Flight of the Curiosity - Critique Needed

e30ernest

I'm trying to improve my build and flying to get a little bit more performance out of my beloved Pathfinder. I've hit 50k (just, at around 50.6 and 50.9) twice, and I am averaging in the low to mid 40ks. I took a short break after hitting the 50s to craft some weapons for an alt. Now I can't seem to get that "magic" back.

I've decided to record a few runs to get some insight out of the more experienced and better pilots out there. It's a pretty busy ship to fly, with manual firing of torpedoes and managing my Science Abilities.

Build details are in the video's descriptions. Here goes.

39k Run
A lot of mistakes in this run. A lot of missed Sensor Scans/Analyses, buffs out of sync, misclicking targets etc. Overall, not a very good run. A fair but below average run for me.

47k Run
A bit better. Things are more in sync, but I am not hitting as many flanks as I would want. A lot of room for improvement here still. I've slotted in the new T6 vet ship trait to replace Emitter Synergy. Most of my damage still comes from my Science abilities and torpedo secondary effects. Link to my log file is in the description of the video.


So looking forward to your input and suggestions, but be gentle please. I still consider myself to be a newbie in this game.

Thanks in advance!

thissler

I thought flanking damage was pretty much just on Raiders. Now I see it's on the Pathfinder! How'd I miss that? Time to dig out mine!

lordsteve1

thissler wrote: »

I thought flanking damage was pretty much just on Raiders. Now I see it's on the Pathfinder! How'd I miss that? Time to dig out mine!

Those flanking bonuses will be from the intel spec tree.

Regarding the video (the second one) is your "effecive DPS" as high as 47K, because I saw a lot of spamming tractor beams on invulnerable targets there which is bound to push your numbers up higher.
Having massive DPS is fine but if it's hitting targets that are invulnerable then it's not gaining you anything.

Still impressive though and good to see what can be pushed out of the Pathfnder.

e30ernest

lordsteve1 wrote: »

Those flanking bonuses will be from the intel spec tree.

Regarding the video (the second one) is your "effecive DPS" as high as 47K, because I saw a lot of spamming tractor beams on invulnerable targets there which is bound to push your numbers up higher.
Having massive DPS is fine but if it's hitting targets that are invulnerable then it's not gaining you anything.

Still impressive though and good to see what can be pushed out of the Pathfnder.

Yeah I get low to mid 40s on decent runs with a decent team.

On DPS channel runs I usually use my tractor beams on the transformers since it's the easiest way to hit the cube, a generator and the sphere. In a way, I use it like FAW there. Usually in 10k runs or higher, the generators die really quickly so my TBRs are also used to damage the Transformer (see first video), it's just that on the 2nd video they died a bit late so I ended up wasting it on an invulnerable target.

thissler

e30ernest wrote: »

I'm trying to improve my build and flying to get a little bit more performance out of my beloved Pathfinder. I've hit 50k (just, at around 50.6 and 50.9) twice, and I am averaging in the low to mid 40ks. I took a short break after hitting the 50s to craft some weapons for an alt. Now I can't seem to get that "magic" back.

I've decided to record a few runs to get some insight out of the more experienced and better pilots out there. It's a pretty busy ship to fly, with manual firing of torpedoes and managing my Science Abilities.

Build details are in the video's descriptions. Here goes.

39k Run
A lot of mistakes in this run. A lot of missed Sensor Scans/Analyses, buffs out of sync, misclicking targets etc. Overall, not a very good run. A fair but below average run for me.

47k Run
A bit better. Things are more in sync, but I am not hitting as many flanks as I would want. A lot of room for improvement here still. I've slotted in the new T6 vet ship trait to replace Emitter Synergy. Most of my damage still comes from my Science abilities and torpedo secondary effects. Link to my log file is in the description of the video.


So looking forward to your input and suggestions, but be gentle please. I still consider myself to be a newbie in this game.

Thanks in advance!

lordsteve1 wrote: »

Those flanking bonuses will be from the intel spec tree.

Regarding the video (the second one) is your "effecive DPS" as high as 47K, because I saw a lot of spamming tractor beams on invulnerable targets there which is bound to push your numbers up higher.
Having massive DPS is fine but if it's hitting targets that are invulnerable then it's not gaining you anything.

Still impressive though and good to see what can be pushed out of the Pathfnder.

I need more spec points. Well, another year and I'll have em!

virusdancer

thissler wrote: »

I need more spec points. Well, another year and I'll have em!

Tier 3 Intel...+Damage, +CrtD, +CrtH, and even Destabilized Emitters for your torps.

The +Damage stacks with the Raider Flanking.

Offers an interesting synergy with Command as a Secondary Specialization for hybrid energy/projectile builds.

thissler

virusdancer wrote: »

Tier 3 Intel...+Damage, +CrtD, +CrtH, and even Destabilized Emitters for your torps.

The +Damage stacks with the Raider Flanking.

Offers an interesting synergy with Command as a Secondary Specialization for hybrid energy/projectile builds.

Another 364 days and I'll have 'em!

e30ernest

Posted two more runs (42k and 45k). Neither were even close to perfect so I am sure I can get more performance out of the ship. Just hoping for some pointers in improving my flying.

Thanks!

e30ernest

My ship and flying got reviewed at The Pilot Review Show. Thanks to Scott and Oden Knight for your valuable feedback. I learned a lot today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0TS09Viauo

e30ernest

Finally reached my goals for this ship/build and I now consider this build to be finished (given the current stuff available to us). Here is the link to the final build. Hopefully it'll be helpful for my fellow sci-ship captains and that they can pull some ideas from my build as well.

Thank you again to everyone who helped me in both building and piloting this ship.

dd1m

Thanks for posting that up

darkknightucf

One thing to consider (and it's something you'll have to make the call on) is replacing the Embassy consoles w/ the Krenim ones that boost damage every time you use a shield/hull heal. Get the Pgen/Flow variant and spam ET1, SC1, HazEm, TSS, and keep your stacks rolling constantly.

e30ernest

darkknightucf wrote: »

One thing to consider (and it's something you'll have to make the call on) is replacing the Embassy consoles w/ the Krenim ones that boost damage every time you use a shield/hull heal. Get the Pgen/Flow variant and spam ET1, SC1, HazEm, TSS, and keep your stacks rolling constantly.

Thanks @darkknightucf!

I tried that and while it is supposed to be better on paper, I couldn't get it to work well enough due to the threat AOE exotic abilities and torpedoes create. So I end up healing myself more rather than concentrating on laying down fire.

The proc is luck based too (though it procs more often than not) so I opted to go for the sure-fire buff to my PEP cloud damage from the embassy consoles. While I am not sure if the exotic plasma damage buff from the embassy consoles is cat 1 or 2 (the krenim consoles are cat 2), having it always on without wasting a heal (and having that heal on cd when I need it) seems a more efficient way to fly.

If I am running with known tanks, I could swap out since I have that loadout saved anyway. Because they draw out aggro so much, removing threat reduction on my end will let me get a little aggro to proc Reciprocity. For general purpose runs however, I have found threat reduction to be the way to go.