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Tac in a sci vessel for STFs
starmada1
Member Posts: 139 Arc User
Is this a feasible thing, or just a lame gimmick? I kinda want to try it.
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At the moment, any group consisting of any combination of captain careers and T5 ships can complete the Elite STFs with optionals. Some can do it with lower-tier ships.
However, compared to a group with Moghs, Avengers, Scimitars, and lockbox ships, a freebie Reconnaissance Science Vessel will look and feel like a lame gimmick, despite being a ship quite capable of performing admirably at crowd control.
Vestas, Temporal Sci ships, Dyson Science Destroyers, and the like will obviously perform better, and can augment the damage of their Gravity Wells with a LtCdr Tac seat (perhaps spreading a little more Attack Pattern Beta around with its own Fire At Will, for example) while having better base stats to go with it.
If your normal groups don't consist of guys who compete to squeeze out a couple extra thousand DPS in their 50k Scimitars, you should be fine if you take a moment to look at what a Sci ship does best (rather than trying to fly it like an escort that lacks cannons or a cruiser with fewer weapons).
That leads me to my next question. How does one properly play sci in STFs? I've tried and tried.. but I'm finding myself quite bad at it. I was hoping to get some pointers from the pros.
I picked up the ARVR (Nebula-Retro) when Cryptic gave it away for free last year and immediately I saw the potential for mayhem with 2 Lt. Tacs and an LCdr. Eng. on a Sci ship. I've been playing around with it ever since, and I've got it the point where I can solo a side on KASE or defend the Kang all by my lonesome. I give you the USS Megamouth. She does crowd control, and she does it very, very well. And with a few tweaks, she does hilarious things as a Ker'rat troll boat.
I've adapted and evolved the build with the Dyson Sci Destroyer (the free one.) USS Sleeper Shark isn't quite optimized yet, but already it does some pretty horrible things to whatever I happen to catch in my forward arc. In either mode.
Short answer, spam grav wells. Use grav wells on the nanny spheres in ISE, the probes in KASE, and whatever comes for the Kang in CSE. It helps to have a bunch of skill points in graviton generators, and/or a console or two.
Beyond that, there's not much else to it. As mandoknight said, any captain in any ship can make a decent showing in an elite STF these days.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
partical generators increases the dmg of most science abilities...graviton generators increase the hold and repell force of most science abilities. Both buff the SAME science abilities, just different aspects of it.
Back in the day I had an old tac toon who was also a countermeasure specialist. I flew the Hegh'ta BoP with the jemmie set and a full polaron cannon build. I had my sci boff in the Lt Com seat so I could use scramble/jam sensors.
Buff up, de-cloak, set off a scramble then fire. The enemy was too busy shooting at each other to worry about me and my own fire ripping them to pieces.
It was good fun
The soloing one side of KASE is impressive. Solo defending the Kang, not so much.
Only one healer is needed to protect the Kang. If more that two players are needed to protect the Kang, then that team is not doing it right, and will very likely loose not just the optional, but the entire mission.
+1 though I wish the main weapon was not limited to phasers....
Gravity Well Skill tends to cater towards pull / repel effects. High skill in this will make your Grav Wells pull ships from very long distance and jumble them around. Very, very handy.
Particle Generator Skill tends to cater to the damage effects. Whether it is from Grav Well damage (if any shields are dropped, watch out!), TBR, CPB effects on shields, etc.
Also, remember that TAC abilities amplify all damage done by your ship, namely Attack Pattern Alpha (player) and Omega (BOFF skill). Not just energy weapons and torps. Play it right, a TAC Captain can get pretty ridiculous on his dmg output with certain Sci abilities.
Right around the time of LOR, for kicks, I took my KDF TAC into a Vo'Quv Carrier to troll PVP. I loaded up Attack Pattern Omega 1, Feedback Pulse 3, maxing out Particle Generators, and some other survivability skills. Carriers tend to be magnets for attacks, which was what I was hoping for. Right when I sensed an alpha strike / decloaking strike was coming for me, I ensured high Aux Power, pop APO, pop Feedback Pulse 3, and pop defensive / resist / healing skills as I did so. High dmg alpha strikers would melt their hulls from the returned dmg, and a decloaker with massive spike dmg? They can kill themselves in less than a handful of seconds.
Since I was a TAC, I could rotated between APO or APA. Or, if I wanted to "make sure" I pop APO+APA along with the rest of the other stuff. The dmg returned to the attacker is noticeable and people will disengage, or kill themselves outright. (Caveat: This ploy only works on certain players. Seasoned PVP'ers will see the signs and avoid you. Less experienced ones will try to lay into you. This build is very good in deterrence and retribution, but very poor in team play since the build is completely "about you and only you")
The other benefit is that TAC Tactical Initiative will lessen BOFF skill cooldown. This is a very big deal for Science Skills, because its best ones tend to have very long cooldowns. Couple this with clever DOFF management, and you can see why I consider TAC Captains to be superior in performing damaging Sci abilities than Science Captains.
Works for me at the moment. If I could, I'd shove AP weapons up the ying yang on her ship.
I Fully agree about the AP weapons..check out my build:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=ussdoofenshmirtz_0
I Fully agree about the AP weapons..check out my build:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=ussdoofenshmirtz_0