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Some help to improve my build please?
topset
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I'm a Tactical Officer 
I've been toying around with my Armatage build for a while now, and I just can't seem to get it right. It's exclusively for PvE, mostly STFs but also random missions when playing in groups (on Elite difficulty mostly)
What do you think is missing/what would you change about this build.
The firepower is no problem, but I can't get the balance between raw DPS and survivability right. My current setup is this:
(I'll include a picture for an easier glance)
Weapons/Equipment:
Fore: 3 dual heavy cannons, 1 quantum torpedo
Aft: 3 turrets
Borg: Deflector/Engines/Console
MACO Shield Mk XII
Consoles:
Tac: 4x Antiproton Mags
Science: 2x field generators
Eng: Borg/Point Defense/Electroceramic (Plasma/Tetryon)
Hangar:
Danube Runabout (for the tractor beams. Thinking about shield drones. No idea at all)
Bridge Officer Layout
Cmdr Tac: Tac Team 1, High Yield 2, Rapid Fire 2, Omega 3
Leiu Tac: High Yield 1, Rapid Fire 1
Ens Tac: Tac Team 1
I quite like this tac layout, as I can alternate HY1 and RF2 with HY2 and RF1 every 15 seconds. It seems to work pretty well, and dual tac-team-1s seems pretty vital for an escort build.
Lt.Cm Engineering: Eng Team 1, Reverse Polarity 1, Eject Plasma 1
This was pretty much a stab in the dark. I love reverse polarity 1, it's my "oh s***" button. Eng team 1 although on a shared CD with TT gives me the hull regen I need. Plasma was just because I found directed energy modulation to be lacking.
Lt Science: Hazard Emitters 1, Science Team 2
Couldn't really think of any other options. These seemed like the most logical.
Active Space Officers:
3x Projectile Weapons Officer (20% chance reduce cooldown by 5s)
1x Developmental Lab Scientist (Reduce Science team cooldown by 8s)
1x Astrometric Scientist (Transwarp cooldown rate 200%)
Good build? Bad build? Slightly iffy build?
Any thoughts and feedback would be very much welcome!
I've been toying around with my Armatage build for a while now, and I just can't seem to get it right. It's exclusively for PvE, mostly STFs but also random missions when playing in groups (on Elite difficulty mostly)
What do you think is missing/what would you change about this build.
The firepower is no problem, but I can't get the balance between raw DPS and survivability right. My current setup is this:
(I'll include a picture for an easier glance)
Weapons/Equipment:
Fore: 3 dual heavy cannons, 1 quantum torpedo
Aft: 3 turrets
Borg: Deflector/Engines/Console
MACO Shield Mk XII
Consoles:
Tac: 4x Antiproton Mags
Science: 2x field generators
Eng: Borg/Point Defense/Electroceramic (Plasma/Tetryon)
Hangar:
Danube Runabout (for the tractor beams. Thinking about shield drones. No idea at all)
Bridge Officer Layout
Cmdr Tac: Tac Team 1, High Yield 2, Rapid Fire 2, Omega 3
Leiu Tac: High Yield 1, Rapid Fire 1
Ens Tac: Tac Team 1
I quite like this tac layout, as I can alternate HY1 and RF2 with HY2 and RF1 every 15 seconds. It seems to work pretty well, and dual tac-team-1s seems pretty vital for an escort build.
Lt.Cm Engineering: Eng Team 1, Reverse Polarity 1, Eject Plasma 1
This was pretty much a stab in the dark. I love reverse polarity 1, it's my "oh s***" button. Eng team 1 although on a shared CD with TT gives me the hull regen I need. Plasma was just because I found directed energy modulation to be lacking.
Lt Science: Hazard Emitters 1, Science Team 2
Couldn't really think of any other options. These seemed like the most logical.
Active Space Officers:
3x Projectile Weapons Officer (20% chance reduce cooldown by 5s)
1x Developmental Lab Scientist (Reduce Science team cooldown by 8s)
1x Astrometric Scientist (Transwarp cooldown rate 200%)
Good build? Bad build? Slightly iffy build?
Any thoughts and feedback would be very much welcome!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Kirk's Protege.
Kirk's Protege.
Post edited by topset on
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Comments
Kirk's Protege.
You have a good build, but I can see where it is lacking, and here's my own thoughts about what needs to be changed:
Weapons are fine, engines/deflector/shields are good. I use virtually that exact same build on my own ship, only with tetryon weapons. The only beef I have with it (and it's more a personal thing to me), is that you use dual heavy cannons, aside from that, it's good.
I would HIGHLY recommend the shield repair drones, I mean that with all my heart. The escort has plenty of firepower, but those drones, especially four of them will constantly heal all four shield facings. It's SO useful. Just stick to normal drones though, the dil. store ones aren't that much better.
For your consoles, I recommend this though:
Tac is fine.
Sci, move your two universal consoles to here, to be honest, anything in elite, is gonna tear through shields like mad, the extra shield strength isn't going to help. If you really want one of them though, give up one of the two universal consoles.
For the engineering ones, use three Neutronium Alloys, or two of those, and an Emergency Force Fields. Here's kind of the thing, you really CAN'T survive in an elite of anything in an escort, but what you want those for is to help resist long enough to get out of combat to heal up. It's better to run away for a bit, heal some, and come back firing, instead of having to wait forever to respawn.
For your BOFFs...
Tactical:
Two tac teams is good, keep those. I recommend having only rapid fire one, and a cannon scatter volley, so you can equally deal with one, or multiple targets. Same goes for torpedoes, choose either high yield 1 and spread 3, or spread 1, and high yield 3.
As for the commander slot, I'd like to mention you should use Beta 3 instead, because Omega 3 IS nice, but it only helps you, while Beta 3 helps the whole team out.
Engineering:
As a main-playing engineer, that is exactly what I might recommend, however, there are plenty of other good choices:
E-power to shields 1, Rsp 1, aux to structural 2, it provides a good deal of all around healing, without having to wait on a cool down from a tactical team.
If you want purely instant heals, then...E-power to shields 1, Engineering team 2, aux to structural 2.
There are other choices, but what you have already is quite good.
Sci: Polarize hull 1, Hazard Emitters 2, or reverse em. They do share a cool down, but honestly, if the Borg catch you in a tractor beam for too long, you might as well be dead, so using Polarize hull can save your skin.
As for the DOFFs, keep the torp ones, they're fine. The astrometrics scientist can go for something else. I might recommend a Warp Core Engineer to get a big power boost once in awhile if you use an E-power ability. Heck, I've had that proc, not to mention then using EPS on top of that, i've had at least 100 power across the board for a brief time, which can make your ship do some amazing things, such as some super-powered heals.
Otherwise, if you use Engineering team, use a Technician (I think that is the one) to reduce the charge time on that instead.
Sorry but your doing something wrong if your having trouble surviving in an Elite, especially if your running shield drones.
That being said your right about the Neutronium Alloys, pack two of those and the Borg console into Engineering than run one Field Generator and the PDS console in Science. Long story but the diminishing returns on these mean three aren't that much better than two.
If you he loses Omega Pattern he has only one way out of Tractor Beams, that's not a good move on his part. Also the Borg can cleanse Beta pattern. Now the setup is good but you do need some AOE in there. Either that or run two sets of BOFFs an AOE and Single Target but you may not be able to swap them when you want so I generally like to have one of each. I'd replace the weaker Rapid Fire and High Yield with Cannon Scatter and Torp Spread.
I very much disagree here, Engineering Team will be near useless with your constant rotation of Tac Team 1. I suggest Emergency Power to Shields 1 (And a DOFF to help but more on that later) Reverse Shield Polarity 1 is good here now you can choose between Eject Warp Plasma (With a DOFF) for a Crowd Control or Aux to SIF for a Heal.
I agree with this one, with only one Omega Pattern you want the Polarise Hull to get out of tractor beams and you want to use your Omega offensively. But you would never reverse them, Polarise Hull's best feature is the same for all ranks. Alternatively to Polarise Hull you can run Jam Sensors 1, this lowers your threat and blinds your opponent to you for a few seconds or a certain amount of DPS.
Technicians reduce the cooldown to BOFF abilities on use of Aux to Battery, they are considered relatively useless but a Sci ship running max Aux Power might get more out of them but. I've also heard of a Gal R build who uses them.
Your DOFFs are terrible, I completely Disagree here. With only one tube your tying 3 DOFFs to a single ability for three 20% chances. If you want run a single Torp DOFF but I advice against it. I am generally against taking things that only work in Sector Space, Driver Coils and Transwarp Cooldowns are two of these things I think are a complete waste of time.
Shield Distribution Officer is insanely useful, this guy turns your Brace for Impact into a shield heal, and probably when you need it the most as you hit Brace for Impact.
Hazard Systems Officer adds a Damage resist to Brace for Impacts and Ramming Speed.
A Damage Control DOFF will have a chance to lower the cooldown of your Emergency Power to Shields, This allows you to use a single Emergency Power to X like it was two. One or two of these are good.
A Warp Core Engineer will increase the power to all systems when you use Emergency Power to X, not as useful to an Escort as it is to a Cruiser.
A Matter-Anti matter DOFF is vital if you intend to run Eject Warp Plasma.
Flight Deck Officers now come in several Flavours, Increased Accuracy in Intercept mode and Increased Damage while in Escort mode are probably the best two here.
A "Blue" Energy Weapon Officer Cannon specialist can help you a lot here. Purple are hideously expensive for some reason, Purple are not in any way Better than Blue and it's for a very simple reason. Every time you use a Cannon BOFF power you start a 15s System Cooldown on Cannon systems. 15s from a Blue or 20s from a Purple will both allow you to use the ability in 15s.
And for the Record it's Maintenance Engineer who lowers the cooldown of Engineering Team, but I wouldn't bother with Engineering Team on an Escort.
Edit: I forgot to talk about Fighter craft.
Danubes can do about the same DPS as Peregrine's on a stationary target, due to the 360 beam, and the Peregrines overshooting. Also there is no counter in the game for Chroniton Torpedoes and these are monsters in PVP.
Delta's Shield stripping ability I'm not so sure of.
Peregrines are of course the default.
So in Cure, Danubes, everything else Peregrines or maybe Delta's. Keeping both in your inventory should take care of any problem.
If I ask you a question it is not an insult but a genuine attempt to understand why.
When I insult you I won't be discreet about it, I will be precise and to the point stupid.
Tac: 4x Antiproton Magsi would change to 1 quatum chamber 3x antiproton mags
Science: 2x field generators
Eng: Borg/Point Defense/Electroceramic (Plasma/Tetryon)-change to borg point defense and kinetic/energy(neuro?)
Hangar:
Danube Runabout (for the tractor beams. Thinking about shield drones. No idea at all)
Bridge Officer Layout
Cmdr Tac: Tac Team 1, High Yield 2, Rapid Fire 2, Omega 3suggest rapid fire switched to torpedo spread 3 and rapid fire to volley for torpedo defense
Leiu Tac: High Yield 1, Rapid Fire 1
Ens Tac: Tac Team 1
Lt.Cm Engineering: Eng Team 1, Reverse Polarity 1, Eject Plasma 1i suggest emergency power to shields 1, reverse polarity 1, and aux to structial 2(or epts1, aux to struc 1,eject plasma 1 for cc)
Lt Science: Hazard Emitters 1, Science Team 2hazard emitter and polarized hull.
Active Space Officers:
3x Projectile Weapons Officer (20% chance reduce cooldown by 5s)drop 1 for conn officer to reduce tac team/buff it
1x Developmental Lab Scientist (Reduce Science team cooldown by 8s)drop to gain duty officer to improve epts
1x Astrometric Scientist (Transwarp cooldown rate 200%)drop for flight deck officer that improves refresh of hanger
these are my suggestion. I prefer peragines or deltas myself. If im tanking/taking damage i switch to intercept mode they will target the torpedos first.
The reason I'm tying 3 DOffs to a single ability when only using one tube, is because this is how it's most effective. With these three doffs I found that most of the time I could launch 1 photon torpedo every second, with quantums it's a little bit less but still insane. Really helps my DPS.
I know most people hate things that work in sector space, but I find transwarp cooldown is essential for my, because although the main flying and shooting I do is in space, I'm a prolific DOffer. I need this for when I'm on my tuffli TWing around to the star clusters to pick up new shiny purple doffs
Excellent advice though, I appreciate it.
What's your beef against DHCs? I love them, sexy weapons.
I've taken you up on the Neutronium Alloys, seems sensible and modified a couple of my bridge abilities to what you suggested (employing scattery volley and torp spread)
Good to know R.E Shield drones, I will certainly be testing them out to see what they're like.
I tried Beta 3 and ran it for a long while, but I'm really not a big fan. It shares a cooldown with Alpha (I think) where Omega does not, and Omega also grants resistance to Tractor beams so I very rarely need to use polarize hull, and actually did away with it because I found I wasn't using it very often.
Excellent advice though, I thank you
Kirk's Protege.
P.S These are still 2.5m EC. I normally pay way less than that for any purples I need, so I'm stubbornly thinking about it. I can see how it would be useful, but wow! 2.5m for a blue? That's an outrage!
Kirk's Protege.
I like EPS1&2+AuxSif2 + 2x Neutronium +1 Monotanium for survivability. Throw in shield distrabution doffs & that's about all you can do. RSP is a nice ability, but the cool down is far too long to count on it. You may as well just use doffs to make brace for impact a replacement for it. Use aux or shield bats as needed.
Scatter is good if your going in with an AOE team, other wise it makes you a threat magnet, witch aint a good idea. Same deal with spread. Spread+Scatter+Beta with a full AOE team can be very effective, but other wise I stick to single target abilitys to avoid extra threat.
Borg Deflector
Borg Engines
Maco MK XII shield
Fore Weapons: 1 Dual Beam Bank, 2 Dual Heavy Cannons, 1 Photon Torpedo
Aft Weapons: 3 Turrets
An all cannon build is usually considered to be superior, but I personally like the additional spike of a Beam Overload.
Engineering Consoles:
2x Anti Plasma Armor consoles, Neutronium Alloy
Science Consoles:
Borg console, Field Generator Shield (+18% shield depth)
Tactical Consoles:
2x Anti Proton Mag regulators, 1 Photon torpedo damage, 1 Photon Point Defense Console
Hanger: Advanced Peregrine Fighters (Usually in intercept mode to kill borg high yield Plasma torpedoes)
this console lay out is not maximized I know, and i may soon adopt the choices that other players have listed.
Boff Powers:
CMDR Tactical: Tac Team 1, THY 2, Omega 2, CRF 3
LT Tactical: Tac Team 1, CRF 1
Ensgn Tactical: BO 1
LTC Engineering: EPtS 1, EPtS 2, Aux to Sif 2
LT Science: TSS 1, HazEm 2
No Suggestions For DOFFs, I am still working my way through that system.
2 copies of Emergency Power to Shields is a must have power, not only is it a shield heal, but increases shield damage resistance as well.
TSS provides a bigger Shield Heal over time compared to Science Team.
Auxiliary to Structural is a very nice Hull Heal that can be used every 15 seconds, it also includes a 10 second damage resistance buff.
With this set up, I have tanked the Tactical Cube in Elite Infected Space, though admittedly with a a couple of extra shield heals from my friend.
As an aside, I replaced HY1 and RF2 with torp spread and scatter volley like was suggested. I ran a few STFs with it and a few missions in the Romulan Arc with a fleet newbie.
While I can see the appeal, it really didn't work for me as well as previously, so I'm going to stick to sustained heavy DPS on one target at a time over the spreads/scatters of the other abilities which just seem to increase my threat level.
Kirk's Protege.
I disagree here, while the High Yield is good, he's going to get more useful DPS more consistently with Rapid Fire 2 than High Yield 3 (Both Occupy the same slot), but I do think he should add scatter, don't forget he has the PDS for torpedo defence.
Adding a Conn Officer to reduce the cooldown of Tac Team is pointless, he already has two Tac Teams and is running maximum uptime. Reducing the cooldown below 30s is utterly pointless on an Escort as you have two copies and on use it creates a 15s cooldown on all three team abilities.
As I said Torpedoes aren't as much as your DPS as you think, and those 3 DOFFs could be doing so much more for you more consistantly.
But with the Transwarp, I swap that guy in for DOFFing and Out when I'm done, While Driver Coils skill points are for ever DOFFs are for how long you need them. Changing BOFFs & DOFFs is something you should be doing just before you go into a mission. I run two different Escorts, built slightly differently, while the game remembers my BOFF loadout for each ship I do need to change out a DOFF or two.
I prefer the superior burst of DHC's, some prefer the Superior Proc rate of DC's. If your running a Tetryon or Polaron build DC's are far better.
2.5 vs 50 I know what I'd rather pay. They are new and therefore expensive as people get them the price will drop.
Your Right Alpha does not share a cooldown with anything, but he's made his choice with Omega, He also has Fire on my Mark and Tactical Fleet which both improve team damage better than Beta does.
As for 2 Neutronium & 1 Monotanium, I don't think you get very much out of the Monotanium because Neutronium is 18% (x2 = 36%) and the Monotanium stacks badly after the first 35% resistance. I may not have the math on hand but I know the best builds consider Borg & 2 Neutronium standard for Escort Engineering.
If I ask you a question it is not an insult but a genuine attempt to understand why.
When I insult you I won't be discreet about it, I will be precise and to the point stupid.
You're very right, I should stop being such a lazy b*****d and swap him in/out as I need him. Great post though, thanks for the analysis.
I think now I've pretty much gotten my BOff layout and console layout down, and just need to work on my active space DOffs.
Thanks again for all the help
Kirk's Protege.
ENG: EPTA1,Auxiliary-Power-To-Structural-Integrity-1, EPTS-3
SCI: Hazard-Emitters 1 (fine), but I'd go with Transfer-Shield-Strength-2 over Science Team 2.
Reasons being: Emergency-Power-To-Auxiliary will improve the effectiveness of APTSI-1 and TSS-2, as well as Hazard Emitters (you could also pop an Aux-Battery), however be sure to use EPTA-1 BEFORE using the previously mentioned abilities.
The cool-down on RSP is just to long to keep imo, not when there are other better options, it fine on a ship that has more ENG slots to work with but when you only have 3 best to make every ability as useful as possible.
APTSI-1 is nice because it has a very short CD and give you a passive buff for a bit, on top of healing your hull. And TSS is great for a shield HOT, and is cool-down isn't to bad either. EPTS-3 though is a must if you can get it, gives a nice boost to your shields and the damage resistance buff it gives you is very nice. Plus all that extra shield power for its duration coupled with TSS will help your shields regen quickly.
Also the reason I took away the ENG and SCIENCE Teams abilities is because your far better off not having them there to interfere with your TAC Teams, which when use used right are amazing for making maximum use of your shields, sense using a TAC team AUTO re-adjusts your shields to whatever facing/facings need it.
Hope that was helpful.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Front: 3 DHC (disruptors, I like the look and sound of them), 1 quantum torp
Rear: 3 Turrets (Disruptors, of course)
Full MACO set (sometimes switch it out for borg, but I like the faster speed the MACO engines give while in slipstream drive)
Eng consoles: Kinetic resist Mk XII VR, plasma resist MK XI R, Borg console.
Sci consoles: +18% shield cap, TPDS (torp point defense system, not sure of the standard abbreviation.)
Tac consoles: 3 Disruptor coils Mk XII R, quantum console Mk XII VR (got lucky and found that one for cheap)
BOFFs:
Cmdr Tac: Tac team 1, CSV 1, Torp Spread 3, CSV 3
Lt Tac: Torp spread 1, CRF 1
Ensign Tac: Tac team 1
Lt Cmdr Eng: EPtS 1, EPtS 2, RSP 2
Lt Sci: Hazzard Emitters 1, Polarize Hull 2
DOFF: 3 Shield Distribution Officers (purples), Warp core engineer (purple)
for my 5th DOFF I have been playing around with the Exocomp (for the bonus to my weapon Battery), a cannon energy weapon officer and the flight deck officer that is supposed to reduce the time to spawn pets. I have even tried a couple others, I have not quite decided on which is the most effective here.
I like running with a heavy AOE build, but I do have the officers to switch to a single target build if needed (basicly switch the CSV 3 to CRF 3, both torp spreads to HY.
Any suggestions/comments are welcome.
I think you'd get better performance from PH1 & HE2, basically swapping what you have now. PH is for escaping Tractor Beams right? Well it does the job just as well at Rank 1. Where as you get more Heals out of HE2 over HE1.
If I ask you a question it is not an insult but a genuine attempt to understand why.
When I insult you I won't be discreet about it, I will be precise and to the point stupid.