if he's to keep BO3, it would be best not to equip any beam arrays. the 4 duel beam banks and the 4 turrets is technically the most damaging setup he can have, but its likely a target will be outside its main fireing arc often. its much more likely you will be shooting a majority of your weapons at your target with the higher arc single cannons. i'd be tempted to equip 1 DBB and 3 single cannon to go with the turrets though, and keep BO3 and use CRF1 in place of FAW2. there was a bunch of cheep [acc]x3 tetryon single cannons last i checked in mk X and XI. a mk X [acc]x3 is a much better weapon then any mk XI or XII that doesn't have [acc]x3. with the galor i'd also be tempted to use the universal station for tactical and equip another CRF1 and BO1.
for consoles it doesn't hurt to stock up on 2 of every single kind in blue mk XI, they arent that expensive and being able to swap on the fly can make a big difference. I'd never run with less then 2 armors at a time. its unfortunate theres no room for RSP though. the excelsior's 3rd engineering ensign allows you to have EPtS1&2 and RSP1. is the 2 piece borg set the hull heal? it it is consider dropping a hull heal for an RSP. the field generator isn't doing you much good with the omega shield, i don't even run one when useing the maco shield.
Meh one of the most effective Excelsiors I've ever seen still used BO3 on a 6 beam boat (He had 2 fore DBBs). Actually he's where I got my Deathblossom, /Broadside excelsior build from.
Meh one of the most effective Excelsiors I've ever seen still used BO3 on a 6 beam boat (He had 2 fore DBBs). Actually he's where I got my Deathblossom, /Broadside excelsior build from.
My Qin got killed by a Defiant R with BO3. At least the guy complimented me in the fact that I survived longer than the other Klingon ships he fought.
Actually I see te point dontdrunk has, with beams and dbl beams, you never know which one will fire the bo3. And ideally is to fire bo on the dbl beam for more damage. In this setup with beams and dbl beam the only way to make sure the dbl beam fires bo is to make a separate binding for the dbl beam, activate bo, stop firing the regular beams and only fire the dbl beam from its key bind. Which is doable but a little inconvenient. For escorts (2 or 3 cannons and dbl beam front) is easier since they have all cannons that don't fire with bo, so only the dbl beam fires bo. I had at one point on my defiant 3 beams back, for use with bo.
I still wouldn't use dbl beams on a cruiser (wasn't there a point in game when you couldn't even equip them on cruisers?) due to slower turn rate, it's pretty hard to get an escort within arc. But probably with a little experience and tricks (apo, aux to inertial, deuterium, evasives, turn console) it's possible. Still think its better to use faw, Lol, pull target outside of group and let the faw spam do the work.
I updated my build to have 3 canons and 1 dbb up front. It's actually quite better! Thanks guys! I switched out the universal Lt. into a tac and run with 2 CRF1, TT1, BO1, BO3 and really push out some targeted dps for a cruiser.
I updated my build to have 3 canons and 1 dbb up front. It's actually quite better! Thanks guys! I switched out the universal Lt. into a tac and run with 2 CRF1, TT1, BO1, BO3 and really push out some targeted dps for a cruiser.
nice, i figured it would. your flying exactly what i WISH my tac/excelsior was flying
Glad I stopped to read this thread. I justed picked up the VA Excelsior (thanks to the sale + C-point bonus), so I'll have to drop my Tac into it and give it a shot. Was getting fed up with my Tac Retrofit blowing up every 5 seconds anyway.
The other good thing about this sale is that I finally got around to buying more keys, and opening the two Gold boxes I had sitting on my KDF toon... one of which had a Galor. :eek:
Now I'm trying to decide who to give it to. Sci is right out (and I my LRSV Retrofit anyway). So, it's either my Tac or roll Engineer...
Is it even worth giving the Galor to an Engie? It has all the Boff slots geared toward Engineering, but it moves more like an Escort and has that T3 Tac slot.
Glad I stopped to read this thread. I justed picked up the VA Excelsior (thanks to the sale + C-point bonus), so I'll have to drop my Tac into it and give it a shot. Was getting fed up with my Tac Retrofit blowing up every 5 seconds anyway.
The other good thing about this sale is that I finally got around to buying more keys, and opening the two Gold boxes I had sitting on my KDF toon... one of which had a Galor. :eek:
Now I'm trying to decide who to give it to. Sci is right out (and I my LRSV Retrofit anyway). So, it's either my Tac or roll Engineer...
Is it even worth giving the Galor to an Engie? It has all the Boff slots geared toward Engineering, but it moves more like an Escort and has that T3 Tac slot.
I suppose I could roll a second Tac captain...
If you haven't bind the galor to a tune already, then I advice you to roll an engineer, see how you like that engi with the excelsior, then decide if you want to keep galor for engi or tac. Pretty much with a tac in excelsior (or galor for that reason since those 2 are pretty close) you have the potential to deal more damage at the expense of less tanking/healing). It is up to you to see what you like most. Also, you may want to consider a kdf tune, so I would just try those things before permanently bind the galor to a specific tune.
And of course it's worth to give galor to an engi, if you like playing with engi. Just see first what fits you best, engi or tac, both can be very successful.
P.s. The defiant retro is a fine ship, but in an escort you must move fast, and you must have key bindings properly set, clicking the powers on the toolbar gets you killed fast. I would recommend using key bindings for cruisers also, but wit a cruiser you may get along with just clicking versus escort.
P.s. The defiant retro is a fine ship, but in an escort you must move fast, and you must have key bindings properly set, clicking the powers on the toolbar gets you killed fast. I would recommend using key bindings for cruisers also, but wit a cruiser you may get along with just clicking versus escort.
Yeah, I'm never was good at keybinds, so I need to work on that. I'm going to give my Tac an Excelsior Cannon boat and see how that works for now.
I've got a KDF Lethean Science toon, who is happily flying a B'rel Retrofit, and I just haven't been able to find another KDF race I enjoy.
I may just hang onto the Galor box for now then. I'm hoping they'll do another $199 sale on Lifetime subs this summer, so I can roll a Borg Engie.
Yeah, I'm never was good at keybinds, so I need to work on that. I'm going to give my Tac an Excelsior Cannon boat and see how that works for now.
I've got a KDF Lethean Science toon, who is happily flying a B'rel Retrofit, and I just haven't been able to find another KDF race I enjoy.
I may just hang onto the Galor box for now then. I'm hoping they'll do another $199 sale on Lifetime subs this summer, so I can roll a Borg Engie.
my tac excelsior longs for a galor, the galor is basically an excelsior only better. 5 tactical station powers with all the engineering powers you could need, unlike with the odyssey. its got a turn rate as good as a vorcha too, its tactical capacity is wasted on engineering or science captains. i should add my very deadly single cannon excelsior build to this thread some time, its easly adaptable to a galor.
Yeah, I'm never was good at keybinds, so I need to work on that. I'm going to give my Tac an Excelsior Cannon boat and see how that works for now.
I've got a KDF Lethean Science toon, who is happily flying a B'rel Retrofit, and I just haven't been able to find another KDF race I enjoy.
I may just hang onto the Galor box for now then. I'm hoping they'll do another $199 sale on Lifetime subs this summer, so I can roll a Borg Engie.
Read the sticky thread in pvp forum for key bindings. There is also something on stowiki. It is worth using it and for example you could bind on one key tac teams and ballance shields. Also, I recommend buying a mouse razer naga, it's a little pricey (I paid for mine about 80-ish from newegg.com, but you may get a better deal I'm sure), but man, it's worth every single penny. If you don't know, nagas have 12 thumb buttons that you can bind, an using also key bindings, with one button press you can activate more powers, like the ones I mantioned above. Many pvpers on this forum have them, including Mav and Husanak.
This post is going to be going over some quick and dirty ability tray layouts that I've found to be quite effective while in a cruiser.
Definition and term Row Through, in the context of this post Row Through, is a reference to the optimum speed and accuracy that you can rifle through your bridge officer skills without having to backtrack. Rowing Through, tremendously can affect your reaction times and ability to appropriately respond.
The first thing I want to mention is there isn't any one layout that will work for everyone every time. The biggest piece of advice I can give you (before showing you examples) is to find a configuration that can allow you to "row" through your powers quickly and effectively with minimal searching. Some people put their emergency powers right next to one another, or one above the other, same with eng teams etc. Some people (like myself) prefer a gap between Emergency powers, as the ability won't be needed till later and it sets up a clean visual way of showing which emergency power is which in terms of Priority.
Some people like putting their second emergency power system near the relevant bridge officer skills. (like EPTW1 next to FAW or Beam Overload, EPTA1 next to Transfer shield strength, or Hazard Emitters). As you can successively just roll from one ability to another.
Some people like all their emergency powers together.
The important thing is that you experiment, and practice with each layout you try until you find one that you can "row through" not only the fastest, but repeatedly Every Time. Anyone that's a veteran to pvp (regardless of game type.. FPS, MMO, RTS, Racing, Flight Sim etc) can tell you TRIBBLE can happen incredibly quickly so it's best to have your powers, and abilities straightened out to something that is as user friendly to you as possible.
The optimum Row Through time I have found is all of your abilities fired off or at least clicked in 4 seconds or less. This will make you more than fast enough to deal with whatever happens in live combat.
Notice how my Row Throughs are set up for the most part based around relevant energy related powers. Things that boost my power to the relevant system get shunted over. EPTS takes priority since I refuse to keybind it to space bar (as it randomizes which EPTS comes up that first time, or during any significant gaps of not smashing the space bar). Other than EPTS, my more selfish abilities take the bottom row and middle row. In order of the activation sequence I tend to need them in.
You get the idea though I think.
The important thing is, you lay your powers out in the order that you most often need them
that's a good point, if your tray is a mess and you have to look and find something and you don't automatically know were it is your not going to be effective. i always put all my tactical and damage dealing abilities on the far left, followed by general captain powers or ptw consoles. then further right comes the EPt skills, shield heals, hull heals, additional resistance abilities, and then gtfo abilities, batteries, pets, slipstream etc...
Sticky bump. And thanks mods for sticky! You are as nice as devs! Totally ignorance, maybe you attended the same training on how to deal with your loyal customers...
As this has become a be all end all cruiser thread could you go over the captain skill builds a little better please? As a new player, skills might be the hardest to find info on and they cost money to fix if you do the wrong thing. I know you have linked one (in the table of contents) but I have some questions about it:
1. The science skills do not make a lot of sense to me. Why Particle Generators instead of finishing out Starship Shield Emitters. It does not seem like Particle Generators affect anything on that Star Cruiser, am I missing something? Same with the Flow Capacitors, are they for the glider only?
2. Is EPtW used as a damage buff rather than for the power? Most of the cruiser builds I see have one if not 2x EPtW in the EPtX rotation. Maybe it is wrong but the power calc says the linked build with Efficient, Warp Theorist and the Borg Console has about 124 weapon power. So is the damage (7.5%) worth the boff slot? Could someone running a dual EPtW rotation drop the skill points out of Starship Weapon Performance?
3. Why nothing in Starship Auxiliary Performance? Would that not benefit the heals or are you mostly relying on swapping power settings?
Much of this is probably obvious for you vets, but us noobs need better info than the in-game "descriptions."
As this has become a be all end all cruiser thread could you go over the captain skill builds a little better please? As a new player, skills might be the hardest to find info on and they cost money to fix if you do the wrong thing. I know you have linked one (in the table of contents) but I have some questions about it:
1. The science skills do not make a lot of sense to me. Why Particle Generators instead of finishing out Starship Shield Emitters. It does not seem like Particle Generators affect anything on that Star Cruiser, am I missing something? Same with the Flow Capacitors, are they for the glider only?
2. Is EPtW used as a damage buff rather than for the power? Most of the cruiser builds I see have one if not 2x EPtW in the EPtX rotation. Maybe it is wrong but the power calc says the linked build with Efficient, Warp Theorist and the Borg Console has about 124 weapon power. So is the damage (7.5%) worth the boff slot? Could someone running a dual EPtW rotation drop the skill points out of Starship Weapon Performance?
3. Why nothing in Starship Auxiliary Performance? Would that not benefit the heals or are you mostly relying on swapping power settings?
Much of this is probably obvious for you vets, but us noobs need better info than the in-game "descriptions."
I have the same wonder really...You're in a damn cruiser, max your weapon power, balance your shields and aux, set engine to minimum...run EPtS and EPtA...you now have weapons, shields, and aux easily at 100+...so you're heals (self and other) are strong, as well as your output. EPtW with Beam Overload, I can see the draw (not so much with FaW)....but even then, 1 copy is enough.
with the EPtX skills, running 4 of them is all about 100% up time and very high total power levels. you can never have to much power, it helps everything work better. put as many skillpoints into energy boosting skill tree skills as you can spare.
weapon power- if you intend to do damage with energy weapons, you want your weapons power at 125 at rest, over 125 is a waist. if your unbuffed energy level plus the energy you get from EPtW is over 125, lower your base number so the buffed total doesn't exceed 125. that freed up energy can then be used in other subsystems.
shield power- the higher the better. the shield regeneration and resistance is dependent on the power level. skills like EPtS running at 100% up time is an absolute must on nearly all ships, it increases the shield power and adds extra resistance on top of it. never even consider not running 2 copies on a cruiser.
engine power- don't take this for granted. though least important, its not a good idea to necessarily leave this at 25. in a space map, but not sector space, open your character sheet window and look at your "defense" score in the defense tab. when your ship isn't moving it should show zero or even a negative number. then start moving at full combat speed and observe the number increase. for cruisers, it seems to max out at a score of 60, its a good idea to adjust up your engine power levels until it shows nearly 60. this is your evasion score, the higher it is, the harder you are to hit. a shot missing you is a shot you never have to heal. if theres any chance you might come under fire, DON'T HOLD STILL, always be moving, circle if you have to. with your nonexistent defense score your opponents will never miss and their weapons will critical more often, resulting in the 1 shots everyone hates experiencing.
aux power- this is largely a modifier for many science and engineering abilities and heals. the higher it is the more effective they will be. the main cruiser abilities that depend on aux are auxiliary to structural, hazard emitters, and transfer shield strength. its always a good idea to have a power preset to high aux and low shields for when you arent being shot at but the person your supporting is. your heals with a higher aux modifier could mean the difference between life and death.
here is what my power settings are on one of my characters. with the 35/55 engine power level my defense score is 59. notice how weapons energy is set low to 80 to prevent overflow when cycling 4 EPtX skills.
as far as the science skills on the skill tree, they show a fairly complete list of what they buff if you click on them, or what they resist against. choose a build you see in this thread, then check the skill tree to see if any of the ability's your using are buffed by any of those skills. those skills that directly buff abilities you use should always be speced to 6, if not 9, that's your bread and butter.
i would recommend putting 3 points, which is a whole 54/99, in each of the science resist skills, along with subsystem repair. my characters ive done this shrug off most science skills easily. expect a large buff to science abilities in the future, spec now and enjoy one of the 3 types of ships being mostly harmless to you wile you can!
What are you giving up for 4 EPtX skills. I can see how it works on an Odyssey but on something like an Assault or a SC which of ASiF, ET, ES, or RSP are you dropping?
This is the best I could come up with. But no RSP seems like a liability and adding it seems selfish (losing ES or ET).
What I advise you all is to at least try what dontdrunk advised you. If you don't like it, then don't do it, what's to loose? He has great experience in flying cruisers with both tac and engi, and I do recommend all readers to listen to him. Even if you can made max weapon without epw, you're giving up shield power, or engine power, or both, since eps can't raise your shield power to 125. Defense its very important and since it's affected by speed, you also need to have the speed as high up till your defense doesn't change (as he mentioned, look up your defense while not in sector space). If you have elusive trait, defense caps somewhere around 70, or 60 without elusive trait. Also, I think aegis shield adds some defense. Unless you are on the Klingon side, and have the leech console that adds power to your levels, you must run 4 emergency power (preferably 2 epw and 2 eps) to be highly effective. You can get some doffs to lower the amount of cool down time for a specific team, this case i recommend some tac team doffs, but depends on how fast the cruiser turns.
As this has become a be all end all cruiser thread could you go over the captain skill builds a little better please? As a new player, skills might be the hardest to find info on and they cost money to fix if you do the wrong thing. I know you have linked one (in the table of contents) but I have some questions about it:
1. The science skills do not make a lot of sense to me. Why Particle Generators instead of finishing out Starship Shield Emitters. It does not seem like Particle Generators affect anything on that Star Cruiser, am I missing something? Same with the Flow Capacitors, are they for the glider only?
2. Is EPtW used as a damage buff rather than for the power? Most of the cruiser builds I see have one if not 2x EPtW in the EPtX rotation. Maybe it is wrong but the power calc says the linked build with Efficient, Warp Theorist and the Borg Console has about 124 weapon power. So is the damage (7.5%) worth the boff slot? Could someone running a dual EPtW rotation drop the skill points out of Starship Weapon Performance?
3. Why nothing in Starship Auxiliary Performance? Would that not benefit the heals or are you mostly relying on swapping power settings?
Much of this is probably obvious for you vets, but us noobs need better info than the in-game "descriptions."
I put the ranks into Particle generators for the option to run eject warp plasma at full burn, as well as the ability to run things like Oddys, with photonic shockwave, charged particle burst2 (which is nerfed now), and Tractor Repulsor 2. (it does good solid dps, especially since everyone has a 75 percent repel resistance now)
I had ranks in flow capacitors to boost tetryon glider's power, as well as the tetryon weapon proc (as their proc is pretty handy now on cruisers, polarized tets are also pretty handy). You can easily switch these ranks out for more in Power Insulators however (now that the resists in PI are actually working... brokenly OP but working at least)
I didn't finish up shield emitters, because gold speccing really is as far as you need to go and you will not lose very much effectiveness with your shield heals. (maybe 1 percent if that?)
Most people will run more exotic power settings that give them a more balanced approach (higher aux and shield biases generally), and need EPTW to max it out. I run full to guns on my engie cruiser and use one copy of emergency power to aux. You can also use EPTW to save skill points, if you are coming up short else where (like not having Threat Generation which gives a stout hull resist.. EPTWs can give you those ranks back in it and points for something else)
Well in my case specifically using the Warp Core Theorist doff, having EPS power transfer up, EPTS and EPTA1 (just one copy) I have almost all of my power settings at 120+. Aux performance is kind of a waste when I'm already pushing near the cap.
here's a screen shot of my power settings at full tilt. http://postimage.org/image/m601ls5h1/full/
I have the same wonder really...You're in a damn cruiser, max your weapon power, balance your shields and aux, set engine to minimum...run EPtS and EPtA...you now have weapons, shields, and aux easily at 100+...so you're heals (self and other) are strong, as well as your output. EPtW with Beam Overload, I can see the draw (not so much with FaW)....but even then, 1 copy is enough.
See above mostly, though there are times you are going to need to move your engine power up (when EPS power Transfer is off mostly).
I'll copy pasta my captain spec explanation in the original post to refine it. Thanks for the suggestion
What are you giving up for 4 EPtX skills. I can see how it works on an Odyssey but on something like an Assault or a SC which of ASiF, ET, ES, or RSP are you dropping?
This is the best I could come up with. But no RSP seems like a liability and adding it seems selfish (losing ES or ET).
I'd give up Engineering Team because you'll never know when Reverse Shield Polarity saves your own ship so you can save someone elses ship
Comments
for consoles it doesn't hurt to stock up on 2 of every single kind in blue mk XI, they arent that expensive and being able to swap on the fly can make a big difference. I'd never run with less then 2 armors at a time. its unfortunate theres no room for RSP though. the excelsior's 3rd engineering ensign allows you to have EPtS1&2 and RSP1. is the 2 piece borg set the hull heal? it it is consider dropping a hull heal for an RSP. the field generator isn't doing you much good with the omega shield, i don't even run one when useing the maco shield.
My Qin got killed by a Defiant R with BO3. At least the guy complimented me in the fact that I survived longer than the other Klingon ships he fought.
I still wouldn't use dbl beams on a cruiser (wasn't there a point in game when you couldn't even equip them on cruisers?) due to slower turn rate, it's pretty hard to get an escort within arc. But probably with a little experience and tricks (apo, aux to inertial, deuterium, evasives, turn console) it's possible. Still think its better to use faw, Lol, pull target outside of group and let the faw spam do the work.
nice, i figured it would. your flying exactly what i WISH my tac/excelsior was flying
Please, give this thread a sticky! It's so good for everybody!
PM one of the mods, they're the ones that sticky threads.
The other good thing about this sale is that I finally got around to buying more keys, and opening the two Gold boxes I had sitting on my KDF toon... one of which had a Galor. :eek:
Now I'm trying to decide who to give it to. Sci is right out (and I
Is it even worth giving the Galor to an Engie? It has all the Boff slots geared toward Engineering, but it moves more like an Escort and has that T3 Tac slot.
I suppose I could roll a second Tac captain...
If you haven't bind the galor to a tune already, then I advice you to roll an engineer, see how you like that engi with the excelsior, then decide if you want to keep galor for engi or tac. Pretty much with a tac in excelsior (or galor for that reason since those 2 are pretty close) you have the potential to deal more damage at the expense of less tanking/healing). It is up to you to see what you like most. Also, you may want to consider a kdf tune, so I would just try those things before permanently bind the galor to a specific tune.
And of course it's worth to give galor to an engi, if you like playing with engi. Just see first what fits you best, engi or tac, both can be very successful.
P.s. The defiant retro is a fine ship, but in an escort you must move fast, and you must have key bindings properly set, clicking the powers on the toolbar gets you killed fast. I would recommend using key bindings for cruisers also, but wit a cruiser you may get along with just clicking versus escort.
Yeah, I'm never was good at keybinds, so I need to work on that. I'm going to give my Tac an Excelsior Cannon boat and see how that works for now.
I've got a KDF Lethean Science toon, who is happily flying a B'rel Retrofit, and I just haven't been able to find another KDF race I enjoy.
I may just hang onto the Galor box for now then. I'm hoping they'll do another $199 sale on Lifetime subs this summer, so I can roll a Borg Engie.
my tac excelsior longs for a galor, the galor is basically an excelsior only better. 5 tactical station powers with all the engineering powers you could need, unlike with the odyssey. its got a turn rate as good as a vorcha too, its tactical capacity is wasted on engineering or science captains. i should add my very deadly single cannon excelsior build to this thread some time, its easly adaptable to a galor.
Read the sticky thread in pvp forum for key bindings. There is also something on stowiki. It is worth using it and for example you could bind on one key tac teams and ballance shields. Also, I recommend buying a mouse razer naga, it's a little pricey (I paid for mine about 80-ish from newegg.com, but you may get a better deal I'm sure), but man, it's worth every single penny. If you don't know, nagas have 12 thumb buttons that you can bind, an using also key bindings, with one button press you can activate more powers, like the ones I mantioned above. Many pvpers on this forum have them, including Mav and Husanak.
Definition and term Row Through, in the context of this post Row Through, is a reference to the optimum speed and accuracy that you can rifle through your bridge officer skills without having to backtrack. Rowing Through, tremendously can affect your reaction times and ability to appropriately respond.
The first thing I want to mention is there isn't any one layout that will work for everyone every time. The biggest piece of advice I can give you (before showing you examples) is to find a configuration that can allow you to "row" through your powers quickly and effectively with minimal searching. Some people put their emergency powers right next to one another, or one above the other, same with eng teams etc. Some people (like myself) prefer a gap between Emergency powers, as the ability won't be needed till later and it sets up a clean visual way of showing which emergency power is which in terms of Priority.
Some people like putting their second emergency power system near the relevant bridge officer skills. (like EPTW1 next to FAW or Beam Overload, EPTA1 next to Transfer shield strength, or Hazard Emitters). As you can successively just roll from one ability to another.
Some people like all their emergency powers together.
The important thing is that you experiment, and practice with each layout you try until you find one that you can "row through" not only the fastest, but repeatedly Every Time. Anyone that's a veteran to pvp (regardless of game type.. FPS, MMO, RTS, Racing, Flight Sim etc) can tell you TRIBBLE can happen incredibly quickly so it's best to have your powers, and abilities straightened out to something that is as user friendly to you as possible.
The optimum Row Through time I have found is all of your abilities fired off or at least clicked in 4 seconds or less. This will make you more than fast enough to deal with whatever happens in live combat.
This is is my current layout on my healer controller
http://postimage.org/image/m601ls5h1/full/
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577826488322155190/D333E85B60DE136368FF8AA9D43BEF6D9E9F89A2/ Here's Drunks layout.
Notice how my Row Throughs are set up for the most part based around relevant energy related powers. Things that boost my power to the relevant system get shunted over. EPTS takes priority since I refuse to keybind it to space bar (as it randomizes which EPTS comes up that first time, or during any significant gaps of not smashing the space bar). Other than EPTS, my more selfish abilities take the bottom row and middle row. In order of the activation sequence I tend to need them in.
You get the idea though I think.
The important thing is, you lay your powers out in the order that you most often need them
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577826488322155190/D333E85B60DE136368FF8AA9D43BEF6D9E9F89A2/
1. The science skills do not make a lot of sense to me. Why Particle Generators instead of finishing out Starship Shield Emitters. It does not seem like Particle Generators affect anything on that Star Cruiser, am I missing something? Same with the Flow Capacitors, are they for the glider only?
2. Is EPtW used as a damage buff rather than for the power? Most of the cruiser builds I see have one if not 2x EPtW in the EPtX rotation. Maybe it is wrong but the power calc says the linked build with Efficient, Warp Theorist and the Borg Console has about 124 weapon power. So is the damage (7.5%) worth the boff slot? Could someone running a dual EPtW rotation drop the skill points out of Starship Weapon Performance?
3. Why nothing in Starship Auxiliary Performance? Would that not benefit the heals or are you mostly relying on swapping power settings?
Much of this is probably obvious for you vets, but us noobs need better info than the in-game "descriptions."
I have the same wonder really...You're in a damn cruiser, max your weapon power, balance your shields and aux, set engine to minimum...run EPtS and EPtA...you now have weapons, shields, and aux easily at 100+...so you're heals (self and other) are strong, as well as your output. EPtW with Beam Overload, I can see the draw (not so much with FaW)....but even then, 1 copy is enough.
weapon power- if you intend to do damage with energy weapons, you want your weapons power at 125 at rest, over 125 is a waist. if your unbuffed energy level plus the energy you get from EPtW is over 125, lower your base number so the buffed total doesn't exceed 125. that freed up energy can then be used in other subsystems.
shield power- the higher the better. the shield regeneration and resistance is dependent on the power level. skills like EPtS running at 100% up time is an absolute must on nearly all ships, it increases the shield power and adds extra resistance on top of it. never even consider not running 2 copies on a cruiser.
engine power- don't take this for granted. though least important, its not a good idea to necessarily leave this at 25. in a space map, but not sector space, open your character sheet window and look at your "defense" score in the defense tab. when your ship isn't moving it should show zero or even a negative number. then start moving at full combat speed and observe the number increase. for cruisers, it seems to max out at a score of 60, its a good idea to adjust up your engine power levels until it shows nearly 60. this is your evasion score, the higher it is, the harder you are to hit. a shot missing you is a shot you never have to heal. if theres any chance you might come under fire, DON'T HOLD STILL, always be moving, circle if you have to. with your nonexistent defense score your opponents will never miss and their weapons will critical more often, resulting in the 1 shots everyone hates experiencing.
aux power- this is largely a modifier for many science and engineering abilities and heals. the higher it is the more effective they will be. the main cruiser abilities that depend on aux are auxiliary to structural, hazard emitters, and transfer shield strength. its always a good idea to have a power preset to high aux and low shields for when you arent being shot at but the person your supporting is. your heals with a higher aux modifier could mean the difference between life and death.
here is what my power settings are on one of my characters. with the 35/55 engine power level my defense score is 59. notice how weapons energy is set low to 80 to prevent overflow when cycling 4 EPtX skills.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/578953336729170119/581D0A2BBE2834017DD475155394C800E062F3D3/
wile cycling those 4 EPtX skills, my energy levels are this high
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/578953336729171015/66E4B23F4E87DBD2FAA4729A95F81F0A9F6E51A0/
as far as the science skills on the skill tree, they show a fairly complete list of what they buff if you click on them, or what they resist against. choose a build you see in this thread, then check the skill tree to see if any of the ability's your using are buffed by any of those skills. those skills that directly buff abilities you use should always be speced to 6, if not 9, that's your bread and butter.
i would recommend putting 3 points, which is a whole 54/99, in each of the science resist skills, along with subsystem repair. my characters ive done this shrug off most science skills easily. expect a large buff to science abilities in the future, spec now and enjoy one of the 3 types of ships being mostly harmless to you wile you can!
This is the best I could come up with. But no RSP seems like a liability and adding it seems selfish (losing ES or ET).
I put the ranks into Particle generators for the option to run eject warp plasma at full burn, as well as the ability to run things like Oddys, with photonic shockwave, charged particle burst2 (which is nerfed now), and Tractor Repulsor 2. (it does good solid dps, especially since everyone has a 75 percent repel resistance now)
I had ranks in flow capacitors to boost tetryon glider's power, as well as the tetryon weapon proc (as their proc is pretty handy now on cruisers, polarized tets are also pretty handy). You can easily switch these ranks out for more in Power Insulators however (now that the resists in PI are actually working... brokenly OP but working at least)
I didn't finish up shield emitters, because gold speccing really is as far as you need to go and you will not lose very much effectiveness with your shield heals. (maybe 1 percent if that?)
Most people will run more exotic power settings that give them a more balanced approach (higher aux and shield biases generally), and need EPTW to max it out. I run full to guns on my engie cruiser and use one copy of emergency power to aux. You can also use EPTW to save skill points, if you are coming up short else where (like not having Threat Generation which gives a stout hull resist.. EPTWs can give you those ranks back in it and points for something else)
Well in my case specifically using the Warp Core Theorist doff, having EPS power transfer up, EPTS and EPTA1 (just one copy) I have almost all of my power settings at 120+. Aux performance is kind of a waste when I'm already pushing near the cap.
here's a screen shot of my power settings at full tilt.
http://postimage.org/image/m601ls5h1/full/
See above mostly, though there are times you are going to need to move your engine power up (when EPS power Transfer is off mostly).
I'll copy pasta my captain spec explanation in the original post to refine it. Thanks for the suggestion
I'd give up Engineering Team because you'll never know when Reverse Shield Polarity saves your own ship so you can save someone elses ship