I've been playing since F2P went live and my experience of the game has got worse over the time, I play an engineer in an excelsior retrofit (both builds shown below) I can solo a Cure Space Elite Borg Negh'var warship (I designed my builds specifically for this purpose) but when i try to do anything other than this E.G. any Season 6 content I find the ship to be completely useless, so for my request: build the following character skills and ship build and play YOUR game.
Betazoid,
Starfleet engineer, Traits
Accurate
Warp theorist
Weapons (Same both ends)
Quantum torpedo launcher Mk XII [CrtD] [CrtH] [Borg]
Polarised tetryon Beam array Mk XI
Phased tetryon Beam array Mk XI [Acc] [Dmg]
Tetryon Beam array Mk XII [Acc] [CrtH] [Borg]
Equipment
Deflector: M.A.C.O. Graviton Deflector Array MK XII
Engines: M.A.C.O. Impulse Engines Mk XII
Shields: M.A.C.O. Resilient Shield Array Mk XII
Consoles
Engineering:
Monotanium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Neutronium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Neutronium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Assimilated Module
Science:
Field generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Field generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tactical:
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Bridge officers
Tactical (Lt. CMDR): Tactical team I, High Yield Torpedo II, Beam Fire At Will III
Engineering (CMDR): Emergency Power To Weapons I, Reverse Shield Polarity I, Emergency Power To Shields III, Eject Warp Plasma III
Engineering (Lt.): Engineering Team I, Auxiliary Power To Structural Integrity Field I
Engineering (Ensign): Emergency Power To Auxiliary I
Science (Lt.) Science Team I, Jam Targeting Sensors II
I'm sure it wont take longer than 30 minutes to generate this character and ship build and a few hours of testing for you to find what needs changing to make cruisers other than the Oddessy rather more playable. While I don't expect you to do this you have an opportunity to make lots of your customers happy, prove many of them wrong about your ignoring us (myself included) and make the game far more fun.
if you need any more info about the ship/character don't hesitate to ask
i dont think the devs will know what you want make your ship and test what exactly?
I wrote in the first paragraph everything they needed to know about it's performance and what I'd like them to test with it, this being all the season 6 fleet actions It couldn't even dent most of the ships in the 20 man starbase defence and as for restating I don't think so considering I can't afford to do so and that I think I've come to the best compromise on skills and ship build, now it's down to the NPC stats, pre season 6 this build was great, it did everything I asked of it in good time post season 6... well... my request that they look at it says everything
My point is that a ship capable of defeating a borg negh'var warship in Cure space elite alone and unaided is unable to destroy anything in a fleet action without the aid of at least 2 escorts... does that not seem a little odd to you?
The Excelsior is probably the best cruiser you can get on Fed side, along with the Regent (okay, not counting the Galor, that one plays in a different league ...). It's more likely that you're doing it wrong.
While your build isn't optimal, it isn't bad enough that it should fail, either.
So ... let's start with the one thing you didn't mention: what's your energy settings?
Oh, and no: the devs won't come here and answer your question. Well, unless you promise to buy Crypric from PWE and provide a couple million dollars for development, that might change things.
And the second a mod sees this thread, it will be moved to the shipyard.
But we can still try to help you.
Well as stated above I built the character skills and ship setup with the purpose of dealing with CSE negh'vars, that I have achieved and have destroyed many of them alone and unaided. My point is that despite this achievement when I take my ship into the 20 player starbase defence I find it to be useless it barely scratches shields... yet looking around I see escorts doing to the same ships what I do to Negh'vars in CSE (AKA: destroying them in good time without help) I on the other hand can't dent them without the help of 1 or more of these escorts... What I want is to have this sorted
before you tell me this is therefore in the wrong place it started out in the game feedback section
Well as stated above I built the character skills and ship setup with the purpose of dealing with CSE negh'vars, that I have achieved and have destroyed many of them alone and unaided.
yet looking around I see escorts doing to the same ships what I do to Negh'vars in CSE (AKA: destroying them in good time without help) I on the other hand can't dent them without the help of 1 or more of these escorts...
you looking to do good dps then switch first you weapon energy slider to 100% on 80% you deal alot lower dmg.
to have the slider down and wonder then to not deal dmg.;)
put all what you can in your skilltree to dmg says weapon performance and co have seen you have skilled some thinks not to max.
for example i have seen u use driver coils if i remeber right it have only somethink to do with moving on the general maps i never seen a use on waste points for somethink like that better make your ship stronger.
and you weapon setup is random says you have decide fight from the side like a cruiser or full from front.
to make a mix of torp and beams is not the best way.
Long list of stuff, now that we're in the right forum:
The Technician DOff is completly useless with your build as you're not using Aux2Bat - get rid of it.
The Matter-Antimatter DOff isn't much better, NPC ships rarely if ever manage to move out of Warp Plasma, and in PvP everyone packs Hazard Emitters anyway.
Replace them with a Blue and a Purple Conn DOff that reduces Tactical Team recharge time so you can have that one at maximum uptime.
Having more than one kind of <x> Team is usually a bad idea, as they all share cooldowns, and running TT constantly means you're utilizing ALL your shield facings. Along with the (small) damage buff, this makes TT the best of the bunch, and for healing there are better alternatives.
In PvP you might want to pack a Sci Team to get rid of debuffs, but ... you were asking for PvE, right?
Try this this for Power Settings:
Weapons 100, Shields 25, Engine 25, Aux 50
Or:
Weapons 100, Shields 50, Engine 25, Aux 25
If that's too unstable (which it really shouldn't be with your gear), you can drop a bit of weapon power into Shields or Aux, but really not that much, you want to hit at least 125 with EPtW up, more is better as it's counteracting weapon drain.
With your character build, I'd really recommend putting power to Aux, or that one's lacking too much punch.
(Best: use both. along with an emergency setting with high AUX and Shields to heal yourself up and reduce incoming damage when you're really deep in trouble. That's what you have four power setting for.)
This will increase your damage output by about 30-40%, and also give a huge increase to your heals if you go the AUX route.
Double EPtS and EPtW would probably be a good idea if you do that, that'd give you a constant power increase and shield heals to make up for the loss in base energy. A Warp Core DOff to supplement that would also be quite nice with all the EPtX, that one would replace the Damage Control DOff.
'Would look like this:
Cmdr Eng: EPtW1, EPtS2, Aux2SIF2/EWP1, EWP3/Aux2SIF3
Lt Eng: EPtW1, RSP1
Ens Eng: EPtS1
As an Alternative, an Aux2Bat-build also works to give you an allround increase to power, in that case you'd actually stack Technician and Damage Control DOffs. Not my favorite build, but works, too. 'Pretty sure someone will come in here and give you more details on that version.
How you're running without Hazard Emitters is beyond me, I'd replace both Sci abilities with HE1 and HE2, or Polarize Hull and HE2 if you're bothered by pesky tractor beams and repulsors. if you need another shield heal, Transfer Shield Strength is a better option, in that case you'd go HE1 and TSS2.
Basically, your problem seems to be that you're carrying too many powers that shut out each other, and few that complement. A "just in case" approach, instead of going for a set of powers you run at all time that really take care of you.
Pro-Tip: make a keybind that triggers all your EPtX powers along with firing your weapons and re-distributing your shields. Then spam that button. :P
Oh, and Negh'vars aren't that hard, to be honest. Any decently build ship can deal with a Negh'var+Raptor pair, no matter if Escort, Carrier, Cruiser or Science Ship. And a good group actually won't even run into them much, since you'll try to kill all the cubes at once. In a PUG though ... yeah, 'been there, killed them, even double-pairs, though that's not fun anymore.
you looking to do good dps then switch first you weapon energy slider to 100% on 80% you deal alot lower dmg.
to have the slider down and wonder then to not deal dmg.;)
you weapon setup is random says you have decide fight from the side like a cruiser or full from front.
I'm sorry but I've built 5 Excelsiors (here are the ones I remember):
Fore: torp , DBB and 2 beam arrays
Aft: 2 torps, 2 beam arrays
this demolished escorts but not good for much else
8 beam. set my record for the lowest damage I've ever done
6 beam 2 torp my best so far play cruiser style and due to the excels better turn rate dip- the odd torp in (takes 2 seconds to dip in, fie and back to broadside) and as I have now said an excessive number of times "IT DEFEATS CSE NEGH'VARS ALONE AND UNAIDED!" My problem is that NPCs go from negh'vars in CSE (tough) to similar level ships in fleet actions (damned impregnable unless you fly an escort). rant over I hope THIS time you got the message
8 beam. set my record for the lowest damage I've ever done
6 beam 2 torp my best so far play cruiser style.
thats depent on energy you have low energy = more drain= lower totaldmg but think logical what hits better. 8 constant shotting weapons or only 4 from front or 4 from afther.:D
or i say it other i use 7 beams if i switch my weapon energy to 70 i get a drain of 60 so i shott constantly with ~15-20% energy = no dmg
if i put my slider to 125+ my weapon energy drops not lower then ~85% in constant shotting all weapons the drain is now only ~-40 about my higher energy output the result is very great total dps.
i use all my ships on max possible performance
decide fight from front only or side."all other option fun style only"
i dont have any energy prob all ships from me reach 125+ weapon power coz i basicly max out dmg/energieskills + hull +schild in skilltree use effizinz BOs and co, other thinks are can given randomly in skilltree on your mind or char class.
you dont say you have stay alive probs but like the otherone sayed to not have Hazzart emitters?
sif2aux + HE most importend hull skills and to have them on max lvl then possible.
How you're running without Hazard Emitters is beyond me.
i do that by running my aux2SIF and engi team, I found those to be more efficient for handling hull rather than being able to remove all debuffs, the ship does a little of everything and actually I have a use for everything in my tray except the EPtA (with the exception of the boost to Aux2SIF for healing the Kang in CSE) but when i'm in a fight I usually have all my cooldowns on a good time rotation and changing stance doesn't do much to that, I set up my power levels such that with the ability to move power around with the emergency power abilities i can go from and attack stance, do a defence/heal cycle and back to attack, if I wanted to run 8 beam I'd pull my oddy out of spacedock. with the EPtA i don't need the aux power which is why i have almost balanced the weapon and shield power (though I've accounted for the 6 beams and resilient shields) the engines do fine and when I need major performance from the aux systems I throw in the EPtA. as stated earlier, my problem is now with the ship build I've built at least 5 of them and found the best one for my play style and goals the problem is with the NPC stats, They've built NPC health and shields for escorts and the damage potential for the oddy, which is stupid and makes anything that doesn't fit those categories TRIBBLE... hence the original placement of this thread, I wanted the devs to play something that wasn't an escort or oddy/klingon equivalent and find out what they had actually done to the game
i do that by running my aux2SIF and engi team, I found those to be more efficient for handling hull rather than being able to remove all debuffs, the ship does a little of everything and actually I have a use for everything in my tray except the EPtA (with the exception of the boost to Aux2SIF for healing the Kang in CSE) but when i'm in a fight I usually have all my cooldowns on a good time rotation and changing stance doesn't do much to that, I set up my power levels such that with the ability to move power around with the emergency power abilities i can go from and attack stance, do a defence/heal cycle and back to attack, if I wanted to run 8 beam I'd pull my oddy out of spacedock. with the EPtA i don't need the aux power which is why i have almost balanced the weapon and shield power (though I've accounted for the 6 beams and resilient shields) the engines do fine and when I need major performance from the aux systems I throw in the EPtA. as stated earlier, my problem is now with the ship build I've built at least 5 of them and found the best one for my play style and goals the problem is with the NPC stats, They've built NPC health and shields for escorts and the damage potential for the oddy, which is stupid and makes anything that doesn't fit those categories TRIBBLE... hence the original placement of this thread, I wanted the devs to play something that wasn't an escort or oddy/klingon equivalent and find out what they had actually done to the game
I love it when people use the "my playstyle" line to excuse their builds.
Especially when they ask why they can't kill anything.
While others, using the same ship, but with a decent build, have no problem and breeze through content.
Really, it HAS to be the ship, right? Impossible that you're simply doing it wrong, right?
In MMO-slang, we have a word for people that argue like that, and that are resistent to advice. You'll probably be able to guess it, even if I don't tell you.
Hint: It's not the Excelsior that is the problem. That ship is, as already mentioned, one of the best cruiser you can find. Which leaves ...................
Well ok, I accept that however as I have said numerous times before "I am happy with the ship" itself, please allow me to state again I HAVE NO QUARREL WITH THE SHIP! need I say it again? (just in case the answer is yes: "I HAVE NO QUARREL WITH THE SHIP!" I think we may get there sometime...) my problem is in that a brilliant build (that's right "brilliant build" (yes I'm slightly ticked off)) is unable to destroy something in a fleet action that is several level below it without help! <-- THERE is the problem! Not with the ship! heck I don't have problems in 1 on 1 pvp! (9 times out of 10 I win!) that's why I put the thread in the FEEDBACK section of the forums because it was FEEDBACK... not a cry for help!
i deal with cruiser ship classes great dmg and can solo anythink so and player try to help you how it works.
to your point i will not play escorts ,
i deal alot more dmg with cruisers in most stfs what i run then them coz i use my ship how it have to be used.
to HE again the point is not remove a plasma dot its e great hull heal over time + remove procs+ increase resistancees significant.
afther i have used 1 time eng team and noticed i still die coz it comes in cooldown with other importend skills i stoped using it totally its from my side a useless skill.;)
but you get here some tipps how you can improve your ship performance so if you do somethink or not your decission.
Look I hold my hands up... I give up... ok so my build is TRIBBLE, I'm a TRIBBLE player of the game... I can only use the excelsior to survive almost anything the game throws my way, I can only use the excelsior at grade 41 with Mk VII/VIII equipment/weapons to beat someone in a fairly well built Oddy... Yeah, i can't build the ship/play the game...
Weapons (Same both ends)
Quantum torpedo launcher Mk XII [CrtD] [CrtH] [Borg]
Polarised tetryon Beam array Mk XI
Phased tetryon Beam array Mk XI [Acc] [Dmg]
Tetryon Beam array Mk XII [Acc] [CrtH] [Borg]
Equipment
Deflector: M.A.C.O. Graviton Deflector Array MK XII
Engines: M.A.C.O. Impulse Engines Mk XII
Shields: M.A.C.O. Resilient Shield Array Mk XII
Consoles
Engineering:
Monotanium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Neutronium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Neutronium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Assimilated Module
Science:
Field generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Field generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tactical:
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Bridge officers
Tactical (Lt. CMDR): Tactical team I, High Yield Torpedo II, Beam Fire At Will III
Engineering (CMDR): Emergency Power To Weapons I, Reverse Shield Polarity I, Emergency Power To Shields III, Eject Warp Plasma III
Engineering (Lt.): Engineering Team I, Auxiliary Power To Structural Integrity Field I Engineering (Ensign): Emergency Power To Auxiliary I
Science (Lt.) Science Team I, Jam Targeting Sensors II
Duty Officers
Active space: Projectile officer (Purple quality), Projectile officer (Blue quality), Matter-Anitmatter specialist (Green quality), Damage Control Engineer (Green quality), Technician (Green quality)
Your skill set (capt) is too spread out and you're spending a lot of points into skills that don't give you much benefit.
You cannot put tons of points into beams and weapons and then leave the specialization to just 3 points each. Specialization determines your accuracy, crit rate and bonus dmg from acc. By having just 3 in each you are merely mediocre with projectiles and energy weapons.
Some of the items I will comment on below free up points which you can use to bump these up to 6 each if you must. Personally I recommend you simply choose energy weapon to 9 and forget about the torp specialization...it really IS wasted points if you're just loading one torpedo launcher (vs 6+ beams in the ship!).
Engineering skills you have too many points in some areas and too little in others. FYI there is minimal gain after 6 points spent in the power bonus boxes I bolded. I've tested it and you only gain about 2 power to the subsystem for the last 3 red-area skill points. Ergo, it is wasted points.
Lower engine and shield to 6 and put the points freed up into warp core skills. Those give you a LOT of power bonus.
Insulators/Countermeasures/dampers: Drop countermeasures altogether. The stat only increases the duration of the abilities by a minimal amount and in the rabid AOE damage environment of the game any countermeasure effect on a target vanishes almost the instant you put it on target.
Dampers also do not work very well and 3 points gives you no noticeable benefits. Any effect in the game affected by dampeners is also insta-cured by a boff ability or in some cases, batteries so there is no need to waste skill points there.
Insulators work but only against people trying to drain you... which is very rare. There are tons of ways to defend against drain ships without needing this skill.
I' suggest you drop these skills and put the freed up points elsewhere.
Ship weapons:
You only have 1 torpedo so why are you bothering to waste a precious lt level tac ability on it? I can understand you wanting to do a hard hit on the hull when shields are down but really, you do MORE damage with the ship's beams on broadside firing.
Once you spec into energy weapons 9 you can change the quantum for a hargpeng or breen cluster ...which do not need boff ability and do direct-to-hull damage (very nice damage too) at any time and switch the high yield for atk pattern beta 1 or delta 1. That debuff boosts your entire team's damage (and ALL your beam damage) significantly.
Boff abilities:
I'll just type in the suggested boff setup for you.
Tactical (Lt. CMDR): Tactical team I, Attack Pattern Beta1 -or- Delta1, Beam Overload 3
Note: if you have threat control 6 + you are better off with Delta1 and Fire at Will3. If not then stay with Beta1 and Overload3.
Engineering (CMDR): Emergency Power To Weapons I, Emergency Power to Shield 2,
Emergency Power To Shields III, AUX to SIF 3
Engineering (Lt.): Engineering Team I, Reverse Shield Polarity 1
Engineering (Ensign): Emergency Power To Auxiliary I
Science (Lt.) : Hazard 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
How it works: You cycle emg to shields 3 and 2 using transfer shield strength 2 in between them. This allows you have your shield power setting to around 65 base and the abilities boost the shield to 125 PLUS give you a crazy amount of shield resists and quick heal-over-time ability.
Your hull is healed by aux to sif 3 and hazard 1. Most of the times hazard 1 will be enough as your shield tank will be solid. Aux to SIF3 is excellent to support allies and to heal yourself should one of the borg BS supertorpedoes hurt you. Hazard 1 will also cleanse plasma fires (which can be particularly lethal vs bosses that somehow put a 1k/tic dot on you).
Emg pwr to weapons will break your shield cycle but it is there should you have the chance to pop a pumped-up beam overload 3 (weapon battery+emg to wep 1= very high damage.. i've done close to 22k with it).
Your LT engineer skills are the emergency heals. You never want to use ANY -team ability other than tac team. You'll see why in a sec. Reverse shield polarity helps you in a bind when your shield tank is in trouble.
Tac team is VITAL for your tank. You will notice you have no instant-shield heal abilities like science team..which people rely on for some weird reason. Science team is the most ineffective heal in the game.
Think of it this way: Your ship has 4 shield facings. Let's say each one has 10k hp. That makes your ship's total shields be 40k.
Now, you get hit for 5k damage on the left shield. You now have 10/10/10/5 shields. Most people click science team to bring that shield up to full instantly ... (lets say science team heals 5k damage tops)
... but thing is, science team heals ALL shield facings for the same amount. So to heal 5k on one shield facing you just 'lost' 15k worth of shield heal because the sci team effect on the intact shield facings has zero effect.
Alright, lets continue.. you healed that shield to full. two seconds later you get hit again on your rear shield for 5k. Sci team is on timer so you're forced to use another heal ability.
..and the thing goes on until you run out of healing abilities , they all on timers and you're taking damage. This is where the majority of cruisers die when they have more than 2 ships firing on them.
Some try to use tac team and pop a science team when all shields are low but that again does not counteract the fact that damage keeps coming in and timer heals defeat them.
...and this why the regen-over-time+resist shield heals win the day.
Back to the example. 10k shield per facing, one takes 5k damage.
You hit tac team. For 10 seconds that shield, no matter the damage vector, it will balance the shields. at the same time you use a shield heal. Say, transfer shield strength 2.
Transfer Shield has a higher total shield heal amount than science team and does it with a small instant shield heal plus the bulk of the heal over 15 seconds time.
10 sec tac team.. 15 sec shield heal over time = your shields are healed and balanced at the same time. Your hull does not get hit and total you get more heal and more effective shield HP to buffer incoming hits than if you used science team. Transfer shield strength also grants shield resists that lower the damage even more.
The same goes with emg to shields. Its a good instant heal with a large shield heal over time PLUS a very large shield resist bonus.
and the beauty of it is.. because of their timers and duration of the heal over time your ship will ALWAYS have a shield heal over time ticking .. which is absolutely vital to prevent the torpedoes hitting your hull for massive amounts of damage. Only 1 hp of shield will lower the torpedo damage to nearly nothing.
Once you get the rhythm of cycling tac team->emg to shields 2 & 3 and transfer shield strength 2 you will be extremely hard to kill.
Plus you're engineer you have additional shield resist+regen and a huge instant hull+shield heal available to you. For weapon damage you also have very good abilities in the form of once-a-minute high damage beam overload 3 (nadion inversion, EPS and a large weapon battery allow you fire ALL guns or just one massive beam overload 3 with no power drain to weapons..cycle the abilities and you can have once a minute spike firepower).
Finally, your duty officers are a mess. Get yourself the emg power to- bonus power ones, the one that shortens the timer on emg-pwr-to abilities and the energy weapon officers that shorten beam timers plus a shield distribution officer so your transfer shield strength can also clean boarding parties.
Well I can see how that works and most of the skills at level 3 are just prop ups to reach next rank/spend excess points however sci team has its uses: Clearing jam sensors, shield heal when I don't want to use RSP or as a temp measure when it'll cover what's left on a more effective shield heal, my usual shield management is tac team+rotate shield freqs or for when i'm no staring big guns in the face (or side) I use manual management (cursor keys in my case).
I could live without my countermeasures skill as it is simply propping my jam sensors (which I can't live without as it's my escape route/or for clearing tractor beams). I could bring certain skills down from 9 and could happily experiment with that and bring up my weapon skills at admiral. I noticed you stated I use 1 torp, the layout does state "The same on both ends" (OCD) however i agree the points I spent on admiral level torp skill could be better spent and I could sacrifice HY II but I'm afraid I will state that FAW 3 goes NOWHERE that's where I do put my foot down (it's one of my main damage boosts).
I could swap out my EPtA for EPtS but I fear they may clash (they did last time I tried it). I could experiment with 6 grades in engine performance (But it is needed to kepp the engines going at a satisfactory standard) however warp core efficiency would compensate to a degree. I could swap out HY II for Beam overload II I suppose.
That's my idea of a good compromise between what you are suggesting and my play style... so I have 1 further question: What say you?
Well I can see how that works and most of the skills at level 3 are just prop ups to reach next rank/spend excess points however sci team has its uses: Clearing jam sensors, shield heal when I don't want to use RSP or as a temp measure when it'll cover what's left on a more effective shield heal, my usual shield management is tac team+rotate shield freqs or for when i'm no staring big guns in the face (or side) I use manual management (cursor keys in my case).
Trust me, sci team is the worse thing you can have. You don't want -anything- interfering with your true tank-enabling ability: Tac Team. In the setup above i put engineering team because there is nothing else that could go in that slot.. and I did warn not to use it except in desperate times.
I could live without my countermeasures skill as it is simply propping my jam sensors (which I can't live without as it's my escape route/or for clearing tractor beams).
Tractor beams wont be a problem with this tank in PVE. The most effective anti-tractor beam ability is tractor repulsors which you can have by changing sci boff to transfer shield strength 1 and repulsors...and dealing with plasma fires by healing the damage with aux to sif 3.
I noticed you stated I use 1 torp, the layout does state "The same on both ends" (OCD) however i agree the points I spent on admiral level torp skill could be better spent and I could sacrifice HY II but I'm afraid I will state that FAW 3 goes NOWHERE that's where I do put my foot down (it's one of my main damage boosts).
You can only use the torpedo on target one at a time. Hence its just one really.
Consider this:
High Yield 2 quantum does approximately 30k damage to hull. It takes 30 seconds to reload the high yield and the torpedo takes about 5 seconds to reach target.
That means 30k damage in 35 seconds time.
Compare it to beam array damage:
Each beam array fires 4 beams, one per second, per 5 second weapon cycle. Each beam does low avg of 200 damage (and this is quite low a number but im using it as an easy to explain figure).
200dmg x4per cycle x 6 beam arrays= 4800 dmg in 5 seconds.
6 beam arrays firing on target for 30 seconds = 28.8k damage.
7 beam arrays (if only 1 torp) = 33.6k damage
8 beam arrays (if you load no torps) = 38.4k damage
Beam damage is = no matter if it hits hull or shields.
Remember that critical hit chance is per shot not per cycle so in 30 seconds your weapons have:
6 beams: 144 chances to crit
7 beams: 168 chances to crit
8 beams: 192 chances to crit
With the borg console, the crit chance bonus of borg-weapons and your capt accuracy skill the chance to crit is nearly 10%. That means on average in 30 seconds you MAY have a minimum of 14 crits that would increase your damage by about 8k avg in 30 seconds time.
As a cruiser you are best served keeping a broadside on target on all times hitting it with all beams. If you load a torpedo you lose 4 beam array damage worth for a second or two to lob the torpedo... which is why I suggest you use a non-boff ability using torpedo that you can just leave on autofire..a quick swing, it fires, you swing back to bear all beams on target.
Fire at Will is not a damage booster. Its a damage spreader. unlike torpedo spread, the damage fire at will does in aoe is largely ineffective but it does help the team and it does help tanks (threat control 6+) get aggro. That is why I mentioned that if you're setting up as the team tank keep the fire at will.
If not, beam overload 3 will serve you tons better. Remember the ability has a 30 second cooldown timer and you're an engineer...every 1 minute you can use EPT or Nadion Inversion or a large weapon battery to pull off two beam overloads at full power WHILE firing all your beam arrays at full power. That is very high damage for a cruiser to pull off.
And if you add atk pattern beta/delta ... the target takes an extra 20% damage from all sources for the duration.
...or you can also just try atk pattern omega 1, beam overload 2 and tac team. omega 1 will break tractor beams you dislike so much, give +def boost, +speed boost AND damage boost for yourself (not for team). Its less beam overload damage but its close to a low-end damage range overload 3. Your choice.
I could swap out my EPtA for EPtS but I fear they may clash (they did last time I tried it). I could experiment with 6 grades in engine performance (But it is needed to kepp the engines going at a satisfactory standard) however warp core efficiency would compensate to a degree. I could swap out HY II for Beam overload II I suppose.
That's my idea of a good compromise between what you are suggesting and my play style... so I have 1 further question: What say you?
Your primary emergency power abilities are the shields. Aux and Wep are situational since they break the shield EPTS cycle (which you do not want to do when taking lots of damage). But..when the target is not really hitting you that hard and epts3+transfer shield 2 can handle the incoming damage you can pop the AUX or WEP EPT ability to boost your damage or the resist amount amount on the AUX.
i dislike tractor beams as they are one of 2 weaknesses this ship has the other is taking fire from 2 many directions (I have close to 12k per shield) I am willing to swap out the sci team for a TSS and I can switch the HY II for the Beam overload however in saying the FAW is not a damage booster is incorrect, it does reduce damage to 1 target if there is another within range however it also increases firing rate on all beams, therefore it is a damage boost when faced with 1 target so I'll give what you have suggested a go to that degree and put up the verdict in a few days when i can farm enough dilithium to get a new retrain
Per wiki its a 12% damage boost per beam (from base damage of beam) which, added up, is a 40% boost per cycle of each weapon. This is FAW3.
At 8 beams firing FAW3 on a single target you're looking at a combined 640% damage boost (FAW lasts 2 cycles, 320% per cycle) in 10 seconds time.
... that is the equivalent damage boost of beam overload 1. 600%. Beam overload 3 is 850% dmg boost in 2 seconds time.
Combine 850% dmg boost in one shot followed by 7 beam arrays firing normally and you get a significant damage margin via overload. Especially if you firing it every minute using the trio-of-joy engineering abilities.
However, each type of attack does depend on your build and switching between them to see which one works best for you is silly easy. Try both and decide
Well as stated above I built the character skills and ship setup with the purpose of dealing with CSE negh'vars, that I have achieved and have destroyed many of them alone and unaided.
...yet looking around I see escorts doing to the same ships what I do to Negh'vars in CSE (AKA: destroying them in good time without help) I on the other hand can't dent them without the help of 1 or more of these escorts...
Ok. Here's your first problem. You built this ship specifically for killing borg ships. BORG ships. Not regular Klingon ships, but BORG ships. You have anti-BORG weapons. Anti-BORG weapons have a chance to deal 1000 extra damage each shot, which your weapons probably do based on how many beam arrays you run. Since you are specifically set up to kill BORG, you can't honestly expect that same build to work on regular ships. Also the BORG neg'vars are a little squishier than the fleet defence ships. And you aren't supposed to be able to solo those neg'vars as a CRUISER. You are a CRUISER. Your specialty isn't damage, unlike ESCORTS. They are specifically designed to have high damage output. CRUISERS are for tanking and threat control.
Your only problem is you are expecting to be able to demolish a majorly buffed up Klingon NPC with the wrong build. You can't really expect to be able to keep up with ESCORTS damage wise, so don't try. Do what CRUISERS do and keep the enemy ships off the ESCORTS so they can focus on their job, which is major DPS.
Now if you are wondering why I capitalized all the ship class names, it's because I think you need to be reminded of what you are and what you aren't flying. CRUISERS are tanks/threat control. Their job is to TAKE damage, not give it. ESCORTS are glass cannons. They GIVE the damage, but can't really take it. So do what you do best and don't try to keep up with a class that's specifically designed to outdo you damage wise.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Weapons (Same both ends)
Quantum torpedo launcher Mk XII [CrtD] [CrtH] [Borg]
Polarised tetryon Beam array Mk XI
Phased tetryon Beam array Mk XI [Acc] [Dmg]
Tetryon Beam array Mk XII [Acc] [CrtH] [Borg
I'm sorry Hereticknight but I only run 4 anti-borg weapons on my cruiser because it does a little of everything including stripping shields off moist ships (player ships included) which it does quite well, until this fleet action (and only in this fleet action), I tried out another fleet action and it performed as i'm used to (in fact a little better due to the introduction of Starship armour reinforcements skill) so it has more improved tanking capability. I don't expect to do hull damage in huge amounts, I do however expect to strip shields at the same rate no matter what ship I'm firing at, be it borg, player or any other ship... when not fighting Borg negh'vars tanking and shield stripping is my job, it's the ships secondary purpose (which it does well) and the latest patch has made it better at
Ok, well I see what you mean now, didn't know that was the only thing you wanted. Well I do know that ships in fleet action also have heavily reinforced shields. Takes me forever to bring them down, even with a few escorts helping out. But it's designed to give you a headache, and you aren't supposed to be able to solo anything above a vor'cha in those unless you are an escort.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
It's still in the Feedback section; the Feedback about SHIPS section.
Where the devs who do things with ships will see it.
it was a bit of both, it was part ship (they don't seem to account for the older ships when creating new content)
it was also about the game for the same reason (that and NPC stats seem to be WAAAY off where they should be, that or the ship classes simply aren't balanced properly)
I'm actually a fairly experienced Excelsior player, I know my ship inside out, back to front etc. (you name the way, I know my ship) and I am exceedingly hard to kill unless you have either an overpowered escort capable of dealing 3+k damage per hit for 30 or so seconds throwing my cycle off or if you have a tractor beam and my Jam sensors is on CD
Comments
it flys it fires it works like all ships.
you can deal more dmg or take more dmg if you restat your skills....
you say its usless other will say its great .......
i have start to from the F2p time and i try for myself out what ship i will play and how perform it on 100% if it will be needet.
I wrote in the first paragraph everything they needed to know about it's performance and what I'd like them to test with it, this being all the season 6 fleet actions It couldn't even dent most of the ships in the 20 man starbase defence and as for restating I don't think so considering I can't afford to do so and that I think I've come to the best compromise on skills and ship build, now it's down to the NPC stats, pre season 6 this build was great, it did everything I asked of it in good time post season 6... well... my request that they look at it says everything
and if its a ship build discussion it will end in nothing, i from my side never will skill my ship on this way.
if you will take any other ship build it same it works like yours.
so your request is not to understand what you want for me.
While your build isn't optimal, it isn't bad enough that it should fail, either.
So ... let's start with the one thing you didn't mention: what's your energy settings?
Oh, and no: the devs won't come here and answer your question. Well, unless you promise to buy Crypric from PWE and provide a couple million dollars for development, that might change things.
And the second a mod sees this thread, it will be moved to the shipyard.
But we can still try to help you.
if you only will kill some ships more in a fleet aktion mission reskill your char and your weapons and shipskills.
Transwarp Drive in three, two, one...
Best community ever.
however with regard to my power levels:
post boosts I have got,
Weapons: 100/80
Shields: 90/70
Engines: 50/25
Auxiliary: 40/25
Kyle
before you tell me this is therefore in the wrong place it started out in the game feedback section
you looking to do good dps then switch first you weapon energy slider to 100% on 80% you deal alot lower dmg.
to have the slider down and wonder then to not deal dmg.;)
put all what you can in your skilltree to dmg says weapon performance and co have seen you have skilled some thinks not to max.
for example i have seen u use driver coils if i remeber right it have only somethink to do with moving on the general maps i never seen a use on waste points for somethink like that better make your ship stronger.
and you weapon setup is random says you have decide fight from the side like a cruiser or full from front.
to make a mix of torp and beams is not the best way.
The Technician DOff is completly useless with your build as you're not using Aux2Bat - get rid of it.
The Matter-Antimatter DOff isn't much better, NPC ships rarely if ever manage to move out of Warp Plasma, and in PvP everyone packs Hazard Emitters anyway.
Replace them with a Blue and a Purple Conn DOff that reduces Tactical Team recharge time so you can have that one at maximum uptime.
Having more than one kind of <x> Team is usually a bad idea, as they all share cooldowns, and running TT constantly means you're utilizing ALL your shield facings. Along with the (small) damage buff, this makes TT the best of the bunch, and for healing there are better alternatives.
In PvP you might want to pack a Sci Team to get rid of debuffs, but ... you were asking for PvE, right?
Try this this for Power Settings:
Weapons 100, Shields 25, Engine 25, Aux 50
Or:
Weapons 100, Shields 50, Engine 25, Aux 25
If that's too unstable (which it really shouldn't be with your gear), you can drop a bit of weapon power into Shields or Aux, but really not that much, you want to hit at least 125 with EPtW up, more is better as it's counteracting weapon drain.
With your character build, I'd really recommend putting power to Aux, or that one's lacking too much punch.
(Best: use both. along with an emergency setting with high AUX and Shields to heal yourself up and reduce incoming damage when you're really deep in trouble. That's what you have four power setting for.)
This will increase your damage output by about 30-40%, and also give a huge increase to your heals if you go the AUX route.
Double EPtS and EPtW would probably be a good idea if you do that, that'd give you a constant power increase and shield heals to make up for the loss in base energy. A Warp Core DOff to supplement that would also be quite nice with all the EPtX, that one would replace the Damage Control DOff.
'Would look like this:
Cmdr Eng: EPtW1, EPtS2, Aux2SIF2/EWP1, EWP3/Aux2SIF3
Lt Eng: EPtW1, RSP1
Ens Eng: EPtS1
As an Alternative, an Aux2Bat-build also works to give you an allround increase to power, in that case you'd actually stack Technician and Damage Control DOffs. Not my favorite build, but works, too. 'Pretty sure someone will come in here and give you more details on that version.
How you're running without Hazard Emitters is beyond me, I'd replace both Sci abilities with HE1 and HE2, or Polarize Hull and HE2 if you're bothered by pesky tractor beams and repulsors. if you need another shield heal, Transfer Shield Strength is a better option, in that case you'd go HE1 and TSS2.
Basically, your problem seems to be that you're carrying too many powers that shut out each other, and few that complement. A "just in case" approach, instead of going for a set of powers you run at all time that really take care of you.
Pro-Tip: make a keybind that triggers all your EPtX powers along with firing your weapons and re-distributing your shields. Then spam that button. :P
Oh, and Negh'vars aren't that hard, to be honest. Any decently build ship can deal with a Negh'var+Raptor pair, no matter if Escort, Carrier, Cruiser or Science Ship. And a good group actually won't even run into them much, since you'll try to kill all the cubes at once. In a PUG though ... yeah, 'been there, killed them, even double-pairs, though that's not fun anymore.
I'm sorry but I've built 5 Excelsiors (here are the ones I remember):
Fore: torp , DBB and 2 beam arrays
Aft: 2 torps, 2 beam arrays
this demolished escorts but not good for much else
8 beam. set my record for the lowest damage I've ever done
6 beam 2 torp my best so far play cruiser style and due to the excels better turn rate dip- the odd torp in (takes 2 seconds to dip in, fie and back to broadside) and as I have now said an excessive number of times "IT DEFEATS CSE NEGH'VARS ALONE AND UNAIDED!" My problem is that NPCs go from negh'vars in CSE (tough) to similar level ships in fleet actions (damned impregnable unless you fly an escort). rant over I hope THIS time you got the message
...Sorry about that...
thats depent on energy you have low energy = more drain= lower totaldmg but think logical what hits better. 8 constant shotting weapons or only 4 from front or 4 from afther.:D
or i say it other i use 7 beams if i switch my weapon energy to 70 i get a drain of 60 so i shott constantly with ~15-20% energy = no dmg
if i put my slider to 125+ my weapon energy drops not lower then ~85% in constant shotting all weapons the drain is now only ~-40 about my higher energy output the result is very great total dps.
i use all my ships on max possible performance
decide fight from front only or side."all other option fun style only"
i dont have any energy prob all ships from me reach 125+ weapon power coz i basicly max out dmg/energieskills + hull +schild in skilltree use effizinz BOs and co, other thinks are can given randomly in skilltree on your mind or char class.
you dont say you have stay alive probs but like the otherone sayed to not have Hazzart emitters?
sif2aux + HE most importend hull skills and to have them on max lvl then possible.
i do that by running my aux2SIF and engi team, I found those to be more efficient for handling hull rather than being able to remove all debuffs, the ship does a little of everything and actually I have a use for everything in my tray except the EPtA (with the exception of the boost to Aux2SIF for healing the Kang in CSE) but when i'm in a fight I usually have all my cooldowns on a good time rotation and changing stance doesn't do much to that, I set up my power levels such that with the ability to move power around with the emergency power abilities i can go from and attack stance, do a defence/heal cycle and back to attack, if I wanted to run 8 beam I'd pull my oddy out of spacedock. with the EPtA i don't need the aux power which is why i have almost balanced the weapon and shield power (though I've accounted for the 6 beams and resilient shields) the engines do fine and when I need major performance from the aux systems I throw in the EPtA. as stated earlier, my problem is now with the ship build I've built at least 5 of them and found the best one for my play style and goals the problem is with the NPC stats, They've built NPC health and shields for escorts and the damage potential for the oddy, which is stupid and makes anything that doesn't fit those categories TRIBBLE... hence the original placement of this thread, I wanted the devs to play something that wasn't an escort or oddy/klingon equivalent and find out what they had actually done to the game
I love it when people use the "my playstyle" line to excuse their builds.
Especially when they ask why they can't kill anything.
While others, using the same ship, but with a decent build, have no problem and breeze through content.
Really, it HAS to be the ship, right? Impossible that you're simply doing it wrong, right?
In MMO-slang, we have a word for people that argue like that, and that are resistent to advice. You'll probably be able to guess it, even if I don't tell you.
Hint: It's not the Excelsior that is the problem. That ship is, as already mentioned, one of the best cruiser you can find. Which leaves ...................
to your point i will not play escorts ,
i deal alot more dmg with cruisers in most stfs what i run then them coz i use my ship how it have to be used.
to HE again the point is not remove a plasma dot its e great hull heal over time + remove procs+ increase resistancees significant.
afther i have used 1 time eng team and noticed i still die coz it comes in cooldown with other importend skills i stoped using it totally its from my side a useless skill.;)
but you get here some tipps how you can improve your ship performance so if you do somethink or not your decission.
if you make some small changes your ship get easy much more effizienz.;)
Betazoid,
Starfleet engineer,
Traits
Accurate
Warp theorist
Space skills
Tactical Skills
Starship weapons training: 9
Starship Energy weapons: 9
Starship projectile weapons: 9
Starship targeting systems: 9
Starship energy weapon specialisation: 3
Starship projectile weapon specialisation: 3
Engineering skills
Driver coil: 9
Structural integrity: 9
Starship engine performance: 9
starship armour reinforcements: 6
Starship system repair: 3
Starship impulse thrusters: 9
Starship hull plating: 9
Starship hull repair: 9
Starship warp core efficiency: 3
Starship warp core potential: 9
Starship shield performance: 9
Starship weapon performance: 3
Science and operation skills
Starship power insulators: 3
Starship inertial dampers: 3
Starship Countermeasures systems: 3
Starship shield Emitters: 9
Starship shields systems: 9
Starship particle generators: 6
Ground skills
Demolitions: 6
PS generator: 6
Generators: 6
Turrets and drones: 6
Weapon proficiency: 9
Repairs: 6
Willpower: 3
Ship build
Weapons (Same both ends)
Quantum torpedo launcher Mk XII [CrtD] [CrtH] [Borg]
Polarised tetryon Beam array Mk XI
Phased tetryon Beam array Mk XI [Acc] [Dmg]
Tetryon Beam array Mk XII [Acc] [CrtH] [Borg]
Equipment
Deflector: M.A.C.O. Graviton Deflector Array MK XII
Engines: M.A.C.O. Impulse Engines Mk XII
Shields: M.A.C.O. Resilient Shield Array Mk XII
Consoles
Engineering:
Monotanium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Neutronium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Neutronium Alloy Mk XI (Blue quality)
Assimilated Module
Science:
Field generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Field generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tactical:
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Tetryon pulse generator Mk XI (Blue quality)
Bridge officers
Tactical (Lt. CMDR): Tactical team I, High Yield Torpedo II, Beam Fire At Will III
Engineering (CMDR): Emergency Power To Weapons I, Reverse Shield Polarity I, Emergency Power To Shields III, Eject Warp Plasma III
Engineering (Lt.): Engineering Team I, Auxiliary Power To Structural Integrity Field I
Engineering (Ensign): Emergency Power To Auxiliary I
Science (Lt.) Science Team I, Jam Targeting Sensors II
Duty Officers
Active space: Projectile officer (Purple quality), Projectile officer (Blue quality), Matter-Anitmatter specialist (Green quality), Damage Control Engineer (Green quality), Technician (Green quality)
Your skill set (capt) is too spread out and you're spending a lot of points into skills that don't give you much benefit.
You cannot put tons of points into beams and weapons and then leave the specialization to just 3 points each. Specialization determines your accuracy, crit rate and bonus dmg from acc. By having just 3 in each you are merely mediocre with projectiles and energy weapons.
Some of the items I will comment on below free up points which you can use to bump these up to 6 each if you must. Personally I recommend you simply choose energy weapon to 9 and forget about the torp specialization...it really IS wasted points if you're just loading one torpedo launcher (vs 6+ beams in the ship!).
Engineering skills you have too many points in some areas and too little in others. FYI there is minimal gain after 6 points spent in the power bonus boxes I bolded. I've tested it and you only gain about 2 power to the subsystem for the last 3 red-area skill points. Ergo, it is wasted points.
Lower engine and shield to 6 and put the points freed up into warp core skills. Those give you a LOT of power bonus.
Insulators/Countermeasures/dampers: Drop countermeasures altogether. The stat only increases the duration of the abilities by a minimal amount and in the rabid AOE damage environment of the game any countermeasure effect on a target vanishes almost the instant you put it on target.
Dampers also do not work very well and 3 points gives you no noticeable benefits. Any effect in the game affected by dampeners is also insta-cured by a boff ability or in some cases, batteries so there is no need to waste skill points there.
Insulators work but only against people trying to drain you... which is very rare. There are tons of ways to defend against drain ships without needing this skill.
I' suggest you drop these skills and put the freed up points elsewhere.
Ship weapons:
You only have 1 torpedo so why are you bothering to waste a precious lt level tac ability on it? I can understand you wanting to do a hard hit on the hull when shields are down but really, you do MORE damage with the ship's beams on broadside firing.
Once you spec into energy weapons 9 you can change the quantum for a hargpeng or breen cluster ...which do not need boff ability and do direct-to-hull damage (very nice damage too) at any time and switch the high yield for atk pattern beta 1 or delta 1. That debuff boosts your entire team's damage (and ALL your beam damage) significantly.
Boff abilities:
I'll just type in the suggested boff setup for you.
Tactical (Lt. CMDR): Tactical team I, Attack Pattern Beta1 -or- Delta1, Beam Overload 3
Note: if you have threat control 6 + you are better off with Delta1 and Fire at Will3. If not then stay with Beta1 and Overload3.
Engineering (CMDR): Emergency Power To Weapons I, Emergency Power to Shield 2,
Emergency Power To Shields III, AUX to SIF 3
Engineering (Lt.): Engineering Team I, Reverse Shield Polarity 1
Engineering (Ensign): Emergency Power To Auxiliary I
Science (Lt.) : Hazard 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
How it works: You cycle emg to shields 3 and 2 using transfer shield strength 2 in between them. This allows you have your shield power setting to around 65 base and the abilities boost the shield to 125 PLUS give you a crazy amount of shield resists and quick heal-over-time ability.
Your hull is healed by aux to sif 3 and hazard 1. Most of the times hazard 1 will be enough as your shield tank will be solid. Aux to SIF3 is excellent to support allies and to heal yourself should one of the borg BS supertorpedoes hurt you. Hazard 1 will also cleanse plasma fires (which can be particularly lethal vs bosses that somehow put a 1k/tic dot on you).
Emg pwr to weapons will break your shield cycle but it is there should you have the chance to pop a pumped-up beam overload 3 (weapon battery+emg to wep 1= very high damage.. i've done close to 22k with it).
Your LT engineer skills are the emergency heals. You never want to use ANY -team ability other than tac team. You'll see why in a sec. Reverse shield polarity helps you in a bind when your shield tank is in trouble.
Tac team is VITAL for your tank. You will notice you have no instant-shield heal abilities like science team..which people rely on for some weird reason. Science team is the most ineffective heal in the game.
Think of it this way: Your ship has 4 shield facings. Let's say each one has 10k hp. That makes your ship's total shields be 40k.
Now, you get hit for 5k damage on the left shield. You now have 10/10/10/5 shields. Most people click science team to bring that shield up to full instantly ... (lets say science team heals 5k damage tops)
... but thing is, science team heals ALL shield facings for the same amount. So to heal 5k on one shield facing you just 'lost' 15k worth of shield heal because the sci team effect on the intact shield facings has zero effect.
Alright, lets continue.. you healed that shield to full. two seconds later you get hit again on your rear shield for 5k. Sci team is on timer so you're forced to use another heal ability.
..and the thing goes on until you run out of healing abilities , they all on timers and you're taking damage. This is where the majority of cruisers die when they have more than 2 ships firing on them.
Some try to use tac team and pop a science team when all shields are low but that again does not counteract the fact that damage keeps coming in and timer heals defeat them.
...and this why the regen-over-time+resist shield heals win the day.
Back to the example. 10k shield per facing, one takes 5k damage.
You hit tac team. For 10 seconds that shield, no matter the damage vector, it will balance the shields. at the same time you use a shield heal. Say, transfer shield strength 2.
Transfer Shield has a higher total shield heal amount than science team and does it with a small instant shield heal plus the bulk of the heal over 15 seconds time.
10 sec tac team.. 15 sec shield heal over time = your shields are healed and balanced at the same time. Your hull does not get hit and total you get more heal and more effective shield HP to buffer incoming hits than if you used science team. Transfer shield strength also grants shield resists that lower the damage even more.
The same goes with emg to shields. Its a good instant heal with a large shield heal over time PLUS a very large shield resist bonus.
and the beauty of it is.. because of their timers and duration of the heal over time your ship will ALWAYS have a shield heal over time ticking .. which is absolutely vital to prevent the torpedoes hitting your hull for massive amounts of damage. Only 1 hp of shield will lower the torpedo damage to nearly nothing.
Once you get the rhythm of cycling tac team->emg to shields 2 & 3 and transfer shield strength 2 you will be extremely hard to kill.
Plus you're engineer you have additional shield resist+regen and a huge instant hull+shield heal available to you. For weapon damage you also have very good abilities in the form of once-a-minute high damage beam overload 3 (nadion inversion, EPS and a large weapon battery allow you fire ALL guns or just one massive beam overload 3 with no power drain to weapons..cycle the abilities and you can have once a minute spike firepower).
Finally, your duty officers are a mess. Get yourself the emg power to- bonus power ones, the one that shortens the timer on emg-pwr-to abilities and the energy weapon officers that shorten beam timers plus a shield distribution officer so your transfer shield strength can also clean boarding parties.
I could live without my countermeasures skill as it is simply propping my jam sensors (which I can't live without as it's my escape route/or for clearing tractor beams). I could bring certain skills down from 9 and could happily experiment with that and bring up my weapon skills at admiral. I noticed you stated I use 1 torp, the layout does state "The same on both ends" (OCD) however i agree the points I spent on admiral level torp skill could be better spent and I could sacrifice HY II but I'm afraid I will state that FAW 3 goes NOWHERE that's where I do put my foot down (it's one of my main damage boosts).
I could swap out my EPtA for EPtS but I fear they may clash (they did last time I tried it). I could experiment with 6 grades in engine performance (But it is needed to kepp the engines going at a satisfactory standard) however warp core efficiency would compensate to a degree. I could swap out HY II for Beam overload II I suppose.
That's my idea of a good compromise between what you are suggesting and my play style... so I have 1 further question: What say you?
Trust me, sci team is the worse thing you can have. You don't want -anything- interfering with your true tank-enabling ability: Tac Team. In the setup above i put engineering team because there is nothing else that could go in that slot.. and I did warn not to use it except in desperate times.
Tractor beams wont be a problem with this tank in PVE. The most effective anti-tractor beam ability is tractor repulsors which you can have by changing sci boff to transfer shield strength 1 and repulsors...and dealing with plasma fires by healing the damage with aux to sif 3.
You can only use the torpedo on target one at a time. Hence its just one really.
Consider this:
High Yield 2 quantum does approximately 30k damage to hull. It takes 30 seconds to reload the high yield and the torpedo takes about 5 seconds to reach target.
That means 30k damage in 35 seconds time.
Compare it to beam array damage:
Each beam array fires 4 beams, one per second, per 5 second weapon cycle. Each beam does low avg of 200 damage (and this is quite low a number but im using it as an easy to explain figure).
200dmg x4per cycle x 6 beam arrays= 4800 dmg in 5 seconds.
6 beam arrays firing on target for 30 seconds = 28.8k damage.
7 beam arrays (if only 1 torp) = 33.6k damage
8 beam arrays (if you load no torps) = 38.4k damage
Beam damage is = no matter if it hits hull or shields.
Remember that critical hit chance is per shot not per cycle so in 30 seconds your weapons have:
6 beams: 144 chances to crit
7 beams: 168 chances to crit
8 beams: 192 chances to crit
With the borg console, the crit chance bonus of borg-weapons and your capt accuracy skill the chance to crit is nearly 10%. That means on average in 30 seconds you MAY have a minimum of 14 crits that would increase your damage by about 8k avg in 30 seconds time.
As a cruiser you are best served keeping a broadside on target on all times hitting it with all beams. If you load a torpedo you lose 4 beam array damage worth for a second or two to lob the torpedo... which is why I suggest you use a non-boff ability using torpedo that you can just leave on autofire..a quick swing, it fires, you swing back to bear all beams on target.
Fire at Will is not a damage booster. Its a damage spreader. unlike torpedo spread, the damage fire at will does in aoe is largely ineffective but it does help the team and it does help tanks (threat control 6+) get aggro. That is why I mentioned that if you're setting up as the team tank keep the fire at will.
If not, beam overload 3 will serve you tons better. Remember the ability has a 30 second cooldown timer and you're an engineer...every 1 minute you can use EPT or Nadion Inversion or a large weapon battery to pull off two beam overloads at full power WHILE firing all your beam arrays at full power. That is very high damage for a cruiser to pull off.
And if you add atk pattern beta/delta ... the target takes an extra 20% damage from all sources for the duration.
...or you can also just try atk pattern omega 1, beam overload 2 and tac team. omega 1 will break tractor beams you dislike so much, give +def boost, +speed boost AND damage boost for yourself (not for team). Its less beam overload damage but its close to a low-end damage range overload 3. Your choice.
Your primary emergency power abilities are the shields. Aux and Wep are situational since they break the shield EPTS cycle (which you do not want to do when taking lots of damage). But..when the target is not really hitting you that hard and epts3+transfer shield 2 can handle the incoming damage you can pop the AUX or WEP EPT ability to boost your damage or the resist amount amount on the AUX.
At 8 beams firing FAW3 on a single target you're looking at a combined 640% damage boost (FAW lasts 2 cycles, 320% per cycle) in 10 seconds time.
... that is the equivalent damage boost of beam overload 1. 600%. Beam overload 3 is 850% dmg boost in 2 seconds time.
Combine 850% dmg boost in one shot followed by 7 beam arrays firing normally and you get a significant damage margin via overload. Especially if you firing it every minute using the trio-of-joy engineering abilities.
However, each type of attack does depend on your build and switching between them to see which one works best for you is silly easy. Try both and decide
Ok. Here's your first problem. You built this ship specifically for killing borg ships. BORG ships. Not regular Klingon ships, but BORG ships. You have anti-BORG weapons. Anti-BORG weapons have a chance to deal 1000 extra damage each shot, which your weapons probably do based on how many beam arrays you run. Since you are specifically set up to kill BORG, you can't honestly expect that same build to work on regular ships. Also the BORG neg'vars are a little squishier than the fleet defence ships. And you aren't supposed to be able to solo those neg'vars as a CRUISER. You are a CRUISER. Your specialty isn't damage, unlike ESCORTS. They are specifically designed to have high damage output. CRUISERS are for tanking and threat control.
Your only problem is you are expecting to be able to demolish a majorly buffed up Klingon NPC with the wrong build. You can't really expect to be able to keep up with ESCORTS damage wise, so don't try. Do what CRUISERS do and keep the enemy ships off the ESCORTS so they can focus on their job, which is major DPS.
Now if you are wondering why I capitalized all the ship class names, it's because I think you need to be reminded of what you are and what you aren't flying. CRUISERS are tanks/threat control. Their job is to TAKE damage, not give it. ESCORTS are glass cannons. They GIVE the damage, but can't really take it. So do what you do best and don't try to keep up with a class that's specifically designed to outdo you damage wise.
I'm sorry Hereticknight but I only run 4 anti-borg weapons on my cruiser because it does a little of everything including stripping shields off moist ships (player ships included) which it does quite well, until this fleet action (and only in this fleet action), I tried out another fleet action and it performed as i'm used to (in fact a little better due to the introduction of Starship armour reinforcements skill) so it has more improved tanking capability. I don't expect to do hull damage in huge amounts, I do however expect to strip shields at the same rate no matter what ship I'm firing at, be it borg, player or any other ship... when not fighting Borg negh'vars tanking and shield stripping is my job, it's the ships secondary purpose (which it does well) and the latest patch has made it better at
It's still in the Feedback section; the Feedback about SHIPS section.
Where the devs who do things with ships will see it.
it was a bit of both, it was part ship (they don't seem to account for the older ships when creating new content)
it was also about the game for the same reason (that and NPC stats seem to be WAAAY off where they should be, that or the ship classes simply aren't balanced properly)
I'm actually a fairly experienced Excelsior player, I know my ship inside out, back to front etc. (you name the way, I know my ship) and I am exceedingly hard to kill unless you have either an overpowered escort capable of dealing 3+k damage per hit for 30 or so seconds throwing my cycle off or if you have a tractor beam and my Jam sensors is on CD