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The Ultimate Cruiser thread 2.0
mavairo
Member Posts: 579
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364791&postcount=23 Table Of Contents for all future posts in this thread. Do note guys I am still picking through the original thread I haven't forgotten everyone!
I have to be able to edit my posts. So this thread is copy pasta of my old one. This will likely be a gradual process of copy pasta ing. Stupid perfect world for botching the migration... Of course with the new fleet ships, and new other ideas for old ships, I'll be adding new content as well.
"I should be facerolling Escorts and bops with my Ship of the line! This isn't canon!" This is a common variation on frustrated pvpers. Often times they will post what appears to be an indepth analyisis even as to "just what makes Escorts and bops OP" When frankly, they couldn't be more wrong. The first question to ask, is a Cruiser a DPS Ship? The answer is as follows. While there are a couple of exceptions to the rule, by and large...
Nope unless you are following a fairly narrow Tac Cruiser build your job isn't dps (and then with a tac cruiser the best ones in my opinion, treat damage at best as an equal partner to the ships native role fedside). Your role is support, first and foremost as a cruiser. You have to keep your team mates alive through the alpha strikes coming in from the klingon attacks / enemy escorts (FvF if the latter). Once you keep your team mate alive (most likely an Escort since those are almost always priority one in pvp to kill, they are the squishiest fedside. Though, I often target Gal X's first, as nothing is so clearly a Noob Pilot as someone in any Galaxy Class Variant) then your enemy you'll find has alot less damage for around thirty seconds or so afterwards, in which case it's a slow build up back up, which is far more managable with healing.
Throughout this thread I will post various builds (others are welcome to post builds as well) that I recommend for use in pvp. NOTE if it works in pvp it will ROFLSTOMP any and all pve.
Cruisers are actually the hardest ships to kill when built properly, due to having very high native damage reduction, shield strength and hull points. Especially engineering cruisers, as they have access to a host of self heal capability that other classes do not have. When the pilot of a cruiser doesn't suck, he doesn't become a high priority/easy quick kill.
Use powers like Emergency Power to Shields 2, and 1, Engineering team 2 and 3, Aux to structural integrity field 3, Extend Shields 2, Reverse Shield Polarity1, and if you are a Tac, Emergency Power to Weapons1, or if you are an engineer or sci captain, Emergency Power to Aux1. For tactical slots, run Tactical Team1, and either Attack Pattern Delta1, or Tactical team 1, and Beam Overload2. (if you are a tac) Science powers, Hazard Emitters1/Polarize Hull1, and Transfer Shield strength2, or two transfer shield strengths. (1 and 2)
If you have an extra ensign slot, you might as well throw target engines there to assist in controlling enemy movement.
If you have the following powers on your ship remove them immediately because they are utterly worthless. Emergency Power to Weapons 2 and up. Emergency to Aux 2 and up, Emergency to Engines 2 and up. Aux to Battery 1 and up. Boarding Party 1 and up, Aceton Field 1 and up. Aux to Inertial Dampeners 2 (1 is just as good as 2 is), Jam Sensors, Scramble Sensors (not really worthless but it's not a cruiser power by any means), Tachyon Beam1 or 2, (1 is terrible and you do not have the turn rate to make 2 work) Energy Siphon1, Torpedo High Yield 1 or 2 *again you don't really have the turn rate for this one, and only tacs really get the miles out of this use Torp Spread instead great for Escorts though* Beam Overload1 (only good for killing shuttles... BO2 is much better)
Power levels should be weapons /25 Shields /75, Engines /25 Aux /75 for healing configuration, and if you are running emergency to weapons instead of aux, weapons /75 shields /75 engines /25 aux /25
That's just a sample fairly standard healcruiser build it works great with the Assault Cruiser, and the gal X (as much as anything can work with that ugly, and horrible ship seriously gtfo out of it ASAP the Galaxy X is a terrible ship. It's not as bad as it used to be but it's still the worst cruiser in the game. It's a Vanity Item at best and a Bullseye creator at worst as no other ship in the game clearly marks you as a Noob as a Gal X.. cause everyone that has experience avoids it, and the Gal Retrofit like the black plague) star cruisers I'll cover later. There's a few other more advanced build options you can run, but this is a good one to learn on as it has plenty of healing for team mates, (and heal your team mates! if you save them all for yourself you are only getting your allies killed!) The Excelsior is a damage ship, but is best employed by Tactical and Science captains. Engineers need not apply unless you enjoy wasting your time. (as Engineer captains do not do DPS, nor do they do Debuffing like science captains do)
Emergency powers are the lifeblood of a good fedcruiser, as they enable you to greatly boost your power level for whatever emergency to X you are running at the time. Emergency Power to Shields can be chained one after another (which is why so many ships seem ''invincible'' to you) Tactical team makes all but the most fiercesome anti proton beam overload 3 crit a complete joke, even if your emergency power to shields isn't up at the time. Reverse shield polarity is used as an oh TRIBBLE button when you have already given away your transfer shield strengths to a team mate and you are almost out of shields. (it's especially useful just after you get sub nucleaonic beamed, and you pop a shield battery with it. Then you can usually save Rotate Shield freq if you are an engineer for the second sub nuc if it's coming and chances are someone's given you a sci team to clear the debuff, and an emergency power is probably also ready at that point) you should always always always if possible have an emergency power to shields up.
And yes you can run two emergency powers at the same time if they are for different subsystems.
When running at the /75 powers I mentioned emergency power 2, is enough to put your shields at full strength, which boosts your shield regen, and it's native damage reduction, it also has the pleasant side effect of almost maxing out your extend shields' damage reduction bonus. While emergency 1 almost kicks everything to capacity as well.
Devices I recommend keeping the following handy. Shield Batteries, (or rechargeable shield battery if you can get one) Weapon Battery, Subspace field modulator, and Aux Battery. Shield Batteries are for when you have been Sub Nucleaonic beamed. This gets your shield power right back up to 125 and gives a small shield heal in the process. For Engies this makes them even more frustrating to kill since often you can then save rotate shield frequency for either being nucced again, or just for use as your shield strength falls to roughly half. For Tacs and Sci it's a straight up life saver. Weapon batteries are to be used when a target is near death (if you aren't using emergency power to weapons1 or if it's cooldown is active), so you can cram that last little bit of DPS into the target to hopefully down it before they can get heals.
Subspace field modulators are good for when you are being focus fired and a shield is near critical, it increases both your damage resistance and your Defense Score, Aux Batteries are for when you are running weapon power bias (ie thats one of your /75s) or for when your EPTA (emergency power to aux1) is off, and you need that -extra- bit of healing to save someone's life.
Don't forget to put Distribute Shield power somewhere you can easily keep hitting it, when the enemy starts attacking you. Most people keybind it to the space bar, but honestly I shield tank worse then I run it there, because it throws off the rhythm of the shield distribution when damage comes in. Sure it's more micro intensive than what most people do, but honestly it pays dividends especially when tac team is on cool down. (and now you all know my secret for shield tanking... I'm doomed)
Also, pay attention to your positioning relative to the other players on your team. Cruisers should either be in the middle where they can put their extend shields outwards, or circling slowly behind the Escorts on the outside edge of combat, and adjust your throttle as you go along. Also, I recommend you move throttle control to the mouse scroll wheel. That lets you pull off fancy moves, like the reverse flat spin which is very difficult if not impossible with the default bind of it being on your keyboard, this also frees up your fingers so they can more easily hit the number rows and keep fighting, or frees up the default throttle keys for staple abilities so you do not have to hunt the keyboard and never leave WASD.
For example when I'm at a buddies place, and I need my sto fix and I forget to take my Razer Naga with me (which really is worth the investment if you plan on playing alot of mmos and rts games) I bind whatever my emergency power to shields is, (third ability, on the top row usually) to Q, and the second emergency power to shields to E.
Speaking of, if you really want to get serious in pvp without springing for a razer naga you might want to consider a keyboard layout different from the standard WASD+ Numbers and start binding various abilities to other keys, like the aformentioned E and Q. Some other good non number keys to bind powers to are also C, X, Z, V and B, just to cite some examples. This means you never leave total control over your ship, while you are hitting powers. Which is one of the reasons the Razer Naga is just so good. All the numbers are on the side of the mouse leaving your other hand free for actually moving about, hitting push to talk keys, firing weapons etc.
To change your control scheme press Escape, hit options, and click on the tab for keybinds. Begin arranging as desired.
I also recommend heavily regardless of what you do for ability activation running the 3 row power tray instead of the default one with the silly pictures of your bridge crew. The default tray is completely useless in pvp, wastes time in searching for abilities, and even worse clutters up your screen. Also, practice using the numbers instead of mouse clicking abilities. It saves your mouse for healing allies then or clicking through enemy targets.
I have to be able to edit my posts. So this thread is copy pasta of my old one. This will likely be a gradual process of copy pasta ing. Stupid perfect world for botching the migration... Of course with the new fleet ships, and new other ideas for old ships, I'll be adding new content as well.
"I should be facerolling Escorts and bops with my Ship of the line! This isn't canon!" This is a common variation on frustrated pvpers. Often times they will post what appears to be an indepth analyisis even as to "just what makes Escorts and bops OP" When frankly, they couldn't be more wrong. The first question to ask, is a Cruiser a DPS Ship? The answer is as follows. While there are a couple of exceptions to the rule, by and large...
Nope unless you are following a fairly narrow Tac Cruiser build your job isn't dps (and then with a tac cruiser the best ones in my opinion, treat damage at best as an equal partner to the ships native role fedside). Your role is support, first and foremost as a cruiser. You have to keep your team mates alive through the alpha strikes coming in from the klingon attacks / enemy escorts (FvF if the latter). Once you keep your team mate alive (most likely an Escort since those are almost always priority one in pvp to kill, they are the squishiest fedside. Though, I often target Gal X's first, as nothing is so clearly a Noob Pilot as someone in any Galaxy Class Variant) then your enemy you'll find has alot less damage for around thirty seconds or so afterwards, in which case it's a slow build up back up, which is far more managable with healing.
Throughout this thread I will post various builds (others are welcome to post builds as well) that I recommend for use in pvp. NOTE if it works in pvp it will ROFLSTOMP any and all pve.
Cruisers are actually the hardest ships to kill when built properly, due to having very high native damage reduction, shield strength and hull points. Especially engineering cruisers, as they have access to a host of self heal capability that other classes do not have. When the pilot of a cruiser doesn't suck, he doesn't become a high priority/easy quick kill.
Use powers like Emergency Power to Shields 2, and 1, Engineering team 2 and 3, Aux to structural integrity field 3, Extend Shields 2, Reverse Shield Polarity1, and if you are a Tac, Emergency Power to Weapons1, or if you are an engineer or sci captain, Emergency Power to Aux1. For tactical slots, run Tactical Team1, and either Attack Pattern Delta1, or Tactical team 1, and Beam Overload2. (if you are a tac) Science powers, Hazard Emitters1/Polarize Hull1, and Transfer Shield strength2, or two transfer shield strengths. (1 and 2)
If you have an extra ensign slot, you might as well throw target engines there to assist in controlling enemy movement.
If you have the following powers on your ship remove them immediately because they are utterly worthless. Emergency Power to Weapons 2 and up. Emergency to Aux 2 and up, Emergency to Engines 2 and up. Aux to Battery 1 and up. Boarding Party 1 and up, Aceton Field 1 and up. Aux to Inertial Dampeners 2 (1 is just as good as 2 is), Jam Sensors, Scramble Sensors (not really worthless but it's not a cruiser power by any means), Tachyon Beam1 or 2, (1 is terrible and you do not have the turn rate to make 2 work) Energy Siphon1, Torpedo High Yield 1 or 2 *again you don't really have the turn rate for this one, and only tacs really get the miles out of this use Torp Spread instead great for Escorts though* Beam Overload1 (only good for killing shuttles... BO2 is much better)
Power levels should be weapons /25 Shields /75, Engines /25 Aux /75 for healing configuration, and if you are running emergency to weapons instead of aux, weapons /75 shields /75 engines /25 aux /25
That's just a sample fairly standard healcruiser build it works great with the Assault Cruiser, and the gal X (as much as anything can work with that ugly, and horrible ship seriously gtfo out of it ASAP the Galaxy X is a terrible ship. It's not as bad as it used to be but it's still the worst cruiser in the game. It's a Vanity Item at best and a Bullseye creator at worst as no other ship in the game clearly marks you as a Noob as a Gal X.. cause everyone that has experience avoids it, and the Gal Retrofit like the black plague) star cruisers I'll cover later. There's a few other more advanced build options you can run, but this is a good one to learn on as it has plenty of healing for team mates, (and heal your team mates! if you save them all for yourself you are only getting your allies killed!) The Excelsior is a damage ship, but is best employed by Tactical and Science captains. Engineers need not apply unless you enjoy wasting your time. (as Engineer captains do not do DPS, nor do they do Debuffing like science captains do)
Emergency powers are the lifeblood of a good fedcruiser, as they enable you to greatly boost your power level for whatever emergency to X you are running at the time. Emergency Power to Shields can be chained one after another (which is why so many ships seem ''invincible'' to you) Tactical team makes all but the most fiercesome anti proton beam overload 3 crit a complete joke, even if your emergency power to shields isn't up at the time. Reverse shield polarity is used as an oh TRIBBLE button when you have already given away your transfer shield strengths to a team mate and you are almost out of shields. (it's especially useful just after you get sub nucleaonic beamed, and you pop a shield battery with it. Then you can usually save Rotate Shield freq if you are an engineer for the second sub nuc if it's coming and chances are someone's given you a sci team to clear the debuff, and an emergency power is probably also ready at that point) you should always always always if possible have an emergency power to shields up.
And yes you can run two emergency powers at the same time if they are for different subsystems.
When running at the /75 powers I mentioned emergency power 2, is enough to put your shields at full strength, which boosts your shield regen, and it's native damage reduction, it also has the pleasant side effect of almost maxing out your extend shields' damage reduction bonus. While emergency 1 almost kicks everything to capacity as well.
Devices I recommend keeping the following handy. Shield Batteries, (or rechargeable shield battery if you can get one) Weapon Battery, Subspace field modulator, and Aux Battery. Shield Batteries are for when you have been Sub Nucleaonic beamed. This gets your shield power right back up to 125 and gives a small shield heal in the process. For Engies this makes them even more frustrating to kill since often you can then save rotate shield frequency for either being nucced again, or just for use as your shield strength falls to roughly half. For Tacs and Sci it's a straight up life saver. Weapon batteries are to be used when a target is near death (if you aren't using emergency power to weapons1 or if it's cooldown is active), so you can cram that last little bit of DPS into the target to hopefully down it before they can get heals.
Subspace field modulators are good for when you are being focus fired and a shield is near critical, it increases both your damage resistance and your Defense Score, Aux Batteries are for when you are running weapon power bias (ie thats one of your /75s) or for when your EPTA (emergency power to aux1) is off, and you need that -extra- bit of healing to save someone's life.
Don't forget to put Distribute Shield power somewhere you can easily keep hitting it, when the enemy starts attacking you. Most people keybind it to the space bar, but honestly I shield tank worse then I run it there, because it throws off the rhythm of the shield distribution when damage comes in. Sure it's more micro intensive than what most people do, but honestly it pays dividends especially when tac team is on cool down. (and now you all know my secret for shield tanking... I'm doomed)
Also, pay attention to your positioning relative to the other players on your team. Cruisers should either be in the middle where they can put their extend shields outwards, or circling slowly behind the Escorts on the outside edge of combat, and adjust your throttle as you go along. Also, I recommend you move throttle control to the mouse scroll wheel. That lets you pull off fancy moves, like the reverse flat spin which is very difficult if not impossible with the default bind of it being on your keyboard, this also frees up your fingers so they can more easily hit the number rows and keep fighting, or frees up the default throttle keys for staple abilities so you do not have to hunt the keyboard and never leave WASD.
For example when I'm at a buddies place, and I need my sto fix and I forget to take my Razer Naga with me (which really is worth the investment if you plan on playing alot of mmos and rts games) I bind whatever my emergency power to shields is, (third ability, on the top row usually) to Q, and the second emergency power to shields to E.
Speaking of, if you really want to get serious in pvp without springing for a razer naga you might want to consider a keyboard layout different from the standard WASD+ Numbers and start binding various abilities to other keys, like the aformentioned E and Q. Some other good non number keys to bind powers to are also C, X, Z, V and B, just to cite some examples. This means you never leave total control over your ship, while you are hitting powers. Which is one of the reasons the Razer Naga is just so good. All the numbers are on the side of the mouse leaving your other hand free for actually moving about, hitting push to talk keys, firing weapons etc.
To change your control scheme press Escape, hit options, and click on the tab for keybinds. Begin arranging as desired.
I also recommend heavily regardless of what you do for ability activation running the 3 row power tray instead of the default one with the silly pictures of your bridge crew. The default tray is completely useless in pvp, wastes time in searching for abilities, and even worse clutters up your screen. Also, practice using the numbers instead of mouse clicking abilities. It saves your mouse for healing allies then or clicking through enemy targets.
Post edited by mavairo on
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http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=Dragonflame1_0 This is one I recommend for Tac Cruisers.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavsTVorcha1_0 Another Tac Cruiser build. Vorcha, and Excelsior specifically.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=mavmod20_0
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=brokenskitty11_0
This, is an extremely valuable tool tool to have. I heartily recommend everyone at least check this out at least once.
The first step into understanding the doff system (which is usually fairly straight up and down easy) is understanding what powers you want to accent the most.
Lets start with the healing Rig.
There is a doff that increases all of your power levels 20 percent of the time (on the green level) by 15 each time you use Emergency power to X. This one is one of my favorites for several reasons, not least among them is hey whatever subsystem you neglect just got a 15 power boost. That's always nice. It doesn't seem like much, but every little bit helps (as if you have your power settings correct on a cruiser EPTS1 suddenly hits max shield power when this procs for example. And procced shield power is always handy)
this doff is called the Warp Core Engineer.
There's a maintenance engineer that also reduces the cool downs of all Eng Team, for anything using ET3 this is mandatory. Development Lab Scientist works the Sci Team down, and I think the Con Officer for Tac team (not that you should really run this one since you're more focused on healing in -any- cruiser). This is a pretty handy one to have on a cruiser as well, as it can free up bridge officer slots for other stuff like say Aux To Inertial Dampeners so you can keep your Extend Shields going when the photonic shockwaves come to play.
The tactical DOFFs which give you a chance to shield heal every time you use Brace For Impact are also incredibly useful (as often you are using that when your shields are near dead anyway) I recommend 2 of those on almost any ship. This doff is called the Shield Distribution Officer.
Obviously there's only five doff slots you can work with. So your best bet is to play with them all till you find the balance you like. Those are my immediate favorites for Cruisers however. (and the Brace for impact, and EPTX doffs are my faves for all ships in general yeah it ends up eating 3 to 4 of them really you don't need more than 2 of the BFI doffs unless you are rolling Escort and with a cruiser 1 is often adequate)
Playing with the just these doffs can help your cruiser better fit it's chosen role particularly the damage and heal roles. Example you might want more Maintence Team helpers on a DPS cruiser so you can cram more dps oriented, or powers that in the long run will help your dps (such as aux 2 damp) . So you run more there, than you would in a pure healer.
Control DPS/Heal cruisers things get interesting with DOFFs, cause you get some really neat ones like the one that boosts your chance to immobilize a target every time you use Warp Plasma. Having the Maint engineer, or 2 that reduce Team CDs really helps this loadout (if they are green or better. Ideally you go with 2 blue ones , then get a BFI shield healing doff, and 2 of the warp plas ones)
with a control ship the reduced evasive cooldown doff is even worth looking at as it gives you potentially better chances to employ warp plasma, and still give you some defensive capability. (I wouldn't take more than 2 though and only if they are blue level personally)
Or you can choose to stick with the EPTX Doff that boosts power levels, mix in the warp plas, and a couple BFI Doffs, with the deflector cd reduction doffs..
I wish I could be more specific with DOFFs but they really are an experiment till you find your balance thing. These are the ones I solidly recommend for cruisers though.
EDITORs NOTE: I will be updating this to reflect the most recent doff wave.
The Answer? Is a little complicated and easy at the same time. It depends on what you are after.
I really really recommend going with either 3 piece borg and Maco shield fedside (pretty standard setup gives you great longevity)
Or consider 2 piece Omega and 2 pieces Borg.
Unfortunately this isn't even a choice that's as much tied to your own build as what your team mates are packing as to what really works best for you and your group of friends. (and trust me you really want to start pvping with friends... or make some friends while pvping. There's pugging and winning.. then there's being part of a team, and -knowing- your team mates. Obvious tactical benefits aside, mmos are ultimately a social experience and there's no better one out there imo than sto pvp with friends)
For example, if your team is already loaded for bear with control spam (such as CPB, Shockwave, Gravity well PANDAS I AM LOOKING AT YOU ) 3 Piece borg and Maco might be your best bet as to minimize the "Oh **** I need a heal!" moments. Your team is already overkilling crowd control anyway and when your targets don't have any shields as it is... one more Tet glider won't make much of a difference.
However if your team is lacking in crowd control (like say 2 Escorts 2 Sci or god help you 3 Escorts a Sci and you) a 2 piece borg 2 piece Omega might be your best bet. You need all the cc you can cram in. The regenerative shields of say Borg or Omega (if you go borg shields, go Borg Shield, Borg Console, Omega Deflector and Engine. If you go Omega shield, go Omega Engine with it and Borg Deflector and Console) are still fairly stout on a max or near max shield power cruiser and are honestly a little less vulnerable overall to Tetryon Gliders, Tetryon Procs, Tachyon beam3, and CPB drains as they spring back incredibly quickly. Sure you are a little more vulnerable to burst from an Escort but no setup is truly perfect shield wise.
"What do I run without these borg / stf sets though?" I really recommend the old school MK X purple shields like Resilient Cap3s, Covariant Cap3s, or Regenerative cap 3s, and purple X deflectors or blue XIs. Pre Purple Shields, I recommend MK XI or X Covariant Cap2s at least to get you by for shields.
Notice what I left off the table here? Aegis and Breen. That's cause both of them are Junk. Like not even a little junk they are total junk. Okay, I'll be fair the Aegis is an almost stop gap till you get your borg stuff its got a really nice Deflector that adds to shield power and has some decent skill bonuses and the engine isn't terrible. Breen stuff though... that's irredeemably bad. It's not even as good as "normal" gear in all honesty.
Do note that if you do run Aegis deflector I might shoot for the borg shield or Maco shield first in your stf gear. The Borg shield cause you'll get another +5 shield power (meaning now you have +10 over someone without that stuff, +14 shield power if you have the shield power console too and they don't have the shield power console) which allows you to put power into either your Weapons, Aux or Engines. Engines are a good idea if you are running DPS hybrid with your ship, as is it's a good option for Control ships. This will help mitigate the gear disadvantage you have till you can get your better equipment. While the maco will give you +2 to everything when you are being shot at. Giving you a still nifty bonus but great resistance to damage. I'll leave the visual of what your power levels will look like if your EPTX bonus power doff procs with all this going on for yourself. (+29/+26 to your shield power on the proc and static bonuses alone... throw on the EPTS boost now... Yeah. Crazy. Lots of room to play there)
Every cruiser that has even one eng team, ASIF or Hazard emitters Needs 2 SIF Generators for the builds I've discussed so far. They tremendously boost your healing capability. To not have them is almost criminal. RCS? Only put on a control focused AC and then I wouldn't run more than 2, at max.
Another very solid console layout is 2 SIF Generators, and 2 Armors. I prefer Tetraburnium coupled with Diburnium for my armors as this gives you ridiculous resists to all energy types, with abit more leaning on Phasers and disruptors.
Sci Consoles, Field Generator at least one of these is mandatory, Borg Console can fit in here as well. For builds where the DPS isn't as important, you can move the Borg out and put in either a Shield Emitters console, or another Field Generator. Oddy's for example I recommend 2 to 4 Field Generators, couple that with a regen shield and the oddy's OP shield modifier and you get some insane shield tanking, at very low effort on your behalf, which means more heals for everyone else.
Tactical Consoles, for Damage and Control, as many energy consoles as you can stuff in here. For healing, any cstore consoles, and the borg and maybe an energy console.
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/57...BEF6D9E9F89A2/ 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
Once the enemy team has been reduced by 40 percent, klinks tend to either be able to fade away and start again, or since the enemy's numbers have been reduced dramatically in seconds flat, they set up zone control and overwhelm the remaining 3 players preferably before the original 2 dead guys are even back from respawning yet and have their power levels ready. Someone should -always- be dying to a klink team that's operating hot in theory until the first klink dies or is maimed so badly that they have to retreat.
Which is why it's important for klinks to know when to GTFO in my opinion. The subsequent posts for klink cruiser builds will attempt to maximize these traits primarily.
Sci Cruisers tend to be fail for feds, but can work decently for klink teams all because of that initial strike capability so there will be more sci cruiser options here. (especially since both the Karfi and Voquv exist) For the most part I will avoid listing the various Pay To Win Methods, just straight up ship builds. It's more important to have a ship that can kick *** and take names on it's own merit than to crutch your way to victory. Because if you have to then later throw on the crutches you're just going to be all the more unstoppable for it.
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.
Public Service Announcement If You are A Tactical Captain And You Are In A Star Cruiser. Get Out Of It. NOW. I don't mean later or tomorrow I mean literally right now. Get out of your ship take your toys off of it, Discharge it and buy an Assault Cruiser or Excelsior, or go find an Escort. Seriously. This is not the ship for you. Nothing you do will work in it. I'm sorry, but it's true.
This Concludes our Public Service Announcement brought to you by OPVP and weeping Escorts everywhere.
This post is just for Star Cruisers.
Much Like my AC cruiser posts, however I'm only doing one SC one. I would go insane if I covered this ship too much (I'm a tac.. I murder people... most of opvp knows this just mentioning me and flying heal ship makes me cringe).
The Star Cruiser is debatable the best heal cruiser in the game. Especially Fed Side. In my opinion it is the best heal cruiser on the fed side. (the Neb is classified as the Sci Ship after all) However aside from the standard Harmless Healer role, that it is primarily seen in, it can be made to sub in some control. It's not as effective as a Control AC, at zone denial and control but it is capable, and is still at least as good of a healer as the AC while the AC is more of a dps and control ship.
The Standard Heal Bot layout.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1/ET1, EPTS2, ET3
Lt Tac. APD1, Tactical Team.
LT Sci, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens. Sci Team1/ Hazard 1.
Alt choices, LT SCi. Transfer Shields 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shields 1.
Tertiary Alt. Lt Sci, Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields2, Ensign, Sci Team 1
Console load out should follow the standard heal boat pattern I posted before. Shields, and Set. Maco/Omega/Borg shield with 3 other borg pieces.
Doffs, same as standard healing setup as above. (see why that got posted first? It was so I can be lazy later!)
Now someone somewhere out there is moaning "But Mav I don't want to heal in this thing Damn it man. Gimme something"
Here is where you can break the mold abit with the Star Cruiser.
Control
Cmdr Engineering
EPTA1, EPTS2, Extend Shields2, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr Eng
Eng Team 1, Aux to structural integrity 1 1/Aux To damp1, Eng Team 3.
Lt Tac, Tac Team, Attack Pattern Delta1 (APD1)
LT SCI, Transfer Shields strength1, Transfer Shield Strength 2 Alternate Sci Team 1, TSS2
Ens sci. Tractor Beam. Alternate Hazard Emitters 1
Now, before my fellow OPVPers bust out laughing their faces off. Here is why this setup can work. You can greatly reduce the CD of Emergency Power to Shields with the proper DOFF. You are going to want. No Need This Doff This doff is called the Damage control engineer. Get as good of quality or as many of these as you can, as well as the + to power level doff for it to work, and the Brace For Impact Doffs. This allows you to get away with one of each emergency power, as you can pretty reliably kick them into global with it.
"But that doesn't fix the horrid turn rate and flight speed!" It requires abit of fancy flying to use, but you wanted something non standard but functional. It will take some trick flying at times but it's pretty worth it once you get to pulling it off.
It's abit more healy still than the control AC. But the AC is more agile, and has more dps. Other Doff considerations are, the deflector cooldown reducing doff.
Consoles. Eng Consoles same as the standard above. Sci of course field emitter, and 2 particle generator consoles. tactical 1 energy or cstore console, and borg console.
Set Item. for most teams I recommend Maco and 3 Borg. Unless you have a secondary healer handy, then go 2 borg and 2 omega.
Power Levels /25 weapons /75 shields /25 Engines /75 Aux. Both ships.
Devices, Engine batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace field mod, weapon battery (lol).
Control Devices, Engine, Shield, Subspace field mod, Deuterium.
These are the two that I know that work pretty well and that was waaay before Doffs came in to make things better, there's variations of them that also work but these I've tried at one point or another. Sci toons can work in the last setup, with aux to Damp going, and sci fleet to boost the teams and their own shield resistances to massive levels and throw dampening field in for that extra kick. Aux To Damp means that you'll actually get to see your sub nuc get used more than once in a blue moon. (think of it like flying a much better healing DSSV with better hull points and decent control that happens to be stun/repel immune for abit)
And now we move on to the Excelsior. Step one? Acquire 3 SNB Doffs to **** everyone off Nah I kid.. okay only half kidding there.
There's several good options for an Excelsior build, the ships viability in Premade PvP is debatable, outside of a couple of specialized teams, but there are places for this dps friendly ship, most of my setups here are going to be DPS, or Control oriented sometimes both. There's only going to be a couple with any kind of heal focus to them.
Shields/Deflector/Engine.
Maco Shield. Omega Deflector, Omega Engine. Or Maco Shield, Borg Deflector, Borg Engine.
Consoles, RCS, SIF Generators 2r, Armor of your choice (anything but Monotanium)
Sci Field Emitter, Borg
Tac. Energy.
Preferred Armament, Tetryon/Polaron. (as you'll be using a Tet glider anyway. Might as well make the most out of those skill points)
The Cannon Excelsior, this one was really popular back in the day. The reason? The Excelsiors god like turn rate, and more importantly almost Escort levels of Inertia. The ship can stop on a dime, making for some really shockingly effective uses of Evasive Maneuvers. There's at least two variations that I've tried both worked fairly well. There is another good one earlier in this thread (I'll link to that post after I write this post)
The first one I list is also decent for extra crowd control and can be subbed in for that second escort on a team.
Power Setting, 90 Weapon Power, 60 Shield Power, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Armament, 4 Single Barrel Cannons 4 Turrets.
CmdR Warp Plasma 3, Extend shields2, EPTS2, EPTW1. Alternate: DEM3, ASIF2, ETPS2, EPTW1
Lt Cmdr, Cannon Rapid Fire 2, Attack Pattern Beta1, Tac Team Variant, Cannon Scatter Volley2, APB1, Tac Team.
Lt Eng, EPTW1, ET2 Variant, EPTW1, EPTS2 Alt Variant, EPTW1 and Aux to Dampeners.
Ens Eng, EPTS1. Variant ET1
Lt Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength2,
Variant, Sci Team 1, TSS2. Alternate Variant Hazard Emitters1, Transfer Shields 2.
Doffs, I'd strongly consider, the Warp Plasma Doff that adds an immobilize to your warp plas. Get as high quality of one as you can afford. (I can't remember if you can stack multiples of these or not if so, get one more)
Maintenance Doff... the one that reduces Team ability cool downs. Get 2 of these blue or better preferably. (till they change it... if they change it)
For your final doffs, Shield Distribution officers. (the brace for impact shield healers) as many as you have slots for.
and 3 BFI Shield Distribution doffs.
This ship is highly mobile as it is the omega shield, and RCS make it even more so. Throw in the warp plasma which will inevitably slow or stop targets with APB and rapid fire 2 cranking means there will be a ton of pressure applied to a given target. The Tetryon Glider will further assist in shield removal which adds even more pressure.
The other variant that I used is covered in the Variant, save for the cmdr spot being rounded out with DEM3.
The DBB Boat. This one is a more heavy dps variant on the Cannon Excelsior. This one utilizes either FAW or Beam Overload to get the job done. It's abit more difficult ship to position about, but it's forward arc is devastating. You will want to tweak your power settings here to max out those evil DBBs.
Power Setting, 90 Weapon Power, 60 Shield Power, 25 engine, 25 aux. Alternate settings, 60 weapon, 90 Shield Power, 25, 25. Tertiary, 75 Weapon, 25 shields, 75 Engines, 25 aux.
Armament, 4 Dual Beam Banks. Yeah you read that right. 4 of them. 4 Turrets. This is surprisingly energy efficient, and the ship is agile enough that with practice and proper implementation of warp plasma you'll be hosing people down pretty well. This ship also takes place of a second Escort.
Cmdr EPTW1, EPTS2, ASIF2/Extend Shiels2, Warp Plasma 3 Variant EPTW1, EPTS2, DEM2, Warp Plasma
Lt Cmdr Tac Team, FAW2, Beam Overload 3, Variant, Tac Team, Beam Overload 2, FAW3.
Lt Eng, EPTW1, Aux to Damp, Variant, EPTW1 ET2
Ens Eng EPTS1
Sci TSS1, Tss2 Variant A, Sci Team Transfer Shield Strength2 , Variant B Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2.
It flies quite abit like the Cannon Excelsior, only with a considerably stronger forward strike, for a significant loss on broadside dps. Think of this ship like a mounted knight on horse back armed with a lance. Everything in the front of this thing is going to feel the pain. Anything to the sides? not so much. Fly it accordingly plan your moves, so that your DBBs will always land on a target, or secondary target when possible on your straight charges so you hose the target in the opening volleys, hit it with warp plasma, and aim the ship towards the second, rinse and repeat on your turn inevitable turn around to the primary.
The Death Blossom and Deadly Broadside Excelsior.
Power Settings. 90 Weapon, 60 Shields, 25 engine 25 aux.
Armament, 6 Beam Arrays (4 Aft 2 For), 2 DBBs. This keeps your weapon power high, gives you spam clearing versatility, and gives you that oh so lovely insta gib crit potential with Bo3/2.
Secondary Armament, 7 Beam Arrays (4 aft 3 Fore, 1 DBB)
Cmdr, DEM3, Extend Shields2 or EPTS3 (EPTS3 is an alternate for solo play only.. like kerrat. please don't use this in the ques), EPTS2, EPTW1
LT Cmdr, Beam Overload 3, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Tac Team.
Alternate, FAW3, Attack Pattern beta 2, Tac Team.
Tertiary Alternate Beam Overload 3, Beam Overload 2, Tac Team. And last alternate, FAW3, Beam Overload2, Tac Team.
Lt Eng. EPTW1, EPTS2 (if Extends 2), ET2 (if EPTS3)
Ens Eng, ET1 or EPTA1
Lt Sci. Transfer Shields 1 and 2. Alt Sci Team1, TSS2. Tertiary Hazard 1, Transfer shields 2.
Doffs, , 3 Brace For Impact shield distribution doffs. Last 2 Purple Conn Officers.
Devices for all of these, Weapon batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace Field mod, and Team Weapon Batteries.
While it's in game version is in my opinion in need of a little love to live up to expectations it can still be a very potent cruiser for throwing it down. (and by throwing it down, I mean a TRIBBLE ton of damage in short order) It needs however great piloting to do so as cryptic in their infinite wisdom gave this ship an Assault Cruisers Inertia.... (which sucks... and makes no sense it has less hps than an AC. Not only this, but it's made to mount Cannons, canonically, and furthermore not only this Klinks have been repeatedly described as having far more advanced impulse drives than the feds) The ship will have great turning, once you get it up to speed. However the problem is, the Inertia score of 30 means eventually you, or it is going to TRIBBLE up your slide, and stall out with your business end pointed the wrong way and that little damn escort who's at like 10 percent is going to get away. No I'm not bitter at all...
So why not just strap beams on it and clone the Assault Cruiser builds? Well sure... you can do that. Hell you could also, strap Dual Beam banks up front (X4 which is actually a pretty potent build for this thing and I do recommend trying it at least once with 4x turrets out back or perhaps 3 turrets and a spam dropper.. I mean mine launcher) to mitigate it and still keep true to the ships fearsome reputation for being a murderer.
But we all know what you came here to this post for first and foremost. You came because you wanted Big Damn Cannons, and maybe a Big Damn Torpedo to shove through someone's bow, and out their aft sections.
The first question is, is this a viable setup on a Team? The answer is yes and no. If you are a Tac? To quote one of star treks iconic captains/bridge officers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ALsvU50wQ Anything else? You might want to go Assault Cruiser clone, or try the four dbbs. You just don't have the tac captain powers to throw it down with.
The Tac Vorcha is meant to lead the attack. It comes in first, second or third on decloak to take the hate that your bop buddies will inevitably end up taking, throw down big damn cannon fire, maybe a torp strike. the bop that comes riding in behind you finishes the job, (and as you throw out Warp Plasma, hose the target, and then his friends. Firing all the way through the battle line as you go till you've completed your circle around). The reason decloaking second or third is mentioned is, a smart fed team will wait for the bops and not even waste time on you after the first couple of passes. That being said? There's alot of Stupid in the ques. so just keep that decloak order in mind incase you run across the smart ones. The unfortunate downside to this ship loadout is it can be very light on the healing in order to function correctly. (Zone control and Cannon DPS combination on this ship tends to eat up alot of engi spots)
Here is a nice vorcha sample. http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...5&postcount=79
This is the first build set I'm covering for the Vorcha as it's not just the most iconic, it's also the ones that make feds scream "OP OP OP" about klink cruisers without realizing just how much you have to sacrifice to get this thing to run well.
Power Settings, 90 Weapons, 60 Shields, 25 engines 25 aux. Or 90 weapons, 25 shields, 60 Engines, 25 Aux.
Or if you can't get weapon performance ranked, 100 Weapons, 50 shields. with 100 weapons 50 engines as the tertiary.
Weapons? Anti Proton DHCs with CrtDX2 dmg X3 or X4. 4 Anti proton turrets. Or Tetryon, or Phasers. Tet and Phasers, go for AccX2 CrtH or Acc CrtHX2s. If you are going 3 DHCs, run a CrtDX2 CrtH Quantum or photon.
Shields, Resilient Cap3s, Omega shield, or KHG Shield.
Deflector, Borg, Omega
Engine KHG, or Borg
Consoles, SIF Generator 2, or 2 Armors (4 energy type), 2 RCS
Field Generator, Borg
3 Energy Consoles.
Devices, Subspace field modulator, Engine Battery, Aux Battery. Alternate, Subspace field mod... change for shield battery or team shield battery.
Cmdr, EPTS1, Aux To Dampeners1, DEM2/ExtendShields2/EPTS3, Eject Warp Plasma 3. The reason there are so many alternate choices listed there? It allows for flexibility in the klink attack group. Sometimes you just need the extra murder power of DEM2, sometimes you are going to need to help your bop buddies with a massive shield resist, and sometimes you just want that extra shield resistance and power cause it is going all according to plan.
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1/EPTE1, Reverse Shield Polarity/Aux To Dampeners, ET3
Lt Tac, Torpedo Spread1, Cannon Rapid Fire
Ens Tac, Tac Team/ Torpedo High Yield. If Four Cannon, Tac Team, Cannon Rapid Fire, Tac Team.
Alt, Bo1, Cannon Rapid Fire
Tac Team
Lt Sci, Transfer Shield strength1, Transfer shield strength 2
Alternate: HE1, TSS2
Another version of this build with a much stronger broadside and more healy friendly version, utilizes 3 to 4 Single Cannons up front instead of the big cannons. Unfortunately however you'll never see 10K+ crits from your Guns alone.
This changes your bridge officer layout.
Cmdr, EPTS1, Extend Shields1, EPTS3, Eject Warp Plasma3
Lt Cmdr ET1, Aux to structural 1/Aux to damp, ET3
Tac, Tac Team, CRF
Tac Team, or Torpedo Spread.
Lt Sci TSS1 and 2.
The Vorcha also can run pretty much any assault cruiser build, just with the added bonus of being able to roll with DBBs upfront, with turrets out back for more forward bite, or to just straight up copy an AC.
Doffs: 2 purple Maint Engineers, 2 Shield Distribution doffs, 1 Matter Anti matter specialist if using warp plas.
Public Service Announcement Tac Captains this really isn't the ship for you in terms of optimization. You really really should be in a Vorcha if you are going to roll in a cruiser on the kdf side. It has the base turn rate, superior inertia, and bridge officer layout for your needs. This is pretty much a sci and engi cruiser.
Something to remember about the Vorcha and the Neghvar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v9at5RlFu4
The Neghvar is the other T5 Klink Cruiser. I won't lie, this thing is far better than the Fed counterpart, the Failaxy. But only due to the fed counterpart being a terrible nay horrible ship. (The Failaxy and it's Gal X variant I am not going to cover. They are Horrible ships and you shouldn't be flying one as anything but a vanity item, I'm not enabling that sort of behavior!) Equal in shields, and hull to fed cruisers, but with a far superior turn rate. However, it has among the worst Inertia scores in the game at a meager 25. But Mav how much difference does 5 Inertia really make? Oh god. If you thought your Assault Cruiser was a pig you ain't seen nothing yet, the Negvhar's Inertia is -so- bad compared to it's turn rate that you will often lose a hefty portion of your defense score during aerial maneuvers when you are really trying to crank it. I'm not kidding. All of the Neghvar builds covered here, assume the klink team doesn't want any non cloakers.
Technically this thing can mount Dual Heavies. I really really don't recommend this though. The lowest you should be going on firing angle on this thing is Dual Beams. It's slow, and it's incredibly stall prone. The Neghvar in my opinion is for that klink team that really wants all their ships to be cloak capable, and still be more heal friendly than the Vorcha. In a surprise butt secks style team I rank this ship over non MESed carriers but only barely as carriers have the superior sci slots for healing and that's not mentioning the Siphon Drones and Tachyon Drone shenanigans, and the orion cruiser is a star cruiser clone. (which I'll touch on later as there are some slight differences)
I wouldn't bother putting a torpedo on this ship as you'll have to combat general torp user issues, as well as this things incredibly gimped inertia score.
The Weapon Loadout, I would try the following, 2 Dual Beams, and 4 beam arrays or try 4 Dual Beams 3 turrets and a beam array. Dual beams drain abit more power than Cannons, which is why I would back the rear turret count down to 3. It also gives you a wider angle for beam overloads (which is actually starting to make a comeback). While the former layout gives you a very good Fire At Will ship. You could also try 8 beams, as you -will- have the slot potentially for two emergency power to weapons1s.
There's three schools on the Neghvar, much like most cruisers. The Damage boat, (which has healing as a very strong secondary), the Heal Bot (imo pure healing isn't going to carry you and your team mates all the way to the top with as good as high end sto pvp teams have become), the Control Boat (which subs in Dps, or Healing depending on what the team is lacking on)
Shields, Omega or KHG
Deflector, Omega
Engine Omega or Borg.
Yes the glider really is that OP. Assuming hell freezes over and Crytpic gives the Glider a kick in the junk like it so rightfully deserves
Shields KHG
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Energy Type, I really recommend either Disruptors or Tetryons. Disruptors for obvious hull debuff when enemy shields -will- collapse from your glider cheese. Tets to bring shields down even faster.
Power Levels.
Damage, 80 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 engine, 25 aux
Heal 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 engines, 80 aux.
Tertiary, 25 Weapons, 75 shields, 75 Engines, 25 Aux
Post Tertiary, 75 weapons, 25 shields, 25 engines, 75 Aux.
The Control Boat.
Cmdr Eject Warp Plasma 3, Extend Shields 2, EPTS2, EPTW1/EPTA1.
Lt Cmdr, EPTS1, Aux to Damp1, ET3 Or if there's no photonic shockwaves on the enemy team. EPTW1/EPTA1, ASIF1, ET3 Sci might want to consider RSP inplace of Aux to damp as well.
for an even more control happy ship, you can try the following in ltcmdr. EPTS1, ET2, Warp Plasma 1. This allows you to chain warp plas constantly.
Ens. EPTW1/EPTA1. Which ever one you don't have 2 of already.
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength 1 and 2. Or Sci Team1, TSS2.
Lt Tac. Tac Team, FAW2 or Tac Team, Beam Overload 2. (latter if you have dbbs anywhere)
Damage Boat
Cmdr Eng
EPTS1, EPTS2, Extend Shields 2, DEM3
Lt Cmdr
EPTW1, Aux To damp, ET3 Sci captains might want to put RSP in place of Aux to Damp
Ens
EPTW1
Lt Sci
Transfer shields 1 and 2.
Tac, Tac Team, Beam overload 2. Tac Team, FAW2, or FAW1, FAW2, BeamOverload1 and 2.
Heal Bot
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1, Aux to damp1, ET3
Ens, EPTA1
Lt Sci Transfer Shield strength1, Transfer Shield Strength2 or Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength2
Doffs. 2 Shield Distribution Doffs (blue preferably), 2 Maintance Engineers (blue preferably), 1 Warp Plasma Doff (if you are running warp plasma) if not that doff then either the bonus power level doff (warp core theorist I believe) or a third shield distribution doff.
There's alot of massive shield healing this thing can do, or potentially fairly equal hull healing to the starcruiser (with a nice balance of shield healing) while putting out some zone control.
Praxis (MvS5191) has a good solid Oddy. I think I'd do this instead though
Lt Tac: TacTeam 1, FAW 2
Cmdr Eng*: EPtS 1, EngTeam 2, Extend 2, Aux to SIF 3
LtC Sci: Hazard1, Transfer Shields strength2, Photonic Shockwave or Charged Particle Burst2.
Lt Sci: Hazard 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens Sci: SciTeam 1
and run an aux and weapon power split setup power level wise. This gives the team an extra psw/CPB (and as the ship is well slow it can't really utilize the 90 degree skills and tbr can be tricky at times with it)
I really do recommend some kind of control power in the lt, or lt cmdr sci slot though, this thing is such a beast on healing.
The only reason I didn't cover the Oddy, was not everyone is going to have one or have access to one.
First off, the Sci Oddy is hands down the best one. Use it if you have the choice between them all and ditch the rest. Yes Sensor An. is really that good with 8 beams.
Public Service Announcement Tac Captains put down the Oddy... go get an Excelsior, or AC... the Oddy is too fat and too slow for you.
Secondly, the Oddy is in my opinion an Engineer's or sci's ship. It's too fat and slow even with aux to ID going for anything else. FAAAT is the operating phrase with this ship. For several reasons, one it has a really poor turn rate, and Inertia score. Secondly, the model of the ship itself is HUGE. It dwarfs the Assault Cruiser, and nearly every other cruiser in terms of size, which changes the physical distance required for it to make a turn, without factoring in it's Inertia. (hooray for cryptic not thinking things through right?)
The first thing we should discuss is which Oddy is right for you? The answer is of course the Science Cruiser. No other ship has Sen An and 4 sci console slots. This makes it by far hands down the best Oddy in the game.
Now let's talk turn rate. It's garbage. Don't bother using any powers that involve moving your ship, because it's just setting yourself and your team mates for an epic fail. Warp Plasma is a No No on this ship. DO NOT USE IT. We'll get to the Controller variant later. And it doesn't use Plas. Or Gravity Well. Or Tykens.... because you need to be able to Turn to use them.
Infact the slower your ship the worse of an idea facing related, or movement related abilities are.
So what do you use?
Here's a staple healer Oddy.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3.
Alternate heal, TSS1, Sci Team 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3.
LT Tac, Tac Team (when pugging if your team seems competent switch out tac team for target engine 1), FAW2.
Ens Uni. Sci Polarize Hull. Tac uni, FAW1, and change the Lt tac slot to Attack Pattern Delta. Engi, Emergency power to Auxiliary 1. (I actually really like this one)
Shields, Maco or Borg.
Engine, Borg or Omega
Deflector, Borg or Omega.
Doffs, 2 blue (or even better purple!) Maintaince Engineers, Warp Core engi, 2 shield distribution officers of blue quality.
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, 2 Armors, I prefer Ablative and Neutronium combo
Sci, Shield emitters consoles. 3 and a field generator.
Power levels, 100 to guns, 50 to shields, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Throw the crack on yourself (EPS power transfer) and use EPTA1 and you'll have almost max power across the board.
Controller Oddy.
Cmdr,
EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr uni Sci.
Transfer Shield Strength1, Hazard Emitters2, Charged Particle Burst 2 or Photonic Shockwave. Why? Grav well in addition to sucking, is not really usable on this barge. TBR would be useful if it weren't for even gold speccing in ID making you virtually immune to the repel it like PSW is going to get a nerf to it's dps output soon. So it's down to the two most useful sci skills... and the latter of the pair is going to get a huge nerf soon. So yeah CPB2 if you want control.
Ens uni. Emergency power to Aux1.
Lt Tac, Tac Team, Faw2.
Shields, Borg,
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, 2 Armors.
Field Generator, Borg, and Particle generator consoles.
Power levels, same as above for Engineer. Sci captains, 75 weapons, 50 shields, 25 engine, 75 aux.
This Oddy, is a heal boat, however unlike my previous Oddy suggestions this one is backed around Shield Healing and shield resistance. Shield tanking, is the name of the game in STO pvp. The longer your shields can stay up, or be propped up the less heavy damage you will be taking. The shield healing Oddy, is great when coupled with science based healing, sci fleet skill, or even simply a second cruiser that has the more conventional ET3s at its disposal.
Weapons, Really they aren't all that important. But, I'd run anything but plasma. ACCX2 + CrtH, or CrtD will suffice here. To keep power drain to a minimum for sci captains, I'd run 6 beams, and a torp forward, and mine launcher aft. or 2 mine launchers aft. If you run a torp, obviously go Chroniton.
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Shield, Omega, Borg, or Maco
Consoles, 1 Armors, 3 SIF Generators
3 Field Generators 1 Borg.
2 Energy.
Cmdr Eng: EPtS 1, EPTS2, Extend 2, Aux to SIF 3 Or EPTA1, EPTS2, ET3, ASIF3
LtC Sci: HE 1, TSS 2, Sci Team 3 Or He1, TSS2, TSS3
Lt Sci: Tractorbeam, Hazard Emitters 2 Alternate, Tractor beam1, Transfer Shield Strength2
Ens Sci: Transfer Shield Strength 1 Alternate Hazard Emitters1
controller variant LtC Sci, Tractor Beam1, Transfer Shield Strength 2 Tractor Beam Repulsor2/ Grav Well 1
Lt Sci: Hazard Emitters1, Tractor Beam Repulsor1
Ens Sci: Hazard 1.
Lt Tac: TacTeam 1, AP: Delta 1/FAW 2/Torp Spread 2
Doffs, 1 blue and 1 purple Development lab scientist, or 2 blues and a white. Warp Core Engineer, and lastly Shield Distribution officer. (if you have the first doff in blue and purp add a second Shield Distribution officer)
Devices, Aux Batteries, Subspace field mod, Deuterium
Power Settings
Offense 100 weapons, 50 shields, 25 engine 25 aux
Defense 25 weapons 75 shields, 25 engines, 75 Aux
Healer 25 weapons, 50 shields, 25 engines, 100 aux
i think i'll throw my 2 cents in on these flagships too, in the terms of using them as tactically as possible. first off all they are not created equal. the devs thought they were creating 2 different but balanced with each other ships, each being the embodiment of the factions ideal and strengths. the result is 1 ship that is devastatingly effective no mater what version you use or how you use it, the other is a star cruiser with less tactical capability, a worse turn rate, but a bit more hitpoints.
the bortas in any form and with any station configuration is going to deal more base damage then any other cruiser. it very tempting to set this ship up as tactically as possible with a tactical captain, its even viable in my experience. with the free version having the ideal engineering ensign, you can run this ship very tactically and still have all the basic survivability a cruiser needs, with out spending $50. i would suggest 2xEPtS1, RSP1, ET3, and A2S3 with HE1 and TSS2. with all the innate bonus energy to weapons, you don't need to worry about chaining EPtW1, one of the biggest things that separates the 2 flagships. it literally makes 1 completely viable as a battleship and makes the other a complete non starter.
running 8 beams is nearly the only viable thing to do, but with the potential 5 tactical stations is very tempting to try single cannons or all turrets. with 8 beams get 2 or 3 con officer doffs so you can have 1 copy of TT1 running at global cooldown. that's what every single person should do first thing no mater what you fly. 2 copies of APB1, and FAW1 and 3. this is withering damage potential for everyone around you, these skills backed by tactical captain buffs are extreamly hard for anyone to survive for long. its basically lolFAWscort damage from a much heartier source.
this is extreamly fun to kirk around in, has adequate survivability, and far above average cruiser damage potential. not gonna claim its something you should take to a premade though.
if you gave the bortas a LTC engineering station you could basically run it like a negvar or vorcha that again just deals more damage. chaining EPtA1 and EPtS2 allows you to go from 125 weapons energy (naturally) to 125 aux at the press of a preset button. going from dealing mad damage to mad healing in ways the feds can only dream of.
the only odyssey that has the slightest chance of pulling off half the tactical brilliance of a bortas is the tactical version, or the sci version with SA without even trying, but im just going to continue to ignore SA exists on these damn things and so should you.
with the free version, and the non tactical versions, you cant use the LTC station for tactical, it doesn't work. you don't have enough tactical consoles to ever deal the kind of damage over time that will outpace some one chaining EPtS and an occasional TSS. you also don't have enough weapon energy natively to attack with, at all. you would have to use 2 of your 4 to 5 engineering stations to change that, and have about as much survivability as an escort sitting still, less maybe.
the tactical odyssey can basically be set up like the bortas is detailed above, but it wont deal damage as good, and wont be as an effective a team member as the equivalent bortas. the excelsior or assault cruiser are just better at the whole tactical thing, a ship with just 8 beam arrays really does not need 5 tactical stations. 3 is basically ideal, and you get MUCH more survivability and team supporting ability which is the point of you being there. if i could change 1 thing about my above bortas, it would be changing the LT tactical station into a engineering station, then i'd proboly use the ensign station for science.
no amount of tactical station powers are going to make up for your lack of weapons energy, and you cant make up the difference with 2 or 3 weapons energy consoles anymore. you are better off tactically to use your LTC station for engineering, at least then you can chain EPtS and EPtW, and run an ES or EWP on top of the usual RSP1, ET3 and A2S3. you know act like a cruiser, which your flying, dealing your minor pressure damage and keeping your team healthy, instead of trying to be kirk.
the odyssey could be interesting with a LTC sci station, but not on the free version, you need the ensign for engineering to chain EPtS1, 20% of survivability in pvp is from this. lets see another 15% comes from TT, 20% if you have the conn doffs, 40% comes from hitting the distribute all button every 3 seconds, and the last 25% comes from passive things like a combination of your defense score, energy level based shield resistance and hull resistance. maximize all those things the best you can and you will survive for more then 5 seconds in a match.
anyway, if you go the LTC science route, which i have never bother trying so this is basically theoretical, i could see a low weapons energy/ high aux setup that does nothing but support as hard as it can. maybe with all turrets or beams that are just trying to deal glider damage or phaser procs, not trying to deal actual damage. equipping a doff cooldown reduced science team and 2 copies of HE and TTS with ES2 and A2S3 offers enormous healing potential.
or listen to mav, he would know better about the LTC science route then me.
Same as his oddy post. And it still is the only Galaxy build I will endorse.
finally started rebuilding my engineering characters, been playing nothing but my tactical ones for months. my kdf and starfleet engineers both still had all their skill points undistributed from the final skill tree changes! great for loading into tribble and trying things out with though. better get them in shape before the FE reward expires.
im just a cruiser fan, i have had great success in an escort, but i just keep ending up with my characters back in cruisers. my tac excelsior dealing between 3000 and 1500 a shot with 8 beams when fully buffed melts things so well, and i have all that survivability with 2x EPtS, ET2, A2S3, RSP2, TSS2, and HE1. RSP2 and ET2 would switch places to RSP1 and ET3 provided i ever get a response from "could anyone train ET3 please?" at DS9 and space dock. i swear that hasn't worked since F2P happened.
so my fed engineer is in a galaxy R, i think its kinda hip to fly one now, the odyssey has assumed the im a noob mantra the galaxy R had. love the ship, but its far from optimal stations and terrible turn rate are so unfortunate. ive made it work, with its stats all it can be are an impenetrable tank and healer. it will never deal damage, best it can seem to do is 1000- 500 damage a shot with 8 beams. my kdf is basically a clone of this build in a neg var, only it deals more damage with its 3rd tactical console. since it has more built in weapons power, im able to run 2xEPtA1 instead of weapons, quite helpful for those heals.
still deals more damage then about 75% of the other cruisers i see in stfs, and i regularly placed second and third in damage on the pvp scoreboards. you would think that with all the "kirks" and "The Dragon Flagship" flying around that my dedicated healer with 2 tactical consoles wouldn't be dealing better damage then them, i must just know how to play! its amazing just how HARD escorts gun for me, i must suck if im flying this thing, it must be so frustrating when i simply won't die, and can run almost as fast as they can.
skills are as follows
TT1, FAW2
EPtW1, RSP1, EWP1, A2S3 in stfs, for pvp EPtW1, RSP1, A2S2, ES3
EPtW1, EPtS2, ET3
EPtS1
HE1, TSS2
im stfs i run 2 netronium, 1 monotonium, and 1 anti plasma/tetryon armor with my green mk12 [turn]
engine and blue mk11 deflector that's nothing but + to hull repair and shield hp. might swap this with 3 part borg eventually, a lot of grinding still needed for that, a lot of this equipment is from season 3 and 4. with the points i put into threat control, literally ever borg npc targets ONLY me, but this build can take it. if i cant contribute meaningful dps, i can at least tank 3 or 4 spheres and let the dps'er do their job without interference.
in pvp its 2 netronium, borg and sep console slotted for engineering with 2 flow cap consoles and omega deflector and engine for maximum shield damaging with the glider. so far im happy with it, ive saved many asses in the pubs ive played.
at least when it inevitably gets boring not doing the killing i can swap back to my tacticals and 'kirk' it up, with actual success, as i see fit!
So during my drunken flying I came up with a brilliant controller healer... cause we all know I don't like just facerollin that keyboard sober.
Cmdr, Warp Plasma 3, Extend Shields 2, EPTS2, EPTS1
Lt Cmdr, Emergency Power to Aux1, Aux to structural 1, ET3 Alt EPTA1, RSP, ET3
Tac
Lt, FAW1, Attack Pattern Beta1
Ens. Tac Team
Sci
Transfer shields 1, Hazard2
Shields, Borg shield, or Maco
Deflector, Omega
Engine Omega.
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, RCS or Neutronium, Ablative Armor
Sci, Borg, and Field Generator
Tac. 3 Energy consoles.
DOFFs. 3 Maint engineers (purple ideally of course... 2 blues and a green works as well), the Warp Plasma Doff, and a brace for impact shield distribution doff. Changed the shield distribution doff for the Warp Core engineer that gives a 20 percent change to get +20 power to all subsystems with each hit of Emergency Power. As I have 3 Emergency systems I've got a 60 percent chance of getting free extra power. which when it procs when EPS power transfer up, almost maxes out all of my subystems.
Power settings 100 weapons, 50 shields. 25, 25.
Heal bot with warp plas, and high weapon power. It's fairly flexible, and stable. So far it seems pretty straight forward. And much more entertaining to play than my old heal bot build was Ideal team would probably be 2 Recons, and a nebula. As it's missing a heal spot, you need a fairly solid team I would think. Could probably also work it with 2 Intrepids, and 2 Escorts as well.
A brief word on my favorite or least hated carrier.
This is a Tactical or Sci Officer's ship. The LT Cmdr slot compliments those two classes nicely. For Tacs this gives you access to BO3, 2 and say... Tac Team. For Sci this gives you, Tac Team, FAW1 and 2.
The Karfi, is a damage focused carrier in my book. It's not the best healer by any means, and it's kind of squishy. However you do have options to get some decent longevity out of this thing and I'll go over them as completely as I can.
We are going to cover the Tac Karfi first.
Weapons, The Karfi is just a hair too slow to go with a Dual Beam bank setup, so I recommend the usual standard 6 beam arrays, with one mine launcher in the aft. That mine launcher should of course be spitting out chronitons. Preferred Properties, AccX2 CrtH and or AccX3
Deflector, Borg
Engine, Borg
Shield, KHG, or Borg.
Power Settings, 100 to Weapons, 50 to Shields, 25 to everything else.
Alternate #1, 100 to weapons, 30 to shields, 25 engines, 35 Aux.
Alt #2, 50 Weapons, 25 shields, 25 engine, 100 aux
alt #3, 25 weapons, 100 shields, 25 engines, 50 aux
Devices, Shield Battery, Aux Battery, Subspace Field Modulator.
Cmdr slot,
Viral Matrix 3, this skill provides a 10 second shut down to multiple subsystems and is one of the few good sci powers left in the game. Transfer Shield Strength 3, Hazard Emitters 2, Tractor Beam
Lt Cmdr, Tac Team, Beam Overload 2, Beam Overload 3.
Lt Tac, Tac Team 1, Dispersal pattern Alpha 1 why alpha and not beta? More mine clusters, means they will seek 2 targets to TRIBBLE on instead of one.
Ens Sci, Polarize Hull 1 you need this.. both as a hull resist, and as a way to break tractors.
Lt Engineer, Emergency Power to Shields 1 and 2.
Hangars, for full on **** Move status, go with the double siphon pods. You'll be the life of every party. If you want to just go for raw murderous potential Advanced Skulls. They give you free torp strikes vs nekkid hull and as a tac you'll get plenty of those opps with BO2 and 3 slamming home every chance you get.
This layout is fairly standardized and capable of giving good non aux dependent shut downs, and decent shield tanking potential, with a nice hull heal thrown in to ice the cake.
Abit more of a risky but possibly higher payoff version of this ship before I move to the sci.
Cmdr, Photonic Shockwave 3, or Tractor Beam Repulsors 3. Why? with full tac buffs applying to these powers you can be absolutely Murderous. Can we say routine 22k strikes with PSW3 vs a non shield facing target? Or a stream of 10 -20k crits from TBR3 when TBR3 starts rolling crits? Both are also good for disrupting healing cycles as PSW knocks off extend shields, and TBR can potentially push either your target, or the healer out of reach... so you and your bop buddies can get all rapey, if you cooridinate and learn to aim your TBR3s.
If running PSW3, TBR2.. while TBR2s damage isn't as substantial as TBR3s, it's still good for pushin and spam clearing, Transfer Shield Strength 2, and Hazard one fill out the sci slots here. The rest of the boffs are unchanged.
Sci, Karfis, are more healing and control focused than their murderous tac counter parts. Here's the sci karfi I've found works best.
Weapons, 6 beams, and 1 chroniton torp launcher
Deflector Engines and Shield see above.
Power settings same as the tac
Boffs,
Cmdr, Viral Matrix 3, Photonic Officer 3, or PSW3, Sci Team 3, Transfer Shield Strength 2, Hazard 1
Lt Cmdr, Tac Team, FAW2, FAW3 (that's Fire At will for those of you that don't know that yet)
Lt Tac, Torp Spread 1 and 2. Alt loadout, Torpspread1, Attack Pattern Beta1/Delta1
Lt Eng, EPTS1 and 2
Ens Sci, Tractor beam.
Hangars, Siphon Pods or Frigates.
Doffs, the Sci Team cool down reduction doffs. Get your ST3s as close to global as possible, Brace For Impact (shield distribution) doffs, and then a Warp Core Engineer.
The Sci Karfi is more reliant on debuffs, as by nature sci captains lack the necessary burst buffing powers to make the relatively few tac slots worth it. (as again the Karfi is just a hair too slow for Cannon and DBB use.) It can also provide abit more healing to it's team mates as the sci captain has access to dampening field -and- sci fleet to help keep himself alive during focus periods, as well as team mates. (these also buff your pets by the way) As a controller a Sci Karfi is absolutely obnoxious to play against when handled well. Hair pulling Obnoxious and to make it worse, it can often full heal it's allies shields making the small inroads against their enemies for nothing.
Consoles I saved to the end as they are identical for both ships.
1 Ablative armor, 1 Borg
3 Field Generators, and 1 particle generator, or 3 Particle Generators 1 Field generator
3 Energy Consoles.
This is an Engineer's ship, and only an engineer's tacs get nothing in terms of benefits for flying this, and it's far too slow for scis to use. Even with aux to damp.
As such it should be focusing on it's healing prowess and spam potential. I like these as shield healers doff wise, as it can either make your already TRIBBLE shield tanking even more so, or make someone elses tanking TRIBBLE.
Power Levels : 90 Weapons 60 Shields, 25 engine, 25 aux.
#2, 25 Weapons, 60 Shields, 25 engines, 90 Aux. With EPTS 3 up you'll only be 4 under the cap.
Weapons, 5 Beams, 1 Chroniton mine launcher.
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Shield, Omega, or KHG. Just trust me, 4 friggin field generators + Omega shields is TRIBBLE. Even on a ship that has jack and TRIBBLE for a defense score. Especially with an engineer's host of self heals, let alone the extra shenanigans I listed for boffs.
Consoles:
2 SIF Generators, 1x Ablative or Neutronium
4 Field Generators
1 Borg, 1 Energy.
Boffs,
Cmdr Sci: TBR3, PSW3, or Photonic Officer 3, Sci Team 3, Transfer shield Strength 2, Hazard Emitters 1
Lt Cmdr Eng, EPTS3, ASIF1, EPTS1 Alternate : EPTS3, Extend Shields 1, EPTS1 if you have the alternate doff arrangement listed below, EPTA1, Extend 1/ASIF1, EPTS3
LT Cmdr Tac Tac Team, FAW2, Attack Pattern Beta 2 or FAW3
Lt Science, Transfer Shield Strength 1, Hazard Emitters 2
Doffs, Development Lab Scientists preferably 2 purples, 2 Shield Distribution officers, (2 blue or better), Hazard System Officer.
Alternate Doffs, 2 purple Dev Lap scientists, 2 Damage Control doffs. (purple), 1x Shield Distribution
Hangars: Siphon drones, 2, 2 tachyon drones. 2 of the hull repair drones, or 2 bop hangars.
Shields: MACO
Engines: BORG
Deflector: BORG
Weapons: 6x Tetryon Arrays [Acc]x2
Eng. Consoles: 1x Diburnium Armor, 2X SIF Generators
Sci Consoles: 1x Shield Emitter, 3x Field Generator
Tac Consoles: 1x BORG, 1x Tetryon
Hangers: 1x Adv. Stalkers, 1x Adv. Runabouts
Devices, Aux Batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace field mod.
Lt. Tac: TT1, FAW2
Lt. Cmdr. Eng: EPtS1, Extend Shields 1 (RSP1), EPTS3 Alternate: EPTA1, EPTS2, EPTS3
Lt. Cmdr Sci: TB1, HE2, TSS3
Cmdr. Sci: TSS1/TB1, HE2/TSS2 ST3, TBR3 (PSW3) Alternate: TB1, TSS2, ST3, TBR3/PSW3
Power Levels, 100 to Guns, 50 to shields, 25 25, secondary 100 Guns, 25, 25 50. Tertiary 25, 50, 25 100
DOffs: 2x Shield Distri (Purple), 2x Dev Lab (Purple), 1x Warp Core Engine
Skills, Weapon power, Doffs, Items, consoles, and tactics
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364001&postcount=2 Skill Specializations, for Sci, Engineers and Tacs.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364021&postcount=3 What skill ranks actually do for you
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364031&postcount=4 Duty Officers
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364051&postcount=5 Set Items Theory 101
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364081&postcount=6 Consoles 101.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364091&postcount=7 Ability Tray Loadouts
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Asu87Jb5VCBgdHFKbmdpZjlEMHk3YUhfNGRTbllNY0E&output=html Weapon Power Calculations.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364121&postcount=8 Cloaking Klink Teams Tactical Doctrine
Standard Cruisers and Cstore Cruisers
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364141&postcount=9 DPS Hybrid Healer/Controller. Oddys, Assault Cruisers, and Vorchas Primarily.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364161&postcount=10 Starcruisers 101
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364231&postcount=11 Basics of Excelsiors
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364261&postcount=12 Vorchas.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4365291&postcount=24 Another Vorcha post
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4365371&postcount=26 Yet more Vorcha.. Noticing a pattern here yet?
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4579361&postcount=73 Drunksnewvorcha (seriously cryptic just put the Fleet Vorcha in the cstore. Just look at how many vorcha posts we have here already!)
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364291&postcount=13 Negvhar
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4898521&postcount=86 Pyrokinetic Neghvar
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364321&postcount=14 Q special Oddy
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364341&postcount=15 Cstore Oddy#1
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364351&postcount=16 Cstore Oddy 2
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364411&postcount=17 Don'tdrunkimshoots oddy
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364441&postcount=18 dontdrunkimshoots gal R
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4463121&postcount=41 Drunks Excelsior
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364471&postcount=19 Heal Controller AC, Bortas, Oddy, and Vorcha. (what my current AC build is)
The Carriers
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364511&postcount=20 Karfi
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364511&postcount=21 Voquv
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4364591&postcount=22 Atrox
lockbox
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4365821&postcount=27 Ferengi Dkora
Fleet Ships
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=5083391&postcount=108 The Fleet Vorcha Prototype.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=5083471&postcount=109 Dontdrunkimshoot's Fleet Vorcha Prototype.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=5085761&postcount=112 Fleet Ktinga. Good tac build. Good engi too. Dontdrunkbuild.
Vorcha post. I'm going to take the liberty (hope he doesn't mind!) of altering his build slightly.
Weapons front:
1x photon torpedo
3x tetryon dual heavy cannon
Weapons aft:
4x tetryon turret
Engine: Borg assimilated, if i want to go all out speed, omega force engine
Deflector: Borg assimilated
Shield: Honorguard mk11, breen sheild against dominion forces, reman shield for the looks.
Devices: Subspacefield, aux bat, shield bat
Eng consoles: rcs mk11 blue, kinetic armor, 1x energy type armor (changes depending on what i go up against), 1x plasmonic leech.
Sci consoles: field generator, borg assimilated console
Tac consoles: 3x tetryon pulse generator mk 11 blue
Boff skills:
Lt tac: torp spread 1, cannon scatter volley 1
eng tac: Tac Team
(note, those get switched depending on situation, multitarget for PvE, single target versions for PvP for example)
Comm eng: EPTS1, ET2, DEM2, AUX2SIF3
LT Com eng: EPTA1, AUX2ID1, ETPS3
LT Sci: HE1, TSS2 (Or the other way if i know i need more hull then shield tanking
i posted this table in the pvp help index thread, but i think it went unnoticed.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Asu87Jb5VCBgdHFKbmdpZjlEMHk3YUhfNGRTbllNY0E&output=html
its actually from a thread from the fed starship forum, proboly the only good information ever to come out of there! this is information i swear by, and is at the heart of the way i build my offensive ships, you should take this into consideration when giving damage dealer advice, the 125 weapons energy cap is an outdated guideline.
by the looks of it, shooting for at least 135 is like investing 3 points into a skill tree skill, shooting for 149 is like investing 6 skills, and shooting for 160 is like spending 9 points. 149 seems to be the energy level sweet spot.
Lt Tac: TT1, CRF1
Lt Tac: TT1
Cmdr Eng: EPTS1, Aux2ID1, DEM2, DEM3 (I'd also have a variant with ES3 for team play but I don't have the bof space or the bof for that)
Lt Cmdr Eng: EPTS1, RSP1, Aux2ID2 (the order of the last two is variable, I have it this way so the bof is compatible with my bop build as well) EDITORS NOTE Personal tweak. AuxId1 is just as good as 2. Just go with RSP2
Lt Sci: ST1 or TSS1, HE2
This build came to fruition because I wanted plenty of raw DPS and reasonable agility without having to worry about frequent 'splosions like I do in my BoP during STFs, it's designed as a self sufficient murder-cruiser. My experiences so far are that it can make up for the lack of higher tacitcal powers with pure horsepower so to speak as a tactical captain, as 4 turrets and 4 DHCs is quite powerful, and more viable than on a Raptor becasue you're not having redundant boff slots from only one weapon type to buff, also, you're almsot as manouverable, have more healing to share than a Raptor, and more hull and shields for when things go wrong. Also, I know you're not covering P2W consoles, but the reason I haven't sacrificed Aux2ID2 for EWP is my Nausicaan engineer's going to be treated to the Nausicaan ships, and I'd rather have Theta on this build. I'm using the Borg set with an HG shield at the moment, although two piece Borg and Omega could be intresting for the tet glider.
Ferengi D'Kora Ship This post here, is the alterations I would make to the build to improve it's speed, and shield strength.
Weapons:
Rapid Fire Missile Launcher
3x Polaron DHC
3x Polaron Turrets
Concentrated Tachyon Mine Launcher
Equipment:
Maco Shield
Borg Engine
Borg Deflector
Consoles:
Eng: 2x RCS
Sci: Field generator, Borg, Field Generator
Tac: 3x Polaron Phase Modulator
Boffs:
Lt. Com. Tac: TT, CRF1, CRF2
Ensign Tac: HYT1
Com. Eng: EPTW1, EPTS2, ET3, ASIF3
Lt. Eng: EPTS1, Aux To damp1
Lt. Sci: HE1, TSS2
Doffs:
2x Shield Distribution Officer
2x Maintenance Engineer
Warp Core Engineer
Power:
85/50/40/25 -> unbuffed = 104/73/86/48
The transfer of the thread may have done some good - maybe you'll fit more information at the start this way. You may want to give a little table of contents at the beginning perhaps?
Already beat you to it. TOC is linked at the bottom of the first post
We'll see. I might put the TOC as the first. Where the Intro post is going I dunno.