GW profits from aux only by an increased pull(radius) which is nice...the dmg aspect is only increased by the particle gen skill...and abilities that generally increase "all dmg" like AP omega.
I can't speak for ES as I don't use it but this is wrong, you need to go back and test it again, I did so last night and noticed a significant damage difference on the tooltip between low and high aux power. Same goes for all the other sci damage skills I have and for my sci captain skills effect levels (except Photo fleet)
I can't speak for ES as I don't use it but this is wrong, you need to go back and test it again, I did so last night and noticed a significant damage difference on the tooltip between low and high aux power. Same goes for all the other sci damage skills I have and for my sci captain skills effect levels (except Photo fleet)
sry, you are right. it is TBR that does not profit from aux to increase it's dmg. which makes it a nice addition to aux2batt builds for more kinetic dmg.
I use Aux2Batt beamboat cruisers mostly. Sci ships have some very cool toys but they give up some hull points and weapon slots to do so. The broadside technique works well in PvE. It does work with Sci ships as well, but two weapons less means a sacrifice of damage points.
Let's add to this, shall we? Even though I am probably stating stuff which is so obvious everyone except me knew about these things about a minute into their first STF. My parents always told me I have a very good grasp of the obvious.
A lot of Captains work hard to get into the same plane as their opponents. Your firing arcs are cones. Not planes. Why would someone not stay slightly above or below their target while circling at about 6-8Km?
I do this all the time with my Mogai Retrofit in ISE and Vortex. Have to. It doesn't fire all my weapons on the broadside unless I am slightly above and below my target. At least it seems this way.I try to get right over the top of a cube and descend on it in a spiral until the range closes to about 6.5Km. At this point, I move away and up on an opposite heading from the Cube to set up the next firing pass.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Another thing I've gotten back into is mounting torps fore and aft again. I don't use High Yield, I use Torpedo Salvo. Personal preference. I like the way the Salvoes look. Yes it's silly but I don't care. Also, the Salvos do not miss since they are AoE. I am willing to trade a little damage for a weapon which does not miss.
Torps are good when the shields are down. The trick is timing it so your beams strip a shield just about a second before the torps arrive on target. Another part of this is maneuvering so you are always attacking a weakened or down shield.
If you and a wingman can get a rhythm going, you can take down a Borg target of any type in an astonishingly short order. I like the wingman concept enough I will always try to use it. Even in a PUG. Move when and where he moves. Shoot at what he shoots at. It doesn't require any communication if the other person has even a smidge of common sense.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
I originally went turrets in the rear so I could constantly be in weapons range and inflicting damage, but it seems like many are saying I'd be better off with beams. If I do that, how can I do anything other than broadside? Is that the proper strategy?
turrets are only good for one thing - causing weapon procs.
their basic damage is pathetic, their falloff range is very short. expect double digit damage numbers they can produce.
however if you doing drain setup its quite good way to fit turrets in the back, not for the damage, but for the greater chance of polaron weapon proc. turrets have faster fire rate then beams.
still full beam-boat setup would perform better overall. but its require turnarounds because science skill work on forward arc.
if you know how to get by - make full beam setup.
if you prefer "sitting duck" strategy - get dualbeams fore and turrets back.
Turrets in the rear are not an improvement to universal firing. They mostly help get more fire power forward. And they respond to cannon attack commands like scatter volley and rapid fire.
OP: You are getting a lot of good advice from many different sources.
When I ran Sci ships that mostly used energy weapons I used a forward DPS build on a Long Range Retrofit or any Sci ship I flew for that matter: I used a Beam Array-to deliver Target Subsystems Attacks, Cannon and Torpedo in my fore slots and turrets in the aft. My special attacks were Rapid Canon Fire as I only wanted to aggro one target at a time.
If you can get the Plasmonic Leech, please do. It buffs your power levels. However, it does not work in conjunction with the MACO shield. When I pick science consoles I usually try to enhance only one, maybe two, of my BOFF powers (e.g. Gravity Well/Energy Siphon/Tyken's Rift/etc).
I really appreciate all the responses and tips. I obviously have a lot to learn about the mechanics and skills of this game. Looking forward to learning this game better.
I will change up my build, but I have a general combat question or two
I originally went turrets in the rear so I could constantly be in weapons range and inflicting damage, but it seems like many are saying I'd be better off with beams. If I do that, how can I do anything other than broadside? Is that the proper strategy?
thanks again for the information.
Honestly, and ultimately, it depends on how you prefer to fly...
I've made "effective" DBB / turret builds that could hold a side of probes on KASE (Khitomer Accord Space, Elite level) solo. Main reason I went this way was that I used BFaW to spread damage to all probes, and if I had arrays in the back the rear arrays would aggro the spheres during BFaW and I'd be dead...
Oddly enough, I have the Vesta now with the Aux-based DHCs, and I run two beam weapons in aft slots (KCB and the AP Array from the new mission). Again, though, it sucks that the rear weapons don't benefit from Cannon Scatter Volley...
If you do go 4 array, or even 6 array, then you'd want to be broadsiding more often than not for the max DPS, but since most science powers now have a 135 degree arc there's a very narrow spot that can get both sets of beam arrays and science powers onto target.
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
I too have learned a few things from this thread. And there aren't nearly enough of these types of threads around here. Nice to see people piling on to help out a player rather than the stuff which usually goes on.
And before anyone else points it out, mea culpa
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
A quick note regarding emergency power to shields. My early mistake was to use it only after I got hit - to heal my shields. While it's actually as, if not more important to use it the moment before you expect to be hit, because EPTS is giving your shields significant damage resistance for 30 seconds. So much better to go to encounter with this resistance up.
Apart from that, my first and main character is SCI captain and I am shredding enemies into pieces in PvE, flying escort at the moment and occasionally winning 1st place in Edit: <ELITE> STFS or Gorn Minefield, so don't worry, SCI captain is just fine and if you want to build DPS monster, you can. DPS is easier with ENG captain and easiest with TAC, but can be done with SCI, it's just about experience and proper setup of weapons, consoles, BOFFs and DOFFs.
One of my alt characters is TAC captain and that one is boring comparing to my SCI captain.
Your first mistake: you rolled a Science Officer for PvE. You needed to roll a Tac.
Your second mistake (compounds the first): you're not running an aux2batt FAW cruiser.
Sci toons are only useful in PvP. for the DPS racing that defines top-tier PvE, they're next to useless and easy targets for the NPC's in an Escort.
thats not true im at lv 50 sci char and I fly a fleet nebula. I do all right in elite STF's. i'm not say I got the best build for flying a sci ship, but I don't die often. I have done ESTF's where I seen escorts and cruiser die more than me. I now as a sci char im there for support, heal or just crowd control. I also don't play on hard mode. to say sci is useless in pve is just wrong on your part.
And as mentioned in one of the first posts, slot some Aux batteries and don't worry to use them, they cost just few pennies and they greatly improve your sci abilities. And somehow my impression is that the more you use them, the more they drop, so I don't buy them anymore, I just use the ones from drops.
general advice: science captain in science ships are the worst for solo play, and take a lot more "know how", than science in an escort.
i'd go with a sci heavy escort or destroyer (the chel gret is available in a few days if you did the races)
fantastic for PVE content of any kind for any career. get a grav well1, 4 DHC with double scatter volley and AP beta and i promise you will ask yourself why you went with a sci vessel in the first place.
don't feel obligated to use a sci ship because you are a sci captain. Not easy to build and only shine in premade PVP.
The Mirror Universe ships can be a lot of fun as well. They have a few more teeth than the prime versions. I had an MU Luna for my Fed Eng and it was a ball to fly. A freind gifted me with an MU Qin and an MU Vor'cha a long time ago. I still fly both regularly. And I like them enough I have gifted others with them.
Don't hesitate to try out a ship because your toon is a SCI. You never know what you'll find out. Leap without looking first. If the ship doesn't work out for you, there is always the next one you fancy. And best of all, the next one does not have to be a Z-Store ship with all the bells and whistles attached. I have been playing STO for about two years now and there are still bunches of ships and ground gear I've yet to sample.
And while you're trying out that new ship, remember, Have Fun! Kill bad Guys!
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
I see they are still ignoring the sci community, nothing changes it seems.
Part of the problem is they only fixed a couple of the deflector skills and none of the other plethora of skills the sci captains have as choices.
Another part of the problem is they have yet to code the behaviors of these skills to have different behaviors between PVE and PVP gameplay.
and finally, they need to add new skills to science based off of the skills displayed in the voyager show for this newest patch because Voyager's crew had multiple types of enhancements that other crews didn't such as maquis maneuvers/enhancements as well as borg enhancements that many of us lifers who use borg captains would like to have access too.
The Voth tech for science captains would be a nice change to shake up the ground combat as well, having a phase cloak to use would be nice for a sci captain in ground PVE combat scenarios, just one of many examples.
When setting up weapons you want to able to fire all of your weapons at once for maximum damage. For cruisers and science ships this means you want to use all beam arrays and you want to broadside. Escorts use dual heavy cannons in the front and turrets in the back and use their maneuverability to keep targets in their front facing 45 degree cone of death.
I assume you do not have access to fleet gear. You can rectify this by finding a fleet to join and using the "NoP Public Service" channel for requesting access to any elite gear your fleet hasn't unlocked yet.
Notes: The Plasmonic Leech console is available on the exchange but is very expensive. It is well worth saving for but it may take you a while to purchase.
I went with a power drain theme on the build because you're using polar on weapons. You'll want to run this build with 100 weapon power and and least 50 in aux since the high aux will increase the power drained. If you can afford them look for Saurians with efficient on the exchange to help keep shield and engine power respectable between drains.
Weapons (Fore and aft)
2x beam array (of your choosing), 1 Torp (again, of your choosing)
This mitigates the drain from your beams that will supply the majority of your damage.
Equipment
Either Full Omega force set or Aegis set depending upon what's easier to collect. And an [A->W] Warp core (preferably overcharged for the extra aux power)
Consoles
Engineering: 2x Neutronium, 1x Assimilated module
Science: 1x Field generator, 2x Particle generator, 1x graviton generator
Tactical: 2x Energy weapon console (for your beams)
Boffs
Tactical: Tac team 1, Beam Fire at Will 2
Engineer: 2x Emergency power to Shields 1, Auxiliary to Structural 1
Science (commander): Hazard emitters 1, Transfer shield strength 2, Tykens Rift 2, Gravity Will 2 (or 3 if you can train it)
Science (Lt CMDR): Polarize hull 1, Transfer shield strength 2, (Skill of choice, though I recommend Tractor Beam 3 if you can source it, tractor repulsors is another good one for protecting optional objectives or pushing targets into a gravity well)
Power levels
Weapons: 100
Shields: 25
Engines: 25
Auxiliary: 50
Skills
tactical...
starship attack patterns 0
starship energy weapons 9
starship maneuvers 6
starship energy weapon specialization 6
starship weapon training 9
starship projectile weapons 3
starship targeting systems 9
starship projectile weapons specialization 0
This spec gives you a good amount of offensive and defensive performance as well as a lot of power to play with from the extra aux power you will gain from the skill table so you can use it to keep your aux power up while you bring it's base down to support other subsystems.
Aux2SIF gives a nice hull heal you can throw to allies or use yourself as needed, the same goes for your hazard emitters and transfer shield strength and polarize hull is a nice hull resistance skill and a tractor breaker.
My ultimate recommendation from a pve perspective would be to get the mirror version of the ship so you can run the same sci setup on it and keep the twin Emergency to shields but you can take Attack Pattern Beta which you can combine with Fire at Will to increase the damage of your science skills.
I don't know when last you used Aux2SIF but it doesn't drain power, that's Aux2Batt.
I like this build here, some things I would change, I would not run Tyken's Rift with a Gravity Well. They share a cooldown. I would run a tractor beam 3. This reduces enemies defense value allowing you to have more hit than misses. Also it last 17 seconds almost the entire time of a GW this mean TB then. GW and the target is stuck in the center of the GW almost the entire duration.
I also would run five beam arrays and one gravimetric torp from the dyson reputation. While if it procs it also has a gravimetric rift that can pull and do damage over 4-5 seconds. Use it with torp spread two and you can cause 2 rifts on average. Mine average 1300 DPS per rift straight to the hull for four seconds. That is 1300 per rift for every ship in the rift and combine that with GW damage. Also use torp spread because it does not miss like high yield.
One other thing I could tell you is if you use three diagnostic engineers they help reduce the cooldown for EPtX skills. (Emergency power skills). Three purples allow you to have 35% chance each to reduce the cooldown of these skills. This allows you to treat EPtS1 like two copies and allows you to add EPtW this will give you a 10% damage increase from energy weapons. Although I would consider running EPtA and see if that increase your science power abilities more. I run a vesta so I use EPtW because I use the aux cannons so I have my aux maxed and I have a Plasmonic leech console for over capping.
I like this build here, some things I would change, I would not run Tyken's Rift with a Gravity Well. They share a cooldown. I would run a tractor beam 3. This reduces enemies defense value allowing you to have more hit than misses. Also it last 17 seconds almost the entire time of a GW this mean TB then. GW and the target is stuck in the center of the GW almost the entire duration.
It should be noted that the build I listed here is a good year or so old I did add the core and maybe revise a bit of the skill table but aside from that is what I ran back then, given I don't know what resources were available to the OP. As to not running Tykens and GW, it gives something to run while GW is down, also I listed a recommendation for tractor beam 3 alongside TR2 It makes for a neat combo.
I also would run five beam arrays and one gravimetric torp from the dyson reputation. While if it procs it also has a gravimetric rift that can pull and do damage over 4-5 seconds. Use it with torp spread two and you can cause 2 rifts on average. Mine average 1300 DPS per rift straight to the hull for four seconds. That is 1300 per rift for every ship in the rift and combine that with GW damage. Also use torp spread because it does not miss like high yield.
On my current Nova build I'm using 5 arrays and the KCB but with only a Lt Tac station you'll get more mileage from FAW than a torp skill even with only 4 beams.
One other thing I could tell you is if you use three diagnostic engineers they help reduce the cooldown for EPtX skills. (Emergency power skills). Three purples allow you to have 35% chance each to reduce the cooldown of these skills. This allows you to treat EPtS1 like two copies and allows you to add EPtW this will give you a 10% damage increase from energy weapons. Although I would consider running EPtA and see if that increase your science power abilities more.
I think you're thinking of Damage Control Engineers here, I'm running two purples at the moment but again, budget build here for the OP, quick to build with minimal expense, if I was going for anything high end I wouldn't touch the DSSV, it's slow for a start and it's more of a support ship than an offensive ship.
Comments
I can't speak for ES as I don't use it but this is wrong, you need to go back and test it again, I did so last night and noticed a significant damage difference on the tooltip between low and high aux power. Same goes for all the other sci damage skills I have and for my sci captain skills effect levels (except Photo fleet)
sry, you are right. it is TBR that does not profit from aux to increase it's dmg. which makes it a nice addition to aux2batt builds for more kinetic dmg.
Let's add to this, shall we? Even though I am probably stating stuff which is so obvious everyone except me knew about these things about a minute into their first STF. My parents always told me I have a very good grasp of the obvious.
A lot of Captains work hard to get into the same plane as their opponents. Your firing arcs are cones. Not planes. Why would someone not stay slightly above or below their target while circling at about 6-8Km?
I do this all the time with my Mogai Retrofit in ISE and Vortex. Have to. It doesn't fire all my weapons on the broadside unless I am slightly above and below my target. At least it seems this way.I try to get right over the top of a cube and descend on it in a spiral until the range closes to about 6.5Km. At this point, I move away and up on an opposite heading from the Cube to set up the next firing pass.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Another thing I've gotten back into is mounting torps fore and aft again. I don't use High Yield, I use Torpedo Salvo. Personal preference. I like the way the Salvoes look. Yes it's silly but I don't care. Also, the Salvos do not miss since they are AoE. I am willing to trade a little damage for a weapon which does not miss.
Torps are good when the shields are down. The trick is timing it so your beams strip a shield just about a second before the torps arrive on target. Another part of this is maneuvering so you are always attacking a weakened or down shield.
If you and a wingman can get a rhythm going, you can take down a Borg target of any type in an astonishingly short order. I like the wingman concept enough I will always try to use it. Even in a PUG. Move when and where he moves. Shoot at what he shoots at. It doesn't require any communication if the other person has even a smidge of common sense.
their basic damage is pathetic, their falloff range is very short. expect double digit damage numbers they can produce.
however if you doing drain setup its quite good way to fit turrets in the back, not for the damage, but for the greater chance of polaron weapon proc. turrets have faster fire rate then beams.
still full beam-boat setup would perform better overall. but its require turnarounds because science skill work on forward arc.
if you know how to get by - make full beam setup.
if you prefer "sitting duck" strategy - get dualbeams fore and turrets back.
OP: You are getting a lot of good advice from many different sources.
When I ran Sci ships that mostly used energy weapons I used a forward DPS build on a Long Range Retrofit or any Sci ship I flew for that matter: I used a Beam Array-to deliver Target Subsystems Attacks, Cannon and Torpedo in my fore slots and turrets in the aft. My special attacks were Rapid Canon Fire as I only wanted to aggro one target at a time.
If you can get the Plasmonic Leech, please do. It buffs your power levels. However, it does not work in conjunction with the MACO shield. When I pick science consoles I usually try to enhance only one, maybe two, of my BOFF powers (e.g. Gravity Well/Energy Siphon/Tyken's Rift/etc).
Honestly, and ultimately, it depends on how you prefer to fly...
I've made "effective" DBB / turret builds that could hold a side of probes on KASE (Khitomer Accord Space, Elite level) solo. Main reason I went this way was that I used BFaW to spread damage to all probes, and if I had arrays in the back the rear arrays would aggro the spheres during BFaW and I'd be dead...
Oddly enough, I have the Vesta now with the Aux-based DHCs, and I run two beam weapons in aft slots (KCB and the AP Array from the new mission). Again, though, it sucks that the rear weapons don't benefit from Cannon Scatter Volley...
If you do go 4 array, or even 6 array, then you'd want to be broadsiding more often than not for the max DPS, but since most science powers now have a 135 degree arc there's a very narrow spot that can get both sets of beam arrays and science powers onto target.
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
And before anyone else points it out, mea culpa
Apart from that, my first and main character is SCI captain and I am shredding enemies into pieces in PvE, flying escort at the moment and occasionally winning 1st place in Edit: <ELITE> STFS or Gorn Minefield, so don't worry, SCI captain is just fine and if you want to build DPS monster, you can. DPS is easier with ENG captain and easiest with TAC, but can be done with SCI, it's just about experience and proper setup of weapons, consoles, BOFFs and DOFFs.
One of my alt characters is TAC captain and that one is boring comparing to my SCI captain.
thats not true im at lv 50 sci char and I fly a fleet nebula. I do all right in elite STF's. i'm not say I got the best build for flying a sci ship, but I don't die often. I have done ESTF's where I seen escorts and cruiser die more than me. I now as a sci char im there for support, heal or just crowd control. I also don't play on hard mode. to say sci is useless in pve is just wrong on your part.
And surely slot a "magic escape button" http://sto.gamepedia.com/Deuterium_Surplus
It's a special "battery", rewarded by easy daily mission and you can use it as an additional evasive maneuvers, to bail out of tight situations.
i'd go with a sci heavy escort or destroyer (the chel gret is available in a few days if you did the races)
fantastic for PVE content of any kind for any career. get a grav well1, 4 DHC with double scatter volley and AP beta and i promise you will ask yourself why you went with a sci vessel in the first place.
don't feel obligated to use a sci ship because you are a sci captain. Not easy to build and only shine in premade PVP.
Don't hesitate to try out a ship because your toon is a SCI. You never know what you'll find out. Leap without looking first. If the ship doesn't work out for you, there is always the next one you fancy. And best of all, the next one does not have to be a Z-Store ship with all the bells and whistles attached. I have been playing STO for about two years now and there are still bunches of ships and ground gear I've yet to sample.
And while you're trying out that new ship, remember, Have Fun! Kill bad Guys!
Part of the problem is they only fixed a couple of the deflector skills and none of the other plethora of skills the sci captains have as choices.
Another part of the problem is they have yet to code the behaviors of these skills to have different behaviors between PVE and PVP gameplay.
and finally, they need to add new skills to science based off of the skills displayed in the voyager show for this newest patch because Voyager's crew had multiple types of enhancements that other crews didn't such as maquis maneuvers/enhancements as well as borg enhancements that many of us lifers who use borg captains would like to have access too.
The Voth tech for science captains would be a nice change to shake up the ground combat as well, having a phase cloak to use would be nice for a sci captain in ground PVE combat scenarios, just one of many examples.
I assume you do not have access to fleet gear. You can rectify this by finding a fleet to join and using the "NoP Public Service" channel for requesting access to any elite gear your fleet hasn't unlocked yet.
As for your build I would probably run something like this if I were setting up a DSSV on a low budget:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=drainyou_0
Notes: The Plasmonic Leech console is available on the exchange but is very expensive. It is well worth saving for but it may take you a while to purchase.
I went with a power drain theme on the build because you're using polar on weapons. You'll want to run this build with 100 weapon power and and least 50 in aux since the high aux will increase the power drained. If you can afford them look for Saurians with efficient on the exchange to help keep shield and engine power respectable between drains.
I like this build here, some things I would change, I would not run Tyken's Rift with a Gravity Well. They share a cooldown. I would run a tractor beam 3. This reduces enemies defense value allowing you to have more hit than misses. Also it last 17 seconds almost the entire time of a GW this mean TB then. GW and the target is stuck in the center of the GW almost the entire duration.
I also would run five beam arrays and one gravimetric torp from the dyson reputation. While if it procs it also has a gravimetric rift that can pull and do damage over 4-5 seconds. Use it with torp spread two and you can cause 2 rifts on average. Mine average 1300 DPS per rift straight to the hull for four seconds. That is 1300 per rift for every ship in the rift and combine that with GW damage. Also use torp spread because it does not miss like high yield.
One other thing I could tell you is if you use three diagnostic engineers they help reduce the cooldown for EPtX skills. (Emergency power skills). Three purples allow you to have 35% chance each to reduce the cooldown of these skills. This allows you to treat EPtS1 like two copies and allows you to add EPtW this will give you a 10% damage increase from energy weapons. Although I would consider running EPtA and see if that increase your science power abilities more. I run a vesta so I use EPtW because I use the aux cannons so I have my aux maxed and I have a Plasmonic leech console for over capping.