Experimental Build?

sgtstarfall

So with the buffs to Tyken's Rift and stuff, I decided to revisit some ships that I've previously thought were incompatible with with an Aux2Bat build, namely science vessels.

For those of you who don't know me too well, I'm a supporter of Single Aux2Bat builds and do random experiments with them. Yes, this is an expensive build and there's no way around that. However, I do believe it's worth the investment at end-game, as it not only frees up BOff stations for more diverse builds and fun.

That being said, I've been thinking of building a crazy draining Sci vessel for sometime now. Take a look at what I've come up with and tell me what you think of it!

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=scicannons_0

P.S. It's not complete, but it's the barebones of what I plan to put on the ship. Warp Cores, Captain Abilities, etc. are all up in the air.

khayuung

I'm assuming doffs are 3 tech, 1 Tyken shock? And the last one?

And... PO3? Is it worth it?

cidevant

Firstly getting the Photonic science officer is just impossible because it's never on the exchange anymore. Secondly, with a copy of Aux2Bat you only need photonic officer 1 anyways for a very near to max uptime on buffs. Throw on 2 piece maco with elite deflectors for a better than aux2bat science build.

rodentmaster

I've been experimenting with PO on an A2Bat build lately. Not sure I like it. I don't think it really helps much. Last night I ended up swapping it out for something else. My A2Bats already cooled down my EPT skills and the rest don't need PO (which itself has a long cooldown time).

Although, normally you chain 2x A2Bat, and you only get one slot for it. That might be why the PO is added.

As far as a drain build goes you've definitely got a theme but I'll add a comment: I've been using energy siphon for a while and it's utter rubbish. NPCs don't suffer at all from it. I doubt they have actual power levels to drain. Even against human players it only drains 12 power and only for 5 seconds. That's less than you drain from firing weapons. With power banks going up to 130 cap, losing 12 is a TRIBBLE in the wind.

You may use it all you like, but you will NEVER benefit from it. It won't help you in the slightest, and it won't harm the enemy either.

I might suggest if you want unique skills to try CPB, which though it has a range under 3K is supposed to damage shields. Honestly, though, perhaps doubling up on tachyon beam or tyken's rift is better.


Now, outside of your theme (draining shields) I have 2 major comments. These will help overall with this build, but may NOT fit in with your theme.

1) It's a sci ship with a CMDR slot and a Lt.CMDR slot. You're doing a major disservice to yourself by NOT running at least one grav well, SOMEWHERE. Seriously, drain or not, it's the most useful of the unuseful sci skills available.

2) Your Tac boff skills need tweaking. those cannons and CRF1 are pretty weak and your target engines is redundant in a science vessel which should have subsystem targetting already. Switch those cannons to beams, run BO1, FAW1, and APB. APB will do wonders for your damage output as it lowers your targets' resistances and they take more damage.

EDIT: Or run 2x FAW1 to spread around the shield leech effect, just be prepared for the agro!

sgtstarfall

I just thought that Gravity well might get in the way of Tyken's Rift for this build - I've gotten by with simply 1 A2B for awhile now and frankly, I could replace Photonic Officer 3 with Gravity Well 3.

As for the DOff setup (assuming 5), I've been using: 3 VR Technicians, 1 Conn Officer (TT cd reduction), and the last one free for w/e spec (perhaps Tyken's Doff here).

Overall, how I envisioned this build to work is: Run Photonic Officer for the 40% cooldown on all BOff skills (Plenty sufficient for me at least). Once that's in play, the effects of CRF + Plasmonic Leech, Tyken's Rift, and Energy Siphon should have significant impact on someone's power levels. On top of that, a landed hit with Beam Target Engines (even more drain), should be able to cripple a player's defense values if not shut down their engines entirely at this point (assuming proper specs into flow caps).

Edit: And on top of all of this, the CRF is meant to land the 2.5% chance of -25 power drain for Polaron procs.

The reason why I have Beam Target Engines is because the innate version has a 90s cooldown - unreliable by my standards. Of course, I could entertain the idea of adding something like Torpedo High Yield in its place and replace a turret for a Rommy Hyper torp or Omega torp.

The other component to this build, should power drainage not work, is the shield drain. Omega 2 pc set (I threw in shield just for kicks and 3 pc) allows me to drain shields along with a synchronized Tachyon Beam (just in case their shield powers are innately high).

As for Aux2Bat, it merely exists as a gap substitution (and CD reduction) for Photonic Officer. It is not to be used while Photonic Officer is up, unless I really need that extra weapons fire and/or cooldown reduction immediately (no cooldown stacks past 50%).