TVaro.
I LIKE this ship!
I went and splurged and picked up the TVaro from the C-Store because Ive always liked the looks of these ever since seeing them on Enterprise.
I am not a hardcore player (took me 4 years to hit the current level cap, though now it seems I can hit it in a week...sheesh) and dont have fancy gear...but even with a few quest rewards the ship is a joy to fly. Its sleek, nimble, simple lines, and fires that big reddish-orange gumball of fiery plasmatic love. Found out about the danger close the hard way though, LOL.
I find these ships more fun than flying the bigger is better line of Tier4-5 craft. I know it doesnt hold a candle to Shizons brute-force ship-mower of death but dang theres something to be said for elegance in simplicity.
Anyone else try these ships and liked them?
Now if there was only some way to keep flying in my TOS warbird
I am currently running the TVaro like a smaller, more agile version of my HaFeh. Kept a couple cannons up front (the Dual Heavy Caustics from Last Stand and the Hybrid from Smash and Grab), pair of turrets back. For kinetics went with the Breen Rapid Reload Transphasic and the Cluster Torp forward. Currently have a tri-cobolt mine aft, but opponents keep shooting it down so considering switching to something else.
Im very tempted to go all torp...but Ive already noticed a trade-off in damage downwards since I spent so much time flying around lining up torpedo shots...did I mention how much I like this ship? My dreams of riding of new shiny Scim has been instead satiated by the simple fun the TVaro brings.
I noticed there is a fleet version of the TVaro as well...but Im not able to splurge for the upgrade. Something to look forward to
Anyways Ive done some searches and there are a ton of threads on speccing the ship and your bridge crew. Is there a poor mans cliff notes version? Im running a Tac Officer. Hes pretty spread out with no space skill above 6 with a focus on weapons damage/power/accuracy as well as warp core and system efficiencies.
Anyway definitely open for suggestions and changes.
My current ship setup (sorry going by memory, G=Green, W=White):
Fore: Dual Heavy Caustic Plasma(Accx2), D Hvy Hybrid, Breen Rapid Reload Transphasic Torp Launcher, Breen Transphasic Cluster Torp
Aft: Plasma Turret (Acc), Plasma Turret(W), Tricobolt Mine(W)
Deflector: Dyson
Impulse: Dyson
Shield: Dyson
Consoles.
Eng: Neutronium(G), Neutronium(G), EPS Flow Regulator(W)
Sci: Plasma Destabilizer, Field Generator(G)
Tac: Prefire Chamber(G), Prefire Chamber(G), Transphasic Compressor.
On Bridge Officers I have Tovan the Immortal, and Borg one (forget his name) as Tac officers, Satra for Science (Hiven as backup) and a level up Rom Engineer. I did modify their skills a bit while experimenting so they are probably not optimal but seem to work okay so far. I just started the Borg quest line.
Tovan and the Borg are set up roughly:
Tac Team | Rapid Fire | Torp Spread | Atk Pattern Beta
Torp Spread | Scatter Volley | Rapid Fire
Veril
Emergency Power to Weapons | Emergency Power to Shields
Hiven
Polarize Hull | Transfer Shield Strength
Satra
? | ? | Gravity Well | Gravity Well
Engineer(generic one from levelling cant recall his name)
Eng Team
I run base power levels at W/S/E/A: 70/40/25/25 unless Im cloaked then I pump up Aux and drop weapons since I cannot shoot while cloaked. Keep meaning to try the Gravity Well + area torpedo tactic but I keep forgetting.
Ive read a lot of threads that state (Superior) Romulan Operative is the way to go...I think only Tovan (SRO) and Satra (RO) have those? Also been reading up on Aux to Battery builds...but those make my head spin.
Comments
The KDF has similar questions for B'rel versus Hegh'ta. Those who choose the B'rel almost exclusively go torpedo/sci in some combination. Otherwise, you are better off saving the money or spending it elsewhere.
I use the B'rel, myself. It can do things the T'varo cant, and vice versa. They are still very similar ships, though.
3 tactical consoles only... this is a big reason to specialize in torpedos (and mines) for both the B'rel and T'varo. You dont have console slots to toy with suboptimal builds. And transphasics already are low output weapons compared to other torpedo/mine types... so if you insist on energy weapons, at least throw in a quantum or HY plasma when you do strip shields.
Bottom line: you are probably playing at your BOff cap. That is what i got from what you wrote/didnt write. Congrats on a T'varo, but you need to spend more $$$ to get enough BOffs to run a specialized T'varo build in order to truly see the ship shine as it was intended.
Also, the T'varo can throw one grav well 1 with the LtCom universal slot. I dont have my Romulan tac to the point where i can experiment, but giving up a LtCom Tac Boff for GW1 is a tough call. Some builds might call for it, but i would personally avoid it in favor of more attack skills, given what the T'varo' layout is.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
Needless to say, both are quite fun...now if I can just find that outpost to blow up with the T1 !!!
Good to see other people can see the light!
:cool:
it's a great versatile ship...there's lots of build options, so don't feel pigeonholed into just torpedoes.
Enhanced battle cloak lets you heal and use science powers while cloaked also, so even all energy builds work well with EBC.
The T'varo is a wonderful little bird and served me pretty well. In hindsight, the reason why I'm not going back to her now is because she's a bit too overengineered and fragile to do the things I want to do in a Romulan warbird. But yeah, definitely a great ship.
So I gave it to my Sci Romulan, and made it a beam FAW build.
It's completely bonkers. If I have 50% shields at the end of a fight, it's a miracle.
But I have fun.
I ran a transphasic build with 2 clusters and 2 rapid reload and sci abilities to crown control. I used some quest drops and tractor torps as well.
Now that I have the rep it is running Adapted Maco Deflector and Shields with Romulan engines
It runs plasma torps with the tractor mines, web mines and plasma mines.
It is a surgical ship
I normally fly mt Ar'Kif and is it simply a weapon of mass destruction and assuming you dont miss a tact team and epts you are normally fine... normally
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As far as the T'Varo, my first fleet ship purchase was a T'Varo. Alpha'd destabalized torps are ridonkulous. To maximize my potential, I actually bought the Hirogen lock box traint: Hot Pursuit (double mine tracking distance) for my Transphasic and Nukara web mines, as well as the trait: Intimidating Strikes (10% chance to confuse targets hit by torpedoes).
I like mines in the back because with Dispersal pattern beta III and 2 KM tracking distance, you will constantly be mopping up anything nearby. This is disgusting on maps like Cure Elite where it is easy to get groups of ships to fly through them. On other maps, simply flying in reverse through your own cloud of mines will kill any pursuer and also works great for clusters of gravity-welled Borg Spheres/Probes
My DPS is pants and I can't tank for sh*t, but it's a fun ship with sweet lines, which is EXACTLY what I need when I'm bored of my Scimitar.
Also, I got the starter pack, so I can run the console set; I actually really like the T'varo set, as it gives me a nice bonus to DPS, especially if I swap out a sci and an eng console.
I went Photon Torpedos (because of the fast reload & the lack of Purple Torpedo DOFFs on a n00b 50). Didn't have the Breen stuff yet, and I still don't like the Transphasics for stupid Borg STFs because nothing lives long enough for that to matter.
4x Photon Torpedos up front (3x purple Mk X Acc/Dmgx2, 1x green Mk XII Acc), 2x Photon Torpedos rear (both purple Mk X Acc/Dmgx2), plus the Tractor Mines or Mk XII Photon Mines... Tac consoles are 2 purple Mk XI Photon Detonation Assembly consoles, 1 blue Mk XII Photon Detonation Assembly console. Plus the T'varo set bonus. Not terrible & not a 100% n00b setup, but it's not close to the output of my Quantum Torpedo setup on my B'rel.
Still managed to get the Tactical Cube at the end of ICE to target me towards the end of the fight (and got one- or two-shotted for that & had to fly back to the loot pile LOL). Considering we got the bonus & nobody used Grav Well on the Nanite Spheres, I think the DPS was pretty decent all around.
And I didn't even use the destabilized Plasma thingy from the T'varo set because I hadn't used the T'varo before doing an ICE run. I was worried about not pulling my weight in an Elite, but ICE is so easy, even a PUG could do it & get the bonus.
I'll do the Transphasic thing at some point, though... but the Breen Cluster is just so slow, and Rapid Fire Transphasics aren't purple Mk XIIs...
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
That being said, I do enjoy the ship. I'm just crazy to not use the T'varo like a torpdedo boat, but more like a small bomber. The Destabilized Plasma Torpedo is so satisfying when you smack a foe and see in big letters the amount of hurt you just gave your target and everyone around it.
There are two angles you can use for this reasoning:
1.) The Federation and Starfleet have a rich and detailed history.
This is good because it allows creators of new Trek stuff, like Cryptic, to tap a large amount of source material. The downside is that there's less room when it comes to the use of older ships, unlike the Romulans or the Klingons. As a result the Federation has more canon ships than the others have canon and Cryptic-designed ships put together.
2.) The Romulan ships as they appeared in "Minefield" were a massive anachronism.
They were more advanced in looks than the ones from TOS and would have perfectly fit in with the 24th century ships. I mean seriously they would have been perfect as small companions of the D'deridex, fighting JH fighters in the Dominion War. They were also equipped with cloaking devices even though in TOS the entire concept was merely a theory to Kirk and Spock.
The creators of the "Enterprise"-episode even admitted later this was a mistake.
So that CBs allows the T'varo as a 25th century ship is pretty their way of saying that the appearance of that ship in "Enterprise" was a mistake and this ship essentially belongs more to the 24th/25th century than the 22nd.
Heck when I designed a 24th century refit for the Romulan D7 I based the nacelles and the bridge module on that ship and the result looks more advanced than the D7.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1246x762q90/215/romulanr7top.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1246x762q90/684/romulanr7side.jpg
You might want to write the appearance of that ship off as interference from another faction in the "Temporal Cold War" that was undone at the end of "Stormfront".;)
Citation please? Where does Cryptic say that?
You don't really stay under Cloak during attack runs. The wiki/tooltip(?) description says "When attacking while cloaked, the ships cloak will drop for a few seconds, leaving the ship momentarily exposed with the shields down." If you've done the T'varo or B'rel on an attack, you do come out of cloak while firing, which is especially obvious when you pull aggro.
Whether this behavior is different than pressing the Cloak/Decloak button in terms of mechanics, I don't know. I'm willing to read where they say it, though.
Even if I'm sacrificing damage, I still pull aggro off of Scimitars even with my n00b Photon Torpedo setup, so maybe I don't want even more spike in PVE.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
That's exactly how I explained the anachronistic T'varo warbirds in Enterprise when I wrote my discussion of Romulan identity, culture, and history: Ahr'fvahir mnean?
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Ability:_Enhanced_Battle_Cloak
That's where most of the information I am citing comes from. Keep in mind my character is a Romulan, so there is a racial bonus when exiting cloak.
In terms of mechanics, the brief period in which a ship with Enhanced Battle Cloak is revealed, it still counts as being cloaked, therefore you can't use any weapons other than Torpedoes. I've noticed this everytime I do use the Enhanced Battle Cloak as an Enhanced Battle Cloak. My Quantums go out, but not my cannons.
Of course, your playstyle and mine is different. I tend to use the T'varo as more of a small stealth bomber, unleashing cannon fire and both Quantum and the Destabilized Plasma Torpedoes before pulling away and either continuing the assault, or decloaking for another run. Rarely do I stay under cloak longer than I need to set up attack runs.
Yeah, but that's always been the case with Enhanced Battle Cloak. You can't fire cannons because General Chang didn't, so that's how the B'rel works... and that's what the T'varo inherited.
The fact that the enemy can shoot at you tells me I'm not cloaked. So some mechanics treat me as uncloaked/dropped cloak.
What I'm saying is that whether or not I can fire cannons doesn't mean I don't get the Romulan bonus for going out of cloak. You might count cannons as being key to being uncloaked, while me, I count being shot at as dropping cloak. I don't have to press the button, unlike other BoPs or Warbirds... but this isn't new because it was the case with the B'rel before.
Whether I get the Romulan bonus or not, it doesn't clearly say. A lot of it is the old Battle Cloak/Enhanced Battle Cloak wording.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
It's really easy to tell, just have a look at your buffs. Yes, you become visible for a second, but your cloak buff never goes away. Neither does for example your bous to defese.
At the same time, you never get the ambush buff. Because you are still cloaked, just visible.
There is really no ambiguity here, it's pretty selfexplanatory.
Ahoi!
Gotta admit, I avoided that thread. Not because of you but because there's a general aura of nuclear fire surrounding that topic. And given the general flamey aura I see in other topics, I decided to skip that one. The "Klingons are a mentally TRIBBLE boomboom-faction!" notion uttered by some is already enough. I don't need stuff from the "Romulans must be portrayed as comicy villains a la Baron Greenback and his henchmen from Danger Mouse!" crowd as well.
So please take no offense but I'll steer clear of that one.
Anyway, it's not like we haven't seen a 25th century Raptor in the mid 23rd century in STO right?.;)
Uh. I certainly do not portray the Romulans as villains (comical or otherwise). That said, I also do not whitewash the crimes of some members of the species. I spent quite some time in researching this, and my sources are given at the end of the final page. I believe my discussion is about as accurate as you're likely to find.
You can safely read the discussion in the link I provided in this thread without having to deal with the lovers of the Tal'Shiar. It goes directly to my discussion itself (on my fleet's website), and not to any thread on the PWE site.
On topic: I don't have either T'varo, but I've poked my head into Ker'rat randomly enough (not really specced well but sometimes the place can be fun to mess around in) to have seen one slinging red doom balls everywhere from cloak once.
I learned terror that day. And made it my mission to shoot that guy every time he showed up.
Indeed.
Like I said it's not because of Protogoth or Protogoth's posts.
I very much enjoy reading a differentiated approach to such topics.
It's because of the kind of discussion that can also be observed in the thread about a potential Romulan Academy.
There is no arguing in the link I posted. It goes to my fleet's website, and specifically, to my own discussion ("essay" or "treatise" or whatever -- the point is, it's only what I myself wrote; there are no comments from anyone else, and I'm pretty sure I set it up so that I have to approve any comments before they will appear on the site, but I think comments are only possible on blog posts, and this is not a blog post).
Anyway, back on topic. I brought this up only to say that I specifically referred to the Temporal Cold War to explain what many Trekkers view as anomalous: the presence of Romulan ships in ENT (namely, the two T'varo warbirds) which had features they should not have had at that time (ability to cloak and travel at warp speed simultaneously, and the material from which they were constructed being first seen in the TNG era).