Hi Folks,
before DR released I used to fly an Tac Oddy and switched to the Guardian on release, it seems since then I seem to have problems now in STF's and Fleet actions, and yet other times I do fine.
This is my current Build:
http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=llewellyn1_0
Note the website would not let me enter in the following:
Ensign = Tactical Team 1
Lt Cmdr = FAW1, Torp Spread 2, Attack patter omega
Cmdr Eng = Engineeering Team 1, Aux to Dampners 1, emergency to shields 3, rotate shield polarity 3
Lt = Emergency to Aux1, Aux to Dampners 1
Lt Cmdr Sci = HE1, ST2, Grav well 1
For Duty officers I run:
1x purple Conn officer (reduction on Tac team)
1x purple Matter-Antimatter Specialst (increased energy resistance and buff duration when using aux to Dampners)
3x purple Damage Control Engineers
Staying alive is not a problem but taking out targets is a pain before DR I was holing my own but in some pugs we just seem to have no luck.
In STF's I use the maco deflector and adapted MACO engine and shields.
Could you advise where I could improve? Is it buggy difficulty and/or my toon/ship? This is the first time I have felt like I needed advice on a build.
Thanks in advanced for any help.
Comments
Your build looks fair, so it doesn't seem like a 'you' issue. Without a powerful group - it's really hard to burn down million hp borg spheres without a well coordinated team.
Your build's very different than anything I use, so I can't say much about it - eg I don't use torps or AtD. All that I'd suggest, changing as little as possible, is that if you're not too attached to AtD in the new DR meta:-
Swap Cmdr Eng's AtD for EPtW;
Swap Eng/Intel Lt choices for Override Safeties I and II.
This'll give your beams more punch and raise your overall power levels (including your Aux and Engines) for a bit. If you can get one, swap your Matter-Antimatter Specialist for a Warp Core Engineer, who gives a chance to add a biiiig chunk of power to every subsystem every time you activate EPtX.
I really value Aux, especially since I use both Nukara T4 traits; but have found that using the above plus Leech and high Flow Caps, and all the other Engineering capt bits and bobs, my Aux is on ~130/~50 most of the time without needing EPtA.
Anyway, except for the DOFF I mentioned (who isn't actually that critical, but is certainly a nice to have), if you want to give my idea a shot, it'll only cost you retraining three BOFF abilities, plus a cheap (ideally human) Eng/Intel BOFF if you don't have one already.
Anyway, best of luck.
This build revolved around keeping aux to dampners chained so that I could drop one armour console and keep the ship in motion.
Saying that there I will give it a go, ya never know.
Thanks for commenting glad to know others are having the ups and downs to since DR released ;-)
Following that, you could drop RSP to 1, then add the doff (fabrication engineer, IIRC) to extend the duration to make up for it. That'd free up your top slot for DEM3 to get some shield penetration.
Lastly, energy control to boost the output of your phasers. Replace the aft torpedo with a Kinetic Cutting Beam, which will combo with your Assimilated Module to give you the Omega Weapon Amplifier to help on drain control. Then replace the EPTA with EPTW for both a flat damage bonus and +20ish weapons energy besides (that EPTA isn't helping your A2D all that much, given the diminishing returns on resistances and the low base turn of the Guardian). Swap the forward quantum for another phaser array (so 6 arrays, the grav torp, and the KCB for your weapons), and you'll probably see your damage go up noticeably without much changing the ship's playstyle.
Use Intel if you have it available.
Happy flying.
EDIT: You may want to switch around the EPTx abilities. I was using aux as in my build i was using TSS instead of ST. But with all the NPC jams and sub nucs, sometimes u just want ST. Your call.
I always used to use an armour console until I unlocked the T4 Nukara Traits; then cranked up Aux a bit. The defence Trait gave similar enough survivability to armour that I could then swap the armour for something that gave more damage.
With the DR Cruiser Mastery buffs, I'm looking at seeing whether I even need that Nukara Trait now - may well end up swapping that for another of the damaging rep Traits (prob the Omega one with shield penetrating extra damage proc).
Like you said, staying alive's no problem but killing stuff fast enough is; so it's good to start the iterative process of swapping a bit of survivability for a bit more damage until you find the balance and combination that you're happy with in the new meta. You can always change stuff back easy enough.
You'll probably find that your Kinetic resist is still high enough without AtD, though you will get slowed a bit more by tractors and whatnot (but not too much given the high engine power you'll have with the other boosts I suggested). You'll have to figure out whether you find that acceptable vs the increased killing power that you now have, according to your own play style.
The only other thing I can think of is that on the off chance that you do enjoy using my suggestion for a bit, I also run AtSIF as well as HE - so I can try to keep my ET in reserve to bring the subsystem that's gone offline (from OSS) instantly back, if it's a particularly critical system at a particularly critical time - most of the time it isn't and I don't even notice the offline system.
Happy tweaking!:)
How about a change up.
first things is to drop the torpedoes. It's a cruiser. Broadside with beam arrays for max damage output. Torpedoes make you have to spend time turning, where you lower DPS trying to get torpedos into a firing arc. If you must have a torpedo, then keep just the wide angle quantum because it has a wide firing arc compared to other torpedoes. You can fire it and all other beam arrays simultaneously without having to keep turning to put torpedos into a firing arc, and turn again to get the other ones into their firing arc, and back and forth repeatedly.
BO skills, BFAW3 is way powerful with lots of weapon power, so use it.
Without using 2x Aux to Battery.....
TT1
TT1, APB1, BFAW3
ET1, RSP1
ET1, EPTS2, EPTW3, DEM3
HE1, ST2, GW1
3x Damage control engineers
2-3 Energy Weapon officers for beam special attacks
If you have the 2-3 purple Technicians for Aux to Battery....
TT1
TS1, APB1, BFAW3
ET1, A2B1
EPTS1, A2B1, EPTW3, DEM3
HE1, ST2, GW1
1 conn officer for tac team cooldown reduction
3x Technicians for A2B
I hope that helps give you some other ideas to consider
Worked very well so I'll definitely return to it once I've unlocked the other lvl 5 masteries.
Cmdr Eng: ET1, A2B1, EPtW3, DEM3
LtCmdr Tac: TT1, FAW2, APO1
LtCmdr Sci: HE1, ST2, TBR2
Lt Eng: EPtS1, A2D1
Ens Tac: TT1
Doff:
Technician x3 (Aux2Batt)
Antimatter x1 (Aux2Damp)
System x1 (Marion)
Tractor x1 (TBR Reverse)
If you don't have Marion you can run a Maintenance or Development to cut the cool down on either ST or ET.
≡/\≡
Hm Personally I wouldn't waste the lt cmdr sci on TBR. In fact, I run GW1 there.
Also you really want to run at least one of the intel powers... Ionic turbulence seems good however it's a bit difficult to gauge its effectiveness... The other option is Override safeties... And that's amazing, especially in a FAW A2B boat...
161ish weapon power + APB + FAW. Simply awesome.
Aye, and add to that the weapon buff you get from the Nukara T4 offence Trait, with your Aux boosted up to ~160 too, at the same time.:cool:
EDIT: I meant when not using A2B, obviously....
That you have problems in STFs has probably less to do with your build and more with the Guardian currently being bugged the following way:
Shield Modifier is lower than it should be
It recieves the Heals of a T3 ship (Really now 6K hp with ET II?!)
It recieves the Shield Heals of a T3 Ship
Shield modifier, not sure (I think it's probably a fair tradeof) , but I did notice getting very little hull from ET... Is that a confirmed bug or just something you think is a bug?
Though 5k heal in a 60k+ hp ship is indeed a bit laughable. I mean, even miracle worker seems to struggle.
Going to ask, is this a confirmed bug? Almost tempted to go back to my TAC Oddy until the bug is fixed if that is the case?
I've added to the report, which did say something interesting: another ship seemed to be affected by a similar bug, so I guess it's not outside the realm of possibilities.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=20167831&postcount=2
(The fix text comes from the patch uploaded on the 23rd)
Doubt they'd confirm it, though there are other ships with similar or even the same problem.
Healing like a T3 Ship(Shields and Hull) is definitely not normal though
Even damage output seemed worse, I know the TAC Oddy has more options to increase damage potentially, but in the end went back to the TAC Oddy, it is just a pain I have to go thru the mastery skills with the ship.
Cheers
Richard
I was about to buy the Guardian and glad I checked out the forums about it first. So is there an official word as to whether this is intended or just a bug? Having T3 heals on a T6 ship is pretty major, especially for a tank ship like this.
Its not just the hull but the shields too.
And not there is no official word, though I can assure you that it isn't intended as the Kazon ship had the same bug.
My Galaxy X(Fleet t5U) and Eclipse(t6) also both heal for over 9000 so yeah pretty sure its a bug
Guardian also has a wrong shield mod from what I heard.
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Yeah I have to concur... Not sure if it's "fixed", however ET1 decidedly heals for more now, 6.8ish k against 4.5k it did before.
It still feels a little low compared to the hitpoints it has, however it's better than before, definitely.
Considering the effect of the new intel passives, having low shields is almost beneficial... Automated reinforcement is the single greatest heal over the duration of any STF I played so far, and by a huge margin. And I'm an engineering captain on a cruiser... I assume that combining that one with the proc from the Dyson shields will be impressive.
[Edit: not saying it shouldn't be fixed but it's not as high priority as hull mods... Borgs still annihilate your shields on a regular basis, and the voth have a nasty habit of damaging your hull directly]
As for intel abilities, I don't use any at all. If I replace any boff with intel boff I lose either a lot of damage or survivability.
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