Rate my Sci Vessel

bertiewooster

Hi all,

I've done a lot of playing with how to build a good sci vessel and I think I finally hit on something that works. I've gotten it to the point where I can play through an STF without too many major "oh TRIBBLE" moments, so I think it's finally getting there. Here's my build:

Mirror Recon Sci
Fore:
2x phaser beams [acc] Mk XI, 1x Plasma Torp Mk XII [dmg]
Aft:
3x phaser beams [dmg]

Shields: Paratrinic Shield Array
Deflector: Breen
Engines: MACO
(I'm still working on getting borg gear, the reputation system set me back a bit)

Devices: Shield battery, Engine Battery, Subspace Field Modulator

Sci Consoles:
3x Shield Emitter Amplifier Mk XI (maybe excessive but I got them for a good deal :P), 1x Field Generator Mk X


Tac Consoles: 3x Phaser Relay Mk XI

Eng Consoles: At the moment I can't quite remember, I think it's 1x Field Emitter and 1 Monotanium Armor, both Mk XI

Tac Boff skills: BO, BFAW, and THY.
Eng: ES and EPtS
Sci: GW, TB, Tachyon Beam, HE, TSS1, TSS2

The goal is to make the shields super thick and provide healing support within the game. The tractor beam and gravity well help with crowd control as well. With a shield strength about almost 10,000 with power to shields, this ship can definitely take some heavy hits. Once the shields are down, though, it melts pretty quickly, as is typical of science ships. The Tac boff skills are set up to provide spike damage when necessary. So far it works pretty well--I can hit tachyon beam to wear down the shields, hit BO to take a chunk out of what's remaining, and then follow up with a heavy plasma torpedo. I've found that this works pretty well against the borg BoPs, and I've been able to take them down faster than some cruisers can (of course not escorts though, since they dominate with burst damage). The ship isn't a big damage dealer, but most of the time it doesn't need to be, which is why I set it up for spike damage vs. constant damage. In ideal situations I stay near a group and provide heals for them, and really only use the weapons for self defense or to take down a node. Healing works quite well, and I've noticed that when I hit all of them at once on someone (HE, TSS, and ES, running power to aux) they get a pretty big boost in shields/hull. I've been able to keep people alive who were just about through after getting caught in a borg tractor beam and had used up all their heals. All that being said, this ship thrives in a support role. If I get in a situation where I'm out on my own, things start to get kinda hairy. Power distribution is a problem too, since there's simply not enough to go around sometimes. I need to get an EPS console I think since I'm switching power modes a lot on this thing. Any thoughts on how I could improve this? My goal is to get this good enough to go on elite runs with it, which it is definitely not ready for at the moment.

alexhurlbut

Here's another thought for you, having a high power level in your Shield Power boost the damage reduction for your shielding. you can get good high power levels for two of your four systems (Shield and Aux) if you manage your skills and adjust the levels in the power setting. You don't need a high weapon power level (only influence your energy weaponry) if you focus on your healing support and crowd control and the engine power level shouldn't hamper your maneuverability too much if you pick the right impulse engines.

trahl

Why the Mirror version?

What you've built is a very balanced but generic science vessel. Competent for sure but if you work with something specifically, you'll notice more strength in DPS and HP.

With shields, you could get better results if you stop trying to balance regen and capacity. With paratrinics, your base regen is such TRIBBLE and your capacity is so large that it can be hard to have your regen abilities meet your needs. So choose one.
Especially considering regen skills are percentage based and your regen consoles are further percentage based, I'd recommend either switching to a more middle of the road shield (MACO is good for this sort of thing) or dedicate more space for capacity increasing consoles.
Think a 20% increase in capacity vs 20% increase in regen. In paratrinic shields, +20% regen is still pretty minimal.

Also just having monotanium alloy won't protect you from energy weapons, which are pretty well used. If you can't fit another form of hull plating I'd recommend finding some Neutronium. That way you'll have a little something for everything.

bertiewooster

Mirror version mainly because it was easy to get and I like the stats of the DSSV but I like the RSV console/boff layout (I had an RSV prior to this ship). That and I like the looks of the DSSV way more than the RSV.

The shields are a stopgap until I get something better. Originally I had jem shields, but those really didn't work very well. I've got MACO shields on my other character and they work great so my goal is to work my way up to those. I'm going to do some more shopping around for shields. As far as regen goes, I really like the borg shields for that, but again that's a matter of grinding away until I can get them. Since I've got the extra 30% shield bonus I think getting better regenerating shields would suit me better.

I just checked and it's actually Diburnium hull plating Mk XI very rare. That doesn't help me much in STFs, which are all plasma, though. I'm going to switch it for a neutronium Mk X uncommon that I've got in my inventory. It's lower mark/rarity but like you said, it's better protection all around.

I also forgot about the assimilated module. Right now I've got that in my third tac slot (not sure why...since tac is hurting the most). I'm going to switch that out for another phaser relay and put it in a sci slot since I've got 4 of them. I've got a very rare anibiplasma envelope console in my inventory that I could use, but I feel like boosting phaser damage would be more useful since I'm already dealing plenty of damage from my torp launcher.

wolfpack12c

alexhurlbut wrote: »

Here's another thought for you, having a high power level in your Shield Power boost the damage reduction for your shielding. you can get good high power levels for two of your four systems (Shield and Aux) if you manage your skills and adjust the levels in the power setting. You don't need a high weapon power level (only influence your energy weaponry) if you focus on your healing support and crowd control and the engine power level shouldn't hamper your maneuverability too much if you pick the right impulse engines.

Shield power level dose nothing for resistance all it dose is increase you shield inate heal rate if anything get you eng to be above 50 if your using hyper engines that way you get more of a boost and you have a higher defence rating. A good idea is to run an aux to bat with the tech doff and an emergency to shield with its doff that way you can have all power lvls at a high cap and be able to do everything also try for the full Maco set that way you get it's ablitys the 2 pice is great for energy lvls and the 3 pice is a great shut out for the BC's in cure. If not that go for full Borg for the multi heals. Until the I recommend the agies set it gives you a +10% to defence which is huge and boat all healing systems so it will keep you alive. When i run my wells for STF's I play a cc\heal role and I can go a game without a death. Also for you sci slots get all shield cap boosters my ship in full mk12 VR has 36K shields.

alexhurlbut

wolfpack12c wrote: »

Shield power level dose nothing for resistance all it dose is increase you shield inate heal rate if anything get you eng to be above 50 if your using hyper engines that way you get more of a boost and you have a higher defence rating. A good idea is to run an aux to bat with the tech doff and an emergency to shield with its doff that way you can have all power lvls at a high cap and be able to do everything also try for the full Maco set that way you get it's ablitys the 2 pice is great for energy lvls and the 3 pice is a great shut out for the BC's in cure. If not that go for full Borg for the multi heals. Until the I recommend the agies set it gives you a +10% to defence which is huge and boat all healing systems so it will keep you alive. When i run my wells for STF's I play a cc\heal role and I can go a game without a death. Also for you sci slots get all shield cap boosters my ship in full mk12 VR has 36K shields.

"A recent change is that shields also have a certain amount of damage resistance vs damage to the shields. This reduces the amount of damage done to the shield itself (i.e it's Capacity as discussed above). This shield damage resistance does not reduce the amount of damage done to the hull. The amount of damage resistance is directly proportional to the Shield Power Level. The formula as stated by the devs is: Power level / 357.12. So damage resistance is a maximum of 35% at level 125."

From Beginners Guide to Ship's Power 4.0
This Post

trahl

I think that was supposed to help balance out how useless regen can be in spike damage situations because it only matters to people with extremely high shield power.

alexhurlbut

trahl wrote: »

I think that was supposed to help balance out how useless regen can be in spike damage situations because it only matters to people with extremely high shield power.

You can still get 125 shield power for specific situations that only require you to have your shield power level at 50 beforehand and having a shield battery on hand to boost it to 125 temporarily for maximum innate shield damage resistance. So this is still useful for Oh TRIBBLE! situations.