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Cheap Tactical Glass Cannon, just got some cash. Now what?
lordmetreon
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I'm looking for some ideas for a spiffy new escort build. Until now I haven't thought on sinking any cash into this, but now that I have some I figured I would.
My current main ship is a Mirror Patrol Escort, equipped as follows: (all are common unless indicated otherwise)
Front: Dominion Polaron Duals MK XI, 2x Dual Polaron Heavy Mk XII (Acc), Quantum Torp Mk XI
Rear: 3x Polaron Turret XII (Acc)
Jem'Hadar Space Set Mk XI
Eng Consoles: 2x RCS Accelerator Mk XII, Green EPS Regulator Mk XII
Sci: 2x Shield Emitter Amplifier Mk XII
Tac: 3x Polaron Phase Modulator Mk XI, Green Zero Point Quantum Chamber Mk XII
My secondary build is a Patrol Escort with the same loadout, except with these swaps: Breen set Mk XI, Rapid Reload Transphasic Torp XI, Transphaic Compressor XII Green, and Neutronium Hull plating replacing one of the RCS accelerators.
BOFFs:
Tactical 1: Tac team I, Rapid Fire I, High Yield III, Scatter Volley III
Tactical 2: Spread I, Tac Team II, Spread III, Rapid Fire III
(These get switched based on whether I need Rapid Fire or Scatter Volley III)
Eng 1: Emergency to Shields I, Eng Team II
Eng 2: Eng Team I
Sci: Sci Team I, Tachyon Beam II
This loadout has served me well in PVP and STFs. However, it's time for an upgrade, because I do often find myself a weak link, particularly against opponents who can tank all that. Glass Cannon is an apt term indeed.
I tend to max out my weapon power, with minimum to engines and aux and the difference going to shields.
In terms of my priorities:
1. DAMAGE (I like to combine dual heavies with regular dual cannons, as it helps against faster opponents)
2. Maneuverability
3. Making the cannon a little less glass.
If I had to pick a focus, I'd say PVP. I can hold my own in STFs.
My main question is the ship I should buy. The Kumari Escort seems well suited to my play style, though I really can't think of a use for a third tactical BOFF slot as I'm pretty much cannon-only. If I were to add beams I would probably add Fire At Will or Overload. The Charal looks to me to be the best call as my entire priority list goes.
However, any suggestions? One of the not-Andorian Zen ships, perhaps? Any loadout and BOFF advice would also be welcome.
Also, I don't use mines. Ever.
Many thanks.
My current main ship is a Mirror Patrol Escort, equipped as follows: (all are common unless indicated otherwise)
Front: Dominion Polaron Duals MK XI, 2x Dual Polaron Heavy Mk XII (Acc), Quantum Torp Mk XI
Rear: 3x Polaron Turret XII (Acc)
Jem'Hadar Space Set Mk XI
Eng Consoles: 2x RCS Accelerator Mk XII, Green EPS Regulator Mk XII
Sci: 2x Shield Emitter Amplifier Mk XII
Tac: 3x Polaron Phase Modulator Mk XI, Green Zero Point Quantum Chamber Mk XII
My secondary build is a Patrol Escort with the same loadout, except with these swaps: Breen set Mk XI, Rapid Reload Transphasic Torp XI, Transphaic Compressor XII Green, and Neutronium Hull plating replacing one of the RCS accelerators.
BOFFs:
Tactical 1: Tac team I, Rapid Fire I, High Yield III, Scatter Volley III
Tactical 2: Spread I, Tac Team II, Spread III, Rapid Fire III
(These get switched based on whether I need Rapid Fire or Scatter Volley III)
Eng 1: Emergency to Shields I, Eng Team II
Eng 2: Eng Team I
Sci: Sci Team I, Tachyon Beam II
This loadout has served me well in PVP and STFs. However, it's time for an upgrade, because I do often find myself a weak link, particularly against opponents who can tank all that. Glass Cannon is an apt term indeed.
I tend to max out my weapon power, with minimum to engines and aux and the difference going to shields.
In terms of my priorities:
1. DAMAGE (I like to combine dual heavies with regular dual cannons, as it helps against faster opponents)
2. Maneuverability
3. Making the cannon a little less glass.
If I had to pick a focus, I'd say PVP. I can hold my own in STFs.
My main question is the ship I should buy. The Kumari Escort seems well suited to my play style, though I really can't think of a use for a third tactical BOFF slot as I'm pretty much cannon-only. If I were to add beams I would probably add Fire At Will or Overload. The Charal looks to me to be the best call as my entire priority list goes.
However, any suggestions? One of the not-Andorian Zen ships, perhaps? Any loadout and BOFF advice would also be welcome.
Also, I don't use mines. Ever.
Many thanks.
Post edited by lordmetreon on
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Comments
The EPS Regulator isn't helping you do more damage. So drop that for the Neutronium Hull Plating your other ship has.
The Zero Point Quantum Chamber should be swapped for a fourth Polaron Phase Modulator. You equip far more Polaron damage dealing weapons than torpedoes on this ship. Buffing the six polaron weapons will affect your damage potential more than buffing the lone torpedo launcher.
Have to agree with snoggy. You are getting far more DPS out of your "kills shields, kills hull" Polaron cannons than the slow-firing torpedoes. Dimishing returns is worth it, in this instance. Go for a 4th Polaron Phase Modulator.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
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Completely wrong. Tactical weapon consoles add a flat percentage of the base damage. This means that each console will add around 50 damage to your weapons, which in real terms translates to a 5% DPS increase. The 5% would be much better on the cannon weapons, since you only have 1 torp.
Yepp, thats because ppl think stacking means they stack like the second boosts the first. So of course you will get more -percentual- damage after slotting only on console and compare it to the base dmg, than having three slotted and adding a fourth. But absolutely it will result in the same dmg-boost.
So: No diminishing returns here.
DHCs seem the way to go these days. I'll yank one of those and the Neutronium off my secondary and stick them on my primary. I can afford the lower refire rate with the maneuverability I have. I did like the EPS console for debuff recovery and being ready for action faster after a Full Impulse. But then, that's why I got the Mirror Patrol escort off the exchange- so I can have 2 of them.
When last I was around, I did generic/specific consoles because of the diminishing returns (prefire, yield chamber, etc.) That seems to be very much mitigated now, hence the three identical consoles I have now. I do like having the quantum buff and the polarons dish out oodles of damage already.
So, bearing all this in mind, which ship to buy? The Charal seems the fad ship atm.
When did Tactical consoles ever have diminishing returns?
RCS accelerators work on turn rate and based on the same principle. However, they also have an added diminishing return. In short, if you have 1 RCS with a 10% turn buff, then you get a ten percent turn buff. If you have three, the value of each is diminished somewhat- so for our example, each is now a 7% buff.
Tac consoles used a similar principle, way back when. I never tested it but I originally built the USS Love Boat (my vanilla freebie tier V) on that older principle. in short, 2 Phaser Relays and one Prefire chamber>3 phaser Relays (all same mk.) I kept this config until I got busy around season 4 and left (it may have been undone before that.) I do know that I tried stacking phaser relays and it did less damage than the mixing them with the prefire- and that the same applied to the prefire.
Which reminds me, I need to find a nerf tracker thread. It's been a while.
Also: no-one has stated an opinion as to which ship I should get based on my stated tactical preferences. That was the intent of my original question :P
The Defiant would give you more maneuverability, but not increase your survivability.
The Steamrunner can help with survivability (it would allow you to run both Aux to SIF and Reverse Shield Polarity along with 2?Emergency Power to Shields, but then all but requires you to use that En Sci slot for Hazard Emitters), and doesn't sacrifice much in meaningful DPS (Tachyon Beam is terribly weak compared to almost any Tactical power). It does require Steam, however.
If you have access to a fleet, the Fleet Patrol Escort is also worth looking into, since it's basically a tougher version of the Patrol Escort.
The Armitage sacrifices a bit of its own DPS (only one LtCdr Tac power compared to most escorts' two) for a hangar and a LtCdr Engineer, making it sturdier than most other Escorts.
After trying some of my options out, I ended up going with the tac Kumari, because I did find a use for the extra tactical BOFF slot. However, I will be redoing all the BOFFs as the CRF doesn't seem to be as beneficial with this thing as it was on my old one, and I really miss AP Omega III- and AP Beta is pretty handy too. The third slot will just be used for attack buffs, but I'd benefit more from attack patterns at this point than CRFIII.
Thanks for all your suggestions!