Well, I'm now an Aux2Bat believer. Just ran KA Elite after swapping out Aux2SIF for Aux2Bat. Finally broke the 10K DPS barrier, and might have done more if I'd configured some keybinds (my next project).
Still unhappy with my shield perf, but tha has more to do with my borked toon respec than anything else. Regardless, I'm now officially an Aux2Bat guy - and this without any special Doffs or other mods. Can't wait to tune the config further to see how far I can push this creaky old Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser design...
Still unhappy with my shield perf, but tha has more to do with my borked toon respec than anything else.
Yes, I saw that. It was a lot different from my skills. And you need Tactical Team in your abilites. If automatically distributes shield power to the side, which is getting pounded at. So you have to put TT1 in your ensign tac slot and slot two conn officers. TT1 is an absolute must, it has to run on global cooldown.
For what it's worth, a couple of hours ago I did a run without Aux2Bat.
Yes, I saw that. It was a lot different from my skills. And you need Tactical Team in your abilites. If automatically distributes shield power to the side, which is getting pounded at. So you have to put TT1 in your ensign tac slot and slot two conn officers. TT1 is an absolute must, it has to run on global cooldown.
For what it's worth, a couple of hours ago I did a run without Aux2Bat.
I was still at 10.8k. Yet, the Fleet Assault Cruiser's boff layout allows to compensate for that very well.
Doffs: two purple conn officers, two purple damage control engineers, one space warfare
I followed some other guide, then got caught trying to balance all of the points to reach 366K. In the end, I wasted too much in the Admiral level weapons skills, especially torps. Should have put more into engineering stuff since that's where I spent them during my level-up days (way...way...way back when).
I've always been one to err on the side of defense/protection - which is why pre-re-spec I could tank like a cruiser in my Patrol Escort. But I was hungry for DPS magic, so I went full-tilt Tac and yet didn't gain much from it (I was still stuck at 8K before I discovered the joys of Aux2Bat).
Moral of the story: Balanced characters are more well-rounded in combat.
Anyway, a couple of questions about your build:
1. Why the EPS consoles? How do these help vs. just sticking some Field Gens in there?
2. Where can I get a Plasmonic Leech console? Note: I never completed the majority of the single-player campaigns, so...more of an STF/quick match kind of player.
3. 4x Polaron consoles but no Quantum Zero Point?
4. Should I just go full-on Beam Boat? Is there even a point in keeping a torp on board? Or the cutting beam, for that matter? Will this net me more or less DPS, in your experience? Note: I've got a surplus of arrays, so I can equip and experiment all day at this point.
The scaling of the Defiant and the Sovereign, this is my only annoyance with the TNG movies, the inconsistency of the Sovereign's size in every movie. It made the Defiant look tiny in comparison.
Yeah... Because the Defiant IS TINY. It is a little toy of a ship. It is a battle runabout not a real Starship. The Sovereign is big battleship of a cruiser that could fit the Defiant in a shuttle bay so of COURSE it looks HUGE by comparison. Do not fool yourself or let STO fool you with their horrible scaling the Defiant is NOT a big ship.
The most you'll get on a cruiser is a LtCmdr Tactical + Ensign Tactical + 4 Tactical Consoles + 10 Bonus Weapons Power.
I'm sorry to say there is no competition there. Not even close. So either post up this uber build, or stop trolling.
My Tactical Bortasqu' would like to have a word with you about Tactical Console maximums on a Cruiser... Honestly though with SOME cruisers set up PROPERLY with a Tactical Captain you CAN out DPS an Escort. What you cannot do is out Spike a proper Escort.
Alrighty then, many wide and varied responses thus far, but will put this question out there, for the escorts flyers only.......
Is flying your uber DPS dealing escort a SATISFYING experience, esp when you know that you are going to lay waste to anything that even twitches the wrong way before you even start a mission...???( and yes there are cruisers out there that can do the same, we know, but they are few and far between, by comparison)
... YES. More so in my Scimitar. However, I do love the feeling of utter invincibility I have in my Odyssey Tact and Bortasqu' Tact.
My Tactical Bortasqu' would like to have a word with you about Tactical Console maximums on a Cruiser... Honestly though with SOME cruisers set up PROPERLY with a Tactical Captain you CAN out DPS an Escort. What you cannot do is out Spike a proper Escort.
Your tactical Bort can sit in a corner and be quiet. I have never at any point in time said that KDF BATTLEcruisers were gimped. I was talking about FED cruisers. In fact I am almost to the point where I agree with travelingmaster. If you have issues with your fed cruiser, go KDF battlecruiser.
Or the new Rommie warbirds. They are quite... nasty...
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Breen Chel'gret warship. Mogai Warbird Retrofit. Scimitar Dreadnought Warbird. Chimera, Pegh'qu. Mobius, Krenn, etc. There are plenty of destroyers in game.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
1. Why the EPS consoles? How do these help vs. just sticking some Field Gens in there?
2. Where can I get a Plasmonic Leech console? Note: I never completed the majority of the single-player campaigns, so...more of an STF/quick match kind of player.
3. 4x Polaron consoles but no Quantum Zero Point?
4. Should I just go full-on Beam Boat? Is there even a point in keeping a torp on board? Or the cutting beam, for that matter? Will this net me more or less DPS, in your experience? Note: I've got a surplus of arrays, so I can equip and experiment all day at this point.
1. That build doesn't have EPS consoles, just Flow Capacitors consoles, which boost both the proc on Polaron weapons and the Plasmonic Leech. Plus since they're Embassy consoles they give a boost to threat and add the plasma proc to the weapons for extra damage.
2. Plasmonic Leech is from one of the lockbox console packs, best place to get it is the Exchange.
3. Absolutely. That build mainly relies on its energy weapons, and it has far more of them than of torpedoes, so maxing out the energy weapons definitely makes the most sense.
4. Definitely don't do that. At a minimum keep the KCB, the 2 piece proc of that with the Assimilated Module is hugely valuable for beam broadsides with their drain issues. 6 beams was the sweet spot for some time, above that power drain hit so hard you didn't gain anything, but with the introduction of the KCB and overcapping 7 beams might be better, but on the other hand the KCB is draining power too, and it's the Wide Angle torp so you can use it while broadsiding, so I'd keep it.
1. That build doesn't have EPS consoles, just Flow Capacitors consoles, which boost both the proc on Polaron weapons and the Plasmonic Leech. Plus since they're Embassy consoles they give a boost to threat and add the plasma proc to the weapons for extra damage.
2. Plasmonic Leech is from one of the lockbox console packs, best place to get it is the Exchange.
3. Absolutely. That build mainly relies on its energy weapons, and it has far more of them than of torpedoes, so maxing out the energy weapons definitely makes the most sense.
4. Definitely don't do that. At a minimum keep the KCB, the 2 piece proc of that with the Assimilated Module is hugely valuable for beam broadsides with their drain issues. 6 beams was the sweet spot for some time, above that power drain hit so hard you didn't gain anything, but with the introduction of the KCB and overcapping 7 beams might be better, but on the other hand the KCB is draining power too, and it's the Wide Angle torp so you can use it while broadsiding, so I'd keep it.
OK, so Flow Capacitor skills and consoles help with Polaron damage. Good to know going forward. I'll perhaps drop the Quantum Zero Point module for another Polaron Phase Modulator (got a bunch of those on various ships), however, I don't have the wide-angle Quantum so I'm suck with the Omega Torp or regular Quantum launchers. Hence the RCS console, which makes my Turn Rate 8 cruiser into more like a Turn Rate 10 or 11 frigate - enough to get the Omega Torp on target for a high yield 60-70K Plasma Bolt once the target's shields are down, etc.
Anyway, I'm getting consistent 8-10K DPS outings now (and feeling the additional aggro from the Borg NPCs - what fun!), so I'm heading in the right direction. I'll look on the Exchange for both the Leech and Wide Angle Quantum, assuming it's even possible to buy one - it's not Bound or anything weird like that? Any way to buy one outside of Exchange, e.g. for Dil?
The wide angle quantum comes with the Assault Cruiser Refit from the c-store. It's considered as the torp of choice for a cruiser, because its wider firing arc corresponds much better with broadsides. An all-beam boat is possible, but works best with plasma because you can equip the Experimental Romulan Plasma Beam Array, that drains no power. Combine that with the 2-piece borg bonus (KCB + Assimilated Module), and power drain will not be an issue.
Flow capacitator skills will not enhance polaron damage. They will only increase the amount of energy drain of the polaron procc and the leech console.
One hour of FleischmannTV saves one square kilometre of precious peble wasteland.
The wide angle quantum comes with the Assault Cruiser Refit from the c-store. It's considered as the torp of choice for a cruiser, because its wider firing arc corresponds much better with broadsides. An all-beam boat is possible, but works best with plasma because you can equip the Experimental Romulan Plasma Beam Array, that drains no power. Combine that with the 2-piece borg bonus (KCB + Assimilated Module), and power drain will not be an issue.
Flow capacitator skills will not enhance polaron damage. They will only increase the amount of energy drain of the polaron procc and the leech console.
So there's no point in investing in Flow Capacitor skills? Doesn't the procc effect of the Polaron weapons help to drain power and make the target more susceptible to the raw damage output? Or is the effect not worth the point investment? And doesn't FC also affect EPtS and EPtW in an Aux2Bat scenario?
I see by your build that you didn't invest the points at a character level but that you equipped 2x FC consoles. Can I ask your thinking behind this arrangement?
Also, why no Eng Perf, Hull Plating or much in the way of Admiral-level skills? And is the investment in Inertial Dampeners worthwhile?
Note: I'm working on my next re-spec (need about a week to convert the necessary dil farming) to try and correct my recent borking. This is what I have so far, though it sounds like I should rethink the investment in FC skills:
space:
attack patterns on 9 is a waste, 6 is enough. put other in driver coil.
no particle generators - too bad. plasma torps burning will get significant benefit from it as well as a lot of universal consoles and other skills like warp plasma or acetone beam.
ground:
completely weird. no ground skill is it worth to get them on 9, most even not a single point.
grenades are one of the best weapons tac has. you have 0 here.
ps generators giving pitiful reward for the points investment. trash it completely.
squad command boost a lot of buffs, it is worth 6 points.
advance tactics on other hand is weak, those debuffs are useful as they are. putting the points here give you a very marginal rewards.
also i'd recommend at least 3 points in willpower and combat armor. last one truly shines on polyalloy armors.
special forces enough to have 3, the only useful skill here is target optics.
space:
attack patterns on 9 is a waste, 6 is enough. put other in driver coil.
no particle generators - too bad. plasma torps burning will get significant benefit from it as well as a lot of universal consoles and other skills like warp plasma or acetone beam.
Good to know! Sounds like my best bet is to simply spread the wealth and have at least a few points everywhere.
As for ground, I ever do those missions, so...NBD.
Good to know! Sounds like my best bet is to simply spread the wealth and have at least a few points everywhere.
As for ground, I ever do those missions, so...NBD.
Thanks for the feedback!
RCK
In general, you want to max things out at 7 points at MOST. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, the last two points only have a 2% TOPS affect on anything.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
In general, you want to max things out at 7 points at MOST. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, the last two points only have a 2% TOPS affect on anything.
Could you guide me as to which ones ARE worth going above 7 points for a Tac officer flying cruisers and doing Aux2Bat?
Note: Got sick of the NPCs draining my shields all the time so I grabbed a Mark 12 Purple (+30) Power Insulator console from the Exchange. HUGE difference in survivability - my shields no longer evaporate at the sight of a cube or sphere, though gates are still a PITA.
Could you guide me as to which ones ARE worth going above 7 points for a Tac officer flying cruisers and doing Aux2Bat?
Note: Got sick of the NPCs draining my shields all the time so I grabbed a Mark 12 Purple (+30) Power Insulator console from the Exchange. HUGE difference in survivability - my shields no longer evaporate at the sight of a cube or sphere, though gates are still a PITA.
RCK
Maybe starship weapons training, maybe attack patterns. Basically any skill that you cannot get a boost from using equipment/items you would CONSIDER (not must, but consider) putting the extra 2 points in.
Also, just put 7 points in the power insulators skill. That will reduce drains on you by 42%. Quite nice.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Maybe starship weapons training, maybe attack patterns. Basically any skill that you cannot get a boost from using equipment/items you would CONSIDER (not must, but consider) putting the extra 2 points in.
Also, just put 7 points in the power insulators skill. That will reduce drains on you by 42%. Quite nice.
That's what I figured. And the frustrating part is that I *did* allocate into many of those Eng and Sci skills when I was coming up through the levels - just seemed to make sense from a defense/durability standpoint. But after doing thousands of STFs at VA(50) level, and putting out respectable - but not world class (e.g. 6000-8000) - DPS in my Fleet Patrol Escort, I figured I'd neglected the higher level Tac skills in favor of Eng skills.
However, stealing from those Eng and Sci skills in order to max out *all* of my tier 1-3 and 5 Tac skills left me with minimal additional DPS and a much more "brittle" ship build that gets sucked dry by Borg NPCs and their Tachyon nastiness.
So...lesson learned! I'm going to respec as soon as I farm enough new dil (blew 6500 Zen on FSMs for two ships and the respec token), so it's time to finally get the mileage out of them by fixing my borked toon.
And in the meantime, I'll use the Exchange to try some different consoles so I can see the effects of Flow Regs, Power Ins (already like it), etc., so I can allocate points intelligently this time...
Comments
Still unhappy with my shield perf, but tha has more to do with my borked toon respec than anything else. Regardless, I'm now officially an Aux2Bat guy - and this without any special Doffs or other mods. Can't wait to tune the config further to see how far I can push this creaky old Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser design...
RCK
Yes, I saw that. It was a lot different from my skills. And you need Tactical Team in your abilites. If automatically distributes shield power to the side, which is getting pounded at. So you have to put TT1 in your ensign tac slot and slot two conn officers. TT1 is an absolute must, it has to run on global cooldown.
For what it's worth, a couple of hours ago I did a run without Aux2Bat.
Build - DPS
I was still at 10.8k. Yet, the Fleet Assault Cruiser's boff layout allows to compensate for that very well.
Doffs: two purple conn officers, two purple damage control engineers, one space warfare
I followed some other guide, then got caught trying to balance all of the points to reach 366K. In the end, I wasted too much in the Admiral level weapons skills, especially torps. Should have put more into engineering stuff since that's where I spent them during my level-up days (way...way...way back when).
I've always been one to err on the side of defense/protection - which is why pre-re-spec I could tank like a cruiser in my Patrol Escort. But I was hungry for DPS magic, so I went full-tilt Tac and yet didn't gain much from it (I was still stuck at 8K before I discovered the joys of Aux2Bat).
Moral of the story: Balanced characters are more well-rounded in combat.
Anyway, a couple of questions about your build:
1. Why the EPS consoles? How do these help vs. just sticking some Field Gens in there?
2. Where can I get a Plasmonic Leech console? Note: I never completed the majority of the single-player campaigns, so...more of an STF/quick match kind of player.
3. 4x Polaron consoles but no Quantum Zero Point?
4. Should I just go full-on Beam Boat? Is there even a point in keeping a torp on board? Or the cutting beam, for that matter? Will this net me more or less DPS, in your experience? Note: I've got a surplus of arrays, so I can equip and experiment all day at this point.
BTW, thanks again for all the advice!
RCK
Yeah... Because the Defiant IS TINY. It is a little toy of a ship. It is a battle runabout not a real Starship. The Sovereign is big battleship of a cruiser that could fit the Defiant in a shuttle bay so of COURSE it looks HUGE by comparison. Do not fool yourself or let STO fool you with their horrible scaling the Defiant is NOT a big ship.
My Tactical Bortasqu' would like to have a word with you about Tactical Console maximums on a Cruiser... Honestly though with SOME cruisers set up PROPERLY with a Tactical Captain you CAN out DPS an Escort. What you cannot do is out Spike a proper Escort.
... YES. More so in my Scimitar. However, I do love the feeling of utter invincibility I have in my Odyssey Tact and Bortasqu' Tact.
Your tactical Bort can sit in a corner and be quiet. I have never at any point in time said that KDF BATTLEcruisers were gimped. I was talking about FED cruisers. In fact I am almost to the point where I agree with travelingmaster. If you have issues with your fed cruiser, go KDF battlecruiser.
Or the new Rommie warbirds. They are quite... nasty...
Ouch... my tac/scort barely makes 7k, outdone by my eng/excelsior
The even sader news is that I've tried everything I can think of to improve that figure and failed dismally
USS WARRIOR NCC 1720 Commanding Officer
Star Trek Gamers
Breen Chel'gret warship. Mogai Warbird Retrofit. Scimitar Dreadnought Warbird. Chimera, Pegh'qu. Mobius, Krenn, etc. There are plenty of destroyers in game.
1. That build doesn't have EPS consoles, just Flow Capacitors consoles, which boost both the proc on Polaron weapons and the Plasmonic Leech. Plus since they're Embassy consoles they give a boost to threat and add the plasma proc to the weapons for extra damage.
2. Plasmonic Leech is from one of the lockbox console packs, best place to get it is the Exchange.
3. Absolutely. That build mainly relies on its energy weapons, and it has far more of them than of torpedoes, so maxing out the energy weapons definitely makes the most sense.
4. Definitely don't do that. At a minimum keep the KCB, the 2 piece proc of that with the Assimilated Module is hugely valuable for beam broadsides with their drain issues. 6 beams was the sweet spot for some time, above that power drain hit so hard you didn't gain anything, but with the introduction of the KCB and overcapping 7 beams might be better, but on the other hand the KCB is draining power too, and it's the Wide Angle torp so you can use it while broadsiding, so I'd keep it.
OK, so Flow Capacitor skills and consoles help with Polaron damage. Good to know going forward. I'll perhaps drop the Quantum Zero Point module for another Polaron Phase Modulator (got a bunch of those on various ships), however, I don't have the wide-angle Quantum so I'm suck with the Omega Torp or regular Quantum launchers. Hence the RCS console, which makes my Turn Rate 8 cruiser into more like a Turn Rate 10 or 11 frigate - enough to get the Omega Torp on target for a high yield 60-70K Plasma Bolt once the target's shields are down, etc.
Anyway, I'm getting consistent 8-10K DPS outings now (and feeling the additional aggro from the Borg NPCs - what fun!), so I'm heading in the right direction. I'll look on the Exchange for both the Leech and Wide Angle Quantum, assuming it's even possible to buy one - it's not Bound or anything weird like that? Any way to buy one outside of Exchange, e.g. for Dil?
RCK
Flow capacitator skills will not enhance polaron damage. They will only increase the amount of energy drain of the polaron procc and the leech console.
So there's no point in investing in Flow Capacitor skills? Doesn't the procc effect of the Polaron weapons help to drain power and make the target more susceptible to the raw damage output? Or is the effect not worth the point investment? And doesn't FC also affect EPtS and EPtW in an Aux2Bat scenario?
I see by your build that you didn't invest the points at a character level but that you equipped 2x FC consoles. Can I ask your thinking behind this arrangement?
Also, why no Eng Perf, Hull Plating or much in the way of Admiral-level skills? And is the investment in Inertial Dampeners worthwhile?
Note: I'm working on my next re-spec (need about a week to convert the necessary dil farming) to try and correct my recent borking. This is what I have so far, though it sounds like I should rethink the investment in FC skills:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=rcktac2013revd_0
RCK
attack patterns on 9 is a waste, 6 is enough. put other in driver coil.
no particle generators - too bad. plasma torps burning will get significant benefit from it as well as a lot of universal consoles and other skills like warp plasma or acetone beam.
ground:
completely weird. no ground skill is it worth to get them on 9, most even not a single point.
grenades are one of the best weapons tac has. you have 0 here.
ps generators giving pitiful reward for the points investment. trash it completely.
squad command boost a lot of buffs, it is worth 6 points.
advance tactics on other hand is weak, those debuffs are useful as they are. putting the points here give you a very marginal rewards.
also i'd recommend at least 3 points in willpower and combat armor. last one truly shines on polyalloy armors.
special forces enough to have 3, the only useful skill here is target optics.
Good to know! Sounds like my best bet is to simply spread the wealth and have at least a few points everywhere.
As for ground, I ever do those missions, so...NBD.
Thanks for the feedback!
RCK
In general, you want to max things out at 7 points at MOST. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, the last two points only have a 2% TOPS affect on anything.
Could you guide me as to which ones ARE worth going above 7 points for a Tac officer flying cruisers and doing Aux2Bat?
Note: Got sick of the NPCs draining my shields all the time so I grabbed a Mark 12 Purple (+30) Power Insulator console from the Exchange. HUGE difference in survivability - my shields no longer evaporate at the sight of a cube or sphere, though gates are still a PITA.
RCK
Maybe starship weapons training, maybe attack patterns. Basically any skill that you cannot get a boost from using equipment/items you would CONSIDER (not must, but consider) putting the extra 2 points in.
Also, just put 7 points in the power insulators skill. That will reduce drains on you by 42%. Quite nice.
That's what I figured. And the frustrating part is that I *did* allocate into many of those Eng and Sci skills when I was coming up through the levels - just seemed to make sense from a defense/durability standpoint. But after doing thousands of STFs at VA(50) level, and putting out respectable - but not world class (e.g. 6000-8000) - DPS in my Fleet Patrol Escort, I figured I'd neglected the higher level Tac skills in favor of Eng skills.
However, stealing from those Eng and Sci skills in order to max out *all* of my tier 1-3 and 5 Tac skills left me with minimal additional DPS and a much more "brittle" ship build that gets sucked dry by Borg NPCs and their Tachyon nastiness.
So...lesson learned! I'm going to respec as soon as I farm enough new dil (blew 6500 Zen on FSMs for two ships and the respec token), so it's time to finally get the mileage out of them by fixing my borked toon.
And in the meantime, I'll use the Exchange to try some different consoles so I can see the effects of Flow Regs, Power Ins (already like it), etc., so I can allocate points intelligently this time...
RCK