Do you even Plasmonic Leech, bro? And other endgame equipment questions.

catbadger · April 2014

Hi all,

As a natural lurker I've done quite a bit of forum sifting but rarely post unless I want to ask specific questions. It's been a while though so here's a few gems for whatever sto-guru feels like answering.

Firstly, the plasmonic leech universal console. I had the good sense to pick it up for $10 on my KDF character, but the EC price fedside has now spiraled hopelessly out of my F2Per range. I have boosted the power levels of my Aux2Batt Regent beam-boat pretty well with the Adapted MACO 2pc, efficient Boffs and an overcharged warp core, but am I ever going to reach something approaching optimization without it? I sincerely hope so since I just picked up the MACO MkXII shield and never want to use anything else on my DPS cruiser and apparently the procs interfere.

And a second question just for funsies:

As my side project I have a Defiant-R (think of it as the rusty Camaro out back) and can't seem to get much utility out of the standard cloak during my experiments beyond a lackluster alpha strike now and again. This is disappointing as it was a major reason I spent the Zen on it over something more practical. But maybe...

If one were to equip the full 3-piece Adapted Maco, would the Mask Energy Field be viable as a way to escape Red Alert and pop the cloak when things get hairy? I know the Feds don't have anything with a battle cloak for a reason, but could these two systems be developed in to a reasonable approximation of one?

TL;DR, I know. But for those of you still with me: If the answer to my second question is yes, would getting an Avenger BC allow me to combine that crafty trick with my preferred Aux2Batt Cruiser preferred playstyle? Because if so, I'd swap out my beloved MACO for the Adapted Covariant in a heartbeat. Oh, the possibilities...

noroblad · April 2014

My fed characters (2, one rom, one true fed) really exist just to be social with my fleet during fed only fleet doings. I do not like most of the fed ships (this is purely an officer/weapon/console layout issue), I do not like the choices for BO passive skills, I do not like the lack of leech and other consoles --- basically I would have to spend tons of dil/ec/resources and even after that, between the lame ships and weak officers, the characters would still be weaker. I can handle weaker, role-playing and all that and being top dps is not everything, fine, but I can't justify the resource sink to try to bring them up to speed either. These characters will have to make do with rep & fleet gear without the high end consoles.

However if you have only one serious char and it is fed or fed aligned, the leech should be a goal "someday". It is justified for such a player whereas it is not for someone like me.

Can you do well without it? Of course. Sci officer with energy siphon is basically a poor man's replacement for leech. There are other power tricks that could be used as well.

I am not sure about the second one. I think shooting an enemy puts you in red alert, not 100% sure, so you would have to drop your target and wait for your shots to peel off. If you stopped shooting it might work but it takes a few to get out of red alert, and it may require getting over 10k from enemy in which case the downtime and dps loss would be significant.

I do not know if you could use the romulan science stealth clicky to achieve your goal either. It seems to be a true battle cloak -- it may be possible to use that, fire for a burst, stop, and then console-cloak or something cheezy too. Or use it, then cloak, then alpha. Unfortunately it may be a "buy stuff to see if it works" question, if no one knows for sure.

lindaleff · April 2014

All 3 of my Starfleet character use the Plasmonic Leech, and it is integral to their builds. You may not be able to purchase it now, but putting in honest work towards earning it gives you something to be proud of. Even if the project takes you a month to earn, it is well worth the time and work invested.

The only downside is that the 2-part bonus from the M.A.C.O. set actually cancels out the effects of the Leach, rendering it entirely useless. So never use it on any of your M.A.C.O. ships.

tareruntalion · April 2014

plasmonic leech is important as it gives that something extra in power, to buy it i used the dil i earned from the mirror event on my three toons to buy zen and then buy the romulan survivor packs, then i sold them at the exchange and after 3 packs sold i have it now. another way to not have any power problems it to run a cruiser with the weapon cruiser command, fleet or spire core and some good set and even before the plasmonic leech i had +30 power to every subsystem with 125 weapon 74 shield and auxiliary and 45 engines and if you use the eptx powers and the engineering eps power then you can almost max every power

legendarylycan · April 2014

lindaleff wrote: »

The only downside is that the 2-part bonus from the M.A.C.O. set actually cancels out the effects of the Leach, rendering it entirely useless. So never use it on any of your M.A.C.O. ships.

it cancels out the power gain on the shield, not any of the set bonuses

just don't use the shield with a leech and you're fine

riccardo171 · April 2014

You have to be careful with a2b builds running Leech. some people won't dig into power levels mechanics.

For a hit and run ship with cloak, AtB yourself when leech is on is equivalent to break cloak. When leech effect wears off, you get under 0 power and therefore locked out of auxiliary.
Things are different on cruisers where you don't have to worry about not having cloak handy. I have a double AtB Avenger that uses leech, deals way too much damage with thru the roof weapon/shield/engine power levels. I'm hitting hard, have great shields and optimal maneuverability.
on the other side, I have a single AtB Scimitar. i don't use leech there as I would commit suicide making battle cloak fail. power holds at 4 points. I usually pop AtB after I'm buffed to cut CD and get more power that on a warbird is luxury.

Just be careful when toying with ship's power. You may find yourself "oh gosh!" with Sci powers off/bad healing. There's Battery for that but hey, they won't save ya forever :cool:

aaaand no, MACO power conduit link does not stack with Leech.

silverwidow2 · April 2014

I have several toons mainly Fed/RomFed. I don't have Leech on any of them and do just fine (PvE) wise. I alwaysed looked at it as a PvP tool more than anything. but that's just me.

angrytarg · April 2014

The leech is something the top tier players rely on, but it is in no way necessary. Especially if you consider the price, I got two of those on my fed chars for a few 100k EC, now it's millions. You don't need it, except you want to use one of the few top tier cookie cutter builds that require a lot of ingame currency.

ursusmorologus · April 2014

I only use it on beam boats

red01999 · April 2014

I use the leech on my main tac. I am a big-time cruiser fan. It has helped with his power levels, both on A2B builds and more traditional dragon/drake builds.

That said, I concur with previous posters - unless you're in it for the ultra-optimal DPS builds, it's in no way necessary. Most of the really high end stuff just flat-out isn't; it's hardly impossible to get a perfectly decent build with relatively mundane gear, fight PvE/Foundry missions well, and meaningfully contribute to queued events.

PvP may be another matter, though.

kimmym · April 2014

For me, the Plasmodic Leech is the difference between getting all 4 subsystems over 75 for my AMP core and settling for 2.

For a Romulan I can only imagine it being much more important.

The only time I don't run a Leech is if I want to run the MACO shield. The power returns are not as strong for the shield, but I often want to use it for it's defensive stats, and the power it gives allows me to free up the console slot my Leech sits in. This is typically in PvP where I can assume a decent amount of incoming fire.

tom61sto · April 2014

For the substitute battle-cloak thing on a Fed, you might consider the Hirogen Lockbox's Alpha Deception Field. While it disables you for 5 seconds, you also have perfect cloak and are unable to be targeted, after that 5 seconds you can move around under very high Stealth until you detonate it (min after 5 more seconds). 300K EC on the Exchange right now, so pretty cheap to give it a whirl. Fairly capable of getting out of sticky situations, the only thing to really worry about is if you're under heavy Plasma burn.

Adapted MACO three-piece field will let you skate by a Borg Gate at 8km+ without being seen, but doesn't really substitute for a Battle Cloak in any other capacity.

As far as Leech is concerned, I wouldn't worry about it too much on an Aux2Bat build. It's nice, but probably not 25 Mil nice if you're running with 3 of your subsystems near maxed out.

catbadger · April 2014

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Alright, so what I've gathered from the combined knowledge is that I should still keep the leech in my sights, as it would probably trump the MACO shield in gross total benefits to my ship, but that I shouldn't stress about not having the EC for it right now. Plus who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and loot a MKXII purp antiproton console or something and have the money tomorrow. But until then it's MACO shield, as it doesn't sound like Mask Energy Field is worth going full 3 piece Adapted.

On the topic of cloak proxies, the general sentiment seems to be that it's more of a headache than it's worth trying to get a cloak to coexist with Aux2Batt. That seems reasonable, and should be enough to keep me from buying an Avenger... for now.

@tom61sto - Don't know how that console escaped my notice but I'll definitely be grabbing one to experiment with. Might synergize well with the cloak, might not, but allowing my ship to "play dead" sounds like too much hilarity to pass up. Thanks for the tip!

coffeemike · April 2014

I wouldn't get the console unless you have power issues. Or can afford it. My tac Vesta runs with it on AP beams, 3 efficient BOFFs, and the Adapted MACO space set.

Do you even Plasmonic Leech, bro? And other endgame equipment questions.

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