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State of Science Space Abilities
stongbads
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I came back to STO to play a Romulan/KDF tactical captain. But I always would like to start up a Romulan/KDF science captain, but I'm not sure what the current state of Science space abilities are now a days. I'm only looking to build out for PvE.
- Is Gravity Well III still an effective offensive power or is it just pure CC now?
- Are Drain builds still effective against mobs like Borg cubes?
- Are carriers the only real DPS option for Science KDF captains?
- Are there certain science space abilities that are so nerfed that they're not even worth training?
Post edited by stongbads on
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Can't speak to drain builds since I haven't really tried one before. Don't have a KDF sci either.
As far as GW3, thanks to the NPCs now having ETtE, it doesn't even work as CC anymore (at least not in STFs). They simply fly away like it's not even there.
It's a much shorter list of which sci powers are still useful as opposed to what's not. Basically, healing like HE and TSS still work. I use TBRs OK but they're pretty situational. I used to have viral matrix and when I replaced it, I can't say I really noticed it missing.
Join the Vulcan Kolinahr Fleet
http://www.vulcankolinahrfleet.com/
GW does a lot of kinetic damage if you are spec'd into paticle generators, and you hold the target in place, and you lower one of their shield facings. GW is not very good at holding targets in place by itself since a lot of NPCs now use Emergency Power to Engines to zoom around and break free, so you have to use something else to turn off their engines and/or hold them down. Some of the NPCs are not as assertive and will still get sucked into it alright if you have a lot of points in grav.
Dunno, I try to shut them down instead of drain them.
If you want to use a lot of magic while also shooting, yes, you need the additional DPS from pets to get anywhere. But you can also just get in an escort with DHCs and torpedoes and do reasonable damage with sensor scan and subnuke. If I need to do DPS then I get in my escort, if I want to control the field and help other people do more DPS then I get in my sci ship. I also fly a cruiser sometimes, use it like an engineer, doesnt work as well though since sci does not have the ability to manage power levels very well.
everything works if you commit to it and spec for it aggressively and learn when to use it for maximum effect. But that is a lot of effort though, and some things like shield stripping are not worth the work when there are easier ways to achieve the same result
It can be done. A fully tricked out GW3 Sci ship might even do 66% of the damage of a tricked out Tac. If you're the only tricked out ship in Starbase 24 you might get a 1st place. Maybe play on weekends when there's less specialization. Never be taccy.
Can you explain this, how you shut them down?
subsystem targeting, viral matrix, phasers, etc, all of those will shut off subystsems
I also use a couple of draining things, but that is in pursuit of shutting them down, not for draining
Only the Spheres seem to have EPtE. GW is still effective in KASE and CSE (and Crystalline Entity event!)
On a related note: I've tried a GW+Aux2Bat build on my Fleet Dhelan. The shorter cooldown is awesome, and the lower Aux power level doesn't seem to make a difference.
L.45 Scienc Captain
Ha'nom Guardian warbird
2x Chronitron Torps Mk X purple
4x Particle Generator Consoles
Tractor Beam Mine Launcher
3x Plasma beam Arrays
GW3
GW2
Tractor Beam 1
Tractor Repulsor 1
Photonic Shockwave 1
Purple Doff Gravimetric Scientist (Chance to create aftershocks)
3x Blue Deflector Officers (reduce recharge time for deflector abilities)
Blue Projectile Weapons officer (Chance for torp recharge.)
I already run with a Tactical escort with my main, so I went heavy on the crowd control science. No problem at all keeping lots of mobs in Mirror Universe all tucked away neat in a gravity well. If they break away and head towards me, just push them back in with tractor repulsor. I'm finding the tractor beam mines to be very useful. I have zero fear going nose to nose with the end boss in Mirror universe with this Science captain. Slap the boss around, cleanse it's buffs off, debuff and keeping it sitting in the gravity well. I also noticed that this boss ignores tractor mines.
I ran several Infected: The Conduit in normal mode without any troubles or unexpected slowness with the event. When I each 50 and finish upgrading, I'll torture my Fleet mates before going into a PUG elites.
Since I'm restricted to a single gravimetric scientist, is the chance for aftershocks better then a chance for a 10 sec recharge reduction?
I will say however, Sci rocks for ground combat. Playing more Elite ground STFs now.
tractor beams of all ranks are nice, they increase duration.10/13-14/17seconds, they also deal decent amount of hull dmg
useless skills:
tyken rift1-3 -pretty much not boosted by anything and is wack anyways... doesnt even work with radiation from ABC, the new doff might be useful to reduce cooldown of exotic abilities.
charged particle burst2-3 -you can get these to work if you pass 220 flow capacitor skill by stacking consoles, rank 1 to remove cloaks in pvp but it still sucks.
tachyon beam 1-3 -this skill might be useful with 220 flow capacitor on rank 3, or rank 1 in ABC to proc the radiation, which is what i use, but since u cannot use this in any other ship effectively by itself, useless
i dont think there are any other "useless" skills
to say what sci ships deal dps, vesta, karfi, vo'quv, orb weaver can deal dps in right hands, pretty much anything that has liutenant commander eng/tac has potential to deal 9k ish, a sci ships that are. but sci role is not dps, its buffing the team dps by controlling the enemy and healing.
CUUCUUMBEER! "-With slight partigen with it."
Proud member or DPS-800 "-We kill dem mines with our scitter turrets."
Now for that stated DPS, is that outside of the science skills or a combo of science & tact skills?
A slight hijacking of my thread, but do you know how some Tac captains are achieving DPS 18k+? I remember this one Fed Tac that would fly in a beam boat who would achieve crazy DPS. The one thing that I recall while teaming with him was that he refuse to team unless there was a excellent tank present.
I next tested the ship in a Fleet Alert. It's nice flying around in a nimble starship again in this event. At the end I found myself 1.5km on top of the end boss. That boss didn't move on it's own. Slapped a TB on a GW on it while we all hammered away at it. All while I slowly backed up up and used that unstable torp when it's shields were down. Once everyone's overloaded torps impacted, I started the TR fun and it shortly exploded.
I was nervous with my first STF Conduit elite run, but I gave it a go. I had no real issues with crowd controlling the nanite spheres. I had to jump on them as soon as they started moving toward us. None of them got past and I kept them all bunched up while an escort came over to help burn them down. Cronitron spreads, cloaking TB mines, GW, TR, TB, unstable torp, singularity AoE, plasma DH cannons and plasma turrets were used. We didn't have any annoying speedy nanite sphere hunts during this round. It made the STF run go faster IMHO.
Overall I'm glad that I found a fun alternative to my Tactical captain. I can't wait to see how the new Romulan dreadnought Warbirds will be like with my Science captain.