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Seeking some build advice (again).
colonelmarik
Member Posts: 2,215 Arc User
So, I've been playing one of my older characters, that I haven't played for a while. He's Andorian, a Tactical Officer. My goal with the character is to keep him more Andorian than Starfleet. He's only just reached L60, and he's just being obliterated every time he goes into pretty much ANY content. Breen, Romulans... ANY queue mission. He is able to handle some of the patrols, but it's really tough on him. If he finds himself in a Borg mission, or a Tholian mission... forget it, he's doomed.
The ship he's using (and it's really the only one he's going to BE using) is the Mirror Escort Retrofit (Ushaan, tier 5). It's a decent enough ship, but I'm really not that familiar with escorts. He doesn't seem to do an awful lot of damage, and he sure can't take any... so I'm not sure what to do with it.
Considering he's got NONE of the rep traits or fancy special traits (ie. he has access only to the basic traits), how do I set him up for more success? Which rep line should he pursue first (I've been doing Nukara for the Tachyon weapons, but I do like the Deflector/Impulse/Shields set too...). What skills should the officers be using?
Right now, the ship is set up thus:
1 dual heavy Tachyon cannon, 2 regular dual tachyon cannon, 1 photon torpedo
Quantum mines, 1 tachyon turret, Breen Cluster torpedo. All weapons are Mk XII, purple quality, except the photon.
I have been using the Breen engine set, but it's only Mk IX, so it needs updating.
EngConsoles: Hull Image Refractors, Shared Processing Integration (gifts from a very generous soul!)
SciConsoles: Temporal Trajectory Shifter, Shield Emitter Amplifiers x2
TacConsoles: Point Defense System, Quantum Warhead Module, Tetryon Pulse Generators x2.
All the consoles are either non-leveled, or Mk XII.
I know the gear is underwhelming... but that's why I'm here. I won't bother with the skills, I'm open to suggestions. The only things I'll say are I more or less require that one science slot be Polarized Hull (to deal with the billions of tractor death rays in the game) and hazard emitters. I have reverse shield polarity in the build too.
Any thoughts are welcome!
The ship he's using (and it's really the only one he's going to BE using) is the Mirror Escort Retrofit (Ushaan, tier 5). It's a decent enough ship, but I'm really not that familiar with escorts. He doesn't seem to do an awful lot of damage, and he sure can't take any... so I'm not sure what to do with it.
Considering he's got NONE of the rep traits or fancy special traits (ie. he has access only to the basic traits), how do I set him up for more success? Which rep line should he pursue first (I've been doing Nukara for the Tachyon weapons, but I do like the Deflector/Impulse/Shields set too...). What skills should the officers be using?
Right now, the ship is set up thus:
1 dual heavy Tachyon cannon, 2 regular dual tachyon cannon, 1 photon torpedo
Quantum mines, 1 tachyon turret, Breen Cluster torpedo. All weapons are Mk XII, purple quality, except the photon.
I have been using the Breen engine set, but it's only Mk IX, so it needs updating.
EngConsoles: Hull Image Refractors, Shared Processing Integration (gifts from a very generous soul!)
SciConsoles: Temporal Trajectory Shifter, Shield Emitter Amplifiers x2
TacConsoles: Point Defense System, Quantum Warhead Module, Tetryon Pulse Generators x2.
All the consoles are either non-leveled, or Mk XII.
I know the gear is underwhelming... but that's why I'm here. I won't bother with the skills, I'm open to suggestions. The only things I'll say are I more or less require that one science slot be Polarized Hull (to deal with the billions of tractor death rays in the game) and hazard emitters. I have reverse shield polarity in the build too.
Any thoughts are welcome!
Once, I was simply called Mojo. Now, I'm forced into a new name, but don't be fooled, I'm the original STO Mojo!
This game needs detailed crafting, exploration and interaction systems.
This game needs detailed crafting, exploration and interaction systems.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Some ideas..
Replace the photon torpedo with another Tetryon DHC, replace the quantum mines and Breen Cluster Torpedo with tetryon turrets. The storyline has a turret for free link that is part of a set with a console mentioned below.
Take out the SPI, Temporal Trajectory Shifter, both Shield Emitter Amps, the Point Defense System, and the Quantum Warhead Module and..
..replace them with two additional Tetryon Pulse Generators, the Temporal Disentanglement Suite science console (see link above), an Emitter Refocuser Console, the House Martok Defensive Configuration Console, and Trellium-D Plating console (all storyline rewards).
If you unlocked the Vorgon Xyfius Heavy Escort another decent console for Tetryon is the Console -
Universal - Harasser Probes
Boff Abilities:
Keep rotating these: Photonic Officer 2 -> Emergency Power to Weapons 2 -> Cannon Scatter Volley or Rapid Fire -> Attack Pattern Beta 1, Tactical Team 1.
Emergency Power to Engines 1 for mobility as it resets the cooldown of Evasive Maneuvers with an Emergency Conn Officer active duty officer (from Phoenix prize pack).
Science Team 1, Polarize Hull 1, Hazard Emitters 2.
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Here's a bit more chat about what's behind some of the ideas presented.
Escorts aren't really made for slugging things out with enemy ships. Some escorts that are a little bit more engineering heavy than your particular ship with respect to bridge officer slots can be set up for more survival though. Here's the bridge officer layout for a Kor T-6 Bird of Prey I use. Having both Reverse Shield Polarity and Aux to the Structural Integrity Field available helps, as does having Photonic Officer 2 for cooldown reduction. With your ship the engineering boff slots are taken up with Emergency Power to Engines 1 (for mobility in conjunction with an Emergency Conn Hologram) and Emergency Power to Weapons 2 (to increase the damage of your cannons) so you're left with Hazard Emitters for hull healing. It might be possible to use EPtW1 and Reverse Shield Polarity 1 if you like RSP for survivability.
The only thing that can be done is to destroy the hostile ships firing upon you as quickly as possible relying upon the superior handling of an escort to get you into and out of trouble, as well as the high spike damage of cannons. This is why it's being suggested to try an all cannon build. When properly buffed (EPtW, CSV or CRF, and APB) there really shouldn't be much left of anything after a firing cycle or two. It's not that I have anything against a torpedo but it can be kind of redundant given the great job cannons can do. The rear mine and cluster torpedo aren't really doing too much so replacing them with turrets adds some additional focus to the build.
If you're going after a reputation space set consider the Discovery 2 piece warp core and shield versus the Nukara shield as the 2 piece offers a HUGE amount of passive regeneration for your hull and is often known to make a ship like feel more sturdy with less need for heals.
Another item from the Discovery reputation that's usually added asap into a tactical console slot is Lorca's Custom Fire Controls.
Two starship traits that really help with energy and cannon builds - Emergency Weapon Cycle (weapons cost reduction and haste) and Withering Barrage (extends duration of CSV).
You can also slot a Deuterium warp core from the exchange (or crafted) W ->E to help a bit with weapons cost reduction.
When it comes to consoles I'm not really seeing too much with the SPI, Temporal Trajectory Shifter, both Shield Emitter Amps, the Point Defense System, and the Quantum Warhead Module. Be sure to put only tactical consoles into tactical console slots. Some of the storyline rewarded consoles such as the House Martok Defensive Configuration console and Trellium-D add good things to your ship's stats as well as increase your damage resistance. The Temporal Disentanglement Suite science console adds CrtH to your build as well as gives you more shield capacity. All of these items do more than one thing which is a big plus.
The storyline rewarded Emitter Refocuser and turret (2 pc bonus with the Temporal Disentanglement Suite) are just two additional ways to get some more Cat 1 damage into the build.
One thing to try in the interim prior to getting the Trellium-D console might be slotting a cheap neutronium alloy engineering console to see if it makes a difference for you. Sometimes also adding a Monatonium alloy for kinetic resist can further help until your build is set up to do more damage.
I presume you're using this ship: https://stowiki.net/wiki/Mirror_Saber_Escort_Retrofit
It's a tough ship to squeeze out the essentials for an energy weapon escort, so you will be forced to cut some corners. The free defiant you'll be able to get at level 61 will face similar issues(even more restricted, actually). From the sounds of it, you're a long ways off from getting a free fleet T6 from completing reputations as well. (If that character is absolutely married to that ship chassis, there IS a T6 Fleet Saber waiting for you once you hit T6 with 5 reputations.)
For general survivability, the first line is typically your Deflector, followed by the type of Shield you choose. "A Step Between Stars" is a ground mission that can get you a fairly offensive space set while you wait for your Discovery Reputation to finish(Discovery has a lot of meta gear, including the space sets). The Solanae Shield is a very solid Resilient shield that will help mitigate incoming damage and throw some of it back at your attackers; the Engines still partially function while offline and have a nice agility proc that will keep you moving once you start taking damage; the deflector is more geared for science builds, but it does have 'some' hull capacity on it atleast. The Solanae 2-3 set bonuses slightly enhance your shields and give your weapons a small health leech until you can get the Iconian Reputation Space Trait that heals you when you deal damage.
If you still need more survival, the Kobali Deflector from the "Dust to Dust" mission is the strongest healing deflector in the game. This is another mission that mostly ground-based and shouldn't be too hard to get through if your current ship build is severely lacking. This deflector is generally overkill and you'll still want to go for something like the Discovery Reputation or Fleet Colony Deflector as your end goal.
For piloting advice, if you're biting off more than you can chew, it'd probably be best to stick to single-target attacks and not be afraid to run away if too many things start focusing on you at once. Learn your limits; build up your confidence one nibble at a time.
I don't think that trying to be faithful to "canon" is worth it when playing TFO's. It might be worthwhile having one loadout for "canon" to use when doing missions and another for TFO's when you need to do more damage.
Escorts don't have much hull so this is part of life. They are very maneuverable and quite powerful though (when equipped with cannons) so getting the fight over with as quickly as possible is key.
All escorts are offensively orientated by design. The best defense is a good offense for this type of ship. Your particular escort is light on engineering so this is even more important.
IMHO for escorts some things (like trying to make them tanky) aren't much more than a band aid solution. It may seem counterintuitive but there would probably be a bigger payoff in practicing things like approaching the bad guys from a flanking position and quickly buffing up an all cannon build. Most of the enemy ships on normal difficulty really shouldn't last more than a weapons cycle or two.
PO2 -> EPtW -> CSV -> APB1 ->TT1 (keep cycling these bridge officer abilities until the threat is neutralized)
Binding all five of these abilities to the space bar or a key of your choice using a keybind works very well (PC only). Making gameplay easier is job #1 as it also makes things more enjoyable 👍
Unfortunately, there is no non-zen option for Andorian Ships. The Kuthar is a fantastic ship if you ever decide to bite the bullet for one though. Out of the box, it gives you access to an ideal escort engineering seating - EptEngines1, Aux2Damp1(extra turning and disable-immunity), EptWeapons3 + EngTeam1.
As for canon, I'm pretty sure the "Phaser" is largely based on Andorian weapon design in the first place(it was one of their big contributions to the early Federation, IIRC). If you really need them to be blue, there are several options to pick from. However, 'yellow' phasers have more than enough justification in lore for an Andorian crewed vessel.