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Building a better Snooper
illcadia
Member Posts: 1,412 Bug Hunter
I've been working on some concepts for rommie snooper builds lately, and I thought I'd ask for some community input on the very start, which is to say which captain make the best snooper.
For context, I'm planning to build this on a Romulan Warbird- either a Fleet T'varo, or one of the sci focused warbirds. Looking for something that has a devastating alpha strike- which leans towards science and tac, but can also be effective even with the limitations of the ship I decide to use. Engineer's +all power levels traits are actually something I've been considering, particularly if I don't end up getting the T'varo and don't make a torp boat, since it would help offset the Rommie power penalty, and high power in all systems would help with the stealth sight in combat.
Sci, obviously, would be the best straight up snooper platform, particularly with subnuc and sensor scan, but tac has a lot of advantages itself.
Ultimately, looking at item availability I'm currently leaning towards Tac. It loses out on sensor scan and subnuc, but gains that devastating attack pattern alpha, which synergizes well the attacking from cloak. I'm also looking at using the Prototype Romulan space set deflector for +stealthsight, and the engines for the +attack patterns. They'll take a bit to grind the rep for, but they're 'free-er' than the mark 12 Jem'hadar stuff and have slightly better stats.
For the rest of the build, it mostly involves maxing out starship sensors. I know that a few people around here have snoopers and have been sitting on their highly confidential builds- and I'm not asking you guys to share- but the fact is that there's very few ways to actually do a snooper. You need high sensors and starship stealth detection, and that limits the ways you can build the ship.
I'm looking at getting two romulan embassy +sensor probe consoles, either at mark 11 or 12, and then one exotic particle 3in1 +sensors console for my sci slots (assuming fleet t'varo), and then a +sensors conductive RCS console for eng. That, captain skill, the nebula tachyon field console- that should give me sufficient stealth detection to pierce most cloaks, and there's some optimization that can be done at the doff and trait level to edge out some extra performance.
I've also been considering grabbing an Exeter for the emissions seeking torpedo as a good way to knock enemies out of cloak if their stealth is higher than I can defeat, but I'd like to decide on a captain to make the build on first.
Character wise, I only have one romulan- a level 50 tac about half-way through the various reps. Making a dedicated sci or eng snooper would require grinding a new character to 50 and then grinding all the reps. Doable, but annoying.
For context, I'm planning to build this on a Romulan Warbird- either a Fleet T'varo, or one of the sci focused warbirds. Looking for something that has a devastating alpha strike- which leans towards science and tac, but can also be effective even with the limitations of the ship I decide to use. Engineer's +all power levels traits are actually something I've been considering, particularly if I don't end up getting the T'varo and don't make a torp boat, since it would help offset the Rommie power penalty, and high power in all systems would help with the stealth sight in combat.
Sci, obviously, would be the best straight up snooper platform, particularly with subnuc and sensor scan, but tac has a lot of advantages itself.
Ultimately, looking at item availability I'm currently leaning towards Tac. It loses out on sensor scan and subnuc, but gains that devastating attack pattern alpha, which synergizes well the attacking from cloak. I'm also looking at using the Prototype Romulan space set deflector for +stealthsight, and the engines for the +attack patterns. They'll take a bit to grind the rep for, but they're 'free-er' than the mark 12 Jem'hadar stuff and have slightly better stats.
For the rest of the build, it mostly involves maxing out starship sensors. I know that a few people around here have snoopers and have been sitting on their highly confidential builds- and I'm not asking you guys to share- but the fact is that there's very few ways to actually do a snooper. You need high sensors and starship stealth detection, and that limits the ways you can build the ship.
I'm looking at getting two romulan embassy +sensor probe consoles, either at mark 11 or 12, and then one exotic particle 3in1 +sensors console for my sci slots (assuming fleet t'varo), and then a +sensors conductive RCS console for eng. That, captain skill, the nebula tachyon field console- that should give me sufficient stealth detection to pierce most cloaks, and there's some optimization that can be done at the doff and trait level to edge out some extra performance.
I've also been considering grabbing an Exeter for the emissions seeking torpedo as a good way to knock enemies out of cloak if their stealth is higher than I can defeat, but I'd like to decide on a captain to make the build on first.
Character wise, I only have one romulan- a level 50 tac about half-way through the various reps. Making a dedicated sci or eng snooper would require grinding a new character to 50 and then grinding all the reps. Doable, but annoying.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
A moment off topic: Does it count "stealing strategies" as well? I like Proton Defiant :P
Btw, as far as I know for building a snooper you should have EPTA, the Tachyon Grid (or Field) and stock everything you can on starship sensors. Jem'Hadar deflector as you pointed, is probably the best one for snooping. I still recommend a science captain. Tactical buffs will barely kill the opponent. You're better with debuffing him like only a sci captain can do
Sci is only Captain who can be an effective snooper. The reason being you need Sensor Scan for effective snopping. Power management is generally not an issue unless you want to go full Energy build, even then you can compensate by using Weapons Battery and points into Starship batteries skill.
There are a few inaccuracies in your thinking here : Forget about Engineer as an option, this is a Sci focus build. If you want to be a good snooper, you can't go Tac or Eng. Without Sensor Scan, you can't really snoop. The only power that you care re: stealth sight is Aux and it is assumed regardless of captain career, that subsystem should be at max anyway, so having an Engineer captain is quite irrelevant. It would be difficult to execute effective snopping without EBC, not to say you can't. I have seen Lara-Maximilian doing a fine job using a Nebula however, you will miss the element of surprise which is a major part of effective snooping.
No, a Tac is not an option. FOMM can be easily clear with TT and offers less stealth detection debuff than SS whereas your target may clear SS but it can't affect SS's boost to your own Stealth detection. While APA and TF can spike your dmg much higher - you really don't need that much more dmg. About a week ago, after the Dev. buffed BO to become 100% Critical Hit chance, then tweaked it again, Minihax was QQing on Kerrat zone chat that a single plain vanilla (non-exotic) Photon without HY or TS was one shotting him at 42K+ of dmg from a Sci. His beef was the plain vanilla Photon was doing more dmg than most BO shot by Tac. That was his usual hyperbole QQ and no, the regular Photons don't usually shoot that high but still, properly managed - a Sci can still deliver more than enough dmg to destroy most snopped targets. You really don't need to worry about not doing enough dmg. Besides, Subnuke can be quite damning on a target as it will strip most of their defenses.
My take is that you don't have enough console space for all of the above. However, without knowing the kind of weaponry you will specialize in, that remains to be seen. There are advantages of having a BO+DHC+Proton Barrage wielding snooper , then again if you are doing that then you aren't really snooping. Undeniably however, the latter offers a great alternative to a Torpedo boat, you have to find out what suits you the best.
Forget about that torp, it's too slow to do anything really. 99.9% of Klinks in Kerrat will outrun that thing in their sleep, even those fat tanks and cruisers. Needless to mention, Aceton Assimilators will clear these targetable toys. And you don't have console space to waste on this.
Being able to kill people you find is the other 90%. For that you need some kind of strategy that wont reveal either you or your target. T'varo with torpedoes do that the best but you lose the buff to detection from science ships.
After that its just details
So, that's what the power creep is all about.
To be a good snooper, you need to bring 180 % performance. 90 % finding people, 90 % detecting them? :P
For consoles, the Fleet T'varo has 3/3/4, so it's definitely possible to run what I mentioned before.
I should probably ask now, but would it be better to make a Reman or a Romulan captain? I know Romulans have all the crit boosting which can be essential, but Remans have the boost to defense and stealth, and increase the length of the ambush bonus.
Tractor repulsers with the 'attractor' doff are a fantastic way to detect cloaked ships.
The up time beats most of your sensor based options and the ability requires no special consoles or skills to serve its function as; "Search light in SPACE', now with a +9 to commie scum detection checks.