Need gear advice (Engineer, Hegh'ta HBOP)

ha99ard · July 2013

Hello everyone!

So I finally reached level 50. I bought a Hegh'ta Heave Bird-of-Prey back at level 40 and I was wondering how I should gear the ship (I'm not sure if I am happy with my choice of ship, its hull strength is quite low...if you have some tips on what I could acquire without spending real money that would be good too). I primarily do PvE and would like to be a hybrid between tanky and DPS. Is this possible with my ship and if so, which weapons should I go for? Broad-side beam ship, full frontal DHCs? If you have a link to any helpful stoacademy.com builds that would be great.

Thanks in advance

ha99ard

twam · July 2013

First off: Birds of Prey are the squishiest KDF ships.

That said, they can still be pretty sturdy with an engineer at the helm.

The Hegh'ta has a very good turn rate, that is one of its main assets. It means you can easily keep stuff in the arc of DHC's. I would suggest 3 DHC's and 1 quantum torp up front, turrets in the back, to really make the most of these decloaking Alpha strikes.

In terms of Boff layout, maybe something like this:
TT1, THY2, CRF2, APO3
EPtS1, EPtS2, Aux2SIF2
TT1, CRF1
TB1/TSS1, HE2

(And remember: you've got universal Boff seating and a battlecloak. That means you can disengage from combat and change your playing style on the fly. With some backup-boffs you can switch to full tanking layout, for instance, or to a nuisance CC build, in about 6 seconds.)

Coupled with your captain powers, that should give you some decent survivability, and a very decent first strike (with the eng power management options and all). Maybe use a Regenerative shield with [cap] modifyers and some +regen science consoles? That might be nice in combination with Rotate Shield Frequency... Also: a Positron Deflector, preferably with [sif], [shds] and/or [stl].

However, if you find the BoP tricky to master (they're not for everybody), you could check out the mirror Battlecruiser and Qin on the exchange. They are variants of the other lvl 40 ships, and both are very good ships. The Qin more of an escort, the Battlecruiser (Vorcha) a good engineering-heavy ship that can take a beating.

ursusmorologus · July 2013

Heghta is on par with escorts from other factions, but has one less weapon hard-point and a battlecloak. You can use your Miracle Worker ability (and the cooldown trait) and add to the survivability, but its never going to be a DPS tank since its still escort-level weak and has relatively few hard-points.

If you really want a DPS tank, you should get one of the battlecruisers.

Having said that, the Heghta is a fun ship to fly, and if you learn to run away at the first sign of trouble you can do pretty well with them. Mine is typically near the top of the damage boards, although I have the advantage of using a Tactical captain. Here's a link to my build page, but its not responding at the moment.

Something you might consider:

TT1, CRF1, CRF2, APO3
EPtS1, RSP1, Aux2SIF2
THY1, TS2
HE1, TSS2

1x Torpedo (probably Photon if you are going to be using spread often)
3x Disruptor DHCs
2x Disruptor turret

That gives you 3 shield heals (including Reverse Shield Polarity which lets you heal from enemy fire), 2 hull heals (not including Miracle Worker), 2 good scatter volley, 2 good torpedo, and a couple of good support (TT and APO)

edit--One problem with this setup is you wont have any Emergency Power to Weapons, so you wont have anything boosting weapon damage. Might want to try this instead:

TT1, CRF1, CRF2, APO3
EPtS1, EPtW2, AtSIF2
EPtS1, EPtW2
HE1, TSS2

4x Disrutpor DHCs
2x Disruptor turret

That will give you the same number of heals (although you lose RSP and get a duplicate of EPtS1). Emergency Power to Shields 1 and Weapons 2 can be on constant rotation, especially if you add the cooldown DOFFs, so you would be able to shield-run and overload weapon power at the same time. That will make up a bit for the lack of APA/FOMM

ha99ard · July 2013

Thanks so much for the input guys, that definitely gives me some good idea of what I should be going for. I think I'll be focusing more on the DPS than the tanking aspect and see how that goes. Again, thanks a lot, you've been a great help!

ha99ard

marc8219 · July 2013

Bird of prey is usually a bad choice for an eng. It relies on ambushing and killing tagets quickly before it takes to much damage, so is best with a tac captain that can buff its ambushes up.

If you don't want to buy a z-store or fleet ship you can get a Mirror SHip off of exchange, the Mirror Vo'quv or Mirror Vor'cha would be best for eng but even a mirror Qin would be better then a bop also.

ha99ard · July 2013

Ok I shall have a look at the prices on those. I would like to play a more tanky role, so I might have to invest some EC

doffingcomrade · July 2013

Mirror Vorch was, at last check, dirt cheap, so it shouldn't break the bank. And it's a fine ship as an ATB Battlecruiser.

ha99ard · July 2013

How do I find the Vor'Cha on the exchange? I typed in "Vor'Cha" but found nothing. Is it rare or is the crate called something else?

twam · July 2013

It's called Mirror Battlecruiser on the exchange. The only one where the name on the box doesn't correspond to what's in it; the VoQuv and Qin are labelled as such.

You'll find them under the tab Reward Packs, and they are Rare/Blue quality. Should be plenty of them

ursusmorologus · July 2013

nevermind see above

ha99ard · July 2013

Bought myself a Vor'cha now, thinking of turning it into a beam boat. Can't wait to try it. 150k EC wasn't too risky anyways

ursusmorologus · July 2013

For that price you can use it for storage and not feel bad

Need gear advice (Engineer, Hegh'ta HBOP)

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