I've seen quite a lot of different threads around about how to build up a good escort ship class but I've yet to find anything that could really help me, i'd like to know what other people think of my current build and any suggestions that could improve it would be helpful.
I've only recently got into the game and have only been playing for roughly 86 hours (according to steam) so I'm quite new to all the different aspect of the game ^^''
I have hit level 50, so any suggestions on equipment can be based around that
My current ship build
Ship: Blockade Escort (Obtained from the level 40 ship token)
Guns Fore: x4 Polaron Heavy duel cannons MK X (I have 1 borg one and the rest are uncommon ones)
Guns Aft: x2 Polaron beam array MK X and 1 Tricolbolt mine launcher MK X
Deflector: Graviton deflector array MK XI [ShdS] [SIF]
Impulse: Combat Impulse Engines MK X [Full] [Turn]
Shields: Remen prototype covariant shield array MK XI
Devices: Subspace Field Modulator
Engineering consoles: Tetraburnium Hull Armor Mk X, SIF Generator Mk X, Plasma Distribution Manifold Mk X
Science consoles: Power Insulator Mk X, Shield Emitter Amplifier Mk IX
Tactical consoles: Polaron Phase Modulator Mk XI x2, Polaron Phase Modulator Mk X, Universal - Subspace Jumper
Here's a list of my bridge officers skills and my current skill setup
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=BlockadeEscortmine_0
Any help or advice is welcome as i'm new to the game

I'd like for everyone to remember this is the first time I've ever played this game so please don't be insulting based only on that :P
Thanks everyone,
Steve
Comments
Specific suggestions:
You might want to use Polaron turrets instead of beam arrays--they will add their fire to your forward arc because they fire in a 360 degree arc. They will also be able to take advantage of the "Cannon Rapid Fire" and "Cannon Scatter Volley" Bridge Officer powers that you can use to boost your cannon power. Do take note however that turrets, like cannons will be unable to use Beam Fire At Will or Beam Overload.
Since you are using Polaron weapons, you might want to take advantage of the Jem'Hadar space set (deflector/engine/shield). Its two-piece bonus, "Dominion Synergy", gives a 7.5% boost to Polaron weapon damage as well as +15 to your Power Insulators rating.
Rather than the SIF Generator, you might want to add a Neutronium Hull Armor, which equally resists all energy types and resists kinetic damage.
Ditch the Shield Emitter Amplifier and go for a Field Generator instead. The Field Generator will boost your total shield capacity by 15-20% depending on mark and quality level (17.5% for the Mk XI blue).
For your Engineering BOFF setup, you might want to switch that "Reverse Shield Polarity I" for "Emergency Power to Shields II", which is an almost essential ability for any player no matter what ship they are flying. It will guarantee you a set amount of shield healing and resistance, whereas "Reverse Shield Polarity" will only heal you based on the amount that you actually get hit by enemy fire during the few seconds that it is active, which is totally useless for healing during the moments between bouts of incoming fire.
Now, as for your Captain Skill Points allocation, I see that you have nine ranks in a lot of your skills--this is only really necessary on the skills that you absolutely, positively have to max out. The last three ranks only give a combined total of +15 to a skill, compared to the +54 gained from the first three ranks and the +30 gained from the second three ranks. I would reduce the less essential skills to six ranks, and use the extra skill points to put the bottom three ranks into some of the skills that you have neglected, such as Starship Projectile Weapons (boosts your base damage for mines and torpedoes), Starship Armor Reinforcement (resists kinetic damage from torpedoes, mines, tractor beams, etc.), Scientist (boosts your core Ground Scientist abilities), or Combat Armor (improves your Ground damage resistance).
[ShdS] [SIF] are good, but for an Escort, Gravitons don't help much. Switch to a Positron Deflector until Borg/MACO.
You can get a very good Deflector dirt cheap on the exchange.
Switch to Hyper-Impulse [Spd] [Turn] until Borg/MACO.
Dirt cheap on the exchange as well.
Decent enough until MACO.
Get a Borg module (first Undine Episode mission) and put it here, move the Subspace Jumper here, a Neutronium is advised as well.
Science Consoles for Escorts&Cruisers are very straightforward since the Field Generator change: pile as many Field Gens as you can. 2 in your case.
Since you've moved the Subspace Jumper to Eng, get a 4th Phase Modulator.
Skill points are fine, strongly advise to switch Ensign Eng slots to EpTS.
One other question i do have, what is a BOFF Setup? I have heard the term being used but i still haven't got a clue what it means :P
Thanks again for the advice any more advice is welcome
Steve
"DOFF" is Duty officers. I dont know if you have been using them in your builds yet, but look up what they can do. They are very important as they can reduce cooldowns, add abilities, heal you, make you faster etc.
This is what I use for my fleet escort for Blockade. You have 2 waves of area of effect damage. Two coppies of Scatter Volley and Torpedo Spread.
Attack pattern omega to get out of tractors. Attack Pattern Beta for damage.
With two copies of EPtS and a 3 piece Borg set, you wont need to heal yourself any extra.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=Escortmin1_0
All you have to do is:
1) Start firing at the ships
2) Most ships will switch their target to you. Identify the two enemy ships that are still attacking the Transport and shoot at them.
3) When the Transport's rear shield facing gets low, give it Tactical Team followed by Transfer Shield Strength.
4) Keep healing the Transport with Aux to Sif, Trasfer Shields
5) When the two ships that were targeting the Transport are destroyed, hit Evasive Maneuvers and get out of there, look for another Transport.
Its really that simple. Any Escort can solo a Transport. This build should give you enough firepower to kill the two ships in time.
The skillpoint allocation is reitterating what lilchibiclari said about having a lot of "9s"
I tried to leave your original skillpoint allocation intact, and reduced a lot of 9s to 6s. On the lower end, its ok to have 9s because they are much cheaper.
You may not want to respec right now since it does cost Zen.
And thanks for all the tips I'll be sure to revise my skill points and my bridge officer skills ^^
Steve
3x Purple Conn officers will bring your Evasives down to 15 seconds
3x Shield Distribution Officers will make you be able to have a pseudo RSP every minute.
Its based on a proc, but with 3 chances, you usually get a decent amount of free heals, if not all your shields.
You are a science officer, so you will want to spec into science skills like graviton generators, flow capacitors, Particle generators, Decompiler etc.
Science is a hard one to allocate skillpoints to because there is so much to spend in. Tacticals have the choice of Weapon specializations, and engineers just spend in X-Performance skills. Just make sure you have a solid BOFF build before respecing. Some skills work, some dont.
Also, yet another agreement for as was said above about carrying two Emergency To Shields 1 so you can have one up all the time. That eng ensign makes this power combination possible and is the main reason why the Patrol Escort is so much more popular than the Advanced Escort, as the dual EPTS ups survivability tremendously.
Looks fine to me.
I'd personally replace all three with polaron turrets to maximise forward firepower.
If/when you get a chance I suggest you go for a Borg deflector, Borg engine and MACO shield.
The MACO shield is very good (much better then the Borg shield) and 2-pieces of the Borg set has a passive which when procs heals your hull. If you add the Borg console to that, the 3-piece Borg set will also have a passive which when procced will heal your shields. In fact I'd recommend you also get the borg console (unlike the rest of the Borg set you get it from the Borg/Undine mission "Assimilation").
Fine.
I'd dump the plasma distribution manifold. Power boost consoles are pretty much worthless at the moment I'm afraid. Replace it with a neutronium alloy.
When you can dump both and replace them with 2x field generators. Together they will boost your maximum shield capacity by 36%
I'd recommend replacing the jumper console with another polaron console. If you really want to use it, stick it in an engineer console slot.
Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
I'm sure now with all this new information i can make my ship a hell of a lot better :P
I also like the diversity on some of the suggestion that others has posted, there are a lot of similar tech that everyone has mention but i can see the main difference with some of the setups, i.e some are aimed more towards dps and others towards surviving fights.
Again thank everyone I'll be sure to put all the advice to good use, any more advice is welcome
Steve
Edit: Some one mentioned that i should switch my combat engines to hyper impulse engines I generally have full power to weapons and my engine power settles at 47/25 would that still work well with hyper impulse engines?
Edit 2: I've taken the advice and brought myself x3 Polaron turrets MK XI [Dmg] and my damage output has increase greatly I've moved my Subspace jumped and brought another Polaron module MK XI and removed my Plasma Distribution Manifold Mk X I tried looking for some Field Generators but the only ones on the exchange where going for 1million :P And i don't have that kind of money atm ^^'' I'm holding off on upgrading my weapons to MK XII Until i do a few more STF missions and get some of their equipment
So far so good on all the advice =D
I've managed to get my hands on the entire borg set now and have replaced my Subspace jumper with the borg mod, I've also got a hold of the MACO Deflector and Shield (But only at MK XI) Would it still be worth switching out the borg shield for the MACO one? I've also replaced all my Polaron Phase Modulator to MK XI and a few other consoles i can't remember x)
Also what's the standing on having x4 Antiproton Duel heavy cannons MK XII As forward firing guns? I've so far got a hold of 2 (Borg variant) Only problem i can see with them is getting the EC for x4 antiproton mag regulators MK XII as they are going for roughly 37mill in the exchange and i wanted to know if there was any easier way to obtain them (i.e Do they have higher drop rates in certain sectors or can you only get them from elite STF missions?)
Thanks any advice would be appreciated
Steve.
Absolutely. The MACO Mk. XI shield is a far, far better choice than the Borg shield for an Escort.
AP is great for shredding Borg.
You can get Mag Regulators as drops from Ker'rat (a long as you go in and don't jump instances), and well as random drops from Elite STFs. Honestly, though, don't sweat the Mk XII gear (any of it), it's nice to have, but by no means necessary or required (remember, Mk XII Blue is Mk XI purple, numbers wise, with one less mod). Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your badass escort. Pickup new gear/items as you go, but don't worry about grinding hard for 'em.
And yeah I've noticed between some of the blue and purple gear there isn't much difference :P But i'll just remember to not grind to hard for anything because then the game can become boring x) And thanks for letting me know about the drops too =D
Steve
Most welcome. It just makes me a bit sad when I see people all but kill themselves to get the absolute best gear in the game, only for them to realize they're not doing anything now they couldn't do before with virtually the same amount of effort on their part.