Hi my fed eng has his ship the gal-x, my kling tac has the mogh and now my borg-rommie is in need of a science warbird with a build (I barley know sci) that plays in the sci favour. I have the dyson sci destroyer and the rommies main sci ship but nether I think suits her and she is in need of some sci love. Will properly be using plasma beams or cannons depending on the ship e.g. mirror mogi or t'varo. she currently commands the dyson sci dest but thats because I think it's the best science ship at the time with the best mobility and cool play style. thank you guys.
Yeah, I am having a similar issue. I started a Romulan Science toon 'cuz I already had a Fed Engineer and KDF Tactical toon. I know how to play a Eng and Tac toon very well... Sci toon is a different story. Probably due to the fact there is no science ship to choose from until you reach level 40. So I am flying a Ha'nom Guardian Warbird.
Doing the main story mission is generally not a problem since they are not particularly challenging. I can do okay with the queued PvE and normal STF, but I want to focus on elite STFs. I guess I will do okay as long as I limit combat to short engagements so that I can run away and heal up. But I feel that more vulnerable in my Ha'nom than I did in my KDF's Hegh'ta BoP when I first started to work on the Omega rep for that KDF toon.
The Mirror Mogai could be an alternative, however, it does not have a Commander Science station. I don't know the station layout of the Mirror T'Varo. I don't wanna spend any Zen on a C-Store ship for a toon that I am not sure about...
Pretty much anyone wishing to play a Sci on a Romulan is having the same issue. The very limited choice of T5 Sci ships on Rom side is hard to deal with. I briefly had the tactical DSD version (lighting bolt console and fourth Tac console) with the gear from the grind-for version on my char, but I fell into the half that didn't really like the DSD after flying it for awhile.
I ended up going with the very expensive (though, mostly ground in-game resources) Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser with the Destroyer console (well over a hundred Mil EC) needed for the three-set damage proc on certain Sci abilities and running it with a Science in the Commander slot. Even that took me awhile to get to where I liked both it's survivability and damage output (figuring out what works in Sci abilities for different PvE and bolting on the right traits, including some lock box ones, fleet gear and some of the new crafted gear).
Maybe we'll get lucky and the Tier 6 science ships coming with the Delta Rising expansion will address both the lack of choice in Romulan Sci ships and make Science have more utility, or at least damage, in PvE.
#1 - Set my Fed-Aligned Rom toon to "permanent reserve" which basically means doing a few daily missions to "farm dilithium" for an hour at most... great a Fed-aligned dilithium farmer... sounds like an oxymoron... and perhaps make an attempt to level up Omega and New Romulus reps from time to time.
#2 - The more extreme measure of deleting this toon after stripping off anything of value and transferring the ECs to my other toons.
I am so glad I did not buy a plasmonic leech of the exchange for this toon yet...
If you want true and "pure" sci, then go for the Ha'nom Warbird. It's the closest thing to a science ship the Romulans got. And not really a bad one at that, as it's actually pretty strong when compared to other factions' science ships of that level. Standard sci boff layout, battle cloak, sensor analysis, subsystem targeting, singularity abilities, turn rate of 10, strong shields and decent console layout.
Really, I'm not sure why Romulan players complain so much about the lack of science ships when this sole vessel is one of the better ones out there, especially considering you can get it for free at lvl 40, or a Mirror one off the exchange.
If that one isn't up your taste and you've got a lot of money to spend, then consider either Temporal Science Vessel, or Tal'Shiar Adapted Destroyer.
But... don't back away from other Warbirds just because they're not pure science ships, or don't have access to Cmdr. Sci boff station. I personally have my only Romulan chacter (science) flying Fleet D'deridex since LoR launched and I'm having a blast with it. Not really a science focused build, but an all-rounder having access to Gravity Well, Tractor Beam Repulsors (with the inverse effect doff), lots of healing abilities and above average DPS (Beam Arrays, 2x FAW, APB, TT1).
You can also consider one of the following: Fleet Ha'apax (Lt.Cmdr. Universal and Lt. Sci can be used to make the ship sci focused), Mirror Mogai (Lt.Cmdr. Sci and Lt. Sci) or Dhelan Retrofit (Lt.Cmdr. Sci and Lt. Uni).
But if you're saying it's gonna be your first sci toon, then I'd strongly suggest starting with Ha'nom/Mirror Ha'nom and just experimenting with different sci abilities to get a grasp of their function and usefulness. Only after that start thinking about a way to make a decent build that suits your own playstyle.
You have the Hanom, fleet Hanom and the DSDs. Plus a few almost scis with a LTC sci slot -- a few of the c-store retrofits, a fleet ship or two, and 1 or 2 mirror ships.
Never really like the Hanom, mostly for looks but it is a solid pure sci vessel.
Currently using the free 9-console DSD that came from the 4th anniversary grind event. You know to be honest I am kinda just whelmed with it. Perhaps one of the 10-console versions might be a touch better. I've tinkered a fair bit with it and never really found a set up that I really like.
The Narada (Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser - Gad, that thing needs a shorter name) Is a good choice, if you don't mind playing a TacSci ... I use one on my own Rom Sci captain, and although it's not perfect, and needs a good bit of tweaking, and some expensive gear, it does work, and best of all it comes with both Cruiser Commands plus Sensor Analysis. ...
I'm currently running a Tetryon Shield Stripper - BFAW Spammer build, with Elite Fleet Def/Imp/Shield and keeping the Adapted Warp core and Console 2 pce. Using the Nukara 2pce set (console and DBB) and the Omega Torp and Console, it works quite well. It doesn't win any contests for DPS, but it does melt things pretty quickly.
Thinking of maybe swapping to Polarons and trying the Jem-H set on it ... Or if I respec heavily in to a Grav build, maybe trying the Romulan/Reman space set that virtually no-one ever uses in STO.
Since this is my 1st sci toon I am using both Tyken's Rift and Gravity Well. Captain skills have been spread out to make the best of both abilities. No more than 6 points allocated to any skill and I don't recall any skills with only 3 points.
Current weapons are green / blue MK XI and consists of plasma torpedoes (fore & aft), two forward dual plasma beam banks and 2 aft plasma beam arrays.
I chose TSS2 to heal others, but it seems more than half the time I am using it on myself. Although CPB2 sounded nice I don't really use it much. Thinking about replacing it with Scramble Sensors 2 (have to check my captain skills for that), or I just might switch to GW1 which means if I unbox my Mirror Mogai I can at least use GW1. I will likely swap TS1 for TS2 and FAW2 for FAW1.
I will start the New Romulan and Omega reps this weekend so hopefully slotting in some traits in the future will increase the durability of the Ha'nom.
Hi my fed eng has his ship the gal-x, my kling tac has the mogh and now my borg-rommie is in need of a science warbird with a build (I barley know sci) that plays in the sci favour. I have the dyson sci destroyer and the rommies main sci ship but nether I think suits her and she is in need of some sci love. Will properly be using plasma beams or cannons depending on the ship e.g. mirror mogi or t'varo. she currently commands the dyson sci dest but thats because I think it's the best science ship at the time with the best mobility and cool play style. thank you guys.
rom have 2 "sci" ships... the haanom, and the dyson. You don't like the dyson, the other one would be the haanom... this is not a difficult decision.
Now, if you have oodles of money (game or real) you can get a box sci ship and there are several really good ones (most will make you give up stealth and all of them give up singularity). I personally like the TS battle "cruiser"; it has a ltcmdr sci, a cmdr uni, so it *could* be run as a sci ship but its not a 5 console sci ship, so it depends on what you want there. 8 weapons with the sci ship officer layout is pretty slick, though. The recluse is a great sci carrier, here a universal cmdr lets you go tactical sometimes or go pure sci/support. There are 5 or 6 other great "very expensive" sci ships on the exchange as well --- whether they are significantly "better" than a haanom is questionable.
consider: the upcoming patch and new tier of ships... do you want to spend right now? Also, this patch supposedly addresses the weak sci ship issue, but no details were given. I would make do until the new tier of ships is out, personally.
Since this is my 1st sci toon I am using both Tyken's Rift and Gravity Well. Captain skills have been spread out to make the best of both abilities. No more than 6 points allocated to any skill and I don't recall any skills with only 3 points.
Current weapons are green / blue MK XI and consists of plasma torpedoes (fore & aft), two forward dual plasma beam banks and 2 aft plasma beam arrays.
I chose TSS2 to heal others, but it seems more than half the time I am using it on myself. Although CPB2 sounded nice I don't really use it much. Thinking about replacing it with Scramble Sensors 2 (have to check my captain skills for that), or I just might switch to GW1 which means if I unbox my Mirror Mogai I can at least use GW1. I will likely swap TS1 for TS2 and FAW2 for FAW1.
I will start the New Romulan and Omega reps this weekend so hopefully slotting in some traits in the future will increase the durability of the Ha'nom.
You didn't list DOffs, but make sure you're running Conn Officers to reduce the cooldown af Tac Team, that gives a huge boost to survivability with this ship's shields. Going with at least two blues (won't be global, but is fairly cheap usually and only takes up two slots) or adding a third green or going with 2 purple to go to full global will be a huge improvement.
Rep Traits wise, I always slot Hull Repairing Nanites from Omega. Be sure to pick up Living Hull trait from the latest FE, it helps more than I thought it would.
Really, I'm not sure why Romulan players complain so much about the lack of science ships when this sole vessel is one of the better ones out there, especially considering you can get it for free at lvl 40, or a Mirror one off the exchange.
It's huge to the point that it's hard to do AoEs with (not as bad as trying Eject Warp Plasma on D'D, but still not great), and it's not even close to the capabilities of a Vesta Fed side.
You didn't list DOffs, but make sure you're running Conn Officers to reduce the cooldown af Tac Team, that gives a huge boost to survivability with this ship's shields. Going with at least two blues (won't be global, but is fairly cheap usually and only takes up two slots) or adding a third green or going with 2 purple to go to full global will be a huge improvement.
I did not list Doffs because I didn't slot any. This is the same for my Fed Engineer and KDF Tactical toons. I am comfortable enough for now getting doing around 2.7k to 2.9k DPS so far with them. I don't plan on treating my Rom Sci toon any differently.
Rep Traits wise, I always slot Hull Repairing Nanites from Omega. Be sure to pick up Living Hull trait from the latest FE, it helps more than I thought it would.
The Hull Repairing Nanites are on my "to get" list. That's one of the reasons why all my toons (4 right now) have completed or will soon be starting the Omega Rep this weekend. I'll get the Living Hull trait soon enough for my Rom toon; currently doing the main story missions in chronological order.
The Narada (Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser - Gad, that thing needs a shorter name)
Even though it's not the Narada (5.8 miles long), nor the same class (visually different), you could probably use it's class name if you want a short one - Khnial.
One ship I understand being overlooked as a sci option is the Tulwar. It takes a little TLC to get it working as a sci ship (and honestly I'd originally bought it as more of a tac option), but I've been surprised to have good results using it as a healer and crowd-controller.
Slot the lt.cmdr universal with a sci boff, and you have access to Tyken's Rift and Gravity Well - trap a couple enemies while dealing some specials damage, and let your fleet do the rest! Five sci consoles plus a decent deflector give plenty of power to the particle generators, and the Tulwar already has a built-in boost to aux power. And there's still room for some shield heal consoles to play the support role in PvE, so plenty for my sci boffs to do.
With 2 universals you can have up to 3 sci boffs on deck, although I have an eng in the ensign slot just for extra hull heals. But with 3 sci you have a lot of options to play around with, considering the main sci slot is a lieutenant.
It's not a pure science ship by any means, but with the survivability it's a viable option for fleet support.
Loading up with sci abilities is not that helpful for the team, that CPB2 is doing very little and TR+GW is a cooldown nightmare. Having a sci captain doesn't make sci abilities any better. I always liked my rom sci in a flt T'varo - DPS and have the sci abilities that helped the team.
True, but as a lvl40 ship the KDF allied Roms can run a Mirror Somraw and the feds can use whatever their version is named. The newest mirror escort.
It's got LtCDR+LT sci boff seating, CMDR+ENS tac seating, ENG LT seating, and 4 forward weapons. It has the potential to be a decent sci-oriented ship with good firepower.
True, but as a lvl40 ship the KDF allied Roms can run a Mirror Somraw and the feds can use whatever their version is named. The newest mirror escort.
It's got LtCDR+LT sci boff seating, CMDR+ENS tac seating, ENG LT seating, and 4 forward weapons. It has the potential to be a decent sci-oriented ship with good firepower.
I thought it relavent. If not, no worries.
You can only use up to level 30 ships of your allied faction (which is Tier 4, BTW).
Hey everyone thanks for all of the recommendations and advice. I've had some time to think about this and check the forums everyone in a while and I've come to this. The Ha'nom Guardian warbird (Sci) is properly very good but I don't like the look of the ship. it's the top of the Eng and theres no Tac underneath. To me the Sci just looks odd and weird. The DSD I do enjoy flying but I'm just a noob at sci. I would like to try out the Tal Shiar adapted battle cruiser but I don't have enough EC (not yet). I'm not sure about twair simatar for sci dps (so to speck) and not really interested in the 22nd warbird (forget the name sorry).
Put the Universal as Sci and you have a ship that's half sci half tac, and with the enhanced battle cloak you can throw out your sci abilities while staying cloaked, an added bonus for sci users. The thing SHINES as a sci-scort, and the only more-science ships the Roms have are the Ha'nom, the Dyson, or lockbox ships.
Plus it looks properly Romulan. Amazing little ship.
Put the Universal as Sci and you have a ship that's half sci half tac, and with the enhanced battle cloak you can throw out your sci abilities while staying cloaked, an added bonus for sci users. The thing SHINES as a sci-scort, and the only more-science ships the Roms have are the Ha'nom, the Dyson, or lockbox ships.
Plus it looks properly Romulan. Amazing little ship.
In my situation I have decide to turn the Ha'nom into a torpedo ship. This means I can divert most of the weapon power into the other subsystems; a lot of it will go to the engines which should hopefully improve flight performance.
I will likely need to tweak ship gear, Boff abilities and captain skills to focus a bit more on energy drain to counteract shields which absorbs 75% of the damage dealt by kinetic weapons.
The T'Varo Retrofit is not an option for now, because I don't want to have to spend Zen to make a toon worth playing. If a Ha'nom torpedo ship will make playing my Romulan toon fun to play again, then the T'Varo Retrofit could be a viable option. Despite the fact that it does not have a Commander science station (this is a sci toon after all), the enhanced battle cloak should make the T'Varo a lethal torpedo ship.
Hi I've made up my mind and now sticking to the DSD until I can save up and get the Tal shiar Battle cruiser. Am I safe to assume that this ship has a build of it's own? (Weapons, Shields, Consoles, Traits, Core, Devices, Boffs ability's, Doffs, Def and Engines).
Hi I've made up my mind and now sticking to the DSD until I can save up and get the Tal shiar Battle cruiser. Am I safe to assume that this ship has a build of it's own? (Weapons, Shields, Consoles, Traits, Core, Devices, Boffs ability's, Doffs, Def and Engines).
Most definitely. The biggest change from a Romulan Sci Ship is that the ship has an A-M core and Cruiser Commands, instead of a normal Singularity Core with Singularity Abilities. Means higher overall power levels, directional power(one system copying 7.5% to another) instead of waiting for charges to build. Problem is that if you want the three-piece bonus, or the two piece bonus without the destroyer, you have to use the core the ship comes with, which has effectively [A->W] and gives a small boost to Aux power levels (capacity and efficient) and the level scaling Hull Repair , but at 50 is less a Mk XI core skill (though no other A-M core has Hull Repair, AFAIK). Very lacking compared to the different cores that have been released since then, particularly Elite Fleet, and having [W->A] for more Aux while running high weapon power is more useful when running energy weapons.
The builds it can run are extremely flexible with having a full Commander and Ensign Universals, but if you're running the three piece you loose out on two console spots and have to use the core it comes with which reins back in the flexibility.
My build handles Infected Elite, KA Elite, Undine Battlezone, CCE and more fine, but things like Hive Elite it struggles when I think it really shouldn't, but part of that is that I'm running the Reman Mk XII shields for the visual effects.( I could've sworn I saw these running around at the start of LoR with Reman 1 and 2, but I can't use those visuals even though they're unlocked on my Rom ships.)
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=tsabcs95_5175 Notes list DOffs. The Particle Generator is a crafted Exotic Particle Field Exciter (since it's not on the Skill Planner site) I got off the Exchange. I can make it tankier or have higher weapon damage, but it would defeat the goal, which was a heavy science cruiser.
If you happen to grind up the amount needed before we have final details on what T6 ships are coming, what they can do and how big the gap really is when it comes to game-play between T5-U and T6, definitely wait before pulling the trigger. Deteriorating Secondary Deflector Mk X actually has slightly more damage than the proc from the three-set already (but only does 50% shield penetration versus complete on the three-set), higher marks should be coming and be usable on all full Sci ships (which doesn't include the TSABC in their guaranteed-to-have definition).
No I don't have the Tal shiar battle cruiser yet. I'm only wondering about the DSD (Dyson Science Destroyer) and some fancy builds for this ship. That is all and if I mislead you I apologize.
'm in the same quandry. Got back into STO, have a Fed-aligned Rommy scientist and I don't know where to start to make him effective. I had pretty much just run him with bulked up tac-skills but have now respecced him to be a 'proper' science character who does proper sciency stuff.
I feel a tropedo boat would be a lot of fun, fitting for a battle-cloak equipped ship and especially suitable for sci characters since you don't have to worry about weapon power when juggling power settings.
I was likely going to fly a Scimitar variant (I have all three plus the consoles). I'm struggling with getting away from building and gaming by just going full-tactical, with the sciencey-stuff as an afterthought. It's just a bad-habit, but it feels 'easy'. But I bet going full-science or 'tac-sci' as I've seen bandied around would be a lot of fun and add variety to the character.
Does anyone have tips on how to build a Scimitar Captain who gets the most out of his science? Is a torpedo-boat, which I'd love to try out, viable? If so, what would folks say to be the best Scim varient torp-boat, console and weapon layouts and tactics to be effective in PvE and/or PvP (I know that those different environments likely need different tactics and options). If it's a complete no-go, what are the other options for a budding science-scimitar?
Well, I am not ready to build my torpedo ship yet mainly because I am waiting for Delta Rising to be released so that I can assume that I will get Mk XIV reputation gear without having to level up Mk XII gear. I don't know what exactly is going to happen which is why I am waiting. Additionally, I am still towards the beginning of the main story mission... I figure I need to do 30 more missions to get the Breen Transphasic Cluster Torpedo. I am working on other toons as well, but hopefully I can get that Breen torpedo by the time DR comes out.
It would probably be a good idea to do the rep missions that will offer you the opportunity to purchase torpedoes. I am currently working on Omega and New Romulus reps for their plasma torpedoes; Omega Plasma and Hyper-Plasma torpedoes. After that I will work on Dyson and Undine reps for the Gravimetric Photon and Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon torpedoes. One of each will be installed on my Ha'nom. The remaining two weapon slots will either have two Breen Transphasic Cluster torpedoes, or just one of them and a tractor beam mine.
For slotted Doff stations I am considering the following 5 Doffs (I am not in a Fleet so I cannot have 6 slotted Doffs). I plan on filling them with very rare Doffs.
3 Projectile Weapon Officers - The ones which have a 20% chance of reducing torpedo cool down time by 5 seconds. You should have Law so that means you only need two other PWOs from either the Khazan Colony Support missions or buying them from the Exchange (starts at about 1.1 million ECs). If you have completed Omega rep Tier 3, then you can purchase Ten of Ten for around 14k dilithium. I believe if your military commendation level has reached level 4, then you can recruit a free PWO.
2 Deflector Officers - There are 3 variants. I am getting the ones which have a 25% chance to reduce the cool down of deflector related abilities by 50%. I am specifically using for Tyken's Rift & Gravity Well. You can either do the Azlesa Colony Support mission to get two of them or you can buy the DOs from the Exchange; starting price is somewhere from 2.5 million to 3.2 million (I can't remember). Note: Azlesa is in the Omega Leonis Sector Block which means your diplomatic commendation level must be at least 3 before you can enter the KDF sector. Or you can ask someone to give you temporary diplomatic immunity.
Comments
Doing the main story mission is generally not a problem since they are not particularly challenging. I can do okay with the queued PvE and normal STF, but I want to focus on elite STFs. I guess I will do okay as long as I limit combat to short engagements so that I can run away and heal up. But I feel that more vulnerable in my Ha'nom than I did in my KDF's Hegh'ta BoP when I first started to work on the Omega rep for that KDF toon.
The Mirror Mogai could be an alternative, however, it does not have a Commander Science station. I don't know the station layout of the Mirror T'Varo. I don't wanna spend any Zen on a C-Store ship for a toon that I am not sure about...
I ended up going with the very expensive (though, mostly ground in-game resources) Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser with the Destroyer console (well over a hundred Mil EC) needed for the three-set damage proc on certain Sci abilities and running it with a Science in the Commander slot. Even that took me awhile to get to where I liked both it's survivability and damage output (figuring out what works in Sci abilities for different PvE and bolting on the right traits, including some lock box ones, fleet gear and some of the new crafted gear).
Maybe we'll get lucky and the Tier 6 science ships coming with the Delta Rising expansion will address both the lack of choice in Romulan Sci ships and make Science have more utility, or at least damage, in PvE.
#1 - Set my Fed-Aligned Rom toon to "permanent reserve" which basically means doing a few daily missions to "farm dilithium" for an hour at most... great a Fed-aligned dilithium farmer... sounds like an oxymoron... and perhaps make an attempt to level up Omega and New Romulus reps from time to time.
#2 - The more extreme measure of deleting this toon after stripping off anything of value and transferring the ECs to my other toons.
I am so glad I did not buy a plasmonic leech of the exchange for this toon yet...
Really, I'm not sure why Romulan players complain so much about the lack of science ships when this sole vessel is one of the better ones out there, especially considering you can get it for free at lvl 40, or a Mirror one off the exchange.
If that one isn't up your taste and you've got a lot of money to spend, then consider either Temporal Science Vessel, or Tal'Shiar Adapted Destroyer.
But... don't back away from other Warbirds just because they're not pure science ships, or don't have access to Cmdr. Sci boff station. I personally have my only Romulan chacter (science) flying Fleet D'deridex since LoR launched and I'm having a blast with it. Not really a science focused build, but an all-rounder having access to Gravity Well, Tractor Beam Repulsors (with the inverse effect doff), lots of healing abilities and above average DPS (Beam Arrays, 2x FAW, APB, TT1).
You can also consider one of the following: Fleet Ha'apax (Lt.Cmdr. Universal and Lt. Sci can be used to make the ship sci focused), Mirror Mogai (Lt.Cmdr. Sci and Lt. Sci) or Dhelan Retrofit (Lt.Cmdr. Sci and Lt. Uni).
But if you're saying it's gonna be your first sci toon, then I'd strongly suggest starting with Ha'nom/Mirror Ha'nom and just experimenting with different sci abilities to get a grasp of their function and usefulness. Only after that start thinking about a way to make a decent build that suits your own playstyle.
You have the Hanom, fleet Hanom and the DSDs. Plus a few almost scis with a LTC sci slot -- a few of the c-store retrofits, a fleet ship or two, and 1 or 2 mirror ships.
Never really like the Hanom, mostly for looks but it is a solid pure sci vessel.
Currently using the free 9-console DSD that came from the 4th anniversary grind event. You know to be honest I am kinda just whelmed with it. Perhaps one of the 10-console versions might be a touch better. I've tinkered a fair bit with it and never really found a set up that I really like.
I'm currently running a Tetryon Shield Stripper - BFAW Spammer build, with Elite Fleet Def/Imp/Shield and keeping the Adapted Warp core and Console 2 pce. Using the Nukara 2pce set (console and DBB) and the Omega Torp and Console, it works quite well. It doesn't win any contests for DPS, but it does melt things pretty quickly.
Thinking of maybe swapping to Polarons and trying the Jem-H set on it ... Or if I respec heavily in to a Grav build, maybe trying the Romulan/Reman space set that virtually no-one ever uses in STO.
Current Boff Abilities are as follows:
Sci #1 - HE, ST2, TR2, GW2
Sci #2 - ST1, TSS2, CPB2
Eng #1 - ET1, EPTS2
Tac #1 - TS1, FAW2
Tac #2 - TT1
Current weapons are green / blue MK XI and consists of plasma torpedoes (fore & aft), two forward dual plasma beam banks and 2 aft plasma beam arrays.
I chose TSS2 to heal others, but it seems more than half the time I am using it on myself. Although CPB2 sounded nice I don't really use it much. Thinking about replacing it with Scramble Sensors 2 (have to check my captain skills for that), or I just might switch to GW1 which means if I unbox my Mirror Mogai I can at least use GW1. I will likely swap TS1 for TS2 and FAW2 for FAW1.
I will start the New Romulan and Omega reps this weekend so hopefully slotting in some traits in the future will increase the durability of the Ha'nom.
rom have 2 "sci" ships... the haanom, and the dyson. You don't like the dyson, the other one would be the haanom... this is not a difficult decision.
Now, if you have oodles of money (game or real) you can get a box sci ship and there are several really good ones (most will make you give up stealth and all of them give up singularity). I personally like the TS battle "cruiser"; it has a ltcmdr sci, a cmdr uni, so it *could* be run as a sci ship but its not a 5 console sci ship, so it depends on what you want there. 8 weapons with the sci ship officer layout is pretty slick, though. The recluse is a great sci carrier, here a universal cmdr lets you go tactical sometimes or go pure sci/support. There are 5 or 6 other great "very expensive" sci ships on the exchange as well --- whether they are significantly "better" than a haanom is questionable.
consider: the upcoming patch and new tier of ships... do you want to spend right now? Also, this patch supposedly addresses the weak sci ship issue, but no details were given. I would make do until the new tier of ships is out, personally.
You didn't list DOffs, but make sure you're running Conn Officers to reduce the cooldown af Tac Team, that gives a huge boost to survivability with this ship's shields. Going with at least two blues (won't be global, but is fairly cheap usually and only takes up two slots) or adding a third green or going with 2 purple to go to full global will be a huge improvement.
Rep Traits wise, I always slot Hull Repairing Nanites from Omega. Be sure to pick up Living Hull trait from the latest FE, it helps more than I thought it would.
It's huge to the point that it's hard to do AoEs with (not as bad as trying Eject Warp Plasma on D'D, but still not great), and it's not even close to the capabilities of a Vesta Fed side.
I did not list Doffs because I didn't slot any. This is the same for my Fed Engineer and KDF Tactical toons. I am comfortable enough for now getting doing around 2.7k to 2.9k DPS so far with them. I don't plan on treating my Rom Sci toon any differently.
The Hull Repairing Nanites are on my "to get" list. That's one of the reasons why all my toons (4 right now) have completed or will soon be starting the Omega Rep this weekend. I'll get the Living Hull trait soon enough for my Rom toon; currently doing the main story missions in chronological order.
Even though it's not the Narada (5.8 miles long), nor the same class (visually different), you could probably use it's class name if you want a short one - Khnial.
Romulan Institute
D'Galan - Engineer
Slot the lt.cmdr universal with a sci boff, and you have access to Tyken's Rift and Gravity Well - trap a couple enemies while dealing some specials damage, and let your fleet do the rest! Five sci consoles plus a decent deflector give plenty of power to the particle generators, and the Tulwar already has a built-in boost to aux power. And there's still room for some shield heal consoles to play the support role in PvE, so plenty for my sci boffs to do.
With 2 universals you can have up to 3 sci boffs on deck, although I have an eng in the ensign slot just for extra hull heals. But with 3 sci you have a lot of options to play around with, considering the main sci slot is a lieutenant.
It's not a pure science ship by any means, but with the survivability it's a viable option for fleet support.
SNB and remove buffs.
Sensor Scan to land a heavy resist debuff (CD is just the same as Attack Pattern Alpha).
Attack using your ship's high TAC capabilities.
Profit.
This is one of the Romulan boards man
It's got LtCDR+LT sci boff seating, CMDR+ENS tac seating, ENG LT seating, and 4 forward weapons. It has the potential to be a decent sci-oriented ship with good firepower.
I thought it relavent. If not, no worries.
You can only use up to level 30 ships of your allied faction (which is Tier 4, BTW).
Put the Universal as Sci and you have a ship that's half sci half tac, and with the enhanced battle cloak you can throw out your sci abilities while staying cloaked, an added bonus for sci users. The thing SHINES as a sci-scort, and the only more-science ships the Roms have are the Ha'nom, the Dyson, or lockbox ships.
Plus it looks properly Romulan. Amazing little ship.
I second this.
I will likely need to tweak ship gear, Boff abilities and captain skills to focus a bit more on energy drain to counteract shields which absorbs 75% of the damage dealt by kinetic weapons.
The T'Varo Retrofit is not an option for now, because I don't want to have to spend Zen to make a toon worth playing. If a Ha'nom torpedo ship will make playing my Romulan toon fun to play again, then the T'Varo Retrofit could be a viable option. Despite the fact that it does not have a Commander science station (this is a sci toon after all), the enhanced battle cloak should make the T'Varo a lethal torpedo ship.
I'm sure you'll find some great builds on the STOAcademy site.
Most definitely. The biggest change from a Romulan Sci Ship is that the ship has an A-M core and Cruiser Commands, instead of a normal Singularity Core with Singularity Abilities. Means higher overall power levels, directional power(one system copying 7.5% to another) instead of waiting for charges to build. Problem is that if you want the three-piece bonus, or the two piece bonus without the destroyer, you have to use the core the ship comes with, which has effectively [A->W] and gives a small boost to Aux power levels (capacity and efficient) and the level scaling Hull Repair , but at 50 is less a Mk XI core skill (though no other A-M core has Hull Repair, AFAIK). Very lacking compared to the different cores that have been released since then, particularly Elite Fleet, and having [W->A] for more Aux while running high weapon power is more useful when running energy weapons.
The builds it can run are extremely flexible with having a full Commander and Ensign Universals, but if you're running the three piece you loose out on two console spots and have to use the core it comes with which reins back in the flexibility.
My build handles Infected Elite, KA Elite, Undine Battlezone, CCE and more fine, but things like Hive Elite it struggles when I think it really shouldn't, but part of that is that I'm running the Reman Mk XII shields for the visual effects.( I could've sworn I saw these running around at the start of LoR with Reman 1 and 2, but I can't use those visuals even though they're unlocked on my Rom ships.)
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=tsabcs95_5175 Notes list DOffs. The Particle Generator is a crafted Exotic Particle Field Exciter (since it's not on the Skill Planner site) I got off the Exchange. I can make it tankier or have higher weapon damage, but it would defeat the goal, which was a heavy science cruiser.
If you happen to grind up the amount needed before we have final details on what T6 ships are coming, what they can do and how big the gap really is when it comes to game-play between T5-U and T6, definitely wait before pulling the trigger. Deteriorating Secondary Deflector Mk X actually has slightly more damage than the proc from the three-set already (but only does 50% shield penetration versus complete on the three-set), higher marks should be coming and be usable on all full Sci ships (which doesn't include the TSABC in their guaranteed-to-have definition).
I feel a tropedo boat would be a lot of fun, fitting for a battle-cloak equipped ship and especially suitable for sci characters since you don't have to worry about weapon power when juggling power settings.
I was likely going to fly a Scimitar variant (I have all three plus the consoles). I'm struggling with getting away from building and gaming by just going full-tactical, with the sciencey-stuff as an afterthought. It's just a bad-habit, but it feels 'easy'. But I bet going full-science or 'tac-sci' as I've seen bandied around would be a lot of fun and add variety to the character.
Does anyone have tips on how to build a Scimitar Captain who gets the most out of his science? Is a torpedo-boat, which I'd love to try out, viable? If so, what would folks say to be the best Scim varient torp-boat, console and weapon layouts and tactics to be effective in PvE and/or PvP (I know that those different environments likely need different tactics and options). If it's a complete no-go, what are the other options for a budding science-scimitar?
It would probably be a good idea to do the rep missions that will offer you the opportunity to purchase torpedoes. I am currently working on Omega and New Romulus reps for their plasma torpedoes; Omega Plasma and Hyper-Plasma torpedoes. After that I will work on Dyson and Undine reps for the Gravimetric Photon and Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon torpedoes. One of each will be installed on my Ha'nom. The remaining two weapon slots will either have two Breen Transphasic Cluster torpedoes, or just one of them and a tractor beam mine.
For slotted Doff stations I am considering the following 5 Doffs (I am not in a Fleet so I cannot have 6 slotted Doffs). I plan on filling them with very rare Doffs.
3 Projectile Weapon Officers - The ones which have a 20% chance of reducing torpedo cool down time by 5 seconds. You should have Law so that means you only need two other PWOs from either the Khazan Colony Support missions or buying them from the Exchange (starts at about 1.1 million ECs). If you have completed Omega rep Tier 3, then you can purchase Ten of Ten for around 14k dilithium. I believe if your military commendation level has reached level 4, then you can recruit a free PWO.
2 Deflector Officers - There are 3 variants. I am getting the ones which have a 25% chance to reduce the cool down of deflector related abilities by 50%. I am specifically using for Tyken's Rift & Gravity Well. You can either do the Azlesa Colony Support mission to get two of them or you can buy the DOs from the Exchange; starting price is somewhere from 2.5 million to 3.2 million (I can't remember). Note: Azlesa is in the Omega Leonis Sector Block which means your diplomatic commendation level must be at least 3 before you can enter the KDF sector. Or you can ask someone to give you temporary diplomatic immunity.