystems, which is nice. The Overload 3 is also good for big hits against single targets, more damage than your average torpedo hit but at the cost of loosing weapon power for a little while (best for finishing off targets).
After that, I tested it on Infected Space Elite. It did quite well at tanking most everything even the Tactical Cube at the end. I spend FAR MORE time with this build at FULL IMPULSE than with the other builds, meaning using this setup you can do MORE damage while going FAST and keeping up your +miss stats. Also with the tac cube, damage is way down but the shield stripping ability and additional Attack Patterns makes this pretty effective against large single targets. Its a VERY good layout if you run in a quality team consistently as it works best as a Team-player build.
Lastly, I tested it in Khitomer Accord Space Normal. I wanted to see how well I could SOLO one side like I do with my normal build. It did pretty well, however I didn't do as much damage and ended up fighting one extra wave of Probes during the same amount of time it takes me to take down one Transformer myself (I have a specific pattern I use when SOLOing a side in KA space, it works damn well). I had slightly more defense due to being able to keep moving, but killing the Probes and Spheres was more difficult (Can't 1-shot a GROUP of probes with this build!).
Overall... I say this build IS worth trying out, and I'm going to add it to the list
Note: Running this build is WAY WAY WAY better than some of the other mixed-beam builds people have posted. I've tried those before, and they just don't work well at all. Try this instead if you hate cannons.
A BEAM BUILD, FOR AN ESCORT??? You might as well just go get a cruiser if you don't like cannons.
A BEAM BUILD, FOR AN ESCORT??? You might as well just go get a cruiser if you don't like cannons.
Had a beam build for a bit, on my MVAE. It can work well, given the right skills. Yes, it may not match the damage of a cannon build, but if you like to keep moving, cannons don't cut it. It still does more damage than a cruiser.
I'm up to page four on this thread studying away with great intrest. I hadn't done any of th Season 5 PvE's until a few days ago and up to now was stuck on flying an advanced escort. Since reading the first few pages (over and over again) of this thread I've swithced to a fleet escort, U.S.S. Rawlins XI. It started out a little ruff but this thread has REALLY helped.
One thing I didn't see much of was anything about key binds. I got this idea today while trying to set up a joy stick with NO luck. I found a very good thread in the forums about key binds and gave it a try. With the key binds I've cut my deaths down to a very low minimum and my kill speed has really improved.
Here's what i ended up doing, I may go buy an X-Box controller tomorrow and try on that too. I can always take it back if it doesn't, right?
Fire All Weapons ---- Mouse Right button double click.
Distribute Shield power ---- Mouse Right button click.
Cannon Scatter Volley 3 ---- Mouse Right button press.
Torpedo Spread 2 ---- Mouse Right button drag.
Cannon Rapid Fire 2 ---- mouse Middle button press.
With this setup, my shileds (Aegis) stay up a lot longsr and the ship almost never stops firing. Pretty Cool!
First off, kostamojen, you're hilarious. Numpad, what a Novell idea...
Second, I forgot to mention my devices. I use:
1x Subspace Field Modulator
1x AUX Battery (For max heals on Hazard Emitters I and Transfer Power to Shields II)
I've found that even though I'm in an escort, I still find it necessary to heal fellow teammates in science ships and in cruisers. I guess that's a testament to my build.
Engineering Consoles: EPS Console, Neutronium Console, Field Generator MK XI (+35% shield capacity)
Science Consoles: Science Consoles: Assimilated Module (Borg Console), Biofunction Monitor (Or Grappler OR Impulse Capacitance Cell)
Tactical Consoles: 4x of the Energy Weapon type you are using (Ex. Phaser Relay, Plasma Infuser, etc.)
Devices: Subspace Field Modulator (defensive buff, similar to Brace for Impact) plus one of the Following - Red Matter Capacitor, Rechargeable Shield Battery, Scorpion Fighters, or Shield batteries
Bridge Officer Skills -
Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Target Shield Subsystems 2, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Attack Pattern Omega 3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tac Team 1, Fire at Will 2, Beam Overload 3
Lt. Science: Transfer Shield Strength 1, Hazard Emitters 2
Lt. Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 1, Reverse Shield Polarity 1
Ensign Engineering: Emergency Power to Weapons 1
Run FULL power to Weapons for your power levels.
My testing of this build:
I had to use Polaron beams cause well, thats what I have, and not all of them were purple mk xi. I also had 4x Polaron tac consoles. I DON'T have Target Shield Subsystems 3, and if I did I'd switch that and the Attack Pattern Beta.
I first tested in Station 24 as suggested, received 2nd place even though I entered late. Tried again later, got first place. The good thing about this build for Station 24 is hitting multiple targets at once, but you don't KILL them very quickly like with a scatter volley/torp spread build. I strongly suspect my normal build will easily beat this build in Station 24.
I next tested it in Cure Space Normal. Damage was sufficient to kill BoP's and Raptors headed to the Kang. I could also do significant damage to the Probes under the cubes due to Power to Weapons along with the Attack Patterns. I could also TRIBBLE the Cubes shields with the beams and Target Shield subsystems, which is nice. The Overload 3 is also good for big hits against single targets, more damage than your average torpedo hit but at the cost of loosing weapon power for a little while (best for finishing off targets).
--Monologue of testament to how good Paradigm's build is--
Overall... I say this build IS worth trying out, and I'm going to add it to the list
Note: Running this build is WAY WAY WAY better than some of the other mixed-beam builds people have posted. I've tried those before, and they just don't work well at all. Try this instead if you hate cannons.
Here's the problem with your setup:
Beam Overload 3
With this power activated, the debuff to accuracy is too big. Find yourself missing 30%-70% of the shots fired? I did. However, I found that when I used Beam Overload II, and found a Tactical fleet mate with Target Subsystems Weapons 3 (who trained the BOFF for free) instead of Fire at Will III or Beam Overload III, I hit more often and keep the wanted target debuff abilities of Attack Patern Beta III.
It took some explaining and persuasion (and some math) for me to fully grasp the benefits of using an Attack Pattern Beta III versus a weapon buff III. Being able to bring the defensive abilities of a Tac Cube or Gate directly inversely effects the additional DPS of your entire fleet.
To help explain, let me ask a rhetorical question:
What adds a greater NET value; increase the DPS for 5 out of the 5 captains in the instance or increase the DPS for 1 out of the 5 captains in the instance?
For the sake of being successfull in Elite STF's, please don't be a 1 man Armada. There's no "I" in Team. Helping everybody do more DPS or otherwise hampering the enemy from attack your buddies will get the run done faster than 5 captains all doing separate things that they think is better for themselves and not acting as a TEAM.
Lastly, thank you for the many compliments, but make the couple changes I suggest and see how you do more DPS and can possibly do away with the EPS Console with the BOFF power Emergency Power to Weapons I.
Have you tested that beam boat build on elite missions other than Infected? I'm just not convinced that the DPS is there to make meaningful contributions against the gates in KA or the probes in Cure. Against the tac cube in Infected, I find it just as effective to (mid-mission) swap out out of my DHCs for a DBB and put my Target Shields 3 bridge officer on active duty. Of course, in the ideal case, the tac cube lacks weapons, engines and shields thanks to power siphon drones, so you can just sit there and pound it into so much scrap metal, which is how my Infected space runs usually go.
I also noticed that most of the suggested builds include RSP 1: I've found that my survivability has actually gone up significantly by switching out RSP 1 for EPtS 2. With the two emergency power abilities, I have almost 100% uptime on the shield damage resistance bonus, which is more beneficial than the occasional six seconds of extremely high resistance to energy fire every two minutes. With my MVAE, I also run Transfer Shields 3, and the three shield heals do a very nice job of keeping me alive during the elite space runs. Combine it with Polarize Hull for tractor immunity (the above poster has an excellent point about Beta 3 over Omega 3 in my experience) and Hazard 2 and you have a very helpful science officer.
I mentioned earlier that I switched from the advanced retrofit cruiser to a fleet escort.I wish i'd done it long ago.
Fore Weapons; QT, 3xAPDHC (1619 dmg, 1079 dps)
Deflector; Aegis
Impulse; MACO. (It'll turn on a dime)
Shields; MACO
Aft Weapons; 3xAPT (424 dmg, 565 dps)
Devices; SFM, Heavy Turret
Engineering; SIF, EPS, EPDM
Science; Borg, EA
Tactical; 4xAMR
The above is all XI or higher
Commander Tac; TS1, TS2, CRF2, CSV3 (BO with all the Tactical Space traits)
LT. Commander Tac; TT1, APB1, APO1
LT. Engineering; EPS1, RSP1
EN. Engineering; EPS1 (I might try to find a APtSI for one of the Engeneering slots) (BO with Warp Core)
LT. Science; TSS1, HE2 (BO with all the Tactical Space traits)
I'm also using DoFFS which enhance whatever i could find useful to enhance. On the BO placement I am not sure if the BO's with Traits have have to be in the Ship Stations or just commiisioned so I put them in the Ship Stations.
I'm not going to post the skills because no mater how well it works there's always room for change.
Generally, this ship is doing very well. Testing has been done in Cure, Infected, Sh'mar, Defence Contract, and Karrat. In all these zones it has run circles around the advanced cruiser. Any deaths have been attributed to being too close to something that's about to expload, big torpedos, not paying attention, klinks sneaking up from behind when I was weakened by half a dozen Borg, or being left alone by teammates while in the middle of a swarm. It will cut through Klink or Borg shields ASAP. I've never seen Sh'mar or Defence contract go so fast.
Also, putting FAW and DSP on the mouse button has made a world of difference.
I'm also using DoFFS which enhance whatever i could find useful to enhance. On the BO placement I am not sure if the BO's with Traits have have to be in the Ship Stations or just commiisioned so I put them in the Ship Stations.
Jake81499
Yes you're Bridge Officers have to be assigned to a station for you to be able to use their abilities. Since you touched on it I'm curious- what DOFFs are good for escorts?
Since you touched on it I'm curious- what DOFFs are good for escorts?
I'm currently using;
Green Shield Distribution Officer with the chance od partioally regenerating shields.
Purple Excomp.
Green Maintenence Engineer with Space recharge time.
Green Warp Core Engeneer with Chance of temperarily improving ships power.
Blue Hazard Systems Officer with the damage resistence buff for Hazard Systems and Brace For Impact.
You need to read each one and make sure they will fit what you're using on your ship. Like the Excomp I could change because I'm not using batteries.
After writing my post I changed out one of the EPS1 with ET1. It's a good hull buff but shares a cooldown with TT1. No biggy, tested it in Karrat and it helped.
Yes you're Bridge Officers have to be assigned to a station for you to be able to use their abilities. Since you touched on it I'm curious- what DOFFs are good for escorts?
My basic setup:
3 Shield Distribution Officers = 3 times the chance for a shield heal when using Brace for Impact
1 Projectile Weapons Officer to reduce the recharge time
1 Warp Core Engineer / 1 Sensors Officer (on my Sci Escorts)
After writing my post I changed out one of the EPS1 with ET1. It's a good hull buff but shares a cooldown with TT1. No biggy, tested it in Karrat and it helped.
I'd use 2 EPtS1 and Aux2Sif1
Aux2Sif1 is better than ET1/2 since it adds damage reistance and has no shared cooldown with Tactical Team. And it's cooldown is just 15 seconds.
Beam Overload 3
With this power activated, the debuff to accuracy is too big. Find yourself missing 30%-70% of the shots fired? I did. However, I found that when I used Beam Overload II, and found a Tactical fleet mate with Target Subsystems Weapons 3 (who trained the BOFF for free) instead of Fire at Will III or Beam Overload III, I hit more often and keep the wanted target debuff abilities of Attack Patern Beta III.
I don't have Target shield subsystems 3 (target subsytems weapons isn't really that useful), and most people don't and BO 3 is cheap right now on the exchange.
FAW III would be fine to replace it, I don't have a problem with that, the beam skills really are swapable, but using those 3 in any form seem to be a good idea (FAW, BO, and Target Shield Subsystems).
It took some explaining and persuasion (and some math) for me to fully grasp the benefits of using an Attack Pattern Beta III versus a weapon buff III. Being able to bring the defensive abilities of a Tac Cube or Gate directly inversely effects the additional DPS of your entire fleet.
For the sake of being successfull in Elite STF's, please don't be a 1 man Armada. There's no "I" in Team. Helping everybody do more DPS or otherwise hampering the enemy from attack your buddies will get the run done faster than 5 captains all doing separate things that they think is better for themselves and not acting as a TEAM.
I posted this before, but I only spend ~10% of my STF's targeting the same target as someone else, and Omega has saved my *** more times than I can count AND also gets me somewhere faster when needed. I find it more useful.
But with this beam build, either way would be fine. I figured running Omega 3 and Beta 2 is better than running Beta 3 and Omega 1.
Have you tested that beam boat build on elite missions other than Infected? I'm just not convinced that the DPS is there to make meaningful contributions against the gates in KA or the probes in Cure. Against the tac cube in Infected, I find it just as effective to (mid-mission) swap out out of my DHCs for a DBB and put my Target Shields 3 bridge officer on active duty. Of course, in the ideal case, the tac cube lacks weapons, engines and shields thanks to power siphon drones, so you can just sit there and pound it into so much scrap metal, which is how my Infected space runs usually go.
I did more testing, it works just fine on any STF. The damage is higher than one would expect even against Elite probes.
I also noticed that most of the suggested builds include RSP 1: I've found that my survivability has actually gone up significantly by switching out RSP 1 for EPtS 2. With the two emergency power abilities, I have almost 100% uptime on the shield damage resistance bonus, which is more beneficial than the occasional six seconds of extremely high resistance to energy fire every two minutes. With my MVAE, I also run Transfer Shields 3, and the three shield heals do a very nice job of keeping me alive during the elite space runs. Combine it with Polarize Hull for tractor immunity (the above poster has an excellent point about Beta 3 over Omega 3 in my experience) and Hazard 2 and you have a very helpful science officer.
If you are running high regen shields, use 2x EPTS with EPTS 2 being one of those two.
But if you are using another kind of shield, I find RSP plus a Tactical Team is more of a life saver in the long run.
Plus, running TWO EPTS 1 AND RSP means best of both worlds.
I think the moderators need to sticky this thread, as well as any other good threads that come up about STF builds for Cruisers and another thread for Science ships.
Although personally, without a Federation Carrier with the ability to launch a couple stacking waves of energy siphon drones, I couldn't see a good use for science ships other than mob control and shield heals for the team.
3 Shield Distribution Officers = 3 times the chance for a shield heal when using Brace for Impact
1 Projectile Weapons Officer to reduce the recharge time
1 Warp Core Engineer / 1 Sensors Officer (on my Sci Escorts).
I'm going to try the additional shield buffs today and see how that works out.
Aux2Sif1 is better than ET1/2 since it adds damage reistance and has no shared cooldown with Tactical Team. And it's cooldown is just 15 seconds.
While I like the Aux2sif, I really like the RSP better. But when the system comes back up today I'll try it again. I used Aux2sif on my Cruiser and it worked out very well but I had room for the RSP also.
The Advanced Cruiser Retrofit had a tendancy to self distruct when it saw a borg probe even if the probe was 40k out of range. So I'm a bit excited to finally have a ship that works. I ran three Karrat sets today for the dilithium and I gotta say I love it. The klinks actually run rather than laugh. The Fleet Escort brought some life back into the game for me.
Although personally, without a Federation Carrier with the ability to launch a couple stacking waves of energy siphon drones, I couldn't see a good use for science ships other than mob control and shield heals for the team.
Ya, I'm having trouble getting a Science ship to work well in STF's.
Although making one with 2x tractor beam skills and a grav well makes them rather useful for holding probes in place.
Is the Gravity Well that you can get with the MVAE worth giving up the advantages of the Fleet Escort?
MVAE v.s. Fleet Escort
1) You lose RSP, since you only have 2 engineering BO actions.
2) You have the same number of Tactical BO actions, but two of them get downgraded by one level.
3) You lose one engineering console (I hesitate to call an extra science console a gain.)
4) You lose 50 crew (more if you think the MVAE console is worth using)
Now, there is no question that Gravity Well is good. But is it that good?
I'm going to try the additional shield buffs today and see how that works out.
While I like the Aux2sif, I really like the RSP better. But when the system comes back up today I'll try it again. I used Aux2sif on my Cruiser and it worked out very well but I had room for the RSP also.
Jake81499
I tried the 3 DoFF for shields thing changeout today and couldn't really see much difference. I also tried the Aiu2sif today. It seems like it may just be a catch 22. Whatever the player likes best. I personally prefer the RSP.
Edit... I'm retrying the DoFF, this time with just two Shield Distribution officers. I dropped Engineering officer.
Edit 2... Ok, I tried the 2x Shield distribution officers and couldn't tell any difference at all in Karrat, Cure or Infected. I managed to get a blue Shield Distribution office and installed it, dropped the other green and added the maintenance engineer back. I immediatly saw a difference in sheild regen while using BFI3 in all the instances. I'm leaving the DoFFs at that.
posted this before, but I only spend ~10% of my STF's targeting the same target as someone else, and Omega has saved my *** more times than I can count AND also gets me somewhere faster when needed. I find it more useful.
I find this to be very much at odds with my experience running the elite space missions. Focus-fire is the name of the game if you want to get the optional objectives on Elite on a regular basis. Particularly against the spheres in Infected after the transformer goes down or against the Negh'vars that spawn during Cure.
If anyone is interested, here's what I fly with. For the most part, I run Elite missions exclusively, and this MVAE build keeps me alive and the DPS coming. My groups routinely get the optional objectives on all three space missions, so this build has tested well.
Fore Weapons: 3x Mk 12 Antiproton DHC, 1x Mk 12 Quantum Launcher
Equipment: Borg Set, Maco Shield
Aft Weapons: 2x Mk 12 AP Turrets, 1x Mk 12 Tricobalt.
Engineering Consoles: 1x Electroceramic Plating, 1x Field Generator
Science Consoles: 1x Assimilated Module, 1x Graviton Generator OR Emitter Array, 1x Point Defense System
Tactical Consoles: 1x Quantum, 3x AP consoles.
All consoles are mk 11 rares, all weapons are purples from the STF vendor.
Boff abilities:
Cmdr Tactical: Tac Team 1, Rapid Fire 1, HY 3, Beta 3
Lt Cmdr Science: Polarize 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3
Lt Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Rapid Fire 1
Lt Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 1 & 2
Ensign Tactical: High Yield 1
When I need to do probe duty in Khitomer Accord, or guard the Kang in Cure, I switch my Boffs around a little bit so that I have Scatter Volley 2 & 3, and 2x Torpedo Spread 2, along with Gravity Well 1 for Transfer Shields 3. With my AoE setup, I can stop probes cold or keep the Kang alive against the Birds of Prey indefinitely.
A few comments: As I've said before, I like two copies of EPtS for the 100% uptime. I go with High-Yield, Rapid Fire and Beta 3 because there is a lot of need for single-target DPS against cube guardians in KA, Negh'vars in Cure and quickly dispatching spheres in Infected. Do you perhaps do more total damage with a Scatter Volley setup? Probably. However, I find that my setup lets me have much higher total uptime on cannon-enhancing abilities, letting me work with my team to quickly dispatch targets in sequence. Focus-fire is the rule of the game for elite STFs, (outside of PUG land of course, but I don't worry about that) and my build serves that need nicely. High-yield also works nicely with the aft tri-cobalt launcher.
With a standard setup of three shield heals, I find that my shields stay up a great deal of the time, and between Polarize Hull and the PDS console I can survive the tractor beam + heavy Plasma Torpedo combination that Cubes so love.
(outside of PUG land of course, but I don't worry about that)
If you have a set group of people you are working with thats one thing, but that is not what this thread is about. That would be a different thread entirely
I was in a PUG group for KA space elite earlier, and I had to tank Donatra. Well, you can't tank her in Elite of course, you have to stay behind her. If I didn't have Omega, I would have died constantly due to the tractor beams and also the rest of the team would wipe as soon as I lost agro (which did happen once). I also used to to accelerate and get out of her firing arc several times, and resist whatever she was throwing at me.
In conjunction with everything else, I like Omega and find it more useful. But a rounded team WOULD have people using different things of course. I still recommend it for people trying to figure out their builds because it will help them stay alive and work for non-STF purposes as well.
Do you perhaps do more total damage with a Scatter Volley setup?
A klink in Karrat said the Cannon Scatter Volley did more damage to him than anything else the feds had. He then went on to say the Cannon Scatter Volley was the fed only hope for survival against him.
I too like the Omega. I does wonders on tractor beams.
*waves* Greetings :cool: Ive been playing for a little over a year, Ive run an Escort with my main and well only character ever since. I was at lvl 34 for the longest because I didnt want to grind so much. Would be VA by now but I let my subscription run out when I heard it was going FTP, no use throwing away money.
I briefly looked this over yesterday and saw Tactical Team, I hadnt really looked at that power but now its in my hotbar! You would think just pressing up or clicking on your shield would work as well but between the increase in damage and low recharge rate, it comes in very handy. Though I can only run one TT.
Spent hours respecing my BO's last night, here's how my crew powers break down:
Cmdr Tac: Beam charge target shields 1(comes in handy), Beam Overload, Torpedo High yield(never liked Spread, I mostly use Torps on tougher targets anyway) Attack Pattern Omega 3
Lt. Tac: Tactical team 1, Fire at will 2. With three dual Tetryon banks and a Tetryon phaser array in back I can engange and hold 5, 6 ships at a time
Lt. Eng: Emergency power to shields 1, Reverse shield polarity 2. I was worried about the order but after reading more carefully I see I was correct
Lt. Sci: Transfer shield strength 1, Tachyon beam 2. I chose Tachyon beam because I figured if I strictly focus on Shield heals for me, I could use that on tougher targets(like Borg) to quickly drop their shields and really do some damage.
I do not like cannons, just a preference. Also I do have a Quantum mine launcher on the other aft port, in case I dont finish an enemy off on the first pass I hit that and they run smack into it. Also good for groups.
I figure if Escorts are the Tank/DPS role then my role(what i like best) is to lay down as much fire as possible, on tougher enemies dropping their shield as fast as possible to open them up for a High Yield Quantum torpedo.
Lt. Eng: Emergency power to shields 1, Reverse shield polarity 2. I was worried about the order but after reading more carefully I see I was correct
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you are, in fact, using EPtS 1 and RSP 1, so you never actually had a choice regarding which ability to have in the second slot.
The only addition I would make for a top-dps STF elite build is the incorporation of the Point Defense Turret into a sci slot (the one from the Thunderchild).
Full phaser spec loadout. Once the shields are down on your target (if its a gateway/transformer then you don't need to wait for shield lower) pop AP:A, AP:O, FOMM3, TacFleet, then pop your Point Defense Turret and watch your target simply melt. I've killed 600,000 HP transformers in under 30 seconds with this + CRF:3 and BO:3 and tac initiative.
So I did a bit of testing against a friend's defiant build today, which he had setup to tank effectively with an engineer. I found Scatter Volley 3 to be markedly more effective than Rapid Fire 1, but the same wasn't true for Scatter Volley 2, so I think that so long as I can expect my team mates to focus fire all on the same target, sticking with Rapid Fire should be more effective.
Comments
I now kill stuff much quicker and out tank nearly all cruisers and sci vessels in the stf's
I has some fun in a nebula the other night with my sci captain, but for me, escorts are the only thing id use for stf's..
It's not a cruiser, it's an escort. Additionally, your slow turning Excelsior-R would bring 4 beams to bear on me versus my 7. I'm doing the math, but can't figure out how it works out. When I take into account that it only has 3 tac consoles and 1 tac Lt. Commander Boff, I'm utterly dumbfounded. The Excelsior can easily out heal this build, but it's a cruiser and that's the point of a cruiser -tank.
2. You use 4 BO skills that share the same cooldown. The Tac Ensign slot that has little to no use in your build, right? How often do you use BFaW1? I'd prefer the Fleet Escort with an Eng slot (i.e. EPtS1 or another EPtW1 if you like it so much).
I use the Tactical Ensign slot every single time a shield facing drops around 20% to buff it and receive extra DPS.
3. Every tried an EPS console instead of one of the armors? It really helps to increase your weapon weapon power by regenerating the power drain faster since your beams' cooldown will overlapse.
As far as I know, the +18 to energy weapons helps shields, but I could be completely wrong and thus I will experiment more. I admit, the 2 Neutroniums are possibly the weakest part of the build, but BOTH of them help when mobbed and receiving beam damage.
4. SB24 is no real reference.
It references the amount of DPS dealt.
5. Do you play elite STFs? Guess not.
Yes.
6. Beam Escorts are superior in 1on1s since you fire on your target almost all the time while a cannon escort has problems to get you in the front arc. No doubt about it.. But it suffers against multiple opponents.
How's your damage compared to someone with 2 DHC / 3 Turrets who cycles Rapid Fire or Scatter Volley 1 and 3, a DBB with two Beam Overload 3 and a Quantum launcher with Torpedo Spread 1 and 2? my guess is around 45-55%.
I don't have the dilithium for a fleet escort. Furthermore, the fire at will has a 15 second cool down before the other one is available. I use these more often than the beam overload for 2 or more targets. When I need more DPS on a single ship, I'll use the beam overload. Additionally, the reason I have the Beam Arrays is the fire arc and I have noticed that the DBB has the same draw backs as the DHC's.
7. I'd drop the cloaking device. How often do you actually use it in an STF?
I use this between each set of mobs/gates/etc. in the STF's. (So A LOT) Combined with fire at will and attack pattern omega, I do Massive overall DPS.
Again, try it out before you knock it. I don't know why or how, but I crit for over 14,000 on every target I get into hull. A sudden crit of over 14,000 takes the place of a well placed torpedo assault.
However, if you want to win in Station 24, you HAVE to use Torpedo spread. Massive critical hits with splash damage will defeat any sort of beam build.
I agree, but assuming you are going with a more balanced build, and only have one Eng slot to use for an armor resist console, electroceramics would be the best ones to use if you're using the ship to play STFs right? Assume 3 Eng console slots- 1 is for Field Generator (balanced/shield build), 1 is for monotanium (kinetic resist) and the 3rd is electroceramic (plasma resist).
If you devote multiple Eng console slots to armor resists, then definitely the neutronium makes sense. But for a pure STF/Borg build, the electroceramic is the best in the case that you only have a single Eng console slot to devote to armor resist
It is indeed a quality build but with a few small changes:
Fleet Escort
Forward Weapons: 4x Beam Arrays
Rear Weapons: 3x Beam Arrays
Engineering Consoles: EPS Console, Neutronium Console, Field Generator MK XI (+35% shield capacity)
Science Consoles: Science Consoles: Assimilated Module (Borg Console), Biofunction Monitor (Or Grappler OR Impulse Capacitance Cell)
Tactical Consoles: 4x of the Energy Weapon type you are using (Ex. Phaser Relay, Plasma Infuser, etc.)
Devices: Subspace Field Modulator (defensive buff, similar to Brace for Impact) plus one of the Following - Red Matter Capacitor, Rechargeable Shield Battery, Scorpion Fighters, or Shield batteries
Bridge Officer Skills -
Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Target Shield Subsystems 2, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Attack Pattern Omega 3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tac Team 1, Fire at Will 2, Beam Overload 3
Lt. Science: Transfer Shield Strength 1, Hazard Emitters 2
Lt. Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 1, Reverse Shield Polarity 1
Ensign Engineering: Emergency Power to Weapons 1
Run FULL power to Weapons for your power levels.
My testing of this build:
I had to use Polaron beams cause well, thats what I have, and not all of them were purple mk xi. I also had 4x Polaron tac consoles. I DON'T have Target Shield Subsystems 3, and if I did I'd switch that and the Attack Pattern Beta.
I first tested in Station 24 as suggested, received 2nd place even though I entered late. Tried again later, got first place. The good thing about this build for Station 24 is hitting multiple targets at once, but you don't KILL them very quickly like with a scatter volley/torp spread build. I strongly suspect my normal build will easily beat this build in Station 24.
I next tested it in Cure Space Normal. Damage was sufficient to kill BoP's and Raptors headed to the Kang. I could also do significant damage to the Probes under the cubes due to Power to Weapons along with the Attack Patterns. I could also TRIBBLE the Cubes shields with the beams and Target Shield subsystems, which is nice. The Overload 3 is also good for big hits against single targets, more damage than your average torpedo hit but at the cost of loosing weapon power for a little while (best for finishing off targets).
After that, I tested it on Infected Space Elite. It did quite well at tanking most everything even the Tactical Cube at the end. I spend FAR MORE time with this build at FULL IMPULSE than with the other builds, meaning using this setup you can do MORE damage while going FAST and keeping up your +miss stats. Also with the tac cube, damage is way down but the shield stripping ability and additional Attack Patterns makes this pretty effective against large single targets. Its a VERY good layout if you run in a quality team consistently as it works best as a Team-player build.
Lastly, I tested it in Khitomer Accord Space Normal. I wanted to see how well I could SOLO one side like I do with my normal build. It did pretty well, however I didn't do as much damage and ended up fighting one extra wave of Probes during the same amount of time it takes me to take down one Transformer myself (I have a specific pattern I use when SOLOing a side in KA space, it works damn well). I had slightly more defense due to being able to keep moving, but killing the Probes and Spheres was more difficult (Can't 1-shot a GROUP of probes with this build!).
Overall... I say this build IS worth trying out, and I'm going to add it to the list
Note: Running this build is WAY WAY WAY better than some of the other mixed-beam builds people have posted. I've tried those before, and they just don't work well at all. Try this instead if you hate cannons.
A BEAM BUILD, FOR AN ESCORT??? You might as well just go get a cruiser if you don't like cannons.
That is the purpose of this thread after all...
Had a beam build for a bit, on my MVAE. It can work well, given the right skills. Yes, it may not match the damage of a cannon build, but if you like to keep moving, cannons don't cut it. It still does more damage than a cruiser.
I'm up to page four on this thread studying away with great intrest. I hadn't done any of th Season 5 PvE's until a few days ago and up to now was stuck on flying an advanced escort. Since reading the first few pages (over and over again) of this thread I've swithced to a fleet escort, U.S.S. Rawlins XI. It started out a little ruff but this thread has REALLY helped.
One thing I didn't see much of was anything about key binds. I got this idea today while trying to set up a joy stick with NO luck. I found a very good thread in the forums about key binds and gave it a try. With the key binds I've cut my deaths down to a very low minimum and my kill speed has really improved.
Here's what i ended up doing, I may go buy an X-Box controller tomorrow and try on that too. I can always take it back if it doesn't, right?
Fire All Weapons ---- Mouse Right button double click.
Distribute Shield power ---- Mouse Right button click.
Cannon Scatter Volley 3 ---- Mouse Right button press.
Torpedo Spread 2 ---- Mouse Right button drag.
Cannon Rapid Fire 2 ---- mouse Middle button press.
With this setup, my shileds (Aegis) stay up a lot longsr and the ship almost never stops firing. Pretty Cool!
Jake81499
Second, I forgot to mention my devices. I use:
1x Subspace Field Modulator
1x AUX Battery (For max heals on Hazard Emitters I and Transfer Power to Shields II)
I've found that even though I'm in an escort, I still find it necessary to heal fellow teammates in science ships and in cruisers. I guess that's a testament to my build.
Here's the problem with your setup:
Beam Overload 3
With this power activated, the debuff to accuracy is too big. Find yourself missing 30%-70% of the shots fired? I did. However, I found that when I used Beam Overload II, and found a Tactical fleet mate with Target Subsystems Weapons 3 (who trained the BOFF for free) instead of Fire at Will III or Beam Overload III, I hit more often and keep the wanted target debuff abilities of Attack Patern Beta III.
It took some explaining and persuasion (and some math) for me to fully grasp the benefits of using an Attack Pattern Beta III versus a weapon buff III. Being able to bring the defensive abilities of a Tac Cube or Gate directly inversely effects the additional DPS of your entire fleet.
To help explain, let me ask a rhetorical question:
What adds a greater NET value; increase the DPS for 5 out of the 5 captains in the instance or increase the DPS for 1 out of the 5 captains in the instance?
For the sake of being successfull in Elite STF's, please don't be a 1 man Armada. There's no "I" in Team. Helping everybody do more DPS or otherwise hampering the enemy from attack your buddies will get the run done faster than 5 captains all doing separate things that they think is better for themselves and not acting as a TEAM.
Lastly, thank you for the many compliments, but make the couple changes I suggest and see how you do more DPS and can possibly do away with the EPS Console with the BOFF power Emergency Power to Weapons I.
I also noticed that most of the suggested builds include RSP 1: I've found that my survivability has actually gone up significantly by switching out RSP 1 for EPtS 2. With the two emergency power abilities, I have almost 100% uptime on the shield damage resistance bonus, which is more beneficial than the occasional six seconds of extremely high resistance to energy fire every two minutes. With my MVAE, I also run Transfer Shields 3, and the three shield heals do a very nice job of keeping me alive during the elite space runs. Combine it with Polarize Hull for tractor immunity (the above poster has an excellent point about Beta 3 over Omega 3 in my experience) and Hazard 2 and you have a very helpful science officer.
Fore Weapons; QT, 3xAPDHC (1619 dmg, 1079 dps)
Deflector; Aegis
Impulse; MACO. (It'll turn on a dime)
Shields; MACO
Aft Weapons; 3xAPT (424 dmg, 565 dps)
Devices; SFM, Heavy Turret
Engineering; SIF, EPS, EPDM
Science; Borg, EA
Tactical; 4xAMR
The above is all XI or higher
Commander Tac; TS1, TS2, CRF2, CSV3 (BO with all the Tactical Space traits)
LT. Commander Tac; TT1, APB1, APO1
LT. Engineering; EPS1, RSP1
EN. Engineering; EPS1 (I might try to find a APtSI for one of the Engeneering slots) (BO with Warp Core)
LT. Science; TSS1, HE2 (BO with all the Tactical Space traits)
I'm also using DoFFS which enhance whatever i could find useful to enhance. On the BO placement I am not sure if the BO's with Traits have have to be in the Ship Stations or just commiisioned so I put them in the Ship Stations.
I'm not going to post the skills because no mater how well it works there's always room for change.
Generally, this ship is doing very well. Testing has been done in Cure, Infected, Sh'mar, Defence Contract, and Karrat. In all these zones it has run circles around the advanced cruiser. Any deaths have been attributed to being too close to something that's about to expload, big torpedos, not paying attention, klinks sneaking up from behind when I was weakened by half a dozen Borg, or being left alone by teammates while in the middle of a swarm. It will cut through Klink or Borg shields ASAP. I've never seen Sh'mar or Defence contract go so fast.
Also, putting FAW and DSP on the mouse button has made a world of difference.
Thanks for posting this thread, It helped a ton.
Jake81499
Yes you're Bridge Officers have to be assigned to a station for you to be able to use their abilities. Since you touched on it I'm curious- what DOFFs are good for escorts?
I'm currently using;
Green Shield Distribution Officer with the chance od partioally regenerating shields.
Purple Excomp.
Green Maintenence Engineer with Space recharge time.
Green Warp Core Engeneer with Chance of temperarily improving ships power.
Blue Hazard Systems Officer with the damage resistence buff for Hazard Systems and Brace For Impact.
You need to read each one and make sure they will fit what you're using on your ship. Like the Excomp I could change because I'm not using batteries.
After writing my post I changed out one of the EPS1 with ET1. It's a good hull buff but shares a cooldown with TT1. No biggy, tested it in Karrat and it helped.
My basic setup:
3 Shield Distribution Officers = 3 times the chance for a shield heal when using Brace for Impact
1 Projectile Weapons Officer to reduce the recharge time
1 Warp Core Engineer / 1 Sensors Officer (on my Sci Escorts)
I'd use 2 EPtS1 and Aux2Sif1
Aux2Sif1 is better than ET1/2 since it adds damage reistance and has no shared cooldown with Tactical Team. And it's cooldown is just 15 seconds.
FAW III would be fine to replace it, I don't have a problem with that, the beam skills really are swapable, but using those 3 in any form seem to be a good idea (FAW, BO, and Target Shield Subsystems).
I posted this before, but I only spend ~10% of my STF's targeting the same target as someone else, and Omega has saved my *** more times than I can count AND also gets me somewhere faster when needed. I find it more useful.
But with this beam build, either way would be fine. I figured running Omega 3 and Beta 2 is better than running Beta 3 and Omega 1.
Although personally, without a Federation Carrier with the ability to launch a couple stacking waves of energy siphon drones, I couldn't see a good use for science ships other than mob control and shield heals for the team.
I'm going to try the additional shield buffs today and see how that works out.
While I like the Aux2sif, I really like the RSP better. But when the system comes back up today I'll try it again. I used Aux2sif on my Cruiser and it worked out very well but I had room for the RSP also.
The Advanced Cruiser Retrofit had a tendancy to self distruct when it saw a borg probe even if the probe was 40k out of range. So I'm a bit excited to finally have a ship that works. I ran three Karrat sets today for the dilithium and I gotta say I love it. The klinks actually run rather than laugh. The Fleet Escort brought some life back into the game for me.
Jake81499
Although making one with 2x tractor beam skills and a grav well makes them rather useful for holding probes in place.
Is the Gravity Well that you can get with the MVAE worth giving up the advantages of the Fleet Escort?
MVAE v.s. Fleet Escort
1) You lose RSP, since you only have 2 engineering BO actions.
2) You have the same number of Tactical BO actions, but two of them get downgraded by one level.
3) You lose one engineering console (I hesitate to call an extra science console a gain.)
4) You lose 50 crew (more if you think the MVAE console is worth using)
Now, there is no question that Gravity Well is good. But is it that good?
I tried the 3 DoFF for shields thing changeout today and couldn't really see much difference. I also tried the Aiu2sif today. It seems like it may just be a catch 22. Whatever the player likes best. I personally prefer the RSP.
Edit... I'm retrying the DoFF, this time with just two Shield Distribution officers. I dropped Engineering officer.
Edit 2... Ok, I tried the 2x Shield distribution officers and couldn't tell any difference at all in Karrat, Cure or Infected. I managed to get a blue Shield Distribution office and installed it, dropped the other green and added the maintenance engineer back. I immediatly saw a difference in sheild regen while using BFI3 in all the instances. I'm leaving the DoFFs at that.
Will try Aux2SIF again, next by dropping ET.
If anyone is interested, here's what I fly with. For the most part, I run Elite missions exclusively, and this MVAE build keeps me alive and the DPS coming. My groups routinely get the optional objectives on all three space missions, so this build has tested well.
Fore Weapons: 3x Mk 12 Antiproton DHC, 1x Mk 12 Quantum Launcher
Equipment: Borg Set, Maco Shield
Aft Weapons: 2x Mk 12 AP Turrets, 1x Mk 12 Tricobalt.
Engineering Consoles: 1x Electroceramic Plating, 1x Field Generator
Science Consoles: 1x Assimilated Module, 1x Graviton Generator OR Emitter Array, 1x Point Defense System
Tactical Consoles: 1x Quantum, 3x AP consoles.
All consoles are mk 11 rares, all weapons are purples from the STF vendor.
Boff abilities:
Cmdr Tactical: Tac Team 1, Rapid Fire 1, HY 3, Beta 3
Lt Cmdr Science: Polarize 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3
Lt Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Rapid Fire 1
Lt Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 1 & 2
Ensign Tactical: High Yield 1
When I need to do probe duty in Khitomer Accord, or guard the Kang in Cure, I switch my Boffs around a little bit so that I have Scatter Volley 2 & 3, and 2x Torpedo Spread 2, along with Gravity Well 1 for Transfer Shields 3. With my AoE setup, I can stop probes cold or keep the Kang alive against the Birds of Prey indefinitely.
A few comments: As I've said before, I like two copies of EPtS for the 100% uptime. I go with High-Yield, Rapid Fire and Beta 3 because there is a lot of need for single-target DPS against cube guardians in KA, Negh'vars in Cure and quickly dispatching spheres in Infected. Do you perhaps do more total damage with a Scatter Volley setup? Probably. However, I find that my setup lets me have much higher total uptime on cannon-enhancing abilities, letting me work with my team to quickly dispatch targets in sequence. Focus-fire is the rule of the game for elite STFs, (outside of PUG land of course, but I don't worry about that) and my build serves that need nicely. High-yield also works nicely with the aft tri-cobalt launcher.
With a standard setup of three shield heals, I find that my shields stay up a great deal of the time, and between Polarize Hull and the PDS console I can survive the tractor beam + heavy Plasma Torpedo combination that Cubes so love.
I was in a PUG group for KA space elite earlier, and I had to tank Donatra. Well, you can't tank her in Elite of course, you have to stay behind her. If I didn't have Omega, I would have died constantly due to the tractor beams and also the rest of the team would wipe as soon as I lost agro (which did happen once). I also used to to accelerate and get out of her firing arc several times, and resist whatever she was throwing at me.
In conjunction with everything else, I like Omega and find it more useful. But a rounded team WOULD have people using different things of course. I still recommend it for people trying to figure out their builds because it will help them stay alive and work for non-STF purposes as well.
A klink in Karrat said the Cannon Scatter Volley did more damage to him than anything else the feds had. He then went on to say the Cannon Scatter Volley was the fed only hope for survival against him.
I too like the Omega. I does wonders on tractor beams.
Jake81499
I briefly looked this over yesterday and saw Tactical Team, I hadnt really looked at that power but now its in my hotbar!
Spent hours respecing my BO's last night, here's how my crew powers break down:
Cmdr Tac: Beam charge target shields 1(comes in handy), Beam Overload, Torpedo High yield(never liked Spread, I mostly use Torps on tougher targets anyway) Attack Pattern Omega 3
Lt. Tac: Tactical team 1, Fire at will 2. With three dual Tetryon banks and a Tetryon phaser array in back I can engange and hold 5, 6 ships at a time
Lt. Eng: Emergency power to shields 1, Reverse shield polarity 2. I was worried about the order but after reading more carefully I see I was correct
Lt. Sci: Transfer shield strength 1, Tachyon beam 2. I chose Tachyon beam because I figured if I strictly focus on Shield heals for me, I could use that on tougher targets(like Borg) to quickly drop their shields and really do some damage.
I do not like cannons, just a preference. Also I do have a Quantum mine launcher on the other aft port, in case I dont finish an enemy off on the first pass I hit that and they run smack into it. Also good for groups.
I figure if Escorts are the Tank/DPS role then my role(what i like best) is to lay down as much fire as possible, on tougher enemies dropping their shield as fast as possible to open them up for a High Yield Quantum torpedo.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you are, in fact, using EPtS 1 and RSP 1, so you never actually had a choice regarding which ability to have in the second slot.
Full phaser spec loadout. Once the shields are down on your target (if its a gateway/transformer then you don't need to wait for shield lower) pop AP:A, AP:O, FOMM3, TacFleet, then pop your Point Defense Turret and watch your target simply melt. I've killed 600,000 HP transformers in under 30 seconds with this + CRF:3 and BO:3 and tac initiative.