Build:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=enginfleetadvresearchvessel_7030
Goal: Tanking with DPS. DPS coming from FBP and Aegis set bonus as well as energy weapons. PvE geared. In essence, I want to have "exotic" DPS crowd control. I would fly into a group of enemies, hit FAW and grab the aggro. One everyone is shooting me I'd hit FBP and energy feedback conductor as well as FAW again. My hope is that the strategy severely cripples enemies or blows them up. After that I'd want to play a secondary role as a cruiser almost and just broadside enemies while giving out an occasional heal here or there. Feedback would be much appreciated, thanks.
NOTE: I chose the Fleet Advanced research vessel retrofit because I already own the 9 console c store version that I got from last years giveaway. I haven't used it at all so I figured I could use it now.
Comments
Your build takes the whole deflection/tanking concept out of the picture. I figured the combination would be good with an engineer. Any other practical build with this ship would be served better with a science captain. So would my build be better for PvP?
Well I look at it as this: Engineer's are good for optimizing power levels and staying alive. Science ships are good for support and shield capacity. Put the two together and you get a tanky hybrid.
Engineers can work well in a science ship. I do it in pvp and pve. One just has to think of some synergies.
The problem with FBP with an engineer captain is the engineer has no way of buffing FBP and particle generators. Science captains can with conservation of energy and Tac captains can do it with APA.
What engineers excel in is power levels so my engineer flies a tanky drain boat. The extra power from the battery trait (eps manifold efficiency) and EPS power transfer can boost powers like Tykens rift, energy siphon, and Tachyon beam. All those powers work great if you have points in flow capacitors and have flow capacitor consoles. With all the extra aux power, my engineer can drain all the cubes (even tac cubes) in ISE and KASE just fine. Also, all the power boosting your drains also boosts your weapons, shields, and engines so it's a win win win win.
That's the synergy I've found.
I already run a drain boat with a sci. I'm not looking for another one . Btw, Astrophysicist trait buffs particle generators.
No DOFFS atm. The character in question is only level 33 and I'm just trying to establish a game plan for him. I picked [Pla] because its a DoT proc, and since I won't be alpha striking anyone in this ship, DoT is nice. True I could tank more with those but, like its been mentioned, the ship has limited tac consoles and, therefore, lower DPS. So I gotta grab DPS wherever I can . Plus, Nanite Disruptors look better with the Aegis set
Okay, fair enough. Still, the bonuses from the Romulan Singularity Harness and 4x [Pla] Embassy consoles really make Plasma your friend when you only have 2 Tac console slots; plus, that extra punch will make maintaining aggro easier making FBP more useful. The 0 drain on the Experimental Romulan Plasma Beam Array is awfully nice as well.
You should also consider the Starship Batteries skill w/the EPS Manifold Efficiency trait. If you have 1 set of EP2x abilities, you can maintain +10 to all subsystems all the time with 9000 skill points (9 pips/99 skill). If you have 2 sets of EP2x abilities, you can maintain +10 to all subsystems all the time with 3000 skill points (3 pips/54 skill).
You might try something like this, which uses relatively low cost doffs to keep Tac Team (Conn Officers) and Engi Team (Maintenance Engineers) available. It also rearranges a couple skill points to make sure you can train the really nice Engi abilities, though you may want to shift the three yellow pips from Starship Auxiliary Performance to Starship Weapon Performance; it looks like you intended to run in max Aux as a baseline, with a ship that grants +15 Aux power and my suggestion adds a trait that grants another +10 to all subsystems, plus your other skills, plus the Zero Point Energy Conduit (assuming you used the Romulan Singularity Harness 2-piece)... I wasn't sure if you wanted to be able to train EP2A III, so I left Starship Auxiliary Performance alone.
If you can afford it, the debuff cleansing Warp Core Engineer would be even better than the bonus power version, especially cycling the 2 sets of EP2x, but that depends on what you have available. For the sixth doff slot from the Spire, well, whatever you like... you already have Subsystem Targeting to fill the gaps between B:FAW, and don't especially need anything else. Maybe the Shield Distribution Officer that allows you to recover shields with Brace for Impact might be a good idea, or the one that improves Ramming Speed so you don't kill yourself when you ram things, depending on whether you want recovery or offense?
Anyway, that suggestion is just a minor adjustment off of your design to try and make a little more out of the skills you chose and what you wanted the ship to do, so hopefully that's helpful.
With Plasma weapons, the Plasma Infused [Pla] Embassy consoles grant +9.6% Plasma Energy Weapon Damage apiece. When you're using four of them plus the Romulan Singularity Harness 2-piece set bonus, you can get a very solid bump to your plasma damage, which is awfully nice when you only have 2 Tac console slots to work with.
It'd probably be easiest to start accumulating the Fleet gear, maybe even Advanced Fleet Plasma Beam Arrays, while you are saving up Romulan Marks and increasing the Rep. The major plus side of the Daily Bonus Marks crates is that you can pretty much level a Rep doing one Marks mission a day, with everything else being set aside to buy the shinies you're looking for.
Hehe, my opinions aren't the only ones out there... and the setup I made was simply trying to stay as close as possible to what it looked like you were aiming for. It's all a matter of what you are trying to accomplish. For what it looks like you were going for, the Fleet Nebula is probably the best option, though the Fleet Avenger is more of an offensive setup. The Fleet Gal-X is solid, has a hangar for pets, and the Spinal Lance if you use Phasers (it won't do enough damage to be worthy of note otherwise). The Fleet Galaxy is a bit overly Engineering focused considering the limited number of Engineering abilities, their long cooldowns, etc... unless you want to go for Aux2Batt w/Technicians, but that kills your T4 Nukara traits, reduces the benefits of your [Amp] Warp Core, and makes timing your Aux derived healing (or other abilities) far more cumbersome.
Sometimes it's better to have a focused and reliable boff setup than it is to spam everything. :P
But those are just my opinions... keep wandering the Builds threads, search a few of the Skill Planner setups (sorting by Medals helps narrow things down), and look to your own experiences with how you like to play. Whatever you decide on, make sure it's something you actually enjoy flying.
[EDIT] Oh, Plasma proc damage is improved by the Particle Generators skill boosted by Aux power; without any Particle Generators skill from your captain or equipment, Aux power won't make a difference, but if you have both the proc will do more damage than otherwise would be the case. I found that one out tinkering with Plasma proc damage on a few of my characters, when I noticed that some did more proc damage than others, with almost the same weapon/console setup.
If you have a Tac, you already know how useful the Tac captain powers are... with the Eng, remember that they are almost exclusively counters to something, rather than being useful in and of themselves. Rotate Shield Frequency is handy to recover a little of your own shielding and make what you have afterward hardier, while EPS Power Transfer works well as a secondary counter to drains or a handy buff for allied Warbirds. Nadion Inversion is your primary drain counter, since power levels should be high enough that you won't need it to maintain Weapon power; Beam: Overload and the Spinal Lance won't drain that Weapon power anymore, so it doesn't do anything for those. Miracle Worker is probably the most useful ability, since it works as a great counter to those "Oh no, I've been shot!" moments, while Engineering Fleet is nigh upon useless as it is a DRM bonus rather than a DR% bonus... you should already have a high enough DRM that the effective DR% bonus from the ability will be negligible thanks to diminishing returns. If you get the Fleet Technician trait, though, at least Engineering Fleet can serve as an unlimited range team HoT.
All those counters are why you'll often see Engineering captains flying more Tactically oriented ships, since they don't have any useful buffs of their own. If you go that route, you'll want to readjust your skills further, since Attack Patterns is pretty much a mandatory skill if you have the boff seating to use those boff abilities. You have a decent skillset for a pure energy Battlecruiser or Escort, you'd just need to rearrange some points so you can use APB, APD, and APO.
The Fleet Avenger might be interesting using the Universal seat to add more Tac powers; if you want to give that a shot, you can get Attack Patterns up to 6 pips/84 skill by reducing your Particle Generators down to 6 pips/84 skill, if you want to leave your options open for more ship builds at a small change to the skillset I suggested earlier... more fine-tuning could definitely be done, but that would at least give you more options in that direction if you wanted to use any of the Attack Pattern boff abilities.
Oh, if you want different, give a Fleet Nebula drain boat a shot. It's probably the best option for an Engineer wanting to be something other than a tank or heal boat or engiscort... and of course STO doesn't really need a drain boat or tank or heal boat for most PvE. Pretty much everything boils down to blowing shtuff up before shtuff blows you up. :P
But yeah, a drain boat will be the biggest departure from what you are used to, in all likelihood, which is nice to keep things interesting.
build here: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=saphireupdate_7030
So I already have that play style covered.
Ah well, it was a thought. You'll find something different to entertain you. Even trying out the different ships will help, though the Palisade has build options similar to the Fleet Nebula and then some, with better turning and lower crew. Hmm... keep tinkering, and have fun with it.
So particle generators buff the plasma proc on plasma weapons and aux power buffs particle generators?
Pretty much.
If you want to double check, pick two characters, one with and one without the Particle Generators skill. With the first character, place a Plasma weapon on a ship or small craft, remove all other equipment, clear your traits, and lock your Weapon subsystem power at 50. Check the DPS tooltip in a local space map and record the results at 25, 50, 100 Aux power. Then, visit your Bridge, drag and drop the Plasma weapon from your ship or small craft into your Account Bank, and swap to the second character. Repeat the process with the second character, compare the results to the first test, and you should find that the character without Particle Generators will do slightly less proc damage and that the proc will not vary with different Aux power levels.
Yeah, it was kind of a pain, but I'd gotten curious. Still, that method was simpler than live-fire testing, and a heck of a lot cheaper than using full payloads. Fortunately, I'd done my testing before they fixed Nausicaans, which meant I didn't have to worry about Pirate altering the damage calculations for the weapons.