Canon Cruiser Build

cptlankford

Hello folks,
I admit that to some players, my fairly strict adherence to canon for my fed toon might seem a bit dumb but i would like some feedback anyway... call me a glutton for punishment lol.

Anyway I run a heavily space focused skill setup and have an engineering toon that is optimized for tanking with his boff powers, doffs, skills, and traits. Recently I did a slight respec to max energy weapons skill points (T2 skills none in T5 skills). This has resulted in my Mk XI VR Phaser BAs ([acc] [dmg]x2) getting 845 DPS each. I also run quantums. In total I run 3 BAs and a torp both fore and aft which gives awesome broadsides. The ship I run is an oddy with the 3 piece oddy set, (saucer gets its own worker bees and gravity well 3 power) and have had great success with it as a team/fleet support cruiser.

I can heal others fairly well although i could do that job better if i ran the Lt Commander boff slot as an eng or sci rather than the tac I have in that position now. Tactically I run TS 3, BO 2, BFaW 1, APB 2, and TT 1. Eng I run eng team 1&2, Aux2Structural 3, EPtW 3, EPtSh 2. Sci I run Hazard 2 and Polarize Hull 1.

Consoles besides oddy 3 piece I run 2 Neutrons, 2 Field Gens, and 3 Phaser Relays, all some variation of Mk XIs.

So what is the opinion of the peanut gallery? Within the limitations of canon equipment and ships I don't think I could do much better than this setup and I don't PvP except with fleetmates in 1v1s for fun, training newcomers, and ship testing.

You may fire at will.

rylanadionysis

elite fleet phasers.

jagdhippies

Looks pretty solid to me. Staying with cannon and for PVE I would equip beams with some CrtH, maybe [Acc] [CthH]x2.

Edit:
Actually not CrtH since you didn't invest in the T5 skill. I would go for the advanced fleet [Acc] [Dmg]x3 versions for all 8 weapons.

jetwtf

Advanced fleet phasers ACCx2 DMGX2 would be optimal for PvE no crit speced, extra damage and accuracy. Otherwise a question for Op, do you enjoy flying the ship and being a quality support to the team? If yes then stick with it and have fun.

stofsk

cptlankford wrote: »

I can heal others fairly well although i could do that job better if i ran the Lt Commander boff slot as an eng or sci rather than the tac I have in that position now. Tactically I run TS 3, BO 2, BFaW 1, APB 2, and TT 1. Eng I run eng team 1&2, Aux2Structural 3, EPtW 3, EPtSh 2. Sci I run Hazard 2 and Polarize Hull 1.

I'd say, if you want to be the team support guy, then extend shields should be in the equation for one of your eng skills (I'd say ES3>Aux2SIF3 IMO). ET3 for the massive hull heal plus debuff cleanse for things like subsystem attacks. Both of these skills can be trained by you as you're an eng captain, so that's another benefit. Definitely get rid of one ET though, you should only ever have a max of 2 team abilities (and TT1 should be in every build, so that leaves you room for only one more, and it might as well be the most powerful version of ET). The ensign and LT can be EPtW1 and EPtS2. Or the other way around, if you prefer. More shield power boosts ES though, in the damage resistance it confers to your team mate.

If you'd consider putting a science boff in the LtCommdr slot, you could run with double hazards and TSS2 and 3, plus the polarise hull. This will give you a secondary support suite, pop an aux battery or have an aux-power heavy preset on a keybind or mouse button for when you plan to use these abilities. The ensign can then be a tac, and you can have APB1, BFAW1 and TT1. Or consider APD1, as you can put that on a team mate to give him more damage resistance in conjunction with something like PH or HE. Beta will be up more frequently than Delta though, and with BFAW you can spread that love all over the place for the rest of the team to make use of.

Or keep it a tac boff, and maybe make the ensign another science, so that you have at least one copy of hazards, polarise and TSS. BTW, I assume you meant you run with Torp Spread 3 and Attack Pattern Beta 1? Because Beta 2 is a LtCommdr slot. Which actually leads to my next point: it's hard to say no to TS3, but I think an attack pattern would do more good in that slot. Beam Overload I'm a bit ambivalent about. Yes, it does a lot of (potential) damage to a target, but the power drain is a bit awful.

As far as respeccing is concerned, you should max starship targeting sensors, manoeuvres, hull repair and structural integrity, and shield emitters and shield systems (in order, acc, def, hull repair and HP, shield repair and shield HP). The rest could be spread out a lot further to give you a more well-rounded build. Certain specialised builds could max a couple other skills (like say flow caps for energy drain builds), but in general maxing a skill isn't worth it in the sense that the bonus you receive doesn't outweigh the costs needed.

Playing support is fun if you're happy with the idea that you'll never be doing the kind of damage others do. But it's a very underrated build IMO, and your softer, squishier escort friends will thank you for saving their bacon.

cptlankford

I do in fact greatly enjoy playing support as it fits beautifully with my idea of what a Star Trek cruiser should be.... The cavalry.

Very interesting comments (thanks for not ripping me a new one guys) and to the support role I mentioned previously: I am primarily set up as a threat generator using the skills, the cruiser power, and eventually the threat plus rommie sci consoles. This is why I have the 2 eng teams as most of my fleet mates seem to be fairly cross-classed as far as abilities. One of my fleet mates in particular can heal (himself anyway) just as good if not a tiny bit better than I can but he runs a tac fed toon and escorts. He's a vet player so he really knows his stuff.

Often times I swoop in (yes again its an oddy but even the fleet vets have commented on just how well I got that behemoth moving) and draw fire off of my team while they heal or while a sci ship supplies the bulk of the healing. The way i have learned to play the game is that while eng toons do have a fair bit of healing ability, its the sci toons that truly shine in the role of healers so my support purpose is to tank the TRIBBLE outta everything.

On a side note I have rarely been destroyed even by some of the fleet leaders running tac toons with elite gear and have on more than one occasion been told in chat "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!?!?!

I am still working on the build as I think I will be for months to come. I have the vast majority of my skills in engineering with little in science so I am not sure adding sci powers would work very well. I did recently find out that aux2sif can be used on teammates and if i pop an aux batt i can heal nearly 10K hull points with it. I use to carry Extend Shields but the situations in which it was applicable was limited and more often than not my fleetmates carry more shield heal powers than hull heal powers. With 2 eng teams and the aux2sif I can have a teammate back to nearly full health almost as fast as a borg mega torp can tear them down.

With my tanking and threat control however I usually expend my heals on my self about 90% of the time. All in all I think with a little Boff power refinement and some better equipment I'll have a worthy sister ship to the Enterprise-F.