test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
To all the uber-captains out there......
coldbeer72
Member Posts: 168 Arc User
And no, I don't rate myself that highly by any stretch!
There are uncountable threads and posts out there for builds that use all the latest and greatest u-beaut gear, but not everyone has the time, cash and/or the inclination to aquire these top-end super goodies.
So for the benefit of these good folk, I would like to ask that those of you who have massive experience in the ship build side of things, to partake in the following.....
What would you build if you only had access to the standard gear(up to MkXI), and that which is available via episode missions, and the reason behind said build.( so no fleet, rep, or z-store items or ships. Will allow exchange available lock box gear.)
Would like to see a wide variety if we can( yes we know escorts are king, but not everyone likes them..), and suggestions for progression for those who do decide to 'go the grind'.
Hope to see plenty of responses from you 'seasoned veterens', and preferably no 'that build is ****' type comments, am looking to make this a purely informative thread, NOT a debating stage.
Cheers in advance to any who partake:)
There are uncountable threads and posts out there for builds that use all the latest and greatest u-beaut gear, but not everyone has the time, cash and/or the inclination to aquire these top-end super goodies.
So for the benefit of these good folk, I would like to ask that those of you who have massive experience in the ship build side of things, to partake in the following.....
What would you build if you only had access to the standard gear(up to MkXI), and that which is available via episode missions, and the reason behind said build.( so no fleet, rep, or z-store items or ships. Will allow exchange available lock box gear.)
Would like to see a wide variety if we can( yes we know escorts are king, but not everyone likes them..), and suggestions for progression for those who do decide to 'go the grind'.
Hope to see plenty of responses from you 'seasoned veterens', and preferably no 'that build is ****' type comments, am looking to make this a purely informative thread, NOT a debating stage.
Cheers in advance to any who partake:)
Post edited by coldbeer72 on
0
Comments
Mirror Assault Cruiser, tactical officer:
3 x phaser beam array ([acc]x3 or [acc]x2 [crth]), 1 quantum torp ([acc]x2 [crth] or [dmg]x3), fore and aft.
Shields: Resilient Mk XI - either [cap]x3, [cap]x2 [reg], or Jem'Hadar shields.
Engines: Aegis or Jem'Hadar
Deflector: Aegis or Positronic with [Em] [ShdS] [Stl]
Warp Core: Overcharged [Eff] [W->S] [ACap] or [SCap]
Consoles:
Neutronium x 3, RCS x 1, or Neutronium x 2, RCS x 2
Field Generator x 2
Phaser Relay x 3
Reasoning:
This is basically a version of what I usually use with a Fleet Assault Cruiser. I'm a cruiser junkie, flat-out, and although I really would hate to drop my tactical cruiser in favor of a jack-of-all-trades vanilla Assault Cruiser, I think this would do decently enough. My engineer would probably get a similar build with different mods on the warp core - likely with an [SCap] and [EPS] instead.
Gear is chosen because of 2-piece and power bonuses of the Aegis or Jem'Hadar parts. I would avoid the Aegis shield because Covariant shields on cruisers annoy me. Deflector is chosen because I want to have the strongest shields possible, and in the case of the Positronic array I wouldn't mind a boost to the hull as well. Note I might be TRIBBLE up that mod abbreviation.
The Mirror Assault Cruiser is specified because it gets 200 extra crew and no downsides for it, being otherwise functionally identical to a standard prime-universe Assault Cruiser.
Finally I might swap out one of the frontal beam arrays for a dual beam bank with similar mods.
Patrol Escort:
3 x DHC phaser cannons, 1 qtorp fore, 3 x phaser turrets aft - uncertain on mods
Deflector, shields, warp core and engines the same as the Assault Cruiser, HOWEVER I might use the Aegis shield as well, and would definitely want [SCap] for the warp core.
Consoles:
2 x neutronium, 1 RCS or 3 x neutronium OR 2 x neutronium, 1 x monotanium
2 x field generator
4 x phaser relay
I have admittedly never used the Patrol Escort, but I tend to lean towards engineering and I tend to favor the Defiant or Steamrunner in escorts, so it follows on with those more closely than the Advance Escort, IMO. I might use the Mirror Patrol Escort, as well.
I have no idea if my engineer would get the same build, because I have almost no escort experience with him.
Also, apologies if these suck - I'm far from the world's best player and this was all off the top of my head. Fortunately for me, though, I have a Fleet AC, Odyssey Tac and Excelsior-R to tac cruiser all I want.
Lets keep it going!!!
my only tip is possibly using the Jem hadar set with the polaron bonus and use polarons.
Also you can grind out the Dominion polarons from the boldly they rode episode fairly quickly.
The difference between a Fleet/Zen ship and the ones you can buy on the Exchange for 50K credits or less isn't usually much more than 1 console slot and maybe a little less flexibility in BOff seating.
So there isn't really any reason you can't take a twinked out build and scale it back to what you can afford.
With that said, the Mirror Assault cruiser build above is quite good, although you don't want [Acc] mods on PvE weapons.
For a cheap escort, I'd go with a Mirror Patrol Escort.
Cdr Tac: TT1, CSV1, TS3, APO3
LtC Tac: TT1, CSV1, TS3
Lt Eng: EPtS1, A2SIF1
Ens Eng: EPtS1
Lt Sci: TSS1, HE2
The Tac abilities are oriented toward multi-target situations; you can obviously run CRF and THY instead of CSV+TS if you prefer single target.
The choice of Sci abilities is kind of situational and a matter of taste. The above emphasizes PvE survivability. For PvP you would probably want something more control-oriented.
3xDisruptor DHC + 1 Quantum on front, 3xDisruptor Turret on back; [Dmg]x3 on all for PvE
Warp Core: Hyper-Injection [SEP] [W->E]
Positron Deflector Array [ShdS] [SIF] [Em]
Hyper Impulse Engines MkXII [Spd] [Turn] [whatever]
Covariant or Resilient Shield Array MkXII [Cap]x3
Aegis and JH sets are pretty good alternatives to the above.
Tac Consoles: 3x Induction Coil, 1x Zero-Point Quantum Chamber
Eng Consoles: 2x Weapon Power, 1x Monotanium
Sci Consoles: Field Generator + Emitter Array
In my opinion, Sci ships other than the Vesta are a liability in PvE, and have nothing to recommend them over Escorts or Cruisers. The Mirror DSSV is the clear ship choice. The BOff configuration will depend on which pointless and ineffective role (healer, CC, debuff/drain) you decide to fill.
Weapons - I think the Plasma-Disruptor Hybrids are the best free weapon in the game. Take the time to replay the missions they come from to acquire a full set for your cruiser. The beams work very well on a Fed MU Star Cruiser. Back these up with the correct Boff skills and the right set of Space Doffs andf you've got a ship which performs very well in PvE and STF mode. The few times I've played this ship in PvP I have been somewhat successful. I don't PvP a whole lot except with people I know very well so I've no idea how she'd do a regular PvP environment.
Deflector - I have the most success with the Positron arrays, which are set up to improve things like shield regen and turn rate and SIF strength.
Impulse - I use the Impulse engine, without the Hyper or Combat modifier with the following buffs [Turn] [Spd]
Warp Core - Best I've been able to buy so far is the Mk X. The overcharged one with the [E->S] buff is what I am running currently and it works well.
Shields - Regenerative with the [Cap] and [Reg] buffs. Resilient is better, but you'll have to haunt the Exchange for a few days to acquire one.
I view the shields as an add on to hull armor, not an alternate. I don't worry so much about my shields going down and staying down as I do my hull points dropping. So once in awhile I swap out a few consoles for those consoles which help keep my hull and crew up near 100%.
Devices - Batteries, batteries, and more batteries. Turrets are okay and sometimes give an edge but I've never had much luck with them. The Subspace Modulator is a gimmicky P.O.S. which only is effective whenever the Enemy is not firing at you. This is because its powered up time is far too short and its cooldown is too long. Pulled mine off the ship and didn't really notice a difference in how my shields and hull held up. Freeing up the Device slot was worth it.
For Engineering consoles, three Neutronium Mk XI blue and One RCS Accelerator Mk XII blue.
Go ahead and spend the time and money to max your crafting points. It is the only way you'll get neutronium consoles without spending ridiculous amounts of EC. The Aegis Set isn't the only thing you can craft which is both useful and effective. If you budget and plan correctly you can turn a decent profit off being able to make consoles people are willing to spend EC for.
For Science consoles - Two Field Generator mk XI blue. What I wrote about the neutronium consoles applies here as well.
For Tactical consoles - Don't bother with any console which is not weapon specific. For example, if your ship mounts phasers, then all of your tactical consoles should be Phaser Relays.
All of the above items are either mission awards, can be crafted, or can be purchased on the Exchange. If you do try to purchase them, shop smart instead of throwing wads of EC at the first one you see. Check back on the Exchange later. Normally you'll find the item you were looking for the first time at a cheaper price. It may not be much cheaper, but every bit helps when you're on a budget. Hope this helps.
Weapons: Mk XI blue [Acc]x2 or [Acc][CrtH]. For purple you'd go [Acc]x2[CrtH] or [Acc]x3 (if you can afford it, [Acc]x3 weapons are among the most valuable items in the game because of PvP)
Consoles: XI blues across the board are fine. Purples or XII where you can afford to.
Deflector: Positron (boosts shield skills). Look for mods that give additional shield boosts or something else actually useful to you
Engines: Hyper impulse if you generally run more than 50 Engine power, Combat impulse if you run less than 50, regular impulse if you vary it a lot. [Turn] is generally the most useful, everybody can use more turn. [Spd] would be good if you're in an escort trying to speed tank. [Aux] is mostly useful on a cruiser, since an Escort with disabled engines is pretty screwed even if you have Aux thrusters.
Shields: Resilient shields generally, bleedthrough is probably the biggest problem you have at this point so minimizing it is good. After that, it sort of depends on what you're fighting. For Borg, stacking up plasma resist is a good idea. For Tholians, tetryon. For more general mods, I feel like [Cap] is probably the way to go. You typically don't have time to wait for your shields to regen on their own even with [Reg] mods, you need to hit a shield heal like TSS or RSP. Having a higher capacity would allow you to get the most out of those heals.
DHC weapons chamber build. Will also work well with beams which is just beautiful.
DHC PHASER(By far the most economical set up to get since all ships fed side will have some sort of phaser only weapon. Up front 3-4 depending on the ship. 1 quant or plasma Torp or even a single DBB Phaser, 3 x phaser turrets aft. The modding is a matter of choice and price so if you can't afford what you want then afford what you can. If you're really really really strapped for cash you can do some major internal damage with the Harpengh or even with the buff to the transphasic torps you can cause some major 'free' bang with it.
Deflector, shields, warp core and engines can be whatever you want, their are at least 2 free sets you get from doing the missions the Cold Fire set for the Breen and the Victory is life set. Or you can use whatever your Doffs build for you of immense use. Specially when it comes to Warp Cores since the mission appears every 2-3 days randoly all over the place you can make some very interesting things.
Consoles:
You can experiment here and se what works for you. I don't find anything to e useful so I just put UC's there.
4 x phaser relay's. These are kinda cheap depending on the qaulity and level or you can just get the Blue XI's from the di store.
Skills
Cdr Tac: TT1, CSV1, TS3, APO3
LtC Tac: TT1, Torp S2, TS3
Lt Eng: EPtS1, RSP1
Ens Eng: EPtW1
Lt Sci: TSS1, HE2
For A Beam build
Cdr Tac: TT1, APB1, BFAW3, APO3
LtC Tac: TT1, Torp S2, BFAW3
Lt Eng: EPtS1, RSP1
Ens Eng: EPtW1
Lt Sci: TSS1, HE2
I got one question though, why cap equipment at mk XI? sure XII is rare, but it does drop from missions.
I myself am not uber, but I had a Jem dread with the Mk XI Jem hadar set on it, and grinded out a set of Dominion polaron mk XI's. it was a fun carrier to fly. tanked pretty well on my engineer char. dont remember the initial mk XI setup exactly, just had a bunch of TRIBBLE on it that i found, i know i had the assimilated console though (pre-rep so it was a mission reward at the time)
Patrol Escort (if you have it) or Mirror Patrol Escort
Tactical: 2x TT, 2x CRF, 2x APB, 1x APO
Science: HE, TSS,
Engineering: EptS, EptW, RSP
Shields: Jem'Hadar Resiliant
Engine: Jem'Hadar Combat
(to get the 13% boost to Polarons)
Deflector: purple mk XII positron
Warp Core: purple mk X Hyper with [wcap]
Weapons:
4x Polaron DHC/DC, 3x Polaron turrets (alternative Phased Polaron), purple Mk.XI or XII
(Polarons due to the fact that they're the cheapest out there, even purple Mk.XI or XII with [acc] modifieres, they get the boost from the Jem Set and have the cheapest consoles)
Consoles:
Engineering: rare Mk.XI RCS, 2x rare Mk.XI Neutronium
Science: rare or uncommon Mk.X/XI Field Generator, Plasmonic Leech
Tactical: 4 rare Polaron Mk.XI
Cost:
Ship: 70.000
Shields: free
Engine: free
Deflector: 70.000
Warp Core: 450.000
Polaron DHC/DC: 120.000 (~30k each)
Polaron Turrets: 180.000 (~60k each)
Polaron Console: 120.000 (30k each)
Field Generator: 400.000
Plasmonic Leech: 900.000
Neutronium: 200.000 (100k each)
RCS: 40.000
TOTAL: ~2.550.000 EC
Only XI drops in missions purples and all.
Yes it does. Elite STFs and Kerrat have the chance to drop Mk XIIs.
Hegh'Ta Bird of Prey
Covariant Shield Array mk xi [cap][reg] (50k exchange)
Efficient Impulse Engines mk xi (mission reward)
Positron deflector array mk xi with a combination of [sif], [shds] and/or [stl] (50k exchange)
Overcharged or Engine-boosting warp core [w->s] (exchange)
Fore:
Transphasic Cluster torp (mission reward)
Photon torp mk xi [acc] (exchange)
2x Plasma-disruptor DHC (mission reward)
Rear:
Disruptor Turrets mk xi [acc] (7-10k, exchange)
Consoles:
3x green mk xi disruptor induction coils (exchange, 15k each?)
3x green mk xi neutroniums (exchange, 10k each?)
3x whatever applies to what I intend to do (similar)
That's some 200k-250k EC worth of gear? That's doable for a starter.
After that, some decent torp cd doffs (blue, maybe? Don't know what these cost atm), to get the photon to fast-track the cluster cooldown.
Then, after playing some I'd try and see if I have enough cash to get the purple variants of the shields & deflector and then upgrade my weapons (turrets last), also exchange (couple of 100k each?).
Then again, this is just one option of many I would consider, in terms of weapon or ship choices. The other gear tends to stay the same though, except for maybe sci vessels, where I replace the Covariant for a Regerative shield.
A setup like this is plenty to get you through ESTF's though, if you know how to play.
Purple Mk12's will drop in elite STFs and fleet actions. In fleet actions you are guaranteed 2 purples for 1st place and 1 purple for 2nd place. My current shield on my Romulan is a Mk12 Very Rare Resilient [Cap]x2 [Pla]. I saw it originally on the exchange for like 7.5 million and decided not to buy it. Then like 20 minutes later I picked it up in an STF.
lol, this is Federation Ship Yard. I don't think this fits us very well. BUt i suppose even this should be welcomed by new players who may go KDF. Maybe RSE's may also post something to help guide new and old players without the liquidity.
Good to see so many advocating the use of MKXI blue gear, cause the purples do tend to be dramatically overpriced for their additional benefits.
Am seeing a couple of trends here though...
1/ MU cruisers seem to be a favourite, thats all well and good, but can we get some suggestions for other ships thats people may use( even if you think they are less than optimal), as personal choice does play a factor in ship choice to an extent.
2/ Yes we are all aware that Sci is 'the weakest link', but have only seen a passing comment on a DSSV so far. I used to fly an RSV, and found it less 'squishy' than the vesta, so could we get some more sci builds, again thinking of new players personal choice.
Cheers again
Coldbeer
Recon Science Vessel (or MU Recon)
Weapons:
Fore: 2x Polaron Single Cannon, 1x Quantum Torp
Aft: 3x Polaron Turret
Deflector: Positron
Shield for STFs: Resilient with [Pla]
Shield for other content: Jem'Hadar
Engine: Jem'Hadar
Eng consoles: any
Sci consoles: 1x Field Generator, 2x Particle Generator, 1x Flow Capacitor
Tac consoles: 4x Polaron Phase Modulator
Abilities:
Tac Team 1, Cannon Scatter Volley 1
Torp Spread 1
Emergency Power to Shields 1, Emergency Power to Shields 2
Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2, Tyken's Rift 2, Grav Well 3
Sci Team 1, Energy Siphon 1, Energy Siphon 2
To adapt it to a DSSV, replace the torp with another Single Cannon, drop the Torp Spread, move the second Emergency Power to Shields down to rank 1, and get Aux to SIF 1. The reason I said that the eng consoles don't matter is because armor is insignificant with such a weak hull, and no other eng consoles do anything significant ever. For all gear get Mk XI or XII, whatever quality you can afford. For weapons the best modifiers are [Acc], [CrtH], [CrtD], [Dmg] roughly in that order. (If you're not doing PvP you only really need 1 [Acc], maybe none, but the excess turns into [CrtH] and [CrtD] at a fairly decent rate (1/16 of a [CrtH] and 1/4 of a [CrtD] per [Acc]) so it's still better than [Dmg].) For doffs, the build will benefit from Projectile Weapons Officers and a Gravimetric Scientist, but they aren't immediately critical.
Again, thanks to all of you. Much Appreciated!
Variety is the spice of life after all
Coldbeer
Since people are putting up their BOff builds as well, might as well make an addendum to mine, with notes for engineers in the commentary:
Mirror Assault Cruiser (tactical captain):
Eng Cmdr: EPtW1, Wildcard, EPtS3, A2SIF3
Eng LtC.: EPtW1, Eng Team 2, EPtS3
Sci Lt. : Polarize Hull 1, Haz Emitters 2
Tac Lt. : Tactical Team 1, Attack Pattern Beta 1
Tac Ens.: Beam Fire at Will 1
Reasoning:
This depends on the DOffs. I favor the expensive purple tac team DOffs, so I have two of those and as such only need one tactical team. As TT1 rotation is a must for me, I would have two copies of it, and probably have a difficult time whether to put in APB1 or BFaW2 in the Lt. Tac slot.
Attack Pattern Beta 1 is there because, as a tac, I have my Starship Attack Patterns stat boosted to level 6 (+84), so this gets good mileage, plus anyone shooting the same target with me will probably appreciate it.
Engineering skills are essentially rotated with tactical team and A2SIF, as per standard Dragon Build instructions. The resulting cycle is EPtW, EPtS, A2SIF, TT, all hooked to the space bar. Engineering Team 2 is because it's a good heal I can sometimes put on allies, though I do have to stop my spacebar rhythm in order to get it off. Wildcard will probably end up going to Extend Shields, but might go to something else.
I do NOT do Aux2Bat builds, as they seem too flimsy, but if I did I would probably have a much different assortment of engineering skills, although I would be certain to keep at least one EPtS3, since if I went Aux2Bat I'd be using Technician BOffs and wouldn't need two copies. I would probably end up substituting A2SIF3 for DEM3. Science and tac skills would probably be the same. I would also have an [ACap] on the warp core for fairly obvious reasons. A possible modification would be to set up the ship so that the Lt. slots are set up for Aux2Bat, and have that on a separate key, so I can swap between Dragon and Aux2Bat rotations within a few seconds. This would possibly make a decent 'emergency mode' and the Dragon rotation/abilities would hardly notice it.
An engineering build would be similar to those mentioned before, but the tactical skills would be different - I have better things to do with the DOff slots than cram Tac Team DOffs in there, so I would probably end up going with two copies of TT1 and one BFaW2 (which I lovingly refer to as Beam Agro At Will).
Patrol Escort (tactical captain):
Tac Cmdr: TS1, APB1, CRF2, APO3
Tac LtC.: TT1, CSV1, CRF2
Lt. Sci : Polarize Hull 1, Haz Emitters 2
Lt. Eng : EPtS1, EPtS2
Ens Eng : ET1
Reasoning:
Again with the DOffs - TS1 is swapped out for another TT1 if I can't get those, since tac team is even more important here than with the AC.
CRF2 copies are rotated more or less constantly, since IMO that's the best way to get REAL damage out of them. CSV1 is included for an area attack, which is often quite handy.
APO3 is taken because of its defensive and offensive boosts, which (IMO only) is better than what CRF3 offers. If I had to stick in CRF3, I would put APO1 in its previous slot.
Engineering may be alternated with two copies of EPtS1 and one copy of A2SIF1.
Tac Team, CRF, and EPtS are rotated, along with (if present) A2SIF1.
As an engineer I would probably consider substituting APB1 for a torp skill (high yield or torp spread), or possibly APO1 so I'd have it more frequently available.
Another modification would be possible in terms of either swapping around CRF2 and APB1 (having two APB2's would be awesome and worth a shot), or possibly sticking APD1 in there somewhere (IMO pretty meh, but it's sometimes handy and some might really like it).
I have to echo this advice. While the crafting interface/activity is pretty dull (I have no idea what it's like in other MMOs, but it's almost shop-like here), the crafting experience can save you a lot in the long-run. A caution is that the gear stops at Mk XI blue, but as many posters have indicated (and I agree), Mk XI blue is often plenty for whatever you may need.
All of that is relativly cheap to get till better gear is available.And you avoid the need for those expensive energy boosting consoles (projectile boosting consoles ar far cheaper) and you can ignore weaponspower for the most part.
just make sure you get some projectile officers( 3 is ideal) and 2 torpedo tubes in your ships forward arc.
A similar thing works on Escorts and cruisers but id combine it with target subsystem engines.
Don't forget to record your current configuration and loadout somewhere away from the game. This includes your Boff and Doff abilities as well as your kit. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. I have upon more than one occasion adjusted my finely tuned excellently working ship and/or Away Team into worthlessness. If I have a pic of the layout somewhere, I can quickly return to being a viable contributing member of Starfleet or the KDF.
I had to laugh after I read the second post that followed this and said mk XI [acc]x3 phasers. :rolleyes: I'd love to know which episode offered that. Caustic plasma its great. I know Roms have access to it but I don't know about feds or KDF. Its MK XI [acc]x2. Thats about as good as episdoe gear will get I'm afraid. The good news is it will cover beam arrays, beam banks, DHCs, and turrets. In other words it covers all weapon varieties. The Rom mission to get is a bit long to keep repeating though.
It always depends on the type of gear and it's slot. Of course when you're looking at purple Mk.XII phaser consoles vs. Mk.X rares, the hike in price is absolutely ludicrous.
But then there are items like deflector arrays, where there is a huge abundance on the market, so that you can get a rare mk.X for 35k and the purple mk.XII for 65k on the exchange. Imho there is no reason not to buy and mount the purple one, once you reach upper RA.
Similar thing goes for Polaron DCs/DHCs for example. Purple Mk.XI/XIIs, even with [acc]x2, are just 15k-20k EC more expensive than rare Mk.IX or X. Again, i wouldn't see a reason not to upgrade via exchange.
The balanced version:
Weapons
Fore: 3x Phaser beam array Mk XI [Acc] [CrtH] [CrtD] (Crit mods may be reversed), Quantum Torpedo launcher Mk XI [CrtH] [CrtD] [Dmg]
Aft: See Fore
Equipment
Full Aegis if possible else
Deflector: Positron deflector array Mk XI [Em] [ShdS]
Engine: Combat impulse engine Mk XI [Turn]x2 [Spd]
Warp core: Field stabilizing warp core Mk XI [EPS] [W->E] (Other mods optional)
Shield: Resilient shield array Mk XI [Cap] [Pla] [Reg]
Bridge officers
Lt Tactical: Beam: Fire at Will 1, Attack pattern: Beta 1
Ensign Tactical: Tactical Team 1
Cmdr Engineering: Emergency power to Shields 1, Emergency power to Weapons 2, Auxiliary power to Structural integrity field 2, Eject warp plasma 2 (or 3 if you can source it)
LTC Engineering: Emergency power to Weapons 1, Emergency power to Shields 2, Reverse shield Polarity 2
Lt Science: Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer shield Strength 2
Consoles
Engineering: 2x Neutronium Mk XI, 2x EPS Flow Regulator Mk XI
Science: Field generator Mk XI, Shield emitter amplifier Mk XI
Tactical: 3x Phaser relay Mk XI
Base Power
Weapons: 100
Shields: 40
Engines: 30
Auxiliary: 30
Duty officers
2x Conn officer (Tactical team cooldown reduction, rare or better)
The idea is to cycle the emergency power to system skills such that 100% uptime is achieved on both types this also gives a major buff to your damage output by keeping your weapons power over the 125 cap which in turn allows the flow regulators to buff it further due to the way overcapping works, I will not however go into how that works here.
The extreme version:
Weapons
Fore: 3x Phaser beam array Mk XI [Acc] [CrtH] [CrtD] (Crit mods may be reversed), Quantum Torpedo launcher Mk XI [CrtH] [CrtD] [Dmg]
Aft: See Fore
Equipment
Full Aegis if possible else
Deflector: Positron deflector array Mk XI [Em] [ShdS]
Engine: Combat impulse engine Mk XI [Turn]x2 [Spd]
Warp core: Field stabilizing warp core Mk XI [EPS] [W->E] (Other mods optional)
Shield: Resilient shield array Mk XI [Cap] [Pla] [Reg]
Devices
Auxiliary batteries
Bridge officers
Lt Tactical: Beam: Fire at Will 1, Attack pattern: Beta 1
Ensign Tactical: Tactical Team 1
Cmdr Engineering: Emergency power to Shields 1, Auxiliary power to emergency battery 1, Reverse shield Polarity 2, Eject warp plasma 2 (or 3 if you can source it)
LTC Engineering: Emergency power to Weapons 1, Auxiliary power to emergency battery 1, Reverse shield Polarity 2
Lt Science: Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer shield Strength 2
Consoles
Engineering: 2x Neutronium Mk XI, 2x EPS Flow Regulator Mk XI
Science: Field generator Mk XI, Shield emitter amplifier Mk XI
Tactical: 3x Phaser relay Mk XI
Base Power
Weapons: 100
Shields: 25
Engines: 25
Auxiliary: 50
Duty officers
3x Technician (Bridge officer ability cooldown upon activation of auxiliary power to battery, blue or better)
To use this build it is highly recommended that you use a keybind (read this: http://www.ifes.us/HowToKeybind/Star%20Trek%20Online%20Key%20Binds.pdf), the point of this is that effectively doubles all your bridge officer abilities, the drawback is that it severely limits your capacity to heal and most of the time you will be relying of your team which in a PuG situation is not good, I recommend using an engineer to captain this build as they bring their own heals and you have auxiliary batteries to bring the system back when you need a heal.
I was under the impression the exercise allowed for Mk XI gear regardless of the rarity level. As such, that is exactly what I used - purple being the best. So far as I am aware it is possible to obtain these in extremely rare drops in certain circumstances (e.g. Kerrat, if you are extremely lucky).
Just about all of my builds, and the rest of these builds in general, would probably work perfectly fine with Mk XI blue. Mk XI blue is in fact what I used for a while, and is what I use for consoles. Had OP indicated that blue was the limit, then I would have used that, but I was trying to maximize within the parameters given.