I know, A2B is kinda old news these days, but, with the advent of the Krenim doffs and the Peak Efficiency Trait, I'd like some clarification, please. Keep in mind math is not my strong suit. :P
So, each purple Technician reduces boff abilities cd by 10%, right? And Peak Efficiency reduces all boff cd by 7.5% each 5 secs (when hull above 80%). So, ideally, you'd get a 3x 7.5% cd reduction with Peak Efficiency (within a 15 secs span). Amirite?!
So, 3x 7.5% = 22.5% cd reduction. Except, of course, you're only getting half of that, 11.25% (as a 100% cd reduction actually means 50% of total). And Krenim boffs each add another 10% reduction too.
So, 11.25% isn't enough, of course, to 'emulate' a2b. But here is where I get confuzzled: why is it that the 3x 10% cd reduction of the purple Technicians *does* work?!
So, to make this practical, how many purple Technicians could I ditch with Peak Efficiency slotted? (And assuming I always stay above 80% hull, which is a reasonably fair assumption for me as Fed Engineer).
Thanks for reading.

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Like I said, I'm a Fed Engineer.
^^ Thanks for understanding where I'm coming from.
I think this is it, but I'm not sure: https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/3dbpd4/krenim_boffs_so_uh_how_about_dem_3x_stacks_of_10/
With that said. In a Chronos Temporal Dreadnaught, with 3 points in Eng/Tac/Sci Readiness, 1 eng Krenim doff, and the Tactical System Stabilizer and Chronotachyon Capacitor consoles I have most of my eng powers really close to global cooldown. I think with a little more effort I can get all eng and tac powers to global without the need for a2b. Currently I have a 10 second cooldown on Aux2SIF III.
Hope that helps
It *did* help.
Yeah. And, like I said, I'm not even hoping I can completely forego on a2b (would be nice if I could, of course); but even just modernizing it a bit, like removing a few purple Technicians, or using Krenim boffs (as a Fed, I can only use SRO's for Tact) and Peak Efficiency, would already help.
P.S. Just did my first test, with 1 less purple Technician. In the haze of battle, I always find it hard to watch cd's too; but it seemed like I experienced no negative effect of losing the 1 Technician.
Yeah, no, LOL. Turns out I actually *do* have the Tactical System Stabilizer (from the Temporal Raider). Doh! Never noticed the Tactical Readiness part. Interesting times.
Yes.
I did some more testing. I used 2 'pairs' for this test: EPtW3/EPtS1 and APO3/APL2 (APL cd is just like APB). Both setups with only 2 purple Tecchnician doffs, Peak Efficiency, and 2 Krenim Engi boffs. I activated the first in the pair, then activated the first a2b copy, then the second (the second copy goes immediately to 10 secs, because of Krenim boffs + first a2b), then the second ability, etc. Both abilities wind up having a perfect 100% uptime overlap.
P.S. Not about this topic per se, but I'm kinda sad we're not lively talking mechanics any more on the forum, like we used to.
Yeah, I agree... I wish people would share more. You still get a lot of advice on popular builds and there's a lot of excitement on science/torpedo builds but other build ideas don't get much attention anymore.
One question: Are you using A2B and the Krenim boffs?
With my build I'm using 1 Krenim Engineering Boff, 2pc maco (for the 5% reduction), Bio-Neural Gel Pack for the 7% reduction, 3 points into Readiness, and the Chrono-Capacitor Array trait. That gives me just a 1 second gap between EPTW and EPTS. If I switch to one of the 31st Century ships and use the consoles with Readiness, I get a nearly perfect uptime. That's all without A2B. It may not be optimal, but it's on an alt. I'm sure if I put some effort into it, I could get a more efficient way of bringing cooldowns to global.
In any case, thanks for bringing these ideas up
You use passive shield and hull healing or active heals that don't use Aux. Its possible to get passive so high you don't need heals and Eng Team is an active heal which doesn't need Aux. A passive heal based torp boat can get away with no weapon or aux power.
Before I start I would like to point out that the Krenim BOFFs do not cut cooldowns by a flat 10% per bridge officer. Instead you could say that they alter the speed of a second inside each cooldown timer. For example, the first 10% will technically reduce 1.0 second down to 0.9. The second 10% will further reduce this but it is important to acknowledge that there may be in fact be diminishing return, but could be inperceivable for a player to deduce based on visual fact. In other words, the second 10% may be calculated from 0.9, thus resulting in a reduction down to 0.81. The third 10% may therefore result in an effective value of 0.73 second.
Now, it is also important to know that the Peak Efficiency starship trait also has diminishing returns depending on the remaining time on each cooldown. In other words, the 7.5% reduction every few seconds will be calculated on the current remaining cooldown. An ability starting at 60 seconds will therefore see a reduction to 55.5 seconds, whereas something at 20 seconds will only see a reduction down to 18.5.
Let's also not forget Engineer, Science and Tactical Readiness from the skill tree. These ones are triggered at the very start of their respective class cooldowns. Anything else is calculated after that with diminishing returns. However, one of the very few things that are unaffected by these diminishing returns are the DOFFs that provide a flat X amount of seconds in reduction if triggered.
Anyways, there is a way to keep the costs down when it comes to overutilizing cooldown reductions and being hit severely by diminishing return penalties. I personally think that the way to do that is to first utilize DOFFs to reduce your cooldowns, followed by starship traits and last by BOFFs.
I mean, let's say you prefer to use Emergency Power to Weapons and tactical beam/cannon abilities. In that scenario it would better for you to use each respective DOFFs to reduce your cooldowns for these abilities. You can then further enhance those cooldown reductions with Peak Efficiency, but leaving out the BOFFs. Why? Because you can use other BOFFs that may provide better bonuses in the long run. For example, the Embassy/Romulan BOFFs that provide CritH or the K13 BOFFs that provide bonuses to to your skills.
Thank you kindly for all the excellent ideas!
I completely forgot about the Chrono-Capacitor Array Trait! But I have the Bio-Neural Gel Pack too, and a 31st Century ship.
To answer your question, yes, I'm using 2 Engi Krenim boffs (I'm a Fed Engineer, so I can't use SRO's in those slots anyway), to bring the 2 copies of a2b just a wee closer to each other.
Readiness skills are 'expensive' (in the sense of their high-Tiered position), but I shall see what I can do.
I agree that Krenim boffs affecting only their own career is kinda limiting; but, in this case, for me, I just use them to bring the 2 copies of a2b closer to each other, and that affects the whole too, of course (albeit marginal).
Thanks for the detailed math on this! (I knew I had it wrong *g) It's especially useful to realize how the percentage cooldowns effectively have diminishing rerturns.
What do you mean, redundant?! 3 points in Tactical Readiness gives you a max Total Ability Recharge Bonus of 20%, right? Surely that's not enough to make a2b redunant, is it?! Or is there even another ultimate skill I'm missing?
Ah, thx.