This is an interesting post. I've been meaning to ask about what's a good configuration for a science vessel (I have the Fleet Intrepid and the free Luna for my character). I've been going with 2 DBBs fore, 1 torp launcher fore, 2 turrets aft and the KCB. I'm actually wondering if it is better to go with beam arrays though. And I'm not sure about the KCB either. The 2-piece bonus is mad, when it procs, but a 2.5% chance and the weapon itself is meh.
I'd prefer beams of some sort though, I have enough characters who fly cannon boats.
I don't have access to embassy provisions but when I do I will be getting science consoles. In the meantime I've been following this advice, with two copies of energy siphon 2, and it's (almost) up all the time.
The fleet intrepid is one of the best ships to use when building a truly science focused science ship.
This is a basic flow capacitor build. If you can afford or have a plasmonic leach you should replace the RCS with it.
The white mk xi gear is perfectly sufficient for PvE content but as you have the fleet ship I am sure you have the means to put better on it. The jem set is used because its easily accessible and suits the build. But an elite fleet deflector with flow capacitors, an elite fleet resilient shield (resilient because bleed through is a bigger issue with low hull ships like the intrepid) and a hyper engine would be worth loosing the small damage bonus. Usually I recommend normal engines but with this build hyper is the way to go.
Now a flow capacitor build like this is good for general use. Even when the only things in range to drain do not have subsystems you are at least buffing up your weapons damage by using your siphons.
For a slightly better version of this build for general purpose use, the fleet nova is a decent choice. Just replace the tykens rift with an energy syphon 3, drop one of the syphon 2s. Then use con officers (tactical team recharge) to run a single tactical team. Energy weapon officers (beam special attack recharge) to run a single beam fire at will. And throw in an attack pattern.
The Intrepid version is the superior choice for weakening boss ships, gates and other players, The nova version will offer slightly better performance in circumstances where targets die so quickly that weakening them is a waist of an ability slot.
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This is a basic Graviton build. Many people throw a gravity well on their science ships and help their team with it.
But most don't dedicate their ship to the ability. This is a shame, because while the build is certainly NOT general purpose. There are situations in which a dedicated gravity well ship is truly epic. Bump those consoles up to VR Mk XII and you could be looking at a level 3 GW with a diameter of 13km.
Lets give an example:
Mirror incursion with general purpose science ship using gravity well: You use your gravity well to clump up a group of ships. Your team mates blast them with AoE and the warp core breaches of some ships help take out the others.
Mirror incursion with dedicated gravity well ship: You use your gravity well to clump up a group of ships. The radius of the well is so large that it sucks up the group behind the first group as well. Your team mates blast them with AoE and the warp core breaches of some ships help take out the others.
Now the best ship for this is not the intrepid. The 5 science console variant of the Vesta is truly fantastic at it as it can combine the largest possible boost to graviton generators with full aux power, and dual heavey cannon scatter volleys.
When doing it with the intrepid using single cannons is not the best choice. Full aux power is hugly important to generating a powerfull well (why not pop an aux battery before using the well? You could do. But some times you will miss a fantastic opportunity in the extra second before you can use the GW ability. Some times you want to target your well on a fast moving target that is ideally placed between two groups of enemies. In the second you use to buff up your wells power that target may move to a less effective position), and your stacking graviton generators rather then flow capacitors, so using syphons to boost up your power levels isn't quite as fantastic.
Instead we resort to the poor mans aux cannon. The romulan hyper plasma torpedo + 3 VR projectile duty officers will give you sufficient DPS for most content with no weapons power requirement. Adding another relatively fast firing launcher gives your duty officers another chance to proc for the RHPTL on those occasions when it does not do so for itself.
The viral matrix is just there because of the large bonus to subspace decompiler (VM's debuff duration is governed by this skill) on the deflector. Outside of PVP it is not a fantastic ability, feal free to use something else if you like. The reason for this choice of deflector is simply that it gives the largest bonus to graviton generators, and the Covariant Capacitance Cell (3 set bonus) is actually quite a bit better then its description makes it sound.
The plasma fire damage happily ignores shields, and the small AoE damage from the torpedo's synagizes nicly with tightly clumped enemies without requiring us to use any tactical abilities.
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Quick addendum. Using either of these builds could give you reason to consider using deflector duty officers which claim to help reduce the cool down on energy syphon, tachyon beam, tykens rift and gravity well. You should know that this doff is broken. While I do recommend using it, it will never reduce the cool down on energy syphon or tachyon beam. Hopefully they will one day fix it. But right now it has been over a year since it was broken.
Also you mentioned an interest in acquiring the embassy consoles stofsk. I recommend waiting until S8 is launched. The new science console on tribble are looking rather nice. If they hit holodeck with the stats they currently have on the test server you might prefer to use them.
I recommend waiting until S8 is launched. The new science console on tribble are looking rather nice. If they hit holodeck with the stats they currently have on the test server you might prefer to use them.
New science consoles? Do tell! Didn't read anything about those yet...
Thank you for sharing these builds. The first one in particular closely matches my current build. Like I said above, I currently use 2 DBBs foreward, with 2 turrets aft, plus the KCB, with a forward torp launcher. But I am thinking of getting new weapons, and I'm sort of torn between DBBs or beam arrays.
I've found that the Intrepid manoeuvres well enough to put DBBs on target, but isn't manoeuvrable enough to keep those DBBs always on target. At the same time, I'm not sure I want to go with a broadsider. I wish there were beam turrets in the game!
I'm thinking of ditching the KCB for the Omega torp and replacing the torp launcher I currently have with it. That'll give me the 2 piece set bonus but give me 5 energy weapons. (while the proc chance is low, it's a great proc if you're going with energy weapons, especially beam arrays.)
Quick addendum. Using either of these builds could give you reason to consider using deflector duty officers which claim to help reduce the cool down on energy syphon, tachyon beam, tykens rift and gravity well. You should know that this doff is broken. While I do recommend using it, it will never reduce the cool down on energy syphon or tachyon beam. Hopefully they will one day fix it. But right now it has been over a year since it was broken.
Yeah I know about this. I have Juel Ducane on active duty as I got lucky opening a temporal lock box awhile back and because using two copies of energy siphon it seemed like a good doff. Most of the other doffs I'm a little unsure of. I have a purple tractor beam doff, and a purple photonic scientist doff for photonic officer.
Also you mentioned an interest in acquiring the embassy consoles stofsk. I recommend waiting until S8 is launched. The new science console on tribble are looking rather nice. If they hit holodeck with the stats they currently have on the test server you might prefer to use them.
Comments
The fleet intrepid is one of the best ships to use when building a truly science focused science ship.
This is a basic flow capacitor build. If you can afford or have a plasmonic leach you should replace the RCS with it.
The white mk xi gear is perfectly sufficient for PvE content but as you have the fleet ship I am sure you have the means to put better on it. The jem set is used because its easily accessible and suits the build. But an elite fleet deflector with flow capacitors, an elite fleet resilient shield (resilient because bleed through is a bigger issue with low hull ships like the intrepid) and a hyper engine would be worth loosing the small damage bonus. Usually I recommend normal engines but with this build hyper is the way to go.
Now a flow capacitor build like this is good for general use. Even when the only things in range to drain do not have subsystems you are at least buffing up your weapons damage by using your siphons.
For a slightly better version of this build for general purpose use, the fleet nova is a decent choice. Just replace the tykens rift with an energy syphon 3, drop one of the syphon 2s. Then use con officers (tactical team recharge) to run a single tactical team. Energy weapon officers (beam special attack recharge) to run a single beam fire at will. And throw in an attack pattern.
The Intrepid version is the superior choice for weakening boss ships, gates and other players, The nova version will offer slightly better performance in circumstances where targets die so quickly that weakening them is a waist of an ability slot.
---
This is a basic Graviton build. Many people throw a gravity well on their science ships and help their team with it.
But most don't dedicate their ship to the ability. This is a shame, because while the build is certainly NOT general purpose. There are situations in which a dedicated gravity well ship is truly epic. Bump those consoles up to VR Mk XII and you could be looking at a level 3 GW with a diameter of 13km.
Lets give an example:
Mirror incursion with general purpose science ship using gravity well: You use your gravity well to clump up a group of ships. Your team mates blast them with AoE and the warp core breaches of some ships help take out the others.
Mirror incursion with dedicated gravity well ship: You use your gravity well to clump up a group of ships. The radius of the well is so large that it sucks up the group behind the first group as well. Your team mates blast them with AoE and the warp core breaches of some ships help take out the others.
Now the best ship for this is not the intrepid. The 5 science console variant of the Vesta is truly fantastic at it as it can combine the largest possible boost to graviton generators with full aux power, and dual heavey cannon scatter volleys.
When doing it with the intrepid using single cannons is not the best choice. Full aux power is hugly important to generating a powerfull well (why not pop an aux battery before using the well? You could do. But some times you will miss a fantastic opportunity in the extra second before you can use the GW ability. Some times you want to target your well on a fast moving target that is ideally placed between two groups of enemies. In the second you use to buff up your wells power that target may move to a less effective position), and your stacking graviton generators rather then flow capacitors, so using syphons to boost up your power levels isn't quite as fantastic.
Instead we resort to the poor mans aux cannon. The romulan hyper plasma torpedo + 3 VR projectile duty officers will give you sufficient DPS for most content with no weapons power requirement. Adding another relatively fast firing launcher gives your duty officers another chance to proc for the RHPTL on those occasions when it does not do so for itself.
The viral matrix is just there because of the large bonus to subspace decompiler (VM's debuff duration is governed by this skill) on the deflector. Outside of PVP it is not a fantastic ability, feal free to use something else if you like. The reason for this choice of deflector is simply that it gives the largest bonus to graviton generators, and the Covariant Capacitance Cell (3 set bonus) is actually quite a bit better then its description makes it sound.
The plasma fire damage happily ignores shields, and the small AoE damage from the torpedo's synagizes nicly with tightly clumped enemies without requiring us to use any tactical abilities.
---
Quick addendum. Using either of these builds could give you reason to consider using deflector duty officers which claim to help reduce the cool down on energy syphon, tachyon beam, tykens rift and gravity well. You should know that this doff is broken. While I do recommend using it, it will never reduce the cool down on energy syphon or tachyon beam. Hopefully they will one day fix it. But right now it has been over a year since it was broken.
Also you mentioned an interest in acquiring the embassy consoles stofsk. I recommend waiting until S8 is launched. The new science console on tribble are looking rather nice. If they hit holodeck with the stats they currently have on the test server you might prefer to use them.
New science consoles? Do tell! Didn't read anything about those yet...
I've found that the Intrepid manoeuvres well enough to put DBBs on target, but isn't manoeuvrable enough to keep those DBBs always on target. At the same time, I'm not sure I want to go with a broadsider. I wish there were beam turrets in the game!
I'm thinking of ditching the KCB for the Omega torp and replacing the torp launcher I currently have with it. That'll give me the 2 piece set bonus but give me 5 energy weapons. (while the proc chance is low, it's a great proc if you're going with energy weapons, especially beam arrays.)
Yeah I know about this. I have Juel Ducane on active duty as I got lucky opening a temporal lock box awhile back and because using two copies of energy siphon it seemed like a good doff. Most of the other doffs I'm a little unsure of. I have a purple tractor beam doff, and a purple photonic scientist doff for photonic officer.
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