Fleet advanced research vessel - help me put together a fun Nebula class?

pritch

I play pretty much as one alt - a Starfleet tac officer and I've just hit T6 in all but two reps.

I'm a pretty casual player - I've amassed 14 ships including the free ones, which are mostly Eng, a few Tac. My "flagship" is the Fleet Galaxy dread - I'm a big TNG and Galaxy fan so this has been my main focus during the recent upgrade weekend. I'm drawn to realism more than ultimate DPS - so it features one DHC (those antennae either side of the bridge look like cannons to me), and torps front and rear, phaser beams the rest.

Being a TNG fan I'd like to fly the Nebula class too. I'd probably like to use the same beams and torps for that realism. I know that being a Sci ship lends itself to control effects, and that I probably won't get the most out of these, but I'd like to put something together that could support well enough in TFOs and is a little different to fly.

So with some of the fleet modules I will now be able to claim, I'm looking at the Nebula skin on the fleet advanced research vessel. Can anyone suggest fun things with those 5 sci console slots - maybe some universals? I'd like to equip the graviton displacer that pulls ships in front of you - I have that on my pilot escort and it's just a lot of fun - that's my thing really, like the spinal lance on the galaxy dread, not massively effective but it's just fun to use.

So if anyone has some ideas on a fun loadout for this ship that I can look into, let me know? Thanks!

seriousdave

Retrofitted Assimilator, while being a universal console it's pretty much a full fledged EPG & CtrX console combined into one and you can assimilate (almost) anything that dares to oppose you.

casualsto

The most fun-oriented build for science ships is the exotic/control one.

I would put the intended science consoles in those slots and simply slot as many anomalies into my boffs.

List of anomalies you can put on that ship:

- Timeline Collapse
- Gravity Well
- Subspace Vortex
- Very Cold in Space
- Chronometric Inversion Field
- Tyken's Rift

And if you use the Gravimetric Torpedo, that's a total of seven Space Anomalies.

Mastering how to use those makes you a small space god.

So if you stack those on a legion of enemies, you'll watch them fade into oblivion just most people's problems when they're drunk, lol.

foxrockssocks

Science is quite a bit more complicated to use effectively than your bog standard beam or cannon builds. The Nebula adds in another layer of complexity with its uni slot, letting you do a lot of crazy things. You can explore a lot of possibilities with it.

Personally, I like focusing a ship on its trait to give a direction to a build, and I assume you have the Sutherland to get the trait. The tachyon dispersal trait is obviously oriented around tachyon beam, which gives you an aoe shield weakener tool. This can be utilized a few ways.

First and most obious is a shield deletion sort of build where you run around with all the drain skill you can manage and use tachyon beam, charged particle burst, and quantum phase torpedo spreads with the 2 piece set bonus. This lends itself well to a torpedo build, and you can easily use the uni BOFF as tac here to get TS3 for your torpedoes, but you might prefer it as eng or sci because TS2 is sufficient and you start running into questions about what to do with your other tac slots.

An alternative to that build is to focus it on exotic damage and a deteriorating secondary deflector, using tachyon beam and CPB to trigger your deteriorating proc and rack up direct damage numbers from exotic damage. The shield drain would be much weaker, of course, so you could skip the quantum phase torpedo.

Another direction is to simply focus on the shield weakening component of tachyon dispersal, and offer a more supporting role. Here I'd use grav well 3, a lot of control to group enemies, with some drain in the mix, along with CPB 2 for more shield weakening, and probably a few other control powers like chronometric inversion field and/or its cold in space to help keep enemies grouped and helpless.

You can of course go the classic sci ship route of lots of exotic damage and grav well, but that sort of build doesn't care about the Sutherland trait and would only use tachyon beam to trigger the deteriorating deflector if it uses one.

And you don't necessarily need to bother with science either. You can play the Nebula like a cruiser with some science powers too, load up those science consoles with uni consoles that boost whatever damage type your weapons are and other things. You could run Photonic officer 3 to support fast cooldown on your powers, and maybe still use Tachyon beam 3 with tachyon dispersal to help you burn down shields faster using FAW 3 as well.

That's far from the only things to do with a Nebula. Which direction you want to go is up to you, and which other ship traits you have can help focus the build in directions you can take it as well.

protoneous

You could try something like - THIS

It's more the classic route for epg/torp and tried to keep things simple with some storyline gear.

I usually use the chronometric calculations set (polaron from storyline) but phaser should work fine as well. The Quantum Phase torpedo really shreds shields with some Drain X.

The universal Lt boff slot could be used as tactical with kemocite 1, attack pattern beta 1, or as mentioned above something more cruiser like along with an EPtx / EPtW rotation in engineering. My own preference would be to give science a chance

The engine, core, and shield could be replaced with Temporal reputation engine, core, and shield but 2 piece Quantum Phase + any A->W core would do fine along with a re-engineered Bajoran deflector. The 2 piece adapted MACO engines + shield (for feds) also gives a torpedo damage boost.

The more restorative particle focusers you can stack the better but the other items shown in the science slots also do well.

The Nebula is a nice tanky science ship and should be lots of fun.

szerontzur

I'm currently working on a project to build a Damar as a drain ship; it's been a lot of fun.. and performing above expectations. A bit of a quirky all-round minelayer/torpedo boat crossed with a Drain ship that naturally causes a lot of exotic damage. Even without being specced into EPG, it still produces enough exotic death to kill most things outright; and anything that doesn't instantly melt is severely crippled to the point that a sneeze from most weapons is lethal.

Damar - Drainlayer

As a WIP, there's still a lot of room for optimization, but there should be several parts you could fit into your Nebula. You're down a tac console, but that does open the extra eng console for your Graviton Displacer - which would work nicely for stuffing things into your Anomaly death-ball. You obviously won't have Ionic Turbulence, but you're down two science seats as it is and will want to be running Photonic Officer 2 there to help keep your cooldowns lean. Everything but the Neutronic torp is part of a set, so that'd probably be what you'd drop from the forward weapons.

Traits are loose suggestions; use whatever you've got. (Also, pick up Ceaseless Momentum as a Fed; it's a no-brainer for anything that uses a torpedo.)

Science Consoles are 2xDrain; Fleet Secondary Deflectors can be rerolled for 2xDrain mods and a third drain hybrid epic mod. (I also run +chance on it to help subsystem targeting knock out stubborn shields. Most stuff doesn't really live long enough for SA DMG to ramp up.)
Warp Core is meh, but the 2-set gives you 20 more drain.
Sensor Burnout gives you some drain, but it really shines in the high amount of exotic damage it does to stuff caught infront of you.
Lastly, remember to pop Kemocite before you drop your mines. Even if the buff expires, they'll stay laced - feel free to drop laced mines during downtime between waves. You have tools to put your 'stockpile' where it's needed.

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protoneous

pritch#1622 wrote: »

I'd probably like to use the same beams and torps for that realism.

How about beams and 1 torp in a forward facing build that can still broadside like THIS ? You could just move most of your gear over from your flagship... no idea what you already have. There's even room for a universal console in the unshown 5th science console slot you'd have on a T-5 fleet upgrade. It may not be the best use of a science ship but would still be fun. If you really wanted to use a second torpedo am wondering if the Lorca's_Ambition set could be incorporated?

I know that being a Sci ship lends itself to control effects, and that I probably won't get the most out of these, but I'd like to put something together that could support well enough in TFOs and is a little different to fly.

As a tac, abilities like APA buff science abilities as well. You might be surprised at how much you get out of control effects (and other players as well) given all the science console slots available to you even if you're using something like a 27 point tactical ultimate skill tree with little invested in science. Changing your primary spec to temporal would help as well.

nixie50

if you are looking for a non-fleet gear Exotic build, @vetteguy904 just posted up an intrepid build. some ideas are in there that I put on mine.

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nixie50

which boff? I need to get Weyoun and I think I have spock still boxxed in the bank. they both add 10 EPG..

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pritch

I'm sorry for lateness of reply - thanks all for the in-depth input.

You've all confirmed that there's quite a few ways I could go with this. I've eyed up some universal consoles and I created the kinetic cutting beam from Omega as there will definitely be some shield drain going on I think. The retrofitted assimilator I'm holding out for a sub-7m one on the exchange if possible, but it's a console I'd like to have around in any case. I'm also tempted by the cutting tractor beam to aid with the kinetic damage?

I have 3 ultimate beam / cannons tech upgrades from a while back I haven't used yet - is one a good candidate for the cutting beam do you think?

protoneous

From what I can recall the Kinetic Cutting Beam from the Borg reputation does take a fair bit to upgrade so is a good candidate in that respect for one of the weapon ultimate upgrades but for me at least it's used as a "filler" at best for rear omni's and wouldn't be high on my own list of items to guild.

Perhaps it could be a case of putting together a build first and seeing how things work and then upgrading the parts that become a permanent part of the build and/or are doing the most damage but ultimately (pun intended) you're the Captain

pritch

protoneous wrote: »

From what I can recall the Kinetic Cutting Beam from the Borg reputation does take a fair bit to upgrade so is a good candidate in that respect for one of the weapon ultimate upgrades but for me at least it's used as a "filler" at best for rear omni's and wouldn't be high on my own list of items to guild.

Perhaps it could be a case of putting together a build first and seeing how things work and then upgrading the parts that become a permanent part of the build and/or are doing the most damage but ultimately (pun intended) you're the Captain

Sound advice indeed. Well, I finally commissioned her - USS Castel, NCC-106113

Come and wave if you see me out there...

She's a lot of fun already, and tbh old habits die hard, plus existing equipment / skills means she's probably more of a tac tank than anything atm. I've reused the phasers up front, phaser energy torp plus the vulnerability locators (will replace one of these with the lorca console once I can upgrade it). Aft it's a phaser omni (replace with trilithium enhanced once upgraded), the cutting beam and a quantum torpedo - I will probably replace with the Lorca quantum torpedo. All this is going on other ships as well (except the cutting beam) so may not stay here.

The cutting beam, eh, it's definitely not doing much atm. It's not buffed by beam boff abilities, and there's quite a lot of tac seating altogether so that's a bit of a shame. Can't help feeling a phaser omni or regular beam just does more here.

Eng consoles: I'm running an RCS accelerator with [ShReg] which gives +50% turn and a nice shield buff. I'm very happy with the manoeuvrability. Two Disco rep DR consoles with boosts to hull and CritH. One of these could probably go for something else.

Sci consoles: Probably needs the most work. Shield emitter, shield capacitor and the Disco rep nanite laced hull regen.

Universals (so far): Cutting tractor beam - trying it out. Too early to say if I like it or not yet. Graviton displacer - got this from my Shran Pilot and I think it may have found its home on the Nebula - pulls foes in front, which goes nicely with gravity well, temporal anomaly, and anti-time singularity trait. Temporal anomaly is the last universal - another one picked up from the exchange and again, fun to use in a PVE. I threw this combo at Aakar's ships at the start of Best Served Cold last night and it was pretty satisfying! Softened them up nicely for the rest of the team!

She was also pleasantly durable in the dilithium haulers round - I have the tethered asteroid from traits active atm. This pulls foes behind me, instead. Either this or the graviton displacer has the potential to take down a lot of haulers quickly, but with a high chance of death from the blast damage. I flew to the centre and went for them in this way, but she stayed alive - I had to push a lot of buttons but she seems durable enough atm, which gives me more confidence that I could free up a DR or shield console.

So very pleased so far, though I know I want to do more to differentiate her from my other ships

pritch

D'oh, forget what I said about the tac seating, that of course is a uni seat, and as I only have two Sci boffs right now it's of course been filled with a tac.

Running just one Lt tac feels a bit strange to me, but I need to get over it - I just looked at my boff candidates and had the purple Elachi Eng/temporal and Voth Sci waiting for a space on the bridge, so I used a little of my paltry Zen balance for a couple of slots - this is perhaps overdue but is finally more relevant - and I can slot the Elachi in the Eng/temporal seat, too.

Now I need to go find some training manuals!

angrytarg

I have a Nebula-tow build, using reverse tractor beam repulsors and the Klingon dread console of the same effect, pulling enemies in my rear arc where the main fire power is in the form of EPG supported torpedoes, and ejected warp plasma. It's mostly a EPG build with some control mixed in. Mines sadly activate too late for this to be really useful here.

Photonic shockwave and other abilities/consoles of a similiar effect can also be used to spice up the build.