Help with a Bu'ul Sentry Vessel Build...

bjorjlen

Hi there...

Just today I got one of my top ships I have wanted for a long time as a free gift from a friend in real life; the Ba'ul Sentry Vessel! And playing it threw some of the easier Patrol missions, and even the Tholian Red Alert event mission, I have found much to my dismay, that while a cool ship, it is not as sturdy as even my Caitian Atrox Carrier, especially when I activate it's Sentry Mode ability. So I am here to ask you great people for some assistance in creating a build for my ship that not only makes it very sturdy and hard to kill, but also one where it can put out some good damage maybe.

Looking around, even on this site and on youtube, I haven't seen much of anything in regards to a good build in any way. The Ba'ul Sentry Vessel is a good ship; I just wish it was far more sturdy than it was. So can any of you suggest a good build for me please? Oh, and I should probably mention that I am nowhere near rich, so buying high end pricey items for the ship is sort of out of the question for me atm. The same also applies to the lobi store, as currently I only have ONE crystal, and have no way to get another (seeing as they come from lock boxes, and I haven't once been able to get a key for them).

Maybe items that come as mission drops, or that I can buy off the exchange that don't cost an arm or a leg. And no, imho a item that costs a million or more is NOT cheap as many who have played the game often times think's it is (mostly from those who have played for years and have TON"s of money to throw around lol). For instance, the most credits I have ever saved up is like almost 3 million; which is due to me having to spend it on basic items off the exchange because the items I need/want for my other ships don't drop at all. So I figured I would let you all know this as I am basically a free to play player for the most part, who is still learning the game.

So any and all help with suggestions and build advice for my ship would be greatly appreciated, big time. Thank you for your time, and as always...

Peace...

protoneous

It's a science ship with a secondary deflector so triggering the secdef is going to be a decent source of damage. There's a list of abilities that trigger a deteriorating secdef here.

The LtC universal bridge officer position offers a fair bit of flexibility. It could be used for engineering or science depending upon how you'd like to do things.

Cool down reduction is important to get all your abilities recharging quicker so you can use them more often. In this case lets use Photonic Officer 2 in a science LtC boff position.

Having a Commander science usually means having some fun with Gravity Well 3. Am hoping you have two points into Control Expertise in your skill tree and perhaps Control Amplification also. More sources of Control Expertise would be great i.e. a couple consoles and perhaps some in your deflector. I'd shoot for about 200 or so to make the Gravity Well work better. More is better up to about 400.

For science damage look to at least a couple points into Exotic Particle Generator in your skill tree.

Given the flexibility of your ship's boff layout you'll have a fair bit of experimenting to do to find the combination of energy and science damage that works for you. I found I was trying to do some of both to start then focused more on exotic science damage with practice.

With this ship I can see activating PO2 then using your GW3 on a group of enemies. Follow up with some science abilities and perhaps BFAW or beam overload and a torpedo spread.

Tyken's Rift, Charged Particle Burst, and Destabilized Resonance Beam will all proc your secdef and irradiate things.

Something like Very Cold In Space from the Winter Event Store will throw some EPG damage on them and slow them.

There's so many ways to do things with a ship like yours that there isn't really any defined build. Experiment with different things to find what works for you and enjoy the journey.

bjorjlen

Thank you very much for your reply @protoneous, and all the info you have given me; I have copied/pasted it all down in my notes. However, what about the ship's survivability/sturdiness? That is a big part of my concern for the ship, as for a example, upon doing most everyone's favorite Patrol, "The Ninth Rule", every time I activate and use the ships Sentry Mode, I get killed nearly instantly. It's like all my damage resistance and regeneration goes all out the window, most likely because I am now standing still and everyone is shooting at me.

It's almost getting to the point where I can't use the ability without getting killed (which is very, very bad imo), and one of the reasons I love the ship and wanted it so badly is because of that ability. So I really need some help on boosting the ship's ability to stay alive, which is why I need some specific item suggestions that I can put in the...

Warp
Shields
Deflector
Secondary Deflector
Impulse

Engineering Consoles
Science Consoles
Tactical Consoles

Preferably item suggestions that can be gained via Missions, and to a bit lesser extent, Reputation (as it's taking a heck of a long time for me to level up all of my Reputations). I do know that with this "limitation" I won't be able to get many of the top tier items that will make my ship extremely unkillable, but as my actual funds are quite limited compared to those who have tons of credits & Dilithium to spend, I am limited to what I can actually get ya know? So please, and and all item suggestions and help would be appreciated in this regards, as I really, really like the ship and want it to be at least functional in a high enemy situation (especially when Sentry Mode is on). I hope this helps, and thanks again in advance...

Peace...

protoneous

The Ninth Rule is a fun patrol that has a continuously spawning stream of enemies towards the end. The only way I know of beating them is to use some sort of cool down reduction in a build (such as Photonic Officer) and to practice executing your bridge officer abilities in a logical and repeatable order to do as much damage as possible.

Sentry mode is very cool but one thing to try for a while might be to leave the console off for now and focus on everything else so that using it doesn't become a distraction. During a "high enemy" situation your build and execution count for far more in making a ship "extremely unkillable". As an added plus you'll have room for one additional console that's helping you all the time versus having a 2 minute cool down.

Let's assume just for the purpose of discussion that your universal LtC bridge officer station is going to be used for engineering. I think using it for science will do more damage but let's experiment.

Universal: Emergency Power to Shields or Engines 1, Emergency Power to Weapons 2, Reverse Shield Polarity (RSP) 2 or A2SiF 2

Engineer: Engineering Team 1, Auxiliary to Structural Integrity Field (A2SiF) 1 or RSP 1

Science: Science Team 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Photonic Officer 2, Gravity Well 3

Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Attack Pattern Beta 1, Beam Overload 3 or Torpedo Spread 3

Tactical: Torpedo Spread 1 or Beam Overload 1

Device Slot - Hull Patch or Reactive Armor Catalyst (both craftable)

Some initial gear recommendations to try might be -

Bajor Defense Deflector Array (storyline reward)

Deuterium Stabilized Warp Core W-->A (from a drop or exchange)

Console - Engineering - Trellium-D Plating (storyline reward)

Console - Engineering - House Martok Defensive Configuration (storyline reward)

Console - Science - Temporal Disentanglement Suite (storyline reward)

Console - Science - Temporally Shielded Datacore (storyline reward)

Console - Science - Graviton Generator (two of them, from exchange or from Discovery reputation store)

Quantum Phase Applications (storyline reward, shields and engine)

Console - Tactical - Lorca's Custom Fire Controls (Discovery Reputation)

Console - Universal - Assimilated Module (Omega Reputation)

Weapons - whatever beams you're using now along with matching energy specific tactical consoles. A forward facing torpedo.

The above setup should get you started doing some energy damage after gathering the bad guys in a gravity well. It's just a first step and something to play around with at low cost. The bridge officer abilities offer a fair bit of survivability. The deflector can be re-engineered for more Control Expertise and EPG. The consoles should provide good value for a variety of builds over time and could be used on other ships you own. I wouldn't bother upgrading any items for the time being until a direction is clear.

Using your LtC universal boff station as science is going to be another ball of wax that would be worthwhile trying as you have a very versatile ship.

protoneous

A few things to add..

BFAW is another option for your firing mode. Beam overload was the initial thought as being single target it can reduce the amount of attention generated (reduce threat). Usually BFAW 3 is used as the lower ranked versions have an accuracy penalty.

A secondary deflector wasn't mentioned as with the hybrid starting configuration mentioned above the only trigger is the gravity well. That would use a inhibiting Secondary Deflector but a more focused science setup often uses the deteriorating type. They do scale with their mark.

A rough suggestion for a skill tree is here.

The thinking behind it is the Ba'ul Sentry Vessel and your Caitian carrier are science heavy but also capable of energy damage so a balanced skill tree that's science heavy might be a good match. With full points into EPS and targeting sensors energy will work fine. Three points into the coordination protocols boosts pets. Having points in Control Expertise and EPG is really going to help the gravity well's pull and any exotic damage.

Using the LtC universal boff as a science position in the future is still a good option if you'd like to try doing more exotic damage.

Edit: the LtC uni boff is Intel so you could drop RSP and try Ionic Turbulence.