I've been playing around with a support ship build for my Daystrom (Alien Science Capt speced only in science/engineering), with emphasis on healing, exotic dmg, and some debuff. I would appreciate feedback on all elements of the build (including whether the Daystrom is a mismatch for the role in the first place).
But here are a few questions/issues to resolve:
1) Thoughts on the BOFF layout?
Commander Eng: Eng Team 1, Reverse Shield Pol 1, Align Shield Freq III, Aux to SIF III
Lt Comm Univ (Science): Struc Analysis I, Transfer Shield Strength II, Grav Well I
Lt Comm Science: Sci Team I, Haz Emit II, Vortex III
Lt Tac: Tac Team I, Pattern Delta I
Ens Eng: Emerg Power to Shields
2) I'm planning to go with disruptor beams for the Damage Resistance proc, again in alignment with the debuff orientation of the build.
2) I'm wavering between Iconian Space Set and Lukari Restoration Initiative Set. Which one?
3) Recommended "must have" consoles? Right now I'm thinking the following: Conductive RCS Accelerator \[ShHeal\], Sustained Radiant Field, Bio-Neural Gel Pack, Exotic Particle Field Exciter, and a few Restorative Particle Focusers for increased exotic dmg, and perhaps a few SIF generators?
I appreciate any and all input. Thanks in advance.
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Points into tactical buff your beams and torps, accuracy and defense to a smaller extent, and then a fair bit of important things like your CrtH, D, and both hull and shield pen.
You can still be peaceful in your role with a nice balanced support spec... about 15 points into each
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I think this is exactly the right question, and here are some possible responses, keeping in mind that the goal is to build a team support ship that is also, at the same time, able to do exotic damage effectively (albeit not as effectively as my Eternal).
1) The team-wide "command" functions (esp shield frequency mod and weapon system efficiency) do not exist on my Eternal for example, and provide a healthy boost to team performance.
2) The miracle worker seating has some interesting options that I'm still playing around with, and may provide an advantage from a team support perspective (e.g., Align Shield Frequencies III, which I have in the Lt. Comm spt).
3) The extra universal console slot allows additional flexibility to upgrade either exotic or healing capabilities.
The advantages may be minimal, and I may be looking to the wrong ship, but the experiment is interesting.
Thanks for the feedback.
Now you could also try say an Andromeda or Yamato with saucer separation. You can still use a vortex, and lock them down with warp plasma while you have some other team support command abilites to play with.
Another interesting option is actually the D'khellra, despite its worse turn rate, if you also have the tier 5 D'deridex (and you can get it for free as a Romulan with one of the free ship tokens you get at certain levels.) You can run a GW1 and rank 2 vortex and the console set gives you a slightly better turn rate to get your nose on target while the tier 5 console is a great setup to gather enemies for your GW and vortex. Turn rate can be further improved by battlecloaking for when you really need to turn, but this ship is still every bit as sluggish as it looks. Singularity powers also offer some fun when you want to play with space magic. It is best done with an actual romulan though, so you can get 5x subterfuge/SRO officers for quick cloak recharge and crit happiness, and the free T5 retrofit if you don't have one already.
Now of course you can stick with the MW cruiser and improve turn rate with consoles, but that is a big sacrifice to other potential console usage. The other issue I see is that GW 1 is not going to be terrible effective at keeping enemies in the vortex without a fair amount of ctrlx, so you'll have to play at how much you get from consoles to make it effective. Also you'll need high aux power. I'd actually suggest dropping EPTS and use EPTA, and make sure you can hull tank.
Something else you may want to consider is the two winter store powers. They are some interesting debuffs that do exotic damage. They are single target only, but if you find you have problems with GW and vortex, they are there to keep the support/exotic damage aspect alive from another direction. As engineering powers they obviously would fit well into the Andromeda or Yamato alternatives.
Another suggestion is to use polarons instead of disruptors. Standard polaron drain isn't great if you're not putting points into drain, but you can get access to the chronometric set which gives you more focus as an exotic damage ship, as well as the temporal and lukari rep sets, along with delta and gamma, but I'd say for what you want you can ignore the last two unless you need to fill console slots. Don't overlook some of those set torpedoes as support options, though, especially the gamma torp. You'd want to fit in a torpedo spread, though.
Finally, and its an expensive thing to do, but if you really want to push exotic damage, you could try to buy yourself a Maquis raider ship for the plasma storm console. A much cheaper exotic console to consider is the Delphic Tear console, and you can just buy that on the market.
In the end, because you are trying to do a lot at the same time, you have to experiment and see where you like what you get. That is kinda the issue giving advice on builds like this. Hybrids are all about how much you want out of one thing vs another and that is up to you alone where you are satisfied with it.
Sol defense space set, 4 piece counter command, two piece trilithium, two piece gamma ordnance, domino console.
With mixed armaments and CRF you get a constant high damage output.
From that point forward it is up to you to mess around with the miracle worker powers. If you want to heal nanite repair loadout, narrow sensor band etc.
For sci damage i would probably go for Tyken instead of the Vortex but that's simply because the former has a larger AoE.
Single Cannons are cheap on the exchange, grab a few and test it if the play style suits you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ6dFMTz4E
Take a look and pick up what you like from that. it's a two year old build, but it should still work.
If not, the best way you could support your team is by fixing your skill tree so that you can do some more damage with the 6 to 8 weapons emplacements that come with all ships. Your weapons are asking you why you didn't support them by putting at least a balanced number of skill points into tactical as compared to no points at all. So are your team mates.
Even the three coordination protocols provide support to fellow players while teamed.