Lockbox Ship Advice

Comments

• stardestroyer001 Member Posts: 2,615 Arc User

  October 2014 edited October 2014

  I have the Jemmy dread, and it's a nice ship to fly in PvE.
  
  Here's my suggestion:
  If you want cannons and beams: Go DHC with one beam array or DBB, have B:O on hand. B:O can punch through shields hard enough for your cannons to take care of the hull.
  
  Cannons and torps: One torpedo launcher in fore, with torp HY or torp spread (depending on the torpedo and other factors).
  
  Beams and torps: Go mostly beams, leave a torpedo in fore, same as above.
  
  Do NOT attempt to mix all three into one build. You'l stretch yourself thin trying to be a jack-of-all-trades.

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• whiteshores Member Posts: 46 Arc User

  October 2014 edited October 2014

  stardestroyer001 wrote: »

  I have the Jemmy dread, and it's a nice ship to fly in PvE.
  
  Here's my suggestion:
  If you want cannons and beams: Go DHC with one beam array or DBB, have B:O on hand. B:O can punch through shields hard enough for your cannons to take care of the hull.
  
  Cannons and torps: One torpedo launcher in fore, with torp HY or torp spread (depending on the torpedo and other factors).
  
  Beams and torps: Go mostly beams, leave a torpedo in fore, same as above.
  
  Do NOT attempt to mix all three into one build. You'l stretch yourself thin trying to be a jack-of-all-trades.

  
  Thank you for the guidance! This will be very helpful.
  
  By chance, do you have any answers to the same concerns with the Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser?
  
  I was watching Youtube videos of people with different setups, and some went the route I like, some did not.

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• tom61sto Member Posts: 3,676 Arc User

  October 2014 edited October 2014

  With the JHDC, it really depends on what you're fighting, you can only really go standard DHCs versus really slow things, like the Crystaline Entity or the older Borg STFs, like Infected: The Conduit. My loadout for those slow PvEs is a mix similar to what you seem to be wanting, DBB for subsystem targetting (small drain, but sometimes helpful), Torp since most of the things slow enough to use DHCs on are shieldless, then a pair of DHCs fore, with turrets and KCB aft. An older build, don't have much of the newer stuff on this char http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=dreadsnot_5175 Probably slightly lower DPS than a 'pure' whatever build, but the pets can even things out. I don't think you can make it viable against faster things using standard DHCs and you can only mount one wide-arc DHC per ship, but I haven't bolted on a bunch of RCS and traits to see (kinda neglected character). I usually swap to my beam Loadout for faster content: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=dreadsnotbeams_5175 Though I probably should slot a Torp spread (could fit one in by using Conn Officer DOffs to run only one Tac Team).
  
  
  
  With the Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser, it's a bit faster turning, but has even less reason to mix beams with cannons, as it lacks subsystem targeting. With cannons you'll probably want to buff the turnrate with consoles and something like Aux2Damps, but it can get things in it's forward arc a bit better. I run mine with beams, though, as I'm running the Commander Universal with a Sci and it's hard to run cannons with Lt. being the highest Tac, and have the three-piece set taking up two console spots which doesn't leave much room for RCS.

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• whiteshores Member Posts: 46 Arc User

  October 2014 edited October 2014

  tom61sto wrote: »

  With the JHDC, it really depends on what you're fighting, you can only really go standard DHCs versus really slow things, like the Crystaline Entity or the older Borg STFs, like Infected: The Conduit. My loadout for those slow PvEs is a mix similar to what you seem to be wanting, DBB for subsystem targetting (small drain, but sometimes helpful), Torp since most of the things slow enough to use DHCs on are shieldless, then a pair of DHCs fore, with turrets and KCB aft. An older build, don't have much of the newer stuff on this char http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=dreadsnot_5175 Probably slightly lower DPS than a 'pure' whatever build, but the pets can even things out. I don't think you can make it viable against faster things using standard DHCs and you can only mount one wide-arc DHC per ship, but I haven't bolted on a bunch of RCS and traits to see (kinda neglected character). I usually swap to my beam Loadout for faster content: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=dreadsnotbeams_5175 Though I probably should slot a Torp spread (could fit one in by using Conn Officer DOffs to run only one Tac Team).
  
  
  
  With the Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser, it's a bit faster turning, but has even less reason to mix beams with cannons, as it lacks subsystem targeting. With cannons you'll probably want to buff the turnrate with consoles and something like Aux2Damps, but it can get things in it's forward arc a bit better. I run mine with beams, though, as I'm running the Commander Universal with a Sci and it's hard to run cannons with Lt. being the highest Tac, and have the three-piece set taking up two console spots which doesn't leave much room for RCS.

  
  I wanted to drop a note thanking you for this information. It sounds to me like the Dreadnought would work out better, maybe, even if I have both ships? I'm just glad I can mix in a torpedo or something just to give myself a break from the tiresome all-beams ships.

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• tom61sto Member Posts: 3,676 Arc User

  October 2014 edited October 2014

  whiteshores wrote: »

  I wanted to drop a note thanking you for this information. It sounds to me like the Dreadnought would work out better, maybe, even if I have both ships? I'm just glad I can mix in a torpedo or something just to give myself a break from the tiresome all-beams ships.

  
  If you like big, lumbering, juggernaut ships, the JHDC is certainly up there, and has pets that can bring a little more DPS too. Running a DBB fore or a [arc] beam array Aft on a cannon build has the handy excuse of subsystem targeting on this build, which when stacked with other drains can have a noticeable impact. Torps are handy when they can land on a unshielded facing on foe, though I have to admit a lot of the newer content doesn't give you much option to keep shields down without overwhelming firepower in the first place. Torps with wider arcs (like the missle in the beam build) are very handy if you're not able to line up enemies in your main forward arc.
  
  Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser is very different beast, extremely flexible with a Commander and Ensign Universal, though it always has a Sci bent with a fixed Lt. Comm. Sci spot. Much faster turning, extra aft weapon hardpoint, and has Sensor Analysis active ability that gives a stacking buff to your damage against enemies and debuff on their heals that you tag (or a heal buff to friendlies), but has one less tac console and none of the pets of the JHDC. I run all beams on it, as with the unbuffed turnrate it's hard to swap from broadsiding to forward firing torps (even though it's a lot faster turning than the JHDC), on top of not having much Tac on my build to run any torp abilities, so I just leave kinetic damage to the Kinetic Cutting Beam. Though, that's just one of a great many builds it can handle.
  
  Also, have you considered the new Intel C-Store ships? With Surgical Strikes having cannons an beams can make good sense, so long as your weapon arcs line up. Say, DBB and DHCs fore with turrets and Omni-beam aft. Unfortunately, it looks like the current Lockbox/Lobi T6 ships can't run Surgical Strikes, as that requires a minimum of Lt. Comm Intel spot, and they have only a single Lt. spot. Also, the ability is currently bugged to where it considers all weapons Phasers for damage type (ignoring non-Phaser Tac consoles and set bonuses).

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