Best possible SCI buff/debuff build?

exsteele

So, I have a conundrum. In most games, I generally prefer playing support: Healing, buffs, debuffs, etc. Putting aside that in this game, my DPS is TRIBBLE and debuffs don't seem to have any meaningful effect, I still like flying SCI ships anyway. I've only been playing the game for a couple months, and it's taken a while to figure out that my current BOff powers and personal abilities weren't chosen very wisely (All offense/defense, and YAY full driver coil! *facepalm*). My build choices for now helped me get through the solo content, but I'm having a hard time making meaningful contributions in group content, and would like to amend that.

My current ship is the Reconnaissance Science vessel. It has LT and Ens Tac stations, a LT Eng, and a Commander and Lt-Com Sci stations. I've been mulling over getting one of the fleet science vessels (Either Recon, Nebula, or Intrepid class), but I'm having a hard time figuring out if I really want to trade what little offensive power I have for more science abilities, or if I should spend all my effort at getting an upgrade that simply consists of a few more HP and an extra Eng console slot. What do you guys think?

Also, what Sci abilities should I look at getting? Right now, my Commander BOff has Jam Sensors, Feedback Pulse, Scramble Sensors, and Viral Matrix. My LT Comm has Hazard Emitters, Sci team 2, and Photonic Officer. These abilities are great in solo play, but don't do a whole lot of good in group play/Fleet events/STFs. The heals don't seem to heal enough, the sci/eng team powers force a cool down on each other, and the debuffs, like I said, don't seem to have any meaningful effect. On a related note, my Engineer has Eng Team and Remodulate Shields (or whatever the power is that absorbs 1% of damage >_>), so I'd probably like to switch that up, too.

In addition to that, depending on what powers I end up with, how should I respec my captain? I obviously need to NOT put points in Driver Coil (at least not up to max), but as you know, all the different SCI abilities take their modifiers from different skills and... yeah. In other words, if you tell me to swap out powers A, B, and C and get powers X, Y, and Z, let me know what skills I need to train up to make the best use of those powers.

Thanks in advance, and sorry of that was long-winded

cmdrskyfaller

There isn't any. Science abilities have been nerfed into useless junk. The only things that work are the heals escorts can use.

jadensecura

Sadly, cmdrskyfaller is pretty much right, unless it's even worse (because those heals aren't really that great either).

At the moment the one fairly good offensive sci power is Gravity Well, which can do a very good job of slowing down the groups of advancing ships so frequently encountered in STFs. Unfortunately you can only really use one of those (it has a 60 second CD, additional copies have 40 seconds), so you'll need other things. Energy Siphon is getting popular these days, it's an ok debuff (about as good as any left for sci) and pretty decent self-buff. Photonic Shockwave would be a pretty good power if it weren't so badly bugged, as it is it basically does nothing. Tyken's Rift can sort of be ok, the power drain is negligible, but it will lock down HY Plasma torps. Both Charged Particle Burst and Tachyon Beam have negligible effects, CPB was decent until S7 but it's worthless now. Viral Matrix is good for PvP, but it's not worthwhile for PvE. Tractor Beam Repulsors is sort of good, but it's so situational and has to be used so carefully that it's not really worth running. Tractor Beam is just pointless, there are never less than 2 targets that need to be slowed up in any STF.

So that's the rundown of all offensive sci powers. Your best bet is probably some combination of Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift, and Energy Siphon. The power draining of Energy Siphon is boosted by Flow Capacitors skill (Tyken's should be boosted as well, but I've heard that it isn't), the damage dealing of both Tyken's and Grav Well are boosted by Particle Generators skill, and the radius of GW is boosted by Graviton Generators skill.

As far as a ship choice, Fleet Recon Science is the best of the fleet sci ships (unless you want to be snarky and say that Fleet Advanced Escort is, since it can use GW and then do other stuff for everything else), but if you really want a good sci ship go for either the Vesta or the Temporal Sci ship, and I would argue that the Vesta is the better of the two thanks to its Aux DHCs, which allow for major energy weapon damage and max Aux power at the same time.

EDIT: Just realized I should have included links to the two resources I used in writing this, http://home.comcast.net/~amicus/Skill%20Point%20Effects.htm for all effects of skills on most abilities they affect and http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/ to see all abilities and skills and plan out a build. My own Aventine build is on the build share page there as Secura04, but I'm thinking of changing it up now that PSW has acquired another bug and putting in a second Siphon (not breaking tractor beams from large ships was bad, but now that damage doesn't seem to be scaling with Aux power...).

snoggymack22

jadensecura wrote: »

At the moment ...

+1 to the advice given in this post above.

exsteele

Yeah, I had figured on gravity well, I see it used a lot. Thanks for the tips