I'm not sure what is is about the Nova, but I absolutely adore this ship.
Anyway here is my Fleet T5U Science Vessel Retrofit; the USS Solstice.
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=usssolstice_0
At the moment I'm using crafted Antiproton beams with a Kinetic Cutting beam in the rear. (Almost all fleet consoles, listed on the STO Academy link above.)
The question I had for the ship building community, is what would be the best set to maximize DPS & survival? I'm currently using the 3-piece Counter Command set, (engines, main deflect, shields) at Mk XIV VR, the Solanae Secondary Deflector at Mk XIV rare, and the Obelisk Warp Core at Mk XIV VR.
Is there a better combination of rep starship components that will get me a pretty good bang for my buck while still letting me throw grav well and keep my powers cooldown cycling pretty fast?
Also the AP DR bonus for the 2pc Counter Command has been nice against the Heralds, I've been able to take quite a beating from them and keep on ticking.
Finally, I didn't bother listing my boff powers as those can be highly changeable.
Comments
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
In regards to your build, what I do on mine (I'm a shameless Crazy Nova Captain also) is stack up your partgens and radiation damage. Get a nice [prtg] deteriorating secondary deflector, stack up your partgen skill as high as possible with consoles etc.. (Solenae deflector is gold for this) and make sure you have the lvl 15 Science R&D trait, Particle Manipulator for insane damage numbers from your science abilities.
I'd also suggest investing in a torpedo, either the Gravimetric Photon (Dyson Rep), Neutronic (Delta Rep) or the R&D Plasma torp for AoE DoTs when you hit torp spread 3. Also looks awesome having hundreds of torpedos pour out of the tiny little Nova xD
lol, ikr? anyways, in all seriousness, I've tried my hand at endgame Nova, and as someone who doesn't normally do endgame sci... it's just plain damn fun. XD Granted in my case it was Pre-DR and using a Mirror Nova just to put it into perspective, but nonetheless! It was a blast.
Second, the anchor universal console has a 20something% boost to exotic damage, which is like several partgen consoles due to the diminishing returns iirc
Third, the countercommand tac console has boosts to phaser, photon torps and radiation damage, which is deadly with a deteriorating secondary deflector's radiation DoT and the resonance beam which procs it on an entire group
Just a few suggestions you might want to try out
Ah, consider it a sign of affection.
As taboo as it sounds, I'd actually say you should drop the borg console.. it's only benefit is the crits and the grav gen buff, which isn't really noticeable if you're specced in grav gen and the crits shouldn't be a problem if you're running particle manipulator (I assume you are?)
Otherwise, yeah the nukara is probably the other one giving a minimal benefit.. certainly the anchor console is gonna give a greater buff to your exotic damage than those few partgen points. The anchor console is worth it just for the buff, the clicky ability IMO is just a perk
Try the counter command tactical console, for the photon torp and radiation damage buff
The console reward from Surface Tension:
Console - Tactical - Counter-Command Multi-Conduit Energy Relay Mk XII
+13.9% Phaser Damage
+13.9 Disruptor Damage
+27.8% Radiation Damage
+27.8% Photon Projectile Damage
Has this changed I wasn't aware any consoles had diminishing return except for armor consoles ?
All consoles that increase a skill have diminishing returns of their overall effectiveness. % based increases like Tactical however do not.
Ok , because the following was how I always understood diminishing returns
As a purely hypothetical example, if you have 300 partgens your GW3 might do 30% more damage than it would at 0 partgens, if you had 400 partgens the increase over 300 is not actually another 10% damage.
Like the resist consoles, the higher your points go the more you need to get the same increase in effect.
The % consoles avoid all this but buffing the base damage directly which is why they stack like it says on the tin.
The point is, the buff from the anchor console buffs your exotic damage more than the nukara console when you've got such high partgen already, test it yourself if you don't believe me
I assume you guys are all using the fleet Nova? I'd be interested to see some of your builds and skill/boff/doff arrangements as I've never really concentrated on my Sci toons and never really got the best out of them, to my undying shame!
I've always loved the look of the Nova and I'm tempted to launch one
I wont be flying the Dauntless as I cant stand its looks. Its an odd ship as, in the episode, it looked great. In game however it doesnt 'float my boat'. I'm afraid I'm one of those who will actually buy/not buy a ship not only for its abilities but for the looks as well.
I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've always loved the the design of the Nova.
EDIT: I wish they'd not bothered with the Dauntless and released a new Nova class instead. personally speaking I'd have found that more believable, storywise.
Personally i like the Dauntless design. Doesn't change that I'll be adding a fleet Nova to my inventory in the future.
Not sold on the pilot boff seating until i have tested it on the ferengi summer ship.
Personally i feel that intel would be a better match.
Running intel and ground (what was it called again) on my main since I'm heavily into ground combat on my engineer.
On my klingons and romulans i primarily use pilot to compensate for the weaker hulls.
Lock Trajectory is an excellent way to keep those deflector powers on the target(the obvious use for it is cannons but deflector powers need that forward arc too)
Form up would be useful for the more support orriented science builds, helps your damage and theirs while making sure you are in range to provide heals if need be.
Clean Getaway to wipe all that threat science dps builds generate so easily.
Coolant ignition I'm uncertain about but it potentially scales with part gens (most non weapon damage abilities count as exotic damage afterall)
Reroute reserves to weapons and attack pattern lambda, most science ships run lower weapons power so they can keep auxiliary up, these powers lessen or removed the drain on your weapons power so that they keep consistent damage.
Couple of these are theory crafting on my part as I've only tested a couple of them on the Nandi, and of course the nandi is a destroyer so some circumstances would differ rather a bit.
I enjoy this kind of thread. It's like farting in the air to fight the wind, It's poetic.
While a T6 Nova would be nice, I'm not in any hurry to see one. Been using the one I have for this long and doing just fine.
Same here, I only bothered with other ships because I wanted ship traits.
My main is an engineer and thus i have enough options to deal with low hull strength.
For me pilot specialization is aimed at tactical players who pour everything into damage output.
Slightly related question: with your torpedoes spread around like that, do PWOs help enough?
Thanks for your time.
Generator
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
I have used a torpedo build on my snooper Nebula build. While it does work i feel the lack of manoeuvrability in the Nebula makes it less suited for torpedo builds.
I found i got far better results with the same build flying an intrepid, nova or Luna.
As for the PWO, since i usually go for photon torpedoes (or variants thereof like bio molecular or gravimetric) i never equip more than 1 of them.