Pathfinder - Exotic Damage + Torpedo Build

e30ernest · April 2015

So here is my fun little boat. It evolved from this:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=curiosity_9251

To this:
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=curiosityver2_9251

Basic weapon layouts remain the same, but I did streamline my science abilities to free up that Lt. Universal for an extra Tactical Officer. I also dropped one of my part-gen embassy consoles for a +Torp Vulnerability Locator console.

The build is focused on exotic damage and CC, with torpedoes as my primary weapons. The beams are just there for subsystem targeting.

It's not a high-DPS boat, but in PUGs, I am averaging 12-13k with a few deaths. I had a high of 14.5k but all these were before I upgraded my torps to UR. Actually, with a much better pilot, and a much faster connection (I get 3-5 sec ping spikes), I'm sure this setup will parse even higher. I'm the weakest link.

Some tweaks I am thinking of doing:

Maybe I should replace my Deflector DOffs with 2 additional PWOffs? That should help increase my torpedoes' firing rate.
I'm thinking of changing the Spatial Launcher to another Vulnerability Locator (+Torp). I'll miss the spike damage though.
If/when the Fleet version of this comes up, should I re-add my part-gen console to bring me back to 400+ part-gens or should I slot in a Fleet Neutronium +Turn instead?

Looking forward to your feedback. Thanks!

reynoldsxd · April 2015

get rid of spatial and keep your prtgen up.
a clicky power like that is meh. For particle torp builds there is only one good console: iso charge.

thibash · April 2015

Agreed. Adding another console to your tactical slots will add to your damage.

You could also consider putting the gravimetric torpedo up front instead of the neutronic, to combine it with torpedo spread and your gravity well. That can do quite a bit of damage.

birzark · April 2015

I built a pathfinder Prtg build and my approach was only slightly different. A few differences, I'm using 2x Epta2 for additional prtg, graven, skill and to keep my aux topped off. Also helps proc my warpcore engineer doff to keep my power levels up. I also am only using only tt1 and ts2 for my tactical abilities, and with reprocity they seem to able to proc fairly often even with an average defense rating. All my sci consoles are prtg except the field exciter which has grav gen bonus instead cause it was 80+ million ec cheaper and I was able to get to 400prtg without it. Also don't have the leech so I'm using maco shields instead. The DPS is average 10k or so depending on the ships but in a good cca and I can grab all the tholian ships together in the beginning I have seen my DPS site to over 40k because of that.

e30ernest · April 2015

Many thanks for your insight!

I'll probably replace that Spatial Launcher for another +Torp Vulnerability Locator when I get another Projectile Weapons DOff. I've almost gotten my Military Commendation up to Rank 4. When I do, I'll be able to purchase an extra torp DOff. I'll probably replace one of my Deflector DOffs since I no longer run 2 Grav Wells and Energy Siphon.

I placed the Gravimetric Torpedoes at the back because I use it with my Tractor Beam Repulsors. I usually use TBRs when my Grav Well is on cooldown or to drag stragglers into the well.

My TBRs are my most damaging Sci ability that's why I have 2 of them slotted in. They tend to swing my targets to my rear where they meet a spread of grav torps. The resulting wells allow me to swing back for a 2nd run with Neutronics and Plasma Emission torps or another Grav Well if it's available.

At the rear, they are also very useful if I have to run away when I'm under heavy fire. One spread or a HY torp can pin the enemy for a few precious seconds while I make my escape.

lordsteve1 · April 2015

Almost identical kit-wise to my build. Except i've not bothered with the KCB and went with the Experimental Proton Weapon to get the 3pc boost to crits and photons.

One suggestion I have is drop the Leech console.
With only one energy weapon that'll effect it (not sutre the KCB counts but that's still only 2) you are not going to gain much from it. Plus as you are using mostly torps you don't need to worry about energy much at all. EptA will solve any power problems you have if you encounter any.
Loose it and slot that neutronium if you want extra survivability or move the Ferengi console to the eng slot and fit another partigen console?

I'd also agree putting the grav torp up front. I've found very little can survive a GW3 plus a ful spread of grav torps that crit. It's the old "washing machine of doom" effect that kills everything, a single core breach and everything pops in a chain core breach!

Basically pack every AOE attack you can get and fire them all off into a fully buffed GW3 = guaranteed to kill or severely damage anything caught in it:

Grav torps spread
Particle Emission torps spread
Neutronic torps spread
Isometric charge
Tetryon cascade

Finally, although it will cost you Zen, maybe a skill respec?
Loose the points in sensors and power insulators and shove everything into projectile weapons and projectile specialization. Shields drains now are so OP that insulators do no good anyway. And sensors are not too vital as most enemies aren't cloaked these days and don't use confuse abilities.
Get everythnig you can out of those torps as they are your main form of weapon damage.

And yes, once the fleet version comes out with an extra tac console that will be a great help.

e30ernest · April 2015

Thanks for the suggestions. A few questions/clarifications:

lordsteve1 wrote: »

Almost identical kit-wise to my build. Except i've not bothered with the KCB and went with the Experimental Proton Weapon to get the 3pc boost to crits and photons.

That may be something I will look into on another ship. The set bonuses are pretty nice especially on a photon torp build.

lordsteve1 wrote: »

One suggestion I have is drop the Leech console.
With only one energy weapon that'll effect it (not sutre the KCB counts but that's still only 2) you are not going to gain much from it. Plus as you are using mostly torps you don't need to worry about energy much at all. EptA will solve any power problems you have if you encounter any.
Loose it and slot that neutronium if you want extra survivability or move the Ferengi console to the eng slot and fit another partigen console?

I'm using the Leech mainly to keep all of my energy levels above 75 to take advantage of my warp core's Amp bonus. Before I switched to the Amp core (I used to use the Obelisk core), I never really bothered with energy levels outside of Aux (always maxed at 135) and Shields.

Right now with the Leech, I am able to boost my power levels to 91/83/81/130 from 75/62/61/110. With all 4 subsystems above 75, that's a 13.2% damage bonus from the core.

I am assuming this bonus is across the board and includes exotic abilities? The wiki isn't clear on that. 13.2% damage bonus across the board might be a better bonus than an additional 36 part gens.

At my current part gen level (366) my exotic damage abilities still crit between 90-100% with Particle Manipulator.

lordsteve1 wrote: »

I'd also agree putting the grav torp up front. I've found very little can survive a GW3 plus a ful spread of grav torps that crit. It's the old "washing machine of doom" effect that kills everything, a single core breach and everything pops in a chain core breach!

Basically pack every AOE attack you can get and fire them all off into a fully buffed GW3 = guaranteed to kill or severely damage anything caught in it:

Grav torps spread
Particle Emission torps spread
Neutronic torps spread
Isometric charge
Tetryon cascade

I'll try that out. Sounds like a powerful all-in AOE attack indeed.

lordsteve1 wrote: »

Finally, although it will cost you Zen, maybe a skill respec?
Loose the points in sensors and power insulators and shove everything into projectile weapons and projectile specialization. Shields drains now are so OP that insulators do no good anyway. And sensors are not too vital as most enemies aren't cloaked these days and don't use confuse abilities.
Get everythnig you can out of those torps as they are your main form of weapon damage.

I still have some respec tokens remaining. I have points into insulators and sensors since I dabble into PVP with my fleet mates quite regularly. So it's a compromise I know, but at least it allows some flexibility to my toon's use.

lordsteve1 wrote: »

And yes, once the fleet version comes out with an extra tac console that will be a great help.

Yeah I can't wait for the fleet version. I already have Zen tucked away for the requisite fleet module(s) when they come.

On a slightly unrelated topic, I noticed there are "stars" in the captain skill planner at STO academy. What do they mean?

e30ernest · April 2015

Updated my build to use 2 Projectile Weapons Officers with -Torp recharge time and reduced my Deflector cooldown DOffs to 1. I also replaced the Spatial Launcher with another +Torp Vulnerability Locator.

Parsed it at 13.9k with DPS 10k folks but I was unable to spawn my Photonic, Support and Nimbus pets. I also died twice in that run due to lag while trying to call Fleet Support. Parsed 14.9k with a PUG, but I was able to get those pets out. Died once trying to call Fleet Support again due to some lag. 3k of that run came from those pets.

Makes me wonder if a good run with pets can give me 17k at my current piloting skill.

It's getting close to my 20k target for this build.

Stuff to do:

Try the build with my Gravimetric Torpedo slotted at the front to compare damage/usability.
Try using 3 Projectile Weapons DOffs and remove that final Deflector BOff to improve rate of fire on my torps.
Maybe replace Torp HY1 for TS1? Thoughts on this would be great.
Upgrade my beams and torps as my Dil reserves allow.

darkknightucf · April 2015

e30ernest wrote: »

Updated my build to use 2 Projectile Weapons Officers with -Torp recharge time and reduced my Deflector cooldown DOffs to 1. I also replaced the Spatial Launcher with another +Torp Vulnerability Locator.

Parsed it at 13.9k with DPS 10k folks but I was unable to spawn my Photonic, Support and Nimbus pets. I also died twice in that run due to lag while trying to call Fleet Support. Parsed 14.9k with a PUG, but I was able to get those pets out. Died once trying to call Fleet Support again due to some lag. 3k of that run came from those pets.

Makes me wonder if a good run with pets can give me 17k at my current piloting skill. It's getting close to my 20k target for this build.

Stuff to do:
Try the build with my Gravimetric Torpedo slotted at the front to compare damage/usability.

Try using 3 Projectile Weapons DOffs and remove that final Deflector BOff to improve rate of fire on my torps.

Maybe replace Torp HY1 for TS1? Thoughts on this would be great.

Upgrade my beams and torps as my Dil reserves allow.

One thing you'll note with torpedo builds is that, all else being equal, the better your teammaes do, the better you do (up to a point). Your build will make your experiences differ from mine, but I'm willing to bet that if you run w/ higher DPS people, AND you do well on your performance, that you will see your numbers go up. Still, an average of PuG parses can give you a good idea as to how you'd do in a "worse case" scenario.

With what I see on SkillPlanner...

You can go several ways with what I see there now. Assuming that you're just keeping the torps as-is, and assuming you need leech;

Drop the Anchor. Move Rule to that position. Add another Sci console of your flavor there (PGen I hope for IsoKinetic Cannon).
Get an Enh-BioMol torp. Drop Grav. You can slot all 3 torps up front if you like to keep all the action there, and use the energy attacks only in the back (will also keep your mind forward-facing for IsoK)
2xPWO's should be enough for you w/ 3 torps fore. Here, you can either
a) Move HY to Lt, and slot another TT at Ensign.
b) Slot TT at Lt to replace APB.
This will help w/ TT cycling + you can now prioritize HY for EnH-Bio, or PEP for special occasions into a nicely placed GWell. A TS PEP into a GWell (or even prior to a GWell placement) will help immobilize targets for the GWell to do a maximum snag-n-grab, plus your PGens will add to the cloud damage. Neutronic TS for when weakly shielded targets have to die in a hurry, or HY on massively shielded targets, or if you wanted to hit something w/ radiation + kinetic + drain. You'll typically see better performance from EnH Bio HY vs Neutronic vs bare hull.

Spec: If you're doing a mix of PvE and PvP, I can see the reason to spec this way. Otherwise, if you're just doing PvE, some of the spec points can go. If you're just doing PvP, You'll want to talk to one of the PvP experts as to what they'd typically see that would help Sci builds out, and then maximize your torps out. Energy weapons aren't going to do you anything aside from support/leech, Grav Gens will do you good at 6, but my understanding is that it won't do much more for your tractors or GWells beyond that (someone Sci want to clarify, please?). There are other skill points that you can redirect elsewhere (ID, Energy Weapons, etc), but it comes downi to what you specifically want to do w/ this toon.

Fel free to contact me in game, and we can hop on a TeamSpeak to talk turkey.

e30ernest · April 2015

Thanks!

I'm still trying to learn how skills interact and how they actually affect performance/damage so I'm firing this potentially stupid question out:

Iis an extra Tac Team better than APB? Is the buff from TT better than the debuff on APB? I'm asking this because I was thinking APB would also reduce damage resistance to help my exotic skills hit harder too.

Same goes for the Constriction Anchor. It provides +23.7% damage on exotic abilities. Is an extra 36 particle generator points going to be better? For reference, I am currently at 366 particle generators. With the extra embassy console, I have 402. The extra plasma explosion proc may be worth it, but I don't know the math.

Many thanks for your input and sorry for all the questions. I am still learning after all.

darkknightucf · April 2015

e30ernest wrote: »

Thanks!

I'm still trying to learn how skills interact and how they actually affect performance/damage so I'm firing this potentially stupid question out:

Iis an extra Tac Team better than APB? Is the buff from TT better than the debuff on APB? I'm asking this because I was thinking APB would also reduce damage resistance to help my exotic skills hit harder too.

Same goes for the Constriction Anchor. It provides +23.7% damage on exotic abilities. Is an extra 36 particle generator points going to be better? For reference, I am currently at 366 particle generators. With the extra embassy console, I have 402. The extra plasma explosion proc may be worth it, but I don't know the math.

Many thanks for your input and sorry for all the questions. I am still learning after all.

If Sci abilities are the majority of your damage (or equal to your torpedo damage), then keep what you have. If torpedoes are the majority of your damage, make the adjustment.

It's not a stupid question. It's actually a very important question for your build.

e30ernest · April 2015

Good point. I checked out my parse on the latest 2 runs (since I just cleared my log) and more or less I got:

Run 1 (Not a particularly good run)

Torpedo Damage - 2856.023
Exotic-Based Damage - 5694.422
Others - 2763.775
Pets - 516.09

Run 2

Torpedo Damage - 2455.265
Exotic-Based Damage- 7028.583
Others - 2495.614
Pets - 4679.26

Others include beam damage and stuff I do not know where to group (Omega Kinetic, plasma burn and fire from the torpedo, plasma explosion from the embassy console). I did group the plasma cloud from the particle emissions torp with the exotic abilities.

I'm actually surprised how much of my damage is coming from my exotic abilities. I thought it was closer to a 50/50 split.

e30ernest · April 2015

Thinking of switching over to the Command Specialization from Intel due to the torpedo buffs that tree gives. I'll lose space flanking though. Would it be worth it for my build? I'm afraid I'll regret spending the spec points for that...

Edit: Updated my build:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=curiosityver2_9251

Added an Enhanced Bio Torp up front, moved the Delta Polaron Array to the back and changed some traits to Anchored, Intense Focus and Pattern Recognition. I haven't parsed this build yet but first impressions:

- Power levels are a little lower than before since less beams are hitting the target when I'm facing the target. I had to bring down weapons power so that the other 3 subsystems will be above 75 for the AMP. I'll continue to experiment on my power levels to see if I can get all of them above 75 again.
- The added torpedo up front is really making my PWO proc. I am now getting an almost continuous rate of fire (1.5 secs between torps) up front. That's why I added Anchored since I will most likely park for a continuous flow of torps.
- I'm keeping Pedal To The Metal since when I need to move to protect myself, I can still get a bonus.

warmaker001b · April 2015

e30ernest wrote: »

Thinking of switching over to the Command Specialization from Intel due to the torpedo buffs that tree gives. I'll lose space flanking though. Would it be worth it for my build? I'm afraid I'll regret spending the spec points for that...

It's highly subjective.

Some of the Command Spec Bonus in space are quite nice. But a good chunk of it at Tier 3 has a horrible 30 second lockout. I'm not fond of huge chunks of my stats being made useless for 30 seconds.

In contrast to Intel Flanking, once you're in position, you just simply reap the bonus damage. You pound, and pound, and pound, and pound, and pound, and pound, and pound without any worry of your ability to do better damage with Intel being locked out at any time.

darkknightucf · April 2015

warmaker001b wrote: »

It's highly subjective.

Some of the Command Spec Bonus in space are quite nice. But a good chunk of it at Tier 3 has a horrible 30 second lockout. I'm not fond of huge chunks of my stats being made useless for 30 seconds.

In contrast to Intel Flanking, once you're in position, you just simply reap the bonus damage. You pound, and pound, and pound, and pound, and pound, and pound, and pound without any worry of your ability to do better damage with Intel being locked out at any time.

QFT

Command isn't designed with torpedo ships in mind. With that said, some of us have attempted to make it work, with various degrees of success.

e30ernest · April 2015

Thanks! I will play around with this current spec tree and build for a while.

I updated my Embassy Sci consoles to MkXIV epic and my Vulnerability Locators to MkXIV. Right now, it seems I am averaging between 13-16k on PUGs. On one PUG I actually hit 19.9k with 2 deaths so I think I am heading towards the right direction.

Think 25-30k is doable? I still have a bunch of stuff to upgrade (including my piloting skills).

lordsteve1 · April 2015

The Intel tree is far more suited to what you want than command.

The command tree is mainly aimed at bigger ships throwing out a tonne of energy weapon's fire that will open targets to exposes for the rest of the team. As a science boat you don't have enough energy firepower to fully take advantage of this mechanic really.

Now with Intel you'll get nice things like flanking bonuses which are "always on" and boost both energy and torp damage if you get behind the enemy. And to be honest in the Pathfinder you will have no problems out-flanking the enemy as it's a pretty nimble ship!

Quick question for others here relating to the Pathfinder. I've got mine on a tac at the moment, 3 Mk XIV embassy partigen consoles plus other things gives me ~300 partigen without buffs. So I have the EC for an UR crafted sci console but not enough for the partigen mod ones. So should I just go with one with the gravgen mod, because that will boost the holding power of the grav wells i throw out, meaning more ships get pinned to the middle of the wells. A worthwhile investment?

birzark · April 2015

lordsteve1 wrote: »

The Intel tree is far more suited to what you want than command.

The command tree is mainly aimed at bigger ships throwing out a tonne of energy weapon's fire that will open targets to exposes for the rest of the team. As a science boat you don't have enough energy firepower to fully take advantage of this mechanic really.

Now with Intel you'll get nice things like flanking bonuses which are "always on" and boost both energy and torp damage if you get behind the enemy. And to be honest in the Pathfinder you will have no problems out-flanking the enemy as it's a pretty nimble ship!

Quick question for others here relating to the Pathfinder. I've got mine on a tac at the moment, 3 Mk XIV embassy partigen consoles plus other things gives me ~300 partigen without buffs. So I have the EC for an UR crafted sci console but not enough for the partigen mod ones. So should I just go with one with the gravgen mod, because that will boost the holding power of the grav wells i throw out, meaning more ships get pinned to the middle of the wells. A worthwhile investment?

I got to 400 prtg and I used the gravgen mod on the exciter, I used the rcs prtg and nukara console which helped. The extra grav Gen does make a bit of difference especially when using the Romulus T5 ability. I was in the same boat 100m for prtg exciter or 12m for gravgen at the time I built the ship not sure what they are now.

lordsteve1 · April 2015

Cool.

Partigen is about 50 million + at the moment for either crafted console. But gravgen is only 2-4 million EC depending on which one you go for.

Now I just need to work out what to drop to fit one of them on my build! Probably loose the dyson rep console as it's not that great a console, only the 3pc set is useful for my build and I have enough crit as it is.

hawkrunner · April 2015

Just a few suggestions from looking at your traits; you may or may not agree with me on this, but anyways:

Drop Anchored and replace with maybe Kinetic Precision or Failsafe Scrambler or Intimidating Strikes or Inspirational Leader. I find that Anchored takes a long time to build up, and the defense/damage reduction penalty from sitting still for that long can be quite severe, assuming the enemies even live long enough for it to tick on a stack. It's better to be in reverse with the Pilot spec tree buffs than it is to sit still.
Drop Desperate Repairs and replace it with All Hands on Deck. AHOD gives a cooldown reduction on all science and captain abilities when you use a tactical ability. With your boff abilities, Emitter Synergy, Positive Feedback Loop, and Ablative Field Projector, you should be quite tanky.
Drop Auxiliary Power Configuration: Defense and replace with Advanced Targeting Systems for the 16% Crit Severity boost. With your high crit chance this should help you out a lot.

I would also strongly recommend trying to find a place for an Isometric Charge console. With your Exotic crit chance, firing it into a gravity well would be very effective.

I might also suggest dropping the deflector doff and picking up a purple Development Lab Scientist for the CD reduction on Science Team and the extra buff it gives.

These are just my opinions of what I would think about testing.

e30ernest · April 2015

Thank you for your feedback.

A quick question about Advanced Targeting Systems, does the critical severity boost affect the crits from Particle Manipulator or just for weapon crits?

I have been meaning to get AHOD when I get some Zen. Inspirational Leader is rather expensive right now (over 100m EC), and I am not sure if that is worth spending that much on something that procs on random. Failsafe Scrambler is an interesting option. Before you mentioned it, I have never heard of it. It might be a good thing to have when I aggro multiple mobs from a grav well/spread and might synergize well with the faster heals from the DOff and AHOD.

I'll give those a try. Thank you for your help!

e30ernest · April 2015

westmetals wrote: »

I'm not sure exactly what you're working with at the moment (due to the multi links), but just a couple random thoughts.

For the beam weapons... I would use the Kinetic Cutting Beam definitely with a build like this... and perhaps a crafted and/or the Ancient omni as well (depending on how many slots you are devoting to beam weapons). You can theoretically do a 3x omni build using all of your aft weapons slots.

I honestly do not see a reason to use non-omni beam weapons, unless they are specific weapons that offer some kind of set bonus or something like that.

Also, I don't know, you may have already done this (it doesn't show in the planner), but picking up a BOFF or two with Pirate or Romulan Operative traits might increase your DPS.

As per BOFF skills (assumign the most recent planner setup is correct).
Also, esp. if you get AHOD... I would think about removing the second TBR, perhaps replacing with Feedback Pulse or Tachyon Beam or something offensive. I would also think about switching TSS to an ensign-level slot and moving either Polarize or Science Team up.

Yep this is my current build:

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=curiosityver2_9251

It's all the same link (I update the same build).

The only reason I am running the Advanced Thoron Infused Polaron Array is to get Isokinetic Cannon. I currently have 1 pirate BOff (the free Hierarchy guy). Still on the lookout for BOffs with Pirate traits.

As I understand it, the only way to get a Romulan BOff on a Fed toon is through the Fleet Embassy? Only the male tactical officer has a Superior trait there. When I have the Dil, I'll definitely grab two of them for my two tactical slots. The rest of my officers either have the Efficient or Leadership Traits.

With AHOD I am thinking of removing the extra TBR too. On the defensive side, I'll look into Polarize Hull vs TSS a bit more. You may be on to something here.

Thanks!

lordsteve1 · April 2015

Transfer Shield Strength can be used on yourself. It's a heal over time for shields and it can be used on friendlies too if you feel kind enough to cross-heal.

I personally find Science Team more useful as it give pretty much instant full shields (when you have high aux power) plus will cleanse various debuffs etc. Plus with the ST cooldown doff you can use it more often than TSS.

e30ernest · April 2015

Yeah with the ST DOff and AHOD, it will be better to put it higher than TSS since I can use it more often. TSS can be used as a back-up or a pre-buff to trigger Positive Feedback Loop. I might replace TBR 1 with Feedback Pulse if AHOD's cooldown reduction ends up better than the global cooldown of running duplicate TBRs.

Too bad I do not have enough DOff slots to run my FBP DOff (damage resist debuff when hit with FBP) and Exotic Damage CD reduction DOff (triggered when casting an anomaly). I could probably replace one of my PWO DOffs but that might hurt my rate of fire.

It's nice to be able to clean up my build and make it more efficient. I couldn't do it without you guys.

e30ernest · April 2015

For those following, I've updated my build again based on the feedback here. My changelog:

Removed TBR1 and replaced it with Energy Siphon 1. I'm using Energy Siphon to boost my power levels to take advantage of my core's AMP.
Swapped Science Team and TSS positions. I now have Science Team 2 and TSS 1.
Replaced Desperate Repairs with AHOD.
Removed my Deflector CD DOff and replaced it with a Science Team CD + Buff DOff.
Removed Plasmonic Leech and replaced it with Zero Point Conduit. With 3 torps fore, I am not getting enough beam hits to make Plasmonic useful. Zero Point gives me almost the same boost on power levels with Plasmonic and adds some crit chance.
Upgraded my tac consoles to Epic
Now running 2 Romulan Tac BOffs with Superior Romulan Operative Trait

I retained the trait Anchored for now. The faster heals from Science Team and Hazard Emitters plus the defense from Pattern Recognition seem to be enough to keep me alive, or give me enough time to get away from a stand still. When it stacks, it does some pretty good damage. Very useful on stationary objects or when bearing my fore torps on a stack of grav-welled mobs.

I tried FBP but on a PVE setting, it just isn't packing enough punch. Tachyon Beam likewise. I ultimately decided on Energy Siphon to allow me to free up a console slot (Leech) and opted to try Zero Point. If that doesn't work out, I'll either slot in an embassy Neutronic with +Turn in its place or move Rule 62 to that slot and put in another embassy PrtG console.

I did a quick parse before upgrading my consoles and changing to Zero-Point and I PUG'ed in at 18.1k. It wasn't a particularly good run because of the lag so I have been mistiming my buffs (sometimes my TS gets shot out before APB gets cast or my GW gets cast before OSS).

Again thank you all for your feedback. You guys have helped me learn a lot.

e30ernest · April 2015

I finally squeezed out 21k from this build today, and I am quite happy. There is much room for improvement though in my piloting especially. I am also planning to test out a few changes to my build:

Lower skill points to 6 for all science skills except Particle and Graviton Generators
Decrease my investment in energy weapons skills. I'll leave 3 points for the two energy weapon Tac skills for a little flexibility.
I'm planning to try out the new Kemocite-Laced Weapons skill. It'll replace APB 1 for now. I think the skill may harmonize better with my torps from the debuffs. I am also hoping that the radiation damage from the skill is boosted by Particle Generators. If not, the Delta set at least boosts that a bit. If this ability turns out good, I'll decrease my points in Attack Patterns down to 3 or less. Another thing I look forward to seeing is how this skill works with Torpedo Spread - Does it affect each torpedo on the spread? If so, it'll be pretty powerful.
All the freed skill points are going to Impulse Thrusters and maybe Engine Performance. I noticed one of my shortcomings is that I am slow to get to my targets so there is a fair bit of dead time where I am not hitting anything. If I am to use Pedal To The Metal to its fullest, I will also need the extra turn rate to bring my projectiles to bear.
I am also allocating 3 points each to Countermeasure Systems and Subspace Decompiler for when I dabble around with fleeties in PvP.

Now that I've hit the 21k in a PUG, I'm moving up my target to 30k. I'm also getting the fleet version, so the extra tac console will help. I am hoping that by investing on Impulse Thrusters and Engine Performance, I can get the speed and turn rate I need to be a more effective torpedo boat.

Also noteworthy on that 21k run, I was unable to use Anchored. I'll do a few more tests and maybe I'll replace it with Kinetic Precision or Failsafe Scrambler. That's further down the road though.

Many thanks again to all of you that have helped me improve my build. You guys tought me a lot about the game and I am eager to learn more.

e30ernest · April 2015

Just a little update, I swapped this Pathfinder out for a fleet version. I'm now running Kemocite-Laced Weaponry instead of APB1 and Destabilizing Resonance Beam.

Here is the link to the new fleet version (NEW LINK):
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=curiosityfleetversion_9251

It seems that I can also stack Anchored with Pedal To The Metal by flying full throttle and sticking my nose to something stationary (like a gateway, or a transformer). That boosted my damage by quite a bit too.

It incorporates much of your feedback here. In PUGs, I am now averaging in the low-mid 20's with a current high DPS of 29,837 (with 2 deaths). I run with PUGs 99% of the time, so with the right team and a lag-free run, I am now sure I can hit 30k with this build.

Thank you all again for your help!

darkknightucf · April 2015

e30ernest wrote: »

Just a little update, I swapped this Pathfinder out for a fleet version. I'm now running Kemocite-Laced Weaponry instead of APB1 and Destabilizing Resonance Beam.

Here is the link to the new fleet version (NEW LINK):
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=curiosityfleetversion_9251

It seems that I can also stack Anchored with Pedal To The Metal by flying full throttle and sticking my nose to something stationary (like a gateway, or a transformer). That boosted my damage by quite a bit too.

It incorporates much of your feedback here. In PUGs, I am now averaging in the low-mid 20's with a current high DPS of 29,837 (with 2 deaths). I run with PUGs 99% of the time, so with the right team and a lag-free run, I am now sure I can hit 30k with this build.

Thank you all again for your help!

If I ever get back in and am flying in a semi-lag-free environment, I'd like to run with you. Get you that 30K+ easily.

e30ernest · April 2015

That would be awesome. Your torpedo Defiant has been one of the ships I've studied and your thread has been really helpful. I've been getting pointers for my flying from your vids as well.

Lag really hurts torpedo boats a lot. When we miss a firing cycle, it takes longer to get another round of shots than it does for beam boats.

Pathfinder - Exotic Damage + Torpedo Build

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