Failed 10 Times against Vaadwaur Artillery Ship

crazyj1987

I cant get over the Vaadwaur Artillery Ship..

Im in a Guardian Cruiser... MK XII Epuipment(Phaser/Quantum/Photon load)

I tried all tactics that i could think off

Tank: useless because at some point they hit you with their barrage anyway

All Speed to avoid the barrages: survived the longest but didnt to any damage

All weapons: works better dps wise but lack of speed/shields kills me quick

This ship is SO Frustrating..

i safe my shield and hull repairs and Evasive Manouver till i see those blue warnings
but at some point each time it hit me because i was in an attak run and triggered my heals one second too late

Even with Photonic Fleet and Pirates and Fighters at my side i cant get this beast under 90%

i need some serious tipps how to beat that monster

gulberat

Hmm...are you playing on Normal or Advanced? If it's Normal I may have some ideas for you. This is not to say I have never died to one before, but I am able to perform reasonably in a Vesta with a science captain. (Though if they nerf the carrier pets a second time after the recent NPC hit point nerf, I don't know how well this will work.)

assimilatedktar

First two questions:

1) On which difficulty are you playing?
2) What is your build (boff abilities, ship equipment etc.)?

colonelchenchuan

Here is what I have found.

It often has nothing to do with tactics or gear etc... its the order the Mob does its actions...

Barrage, Mines, Torp all within a couple of seconds of each other.

Mostly for me the issue is mines. These are like one shot kills.

noroblad

what is getting you?

There are 3 things that are pretty nasty from these guys...

1) the standard mob OP torp spreads. There isnt much to say here -- if your brace for impact is on cooldown, these can kill you if they crit, and its a flaw in the game. NPC torps are too strong. They may also have a cluster furpedo thingy, not sure.

2) blue x balls. I dunno what the skill name is but they drop a cluster of these. Avoid by evasive maneuver or going fast. I have escaped them sitting still and hitting evasive and floorboarding my ship, but only just. The vards are not good for the 'park and kill' "strategy"

3) mines. They drop a lot of tricobalt (I think) mines.

So, what to do? Avoid flying in their wake. That is where the mines are.
Use an aoe, including GW, to destroy mines and targetable torps etc.
use evasive to escape the blue balls.
Train your specialty points for rock and roll. It will carry you through the blue balls AND a torp spread AND other stuff without taking a scratch. It will also carry you thru a crystal aoe and and other gimmicks in the STFs. This might be the most awesome space related gift to us in the expansion, get it and use it.
Use brace for impact. It helps, a little.
Self heal. A lot.
Run away! No, really. If you lose your shield and 20 guys are shooting at you, get out of range for a moment, heal up, and try again. The game devs think a "good, challenging fight" is one where after a tough group is defeated, 2 more tough groups warp in. When that happens, tactically adjusting your location is advisable.

huntingdon1701

I'm using a Guardian and it's pretty tough. Are you using it's unique console just as the barrage hits? I alternate between that and reverse shield polarity - both seem enough individually to keep me alive.

You can add in shield remodulation and auxiliary to SIF if you want a little extra damage resistance as a safeguard.

Are you using phasers because you want to be consistent with the shows? If not, then you'd have more luck with plasma.

meimeitoo

crazyj1987 wrote: »

I cant get over the Vaadwaur Artillery Ship..

Im in a Guardian Cruiser... MK XII Epuipment(Phaser/Quantum/Photon load)

I tried all tactics that i could think off

Tank: useless because at some point they hit you with their barrage anyway

All Speed to avoid the barrages: survived the longest but didnt to any damage

All weapons: works better dps wise but lack of speed/shields kills me quick

This ship is SO Frustrating..

i safe my shield and hull repairs and Evasive Manouver till i see those blue warnings
but at some point each time it hit me because i was in an attak run and triggered my heals one second too late

Even with Photonic Fleet and Pirates and Fighters at my side i cant get this beast under 90%

i need some serious tipps how to beat that monster

Hmm, haven't tried it in a Science vessel yet, but I killed many of those Vaadwaur Artillery ships (DQ patrols), on Elite, in my Aquatic Carrier, and Benthan cruiser even (so no, it wasn't the pets). They were slightly tougher to kill, i admit, but I don't recall any huge damage from them. Usually I did a dual (continuous) BFAW3 (Aquatic Carrier), followed by laying a nasty Borg tractor beam on them, to finish the job with a TS from my Grav Torp.

I'd say, if your Sci, fight as a Sci. Suck that mother dry (you *do* have a Plasmonic Leech fitted, right?!). Good Flow Caps, Grav Gens, etc.

thetanine

I'm soloing all the content, story content and all patrol missions. I fly a Faeht Intel Warbird. I too tried the Aelahl Light Warbird Battlecruiser which is similar to your ship on the FED side. I didn't like it. I supposed I'm geared to high DPS Destroyer type ships. I have mostly MK XIII and XIV gear on her too. Disruptor heavy cannons kicking some heavy damage. I've seen close to 3000 dmg output when I'm in combat and think to mouse over my loadout tray to see what the numbers are when I hit AP:Omega and such.

Try the other Intel ships in the pack. There is an escort in there. I have one but did not fly any T6 ships on FED or KDF side yet. I'm having too much fun in my now Main Toon: ROM TAC!!!!! :cool:

gulberat

I would also point out that in dealing with the big AOE barrage, there are times when flying right up its nose will get you out of the "cone of death" more effectively than trying to fly away. Since the barrage spreads out from its point of exit from the ship to affect a wider and wider area as it gets further away from its point of origin, it will affect a lesser area closer into the Vaadwaur. That can be something to consider, similar to running right at Donatra in Khitomer when you get a warning about the thslaron cone of death.

That comes with its own risks but sometimes is a viable maneuver if flying up won't work or your Evasive is on cooldown.

Also, when it vanishes on you, use Science Team to reacquire your target--and you likely WILL have to manually retarget. The artillery ship gives very little indication of when it is going to vanish, so if you are working on one you must WATCH what you are targeting at all times. Early on this was one of my biggest problems was losing my target and then having it heal and undo my progress while hidden. So, try to keep Science Team available and ready to use quickly as soon as it pulls a vanishing act. Reacquire target *quickly* and make sure you have the right HA ship when you reacquire. (Do also remember that if you don't pause in firing as soon as you get the vanishing act, you have likely aggroed something else accidentally by this point so do a quick Tac Team and consider a shield heal too. At the very least, do hit Distribute Shields as you will likely have incoming fire from at least two directions.)

For a pure science build like mine, the above is key since I am not set up for high DPS quick-killing, but for wearing down and outlasting.

Oh...and do be judicious about your AOE powers. While I am not averse to slamming a Gravity Well III on one of those things, I do tend to rethink that if it means I'm going to drag two of them into the GW at once.

stonewbie

Crazy are you doing the Episode mission "Revelations"? The one where you fight the Voth but then they leave, and you get a Turei distress call asking anyone to help? then you go to fight an "unknown frigate" then after a Vaadwuar Artillery ship comes out?


I did that mission on Normal difficulty yesterday, and though i didnt find the Artillery Ship too hard I did notice that he had 600k hull on him and it took me a while to kill him. Funny thing is the toon i used yesterday is my second toon leveling through DQ and is tac and pure dps. My first one that went through DQ is a Sci with good gear, but not as good as my tac. I dont remember ever doing any fights on my Sci that made me say "wow this one mob sure is taking a long time to kill".

colonelchenchuan

FWIW Rock and Roll.

tekehd

They are tough, lot of hull... and they put out a large amount of DPS for a NPC. They mostly use canons and turrets though, so keeping at limit of range keeps the overall DPS down, so employ beam against them. This of course puts you at the disadvantage of their artillery, so I'd suggest a lot of self heal, and push out of range ifyour out of self heals. Alternately moving in close range, like under 2k tehy they don't seem to be able to target with their artillery..... but as I mentioned you'ee in the prime range for their canon... last one I was fighting was registering about 2k+ damage per shot at me. in close range. Another thing is innate defense/dodge, the Vaaduar seem to have a lot of it, very odd for NPCs in this game I know, but that seems to be th case, I notice shots miss on them quite a bit, especially when you typically NEVER see shots miss anywhere else against NPCs, so [acc] is actually beneficial against this particular class of NPC.

I took on three of them this morning in my T5U Galaxy-X.... only died once.

gulberat

By the way...I should add that I do NOT have Rock and Roll, so the techniques I have listed may help regardless of where you invested your Spec Points.

dareau

crazyj1987 wrote: »

I cant get over the Vaadwaur Artillery Ship..

Im in a Guardian Cruiser... MK XII Epuipment(Phaser/Quantum/Photon load)

I tried all tactics that i could think off

Tank: useless because at some point they hit you with their barrage anyway

All Speed to avoid the barrages: survived the longest but didnt to any damage

All weapons: works better dps wise but lack of speed/shields kills me quick

This ship is SO Frustrating..

i safe my shield and hull repairs and Evasive Manouver till i see those blue warnings
but at some point each time it hit me because i was in an attak run and triggered my heals one second too late

Even with Photonic Fleet and Pirates and Fighters at my side i cant get this beast under 90%

i need some serious tipps how to beat that monster

1. I'm hoping that that cruiser of yours is a beam boat, and you'll have better DPS as such running broadsides against him. On the flip side, his polaron barrage (the blue Xs of death power) is a forward/aft arc only skill - so stay on his broadside while broadsiding back...

2. That "cloak" of his seems to be an intel power. Intel team should be a clear along with science team. Since you're in a Guardian, slot it... I've noticed that those blue rings and multiple bubbles, along with the "jammed sensors" effect is his cue that he's about to "cloak". Stuff it with intel team. I've noticed the pet (attack ship) doesn't come out if he can't / doesn't cloak, I've stuffed it somehow once or twice, memory escapes me at this second.

3. "Stay on target". If he pulls the cloak off, you lose lock. Attack ship is distraction that your ship re-locks onto.

4. What other BOff skills you using? Tractor beam is nice against that attack ship, slows it down enough to get back a lot of accuracy and therefore damage, and it can stop the artillery ship dead in it's tracks...

westx211

A friend of mine was asking me for help on a patrol mission involving the vaadwaur. At first I kep on asking questions and apparently he was having trouble on normal and i was like hey guess it wouldnt be too much trouble to help him. As soon as I got in i found out what the trouble was. The vaadwaur artillery ship had spawned in with 1.3 million Hp on normal and was dealing much higher damage than it should have. Maybe something similar happened to the op.

donowick

I did it in advance by accident lol (forgot to change dummy me) and was using eclipse cruiser with mk12 weapons but did have mk13 tac consoles. I had no problem sure it was a long fight lol didn't die once. Granted I was a engineer with a balance of firepower and defense. I don't believe in being pure firepower or defense. When skilled myself I thought of what was most important weapons, hull, shield, power and resistance. It seems to work so far but could be wrong.

narrheehaw

Annnnnnnnnnnd your engie consoles are? *drum roll please*

coolheadal

This thread about the heavy battleship right. So think of it as target. Focus all you got on it. It can be taken down. Stay on top of the target. Max sure you shields are the highest you can get, use a lot of healing from BOF ENG.

Always remember this famous quote;

Millions of people are counting on you! I know you could do it! Good Luck!

ironmako

Yeah those Vaadwaur Artillery Full-auto nukes are a bit of a pain, but you can get around this.

originally, My Mogai kept being obliterated, so I changed into my Obelisk Carrier. I made sure that I launched all 12 swarmers before I even got close, and when you get to around 16-15km away, the swarmers will attack, keeping you at a safe distance. Once the swarmers attacked the Vaadwaur begaan to move towards me, so I kept my distance whilst firing out more swarmers when the rest were being destroyed.

It's a bit of a dirty trick, but perfectly legit.

You might not have an Obelisk carrier, but I assume you must have a carrier of some kind.

its the best option I used for all Vaadwaur space missions.

mirrorchaos

crazyj1987 wrote: »

I cant get over the Vaadwaur Artillery Ship..

Im in a Guardian Cruiser... MK XII Epuipment(Phaser/Quantum/Photon load)

I tried all tactics that i could think off

Tank: useless because at some point they hit you with their barrage anyway

All Speed to avoid the barrages: survived the longest but didnt to any damage

All weapons: works better dps wise but lack of speed/shields kills me quick

This ship is SO Frustrating..

i safe my shield and hull repairs and Evasive Manouver till i see those blue warnings
but at some point each time it hit me because i was in an attak run and triggered my heals one second too late

Even with Photonic Fleet and Pirates and Fighters at my side i cant get this beast under 90%

i need some serious tipps how to beat that monster

for me the trick is simple, get up close and nail it with damage, as hard as you wanna hit in a beamboat, doesnt matter about its runaway ability, for me that isnt an issue i could still run circles around it at its full speed.

cant say for cannon builds or dbbs as i never defeated one like that before, i wouldnt know.

trick part in getting to it is around 4k distance it starts speeding away from you and activates an aoe jam sensors ability, science team neutralizes that first time out, once its out of those, all you have to do is stay left or right while staying at its side and at that point its dead to rights. you may want to keep a baring on your position from where you started chasing to the end point, you could end up 40k from your previous if your in the mood to torture the moment. :P

it keeps from launching the arty strikes and its other abilities. also forgot to mention again in my position the feedback pulse helps track the art ships location even if it has your sensors locked up, just keep roughly to its side as the pulses travel to the source.

wolfen17

I personally run the Avenger on my sci officer. yeah I know that seems weird, but since I had it free with the free t5u from purchasing it for my Eng, it was better then my lvl 40 freebie sci ship. But on topic, here are a few things to look at.... your skill build (ie.. where you have spent your skill points) I personally did not set up my skills optimally on my first couple characters and have used several respec tokens to "re-do" my skills.

If you are a science officer you want to run beams with maybe 1 torp, spec your skills for energy weapons, shields/shield heal, hull/hull heal, and science skills... Especially particle generators and graviton generators. Another thing that makes a difference is what doffs you have slotted in your space slots. Having the right doffs slotted can make a world of difference.

Next, ship gear: decide on the 1 weapon type you want to use (phaser/plasma/polaron/tetryon/ap/etc...) and plan on sticking with it for a while. If your fleet is not high enough to get the elite tac consoles for that type, get a fleet map invite so you can purchase them at another fleet's stores with your fleet provisions. As a science officer, until you can get a good rep space gear set, the Jem'hadar space set is actually pretty good, and free by doing your cardassian episodes. Get the complete set if you go that route. This set is also even better if you run polaron (2 piece dmg increase bonus), which I have noticed works well for sci officers. Also if you are using a lot of Exotic dmg skills like gravity well/tyken's rift, etc... Get some fleet science consoles from the embassy (get a fleet map invite to another fleet if you have to) you want the -threat not +threat consoles that increase your graviton or particle generators. Doesnt matter which of the 3 types you get (shield heal/hull heal/plasma dmg proc). The reason I say this is because my sci officer has 4 of the -threat/particle generators/plasma dmg proc consoles, and with my other gear my particle generators is at almost 230 skill rating = exotic dmg through the roof. And I can get upwards of 5k+ dps with no gear upgraded yet.

I can say that in my fleet we had a newer player that had all, well lets say "garbage" gear, no doffs slotted/wrong doffs slotted, and skills speced wrong. He was lucky if he broke 1.5k dps. We helped him get skills speced right, walked him through how and what to get as far as ship gear, and taught him a few tactics that work for sci officers. With mk xi and mk xii VR gear and skills/doffs done right he now does around 4k dps while surviving longer and also providing heals for the group.

I know it takes work (time and effort) to decide how and where to spec your skills, what gear to work on getting, and getting it all set up. But it makes a world of difference. Hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to reply back here and I will get back with you when I check back on the forums again

darkjeff

OP needs to post his build, because it sounds like there's a few simple mistakes he's making.

My Romulan Engineer (literally only 2 days older than DR, missing traits and gear) didn't have much trouble in her Faeht, it just took a really long time. She was only around level 56 though, so maybe something is off with the scaling?

crazyned1066

The artillery ship is ridiculously tough. The hull was 758K!!! I got blown up twice, and had a bunch of NPC on my side and it still took me about 15 mins to eventually kill it. What's that all about???

That isn't a fun challenge, its just plain stupid...

I know they said the new DR content was playable with my "old' Mk XII MACO gear and Fleet weapons. I guess they didn't say how LOOOOOONG I'd be playing.

crazyj1987

First of thanks for the many replies so far!


My Build:

Fore Weapons:

Phaser Beam Array XII
Quantum Torpedo L XII
Quantum Torpedo L XII
Dual Corrisive Plasma Beam Array XII

Aft Weapons:

Phaser Beam Array XII
Phaser Beam Array XII
Phaser Beam Array XII
Photon Torpedo L XII

BOFF:

Ensign Universal: Tachyion Beam
Lt. Comm. Tactical: Torpedo High Yield / Beam Array Overload / Torp. Spread
Commander Eng: Em Power to Shields / Em Power to Weapons / Boarding Party / Eject WP
Lt. Int/Eng: Engenering Team / Rev. Shield Polarity
Lt. Com Science: Science Team / Jam Target Sensors / Tykion Rift

Im not much of an expert, dont play much PVP... my Builds where always good enough for soloing missions on Normal Difficulty

crazyned1066

And by the way...

I was using my T5U tac oddy with Fleet AP Beams DMGx2 ACCx3, MACO Set, Fleet Core, 4xAP Consoles. Usual BOFF Skills. Not the best offensively, but for a regular patrol mission it should be more than adequate.

I'm not an UBER DPS guy, but I know my way around the game. Or should I say I used to? The bad guys are just cranked up way too high in the DR content.

They really need to dial it down - A LOT.

ITS BORING! I'd never willingly repeat these missions, unlike most of the pre-DR missions.

szerontzur

The main trick to the artillery ships is to stay behind them at around 5-7km(any closer will trigger their escape mechanism and summon more ships).

I've taken them out in a fairly wide variety of ships, some fairly poorly geared, so I find it unlikely that your gear is the problem.


Edit: I suppose my other advice would be to not charge into their battle groups. Approach, circle, lure off and destroy their smaller ships before going after the bigger targets.

zzzspina01

I haven't been able to play lately so I haven't battled the vaadwaur yet. but this guy dose u-tube vids. and once im able to play again. im going to do my best to copy his build. all mk xii. very rares. no mk xiii's or xiv's. he starts his ship description about the 16 min mark. and the last vid on his page. shows him taking out the vaadwaur. but from what I've seen of his vids. the vaadwaur has dun the most damage to him then any other enermy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPbOAbueL-I&list=UUn4zU6WXABPUvmUOpluwbTw

myutaito

I've been able to wear those things down with my bug ship ... thankfully I've got the FC's spec'd so high I can out-drain that tank. It takes a while for me to pound its shields down with my Pol DHC's and cycling through Beam Overload. Otherwise I'm thinking you'd need a torp boat or run heavy plasma torps to beat on that hull.

crazyj1987

So i finally did it wohoo

the trick with "stay between 5-7km" was the one that did it

and i learned to fly manual Tom Paris style evasive maneuvers around those barrage things that helped alot^^


now that ive Posted my Built... anyone has an advise? im thinking about switching one Forward Quantum Torpedo for another Phaser Beam MK XII

darkjeff

crazyj1987 wrote: »

My Build:

Fore Weapons:

Phaser Beam Array XII
Quantum Torpedo L XII
Quantum Torpedo L XII
Dual Corrisive Plasma Beam Array XII

Aft Weapons:

Phaser Beam Array XII
Phaser Beam Array XII
Phaser Beam Array XII
Photon Torpedo L XII

BOFF:

Ensign Universal: Tachyion Beam
Lt. Comm. Tactical: Torpedo High Yield / Beam Array Overload / Torp. Spread
Commander Eng: Em Power to Shields / Em Power to Weapons / Boarding Party / Eject WP
Lt. Int/Eng: Engenering Team / Rev. Shield Polarity
Lt. Com Science: Science Team / Jam Target Sensors / Tykion Rift

Alright, this sort of explains why you're actually dying, not just being annoyed/frustrated from taking a very long time. First, let's talk defense.

You have no Tactical Team. Tactical Team will instantly redistribute shields towards the facing being hit when it's active. It has a 30s cooldown, a 15s group cooldown, and is active for 10s.

If you have 4000 in each shield facing, 4000 damage in one direction (fast enough for us to ignore regen) will bring down your shields and start working on your hull. If Tactical Team is active, it will instead drain power from the other facings, which means you'd need to take 16000 damage in one direction before your shields fail. Big difference, eh?

Now shield heals - you have Reverse Shield Polarity, that's good - in a pinch, it can bring shields from almost-dead to almost-full. You also have Science Team - which is a single large shield heal. Unless you're using Sci Team for the debuff removal, I recommend getting Transfer Shield Strength instead. It will recover more shields in total, and it will harden (increase damage resistance) them. So now when something deals 16000 damage to your shields, your shields are only taking 14240. With both TSS and RSP, you use TSS when your shields start to visibly drop, and RSP if it's about to drop. Usually you won't need RSP at all.

Speaking of shield hardening, that's also one of the reasons we use Emergency Power to Shields. I notice you have one copy of EPtShields and one copy of EPtWeapons. Are you aware of Dragon/Drake builds?

EPtX abilities have a self cooldown of 45s, a duplicate ability cooldown of 30s, and a group cooldown of 15s. So take EPtW1, EPtW2, EPtS1, EPtS2 (the numbers denoting which copy, not the rank).

T00: EPtW1 @ 0, EPtW2 @ 0, EPtS1 @ 0, EPtS2 @ 0
T00: Activate EPtW1, EPtW has 30s remaining
T00: EPtW1 @ 45, EPtW2 @ 30, EPtS1 @ 15, EPtS2 @ 15
T15: Activate EPtS1, EPtW has 15s remaining, EPtS has 30s remaining
T15: EPtW1 @ 30, EPtW2 @ 15, EPtS1 @ 45, EPtS2 @ 30
T30: Activate EPtW2, EPtW has 30s remaining, EPtS has 15s remaining
T30: EPtW1 @ 30, EPtW2 @ 45, EPtS1 @ 30, EPtS2 @ 15
T45: Activate EPtS2, EPtW has 15s remaining, EPtS has 30s remaining
T45: EPtW1 @ 15, EPtW2 @ 30, EPtS1 @ 30, EPtS2 @ 45
T60: Activate EPtW1, EPtW has 30s remaining, EPtS has 15s remaining
T60: EPtW1 @ 45, EPtW2 @ 30, EPtS1 @ 15, EPtS2 @ 30

So as you can see, using two pairs of EPtX abilities, we can keep both active (almost) 100% of the time. This is called a Dragon build. Damage Control Engineer DOffs have a chance to reduce the cooldown of all EPtX abilities upon use of an EPtX ability, and using DCEs with two different EPtX abilities thus can save us two ability slots (and potentially an Engineering station entirely). That is called a Drake build.

So do you have have 2-3 DCEs for a Drake?

Offensively, you're kind of everywhere. You have no ideal firing arc where you want your enemy - two torpedoes up front with a DBB, one array fore, one torpedo and 3 arrays aft. I recommend switching to all beam arrays. Tachyon Beam and Rift aren't too bad, but you need to have the appropriate skills really cranked up - in which case you should be using Polaron weapons for the synergy with that skill. Jam Target Sensors I always thought was pointless, Boarding Party is worthless, and personally I think Eject Warp Plasma shouldn't be an Engineering ability because a slow cruiser is going to be hard pressed to spray that in the ideal location.

If you have DCEs, I'd recommend the following:

Ens Uni: Tactical Team 1
LCdr Tac: Tactical Team 1 / Fire At Will 2 / Fire At Will 2
Cdr Eng: Engineering Team 1 / EPtShields 2 / EPtWeapons 3 / Aux to Structural Integrity Field 3
Lt Int/Eng:Override Subsystem Safeties 1 / Override Subsystem Safeties 2
LCdr Sci: Science Team / Transfer Shield Strength 2 / Gravity Well 1

This lets you simply alternate between Tactical Teams to have shields redistribute for you every 10s out of 15s. Your ship will be tough enough for the 5s window to not matter in PvE. EPtS2 and EPtW3 will be active at all times (with a small chance of the cycle failing), boosting your weapons and shields. Aux2SIF should be fired off every 15s (my choice), which will give you a good heal as well as providing a substantial damage resistance buff for every 10s out of 15s. This will usually be sufficient to keep your hull active. Try not to use Eng Team unless you have to.

When your shields start taking noticable amounts of damage, you have Transfer Shield Strength and Science Team on hand. (I actually prefer Hazard Emitters over Science Team here, since as an Engineer I also have Rotate Shield Frequency.)

Offensively, you alternate Fire At Wills every 20s. Use OSS right when you trigger FAW, and you'll see the rather nice damage FAW deals when it's backed up by 160 Weapon Power. The reason we keep Eng Team in reserve is that one copy is sufficient to always be available to restore whatever subsystem OSS knocks offline when it ends.

If you don't have 2-3 DCE Doffs, I'd modify that to:

Ens Uni: Tactical Team 1
LCdr Tac: Tactical Team 1 / Fire At Will 2 / Fire At Will 2
Cdr Eng: EPtShields 1 / Rotate Shield Frequency 1 / EPtWeapons 3 / Aux to Structural Integrity Field 3
Lt Int/Eng: EPtShields 1 / EPtWeapons 2
LCdr Sci: Hazard Emitters 1 / Transfer Shield Strength 2 / Gravity Well 1

No need for Eng Team since there's no OSS you need to recover from. 2x EPtS and 2x EPtW lets you keep those active all the time. You have HE1 to backup the A2SIF healing that occurs every 15s. You'll have RSF1 as your emergency shield heal, and TSS as your primary/reactive shield heal.

Try that, and learn why so many of us fly around spraying beams everywhere. :cool:

Even though you appear to have lost offensive abilities, trust me when I say your damage will actually increase.

Oh, and whatever energy type you pick, do be sure to have your Tactical consoles all be the type that boosts that type of damage. If you do want a torpedo, see if you can get the Wide angle Quantum Torpedo Launcher, but that's from the Regent, which costs Zen. No change in ability layout, regardless.