Odyssey Build - Engineer Captain

kusapark

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=kusaparkengineerbuild_0

My engineer is closing on 50 and currently working on figuring out his end game build. Yes I could probably do better on another ship but been only flying cruisers and I like the look (i'm weird I know.

I'd love a good critique on the build I'm going to working towards in the link above. All advice good or bad is welcome. Looking for a tank build. I'm sure there's better ways to improve.

snoggymack22

I take it you're equipping the consoles merely for the set bonus? With your weapons layout (6 beam arrays) you don't really need the saucer separation at all. Your damage isn't affected by more turning since beam arrays broad side. In any case, I'd move the tactical console up to science, drop a field generator for it, and add in another antiproton mag regulator. The whole point of running the tactical version was to get more firepower after all. Which means you should utilize the tactical console space for boosts to your antiproton beams.

Or ditch all the special consoles altogether.

kusapark

Mainly would keep the chevon separation just for that scenario if I need to turn as much as possible just in case. Or just lower my skill points in Impulse engines and switch it to engine power for better turn rate?

And yes keeping all 3 consoles for the set bonus with the tachyon one to improve turn rate but maybe drop that one as another option.

sgtstarfall

Hmm...curious. Do you know the Aux2Bat Technician cruiser build? It would free up a lot of your double stacked abilities, such as Tactical Team, EPtS, and Beam:FAW. It would be like running 2 copies of EPtS3 or any other high end Boff skills, negating the need to double stack any skill entirely.

Also, I too would move the Aquarius Escort Console in place of the Field Generator. Adding another antiproton mag regulator would help your much needed DPS output (esp. since you're an engineer). If you're confident enough, you could also run without the neutronium alloys, since the idea is to never let the shields go down. Put the two universal consoles into the engineering slots and then add a Shield Emitter console to bump up the effectiveness of TSS and EPtS.

Other than that, it's a decent set-up

kusapark

Auxiliary to Battery that's the one that dumps all your auxiliary power into the other power systems right with the Technician doffs that reduce cool downs? But isn't it a random chance for the cool down reduction?

stardestroyer001

For a guy who is just learning how to fly a cruiser in end-game, I don't recommend the Aux2Bat layout just yet. Let him get used to regular cruiser flying.

And in regards to the person above me, it's not random chance percentage. It's dependent on the Technician doff type - if the Technician doff is purple, it's 10% off Boff cooldowns all the time.

millimidget

stardestroyer001 wrote: »

And in regards to the person above me, it's not random chance percentage. It's dependent on the Technician doff type - if the Technician doff is purple, it's 10% off Boff cooldowns all the time.

I don't see how 30% cooldown reduction can be compared to the 50% reduction of running two copies; can technicians be stacked beyond just the three?

stardestroyer001

millimidget wrote: »

I don't see how 30% cooldown reduction can be compared to the 50% reduction of running two copies; can technicians be stacked beyond just the three?

You cannot equip more than three purple Technicians (cannot increase past 30% cooldown reduction on one Aux2Bat), if that's what you are asking.

sohtoh

millimidget wrote: »

I don't see how 30% cooldown reduction can be compared to the 50% reduction of running two copies; can technicians be stacked beyond just the three?

If you are using only using one Auxiliary to Battery, the cooldown reduction is applied again 15 seconds later. If you are using two, then it can be applied every 10 seconds.

melisande77

Another option is getting Conn Officer doffs. It is about the same price wise, and lets you run only one copy of TT. There is a blue Energy Weapons doff that also will reduce the CD on FAW by 7.5 seconds. Again pretty decent. I would suggest looking into those, and hopefully they are within your price range EC wise.

Another thing I would do is look at the Dragon build, which is a favorite of mine. Basically running four EPtX skills.

I use the above doffs along with a Warp Core Engineer, who has a chance to give you 25 bonus power for 8~ seconds after an EPtX skill.

For reference sake here is my own Ody.

Lt Com uni: TT1, ATB1, FAW3

Ensign Uni: EPtW1

Lt. Tac: TS1, ATB1

Com Engi: EPtW1, EPtS2, EPtS3, AtSIF3

Lt. Sci: HE1, TSS2

Console wise, you never want to put universals in your tactical slots, ever. I balance mine between Engi and Sci, though with the Three set, along with the Borg and Zero Point, I only have room for one Field Generator and Neutronium. I do not really notice a problem surviving however.

sgtstarfall

millimidget wrote: »

I don't see how 30% cooldown reduction can be compared to the 50% reduction of running two copies; can technicians be stacked beyond just the three?

stardestroyer001 wrote: »

You cannot equip more than three purple Technicians (cannot increase past 30% cooldown reduction on one Aux2Bat), if that's what you are asking.

Great observations. Here's my rebuttal:

Before I begin, I also someone asking if the CD reduction was by chance. It is NOT by chance, as it applies the CD reduction every time Aux2Bat is applied, unless game forbids (you can tell by whether your CD shading on your toolbar is rotating or a bar going down.)

No, you cannot stack more than 3 Technicians, but you CAN have 2 copies of Aux2Bat which does stack (a maximum of 60% cooldown). Because the 2nd copy is also affected by the CD reduction, you can also run the 2nd Aux2Bat every 10 seconds.

Edit: I read an earlier post that also says you can have one copy of Aux2Bat that runs every 15 seconds. I'm not sure how this can be, since the base CD is 40 seconds. With that in mind, you apply the 30% reduction and get it down to about 26 seconds. I'll have to double check that anyhow.

Other than that, here's a sample build: http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=auxiliarybatteryboat_0

kusapark

I'm loving the constructive review and suggestions, it's a great help!

sgtstarfall

Speaking of which, here's my sample version of an Aux Tactical Odyssey build: http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=odysseyauxbuild_0

There's really only 2 things to remember on this build:

1. you'll need at least 3 rare technician doffs for this to work effectively (52% CD reduction with 2 Aux2Bats)
2. The 2 copies of Aux2Bat is the core of this build. Every other skill, you can swap and play around with.

On a side note, I always wanted to swap out Extend Shields 3 for Boarding Party 3...spamming constant disables is always fun... :rolleyes:
Of course you'll probably need a Nurse doff to keep your redshirts count high though :P

vesolc

Whats with you people and repulsors ?

johnsteward

I get the idea behind aux2bat but in practice i dont see it working so great.
You're using 2 skills aux 2 bat, and you need epta for when you want to use your he. Your engi team conflicts wirh your tt. You cant use tss which is a great shield heal and when dou need heals and use epta u cant use epts so thats what i consider bad as well.
In the end you have a lot of conflicts in this build and additional skill requirements just to get some cd reduction which you wouldnt need if you would just take the skills you need constantly twice like faw or something. And when you dont ruin your aux power levels he and tss are much more usefull than a single et even if its cd reduced by aux2bat/technicians.

spork87

vesolc wrote: »

Whats with you people and repulsors ?

when you find out let me know,

johnsteward

Its fun and used properly quite usefull in a lot of places like azure nebula or nws or against probes or to push stuff away from the kang asf

sgtstarfall

vesolc wrote: »

Whats with you people and repulsors ?

It's a small damage skill that I use in PvP and PvE that goes through all shields. Because of the reduced Aux power from consistent usage of Aux2Bat, I can keep targets in range while still doing damage with it. Other than that, it's also an fail-safe skill that I keep around just in case someone screws up a STF.

Like I said, it's an example build. Swap it out with w/e you want.

sgtstarfall

johnsteward wrote: »

I get the idea behind aux2bat but in practice i dont see it working so great.
You're using 2 skills aux 2 bat, and you need epta for when you want to use your he. Your engi team conflicts wirh your tt. You cant use tss which is a great shield heal and when dou need heals and use epta u cant use epts so thats what i consider bad as well.
In the end you have a lot of conflicts in this build and additional skill requirements just to get some cd reduction which you wouldnt need if you would just take the skills you need constantly twice like faw or something. And when you dont ruin your aux power levels he and tss are much more usefull than a single et even if its cd reduced by aux2bat/technicians.

Great things that you have pointed out there! Let me explain one part at a time:

1. Hazard Emitters Issue: HE is not meant for healing. It is only used as a counter to Borg shield neutralizers and plasma burns. Therefore, it's healing/small hull buff counterpart is just a bonus side-effect in this build.

2. The Need for EPtA: The same could be said for EPtA. They're only needed when up against a power draining opponent to continue the flow of Aux power. Other than that, it's simply a nice boost that you can fit in between EPtS cooldowns. (15 seconds shared)

3. Engineering Team Justification: Because of the nature of this build, we can't rely on any previously mentioned healing abilities due to low Aux power (HE and Aux2SIF). Therefore, I put in Engineering Team. Yes, it does "conflict" with Tact Team...but this is a really long explanation:

Engineering team is completely situational and in a short fight, you should never have to use them. Let's take running 2 tact teams for example. The cooldown to use it again is 15 seconds, regardless. However, in this build, because we have both TT and ET, you can run them side by side OR switch over to only TT or only ET every 15 seconds. While the switch between ET and TT is a hard 15 seconds, if you consistently use TT for example, it's much faster than 15 seconds (which is where I understand you get the de-sync of skills). However, in this build you have a choice of whether to go TT again or ET, versus no choice at all.

ET is also a direct counter to all subsystem disables, such as Viral Matrix, and also grants you some pretty fast hull heals if you're chaining ET back to back.

Having spent several hours thinking about what to put as my Ensign Boff abilities, it wasn't an easy choice to make there. My final justification for both ET and EPtA is that there really isn't any other good Boff abilities to put in at the Ensign level, except for maybe EPtW. Cruisers don't really need EPtEngines, since most people want to shield tank in them. The problem is that there aren't any other versatile skills you can put in there without stepping on your toes somehow.

Addition: You also have to remember that EPtS1 here is also useless because with the Aux2Bat you already have "2 copies" of EPtS3

4. This is an advanced build that requires proper timing and captains to actively choose skills to put out with proper boff ability synergy. If you hate choices and want to just flow with boff synergy, double stacking abilities is the way to go. You limit yourself to an exact pattern that work decently well, but has little versatility. The "conflicts" you see are merely extra choices that weren't there previously. (In no scenario can you put out both EPtS and EPtA at the same time, am I right?)

5. With all that in mind, if you're still convinced that ET sucks and EPtA is unnecessary, here's a swap that can change things a bit - Remove EPtS3 from this build and replace it with something like RSP2 or DEM. Drop ET for EPtS1. Then drop EPtA for EPtW or something. That build works too with a 15 second swap off between EPtS and EPtW should you choose to use both.

johnsteward

thx for the long answer..

perhaps i try it myself sometime. I'm just not sure its really as tanky as i like it with only chained et while loosing tt at the same time.. this just feels wrong and bad
if you factor in that u have to use 3 doffs and the comming changes to eptX i guess it will losse some aditional ground compared to my lets say more standard build.

with my vesta engi more standard build i can tank gates cubes whatever quite well. In the end i really dont like to have to choose between et as my only hull heal and tt because well it just means that when i need a hull heal and use et i loose tt for 15 seconds which can be a long time and will need even more hull heals because of that even with spamming the shield distribution while tt is off.

i know i'm probably quite alone with this but when i take on cubes or especially gates i dont stay at 9.5km or use the spot under the gate where it cant hit u back so i need to be really tanky. Do you feel you can do that with your build as good as i can with mine?

sgtstarfall

Yes indeed! I'm the crazy person in E-STFs volunteering to sit in front of Donatra to eat torpedo spreads. I also sit on top of Gates and volunteer to tank the tactical cubes.

And yea, I feel alone there too. It seems a lot of people die after a barrage or two. People rightfully fear the gateway's "invisible torpedo of death", but honestly, I just think about it like tanking a Cube heavy torpedo. The right boff abilities will negate it as if nothing happened.