U.S.S. Tsunami, Tempest-class Fleet Patrol Escort Refit (help?)

umaeko

I recently decided to upgrade one of my longstanding tactical bridge officers - my very first andorian Boff - into a captain. Ty'shana "Shana" zh'Anthi just recently made level 50, and at first I was having her settled on the Mirror Patrol Escort - a Prometheus-class - with the MVAM console and tried to make do with that until I obtained her a Fleet ship (my choices back then being Fleet Defiant, Fleet Prometheus or Fleet Armitage).

Then came out the Patrol Escort Refit last thursday, which I kind of fell for and decided that one would be her ship of choice. So, I bought the refit and nabbed the discounted fleet version, then tried to set it up. Tempests are violent storms, and looking over the storm article on wikipedia, I came upon the Great Wave off Kanagawa which inspired me to call it the "U.S.S. Tsunami".

Seeing how people over the STO forums were all over this ship allowing those 'uber' Fire-at-Will Aux-to-Battery builds, I decided to humor them. Even after obtaining a bit of fleet gear, though, my Fleet Tempest felt rather fragile, so, I've been tweaking her to enhance her survivability - enough to give her a reasonable chance to survive through Infected Space Elite or Crystaline Catrastrophe Elite (and get 3rd/2nd place).

Now, there are some things I'd like to achieve to reach the potential of this ship, so, I'll cover what I have to give you an idea of what I am building on:

Fore Weapons:

• Elite Fleet Phaser Beam Array Mk XII [Dmg]x2 [CrtD]
• Elite Fleet Phaser Beam Array Mk XII [Dmg]x2 [CrtD]
• Elite Fleet Phaser Beam Array Mk XII [Dmg]x2 [CrtD]
• Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo Launcher Mk XII

Aft Weapons:

• Kinetic Cutting Beam Mk XII [Dmg]x3
• Gravimetric Photon Torpedo Launcher Mk XII
• Elite Fleet Phaser Beam Array Mk XII [Dmg]x2 [CrtD]
• Tempest Tail Gun [Acc] [Dmg] [Arc] [Rpd]

Commentary: Predominantly beam arrays for using Fire-at-Will. Torpedo launchers fore and aft to make use of that nice turn rate to lob one of those two nasty torpedo types fairly frequently. Kinetic Cutting Beam will eventually be replaced with the Undine-rep Heavy Phaser Turret.

Deflector: Assimilated Deflector Array Mk XII
Impulse Engine: Assimilated Subtranswarp Engines Mk XII
Warp Core: Elite Fleet Hyper-Charged Warp Core Mk XII [Eff] [W->A] [ECap] [AMP] [Trans]
Shields: Resilient Shield Array Mk XII [Reg]x2

Commentary: I went for the 2-piece Borg set because I felt lacking in survivability, and hope it would help (going to warp 20 in sector space is also nice). The fleet warp core selected was chosen because I felt my powers levels were fairly low and wanted to see that improved as much as possible, hence the efficiency bonus, and the weapons -> Auxiliary (weapons being always high, Auxiliary being what Aux2Batt relies on). Undecided on what shield to go for; present selection is to mitigate hull bleedthrough and take advantage of high shield power to last through longer firefights.

Devices:

- Red Matter Capacitor - Subspace Field Modulator

Engineering Consoles:

- Console - Universal - Nukara Particle Converter - Console - Engineering - Enhanced RCS Accelerator Mk XII [+AllRes] - Console - Engineering - Enhanced Neutronium Alloy Mk XII [+Turn]

Commentary: I'm not sold on the Nukara console, despite its boosts to shield power and accuracy, but I'm trying it out for now. It's what I'm going for to steer clear of diminishing resistance returns, because I'd typically prefer another armor console.

Science Consoles:

- Console - Universal - Nadion Saturation Bomb - Console - Universal - Plasmonic Leech

Commentary: The Nadion Saturation Bomb is by far the best console-given active power I've seen in a long while. It wasn't easy to effectively use at first, but I got the hang of it... now I can only imagine what kind of mayhem I could cause if I paired it with Gravity Well (which I don't yet have). Plasmonic Leech is there because it's heavily recommended and helps with my power issues - I get 1.8 power increments from it with my stats as they are.

Tactical Consoles:

- Console - Tactical - Vulnerability Locator Mk XII [+Pha] - Console - Tactical - Vulnerability Locator Mk XII [+Pha] - Console - Tactical - Vulnerability Locator Mk XII [+Pha] - Console - Tactical - Vulnerability Locator Mk XII [+Pha] - Console - Tactical - Counter-Command Multi-Conduit Energy Relay

Commentary: Mostly phaser enhancements, though considering my weapon balance, I'm kind of questioning - considering my 4 energy/2 projectile loadout, if I ought to replace one [+Pha] with a [+PhP]. As for the Counter-Command console, it's there so I can get the set bonus (which will eventually look much nicer once I get bio-molecular phasers).

Next, my present Bridge officer loadout.
Cmd Tactical:

- Tactical Team I, Torpedo Spread II, Beam: Fire at Will III, Attack Pattern Beta III

LtC Engineering:

- Emergency Power to Weapons I, Auxiliary to Battery I, Engineering Team III

LtC universal (Engineering):

- Emergency Power to Shields I, Auxiliary to Battery I, Reverse Shield Polarity II

Lt Science:

- Polarize Hull I, Science Team II

...And my assigned Duty officers:

1x Purple Projectile Weapon Officer (20% chance for lower torpedo cooldown) 1x Purple Space Warfare Specialist (Borg/Undine) 1x Purple Fabrication Engineer (longer lasting Reverse Shield Polarity) 3x Purple Technicians (10% less cooldown each when using Aux-to-Battery)

NOW, what I'd like help with, if you guys can counsel me:
Aside from general gear and duty officer recommendations...

I want to make better use of my Fleet Tempest's Lieutenant Commander Universal station. Normally, I'd see the inherent versatility which could make it an excellent pick for No-Win-Scenario. But the problem is that since my present build is so very Aux-to-Battery reliant (meaning I need two LtC engineers to make this work), I'm not sure of how to juggle that around.

Let's say I swap my universal to Tactical - maybe I double up on FaW, TorpSpread and AttackPatternBeta to compensate for losing Aux2Batt, but then, what do I put for my LtC engineer? (EPtW1, EPtS2, ET3?).

Same difference with science. If I pick Hazard Emitters, Transfer Shield Strength and Gravity Well I - then I'd also lose on the Aux-to-Batt front. But I wouldn't be able to double up on my tactical powers either, meaning longer offensive cooldowns.

Also, there's the matter that if I take out Aux-to-Batt, I need to find something to replace my 3 purple technician Doffs with something which will work well too. Having an alternative to that may not be a bad idea either: I read on the STO forums that Aux2Batt was a bad idea with escorts - I just yet have to find a good alternative.

If you've advice, I'd like to hear it. Thank you.

caelrassto

If I'm not running A2B with 3 Technicians, I tend to replace the 3 technicians with 3 Damage Control Engineers. Constant uptime on different 2 EPtX is really hard to give up. It's not guaranteed with 3 DCEs, but it's very likely.

You've got 3 teams in your current setup, but can only chain 2 teams due to global cooldown. Plus with the A2B build you can get by with only one team, but two is still useful due to the timing of A2Bs. If you kept your current BO layout I'd replace the Science Team with TSS. I find A2B builds lack hull healing unless you pack an Engineering Team in there, as both Aux2SIF and Hazard Emitters are hurt by the lack of Aux power from A2B.

If you drop the A2B build, I'd run the engineer with EPtW1 (or EPtE1 if you'd prefer), AuxToSIF1, EPtS3 (possibly swap A2SIF and EPtS slots) if you have 3 DCEs, otherwise EPtS1, EPtS2, A2SIF2. Having constant uptime on EPtS really boosts survivability. If you choose to move the LtC Universal slot to Tactical, get 2 tac teams and chain them (or 1 if you have 2 Purp Conn officers).

TT1, TS2, FAW3, APB3
TT1, FAW2, APB2

or
TT1, TS2, FAW3, APB3
TS1, FAW2, APB2 with 2 Purp Conn Officers

Going science is also good. Consider
Tactical : TT1, TS2, FAW3, APB3
Science LtC: Haz Emitters 1, Sci Team 2, Grav Well 1
if you have 1 or 2 purple beam CD reducing Doffs

or maybe
Tactial: TS1, FAW2, FAW3, APB3
Science LtC: Haz1, SciTeam2, Grav1 with 2 purp Development Lab Officers to reduce SciTeam CD

There are a lot of good choices, and it depends a lot on what Doffs you have and want to slot. By far the best doffs for these types of setups are cooldown reducing doffs. Technicians are the most popular, but there are a lot of other options.

I think all the viable BO setups is what makes this Patrol Escort refit so nifty. With the loadout options, go crazy and just switch between them. I actually bought more loadout slots for the first time just for this ship.

bobsisko47

@caelrassto: The shared cooldown between TacTeam, EngTeam and SciTeam was removed a couple of weeks ago.

As for the FPER: I run her on my Tac toon with 4 DHCs upfront and with the Nadeon Bomb console, which btw is awesome (buffed with AP:A, AP:O3, EPtW3...). I use a Sci in the Lt.Cmd. Slot with GW1.

caelrassto

bobsisko47 wrote: »

@caelrassto: The shared cooldown between TacTeam, EngTeam and SciTeam was removed a couple of weeks ago.

As for the FPER: I run her on my Tac toon with 4 DHCs upfront and with the Nadeon Bomb console, which btw is awesome (buffed with AP:A, AP:O3, EPtW3...). I use a Sci in the Lt.Cmd. Slot with GW1.

Oh wow, totally missed that change. That's awesome.

shar487a

I went with an Aux2Batt Tempest set-up using cannon abilities to support that new rapid fire tail gun. The result is this torpedo bomber: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=shartempest001_0

DOFFS: 3 A2B DOFF's, 1 RSP DOFF, 1 Nurse DOFF, 1 Marion Frances Dulmer

Key Features:
-Aux2Batt and plasmonic leech to maintain very high power levels and skill recharge speeds at global cooldown times
-Two Counter-Command set pieces and 5 Vulnerability Locator consoles for +167% phaser damage bonus
-Dyson 2-peice set to augment both torpedo launchers
-20-second duration RSP (thanks to RSP2 and the RSP DOFF) and Elite Fleet Phaser weapons for additional shield recharge
-DEM2 + Dulmer + Omega Weapon Amplifier + Omega Kinetic Sheering for constant shield-bypassing damage

The Counter Command Heavy Phaser Turrent should be here Wednesday or Thursday. The Counter-Command 4-piece heal nerf proc should give opponents something else to worry about

toluene56

http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=dogfightper_4268

I was tooling around with this last night. It's pretty fun to dogfight in ker'rat with..
3 damage control engineers
2 conn officers for tac team cooldown

thing is a blast really.. with most of the abilites on global it's a fast little bugger. You can remove the cannons for 2 more dhc's. I was trying them out for the 180 degree firing arc.