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Advice on my drain build?
themetalstickman
Member Posts: 1,010 Arc User
I have this drain build I've been working on, here's the STO Academy link: http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=drainwip_8552
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to improve the build? Basically, any ideas that will increase the drain capabilities of the ship are welcome, even if I don't end up using them.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to improve the build? Basically, any ideas that will increase the drain capabilities of the ship are welcome, even if I don't end up using them.
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
I dare you to do better.
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However for your intrepid (which is trying to be more competent) I'd compromise just a bit and drop Tachyon beam down a rank, replace tractor beams, and slot in gravity well 1 (its like tractor beam but so much more useful.) Or you can just slot out tractor beam for destabilizing resonance beam 1 (which is better filler for an "empty" space in a sci build.
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Second, the Jem'Hadar space set is something to consider, since you're already running Combat engines and a +flowcap deflector, and the two-piece would add a some other minor bonuses on top. There's also the shield, which while not as good as a Fleet Adaptive, is still a decent enough shield and the 3 piece gives you another shield-stripper that likes flow caps, so it may not be superior but it does give you another option.
Also on personal tastes, I'd also drop the torps, but I can guess why you're doing it (shields down then hit them with a Spread). Or maybe swap your aft one for something low-ROF high-damage like the Bio-Neural or a cluster torp, save it for when you have that perfect opening then drop the hammer. I also like running an EPTx chain as well for the always-on shield hardness and whatever else you pick for the #2 slot, and it only costs two doff slots. But like I said these are more personal tastes than The Drain Boat Rules.
Your build covers the essentials of what's needed in a Drain Build. Flow Caps. And more Flow Caps. I've done lots of Drain Builds but I have yet to have that array of Flow Cap Embassy Consoles that you have. Very nice!
Equipment:
Not sure what your Flow Caps total is from your Deflector but take a look at the Jem'Hadar Deflector. That inherently has a good Flow Caps bonus. Also, the JH Engines and Deflector will give you a little Polaron Dmg boost. The Engine also has a small Weapons Power bonus to help out, which tends to be running lower than average on most Science Builds.
BOFF Skills:
I would switch Tractor Beam and Science Team. Turn it into Science Team II and Tractor Beam I. ST2 will be a stronger shield heal. Tractor Beam I is as good as any higher level of the same ability. It does the same job of fixing a target in place.
Skillboxes:
You put a lot of points into Subspace Decompiler. That's one of the 2 most expensive Science Skillboxes in the game but your build does not emphasize Disables. Actually, Disables that are not part of Flow Cap-related Shutdowns, such as Viral Matrix, Photonic Shockwave, Tricobalt Explosions (disable factor) were nerfed years ago. It's not worth pursuing.
What I would do, to maintain the flavor of your build, is dump Subspace Decompiler Skill entirely. Max out Attack Patterns since you do have APB1 slotted. Dump the 6 Skillpoints into Starship Armor Reinforcements if you want to even out your resists more.
However, IF you are running both of the Nukara Aux Power-based Traits or just the Defensive one, that provides a decent amount of resists. You'd have diminishing returns. If this is so, I'd knock down the 2 armor related skillboxes to 3 a piece or remove them entirely and improve your ship's characteristics elsewhere.
It looks like the Jem'Hadar deflector gives me +30 at Mk XIV, the same as my current one, so if that's the case, I might just grab the whole Jem'Hadar set and upgrade it. The engine and shield aren't quite as good as mine, but I can easily live with that. Damn, guess this means I'll have to run some Dominion missions again....
As for the BOFF skills, I keep Tractor Beam because I have the shield drain DOFF for that. I think I will switch it and Science Team though, thanks for that suggestion. I'll look into switching Energy Siphon and Tyken's Rift as well, but I dont know if that'll keep my power levels as high.
Concerning my skills, I originally was going to make a Disable boat, but after a little testing, I noticed it wasn't doing much, so I dropped the idea. I just haven't respecced to something that fits my build a bit more.
Any suggestions on a fourth starship trait?
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
I dare you to do better.
Speaking of, It dose seam strange that the arch vampire hasn't materialized. The word drain has been used 10 times so far in this thread. Usualy he appears after 3.
The whole jem hadar set is of course very nice, too, especially because it is free and the antiproton sweep is another shield drain. It also fits color-wise with the dominion polarons
I would maybe switch one of the flow caps concoles for a field exciter with [flow]. The bonus for flow caps is the same, but you also get more shield capacity and part gens to boost the tykens (and the radiation damage from the secondary deflector, not sure here, though).
What Doffs do you use other than the tractor beam officer?
I use 3 purple PWO's and a purple Tyken's Rift aftershock DOFF. I have a sixth one, but I don't remember what it is at the moment. I'll edit this post with that info once I can get it.
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
I dare you to do better.
Thanks.
Here read this:
http://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/35y3mh/embassy_consoles_for_science/
That long post about flow caps is mine.
Unfortunately, the devs kept the x3 mods off deflector crafting because keeping science down while boosting DPS is what they specialize at. The best flow caps and grav gens deflectors are only available through crafting with the x2 bonus. Deflectors with innate shields systems can go higher, but the rep deflectors outdo them so those are garbage. Sensors you can hike up to x3 in regular deflectors, but the x2 secondary mods are broken (And the devs don't care to fix that bug).
Sure, but it is not that bad. Compare a drain build with a particle generator build, say 300 flow caps versus 300 part gens. The deflectors we are talking about are jem hadar (30 flow caps at MK XIV) versus Solanae (40 part gens at MK XIV) versus KHG (flow caps and parts gens 20 each at MK XIV). If you take the KHG one, you loose 10 flow caps compared to the Jem hadar deflector or 20 part gens compared to the solanae deflector. That is not really much. On the other side, you get other skills. Looking at the part gens build, you get also grav gens from the KHG deflector for your gravity well as well as part gens and flow caps for a drain build that uses tykens rift. Of course there are more things to look at, e.g. defensive stats and especially the set-boni, but I would say the KHG deflector is an extremely good deflector for many science builds.
For maximizing of course you want the solanae deflector MKXIV at ultra rare (50 part gens) or a crafted tachyon deflector MK XIV with [flwc]x2 (+40 flow caps). I still do not know, if the latter can get [flwc]x3 (50 flow caps) or if a tachyon deflector with [flwc]x2 and [prtg]x2 exists (40 each). Anyone knows?
edit: OK, thanks for the clarification in post *11