In the case of the Defiant, the console you'd get by the Zen purchase is its cloaking device. The Fleet Defiant has 1 extra console compared to the Phantom, so using this console will even those out (the Phantom has a built-in cloak).
Plus, if you do the Zen purchase, you can then get the Fleet one for just 1 module, and applying the upgrade will affect both. The interesting part here is that this will also unlock a free, T5U, non-Fleet Defiant Retro for any future Federation characters on the same account. (And access to the Fleet T5U for one module.)
Normally, I'd advise an all-beam or all-cannon build, rather than some of each. However, the Defiant is one of the exceptions: a ship that actually has enough tac BOFF slots (eight) that you can slot 1x or 2x Tac Team, 1 or 2 attack patterns, and still have room for BFAW, Beam Overload, Cannon Rapid, AND Cannon Scatter.
One thing that might make some influence here, though: you will not be able to slot 3x omni beams unless you go with Antiproton or mismatched weapons. That's because all omni weapons are labeled as "may only equip one per ship"; however, there are two - the Ancient Antiproton from 'Sphere of Influence', and the Kinetic Cutting Beam from the Omega reputation - which are their own categories, so those two can be slotted with one crafted one. (Additionally, they both offer 2 pc set bonuses that are quite useful, with the warp core from the same episode and the Assimilated Console.) If you want to go canon, though, you'd be arming the Defiant with phasers, and even with the KCB, that would leave one aft slot unable to be filled with a matching omni beam.
You can achive a similar effect, though, by using turrets; they're also 360, and unlimited, but they use cannon rather than beam skills.
I'm not comparing to the Maelstrom as I have never flown or really investigated it.
As for dilithium: if you are at level 50 yet, running reputation projects (even after mastery) offers a quick method to get small amounts; if you have access to Contraband, you can visit a Security Officer for a 4 hr 2000 dil turnin doff assignment (costs 5 contraband); you can pick up 'investigate officer reports' and then run a foundry mission; also most PVE queues and battlezone missions offer small dilithium rewards; there's also mining it yourself (at the two mining locations near DS9; take an EV suit). Many of these aren't available until level 50, though. You can earn as much dilithium ore as you like, so it is also possible to stock up; you just can only convert 8000-8500 to refined (and thus spendable) dilithium per day. (The extra 500 comes from a doff assignment that may be available at your Fleet Dilithium Mine.)
On the matter of the cloak, I'm ... not entirely sold on it. I already have the Warp Burst Capacitor from a previous purchase, so I can warp in, get a damage buff, and be untargetable for five seconds. How does the cloak compare?
As for omni-beams ... yeah, I guess I would have to go with antiproton damage, unless I wanted to use only one. That's a very good point. I'd still like to have one, since they're cool, but ... we'll see. The only option for non-AP would be one omni, one KCB, and one other rear weapon.
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
As an aside, I have to wonder ... would there be a net benefit to using an omni-phaser in back, as well as a regular phaser array? The omni-phaser has the same coverage as a turret, and more damage, and the phaser array flat-out does more damage, even if the arc is more limited. This might be worth experimenting on.
EDIT: Or just two omni-beams, if I end up using antiproton weapons. Which I might, especially since that's what the Kinetic Cutting Beam uses.
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
If you are using beam arrays on your fore then onmis in the rear. If you are using cannons up front then Turrets in the rear.
Cannon abilities affect turrets and beam abilities affect omnis. In an escort you will normally be flying towards and object and you should be able to keep your target in a narrow firing arc. If you are using DBB then omnis can shoot forward with you. Same with the Turrets if you use DC or DHC.
Since your most powerful weapons are up front and you are usually facing them you would have all 7 weapons now pointing forward. If you have a standard beam array in the back that beam array cannot fire at the same time as DBB and there is a 22.5 degree gap from the DHCs on either side. The only weapons that can fire at the same time as a standard array is another array. that is the overlap that cruisers will usually do. The only time this would make sense for an escort is if you are trying to capitalize on the Pedal to the Metal trait from the pilot spec tree. Standard arrays might also be easier to get into the DPS channels as positioning is a bit easier.
There are a few different configurations that are worth looking at. The traditional DHC's up front, 3 Turrets in the back and maybe one torp or dbb. I usually do all energy weapons to save on spec point when it comes to projectiles. You have to choose between ApO3 and csv3.
There is the DBB up front with Omnis in the back. If you use anti-proton then you can get 3 omnis in the back. If you use a ship with 5 fore weapons and 2 aft you can use any flavor. The advantage to this one is you can do ApO3 with FAW3.
If you go with the Fleet Partol Escort Refit you will want to go phaser. This makes 3 omnis in the back not possible. This makes Turrets and DHCs more preferable.
DBB = Dual Beam Bank
DHC = Dual Heavy Cannons
DC = Dual Cannon
ApO# = Attack Pattern Omega
csv# = Cannon Scatter Volley
FAW# = Beam Fire-at-will
Currently the weapon modifier of choice is [CrtD]. This gives 20% critical severity. Any [CrtD]x3 weapon gives 60%. Antiprotons do not have a proc (except Voth/fluidic versions) but instead give 10% severity. DHCs also get a passive 10% crtd bonus. DC, dbb and arrays do not. This works well if you have high critical chance values on your ship.
The reason why I mention this is if you want to save a bit of EC when testing if you like cannons is you can test it out with Dual Cannon [crtd]x3 a lot easier then any other type. Any DHC, DBB or array with [CrtD]x3 is 10 to 20 mil ec. Dual cannons with [CrtD]x3 are under a mill. They Still have 60% severity and when compaired to a dbb with crtdx3 it is affordable. It may not be the Antiproton dhc with 80% but it is still good.
I do intend to do some dps testing asap, however. I intend to test replacing a copy of Torp Spread 2 with a copy of Beam Overload III and a turret with an omni-beam, then a turret with a beam array, then both turrets with beam arrays, then a dual cannon with a dual beam bank. All will be tested with the cheapest vanilla mark of weapons consistently available, and the standard gear that comes with a level 50 ship.
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
the easiest way to get dilithium is running the Voth ground battle zone, one play through you can get enough to hit your cap very quickly. If you turn in the marks if your done with the rep is another couple thousand on top of that.
One thing to Keep in mind about BO3 is that it will drain most of your weapon power. THis will kill your DPS on your cannons. A DBB would be a better choice for BO3 because it has a high base dps to boost from. Also using BO3 on a cannon build reduces your dps further as you will not be able to chain csv2 back to back as easily. you would have to reduce your csv2 to csv1 and that would push TS2 to Ts1. this would then mean you would need at least 2 purple conn officers to still use tac team back to back. That is a lot to give up for a bo3 omni.
the easiest way to get dilithium is running the Voth ground battle zone, one play through you can get enough to hit your cap very quickly. If you turn in the marks if your done with the rep is another couple thousand on top of that.
You're welcome to test, but in terms of efficiency, I am almost certain that sticking with turrets will be advantageous with this build, considering you have cannons up front and turrets will benefit from your CSV's.
Concerning the tac BOFFs, I would flip the TS and CSV on one boff, so that you have LtC level of both skills available, with a Lt level available as a backup. I would also consider replacing the Emergency to Shields with Engineering Team.
Ideally, I'd replace the third through fifth tac consoles with Locators (there are some with torp boosters available instead of the Phaser type) to maximize your crit hit chance, and replace all energy weapons with ones with multiple CrtD mods (which will need to be crafted/looted/bought on exchange as there are no such fleet vendor weapons).... but it's a start.
Interesting, thanks for the tips. Done.
As an aside, I'm considering replacing the shields and engines with the Dyson versions in order to get that Proton Barrage ability. What so y'all think of this?
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
One thing to Keep in mind about BO3 is that it will drain most of your weapon power. THis will kill your DPS on your cannons. A DBB would be a better choice for BO3 because it has a high base dps to boost from. Also using BO3 on a cannon build reduces your dps further as you will not be able to chain csv2 back to back as easily. you would have to reduce your csv2 to csv1 and that would push TS2 to Ts1. this would then mean you would need at least 2 purple conn officers to still use tac team back to back. That is a lot to give up for a bo3 omni.
As of 7/31/2014 this is no longer true, from the patch notes:
========== CUT ==========
Powers:
Beam Overload:
Beam Overload attacks are now always a Critical Hit.
Their tooltips have been updated to indicate that they always Critically Hit. Beam Overload no longer drains Weapon Power.
Beam Overload's base damage has been reduced by 25% under the hood.
Its damage will be higher on average due to 100% Critical chance.
Related powers changes:
All Power Level drain from Lance-type powers has been removed.
For example, the Auxiliary Disruptor Array no longer drains Aux power when fired.
Damage and critical chance of all Lance-type powers remains unchanged.
The Crit Chance and Crit Severity from Rally Cry can now only stack twice team-wide.
The benefit of Captains Gain from Squad Command has been reduced.
Corrected the tooltip for Lucky to indicate it modifies Expose chance, rather than Exploit chance, and to indicate the actual amount it provides.
Vicious Trait tooltip now correctly shows 6% crit severity per stack.
========== CUT ==========
Okay, new question. I'm trying to get Ten of Ten for my duty officer roster, but ... where the F*** is the B'Tran Cluster?!
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
Another question. For my science officer skills, is it better to have Polarize Hull I and Transfer Shield Strength II, or TSS1 and Tractor Beam Repulsors?
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
Well, since it turns out I'm a terrible pilot, it seems that rear beam arrays deal more damage for me than turrets. So I've updated my build. Now I just need to decide which ability, if any, to sac for Beam Overload/Fire At Will, if any. http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=ussbellerophondmkv_0
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
Another question. For my science officer skills, is it better to have Polarize Hull I and Transfer Shield Strength II, or TSS1 and Tractor Beam Repulsors?
Personally, if all I have is a Lt. Science slot there really is only 1 option for those: Science Team 2 and Hazard Emitters 1 (or vice versa). The LtCmd. Slot (if there is one) is where I add anything fancy: Tractor Beam, Gravity Well, etc.
I have flown most of the ships in the original post (exception being the patrol escort, I own the original Maelstrom fleet version).
The fleet Defiant has the canon-appeal and is still a heck of a damage dealer. But that overly tactical BOFF layout with no universal seats whatsoever made me leave it behind for now.
The Escort carrier I have only flown as tier 5U non-fleet. Its a decent ship, if you don't rely on needing 2 lt. com tac BOFFs. I can still recommend it, fleet version or not.
Lastly, the Tempest is unknown to me. The main reason for why I avoid is the tailgun. You might be asking why? Well the reason being the tailgun is phaser only. I can't stand running anything remotely rainbowy and that tailgun doesn't get anything from my antiproton consoles. If you can live that though (or use phasers) then yes, its a great pick.
Heres some other ships worth looking into:
- Andorian escorts (those are pretty sweet)
- Phantom Intel escort (haven't flown it, but if you need Intel powers, look no further)
-Jem'Hadar Dreadnought Carrier (I know, expensive and all but its the best carrier for a tac officer that I have flown. Mind you, I never had a Narcene carrier to compare it to that.)
Thanks. For the record, I'm looking at the Maelstrom, not the Tempest.
As an aside, I recently got some money, so I'm considering getting the Eclipse Intel ship in order to unlock its trait. Two questions. One, is the trait worth it? And two, how does the Eclipse handle and shoot in comparison to the T5 escorts?
(As for why I don't just get the Phantom ... it's ugly. I'm vain, I know, but I don't like using ugly ships.)
PLEASE, for the love of all that is chocolate. If your advice involves me spending IRL money on this game, save us both the trouble and don't bother. I've already spent as much money as I can afford on this game. Thank you for your time.
Comments
On the matter of the cloak, I'm ... not entirely sold on it. I already have the Warp Burst Capacitor from a previous purchase, so I can warp in, get a damage buff, and be untargetable for five seconds. How does the cloak compare?
As for omni-beams ... yeah, I guess I would have to go with antiproton damage, unless I wanted to use only one. That's a very good point. I'd still like to have one, since they're cool, but ... we'll see. The only option for non-AP would be one omni, one KCB, and one other rear weapon.
EDIT: Or just two omni-beams, if I end up using antiproton weapons. Which I might, especially since that's what the Kinetic Cutting Beam uses.
Cannon abilities affect turrets and beam abilities affect omnis. In an escort you will normally be flying towards and object and you should be able to keep your target in a narrow firing arc. If you are using DBB then omnis can shoot forward with you. Same with the Turrets if you use DC or DHC.
Since your most powerful weapons are up front and you are usually facing them you would have all 7 weapons now pointing forward. If you have a standard beam array in the back that beam array cannot fire at the same time as DBB and there is a 22.5 degree gap from the DHCs on either side. The only weapons that can fire at the same time as a standard array is another array. that is the overlap that cruisers will usually do. The only time this would make sense for an escort is if you are trying to capitalize on the Pedal to the Metal trait from the pilot spec tree. Standard arrays might also be easier to get into the DPS channels as positioning is a bit easier.
There are a few different configurations that are worth looking at. The traditional DHC's up front, 3 Turrets in the back and maybe one torp or dbb. I usually do all energy weapons to save on spec point when it comes to projectiles. You have to choose between ApO3 and csv3.
There is the DBB up front with Omnis in the back. If you use anti-proton then you can get 3 omnis in the back. If you use a ship with 5 fore weapons and 2 aft you can use any flavor. The advantage to this one is you can do ApO3 with FAW3.
If you go with the Fleet Partol Escort Refit you will want to go phaser. This makes 3 omnis in the back not possible. This makes Turrets and DHCs more preferable.
DBB = Dual Beam Bank
DHC = Dual Heavy Cannons
DC = Dual Cannon
ApO# = Attack Pattern Omega
csv# = Cannon Scatter Volley
FAW# = Beam Fire-at-will
Currently the weapon modifier of choice is [CrtD]. This gives 20% critical severity. Any [CrtD]x3 weapon gives 60%. Antiprotons do not have a proc (except Voth/fluidic versions) but instead give 10% severity. DHCs also get a passive 10% crtd bonus. DC, dbb and arrays do not. This works well if you have high critical chance values on your ship.
The reason why I mention this is if you want to save a bit of EC when testing if you like cannons is you can test it out with Dual Cannon [crtd]x3 a lot easier then any other type. Any DHC, DBB or array with [CrtD]x3 is 10 to 20 mil ec. Dual cannons with [CrtD]x3 are under a mill. They Still have 60% severity and when compaired to a dbb with crtdx3 it is affordable. It may not be the Antiproton dhc with 80% but it is still good.
I do intend to do some dps testing asap, however. I intend to test replacing a copy of Torp Spread 2 with a copy of Beam Overload III and a turret with an omni-beam, then a turret with a beam array, then both turrets with beam arrays, then a dual cannon with a dual beam bank. All will be tested with the cheapest vanilla mark of weapons consistently available, and the standard gear that comes with a level 50 ship.
Noted, thanks.
Interesting, thanks for the tips. Done.
As an aside, I'm considering replacing the shields and engines with the Dyson versions in order to get that Proton Barrage ability. What so y'all think of this?
As of 7/31/2014 this is no longer true, from the patch notes:
========== CUT ==========
Powers:
Beam Overload:
Beam Overload attacks are now always a Critical Hit.
Their tooltips have been updated to indicate that they always Critically Hit.
Beam Overload no longer drains Weapon Power.
Beam Overload's base damage has been reduced by 25% under the hood.
Its damage will be higher on average due to 100% Critical chance.
Related powers changes:
All Power Level drain from Lance-type powers has been removed.
For example, the Auxiliary Disruptor Array no longer drains Aux power when fired.
Damage and critical chance of all Lance-type powers remains unchanged.
The Crit Chance and Crit Severity from Rally Cry can now only stack twice team-wide.
The benefit of Captains Gain from Squad Command has been reduced.
Corrected the tooltip for Lucky to indicate it modifies Expose chance, rather than Exploit chance, and to indicate the actual amount it provides.
Vicious Trait tooltip now correctly shows 6% crit severity per stack.
========== CUT ==========
As an aside, if I could get away with using the Vaadwaur Polaron weapons, I totally would, those things are slick. I even made a variant just for that. http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=ussbellerophonbmki_0
Personally, if all I have is a Lt. Science slot there really is only 1 option for those: Science Team 2 and Hazard Emitters 1 (or vice versa). The LtCmd. Slot (if there is one) is where I add anything fancy: Tractor Beam, Gravity Well, etc.
The fleet Defiant has the canon-appeal and is still a heck of a damage dealer. But that overly tactical BOFF layout with no universal seats whatsoever made me leave it behind for now.
The Escort carrier I have only flown as tier 5U non-fleet. Its a decent ship, if you don't rely on needing 2 lt. com tac BOFFs. I can still recommend it, fleet version or not.
Lastly, the Tempest is unknown to me. The main reason for why I avoid is the tailgun. You might be asking why? Well the reason being the tailgun is phaser only. I can't stand running anything remotely rainbowy and that tailgun doesn't get anything from my antiproton consoles. If you can live that though (or use phasers) then yes, its a great pick.
Heres some other ships worth looking into:
- Andorian escorts (those are pretty sweet)
- Phantom Intel escort (haven't flown it, but if you need Intel powers, look no further)
-Jem'Hadar Dreadnought Carrier (I know, expensive and all but its the best carrier for a tac officer that I have flown. Mind you, I never had a Narcene carrier to compare it to that.)
"Let them eat static!"
As an aside, I recently got some money, so I'm considering getting the Eclipse Intel ship in order to unlock its trait. Two questions. One, is the trait worth it? And two, how does the Eclipse handle and shoot in comparison to the T5 escorts?
(As for why I don't just get the Phantom ... it's ugly. I'm vain, I know, but I don't like using ugly ships.)