I would change the neutroniums out for hull repair to boost your healing prowess.
Also, put in a Shield Capacity console the Field Generator instead of the EPS flow console.
Get rid of the biofunction monitor for almost anything else.
Ditch the Prefire and Directed consoles, replace with a specific energy console this will greatly increase your output in terms of damage.
Hi all,
Ive been lurking in the pvp forums for a bit now and have realized that you folks know what youre talking about. So I was hoping to get some feedback on my cruiser build. Im going for healing not dps but of course I would like to be able to discourage the lone ship that attacks me. So without further ado
Engineer in a Sovereign
Weapons- 4 cannons up front with four turrets in back.
Consoles:
Eng- RCS, Neutronium Alloy x2 and EPS Flow Regulator
Sci- Biofunction Monitor and Assimilated Module
Tac- Prefire Chamber x2 and a Directed Energy Distribution Manifold
Boff powers:
Tac- tac team1 x2, canon rapid fire 1,
Eng- Eng team 1 and 2, Extend shields 2, Epts1 and 3, DEM3, RSP2
Sci- HE2 and Polarize hull1
I went with the cannons since they seem to drop shields a whole lot faster than beams and the energy drain seems more manageable. Also, I think the procs work per hit in which case I should have a better chance of one activating.
I average about 300k healing in the arenas but I dont know how good or bad that is.
So what do you think.
If you're going for healing over DPS, I'd definitely stick with Beams. They've got a lot broader range so it's easier to just forget about attacking while you focus on healing when sitting things to auotfire. Plus they don't suffer from the range penalty (Cannon damage suffers greatly at ranges > 5KM).
Consoles: Ditch the RCS (it's percentage based, so it's not going to help as much as you'd like) and use a Field Generator Mk XI instead (+35% shield capacity). Also ditch the Biofunction Monitor, as it's utterly useless, and put the Borg console in there. Also use 3x whatever energy type you're using for Tac consoles, not the generic consoles; they have a lower buff.
While I generally agree with much of what the OP said I think there needs to be a big caveat here.
What you said was true for support/healing cruisers and those cruisers ARE very useful and a very valuable part of a team, especially in proper PvP groups. (I also have rarely ever seen anyone actually try to kill cruisers first LOL... Hard to waste your time trying to do that when the enemy will be rolling you for ignoring the dangerous ships.)
However, if you actually are playing a Cruiser for some Damage and want a ship that can be flexible with both support and DPS then things go very differently. The first thing being that if you intend to be a Damage Boat then you NEED a Tactical Captain in your Cruiser. An Engineer will NEVER be able to cut it and a Science officer while awesome in an Escort is a waste in a Cruiser for dealing damage.
One of the best things about being a Tactical Pilot in a Cruiser is you can give its teeth a major sharpening and make great use of an ability that is often useless on Escorts... Go Down Fighting. Cruisers can survive fine with 50% or less Hull and get their shields back up while continuing the battle. This means you can stack Attack Pattern Alpha and Go Down Fighting. I will be the first to tell you that if you combine that with Anti-Protons and Fire on my Mark you can give some poor sucker the surprise of his life when you Alpha him to death in a CRUISER. Eject Warp Plasma stops them in their tracks and gets their hull bleeding and gets them off your tail while your hammer away. Antimatter Spread is a wonderful distraction tool as well.
The Galaxy X is far from a bad ship but it takes real knowledge to pilot correctly. It is not a Jump In and Win ship. IF you have the skills to fly it correctly it is a brutal monster but if not then you should avoid it and stick to other ships or practice with it until you learn how to tame the monster. It is perhaps the hardest ship in the entire game to master though which will scare off most people from using it properly.
The Galaxy R is actually a very fine ship. It used to be somewhat lackluster but with recent changes it is a real surprise. Its Saucer survives a lot better these days and will heal you with Engineering Team while using its own Antimatter Spread (Two for the Price of One... Always fun.). Its Star Drive section is surprisingly nimble for such a tough bird and it can dish out a respectable amount of punishment with a good setup and a tactical captain. It is NOT an Escort BUT it can keep up with Klingon Cruisers much much better and can still be a real tank if you want it to be. It has some real versatility compared to other cruisers without sacrificing any real usefulness. The key with this ship is learning when to separate and when to stay whole and why.
While I generally agree with much of what the OP said I think there needs to be a big caveat here.
What you said was true for support/healing cruisers and those cruisers ARE very useful and a very valuable part of a team, especially in proper PvP groups. (I also have rarely ever seen anyone actually try to kill cruisers first LOL... Hard to waste your time trying to do that when the enemy will be rolling you for ignoring the dangerous ships.)
However, if you actually are playing a Cruiser for some Damage and want a ship that can be flexible with both support and DPS then things go very differently. The first thing being that if you intend to be a Damage Boat then you NEED a Tactical Captain in your Cruiser. An Engineer will NEVER be able to cut it and a Science officer while awesome in an Escort is a waste in a Cruiser for dealing damage.
One of the best things about being an Escort Pilot in a Cruiser is you can give its teeth a major sharpening and make great use of an ability that is often useless on Escorts... Go Down Fighting. Cruisers can survive fine with 50% or less Hull and get their shields back up while continuing the battle. This means you can stack Attack Pattern Alpha and Go Down Fighting. I will be the first to tell you that if you combine that with Anti-Protons and Fire on my Mark you can give some poor sucker the surprise of his life when you Alpha him to death in a CRUISER. Eject Warp Plasma stops them in their tracks and gets their hull bleeding and gets them off your tail while your hammer away. Antimatter Spread is a wonderful distraction tool as well.
The Galaxy X is far from a bad ship but it takes real knowledge to pilot correctly. It is not a Jump In and Win ship. IF you have the skills to fly it correctly it is a brutal monster but if not then you should avoid it and stick to other ships or practice with it until you learn how to tame the monster. It is perhaps the hardest ship in the entire game to master though which will scare off most people from using it properly.
The Galaxy R is actually a very fine ship. It used to be somewhat lackluster but with recent changes it is a real surprise. Its Saucer survives a lot better these days and will heal you with Engineering Team while using its own Antimatter Spread (Two for the Price of One... Always fun.). Its Star Drive section is surprisingly nimble for such a tough bird and it can dish out a respectable amount of punishment with a good setup and a tactical captain. It is NOT an Escort BUT it can keep up with Klingon Cruisers much much better and can still be a real tank if you want it to be. It has some real versatility compared to other cruisers without sacrificing any real usefulness. The key with this ship is learning when to separate and when to stay whole and why.
If you're going for healing over DPS, I'd definitely stick with Beams. They've got a lot broader range so it's easier to just forget about attacking while you focus on healing when sitting things to auotfire. Plus they don't suffer from the range penalty (Cannon damage suffers greatly at ranges > 5KM).
Consoles: Ditch the RCS (it's percentage based, so it's not going to help as much as you'd like) and use a Field Generator Mk XI instead (+35% shield capacity). Also ditch the Biofunction Monitor, as it's utterly useless, and put the Borg console in there. Also use 3x whatever energy type you're using for Tac consoles, not the generic consoles; they have a lower buff.
I would change the neutroniums out for hull repair to boost your healing prowess.
Also, put in a Shield Capacity console the Field Generator instead of the EPS flow console.
Get rid of the biofunction monitor for almost anything else.
Ditch the Prefire and Directed consoles, replace with a specific energy console this will greatly increase your output in terms of damage.
This is also good, but i say keep the neutroiums... the more you can slot the better.
You can build two ships fairly easily with all the extra maco, borg kit and borg weapons you aquire as the UI now remembers your skill tray load out you can switch ships with one click.:)
So for my Engineer I have
My PvP heal boat (traditional load out much as above ) , but this can run at 125 weapons when required and switch to full aux if team pressured.
And I have an Assualt Cruiser STF DPS build which can be used for PvP support sustained DPS and light/medium healing support ,it uses spare two spare maco and two spare borg bits
tac team , faw ,Attack beta , 2 x emptw, dem. (can switch for extend)
Although it is difficult to be an outright ship killer without Attack Pattern Alpha these powers get the DPS upto quite effective levels for a non tact character.
Healing or dps cruisers, your still a support roll for your team its when you go zombie your actually a liablity and isn't worth the slot.. so what if you survive with your epts3, you dont do enough damage to fill the roll as a dps straight up like the escort and you dont heal your teammates. Its only in very certain Premade setups you can afford to have dps cruisers run with epts3 imo.
Baby Rock has a salute for those who ridicule the Galaxy-R . When you pop the top its the best fed cruiser. Even the Galaxy-X is not the TRIBBLE people make it out to be. Its practically a very slightly less nimble assault cruiser with a potential one-shot attack, and cloak and cannons for the lulz.
Baby Rock has a salute for those who ridicule the Galaxy-R . When you pop the top its the best fed cruiser. Even the Galaxy-X is not the TRIBBLE people make it out to be. Its practically a very slightly less nimble assault cruiser with a potential one-shot attack, and cloak and cannons for the lulz.
I agree with the Rock. The R isn't bad.
The Gal-X is a difficult to get the hang of, but extremely fun to fly when you do cruiser. It's a beast in STF's.
Here's a link to my Tac/Excelsior build - it's pretty straightforward - just a big, sustained DPS hammer - not without its drawbacks (can be a little fragile) but it's a lot of fun
Oh, and Tac/Cruisers rock! We need to get some exclusive Tac/Cruiser PvP going to test out everyone's builds
Here's a link to my Tac/Excelsior build - it's pretty straightforward - just a big, sustained DPS hammer - not without its drawbacks (can be a little fragile) but it's a lot of fun
Oh, and Tac/Cruisers rock! We need to get some exclusive Tac/Cruiser PvP going to test out everyone's builds
Well you're going to be in for a surprise today after the MACO shields are fixed. You won't be nearly as survivable as your shield resists are not going to be anywhere near where they were before.
Well you're going to be in for a surprise today after the MACO shields are fixed. You won't be nearly as survivable as your shield resists are not going to be anywhere near where they were before.
Oh, don't worry - I was using a Mk XI blue Resilient shield for a long time before I got my M.A.C.O. - to be honest, I'm looking forward to the fixes - should make things interesting again
On the first Advanced cruiser build, we have the DPS hybrid. This is pretty much to provide extra dps pressure on targets at any given time, as well as to assist in spam clearing. These all assume Assault Cruiser as the cruiser being used. Excelsiors, Star Cruisers and Oddys will get their own posts eventually.
It sacrifices some maximum healing capability (though with the right DOFFs that's up for debate. I'll cover those soon too), for more damage dealing.
This works best obviously on an Assault Cruiser, but can also work on other cruisers.
Cmdr
EPTW1 (emergency to weapons 1), EPTS2 (emergency power to shields 2), Engineering Team 3, Extend Shields 3/ Aux to structural Integrity 3 (depending on which you'd rather have or can get access to)
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, EPTS2, Aux To structural Integrity 2/ Extend Shields 2.
LT Tactical, Tactical Team1, Fire At Will 2
Ens. Fire At Will 1
Alternate Loadout. LT Tac, Tactical Team 1, Beam Overload2, Ens. Fire At Will 1
Lt Science, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2.
Power Levels. 80 Weapon 70 Shields, 25 Engines 25 Shields as primary. Secondary, 80 Shields, 70 Weapons, 25 Engine, 25 Aux. Tertiary. 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 Engine, 80 Aux. 4th Power setting, 80 Weapons, 25 Shields, 70 Engines, 25 Aux. (this is your run like a screaming girl/ chase setup)
Weapon loadout, 8 Beam Arrays/ 6 Beam Arrays and 2 Dual Beam Arrays. There's two theories on this The First assumes you are going to be broad siding all the time to sustain DPS. This however also incurs a much larger power drain, so it's highly recommended that you run an EPS Console, or be prepared to eat more weapon batteries during spike damage periods. 8 Beams is best for a double FAW loadout, as it maximises your firing arc for your discoball. (aka death blossom, aka FAW Spam)
The Second theory utilises 6 Beams for still potent broad side, (2 fore, 4 aft) and maintaining decent aft DPS. The reason the dual beams are there up front is it mitigates power drain substantially on broadsides (which means EPS console isn't as necessary here), while providing much stronger fore fire. It also gives you a much better Beam Overload 2 strike, for Alpha strikes, with your Escorts. The Second Theory, is more Tac Dependent, as APA, and Go Down Fighting are fantastic damage adders. You'll often down a facing, which allows for an immediate opening in enemy defenses. While you aren't going to be providing as much sustained damage, invariably your spike dps will be much stronger. Do keep this in mind. I wouldn't use the second theory on a non tac, as your crit chances are substantially lower, as is your actual crit damage, and baseline numbers. You also won't have the turn rate that the tac has to really get the miles out of the DBBs.
Preferred Weapons for these two loadouts. Tetryon (if you spec into Flow capacitors), preferrably Polarized Tetryon arrays for the Beams. And some ACC x2 CrtH DBBs. Anti Proton, for ridiculous crit potential (get as much CrtD and CrtH as possible), and of course Phasers... because that proc is still ridiculously overpowered.
Devices, Aux batteries will be much more intensively used here to supplement your healing. This is a good ship for a 3 sci ship team, since there will inevitably be alot of aux based healing going around. Engineers, also use your EPS power transfer for yourself when you know the enemy is about to really ramp up their damage. Subspace Field Mod... this thing's just too good to pass up. Deuterium Batteries, Shield Batteries.
The second setup is abit more control oriented. This allows your team to have more crowd control at their disposal. While it also is a damage hybrid.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, Eng Team 2, Extend Shields 2 Alternate Loadout (this is dependent on Doffs which I will cover in the next post as to why it is) EPTW1, ASIF1, Extend Shields 2
Lt Tac. Tac Team. Fire At Will 2 Ens. Target Engines 1. Alternate, Tac Team, BO2, Target Engines 1
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2. Alternate Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields 2
Weapons loadout. Same as above.
Weapons types. Same as above. With Phasers being moved to the top, Tetryon Second and AP third.
Devices same as above.
Power settings, same as above. With the added caveat that the engine power bias setup, allows for more rapid delivery of warp plasma.
This setup allows for a substantial amount of zone control being added to the battle field with a minimal loss in healing potential especially as right now it seems warp plasma stays on the battlefield even if the user of it dies. It clears spam very easily, and when correctly used lowers the defense scores of multiple targets on the battlefield as well as inflicts a fairly strong damage over time on your targets (especially if it's a tac dumping it out with full buffs up) This setup fits in well with 2 to 3 other sci ships. More the 2 sci ship team (assuming the other 2 are Escorts) It's also very irritating for klinks, as the warp plas disables cloaks while the DOT is up.
Not to bring this to the table but will you say anything on the consoles. The sovvy build posted has a severe weakness to scramble and ams. well except for the control variant
Not to bring this to the table but will you say anything on the consoles. The sovvy build posted has a severe weakness to scramble and ams. well except for the control variant
Yeah. I'll get there too. I wanted the basics to be posted up first before I broke down into the technical things like, DOFFs, and Consoles. I might go so far as to put those two into the same post. Or do those two the same day. (as Doffs and Consoles tremendously impact a ships capabilities when equipped properly)
Why dont people use cruisers as DPS boats that can live through anything? That's what I do. I routinely outdamage everyone, on both sides by at least 100k and I mean everyone including escorts. Cruisers are pretty OP to be honest but ill stop talking now I don't want them to look into it too much.
Because those cruisers are total fail for a premade team, or against anything better than the sto noobs.
Against any sort of decent team the zombie dps cruiser is just a waste.
Cruisers are best for throwin down the heals while maintaining good damage in the hands of an advanced pilot. Cruisers that don't heal at all on the other hand are worthless.
thats funny because if it wasnt for my damage we would lose those games. Pre made im sure it would be better to go with healing. but I ride solo and im unkillable.
Do the polarised Tets work properly, I've never actually seen them proc in testing (watching shield facing numbers) and I was getting hit by a 6 beam broadside. Does weapon power level affect the drain at all?
Why dont people use cruisers as DPS boats that can live through anything? That's what I do. I routinely outdamage everyone, on both sides by at least 100k and I mean everyone including escorts. Cruisers are pretty OP to be honest but ill stop talking now I don't want them to look into it too much.
Aye, the thing is, when I had my Engineer in a Fleet Escort (much better in Ker'rat or C&H than Arena), I regularly outhealed cruisers too. Doesn't mean I had some kind of amazing heal capacity, and I wasn't much good for keeping anyone else alive, so very little of it could be considered "useful" healing, because back-to-backing Emergency to Shields 1 was likely bumping it right up. It's the same with damage, the damage numbers just reflected the ammount of damage done. They don't show when the damage occured, and wether it was wasted on a target that could easily handle it, or wether it was in spikes against something that was an objective at the time, like taking out an escort you've decided to target for example. Skills like FAW inflate damage numbers hugely, and don't really reflect useful damage output. 30,000 damage in a few seconds is far more useful than 200,000 over a minute.
It's nice seeing a thread that doesn't revolve around "if you're not a heal barge you're a noob cruiser pilot" though, my biggest problem with the game mechanics as they are is that it can seem very much set into damage dealer, debuffer and healer. Ships aren't doing what they'd "really" do. I had a crusier on cruiser fight with somebody and it took about ten minutes for me to draw first blood.
I'd like to make my engineer in Excelsior do decent damage, but I've got a feeling that a Tac Officer may be the only sensible way to have a cruiser that's decent offensively, but the flipside is that with fewer self-only heals, you'd have to be more selfish with transferables.
My current 'celsior build's as follows, although several changes are being considered (which I'll note) and constructive criticism is most welcome.
Lt Cmdr Tac: TT 1, HYT 2, BO 3
Cmdr Eng: EP2S 1, RSP 1, AUX2SIF 2, EWP 3 (considering AUX2SIF 3 and replacing lt cmdr power with EP2W 3)
Lt Eng: EP2S 1, Aux2ID 1 or ES 1 if teamed (know aux2id clashes with aux2sif, but I've found I rarely need both at once, and having other things there may also clash, and it feels useful in and of itself)
Ens Eng: EP2W 1 (considering ET 1 if I swap out ST 1 for TS S1)
Lt Sci: ST 1, HE 2
Consoles are three phaser tac consoles, the shield capacity and borg sci consoles, and EPS, RCS, and a pair of neutronium's for engineering. Also, 3 phaser beam arrays and a quantum front n' back, classic borg set with Resilient [cap x 3] shield (soon to be replaced with MACO hopefully), devices are subspace field modulator, engine bats (for dealing with immobilization), det burn, and aux battery to pump up HE and AUX2SIF. Also wondering if DEM3 is worth it on a non-cannon build.
Edit: Power levels are weapons energy cranked, aux and shields at minimum (shields get buffed up by EP2S and there are plenty of emergency buttons in case of subnuc), and the rest in engines. With the ammount of power I'm getting the seeming lack of shieldp ower doesn't appear to be a problem, although I do adjust power levels on the fly as necessary.
When I've got the spare resources to spaff on new kit, I'm thinking of trying the cannon/turret loadout on my tac with an Excelsior, is this still (or ever was?) viable? Lastly, would the above work better or worse for a tac captain? If you could highlight any suggested changes in red so it's easy for my tired eyes to find I'd be very grateful too!
When I've got the spare resources to spaff on new kit, I'm thinking of trying the cannon/turret loadout on my tac with an Excelsior, is this still (or ever was?) viable? Lastly, would the above work better or worse for a tac captain? If you could highlight any suggested changes in red so it's easy for my tired eyes to find I'd be very grateful too!
Comments
Also, put in a Shield Capacity console the Field Generator instead of the EPS flow console.
Get rid of the biofunction monitor for almost anything else.
Ditch the Prefire and Directed consoles, replace with a specific energy console this will greatly increase your output in terms of damage.
If you're going for healing over DPS, I'd definitely stick with Beams. They've got a lot broader range so it's easier to just forget about attacking while you focus on healing when sitting things to auotfire. Plus they don't suffer from the range penalty (Cannon damage suffers greatly at ranges > 5KM).
Consoles: Ditch the RCS (it's percentage based, so it's not going to help as much as you'd like) and use a Field Generator Mk XI instead (+35% shield capacity). Also ditch the Biofunction Monitor, as it's utterly useless, and put the Borg console in there. Also use 3x whatever energy type you're using for Tac consoles, not the generic consoles; they have a lower buff.
BOffs: Generic heal loadout:
EPtS 1, RSP 1, Aux to SIF 2
EPtS 1, EngTeam 2, EngTeam 3, Extend 3
Hazard 1, TSS 2.
What you said was true for support/healing cruisers and those cruisers ARE very useful and a very valuable part of a team, especially in proper PvP groups. (I also have rarely ever seen anyone actually try to kill cruisers first LOL... Hard to waste your time trying to do that when the enemy will be rolling you for ignoring the dangerous ships.)
However, if you actually are playing a Cruiser for some Damage and want a ship that can be flexible with both support and DPS then things go very differently. The first thing being that if you intend to be a Damage Boat then you NEED a Tactical Captain in your Cruiser. An Engineer will NEVER be able to cut it and a Science officer while awesome in an Escort is a waste in a Cruiser for dealing damage.
One of the best things about being a Tactical Pilot in a Cruiser is you can give its teeth a major sharpening and make great use of an ability that is often useless on Escorts... Go Down Fighting. Cruisers can survive fine with 50% or less Hull and get their shields back up while continuing the battle. This means you can stack Attack Pattern Alpha and Go Down Fighting. I will be the first to tell you that if you combine that with Anti-Protons and Fire on my Mark you can give some poor sucker the surprise of his life when you Alpha him to death in a CRUISER. Eject Warp Plasma stops them in their tracks and gets their hull bleeding and gets them off your tail while your hammer away. Antimatter Spread is a wonderful distraction tool as well.
The Galaxy X is far from a bad ship but it takes real knowledge to pilot correctly. It is not a Jump In and Win ship. IF you have the skills to fly it correctly it is a brutal monster but if not then you should avoid it and stick to other ships or practice with it until you learn how to tame the monster. It is perhaps the hardest ship in the entire game to master though which will scare off most people from using it properly.
The Galaxy R is actually a very fine ship. It used to be somewhat lackluster but with recent changes it is a real surprise. Its Saucer survives a lot better these days and will heal you with Engineering Team while using its own Antimatter Spread (Two for the Price of One... Always fun.). Its Star Drive section is surprisingly nimble for such a tough bird and it can dish out a respectable amount of punishment with a good setup and a tactical captain. It is NOT an Escort BUT it can keep up with Klingon Cruisers much much better and can still be a real tank if you want it to be. It has some real versatility compared to other cruisers without sacrificing any real usefulness. The key with this ship is learning when to separate and when to stay whole and why.
????????????????????
Don't mind him. He's just silly.
Edit:
Oh and good OP. Anything that makes it easier to get into the game is a good thing.
This is all good tips.
This is also good, but i say keep the neutroiums... the more you can slot the better.
Who need Neutroniums if you're all MACO'd out and your shields never fail?
So for my Engineer I have
My PvP heal boat (traditional load out much as above ) , but this can run at 125 weapons when required and switch to full aux if team pressured.
And I have an Assualt Cruiser STF DPS build which can be used for PvP support sustained DPS and light/medium healing support ,it uses spare two spare maco and two spare borg bits
tac team , faw ,Attack beta , 2 x emptw, dem. (can switch for extend)
Although it is difficult to be an outright ship killer without Attack Pattern Alpha these powers get the DPS upto quite effective levels for a non tact character.
I agree with the Rock. The R isn't bad.
The Gal-X is a difficult to get the hang of, but extremely fun to fly when you do cruiser. It's a beast in STF's.
Oh, and Tac/Cruisers rock!
Well you're going to be in for a surprise today after the MACO shields are fixed. You won't be nearly as survivable as your shield resists are not going to be anywhere near where they were before.
Oh, don't worry - I was using a Mk XI blue Resilient shield for a long time before I got my M.A.C.O. - to be honest, I'm looking forward to the fixes - should make things interesting again
It sacrifices some maximum healing capability (though with the right DOFFs that's up for debate. I'll cover those soon too), for more damage dealing.
This works best obviously on an Assault Cruiser, but can also work on other cruisers.
Cmdr
EPTW1 (emergency to weapons 1), EPTS2 (emergency power to shields 2), Engineering Team 3, Extend Shields 3/ Aux to structural Integrity 3 (depending on which you'd rather have or can get access to)
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, EPTS2, Aux To structural Integrity 2/ Extend Shields 2.
LT Tactical, Tactical Team1, Fire At Will 2
Ens. Fire At Will 1
Alternate Loadout. LT Tac, Tactical Team 1, Beam Overload2, Ens. Fire At Will 1
Lt Science, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2.
Power Levels. 80 Weapon 70 Shields, 25 Engines 25 Shields as primary. Secondary, 80 Shields, 70 Weapons, 25 Engine, 25 Aux. Tertiary. 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 Engine, 80 Aux. 4th Power setting, 80 Weapons, 25 Shields, 70 Engines, 25 Aux. (this is your run like a screaming girl/ chase setup)
Weapon loadout, 8 Beam Arrays/ 6 Beam Arrays and 2 Dual Beam Arrays. There's two theories on this The First assumes you are going to be broad siding all the time to sustain DPS. This however also incurs a much larger power drain, so it's highly recommended that you run an EPS Console, or be prepared to eat more weapon batteries during spike damage periods. 8 Beams is best for a double FAW loadout, as it maximises your firing arc for your discoball. (aka death blossom, aka FAW Spam)
The Second theory utilises 6 Beams for still potent broad side, (2 fore, 4 aft) and maintaining decent aft DPS. The reason the dual beams are there up front is it mitigates power drain substantially on broadsides (which means EPS console isn't as necessary here), while providing much stronger fore fire. It also gives you a much better Beam Overload 2 strike, for Alpha strikes, with your Escorts. The Second Theory, is more Tac Dependent, as APA, and Go Down Fighting are fantastic damage adders. You'll often down a facing, which allows for an immediate opening in enemy defenses. While you aren't going to be providing as much sustained damage, invariably your spike dps will be much stronger. Do keep this in mind. I wouldn't use the second theory on a non tac, as your crit chances are substantially lower, as is your actual crit damage, and baseline numbers. You also won't have the turn rate that the tac has to really get the miles out of the DBBs.
Preferred Weapons for these two loadouts. Tetryon (if you spec into Flow capacitors), preferrably Polarized Tetryon arrays for the Beams. And some ACC x2 CrtH DBBs. Anti Proton, for ridiculous crit potential (get as much CrtD and CrtH as possible), and of course Phasers... because that proc is still ridiculously overpowered.
Devices, Aux batteries will be much more intensively used here to supplement your healing. This is a good ship for a 3 sci ship team, since there will inevitably be alot of aux based healing going around. Engineers, also use your EPS power transfer for yourself when you know the enemy is about to really ramp up their damage. Subspace Field Mod... this thing's just too good to pass up. Deuterium Batteries, Shield Batteries.
The second setup is abit more control oriented. This allows your team to have more crowd control at their disposal. While it also is a damage hybrid.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, Eng Team 2, Extend Shields 2 Alternate Loadout (this is dependent on Doffs which I will cover in the next post as to why it is) EPTW1, ASIF1, Extend Shields 2
Lt Tac. Tac Team. Fire At Will 2 Ens. Target Engines 1. Alternate, Tac Team, BO2, Target Engines 1
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2. Alternate Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields 2
Weapons loadout. Same as above.
Weapons types. Same as above. With Phasers being moved to the top, Tetryon Second and AP third.
Devices same as above.
Power settings, same as above. With the added caveat that the engine power bias setup, allows for more rapid delivery of warp plasma.
This setup allows for a substantial amount of zone control being added to the battle field with a minimal loss in healing potential especially as right now it seems warp plasma stays on the battlefield even if the user of it dies. It clears spam very easily, and when correctly used lowers the defense scores of multiple targets on the battlefield as well as inflicts a fairly strong damage over time on your targets (especially if it's a tac dumping it out with full buffs up) This setup fits in well with 2 to 3 other sci ships. More the 2 sci ship team (assuming the other 2 are Escorts) It's also very irritating for klinks, as the warp plas disables cloaks while the DOT is up.
You want to fly a Vor'cha as Tac.
That post comes later. Though the builds posted thus far also work on vorchas
Yeah. I'll get there too. I wanted the basics to be posted up first before I broke down into the technical things like, DOFFs, and Consoles. I might go so far as to put those two into the same post. Or do those two the same day. (as Doffs and Consoles tremendously impact a ships capabilities when equipped properly)
kidding I refer em to this thread also
Against any sort of decent team the zombie dps cruiser is just a waste.
Cruisers are best for throwin down the heals while maintaining good damage in the hands of an advanced pilot. Cruisers that don't heal at all on the other hand are worthless.
Aye, the thing is, when I had my Engineer in a Fleet Escort (much better in Ker'rat or C&H than Arena), I regularly outhealed cruisers too. Doesn't mean I had some kind of amazing heal capacity, and I wasn't much good for keeping anyone else alive, so very little of it could be considered "useful" healing, because back-to-backing Emergency to Shields 1 was likely bumping it right up. It's the same with damage, the damage numbers just reflected the ammount of damage done. They don't show when the damage occured, and wether it was wasted on a target that could easily handle it, or wether it was in spikes against something that was an objective at the time, like taking out an escort you've decided to target for example. Skills like FAW inflate damage numbers hugely, and don't really reflect useful damage output. 30,000 damage in a few seconds is far more useful than 200,000 over a minute.
It's nice seeing a thread that doesn't revolve around "if you're not a heal barge you're a noob cruiser pilot" though, my biggest problem with the game mechanics as they are is that it can seem very much set into damage dealer, debuffer and healer. Ships aren't doing what they'd "really" do. I had a crusier on cruiser fight with somebody and it took about ten minutes for me to draw first blood.
I'd like to make my engineer in Excelsior do decent damage, but I've got a feeling that a Tac Officer may be the only sensible way to have a cruiser that's decent offensively, but the flipside is that with fewer self-only heals, you'd have to be more selfish with transferables.
My current 'celsior build's as follows, although several changes are being considered (which I'll note) and constructive criticism is most welcome.
Lt Cmdr Tac: TT 1, HYT 2, BO 3
Cmdr Eng: EP2S 1, RSP 1, AUX2SIF 2, EWP 3 (considering AUX2SIF 3 and replacing lt cmdr power with EP2W 3)
Lt Eng: EP2S 1, Aux2ID 1 or ES 1 if teamed (know aux2id clashes with aux2sif, but I've found I rarely need both at once, and having other things there may also clash, and it feels useful in and of itself)
Ens Eng: EP2W 1 (considering ET 1 if I swap out ST 1 for TS S1)
Lt Sci: ST 1, HE 2
Consoles are three phaser tac consoles, the shield capacity and borg sci consoles, and EPS, RCS, and a pair of neutronium's for engineering. Also, 3 phaser beam arrays and a quantum front n' back, classic borg set with Resilient [cap x 3] shield (soon to be replaced with MACO hopefully), devices are subspace field modulator, engine bats (for dealing with immobilization), det burn, and aux battery to pump up HE and AUX2SIF. Also wondering if DEM3 is worth it on a non-cannon build.
Edit: Power levels are weapons energy cranked, aux and shields at minimum (shields get buffed up by EP2S and there are plenty of emergency buttons in case of subnuc), and the rest in engines. With the ammount of power I'm getting the seeming lack of shieldp ower doesn't appear to be a problem, although I do adjust power levels on the fly as necessary.
When I've got the spare resources to spaff on new kit, I'm thinking of trying the cannon/turret loadout on my tac with an Excelsior, is this still (or ever was?) viable? Lastly, would the above work better or worse for a tac captain? If you could highlight any suggested changes in red so it's easy for my tired eyes to find I'd be very grateful too!
Cannons/Turrets + Tac + DEM 2 and 3 = ow