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Looking for Damar class Cardassian Intel Science dreadnought builds
foxrockssocks
Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
in The Shipyard
As the title says, I have one of these and am interested in making it work, however I'm scratching my head. I've never particularly liked slow turning science ships for the obvious problem that science has so many forward firing skills, while a ship like this probably wants to broadside more often than not. Still this thing intrigues me because it is so different and outside my comfort zone, so I'd like some ideas on how to make it work in interesting ways.
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There's plenty of other things you could do, but it's really up to you, what you're interested in, and what other resources you have available. There are a LOT of options.
Those are good ideas though, and I really want to hear some other ideas of how people use the ship, and their builds towards that end.
I wouldn't say Grav Well is "required". Again, it really comes down to what you want to do with the ship. There are like atleast 2 other exotic damage builds you could go for instead of a gravity bomber off the top of my head. There are a couple drain builds you could go for, although I confess it's been a while since I've seriously tinkered with them(meaning I can't vouch for their modern effectiveness). There's a fighter enhancement/pet-spam build you can go for if you have the Coordinated Assault trait. You could even build it into an okay-ish heal-ship if you really wanted to. It all comes down to your goals. Once you have one in mind, more serious help can be provided.
However, it severely lacks maneuverability for my tastes as a science ship which needs to be able to get the nose on target for grav wells, rifts, tach beams, whatever. I could use a [turn] conductive RCS and particle exciter, but then I lose the ability to improve sci powers with them. Also I really hate the competitive engines which could really help that. They are far too annoying and difficult to deal with for me, due to that sudden burst of speed and turning, even when I expect it.
Also this is for a KDF captain, and I don't have coordinated assault on the KDF side. I did pick up exitus actus probat, though, which does seem to be nice for an intel destroyer.
That said I'm not sold on using it as a destroyer either so I'm open to anything still.
The thing is that it is not a science ship, but a dreadnought with a secondary deflector.
I have mine with a budget build on my KDF Tac. Sol defense set. Inhibiting deflector.
2-piece Nausican, 2piece Martok, 2-piece resonant, 2-piece assimilated, Full terran set. Any empty weapon slots filled with spiral disruptors.
All three consoles from the cardassians 3=pack. Temporal disentanglement Suite.
Overall it's sturdy and does damage. The real trick is which powers to use. Personally i like to use the evade target lock and scramble sensors with the trait from the dread. Tyken rift and the standards ST and hazard emitters.
Coordinated Assault is available to all factions - if you own the respective ships(which I presume you already know, but I'm being thorough). There is a BFAW/CSV counterpart that's relatively cheap for KDF as well. Superior Area Denial is available on the exchange/infinity prize packs.
Yeah that's what I'm figuring out, its not a real science ship, but it has some strong science potential. I haven't used scramble sensors in forever, as I think last I tried it was way back when they made it near useless against Borg. It would work so much better with a grav well, of course, but I think I'd have to get rid of GW to use it based on my existing BOFFs.
Right now I use GW3, OSS 3, IT 1, PO 2, JS 2, ST 1, HE 1 in sci slots. I use the uni for tac team and the tac boff has BO3 or FAW3, apb 1, TS 1, and the engie runs ET 1 and RSP 1.
I'm also running the ship's trait, alongside exitus acta probat, which is a good reason to use jam sensors. I've also got super charged weapons, which works pretty well as long as I have a 180 torpedo, though long term I'm not sure which one to use not that there are many to chose from. I'm thinking the gamma rep chroniton by itself for some debuffing, and I'm also using spiral wave arrays with the martok and crafted omnis.
I'm reluctant to use stuff like SS or IT without GW because they have slow travel times, and small AOE radius, still I like the idea of messing with enemy sensors for fun, as this is being flown by a Cardie so I'll probably give scramble a chance. I don't think I could use all three without getting rid of photonic officer which then removes my boff charger. Maybe that could work with calm before the storm as a trait. There is a plan now that I think about it.
You've got a drain build, which works nice with the Terran set. I'm looking at control though. Iconian 4 piece is an easy all purpose go-to but delta engines are nice for a control build so I might just do delta engines and the rest Iconian Of course, the Disco rep 3 piece would be interesting too.
Does the Iconian 3 piece bonus apply to hangar pets? That would make the choice easy if it does.
Overall the ship works decently as I have it, but its a bit of an odd duck to figure out. I think I have a better direction now though, just 'talking' through it.
Yes, I have the Alita, I never got the Rom or KDF versions. I did get a SAD trait some time ago, but I gave it to my real carrier captain who is going to be moving to a Ghemor at some point because I'm a bit bored of the Breen carrier after all these years. I don't know that I'd really want a carrier trait for a ship with one hangar.
For control the options with a disruptor build are few.
Reverse tractor beam, Chains of Fire console or this https://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_Universal_-_Subspace_Integration_Circuit
Don't know if the iconian 3-piece works on pets.
When it came out i did a quick test on tribble, found ti mightily annoying and never touched that set again.
I've played with scramble sensors a bit and its every bit as underwhelming as I remembered. It's still fun to see enemies shoot each other, but everything dies so fast, it is just so pointless.
But now I have the idea to go with electromagnetic pulse probe instead of SS. I doubt anyone knows the answer, but does the probe get modified by stuff that modifies destructible torps? I'm thinking the mirage decoy trait, the various things that make them go faster, etc.
Also EPP seems to be buffed by some destructible torpedo speed buffs. I really can't be sure on this, but comparing it to hyper plasma torps using both the reputation trait and swarmer console, I found that while my torps were faster, they didn't seem dramatically faster with the trait and console vs. without, thus both torps and EPP were likely buffed by trait and console.
=Systems=
Terran Rep Deflector and Warp Core.
Quantum Phase(Stormbound Mission) Shield and Engines.
Solanae or Fleet Debilitating Secondary Deflector
Hangar: Delta Flyers/Runabouts if Fed, Orion Interceptors/Slavers if KDF
=Consoles=
Eng: Conductive RCS(with DrainX), Uni drain consoles of your choice.
Sci: Fleet Research Lab Particle Focusers (with 2x DrainX)
Tac: Kinetic damage type of your preference. You can sac these for more uni drain consoles if you don't care about your weapon damage.
=Weapons=
Fore: Torpedos of your choice (it can accomodate a transphasic loadout of 2x cluster, 2x rapids quite comfortably)
Aft: set turret of your choice; mines of your choice
=BOFFS=
Lt.Cmdr Tac: TT1, Kemo2, Dispersal Pattern2 of your choice
Lt. Eng: EptShield1, EptAux2
En. Uni: ET1
Cmdr Sci/Int: Polarize1, EMPP1, Tyken 2, Tyken 3
Lt.Cmdr Sci: ST1, HE2, Very Cold in Space 3
=Playstyle=
Basically, cruise around farting out mines until you see something you want dead. Pulse Full Impulse, Pop EptAux and drop Tyken 3 on them; then pop Kemo2 and Relocate Mines. At this point, your prey should be immobile, defenseless, and have a bunch of AoE mines/torpedos about to say hello.
If the enemy are still mobile, pop VCiS3, Quantum Singularity Manipulation(Romulan Active Trait), and RedMatter to boost your drain potential further. toss in the probe if you want more AoE lockdown between rifts.
There are a bunch of traits, doffing, and specializing you can do to further optimize, but this is the basic flow of the build I'm currently running on my Sarr Theln(it effectively trades some drain potential for a little more bite).
Gamma or Competitive Rep weapon sets could be utilitized with this build(mines). If you want to roll Transphasics, I'd probably suggest running the Terran Deflector and Shields while using the Breen Engines and Core for the transphasic 2set(it's over an extra tac console worth of damage).
That is very interesting and outside the box. I can't say I'm fond of transphasics, they don't seem to work nearly as well as they should. Cluster torpedoes though, that is an interesting choice. A build like that, though, I might be more interested in trying on the Kor BOP.
The cluster torps are still fairly deadly, if a bit slow to deliver their damage by today's standards. The rapid torps are actually quite amusing if you're running something like the DOMINO console; otherwise, I'd say they're on par with most photons. Mine launchers are probably in the worst/most neglected area though. Your only options.. are no options - the standard ones(they don't even have fleet counterparts!).
For years I ran a ship with the Breen 2 piece, the KHG 2 piece, and the preserver resonant set for transphasic buffing goodness. I was just never satisfied. The slow refire and meh shield penetration doesn't seem to work that well. It wasn't terrible, entirely serviceable, but it just didn't feel like it was worth the narrow build options I took.
Now in fairness that wasn't a torpedo centric build, it was just an attempt to make the set transphasic perform well. There is probably a better way to build something like that today, as that build I turned over when I came back to the game without even looking at something like the House Martok torpedo or other torpedo damage buffing that had been since added.
I might reconsider it for a more torpedo centric build in the future, but generally the most I go is 2 fore torpedoes on some ships built around that idea, and I don't think 2 transphasics are fast enough or worth the long recharge to make that work well.