This is more or less the build I use on my Kinetic Specialist. It's very powerful(50k-150k AoE Plasma Bolt Crits + Gravity Well = dead stuff), but also dangerous to use(a single enemy fighter infront of your ship at the wrong time can blow yourself up) and requires a different playstyle/mindset to most ships(closer to a "Warlock" in most fantasy MMOs): http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=vestaplasmatorpedoboat_0
Fill in the blanks and upgrade the whites as you see fit. The Quantum Field Focuser that the Aventine comes with is a decent console choice due to it being boosted by Aux power and doing a good job at keeping a shield facing down for your torpedos.
I'd suggest going a bit heavier on the +crit for photons so you can better overcome shields(Torpedo Spreads don't miss, so aim for [CritH] over [ACC] on the backup torpedos). You can drop the front backup torpedo for an Aux Cannon if you're running a Projectile Doff(it's only there to catch the longer delay of the Gravimetric). Both builds are better are clearing large groups of smaller targets than singular large targets, so focus on what you're good at. The Plasma build is good against all targets, but again, it's not something I recommend for beginners - both for its cost and learning curve.
The main goal with all the builds is to put most of your power into Aux and Shields, while leaving Weapons power empty. The innate shield modifier overcomes the capacity weakness of Regen shields and with shield and aux power at the level you'll be running, your shields will be absolutely beastly. Leave the Danubes in Intercept mode to shoot down hostile heavily torpedos and fighters.
Looks a great build but how do you deal with shields? From what I have read Torps are useless against shields :-(
40% bleedthrough on torps and 80% on mines including the cluster torp (it turns into mines)
People thinks torp builds are useless, for some unknwon reason. They are not. But you right, transphasic torp builds are famous because they are the most effective ones. I, in fact have one of those (transphasics + cluster + mines). It really hurts specially with high criticals. It is just amazing.
People thinks torp builds are useless, for some unknwon reason. They are not. But you right, transphasic torp builds are famous because they are the most effective ones. I, in fact have one of those (transphasics + cluster + mines). It really hurts specially with high criticals. It is just amazing.
Looks a great build but how do you deal with shields? From what I have read Torps are useless against shields :-(
You can also use plasma to bypass shields. If you have access to the Secondary Deflector and the free Dyson ship you can use your Sci powers that compliment the Secondary Deflector to transfer some of their (the target's) shields to you. I found this PvE build somewhat effective at removing shields of mid and some large NPC's.
I ran this build while I ground out the Undine reputation. I used Fleet Flow Caps with the Shield heal proc, Fleet Neutroniums with the turn bonus, and slotted the Multi-Conduit Energy Relay to boost the Bio Molec. Torps radiation (shield bypassing damage) damage.
I used 3 VR Projectile Weapons Officer doffs and experimented using 3 VR Deflector Officer doffs to minimized Deflector Boff power cool downs.
I would find a target, start a run 10km out, then hit a special torpedo attack them hit the target with TR, ES, then TYB. Sometimes I could knock out a midsized target by the time I would begin to fly over it on the first pass. The key was using abilities that complemented the Secondary Deflector.
I only ran this ship in Sci mode and at full Aux.
If you are really interested in torpedoes this guide might be helpful.
No i dont. Mostly because its not finished yet. I still dont have elite fleet weapons, or the warp core or some items i want to replace.
But it is not a difficult build:
In Front -> 1 rapid reload transphasic torp + 1 trans cluster + 2 advanced fleet transphasic torp (3xdmg)
In Back -> 1 tans cluster + 1 rapid reload transphasic torp + 1 trans mine launcher + 1 advanced fleet transphasic torp (3xdmg)
SET ->Of course, the breen set for the trans boost (it is not too much, but everything helps)
I think the warp core is a fleet advanced one, but im not sure right now.
Tactical consoles - > 4 transphasic compressors mkXII
Now, between science consoles and engineer consoles -> plasmonic leech (i am thinking on replacing this since it is not very useful in a torp build), takyokinetic converter, assimilated module (the only rep item i have lol), zero point energy conduit, 1 neutronium XII, 1 RCS, and i think thats it. Im sure i forget something since lately i dont use this build too much, cuz i have 9 more toons.
Then, i have 2 blue + 1 purple projectile DOFFS, 1 deflector doff (for my GW) and 1 damage engineer doff.
This more or less. As i said, i m sure i forget something.
This is a decent build with more regular equipment that really high-end, but i am doing close to 8k constantly, as you know you will never get the same DPS as other builds, specially cannon ones, but this is pretty decent i think. Anyways i dont care, i just have fun with it and it is more than enough to kill everything really fast (and with fun, that is more important xD). Of course depends on the ship. This is a build for my breen warship, and since the breen warship have a great stations layout, it includes a lt. comm universal station, where i put my GWII and i use it to grab my enemies and release the transphasic cluster. Bye bye all of em
Most of the times, i launch the GW in the beginning if i have several targets. Then, between my torp high yield and my transphasic cluster, the weaker ones just die. And the biggest ones have -50% life left. Then i just need to use another high yield or my trans cluster in the back to finish the job.
And why the hell keep thinking that torps are useless against shields??? its true that torps deal full damage on nonshielded targets, but they are useful same as any other weapon. They just have a different way to be used, thats all. I have torps on all my ships, photons, quantums, and i love em. And i use em against fully shielded targets. And they work amazingly. Of course you need to boost em, as any other weapon, but yes. They work. The belief that they are useless against shielded targets is just a myth.
Looks a great build but how do you deal with shields? From what I have read Torps are useless against shields :-(
Shields aren't as much of a problem with Plasma and Transphasic torpedos. The former can cook ships alive even with their shields intact(and unleash holy-hell on anything that loses/doesn't have shields). The latter gets high shield penetration for direct hull damage - especially mines, which the cluster launcher fires(Escorts are better for actual mine layers because of high tactical bridge requirements of mine dispersals). Against unshielded targets, Transphasics will lag behind other damage types(most notable against bosses), but their penetration and ease of damage boosting(Breen 2-set) make them quite effective against most targets.
The Photon build is more about crit-spamming, ravaging crew - thus cutting hull repair rate, and generally supplementing other energy-weapon based ships. It's pretty easy to run an effective hybrid build on most escorts(2x DBB, 2x Photon), but for science ships you're better off as a heavy-hitting support ship if you want to run them - for multiple reasons.
I've also run a shield-slamming Quantum boat, but you're really better off using an escort/destroyer for it. It did struggle against multiple medium sized ships(like Borg Spheres who had just enough shields to eat a torp salvo without breaking), but it could usually 1-shot smaller ships and tear apart large targets quite efficiently(HY torp crits were around 80k, DPB3 mines usually crit for around 200k). Like the photon build though, it really shines most in a teamplay setting when you work alongside energy weapon ships that gobble up those shield facings for you.
I eventually switched over to my Plasma Vesta because Plasma has a lot of specialty launchers to bypass cooldowns, it can achieve a damage output even higher than my Quantum Chel Grett(all the plasma fire does add up, even if combat trackers are bad at counting it) - with or without assistance - and it comes with fighter support to make up for the other weakness of torpedo boats - point defense. Unlike the T'varo or B'rel(which are both quite deadly torpedo platforms), the Vesta is able to take the punishment it dishes out.
My 1st character ever from way back when is a science character. As a Vulcan, i have her flying the D'Kyr Vulcan vessel. The thing to remember is that if you want to get the most out of a science toon, you should fly a science vessel. Not everyone will want to do that but science is all about control on the battle field. Mine flies with the borg set and tetryon beams with chroniton torps. She may not put out massive dps but in any STF she can keep ships at bay and being held together by GWs for the tanks and escorts to take out faster.
The main thing to remember is to play it the way you want. Looking at other peoples builds is fine in the beginning but eventually you will find your own path.
The only problem of plasma torps, is that they become completely useless when you use high yield on a shielded target.
romulan hyper plasma torpedo with THY2, TH3 and two projectile officers -> long and devasting trains of plasma topedos... absolutelly devasting if you trap npcs in a GW.
of course it's good for pve... targettable (and slow) torpedos are not good for pvp.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
romulan hyper plasma torpedo with THY2, TH3 and two projectile officers -> long and devasting trains of plasma topedos... absolutelly devasting if you trap npcs in a GW.
of course it's good for pve... targettable (and slow) torpedos are not good for pvp.
It doesnt matter. If your targets have shields up, your high yielded plasmas will do almost nothing to em. Not even the hyper plasma torps (that they are essentially regular plasmas with eternal high yield skill applied to em). And before you say anything, i have 3 romulan toons with the hyper plasmas, i am really "tired" of using em lol.
And you know high yield is useless using it on hyper plasmas, right? maybe you are talking about torp spread, right? yea , a torp spread using on hyper plasmas is really cool and terrific, but as i said, if your target is strong shielded.. they will do even less damage than a regular torp.
It doesnt matter. If your targets have shields up, your high yielded plasmas will do almost nothing to em. Not even the hyper plasma torps (that they are essentially regular plasmas with eternal high yield skill applied to em). And before you say anything, i have 3 romulan toons with the hyper plasmas, i am really "tired" of using em lol.
Sci-ship with flowcaps and Tykens Rift 3->AoE shield out for anything up to cube/unimatrix level, long enough to destroy an entire sphere spawn in ise alone on a torpboot.
Torpboots are pretty powerful for the weaker sci ships, but capable of 8-10k pointed dps (faw would be more, but fawing around vs. pinpoint attack makes a difference here).
For better sci-ships like Vesta, Dyson destroyer, and recluse that would be a gimped version, yes, but for weaker ones its the way to go. A friends attrox easily tops 16k with full fronted torps, and shields, well, as I said, they tend to be just off. If you built it right, that is.
Personally, I like the Vesta class ship for whatever career type captain. It's a little soft but if you are sticking to Phasers and have access to fleet elite weapons, you will recoup some of that survivability from the weapons. A good fleet elite shield works well but there are a lot of excellent shields in the game to help you survive a bit longer. DPS wise, I favor the Vesta over any science ship that doesn't come out of a lock box. .
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It doesnt matter. If your targets have shields up, your high yielded plasmas will do almost nothing to em. Not even the hyper plasma torps (that they are essentially regular plasmas with eternal high yield skill applied to em). And before you say anything, i have 3 romulan toons with the hyper plasmas, i am really "tired" of using em lol.
And you know high yield is useless using it on hyper plasmas, right? maybe you are talking about torp spread, right? yea , a torp spread using on hyper plasmas is really cool and terrific, but as i said, if your target is strong shielded.. they will do even less damage than a regular torp.
I think you do not know what are you talking about, THY works well with the romulan torpedo (3 HY topedos each time) and no matter the shields no npc can resist to tens and tens of normal and hy plasma torpedo.
I used it since the introduction of the romulan reputation and stopped just because I respected the toon to play pvp.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
I just used that ship with only the hyper plasma romulan torpedo combinated with THY2 and THY3 and 2 or 3 purple projectile officer. No matter what npc I was firing spheres, cubes, tactical cubes or gates or whatever you want... if your build can tank for a while in pve it's a god mode!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
If you take a recluse on torps you are gimping that ship beyound redemption^^
pretty much a prime-example for a pve-torpboat. you could even go without tac BO and go full support. It possible with torps.
that's your opinion. does not happen to be mine. AP DBB fore Hyper, grav and aft KCB 360 ap and an AP beam array. I'd love one extra weapon slot to put the Omega torp back on.
Comments
Looks a great build but how do you deal with shields? From what I have read Torps are useless against shields :-(
People thinks torp builds are useless, for some unknwon reason. They are not. But you right, transphasic torp builds are famous because they are the most effective ones. I, in fact have one of those (transphasics + cluster + mines). It really hurts
Do you have a link to your build?
~ I don't want the world... I just want your half!
You can also use plasma to bypass shields. If you have access to the Secondary Deflector and the free Dyson ship you can use your Sci powers that compliment the Secondary Deflector to transfer some of their (the target's) shields to you. I found this PvE build somewhat effective at removing shields of mid and some large NPC's.
I ran this build while I ground out the Undine reputation. I used Fleet Flow Caps with the Shield heal proc, Fleet Neutroniums with the turn bonus, and slotted the Multi-Conduit Energy Relay to boost the Bio Molec. Torps radiation (shield bypassing damage) damage.
I used 3 VR Projectile Weapons Officer doffs and experimented using 3 VR Deflector Officer doffs to minimized Deflector Boff power cool downs.
I would find a target, start a run 10km out, then hit a special torpedo attack them hit the target with TR, ES, then TYB. Sometimes I could knock out a midsized target by the time I would begin to fly over it on the first pass. The key was using abilities that complemented the Secondary Deflector.
I only ran this ship in Sci mode and at full Aux.
If you are really interested in torpedoes this guide might be helpful.
#2 vesta- great (get the pack) ship!!
I use both actually, the wells is my ruthlessly dominant PVPeffort, the vesta I made a quite effective torp boat...
Sci is control, drain and interference.... Keep your DPS expectations lower but effectiveness is a matter of balance.
No i dont. Mostly because its not finished yet. I still dont have elite fleet weapons, or the warp core or some items i want to replace.
But it is not a difficult build:
In Front -> 1 rapid reload transphasic torp + 1 trans cluster + 2 advanced fleet transphasic torp (3xdmg)
In Back -> 1 tans cluster + 1 rapid reload transphasic torp + 1 trans mine launcher + 1 advanced fleet transphasic torp (3xdmg)
SET ->Of course, the breen set for the trans boost (it is not too much, but everything helps)
I think the warp core is a fleet advanced one, but im not sure right now.
Tactical consoles - > 4 transphasic compressors mkXII
Now, between science consoles and engineer consoles -> plasmonic leech (i am thinking on replacing this since it is not very useful in a torp build), takyokinetic converter, assimilated module (the only rep item i have lol), zero point energy conduit, 1 neutronium XII, 1 RCS, and i think thats it. Im sure i forget something since lately i dont use this build too much, cuz i have 9 more toons.
Then, i have 2 blue + 1 purple projectile DOFFS, 1 deflector doff (for my GW) and 1 damage engineer doff.
This more or less. As i said, i m sure i forget something.
This is a decent build with more regular equipment that really high-end, but i am doing close to 8k constantly, as you know you will never get the same DPS as other builds, specially cannon ones, but this is pretty decent i think. Anyways i dont care, i just have fun with it and it is more than enough to kill everything really fast (and with fun, that is more important xD). Of course depends on the ship. This is a build for my breen warship, and since the breen warship have a great stations layout, it includes a lt. comm universal station, where i put my GWII and i use it to grab my enemies and release the transphasic cluster. Bye bye all of em
Most of the times, i launch the GW in the beginning if i have several targets. Then, between my torp high yield and my transphasic cluster, the weaker ones just die. And the biggest ones have -50% life left. Then i just need to use another high yield or my trans cluster in the back to finish the job.
And why the hell keep thinking that torps are useless against shields??? its true that torps deal full damage on nonshielded targets, but they are useful same as any other weapon. They just have a different way to be used, thats all. I have torps on all my ships, photons, quantums, and i love em. And i use em against fully shielded targets. And they work amazingly. Of course you need to boost em, as any other weapon, but yes. They work. The belief that they are useless against shielded targets is just a myth.
Shields aren't as much of a problem with Plasma and Transphasic torpedos. The former can cook ships alive even with their shields intact(and unleash holy-hell on anything that loses/doesn't have shields). The latter gets high shield penetration for direct hull damage - especially mines, which the cluster launcher fires(Escorts are better for actual mine layers because of high tactical bridge requirements of mine dispersals). Against unshielded targets, Transphasics will lag behind other damage types(most notable against bosses), but their penetration and ease of damage boosting(Breen 2-set) make them quite effective against most targets.
The Photon build is more about crit-spamming, ravaging crew - thus cutting hull repair rate, and generally supplementing other energy-weapon based ships. It's pretty easy to run an effective hybrid build on most escorts(2x DBB, 2x Photon), but for science ships you're better off as a heavy-hitting support ship if you want to run them - for multiple reasons.
I've also run a shield-slamming Quantum boat, but you're really better off using an escort/destroyer for it. It did struggle against multiple medium sized ships(like Borg Spheres who had just enough shields to eat a torp salvo without breaking), but it could usually 1-shot smaller ships and tear apart large targets quite efficiently(HY torp crits were around 80k, DPB3 mines usually crit for around 200k). Like the photon build though, it really shines most in a teamplay setting when you work alongside energy weapon ships that gobble up those shield facings for you.
I eventually switched over to my Plasma Vesta because Plasma has a lot of specialty launchers to bypass cooldowns, it can achieve a damage output even higher than my Quantum Chel Grett(all the plasma fire does add up, even if combat trackers are bad at counting it) - with or without assistance - and it comes with fighter support to make up for the other weakness of torpedo boats - point defense. Unlike the T'varo or B'rel(which are both quite deadly torpedo platforms), the Vesta is able to take the punishment it dishes out.
if you fly a recluse.. what shields? the weavers take care of that pretty fast
The main thing to remember is to play it the way you want. Looking at other peoples builds is fine in the beginning but eventually you will find your own path.
romulan hyper plasma torpedo with THY2, TH3 and two projectile officers -> long and devasting trains of plasma topedos... absolutelly devasting if you trap npcs in a GW.
of course it's good for pve... targettable (and slow) torpedos are not good for pvp.
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
It doesnt matter. If your targets have shields up, your high yielded plasmas will do almost nothing to em. Not even the hyper plasma torps (that they are essentially regular plasmas with eternal high yield skill applied to em). And before you say anything, i have 3 romulan toons with the hyper plasmas, i am really "tired" of using em lol.
And you know high yield is useless using it on hyper plasmas, right? maybe you are talking about torp spread, right? yea , a torp spread using on hyper plasmas is really cool and terrific, but as i said, if your target is strong shielded.. they will do even less damage than a regular torp.
Sci-ship with flowcaps and Tykens Rift 3->AoE shield out for anything up to cube/unimatrix level, long enough to destroy an entire sphere spawn in ise alone on a torpboot.
Torpboots are pretty powerful for the weaker sci ships, but capable of 8-10k pointed dps (faw would be more, but fawing around vs. pinpoint attack makes a difference here).
For better sci-ships like Vesta, Dyson destroyer, and recluse that would be a gimped version, yes, but for weaker ones its the way to go. A friends attrox easily tops 16k with full fronted torps, and shields, well, as I said, they tend to be just off. If you built it right, that is.
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If you take a recluse on torps you are gimping that ship beyound redemption^^
pretty much a prime-example for a pve-torpboat. you could even go without tac BO and go full support. It possible with torps.
I think you do not know what are you talking about, THY works well with the romulan torpedo (3 HY topedos each time) and no matter the shields no npc can resist to tens and tens of normal and hy plasma torpedo.
I used it since the introduction of the romulan reputation and stopped just because I respected the toon to play pvp.
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
I just used that ship with only the hyper plasma romulan torpedo combinated with THY2 and THY3 and 2 or 3 purple projectile officer. No matter what npc I was firing spheres, cubes, tactical cubes or gates or whatever you want... if your build can tank for a while in pve it's a god mode!
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
that's your opinion. does not happen to be mine. AP DBB fore Hyper, grav and aft KCB 360 ap and an AP beam array. I'd love one extra weapon slot to put the Omega torp back on.