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Looking for some Constructive Critisism

ajax1983ajax1983 Member Posts: 28 Arc User
edited October 2014 in Federation Discussion
In preparation for DR, I thought I'd finally post my build for critique.

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=ussseneca_5280

I've had pretty good results from it, but always looking for advice. I've upgraded the shields, deflector and a lot of the consoles to MK XIII, and planning on upgrading to a T5U and putting in a MK XIII Field Generator.

A question I have is whether I should change my warp core mod from [W>E] to [S>W]?
Post edited by ajax1983 on

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  • annemarie30annemarie30 Member Posts: 2,593 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    just to clarify, you have the MACO and not the Adapted MACO, correct? if so then your first stop is the deflector, IMHO.

    get the counter command deflector. it's powers overshadow the maco's and the set bonus.

    you are not using any powers that would benefit from the graviton console. I would think about removing it, moving the assimilated to the sci and adding another RCS to help that thing turn
    A question I have is whether I should change my warp core mod from [W>E] to [S>W]?

    what that does is grant a percentage of X to Y as bonus power. depending how you have your power set, it may not be a good idea. are you capped at 125 weapon power? do you run max weapon power? are you seeing significant power loss?

    what you might want to try is getting a core with AMP and or W>A. with a significant bump to aux from the core you might be able to move ET to ET1 and add DEM1 or RSP1 if you need and oh TRIBBLE button
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  • blitzy4blitzy4 Member Posts: 839 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    ajax1983 wrote: »
    In preparation for DR, I thought I'd finally post my build for critique.

    http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=ussseneca_5280

    I've had pretty good results from it, but always looking for advice. I've upgraded the shields, deflector and a lot of the consoles to MK XIII, and planning on upgrading to a T5U and putting in a MK XIII Field Generator.

    A question I have is whether I should change my warp core mod from [W>E] to [S>W]?

    It's a decent fire at will boat. Personally for the support cruiser, I use a DBB, a single cannon, a beam array and a torp up front, and then a beam array, an omni array, a turret and a torp in the rear. The support cruiser with a minimal number of RCS consoles can be quite nimble, and I can bring the DBB to bear on most targets easily.

    For your build, I would suggest using the heavy rep turret at least to gain the phaser buff from it as your using the hydro console already. I usually use a brog deflector and impulse deck and drop the particle stabilizer console unless I'm using photonic weapons more, and I usually use the dyson warp core and shield array. I like the Maco set, but it seemed kinda flimsy on cruisers when I used them. That's my advice.
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  • ajax1983ajax1983 Member Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    just to clarify, you have the MACO and not the Adapted MACO, correct? if so then your first stop is the deflector, IMHO.

    get the counter command deflector. it's powers overshadow the maco's and the set bonus.

    you are not using any powers that would benefit from the graviton console. I would think about removing it, moving the assimilated to the sci and adding another RCS to help that thing turn



    what that does is grant a percentage of X to Y as bonus power. depending how you have your power set, it may not be a good idea. are you capped at 125 weapon power? do you run max weapon power? are you seeing significant power loss?

    what you might want to try is getting a core with AMP and or W>A. with a significant bump to aux from the core you might be able to move ET to ET1 and add DEM1 or RSP1 if you need and oh TRIBBLE button

    Thanks for the advice!

    The graviton console I believe increases the pull of my grav wells. I have two Doffs that increase my grav well abilities. One that gives a chance to create aftershock grav wells, and a Xindi doff that gives a proc to knock enemies engines offline if they're cought in one. If I'm wrong about the console buffing the abilities, I'll definately swap it out.

    You are correct that I'm using the regular MACO and not the Adapted. I like the extra power I get from the shield.

    My warp core does have [AMP] and I do run weapons at 125. I was using an elite fleet core with [S>W] and I liked the overcap I got. I then thought I'd try the plasma integrated with [W.E] so get my engine speed up. While I was skeptical, it did seem to boost the rest of my power levels in combat at a slight expense of weapons.

    Anyway, I'll look into the CC deflector and replacing the grav console.
  • ginobaldelli823ginobaldelli823 Member Posts: 325 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    You might want to get the Enhanced Bio Torpedo for the back slot to get the 2 piece set (since you already have the console) bonus to get the bonus to Phaser damage it gives :

    Set 2: Bio-Molecular Instability

    +7.5% Bonus Phaser and Disruptor Energy Damage
    2% increased chance for Bio-Molecular weapons to apply their Incubation debuffs.
  • onehalfklingononehalfklingon Member Posts: 106 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    The gravity console boosts things like tractor beam and repulsors. What you want for your grav well is a particle generator. It's a common mistake.
  • ajax1983ajax1983 Member Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    You might want to get the Enhanced Bio Torpedo for the back slot to get the 2 piece set (since you already have the console) bonus to get the bonus to Phaser damage it gives :

    Set 2: Bio-Molecular Instability

    +7.5% Bonus Phaser and Disruptor Energy Damage
    2% increased chance for Bio-Molecular weapons to apply their Incubation debuffs.

    The torp I'm using is in fact the enhanced, I just hit the wrong one in my loadout. I actually upgraded it to a MK XIII and got a quality upgrade too, so it has an extra [ACC] proc. So I do have the two piece

    Anyway here's the more accurate setup, including upgrades I've made since I wasn't able to include MK XIII this morning. http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=ussseneca_5280

    Regarding the grav generators, I was under the impression that they factored into the pull of the grav well, and particle generators factor into the damage?

    My intent with the biomolecular weapons, grav wells and torpedo is to degrade my opponents ability to move.
  • szerontzurszerontzur Member Posts: 2,723 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Overall, it looks like a pretty well-rounded build.

    I'm not sure how much mileage you're getting out the Warp Plasma. I might suggest trying to get Aux2Sif 3 and filling the LtCmdr. slot with Reverse Shield Polarity. If you're making active use of Eject Warp Plasma and the Aft torp though, feel free to disregard the suggestion.

    Also, I might suggest swapping EPtW and EPtS. It may not seem like much, but the extra damage bonus of a higher rank EPtW will make a small difference to your damage output.

    Lastly, where are your Hazard Emitters!? It's more than worthwhile to give up your TSS or ST(depending on preferences) for them with just how many fairly crippling debuffs can only be removed by HE(Borg Shield Neutralizers and Undine 'snot' being some of the biggest offenders).

    The gravity console boosts things like tractor beam and repulsors. What you want for your grav well is a particle generator. It's a common mistake.

    You've got it, partially, backwards. Graviton Generators impact the push or pulling force of abilities - it makes repulsors push and gravity wells pull harder. Particle Generators increase the damage component of both abilities, but the damage output of Gravity Wells scales far, far worse than Repulsors.. or even Tractor Beams.

    The intention here is obviously to use Gravity Well to collect mobs, so it's a perfectly valid choice.
  • ajax1983ajax1983 Member Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    szerontzur wrote: »
    .

    I'm not sure how much mileage you're getting out the Warp Plasma. I might suggest trying to get Aux2Sif 3 and filling the LtCmdr. slot with Reverse Shield Polarity. If you're making active use of Eject Warp Plasma and the Aft torp though, feel free to disregard the suggestion.

    Also, I might suggest swapping EPtW and EPtS. It may not seem like much, but the extra damage bonus of a higher rank EPtW will make a small difference to your damage output.

    Lastly, where are your Hazard Emitters!? It's more than worthwhile to give up your TSS or ST(depending on preferences) for them with just how many fairly crippling debuffs can only be removed by HE(Borg Shield Neutralizers and Undine 'snot' being some of the biggest offenders).


    These are some great suggestions that I hadn't thought of. I've already made the recomended changes to my Boff abilities and I'll see how that work. The EWP was "occasionally" useful, but I'm sure Aux2Sif3 will be more useful.

    I do have Hazard Emitters on another Boff that I swap in when appropriate.

    Thanks for the input.
  • orondisorondis Member Posts: 1,447 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I second the notion of getting rid of EWP. It's not really much use vs NPCs who aren't exactly maneuverable in the first place.
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  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    I would purchase a purple engineering Doff from the Exchange that has Aux2SIF3 and set up the abilities as follows:

    EPtW1, EPtS2, DEM2, Aux2SIF3

    DEM2 or Directed Energy Modulation will give you +37.4 shield penetrating energy damage per pulse for 30 seconds. Use it in conjunction with EPtW1 for more damage.


    For science, I would drop TSS2, I don't really like it that much. I recommend the following:

    HE1, ST2, GW1

    HE1 will heal your hull and clean off any DoT damage to your hull. I think ST2 is superior to TSS2 because of the much higher instant shield regen.
  • thisslerthissler Member Posts: 2,055 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    Here's some good stuff!

    There's a video and a build for you. You'll see that there's a suggestion in there for the Damage Control Doff scheme. It's a good scheme. And for Aux2ID, again Doffed. That is a very strong combination for cruisers. The core build I show is very adaptable to what you wish to do with the grav well and the torpedo spreads. You just need to swap in the Grav Well where I have a different power. Maybe you don't want DEM, maybe you wish to stay with EWP. I don't know. But the core of this build is where it is at.

    NPC's in the expansion will surprise you. They use a lot of Boff abilities. They cloak, they subnuc, they jam sensors, they tractor beam, they suppress, etc...etc...yah really.

    So be ready.

    EDIT: oh and of course use your good gear, not my crappy gear. my crappy gear is just to show how far you can go by using the proper active abilities. Although it does demonstrate that you really only need one armor console, and that really just for the times that you'll be eating NPC subnucs. Cheers!
  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    edited October 2014
    ajax1983 wrote: »

    A question I have is whether I should change my warp core mod from [W>E] to [S>W]?

    I suppose it depends on what you prefer. [S->W] does help maintain max damage for beam weapons due to overcap, the gain is not that much, but everything helps I suppose. I will simply assume you have 80 shields which means you get 7.5% of that added to weapons (less fleet gear provides better than 7.5%). So it is a little bit.

    On the other hand [W->E] makes your ship just a bit faster and provides a bit turn rate making your ship just that much more nimble.

    Personally, if I feel that my DPS is high enough then I would go with [W->E] so that my ship feels less of a lumbering oaf. In reality, most of my ships have non-fleet ('cuz I'm not in a fleet) Overcharged Warp Core XI which provides +5 to Auxiliary and either [W->A] or [S->A] because I am basically using my Aux power for Aux2SIF and / or GW/TR depending on the Captain specialization and ship.
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