Tractor beam build?

telbasta7386

Been playing a long time, and these days I only log in for a few months of the year to get events and such done, but I'm always looking for something to make gameplay interesting again. I mostly play science builds these days with my main characters using the equinox, dranuur, and trailblazer.

That said, I've just finished the event campaign for the second time, and having a bit of trouble deciding which reward to go with. Lobi seems like the better choice, though only if I save it until a sale. While browsing through the lobi options, though, I came across the Nakuhl Daemosh science vessel, which has a trait that increases tractor beam damage by 50%. I recalled seeing a generic starship trait on the exchange called Carrier wave shield hack, which also increases tractor beam damage by 30%; and then there's the legendary d'deridex trait that shoots 3 heavy plasma torpedoes every time you use tractor beam, and I'm sure there's a few more I'm missing.

So, has anyone had any success building a ship around tractor beam as the heavy damage dealer?

bjorjlen

Not I, no. However, I would think that depending on the range between you and the enemy ship when using a Tractor Beam, one should not necessarily fire torpedo's at it as that might damage your ship as well. But as I tend to get close to enemy ships when fighting them, that might be just me I suppose lol. A Tractor Beam build is a interesting concept though I must admit (good way to think outside the box @telbasta7386)... 😁

Peace...

davefenestrator

Tractor beam + minelayer might be an interesting combo for a bit of variety. Then tack on some area of effect munitions like the Vaadwaur artillery barrage? AOE probably works better with megawells though.

rattler2

I never considered Tractor Beam as a major build thing, but it would be worth playing around with, if nothing else but for the fun of it. There are also traits that affect how Tractor Repulsor functions, turning it into a pull rather than a push. On top of that we have the multi Tractor console off the Sarco, I think the chains of Gre'thor off one of the Fek'lhri ships...

Being able to move the enemy around against their will can be fun to play around with. Honestly I'd say give it a try for the fun of it.
Honestly that's how I came up with my Romulan Bomber build. Originally was trying to improve on a friend's old Spamtrox build, and ended up with something completely different using Romulan Hyper Plasma and the Subspatial Warheads trait off the Son'a Intel Battlecruiser.

lianthelia

It's something I've thought about a few times but never actually tried it, I knew of the Nakuhl trait but not of the second one you linked. Like rattler said you could probably make something decent with TB III and TBR III, not sure if you'll break any records but it has the potential to be decent if you aren't obsessed with stretching every single point of dps you can out of a build.

pottsey5g

As you mentioned there are some nice combos like tractor beams spwarns torps, tractor beam disables shields, tractor beam doff to drain shields, EPG to boost damage. Along with muti target tractor arrays, hangar pet tractor beams, tractor beam mines and Assimilated Tractor Beam. It's certainly possible to build around tractor beams.

questerius

One of the reason why i am still tempted to get the mudd sham with the coffin ship is the multi tractor beam console.

I have pulled off a pretty decent reverse tractor beam, fiery chains and 2-3Km nasty abilities build.
Might be updated with bozeman console etc.

The announced scout vessel appears to have command so it could have merit for this type of build.

legendarylycan

Kind of hard to do that when it's so pathetically weak that it's an utter waste of a boff slot unless being used as a trigger for something else...and anything that triggers off TB is either mediocre or can be triggered by something else way more effective on its own.

Tractor beam shouldn't even be a boff ability - it should be an intrinsic part of every ship, like it is in actual Star Trek.​​

phoenixc

I like to make First Federation offshoots and canonically their known weapons are radiation and tractor beams, so I have experimented with a lot of EPG/tractor beam builds. I really wish the devs would bring out Balok's pilot ship (which is a natural for rearranging parts like the DSC people like to do, btw, since it and the Fesarius were the original clusterships in Trek), but that is a different discussion.

Another useful tractor themed console is the Graviton Displacer from the Shran and M'Chla c-store ships (it is very deadly with cannon spread fire in addition to its own kinetic damage), there is a shield-drain-via-tractor doff type, and the trait Parting Gift that adds a Mokai style transporter bomb attack to tractor beams along with inflicting a damage resistance debuff on the target.

questerius

I did the build on the https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/APU_Cruiser
Subspace jump, reverse tractor beam, drop some plasma, possibly some trico and other goodies.

There are different tactics which can be used for builds like this: hit and run such as above or the tug of war in which you drag opponents on your skin along and continue hitting them with goodies.

Combined with some traits, scramble sensors and photonic shockwave etc are very useful.

Now combined with a console which disables shields and one can easily see the potential.

Thematic i can also see a build such as this on a Malon garbage scow.

telbasta7386

legendarylycan#5411 wrote: »

Kind of hard to do that when it's so pathetically weak that it's an utter waste of a boff slot unless being used as a trigger for something else...and anything that triggers off TB is either mediocre or can be triggered by something else way more effective on its own.

Tractor beam shouldn't even be a boff ability - it should be an intrinsic part of every ship, like it is in actual Star Trek.​​

Being a little overly critical there, aren't you?

On my lukari sci ship, with no traits whatsoever to buff tractor beam, TB 1is dealing 500~ DPS on its own over 10 seconds, and it's got a super short cooldown (20 seconds?). With the mentioned traits that should get over 1000 DPS, and it also procs unconventional systems, spore infused anomalies, checkmate, etc.

Building around it, I think it could be made a pretty decent ability, especially using a higher rank of it. I only use it on the lukari for the side effects, and it's still pretty useful.

questerius

Found this recent upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NknXq_XGGIg
Some ideas to use.

telbasta7386

> @questerius said:
> Found this recent upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NknXq_XGGIg
> Some ideas to use.

Yea I'm pretty sure the reddit post he references at the beginning of that video is the one I made along with this thread here =p
For some reason I'm not able to comment on that YouTube channel though

vetteguy904

ok did not watch a half hour video, but IIRC the Assimilated Engines shield and deflector give an additional tractor beam as well.

kirisee

Don't forget the T5 reputation trait that pulls everthing in behind your ship, its great with mines and eject warp plasma

ltminns

Auxiliary Ejection Assembly with Mines dropping as well.