test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
How to make a romulan warbird stronger?
drycraeft
Member Posts: 126 Arc User
Having a few problems trying to get warbirds stronger on my romulan. The usual things i do isn't working and the beams are super weak even if my skill tree is setup to maximize damage and i've got a couple consoles. 2 vulnerability locators and a pax manifold but it's just weak. I'm no longer joining fleets so i won't be able to get anymore locators but i don't think that will help. It should be strong but i'm not doing something right. Perhaps it's a power issue? what sort of consoles and things does anyone use on their warbirds? or any bigger ships.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
0
Comments
It would help if you posted a photo of your ship and it's consoles as well as a second photo or list of your bridge officer abilities.
The best place for that sort of post is here --> https://arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/categories/the-shipyard.
I think that this post might get moved over there
Will say it may not be a "power" issue as long as you..
Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
Moderation Problems/Issues? Please contact the Community Manager
Terms of Service / Community Rules and Policies / FCT
Facebook / Twitter / Twitch
I'm using the Vastam Class Tactical Command Warbird fun to play with
I'm using the Darmok and Jalad set right now because it takes out shields so fast and disables you can see the Polarity Coil in Engineering. Maybe doesn't quite go with warbirds though. I'm using the Adapted M.A.C.O Positron Deflector and an Elite Fleet Singularity Core that's giving me the extra power transfer rate, but maybe i should go with something else still not used to warbirds.
What do you use to buff your beams of the same type? although the Piezo-Electric Focuser has +30% Plasma and Polaron Damage to start off with, so you can use a bit of both and i've got a good amount of Crit Sev on my front polaron beam.
I could switch the back agony beam for another plasma beam. The front beams have to be the strongest though so the Terran Disruptor Beam is giving a good amount of damage, and i think a physical damage buff too it's one of the best beams in the game.
Those are two great consoles especially the Temporal Disentanglement Suite i will be sure to get those, shield facing heal would help survival. A notable trait is Non-Linear Progression so when i back up it removes the power drain when in reverse and then has a big amount of continuous hull and shield heal, then gives captain ability recharge :P i've been using that for a while for a quick escape with bigger ships if i get into trouble while it heals me, and it's fun to keep bobbing back and forward.
I had the Assimilated Module on so i'll probs put it back that's the next thing i need to upgrade when i get another epic token. I think i'll keep the Polarity Coil it's just great for wiping out groups of ships lol best console made in ages.
Energy specific tactical consoles or isomags. Here is a list of things that help with phaser, for example.
I stick to just one energy type in a ship's build. My usual choice is phaser or disruptor or polaron (in that order) as they seem to have a good amount of related pieces and sets available from the storyline and reputation.
Consoles like the Assimilated Module are incredibly good for a build. Actually the Assmod is beyond good so using the term incredible is probably warranted. Ditto for the Temporal Disentanglement Suite science console.
I wouldn't rely upon fancy clickies (universal consoles) too much. Wipe out groups of ships with your bridge officer abilities.
These days it's common to see a lot of universal consoles in builds which is fine if they're well chosen and something like the Unconventional Systems trait is being used to reduce their cooldown BUT..
I still think that basic storyline and reputation consoles are preferable for use as the building blocks in a build as they are always on, add to a ship's stats in beneficial ways, and allow a Captain to fine tune their ship to their personal preference both offensively and defensively.
A few of my favorites that can be used without any regard for any set bonuses (i.e. they can be used individually)..
I'd consider trying MORE of these and LESS universal consoles to find a good balance for your warbirds.
Here is a very helpful video that incorporates a lot of these consoles into a well balanced build. Please note the lack of "fancy stuff" in this very good build that should do well both offensively and defensively..
Here is a list of online resources that I've found really helpful.
I like to focus on the basics to get started on a build as this approach has always worked well for me
Thanks for all the recommendations
I think i'm going to keep it mostly plasma beams because gotta have plasma for romulans, going all phaser it's great for temporal ships on your FED character like the Paladin Temporal Battlecruiser with the phaser platform, i was working on getting all phasers on that so thanks for the video that will be helpful :P
I switched to the Pride of Mol'Rihan trait that works with Attack Pattern: Beta and the 10% Haste helped pick things up with my beams
The romulan rep pieces not sure how they're supposed to work with romulan ships but doesn't with warbirds, i think warbirds need at least 20% more turn rate on them out of the box so we don't have to use 2 consoles and more impulse speed on the set impulse engines because warbirds are heavy.
I think i'm going to switch one of my consoles with turn rate to the Polaric Modulator i found because warbirds just slide without it i've so far shot past enemies and trying not to crash into anything lol, or better add more inertia to warbirds so we don't have to add a console. I don't think i'll need the Advanced Engines trait then because that has some flight speed on it too, i mean it won't be as fast but with it the warbirds are too fast and not helping the lack of inertia.
Do you currently have any points into Long Range Targeting Sensors ? Three points into this is preferred for energy builds to reduce energy weapon fall off at a distance.
If you haven't already, consider giving Suppression Barrage a try (highest rank possible).
No points in Long Range Targeting because the problem is if you use rifts or wells and a few other science skills on any of your ships. Romulans involve some science too more tactical but even warbirds have at least 1 seat that gives you an option to use a bit of science although i switched my universal seat to tactical. Then there's ships that are a bit more temporal or science based you just have to use a bit of exotic damage abilities to have something to use cos there's not any tactical abilities for science. Perhaps if they built in an exotic particle ability into romulan ships it would be balanced, there's definitely a few things that need tweaking.
For AOE though i have 2 points in Control Expertise for resistances for my ships but i'm reading it also causes a stronger pull and radius gravity well, so maybe that's good enough for any AOE stuff including over time like with plasma weapons and the hyper plasma torpedoes.
I have been playing about with Suppression Barrage
I understand that you'd like to keep some science capabilities on your Romulan and you're correct that some EPG and Control Expertise can help a lot of science based abilities including temporal abilities. I try to keep a little on some of my characters as well. I've found that as little as a single point of EPG in my skill tree can really wake up some abilities that rely upon it.
Yes, Control Expertise will help make for a bigger gravity well with more pull. It's the EPG that adds damage though to a lot of science and temporal abilities so it's important as well. I don't think either Control or EPG will help your plasma energy weapons in any way.
However, on a mixed build (energy damage plus some science damage) it's quite important to have 2 to preferably 3 points into Long Range Targeting Sensors (LRTS) in order to avoid damage fall off with distance for your beams or cannons. The lack of any LRTS in your skill tree could potentially be part of things not having quite the "zing" you'd like. Your Vastam warbird build is 100 percent energy damage based.
It is possible to redistribute your skill tree points to try to get the best of both of energy damage plus some science..
So.. what you posted in your photo is a very nice DPS orientated and energy weapon based 27 point tactical ultimate skill tree without any science support. Here's what I did with it in order to add some science support..
Lieutenant - 1 point into hull healing to help in this area. It's optional so if you don't want it you could put the point into tactical to retain the 27 point tactical ultimate. You are the Captain.
Lt Commander - Impulse Expertise has been reduced from 3 point to 2 points. Very few players will notice the difference, myself included
Commander - the resists have been reduced from 3 points to 2 points. 1 each into hull plating and ablative hull plating (kinetic).
Captain - power has been changed from 3 points into weapons to 1 each weapons and auxiliary. Auxiliary power for science and heals. 2 points into EPG have been added, for science damage. 3 points into Long Range Targeting Sensors, for energy weapon damage.
Admiral - power has been changed from 1 point to 2 points. A little Warp Core Efficiency might bring up some of your other power levels if they are low.
If you're on PC consider trying this skill tree on the Tribble test server first.
Thoughts ?
Suppression Barrage can be very powerful. More on this later when bridge officer abilities are discussed
Alright i just tried out that skill tree you gave me and it feels SO much better!
The Vastman has 3 Lieutenant seats so you have to do what you can with that. Shame there's not another commander seat preferably the other engineering seat so we can use a higher level of emergency power to weapons.
1 point in Hull Restoration is fine it's helped with hull healing it sped up healing from Linear Progression too. This tree build is OP anyway lol so 1 less point in there isn't gonna hurt. Btw Resonant Transphasic Torpedo is pretty good with warbirds :P
Your bridge officer abilities selections are good. I'd might give Satra a copy of Hazard Emitters 1 but that's just me. It's handy for putting out fires and a surprisingly good heal.
Keep in mind that while the Command abilities you've chosen work very well (they are the same ones I'd use) there are conventional boff abilities that fit in about the same places (Lt to Cmdr engineering) that can also go a long way to improving durability. I'd just play around with different ones until you find a combination that works for you.
Auxiliary to Inertial Dampers Good for mobility and durability. I might give this one a try in place of Rally Point Marker since you want your Warbird to go faster. There's an active duty doff that can help with this by extending it's duration.
Auxiliary to Structural
Reverse Shield Polarity
Also, in order to get around faster, it's possible to use Emergency Power to Engines instead of Emergency Power to Shields. Using EPtE in combination with an Emergency Conn Hologram (FED) active duty officer will reset Evasive Maneuvers so you can zoom around more.
Here's a very good video on mobility (one of the best I've seen)..
Here's one potential bridge officer layout without using any Command abilities for your consideration..
Tac - TT 1, APB 1, BO3 or BFAW 3
Tac - KLW 1, TS 2
Eng - EPtE 1, A2B 1, EPtW 3, RSP 3
Eng - ET 1, Aux2Damp 1
Sci - HE 1, PO 1
Keep in mind that if you're using A2B and PO for cooldown reduction (CDR) you'll need 3 purple Technician active duty doffs to make the A2B boff ability work. You can get these free from doffing (instead of the exchange) but it can take a while. White doffs can temporarily fill in and they don't get bound to you so you can sell them back after you're done with them. If you haven't got the tech doffs I'd just use PO 1 for CDR and enjoy the higher auxiliary power levels for healing. There will be a small gap in boff ability cooldown but it's no big deal
Edit: there's a small conflict in the boff abilities I posted - A2B and A2D share a cooldown
So I didn't quite get that right due to shared cooldowns.
If using PO1 only for cooldown reduction (which is fine by itself to start with), you're able to use A2D or A2SiF.
If using PO1 plus 1x A2B1 or 2x A2B1 for cooldown reduction, you'd have to rely upon RSP.
To get keep things simple I'd consider using just PO1 to get going.
I still think A2D is worth a try. It can make a larger ship more nimble.
So to try things again using PO1 only for cooldown and not using any Command abilities (just for variety
Tac - TT 1, APB 1, BO 3 or BFAW 3
Tac - KLW 1, TS 2
Eng - EPtE 1, RSP 1, EPtW 3, DEM 3
Eng - ET 1, Aux2Damp 1
Sci - HE 1, PO 1
DEM is directed energy modulation --> Bridge officer and kit abilities
A2iD i never use that because of the shared cooldown, i guess it's an option one or the other but there's nothing like the quick turning of the Competitive Inverted Engines plus lasts longer while it still has the aux charge in the emergency batt. I just use an Aux Battery before i shoot out a science skill on my FED but if your ship is fast the Lukari Impulse Engines along with a 2 piece Discovery is a good alternative. A2iD needs more flight and turn speed if it's going to compete with the competitive impulse engines.
Photonic Officer 1 yeah it does fine on it's own because of the 2% per second cooldown reduction i've been doing that for a while, and then you can rely on 1 or 2 other skills to still get some damage out while PO 1 coolsdown, and blast things with the high powered beams on a warbird. You can use a DOFF that reduces the cooldown of PO as well. White DOFF i think it's 5% and Green DOFF it's 10% and i think i got those from a story mission.
The Vastman is a big command ship and honestly it's not too exciting without the command skills because of the lack of another commander seat, it would make more sense to make the universal seat another commander seat so we can free up the science and engineering skills so at least that way we can make more damage. Take away the command skills and you're just firing beams and torpedos lol it's more fun on a small fast ship though but on a big monster you've gotta have those couple extras to fire out or use. I bet it would be fun to have an extra torpedo on the front and i'm using the tractor beam mines which is great for trapping ships.
It's as much as i can do with this ship it would make a good torpedo build too i think, just constantly firing out torps while parked in a good spot or slowly rolling towards a group.
Don't underestimate the power of a high auxiliary power environment (i.e. using Photonic Officer only) for things like pets, science, and big heals/durability. PO is a viable alternative to A2B these days and doesn't require any active doffs.
If you had access to Photonic Officer 2 I'd say forget the A2B as PO 2 is pretty well all that's really needed.
As far as conventional bridge officer abilities versus specialization abilities I think the same applies. Use what works best for you. You might even end up with different loadouts for different maps ?
I don't think the photonic ability doffs work with Photonic Officer.. it can't have it's cooldown reduced.
I like 1 (one) forward torpedo on a build. The rest are often a waste unless on a dedicated science-torp or kinetic build.
Ever consider using dual heavy cannons on your Vastam? Imagine the sight of a large Warbird lighting up the map with Cannon Scatter Volley
Yeah you can indeed get DOFFS for PO and Photonic Shockwave, no idea where you could get purples though but it does help the recharge a bit. Preferably we use PO 2 but some ships it's not possible. It just reduces not per second but it shaves off a bit of the cooldown. PO says it doesn't reduce it's own recharge time so that's probs what these DOFFS are for.
Aux2iD just tried it and it barely scratches the hunk of metal maybe it's meant to be used for smaller ships. Same for EP2E too because i think small ships are much lighter the inertia and more power to engines would respond much better, with big ships you're trying to tug along a heavier object. That's pretty cool they make it realistic like that.
Impulse Speed is really fast though so i think the intention is to rely on Impulse Speed, that's probs why the Romulan Rep Impulse Engines heal shields when you go into Full Impulse. Although it doesn't work well because you can just heal yourself out of combat by the time full impulse has recharged. I'm using Full Impulse with the Competitive Engine and it works well.
I know you can get DOFFS for reducing the time Impulse Speed recharges so maybe you're supposed to use them with the Romulan Rep Impulse Engines, but having 1 or 2 of those would be useful anyway.The Romulan Rep pieces don't offer good stats though they need to be reworked to get us to use them.
I think i could switch to RSP II or Aux2Si on Veril instead of Rally Point Marker I, because i don't always get the chance to use Rally Point anyway. It depends the on the Story Arc or the TFO so i could switch to Rally Point whenever i play something where i can park and shoot. Then i can use EP2W II and switch to ET I but i'll lose some hull heal. On Satra sometimes you need Polarize Hull so i can switch Overwhelm Emitters I to Polarize Hull I, especially for the Battle of Wolf 395 TFO.a
I didn't want to do any Cannon Builds on my Romulan because it doesn't feel right for a Rom, but i did keep a few and i think Dual Cannons with SV II would be a great build i'll have to try it :P
Yes, some maps are different than others. RSP is a good choice on Veril. Hazard Emitters 1 might be a worthwhile option on Satra. It's a decent heal and cleanses the irritating plasma burn the Borg are known for.
Having BFAW 1 on Tovan introduces the need to "find something to fill an ensign tactical ability" that doesn't share a cooldown. Kemocite Laced Weaponry or Distributed Targeting are two possibilities from the exchange. I wouldn't be concerned about having an extra beam or torpedo ability there for now.. it can be nice to choose between firing modes
Keep fine tuning things. I think your setup looks solid.
If you want to do a totally canon build based on the concepts the show writers used, then yes, cannons might be something to stay away from depending on what era you model it on.
The Romulans were created for Balance of Terror, which was an adaption of the movie The Enemy Below for Star Trek with the Enterprise taking the place of the US destroyer and the Romulans were the U-boat and its crew translated to Trek, and Romulan ship design reflects that in that they are primarily torpedo-based and their beam weapon secondary battery(s) represent the 8.8cm or 10.5cm deck gun that U-boats were equipped with for surface action (though the secondaries were never shown firing in TOS).
Oddly enough TNG, probably because of the Star Wars-isms baggage forced upon them by the movie division (who tried to use Trek to coattail Star Wars), use those phaser and disruptor secondaries far more than the torpedoes-fired-from-surprise submarine doctrine that was in the behind-the-scenes TOS documentation for handling Romulans in scripts.
That is not to say they never used cannons at all though, since the Stormbirds they started using in the 2260s were apparently still armed with the disruptors they had in Klingon service (though they were never seen firing in TOS, they did use the cannons in the spinoffs to some degree, including apparently being the main armament (or main "surface" armament anyway) of the Mogai/Valdore ships in Nemesis though it is hard to tell what is supposed to be bolts and what is photon torpedoes in that movie, so they could all just be ridiculous numbers of photons.
Thanks for all your help dude!
Btw i think you're right about that DOFF it doesn't work, don't know why those DOFFS exist then lol maybe they should get them working.
I remember Romulans using Disruptors on the D'deridex Warbirds like high powered Disruptor Beams in TNG because it was all about the colour green and making them look scary and mysterious. It was only once or twice very briefly when they got aggressive with Picard. I might do that too because it did look really cool. I remember they shot out a green hyper disruptor torpedo too or it was plasma but they made it green like the disruptors. If only that was a choice to have in STO. I think they did fire some kind of high powered Disruptor Cannon but i think it was only used like once.
I think they changed it a bit in TNG where the Hyper Torpedos use a lot more power than the beams and they nerfed it because they couldn't use it all the time, or rather they didn't really show the full potential of their ships because it was all about the mystery of their race and some dramatic scenes going "The romulans are here! at The Neutral Zone! It is a buffer between the Federation and the Romulan Empire!" duhduhDUH! LOL. It was just Gene Rodd trying to bring in some of that dramaticness from TOS which i think worked in that instance :P
I still believe that some of the most effective means shouldn't necessarily focus on investing in new things, but rather on the use of relatively straight forward things, in order to get off to a strong start.