Your completely discounting ability synergy, and your assertion that tractor beams have a faster recharge is false. Both abilities have the same cool down.
Tachyon beams have a shorter duration (5 seconds) then tractor beams which creates the impression that the reuse on the tractor beam is greater. The short duration is a good thing, The longer it takes for an ability to apply its damage the greater the chance a portion of the ability will be wasted after the target pops.
Now you are quite right to praise the boost to damage you get from the hold on the tractor beam, but as you say graviton generators are not required to achieve an acceptable degree of hold the base strength or a level 1 tractor beam is quite sufficient to achieve immobilization of your target with just standard captain skill investment.
There is no need to use a higher level tractor beam then 1 unless your goal is to achieve the maximum amount of damage from it. But to do that you need full aux and a full rack of particle generator consoles. This in turn wouldn't be a bad thing, but now your suffering from lower weapons power so unless your using a projectile build you have sacrificed dps to gain dps.
As your using particle generator consoles your probably also going to want to use other abilities that are effected by them. Photonic shockwave is not a high DPS ability though, as you mentioned the point of using it is the disable. But the disable is only effected by subspace decompiler. In PvP the disable is not easy to exploit in a science ship so you may need a high degree of co-ordination with your friends and you will need to invest heavily in it to make it worthwhile.
In PvE the ability to disable ships is largely irrelevant, and many boss ships are immune. The push from tractor repulses would be more useful, and this ability would do more damage, but it shares a cool down with tractor beam.
Gravity well is us full in any situation with large numbers of closely packed ships that can be clustered to harm each other with their warp core breaches. But it does not synergize fantastically with tractor beam as your mixing AoE and single target abilities. Nothing wrong with this, but its nice when your full load out works together.
Speaking of load outs that work together we find ourselves looking back at flow capacitors.
Using two level 1 tractor beams, a level 3 tachyon beam, a level 2 tachyon beam, an energy syphon 2 and an energy syphon 3 on a science ship gives you a complete set of abilities that all benefit from the same low level captain skill, and a full rack of the same console.
The tachyon beams quickly remove the shield buffer of your target.
The tractor beams add low level shield drain over the long duration to counter regeneration. The energy syphons reduce shield power to also reduce regeneration, they reduce engine power to enhance the hold of the tractor, they reduce weapons power to help you tank and they reduce aux power to lesson the effectiveness of all abilities used. Finaly they boost your own power levels up so that despite running with full aux power you still have juice for energy weapons if you don't want to go with a dedicated projectile load out.
Every ability works together with the others and all are working to their maximum potential except for the tractor beam, which doesn't have such a high particle generator stat to enhance its hull damage.
Now I am not saying a build focusing on particle generators is bad. But the degree of damage you can pump out of science abilities is quite horribly limited, they don't scale up very well with skill investment.
A drain build suffers from targets with power insulators, but a particle build also suffers from targets with kinetic resistance. One of the big differences is that a drain build doesn't force you to chose between energy weapons and science powers. You can have both and benefit from an abundance of system power.
What 5th DOFF do you suggest for the drain/shield stripper build?
This has turned into one of my most favorite threads!
I'm curious: for shield stripping or drain, how effective is the Tac BOff ability - Target Shield Subsystem?
Its not too bad. But in PVE its largely irrelevant as your can drain your targets shield quite easily enough the majority of the time. As some one else pointed out you have level 1 sub system targeting built into science ships, and all subsystem targeting abilities have a shared cool down, so adding Boff versions is not usualy that efficient.
In PVP a level 3 target engines can work wonders on many opponents (who are usually rocking with tractor beam immunity of one sort or another), or target aux to lock out their abilities. In combination with an energy syphon a level 2 or 3 target subsystem is your best chance of knocking a targets power down to useless levels. Usually players lowest power level is their engines so this is a good one to go for, especially on romulan ships.
However focusing on knocking a subsystems power below 25 for the disable is not something you want to rely upon. Its nice when it happens, but if you need it to happen your playing a risky game. Most targets have sizable drain resistance. I usualy expect the power drain of my abilities to be cut in half.
Now that doesn't mean they are useless. If your energy syphon gives all your power levels +50, and knocks theirs down by -25 you have the 75 point advantage. That's a big deal.
What 5th DOFF do you suggest for the drain/shield stripper build?
With the lunar class it has to be hazard emitters (clearing dots is just too important to go without it). I usually try to squeeze hazard emitters and polarize hull (tractor beam immunity and nice resistance buff) on all builds If I can, but the free science ships sacrifice a science ability slot for either a tactical or engineering ability depending on which you take. So to get the polarize hull as well you would have to give up either a tractor or a tachyon beam.
Its also advisable to use its lieutenant level engineering slot on an auxiliary to structural integrity field 1, as this will heal for an appreciable amount with the high aux power and give a substantial resistance boost.
Thank you for the response to my question about the Tac BOff ability. I should probably not try to post a question or a response at the end of my work shift :P I know the Sci ships includes these abilities, but I solo-play a Sci Captain in a Cruiser and use this ability but not really "seeing" it work.
Anyways, I think my question was a form of threadjack but I'm glad to see the answers were on-topic.
* not changeable as the toon has already been made and used his free respec to get them
Traits are pretty cheaply changeable if you don't go overboard with how often you do it: Buy one of the TRIBBLE lockbox traits off the Exchange, they cost practically dirt, but come with a respec included, ostensibly so that you can add the trait...but you don't have to.
The catch being that each of those is only good for one respec for the character's entire life, so don't go too overboard with burning them.
Traits are pretty cheaply changeable if you don't go overboard with how often you do it: Buy one of the TRIBBLE lockbox traits off the Exchange, they cost practically dirt, but come with a respec included, ostensibly so that you can add the trait...but you don't have to.
The catch being that each of those is only good for one respec for the character's entire life, so don't go too overboard with burning them.
Aux2structural is a no go, a good 80% of my powers will be using AUX pwr level, and Bats have too long a CD to use them as a backup reliably.
If I may jump in, this quote makes me think you think Aux2S dumps your aux levels in a manner akin to Aux2Bat; it doesn't do that.
Count me as one more reader that's finding this thread to be invaluable; my Sci captain has been foundering along in her Recon ship for most of this year, hampered by my not having the slightest idea what I wanted her to do. My sincerest thanks to all of this thread's contributors.
Later on,
Generator
=================
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
If I may jump in, this quote makes me think you think Aux2S dumps your aux levels in a manner akin to Aux2Bat; it doesn't do that.
Count me as one more reader that's finding this thread to be invaluable; my Sci captain has been foundering along in her Recon ship for most of this year, hampered by my not having the slightest idea what I wanted her to do. My sincerest thanks to all of this thread's contributors.
Later on,
Generator
ya. figured this out on another toon that doesnt use Aux pwr for much.
Accurate*
Elusive*
Astrophysicist
Warp Theorist*
Conservation of Energy (need feedback on this one)
Ground:
Aggressive*
Soldier
Resilient or Peak health (undecided, help me out)
Creative
* not changeable as the toon has already been made and used his free respec to get them
Accurate and Elusive are the best space traits in the game. Conservation of Energy provides a +30% all Science Damage for ANY ability that is improved by Particle Generator. It would take up a lot of space to list all of the abilities, but this includes Gravity Well, Tykens Rift, Tractor Beam, Eject Warp Plasma, Quantum Focus Field Phaser, Tractor Beam Repulsors, Aceton Beam, and may others.
The bonus from Astrophysicist and Warp Theorist isn't that great. For Astophysicist you are getting a +10 skill bonus to Sensors, Flow Capacitors, and Particle Generators. This translates to about +3.4% more powerful in those areas. Warp Theorist grants +10 to EPS Systems and Warp Core Potential, granting a very insignificant power and power transfer speed bonus. To be honest, Warp Theorist, Astrophysicist, Efficient Captain, and Techie need to have their bonuses doubled to make their bonuses worthwhile. Until that happens, Accurate, Elusive, Conservation of Energy, and Photonic Capacitor are much better traits.
On the ground, I would go with Peak Health, Medical Vanguard, Soldier, and Creative for a science officer. However, Aggressive wouldn't be a bad choice in the place of Soldier. I would strongly advise against going with Resilient, the trait is borderline useless at maximum level. After factoring in diminishing returns, it's going to be less than 0.3% more damage resistance, which is not going to have any significant impact on ground combat. Whereas the other traits will have a very noticeable impact on ground combat. If you are going with a more heavily specced out ground character, Field Researcher, Stubborn, Acute Senses, Regenerative Tissues (from Elachi Lockbox), and Covert are all good choices.
Comments
What 5th DOFF do you suggest for the drain/shield stripper build?
the Target (subsystem) abilities are a built in feature on Sci Ships, no need to waste a Boff slot on them.
for, say, a Sci captain in a Escort or cruiser, i'd say it'd be a must have
Its not too bad. But in PVE its largely irrelevant as your can drain your targets shield quite easily enough the majority of the time. As some one else pointed out you have level 1 sub system targeting built into science ships, and all subsystem targeting abilities have a shared cool down, so adding Boff versions is not usualy that efficient.
In PVP a level 3 target engines can work wonders on many opponents (who are usually rocking with tractor beam immunity of one sort or another), or target aux to lock out their abilities. In combination with an energy syphon a level 2 or 3 target subsystem is your best chance of knocking a targets power down to useless levels. Usually players lowest power level is their engines so this is a good one to go for, especially on romulan ships.
However focusing on knocking a subsystems power below 25 for the disable is not something you want to rely upon. Its nice when it happens, but if you need it to happen your playing a risky game. Most targets have sizable drain resistance. I usualy expect the power drain of my abilities to be cut in half.
Now that doesn't mean they are useless. If your energy syphon gives all your power levels +50, and knocks theirs down by -25 you have the 75 point advantage. That's a big deal.
With the lunar class it has to be hazard emitters (clearing dots is just too important to go without it). I usually try to squeeze hazard emitters and polarize hull (tractor beam immunity and nice resistance buff) on all builds If I can, but the free science ships sacrifice a science ability slot for either a tactical or engineering ability depending on which you take. So to get the polarize hull as well you would have to give up either a tractor or a tachyon beam.
Its also advisable to use its lieutenant level engineering slot on an auxiliary to structural integrity field 1, as this will heal for an appreciable amount with the high aux power and give a substantial resistance boost.
Anyways, I think my question was a form of threadjack but I'm glad to see the answers were on-topic.
Again, thank you for this thread
The catch being that each of those is only good for one respec for the character's entire life, so don't go too overboard with burning them.
this is awesome advice. thanks
If I may jump in, this quote makes me think you think Aux2S dumps your aux levels in a manner akin to Aux2Bat; it doesn't do that.
Count me as one more reader that's finding this thread to be invaluable; my Sci captain has been foundering along in her Recon ship for most of this year, hampered by my not having the slightest idea what I wanted her to do. My sincerest thanks to all of this thread's contributors.
Later on,
Generator
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
ya. figured this out on another toon that doesnt use Aux pwr for much.
was one giant DOH! moment
The bonus from Astrophysicist and Warp Theorist isn't that great. For Astophysicist you are getting a +10 skill bonus to Sensors, Flow Capacitors, and Particle Generators. This translates to about +3.4% more powerful in those areas. Warp Theorist grants +10 to EPS Systems and Warp Core Potential, granting a very insignificant power and power transfer speed bonus. To be honest, Warp Theorist, Astrophysicist, Efficient Captain, and Techie need to have their bonuses doubled to make their bonuses worthwhile. Until that happens, Accurate, Elusive, Conservation of Energy, and Photonic Capacitor are much better traits.
On the ground, I would go with Peak Health, Medical Vanguard, Soldier, and Creative for a science officer. However, Aggressive wouldn't be a bad choice in the place of Soldier. I would strongly advise against going with Resilient, the trait is borderline useless at maximum level. After factoring in diminishing returns, it's going to be less than 0.3% more damage resistance, which is not going to have any significant impact on ground combat. Whereas the other traits will have a very noticeable impact on ground combat. If you are going with a more heavily specced out ground character, Field Researcher, Stubborn, Acute Senses, Regenerative Tissues (from Elachi Lockbox), and Covert are all good choices.
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Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)