I've got an alt KDF/SCI and have never really run any KDF missions (outside of doffing, contraband and a couple of events) and I'm looking for some -very basic- advice. I'd like to outfit my KDF so he stands a fair chance at missions and won't get blasted to bits in Elite STFs.
1. As a SCI do I really need to use a sci-focued ship?
2. What is a reasonably "best" ship, doesn't have to be perfect, not sure I want to spend on it, just a basic direction. I've had success with cruisers with my Rom/Eng and Fed/Tac.
I mean, he's still on his original given ship when he started and I haven't even fully boffed him out yet - it's time to get him a real setup and I'm starting cold and I just don't want to make any dumb obvious bad missteps.
Oh and I PVE and STF but I don't pvp (haven't so far anyway)
As the sayings go, as a Sci you're not gonna DPS like an Tac (no captain's skills), and you can't tank like an engie (again, not enough captain's skills)...
However, in PvE, that's not hyper-necessary, so you can fly whatever you feel comfortable with...
If you do want to go Sci/Sci, the KDF lacks somewhat in that department, there's the Varanus (C-store, practically a clone of the Luna), DSDs (C- and Lobi stores), and the carriers (Kar'fi and Vo'Quv). Orb Weaver and the Temporal Sci (Wells to the Feddies) are lockbox options, and the all universal seats of the BoP round out the science heavy ships...
Main KDF Sci started in Vo'Quv but moved onto the Sci-Royer. Looked a lot at the Varanus, but kept seeing Luna and how I moved on from that with my Feddies, and didn't think the zen was a worthy investment. Don't play her enough to make the lockbox investment...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
First question is as a sci captain what do you want to do? If you like the idea of a pure sci boat you don't get many choices KDF side -- and those are all c-store ships or fleet ships.
Of my 4 toons, with are 3 scis. My KDF is a sci with a drain built Fleet Varanus that I think it a hoot to play around with. But again not a ton of choice.
I'd look at the Mirror Somraw. It has a Ltc Sci and Lt Sci BOFF slots. I think there are quite a few cool things you could do with that one and still be a better than average damage dealer. Come to think of it I may need to check on how much they are on the exchange these days.
As Kdf we do not get many options for Sci ships. bops carriers and the dyson hybrid ship for the most part. i have the dyson ship on my sci klingon its set up pur drain but makes pve and pvp too easy so i havent used it in ages. my Favorite ship for a Klingon sci toon is the fleet kamarang.
lt commander sci boff seat and enough tac and engineer boffs to heal and add attack pats so even the Dps is not too bad .
for some events like the currently Crystal entity even a sci toon is pretty much required.
all that is space only on the ground i love a Klingon sci toon. since he still gets the Klingon ground combat bonus.
Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days.
Thanks for the replies, I'm going to think about what you said and decide for sure if I'd have fun with a KDF sci or if I should roll up a KDF tac or eng instead before making an investment.
I want tp be careful with my zen and lobi unless I'm really going to enjoy it, especially with the expansion coming up. I've had a great time with a tankey eng and I'm beginning to appreciate the raw DPS of a tac.
(I'm also not a fan of the lockbox/ship gambling game..I do a few on occasion to grab some extra EC and the odd Doff pack but the odds of a ship are, well, maybe after I get hit by lightning.)
EDIT: I'll look at some builds, but the idea of a "drain" build doesn't really peak my interest. Maybe I should keep my KDF SCI, and just ruffle through my collection of available ships and find either a TAC, ENG or hybrid ship and see what I can do with it for the heck of it. If I try something unusual I am sure I will learn a lot about STO from it...
That's how i have mine built up. It's a really old build though, so it could use some optimization of the boff abilities, specifically the shield and hull healing. But the thing i like about the Karfi is you can have 12 fighters or 4 frigates. I also like how it has a LCdr Tac boff station and a Cdr Sci. That allows me to put in GW3 and TS3 or THY3 (i prefer TS3). The KHG set with the 25% increased torpedo damage and crew related stats are nice too. I just got the 2pc KHG but the shield is from a long time ago and i'm still undecided on what i should get. I have 3 VR torpedo doffs so the stream of hyper plasmas is pretty constant. I'm currently working on getting a VR grav well doff and a VR tykens rift doff from the CCE event.
So i use GW3 to bunch them up, lob a butt ton of torpedos at them and get a warp core chain reaction going. I use GW3 and Tykens Rift and although TR doesnt pull mobs into it, it does work as a slow/root vs targets flying dumb. Since TR drains all power, that means engine power too and a mob with no engine power will stop momentarily. I might switch to GW3+GW2 in the future but we'll see. I like using TR and energy siphon to neut mobs that are focusing on me.
I've tried standard Sci builds like a Intrepid retrofit, a Caitian, and a Hanom. But for the Intrepid the lack of good Tac slots and no hangers is noticeable. With a Caitian you do have two hangar bays, but the ship turns sooooo slow that it makes it painful to fly. My Intrepid and Karfi are probably in roughly equal gear, but my Karfi does a little better dps. The one thing i will say though is if you decide to go with an all launcher build, especially one that has a bunch of destructibles like mine then some of the Voth and Undine battlezones might be a bit of a pain by yourself. There is a lot of aoe around that will kill off your destructibles and any squishy hangar pets you have. So you will have to adjust your tactics to account for that.
Thanks for the replies, I'm going to think about what you said and decide for sure if I'd have fun with a KDF sci or if I should roll up a KDF tac or eng instead before making an investment.
there is a small chance that x2 could introduce some new kdf sci options. i think i wouldnt be spending any zen right now. maybe you could grab the mirror voquv and mirror bop off the exchange for ec and use those til october?
there is a small chance that x2 could introduce some new kdf sci options. i think i wouldnt be spending any zen right now. maybe you could grab the mirror voquv and mirror bop off the exchange for ec and use those til october?
I completely agree that now is a good time to be tight with my Zen, and so I took your advice and picked up a mirror Voquv - its a fine ship for a couple of months and at a good EC price. (I'll probably snag the mirror BoP too although I haven't done much with Raiders yet...)
Thanks everyone for your build advice, I'm going to look it all over, school myself, and be ready for the expansion.
Get a mirror somraw and rock it with a GW1 and TBR1 and torp spreads and cannon spreads, grab the targets in a well, hit them all with sensor scan to knock their resists to the floor, then spray all over their faces. You'll have a lot of fun.
If you are interested in strategy--The most important for picking a ship is looking at how the captain's skill tree is spec'd out (how you want to play it). If you put a lot of points into sci skills like gravs and particle gens, then you need to use science BOFF abilities that take advantage of them, and that means using a ship with a lot of sci BOFF stations. Or you can spec into things like Attack Patterns and get a lot from APB/APO on an escort. The skill points match to BOFF abilities, and that determines the seating that is going to be most effective. The captain abilities can then be used to narrow the choice a bit, with captain inherent abilities providing filler abilities that might not be available on the ship, ie sensor scan can take the place of APB, sci fleet and scattering field can fill in for a couple of engi seats. That is how you match captain to a ship.
I've got an alt KDF/SCI and have never really run any KDF missions (outside of doffing, contraband and a couple of events) and I'm looking for some -very basic- advice. I'd like to outfit my KDF so he stands a fair chance at missions and won't get blasted to bits in Elite STFs.
1. As a SCI do I really need to use a sci-focued ship?
2. What is a reasonably "best" ship, doesn't have to be perfect, not sure I want to spend on it, just a basic direction. I've had success with cruisers with my Rom/Eng and Fed/Tac.
I mean, he's still on his original given ship when he started and I haven't even fully boffed him out yet - it's time to get him a real setup and I'm starting cold and I just don't want to make any dumb obvious bad missteps.
Oh and I PVE and STF but I don't pvp (haven't so far anyway)
When you're leveling just stick with the Raptor variants and you'll be fine.
Tac/Sci/Eng doesn't matter much until lvl 50 anyway.
Now, for a KDF Sci ship you can't go wrong with either the T4 free BoP or the CStore B'rel retrofit.
Unlike the Feddy Sci ships...or just Feddy ships in general...KDF ships go boom quite easily in comparison.
So, if you want a Feddy-tier innate tank Redside, you're SOL.
Unlike the coddled Fedplay you've become accustomed to, where the Devs wrap you safely in the game's best ships and hold you tightly to their bosom, the KDF have to actually put some thought into our builds and tactics.
Personally, I use a Torpboat configuration for a Sci BoP much like this one.
You'll be restricted to Probes/BoPs and non-shielded targets in STF's with occasional support for Cubes and such.
It's also good for campaign missions.
If you don't feel like taking up the challenge then there are numerous related builds for the Carriers.
NO to ARC RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
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However, in PvE, that's not hyper-necessary, so you can fly whatever you feel comfortable with...
If you do want to go Sci/Sci, the KDF lacks somewhat in that department, there's the Varanus (C-store, practically a clone of the Luna), DSDs (C- and Lobi stores), and the carriers (Kar'fi and Vo'Quv). Orb Weaver and the Temporal Sci (Wells to the Feddies) are lockbox options, and the all universal seats of the BoP round out the science heavy ships...
Main KDF Sci started in Vo'Quv but moved onto the Sci-Royer. Looked a lot at the Varanus, but kept seeing Luna and how I moved on from that with my Feddies, and didn't think the zen was a worthy investment. Don't play her enough to make the lockbox investment...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Of my 4 toons, with are 3 scis. My KDF is a sci with a drain built Fleet Varanus that I think it a hoot to play around with. But again not a ton of choice.
I'd look at the Mirror Somraw. It has a Ltc Sci and Lt Sci BOFF slots. I think there are quite a few cool things you could do with that one and still be a better than average damage dealer. Come to think of it I may need to check on how much they are on the exchange these days.
lt commander sci boff seat and enough tac and engineer boffs to heal and add attack pats so even the Dps is not too bad .
for some events like the currently Crystal entity even a sci toon is pretty much required.
all that is space only on the ground i love a Klingon sci toon. since he still gets the Klingon ground combat bonus.
I want tp be careful with my zen and lobi unless I'm really going to enjoy it, especially with the expansion coming up. I've had a great time with a tankey eng and I'm beginning to appreciate the raw DPS of a tac.
(I'm also not a fan of the lockbox/ship gambling game..I do a few on occasion to grab some extra EC and the odd Doff pack but the odds of a ship are, well, maybe after I get hit by lightning.)
EDIT: I'll look at some builds, but the idea of a "drain" build doesn't really peak my interest. Maybe I should keep my KDF SCI, and just ruffle through my collection of available ships and find either a TAC, ENG or hybrid ship and see what I can do with it for the heck of it. If I try something unusual I am sure I will learn a lot about STO from it...
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=stonewbkarfi_0
That's how i have mine built up. It's a really old build though, so it could use some optimization of the boff abilities, specifically the shield and hull healing. But the thing i like about the Karfi is you can have 12 fighters or 4 frigates. I also like how it has a LCdr Tac boff station and a Cdr Sci. That allows me to put in GW3 and TS3 or THY3 (i prefer TS3). The KHG set with the 25% increased torpedo damage and crew related stats are nice too. I just got the 2pc KHG but the shield is from a long time ago and i'm still undecided on what i should get. I have 3 VR torpedo doffs so the stream of hyper plasmas is pretty constant. I'm currently working on getting a VR grav well doff and a VR tykens rift doff from the CCE event.
So i use GW3 to bunch them up, lob a butt ton of torpedos at them and get a warp core chain reaction going. I use GW3 and Tykens Rift and although TR doesnt pull mobs into it, it does work as a slow/root vs targets flying dumb. Since TR drains all power, that means engine power too and a mob with no engine power will stop momentarily. I might switch to GW3+GW2 in the future but we'll see. I like using TR and energy siphon to neut mobs that are focusing on me.
I've tried standard Sci builds like a Intrepid retrofit, a Caitian, and a Hanom. But for the Intrepid the lack of good Tac slots and no hangers is noticeable. With a Caitian you do have two hangar bays, but the ship turns sooooo slow that it makes it painful to fly. My Intrepid and Karfi are probably in roughly equal gear, but my Karfi does a little better dps. The one thing i will say though is if you decide to go with an all launcher build, especially one that has a bunch of destructibles like mine then some of the Voth and Undine battlezones might be a bit of a pain by yourself. There is a lot of aoe around that will kill off your destructibles and any squishy hangar pets you have. So you will have to adjust your tactics to account for that.
there is a small chance that x2 could introduce some new kdf sci options. i think i wouldnt be spending any zen right now. maybe you could grab the mirror voquv and mirror bop off the exchange for ec and use those til october?
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I completely agree that now is a good time to be tight with my Zen, and so I took your advice and picked up a mirror Voquv - its a fine ship for a couple of months and at a good EC price. (I'll probably snag the mirror BoP too although I haven't done much with Raiders yet...)
Thanks everyone for your build advice, I'm going to look it all over, school myself, and be ready for the expansion.
If you are interested in strategy--The most important for picking a ship is looking at how the captain's skill tree is spec'd out (how you want to play it). If you put a lot of points into sci skills like gravs and particle gens, then you need to use science BOFF abilities that take advantage of them, and that means using a ship with a lot of sci BOFF stations. Or you can spec into things like Attack Patterns and get a lot from APB/APO on an escort. The skill points match to BOFF abilities, and that determines the seating that is going to be most effective. The captain abilities can then be used to narrow the choice a bit, with captain inherent abilities providing filler abilities that might not be available on the ship, ie sensor scan can take the place of APB, sci fleet and scattering field can fill in for a couple of engi seats. That is how you match captain to a ship.
When you're leveling just stick with the Raptor variants and you'll be fine.
Tac/Sci/Eng doesn't matter much until lvl 50 anyway.
Now, for a KDF Sci ship you can't go wrong with either the T4 free BoP or the CStore B'rel retrofit.
Unlike the Feddy Sci ships...or just Feddy ships in general...KDF ships go boom quite easily in comparison.
So, if you want a Feddy-tier innate tank Redside, you're SOL.
Unlike the coddled Fedplay you've become accustomed to, where the Devs wrap you safely in the game's best ships and hold you tightly to their bosom, the KDF have to actually put some thought into our builds and tactics.
Personally, I use a Torpboat configuration for a Sci BoP much like this one.
You'll be restricted to Probes/BoPs and non-shielded targets in STF's with occasional support for Cubes and such.
It's also good for campaign missions.
If you don't feel like taking up the challenge then there are numerous related builds for the Carriers.
RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev