Eng Excelsior - for STFs

zarathos1978

Ok, so - what do you think about it?


http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=zar1978supex_0

I assumed flying with high shield and mid-high weapon range with lot of EPS skill for quick transfer into high aux/shield configuration for additional healing/resistance. Attack Patterns are mainly to support others (Escorts) in killing as quickly and efficiently as only possible while also giving me some area to boost damage (max weapon power) if needed. No Tactical Team as I assumed that I will not be able to hold agro with this configuration for long and manual redistribution plus resist/regeneration boost from high shield power with increased cap and EPtS will be enough.

There were some limitations for me in the build like weapons and stuff the ship had and the ship itself so it is as it is. The weapons and equipement cannot change, I can play a bit with consoles and with BOFFs. Dunno about DOFFs, assume I can have whatever I want.

Burn it with fire or is it ok?

dragonsbite

I will assume this is mainly for STFs and not PvP. If it's for PvP i'll let someone else comment. While I wouldn't burn it in a fire there are lots of changes i'd make personally. 1st off dps is the king when it comes to an stf. Tanks aren't that great unless they can tank and contribute significantly with their dps. Personally i'd be happy if the so called tank could do greater then 5k dps. And even still if he's only doing 5k dps he better be using some embassy sci consoles with +threat. I know when I started doing STFs I was only doing 2k dps or so.

Skill points
Putting 9 points into any skill is a waste unless that skill is that good or that needed. 9 into batteries, shield emitter, starship hull repair, structural integrity along with the tactical skills are about the only ones you want to max out. See http://home.comcast.net/~amicus/Skill%20Point%20Effects.htm for a complete breakdown. Also 9 into resistance skills is not really worth the cost. The threat one which has resistance and the other 2 resistance skills should be 6 points into each max. Along with 1 Kinetic resist console that would be all you need to effectively tank anything. I actually use 3, 3, and 3 with one 40 kinetic resist console and tank it all with no issues. 9 points into warp core potential and warp core efficiency or any other power to subsystem (engine, shield, weapons, aux) skill i'm not a fan of. These should all be 6 max. No points are needed in inertial dampers. Who cares if you get knocked back. And if you get locked down use evasive or aux to dampeners. Don't underestimate the battery skill. Especially as you have the red matter capacitor which also works with that skill.

Weapons
I know you said you couldn't change that. But you're just another dude doing 2k dps. eSTFs require about 20k dps to get the optionals. Perhaps a bit less then that. You want to be able to get the optionals as often as possible. So you're a hindrance to the group unless all the others are doing 4.5k dps each. Most STFs I run there's usually 1 guy doing sub 2k dps and 2 guys doing between 2k-4k dps. And 1 guy doing 4k-6k dps. So for me to get the bonuses I need to do 6k dps or more. I can't rely on others as I have no control of them. But I do have complete control of myself. So I strive for 8.5k-11.5k dps to ensure I get every optional. And I might add that tanking is actually my priority but dps is a close 2nd.

You're using 1 tac console that only benefits 1 weapon. This should be swapped for a tac console that benefits the majority of your weapons. There is no diminishing returns on +damage consoles. If the first console increased damage by 60 the 2nd one will increase it by another 60 and so on. You're using 3 turrets and while good for gearing up you should be working at replacing them as their damage output is terrible. Especially as you're using fire at will I and only 3 of your weapons can actually use that ability. And you have an Lt Cmd tac slot and are using FaW 1. You'd do much better with TT1, FAW II, and APB2. APD2 if you really prefer delta but you don't really need delta imo. Then again you don't really need any fire at wills with only 3 weapons being able to use it. So if you're set using those weapons there just isn't really a way to optimize fire at will. Maybe try TT1, ATB1, APD2 instead or some combination thereof. Or use a torpedo ability.

The ship you have is a very good ship. As an engineer it's capable of doing over 10k dps. But as is you're at the 2k-3k dps mark. Much to be improved upon.

mscowboy

A side note, with that exact setup and good piloting, I estimate 2k dps to be a horribly low assessment. I reckon I could get 5 or 6k out of it. 4k as an absolute minimum. The Excelsior, however, is a 10k+ ship, and you'll never get there with those. At the very least try to coordinate your weapon types to all benefit from a single active boff power by using single cannons with turrets for CRF/SV or all beam arrays with FAW.

zarathos1978

I know about this. But as I said I cannot change the equipment outside of consoles. This is not my ship, I create this build for someone else with the required emphasis on tanking/support and not DPS.

Actually this setup had a mix of projectile/energy tactical consoles before I manipulated it. I put it here because this build was quite bashed (mainly for lack of TT) and wanted to check it here if it is really that useless.

I made secondary layout to get max out of DPS:

TS 1 / FAW 2 / AP:B 2
EPtS / Aux: Damp 1 / Aux: SIF 2 / DEM
EPtS 1 / RSP 1
ET 1
HE 1 / TSS 2


If I was to make it for myself it would be most likely FAW/DEM build with beam arrays or CRF single cannon/turrets or full plasma (DoT based). but I had to work with what I got in terms of equipment.