I've become a Crazy T5U Nova Captain

gl2814e · June 2015

I'm not sure what is is about the Nova, but I absolutely adore this ship.

Anyway here is my Fleet T5U Science Vessel Retrofit; the USS Solstice.

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=usssolstice_0

At the moment I'm using crafted Antiproton beams with a Kinetic Cutting beam in the rear. (Almost all fleet consoles, listed on the STO Academy link above.)

The question I had for the ship building community, is what would be the best set to maximize DPS & survival? I'm currently using the 3-piece Counter Command set, (engines, main deflect, shields) at Mk XIV VR, the Solanae Secondary Deflector at Mk XIV rare, and the Obelisk Warp Core at Mk XIV VR.

Is there a better combination of rep starship components that will get me a pretty good bang for my buck while still letting me throw grav well and keep my powers cooldown cycling pretty fast?

Also the AP DR bonus for the 2pc Counter Command has been nice against the Heralds, I've been able to take quite a beating from them and keep on ticking.

Finally, I didn't bother listing my boff powers as those can be highly changeable.

burstorion · June 2015

You want crazy? try the t5-fu fleet deep space science vessel - tiny bit of tac, enough eng to run a dce pair of eptxs and a helluva lot of science to slap stuff with

millimidget · June 2015

westmetals wrote: »

I personally would remove the monotanium OR (not AND) the neutronium

Keep the monotanium. Torpedoes are the only real threat.

narthais · June 2015

I find your choice of name amusing... mainly because thats what I called my T2 nova on the character I have with a T5-U nova

agathanggelou · June 2015

Time until Reyan01 gets in on this thread.. 3.. 2.. 1..

In regards to your build, what I do on mine (I'm a shameless Crazy Nova Captain also) is stack up your partgens and radiation damage. Get a nice [prtg] deteriorating secondary deflector, stack up your partgen skill as high as possible with consoles etc.. (Solenae deflector is gold for this) and make sure you have the lvl 15 Science R&D trait, Particle Manipulator for insane damage numbers from your science abilities.

I'd also suggest investing in a torpedo, either the Gravimetric Photon (Dyson Rep), Neutronic (Delta Rep) or the R&D Plasma torp for AoE DoTs when you hit torp spread 3. Also looks awesome having hundreds of torpedos pour out of the tiny little Nova xD

thunderhawk101 · June 2015

agathanggelou wrote: »

Time until Reyan01 gets in on this thread.. 3.. 2.. 1..

In regards to your build, what I do on mine (I'm a shameless Crazy Nova Captain also) is stack up your partgens and radiation damage. Get a nice [prtg] deteriorating secondary deflector, stack up your partgen skill as high as possible with consoles etc.. (Solenae deflector is gold for this) and make sure you have the lvl 15 Science R&D trait, Particle Manipulator for insane damage numbers from your science abilities.

I'd also suggest investing in a torpedo, either the Gravimetric Photon (Dyson Rep), Neutronic (Delta Rep) or the R&D Plasma torp for AoE DoTs when you hit torp spread 3. Also looks awesome having hundreds of torpedos pour out of the tiny little Nova xD

lol, ikr? anyways, in all seriousness, I've tried my hand at endgame Nova, and as someone who doesn't normally do endgame sci... it's just plain damn fun. XD Granted in my case it was Pre-DR and using a Mirror Nova just to put it into perspective, but nonetheless! It was a blast.

agathanggelou · June 2015

Reyan, a couple of thoughts.. firstly, what/where/how is that tachyon secondary deflector? I thought they only came in deteriorating, inhibiting and resonating?
Second, the anchor universal console has a 20something% boost to exotic damage, which is like several partgen consoles due to the diminishing returns iirc
Third, the countercommand tac console has boosts to phaser, photon torps and radiation damage, which is deadly with a deteriorating secondary deflector's radiation DoT and the resonance beam which procs it on an entire group

Just a few suggestions you might want to try out

thunderhawk101 · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

I fear I have become somewhat predictable! Though I make no apologies for enjoying the Nova class as much as I do.

Anyway, yeah - the advice regaring partigen consoles is spot on. I have 450 points in particle generation on my FT5-U Rhode Island. Abilities such as Destablising Resonance Beam, GWIII etc do some very nice damage.

So far as torpedoes go, I STRONGLY recommmend (as you also did) the Particle Emission Plasma torpedo; as the name suggests, it benefits from particle generation and also creates a very nice plasma cloud that produces a nice DoT effect. Great choice on the gravimetric torpedo too - another one that benefits from partigens.

In fact, one of my favorite tricks in ISA, when the nanite spheres appear at the gate, is:

Drop GWIII on the nanite spheres
Fire TSIII - either Gravimetric or Particle Emission Plasma - into the spheres wallowing in the GW
Haul tail to the generator and help kill it (if it's not already dead) whilst spheres wallow around in either a GW + plasma cloud or GW + mini gravimetric torpedo GW's.

Anyway, here's my current build:

Main Deflector: MKXIV Ultra Rare Solane Deflector
Secondary Deflector: MkXIV Epic (not sure which offhand) - heavy on partigens
Impulse Engine: MkXIV Ultra Rare Fleet Efficent
Warp Core: MkXIV Very Rare Obelisk Core (for extra Aux power)
Shields: MkXIV Ultra Rare fleet Resilient

Weapons:
Forward: Two Epic MkXIV Phaser beam arrays
One MkXIV Epic Particle Generation Plasma torpedo

Aft: Delta Reputation Polaron Beam MKXIV
One Very Rare MkXIV Gravimetric Torpedo launcher
One Very Rare MkXIV Neutronic Torpedo Launcher

Tactical Consoles:
Plasmonic Leech
Very Rare Assimilated Console MkXIV
Ultra Rare Bio-Neural Gel Pack MkXIV

Engineering Consoles:
1 Ultra Rare Neutronium Alloy Console MkXIV [+HullRep]
1 Epic Conductive RCS Accelerator Mk XIV [PrtG]
Very Rare Tholian Reputation Console MkXIV

Sci Consoles:
1 Epic Exotic Particle Field Exciter Mk XIV [PrtG]
4 Ultra Rare Embassy Particle Generator consoles (Plasma-Generating)

Odd mix, in terms of weapons, but most damage is coming from partigens; this console setup also means that I get the Delta Alliance Ordinance Isokinetic Cannon and that thing hits HARD with high partigens. In fact, it's pretty deadly if used in concert with the Destabilising Resonance Beam.

Admittedly I generally only get around 14k DPS from this build (which is more than enough for STF's in my opinion), but it is of note that most of that is likely from the particle generation.

Ah, consider it a sign of affection.

agathanggelou · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

agathanggelou wrote: »

Reyan, a couple of thoughts.. firstly, what/where/how is that tachyon secondary deflector? I thought they only came in deteriorating, inhibiting and resonating?
Second, the anchor universal console has a 20something% boost to exotic damage, which is like several partgen consoles due to the diminishing returns iirc
Third, the countercommand tac console has boosts to phaser, photon torps and radiation damage, which is deadly with a deteriorating secondary deflector's radiation DoT and the resonance beam which procs it on an entire group

Just a few suggestions you might want to try out

Some good points there, and definitely something to think about! My thoughts:

First point: You are right - I don't recall which one the secondary deflector it, only that it has heavy emphasis on partigens; I'll edit accordingly.

Second point: I do have the anchor, but have not been able to decide what to replace to accomodate it. And the cooldown on use of the actual console ability is bothersome.

Third: Same problem as with the second point.

I guess I could drop the Nukara console if anything, as it doesn't offer a huge partigen benefit.

As taboo as it sounds, I'd actually say you should drop the borg console.. it's only benefit is the crits and the grav gen buff, which isn't really noticeable if you're specced in grav gen and the crits shouldn't be a problem if you're running particle manipulator (I assume you are?)

Otherwise, yeah the nukara is probably the other one giving a minimal benefit.. certainly the anchor console is gonna give a greater buff to your exotic damage than those few partgen points. The anchor console is worth it just for the buff, the clicky ability IMO is just a perk

agathanggelou · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

Yeah - Particle Manipulator was a must; have had that for a while now - sci wa the first school I focused on with R&D.

Dropped the Nukara console in favour of the anchor. Not sure what to swap the assimilated console for though....

Try the counter command tactical console, for the photon torp and radiation damage buff

agathanggelou · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

Counter Command? I thought it was the older Dyson Joint command console that did that? Can't see anything in the tooltip for the counter command console that suggests it boosts radiation damage?

The console reward from Surface Tension:

Console - Tactical - Counter-Command Multi-Conduit Energy Relay Mk XII

+13.9% Phaser Damage
+13.9 Disruptor Damage
+27.8% Radiation Damage
+27.8% Photon Projectile Damage

kapla1755 · June 2015

agathanggelou wrote: »

Reyan, a couple of thoughts.. firstly, what/where/how is that tachyon secondary deflector? I thought they only came in deteriorating, inhibiting and resonating?
Second, the anchor universal console has a 20something% boost to exotic damage, which is like several partgen consoles due to the diminishing returns iirc
Third, the countercommand tac console has boosts to phaser, photon torps and radiation damage, which is deadly with a deteriorating secondary deflector's radiation DoT and the resonance beam which procs it on an entire group

Just a few suggestions you might want to try out

Has this changed I wasn't aware any consoles had diminishing return except for armor consoles ?

narthais · June 2015

kapla1755 wrote: »

Has this changed I wasn't aware any consoles had diminishing return except for armor consoles ?

All consoles that increase a skill have diminishing returns of their overall effectiveness. % based increases like Tactical however do not.

kapla1755 · June 2015

narthais wrote: »

All consoles that increase a skill have diminishing returns of their overall effectiveness. % based increases like Tactical however do not.

Ok , because the following was how I always understood diminishing returns

baudl wrote: »

difference is, that resistance has a dminishing return factor at the end of the calculation...tac consoles or bonus dmg does not...
that's why tac console buffs do not have a diminishing return factor, and engi consoles* have. period.

*shouldn't write engi consoles, since the diminishing return factors in AFTER resistance values of individual consolesare added up.

so to be completely correct, no consoles have a diminishing return by themselves, but when resi is calculated it gets cut by a diminishing return factor.
dmg buffs ofcourse don't have this.

in other words: the values of consoles+skills and buffs all stack linear, but when the %resi is calculated the formula has a "diminishing" factor...tac, defense, shield resi and sci buffs do not.

what virusdancer illustrated in his calculation of tac console values having "diminishing returns" is not what THE WORLD understands as diminishing returns.

you can't say:"it has a diminishing return" when stacking something linear, and comparing each stack to the end value that each stack is less % of the end sum
that is not the definition of a diminishing return, atleast not in economy classes where i went to school.

12 bottles of beer + 6 bottles of beer are 18 bottles...50% added
12 bottles of beer + 6 bottles of beer + 6 bottles = 24 bottles...if you say that 6 bottles only represent 25% of end sum you are right, but it still is 50% of the 12 bottles you had at the start
there is no diminishing return here...allways 6 bottles were added, not 4, and not 5.

what % of the end sum i added is not relevant. If i wanted to be true to the added % of 50, i'd need to increase the amount added accordingly..
means: 12 bottles + 6 bottles = 18
18 + 9 = 27
27 + 13,5 =40,5

now i added allways 50%...and this is called exponential growth, not linear growth

so comparing the added amount to the end sum and claim each addition suffers a diminishing return is utterly nonsense.

narthais · June 2015

You still get every point that you add, the diminishing return is in the final effect of those points.

As a purely hypothetical example, if you have 300 partgens your GW3 might do 30% more damage than it would at 0 partgens, if you had 400 partgens the increase over 300 is not actually another 10% damage.

Like the resist consoles, the higher your points go the more you need to get the same increase in effect.

The % consoles avoid all this but buffing the base damage directly which is why they stack like it says on the tin.

agathanggelou · June 2015

Guys please don't start the diminishing returns debate again..

The point is, the buff from the anchor console buffs your exotic damage more than the nukara console when you've got such high partgen already, test it yourself if you don't believe me

nyxadrill · June 2015

Guys, you are tempting me to "go Nova" on my Fed Sci!

I assume you guys are all using the fleet Nova? I'd be interested to see some of your builds and skill/boff/doff arrangements as I've never really concentrated on my Sci toons and never really got the best out of them, to my undying shame!

I've always loved the look of the Nova and I'm tempted to launch one

nyxadrill · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

As for 'going Nova' - it won't come as a surprise that I highly recommend giving it a try, although I have to say that, as much as I love the ship, there are newer ships that can do the same thing better. The most obvious being the Dauntless/Fleet Dauntless, which basically handles like a reskinned Nova and adds Intel into the mix.

I wont be flying the Dauntless as I cant stand its looks. Its an odd ship as, in the episode, it looked great. In game however it doesnt 'float my boat'. I'm afraid I'm one of those who will actually buy/not buy a ship not only for its abilities but for the looks as well.

I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've always loved the the design of the Nova.

EDIT: I wish they'd not bothered with the Dauntless and released a new Nova class instead. personally speaking I'd have found that more believable, storywise.

questerius · June 2015

nyxadrill wrote: »

I wont be flying the Dauntless as I cant stand its looks. Its an odd ship as, in the episode, it looked great. In game however it doesnt 'float my boat'. I'm afraid I'm one of those who will actually buy/not buy a ship not only for its abilities but for the looks as well.

I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've always loved the the design of the Nova.

EDIT: I wish they'd not bothered with the Dauntless and released a new Nova class instead. personally speaking I'd have found that more believable, storywise.

Personally i like the Dauntless design. Doesn't change that I'll be adding a fleet Nova to my inventory in the future.

questerius · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

And I continue to hold onto the hope that a T6 Nova, with a pilot BOFF seat, will appear at some point.

Not sold on the pilot boff seating until i have tested it on the ferengi summer ship.
Personally i feel that intel would be a better match.

questerius · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

I agree that it WOULD have been - but the Dauntless took that spot.

I have Pilot as my primary specialisation; it works well with the Nova. She also looks awesome using 'Rock and Roll'.

Running intel and ground (what was it called again) on my main since I'm heavily into ground combat on my engineer.

On my klingons and romulans i primarily use pilot to compensate for the weaker hulls.

narthais · June 2015

Having tested the Nandi, Pilot boffs for the Nova would be fantastic imo.

Lock Trajectory is an excellent way to keep those deflector powers on the target(the obvious use for it is cannons but deflector powers need that forward arc too)

Form up would be useful for the more support orriented science builds, helps your damage and theirs while making sure you are in range to provide heals if need be.

Clean Getaway to wipe all that threat science dps builds generate so easily.

Coolant ignition I'm uncertain about but it potentially scales with part gens (most non weapon damage abilities count as exotic damage afterall)

Reroute reserves to weapons and attack pattern lambda, most science ships run lower weapons power so they can keep auxiliary up, these powers lessen or removed the drain on your weapons power so that they keep consistent damage.

Couple of these are theory crafting on my part as I've only tested a couple of them on the Nandi, and of course the nandi is a destroyer so some circumstances would differ rather a bit.

mackbolan01 · June 2015

all ny sci's run the mirror nova (i like the hull material)
I enjoy this kind of thread. It's like farting in the air to fight the wind, It's poetic.

rimmarie · June 2015

considering the Nova's history, Pilot seating isn't too far-fetched.

While a T6 Nova would be nice, I'm not in any hurry to see one. Been using the one I have for this long and doing just fine.

rimmarie · June 2015

Shoot, I would be happy if they would fix the damn deflector.

reyan01 wrote: »

I've been using mine, consistently, for over three years. Still think a Pilot BOFF would make a great ship even better, personally

Same here, I only bothered with other ships because I wanted ship traits.

questerius · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

One of the reasons it's beneficial to the Nova class. Great shields, hull - not so much

My main is an engineer and thus i have enough options to deal with low hull strength.
For me pilot specialization is aimed at tactical players who pour everything into damage output.

generator88 · June 2015

Reyan, I'm intrigued by your build, as there are some similarities to things I'm trying to do in my own Nebula build (with no small amount of advice provided by Odenknight). My first impulse was to put all the torps fore, and throw all beams aft as "filler"; minimal weapons power, just for subsystem targeting and proc-spam. I know you said the bulk of your damage is exotics, but how exactly are you using the energy weapons on your ship?

Slightly related question: with your torpedoes spread around like that, do PWOs help enough?

Thanks for your time.

Generator

induperator · June 2015

I used to like the Nova, but after learning about the "extreme" opinion of some Nova captains I learned to hate that ship. :I

questerius · June 2015

generator88 wrote: »

Reyan, I'm intrigued by your build, as there are some similarities to things I'm trying to do in my own Nebula build (with no small amount of advice provided by Odenknight). My first impulse was to put all the torps fore, and throw all beams aft as "filler"; minimal weapons power, just for subsystem targeting and proc-spam. I know you said the bulk of your damage is exotics, but how exactly are you using the energy weapons on your ship?

Slightly related question: with your torpedoes spread around like that, do PWOs help enough?

Thanks for your time.

Generator

I have used a torpedo build on my snooper Nebula build. While it does work i feel the lack of manoeuvrability in the Nebula makes it less suited for torpedo builds.

I found i got far better results with the same build flying an intrepid, nova or Luna.
As for the PWO, since i usually go for photon torpedoes (or variants thereof like bio molecular or gravimetric) i never equip more than 1 of them.

generator88 · June 2015

reyan01 wrote: »

But just to emphasise, the best DPS I've managed with this build is 14k; a figure I am quite satisfied with but would undoubtedly be a disappointment to many.

Those of us looking up from 8k have to start someplace, right?

Thanks for the response. SIC is the one piece I don't have; is that still as crazy-expensive as I expect?

Generator

talonxv · June 2015

Sadly I don't have a tier 5 Nova U, just the mirror universe nova and I still bring her out from time to time in STB battles for craps and giggles.

Wish they'd throw down and bring out a tier 6 nova. Buy that instantly for my fed sci captain.

Till then, she stays in her t5u Vesta.

I've become a Crazy T5U Nova Captain

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