Suggestions for my first ship: Breen Carrier (Meerus Meerkatus).

thedancingfox · May 2015

Hello Everyone,

I've been playing for a year now, and have "my first ship" ready to be improved upon.

I would sincerely appreciate any constructive feedback on any part of the build.

Introducing the Breen Sarr Theln Carrier (T6) "Meerus Meerkatus" under Fleet Admiral Kristen.

Entirely built out of the "Free to Play" loot drops, except for the Borg Assimilated Engines which I bought from the Reputation System to help travel sector space faster for DOFFing.

The link to the details is here: Meerus Meerkatus

My main aim is "Improve the ship, but cheaply over time."

I've included more extensive background notes at the build link.

I'll monitor this thread for responses, as it is quite likely that I don't know what I should be asking about specifically and you'll want to know something I haven't included.

Overall, I've been quite happy with this ship. My usual PvE practice is to fly it with full power to auxillary, launch fighters, Gravity Well, and launch science abilities, then buffed torpedoes. The power transfer rate is quite good, but I usually leave the weapons low. Maybe I shouldn't, but I'm sure someone will tell me that isn't good play.

Anyway, thank you in advance.

TheDancingFox

szerontzur · May 2015

It looks like.. a bit of a generalist build that doesn't really specialize in anything.

..probably my two suggestions for it would either be to go for a Gravity (Torpedo)Bomber or a Drain-ship - which the Sarr Theln does very well at. The former will struggle with the ship's poor turn rate, the latter means probably giving up Gravity Well.

You can run Transphasics pretty easily if you want to go the Gravity Bomber route, alternatives are photons, plasmas or exotics.

The Drain Ship route isn't too bad to set up via Protonic Polaron beams from Dyson Rep; getting a Plasmonic Leech will probably be difficult for you though.

How you gear the ship really depends on how you want to specialize the ship - until you figure that out, it's kind of difficult to make meaningful suggestions.

desertjets · May 2015

In the post Delta Rising world generalist builds are sub-optimal. I'll second the idea for a drain build (most certainly a few of the drain experts will chime in here). You can pick up the Dominion Polaron beams on replay of Boldly the Rode ("Kurland here"). Dom Polaron beams have both the tetryon and polaron procs. As a drain build your sci abilities will revolve around energy siphon, Tykens and tachyon beam.

I'd think 4x dom polaron, the borg kinetic beam, plus a torp of your choice -- the Grav Torp for the Dyson rep is still one of the better choices and easy enough to get. For sci consoles I'd ditch the freebie drops you got from the Dyson rep. Since drain = flow caps you'll want flow cap consoles there. If you try and buy them off of the exchange they can be a bit pricey. If you can craft sci consoles I"d go that route -- get 4x VR MkIIs and upgrade them as far as you can afford ATM.

As for core ship items for sciencey builds I've long preferred the Adapted MACO space stuff. I use the engine and shield -- these get you bonuses to aux specifically plus the 2pc boosts torpedo damage. For a drain build the Jem'Hadar deflector that comes as a reward from one of the 2800 missions -- the plus side is that it is free and has the highest single flowcap modifier of any deflector in the game -- the downside is 2 of the other 3 modifiers are kind of wasted on drain builds. Adapated MACO gets the next highest flow caps but it is a very generalist deflector. A crafted or purchased Tachyon deflector may be the best.

thedancingfox · May 2015

Thank you szerontzur and desertjets for your prompt and thoughtful replies.

You've already given me enough to research and think about for a while, so I'll come back after I've thought about these.

Two quick responses.

szerontzur >> It looks like.. a bit of a generalist build that doesn't really specialize in anything.

This is brilliant. You've summed up my whole ship and character in your opening line after one look at my build. That's a talent.

I've been quite happy with the 'generalist' approach while levelling up my first character and ship. But obviously I'm open to the idea of improving the build, which may mean more specialisation.

desertjets >> For a drain build the Jem'Hadar deflector that comes as a reward from one of the 2800 missions -- the plus side is that it is free and has the highest single flowcap modifier of any deflector in the game

That's really interesting. I just swapped out the JemHadar deflector for the Assimilated Deflector, as I was thinking "Try more of the same set for the bonuses" as I put on the Kinetic Cutting Beam (and removed a beam . . . and I don't know if it is an improvement...).
But I immediately noticed that my shields weren't rebalancing as quickly. Flow capacitors impacts this I believe - and before my shields and power transfers were noticeably quicker. I was thinking of putting it (both) back in actually ... before re-thinking that I'd better bite the bullet and come here and ask for professional advice.

I didn't mention, but I've got a full set of specialisation points in "Intelligence" and I'm looking at the next tree to fill out for the secondary. I was thinking of "Commander" which seems to buff the ship survivability as a good fit, over Pilot (To Rock and Roll) or Commando (Ground).

Seriously, thank you both.

You've given me a lot to think about and research. More than I can absorb and reply to from work. (Ahem!)

TheDancingFox.

Suggestions for my first ship: Breen Carrier (Meerus Meerkatus).

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