So, I recently started playing again after not playing for...a year or so plus. Ground up through the Dyson stuff because it was easy dilithium and, as the free Science Destroyer was equipped with Protonic DHCs, doing a build based around that sounded interesting.
A few days ago, I bought myself a Fleet Nova, since I've always been a fan of the general design, and the Destroyer was too sluggish for my liking. However, my interest in messing around with Protonic stuff remains despite the loss of the DHCs, so I've put together a build in the skill planner.
Related are skills; back in the day, when I first played, skills were different. After the revamp, I apparently did this with my skills:
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa336/septfox/random%20mmos/stoskillsold1.jpg
...yea, I don't know either. Once I started playing again and actually tried using science skills, it was roughly as effective as you'd expect.
I would like very much to hear opinions of others more experienced on both the respec and ship build. I'm not really new to the game, but I'm new to trying to do anything...you know...properly.
My knowledge on skill selection/usage (beyond "GW everything - spray torpedos and energy bolts into the crowd - laugh") is rather lacking as well, so I welcome any advice on changes.
Anyway, enough rambling, the build and skill respec:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=theoreticalprotonicbuild_6573
Edited build #1:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=theoreticalprotonicbuildmkii_6573
Note that it has some equipment that I know already is probably sub-optimal; namely everything between fore and aft weapons. This is stuff I already have, and haven't completely researched out replacements yet.
Critical chance will be about 22.8% for Protonic Polarons, 24.8% for Experimental Proton Weapon and Gravimetic Torps, according to this crit calculator. Hopefully at some point in the future, Cryptic will see fit to give us Fed players something to match Rom Operatives...
Final notes:
I'm a PvE player, so this is really meant for that. And I know that the Protonic stuff won't get me the best DPS in the game; I just want to try something a bit different from the norm, and optimize it as well as it can be.
Comments
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Guess I can switch Emergency to Weapons for Emergency to Shields. Probably either Tractor Repulsors or Tachyon Beam I for another copy of Science Team or TSS, though I've found TSS to be kind of lacking.
I don't really see that TT is needed, since nearly all my weapons are compatible with spreading damage between the front and side arcs...but HY I would be easy enough to switch out if it becomes a serious issue.
Also considered switching HY I for BO I, but...man, those gigantic Heavy Grav torps are fun to drop on people
edit: modified skills, shields/engines/warp core changed to Dyson rep for the Proton Barrage ability
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=theoreticalprotonicbuildmkii_6573
Boff powers are going to be tough for you. You have a Sci ship with a Lt. Cdr Tac, but it's still a Sci ship so that's all you've got. The ensign tactical power is almost always Tactical Team. It's not for the damage buff, it's to save your butt. Tac Team auto distributes your shields toward where you're taking fire, this prevents something from knocking a shield facing down and killing you. They'd basically have to shoot through the equivalent of all four facings before getting to hull. Your other two will probably need to be two copies of either FAW or Scatter Volley/CSV for consistent uptime, or one of those and Attack Pattern Beta which will create spikes and dips in DPS, but also assist your team by debuffing the target(s). And that's really it. The torpedo isn't going to do you much good because you can't really afford to buff it, nor can you likely afford the Doff slots to get its fire rate up. Just drop it.
Eng powers I'm tempted to say EPtW is a waste, but it seems you are going for some weapon damage on your Sci ship so keep it. I'm then loathe to get rid of Eng Team because it's a consistent hull heal which the Sci ship really needs, but you may need EPtS more. Get yourself two purple Damage Control Doffs to cut the CD on those Emergency Power abilities.
Sci powers are to taste, but if you're going for damage GW is your biggest friend. You've got GW3 in that Commander slot which is good, get two purple Deflector Officers to cut its CD. Also, since you are going to be running energy weapons on a Sci ship (besides the Vesta with its Aux cannons), you need power. That means Energy Siphon, and you'll want to look into a Plasmonic Leech as well. Set power to 50/25/25/100 and depend on your skill tree bonuses, EPtW, and power drain to get the weapon power up.
My suggested Boff setup would look like this:
Lt. Cdr Tac: TT1, BFAW2/CSV1/APB1, BFAW3/CSV2
Lt. Eng: EPtS1/ET1, EPtW2
Cdr. Sci: PH1, TBR1, ES2, GW3
Lt. Sci: HE1, ST1
Ens. Sci: HE1/ST1
Cycle Energy Siphon and the Emergency Power abilities as much as possible to keep your power up. Cycle BFAW/CSV constantly if you're using two copies of it, or use it and APB in conjunction to try to spike groups down. Grav Well will deal damage and assist in keeping groups within your firing arc. The Ensign Sci is your utility, use HE1 or ST1 depending if you find yourself needing hull or shield heal more. You could even use a Tractor Beam there if you find you don't need either additional heal. The TBR is kind of a utility slot as well, you could use something else there like a PSW or something if TBR is not working out for you. It can be tricky and risky to use.
Doffs (all purple as much as possible):
2x Damage Control Engineer (cut CD on EPtX abilites)
2x Deflector Officer (cut CD on Deflector abilities like Grav Well)
1x Gravimetric Scientist (aftershock Grav Wells) OR 1x Tractor Beam Officer (the lockbox one that turns repulsors into a pull, if you can get him)
Fleet deflectors are also a consideration, as some of them have a mod that cuts the CD on your Sci abilities even more.
4/6 of my equipped weapons are cannons or compatible with cannon skills. I could switch the rear AP array for another turret, but then I lose the ability to TSS and take a general DPS hit in exchange for...occasional slightly increased spike damage/one more set of bullets spraying into the crowd.
It just didn't seem worth it. The AP array seems like quite a solid weapon to me, even if the build doesn't focus on AP damage and beams.
I'm aware of what TT does, yea. It's proven helpful on my Rom, who runs DHCs and is forced to be forward-facing at all times.
The thing is, as I said in an above post, this is one of the reasons I chose a cannon up front: I can strafe around enemies, continually firing because both the cannon and cannonesque Proton Weapon cover the entire frontal 180, using three of my four shield arcs to eat up damage and staying at full impulse for the defense bonus. The majority of enemies in a group will be all in one area because of GW going off, so once I get used to it, this should be easy to do, and that's one more slot I can give to a damage-dealing skill.
My common tactic lately has been doing the damage-spreading as above, and if it turns out that I lack the shield capacity to survive, use my mostly-intact aft shield and Evasive Manuevers to gtfo and recharge my shields while safely out of weapons range. Following that, skills should be back up, so I can do another full-on attack run. It seems to work pretty alright.
I hadn't thought of Attack Pattern Beta, it'd go decently with Cannon: Spray At Will. But then I would have to drop points into Attack Patterns to make it shine. Hmm...
The thing about the torpedos is that they synergize very well with GW and TS because of the Grav rift proc. Hitting the former, letting enemies cluster, hitting the latter causes decent spread damage, and it's almost guaranteed to open at least two Grav rifts on top of or very near the cluster, the damage of which is presumably affected by Particle Gens. Alternatively, since they're all so close together, a single HY Grav torp is a guaranteed proc on top of them and moderately heavy AOE damage within a couple kilometers.
It may not be the most effective thing in the world, but it's fun to trap clusters of ships and watch them crumple.
I was actually considering switching EPtS to the ensign slot, and bringing in Aux2SIF. It has a faster cooldown than Eng Team, and it's not as if I'm lacking in Aux power. Eng Team does clear Eng debuffs, but...it doesn't seem like I've been running into them very often anyway. Aside from the big Voth ships and their Aceton Beam.
Instead of Damage Control DOFFs, since I'm only using one EP skill anyway, I think I'd prefer two torpedo DOFFs. Every single torpedo out has a good chance of A: critting (thanks to set bonuses) and B: spawning a hull-eating Grav rift.
Easy enough to switch all these things around, though, so I'll toy with them and see what ends up working better.
I like this idea, leeching power levels to boost mine. For some reason I'd thought that the power draining stuff was rubbish, but that's probably because until recently I hadn't made a real effort to run my Science ships like they were supposed to be. Might have to throw some money at the game the next time Tal Shiar boxes are around.
I'll look into this. I'd kept the Solenae deflector because its buffs were relevant and nothing better had presented itself, but I can certainly do better with Fleet supplies.
Thank you for the post. I don't necessarily agree with some of what you've presented, but I think a good chunk of it can be applied in some form or another. Certainly it's brought up several things that I hadn't even thought of.