ok my setup for my deridex is below id like some suggestions on some more healing powers and possibly some more offense powers too
ensign universal station tachyon beam
Lt commander tactical torp high yield, beam overload,
cannon rapid fire
ensign tactical tactical team 1,
Commander engineering station engineering team,
emergency power to shields, 1,
auxiliary to structural 2,aeton beam 2,
science team 1,hazard emitters 2
transfer shield strength 2
ok my setup for my deridex is below id like some suggestions on some more healing powers and possibly some more offense powers too
ensign universal station tachyon beam
Lt commander tactical torp high yield, beam overload,
cannon rapid fire
ensign tactical tactical team 1,
Commander engineering station engineering team,
emergency power to shields, 1,
auxiliary to structural 2,aeton beam 2,
science team 1,hazard emitters 2
transfer shield strength 2
Well, I've learned a lot from the forums so I'll try to return the favour here.
Engineering team, science team and tactical team all share a cooldown (CD) which means using one will make the others unavailable until the timer runs out.
Tactical Team (TT) is probably the biggest "must-have" tac power in game so I'd say definitely one to keep (Lvl 1 is fine, you gain little by going for level 2 or higher).
I assume you have dual heavy cannons up front with 1 dual beam and 1 torpedo (this is going by your power choice). This is fine and I assume turrets in back to get the most out of cannon rapid fire (CRF). If so, your tac powers look okay to me.
Eng powers I've been using (on all ships) are Emergency Power to Shields 1 (EPtS1) and Auxiliary Power to Structural Integrity Field 2 (AuxSIF2) and on the D'Deridex I ran Reverse Shield Polarity and Aceton Beam 3 on Commander Engineer slot.
Science-wise I ran Hazard Emitters (HE) (a real necessity with plasma damage and splashback) and Transfer Shield Strength 2 (TSS2) for extra shield healing. For the third slot I'd go Gravity Well, group the enemies, drop your singularity and enjoy the hilarity. Or you could put Polarize Hull in slot 1, HE in slot 2 and TSS in slot 3. Polarize hull gives damage reduction and stops those pesky tractor beams holding you in place.
For the uni ensign... hmmm. If you didn't take polarize hull on your sci guy I'd take it here or you could stick with Tachyon Beam (many say it doesn't do much, but I like it) or put the Science Team here for emergencies.
Hope this helps a little. It's all just suggestions though
"...we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things that divide us.”
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
Don't mix weapon types (cannons, beams, torps) - pick one to focus on. The D'dex can't turn, so I'd equip beam arrays for a broadside. Use BFaW. If you have problems with energy levels than you can fit a torp, but don't bother with a BoFG skill for it.
Agreed about the mixing of weapon types. Generally you have 1-2 types of weapon on a ship between cannons, beams, torpedoes, and mines. This is because you need to have tactical powers to buff them. A weapon firing without a buff is DPS you're not doing. Cruisers are tricky because they are limited on Tactical slots compared to an Escort. The best chance you have at doing damage in a cruiser is what's known as an A2B (or AtB) build, named for the skill Auxiliary to Battery.
The skill itself just drains your Aux power for a flat boost to the other three systems. What makes it cool is equipping 3x Technician Doffs that cut the cooldown of ALL your bridge officer powers every time you hit A2B. So, you just have two copies of it and hit them as often as possible. If your Technicians are all purple quality, you can reduce Boff power cooldowns to their minimum possible. Some powers will run at or close to 100% uptime even though you only have one copy.
As for where to get those Technician Doffs, there's the exchange of course. You can buy some (blue I think) from the Doff store at Starfleet/Klingon academy or New Romulus. The easiest way to get purple ones is to finish the colonization Doff assignment chain in the B'Tran cluster (off Gamma Orionis, where the Borg are). Crit on the repeatable final assignment and it gives you a purple Technician.
Don't mix weapon types (cannons, beams, torps) - pick one to focus on. The D'dex can't turn, so I'd equip beam arrays for a broadside. Use BFaW. If you have problems with energy levels than you can fit a torp, but don't bother with a BoFG skill for it.
I wasn't going to say about the awful turn rate of the DD because it looks like OP has the C-store VA version (marginally less sucky) but Shockwave is right about going for all beams with a torp for the big D.
That said, I've seen one guy outfit his with single cannons up front and turrets in rear with a torp up front and he had pretty good coverage with the big D's turnrate. DPS seemed pretty good too, all things considered.
OP If you're confident doing an A2B build, this would be best, but for someone not out for the ultimate cruiser-beam build, who is just beginning, maybe something less EC-intensive would be better? (Those pesky technicians become expensive perhaps because of the A2B build)
Tell us what you want to do, and we can probably make it easier for you to achieve it, otherwise you'll get advice on how to build "the ultimate, mega, elite death machine" from 6 different sources...
"...we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things that divide us.”
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
Yeah, Techs be pricey. That's why I mentioned Doffing for them in B'Tran instead of buying them. You can start with (relatively) cheap blue ones and build your way up though.
The example build I posted uses DHC because it's an attempt to make a PvP build on the D'D, and in PvP front loaded burst damage is the only way to kill people. You could easily change it into a more PvE oriented DPS beam boat just by swapping the Rapid Fire for Fire At Will and obviously swapping the DHCs and turrets for beam arrays. You could probably also back down on one of the RCS (turn) consoles in favor of some Neutronium armor since you wouldn't need to fight the thing around to face targets as much. Just orbit them and broadside.
Single cannons could work too, I did that on my Excelsior for a while. Too bad Romulans can't use the Regent's 180? quantum torp. Having a 180? forward arc into which all my weapons could fire was pretty fun.
Don't think PH or TSS share cooldowns with anything else either.
Best I can tell you (good rule of thumb) is that X Team skills share cooldowns (science team, eng team and tac team) with each other. Also Emergency powers to X share cooldowns (shields, weapons, engines and aux) so using one will trigger a cooldown in all the others if you have them in your power tray.
"...we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things that divide us.”
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
Comments
Well, I've learned a lot from the forums so I'll try to return the favour here.
Engineering team, science team and tactical team all share a cooldown (CD) which means using one will make the others unavailable until the timer runs out.
Tactical Team (TT) is probably the biggest "must-have" tac power in game so I'd say definitely one to keep (Lvl 1 is fine, you gain little by going for level 2 or higher).
I assume you have dual heavy cannons up front with 1 dual beam and 1 torpedo (this is going by your power choice). This is fine and I assume turrets in back to get the most out of cannon rapid fire (CRF). If so, your tac powers look okay to me.
Eng powers I've been using (on all ships) are Emergency Power to Shields 1 (EPtS1) and Auxiliary Power to Structural Integrity Field 2 (AuxSIF2) and on the D'Deridex I ran Reverse Shield Polarity and Aceton Beam 3 on Commander Engineer slot.
Science-wise I ran Hazard Emitters (HE) (a real necessity with plasma damage and splashback) and Transfer Shield Strength 2 (TSS2) for extra shield healing. For the third slot I'd go Gravity Well, group the enemies, drop your singularity and enjoy the hilarity. Or you could put Polarize Hull in slot 1, HE in slot 2 and TSS in slot 3. Polarize hull gives damage reduction and stops those pesky tractor beams holding you in place.
For the uni ensign... hmmm. If you didn't take polarize hull on your sci guy I'd take it here or you could stick with Tachyon Beam (many say it doesn't do much, but I like it) or put the Science Team here for emergencies.
Hope this helps a little. It's all just suggestions though
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
The skill itself just drains your Aux power for a flat boost to the other three systems. What makes it cool is equipping 3x Technician Doffs that cut the cooldown of ALL your bridge officer powers every time you hit A2B. So, you just have two copies of it and hit them as often as possible. If your Technicians are all purple quality, you can reduce Boff power cooldowns to their minimum possible. Some powers will run at or close to 100% uptime even though you only have one copy.
Here is an example of an A2B build on the D'Deridex:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=9937521&postcount=723
Here's further information on A2B and how it works:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=6289311&postcount=8
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=547581
As for where to get those Technician Doffs, there's the exchange of course. You can buy some (blue I think) from the Doff store at Starfleet/Klingon academy or New Romulus. The easiest way to get purple ones is to finish the colonization Doff assignment chain in the B'Tran cluster (off Gamma Orionis, where the Borg are). Crit on the repeatable final assignment and it gives you a purple Technician.
That said, I've seen one guy outfit his with single cannons up front and turrets in rear with a torp up front and he had pretty good coverage with the big D's turnrate. DPS seemed pretty good too, all things considered.
OP If you're confident doing an A2B build, this would be best, but for someone not out for the ultimate cruiser-beam build, who is just beginning, maybe something less EC-intensive would be better? (Those pesky technicians become expensive perhaps because of the A2B build)
Tell us what you want to do, and we can probably make it easier for you to achieve it, otherwise you'll get advice on how to build "the ultimate, mega, elite death machine" from 6 different sources...
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
The example build I posted uses DHC because it's an attempt to make a PvP build on the D'D, and in PvP front loaded burst damage is the only way to kill people. You could easily change it into a more PvE oriented DPS beam boat just by swapping the Rapid Fire for Fire At Will and obviously swapping the DHCs and turrets for beam arrays. You could probably also back down on one of the RCS (turn) consoles in favor of some Neutronium armor since you wouldn't need to fight the thing around to face targets as much. Just orbit them and broadside.
Single cannons could work too, I did that on my Excelsior for a while. Too bad Romulans can't use the Regent's 180? quantum torp. Having a 180? forward arc into which all my weapons could fire was pretty fun.
Yup, Feds got a good toy there alright.
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016
Best I can tell you (good rule of thumb) is that X Team skills share cooldowns (science team, eng team and tac team) with each other. Also Emergency powers to X share cooldowns (shields, weapons, engines and aux) so using one will trigger a cooldown in all the others if you have them in your power tray.
Jo Cox 22.6.1974 - 16.6.2016