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Help with carrier build question
onealf
Member Posts: 11 Arc User
I am interested in outfitting a carrier for play. I have been looking at several you tube videos and websites over suggested builds. Since a lot of the info is dated I was hoping to find out what consoles people suggest to using and possibly telling me how to obtain them. I know carriers can be expensive so if there are budget friendly suggestions those are also greatly appreciated. Carrier wise right now I am using the vanguard but I have a few z-store ship tokens so I don't mind if you suggest needing another ship as well. Carriers look like a lot of fun but I am starting to notice they have less weapons or lack of science officer abilities. Is there a carrier that stands out filling these rolls?
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My preference it to focus on pets over main weapons.
My guideline rules are ideally 5 to 8 Eng pet consoles (Advanced Engineering - Hangar Craft Power) with many people saying 6 is the sweat spot. 4 and less is usable but I would personally change ship platform to try to go for 5+. Ideally Unconventional Tactics trait with 3 to 4 triggers for the Carrier consoles if you have access to them. Ideally Commander Command or at least Lt Commander Command.
I play the extra Battleship and Frigate path. So I also have Advanced Rapid Support + Friends in Unusual places + Fleet Support + Superior Command Frequency + It’s Another Enterprise + Frequency Transponder. Though I am thinking of dropping Advanced Rapid Support and It’s Another Enterprise.
We have got to a point where there are multiple subclass or styles of Carrier build so there isn’t really a correct single way to build a Carrier.
If it helps these are some slightly outdated screenshots of two of my Carriers. The first one being the Romulan Droneship Carrier and the 2nd one being a Tricobalt Boat + Carrier. Look up Flight Deck Carriers and Dreadnought Carriers which tend to have 7 to 8 weapons.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/912277317609484318/1192582143432466542/Carrier_Build_Valkis_Dec_2023.png?ex=65b2d42c&is=65a05f2c&hm=29e852b43a30a6e3fe858b73a46612edc5443b2ece6707ee5eeeae73bd15769c&=&format=webp&quality=lossless
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/901756734698299432/1185593694292820068/Tricobalt_Torpdeo_Boat_Carrier.jpg?ex=65b5172b&is=65a2a22b&hm=c93e52a740ee24d457d16d72b00c58f607340aaa2f5e3ed7acd8534d3aecff29&=&format=webp
For a budget friendly version I would recommend Elite Jem’Hadar or Elite Caitian Support Frigate with if you can afford it the Wingmate trait. Then fill the Engineering slots with as many Advanced Engineering - Hangar Craft Power consoles as you can fit. If you fly Romulan Carriers only then Elite Droneships are the strongest pet in game and budget friendly.
Some good budget friendly but strong pets are
Elite Scorpion Fighters (Not Squadrons)
Elite Mirror Universe Shuttle
Elite Aeon Timeships
Elite Jem’Hadar or Elite Caitian Support Frigates (With Wingmate Trait)
Droneships (only on Romulan Carriers with Wingmate Trait, do not use the SAD trait)
Elite Class C or Class F Shuttlecraft
First and foremost; Do you want to be a carrier that relies strictly on your hangar bays and prioritizes their enhancement? Or, do you want a 'summoner' style that enhances all types of 'pets'?
Second; What kind of budget are you looking at? Are you willing to invest in expensive traits and consoles, or are you looking for cheaper alternatives that are readily available?
Third; How does form versus function weigh in for you? Do you want everything to match and look uniform to the faction/ship you're flying, or are you more interested in performance even if that means using a mixture of things that don't cosmetically mesh?
-==SHIPS==-
If you're not looking to invest in Advanced Consoles and want a hybrid pet/weapon platform right out of the box, the Jem Hadar Vanguard Carrier is the best pick and was so for a long time until Advanced Consoles came out. Advanced Consoles have unfortunately lead to a fall from grace at the upper end, but it is still an excellent ship for people who want to enjoy the playstyle without late(r) game investment.
If you're looking for a broader/summoner pet-boosting playstyle that DOES use Advanced Consoles, Any of the factional (Fleet) Support Carriers are great starting points as you can effectively obtain them for free via reputation fleet modules. Jem Hadar do get an advantage of extra wingmen for this playstyle, but they're all solid platforms. The Frigates they come with/unlock are also good for a variety of reasons if you're not using/don't have access to the Superior Area Denial trait.
The peak 'carriers' at the moment are the Miracle Worker Flight Deck Carriers. However, these only come in two flavors(Connie and D7) and are Promo/Mudd Bundle ships that are not cheap to obtain. They are both capable of slotting 8 pet-boosting Advanced Consoles.
As a side note, if you're specifically focusing on a 'Summoner' playstyle, Hangar bays are actually completely optional. Anything with a lot of Eng console slots will perform quite well. (While suboptimal, I actually have a pilot escort summoner-gunship hybrid that belches out entire fleets of empowered romulan warbirds, including multiple scimitars at a time.)
-==GEAR==-
The single most important trait you can slot if you want your hangars to really become an offensive powerhouse is Superior Area Denial. This trait comes from the Mirror Engle, which isn't a particularly cheap or easy ship to get ahold of - either from lockbox or the full 12th anniversary bundle. This will require specializing in fightercraft armed with "pulse cannons" to maximize, but you can sweep entire spawn waves with just your fighters if built properly.
The best ship purchase value for both summoner and carrier playstyles is easily the Terran Hydra. The trait gives ALL your pets, both summoned and hangar-launched, BONUS damage based on your largest active pet. Meanwhile, the ship's console has excellent passives that provide a substantial boost to all your hangar-launched craft(and targetable torpedos if you opt for them). The console clicky is a respectable alpha strike option too, but it is phaser damage and may not match a non-starfleet themed build.
The most important things for a Summoner playstyle are to use a Science Captain for Photonic Fleet, the Command Specialization Starship Trait, Command Frequency, that allows you to summon fleet support without being low health, and a reliable form of Captain Ability cooldown reduction like the Space Trait Intelligence Agent Attache to ensure good uptime of those those abilities(and Scattering Field which both protects and enhances all nearby pets and friendlies).
There are a bunch of Traits, Consoles, and even Devices that can further compliment your builds, but it largely depends on what you're specifically going for.
As a counter opinion I don’t fully agree with this view Miracle are peak Carriers. Posting this to give options rather than to disagree as Miracle Carriers are among the top.
Miracle Workers are seen by many as peak as they can take 1 more Eng Carrier console then any other Carrier. Which is a valid point. My personal preference and I find they perform better are Carriers with ideally Commander Command slots and a different layout to the Connie and D7. So I prefer ships like the Hur’q Dreadnought, Xindi Dreadnought, Jem'Hadar Dreadnought and the one exception to the rule and the no1 best platform for Carriers in my opinion is the Temporal Valkis. Normally I would avoid Temporal for Carriers its just the Valkis is the strongest platform for boosting pets that can also take Droneship pets.
It’s a strong trait, I just like to point out for other people it’s not an auto fit. For some builds fitting Superior Area Denial will lower pet damage. If a pet has inbuilt rank 2 or 3 firing modes do not use Superior Area Denial with them. Just a warning I like to give as sometimes I see people fit Superior Area Denial with every pet and its not a good trait for all pets. A small handful of pets get zero benefit or worse lose DPS with the Superior Area Denial fitted.
SAD is also incompatible with Beam Overload, Rapid Fire or Surgical Strike builds. In which case I recommend Targeted Excision trait. Its not as powerful as SAD but works better alongside those builds.
EDIT: Not all the ships I listed have Commander Command. Sometimes I use Lt Command.
EDIT2: Connie and D7 are great energy weapon platforms. Personally I don't use energy weapons which is another factor in me not seeing them as peak. They are pretty much the peak platform for Energy weapon+Carrier builds. I would put forward the Hur’q Dreadnought as peak for Tanks+Carrier.
With that said, STO really embraces the idea of flying what you want and making it work. I am notoriously prone to experimenting with non-meta stuff/"bad ideas" and trying to figure out how to make it work. I absolutely adore my Durgath as a hybrid carrier; I have an Atrox rebuilt as an agile attack battlecruiser/battlecarrier that doesn't do any offensive space magic; I have a super-healing Tellarite Pralim with coordinated beam overload spam(tellerite pets get extra beam weapons and can reflect DEW damage); I have a JHV Support Carrier 'Fleet in Being' build that can pump out and support more Jem Hadar-flavored pets than most TFOs can spawn as hostile NPCs.. and that's only about half of my existing 'carrier' builds.
There are a lot of options these days; it really comes down to what exactly you're looking for as a player. Most people tend to bandwagon onto the classic hangar-only playstyles, but most people are also sleeping on the raw potential of summoner builds that use a lot of common components and fulfill a similar thematic purpose.
The Ahwahnee Command Carrier is a really good carrier. You can use up to 7 Advanced Hangar Pets consoles or 7 Science Consoles when you Level-Up the ship's rank to T6-X2. It has a very good Ship Mastery trait and console that buffs your hangar pets' Weapons Firing Cycle Haste. It also comes with the best de-buffing hangar pets that can be used on any other ship that has a hangar bay.
Alternatively, the Terran MW Monitor is also very good and it comes with Valkyries. Since it's full Miracle Worker (MW), it can also complete the Tour the Galaxy for your Energy Credits (EC) needs if that's your sort of thing. One downside to the Monitor is that it can only equip a maximum of 5 Advanced Hangar Pets consoles (2 ENG + 3 Universals) on T6-X2. On the other hand, this carrier can turn pretty easily even at full impulse speed since it has a nice bonus to its base Inertia, being a full MW. It also has Temporal stations to complement its Science Anomalies.
The Support Carriers are also very good since they have 3 Lt. Commander Universal BOff stations and 1 Commander/Command Science Station while being able to equip up to 6 Advanced Hangar Pets consoles or 6 Science consoles on T6-X2. Their frigates are quite self sufficient in providing all kinds of support and survivability. Keep in mind that buying one of the Support Carriers on their own actually breaks the Bundle. I think this is the only bundle in the store that does that.
Another ship that you will eventually want (if you missed its Event) is the Jarok Alliance Carrier. Its Alliance Fighters is still very good but you would really want the console from this ship. It provides a huge Critical Chance to your hangar pets within 20km. And since hangar pets very rarely go outside of this range, then you can almost always guarantee that they will work every time.
If you have the Zen saved up, then I would recommend getting the 12th Anniversary Bundle to unlock the Superior Area Denial ship mastery trait in your whole account. It's a game changer for carriers with fighters or shuttles and a staple on some PvP builds. If you don't mind having the trait on just 1 character in your account, then you can get it for free by choosing the Mirror Strike Wing Escort as your choice for the Promo Ship token from the Annual Event Campaign.
If you plan on using Frigates, they tend to get better performance with Coordinated Assault from the Heavy Escort Carrier (T6 Akira), Qa'Tel Flight Deck Raptor, or the Jhu'ael Tactical Carrier Warbird. Sure, carriers with fighters that have pulse cannons and Superior Area Denial trait will always out-damage frigates with Coordinated Assault. But it's a decent budget build for carriers that want hangar pets that can both effectively tank and solo kill anything up to Cruiser level targets, like the Borg Spheres.