Sorry Meim, but all teams share a global cd of 15 seconds when a tram is triggered.
No new team may be triggered until 15 seconds have passed. The initial team will have 30 seconds cd, the gcd begins at this time as well. So even if you reduce the 30, 15 seconds must be waited for until a team may be triggered again
If you don't believe me. Get a stop watch and do a tt aux2bat cycle. You won't be triggering another tt or et for that matter until 15 secs have passed.
But nobody said, ever, that TT could reduced below 15 secs to begin with. Nothing can, not even A2B. In fact, it would be a serious mistake for anyone to think A2B (without the presence of ET) could push TT past the < 15 global barrier. And nor does it need to, as 15 is precisely enough to have TT perma-run.
I was, however, disputing iskandus' rather outlandish claim, that 'the rapid CD advantage from A2B' on TT1 is negated by the presence of ET. This is simply not the case. With ET presence, the single copy of TT1 will continue to cycle (near) 15 secs, as it did without ET present.
Ok I have no idea what you're saying meim so I think Dahminus has the right idea just saying what it is.
All team abilites TT, ST and ET have a 15s global CD.
They also have a same ability cooldown of 15s.
They all have an Individual cooldowns (as in that one copy of the ability) of 30s.
When you activate Tactical team it puts all team abilities on a 15s GLOBAL cooldown, other tactical teams on a 15s SAME ABILITY cooldown and itself on a 30s INDIVIDUAL cooldown.
A2B reduces the individual cooldown to almost global in most cases. Yes Engineering team is for the most part wasted however there is a massive lack of different ensign engineering powers so while it's not as useful in combat it can be useful during phases of travelling between enemies for repair when you will not need tactical team up as often as possible (15-20s in A2B builds).
You could slot a 3rd emergency to X ability but it's most likely not going to be as much use in an A2B build unless it was aux and that carries it's own drawbacks.
Also Iskandus did you give any thoughts or testing to tykens rift in your drain builds? I would think it works well with tractor beams.
Et or st triggered does not cause tt to go to 15 sec cd. Super easy test...if its true then its a bug
Perhaps a dev can clarify, but I believe this was simply done on purpose. Putting *Team skills on a cooldown with each other was done to prevent people getting too OP to start with (so that they couldn't use both TT and ET, right after each other). However --- kinda mean of them, LOL -- at the same time, they didn't want you to take advantage of it either, like in the example I gave, where you would 'cleverly' decide to add a copy of ST, so as to have a 15 secs cooldown on both ST and TT.
If at any time you pop et, tt will go into a 15 second gcd, thus missing it's cycle to pop for near 100% up time
Well, nobody in his/her right mind is actually *cycling* ET into the mix. (I sure hope not, at least). So, the mere presence of ET is not affecting the CD of the single copy of TT in any way on your A2B build.
As I said a few posts earlier, since TT *does* push ET on a 15 cooldown, when you need ET, you typically need to wait an average of 7.5 secs for it to be available to you (after which, of course, you disrupt the TT cycle *once*). But between Miracle Worker, Hazard Emitters, [SCap], and what not, that is usually not an issue for me.
And like I said earlier, on a Fleet Excelsior, there's isn't much else useful you can slot for that remaining Ensign Engineer station, really. Might as well put ET1 in, and be happy for when you actually need it.
Since you're all on the subject of cooldown timers, I'll give you a tip. If you have more than one of the same cannon skill and nothing else, don't waste a doff slot on a cannon energy weapons doff. Completely useless because of the same argument relating to TT.
The next post is to get back to the subject because all this talk of cooldown timers belongs elsewhere.
I recommend Tetryon based weapons because they are a logical fit to the Nukara Tetryon DBB. Many prefer Polaron, which is possible but it will likely cost them in either Flow Capacitor skills or lower weapon damage. In addition, an Adapted MACO or Jem Hadard Deflector is highly recommended as well, so is the Rule 62 combat console. Other than that, you are pretty free to choose whatever equipment you want.
The Nukara two piece bonus seems nice, but you could run Polaron weapons with the two piece Omega set (Tetryon Glider > Tetryon proc). Phased polaron weapons, even better (3 procs total).
Well, nobody in his/her right mind is actually *cycling* ET into the mix. (I sure hope not, at least). So, the mere presence of ET is not affecting the CD of the single copy of TT in any way on your A2B build.
As I said a few posts earlier, since TT *does* push ET on a 15 cooldown, when you need ET, you typically need to wait an average of 7.5 secs for it to be available to you (after which, of course, you disrupt the TT cycle *once*). But between Miracle Worker, Hazard Emitters, [SCap], and what not, that is usually not an issue for me.
And like I said earlier, on a Fleet Excelsior, there's isn't much else useful you can slot for that remaining Ensign Engineer station, really. Might as well put ET1 in, and be happy for when you actually need it.
time out,
your saying that the fact et is on your hotbar doesnt affect the gcd. of tt? as in, not pushing it? of course it doesnt.
your saying that the fact et is on your hotbar doesnt affect the gcd. of tt? as in, not pushing it? of course it doesnt.
Well, 'normally' having a skill on a shared cooldown cross-affects the CD of the skill you're cycling as well, regardless of whether you use the 'other' skill or not. Like having a Tachyon Beam slotted will affect the CD of Energy Siphon (whether you actually use the Tachyon Beam or not).
Personally, I regard ET an emergy kinda thing, not cycled normally (I have Hazard Emitters for the frequent plasma burns, and it gives a nice hull heal too). At least Tact skills offer something useful for that pesky 3rd Tact Ensign position (like FAW1 or THY1) that you can actually make part of your routine cycling.
Frankly, thanks to often getting multiple instances of Miracle Worker (courtesy of Grace under Fire), I hardly need ET any more as it is.
Once again, thank you Iskandus for your detailed break-down of my shield performance. You're right about the Res B Elite effective cap coming in under 9K...a major disadvantage vs. the 11K+ effective on my Adapted MACO.
Unfortunately, neither option is ideal for all situations. The Adapted MACO gives me better protection vs. double-taps, but it gets chewed-up rather quickly under sustained fire from multiple targets. The Res B Fleet holds up better under multiple attacker scenarios, but leaves me susceptible to double-taps.
I suppose I could slot a field gen to try to up my burst resistance by raising the Res B's cap. However, it means removing one of my two Mark 12 Embassy FC consoles, and that in turn hurts my overall build.
I could slot a neutronium (I have 2x Fleet Mark 10 and access to 11/12s now), but that would mean moving the Leech from Eng to a Sci slot - again, one of the FC consoles would have to go.
I don't think I should dump any of my other consoles - Nukara, ZP or Borg - since they're all considered "basics" that any beam ship should carry. And my 4x Mark 12 Blue Phase Mods are mandatory since I don't have much "punch" to begin with and need every DPS point for pressure damage.
Question: Will Marion do much for my damage output in PvP? When I've parsed PvE missions DEM3 seemed to add, at most, 8-10%. Is DEM even worth it? Would I be better served by bumping EPtW to a higher level? Or RSP from 2 to 3? Need an honest assessment before I grind the necessary EC (20+ million).
Very tough choices here...this build ROCKs in PvE (especially with the Adapted MACO), and holds up well against most PvP scenarios - just not against elite players with massive spike potential. And I can only assume that these guys were fairly elite as they worked as a team and claimed to be wandering Ker'rat while waiting for their PvP queue to open up. Basically, they slaughtered everyone who came near them, so...
Perhaps I'm at the end of the road in terms of improving my PvP performance? Could this be as far as I can take an A2B Fleet Excelsior?
Also, note, that I'm a Tac officer and thus I don't think I have access to "Miracle Worker" as a passive buff trait. In fact, I'd appreciate advice on trait selection as well since I have Dil to burn and just accepted the default traits when the new system came on line this year.
The Nukara two piece bonus seems nice, but you could run Polaron weapons with the two piece Omega set (Tetryon Glider > Tetryon proc). Phased polaron weapons, even better (3 procs total).
The idea of Tetryon Glider has been thoroughly studied and field tested even but it simply is not feasible in my opinion.
First, the Omega engine is a Hyper Impulse type so that one can interchange with the Elite Fleet Hyper Impulse Engine with little impact. However, if the Adapted MACO Deflector were removed, you'll lose -17.5 in Flow Capacitor for the switch to Omega Deflector. Not to mention -17.5 in Particle Generator skills, affecting both FBP and GW. If the Adapted MACO Defelctor is kept but the Adapted MACO Shield is switched with Omega instead, it will reduce the shield capacity of each facing by a wopping 23%, from 27K down to merely 20.5K.
Furthermore, Tetryon Glider is directly tied to your Flow Capacitor skill. Not having the Nukara 2 pieces console bonus = -15.2 in Flow Capacitor Skill. If we add another -17.5 from losing the Adapted MACO Deflector, that's a loss of almost 33 in Flow Capacitor skill or 21% of the current strength in Flow Capacitors.
At FC = 159, Tetryon Glider drains about 45 shield hitpoint per activation @ Weapons power = 125. But without rapid fire skill or FAW, their DPS will end up being slightly lower since beam fires 0.8 times per second. Turret will fire slightly faster being cannon so let's assume they average around 45 dps per activation per facing.
45 DPS X 5 Weapons X 10 seconds = 2250 additional hitpoints per shield facing over a 10 seconds period
Assuming 50% drain resistance, the actual additional shield drain = 2250 X 50% = 1125 hitpoints per shield facing. Not too bad, you can say since it's a bonus anyway. Except don't forget, your proposal calls for use of Polaron weapon, so that means losing Nukara FC bonus and the Adapted MACO deflector. So we'll have to take 21% off 1125 approximately = 889
This means an additional bonus dps of 89 per shield facing. Is this going to make much of a difference? Let's see :
My Adapted MACO Shield has a base regeneration rate of 210 / 6 seconds. Because the Shield Power is almost always at 130 during combat, it means it will regenerate at 420% of the stated rate = 210 X 4.2 = 882 / 6 seconds = 147 shield hitpoint regenerated / second for each facing. Assuming my target has a shield regeneration comparable to mine, the Tetryon Glider's bonus dps is not nearly enough to overcome the shield's natural regeneration rate.
Now the calculation would be different if the one using the Tetryon Glider is an Escort, say the Kumari with CRF III & 5 fore DHC. But you need to sit down and figure out the additional bonus in dps before committing to Tetryon Glider. In the case of Science ships, the Tetryon Glider is generally a bad idea considering the opportunity cost it presents.
Using Polaron weapons means I will have to switch my Tactical Consoles to Polaron as well and losing the Tetryon Amplifcation bonus in the form of -7.6% in energy damage. Plus, one of the Tetryon DBB is in fact a special DBB - the Nukara Refractiong Tetryon DBB. This is a surprisingly useful weapon in both PvE and PvP. I just solo a Borg Command ship earlier in a Borg Red Alert (although at some points during the Red Alert, there will be one player coming to help but leave within minutes realizing we are only 2 people and assumed we were hopeless), see the screenshot here Solo a Borg Command Ship with limited help in Zeta Andoremeadae the Nukara DBB was key in my survival. At any given point, there would be 4 Plasma Energy Bolt coming after me. Not only I had to keep targeting the Unimatrix ship, I had to clear out the Regeneration Probes as soon as I see one. The Refracting Tetryon beam it generates helps me clear the probes and the Plasma Energy Bolts without having to waste any shots on these pets. I can say I owe it my life during that tough solo match. Never solo a Borg Unimatrix Command ship before and don't envy having to do it again, I finished literarly 10 seconds before running out of time. In PvP, the Refracting Tetryon Beam will clear out nasty things like Transphasic Cluster Torp, pets such as Siphon drones, Elite Interceptors, Temporal Disruption Device, Romulan Hyper Plasma Torp, HY Torpedos including Plasma Energy Bolt from Omega, T'Varo's Destablized Torpedo, all kinds of mines. So switching Polaron will lose the special DBB, in addition to losing damage bonus and bonus Flow Capacitor skills.
Finally, the Phased Polaron weapons, similar to Phased Tetryon series of weapons are non-starters. Each of these weapons only have two modifiers. At best, they will 2 X (Acc) whereas my Fleet Tetryon weapons have 4 modifiers, 2 X Acc + 2 X Dmg. Losing 2 Dmg modifiers will reduce their damage output every shot, for what? A 2.5% chance that there will be a proc? Then, let's look at how useful is those proc. Phased Polaron = 2.5% chance of disabling a subsystem for 5 sec + 2.5% chance of reducing energy level in all susbystems for 5 seconds. The little dip in power level for merely 5 seconds is of nuisance value at best. Even if it does proc, a ship properly spec in power insulation will not feel much in PvP whereas most of the NPC mobs up to the Cube are already drained dry with the existing energy drains from ES, SST and PL. Therefore, the Polaron proc is pretty useless in PvE if you are already a strong drainer as the proc just becomes redundant. In PvP, the value of reducing someone's energy output for merely 5 sec is not terribly useful. Subsystem Targeting lasts more than 3 times longer and with 100% predictability, allowing you to do combo attacks. The unpredictable nature of the Polaron proc and its short duration doesn't really give much of an advantage to do anything with it. Phaser proc can be useful, especially if it proc on shields. But with 4 subsystems, the chance it will proc on shields is about 0.6%, not even 1% of the time. Escorts which fire lots of shots will enjoy greater chance of producing proc. But for Science vessels, the lower chance at proc due to fewer shots will limit the usefulness of these proc.
Polaron in my view is an overrated energy type. Its attraction stems mostly from its synergy with Dominion ships and the Jem Hadar sets. The proc itself is of limited practicality. A properly set up drain build should favor Tetryon as Tetryon proc is a permanent - not temporary - hit to enemies' shields. One of the reason why I survived the solo encounter with the Borg Unimatrix ship at the end is that in the last 2 minutes or so, the Unimatrix ship has lost shields in all 4 of its facings. After almost 8-9 minutes of constant bombardment from Tetryon based weapons, its shields - however strong to begin, were pretty much all evaporated and the constant Energy drain and Beam targeting Shields prevented it from recovering. This allowed the Gravity Well III to do a huge amount of damage every second. The Borg Command ship was losing about 1% of his hull every 1.5 second under GW III without any shields. Knowing how much hull this thing had, that's a ton of damage.
"Escorts which fire lots of shots will enjoy greater chance of producing proc. But for Science vessels, the lower chance at proc due to fewer shots will limit the usefulness of these proc." Which is why polaron is a great proc for escorts or other cannon based ships but not so much a limited science vessel.
Running abilities like CRF with turrets increases procs substantially and you can keep it up a lot of the time but for beams I tend to find it's a nice little bonus that sometimes procs rather than a crux of the build. I also wouldn't recommend tetryon glider unless you had a specific reason for equiping 1 of the omega set and weren't too bothered about the 2nd piece required (usually deflector and engines) to get the bonus. In your case you are bothered so I would skip it.
I do have to ask about this high power GW3, was it buffed by your tactical captain abilities? If it was you might want to mention engineers are not likely to see anywhere near that damage level due to a significant lack of damage buffs and damage resistance debuffs on the captain.
Lol, who said I needed the Nukara set and that I'm thinking of this for a sci captain. I'm going for max drain. Jem'Hadar deflector mk xii, rule 62 console, 2 part omega (for the tetryon glider), and 5 embassy flow caps on a vesta surveillance.
That is about 310 in flow caps without considering other things. Tetryon glider is better than tetryon weapons when using canons, and yes, there is one ship where you can pull this off in without considering other factors.
Lol, who said I needed the Nukara set and that I'm thinking of this for a sci captain. I'm going for max drain. Jem'Hadar deflector mk xii, rule 62 console, 2 part omega (for the tetryon glider), and 5 embassy flow caps on a vesta surveillance.
That is about 310 in flow caps without considering other things. Tetryon glider is better than tetryon weapons when using canons, and yes, there is one ship where you can pull this off in without considering other factors.
Going with polaron? I'd recommend avoiding the aux canons in favor of polaron...with so much drain your powers levels should be relatively high
Going with polaron? I'd recommend avoiding the aux canons in favor of polaron...with so much drain your powers levels should be relatively high
Correct and add the warp core that gives 3.3% extra damage per power level over 75% and you barely miss those two part bonuses people keep chucking here.
Correct and add the warp core that gives 3.3% extra damage per power level over 75% and you barely miss those two part bonuses people keep chucking here.
Hey, khg and t'varo is God mode
Omega with your build could be good for more lolz though
Once again, thank you Iskandus for your detailed break-down of my shield performance. You're right about the Res B Elite effective cap coming in under 9K...a major disadvantage vs. the 11K+ effective on my Adapted MACO.
Unfortunately, neither option is ideal for all situations. The Adapted MACO gives me better protection vs. double-taps, but it gets chewed-up rather quickly under sustained fire from multiple targets. The Res B Fleet holds up better under multiple attacker scenarios, but leaves me susceptible to double-taps.
Flying Cruiser in PvP is tough, I wouldn't dare to try myself. So kudos to you for attempting such a difficult feat. Normally the best way to get out of gangking is to outmaneuver your attacker(s) because once you move out of their firing arc, whether via angle or distance, lol, they can't fire. Sometimes, gangking can get especially nasty. For example, I just got out of Kerrat moments ago. Several well known Klingon players from the forum were there, like Julius (who was in his Marcellus toon in Fleet Valdore), Queen Scora, Virusdancer in his beachball throwing T'Varo, Poppit and more. So we were about 4 Fed circling above Kerrat. All of sudden, the Klingons engaged in a coordinated targeting on me alone. I was hit with 2 back to back Subnukes, 2 VMs and if that's not enough, add a Subspace Rupture cheese ball, then of course coordinated firing. At the end, my hull never went below 80% & shields were holding. I got out of their jam because of my speed and other Feds immediately responded by targeting Klingons, distracting them. I also had FBP on, which deterred them from firing. The point is, no amount of shielding and tanking will last very long against coordinated attacks like that - you have to find a way to get out of their range. After their epic failed gangking, the Klingons quickly cloaked and hide. Another Fed thought I was still under Subnuke even threw me a ST when in fact I already cleared it myself. Klingons & Romulans don't last very long in prolonged dog fighting against Feds who are built to fight without cloak, especially when there are several Feds in close vicinity of each other. So don't think of shields as a way to tank because at the end, they won't last very long if you are under constant fire. Try to think a way to make your ship less dependent on pure tanking. Your addition of APO was a good idea IMO. Instead of EptW, how about EptE? EptE can add a lot of speed to your cruiser. Speed and maneuverability is king in STO, that's the golden rule.
I suppose I could slot a field gen to try to up my burst resistance by raising the Res B's cap. However, it means removing one of my two Mark 12 Embassy FC consoles, and that in turn hurts my overall build.
I could slot a neutronium (I have 2x Fleet Mark 10 and access to 11/12s now), but that would mean moving the Leech from Eng to a Sci slot - again, one of the FC consoles would have to go.
The damn if you do and damn if you don't, I understand completely. You will have to determine what is the right balance for you. I still think instead of thinking about tanking in its traditional sense, you should experiment with speed tanking instead. Julius once remarked that I have a fast Scimitar. Coming from a BoP pilot, that's a high compliment. That Scimitar was built for speed to counter-act one of the main weakness of Scimitar builds. Fed Cruisers are often regarded as easy targets by Klingons in Kerrat because they are too slow. If you can surprise them with your speed, they surely will think twice before seeing you as free lunch.
I don't think I should dump any of my other consoles - Nukara, ZP or Borg - since they're all considered "basics" that any beam ship should carry. And my 4x Mark 12 Blue Phase Mods are mandatory since I don't have much "punch" to begin with and need every DPS point for pressure damage.
I don't consider the Borg console to be mandatory. At the end of the day, +5 weapon or not is pretty irrelevant to you. None of your skill uses Graviton Generator so that boost is totally wasted on your build anyway. And the +5 hull repair is insignificant.
Question: Will Marion do much for my damage output in PvP? When I've parsed PvE missions DEM3 seemed to add, at most, 8-10%. Is DEM even worth it? Would I be better served by bumping EPtW to a higher level? Or RSP from 2 to 3? Need an honest assessment before I grind the necessary EC (20+ million).
Marion is more popular among Klingons than among Feds, at least was, because Klingons have more ready access to decloaked double taping - the main use of Marion. Marion lasts 8 seconds in conjunction with DEM. DEM has a CD of 90 seconds, not sure what its GCD is since I have little experience with it. Everytime you use DEM, your weapon energy drain is minimized, which can make your FAW a little more powerful than usual because they can all be maintained at 125. But the effect is short and you need to be able to time very well. It is still more popular for build using Beam Overload, not so much for Beam FAW. Unless you are having some power management issue with your weapons power while broadsiding, I fail to see the value of Marion for your build. DEM's advantage is its shield bypass capability. Against a ship like mine, where you will have to chew through a gigantic amount of shielding, DEM helps you to keep pressure on a heavily shielded target. Think of it as bonus damage, some Escorts love it. From my perspective, I see a lot of possible counters - the easiest is just to jam sensor the attacker.
Very tough choices here...this build ROCKs in PvE (especially with the Adapted MACO), and holds up well against most PvP scenarios - just not against elite players with massive spike potential. And I can only assume that these guys were fairly elite as they worked as a team and claimed to be wandering Ker'rat while waiting for their PvP queue to open up. Basically, they slaughtered everyone who came near them, so...
Yes, some of those people in Kerrat are very good, others, less so. Don't pay too much attention to their claims however, the Kerrat chat trash talk is quite famous. Like I said before, flying a Cruiser is a challenge. Few people PvP in a Cruiser because the way STO is balanced or lack of balance - is that Cruiser is at a disadvantage vs. other classes and with fewer options as well. The main thing, is don't be discouraged. It's going to take more time and experience to adapt to their attacks. Klingons form casual teams in Kerrat, meaning they are technically not premade but they are more organized and communicate better. More often than not, they will select a target and focus on that one target. They kind of have to because Fed outnumbers them most of the time. It is not unusual to see 4 - 5 Klingons grouping together. As for "they slaughtered everyone who came near them", lol, no. The fact is all Klingons die a lot in Kerrat, it doesn't matter who. They just don't have the numbers, not anymore. Prior to LoR, Kerrat used to be infested with a lot alpha cloaking BoP. Now that many Feds use Romulan Battlecloaks, the BoP is almost extinct. As the BoP leaves, more Fed farmers feel safer enough to come back to farm without being harassed, so the number of Feds in Kerrat has swelled. Many Fed farmers also bought insurance policy in the form of P2W consoles such as Subspace Rupture to deter attacking Klingons. As I said in your PvP forum thread, you need more mileage and experimentation. Some of these Klingons are super hard core - you need time to adapt yourself to their level. In the meantime, try to stay in group or near other Feds. Feds may not be as organized as the Klinks in Kerrat but most of them will help you when they see you are being attacked. Don't be surprised if one of them will throw you Science Team when they see you got subnuked. I know you just came back to STO recently, give yourself some credit for holding your own. I can remember when I first start PvP, boy, I was getting smacked left, right and center. Nowadays in Kerrat, I have no fear of the Klingons, they fear me more. Like when they failed in their epic gangking today, I let them know. Klingons also prefer to hunt easy targets in Kerrat. Those Feds with teeth, they think twice before attacking. Show them your teeth, and make them pay for attacking you.
Perhaps I'm at the end of the road in terms of improving my PvP performance? Could this be as far as I can take an A2B Fleet Excelsior?
I don't believe so. Cruiser is a challenge and steep learning curve, I am repeating myself but this point needs to be hammered again. I identified several points you need to work on in your build, so clearly, you still have a way to got before achieving your Excelsior's full potential. For one, you also need to experiment with speed tanking.
Also, note, that I'm a Tac officer and thus I don't think I have access to "Miracle Worker" as a passive buff trait. In fact, I'd appreciate advice on trait selection as well since I have Dil to burn and just accepted the default traits when the new system came on line this year.
My main is a Tac so I am familiar with Tact traits. However, I need to know what species your Captain is. I may not have access to the same traits as you do due to species difference. For example, as a Betazoid, I don't have access to Efficient Captain. Romulans don't have access to Techie or Astrophysicist. Although I wish they give me bonus to cloak detection since I already have it on ground, no sense not giving to me in space as well, I can dream I know. For my traits, I picked all space traits for Betazoid except Crippling Fire. Then I add two special traits : Inspirational Leader and Helmsman. The last two special traits will set you back by 50 million ec based on the current prices in the Exchange. Crippling Fire is not terribly useful - the decreased accuracy is insignificant at merely -2.4 per critical hit only, stack up to 3 times I believe. Just to give you an idea, the Adapted MACO Shield also has an innate debuff on accuracy and when it procs, it's a -20 accuracy for 10 seconds in addition to placating the enemy. It also proc far more frequently and doesn't require critical hits.
Lol, who said I needed the Nukara set and that I'm thinking of this for a sci captain. I'm going for max drain. Jem'Hadar deflector mk xii, rule 62 console, 2 part omega (for the tetryon glider), and 5 embassy flow caps on a vesta surveillance.
That is about 310 in flow caps without considering other things. Tetryon glider is better than tetryon weapons when using canons, and yes, there is one ship where you can pull this off in without considering other factors.
Whether your Captain is Sci or otherwise, makes no difference in the Flow Capacitor skill. I have access to all the traits that you can access as far as FC is concerned. Here is your Vesta's Flow Capacitor skill :
We know Flow Capacitor skill has a linear relationship with the powers it affects. Mathematically, we have two points on a same slope, so we can compute Tetryon Glider's effect @ FC = 313 as follows :
(60.8 - 56.8) / 31.9 = 0.125392 shield hitpoint drain per every 1% in Flow Capacitor Skill
(313 - 286) X 0.125392 = + 3.4 in shield drain per activation
60.8 + 3.4 = 64.2 shield drain per activation @ FC = 313 and Weapons power = 125 => Lucho80's drain build
Assuming Lucho80's use 3 DHCs fore and 2 turrets aft. DHC fire at 0.6 activation / second, turret fire at 1.3 activation / second. Average firing rate = ( 0.6 X 3 + 1.3 X 2 ) / 5 = 0.88 activation / second
Average shield drain per second using Tetryon Glider for Lucho80 = Average Firing Rate X Shield Drain per Activation = 0.88 activation / second X 64.2 shield drain / activation = 56.5 shield drain / second
How good is the above? Let's do a quick benchmark against Pure Science hybrid build :
The Utopia uses 3 beams and 2 turrets. Beams fire at 0.8 activation / second, turret fire at 1.3 activation / second. Average firing rate = (0.8 X 3 + 1.3 X 2) / 5 = 1.00 activation / second
Average shield drain per second using Tetryon Glider for USS Utopia = Average Firing Rate X Shield Drain per Activation = 1.00 activation / second X 46.1 shield drain / activation = 46.1 shield drain / second
Over a period of 10 seconds :
Lucho80's proposed build will drain an additional : 56.5 X 5 weapons X 10 seconds = 2825 shield drain per facing
vs.
USS Utopia : 46.1 X 5 weapons X 10 seconds = 2305 shield drain per facing
However, the DHC will be less accurate than Beams due to the latter having a +10 accuracy bonus from Nukara Particle Converter which can only benefit beams. Therefore, the extra 52 DPS must be adjusted downward for lower accuracy rating to about 49. In addition, Vesta has only a turn rate of 12 but its 3 fore DHC has a limited firing arc of 45 degree vs. two 90 degree DBB and 3 X 360 degree cutting beam & turrets on a faster ship. This means, the Vesta will be out of its firing arc far more often due to lesser turn rate, lesser inertia rating and much reduced firing arc. So while in theory, you can get 49 additional dps per second per shield facing, the Vesta won't be able to stay on its firing arc as often as a Wells can using beams, therefore, the 49 dps is only a theoretical number at best.
More importantly, by adding 5 Embassy Mk XII Flow Capacitors only to score an additional DPS per facing of 49 vs a ship that has zero Embassy FC console clearly demonstrate Tetryon Glider is not worth the trouble. That extra damage will be easily healed over by any shields' natural regeneration rate.
In fact, I am probably overstating your hull and shielding, since I have reputation bonus that gives extra hull and +30 shield system. Your hull will be barely higher than that of a BoP and below average shielding for Science vessels at only 11K. Even RCK's Cruiser with just the Adapted MACO Shield will have about the same amount of shielding as you do, despite a much lower shield modifier except he has almost the double amount of your hull.
Conclusion : Tetryon Glider is so not worth effort and opportunity cost even with 5 X Embassy Mk XII Flow Capacitor consoles + Jem Hadar Mk XII Deflector. Part of the reason is because the Tetryon Glider drain is dependent on weapons power as well, therefore, FC skill increase doesn't augment its drain by nearly as much if it were the sole factor. Tetryon weapons with Nukara set remains much more logical choice than the redundant Polaron using cannons that are less accurate and less useful.
I actually saw that in Kerrat Iskandus and you left shortly after. Shame as we were really messing up the alpha strikes by pinning the BoPs and sending torp after torp int their hull.
Rcks did take on that queen scora guy on his own and forced him to warp out as far as I could see. Rcks was speed tanking and heavy hitting with DEM giving decent sustained damage. It is a good build he has.
One reason to use the borg console is so you can attach the kinetic cutting beam and get the omega amp proc. I know it says 2.5% chance and all that but it is a very noticable increase to DPS when it procs and it's a fairly common proc to happen from experience.
As for where to go from fleet excelsior, well there's only one other cruiser that will compare and that's the fleet assault cruiser if only for it not having that 3rd ensign engineering station. If you have a full human crew and some points in inertial dampners you'll shake off a VM like it's nothing. Another thing to consider is if you're going for all beams and polarons then maybe switching out the ZP module and using the nukara particle converter console for the accuracy with beams?
For example, I just got out of Kerrat moments ago. Several well known Klingon players from the forum were there, like Julius (who was in his Marcellus toon in Fleet Valdore), Queen Scora, Virusdancer in his beachball throwing T'Varo, Poppit and more.
Wow! That's a veritable rogues gallery of people I've fought alongside or against in Ker'rat! We must travel in similar circles.
Some notables I've encountered in the "War Zone":
Poppit - Popped him several times. He keeps trying to alpha me but his timing is off or something. Always a blast.
Queen Scora - 1v1'd him/her/it last night after watching her taunt everyone for a good 30 minutes. Blooper had a go at her earlier in the evening (was a draw), and then I caught her by cracked and initiated the festivities. Queenie hit me with her full-on drain build and I proceeded to grind her down to sub-30% hull before she bailed on the match and warped out of the system. The entire fed contingent was laughing as she ran.
Cyrox - Popped him after a prolonged slog-fest. Pressure damage was just too much for him over time. Good player, though, and I fear being alpha'd in revenge some day soon...
Nokhor - My evil twin. We go at it every once in a while - battles always last until the timeout, with neither side able to inflict any serious damaged on the other. I blame his damned Res A shields! Who the hell equips Res A, anyway? It's just not fair!
GH'OST - A bit of a temperamental type. Moody and easily aggravated. He gave me fits when I first arrived, but since I tweaked my build and rolled in the new shield and APO, he's just a slow grind into the dust - like Nokhor, but with less shield strength to put off the inevitable. And he just LOVES his aceton assimilators.
T'ommo - Had him down to <20% hull when the timer popped. He dodged the rematch by claiming a RL commitment. Looking forward to our next go around.
There have been other, less memorable players - smaller, weaker BOPs that I've ROFL-stomped on their first pass and "wolf packs" of elites who pounded me into the ground in a matter of minutes. But I think I must be doing something right because I'm attracting more and more attention from the ganking crowds whenever I fly over the map in my "looking for trouble, come kill the big fat feddie cruiser" mode.
Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't run into each other there. FYI, I fly under a pseudonym: Jacob Lightener.
If you can beat or force them to run away in 1v1 your build is not fail. Unfortunately in PvP and Kerrat it's not 1v1, it's lets all pick on the weaker kids. Anyone seen to be weak will get 3-5 players ganking them and usually will need back up. Only ships I've seen able to take on 5 ships and win are JHAS speed tanks but even they die to subnuc most of the time.
As far as I could see Iskandus was there are the same time. His name was Iskan and I was Talulah in the LRSV. It's not set up for PvP but it has some tricks up its sleeve if it gets into trouble.
One piece of friendly advice I could offer is don't bite off more than you can chew. I saw you draw most of the borg in the zone onto you and you handled them nicely but all a BoP will need is to decloak alpha when your shields drop to the neutralizer and yer toast if an ally isn't around.
If you can beat or force them to run away in 1v1 your build is not fail. Unfortunately in PvP and Kerrat it's not 1v1, it's lets all pick on the weaker kids. Anyone seen to be weak will get 3-5 players ganking them and usually will need back up. Only ships I've seen able to take on 5 ships and win are JHAS speed tanks but even they die to subnuc most of the time.
As far as I could see Iskandus was there are the same time. His name was Iskan and I was Talulah in the LRSV. It's not set up for PvP but it has some tricks up its sleeve if it gets into trouble.
One piece of friendly advice I could offer is don't bite off more than you can chew. I saw you draw most of the borg in the zone onto you and you handled them nicely but all a BoP will need is to decloak alpha when your shields drop to the neutralizer and yer toast if an ally isn't around.
Thanks for the kind words here and above - it means a lot to have veteran players acknowledge my progress. Again, I've been at PvP for just a couple of weeks now, so I'm still learning as I go. Being patient and working on my buff timing has done more to improve my performance than any equipment change. I guess there's simply no substitute for in-game experience.
Re: the Borg sapping while the Klinks are zapping, I've accepted that this is the risk I take for venturing into the PvE portion of the map. When I'm seriously grinding EC - and thus chasing after every repair hulk - I really don't care if someone double-taps me (many have tried - a few have succeeded). It's the cost of doing business, and makes my revenge strike all the more sweeter after I respawn.
Challenge is on Fed petaq. I will make you pay for slaughtering so many Borg.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Too many numbers thrown at you at a single post? Want to just see the basics of how the flow capacitor skill helps weapons/consoles/set bonuses with power insulators at zero for your target? See my doc:
Note 1: Fell free to comment on anything you see since I could have screwed up with all the console swapping. While the power drain equation always gives the exact answer, the same can't be said for shield drain from tetryon. As you can see, I didn't put anything for tetryon glider because the equation I got gave results that were way too off. Note 2: To account for power insulators just replace flow capacitors with (flow capacitors - target power insulators). I tested this for the power drains since it's easily doable.
Yeah, I need better doffs. I'm also working on getting my Nukara rep up so I can get the console and the refracting beam bank. So far the build works fine, but any suggestions would be nice.
Also, if anyone has a list of doffs I can buy that I can use to reliably crit the B'tran Cluster repeatable mission, I'd be grateful.
Comments
Et or st triggered does not cause tt to go to 15 sec cd. Super easy test...if its true then its a bug
But I'm sure the gcd will happen
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
But nobody said, ever, that TT could reduced below 15 secs to begin with.
I was, however, disputing iskandus' rather outlandish claim, that 'the rapid CD advantage from A2B' on TT1 is negated by the presence of ET. This is simply not the case. With ET presence, the single copy of TT1 will continue to cycle (near) 15 secs, as it did without ET present.
If at any time you pop et, tt will go into a 15 second gcd, thus missing it's cycle to pop for near 100% up time
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
All team abilites TT, ST and ET have a 15s global CD.
They also have a same ability cooldown of 15s.
They all have an Individual cooldowns (as in that one copy of the ability) of 30s.
When you activate Tactical team it puts all team abilities on a 15s GLOBAL cooldown, other tactical teams on a 15s SAME ABILITY cooldown and itself on a 30s INDIVIDUAL cooldown.
A2B reduces the individual cooldown to almost global in most cases. Yes Engineering team is for the most part wasted however there is a massive lack of different ensign engineering powers so while it's not as useful in combat it can be useful during phases of travelling between enemies for repair when you will not need tactical team up as often as possible (15-20s in A2B builds).
You could slot a 3rd emergency to X ability but it's most likely not going to be as much use in an A2B build unless it was aux and that carries it's own drawbacks.
Also Iskandus did you give any thoughts or testing to tykens rift in your drain builds? I would think it works well with tractor beams.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
Perhaps a dev can clarify, but I believe this was simply done on purpose. Putting *Team skills on a cooldown with each other was done to prevent people getting too OP to start with (so that they couldn't use both TT and ET, right after each other). However --- kinda mean of them, LOL -- at the same time, they didn't want you to take advantage of it either, like in the example I gave, where you would 'cleverly' decide to add a copy of ST, so as to have a 15 secs cooldown on both ST and TT.
Well, nobody in his/her right mind is actually *cycling* ET into the mix.
As I said a few posts earlier, since TT *does* push ET on a 15 cooldown, when you need ET, you typically need to wait an average of 7.5 secs for it to be available to you (after which, of course, you disrupt the TT cycle *once*). But between Miracle Worker, Hazard Emitters, [SCap], and what not, that is usually not an issue for me.
And like I said earlier, on a Fleet Excelsior, there's isn't much else useful you can slot for that remaining Ensign Engineer station, really. Might as well put ET1 in, and be happy for when you actually need it.
The next post is to get back to the subject because all this talk of cooldown timers belongs elsewhere.
The Nukara two piece bonus seems nice, but you could run Polaron weapons with the two piece Omega set (Tetryon Glider > Tetryon proc). Phased polaron weapons, even better (3 procs total).
time out,
your saying that the fact et is on your hotbar doesnt affect the gcd. of tt? as in, not pushing it? of course it doesnt.
Lets just put this in the miscommunication folder
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Well, 'normally' having a skill on a shared cooldown cross-affects the CD of the skill you're cycling as well, regardless of whether you use the 'other' skill or not. Like having a Tachyon Beam slotted will affect the CD of Energy Siphon (whether you actually use the Tachyon Beam or not).
Personally, I regard ET an emergy kinda thing, not cycled normally (I have Hazard Emitters for the frequent plasma burns, and it gives a nice hull heal too). At least Tact skills offer something useful for that pesky 3rd Tact Ensign position (like FAW1 or THY1) that you can actually make part of your routine cycling.
Frankly, thanks to often getting multiple instances of Miracle Worker (courtesy of Grace under Fire), I hardly need ET any more as it is.
Yeah, let's.
Unfortunately, neither option is ideal for all situations. The Adapted MACO gives me better protection vs. double-taps, but it gets chewed-up rather quickly under sustained fire from multiple targets. The Res B Fleet holds up better under multiple attacker scenarios, but leaves me susceptible to double-taps.
I suppose I could slot a field gen to try to up my burst resistance by raising the Res B's cap. However, it means removing one of my two Mark 12 Embassy FC consoles, and that in turn hurts my overall build.
I could slot a neutronium (I have 2x Fleet Mark 10 and access to 11/12s now), but that would mean moving the Leech from Eng to a Sci slot - again, one of the FC consoles would have to go.
I don't think I should dump any of my other consoles - Nukara, ZP or Borg - since they're all considered "basics" that any beam ship should carry. And my 4x Mark 12 Blue Phase Mods are mandatory since I don't have much "punch" to begin with and need every DPS point for pressure damage.
Question: Will Marion do much for my damage output in PvP? When I've parsed PvE missions DEM3 seemed to add, at most, 8-10%. Is DEM even worth it? Would I be better served by bumping EPtW to a higher level? Or RSP from 2 to 3? Need an honest assessment before I grind the necessary EC (20+ million).
Very tough choices here...this build ROCKs in PvE (especially with the Adapted MACO), and holds up well against most PvP scenarios - just not against elite players with massive spike potential. And I can only assume that these guys were fairly elite as they worked as a team and claimed to be wandering Ker'rat while waiting for their PvP queue to open up. Basically, they slaughtered everyone who came near them, so...
Perhaps I'm at the end of the road in terms of improving my PvP performance? Could this be as far as I can take an A2B Fleet Excelsior?
Also, note, that I'm a Tac officer and thus I don't think I have access to "Miracle Worker" as a passive buff trait. In fact, I'd appreciate advice on trait selection as well since I have Dil to burn and just accepted the default traits when the new system came on line this year.
RCK
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=rcktacfahcrevr_0
RCK
The idea of Tetryon Glider has been thoroughly studied and field tested even but it simply is not feasible in my opinion.
First, the Omega engine is a Hyper Impulse type so that one can interchange with the Elite Fleet Hyper Impulse Engine with little impact. However, if the Adapted MACO Deflector were removed, you'll lose -17.5 in Flow Capacitor for the switch to Omega Deflector. Not to mention -17.5 in Particle Generator skills, affecting both FBP and GW. If the Adapted MACO Defelctor is kept but the Adapted MACO Shield is switched with Omega instead, it will reduce the shield capacity of each facing by a wopping 23%, from 27K down to merely 20.5K.
Furthermore, Tetryon Glider is directly tied to your Flow Capacitor skill. Not having the Nukara 2 pieces console bonus = -15.2 in Flow Capacitor Skill. If we add another -17.5 from losing the Adapted MACO Deflector, that's a loss of almost 33 in Flow Capacitor skill or 21% of the current strength in Flow Capacitors.
At FC = 159, Tetryon Glider drains about 45 shield hitpoint per activation @ Weapons power = 125. But without rapid fire skill or FAW, their DPS will end up being slightly lower since beam fires 0.8 times per second. Turret will fire slightly faster being cannon so let's assume they average around 45 dps per activation per facing.
45 DPS X 5 Weapons X 10 seconds = 2250 additional hitpoints per shield facing over a 10 seconds period
Assuming 50% drain resistance, the actual additional shield drain = 2250 X 50% = 1125 hitpoints per shield facing. Not too bad, you can say since it's a bonus anyway. Except don't forget, your proposal calls for use of Polaron weapon, so that means losing Nukara FC bonus and the Adapted MACO deflector. So we'll have to take 21% off 1125 approximately = 889
This means an additional bonus dps of 89 per shield facing. Is this going to make much of a difference? Let's see :
My Adapted MACO Shield has a base regeneration rate of 210 / 6 seconds. Because the Shield Power is almost always at 130 during combat, it means it will regenerate at 420% of the stated rate = 210 X 4.2 = 882 / 6 seconds = 147 shield hitpoint regenerated / second for each facing. Assuming my target has a shield regeneration comparable to mine, the Tetryon Glider's bonus dps is not nearly enough to overcome the shield's natural regeneration rate.
Now the calculation would be different if the one using the Tetryon Glider is an Escort, say the Kumari with CRF III & 5 fore DHC. But you need to sit down and figure out the additional bonus in dps before committing to Tetryon Glider. In the case of Science ships, the Tetryon Glider is generally a bad idea considering the opportunity cost it presents.
Using Polaron weapons means I will have to switch my Tactical Consoles to Polaron as well and losing the Tetryon Amplifcation bonus in the form of -7.6% in energy damage. Plus, one of the Tetryon DBB is in fact a special DBB - the Nukara Refractiong Tetryon DBB. This is a surprisingly useful weapon in both PvE and PvP. I just solo a Borg Command ship earlier in a Borg Red Alert (although at some points during the Red Alert, there will be one player coming to help but leave within minutes realizing we are only 2 people and assumed we were hopeless), see the screenshot here Solo a Borg Command Ship with limited help in Zeta Andoremeadae the Nukara DBB was key in my survival. At any given point, there would be 4 Plasma Energy Bolt coming after me. Not only I had to keep targeting the Unimatrix ship, I had to clear out the Regeneration Probes as soon as I see one. The Refracting Tetryon beam it generates helps me clear the probes and the Plasma Energy Bolts without having to waste any shots on these pets. I can say I owe it my life during that tough solo match. Never solo a Borg Unimatrix Command ship before and don't envy having to do it again, I finished literarly 10 seconds before running out of time. In PvP, the Refracting Tetryon Beam will clear out nasty things like Transphasic Cluster Torp, pets such as Siphon drones, Elite Interceptors, Temporal Disruption Device, Romulan Hyper Plasma Torp, HY Torpedos including Plasma Energy Bolt from Omega, T'Varo's Destablized Torpedo, all kinds of mines. So switching Polaron will lose the special DBB, in addition to losing damage bonus and bonus Flow Capacitor skills.
Finally, the Phased Polaron weapons, similar to Phased Tetryon series of weapons are non-starters. Each of these weapons only have two modifiers. At best, they will 2 X (Acc) whereas my Fleet Tetryon weapons have 4 modifiers, 2 X Acc + 2 X Dmg. Losing 2 Dmg modifiers will reduce their damage output every shot, for what? A 2.5% chance that there will be a proc? Then, let's look at how useful is those proc. Phased Polaron = 2.5% chance of disabling a subsystem for 5 sec + 2.5% chance of reducing energy level in all susbystems for 5 seconds. The little dip in power level for merely 5 seconds is of nuisance value at best. Even if it does proc, a ship properly spec in power insulation will not feel much in PvP whereas most of the NPC mobs up to the Cube are already drained dry with the existing energy drains from ES, SST and PL. Therefore, the Polaron proc is pretty useless in PvE if you are already a strong drainer as the proc just becomes redundant. In PvP, the value of reducing someone's energy output for merely 5 sec is not terribly useful. Subsystem Targeting lasts more than 3 times longer and with 100% predictability, allowing you to do combo attacks. The unpredictable nature of the Polaron proc and its short duration doesn't really give much of an advantage to do anything with it. Phaser proc can be useful, especially if it proc on shields. But with 4 subsystems, the chance it will proc on shields is about 0.6%, not even 1% of the time. Escorts which fire lots of shots will enjoy greater chance of producing proc. But for Science vessels, the lower chance at proc due to fewer shots will limit the usefulness of these proc.
Polaron in my view is an overrated energy type. Its attraction stems mostly from its synergy with Dominion ships and the Jem Hadar sets. The proc itself is of limited practicality. A properly set up drain build should favor Tetryon as Tetryon proc is a permanent - not temporary - hit to enemies' shields. One of the reason why I survived the solo encounter with the Borg Unimatrix ship at the end is that in the last 2 minutes or so, the Unimatrix ship has lost shields in all 4 of its facings. After almost 8-9 minutes of constant bombardment from Tetryon based weapons, its shields - however strong to begin, were pretty much all evaporated and the constant Energy drain and Beam targeting Shields prevented it from recovering. This allowed the Gravity Well III to do a huge amount of damage every second. The Borg Command ship was losing about 1% of his hull every 1.5 second under GW III without any shields. Knowing how much hull this thing had, that's a ton of damage.
"Escorts which fire lots of shots will enjoy greater chance of producing proc. But for Science vessels, the lower chance at proc due to fewer shots will limit the usefulness of these proc." Which is why polaron is a great proc for escorts or other cannon based ships but not so much a limited science vessel.
Running abilities like CRF with turrets increases procs substantially and you can keep it up a lot of the time but for beams I tend to find it's a nice little bonus that sometimes procs rather than a crux of the build. I also wouldn't recommend tetryon glider unless you had a specific reason for equiping 1 of the omega set and weren't too bothered about the 2nd piece required (usually deflector and engines) to get the bonus. In your case you are bothered so I would skip it.
I do have to ask about this high power GW3, was it buffed by your tactical captain abilities? If it was you might want to mention engineers are not likely to see anywhere near that damage level due to a significant lack of damage buffs and damage resistance debuffs on the captain.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
That is about 310 in flow caps without considering other things. Tetryon glider is better than tetryon weapons when using canons, and yes, there is one ship where you can pull this off in without considering other factors.
Going with polaron? I'd recommend avoiding the aux canons in favor of polaron...with so much drain your powers levels should be relatively high
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Correct and add the warp core that gives 3.3% extra damage per power level over 75% and you barely miss those two part bonuses people keep chucking here.
Hey, khg and t'varo is God mode
Omega with your build could be good for more lolz though
Whats left? Inspirational leader and t5 rom buff?
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Flying Cruiser in PvP is tough, I wouldn't dare to try myself. So kudos to you for attempting such a difficult feat. Normally the best way to get out of gangking is to outmaneuver your attacker(s) because once you move out of their firing arc, whether via angle or distance, lol, they can't fire. Sometimes, gangking can get especially nasty. For example, I just got out of Kerrat moments ago. Several well known Klingon players from the forum were there, like Julius (who was in his Marcellus toon in Fleet Valdore), Queen Scora, Virusdancer in his beachball throwing T'Varo, Poppit and more. So we were about 4 Fed circling above Kerrat. All of sudden, the Klingons engaged in a coordinated targeting on me alone. I was hit with 2 back to back Subnukes, 2 VMs and if that's not enough, add a Subspace Rupture cheese ball, then of course coordinated firing. At the end, my hull never went below 80% & shields were holding. I got out of their jam because of my speed and other Feds immediately responded by targeting Klingons, distracting them. I also had FBP on, which deterred them from firing. The point is, no amount of shielding and tanking will last very long against coordinated attacks like that - you have to find a way to get out of their range. After their epic failed gangking, the Klingons quickly cloaked and hide. Another Fed thought I was still under Subnuke even threw me a ST when in fact I already cleared it myself. Klingons & Romulans don't last very long in prolonged dog fighting against Feds who are built to fight without cloak, especially when there are several Feds in close vicinity of each other. So don't think of shields as a way to tank because at the end, they won't last very long if you are under constant fire. Try to think a way to make your ship less dependent on pure tanking. Your addition of APO was a good idea IMO. Instead of EptW, how about EptE? EptE can add a lot of speed to your cruiser. Speed and maneuverability is king in STO, that's the golden rule.
The damn if you do and damn if you don't, I understand completely. You will have to determine what is the right balance for you. I still think instead of thinking about tanking in its traditional sense, you should experiment with speed tanking instead. Julius once remarked that I have a fast Scimitar. Coming from a BoP pilot, that's a high compliment. That Scimitar was built for speed to counter-act one of the main weakness of Scimitar builds. Fed Cruisers are often regarded as easy targets by Klingons in Kerrat because they are too slow. If you can surprise them with your speed, they surely will think twice before seeing you as free lunch.
I don't consider the Borg console to be mandatory. At the end of the day, +5 weapon or not is pretty irrelevant to you. None of your skill uses Graviton Generator so that boost is totally wasted on your build anyway. And the +5 hull repair is insignificant.
Marion is more popular among Klingons than among Feds, at least was, because Klingons have more ready access to decloaked double taping - the main use of Marion. Marion lasts 8 seconds in conjunction with DEM. DEM has a CD of 90 seconds, not sure what its GCD is since I have little experience with it. Everytime you use DEM, your weapon energy drain is minimized, which can make your FAW a little more powerful than usual because they can all be maintained at 125. But the effect is short and you need to be able to time very well. It is still more popular for build using Beam Overload, not so much for Beam FAW. Unless you are having some power management issue with your weapons power while broadsiding, I fail to see the value of Marion for your build. DEM's advantage is its shield bypass capability. Against a ship like mine, where you will have to chew through a gigantic amount of shielding, DEM helps you to keep pressure on a heavily shielded target. Think of it as bonus damage, some Escorts love it. From my perspective, I see a lot of possible counters - the easiest is just to jam sensor the attacker.
Yes, some of those people in Kerrat are very good, others, less so. Don't pay too much attention to their claims however, the Kerrat chat trash talk is quite famous. Like I said before, flying a Cruiser is a challenge. Few people PvP in a Cruiser because the way STO is balanced or lack of balance - is that Cruiser is at a disadvantage vs. other classes and with fewer options as well. The main thing, is don't be discouraged. It's going to take more time and experience to adapt to their attacks. Klingons form casual teams in Kerrat, meaning they are technically not premade but they are more organized and communicate better. More often than not, they will select a target and focus on that one target. They kind of have to because Fed outnumbers them most of the time. It is not unusual to see 4 - 5 Klingons grouping together. As for "they slaughtered everyone who came near them", lol, no. The fact is all Klingons die a lot in Kerrat, it doesn't matter who. They just don't have the numbers, not anymore. Prior to LoR, Kerrat used to be infested with a lot alpha cloaking BoP. Now that many Feds use Romulan Battlecloaks, the BoP is almost extinct. As the BoP leaves, more Fed farmers feel safer enough to come back to farm without being harassed, so the number of Feds in Kerrat has swelled. Many Fed farmers also bought insurance policy in the form of P2W consoles such as Subspace Rupture to deter attacking Klingons. As I said in your PvP forum thread, you need more mileage and experimentation. Some of these Klingons are super hard core - you need time to adapt yourself to their level. In the meantime, try to stay in group or near other Feds. Feds may not be as organized as the Klinks in Kerrat but most of them will help you when they see you are being attacked. Don't be surprised if one of them will throw you Science Team when they see you got subnuked. I know you just came back to STO recently, give yourself some credit for holding your own. I can remember when I first start PvP, boy, I was getting smacked left, right and center. Nowadays in Kerrat, I have no fear of the Klingons, they fear me more. Like when they failed in their epic gangking today, I let them know. Klingons also prefer to hunt easy targets in Kerrat. Those Feds with teeth, they think twice before attacking. Show them your teeth, and make them pay for attacking you.
I don't believe so. Cruiser is a challenge and steep learning curve, I am repeating myself but this point needs to be hammered again. I identified several points you need to work on in your build, so clearly, you still have a way to got before achieving your Excelsior's full potential. For one, you also need to experiment with speed tanking.
My main is a Tac so I am familiar with Tact traits. However, I need to know what species your Captain is. I may not have access to the same traits as you do due to species difference. For example, as a Betazoid, I don't have access to Efficient Captain. Romulans don't have access to Techie or Astrophysicist. Although I wish they give me bonus to cloak detection since I already have it on ground, no sense not giving to me in space as well, I can dream I know.
Actually max would be accumulating doff assignment crits. It takes weeks or months but the power drain would be epic.
Whether your Captain is Sci or otherwise, makes no difference in the Flow Capacitor skill. I have access to all the traits that you can access as far as FC is concerned. Here is your Vesta's Flow Capacitor skill :
Sci Vesta FC set up
Flow Capacitor Skill = 237
+ Jem Hadar Mk XII Deflector = +26.2
+ 5th Embassy Mk XII FC Console = +31.9
+ Rule 62 Combat Console + +17.5
= 313
How much does your Tetryon Glider actually drain? Let's see :
Tetryon Glider = 60.8 per activation @ FC = 286 & weapons power = 125
Tetryon Glider = 56.8 per activation @ FC = 255 & weapons power = 125
We know Flow Capacitor skill has a linear relationship with the powers it affects. Mathematically, we have two points on a same slope, so we can compute Tetryon Glider's effect @ FC = 313 as follows :
(60.8 - 56.8) / 31.9 = 0.125392 shield hitpoint drain per every 1% in Flow Capacitor Skill
(313 - 286) X 0.125392 = + 3.4 in shield drain per activation
60.8 + 3.4 = 64.2 shield drain per activation @ FC = 313 and Weapons power = 125 => Lucho80's drain build
Assuming Lucho80's use 3 DHCs fore and 2 turrets aft. DHC fire at 0.6 activation / second, turret fire at 1.3 activation / second. Average firing rate = ( 0.6 X 3 + 1.3 X 2 ) / 5 = 0.88 activation / second
Average shield drain per second using Tetryon Glider for Lucho80 = Average Firing Rate X Shield Drain per Activation = 0.88 activation / second X 64.2 shield drain / activation = 56.5 shield drain / second
How good is the above? Let's do a quick benchmark against Pure Science hybrid build :
Benchmarked against this build : Tetryon Glider = 46.1 per activation @ FC = 159 & weapons power = 125 => This build has zero Flow Capacitor Console
The Utopia uses 3 beams and 2 turrets. Beams fire at 0.8 activation / second, turret fire at 1.3 activation / second. Average firing rate = (0.8 X 3 + 1.3 X 2) / 5 = 1.00 activation / second
Average shield drain per second using Tetryon Glider for USS Utopia = Average Firing Rate X Shield Drain per Activation = 1.00 activation / second X 46.1 shield drain / activation = 46.1 shield drain / second
Over a period of 10 seconds :
Lucho80's proposed build will drain an additional : 56.5 X 5 weapons X 10 seconds = 2825 shield drain per facing
vs.
USS Utopia : 46.1 X 5 weapons X 10 seconds = 2305 shield drain per facing
Gross difference = 2825 - 2305 = 520 additional shield drain / 10 seconds = 52 additional shield drain per second
However, the DHC will be less accurate than Beams due to the latter having a +10 accuracy bonus from Nukara Particle Converter which can only benefit beams. Therefore, the extra 52 DPS must be adjusted downward for lower accuracy rating to about 49. In addition, Vesta has only a turn rate of 12 but its 3 fore DHC has a limited firing arc of 45 degree vs. two 90 degree DBB and 3 X 360 degree cutting beam & turrets on a faster ship. This means, the Vesta will be out of its firing arc far more often due to lesser turn rate, lesser inertia rating and much reduced firing arc. So while in theory, you can get 49 additional dps per second per shield facing, the Vesta won't be able to stay on its firing arc as often as a Wells can using beams, therefore, the 49 dps is only a theoretical number at best.
More importantly, by adding 5 Embassy Mk XII Flow Capacitors only to score an additional DPS per facing of 49 vs a ship that has zero Embassy FC console clearly demonstrate Tetryon Glider is not worth the trouble. That extra damage will be easily healed over by any shields' natural regeneration rate.
At what cost?
Here is the Vesta's defense :
Hull = 37K, Shield = 12K / facing
In fact, I am probably overstating your hull and shielding, since I have reputation bonus that gives extra hull and +30 shield system. Your hull will be barely higher than that of a BoP and below average shielding for Science vessels at only 11K. Even RCK's Cruiser with just the Adapted MACO Shield will have about the same amount of shielding as you do, despite a much lower shield modifier except he has almost the double amount of your hull.
Conclusion : Tetryon Glider is so not worth effort and opportunity cost even with 5 X Embassy Mk XII Flow Capacitor consoles + Jem Hadar Mk XII Deflector. Part of the reason is because the Tetryon Glider drain is dependent on weapons power as well, therefore, FC skill increase doesn't augment its drain by nearly as much if it were the sole factor. Tetryon weapons with Nukara set remains much more logical choice than the redundant Polaron using cannons that are less accurate and less useful.
Yes but just not the Tetryon Glider part, see the post above.
Rcks did take on that queen scora guy on his own and forced him to warp out as far as I could see. Rcks was speed tanking and heavy hitting with DEM giving decent sustained damage. It is a good build he has.
One reason to use the borg console is so you can attach the kinetic cutting beam and get the omega amp proc. I know it says 2.5% chance and all that but it is a very noticable increase to DPS when it procs and it's a fairly common proc to happen from experience.
As for where to go from fleet excelsior, well there's only one other cruiser that will compare and that's the fleet assault cruiser if only for it not having that 3rd ensign engineering station. If you have a full human crew and some points in inertial dampners you'll shake off a VM like it's nothing. Another thing to consider is if you're going for all beams and polarons then maybe switching out the ZP module and using the nukara particle converter console for the accuracy with beams?
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
Wow! That's a veritable rogues gallery of people I've fought alongside or against in Ker'rat! We must travel in similar circles.
Some notables I've encountered in the "War Zone":
Poppit - Popped him several times. He keeps trying to alpha me but his timing is off or something. Always a blast.
Queen Scora - 1v1'd him/her/it last night after watching her taunt everyone for a good 30 minutes. Blooper had a go at her earlier in the evening (was a draw), and then I caught her by cracked and initiated the festivities. Queenie hit me with her full-on drain build and I proceeded to grind her down to sub-30% hull before she bailed on the match and warped out of the system. The entire fed contingent was laughing as she ran.
Cyrox - Popped him after a prolonged slog-fest. Pressure damage was just too much for him over time. Good player, though, and I fear being alpha'd in revenge some day soon...
Nokhor - My evil twin. We go at it every once in a while - battles always last until the timeout, with neither side able to inflict any serious damaged on the other. I blame his damned Res A shields! Who the hell equips Res A, anyway? It's just not fair!
GH'OST - A bit of a temperamental type. Moody and easily aggravated. He gave me fits when I first arrived, but since I tweaked my build and rolled in the new shield and APO, he's just a slow grind into the dust - like Nokhor, but with less shield strength to put off the inevitable. And he just LOVES his aceton assimilators.
T'ommo - Had him down to <20% hull when the timer popped. He dodged the rematch by claiming a RL commitment. Looking forward to our next go around.
There have been other, less memorable players - smaller, weaker BOPs that I've ROFL-stomped on their first pass and "wolf packs" of elites who pounded me into the ground in a matter of minutes. But I think I must be doing something right because I'm attracting more and more attention from the ganking crowds whenever I fly over the map in my "looking for trouble, come kill the big fat feddie cruiser" mode.
Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't run into each other there. FYI, I fly under a pseudonym: Jacob Lightener.
RCK
As far as I could see Iskandus was there are the same time. His name was Iskan and I was Talulah in the LRSV. It's not set up for PvP but it has some tricks up its sleeve if it gets into trouble.
One piece of friendly advice I could offer is don't bite off more than you can chew. I saw you draw most of the borg in the zone onto you and you handled them nicely but all a BoP will need is to decloak alpha when your shields drop to the neutralizer and yer toast if an ally isn't around.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
Thanks for the kind words here and above - it means a lot to have veteran players acknowledge my progress. Again, I've been at PvP for just a couple of weeks now, so I'm still learning as I go. Being patient and working on my buff timing has done more to improve my performance than any equipment change. I guess there's simply no substitute for in-game experience.
Re: the Borg sapping while the Klinks are zapping, I've accepted that this is the risk I take for venturing into the PvE portion of the map. When I'm seriously grinding EC - and thus chasing after every repair hulk - I really don't care if someone double-taps me (many have tried - a few have succeeded). It's the cost of doing business, and makes my revenge strike all the more sweeter after I respawn.
RCK
- Judge Aaron Satie
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqEj142R71cpdE1CZ2Rod1NfMFQtYzJwa1hjN1NlZXc&usp=sharing
Note 1: Fell free to comment on anything you see since I could have screwed up with all the console swapping. While the power drain equation always gives the exact answer, the same can't be said for shield drain from tetryon. As you can see, I didn't put anything for tetryon glider because the equation I got gave results that were way too off.
Note 2: To account for power insulators just replace flow capacitors with (flow capacitors - target power insulators). I tested this for the power drains since it's easily doable.
U.S.S Hornet - Fleet Nova
Weapons:
Piercing Dual Tetryon Beam Bank Mk XI x2
Quantum Torpedo Launcher Mk XI [CrtH]x2
Piercing Tetryon Turret Mk XI x2
Photon Torpedo Launcer Mk XI [Acc]x2 (aft)
Deflector:
Jem'Hadar Deflector Dish Mk XI
Engines:
Combat Impulse Engines Mk XII [Full][Spd][Turn]
Warp Core:
Overcharged Warp Core Mk XI [EPS][W -> A][SST]
Shields:
Covariant Shield Array Mk XI [Cap][Pla][Reg]
Eng Consoles:
Photonic Displacer
Plasmonic Leech
Fleet Neuronium Alloy Mk XI [+Turn]
Science Consoles:
Flow Capacitor Mk XI x2
Fleet Flow Capacitor Mk XI [-Th][Pla] x2
Tactical Consoles:
Tetryon Pulse Generator Mk XI x2
Tetryon Pulse Generator Mk XII
Bridge Officers:
Lt. Cmdr Tac: TT1, HY2, BO3
Lt. Engi: Epts 1, Aux2bat 1
Cmdr Sci: Tractor Beam 1, Tachyon Beam 2, Siphon 2, Siphon 3
Lt Sci: HE1, TSS 2
Ensign Sci: PH 1
Doffs: Law, Technician, Tractor Beam Officer, Sensors Officer
Yeah, I need better doffs. I'm also working on getting my Nukara rep up so I can get the console and the refracting beam bank. So far the build works fine, but any suggestions would be nice.
Also, if anyone has a list of doffs I can buy that I can use to reliably crit the B'tran Cluster repeatable mission, I'd be grateful.