Tac Lt Cmdr: TT 1, APB 1, CRF 2
Eng Cmdr: EPTS1, AUX2ID 1, ET 3 or DEM 2, DEM 3
Eng Lt: EPTS 1, AUX2ID 1
Lt Sci: TSS 1, HE 1
Ens Sci: TSS 1
I may do something similar if I get the gear together for a Tac'Celsior build though. Aux2ID may even be redundant on the Galor with it's additional turnrate, swapping it for aux2sif 1 and ET2 so I can have DEM 2 and still get teh healzors would be good.
The title explains what this post is about.
The first step into understanding the doff system (which is usually fairly straight up and down easy) is understanding what powers you want to accent the most.
Lets start with the healing Rig.
There is a doff that increases all of your power levels 20 percent of the time (on the green level) by 15 each time you use Emergency power to X. This one is one of my favorites for several reasons, not least among them is hey whatever subsystem you neglect just got a 15 power boost. That's always nice. It doesn't seem like much, but every little bit helps (as if you have your power settings correct on a cruiser EPTS1 suddenly hits max shield power when this procs for example. And procced shield power is always handy)
this doff is called the Warp Core Engineer.
There's a maintenance engineer that also reduces the cool downs of all Eng Team, for anything using ET3 this is mandatory. Development Lab Scientist works the Sci Team down, and I think the Con Officer for Tac team (not that you should really run this one since you're more focused on healing in -any- cruiser). This is a pretty handy one to have on a cruiser as well, as it can free up bridge officer slots for other stuff like say Aux To Inertial Dampeners so you can keep your Extend Shields going when the photonic shockwaves come to play.
The tactical DOFFs which give you a chance to shield heal every time you use Brace For Impact are also incredibly useful (as often you are using that when your shields are near dead anyway) I recommend 2 of those on almost any ship. This doff is called the Shield Distribution Officer.
Obviously there's only five doff slots you can work with. So your best bet is to play with them all till you find the balance you like. Those are my immediate favorites for Cruisers however. (and the Brace for impact, and EPTX doffs are my faves for all ships in general yeah it ends up eating 3 to 4 of them really you don't need more than 2 of the BFI doffs unless you are rolling Escort and with a cruiser 1 is often adequate)
Playing with the just these doffs can help your cruiser better fit it's chosen role particularly the damage and heal roles. Example you might want more Maintence Team helpers on a DPS cruiser so you can cram more dps oriented, or powers that in the long run will help your dps (such as aux 2 damp) . So you run more there, than you would in a pure healer.
Control DPS/Heal cruisers things get interesting with DOFFs, cause you get some really neat ones like the one that boosts your chance to immobilize a target every time you use Warp Plasma. Having the Maint engineer, or 2 that reduce Team CDs really helps this loadout (if they are green or better. Ideally you go with 2 blue ones , then get a BFI shield healing doff, and 2 of the warp plas ones)
with a control ship the reduced evasive cooldown doff is even worth looking at as it gives you potentially better chances to employ warp plasma, and still give you some defensive capability. (I wouldn't take more than 2 though and only if they are blue level personally)
Or you can choose to stick with the EPTX Doff that boosts power levels, mix in the warp plas, and a couple BFI Doffs, with the deflector cd reduction doffs..
I wish I could be more specific with DOFFs but they really are an experiment till you find your balance thing. These are the ones I solidly recommend for cruisers though.
Set Items By now you are probably wondering "mav... or anyone what set do I get? There's so many out there!"
The Answer? Is a little complicated and easy at the same time. It depends on what you are after.
I really really recommend going with either 3 piece borg and Maco shield fedside (pretty standard setup gives you great longevity)
Or consider 2 piece Omega and 2 pieces Borg.
Unfortunately this isn't even a choice that's as much tied to your own build as what your team mates are packing as to what really works best for you and your group of friends. (and trust me you really want to start pvping with friends... or make some friends while pvping. There's pugging and winning.. then there's being part of a team, and -knowing- your team mates. Obvious tactical benefits aside, mmos are ultimately a social experience and there's no better one out there imo than sto pvp with friends)
For example, if your team is already loaded for bear with control spam (such as CPB, Shockwave, Gravity well PANDAS I AM LOOKING AT YOU ) 3 Piece borg and Maco might be your best bet as to minimize the "Oh **** I need a heal!" moments. Your team is already overkilling crowd control anyway and when your targets don't have any shields as it is... one more Tet glider won't make much of a difference.
However if your team is lacking in crowd control (like say 2 Escorts 2 Sci or god help you 3 Escorts a Sci and you) a 2 piece borg 2 piece Omega might be your best bet. You need all the cc you can cram in. The regenerative shields of say Borg or Omega (if you go borg shields, go Borg Shield, Borg Console, Omega Deflector and Engine. If you go Omega shield, go Omega Engine with it and Borg Deflector and Console) are still fairly stout on a max or near max shield power cruiser and are honestly a little less vulnerable overall to Tetryon Gliders, Tetryon Procs, Tachyon beam3, and CPB drains as they spring back incredibly quickly. Sure you are a little more vulnerable to burst from an Escort but no setup is truly perfect shield wise.
"What do I run without these borg / stf sets though?" I really recommend the old school MK X purple shields like Resilient Cap3s, Covariant Cap3s, or Regenerative cap 3s, and purple X deflectors or blue XIs. Pre Purple Shields, I recommend MK XI or X Covariant Cap2s at least to get you by for shields.
Notice what I left off the table here? Aegis and Breen. That's cause both of them are Junk. Like not even a little junk they are total junk. Okay, I'll be fair the Aegis is an almost stop gap till you get your borg stuff its got a really nice Deflector that adds to shield power and has some decent skill bonuses and the engine isn't terrible. Breen stuff though... that's irredeemably bad. It's not even as good as "normal" gear in all honesty.
Do note that if you do run Aegis deflector I might shoot for the borg shield or Maco shield first in your stf gear. The Borg shield cause you'll get another +5 shield power (meaning now you have +10 over someone without that stuff, +14 shield power if you have the shield power console too and they don't have the shield power console) which allows you to put power into either your Weapons, Aux or Engines. Engines are a good idea if you are running DPS hybrid with your ship, as is it's a good option for Control ships. This will help mitigate the gear disadvantage you have till you can get your better equipment. While the maco will give you +2 to everything when you are being shot at. Giving you a still nifty bonus but great resistance to damage. I'll leave the visual of what your power levels will look like if your EPTX bonus power doff procs with all this going on for yourself. (+29/+26 to your shield power on the proc and static bonuses alone... throw on the EPTS boost now... Yeah. Crazy. Lots of room to play there)
Tactical Captains skip this post after the following Public Service Announcement.
Public Service Announcement If You are A Tactical Captain And You Are In A Star Cruiser. Get Out Of It. NOW. I don't mean later or tomorrow I mean literally right now. Get out of your ship take your toys off of it, Discharge it and buy an Assault Cruiser or Excelsior, or go find an Escort. Seriously. This is not the ship for you. Nothing you do will work in it. I'm sorry, but it's true.
This Concludes our Public Service Announcement brought to you by OPVP and weeping Escorts everywhere.
This post is just for Star Cruisers.
Much Like my AC cruiser posts, however I'm only doing one SC one. I would go insane if I covered this ship too much (I'm a tac.. I murder people... most of opvp knows this just mentioning me and flying heal ship makes me cringe).
The Star Cruiser is debatable the best heal cruiser in the game. Especially Fed Side. In my opinion it is the best heal cruiser on the fed side. (the Neb is classified as the Sci Ship after all) However aside from the standard Harmless Healer role, that it is primarily seen in, it can be made to sub in some control. It's not as effective as a Control AC, at zone denial and control but it is capable, and is still at least as good of a healer as the AC while the AC is more of a dps and control ship.
The Standard Heal Bot layout.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1/ET1, EPTS2, ET3
Lt Tac. APD1, Tactical Team.
LT Sci, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens. Sci Team1/ Hazard 1.
Alt choices, LT SCi. Transfer Shields 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shields 1.
Tertiary Alt. Lt Sci, Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields2, Ensign, Sci Team 1
Console load out should follow the standard heal boat pattern I posted before. Shields, and Set. Maco/Omega/Borg shield with 3 other borg pieces.
Doffs, same as standard healing setup as above. (see why that got posted first? It was so I can be lazy later!)
Now someone somewhere out there is moaning "But Mav I don't want to heal in this thing Damn it man. Gimme something"
Here is where you can break the mold abit with the Star Cruiser.
Control
Cmdr Engineering
EPTA1, EPTS2, Extend Shields2, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr Eng
Eng Team 1, Aux to structural integrity 1 1/Aux To damp1, Eng Team 3.
Lt Tac, Tac Team, Attack Pattern Delta1 (APD1)
LT SCI, Transfer Shields strength1, Transfer Shield Strength 2 Alternate Sci Team 1, TSS2
Ens sci. Tractor Beam. Alternate Hazard Emitters 1
Now, before my fellow OPVPers bust out laughing their faces off. Here is why this setup can work. You can greatly reduce the CD of Emergency Power to Shields with the proper DOFF. You are going to want. No Need This Doff This doff is called the Damage control engineer. Get as good of quality or as many of these as you can, as well as the + to power level doff for it to work, and the Brace For Impact Doffs. This allows you to get away with one of each emergency power, as you can pretty reliably kick them into global with it.
"But that doesn't fix the horrid turn rate and flight speed!" It requires abit of fancy flying to use, but you wanted something non standard but functional. It will take some trick flying at times but it's pretty worth it once you get to pulling it off.
It's abit more healy still than the control AC. But the AC is more agile, and has more dps. Other Doff considerations are, the deflector cooldown reducing doff.
Consoles. Eng Consoles same as the standard above. Sci of course field emitter, and 2 particle generator consoles. tactical 1 energy or cstore console, and borg console.
Set Item. for most teams I recommend Maco and 3 Borg. Unless you have a secondary healer handy, then go 2 borg and 2 omega.
Power Levels /25 weapons /75 shields /25 Engines /75 Aux. Both ships.
Devices, Engine batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace field mod, weapon battery (lol).
Control Devices, Engine, Shield, Subspace field mod, Deuterium.
These are the two that I know that work pretty well and that was waaay before Doffs came in to make things better, there's variations of them that also work but these I've tried at one point or another. Sci toons can work in the last setup, with aux to Damp going, and sci fleet to boost the teams and their own shield resistances to massive levels and throw dampening field in for that extra kick. Aux To Damp means that you'll actually get to see your sub nuc get used more than once in a blue moon. (think of it like flying a much better healing DSSV with better hull points and decent control that happens to be stun/repel immune for abit)
Public Service Announcement The Excelsior is a tac ship first and foremost. while there used to be sci Excelsiors that would work fairly well, due to just how laughably bad Target Subsystems has become it's really not an option anymore. Engies can just skip this post as you'll never crit enough or hard enough to really roll this one effectively in a Team.
And now we move on to the Excelsior. Step one? Acquire 3 SNB Doffs to **** everyone off Nah I kid.. okay only half kidding there.
There's several good options for an Excelsior build, the ships viability in Premade PvP is debatable, outside of a couple of specialized teams, but there are places for this dps friendly ship, most of my setups here are going to be DPS, or Control oriented sometimes both. There's only going to be a couple with any kind of heal focus to them.
Shields/Deflector/Engine.
Back in the day I ran Resilient Cap3s, Borg Deflector and Engine. Now? I think I'd try it with an Omega Shield, Omega Deflector, Borg Engine. (borg console in there too)
The Omega's turn rate booster is pretty significant on an Excelsior especially.
Consoles, RCS, Shield Power console, Eps flow regulator, Armor of your choice (anything but Monotanium) or second shield power.
Sci Field Emitter, Borg
Tac. Energy.
Preferred Armament, Tetryon/Polaron. (as you'll be using a Tet glider anyway. Might as well make the most out of those skill points)
The Cannon Excelsior, this one was really popular back in the day. The reason? The Excelsiors god like turn rate, and more importantly almost Escort levels of Inertia. The ship can stop on a dime, making for some really shockingly effective uses of Evasive Maneuvers. There's at least two variations that I've tried both worked fairly well. There is another good one earlier in this thread (I'll link to that post after I write this post)
The first one I list is also decent for extra crowd control and can be subbed in for that second escort on a team.
Power Setting, 90 Weapon Power, 60 Shield Power, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Lt Cmdr, Cannon Rapid Fire 2, Attack Pattern Beta1, Tac Team Variant, Cannon Scatter Volley2, APB1, Tac Team.
Lt Eng, EPTW1, ET2 Variant, EPTW1, EPTS2 Alt Variant, EPTW1 and Aux to Dampeners.
Ens Eng, EPTS1. Variant ET1
Lt Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength2,
Variant, Sci Team 1, TSS2. Alternate Variant Hazard Emitters1, Transfer Shields 2.
Doffs, I'd strongly consider, the Warp Plasma Doff that adds an immobilize to your warp plas. Get as high quality of one as you can afford. (I can't remember if you can stack multiples of these or not if so, get one more)
Maintenance Doff... the one that reduces Team ability cool downs. Get 2 of these blue or better preferably. (till they change it... if they change it)
For your final doffs, Shield Distribution officers. (the brace for impact shield healers) as many as you have slots for.
EDitor's note. 2 Deflector CD reducer doffs, and 3 BFI Shield Distribution doffs.
This ship is highly mobile as it is the omega shield, and RCS make it even more so. Throw in the warp plasma which will inevitably slow or stop targets with APB and rapid fire 2 cranking means there will be a ton of pressure applied to a given target. The Tetryon Glider will further assist in shield removal which adds even more pressure.
The other variant that I used is covered in the Variant, save for the cmdr spot being rounded out with DEM3.
The DBB Boat. This one is a more heavy dps variant on the Cannon Excelsior. This one utilizes either FAW or Beam Overload to get the job done. It's abit more difficult ship to position about, but it's forward arc is devastating. You will want to tweak your power settings here to max out those evil DBBs.
Armament, 4 Dual Beam Banks. Yeah you read that right. 4 of them. 4 Turrets. This is surprisingly energy efficient, and the ship is agile enough that with practice and proper implementation of warp plasma you'll be hosing people down pretty well. This ship also takes place of a second Escort.
Sci TSS1, Tss2 Variant A, Sci Team Transfer Shield Strength2 , Variant B Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2.
It flies quite abit like the Cannon Excelsior, only with a considerably stronger forward strike, for a significant loss on broadside dps. Think of this ship like a mounted knight on horse back armed with a lance. Everything in the front of this thing is going to feel the pain. Anything to the sides? not so much. Fly it accordingly plan your moves, so that your DBBs will always land on a target, or secondary target when possible on your straight charges so you hose the target in the opening volleys, hit it with warp plasma, and aim the ship towards the second, rinse and repeat on your turn inevitable turn around to the primary.
The Death Blossom and Deadly Broadside Excelsior.
Power Settings. 90 Weapon, 60 Shields, 25 engine 25 aux.
Armament, 6 Beam Arrays (4 Aft 2 For), 2 DBBs. This keeps your weapon power high, gives you spam clearing versatility, and gives you that oh so lovely insta gib crit potential with Bo3/2.
Secondary Armament, 7 Beam Arrays (4 aft 3 Fore, 1 DBB)
Cmdr, DEM3, Extend Shields2 or EPTS3 (EPTS3 is an alternate for solo play only.. like kerrat. please don't use this in the ques), EPTS2, EPTW1
LT Cmdr, Beam Overload 3, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Tac Team.
Alternate, FAW3, Attack Pattern beta 2, Tac Team.
Tertiary Alternate Beam Overload 3, Beam Overload 2, Tac Team. And last alternate, FAW3, Beam Overload2, Tac Team.
/galor or purely excelsior? Does the galor warrant its own post?
I dunno. On the one hand the galor is just an excelsior on steroids... on the other.. well to be honest I hate that ship with the burning passion of a thousand stars. all of those system messages really went a long way for me generating a serious loathing for that ship... I actually hate it more now than I hate anything Galaxy related.
Klink Cruisers, tend to operate on different tactical doctrines to their federation counter parts. The best klink cruisers in my opinion maximize burst dps potential while maintaining either strong healing, or strong crowd control potential. The reason for this stems from the basic tactical doctrine of klink teams. Skilled Klink teams are all about that surprise alpha strike. They roll a target, and roll another one hopefully before the enemy even knows what hit them. (QEW was famous for this and if you don't know who they were, just ask around. 99 percent of us hardened pvpers have at least one horror story of QEW decloaking and savaging half or more of our team on their initial strike runs.. and this was before the pay to win shenanigans klinks are capable of now.)
Once the enemy team has been reduced by 40 percent, klinks tend to either be able to fade away and start again, or since the enemy's numbers have been reduced dramatically in seconds flat, they set up zone control and overwhelm the remaining 3 players preferably before the original 2 dead guys are even back from respawning yet and have their power levels ready. Someone should -always- be dying to a klink team that's operating hot in theory until the first klink dies or is maimed so badly that they have to retreat.
Which is why it's important for klinks to know when to GTFO in my opinion. The subsequent posts for klink cruiser builds will attempt to maximize these traits primarily.
Sci Cruisers tend to be fail for feds, but can work decently for klink teams all because of that initial strike capability so there will be more sci cruiser options here. (especially since both the Karfi and Voquv exist) For the most part I will avoid listing the various Pay To Win Methods, just straight up ship builds. It's more important to have a ship that can kick *** and take names on it's own merit than to crutch your way to victory. Because if you have to then later throw on the crutches you're just going to be all the more unstoppable for it.
I remember their 2 to 3 bop teams with PSW but I don't really remember alot of cpb there. but it's been a long time. Tournaments aside though, they TRIBBLE their way through the ques.. far better than any current klink fleet. (tsi klnks don't count guys. You guys roll fed more often than not)
As a Vor'Cha battlecruiser pilot myself, here is my build to contemplate over:
Ship: Vor'cha Battlecruiser Retrofit the IKS VOID SCREAM
Captain: Tactical
Weapons front:
1x photon torpedo
1x tetryon dual beam bank
2x tetryon dual heavy cannon
Weapons aft:
4x tetryon turret
Engine: Borg assimilated, if i want to go all out speed, omega force engine
Deflector: Borg assimilated
Shield: Honorguard mk11, breen sheild against dominion forces, reman shield for the looks.
Devices: Subspacefield, aux bat, shield bat
Eng consoles: rcs mk11 blue, kinetic armor, 1x energy type armor (changes depending on what i go up against), 1x plasmonic leech.
Sci consoles: field generator, borg assimilated console
Tac consoles: 3x tetryon pulse generator mk 11 blue
Boff skills:
Lt tac: torp spread 1, cannon scatter volley 1
eng tac: beam overload 1
(note, those get switched depending on situation, multitarget for PvE, single target versions for PvP for example)
Comm eng: EPTS1, AUX2ID1, DEM2, AUX2SIF3
LT Com eng: ET 1, AUX2ID1, ETPS3
LT Sci: HE1, TSS2 (Or the other way if i know i need more hull then shield tanking)
DOffs: haven't actully bothered with setting those up, or even getting special ones.
Overall comment, its a very cabable and sturdy ship, but weak against sci attacks and more about sustained dps then flat out burst.
Maint. Eng. only effects engineering team, but has boost to hull repair skills. The conn officer varient works w/Tac Team cooldown and gives attack pattern buffs. Not sure on the Sci team Doff.
Also, there's a Doff that gives a fairly big stackable resistance buff when using bfi or evasives.
The conn officer for evasives it supposed to be @ 5 sec purp 4 sec blue, not what's currently working. Expect this to change.
Science team doff is the development lab scientist. It works exactly like the maintenance engineer, just replace ET with ST, hull repair with shield repair. I have to purples on my current main :P
As a Vor'Cha battlecruiser pilot myself, here is my build to contemplate over:
Ship: Vor'cha Battlecruiser Retrofit the IKS VOID SCREAM
Captain: Tactical
Weapons front:
1x photon torpedo
1x tetryon dual beam bank
2x tetryon dual heavy cannon
Weapons aft:
4x tetryon turret
Engine: Borg assimilated, if i want to go all out speed, omega force engine
Deflector: Borg assimilated
Shield: Honorguard mk11, breen sheild against dominion forces, reman shield for the looks.
Devices: Subspacefield, aux bat, shield bat
Eng consoles: rcs mk11 blue, kinetic armor, 1x energy type armor (changes depending on what i go up against), 1x plasmonic leech.
Sci consoles: field generator, borg assimilated console
Tac consoles: 3x tetryon pulse generator mk 11 blue
Boff skills:
Lt tac: torp spread 1, cannon scatter volley 1
eng tac: beam overload 1
(note, those get switched depending on situation, multitarget for PvE, single target versions for PvP for example)
Comm eng: EPTS1, AUX2ID1, DEM2, AUX2SIF3
LT Com eng: ET 1, AUX2ID1, ETPS3
LT Sci: HE1, TSS2 (Or the other way if i know i need more hull then shield tanking)
DOffs: haven't actully bothered with setting those up, or even getting special ones.
Overall comment, its a very cabable and sturdy ship, but weak against sci attacks and more about sustained dps then flat out burst.
If it were me I would move DEM up to mark 3, and put ET3 in there since Aux to damp is chainable and ASIF interferes with that. You'll find much better damage and healing that way in my opinion. I am however linking this post in the coming Vorcha post. (after I go back and link a couple of excelsiors I'll do the Vorcha post)
this thread has been great to read through. im an escort pilot, but i have pulled a few things out that will make my engie cruiser way more effective. some of them i was already doing, some things i just had to change a little mindset on.
The Vorcha is perhaps one of the most iconic ships in the game. Virtually everyone that has seen The next generation, DS9 or Voyager knows what this ship is. What it's ideally made for and just how frankly bad *** it looks. It's the true flagship in my opinion of the klingon battle line. (Not that fat, ugly and borderline useless bortas)
While it's in game version is in my opinion in need of a little love to live up to expectations it can still be a very potent cruiser for throwing it down. (and by throwing it down, I mean a TRIBBLE ton of damage in short order) It needs however great piloting to do so as cryptic in their infinite wisdom gave this ship an Assault Cruisers Inertia.... (which sucks... and makes no sense it has less hps than an AC. Not only this, but it's made to mount Cannons, canonically, and furthermore not only this Klinks have been repeatedly described as having far more advanced impulse drives than the feds) The ship will have great turning, once you get it up to speed. However the problem is, the Inertia score of 30 means eventually you, or it is going to TRIBBLE up your slide, and stall out with your business end pointed the wrong way and that little damn escort who's at like 10 percent is going to get away. No I'm not bitter at all...
So why not just strap beams on it and clone the Assault Cruiser builds? Well sure... you can do that. Hell you could also, strap Dual Beam banks up front (X4 which is actually a pretty potent build for this thing and I do recommend trying it at least once with 4x turrets out back or perhaps 3 turrets and a spam dropper.. I mean mine launcher) to mitigate it and still keep true to the ships fearsome reputation for being a murderer.
But we all know what you came here to this post for first and foremost. You came because you wanted Big Damn Cannons, and maybe a Big Damn Torpedo to shove through someone's bow, and out their aft sections.
The first question is, is this a viable setup on a Team? The answer is yes and no. If you are a Tac? To quote one of star treks iconic captains/bridge officers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ALsvU50wQ Anything else? You might want to go Assault Cruiser clone, or try the four dbbs. You just don't have the tac captain powers to throw it down with.
The Tac Vorcha is meant to lead the attack. It comes in first, second or third on decloak to take the hate that your bop buddies will inevitably end up taking, throw down big damn cannon fire, maybe a torp strike. the bop that comes riding in behind you finishes the job, (and as you throw out Warp Plasma, hose the target, and then his friends. Firing all the way through the battle line as you go till you've completed your circle around). The reason decloaking second or third is mentioned is, a smart fed team will wait for the bops and not even waste time on you after the first couple of passes. That being said? There's alot of Stupid in the ques. so just keep that decloak order in mind incase you run across the smart ones. The unfortunate downside to this ship loadout is it can be very light on the healing in order to function correctly. (Zone control and Cannon DPS combination on this ship tends to eat up alot of engi spots)
Here is a nice vorcha sample. http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=4032005&postcount=79
This is the first build set I'm covering for the Vorcha as it's not just the most iconic, it's also the ones that make feds scream "OP OP OP" about klink cruisers without realizing just how much you have to sacrifice to get this thing to run well.
Power Settings, 90 Weapons, 60 Shields, 25 engines 25 aux. Or 90 weapons, 25 shields, 60 Engines, 25 Aux.
Or if you can't get weapon performance ranked, 100 Weapons, 50 shields. with 100 weapons 50 engines as the tertiary.
Weapons? Anti Proton DHCs with CrtDX2 dmg X3 or X4. 4 Anti proton turrets. Or Tetryon, or Phasers. Tet and Phasers, go for AccX2 CrtH or Acc CrtHX2s. If you are going 3 DHCs, run a CrtDX2 CrtH Quantum or photon.
Shields, Resilient Cap3s, Omega shield, or KHG Shield.
Deflector, Borg, Omega
Engine KHG, or Borg
Consoles, Plasma Distribution Manifold, Field emitter, 2 RCS
Field Generator, Borg
3 Energy Consoles.
Devices, Subspace field modulator, Engine Battery, Aux Battery. Alternate, Subspace field mod... change for shield battery or team shield battery.
Cmdr, EPTS1, Aux To Dampeners1, DEM2/ExtendShields2/EPTS3, Eject Warp Plasma 3. The reason there are so many alternate choices listed there? It allows for flexibility in the klink attack group. Sometimes you just need the extra murder power of DEM2, sometimes you are going to need to help your bop buddies with a massive shield resist, and sometimes you just want that extra shield resistance and power cause it is going all according to plan.
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1/EPTE1, Reverse Shield Polarity/Aux To Dampeners, ET3
Lt Tac, Torpedo Spread1, Cannon Rapid Fire
Ens Tac, Tac Team/ Torpedo High Yield. If Four Cannon, Tac Team, Cannon Rapid Fire, Tac Team.
Alt, Bo1, Cannon Rapid Fire
Tac Team
Lt Sci, Transfer Shield strength1, Transfer shield strength 2
Alternate: HE1, TSS2
Another version of this build with a much stronger broadside and more healy friendly version, utilizes 3 to 4 Single Cannons up front instead of the big cannons. Unfortunately however you'll never see 10K+ crits from your Guns alone.
This changes your bridge officer layout.
Cmdr, EPTS1, Extend Shields1, EPTS3, Eject Warp Plasma3
Lt Cmdr ET1, Aux to structural 1/Aux to damp, ET3
Tac, Tac Team, CRF
Tac Team, or Torpedo Spread.
Lt Sci TSS1 and 2.
The Vorcha also can run pretty much any assault cruiser build, just with the added bonus of being able to roll with DBBs upfront, with turrets out back for more forward bite, or to just straight up copy an AC.
Doffs: 2 purple Maint Engineers, 2 Shield Distribution doffs, 1 Matter Anti matter specialist if using warp plas.
Mav, I'm rather curious on your opinion of Star Cruiser versus an Odyssey as a healboat.
I've got both, been using the Odyssey for PvE. I suppose the terrible turn rate and inertia would make it difficult for PvP? I haven't actually PvPed in it yet...been trying to figure out a good build first.
Mav, I'm rather curious on your opinion of Star Cruiser versus an Odyssey as a healboat.
I've got both, been using the Odyssey for PvE. I suppose the terrible turn rate and inertia would make it difficult for PvP? I haven't actually PvPed in it yet...been trying to figure out a good build first.
In my opinion, Odyssey >> Star Cruiser as a healBoat. The high level Engineering BO and multiple Sci BOs allow you to run the best of both worlds when it comes to Sci and Eng healing.
*Conventional wisdom is to go with Aux to SIF 2 and Extend 3, but I switched those around because I feel like there's a lot of shield healing in this build, but not too much burst hull healing. At around the ~90 Aux I run with (set at 50, comes to this after skills and MACO boosts), it's giving me around 7-8k worth of healing. As much as EngTeam 2, but with the added bonus of a massive resist.
You also get to easily slot the ever useful TBR. It'll allow you to protect yourself (as you can't easily turn shield facings too quickly), keep EWP/Theta guys away, clear spam, and shove attack Escorts away from the guy you're trying to protect.
It gets a little redundant with 3 Teams, but the key is to know when you use your Eng/Sci Teams. I only use my SciTeam to clear SNB and my EngTeam when someone's REALLY in trouble. I find that my EngTeam is very rarely used. More often than not, TacTeam + Aux to SIF 3 + TSS 2/3 will be enough to keep someone going for a while. You can easily be healing 3 people at once; Extend + A2SIF to one guy, TacTeam + TSS to another, and Hazards to a third.
You can pump out roughly 120K hull healing/minute, ignoring all of the shield healing and resist you can do. Plus those figures are with 100 Weapons/50 Aux; you can still pack quite a wallop with those 8 weapon slots.
This isn't far offf of what I've settled on as my Vor'cha build, it's laying down some murderous firepower. By keeping it full DHC/turret, I only have one weapon type that I need to "buff up", so can run TT1 twice, although a beam overload and DBB sounds tempting having read this.
Lt Tac: TT1, CRF1
Lt Tac: TT1
Cmdr Eng: EPTS1, Aux2ID1, DEM2, DEM3 (I'd also have a variant with ES3 for team play but I don't have the bof space or the bof for that) Lt Cmdr Eng: EPTS1, RSP1, Aux2ID2 (the order of the last two is variable, I have it this way so the bof is compatible with my bop build as well) Lt Sci: ST1 or TSS1, HE2
This build came to fruition because I wanted plenty of raw DPS and reasonable agility without having to worry about frequent 'splosions like I do in my BoP during STFs, it's designed as a self sufficient murder-cruiser. My experiences so far are that it can make up for the lack of higher tacitcal powers with pure horsepower so to speak as a tactical captain, as 4 turrets and 4 DHCs is quite powerful, and more viable than on a Raptor becasue you're not having redundant boff slots from only one weapon type to buff, also, you're almsot as manouverable, have more healing to share than a Raptor, and more hull and shields for when things go wrong. Also, I know you're not covering P2W consoles, but the reason I haven't sacrificed Aux2ID2 for EWP is my Nausicaan engineer's going to be treated to the Nausicaan ships, and I'd rather have Theta on this build. I'm using the Borg set with an HG shield at the moment, although two piece Borg and Omega could be intresting for the tet glider.
Mav, I'm rather curious on your opinion of Star Cruiser versus an Odyssey as a healboat.
I've got both, been using the Odyssey for PvE. I suppose the terrible turn rate and inertia would make it difficult for PvP? I haven't actually PvPed in it yet...been trying to figure out a good build first.
I like the Oddy's boff slots as a heal boat. Or as a healer controller. In my opinion it's out right replaced the Starcruiser for those that have the Oddy.
There's alot of massive shield healing this thing can do, or potentially fairly equal hull healing to the starcruiser (with a nice balance of shield healing) while putting out some zone control.
Praxis (MvS5191) has a good solid Oddy. I think I'd do this instead though
Lt Tac: TacTeam 1, FAW 2
Cmdr Eng*: EPtS 1, EngTeam 2, Extend 2, Aux to SIF 3
LtC Sci: Hazard1, Transfer Shields strength2, Photonic Shockwave or Charged Particle Burst2.
Lt Sci: Hazard 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens Sci: SciTeam 1
and run an aux and weapon power split setup power level wise. This gives the team an extra psw/CPB (and as the ship is well slow it can't really utilize the 90 degree skills and tbr can be tricky at times with it)
I really do recommend some kind of control power in the lt, or lt cmdr sci slot though, this thing is such a beast on healing.
The only reason I didn't cover the Oddy, was not everyone is going to have one or have access to one. Anyway, next post should be about the Neghvar... stay tuned!
In my opinion, Odyssey >> Star Cruiser as a healBoat. The high level Engineering BO and multiple Sci BOs allow you to run the best of both worlds when it comes to Sci and Eng healing.
*Conventional wisdom is to go with Aux to SIF 2 and Extend 3, but I switched those around because I feel like there's a lot of shield healing in this build, but not too much burst hull healing. At around the ~90 Aux I run with (set at 50, comes to this after skills and MACO boosts), it's giving me around 7-8k worth of healing. As much as EngTeam 2, but with the added bonus of a massive resist.
You also get to easily slot the ever useful TBR. It'll allow you to protect yourself (as you can't easily turn shield facings too quickly), keep EWP/Theta guys away, clear spam, and shove attack Escorts away from the guy you're trying to protect.
It gets a little redundant with 3 Teams, but the key is to know when you use your Eng/Sci Teams. I only use my SciTeam to clear SNB and my EngTeam when someone's REALLY in trouble. I find that my EngTeam is very rarely used. More often than not, TacTeam + Aux to SIF 3 + TSS 2/3 will be enough to keep someone going for a while. You can easily be healing 3 people at once; Extend + A2SIF to one guy, TacTeam + TSS to another, and Hazards to a third.
You can pump out roughly 120K hull healing/minute, ignoring all of the shield healing and resist you can do. Plus those figures are with 100 Weapons/50 Aux; you can still pack quite a wallop with those 8 weapon slots.
Looks interesting. I may have to try it out. Thanks.
Lt Tac: TacTeam 1, FAW 2
Cmdr Eng*: EPtS 1, EngTeam 2, Extend 2, Aux to SIF 3
LtC Sci: Hazard1, Transfer Shields strength2, Photonic Shockwave or Charged Particle Burst2.
Lt Sci: Hazard 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens Sci: SciTeam 1
Haven't seen much use for Photonic Shockwave, but maybe it'll make a bigger difference to my engineer than my tac. >.>
Realized that I don't have a Boff with Aux to SIF 3 or a way to train it right now...so I'm going to swap it with extend. :X
In the test STF I did (I know, it's a PvP build, but I haven't really had a lot of time to PVP of late), the second build worked quite well. I missed having Warp Plasma for snaring the borg, but Shockwave made a decent alternative.
is this troll or not? dhc on cruiser? come on guys........
It's not troll, it merely requires forethought in piloting, an understanding of how to get every last bit of agility from a cruiser. Another aspect of having a tac in a cruiser is you can more comfortably sit at low hull (after getting shields back with RSP) and rinse "go down fighting" for all it's worth before healing back up. Sort of like Ali's ropa-a-dope. Rather than accusing us of trolling... maybe try it first?
Comments
Cannons/turrets
Tac Lt Cmdr: TT 1, APB 1, CRF 2
Eng Cmdr: EPTS1, AUX2ID 1, ET 3 or DEM 2, DEM 3
Eng Lt: EPTS 1, AUX2ID 1
Lt Sci: TSS 1, HE 1
Ens Sci: TSS 1
I may do something similar if I get the gear together for a Tac'Celsior build though. Aux2ID may even be redundant on the Galor with it's additional turnrate, swapping it for aux2sif 1 and ET2 so I can have DEM 2 and still get teh healzors would be good.
The first step into understanding the doff system (which is usually fairly straight up and down easy) is understanding what powers you want to accent the most.
Lets start with the healing Rig.
There is a doff that increases all of your power levels 20 percent of the time (on the green level) by 15 each time you use Emergency power to X. This one is one of my favorites for several reasons, not least among them is hey whatever subsystem you neglect just got a 15 power boost. That's always nice. It doesn't seem like much, but every little bit helps (as if you have your power settings correct on a cruiser EPTS1 suddenly hits max shield power when this procs for example. And procced shield power is always handy)
this doff is called the Warp Core Engineer.
There's a maintenance engineer that also reduces the cool downs of all Eng Team, for anything using ET3 this is mandatory. Development Lab Scientist works the Sci Team down, and I think the Con Officer for Tac team (not that you should really run this one since you're more focused on healing in -any- cruiser). This is a pretty handy one to have on a cruiser as well, as it can free up bridge officer slots for other stuff like say Aux To Inertial Dampeners so you can keep your Extend Shields going when the photonic shockwaves come to play.
The tactical DOFFs which give you a chance to shield heal every time you use Brace For Impact are also incredibly useful (as often you are using that when your shields are near dead anyway) I recommend 2 of those on almost any ship. This doff is called the Shield Distribution Officer.
Obviously there's only five doff slots you can work with. So your best bet is to play with them all till you find the balance you like. Those are my immediate favorites for Cruisers however. (and the Brace for impact, and EPTX doffs are my faves for all ships in general yeah it ends up eating 3 to 4 of them really you don't need more than 2 of the BFI doffs unless you are rolling Escort and with a cruiser 1 is often adequate)
Playing with the just these doffs can help your cruiser better fit it's chosen role particularly the damage and heal roles. Example you might want more Maintence Team helpers on a DPS cruiser so you can cram more dps oriented, or powers that in the long run will help your dps (such as aux 2 damp) . So you run more there, than you would in a pure healer.
Control DPS/Heal cruisers things get interesting with DOFFs, cause you get some really neat ones like the one that boosts your chance to immobilize a target every time you use Warp Plasma. Having the Maint engineer, or 2 that reduce Team CDs really helps this loadout (if they are green or better. Ideally you go with 2 blue ones
with a control ship the reduced evasive cooldown doff is even worth looking at as it gives you potentially better chances to employ warp plasma, and still give you some defensive capability. (I wouldn't take more than 2 though and only if they are blue level personally)
Or you can choose to stick with the EPTX Doff that boosts power levels, mix in the warp plas, and a couple BFI Doffs, with the deflector cd reduction doffs..
I wish I could be more specific with DOFFs but they really are an experiment till you find your balance thing. These are the ones I solidly recommend for cruisers though.
The Answer? Is a little complicated and easy at the same time. It depends on what you are after.
I really really recommend going with either 3 piece borg and Maco shield fedside (pretty standard setup gives you great longevity)
Or consider 2 piece Omega and 2 pieces Borg.
Unfortunately this isn't even a choice that's as much tied to your own build as what your team mates are packing as to what really works best for you and your group of friends. (and trust me you really want to start pvping with friends... or make some friends while pvping. There's pugging and winning.. then there's being part of a team, and -knowing- your team mates. Obvious tactical benefits aside, mmos are ultimately a social experience and there's no better one out there imo than sto pvp with friends)
For example, if your team is already loaded for bear with control spam (such as CPB, Shockwave, Gravity well PANDAS I AM LOOKING AT YOU
However if your team is lacking in crowd control (like say 2 Escorts 2 Sci or god help you 3 Escorts a Sci and you) a 2 piece borg 2 piece Omega might be your best bet. You need all the cc you can cram in. The regenerative shields of say Borg or Omega (if you go borg shields, go Borg Shield, Borg Console, Omega Deflector and Engine. If you go Omega shield, go Omega Engine with it and Borg Deflector and Console) are still fairly stout on a max or near max shield power cruiser and are honestly a little less vulnerable overall to Tetryon Gliders, Tetryon Procs, Tachyon beam3, and CPB drains as they spring back incredibly quickly. Sure you are a little more vulnerable to burst from an Escort but no setup is truly perfect shield wise.
"What do I run without these borg / stf sets though?" I really recommend the old school MK X purple shields like Resilient Cap3s, Covariant Cap3s, or Regenerative cap 3s, and purple X deflectors or blue XIs. Pre Purple Shields, I recommend MK XI or X Covariant Cap2s at least to get you by for shields.
Notice what I left off the table here? Aegis and Breen. That's cause both of them are Junk. Like not even a little junk they are total junk. Okay, I'll be fair the Aegis is an almost stop gap till you get your borg stuff its got a really nice Deflector that adds to shield power and has some decent skill bonuses and the engine isn't terrible. Breen stuff though... that's irredeemably bad. It's not even as good as "normal" gear in all honesty.
Do note that if you do run Aegis deflector I might shoot for the borg shield or Maco shield first in your stf gear. The Borg shield cause you'll get another +5 shield power (meaning now you have +10 over someone without that stuff, +14 shield power if you have the shield power console too and they don't have the shield power console) which allows you to put power into either your Weapons, Aux or Engines. Engines are a good idea if you are running DPS hybrid with your ship, as is it's a good option for Control ships. This will help mitigate the gear disadvantage you have till you can get your better equipment. While the maco will give you +2 to everything when you are being shot at. Giving you a still nifty bonus but great resistance to damage. I'll leave the visual of what your power levels will look like if your EPTX bonus power doff procs with all this going on for yourself. (+29/+26 to your shield power on the proc and static bonuses alone... throw on the EPTS boost now... Yeah. Crazy. Lots of room to play there)
Public Service Announcement If You are A Tactical Captain And You Are In A Star Cruiser. Get Out Of It. NOW. I don't mean later or tomorrow I mean literally right now. Get out of your ship take your toys off of it, Discharge it and buy an Assault Cruiser or Excelsior, or go find an Escort. Seriously. This is not the ship for you. Nothing you do will work in it. I'm sorry, but it's true.
This Concludes our Public Service Announcement brought to you by OPVP and weeping Escorts everywhere.
This post is just for Star Cruisers.
Much Like my AC cruiser posts, however I'm only doing one SC one. I would go insane if I covered this ship too much (I'm a tac.. I murder people... most of opvp knows this just mentioning me and flying heal ship makes me cringe).
The Star Cruiser is debatable the best heal cruiser in the game. Especially Fed Side. In my opinion it is the best heal cruiser on the fed side. (the Neb is classified as the Sci Ship after all) However aside from the standard Harmless Healer role, that it is primarily seen in, it can be made to sub in some control. It's not as effective as a Control AC, at zone denial and control but it is capable, and is still at least as good of a healer as the AC while the AC is more of a dps and control ship.
The Standard Heal Bot layout.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1/ET1, EPTS2, ET3
Lt Tac. APD1, Tactical Team.
LT Sci, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens. Sci Team1/ Hazard 1.
Alt choices, LT SCi. Transfer Shields 1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shields 1.
Tertiary Alt. Lt Sci, Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields2, Ensign, Sci Team 1
Console load out should follow the standard heal boat pattern I posted before. Shields, and Set. Maco/Omega/Borg shield with 3 other borg pieces.
Doffs, same as standard healing setup as above. (see why that got posted first? It was so I can be lazy later!)
Now someone somewhere out there is moaning "But Mav I don't want to heal in this thing Damn it man. Gimme something"
Here is where you can break the mold abit with the Star Cruiser.
Control
Cmdr Engineering
EPTA1, EPTS2, Extend Shields2, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr Eng
Eng Team 1, Aux to structural integrity 1 1/Aux To damp1, Eng Team 3.
Lt Tac, Tac Team, Attack Pattern Delta1 (APD1)
LT SCI, Transfer Shields strength1, Transfer Shield Strength 2 Alternate Sci Team 1, TSS2
Ens sci. Tractor Beam. Alternate Hazard Emitters 1
Now, before my fellow OPVPers bust out laughing their faces off. Here is why this setup can work. You can greatly reduce the CD of Emergency Power to Shields with the proper DOFF. You are going to want. No Need This Doff This doff is called the Damage control engineer. Get as good of quality or as many of these as you can, as well as the + to power level doff for it to work, and the Brace For Impact Doffs. This allows you to get away with one of each emergency power, as you can pretty reliably kick them into global with it.
"But that doesn't fix the horrid turn rate and flight speed!" It requires abit of fancy flying to use, but you wanted something non standard but functional. It will take some trick flying at times but it's pretty worth it once you get to pulling it off.
It's abit more healy still than the control AC. But the AC is more agile, and has more dps. Other Doff considerations are, the deflector cooldown reducing doff.
Consoles. Eng Consoles same as the standard above. Sci of course field emitter, and 2 particle generator consoles. tactical 1 energy or cstore console, and borg console.
Set Item. for most teams I recommend Maco and 3 Borg. Unless you have a secondary healer handy, then go 2 borg and 2 omega.
Power Levels /25 weapons /75 shields /25 Engines /75 Aux. Both ships.
Devices, Engine batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace field mod, weapon battery (lol).
Control Devices, Engine, Shield, Subspace field mod, Deuterium.
These are the two that I know that work pretty well and that was waaay before Doffs came in to make things better, there's variations of them that also work but these I've tried at one point or another. Sci toons can work in the last setup, with aux to Damp going, and sci fleet to boost the teams and their own shield resistances to massive levels and throw dampening field in for that extra kick. Aux To Damp means that you'll actually get to see your sub nuc get used more than once in a blue moon. (think of it like flying a much better healing DSSV with better hull points and decent control that happens to be stun/repel immune for abit)
And now we move on to the Excelsior. Step one? Acquire 3 SNB Doffs to **** everyone off
There's several good options for an Excelsior build, the ships viability in Premade PvP is debatable, outside of a couple of specialized teams, but there are places for this dps friendly ship, most of my setups here are going to be DPS, or Control oriented sometimes both. There's only going to be a couple with any kind of heal focus to them.
Shields/Deflector/Engine.
Back in the day I ran Resilient Cap3s, Borg Deflector and Engine. Now? I think I'd try it with an Omega Shield, Omega Deflector, Borg Engine. (borg console in there too)
The Omega's turn rate booster is pretty significant on an Excelsior especially.
Consoles, RCS, Shield Power console, Eps flow regulator, Armor of your choice (anything but Monotanium) or second shield power.
Sci Field Emitter, Borg
Tac. Energy.
Preferred Armament, Tetryon/Polaron. (as you'll be using a Tet glider anyway. Might as well make the most out of those skill points)
The Cannon Excelsior, this one was really popular back in the day. The reason? The Excelsiors god like turn rate, and more importantly almost Escort levels of Inertia. The ship can stop on a dime, making for some really shockingly effective uses of Evasive Maneuvers. There's at least two variations that I've tried both worked fairly well. There is another good one earlier in this thread (I'll link to that post after I write this post)
The first one I list is also decent for extra crowd control and can be subbed in for that second escort on a team.
Power Setting, 90 Weapon Power, 60 Shield Power, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Armament, 4 Single Barrel Cannons 4 Turrets.
CmdR Warp Plasma 3, Extend shields2, EPTS2, EPTW1.
Lt Cmdr, Cannon Rapid Fire 2, Attack Pattern Beta1, Tac Team Variant, Cannon Scatter Volley2, APB1, Tac Team.
Lt Eng, EPTW1, ET2 Variant, EPTW1, EPTS2 Alt Variant, EPTW1 and Aux to Dampeners.
Ens Eng, EPTS1. Variant ET1
Lt Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength2,
Variant, Sci Team 1, TSS2. Alternate Variant Hazard Emitters1, Transfer Shields 2.
Doffs, I'd strongly consider, the Warp Plasma Doff that adds an immobilize to your warp plas. Get as high quality of one as you can afford. (I can't remember if you can stack multiples of these or not if so, get one more)
Maintenance Doff... the one that reduces Team ability cool downs. Get 2 of these blue or better preferably. (till they change it... if they change it)
For your final doffs, Shield Distribution officers. (the brace for impact shield healers) as many as you have slots for.
EDitor's note. 2 Deflector CD reducer doffs, and 3 BFI Shield Distribution doffs.
This ship is highly mobile as it is the omega shield, and RCS make it even more so. Throw in the warp plasma which will inevitably slow or stop targets with APB and rapid fire 2 cranking means there will be a ton of pressure applied to a given target. The Tetryon Glider will further assist in shield removal which adds even more pressure.
The other variant that I used is covered in the Variant, save for the cmdr spot being rounded out with DEM3.
The DBB Boat. This one is a more heavy dps variant on the Cannon Excelsior. This one utilizes either FAW or Beam Overload to get the job done. It's abit more difficult ship to position about, but it's forward arc is devastating. You will want to tweak your power settings here to max out those evil DBBs.
Power Setting, 90 Weapon Power, 60 Shield Power, 25 engine, 25 aux. Alternate settings, 60 weapon, 90 Shield Power, 25, 25. Tertiary, 75 Weapon, 25 shields, 75 Engines, 25 aux.
Armament, 4 Dual Beam Banks. Yeah you read that right. 4 of them. 4 Turrets. This is surprisingly energy efficient, and the ship is agile enough that with practice and proper implementation of warp plasma you'll be hosing people down pretty well. This ship also takes place of a second Escort.
Cmdr EPTW1, EPTS2, ASIF2/Extend Shiels2, Warp Plasma 3 Variant EPTW1, EPTS2, DEM2, Warp Plasma
Lt Cmdr Tac Team, FAW2, Beam Overload 3, Variant, Tac Team, Beam Overload 2, FAW3.
Lt Eng, EPTW1, Aux to Damp, Variant, EPTW1 ET2
Ens Eng EPTS1
Sci TSS1, Tss2 Variant A, Sci Team Transfer Shield Strength2 , Variant B Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2.
It flies quite abit like the Cannon Excelsior, only with a considerably stronger forward strike, for a significant loss on broadside dps. Think of this ship like a mounted knight on horse back armed with a lance. Everything in the front of this thing is going to feel the pain. Anything to the sides? not so much. Fly it accordingly plan your moves, so that your DBBs will always land on a target, or secondary target when possible on your straight charges so you hose the target in the opening volleys, hit it with warp plasma, and aim the ship towards the second, rinse and repeat on your turn inevitable turn around to the primary.
The Death Blossom and Deadly Broadside Excelsior.
Power Settings. 90 Weapon, 60 Shields, 25 engine 25 aux.
Armament, 6 Beam Arrays (4 Aft 2 For), 2 DBBs. This keeps your weapon power high, gives you spam clearing versatility, and gives you that oh so lovely insta gib crit potential with Bo3/2.
Secondary Armament, 7 Beam Arrays (4 aft 3 Fore, 1 DBB)
Cmdr, DEM3, Extend Shields2 or EPTS3 (EPTS3 is an alternate for solo play only.. like kerrat. please don't use this in the ques), EPTS2, EPTW1
LT Cmdr, Beam Overload 3, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Tac Team.
Alternate, FAW3, Attack Pattern beta 2, Tac Team.
Tertiary Alternate Beam Overload 3, Beam Overload 2, Tac Team. And last alternate, FAW3, Beam Overload2, Tac Team.
Lt Eng. EPTW1, EPTS2 (if Extends 2), ET2 (if EPTS3)
Ens Eng, ET1 or EPTA1
Lt Sci. Transfer Shields 1 and 2. Alt Sci Team1, TSS2. Tertiary Hazard 1, Transfer shields 2.
Doffs, , 3 Brace For Impact shield distribution doffs. The last 2 you might want to consider the deflector Cool down reducers.
Devices for all of these, Weapon batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace Field mod, and Team Weapon Batteries.
Looking forward to it
/galor or purely excelsior? Does the galor warrant its own post?
I dunno. On the one hand the galor is just an excelsior on steroids... on the other.. well to be honest I hate that ship with the burning passion of a thousand stars. all of those system messages really went a long way for me generating a serious loathing for that ship... I actually hate it more now than I hate anything Galaxy related.
Once the enemy team has been reduced by 40 percent, klinks tend to either be able to fade away and start again, or since the enemy's numbers have been reduced dramatically in seconds flat, they set up zone control and overwhelm the remaining 3 players preferably before the original 2 dead guys are even back from respawning yet and have their power levels ready. Someone should -always- be dying to a klink team that's operating hot in theory until the first klink dies or is maimed so badly that they have to retreat.
Which is why it's important for klinks to know when to GTFO in my opinion. The subsequent posts for klink cruiser builds will attempt to maximize these traits primarily.
Sci Cruisers tend to be fail for feds, but can work decently for klink teams all because of that initial strike capability so there will be more sci cruiser options here. (especially since both the Karfi and Voquv exist) For the most part I will avoid listing the various Pay To Win Methods, just straight up ship builds. It's more important to have a ship that can kick *** and take names on it's own merit than to crutch your way to victory. Because if you have to then later throw on the crutches you're just going to be all the more unstoppable for it.
I have enjoyed your distilled knowledge and insight on the variety of help topics you have written or contributed too.
Just combine it with the usual sci spammyness :P I don't recall QEW ever unloading fully charged cpb3s as part of their alphas.
cpb3 on veranus was common
or my memory is just really bad
Ship: Vor'cha Battlecruiser Retrofit the IKS VOID SCREAM
Captain: Tactical
Weapons front:
1x photon torpedo
1x tetryon dual beam bank
2x tetryon dual heavy cannon
Weapons aft:
4x tetryon turret
Engine: Borg assimilated, if i want to go all out speed, omega force engine
Deflector: Borg assimilated
Shield: Honorguard mk11, breen sheild against dominion forces, reman shield for the looks.
Devices: Subspacefield, aux bat, shield bat
Eng consoles: rcs mk11 blue, kinetic armor, 1x energy type armor (changes depending on what i go up against), 1x plasmonic leech.
Sci consoles: field generator, borg assimilated console
Tac consoles: 3x tetryon pulse generator mk 11 blue
Boff skills:
Lt tac: torp spread 1, cannon scatter volley 1
eng tac: beam overload 1
(note, those get switched depending on situation, multitarget for PvE, single target versions for PvP for example)
Comm eng: EPTS1, AUX2ID1, DEM2, AUX2SIF3
LT Com eng: ET 1, AUX2ID1, ETPS3
LT Sci: HE1, TSS2 (Or the other way if i know i need more hull then shield tanking)
DOffs: haven't actully bothered with setting those up, or even getting special ones.
Overall comment, its a very cabable and sturdy ship, but weak against sci attacks and more about sustained dps then flat out burst.
Maint. Eng. only effects engineering team, but has boost to hull repair skills. The conn officer varient works w/Tac Team cooldown and gives attack pattern buffs. Not sure on the Sci team Doff.
Also, there's a Doff that gives a fairly big stackable resistance buff when using bfi or evasives.
The conn officer for evasives it supposed to be @ 5 sec purp 4 sec blue, not what's currently working. Expect this to change.
If it were me I would move DEM up to mark 3, and put ET3 in there since Aux to damp is chainable and ASIF interferes with that. You'll find much better damage and healing that way in my opinion. I am however linking this post in the coming Vorcha post. (after I go back and link a couple of excelsiors I'll do the Vorcha post)
this thread has been great to read through. im an escort pilot, but i have pulled a few things out that will make my engie cruiser way more effective. some of them i was already doing, some things i just had to change a little mindset on.
good stuff follks, thanks!
have fun kill bad guys
horizon
While it's in game version is in my opinion in need of a little love to live up to expectations it can still be a very potent cruiser for throwing it down. (and by throwing it down, I mean a TRIBBLE ton of damage in short order) It needs however great piloting to do so as cryptic in their infinite wisdom gave this ship an Assault Cruisers Inertia.... (which sucks... and makes no sense it has less hps than an AC. Not only this, but it's made to mount Cannons, canonically, and furthermore not only this Klinks have been repeatedly described as having far more advanced impulse drives than the feds) The ship will have great turning, once you get it up to speed. However the problem is, the Inertia score of 30 means eventually you, or it is going to TRIBBLE up your slide, and stall out with your business end pointed the wrong way and that little damn escort who's at like 10 percent is going to get away. No I'm not bitter at all...
So why not just strap beams on it and clone the Assault Cruiser builds? Well sure... you can do that. Hell you could also, strap Dual Beam banks up front (X4 which is actually a pretty potent build for this thing and I do recommend trying it at least once with 4x turrets out back or perhaps 3 turrets and a spam dropper.. I mean mine launcher) to mitigate it and still keep true to the ships fearsome reputation for being a murderer.
But we all know what you came here to this post for first and foremost. You came because you wanted Big Damn Cannons, and maybe a Big Damn Torpedo to shove through someone's bow, and out their aft sections.
The first question is, is this a viable setup on a Team? The answer is yes and no. If you are a Tac? To quote one of star treks iconic captains/bridge officers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ALsvU50wQ Anything else? You might want to go Assault Cruiser clone, or try the four dbbs. You just don't have the tac captain powers to throw it down with.
The Tac Vorcha is meant to lead the attack. It comes in first, second or third on decloak to take the hate that your bop buddies will inevitably end up taking, throw down big damn cannon fire, maybe a torp strike. the bop that comes riding in behind you finishes the job, (and as you throw out Warp Plasma, hose the target, and then his friends. Firing all the way through the battle line as you go till you've completed your circle around). The reason decloaking second or third is mentioned is, a smart fed team will wait for the bops and not even waste time on you after the first couple of passes. That being said? There's alot of Stupid in the ques.
Here is a nice vorcha sample. http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=4032005&postcount=79
This is the first build set I'm covering for the Vorcha as it's not just the most iconic, it's also the ones that make feds scream "OP OP OP" about klink cruisers without realizing just how much you have to sacrifice to get this thing to run well.
Power Settings, 90 Weapons, 60 Shields, 25 engines 25 aux. Or 90 weapons, 25 shields, 60 Engines, 25 Aux.
Or if you can't get weapon performance ranked, 100 Weapons, 50 shields. with 100 weapons 50 engines as the tertiary.
Weapons? Anti Proton DHCs with CrtDX2 dmg X3 or X4. 4 Anti proton turrets. Or Tetryon, or Phasers. Tet and Phasers, go for AccX2 CrtH or Acc CrtHX2s. If you are going 3 DHCs, run a CrtDX2 CrtH Quantum or photon.
Shields, Resilient Cap3s, Omega shield, or KHG Shield.
Deflector, Borg, Omega
Engine KHG, or Borg
Consoles, Plasma Distribution Manifold, Field emitter, 2 RCS
Field Generator, Borg
3 Energy Consoles.
Devices, Subspace field modulator, Engine Battery, Aux Battery. Alternate, Subspace field mod... change for shield battery or team shield battery.
Cmdr, EPTS1, Aux To Dampeners1, DEM2/ExtendShields2/EPTS3, Eject Warp Plasma 3. The reason there are so many alternate choices listed there? It allows for flexibility in the klink attack group. Sometimes you just need the extra murder power of DEM2, sometimes you are going to need to help your bop buddies with a massive shield resist, and sometimes you just want that extra shield resistance and power cause it is going all according to plan.
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1/EPTE1, Reverse Shield Polarity/Aux To Dampeners, ET3
Lt Tac, Torpedo Spread1, Cannon Rapid Fire
Ens Tac, Tac Team/ Torpedo High Yield. If Four Cannon, Tac Team, Cannon Rapid Fire, Tac Team.
Alt, Bo1, Cannon Rapid Fire
Tac Team
Lt Sci, Transfer Shield strength1, Transfer shield strength 2
Alternate: HE1, TSS2
Another version of this build with a much stronger broadside and more healy friendly version, utilizes 3 to 4 Single Cannons up front instead of the big cannons. Unfortunately however you'll never see 10K+ crits from your Guns alone.
This changes your bridge officer layout.
Cmdr, EPTS1, Extend Shields1, EPTS3, Eject Warp Plasma3
Lt Cmdr ET1, Aux to structural 1/Aux to damp, ET3
Tac, Tac Team, CRF
Tac Team, or Torpedo Spread.
Lt Sci TSS1 and 2.
The Vorcha also can run pretty much any assault cruiser build, just with the added bonus of being able to roll with DBBs upfront, with turrets out back for more forward bite, or to just straight up copy an AC.
Doffs: 2 purple Maint Engineers, 2 Shield Distribution doffs, 1 Matter Anti matter specialist if using warp plas.
I've got both, been using the Odyssey for PvE. I suppose the terrible turn rate and inertia would make it difficult for PvP? I haven't actually PvPed in it yet...been trying to figure out a good build first.
In my opinion, Odyssey >> Star Cruiser as a healBoat. The high level Engineering BO and multiple Sci BOs allow you to run the best of both worlds when it comes to Sci and Eng healing.
My build:
Lt Tac: TacTeam 1, FAW 2
Cmdr Eng*: EPtS 1, EngTeam 2, Extend 2, Aux to SIF 3
LtC Sci: Hazard 1, TSS 2, TSS 3
Lt Sci: Hazard 1, TBR 1
Ens Sci: SciTeam 1
*Conventional wisdom is to go with Aux to SIF 2 and Extend 3, but I switched those around because I feel like there's a lot of shield healing in this build, but not too much burst hull healing. At around the ~90 Aux I run with (set at 50, comes to this after skills and MACO boosts), it's giving me around 7-8k worth of healing. As much as EngTeam 2, but with the added bonus of a massive resist.
You also get to easily slot the ever useful TBR. It'll allow you to protect yourself (as you can't easily turn shield facings too quickly), keep EWP/Theta guys away, clear spam, and shove attack Escorts away from the guy you're trying to protect.
It gets a little redundant with 3 Teams, but the key is to know when you use your Eng/Sci Teams. I only use my SciTeam to clear SNB and my EngTeam when someone's REALLY in trouble. I find that my EngTeam is very rarely used. More often than not, TacTeam + Aux to SIF 3 + TSS 2/3 will be enough to keep someone going for a while. You can easily be healing 3 people at once; Extend + A2SIF to one guy, TacTeam + TSS to another, and Hazards to a third.
You can pump out roughly 120K hull healing/minute, ignoring all of the shield healing and resist you can do. Plus those figures are with 100 Weapons/50 Aux; you can still pack quite a wallop with those 8 weapon slots.
Lt Tac: TT1, CRF1
Lt Tac: TT1
Cmdr Eng: EPTS1, Aux2ID1, DEM2, DEM3 (I'd also have a variant with ES3 for team play but I don't have the bof space or the bof for that)
Lt Cmdr Eng: EPTS1, RSP1, Aux2ID2 (the order of the last two is variable, I have it this way so the bof is compatible with my bop build as well)
Lt Sci: ST1 or TSS1, HE2
This build came to fruition because I wanted plenty of raw DPS and reasonable agility without having to worry about frequent 'splosions like I do in my BoP during STFs, it's designed as a self sufficient murder-cruiser. My experiences so far are that it can make up for the lack of higher tacitcal powers with pure horsepower so to speak as a tactical captain, as 4 turrets and 4 DHCs is quite powerful, and more viable than on a Raptor becasue you're not having redundant boff slots from only one weapon type to buff, also, you're almsot as manouverable, have more healing to share than a Raptor, and more hull and shields for when things go wrong. Also, I know you're not covering P2W consoles, but the reason I haven't sacrificed Aux2ID2 for EWP is my Nausicaan engineer's going to be treated to the Nausicaan ships, and I'd rather have Theta on this build. I'm using the Borg set with an HG shield at the moment, although two piece Borg and Omega could be intresting for the tet glider.
I like the Oddy's boff slots as a heal boat. Or as a healer controller. In my opinion it's out right replaced the Starcruiser for those that have the Oddy.
There's alot of massive shield healing this thing can do, or potentially fairly equal hull healing to the starcruiser (with a nice balance of shield healing) while putting out some zone control.
Praxis (MvS5191) has a good solid Oddy. I think I'd do this instead though
Lt Tac: TacTeam 1, FAW 2
Cmdr Eng*: EPtS 1, EngTeam 2, Extend 2, Aux to SIF 3
LtC Sci: Hazard1, Transfer Shields strength2, Photonic Shockwave or Charged Particle Burst2.
Lt Sci: Hazard 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2
Ens Sci: SciTeam 1
and run an aux and weapon power split setup power level wise. This gives the team an extra psw/CPB (and as the ship is well slow it can't really utilize the 90 degree skills and tbr can be tricky at times with it)
I really do recommend some kind of control power in the lt, or lt cmdr sci slot though, this thing is such a beast on healing.
The only reason I didn't cover the Oddy, was not everyone is going to have one or have access to one. Anyway, next post should be about the Neghvar... stay tuned!
Looks interesting. I may have to try it out. Thanks.
Haven't seen much use for Photonic Shockwave, but maybe it'll make a bigger difference to my engineer than my tac. >.>
Realized that I don't have a Boff with Aux to SIF 3 or a way to train it right now...so I'm going to swap it with extend. :X
In the test STF I did (I know, it's a PvP build, but I haven't really had a lot of time to PVP of late), the second build worked quite well. I missed having Warp Plasma for snaring the borg, but Shockwave made a decent alternative.
It's not troll, it merely requires forethought in piloting, an understanding of how to get every last bit of agility from a cruiser. Another aspect of having a tac in a cruiser is you can more comfortably sit at low hull (after getting shields back with RSP) and rinse "go down fighting" for all it's worth before healing back up. Sort of like Ali's ropa-a-dope. Rather than accusing us of trolling... maybe try it first?