With the new upgrade system being implemented I thought it was time to get some community tips before I refresh the build and start spending massive amounts of resources to upgrade past Mk XII
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=mica_7970
That's my pretty much what I'm flying now, although the Enhanced RCS is not there atm because my fleet doesn't have a T4 base yet and I decided to replace it when I got the Tacyokinetic Converter... But I could do with that extra turn rate. The Warp Core is only Advanced but the skillplanner only has Elites in the dropdown.
Apart from the obvious like upgrading my fleet consoles to Mk XII and getting Elite versions of other fleet gear I was planning to replace the rear fleet Turret with an Omni when I get my crafting skill high enough in the next couple weeks, and I was thinking a Resilient Shield might be better than the Covariant.
The phasers are loaners from when I was flying a Gal-X. Should I replace the CritH on my cannons with CritD or something else? I am wondering how to get past my current 16.5% CritH and 66.5% CritD I have another Fleet Phaser but I was killing a lot of Undine lately and thought the Bio proc might outweigh the loss in damage. Or perhaps I should drop the 3-piece counter-command set and just go with a different energy type altogether? Only been parsed once in this ship and that was about 4.5k in 20 minutes on Breach don't know if that's good or not, was the highest of the guys there at the time.
Any hints on the best way to redo my skills? I didn't use a torp on my old ship, and have no skills in it now that I do, I also don't use cloaking anymore.. but I might if I end up flying a T6 Intel ship.. not sure where to give and take and I'd like some input before spending dil/zen/$ on a respec token
Do my Doffs work? Could my Boff abilities be better? maybe a torp spread and attack pattern instead of extra heals.. although my ship is very squishy as is especially when using offensive rep traits instead of defensive ones, I often swap those out depending on where I'm fighting.. PVE is my concern for the most part, only time I get into PVP is when I'm suddenly attacked by Klingons while half dead from fighting borg in a Warzone
Comments
Skills that use aux power are pretty much useless except for hazard emitters which at least stops the burn and MAY heal the ship some, but don't count on it for heals.
Consider the following:
ET1, A2B1
TT1, APB1, CRF2
THY1
EPTS1, A2B1, EPTW3, RSP or DEM3
HE1, ST2
You will need 3 technicians, at least 2 purple and 1 blue, 3 purple recommended.
You will also need 1 conn officer to reduce tac team cooldown, 1 maint engineer for engineering team ad 1 development lab scientist for science team. The current state of A2B does not fully reduce the team abilities to minimum, so you must use at least 1 DOFF to make up the rest.
Use RSP3 in the CDR eng slot if you can't keep the shields up, or DEM3 if you can.
About boffs skills, i recommend switching to this :
PvE:
epts1, a2b,
tt 1, beta 1, csv2
spread1
et1, a2b, eptw3, dem3
tss1, he2
front 4dhc+torpedo, with 3 technican boffs
PvP: (use loadouts)
epts1, a2dampeners 1,
tt 1, rapid1, omega1
bo1
et1, a2b, eptw3, dem3
st1, he2
front 4dhc+1dbb, 3 technican boffs+1 anti-matter doff (aux to dampeners specialization). If you can, buy this 3 traits: intense focus, momentum, pattern recognition.
Rsp is kinda useless right know, in PvE has never been very usefull, and in PvP 90% of your deads will be with shield penetration damage so...
Vin Naftero@playhard88 - FED Sciencie
K'tan@playhard88 - KDF Tactical
Argento@playhard88 - RRF Tactical (FED)
I mainly run PvE. Depending on the situation and build, RSP can be very useful. It depends on your playstyle and the type of trouble you get yourself into.
For PvP, timely use of RSP can instantly reapply full shields and give you the added defense to allow you to bug out toward the safety of teammates.
I was doing something with DBB banks, and using both torps. I could lose the armor console and put in the third and have both the 26% photon bump and the hull leach
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=partialavenger_1513
2 DCE's do not provide full reduction of EPTX cooldowns all the time. So, use 3 wherever possible.
The above build uses beam arrays for a base, not DHC's as the OP had in the build, so kays build has some incompatibilities in that it is meant for a beam array/ BFAW setup.
As for kays build, I would consider using BFAW3 instead of 2 and 1 since it's really powerful right now. Also use 3 energy weapon officers that reduce beam special attacks cooldowns when using beam arrays. If BFAW3 is adjusted to lower damage later on, then kays build should be great.
The OP's build was using DHC's and not beam arrays. Since CRF/ CSV abilities start at LT rank abilities, to modify kays build to fit dual heavy cannons, one should use 3 energy weapon officers to reduce cannon abilities and slot a single copy of CRF/ CSV, preferrably CRF2 or CSV2, depending on the player preference for single target or multi-target attacks.
While it is true that two DCEs don't always manage it, 2 purples (as detailed in the build) will manage as well as 3 blues and I have done this multiple times without issue. It is also worth noting EPtX doffs are cheaper than Techs.
Getting a good set of AP beams isn't a problem, you cam get them free from a mission or snap up a cheap set of rare whatever beams off the exchange and everyone knows how cheap boff skills are.
To modify my build to use cannons I would use something akin to this it won't have the parsing potential of the beam build but it is an efficient killer.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/index.php?build=fleetbcdhc_6771
I use it for only PvE and it does reasonably well.
For my DHC's I dropped the Accx2/DMGx2 Fleet version for the CrtHx1\CrtDx2 XII versions. I lost little in accuracy and I gained a little more damage.
I had the grav torpedo earlier but since I have zero torp skills and no room for a photon damage console unless I take out a vulnerability locator the extra 26% damage didn't really seem worth having rather than the 7.5% phaser damage and the bio-turret barrage from the 3-set. I also found myself constantly hitting high yield which makes the grav torp targetable and always seeing it get shot down was annoying me.
That RCS console is there because I'm hoping to put it back there when I get a fleet ship, as it is now I'd be removing one of the other uniques that contribute to CritH or Turn Rate or the Neutronium and I'm already too squishy and I feel a little too slow to keep the cannons on target to do without the turn rate
Having a torp on the back seems like a waste when using cannons because the only time it would fire is when I've screwed up piloting. Also tried running with five phaser cannons but combat seemed a little boring without getting to shoot a torp now and then.
I'm checking out the other builds posted as I type too, see what happens.
you don't need a photon console. the CC console gives you 26% photon and 16% phaser/disruptor, and if you have the second consol, another 7% phaser/disruptor
without the consoles, phased biomatter acc crtd dmg is 255.1 and the grav torpedo is 499.3
counter command set array is 258.6 and 513 3x uncommon mk xii relays 321.6 / 513 add the cc relay 332.1 /513.2 add the hydro console o get the 2pc set 332.1 / 513