Scimitar Build help (returning player)

elderdrake123 · December 2013

Lifetime subber returning to the game after a hiatus of several months. I decided to use my saved Zen to get the Scimitar pack because I simply am a fan of the ship and it's origin. I have read many a thread regarding the ship but still have some answers and it is my hope that the community will help me out. I appreciate any and all pointers and advice.

Note: I should mention that I am not up to par with the latest weapons and the loadouts. I had returned for LoR and then took a break after that so I ask that any "noob" style questions please be given a look, thank you. I am not completely in the dark but please bear with me.

1.) I have both a Reman and Liberated Borg Engineer for the Romulan side. I want to really shine in this thing so should I go with a Tactical or Science to hit hard and have fun? I don't care about being a tank or anything other than hitting hard and crushing. My Engineers are great but just never seemed able to dish it out like Tacs or Science officers.

2.) I have read arguments that say using the 3 consoles from the pack is good, and then some say it is stupid. Any thoughts? Please keep in mind I will be starting a new toon more than likely and going through the rep grind which is ok, my other 2 Rommies are lacking rep as well so no loss. That said, I do not have access to the rep reward weapons off the bat and am somewhat limited on EC (around 5mil but we all know it is a joke to earn EC so not worried there).

3.) Which of the 3 should I use? I am assuming the tactical version for more consoles but still want to ask in case my assumption is wrong.

I really hope I made a good call here as I nearly went for the new Klink ship but as I said, I like the Scimitar and I hear the bugs have been worked on and that the ship is killer if used right. So please, give me a moment of your time and a quick Idiot's Guide to running this ship.

If you read this far and responded I want to again thank you for your time and I look forward to feedback.

syndonai · December 2013

1. Tactical will offer more damage output, naturally, but the science is equally as usefull (subnuke specifically).

2. The 2-piece bonus is still very much disputed, tbh. I personally say use all 3 for now. After all, whats the point in buying the 3-pack? At least take some enjoyment out of seeing your ship open out and blast away with the thalaron pulse.

3. The Scimitar (the tactical one) is really the only one worth using out of the 3. The potential damage it can wield is staggaring, and makes the other two feel like the idiot brothers.

elderdrake123 · December 2013

Thanks syndonai for the input.

I read a lot more of the numerous like threads on the forum and have learned a lot more. I appreciate your advice, any tips on say a starting and then mid range Scimitar build? By mid range I should understand the ship enough to form my own build for top end but any tips on someone with limited resources and starting off would be appreciated. What should I not only get, but what should I build up 1st and so on.

This would be incredibly helpful and I would be grateful for any guidance there.

syndonai · December 2013

Well, just start off with what you fancy, the scimitar's layout alone means you'll have enough firepower to match the average player without even trying.

Beamboat builds are easy to use, cannon builds require a little more forward thinking since your vanilla turn rate isn't great - the 2 piece bonus is very handy here, and you'll want to get into the habit of always cloaking before/after engaging as that'll boost your turnrate too.

Torps will work, but I find them too restricting later on. If you use torp and cannon/beam abilities you generally have to use the lt.uni slot for a tac, which I try to avoid. Using just beams or cannons means you can slot a Eng or Sci in the lt.uni slot, giving you more versatility.

des101 · December 2013

Myself, when I got the three pack, I went for the Engineer version first even though my captain is a tact. The Console layout is more on the friendly side which I found a great help whilst getting used to piloting the ship.

Same as the bonus modules - Ended up with all 3 fitted to begin with just to do the Phalaron Pulse gimmick. This lasted maybe a day before dropping one and just going for the 2 piece bonus instead.
2 pieces I actually left fitted were the secondary shields & the ability to keep my shields up when cloaked.
Fire when cloaked module just seemed a bit "meh" to me and I think I probably used that only a handful of times!
Secondary shields I found was used quite often for those "Uh Oh, brown pants moments" and keeping shields when cloaked has definitely kept the ship alive on more than one occasion when faffing about in PvP.

And lets not forget the 2 piece bonus which improves the turn rate. This thing turns on a dime when cloaked but can get a tad on the sluggish side after the de-cloak bonuses wear off. That bonus does make a difference, albeit not a great one, but every little helps.

This ship, for its size, can be very squishy to begin with which is why the engineer version is so useful to begin with. Fill up your mods with resists and anything else that'll help it survive, BUT remember, this is only short term.

Once you've mastered the art of the "Power Slide" & get used to how the ship handles, and the frustration of overshooting targets has warn off, then is the time to actually decide on which version you actually want to fly.. Properly.

If over the top DPS is your thing, tact version it is.
If annoy the hell out of people with GW's is it for you, sci is the way to go.
Wanna tank in your big Hulk? Err.. honestly? Don't. Ship suffers greatly with hull bleed-through & you'll notice half the time your crew is all dead!!

And finally, once you've perfected the art of blowing thing up in whatever one you choose, then you can actually drop the 2 piece bonus and fit more useful modules.

Either way, they're all great ships to fly and are very fun. Just learn their limitations, be patient, and you'll be one of the few that doesn't explode every few minutes which I tend to see a lot of!! :cool:

As for fittings.. Be unique.. I didn't bother reading the forum posts as to "what" I should fit. I went with what felt right for my play style. Just go with what "you" think is fun.

One final thing - These ships are big! Be very, very aware of what is exploding around you

elderdrake123 · December 2013

A lot of good input, thank you des101 and syndonai. I am mainly a PvE guy that just messes with PvP every now and then but I think I will go with a Tactical toon and play around as I grind rep to find what I like. It will be interesting to learn to fly, the power slide sounds comical as well as the crew dieing off easily issue (are they all red shirts or something?).

Lots to take in but I am looking forward to it. Still welcoming any feedback and a big thank you for the time spent sharing your thoughts. Happy hunting out there all!

umiharayuu · December 2013

elderdrake123 wrote: »

Lifetime subber returning to the game after a hiatus of several months. I decided to use my saved Zen to get the Scimitar pack because I simply am a fan of the ship and it's origin. I have read many a thread regarding the ship but still have some answers and it is my hope that the community will help me out. I appreciate any and all pointers and advice ...

I use the 3 console set a lot in STFs. Shields while cloaked and secondary shielding are lifesavers. The Cloaked Barrage is somewhat useful as well since it also allows you to launch fighters/drones while cloaked for a distraction.

The ship already has enough firepower, so I went with a lot of the "hull/shield" buffs from reputation than the offensive ones. (I'm and Eng though)

You may also want to practice drifting as it allows you to keep your guns on things longer with that crazy mass (inertia the game calls it) the ship has.

For fun, I put 5 purple PG consoles on the Tulwar and got the Thalaron upwards of 100k crits lol

annah · December 2013

1: Tactical captain will easily provide the most damage, Science doesn't even come close to it.

2: The consoles are gimmicky at best. If you don't care about stats and min/maxing. Sure they work. But there are better consoles to get.

3 piece bonus the thalaron pulse is mostly a "fun" thing to use. I outdps it easily in the 12 seconds it takes to charge up, so using the ability would result in a net dps loss for me. However if you like the animation of it charging up and watch it fire awhile after your teammates finished off all your targets. go for it!

First console i tossed out the window was cloaked barrage. Its marginally useful in PvE, but the -50 energy hit on weapons system when it wears off is a killer of your dps, unless you have some counter to it.

The two piece bonus, 2 extra turn rate and retain some turn after decloaking. Ok this is all well and good, but a single RCS console does as much, and only takes up one console slot.
An armor plating console from dil mine with +turn comes pretty close to this, and is much more useful, giving you some resists. Plus you can still cloak for the extra turn (and speed!).

Second console i dropped was the retain shields while cloaked. While idea looks good on paper, in reality its nigh on useless. When i fly at full beans and cloak i have 135% defense. Nothing in PVE hits me, all i see is a growing string of "miss" above my ship, the shields don't really help at all. Unless you do somethign daft like cloak when you have a million torps headed your way which have already rolled to hit.

Third console to go was secondary shields. I used this for a long time cause i thought it was pretty useful. But then found out i could slot the Valdore console on the scimitar and i've not looked back since.
A chance to proc a shield heal for the damage i did to each facing... holy poo yes.
Scimitar does insane amounts of damage, my beams easily crit for 6-12k depending which buffs are running, and they crit alot (25% chance approx). When this console procs i'm usually seeing a full shield heal on all my facing. Its insane, the only thing which kills me since i slotted this are stuff like voth reflect shield.

So summary: they're ok, but there are vastly better options to put in your console slots if you care about numbers and min/maxing. if you don't, then use whatever you want.

3:The scimitar (tactical) is the best one hands down. Some people will say its fragile and bla bla, but it really isn't. Slot it out properly with boff abilities and consoles and its an absolute beast, while dishing out insane amounts of damage.

Scimitar Build help (returning player)

Comments