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Could I get a little constructive help, on my build please?
travallian
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Hey fellas, I've only been playing this game for about a month and a half, and this is only the second MMO I've ever played. The thing is, I've loved Star Trek since I was a kid and really wanted to join this cool little community, but I just don't know if what I've got going on is enough, you know? At an equivalent level my Jedi or Sith would be taking names about now, but, my sovy? Not so much. The build looks good to me, but I have no illusions of experience, so I'm putting it over to you...
So what I need are a few constructive pointers, maybe a little help increasing my DPS? And to be fair, I could use some help on skills too, because I'm not really sure of the impact, or effect the skills make either, I just took what looked appropriate after reading the descriptions
As far as the ground stuff goes, well, that will be a boring grind whatever I do, so I'm not really interested in that, it's the ship that seems to need work.
This is my current build, and let me tell you, It's taken an incredible amount of time and energy, not to mention a lot of F'ing around with upgrades to get to this point, so please be gentle....
Any thoughts would be great, but like I said, I'm pretty new to all this, so I may need some things explained.
Also, I should add, that pretty much everything I do, or have access too is ingame. My current situation doesn't lend itself to having that much of a disposable income, so I don't have much to spend on the really good toys.
So what I need are a few constructive pointers, maybe a little help increasing my DPS? And to be fair, I could use some help on skills too, because I'm not really sure of the impact, or effect the skills make either, I just took what looked appropriate after reading the descriptions
As far as the ground stuff goes, well, that will be a boring grind whatever I do, so I'm not really interested in that, it's the ship that seems to need work.
This is my current build, and let me tell you, It's taken an incredible amount of time and energy, not to mention a lot of F'ing around with upgrades to get to this point, so please be gentle....
Any thoughts would be great, but like I said, I'm pretty new to all this, so I may need some things explained.
Also, I should add, that pretty much everything I do, or have access too is ingame. My current situation doesn't lend itself to having that much of a disposable income, so I don't have much to spend on the really good toys.
"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment... I am well versed in disappointment, having walked this road a very long time..."
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So for a few tips, drop the rear torp and use the ancient omni ap beam you get by replaying the mission where you got your core.
To get some nice gear replay the mission "A step between Stars" 3 times. You get a very rare mk 12 deflector, shield and engine with very solid stats as mission reward.
As for your fore torp: replace it either with a additional AP beam or use a better torp. The reputation system has various special torpedos which are all pretty good.
And don't waste your tac slot with a torpedo console. It's better to boost your 6-7 beams further than just the one torp slightly.
As for your Boffs, something like:
BFAW1, TS2
TT1
EptS, ET2, EptW3, DEM3
ET1, RSP1, Aux2Sif
HE1, ST2
Tactical Team will clear some debuffs and will atumatically distribute shield hp to the attacked side, it's invaluable on every good ship.
A big problem on beam cruisers is the enormous power drain when firing multible energy weapons. Make sure your weapon power stays at least about 100 all the time so your shots will have an actual impact.
Hazard Emitters will allow you to clear various dots and debuffs most noteably plasma burns and the frigging borg shield nullifier that makes you a very vulnerable target.
As for the consoles, well...aim for some universal consoles from the reputation system. The romulan zero point, assimilated module from the borg and the nukara particle converter are all very good consoles which would help you.
If you somehow can get some lobi I'd also reccomend "Bounty Hunter's Friend" for 200 lobi, it reduces the weapon power drain.
When you get far enough in the Omega rep go for the kinetic cutting beam. Together with the assimilated console it's great. This would also eliminate the need for torps.
Equipment - Well, I've seen worse. Some bad choices there.
Boffs - Scis are reasonable, if not optimal. Tacs are terrible, Engs are... worse.
Skill points - does need a respect really. For a start, you are way overspecced in science, putting loads of points into skills you don't use (unless you are sharing this with a sci ship) I would certainly go for a respec.
What to do:
This, if you fly straight, is all you need for STO PvE. http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=stormchildr2_0
There isn't anything there you shouldn't be able to sort - A2SIF3 is up to 4k EC from exchange, EPTW3 is trainable by yourself, all equipment I've replaced is a mission reward, consoles are type of console to slot, not Mk/rarity to get. No doffs needed.
That is more than enough for typical PvE you will likely want to do if you fly it right.
To take it further will require grinding in some form unfortunately, but to do the above, you only need to replay a few missions and buy some stuff you can already afford.
I started with a Fed Engineer in cruisers. I'll provide a basic setup which you can use to get some ideas from.
All beams works just fine so there is no need for torpedoes, but you can use them if you want.
Use shield emitter consoles in science to boost your shield heals.
1 neutronium console and 1 EPS flow regulator console in engineering should be sufficient and give room for universal consoles.
Do the omega rep and STFs like Cure, Infected and Khitomer to earn the goodies so you can get an assimilated module and the kinetic cutting beam. It is some of the easiest to obtain reputation gear and it is still one of the staple 2-piece combo sets folks still use.
Run fluid dynamics in the borg episode chain a few times to get more AP beam arrays on the cheap....or buy them from the exchange.
TT1, APB1
BFAW1
ET1, EPTS2, EPTW3
ET1, EPTS2, EPTW3, A2SIF3
HE1, ST2
You will need the following in your active duty space roster:
2 conn officers to reduce tac team cooldowns, at least 1 purple and 1 blue one or 2 purple ones.
2-3 energy weapon officers that reduce beam special attacks
Cycle tac team, EPTS and EPTW as often as possible. Tac team re-orients shields, EPTS boosts shield resistances and adds a heal, EPTW boosts weapon power which boosts damage output.
If it isn't tanky enough for you, use EPTS3 and EPTW2 instead. It'll do a tad less DPS, but being able to stay in the fight longer should mitigate some of the loss.
That's a very basic and tanky cruiser setup provided above that should provide some good ideas and help if you want to try it out. You can send heals (engineering team, science team, hazard emitters and Aux to structural integrity field) to other players if you aren't taking damage. If you do take damage, you'll have plenty of heals to help you out.
Thanks dude, you were probably just being polite, but that was very nice of you to say.
My goodness, I really like your style hahaha... I do do this already, but it's very gratifying to know I'm not the only one
Do notice that having 2xEPtS and 2xEPtW means you can keep both EPtS and EPtW constantly active at the same time. It also means you're using an EPtX ability every 15s or so, and with just 3 ranks in Starship Batteries skill you'd be constantly benefiting from the Engineer's EPS Manifold Efficiency trait. 9 ranks is a bit much.
(Note that this touches upon a keybind thing - usually we add one tray to spacebar, so we can have certain things firing whenever they're off cooldown. EPtX abilities are one of the few that's a good idea to do that with.)
Usually we don't want projectiles on a cruiser because we want to broadside the enemy, and most torpedo launcher arcs don't accommodate that. That means we can toss the Projectile skills. You want to max out Energy Weapon Spec.
Driver Coil is excessive, it's primarily a convenience skill. It's only place in combat is not dropping your power levels too much when you charge into combat, but as an Engineer it's not a huge issue.
Warp Core Efficiency has diminishing returns, put no more than Rank 6 in it. Subsystem Repair is also excessive, even just 3 ranks is enough, especially with Eng Team and Sci Team on hand.
Do put at least 6 ranks in Starship EPS, Impulse Thrusters, and Warp Core Potential. You will want 6 ranks in the Performance skills as well. No more than 3 ranks in the armor skills though, it's excessive to have more.
Flow Cap is something we put at Rank 9 only if you're planning really far ahead - it's only real use on your ship would be with the Plasmonic Leech console, where it determines how much power it drains from enemies and give to you each time your energy weapons hit a victim. That console is something like 50 mil EC.
You have literally nothing that's buffed by Part Gen or Grav Gen, those are for offensive science abilities like Gravity Well. Power Insulator and Inertial Dampeners aren't bad defensive skills, but should probable have no more than 6 ranks, preferably 3.
You have to remember that there are diminishing returns with Ranks vs Skill Level. The first three ranks (green) give a larger increase in Skill Level than the next three (yellow), which in turn give a larger increase in Skill Level than the last three (red). That's why unless it's something we really want to max out (Like Structural Integrity, or Starship Weapons Training) we don't put in more than 6 ranks. If it's a non-critical skill, we don't usually put in more than 3 ranks.
Check out this table for more details. Hope that helps!
If you can get at least 2 purple damage control engineers (DCE) that reduce emergency power ability recharge (I prefer 3, but that's my preference) you can get away with only using 1 EPTW and 1 other EPTx ability to make room for a couple more engineering skills like reverse shield polarity and directed energy modulation. Until you have the DCE's, at least run 2 EPTW's, but try that with 2 of another EPT skill if you find it helpful.
To add - Max damage for beams is at 1km away, diminishing linearly to 65% of max at 10km.
You could also source 3k Zen, buy a Phantom max it's mastery to gain Reciprocity, max your defence and save lots of doff space you would be using for doubling up Tac boffs. It is one of the few grinds I don't actually mind recommending these days post-DR...