Seriously need some advice on sci carriers

zero2362

Im a fed tac and im used to flying cruisers and occasionally escorts. I want to try out a carrier for a bit f a change of pace but I know next to nothing about them or science powers outside of ST HE and GW. I dont have a clue how to dish out damage with a sci carrier or if I can even make that work as a tac captain.

I have the breen carrier and I was thinking of picking up the the FT5-U atrox if it can work for me. just curious is there any point buying the c store atrox if im gonna use the fleet version? I dont see anything on the store version the fleet one dosent have.

Would appreciate any tips

mustrumridcully0

I wouldn't spend money or modules yet on any Tier 5 ships. There is a Tier 6 Fed Carrier in the works. (Do you remember the Carrier design contest?)

Unfortuantely, i don't really have much experience with Carriers. I know Science Vessels, but I really don't like Carrier gameplay and some Science Vessel tricks require decent maneuverability, which most Carriers lack.

Anyway, I can tell you what I do with my Science Vessels, maybe it's a starting point:
I am boring and pretty much all my Science Vessels revolve around torpedoes and Gravity Well.
Torpedoes don't need weapon power. More specifically, I use special reputation, crafting and other reward torpedoes. Gravimetric, Neutronic, Plasma-Emission, Quantum Phase are all options. I equip beams primarily for the set bonus, but my weapon power is at minimum, so they won't actually deal much damage on their own ,and buffing them for damage is pointless (but of course, Subsystem Targeting works with them.)

Gravity Well and Destabilizing Resonance Beam are my go-to science damage skills.
I also occassionally use Tractor Beam Repulsors. (There is a DOFF that reverses it from push to pulling, which I would recommend getting, because it's usually more convenient to get targets closer and clumped together than away and spread out.)

Science Team, Hazard Emitters, Transfer Shield Strength are my go-to skills for healing and removing debuffs and plasma fires.
Emergency Power to Shields and emergency Power to Auxilliary are used for shield buffing and to buff Aux levels.

If available, Override Subystem Safety is a must-have on any ship, Science vessels and carriers are no exception.

For tactical buffs, I use Tacticeal Team and Torpedo Spread. If you have the slots and the skill, Attack Pattern Beta or Kemocite are also great additions.



The difficult part for Carriers is that they need Aux as much as regular Science Vessels (maybe more, since it affects your hangar bay recharge rate), but don't have the turn rate usually to run torpedoes well. Of course, you have 2 swarms of pets that will also add DPS.
The general rule for pets is that the more you can launch per bay, the quicker they die. So consider getting bigger ones, possibly even frigates. (For the Breen Carrier, you can get Plesh Frigates if you also own the Pleshk Winter Event ship. If you have unlocked it at some point on some character, you can (re)claim it from the Event Store on any character). Generaly also, because pets are still just using NPC AI, they are realy bad with dual cannons. Beams tend to work better. Some pets are less for dmage and more for extra crowd control, like the Runabout pets.

seriousdave

The breen sci-carrier is a bit of an oddball since it also has heavy emphasis on tac but unfortunately has the maneuverability of a whale.
You could use beam wepaons & broadsiding but that heavily relies on OSS 1 & 2 and the almighty leech to keep both the wepaon power and aux up.
If you want do do some sci dps with it then just use the standard toys. High partigen, gw, doffed tbr, the PEP torp + spread and high aux.
Mix those styles together and you'll probably end up with a decent build.

As for the pets, well, kinda out of otpions. The breen raiders may hold together longer than fighters but they kinda suck DPS wise. They are equipped with a DHC, a cannon and a torp which would be good on paper but as mustrumridcully0 already mentioned their AI sucks badly. Most of the time they just circle around your target and use nothing but their lousy turret.

The best I can come up with for the Sarr Theln are elite scorpions with their HY plasma torp spam. They may die like flies but you can also spam the hell out of these when your hangar cooldown is low enough.

nightken

the breen carrier is a good one. beams are basically a must it does not have the turn rate for anything else. I like running mine with polarons, and the breen sets. lots of drains to keep your power levels up and slow the enemy. actually oddly enough I found making it a drain boat gets though things alot faster then trying to shove it into dps. but you may find differently.

the raider pets work very well for me, also look into some flight deck doffs. the recharge version can free up a little more power for whatever. and if your going use recall alot the recall version improves your defence.