Despite a rather
negative experience, I have invested the resources to get a Fleet Corsair Flight Deck Cruiser ("Corsair"). It's a
rather pretty ship.
I'm curious what thoughts experienced players have as far as configuration of this ship. This is purely for PVE, and please don't say "it doesn't matter". :rolleyes: I usually find myself in a support kind of role, but I also believe every individual ship needs to be able to put out some useful damage by itself.
My initial thought goes something like this;
Foreward guns=
Dual beam
Dual beam
Beam array
Photon torpedo
Rear guns=
Beam array
Turret
Turret
Turret
Hangar=
To'duj fighters
BOFFs=
Tactical team, AttackP Beta1
EPTW1, Engineer team 2, EPTS3, Aux2SIF3
EPTW1
HE1, Tractor2, TSS3
Polarize1, Tractor2
DOFFs=
Projectile officer * 3 (chance to instantly reload torpedo)
Tractor beam officer (shield drain on enemies caught in tractor)
Maintenance engineer (engineering team cooldown reduced)
With a general strategy of latching onto a single target and pummeling into the dirt while handing out heals in larger encounters. I'm using KHG deflector and engine for the +torpedo damage and aux power, the Adapted KHG shield for the Resilience and the free power, as well as the Plasmonic Leech. Power levels in general for this ship are very high.
I'd like to stress that this is my first experimental build on a new ship unlike anything I've flown before (half cruiser, half science ship, half carrier) so there will be room for improvement.
I was also kind of thinking about replacing the tractor beams with two copies of Energy Siphon 1, which would push my power levels even further past redline. If I can nail my weapon power level to the ceiling, maybe I could replace a front beam with a second torpedo launcher to gain a bunch of photon DPS without sacrificing too much shield stripping ability?
Anyway. Please discuss.
Comments
Other than that, my own two cents and min/max logic says you should go all the way with a particular loadout instead of trying to cover all your bases. In example, if you're using your db's and torps, then that ream beam is doing nothing. Likewise, if that rear beam is being used, then your DB's and torps aren't. If you expect to broadside then you should probably run 6-7 arrays instead.
With that in mind, I would say this:
front: 3x single cannons and a torp
rear: 4x turrets or 3 turrets and a mine(probably chroniton or tricobalt)
boffs:
tt1, cannon or torp skill of our choice. if you don't mind swinging your ship about to present your strongest shield facing then you can forgo the tac team altogether and get by with manual rebalancing
eptw 1, aux2batt or aux2ID or RSP, epts 3, whatever
eng team 1
tss1, he2, grav well 1
ph1, tss2 OR tss1, tbr2
Basically my opinion for group play is to group everything together so the escorts and you can blast the TRIBBLE out of it. Grav well does this.
For doffs, I would use techs if you go with the aux2batt route, if you don't then use the ones that reduce cooldown for emergency power abilities and a warp core engineer. the rest is up to you.
Rrezeth, Gorn Tactical, primary alt
Nari, Orion Science, secondary alt
For PVP I've heard great things about the Elite Scorpians, plasma turrets, plasma dual cannons, plasma torpedoes, and torp high yield 1. Kind of expensive though.
Eng Emerency power to weaponsx2
Directed Energy Modulation
Emergency Power to Shield III
Reverse Shield Polarity II
Tac
Tac Team
Cannon Rapid Fire
Science
Mask Energy Signature
Hazard Emitter
Tractor Beam 2
Feedback Pulse
Photonic Officer 2
Weapons:
Fore: 4 Polaron Single Cannons
Rear: 2 Polaron Turrets, 2 Quantum Mines.
Hangar: (primary) Fleet Orion Slavers or Elite Orion Interceptors or Elite Scorpians.
Engine, Shields, and Deflector: Jem'hadar Dominion Set.
Tactical Consoles: 2 Polaron Phase Modulators
Enigeering Consoles: 3 Neutronuim Armours, 1 RCS Accelator
Science Consoles: 4 Shield Generators
Captain: Tac Male Orion
Devices: Consumable Scorpians, Heavy Turrets, Aux Batteries, Holoemitter Jem'hadar Ship.
Doffs:
Flight Deck Officersx2: Attack
Photonic Science Specialistsx3
I love both the Orions and the Dominion and this way its like a Hybred, Orion Ship and crew and Dominion gear and the ability to disguise as a Jem'hadar ship. I even have an Alien tac officer with Vorta Ears, but purple skin. She's an Orion Syndicate experiment using Vorta Cloning tech with unique genetic enhancements to create thier own unique Vorta Slaves.
I think I'll call it the IKS Inanna, I know Inanna was a Summerian Earth Goddess, but if in the Star Trek Universe if she was a Being like Apollo she could be well known on multiple worlds. A Goddess of War and Lust who could drink you under the table, and who may actually belong to an Alien Species, sounds perfect for an Orion ship name
Now I just have to gain rank and join one of the larger Fleets and constribute stuff.
I use all fleet plasma weapons. Two dual beam, one beam array, and Omega torpedo in front. I use 3 beam arrays and Romulan plasma torpedo in the back. In some STFs I move both torpedoes up front. If I plan on flying in the face of the enemy, the Romulan torpedoes to aft, so I won't splash plasma all over my ship.
I also have the usual suspects such as polarize hull, rotate shield polarity, emergency power to shields, and so forth.
I run the Corsair on a science officer. It is a most satisfying ship. I have a couple of ships that I like as much, but none better.
Member since December 2009
I didn't realize that that plasma could splash and damage your ship. I'm really going to go with Quantum Mines then.
I read on sto wiki that there is a Unique doff flight officer that has a 30 percent chance to add two extra shuttles to your boarding parties, just an idea looking at the focus on boarding party that you have.
1.) Grabbed the Adapted MACO shield. So now I have that plus the KHG engine and deflector. If I am fully engaged, my power levels are obscene... we're talking, I'm actually spending 25 power on Aux but the effective level bounces around 90-93. And the ship flies like a dream (for its class) with this much engine power to play with. Excellent stuff!
2.) Hangar bay changed to Elite Scorpions once I ground out the project. These things were good for almost 2000 DPS all by themselves, in their shakedown mission. And between the plasma turret and the dual plasma cannons, they're not completely useless on shields either.
(Though: They CAN damage you with their heavy plas torps! Be aware of your proximity to target!)
3.) Weaponry changed to:
fore=
Hargh'peng
2 beam arrays
1 turret
rear=
3 beam arrays
1 turret
There is a reason. Anybody who has tried broadsiding knows that the power drain on arrays is obscene, due in large part to their extended firing animation. So, I wanted to try and break up the firing patterns to try and even out weapon power levels and it seems to be working.
Stripped off the photon and projectile officers since, as somebody pointed out, my ship was having a bit of an identity crisis about whether it wanted to be pointing at the target or not. The Hargh'peng is a pretty good torpedo with a longish reload time, and seems a good fit for a ship with this level of agility and general desire to be broadside to the target.
4.) After gathering more combat experience with the dual tractor beams, I definitely like having them. Mainly because they let me lock down the enemy and get my broadside right into that sweet <2km range where the damage is most significant. Forget long range bombardment, this configuration is all about grappling hooks and fighting hand to hand over the railing! Also the shield draining starts to be pretty significant (-157 to all shields * 10 "pulses" and there's only 5 seconds of down time between each tractor attack. It's like having a short range 360-degree tachyon beam)
Future experiments...
* Breen cluster torpedo on front? Not a fan of the super slow reload, but it does pack a pretty good whallop.
* Gravity well on LTC science with gravimetric doff for even more superior positioning?
* Energy siphon with deflector doffs shaving the cooldown for better up time? Just how much power CAN we ram into the EPS grid before it melts??
This problem is only for high yield plasma torpedoes, or the Romulan Hyper plasma torpedoes. You will also take damage when you're too close to your tricobalt blast. Omega plasma torpedoes and normal plasma torpedoes do not do area of effect damage when not high yield.
The Hyper and high yield plasma torpedoes and Romulan Hyper plasma torpedoes are awesome in the enemy's face as you are flying away.
Member since December 2009
.
Also, I'm using dual beams on the front, buffed this thing has a turn rate of over 16.5, more then enough to use them. I'm going to do the Omega torpedo once I get around to it.
Tactical:
Tac Team , Attack Pattern Beta
Engineering:
Emergency to shields 1, Reverse Polarity, Emergency to structural, Aceton Beam
Emergancy to sheilds 1
Science:
Polarize Hull, Hazard 2, Gravity well 1
Hazard 1, Tykens Rift 1
I'd much rather have the crowd control arability in infected then fighters when the spheres are coming at the transformer because a generator was destroyed early. That seems to happen every other game.
Fore: Rommy Beam, 3x Plasma BA
Rear: 3x Plasma BA + Kinetic
Abilities not sure yet, likely a mix of gravity well, standard healing, dem, apb you know standard STF stuff.
Not that I've ever noticed
Rrezeth, Gorn Tactical, primary alt
Nari, Orion Science, secondary alt
I'll try the drones, but I'm sticking with the Advanced Slavers, at least until I get Fleet Slavers.
Also my slavers appear to be paying for themselves already, I went from having 1 contraband to 14 already.
I also like the blueish explosions of the Quantum mines from my advanced slavers.
I also need to get some new equiptment for my weapons and consoles for my Corsair.
Thing is, the basic Corsair is a 2 parts cruiser and 1 part carrier while the Fleet Corsair is 1 part cruiser, 1 part science, and 1 part carrier. So I was looking to start discussion on how to best use its unusual layout.
Comparing the Retrofit Corsair with the Fleet Corsair, the Retrofit has 7 engineering power and only 3 sci powers while the Fleet has has 5 Engineering powers and 5 science powers. Add the science console.
Aux is more important to the Fleet Corsair, high Aux drops the fighter relaunch cooldowns and powers many of the extra sci powers that the Fleet Corsair gets.
So what ways are thier to boost your minium AUX power levels?
Oh side note I think I know what skill influences how much your Orion Slavers steal, for those that want to steal more contraband.
Flow Capacitors is listed as a skill that buffs them, but Flow Capacitors buffs Shield and Energy Drain powers, which the Slavers don't have. What they do have is a loot drain, aka EC, Commodities, Contraband, Crew capture. So my guess is the Flow Capacitors effects the raiding ability of the Slavers.
I have flow capacitors maxed, even though I don't have energy drain or shield drain powers because sto wiki said it was a buff skill for Slavers and I netted Contraband on my first mission (the one where you end up attacking Utopia at Mars). Could be wrong, but it makes sense.