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A tac captain dabbling in science ships
lingeringsoul888
Member Posts: 509 Arc User
I expect the Paradox to be so much more expensive but I was surprised it was only around 250mil EC. So I pooled all my resources and bought one. I just cannot get over how pretty this ship is and it has pretty good BO seating. I would've liked to have lt cmd tac as well as the universal one, but I won't complain too much and it's just my tac mindset talking.
So I'm learning to build a science ship and not having to rely too much on BFAW, any advice on what I need to focus on?
So far, I got
1. Need many points in Part gen skill - which unforntaitely I have ZERO.....so I'll have to pay another 500Zen to respect again.
2. skills are dependent on Aux power, which I already have plenty, so I'm not short.
I don't know which secondary deflector to use, I have both tyken rift and gravity well skills, which one should I be focusing on?
Should I sacrifice one of my beams for any torpedo or should I stick to all beams at this stage?
So many things, I don't know and so many things I don't know that I don't know.
So I'm learning to build a science ship and not having to rely too much on BFAW, any advice on what I need to focus on?
So far, I got
1. Need many points in Part gen skill - which unforntaitely I have ZERO.....so I'll have to pay another 500Zen to respect again.
2. skills are dependent on Aux power, which I already have plenty, so I'm not short.
I don't know which secondary deflector to use, I have both tyken rift and gravity well skills, which one should I be focusing on?
Should I sacrifice one of my beams for any torpedo or should I stick to all beams at this stage?
So many things, I don't know and so many things I don't know that I don't know.
0
Comments
You could start off without the respec by using partigen consoles and the exotic particle console that also gives you shield hit points. The exotic was under 1 million EC last time I bought one or you can craft one if you already have the mats and RD Science is 20. You can craft VR mark II partigen consoles with much lower R&D science or buy them. Or use Fleet Embassy partigen consoles that also give you -Threat and +plasma explosion
> I don't know which secondary deflector to use,
I prefer the radiation damage one tied to grav well, scramble sensors, tachyon, etc.
I like to use all torpedoes on my science ships because many have secondary effects that are boosted by particle generators and it let's you ignore weapon power and such which can trip you up dividing resources.
The best are:
Neutronic torpedo
Particle Emission plasma Torpedo from crafting
Pretty much any reputation torpedo, Dyson, counter command, Terran and even Iconian has nice radiation damage.
Get three purple torpedo duty officers this will rapidly drop them to global making it easier to rapidly fire them off like a chain gun. You may already have some of these duty officers like "Law" from the Nimbus episodes. Three torpedoes is really all you need, more than that may trip you up unless one has a really long cooldown like a tricobalt or cluster torpedo. All other slots use weapons for set bonus... delta thornon beam because the 3-piece Isokinetic cannon is devastating and Dyson 2-piece is a nice boost to photon torpedoes and terran 2-piece for more torpedo damage.
As for the science part use gravity well with a purple gravimetric scientist which has a chance to drop bonus gravity wells... also get Destabilized Resonance beam which is awesome but has a pretty long cooldown and lasts for ten seconds so keep yourself pointed at the target while it's on. Other abilities like charged particle burst is decent but the best are really subspace vortex although it is a little expensive on the exchange... pair it with gravity well and it does massive AOE damage for 20 seconds for anything near it. Be careful not to double click the power or it'll transport you to the vortex location and collapse it. Kind of a stupid design I think.
The absolute monster power is Tractor Beam Repulsors but you need a duty officer named Graga Mal which reverses it and pulls ships to you, otherwise they just get knocked away and you won't do much damage to them. She is also a bit pricey but oh so worth it!
For consoles grab 5 research lab consoles with PRTG and GRAVGEN as the secondary mod for extra pulling and holding power. Spec into both ASAP in you captain skill tree as well. You'll also want to level science R@D school to level 15 because you get a wonderful trait called Particle Manipulator which gives your exotic damage powers a massive boost to crit rate.
Eventually look into getting an Exotic Particle Field Exciter and Enhanced RCS which are available on the exchange or craftable. They come with many different mods Including PRTG which is what you want most.
Anyways just add anything else that will boost PRTG like the Solanae deflector which gets +50 when upgraded to ultra rare. Also you can use inhibiting or deteriorating secondary deflectors just check the list of powers which proc the bonus radiation damage and see which you use more of and pick that type. You'll see what I mean.
If you can afford only Subspace vortex or Graga Mal that's fine having both is overkill in normal content but I enjoy it! My usual strategy is go In and drop a Grav well and vortex along with some nice torpedo spreads... anything that survives I drag around with tractor repulsors until it dies.
The full delta weapon set has Isokinetic cannon which does insane damage when buffed properly and the Terran full set ain't bad either... i like to use +torp consoles from the fleet spire if I have extra slots but they aren't necessary.
I'll post a more extensive guide soon but hopefully this gets you started!
Just remember science consoles = tactical consoles for these builds so it's really not as different as you might think! Don't waste build space on buffing energy weapons, least of all your power levels... they are unnecessary to you.
Pardon the grammar I wrote this very quickly because I'm insanely busy.
I think I will take on the torpedo boat build. I've got most of the rep gears already so that'll make things a bit easier.
Subspace vortex and Graga Mal will probably have to wait as I've spent all my EC, I'll get the basics down before going overkill.
Engineering even has some useful powers, Structural integrity collapse from the exchange and also the cryo inhibiting whatchamacallit from the winter event store.
Did I mention the Terran T4 passives synergize torpedoes and science powers to give each other nice cooldown reductions? Toss in AHOD, Krenim science bridge officers and the new Krenim science vessels console to drop everything to global with ease. The BOFF's aren't really necessary to achieve this but if you have the resources they're nice to have...
Your Paradox trait will rock with gravity well and lots of PRTG!
On the subject of PrtG and aux power, I'd experiment with these two numbers and see where the damage gain starts to slow down, for example, I have aux power in the 70s on my sci because if I go any higher the damage I gain on my grav well is lower than what I lose on my beams.
Seriously though your life will be much easier if you dump energy weapons and focus on science.
Pretty much the only things science has that tac doesn't is "Conservation of Energy" Trait and "Sensor Scan" but those together don't add up to tactical's damage buffs. Photonic fleet is 'meh'. Subnucleonic Beam is mostly pvp.
It's far from the only type of effective science build.
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1204182/the-science-ship-build-thread/p1
Once you've got the Particle Manipulator trait from Science R&D school you'll be having so much fun.
So far as boosting partgens goes:
So far as torps go:
This is the same as the AMACO set, just the KDF version.
Anway, as to actual advice, I agree with the others about Subspace Vortex. Combined with even an average Grav Well 3 it is deadly. I was lucky enough to pick up a couple when they were a bit cheaper, but the prices have since inched up. If you can wait for the next "All lockbox" event though (Which, I know will unfortunately be a bit of a wait) the prices will probably go down a bit again. And second, I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but the Iconian Rep has a Tier 2 trait that boosts exotic damage. If you have a slot open, it might also be of use. Either way good luck and have fun.
I'm experimenting with a Temp Dread build right now that use energy weapon with leech to maintain high weapon and aux power levels while spamming science abilities.
EDIT: There's also the new Tholian ship trait, Energy Web, which enhances your Beam Overload/Surgical Strikes/Cannon Rapid Fire with a damage effect that scales with part gen. Some of the stuff thats been coming out of late has made science beam boats more interesting imo.
Even building torpedo boats may require you to drop some science in favor of stronger torpedoes, but while you may loose a little bit of science the boosts to your torps more than close the gap! Something similar can be said of energy weapons, the trick is both science and energy weapon builds need a lot of dedication to make super effective so trying to balance between them is hellish. Possible, but not ideal for most ships save the Annorax and maybe Paradox.
I recommend going all in on science at first so you can really learn it and then going back and trying hybrid builds if you like. The reason most people use torpedoes is just so they can ignore weapon power and such. You needn't focus on boosting your torps for them to still be relatively effective so worry about them later.
You should really be a sci captain to take full advantage of all the other things science has to offer. That being said, i'm no pro. I learn new things everyday. the plasma inducing embassy science consoles are nice.
1. I would use a fleet 2nd deflector array. I you won't be able to use the sensor targeting ability dmg/heal trait they come with, but the other features of all around good.
2. I use 1 forward torpedo, 1 fwd dual BB, and 1 BeamArray. Aft I use 2 BA's and the kinetic cutting beam, I forgot which consoles it gets bonus from, Borg I think.
3. Stay with no more than 3 science career paths, don't extend yourself. there are so many science attributes, you could find yourself spread too thin.
edit* I agree with everyone else with torpedoes. torpedoes do their best damage when fired against an enemy when shields are down, use them wisely.
my science ship is not really built for DPS too. More for crowd control.
You can actually get away with ignoring shields with quite a few torp types now though. PEP torp has plasma fire that bypasses the shields on an enemy, grav torp is the same with kinetic damage, Neutronic & Bio-molecular do radiation damage through shields, Quantum phase torp actually strips shields.
So don't feel that shields have to be down fully to be effective as a torp boat.
Sure shields do cause some upsets when a tiny 1% sliver stops a massive HY blast but there is ample bypassing damage available to use nowadays. And don't forget most of your science magic (e.g. Isokinetic Cannon) ignores shields anyway so you have a huge advantage over some more tac focused ships.
SCI Captain
PRO'S
+ Conservation of Energy (COE) Trait: If you're getting shot at by energy weapons, COE with max stacks (3) gives a nice total of +30% Exotic damage. As long as you are getting hit by energy weapons this buff is on you..
+ Sensor Scan: Heavy AOE debuff. Works great when you have clumped up targets.
+ Subnucleonic Beam: Strip buffs; Puts ability tray of the enemy on a dangerous, long cooldown.
CON'S
- And that is it! No other buffs by a SCI Captain for the typical Science Vessel builds!
- Conservation of Energy requires you to get constantly hit. This can be problematic for some with higher performing DPSers in the instance with you, whether they're flying something like an Escort, TAC Cruiser, or even another Science Vessel. If they're outdamaging you and getting the aggro, your SCI Captain is not getting the benefit of COE. That is +30% Exotic Damage bonus you are not getting.
- The nature of COE trait is reactionary. You're holding back your best until you're getting hit so you can get the +30% Exotic Dmg bonus. Unless you got the team purposely holding back to let you draw fire first so you get the full COE stack, you will have a tough time leading into fight blazing with your best stuff.
- SNB is mostly a PVP application, very little use in PVE since most NPCs have little to no buffs anyways. It;s like as how @ruinthefun said in chat yesterday: "Why Tractor Beam an NPC to hold them? They weren't going anywhere to begin with." Same thing with SNB'ing NPCs in PVE. Why strip buffs when 99% of them run maybe 1 buff at most or none as is typical. In PVP, SNB is dangerous. In PVE, it's very limited in a prime opportunity to use. There's nothing in PVE that makes me say, "Man, I'm glad we had that guy with SNB that instance. We were toast if he wasn't there."
TAC Captain
PRO'S
+ Possesses a tremendous amount of Damage buffing Captain abilities: APA, Tactical Fleet, GDF.
+ I repeat again, the damage buffing a SCI Captain does is ALL DAMAGE, which includes Exotic! And don't forget, that ALL DAMAGE buff applies to shipboard weapons, i.e. the Torpedoes that Science Vessels are very fond of. COE doesn't buff them, only Exotic damage.
+ To top it off, the sheer scale of damage buffing by a TAC Captain for Exotic Damage builds leaves a SCI Captain very much wanting.
+ The best a SCI Captain can offer is a full stack of COE buffs with +30% Exotic Damage, and ONLY Exotic Damage.
+ In contrast, a TAC Captain offers these Damage Buffs: Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Fleet, Go Down Fighting, with Fire On My Mark as a single target debuffer.
+ When a TAC Captain intends to spike his Exotic Attacks, he can have from his own abilities a total of +70.6% All Damage Bonus from APA and Tactical Fleet alone for 30 seconds. That is more twice than what Conservation of Energy offers. In addition, APA adds Crit Hit & Crit Severity. Toss in FOMM for single target debuff. If the TAC Captain knows how to play the Go Down Fighting Game, he can tack onto that even MOAR damage.
+ A TAC Captain can initiate his best series of attacks when HE is ready and is not at the mercy of "I need aggro first to get my full stack of a paltry +30% Exotic Only damage buff." When a TAC Captain is ready and the abilities are lined up: BAM! APA+TF+GDF if applicable+FOMM, then cut loose.
+ Tactical Initiative can be very useful on a Science Vessel also. When run with All Hands on Deck, using TAC abilities shortens the CD of Science abilities. Not to mention this shortens the CD of Captain abilities. So APA, Tactical Fleet, FOMM, GDF, etc. come back into play sooner. This TI + AHOD synergy becomes more pronounced on Science Vessels with a good amount of TAC BOFF slots like the Nova, DSD, Dauntless, etc.
CON'S
- All these damage buffs are done in cycles. The TAC Captain can attain far higher damage potential but it's done in cycles while a SCI Captain can, if played right, have COE running most of the time.
- SCI Captain Sensor Scan is an AOE resist debuff while TAC Captain Fire On My Mark is a single target resist debuff.
================
The last shameful thing I want to leave is this simple fact. Outside of Exotic Damage, no Captain type, TAC, ENG, and even SCI, buffs any other aspect of Science play. There is nothing inherent in either of the Captain types to improve a Drain, Disable build, for instance. In Exotic damage, ENG Captain offers nothing but TAC & SCI Captains do. So all we can talk about with Captain types on Science builds is damage. And in that department, a TAC Captain wins even against a SCI Captain in performance with Exotic DAMAGE builds.
OP, you trying out a TAC Captain on a Science Vessel is a wonderful gateway to a different part of the game.
i am a tac officer myself and i love sci ship all of these things are a must at lest for me my set up on my paradox is the dyson set and the dyson gravimitric torp with the fleet science consoles from the research lab the good thing about them is they are Particle /Graviton on one console . i use every trait that boost exotic damage and aux and cant forget about at lest one 100% transfer rate console.everything else is just experiment and see what you like. before i forget make sure to grab the space gravimitrics duty officer that makes it so you can have 3 more GW. i love the console that comes with the ship i popped are alpha tac skill then gw 3 then the console skill and my gravimitric torp and all hell broke loose.the carnage was wonderfull
Until I started using the Quantum Phase Torpedo, most enemies seemed to die with their shields on. I think it becomes more useful the more enemies you hit with it - I suppose that's true for all AoEs, but for the QPT specifically is that while your primary target might already be dead, with or without shields, the secondary targets around probably will have takena bit less damage and survive longer - but will be done quickly with if you also have the QPT working for you.
That is a bit of a myth. The 1 % does not reduce the entire damage of the blast. The math is complicated.
Basically, first it is calculated how much of the damage goes into the shield. For that purpose, the 75 % kinetic resist is applied. if the shields have enough points to now absorb everything, only the bleedthrough remains. But realistically at that hyptothetical 1 % sliver, the shield points are not enough to absorb everything. The remainder damage is then applied to hull - but without the 75 % kinetic resist.
Annorax
FORE WEAPONS
Chroniton DBB
Gravimetric Photon Torpedo
Particle Emission Torpedo
Neutronic Torpedo
AFT WEAPONS (Both beams can be traded for other items such as the Iso Kinetic Cannon Set or Destabilizing Quantum Set weapons)
Kinetic Cutting Beam
Temporal Disruption Device
Agony Omni Phaser Array (completely optional I use it for 360° subtarget)
Deflector
Solonae Deflector (UR)
Secondary Deflector
Inhibiting Secondary Deflector (+chance) (EM) (PrtG/Se) (PrtG) (Sen) Epic
Engines
Borg assimilated (2-piece passive healing)
Warp Core
Temporal Phase Overcharged Warp Core (the capacitor reduces cooldowns allowing for more skill use occasionally)
Shields
Borg Assimilated (see above)
Engineering Consoles:2
Nukara rep console
Conductive RCS Accelerator (PrtG)
Science Consoles:5
Exotic Particle Field Exciter (PrtG)
Fleet: Exotic Particle Focuser (Grav Gen) (PrtG) X4
Tactical Consoles: 4
Bioneural Infusion Circuits
Tachyokinetic Converter
Assimilated Console (will be swapped for the new Console Feb 4th)
Universal: Temporal Rift Stabilizer (exotic dmg boost + turn rate and a good skill to boot
[The last 2 consoles are easily replaced by the consoles used to get Isokinetic Cannon or Destabilizing Quantum Beam]
BOFF LAYOUT
LC: Uni (Krenim Science Boff)
Subspace Vortex I
Destabilizing Resonance Beam I
Gravity Well I
LC: Tac/Intel (Reman DR Tactical/Intel BOFF)
Torpedo Spread I
Torpedo Spread II
Overload Subsystem Safeties III
C: Sci (Krenim Science Boff)
Transfer Shield Strength I
Tractor Beam Repulsors I
Gravity Well I
Destabilizing Resonance Beam III
L: Uni (Krenim Science Boff)
Science Team I
Tractor Beam Repulsors I
E: Eng (Romulan DR Engineering/Intel Boff)
Emergency Power to Auxiliary I
This build works really well in PVE and all hull healing can be done passively if you use the Ablative Shell Trait and the Hull Nanites Borg Rep Trait. Just keep your shields up and your hull repairs itself!
AHOD from tactical command cruisers + Terran tier 4 passives will take care of most everything. Krenim science boffs don't hurt either.
All else fails and that new Krenim ship console gives a nice 15% cooldown.
All Hands on Deck is a great combo with these as well. You use Sci powers to speed up Tactical Initiative which speeds up everything else.
Use a Krenim energy damage boosting secondary deflector and you can apply most cruiser or escort builds. A Tac in a Sci ship is not only arguably better than a Sci captain in a Sci ship but is more fun than a Tac in a Cruiser or Escort and more damage and flexibility in most of my builds.