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Science captain questions?
lordstipe2000
Member Posts: 61 Arc User
Hey all,
I've played for a long time but mostly Engineers with a brief delve into Tactical. My only science captain was a Orion on the KDF side a long time ago. I generally know what I'm doing but have a few specific questions:
1) ship selection: I'm vice admiral now on my Delta recruit.. I really like the look of the Vesta and its layouts and abilities.. However it's not tier 6. I'm still tempted to get it and upgrade to teir 5U after I get the traits from the scryer and the dauntless.. Is the vesta worth the points? Or is the pathfinder better?
2) Bridge officer powers.. GW3 is a no brainier.. I built her for that. Beyond the obligatory science team and hazard emitters any other must haves? What about these new powers.. Specifically subspace vortex? Any thoughts?
I think that's it.. Thanks in advance.
I've played for a long time but mostly Engineers with a brief delve into Tactical. My only science captain was a Orion on the KDF side a long time ago. I generally know what I'm doing but have a few specific questions:
1) ship selection: I'm vice admiral now on my Delta recruit.. I really like the look of the Vesta and its layouts and abilities.. However it's not tier 6. I'm still tempted to get it and upgrade to teir 5U after I get the traits from the scryer and the dauntless.. Is the vesta worth the points? Or is the pathfinder better?
2) Bridge officer powers.. GW3 is a no brainier.. I built her for that. Beyond the obligatory science team and hazard emitters any other must haves? What about these new powers.. Specifically subspace vortex? Any thoughts?
I think that's it.. Thanks in advance.
Post edited by lordstipe2000 on
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Comments
Well ship selection...it depends on what you want to do? If you're looking to DPS...well the Recon MME is the best dps you'll get out of a Sci ship.
What do you want to do with a Sci?
Boff powers...that is also a what to do...do you want to dps, cc, drain, or what?
Whenever a science ship+science captain build conversation starts with DPS, I facepalm.
If that's what the OP is after, just build a part gens ship out of either the T5-U Vesta or Fleet Dauntless since both have a 5 sci/4 tac console layout and stack part gens until you reach 400.
I personally find the CC or drain builds more interesting and challenging. Heal boats are now stupid easy to make thanks to all the heal boosting stuff in the game.
Well it's a logical question since almost everyone bases the game on DPS...
Admiral Dananra Lekall - R.R.W. Teverresh, Deihu-class Warbird
General J'Kar son of K'tsulan - I.K.S. Dlahath, Vo'devwl-class Carrier
So the Vesta is worth the money? I do like the look of the ship.
Any one have any thoughts on subspace vortex it seems interesting but I haven't gotten lucky from a lock box yet and while I have the funds to buy it off the exchange it would just about bankrupt me (well my Delta recruit anyway).
And again for people who don't think outside of their very small boxes I suggest what I've done. I hybrid. I run GW III along with energy drains. I run AP dual beams (2 front) with a part gen torp and the 3 omni's in back. Run the Warp Core for the omni synergy and the 135 aux power. The energy drains keep me maxed and the GW and Torp DPS everything into nothing.
Drain build - Palisade is still the king here because of its console. Taking that out of consideration, any 5 sci console ship can be made into a drain build.
Jem'Hadar deflector or Tachyon [FlwC]x2 deflector = +30 or +40
R&D Engineering and Science console with [Flow] = + 75
4 embassy flow caps boosting consoles = +150
Rule 62 console = +28.1
Apex predator 2 piece bonus = +15
Nukara 2 piece bonus = +15
Solanae 2nd deflector if available. Otherwise, the secondary one that boosts drain abilities with radiation damage. = +15
Physicist = +10
Skill maxed = +99
Base gear total = 447.1
Fleet boost = +10
Doff assignment boost = +25
Long temp boost total = 482.1
Inspirational Leader = Up to +30
Tier 5 Romulan skill = +100
Short temp boost possible max total = 612.1
P.S. It has been a while since I posted the flow caps maxing gear.
Now that's interesting.. Thanks for posting!
We all have our own idea of fun. My idea of fun, within the PVE environment, is a gravity well with a 20km diameter.
That's doable now. Part Gen builds have been the flavour of the past 6 months but there has never been a better time to rock a Grav Gen build. In any target rich environment they happily keep up with a Part Gen build whilst providing a better force multiplying effect for the group.
Now I am not wanting to sound down on Part Gens. Part Gens are fantastic, A Part Gen build has an advantage when fighting smaller numbers of enemies. But if you want to WoW the members of your Pug a Giant gravity well goes a long way.
Most AoE damage abilities have a limited number of targets that they can do damage too. But Gravity wells, gravimetric torpedo rifts, and plasma emission torpedo clouds have a limitless target number. This provides the opportunity to multiplying a large amount of damage by as many enemies as your gravity well has the opportunity to capture. Just be sure to use torpedo spread 3 with your torpedo of choice to multiply the number of damage doing hazards you can stack at the centre of your well.
Fair warning. While a Mega well build is typically cheaper then a Part Gen build, like all science builds you need to invest a lot to make it perform competitively. But once you have it optimized its a lot of fun. I recommend the fleet dauntless for a Mega Well build, though any ship with a commander science boff station, lt commander tac/uni and 5 science console slots can do it well. Being able to through Ionic turbulence into the mix from a dauntless just enhances the build's effectiveness.
My Fed Sci is in a MU Recon Sci.
I have a KDF Sci. Which I've been looking at the Fleet Corsair for it. Was thinking of the Marauder. As you level up your sci. Use you 10, 20, 30, and 40 ships to experiment. Find that right style ship for you
Mostly for me, since I've been hanging on my KDF Tac. A grav well isn't a wow factor for me. Its more of a, "Thanks for gathering them up in front of my cannons."
And the grave well build has been a favorite for a long time. It was one of the prefered Sci builds for the old borg STFs when they first came out.
The problem with this is. The ships. If you haven't noticed, the ships are going more and more solo build play. Which isn't a bad thing, but its not neccessarily a good thing either. I mean other than missions, really how often are you solo in doing something?
I remember when it was;
Cruiser: Tank
Escort: Damage
Sci: Support.
Now its Cruiser: Tank/Damage/Support all in one. Which is why you have more cruiser out there now. Add to this the traits and consoles that can make a Cruiser maneuver like an Escort.
There have always been more cruisers out there, even in the age of escorts online. The main difference is that there are more cruisers being flown by min-maxers.
A Mega well build isn't about bunching enemies for other people to shoot now. In fact its totally different to the old; 'I will slap a gravity well on my ship and stop the spheres reach the transformers' mentality. That was never efficient. My science captain was soloing a side of the old KSE with emergency power to engines and shear DPS even before the boost to EP2E.
The reason a Mega well build is good now is that you don't need any one else. Lets take the classic example of Infected space. These days if you pug it and bring a sci toon capable of 30k+ DPS you cant just solo it while 3k DPS puggles do their thing. Not in the way you used to be able to.
Lets say you que for Infected space advanced. You get in there, and you have not just a very low DPS team of well meaning but ineficent newbies, you also have a troll who goes off to pop generators on the other side.
A Cruiser or Escort is going to be able to deal with that. Without the support of a good team helping to augment your damage you wont be able to put out enough damage to kill everything quickly enough.
A Sci ship with a particle build will be able to deal with this, provided the nano spheres exit the gate without too much space between them, so that they can all be net in a smaller well. Its likely to go horribly wrong however, as a particle build is likely to include TBR's which are going to put you in range of the gate, so your taking damage from the spheres intended for both sides and the gate.
A Sci ship with a Mega well build can safly keep its distance from the gate, (torpedos and gravity wells perform as well from 10k as 5k) and as the well is so large it can wait quite happily for every probe to be out of the gate before poping it. Once everything is in the well it can layer them with multiple damage doing hazards that will happily destroy them without any help from any one else.
Now the disclaimer. To do this and survive your going to want a lot of very expensive stuff.
So the WoW factor isn't that the well is really big, although dragging 30+ ships across the screen across 20km in some content is always going to wow. Its that you just don't need any one else.
And there is the problem. The STFs that you mentioned are about team play, not "Oh I can solo it." Which is why I don't even bother with them. It's also why there is a difference in ques. The space ones are always full because, well "it can be soloed." the ground ones are vertually empty, because... you can't solo them. Which makes ground the hard mode and space the easy mode. I mean, why not just let a player solo que for stfs, since.. yanno.. they can solo them now. TRIBBLE teams, just make it all solo.
What do you mean by fun and interesting? some people find dps to be fun, just saying.
While there are some interesting and pretty powers out there most of them aren't going to help you or your team accomplish much. That's just the poor state of the game right now unfortunately.
GW is a great CC power and does ok damage, but TBR can do more in most situations.
Don't think because you are a sci captain you have to fly a sci ship either. None of the sci captain abilities are really going to help buff any of the sci BO powers. A tac is going to be able to buff abilities like GW and TBR way more than a sci can. Now if you are going for more heals/support powers a sci or even cruiser is going to be best.
FYI - I have seen a mega grav well build in action and it's awesome. The torp spreads with the fancy AoE torpedoes do all sorts of fun things after you see all those NPCs bunched up and completely unable to escape.
TBR on an advanced STF is a double edged sword. Yes it can deal damage, but you're also going to be at the receiving end of a lot of damage thanks to the closeness of the NPCs and the crit damage you're dishing out, and if you can't take it, you're going to pop.
This is what I use on my Romulan D'Deridex. But it comes in the consul. I throw this out to gather them up. And unleash full fury of my ship.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
I'm not sure what ship I end up using at Lv50+. Since I don't play this character often I hadn't really put a lot of thought into it yet.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Take your time. Access the situation. Look over you options. Select the most appropriate for you.
I have a lvl 50+ KDF Sci. And for the past little while I've been pondering my options as I play other toons. Right now I'm pondering my choices. The marauder flighty-deck, the vanarus, and the fleet corsair flight-deck, well and the fleet vanarus. All are upgradable. Its just more about which way i want to go with it. More staying power puts me in teh Marauder/Corsair area. More Sci power puts me towards the Vanarus. The happy medium between the two is the Fleet Corsair as far as boff seats go.
As far as Fed side goes. Well there are plenty of choices. So it's even more of a take your time and pick the ship that is right for you.
I'm finally starting to play with Inhibiting Secondary Deflector builds with Particle Gens and while those assets are not equal with my Deteriorating Secondary Deflector with flow caps build assets, I'm, observationally, taking ships out quicker with my flow caps builds (using Deteriorating and Solanae Secondary Deflectors).
- The Dauntless is tac friendly, and even better with kemocite-laced weaponry (a new tactical ability). The starship trait is useful in all situations, but isn't essential. As a bonus, the Dauntless is probably the most efficient ship is sector space, even when compared to the Vesta.
- The Pathfinder feels like a middle-road, easy-to-use sci ship, with no faults whatsoever. The starship trait is both powerful and useful, but it isn't essential. I recommend the Pathfinder for new sci captains with weak defenses.
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I didn't notice if anyone commented on Vortex. Here's my opinion: it's nice, being able to jump 10km after a few seconds. But that's about it. For most situations the spot that vortex occupies could be better used by some other ability (sci, command, or intel). It seemed like I couldn't put a vortex and a Grav 3 down at the same time, but my UI didn't indicate group CD lockouts. I just couldn't activate the ability. They would both seem to be deflector abilities, but I didn't notice them being clearly marked as such. With the deflector group lock-out considered, you can permanently ignore this ability.
The ability Structural Integrity Collapse III can fit on a Scryer. This ability lowers resistances to kinetic/physical. Almost all of a Sci Captain's abilities do kinetic damage. SICollapse also works as a legit exotic damage ability, so if you have doffs/consoles that trigger off of exotic damage it works even better. At 45sec, the cooldown is manageable. The damage it does isn't bad. It does a little less than 2k a tic, before criticals, with the ship I'm using. If you want to maximize single-target dps (against dreadnoughts with massive shields), this ability feels like a must-have.
Kemocite-laced weaponry is prohibitively expensive. The cost-to-effectiveness of this ability is also bad. The tac abilities use-able on a sci ship is limited already, so it's best to stay with FAW, Spread, or an attack formation (with pilot buff). The aoe radiation is nice, but not essential, in any situation. Ignore this ability unless you have EC to waste.
--
Drain builds are nice, but I don't particularly care to spend 10 seconds draining anything when I can kill it in 5 seconds. Drain builds are great with Plasmonic Leech, which is outrageously expensive for anyone starting out. If you set your captain up correctly, draining their shields is a moot point when you can bypass them almost completely. Grav gen builds have nice bonuses, but they have obvious deficiencies too. Grav gen builds require some experience, as a player.
I don't agree that near-400 PG is necessary. I am aware of particle manipulator, but 250-300 PG can get the job done. Exchange one of the fleet PG consoles for a dyson proton-damage proc console (I use shield HP, not PG). Once upgraded to mk xiv it can do a tremendous amount of damage. If you have the resources (or luck) to upgrade it to epic it's... worth it. With an aux battery and over-ride subsystem safeties the consoles damage increases by as much as 200%. My console reaches 8.8k, in the description, before any other combat abilities activate.
I noticed a few people mentioned tac console slots. I used an Aventine (the tac version of the Vesta) for a long time, eventually upgrading it to T-5U. In the beginning stages of your Sci captain, beam weapons (and probably one torp) is a good option. Later on, you may realize your beam weapons now do maybe 10% of the total damage you put out, even if you have five (or six) equipped. If you're a drain build then beams will be really important to you. If you're PG build, you probably don't even need to fire your weapons. Ever.
What am I trying to say? Tac consoles are important at the start, but they are increasingly pointless in the later development of your sci captain. If you intend to pursue set bonuses (like grav torp set and isokentic cannon) your beam weapons will naturally rainbow, which is counter-productive to tac consoles. Tac consoles with crit severity will be useful for much longer, but aren't necessary.
The Scryer has the advantage of being able to slot Intel abilities. Especially OSS can boost aux power to ~160 which boosts your exotic damage quite a bit. It also offers a good amount of eng slots for EP2Aux, AUX2SIF, the new structural integrity collapse, etc.
I always combine particle generator based builds with some drain. Some ways to do that are polaron weapons (especially dominion polaron for the dual power/shield drain), energy siphon (also boosts your own power and triggers deflector doffs for CD reduction on GW), subsystem targeting (sci vessels have that anyway), aceton assimilators (clicky console though), tykens rift, plasmonic leech (expensive though). Basically what you do is keeping targets in place with GW, then use drains and disables until you can use tykens (15 secs after GW); when shields are down you throw a nice torpedo spread and then warp core breeches will do the rest. That is of course just one strategy. If you use reversed tractor beam repulsors, then you can focus exclusively on damage.
For gear, do not max out only particle gens. Grav gens and flow caps, as well as defensive skills, are useful too. The adapted MACO/KHG deflector offers a lot here. Even though the Solanae deflector at MK XIV ultra rare offers 50 to part gens, the KHG one gives you part gens, grav gens, flow caps, even subspace decompiler and hull. Combine it with a second piece of the set and you get a massive aux bonus and extra torpedo damage.
Regarding the new abilities: This vortex thing seems odd. I tried that a couple of times yesterday and it didn't seem to work mostly. Sometimes I was teleported, but I did not see an animation or so. Was maybe due to the lag, but it didn't seem very useful for me. Much better is the structural integrity collapse that synergizes perfectly with a part gen heavy build. Also the resonant something beam that you get from the blood of the warrior episode looks good. It has a 2 min cool down though is not affected by deflector doffs (I hope that will be changed/fixed).
For defensive abilities: science team is very good against all the science disables many new enemies have. Hazard emitters is a life saver against borg. AUX2SIF is a very nice small hull heal with a 15 second CD that benefits from high aux.
Another interesting ability is EP2AUX. It does not only give aux power, but also skills (10-20 to part gens, grav gens and subspace decompiler), but can also enhance your exotic damage with the Xindi technician Doff.
For min/maxing see here: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1297581
And some of us Sci, me in particular, now use Tac consoles for universals sometimes.
Kemocite-Laced Weaponry is working great on my PG Pathfinder. It's in my top-5 DPS dealing skills when I parse, and so is Destabilizing Resonance Beam. The thing is both these skills deal damage and a debuff. These two skills deal more DPS than each of my torpedoes (cloud from Particle Emission excluded)!
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