As much as the Grav wells are fun to use, i've found they tend to just be pretty swirls Everyone just gets away from it way too easily. In the end it just becomes another spam clearing tool...which seems like a waste. Maybe i'm not doing it right but for now VM seems to be the better option.
In any case, i'll try it out
p/s : The wells/RSV builds work great on the respective ships, just curious about what can be done with the LRSV sitting there collecting dust
First I want to thank DDIS for coming up with the idea of this thread, really a wealth of info here for those like me who are just getting started with pvp and all.
So I queue for pug pvp quite often lately, and have used some of the sci builds here to good result (both ddis and rudiefix's wells and the rsv builds). But as much as I love flying the wells and the rsv, I seem to always end up thinking about the lrsv instead. Something about the boff layout just seems more attractive.
What would your take on the fleet lrsv or lrsv retro be like for a Sci? I would love to see a build that you would use on it.
Thanks!
i cant take all the credit, this is a continuation of other threads that was supposed to be more of a collaboration, but its sort of become my cross to bare lol.
luckily several others also contribute from time to time too. i think we all feel that the more knowledgeable and better prepared the player base is, the more fun we will all have. i would rather my opponent be challenging then a helpless sponge of my weapons fire
I have a question about your star cruiser/mirror assault cruiser build. First of all, of those 2 ships which one would you recommend? http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=6464941&postcount=96 Has a cruiser build in it, but it also has 'The Spec'. Which one do you recommend I use? And please tell me why. Thanks
-Wuusta (P.S Do you have a Youtube account? I would love to see some of your game play.)
The Mirrorstar spec is designed to work with both the AC, and the Mirrorstarcruiser. As well as a Recluse if need be.
DDIS needs to go back through the thread and put the AC build in there too. The changes are fairly minimal.
The AC just simply loads up 2 Torp spreads with the Recluse's torpedo. 1 TS1, 1 TS2. It runs a HE1, TSS2, with an alternate option for PH and TSS2.
Sorry for dragging the discussion back to the lrsv, but I thought I might as well share what I've noticed after trying it out for two days.
I know it's probably due to me not doing it right and all, and granted just 2 days is too little, but I was rolling with the transphasic suggestion and I found it to be quite underwhelming. I know sci/sci shouldn't be about huge dps, but it felt like it didn't have "useful" weapons at all apart from the beam array the transphasic damage was laughable at best.
I haven't tried the plasma idea though. I habe a feeling it would be better. And sorry if this is newbish, but I'm not sure what mods to use for torps, as far as I started running pug pvp I just went straight for acc x3... Or is it overkill?
Boff wise it works like a charm rudiefix
And again my apologies for interrupting the d'kora talk
The Mirrorstar spec is designed to work with both the AC, and the Mirrorstarcruiser. As well as a Recluse if need be.
DDIS needs to go back through the thread and put the AC build in there too. The changes are fairly minimal.
The AC just simply loads up 2 Torp spreads with the Recluse's torpedo. 1 TS1, 1 TS2. It runs a HE1, TSS2, with an alternate option for PH and TSS2.
its kinda funny, but i have basically no heal boats in the entire thread. they just boar me to death, but they would be the most helpful info to post. you are welcome to post too, other people have added good builds, and for if some reason you want to later edit something but cant , a simple redirect to a new post can be easily done in the TOC.
so any thoughts on my D'kora blurb?? or are you avoiding that ship like the plague? :P
well, the dkora is ok, but i cant help but see it as a kdf cruiser with a fed turn rate, kind of in a zone of obscurity as far as my interest goes. basically any excelsior or regent build with slight tweaking will work well, and with good holds it may be able to use DHCs a bit, but those occurrences are going to much fewer and more far between then on a better turning cruiser like a vorcha or ktinga.
as far as an engineer captain goes, i cant recommend anything with that many tac stations for an engineer. the eng cant deal damage, its 2 potentially damage dealing abilities are made redundant in the face of weapons power overcaping. the dkora isn't an optimized heal boat at all, its a cruiser for a tac. but without ease of use for DHCs, its not able to easily use them.
Sorry for dragging the discussion back to the lrsv, but I thought I might as well share what I've noticed after trying it out for two days.
I know it's probably due to me not doing it right and all, and granted just 2 days is too little, but I was rolling with the transphasic suggestion and I found it to be quite underwhelming. I know sci/sci shouldn't be about huge dps, but it felt like it didn't have "useful" weapons at all apart from the beam array the transphasic damage was laughable at best.
I haven't tried the plasma idea though. I habe a feeling it would be better. And sorry if this is newbish, but I'm not sure what mods to use for torps, as far as I started running pug pvp I just went straight for acc x3... Or is it overkill?
Boff wise it works like a charm rudiefix
And again my apologies for interrupting the d'kora talk
trans builds require tac consoles full of trans torp damage consoles, 3 or more are ideal. also, the mines do more damage then the torps. try more shield bypassing damage too, TBR, GW, FBP, a TB to hold someone in a mine dispersal pattern, stuff like that. particle gens also buff the damage of all those sci skills
So i switched to the plasma setup, and i find it does much better than the transphasic one. Does this seem like it can get the job done or do i have to make more changes? :
I'm planning to replace the Disruptor beam with the Romulan Experimental beam for the 2 piece bonus (and eventually work on getting the 3 piece) when I have enough dilithium..that 8k a day refine is pretty slow. Or do you think it's not worth to lose the Accuracy in pvp? And does Disruptor proc (if im lucky enough) add more DoT from plasma?
2x VM Doffs, 2x Development Sci doffs, 1x Torp Doff
Borg Deflector Mk XI (for graviton + bonus Aux) Borg Engine Mk XI (for 2 piece bonus) MACO XII Resilient Shields
Basically, it pretty obviously is a mix and match of 3 different builds (DDIS's plasma wells/Mavairo's Pyro Intrepid loadout, rudiefix's LRSV boff/doff layout).
Would removing the token ambiplasma envelope in tac (and replacing it with a Zero Point energy console/ Ablative generator) hamper the performance of the ship? It doesnt seem to drop the dps all too much on tooltip but i am having some reservations about it since i'm already running another theta console, or should i ditch that instead?..having 2 slots used on 3m cooldowns is kind of apprehensive...what do you guys think?
And instead of the Maco shields, would using the 3-piece borg be decent? That would potentially free up a TrB1 slot for a PH1 or something else. Or is it just not worth it since it does seem to be trying to do way too much in one build?
If I was running the ship I made a few minor changes:
replace TS for HY. TS is good for chronitons, but since you using omega torp, HY is very good choice.
I would also remove one plasma mine, and put there your beam array. It can be a plasma one, since you dont use real dps with your beam. It's just to use the subsystem targetting, and those cycle every 15 seconds, so they do not need to be in front.
This also gives you another plasma torp to use in front. Since you only use 1 torpedo doff, you really need more than 2 torps to let it proc.
In front I would use the torps with the highest dot's. The fleet plasma torps and omega have the highest kinetic damage AND dot's. 2x fleet torp + omega torp also cycle good. The romulan torp has to go to the back in that case. So you would end up with this:
If I was running the ship I made a few minor changes:
replace TS for HY. TS is good for chronitons, but since you using omega torp, HY is very good choice.
I would also remove one plasma mine, and put there your beam array. It can be a plasma one, since you dont use real dps with your beam. It's just to use the subsystem targetting, and those cycle every 15 seconds, so they do not need to be in front.
This also gives you another plasma torp to use in front. Since you only use 1 torpedo doff, you really need more than 2 torps to let it proc.
In front I would use the torps with the highest dot's. The fleet plasma torps and omega have the highest kinetic damage AND dot's. 2x fleet torp + omega torp also cycle good. The romulan torp has to go to the back in that case. So you would end up with this:
I'll definitely try out the Fleet plasmas in a few days, I'm really short on dil to get them at the moment...20k/8k dil = 2.5 (3) days of refining oh well.
I did try to put 3 torps up front, but the firing was so fast on the others that the romulan one never had a chance to fire. Thats why i tried with 2 torps 1 beam array up front
But i'll definitely try out your suggestion on the loadout when i can get the fleet torps
As of now I'd like to give the Ambassador a shot. Being an Engi captain, I'll try to stick with the name and create a support cruiser. I am currently flying the following setup, which I've been using roughly since the Amby got launched:
Weapons: 6x Phased Tetryon Arrays [ACC]x2, 1x Chroniton Mines as well the Breen Cluster Torp
So, this ship heals very decently. There are however a few problems I have yet to solve:
My damage is weak, very weak. I somewhere read here, a decent (heal) cruiser should deal roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the healing he dishes out. However with this ship, it is much more like 1/8 to 1/6 in terms of damage/heal ratio. I often find myself somewhat useless for a team. I am pretty sure the weapon setup ain't the best, however my classic eight beam layout won't work at all without EPtW.
This is backed up by another problem. I haven't actively played since a while and this ship is as sturdy as a paper ship. Even though I am constantly redistributing my shields (of course), chaining those two EPtS2 copies, I got shreddered to pieces within eyeblinks by escorts - mind those are mostly not even tactical escorts, but sci ones. Even when I throw TSS and RSF in the mix, my shields get eaten up like popcorn. Tac Team helps for a very short while, but since I am using Sci Team with those Doff, TT1 doesn't really have much of a priority.
So basicly I fly around keeping my team alive, which works. Then some escort gets the glorios idea to target the healer - which would be me. And boom she goes, even when I fire up virtually all skills just for me, I rarely can't keep myself alive there. So what use is a healer, who deals no damage and virtually can't take any? As mentioned I can't remember neither my Excelsior, nor my Star Cruiser being THAT fragile, however I haven't played those since a while. So either escorts got more powerful or I am missing something here, maybe I forgot how to play.
Now I have 200 Lobi Crystals to spend and I am thinking about getting of those Tachyon Mine Launchers to either replace the Chroniton Mines or that Breen Cluster Torp.
Any additional comments? Is the Sci Team focused way even decent nowadays? I was thinking with either going 2xTT1 copies and change out two Doffs (to which?) or try an Eng Team focused build, which features ET3 and ES3.
Lately I've been also thinking about ditching those two BFI Doffs and replace them with Damage Control Doffs, basicly just cycling EPtA1 and EPtS1 - hoping for the Doff proc. However since I have a hard time staying alive even with EPtS2 and BFI as a backup, I don't want to know how this works with EPtS1 and without BFI...
Captain Faeron - USS Mistral Sea - Ambassador class support cruiser
DDIS, in THIS post on page 51, you never clarified what the other weapon was. Did you mean the concentrated tachyon mine from the Lobi store??
yes, those are the 1 and only tach mines. though really, on a heal boat you can set the weapons up like you want, it hardly maters. just stick anything on there that might fowl someone up by chance, breen torp, tach mines, chrono mines, rom torp, trans mines, anything like that. could do a target shields too
its kinda funny, but i have basically no heal boats in the entire thread. they just boar me to death, but they would be the most helpful info to post. you are welcome to post too, other people have added good builds, and for if some reason you want to later edit something but cant , a simple redirect to a new post can be easily done in the TOC.
I'll go rifling through the older Cruiser Threads and repost the builds here later
This thread needs moar healin.
On the first Advanced cruiser build, we have the DPS hybrid. This is pretty much to provide extra dps pressure on targets at any given time, as well as to assist in spam clearing. These all assume Assault Cruiser as the cruiser being used. Excelsiors, Star Cruisers and Oddys will get their own posts eventually.
It sacrifices some maximum healing capability (though with the right DOFFs that's up for debate. I'll cover those soon too), for more damage dealing.
This works best obviously on an Assault Cruiser, but can also work on other cruisers.
Cmdr
EPTW1 (emergency to weapons 1), EPTS2 (emergency power to shields 2), Engineering Team 3, Extend Shields 3/ Aux to structural Integrity 3 (depending on which you'd rather have or can get access to)
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, EPTS2, Aux To structural Integrity 2/ Extend Shields 2.
LT Tactical, Tactical Team1, Fire At Will 2
Ens. Fire At Will 1
Alternate Loadout. LT Tac, Tactical Team 1, Beam Overload2, Ens. Fire At Will 1
Lt Science, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2.
Power Levels. 80 Weapon 70 Shields, 25 Engines 25 Shields as primary. Secondary, 80 Shields, 70 Weapons, 25 Engine, 25 Aux. Tertiary. 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 Engine, 80 Aux. 4th Power setting, 80 Weapons, 25 Shields, 70 Engines, 25 Aux. (this is your run like a screaming girl/ chase setup)
Weapon loadout, 8 Beam Arrays/ 6 Beam Arrays and 2 Dual Beam Arrays. There's two theories on this The First assumes you are going to be broad siding all the time to sustain DPS. This however also incurs a much larger power drain, so it's highly recommended that you run an EPS Console, or be prepared to eat more weapon batteries during spike damage periods. 8 Beams is best for a double FAW loadout, as it maximises your firing arc for your discoball. (aka death blossom, aka FAW Spam)
The Second theory utilises 6 Beams for still potent broad side, (2 fore, 4 aft) and maintaining decent aft DPS. The reason the dual beams are there up front is it mitigates power drain substantially on broadsides (which means EPS console isn't as necessary here), while providing much stronger fore fire. It also gives you a much better Beam Overload 2 strike, for Alpha strikes, with your Escorts. The Second Theory, is more Tac Dependent, as APA, and Go Down Fighting are fantastic damage adders. You'll often down a facing, which allows for an immediate opening in enemy defenses. While you aren't going to be providing as much sustained damage, invariably your spike dps will be much stronger. Do keep this in mind. I wouldn't use the second theory on a non tac, as your crit chances are substantially lower, as is your actual crit damage, and baseline numbers. You also won't have the turn rate that the tac has to really get the miles out of the DBBs.
Preferred Weapons for these two loadouts. Tetryon (if you spec into Flow capacitors), preferrably Polarized Tetryon arrays for the Beams. And some ACC x2 CrtH DBBs. Anti Proton, for ridiculous crit potential (get as much CrtD and CrtH as possible), and of course Phasers... because that proc is still ridiculously overpowered.
Devices, Aux batteries will be much more intensively used here to supplement your healing. This is a good ship for a 3 sci ship team, since there will inevitably be alot of aux based healing going around. Engineers, also use your EPS power transfer for yourself when you know the enemy is about to really ramp up their damage. Subspace Field Mod... this thing's just too good to pass up. Deuterium Batteries, Shield Batteries.
The second setup is abit more control oriented. This allows your team to have more crowd control at their disposal. While it also is a damage hybrid.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, Eng Team 2, Extend Shields 2 Alternate Loadout (this is dependent on Doffs which I will cover in the next post as to why it is) EPTW1, ASIF1, Extend Shields 2
Lt Tac. Tac Team. Fire At Will 2 Ens. Target Engines 1. Alternate, Tac Team, BO2, Target Engines 1
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2. Alternate Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields 2
Weapons loadout. Same as above.
Weapons types. Same as above. With Phasers being moved to the top, Tetryon Second and AP third.
Devices same as above.
Power settings, same as above. With the added caveat that the engine power bias setup, allows for more rapid delivery of warp plasma.
This setup allows for a substantial amount of zone control being added to the battle field with a minimal loss in healing potential especially as right now it seems warp plasma stays on the battlefield even if the user of it dies. It clears spam very easily, and when correctly used lowers the defense scores of multiple targets on the battlefield as well as inflicts a fairly strong damage over time on your targets (especially if it's a tac dumping it out with full buffs up) This setup fits in well with 2 to 3 other sci ships. More the 2 sci ship team (assuming the other 2 are Escorts) It's also very irritating for klinks, as the warp plas disables cloaks while the DOT is up.
So during my drunken flying I came up with a brilliant controller healer... cause we all know I don't like just facerollin that keyboard sober.
Cmdr, Warp Plasma 3, Extend Shields 2, EPTS2, EPTS1
Lt Cmdr, Emergency Power to Aux1, Aux to structural 1, ET3 Alt EPTA1, RSP, ET3
Tac
Lt, FAW1, Attack Pattern Delta1
Ens. Tac Team
Sci
Transfer shields 1, Hazard2
Shields, Borg shield, or Maco Elite Fleet Shield Resilient.
Deflector, Omega
Engine Omega.
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, RCS or Neutronium, Ablative Armor
Sci, Borg, and Field Generator
Tac. 3 Energy consoles.
DOFFs. 3 Maint engineers (purple ideally of course... 2 blues and a green works as well), the Warp Plasma Doff, and a brace for impact shield distribution doff. Changed the shield distribution doff for the Warp Core engineer that gives a 20 percent change to get +20 power to all subsystems with each hit of Emergency Power. As I have 3 Emergency systems I've got a 60 percent chance of getting free extra power. which when it procs when EPS power transfer up, almost maxes out all of my subystems.
Power settings 100 weapons, 50 shields. 25, 25.
Heal bot with warp plas, and high weapon power. It's fairly flexible, and stable. So far it seems pretty straight forward. And much more entertaining to play than my old heal bot build was Ideal team would probably be 2 Recons, and a nebula. As it's missing a heal spot, you need a fairly solid team I would think. Could probably also work it with 2 Intrepids, and 2 Escorts as well
]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.
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 Tac Captains this really isn't the ship for you in terms of optimization. You really really should be in a Vorcha if you are going to roll in a cruiser on the kdf side. It has the base turn rate, superior inertia, and bridge officer layout for your needs. This is pretty much a sci and engi cruiser.
The Neghvar is the other T5 Klink Cruiser. I won't lie, this thing is far better than the Fed counterpart, the Failaxy. But only due to the fed counterpart being a terrible nay horrible ship. (The Failaxy and it's Gal X variant I am not going to cover. They are Horrible ships and you shouldn't be flying one as anything but a vanity item, I'm not enabling that sort of behavior!) Equal in shields, and hull to fed cruisers, but with a far superior turn rate. However, it has among the worst Inertia scores in the game at a meager 25. But Mav how much difference does 5 Inertia really make? Oh god. If you thought your Assault Cruiser was a pig you ain't seen nothing yet, the Negvhar's Inertia is -so- bad compared to it's turn rate that you will often lose a hefty portion of your defense score during aerial maneuvers when you are really trying to crank it. I'm not kidding. All of the Neghvar builds covered here, assume the klink team doesn't want any non cloakers.
Technically this thing can mount Dual Heavies. I really really don't recommend this though. The lowest you should be going on firing angle on this thing is Dual Beams. It's slow, and it's incredibly stall prone. The Neghvar in my opinion is for that klink team that really wants all their ships to be cloak capable, and still be more heal friendly than the Vorcha. In a surprise butt secks style team I rank this ship over non MESed carriers but only barely as carriers have the superior sci slots for healing and that's not mentioning the Siphon Drones and Tachyon Drone shenanigans, and the orion cruiser is a star cruiser clone. (which I'll touch on later as there are some slight differences)
I wouldn't bother putting a torpedo on this ship as you'll have to combat general torp user issues, as well as this things incredibly gimped inertia score.
The Weapon Loadout, I would try the following, 2 Dual Beams, and 4 beam arrays or try 4 Dual Beams 3 turrets and a beam array. Dual beams drain abit more power than Cannons, which is why I would back the rear turret count down to 3. It also gives you a wider angle for beam overloads (which is actually starting to make a comeback). While the former layout gives you a very good Fire At Will ship. You could also try 8 beams, as you -will- have the slot potentially for two emergency power to weapons1s.
There's three schools on the Neghvar, much like most cruisers. The Damage boat, (which has healing as a very strong secondary), the Heal Bot (imo pure healing isn't going to carry you and your team mates all the way to the top with as good as high end sto pvp teams have become), the Control Boat (which subs in Dps, or Healing depending on what the team is lacking on)
Shields, Omega or KHG
Deflector, Omega
Engine Omega or Borg.
Yes the glider really is that OP. Assuming hell freezes over and Crytpic gives the Glider a kick in the junk like it so rightfully deserves
Shields KHG
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Energy Type, I really recommend either Disruptors or Tetryons. Disruptors for obvious hull debuff when enemy shields -will- collapse from your glider cheese. Tets to bring shields down even faster.
Power Levels.
Damage, 80 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 engine, 25 aux
Heal 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 engines, 80 aux.
Tertiary, 25 Weapons, 75 shields, 75 Engines, 25 Aux
Post Tertiary, 75 weapons, 25 shields, 25 engines, 75 Aux.
The Control Boat.
Cmdr Eject Warp Plasma 3, Extend Shields 2, EPTS2, EPTW1/EPTA1.
Lt Cmdr, EPTS1, Aux to Damp1, ET3 Or if there's no photonic shockwaves on the enemy team. EPTW1/EPTA1, ASIF1, ET3 Sci might want to consider RSP inplace of Aux to damp as well.
for an even more control happy ship, you can try the following in ltcmdr. EPTS1, ET2, Warp Plasma 1. This allows you to chain warp plas constantly.
Ens. EPTW1/EPTA1. Which ever one you don't have 2 of already.
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength 1 and 2. Or Sci Team1, TSS2.
Lt Tac. Tac Team, FAW2 or Tac Team, Beam Overload 2. (latter if you have dbbs anywhere)
Damage Boat
Cmdr Eng
EPTS1, EPTS2, Extend Shields 2, DEM3
Lt Cmdr
EPTW1, Aux To damp, ET3 Sci captains might want to put RSP in place of Aux to Damp
Ens
EPTW1
Lt Sci
Transfer shields 1 and 2.
Tac, Tac Team, Beam overload 2. Tac Team, FAW2, or FAW1, FAW2, BeamOverload1 and 2.
Heal Bot
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1, Aux to damp1, ET3
Ens, EPTA1
Lt Sci Transfer Shield strength1, Transfer Shield Strength2 or Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength2
Doffs. 2 Shield Distribution Doffs (blue preferably), 2 Maintance Engineers (blue preferably), 1 Warp Plasma Doff (if you are running warp plasma) if not that doff then either the bonus power level doff (warp core theorist I believe) or a third shield distribution doff.
This is a build for Engies, who want to run high aux and no guns. The dot from plasma, when loaded up onto a ship is actually pretty substantial. The Neghvar is agile enough to run this without compromising firing arcs too badly. It does good solid pressure damage (enough so that people -will- be forced to use hazards prematurely well before their shields can collapse in some cases.
This ship is surprisingly easy to learn, and master, while remaining useful on the battlefield. Due to the speed and agility of the Negvhar it can pull off 90 degree bombardments rather easily, which is a great Asset especially on the battlefield that has BOPs and other decloak alpha ships present. It's also pretty effective at spam clearing thanks to the AOEs of Torp spread, and Warp Plasma. (which is also great for catching entire teams) The Chron mines out back can keep people slow, and the double plasma mines keep more burn on the field at all times.
This build also works for Tacs as well, as the Negvar becomes more agile... but loses durability. So keep that in mind. Also you will have to sack something abit to get Attack Patterns ranked up if you use this with a Tac.
The Spec: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=mavkineticnegvar_0
Tac variant I would pull the some of Aux performance out for Attack Patterns.
Weapon Systems AccX2 CrtD Plasma Torps, 3 to 4 Forward, 2 Chroniton mine launchers, and 2 plasma mine launchers. Set it all to AutoFire.
Deflector : Borg
Engine : borg
Shield: KHG, Omega, Res Cap 2 MK XII, or Res Cap 3 Mk X if you still have one.
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.
Consoles, Borg, SIF Generators 2r, Armor of your choice (anything but Monotanium)
Sci Field EmitterX2
Tac. Energy.
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.
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.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe3zMCbGX-w&feature=youtu.be Here is the ship in action, just to show some of the versatility of this platform. I'll have another using it's standard FvF layouts next.
Power Settings. 90 Weapon, 60 Shields, 25 engine 25 aux.
Armament, 8 Beam Arrays (4 Aft 2 For), Properties: CrtDX2 ACC. Disruptors or Tetryon are Preferred.
Secondary Armament, 7 Beam Arrays (4 aft 3 Fore, 1 DBB)
Cmdr, DEM3, Extend Shields2 or EPTS3, ES1, EPTW1. Alternate. Eject Plas 3, EPTS3, ES1 EPTW1
LT Cmdr, Beam Overload 3, Attack Pattern Delta 1, Tac Team.
Alternate, FAW3, Attack Pattern beta 2, Tac Team.
Tertiary Alternate Beam Overload 3, Beam Overload 2, Tac Team. And last alternate, APO1, Beam Overload2, Tac Team.
Lt Eng. EPTW1, RSP1
Ens Eng, EPTS1
Lt Sci. Tractor1 and TSS2. Alt Sci Team1, TSS2. Tertiary Hazard 1, Transfer shields 2.
Doffs, , 3 Brace For Impact shield distribution doffs. Warp Core Engineer, (extend shields -or- power level booster), matter anti matter specialist when you run DEM, if not, tractor beam officer.
Devices for all of these, Weapon batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace Field mod, and Team Weapon Batteries.[
I've seen way too many Failboats out there flying Oddys... so yeah. Post incoming this weekend...probably, barring any catastrophes.
First off, the Sci Oddy is hands down the best one. Use it if you have the choice between them all and ditch the rest. Yes Sensor An. is really that good with 8 beams.
Public Service Announcement Tac Captains put down the Oddy... go get an Excelsior, or AC... the Oddy is too fat and too slow for you.
Secondly, the Oddy is in my opinion an Engineer's or sci's ship. It's too fat and slow even with aux to ID going for anything else. FAAAT is the operating phrase with this ship. For several reasons, one it has a really poor turn rate, and Inertia score. Secondly, the model of the ship itself is HUGE. It dwarfs the Assault Cruiser, and nearly every other cruiser in terms of size, which changes the physical distance required for it to make a turn, without factoring in it's Inertia. (hooray for cryptic not thinking things through right?)
The first thing we should discuss is which Oddy is right for you? The answer is of course the Science Cruiser. No other ship has Sen An and 4 sci console slots. This makes it by far hands down the best Oddy in the game.
Now let's talk turn rate. It's garbage. Don't bother using any powers that involve moving your ship, because it's just setting yourself and your team mates for an epic fail. Warp Plasma is a No No on this ship. DO NOT USE IT. We'll get to the Controller variant later. And it doesn't use Plas. Or Gravity Well. Or Tykens.... because you need to be able to Turn to use them.
Infact the slower your ship the worse of an idea facing related, or movement related abilities are.
So what do you use?
Here's a staple healer Oddy.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Extend Shields 3
Alternate: EPTS1 EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend 3
Lt Cmdr, Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3.
Alternate heal, TSS1, Sci Team 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3.
LT Tac, Tac Team (when pugging if your team seems competent switch out tac team for target engine 1), FAW2.
Ens Uni. Sci Polarize Hull. Tac uni, FAW1, and change the Lt tac slot to Attack Pattern Delta. Engi, Emergency power to Auxiliary 1. (I actually really like this one)
Shields, Maco or Borg.
Engine, Borg or Omega
Deflector, Borg or Omega.
Doffs, 2 blue (or even better purple!) Maintaince Engineers, Warp Core engi, 2 shield distribution officers of blue quality.
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, 2 Armors, I prefer Ablative and Neutronium combo
Sci, Shield emitters consoles. 3 and a field generator.
Power levels, 100 to guns, 50 to shields, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Throw the crack on yourself (EPS power transfer) and use EPTA1 and you'll have almost max power across the board.
Controller Oddy.
Cmdr,
EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr uni Sci.
Transfer Shield Strength1, Hazard Emitters2, TBR1, FBP2 or VM1 or shockwave.
Ens uni. Emergency power to Aux1.
Lt Tac, Tac Team, Faw2.
Shields, Borg,
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, 2 Armors.
Field Generator, Borg, and Particle generator consoles.
Power levels, same as above for Engineer. Sci captains, 75 weapons, 50 shields, 25 engine, 75 aux.
A brief word on my favorite or least hated carrier.
This is a Tactical or Sci Officer's ship. The LT Cmdr slot compliments those two classes nicely. For Tacs this gives you access to BO3, 2 and say... Tac Team. For Sci this gives you, Tac Team, FAW1 and 2.
The Karfi, is a damage focused carrier in my book. It's not the best healer by any means, and it's kind of squishy. However you do have options to get some decent longevity out of this thing and I'll go over them as completely as I can.
We are going to cover the Tac Karfi first.
Weapons, The Karfi is just a hair too slow to go with a Dual Beam bank setup, so I recommend the usual standard 6 beam arrays, with one mine launcher in the aft. That mine launcher should of course be spitting out chronitons. Preferred Properties, AccX2 CrtH and or AccX3
Deflector, Borg
Engine, Borg
Shield, KHG, or Borg.
Power Settings, 100 to Weapons, 50 to Shields, 25 to everything else.
Alternate #1, 100 to weapons, 30 to shields, 25 engines, 35 Aux.
Alt #2, 50 Weapons, 25 shields, 25 engine, 100 aux
alt #3, 25 weapons, 100 shields, 25 engines, 50 aux
Devices, Shield Battery, Aux Battery, Subspace Field Modulator.
Cmdr slot,
Viral Matrix 3, this skill provides a 10 second shut down to multiple subsystems and is one of the few good sci powers left in the game. Transfer Shield Strength 3, Hazard Emitters 2, Tractor Beam
Lt Cmdr, Tac Team, Beam Overload 2, Beam Overload 3.
Lt Tac, Tac Team 1, Dispersal pattern Alpha 1 why alpha and not beta? More mine clusters, means they will seek 2 targets to TRIBBLE on instead of one.
Ens Sci, Polarize Hull 1 you need this.. both as a hull resist, and as a way to break tractors.
Lt Engineer, Emergency Power to Shields 1 and 2.
Hangars, for full on **** Move status, go with the double siphon pods. You'll be the life of every party. If you want to just go for raw murderous potential Advanced Skulls. They give you free torp strikes vs nekkid hull and as a tac you'll get plenty of those opps with BO2 and 3 slamming home every chance you get.
This layout is fairly standardized and capable of giving good non aux dependent shut downs, and decent shield tanking potential, with a nice hull heal thrown in to ice the cake.
Abit more of a risky but possibly higher payoff version of this ship before I move to the sci.
Cmdr, Photonic Shockwave 3, or Tractor Beam Repulsors 3. Why? with full tac buffs applying to these powers you can be absolutely Murderous. Can we say routine 22k strikes with PSW3 vs a non shield facing target? Or a stream of 10 -20k crits from TBR3 when TBR3 starts rolling crits? Both are also good for disrupting healing cycles as PSW knocks off extend shields, and TBR can potentially push either your target, or the healer out of reach... so you and your bop buddies can get all rapey, if you cooridinate and learn to aim your TBR3s.
If running PSW3, TBR2.. while TBR2s damage isn't as substantial as TBR3s, it's still good for pushin and spam clearing, Transfer Shield Strength 2, and Hazard one fill out the sci slots here. The rest of the boffs are unchanged.
Sci, Karfis, are more healing and control focused than their murderous tac counter parts. Here's the sci karfi I've found works best.
Weapons, 6 beams, and 1 chroniton torp launcher
Deflector Engines and Shield see above.
Power settings same as the tac
Boffs,
Cmdr, Viral Matrix 3, Photonic Officer 3, or PSW3, Sci Team 3, Transfer Shield Strength 2, Hazard 1
Lt Cmdr, Tac Team, FAW2, FAW3 (that's Fire At will for those of you that don't know that yet)
Lt Tac, Torp Spread 1 and 2. Alt loadout, Torpspread1, Attack Pattern Beta1/Delta1
Lt Eng, EPTS1 and 2
Ens Sci, Tractor beam.
Hangars, Siphon Pods or Frigates.
Doffs, the Sci Team cool down reduction doffs. Get your ST3s as close to global as possible, Brace For Impact (shield distribution) doffs, and then a Warp Core Engineer.
The Sci Karfi is more reliant on debuffs, as by nature sci captains lack the necessary burst buffing powers to make the relatively few tac slots worth it. (as again the Karfi is just a hair too slow for Cannon and DBB use.) It can also provide abit more healing to it's team mates as the sci captain has access to dampening field -and- sci fleet to help keep himself alive during focus periods, as well as team mates. (these also buff your pets by the way) As a controller a Sci Karfi is absolutely obnoxious to play against when handled well. Hair pulling Obnoxious and to make it worse, it can often full heal it's allies shields making the small inroads against their enemies for nothing.
Consoles I saved to the end as they are identical for both ships.
1 Ablative armor, 1 Borg
3 Field Generators, and 1 particle generator, or 3 Particle Generators 1 Field generator
3 Energy Consoles.
The Atrox is an Engineer and Sci captain's ship. Mostly engineer, scis you really only get that initial Sub Nuc strike with this thing to really rely on it otherwise. This ship can be an absolute Monster on shield healing which gives it incredible solid potential for use on a team, the shuttle craft and various options they contain, give you a host of crowd control by default. This ships purpose, in this configuration is all about Healing and CC. While it does have 100 weapons power to assist in DPS dealing it's not going to be topping the charts there. However the healing capabilities are ridiculous. And in a proper team, you won't see too many fatalities on the field.
Shields: MACO
Engines: BORG
Deflector: BORG
Weapons: 6x Tetryon Arrays [Acc]x2
Comments
As much as the Grav wells are fun to use, i've found they tend to just be pretty swirls
In any case, i'll try it out
p/s : The wells/RSV builds work great on the respective ships, just curious about what can be done with the LRSV sitting there collecting dust
i cant take all the credit, this is a continuation of other threads that was supposed to be more of a collaboration, but its sort of become my cross to bare lol.
luckily several others also contribute from time to time too. i think we all feel that the more knowledgeable and better prepared the player base is, the more fun we will all have. i would rather my opponent be challenging then a helpless sponge of my weapons fire
The Mirrorstar spec is designed to work with both the AC, and the Mirrorstarcruiser. As well as a Recluse if need be.
DDIS needs to go back through the thread and put the AC build in there too. The changes are fairly minimal.
The AC just simply loads up 2 Torp spreads with the Recluse's torpedo. 1 TS1, 1 TS2. It runs a HE1, TSS2, with an alternate option for PH and TSS2.
I know it's probably due to me not doing it right and all, and granted just 2 days is too little, but I was rolling with the transphasic suggestion and I found it to be quite underwhelming. I know sci/sci shouldn't be about huge dps, but it felt like it didn't have "useful" weapons at all apart from the beam array
I haven't tried the plasma idea though. I habe a feeling it would be better. And sorry if this is newbish, but I'm not sure what mods to use for torps, as far as I started running pug pvp I just went straight for acc x3... Or is it overkill?
Boff wise it works like a charm rudiefix
And again my apologies for interrupting the d'kora talk
its kinda funny, but i have basically no heal boats in the entire thread. they just boar me to death, but they would be the most helpful info to post. you are welcome to post too, other people have added good builds, and for if some reason you want to later edit something but cant
well, the dkora is ok, but i cant help but see it as a kdf cruiser with a fed turn rate, kind of in a zone of obscurity as far as my interest goes. basically any excelsior or regent build with slight tweaking will work well, and with good holds it may be able to use DHCs a bit, but those occurrences are going to much fewer and more far between then on a better turning cruiser like a vorcha or ktinga.
as far as an engineer captain goes, i cant recommend anything with that many tac stations for an engineer. the eng cant deal damage, its 2 potentially damage dealing abilities are made redundant in the face of weapons power overcaping. the dkora isn't an optimized heal boat at all, its a cruiser for a tac. but without ease of use for DHCs, its not able to easily use them.
trans builds require tac consoles full of trans torp damage consoles, 3 or more are ideal. also, the mines do more damage then the torps. try more shield bypassing damage too, TBR, GW, FBP, a TB to hold someone in a mine dispersal pattern, stuff like that. particle gens also buff the damage of all those sci skills
Fore: Romulan plasma torp, Omega Plasma torp, Disruptor Beam Array [Acc]x3
Aft: Plasma Torp [Acc]x3, 2x Plasma Mines [CrtH]x3
I'm planning to replace the Disruptor beam with the Romulan Experimental beam for the 2 piece bonus (and eventually work on getting the 3 piece) when I have enough dilithium..that 8k a day refine is pretty slow. Or do you think it's not worth to lose the Accuracy in pvp? And does Disruptor proc (if im lucky enough) add more DoT from plasma?
Console wise,
Engi: 2x SIF Generator, 1x Neutronium
Sci: 4x Emitter Array
Tac: 1x Ambiplasma, 1x Theta Radiation Vent
In terms of Boffs it is the same as what rudiefix1 suggested (props to him),
TS1, APD1
EptS1, EptS2
HE1, HE2, VM1, VM3
Trb1, TSS2, ST3
TrB1
Doffs are same as rudiefix's suggestion as well,
2x VM Doffs, 2x Development Sci doffs, 1x Torp Doff
Borg Deflector Mk XI (for graviton + bonus Aux)
Borg Engine Mk XI (for 2 piece bonus)
MACO XII Resilient Shields
Basically, it pretty obviously is a mix and match of 3 different builds (DDIS's plasma wells/Mavairo's Pyro Intrepid loadout, rudiefix's LRSV boff/doff layout).
Would removing the token ambiplasma envelope in tac (and replacing it with a Zero Point energy console/ Ablative generator) hamper the performance of the ship? It doesnt seem to drop the dps all too much on tooltip but i am having some reservations about it since i'm already running another theta console, or should i ditch that instead?..having 2 slots used on 3m cooldowns is kind of apprehensive...what do you guys think?
And instead of the Maco shields, would using the 3-piece borg be decent? That would potentially free up a TrB1 slot for a PH1 or something else. Or is it just not worth it since it does seem to be trying to do way too much in one build?
Thanks for taking the time to review this
If I was running the ship I made a few minor changes:
replace TS for HY. TS is good for chronitons, but since you using omega torp, HY is very good choice.
I would also remove one plasma mine, and put there your beam array. It can be a plasma one, since you dont use real dps with your beam. It's just to use the subsystem targetting, and those cycle every 15 seconds, so they do not need to be in front.
This also gives you another plasma torp to use in front. Since you only use 1 torpedo doff, you really need more than 2 torps to let it proc.
In front I would use the torps with the highest dot's. The fleet plasma torps and omega have the highest kinetic damage AND dot's. 2x fleet torp + omega torp also cycle good. The romulan torp has to go to the back in that case. So you would end up with this:
front: 2x fleet advanced plasma torp [dmg]x3 [acc], 1x omega torp
back: 1x plasma mine [critH]x3, romulan torp, beam array
@rudiefix Feds: Rudiefix / Thron / Opa
@rudiefix KDFs: Lill / Xifeidur / Dehr / Ugly
@rudiefix Roms (KDF alligned): Chicita
Thanks for the feedback!
I'll definitely try out the Fleet plasmas in a few days, I'm really short on dil to get them at the moment...20k/8k dil = 2.5 (3) days of refining
I did try to put 3 torps up front, but the firing was so fast on the others that the romulan one never had a chance to fire. Thats why i tried with 2 torps 1 beam array up front
But i'll definitely try out your suggestion on the loadout when i can get the fleet torps
TT1, APD1
FAW1
TSS1, HE2, ST3
EPtA1, EPtS2, ES2, ASIF3
EPtA1, EPtS2
Doffs: 2x Dev. Lab (for Sci Team), 2x Shield Distri (BFI), 1x Warp Core Engineer (additional power with EPtX) - all purple
Shields: MACO
Deflector: BORG
Engines: BORG
Consoles: BORG, 3x SIF Gen - 2x Shield Emitter - 3x Tetryon Generator
Weapons: 6x Phased Tetryon Arrays [ACC]x2, 1x Chroniton Mines as well the Breen Cluster Torp
So, this ship heals very decently. There are however a few problems I have yet to solve:
My damage is weak, very weak. I somewhere read here, a decent (heal) cruiser should deal roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the healing he dishes out. However with this ship, it is much more like 1/8 to 1/6 in terms of damage/heal ratio. I often find myself somewhat useless for a team. I am pretty sure the weapon setup ain't the best, however my classic eight beam layout won't work at all without EPtW.
This is backed up by another problem. I haven't actively played since a while and this ship is as sturdy as a paper ship. Even though I am constantly redistributing my shields (of course), chaining those two EPtS2 copies, I got shreddered to pieces within eyeblinks by escorts - mind those are mostly not even tactical escorts, but sci ones. Even when I throw TSS and RSF in the mix, my shields get eaten up like popcorn. Tac Team helps for a very short while, but since I am using Sci Team with those Doff, TT1 doesn't really have much of a priority.
So basicly I fly around keeping my team alive, which works. Then some escort gets the glorios idea to target the healer - which would be me. And boom she goes, even when I fire up virtually all skills just for me, I rarely can't keep myself alive there. So what use is a healer, who deals no damage and virtually can't take any? As mentioned I can't remember neither my Excelsior, nor my Star Cruiser being THAT fragile, however I haven't played those since a while. So either escorts got more powerful or I am missing something here, maybe I forgot how to play.
Now I have 200 Lobi Crystals to spend and I am thinking about getting of those Tachyon Mine Launchers to either replace the Chroniton Mines or that Breen Cluster Torp.
Any additional comments? Is the Sci Team focused way even decent nowadays? I was thinking with either going 2xTT1 copies and change out two Doffs (to which?) or try an Eng Team focused build, which features ET3 and ES3.
Lately I've been also thinking about ditching those two BFI Doffs and replace them with Damage Control Doffs, basicly just cycling EPtA1 and EPtS1 - hoping for the Doff proc. However since I have a hard time staying alive even with EPtS2 and BFI as a backup, I don't want to know how this works with EPtS1 and without BFI...
yes, those are the 1 and only tach mines. though really, on a heal boat you can set the weapons up like you want, it hardly maters. just stick anything on there that might fowl someone up by chance, breen torp, tach mines, chrono mines, rom torp, trans mines, anything like that. could do a target shields too
I'll go rifling through the older Cruiser Threads and repost the builds here later
This thread needs moar healin.
.http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavVorchaKarfi1_0 Tac Cruiser KDF. Vorcha and Karfis Can also use with an Excelsior using broadside torps.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=EnergyExcelsior_0 Standard Excelsior build. Tacs, and sci.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavgifttoSivar_0 Tac build for Excelsior, AC refits, Fleet Vorcha.
Oddy, starcruiser, and assault cruisers, eng and sci captains. Can also use this with the Fleet Flight Deck Cruiser and Orion Ball Sack. http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavOddy_0
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=mavkineticnegvar_0 Kinetic Negvhar. Eng, Tac or Sci captains.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=Superhealer_0 Super Healing Recluse. Sci and Eng Captains.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=RawHealingMav_0 Heal Spammer Recluse, Oddy, starcruiser.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=DSSVSpec1_0
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=ThunderRecon2_0 Tac Sci. Recon/Fleet Recon
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=JesNextspec_0 Sci Recon spec
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=OldSciBird_0 Good old sci Bird. Still works with plas.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=Vampirebop_0 Sci Bop. Energy sucker.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavSciWing_0 Sci X Wing BOP.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=pryosci_0 Sci Sci and Tac Sci Setup
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=HealbotNeb_0 Eng Nebula. Great healer, and intro from Cruisers to sci ships.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=FatWizarddidit_0 The Fat Wizard, good for sci and eng captains.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=Mavsciorb1_0 Sci Orb
It sacrifices some maximum healing capability (though with the right DOFFs that's up for debate. I'll cover those soon too), for more damage dealing.
This works best obviously on an Assault Cruiser, but can also work on other cruisers.
Cmdr
EPTW1 (emergency to weapons 1), EPTS2 (emergency power to shields 2), Engineering Team 3, Extend Shields 3/ Aux to structural Integrity 3 (depending on which you'd rather have or can get access to)
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, EPTS2, Aux To structural Integrity 2/ Extend Shields 2.
LT Tactical, Tactical Team1, Fire At Will 2
Ens. Fire At Will 1
Alternate Loadout. LT Tac, Tactical Team 1, Beam Overload2, Ens. Fire At Will 1
Lt Science, Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2.
Power Levels. 80 Weapon 70 Shields, 25 Engines 25 Shields as primary. Secondary, 80 Shields, 70 Weapons, 25 Engine, 25 Aux. Tertiary. 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 Engine, 80 Aux. 4th Power setting, 80 Weapons, 25 Shields, 70 Engines, 25 Aux. (this is your run like a screaming girl/ chase setup)
Weapon loadout, 8 Beam Arrays/ 6 Beam Arrays and 2 Dual Beam Arrays. There's two theories on this The First assumes you are going to be broad siding all the time to sustain DPS. This however also incurs a much larger power drain, so it's highly recommended that you run an EPS Console, or be prepared to eat more weapon batteries during spike damage periods. 8 Beams is best for a double FAW loadout, as it maximises your firing arc for your discoball. (aka death blossom, aka FAW Spam)
The Second theory utilises 6 Beams for still potent broad side, (2 fore, 4 aft) and maintaining decent aft DPS. The reason the dual beams are there up front is it mitigates power drain substantially on broadsides (which means EPS console isn't as necessary here), while providing much stronger fore fire. It also gives you a much better Beam Overload 2 strike, for Alpha strikes, with your Escorts. The Second Theory, is more Tac Dependent, as APA, and Go Down Fighting are fantastic damage adders. You'll often down a facing, which allows for an immediate opening in enemy defenses. While you aren't going to be providing as much sustained damage, invariably your spike dps will be much stronger. Do keep this in mind. I wouldn't use the second theory on a non tac, as your crit chances are substantially lower, as is your actual crit damage, and baseline numbers. You also won't have the turn rate that the tac has to really get the miles out of the DBBs.
Preferred Weapons for these two loadouts. Tetryon (if you spec into Flow capacitors), preferrably Polarized Tetryon arrays for the Beams. And some ACC x2 CrtH DBBs. Anti Proton, for ridiculous crit potential (get as much CrtD and CrtH as possible), and of course Phasers... because that proc is still ridiculously overpowered.
Devices, Aux batteries will be much more intensively used here to supplement your healing. This is a good ship for a 3 sci ship team, since there will inevitably be alot of aux based healing going around. Engineers, also use your EPS power transfer for yourself when you know the enemy is about to really ramp up their damage. Subspace Field Mod... this thing's just too good to pass up. Deuterium Batteries, Shield Batteries.
The second setup is abit more control oriented. This allows your team to have more crowd control at their disposal. While it also is a damage hybrid.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Eject Warp Plasma 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTW1, Eng Team 2, Extend Shields 2 Alternate Loadout (this is dependent on Doffs which I will cover in the next post as to why it is) EPTW1, ASIF1, Extend Shields 2
Lt Tac. Tac Team. Fire At Will 2 Ens. Target Engines 1. Alternate, Tac Team, BO2, Target Engines 1
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength 2. Alternate Sci Team 1, Transfer Shields 2
Weapons loadout. Same as above.
Weapons types. Same as above. With Phasers being moved to the top, Tetryon Second and AP third.
Devices same as above.
Power settings, same as above. With the added caveat that the engine power bias setup, allows for more rapid delivery of warp plasma.
This setup allows for a substantial amount of zone control being added to the battle field with a minimal loss in healing potential especially as right now it seems warp plasma stays on the battlefield even if the user of it dies. It clears spam very easily, and when correctly used lowers the defense scores of multiple targets on the battlefield as well as inflicts a fairly strong damage over time on your targets (especially if it's a tac dumping it out with full buffs up) This setup fits in well with 2 to 3 other sci ships. More the 2 sci ship team (assuming the other 2 are Escorts) It's also very irritating for klinks, as the warp plas disables cloaks while the DOT is up.
So during my drunken flying I came up with a brilliant controller healer... cause we all know I don't like just facerollin that keyboard sober.
Cmdr, Warp Plasma 3, Extend Shields 2, EPTS2, EPTS1
Lt Cmdr, Emergency Power to Aux1, Aux to structural 1, ET3 Alt EPTA1, RSP, ET3
Tac
Lt, FAW1, Attack Pattern Delta1
Ens. Tac Team
Sci
Transfer shields 1, Hazard2
Shields, Borg shield, or Maco Elite Fleet Shield Resilient.
Deflector, Omega
Engine Omega.
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, RCS or Neutronium, Ablative Armor
Sci, Borg, and Field Generator
Tac. 3 Energy consoles.
DOFFs. 3 Maint engineers (purple ideally of course... 2 blues and a green works as well), the Warp Plasma Doff, and a brace for impact shield distribution doff. Changed the shield distribution doff for the Warp Core engineer that gives a 20 percent change to get +20 power to all subsystems with each hit of Emergency Power. As I have 3 Emergency systems I've got a 60 percent chance of getting free extra power. which when it procs when EPS power transfer up, almost maxes out all of my subystems.
Power settings 100 weapons, 50 shields. 25, 25.
Heal bot with warp plas, and high weapon power. It's fairly flexible, and stable. So far it seems pretty straight forward. And much more entertaining to play than my old heal bot build was Ideal team would probably be 2 Recons, and a nebula. As it's missing a heal spot, you need a fairly solid team I would think. Could probably also work it with 2 Intrepids, and 2 Escorts as well
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.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavOddy_0 Spec.
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 Tac Captains this really isn't the ship for you in terms of optimization. You really really should be in a Vorcha if you are going to roll in a cruiser on the kdf side. It has the base turn rate, superior inertia, and bridge officer layout for your needs. This is pretty much a sci and engi cruiser.
Something to remember about the Vorcha and the Neghvar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v9at5RlFu4
The Neghvar is the other T5 Klink Cruiser. I won't lie, this thing is far better than the Fed counterpart, the Failaxy. But only due to the fed counterpart being a terrible nay horrible ship. (The Failaxy and it's Gal X variant I am not going to cover. They are Horrible ships and you shouldn't be flying one as anything but a vanity item, I'm not enabling that sort of behavior!) Equal in shields, and hull to fed cruisers, but with a far superior turn rate. However, it has among the worst Inertia scores in the game at a meager 25. But Mav how much difference does 5 Inertia really make? Oh god. If you thought your Assault Cruiser was a pig you ain't seen nothing yet, the Negvhar's Inertia is -so- bad compared to it's turn rate that you will often lose a hefty portion of your defense score during aerial maneuvers when you are really trying to crank it. I'm not kidding. All of the Neghvar builds covered here, assume the klink team doesn't want any non cloakers.
Technically this thing can mount Dual Heavies. I really really don't recommend this though. The lowest you should be going on firing angle on this thing is Dual Beams. It's slow, and it's incredibly stall prone. The Neghvar in my opinion is for that klink team that really wants all their ships to be cloak capable, and still be more heal friendly than the Vorcha. In a surprise butt secks style team I rank this ship over non MESed carriers but only barely as carriers have the superior sci slots for healing and that's not mentioning the Siphon Drones and Tachyon Drone shenanigans, and the orion cruiser is a star cruiser clone. (which I'll touch on later as there are some slight differences)
I wouldn't bother putting a torpedo on this ship as you'll have to combat general torp user issues, as well as this things incredibly gimped inertia score.
The Weapon Loadout, I would try the following, 2 Dual Beams, and 4 beam arrays or try 4 Dual Beams 3 turrets and a beam array. Dual beams drain abit more power than Cannons, which is why I would back the rear turret count down to 3. It also gives you a wider angle for beam overloads (which is actually starting to make a comeback). While the former layout gives you a very good Fire At Will ship. You could also try 8 beams, as you -will- have the slot potentially for two emergency power to weapons1s.
There's three schools on the Neghvar, much like most cruisers. The Damage boat, (which has healing as a very strong secondary), the Heal Bot (imo pure healing isn't going to carry you and your team mates all the way to the top with as good as high end sto pvp teams have become), the Control Boat (which subs in Dps, or Healing depending on what the team is lacking on)
Shields, Omega or KHG
Deflector, Omega
Engine Omega or Borg.
Yes the glider really is that OP. Assuming hell freezes over and Crytpic gives the Glider a kick in the junk like it so rightfully deserves
Shields KHG
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Energy Type, I really recommend either Disruptors or Tetryons. Disruptors for obvious hull debuff when enemy shields -will- collapse from your glider cheese. Tets to bring shields down even faster.
Power Levels.
Damage, 80 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 engine, 25 aux
Heal 25 Weapons, 70 Shields, 25 engines, 80 aux.
Tertiary, 25 Weapons, 75 shields, 75 Engines, 25 Aux
Post Tertiary, 75 weapons, 25 shields, 25 engines, 75 Aux.
The Control Boat.
Cmdr Eject Warp Plasma 3, Extend Shields 2, EPTS2, EPTW1/EPTA1.
Lt Cmdr, EPTS1, Aux to Damp1, ET3 Or if there's no photonic shockwaves on the enemy team. EPTW1/EPTA1, ASIF1, ET3 Sci might want to consider RSP inplace of Aux to damp as well.
for an even more control happy ship, you can try the following in ltcmdr. EPTS1, ET2, Warp Plasma 1. This allows you to chain warp plas constantly.
Ens. EPTW1/EPTA1. Which ever one you don't have 2 of already.
LT Sci. Transfer Shield Strength 1 and 2. Or Sci Team1, TSS2.
Lt Tac. Tac Team, FAW2 or Tac Team, Beam Overload 2. (latter if you have dbbs anywhere)
Damage Boat
Cmdr Eng
EPTS1, EPTS2, Extend Shields 2, DEM3
Lt Cmdr
EPTW1, Aux To damp, ET3 Sci captains might want to put RSP in place of Aux to Damp
Ens
EPTW1
Lt Sci
Transfer shields 1 and 2.
Tac, Tac Team, Beam overload 2. Tac Team, FAW2, or FAW1, FAW2, BeamOverload1 and 2.
Heal Bot
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr, EPTA1, Aux to damp1, ET3
Ens, EPTA1
Lt Sci Transfer Shield strength1, Transfer Shield Strength2 or Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength2
Doffs. 2 Shield Distribution Doffs (blue preferably), 2 Maintance Engineers (blue preferably), 1 Warp Plasma Doff (if you are running warp plasma) if not that doff then either the bonus power level doff (warp core theorist I believe) or a third shield distribution doff.
This ship is surprisingly easy to learn, and master, while remaining useful on the battlefield. Due to the speed and agility of the Negvhar it can pull off 90 degree bombardments rather easily, which is a great Asset especially on the battlefield that has BOPs and other decloak alpha ships present. It's also pretty effective at spam clearing thanks to the AOEs of Torp spread, and Warp Plasma. (which is also great for catching entire teams) The Chron mines out back can keep people slow, and the double plasma mines keep more burn on the field at all times.
This build also works for Tacs as well, as the Negvar becomes more agile... but loses durability. So keep that in mind. Also you will have to sack something abit to get Attack Patterns ranked up if you use this with a Tac.
The Spec: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=mavkineticnegvar_0
Tac variant I would pull the some of Aux performance out for Attack Patterns.
Weapon Systems AccX2 CrtD Plasma Torps, 3 to 4 Forward, 2 Chroniton mine launchers, and 2 plasma mine launchers. Set it all to AutoFire.
Deflector : Borg
Engine : borg
Shield: KHG, Omega, Res Cap 2 MK XII, or Res Cap 3 Mk X if you still have one.
Doffs: 2 Purple Torpedo Officers, 2 purple Maint Engineers. 1 Purple Warp Core engineer. Alternate: 2 Purple Torpedo Officers, 2 Purple Shield Distribution Officers, 1 purple maint doff
Cmdr: Eject Warp Plasma 3, ASIF2, RSP1, EPTS1
Lt Cmdr: EPTS1, Extend Shields 1, ET3
Lt Sci: Hazards 1, Transfer shield strength 2
Lt Tac, Torp spread 1 and 2, Alternate: Tac Team Torp spread 2
Ens Eng. EPTA (emergency to aux 1)
Consoles: 2 SIF Generators, 2 RCS consoles
1 Field Generator, 1 Emitter Array or 2 Field Generators (when you don't have shield dist doffs on)
2 Ambi Plasma Envelopes.
Power settings. 75 Shields, 50 Engines, 75 Aux.
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.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=EnergyExcelsior_0 Spec
Shields/Deflector/Engine.
Maco Shield. Omega Deflector, Omega Engine. Alt. Omega Shield, Omega Deflector, Borg Engine.
Consoles, Borg, SIF Generators 2r, Armor of your choice (anything but Monotanium)
Sci Field EmitterX2
Tac. Energy.
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. Alternate: DEM3, ASIF2, ETPS2, 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.
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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe3zMCbGX-w&feature=youtu.be Here is the ship in action, just to show some of the versatility of this platform. I'll have another using it's standard FvF layouts next.
Power Settings. 90 Weapon, 60 Shields, 25 engine 25 aux.
Armament, 8 Beam Arrays (4 Aft 2 For), Properties: CrtDX2 ACC. Disruptors or Tetryon are Preferred.
Secondary Armament, 7 Beam Arrays (4 aft 3 Fore, 1 DBB)
Cmdr, DEM3, Extend Shields2 or EPTS3, ES1, EPTW1. Alternate. Eject Plas 3, EPTS3, ES1 EPTW1
LT Cmdr, Beam Overload 3, Attack Pattern Delta 1, Tac Team.
Alternate, FAW3, Attack Pattern beta 2, Tac Team.
Tertiary Alternate Beam Overload 3, Beam Overload 2, Tac Team. And last alternate, APO1, Beam Overload2, Tac Team.
Lt Eng. EPTW1, RSP1
Ens Eng, EPTS1
Lt Sci. Tractor1 and TSS2. Alt Sci Team1, TSS2. Tertiary Hazard 1, Transfer shields 2.
Doffs, , 3 Brace For Impact shield distribution doffs. Warp Core Engineer, (extend shields -or- power level booster), matter anti matter specialist when you run DEM, if not, tractor beam officer.
Devices for all of these, Weapon batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace Field mod, and Team Weapon Batteries.[
First off, the Sci Oddy is hands down the best one. Use it if you have the choice between them all and ditch the rest. Yes Sensor An. is really that good with 8 beams.
Public Service Announcement Tac Captains put down the Oddy... go get an Excelsior, or AC... the Oddy is too fat and too slow for you.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=MavOddy_0 Here's the spec.
Secondly, the Oddy is in my opinion an Engineer's or sci's ship. It's too fat and slow even with aux to ID going for anything else. FAAAT is the operating phrase with this ship. For several reasons, one it has a really poor turn rate, and Inertia score. Secondly, the model of the ship itself is HUGE. It dwarfs the Assault Cruiser, and nearly every other cruiser in terms of size, which changes the physical distance required for it to make a turn, without factoring in it's Inertia. (hooray for cryptic not thinking things through right?)
The first thing we should discuss is which Oddy is right for you? The answer is of course the Science Cruiser. No other ship has Sen An and 4 sci console slots. This makes it by far hands down the best Oddy in the game.
Now let's talk turn rate. It's garbage. Don't bother using any powers that involve moving your ship, because it's just setting yourself and your team mates for an epic fail. Warp Plasma is a No No on this ship. DO NOT USE IT. We'll get to the Controller variant later. And it doesn't use Plas. Or Gravity Well. Or Tykens.... because you need to be able to Turn to use them.
Infact the slower your ship the worse of an idea facing related, or movement related abilities are.
So what do you use?
Here's a staple healer Oddy.
Cmdr, EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Extend Shields 3
Alternate: EPTS1 EPTS2, ASIF2, Extend 3
Lt Cmdr, Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Hazard Emitters 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3.
Alternate heal, TSS1, Sci Team 2, Transfer Shield Strength 3.
LT Tac, Tac Team (when pugging if your team seems competent switch out tac team for target engine 1), FAW2.
Ens Uni. Sci Polarize Hull. Tac uni, FAW1, and change the Lt tac slot to Attack Pattern Delta. Engi, Emergency power to Auxiliary 1. (I actually really like this one)
Shields, Maco or Borg.
Engine, Borg or Omega
Deflector, Borg or Omega.
Doffs, 2 blue (or even better purple!) Maintaince Engineers, Warp Core engi, 2 shield distribution officers of blue quality.
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, 2 Armors, I prefer Ablative and Neutronium combo
Sci, Shield emitters consoles. 3 and a field generator.
Power levels, 100 to guns, 50 to shields, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Throw the crack on yourself (EPS power transfer) and use EPTA1 and you'll have almost max power across the board.
Controller Oddy.
Cmdr,
EPTS1, EPTS2, Eng Team 3, Extend Shields 3
Lt Cmdr uni Sci.
Transfer Shield Strength1, Hazard Emitters2, TBR1, FBP2 or VM1 or shockwave.
Ens uni. Emergency power to Aux1.
Lt Tac, Tac Team, Faw2.
Shields, Borg,
Deflector, Borg
Engine Borg
Consoles, 2 SIF Generators, 2 Armors.
Field Generator, Borg, and Particle generator consoles.
Power levels, same as above for Engineer. Sci captains, 75 weapons, 50 shields, 25 engine, 75 aux.
This is a Tactical or Sci Officer's ship. The LT Cmdr slot compliments those two classes nicely. For Tacs this gives you access to BO3, 2 and say... Tac Team. For Sci this gives you, Tac Team, FAW1 and 2.
The Karfi, is a damage focused carrier in my book. It's not the best healer by any means, and it's kind of squishy. However you do have options to get some decent longevity out of this thing and I'll go over them as completely as I can.
We are going to cover the Tac Karfi first.
Weapons, The Karfi is just a hair too slow to go with a Dual Beam bank setup, so I recommend the usual standard 6 beam arrays, with one mine launcher in the aft. That mine launcher should of course be spitting out chronitons. Preferred Properties, AccX2 CrtH and or AccX3
Deflector, Borg
Engine, Borg
Shield, KHG, or Borg.
Power Settings, 100 to Weapons, 50 to Shields, 25 to everything else.
Alternate #1, 100 to weapons, 30 to shields, 25 engines, 35 Aux.
Alt #2, 50 Weapons, 25 shields, 25 engine, 100 aux
alt #3, 25 weapons, 100 shields, 25 engines, 50 aux
Devices, Shield Battery, Aux Battery, Subspace Field Modulator.
Cmdr slot,
Viral Matrix 3, this skill provides a 10 second shut down to multiple subsystems and is one of the few good sci powers left in the game. Transfer Shield Strength 3, Hazard Emitters 2, Tractor Beam
Lt Cmdr, Tac Team, Beam Overload 2, Beam Overload 3.
Lt Tac, Tac Team 1, Dispersal pattern Alpha 1 why alpha and not beta? More mine clusters, means they will seek 2 targets to TRIBBLE on instead of one.
Ens Sci, Polarize Hull 1 you need this.. both as a hull resist, and as a way to break tractors.
Lt Engineer, Emergency Power to Shields 1 and 2.
Hangars, for full on **** Move status, go with the double siphon pods. You'll be the life of every party. If you want to just go for raw murderous potential Advanced Skulls. They give you free torp strikes vs nekkid hull and as a tac you'll get plenty of those opps with BO2 and 3 slamming home every chance you get.
This layout is fairly standardized and capable of giving good non aux dependent shut downs, and decent shield tanking potential, with a nice hull heal thrown in to ice the cake.
Abit more of a risky but possibly higher payoff version of this ship before I move to the sci.
Cmdr, Photonic Shockwave 3, or Tractor Beam Repulsors 3. Why? with full tac buffs applying to these powers you can be absolutely Murderous. Can we say routine 22k strikes with PSW3 vs a non shield facing target? Or a stream of 10 -20k crits from TBR3 when TBR3 starts rolling crits? Both are also good for disrupting healing cycles as PSW knocks off extend shields, and TBR can potentially push either your target, or the healer out of reach... so you and your bop buddies can get all rapey, if you cooridinate and learn to aim your TBR3s.
If running PSW3, TBR2.. while TBR2s damage isn't as substantial as TBR3s, it's still good for pushin and spam clearing, Transfer Shield Strength 2, and Hazard one fill out the sci slots here. The rest of the boffs are unchanged.
Sci, Karfis, are more healing and control focused than their murderous tac counter parts. Here's the sci karfi I've found works best.
Weapons, 6 beams, and 1 chroniton torp launcher
Deflector Engines and Shield see above.
Power settings same as the tac
Boffs,
Cmdr, Viral Matrix 3, Photonic Officer 3, or PSW3, Sci Team 3, Transfer Shield Strength 2, Hazard 1
Lt Cmdr, Tac Team, FAW2, FAW3 (that's Fire At will for those of you that don't know that yet)
Lt Tac, Torp Spread 1 and 2. Alt loadout, Torpspread1, Attack Pattern Beta1/Delta1
Lt Eng, EPTS1 and 2
Ens Sci, Tractor beam.
Hangars, Siphon Pods or Frigates.
Doffs, the Sci Team cool down reduction doffs. Get your ST3s as close to global as possible, Brace For Impact (shield distribution) doffs, and then a Warp Core Engineer.
The Sci Karfi is more reliant on debuffs, as by nature sci captains lack the necessary burst buffing powers to make the relatively few tac slots worth it. (as again the Karfi is just a hair too slow for Cannon and DBB use.) It can also provide abit more healing to it's team mates as the sci captain has access to dampening field -and- sci fleet to help keep himself alive during focus periods, as well as team mates. (these also buff your pets by the way) As a controller a Sci Karfi is absolutely obnoxious to play against when handled well. Hair pulling Obnoxious and to make it worse, it can often full heal it's allies shields making the small inroads against their enemies for nothing.
Consoles I saved to the end as they are identical for both ships.
1 Ablative armor, 1 Borg
3 Field Generators, and 1 particle generator, or 3 Particle Generators 1 Field generator
3 Energy Consoles.
Shields: MACO
Engines: BORG
Deflector: BORG
Weapons: 6x Tetryon Arrays [Acc]x2
Eng. Consoles: 1x Diburnium Armor, 2X SIF Generators
Sci Consoles: 1x Shield Emitter, 3x Field Generator
Tac Consoles: 1x BORG, 1x Tetryon
Hangers: 1x Adv. Stalkers, 1x Adv. Runabouts
Devices, Aux Batteries, Shield Batteries, Subspace field mod.
Lt. Tac: TT1, FAW2
Lt. Cmdr. Eng: EPtS1, Extend Shields 1 (RSP1), EPTS3 Alternate: EPTA1, EPTS2, EPTS3
Lt. Cmdr Sci: TB1, HE2, TSS3
Cmdr. Sci: TSS1/TB1, HE2/TSS2 ST3, TBR3 (PSW3) Alternate: TB1, TSS2, ST3, TBR3/PSW3
Power Levels, 100 to Guns, 50 to shields, 25 25, secondary 100 Guns, 25, 25 50. Tertiary 25, 50, 25 100
DOffs: 2x Shield Distri (Purple), 2x Dev Lab (Purple), 1x Warp Core Engine