test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Benthan Assault Cruiser Opinions
whiteshores
Member Posts: 46 Arc User
Hi all,
I purchased the Delta Rising Pack, but I haven't yet been enticed by the small trove of ships. However, a friend is offering me a Benthan Assault Cruiser. It comes at a price, which is why I'm asking opinions first. He can't give one because he's never flown it or seen it peform.
Anyone know much about this ship? Opinions of it as compared to the Delta Rising ships? Think it's worth buying given a reaosnable price?
I purchased the Delta Rising Pack, but I haven't yet been enticed by the small trove of ships. However, a friend is offering me a Benthan Assault Cruiser. It comes at a price, which is why I'm asking opinions first. He can't give one because he's never flown it or seen it peform.
Anyone know much about this ship? Opinions of it as compared to the Delta Rising ships? Think it's worth buying given a reaosnable price?
Post edited by whiteshores on
0
Comments
But, it's not an intel T6 with the ship intel abilities. It does have a Lt Sci/Intel slot, so you can slot in 1 or 2 boff intel abilities. But I've found that I'm enjoying it by just using it as a beam boat with my usual boff layout (that gets an extra ability to use).
The console (chronomagnetic pulse) is fun and can be quite effective on larger enemies if you time the stacks right.
With an RCS and other fleet consoles that give you [+turn] you won't have too much of a problem with maneuvering.
I've also found that with the shield scalar, once you pop your 2nd cruiser ability (the shield buff), it will take a while to drop your shields. If you have the repair platform module, it makes it even harder.
Now the big question is how much is he asking for it? Lets say you get approx 2 mil EC from each key you sell and each key costs you approx 1. It's worth between 30-50.
Cheers!
Going by your scale, he's charging around the lower end of that value. Friends are friends, after all.
I'm a Tactical captain, and it seems to be a Tac-oriented cruiser. This is a good thing, because I do enjoy flying big ships!
Sounds like you're enjoying success with it, so I may well give it a go.
Cheers!
Let me know how you do with it! I'd be interested to hear.
I'm a lifer, but unfortunately took a looong time away due to my physical disability, so I'm broke and well behind on gear. I expect any new ships won't perform as well for me simply because I can't give them ideal gear.
cryptic is quite friendly on the naming side of things
assault cruiser = engineering with a secondary lean towards tactical
raider = has raider flanking, mostly universal consoles, ect
one of the nice things in this game
Sounds about right to me!
As a Tac captain who normally plays cruisers, I'm used to my ships leaning engineering. If it's a tac-oriented cruiser and has some good tactical stations, I consider that a nice bonus.
Stats: (Taken from a translated French site)
Tier: 6
Faction: all
Required rank: Rear Admiral / Brigadier General / Sous-amiral I
Availability: Safe Expedition Delta
Strength of the hull: 37,500 (at level 40), 43 125 (level 50), 50,000 (at level 60)
Modifier of shield: 1.25
Crew: 850
Weapons: 4 front, 4 back
Accessories sites: 4
Officers of gateway stations: 1 tactical Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander 1, tactic, 1 engineering Commander, 1 Lieutenant scientist/Intelligence, 1 universal Lieutenant
Console changes: 4 tactics, 5 engineering, 2 scientists
Base speed: 10.5 degrees per second
Modifier of Pulse: 0.15
Inertia: 45
+ 10 power of weapons, + 5 power of the shield, + 5 motor power
Universal console - Polaric Chromoelectric Modulator
Distortion matter-antimatter reactor
Deployment of communications of Cruiser
◦Command - Strategic maneuvers
◦Command - Modulation of the frequencies of shields
◦Control - Effectiveness of weapon systems
◦Command - Attraction of fire
Starship Mastery Package (cruiser) ◦Absorptive Plating (+ physical and kinetic damage Resistance)
◦Rapid Repairs (+ Regeneration of hull)
◦Enhanced Plating (+ Resistance to energy damage and radiation)
◦Armored Hull (+ maximum PV)
◦Load Viral Torpedo (ship line)
In short, it is a very good ship, ideal gear will just make it better than it needs to be.
I don't know your budget or Captain type, so I am making a cheap/near free build - only consoles are exchange, and they shouldn't be too pricy for common/green XI.
Boffs:
BFAW1, APB1,
TT1, BFAW2, APB2,
EPTS1, EPTW2, A2SIF2, RSP3,
EPTS1, EPTW2, (Lt. Universal)
HE1, ST2,
Equipment as per: http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=example2_0 (ignore it being a Fed Cruiser, it was the earliest match on the list...)
With an extra Eng console of choice - It isn't a final build, but it would be good enough for what you want to do.
Tac Boffs up as often as possible - Conn Doffs would be useful to reduce TTs cooldown.
Cycle EPTS, EPTW constant - you will have near constant uptime on both.
HE exists to get rid of hazard debuffs like Borg Shield Neutraliser and so on, ST2 is a shield heal, RSP an "Oh fish" moment, A2SIF hull heal and resist boost.
I don't have STO up to check exchange prices for consoles, but the rest are mission reward items - AP Beams from "Fluid Dynamics", Omni and Warp Core from "Sphere of Influence", Solanae 3 Piece from "A Step Between Stars".
Devices: the Subspace Modulator and Scorpions you should have from "Skirmish" and "The Vault" respectively, so you may already have them, but Deuterium Surplus is available from the Alhena System - It functions like Evasive Maneuverers does.
I don't have most of the gear that you listed, so I suppose I'll have to get on the missions to snag them. It's a start! As far as energy credits, I have none, and it's my experience that anything exclusive is very expensive.
The advantage you have as a lifer is you (should) have quite a bit of Zen saved up that's been accumulating while you were away, and Zen can be used to buy stuff like Keys, Fleet Ship Modules, T5-U Upgrades, RnD packs, etc. that you can sell for lots of EC on the exchange, so EC isn't quite as grim as it looks.
And yes, some stuff is pricy, but that stuff is only needed if you are really pushing for improvements, for the content you want to do, and most likely the way you want to play, it will just be overkill.
Its all stuff to work towards - one of the key parts of DR is introducing a component of building up over time via crafting. Just keep building on what you have - especially player knowledge and skill.
The thing with STO is the equipment* is available to everyone - but the knowledge aspect isn't. Truth is, gear doesn't matter so much as knowing what to do with it - so many players do not even understand the basics, like Hazard Emitters stops the Borg draining your shields for example, or they use stuff like EPTS purely as a shield heal, and not as a constant effect.
Just don't stop listening, and reading up on stuff. If you see someone suggest something, look it up, understand why they suggest it.
For example, why did I list BFAW2, APB2, and not the superior APB1, BFAW3? Answer; because I assumed you wouldn't necessarily have access to BFAW3 - but as you are a Tac Captain, you should be able to train it.
For another example, why did I suggest APB, and not APD? They both have a debuff component after all. (bit of homework there)
Just keep soaking up info - the day you stop learning about something is the day you should stop trying something, a lesson for life in general really.
I am rambling again...
* Mk XIII/XIV stuff is far more constrained in supply mind.
I've been trying to follow cbrjwrr's guide to setting up my Benthan Assault Cruiser. Happily, the bridge officers are all set up.
It's going to take me time to get most of the mission related equipment. Until then, I'll have to subsist on what I can afford to get from the exchange.
My question: right now, I have a set of mostly XI tetryon beam arrays. However, as I read up and learn about changes, it seems that tetryon has fallen out of favor. Is this the case? I am considering biomatter beams instead.
Thanks!
Tetryon is pretty much the worst energy type to use. It's proc is only useful while your opponent has shields, and eventually your opponent wont have shields. (or didn't have any to start with in most STFs)
Disruptors debuff your opponents resistances, Antiproton adds extra CrtD, Plasma adds a DoT effect, so they are more effective. Phasers can be good or bad and Polaron is best for drain builds.
They will do of course - base damage is the same for every weapon of equal mark and mods - you just wont set any records on them.
Weapon types: As discussed, and mentioned above. (it occurs to me now you haven't actually seen that yet)
Antiproton - mostly covered already. Right now, your CrtH and CrtD aren't really enough to take advantage of APs major advantage, but we can work on that. In any case, you don't like the visuals.
I did cover Rom Plasma weapons, but to add more to it, press your "U" Key, Reputations Tab, New Romulus Rep - level it up to Tier 4, and you unlock Mk XII Weapons in the store - you can also receive Mk XI and Mk XII ground and space weapons from the hourly and daily project boxes, but it isn't a reliable method for getting weapons.
Romulan Plasma combines Disruptor and Plasma Procs, giving up a modifier. Being a Plasma weapon type, it is boosted by Fleet Embassy Sci Consoles with the [pla] mod, which means you can use those to boost them further.
Phased Biomatter - as covered earlier. No doubt you've already read their description in game. Key thing to note is it is boosted by Phaser boosts.
On your build - As discussed, a few changes.
Your Equipment (once sorted) is just part of it, now we need to look at Doffs and Boffs. You should note that earlier, we put an Engineer in the Lt Uni, and Sci powers in the Sci/Intel.
Well, that is the next part - you see, we now want to move the Sci to the Uni, and put Intel powers where the Sci was.
To do that we need to use Damage Control Engineer Doffs to decrease cooldown times on the EPTS and EPTW.
These DCEs are useful fellows - Description: "Chance to reduce the recharge time for Emergency Power to subsystem abilities"
The chances are White: 20% Green: 25% Blue: 30% and Purple: 35%. Chance Per Doff to activate - it doesn't just add with extra Doffs.
I could go into probability and statistics but you can tell whites are worthless even with 3 of them, 3 greens might work, 3 Blues should work, and 3 Purples looks like overkill. This means either 3 Blues, or 2/3 purples to give us a reliable proc rate.
Your Boffs will now look like:
TT1, APB1,
BFAW1, APB1, BFAW3, (or two times TT1)
EPTS1, EPTW2, A2SIF2, RSP3
HE1, ST2,
Intel power, Intel power.
(Or preferably EPTS1, A2SIF1, EPTW3, RSP3, for the Commander Eng, if you can find a friendly engineer to train EPTW3 onto one of your boffs.)
Our next question is Intel powers - Obviously, IT1 goes in the Ensign, a mini battle-cloak is just too useful to pass up.
Now, I lean towards Ionic Turbulence for the Lt. power base only on it the fact it is frakking hilarious to watch. The Dev who made it deserves a pay rise...
But, aside from its laughter inducement factor, I am not entirely sure myself what to put in that one - the only information I have at time of writing is a blog post, and that isn't quite enough to act as a recommendation given those are subject to change. And frequently wrong.
I do know you will definitely want 2 Intel Boff abilities more than the 4.something percentage loss on 2 EPTXs.
ETA - DDIS's suggestion of Safety Override in the other thread does sound like quite a good one.