test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Opinions on my loadout?
kalregar
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Hello, everyone. I'm a federation science captain, VA. I'm going to post my skill layout and my main ship's loadout below. I'd like to hear your opinions. Please keep your sarcasm to yourself. I reserve the right to ignore any and all advice given. I don't plan on doing any major overhauls until I can drop money for a skill respec and a Vesta pack. Please note that this is geared solely toward PVE and has never been tested in a PVP environment. Yes, I'm completely aware that I'm missing out on subsystem targeting; I never used it much anyway. :rolleyes:
Skills:
Skills:
Starship Weapons: 99
Starship Energy Weapons: 99
Starship Projectile Weapons: 99
Starship Maneuvers: 99
Starship Targeting: 84
Driver coil: 99
Starship Batteries: 99
Starship Hull Repair: 99
Structural Integrity: 99
Subsystem Repair: 54
Warp Core Efficiency: 54
Electro-Plasma Systems: 99
Impulse Thrusters: 54
Warp Core Potential: 84
Starship Hull Plating: 84
Starship Armor Reinforcements: 54
Starship Flow Capacitors: 99
Starship Shield Emitters: 99
Starship Power Insulators: 54
Starship Shield Systems: 99
Starship Graviton Generators: 99
Starship Particle Generators: 99
Starship Sensors: 99
Starship Subspace Decompiler: 99
Ship: Ambassador Cruiser Retrofit
Fore: Phased Tetryon Beam Array Mk XI x 2, AF Quantum Torpedo Launcher Mk XII, Bio Neural Warhead
Aft: Phased Tetryon Beam Array Mk XI x 2, AF Quantum Torpedo Launcher Mk XII, AF Quantum Mine Launcher Mk XII
Deflector: Aegis Deflector Array (Working on replacing with Omega Deflector Mk XII)
Impulse: Adapted MACO Combat Impulse Engines Mk XII
Shield: Adapted Maco Covariant Shield Array Mk XII
Warp: Field Stabilizer Mk XI
Non-consumable Devices include: Subspace Field Modulator, Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
Engineering Consoles: Subspace Jumper, Theta Radiation Vents, Neutronium Alloy Mk XI, Emergency Force Fields Mk XII
Science Consoles: Isometric Charge, Graviton Pulse Generator
Tactical Consoles: Tetryon Pulse Generator Mk XI x2, Zero Point Quantum Chamber Mk XI
Lieutenant Tactical:
-Torpedo Spread I
-Torpedo High Yield II
Ensign Tactical:
-Tactical Team I
Commander Engineering:
-Engineering Team I
-Emergency Power to Shields II
-Directed Energy Modulation II
-Reverse Shield Polarity III
Lieutenant Engineering:
-Emergency Power to Auxiliary I
-Auxiliary To Structural I
Lt. Commander Science:
-Hazard Emitters I
-Polarize Hull II
-Tractor Beam III
Post edited by kalregar on
0
Comments
Do you have any problem with your ship or just wonder if you can make it better?
I get the feeling I'm not built like a typical sci but I want to know just how far off I am from popular opinion.
In practice GW3 is often a Science core power, with additions for further movement control and hull damage. But there's also some interesting shield and energy drain builds around the forum (specifically using quantums to finish the opponent off) and your Engineer ship seems to have that flavour.
The unusual elements of your build (to me) are lots of universal consoles, and tetryon beams. I now experiment more with universal consoles, it can be a lot of fun weirding out your targets with obscure combinations. I encourage this, to optimize your themes and discover new ones.
Tetryons get a bit of abuse on the forums as the procs may be considered underpowered, although they are a beautiful blue colour with bumps. You've got the right torps though if you do manage to clear the shields. Beams are a single-target strategy, I use transphasic spreads as I focus on AoE, and my AoE may lack the focus needed to clear shields. Both strategies seem to make sense, do what you enjoy.
Your energy levels would be interesting to know, whether you're totally with Aux or counting more on Weapons. You're not a true Science vessel but you're definitely on the creative side of Engineer.
Without having a clue if it'd be better or worse, you might investigate the Breen Cluster Torp-mines as a weird alternative to quantum mines, although they won't benefit from your quantum chamber.
move subspace jump to sci, add 2 neutronium in the eng slots, or 1 RCS and a neutronium.
not sure what you're planning on using this build for...but something i'm seeing a lot lately is lots of hull heals when that should be only a secondary focus, primary is keeping shields up.
if it was mine:
LT tac
TT1
ts2 or hy2 (capt choice) i'd go with bfaw2, ag as much as possible and tank it.
ensign tac
tt1
Cmd eng
epts1, rsp1 aux to struct 2, capts choice
lt eng
epts1, rsp1
lt cmd sci
he1, he2, capts choice, gw1 would be good
why? primary that nothing reaches your hull or that no facing stays down for more than a microsecond
ttx2 keeps shield facings up and clears boarding parties
epts1x2 and rsp1x2 gives you nearly constant shield heals and resistances, and the ability to fully regenerate shields with tt+rsp
HE 1 and 2, hull heals and cleanses, the cleanses are vital.
aux to struct 2, if your going to have hull heal might as well make it a good one, fast cd.
sci team if anything is a better choice than eng team, and only if i wanted to remove a tac team to make room for more torp skills.
the total lack of tac slots on that, and over abundance of eng...i'd avoid that ship entirely in all honesty, the only nice thing is that lt cmd sci, lets you play around with one more skill.
but test it, doubtful it will take ag or hold it for long, so might not need so many defensive skills slotted. without bfaw, the torps alone won't grab much, nor will the BA's since they're single target. the most you have to worry about is a spread and maybe 3 targets aggroing you.
one of the things that really bother me is you max graviton and particle generators in your skills...and basically use them for not much, gw2 should have been part of that build. clustering targets in one place where warp core breach aoes can effect enemies still alive, sensr scan gets everything in a cluster, etc....any time you can pack in targets like sardines = win for someone, either yourself or the whole team
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
The consoles are not only fun to use, but they also vastly increase my versatility in terms of crowd control. Graviton Pulse is basically an AOE tractor beam. Theta vent can bunch enemies together and help cause damage. Bio Neural Warhead is a fire-and-forget deal. Iso charge does great against a group of enemies bunched together; I once took out a group of Borg Spheres with one charge. I've gotten ripped on for using a bunch of consoles and not having more defensive and offensive modules...but I'm a science captain, not a d*mn tac officer.
Phased Tetryon weapons are seriously underrated. I have very trouble eating through enemy shields with these, especially with two VR pulse generators beefing them up. Shield drain and subsystem proc chance together? I don't know why more sci captains don't use them.
I almost always keep my power diverted fully to weapons, secondary to shields. Engines are kept at low power (combat engines, after all) and whatever's left goes into auxiliary to boost repair capability. I have power profiles for maximized shields and auxiliary, but I rarely use the former unless I'm playing elite missions solo and need the extra shield strength, and I only use the latter when I'm playing dedicated healer.
I kinda wish I had rolled an engineer in hindsight. :rolleyes:
I hate using the transphasic cluster torp. It's very hit or miss compared to the bio-neural warhead, which actually helps eat through target shields before it impacts.
One Eng power that ties well to your PG and GG skills is EWP. Not sure if the Ambassador would need more maneuverability boosts to use that well.
I'm also a huge fan of GPG. Nadeon might be fun for getting more aggro; at least the shockwave looks magnificent. Then Feedback Pulse could become an interesting option. But not if you're only hurting 1-3 targets, in line with deadspace's comments about aggro.
But you don't need to delete your Sci-Engineer and create a Tac. That would be boring.
Considering the way space combat works, this would be EXTREMELY difficult to pull off. Meanwhile, his build is probably as good against Elachi as you can find.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
There are plenty of Borg in STFs that do have shields, too. Now, I'm a sci, damage dealing isn't my forte...but I do a great job of softening up targets for other people.
Ah, no...EWP would be useless to me because the way I fly this ship, I almost always have weapon power at maximum anyway. I had EWP II at one point and I found myself rarely if ever using it, so I swapped it out for Aux to Structural, which is perfect for those quick heals because it recharges quickly.
Ambassador has great turn rate by itself, at least compared to an Odyssey. Focusing damage forward is possible, but cumbersome. I often find myself circling a lot and broadsiding targets, which is why I went with four standard beam arrays, torps fore and aft, and mines, to maximize my coverage. The delay on the mines has worked to my advantage more often than not.
I'd rather avoid having too much aggro...this ship is no softy, to be sure, but she's not a tank either, lol. :P
Frankly, I started my Mirror DSSV build with Tetryons but switched to AntiProton because that build is designed for one purpose: STFs. And that means group play. I think it is better to try to fit into a team (even PUGs), than force my will onto them. Having said that, I already feel I'm going against the grain NOT using a Vesta :P (but dammit, I'm not going to buy that ship).
Here is my advice on Tetryons - keep them. BUT, have an alternate weapon loadout. I am no longer tryng to make a one-size-fits-all build. That's rediculous and I've gotten a gray hair trying it and I want to try to pass that along.
Also, I think you are spreading yourself thin with the Torp AND Mine Launcher along with your Tac consoles trying to serve your beams and Torps. I mean, I get it, but a jack-of-all trades is a master of none. I know you are not trying to make "teh most ubah DPS tankZ yo", but there is good counsel in either dropping the aft Torp or Mine launcher with another beam and replacing the torp dmg console with beam dmg console ...
UNLESS ... you are playing solo ... because then nothing else matters.
I also really feel like you don't have enough beam arrays, since you do have a broadside setup and you are in a slow moving cruiser you should really optimize that a little more. Alternatively, you could go to a single cannon/turret setup, the Ambassador pretty much has the turn rate to handle that, especially with the changes to Impulse Thrusters, and it would work better with your desire to use torps. Whichever you choose, get the Lt level AoE energy weapon ability.
Finally, I'm really not a fan of either Tractor Beam or Polarize Hull for PvE, I always find that I don't need to break tractors because I can survive just as well either way and I'm already pointed at the target, and since the targets that you really need to slow down are always in groups anyway Tractor Beam doesn't do much for me. So I'd go with TSS2 and GW1 for those slots, giving you extra shield healing and a nice group CC.
I would advise you not to do anything with your skills until you have your Vesta build picked out and tested, then do your respec to suit that. I would think very hard about dumping the armor skills when the time comes, though, since they're very expensive and not all that useful, especially with the low hull strength of a real sci ship.
Nimbosian pirates decide they like you if you complete the Nimbus arc. :P
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.