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Fed Sci build question from a Tac captain
lyran2
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
So,
I've been a fed tac captian long enough to get 1 character to lvl 50, and like many of you I'm ansciously waiting the Delta Rising expansion.
More than enough time to try something new and make a Fed Sci character. So far I've gotten the toon to his first free ship at lt commander. However, I'm not sure how I should allocate space and ground skills or space equipment, not weapons, but key consoles for a Sci character.
I realise that it's a different approach from an escort build and that I can't expect high dps.
That being said, I'm just looking for some pointers or even some guidence. If anyone has a Sci Build that they could share I'd appreciate it.
thanks
I've been a fed tac captian long enough to get 1 character to lvl 50, and like many of you I'm ansciously waiting the Delta Rising expansion.
More than enough time to try something new and make a Fed Sci character. So far I've gotten the toon to his first free ship at lt commander. However, I'm not sure how I should allocate space and ground skills or space equipment, not weapons, but key consoles for a Sci character.
I realise that it's a different approach from an escort build and that I can't expect high dps.
That being said, I'm just looking for some pointers or even some guidence. If anyone has a Sci Build that they could share I'd appreciate it.
thanks
Post edited by lyran2 on
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Comments
If I ask you a question it is not an insult but a genuine attempt to understand why.
When I insult you I won't be discreet about it, I will be precise and to the point stupid.
-You can put them in an attack ship with a heavy focus on dismantling your opponent and then hitting them hard.
-You can put them in a defensive cruiser that specializes in taking/shrugging off damage while hitting right back for a bunch of damage - exotic(particle generators) and weapon(beam arrays).
-You can put them in a science torpedo boat that runs no weapons power and specializes in gravity wells. (Plasma synergizes well with it's AoE Heavy Torps, but Gravimetric/Counter-Command Photons and Transphasic builds work nicely as well.)
-You can put them in a science ship that specializes in energy drain - crippling your foes while giving you more power than you know what to do with.
The main tradeoff to using a Sci instead of a Tactical Captain is that you trade some of your self-only damage boosts for some party-wide Defenses and the ability to strip buffs. You trade raw damage for survivability and utility.
However, there a few individuals who had comments that stood out. A couple of those suggestions were:
1) put the sci captain in a escort. I'd never considered putting my captain in anything other than a sci vessel. Interesting idea.
2) Gravity Well build - as I'm still new to sci abilities I'll have to look this one up, but it sounds like a lot of fun.
3) Torpedo Boat - I've never considered a torpedo boat for a sci captian but it makes sense that one could put the unused skill points from beam weapons and put them elsewhere. However, I've noticed that a few folks who do use torpedo boats tend to mix torpedo types. Is this a wise move, or does it really matter?
2) GW is very effective with Torpedoes, especially the gravimetric photon
3) I would not mix torpedo types. You are still using the Tactical consoles to boost damage and you are better off with a higher % damage increase of a specific type of torpedo over the lesser % increase for torpedoes in general.
I run a Tactical Vesta as a photon torpedeo/GW build and it does well for my Science Fed officer.
1.) It actually flies a lot like a Tactical - Sensor Scan is basically the science version of Fire on My Mark and rather than buffing up your damage with APA before an attack, you strip the buffs off your target with Subnuke to soften them up(or just shut down their offense buildup). You also get Scattering Field which is great defensive utility(allows not just yourself, but those around you to not worry about defense as much for a few seconds and focus on going all out).
2.) Honestly, Gravity Generators are usually overkill. Running High Aux is usually more than sufficient to keep things clumped together and it's half the reason I recommended it for torpedo boat synergy(the other half being AoE Torpedo damage).
3.) If you want to actually maximize your damage output, stick to one damage type, but use multiple specialty launchers to bypass some of the shared cooldowns(Omega/Hyper for plasma, Enhanced Bio/Gravimetric for photon).
Plasma is all about slamming huge High Yield balls of plasma fire into the middle of your gravity wells for AoE damage crits. Just mind the splash damage and travel time; a "good" plasma boat is easy to kill yourself with.
Photons can go either torpedo spread with Gravimetric and Enhanced Bio, or High Yield with Enhanced Bio(but not Gravimetric - it becomes target-able) for its brutal Tricobalt-like AoEs.
Transphasics are the cheapest and easiest to set up with the Breen 2-set(ideally Deflector/Engines with a purple Shield) and specialty launchers from those missions(1x Cluster, 2x Rapid-Fires per facing - you're equally effective from front or aft) - good against most ships with some excellent spike potential, but you'll fall behind against high-hull targets(like cubes, dreadnoughts and structures).
3) Yes, it does matter if you mix types or use all the same torpedo type. I suggest that you build around constant (a steady damage type and stream of torpedoes) and burst type torpedoes, mix your torpedo types. I've run all photon and plasma torpedo boats and using burst damage torpedoes can really make a difference in the amount of time it takes to kill an opponent.
I've heard that Tac Captains can run Transphasic torpedo boats and really boost damage, that could be the only exception to running all of one torpedo type.
I'm tinkering around with using the Harpeng or Grav Torp in the fore left priority slot. I run the Particle Emission Plasma Torp and Omega Torp in the fore and the Romulan Torp, Breen Torp and a Tricobalt aft.
If you are very interested in torpedo boats check out the thread A Guide to Torpedo Boats for guidance.
Part of the fun of running a torpedo boat is seeing what works for you. Try different things out and have a blast pummeling enemies with torpedoes, running at full Aux, Engine, or Shield power and piloting a torp boat.
and finally with the grav torp and the proton stabilizer console you get another 22% bump to photons. you would need to look at the numbers and see if 25% of the total damage is greater than 40% of the trahsphasics bumped by the Breen set.
@vetteguy: It does not.
To the OP, if you are going with an all photon torp. build I would suggest that you also incorporate the Experimental Proton Weapon in your build to maximize damage.
That said, I would not suggest investing in an all photon torp build for a Sci, and especially in a sci ship, as you need to bypass shields. I only ran my Enhanced. Bio/Biomolecular/Grav. Torp DSD boat during my Undine Rep. grind (I tried all photon builds earlier). After completely the rep. I went right back to a mixed torpedo boat as it killed enemies quicker. The radiation damage from the biomolec. photons was not enough. When using the free DSD, with a high enough skill in flow caps, using flowcaps and using all secondary deflector shield transferring abilities you can transfer all of their shields to you. A photon hitting a bare hull is very good.
I've played around with the Breen set and a pure Transphasics build on the Chel Gret (not a Sci ship) pre season 9. I liked the results vs ships but not vs structures.
An alternative build: I use an AMP core, AMACO two piece and the MACO shield (for the Power Conduit Link: +2 power levels/stacks up to 5 times).
Have fun with your builds.