[lunaticsarkasm]

Working on my narcine build, and have been reading around the internets some. Unfortunately it only added confusion in my poor brainery. And so I need help!

Here is my current build: http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=nicoya3_0
I'm using 3 (uncommon) Tech doffs, to work with the A2B, a VR FDO for the hangars and a VR Energy Weapons Officer to remove buffs.

My questions are:
Should I even A2B? I've seen builds with and without, and both claim to be fairly successful, but what is best if I want to squeeze every ounce out of this ship?
If I should A2B, am I doing it right?
If I shouldn't A2B, what Should I do?
Am I on the right track with the consoles? I know the Regenerative Integrity Field might seem a little off, but I do feel a tad squishy as it is (not counting the Kobali, since it's going out).
I'm planning on switching at least two of the Kobali parts for Nukara. Unsure about third part Nukara. So I don't know what to do with the last two pieces at all.
And any other pointers you could think of.

Please, toss everything you have at me, I wan't this thing to shine with the other shinies when it's done!

Thanks!

[thexpl0r3r]

Personally, I like A2B builds and I have 3 characters flying those builds, including my top dps one. Here is what I would change without having to spend a fortune...

Deflector: Counter Command Deflector Array from Undine reputation
Engine: Romulan Engine from Rom reputation

I'd keep shield and warp for regen set bonus.

Consoles: I'd remove Neutronium Alloy and Hydrodynamics Compensator. Since you already have some lobi consoles I'll asume that it won't be too big issue to get Bounty Hunter' Friend. It will provide additional damage resistance, shield emitters and your weapons will consume less energy. Another lobi console that I'd put is http://sto.gamepedia.com/Console_-_U...usion_Circuits. It will provide additional hull strength and severity. Also you should get fourth Tactical Locator console.

Duty Officers: Get better quality Technicians.You can get them by doing http://sto.gamepedia.com/Assignment:...zation_Efforts. It may take some time but eventually you'll get all purple Technicians.

In the two other seats I'd put Maintenance Engineer for batteries damage buff (You may have one purple in your roster as they were given as reward during one of the previous events) and Quartermaster for batteries recharge time reduce.

Make sure that BOFFs have space traits and if you didn't get it yet, get Hierarchy Officer from Delta Episode Alliance. It has both Pirate and Efficient space traits. I also like using Nausicaans as they have Pirate Trait that increases damage.

BOFFs setup: I'd change only two skills. Ensign Tac to situational BO1, and Ensign Science slot to Science Team for shield heal and science debuffs cleanse. Transfer Shield Strength relies on auxiliary power which gets all spent by a2b.

Also you should consider getting Wing Commander trait. It is very useful for all carriers as it decreases time for your pets to get to lvl 5 by half.

Hope this helps at least a little bit and won't bring any additional confusion

[lunaticsarkasm]

Thanks for the indepth reply!

Think I will take your advice on deflector and engine! And warp/shield too.

Bounty Hunters will be bought next time I toss my bread at sto! Don't understand how I missed that last time...
About removing the Hydrodynamics Compensator. The set bonus, 7.5% increased damage on phasers, isn't worth it? Just looking at the bioneural infusion circuits, I'd need almost 50% crit chance to get the same amount of damage increase from it. Am I missing something here?

If I can get the survivability working properly somehow, I could remove the regenerative integrity field though? Getting the undine deflector would reduce my healing potency some, while the sci team 1 and the doffs you suggested would increase it. Will it be enough to remove the regenerative, and so be able to both keep Hydrodynamics Compensator and add the bioneural infusion circuits?

Will get to work on them doffs right away! Have a green Quartermaster already. But no maintenance engineer. Just came back to sto after over 2 years, so I missed quite some. Did win a bug ship two days ago though, and when it gets sold I know where to burn some of my EC!

Yep, my BOFFs are fairly solid already, got the Hierarchy guy and a bunch of Nausicans. Science Team is taken, didn't think about them using different systems to draw potency. And most likely BO1 is taken as well, but when I tested it I noticed that using it will prolong the FAW cooldown with 5-7 sec each time, and thats with green technicians. Will it still be worth it when they are all purple?

Will get Wing Commander asap as well, it smells like awesomesauce!

It helps, and where there was confusion you have brought orde... reduced confusion!
(Noone will ever be able to completely unconfuse me, it's stated in the yet to be discovered Theory of Everything.)

[thexpl0r3r]

About removing the Hydrodynamics Compensator. The set bonus, 7.5% increased damage on phasers, isn't worth it?

You're right, I missed that these two are set... and yes, I'd keep it too.

If I can get the survivability working properly somehow, I could remove the regenerative integrity field though?

I'm sure that you'll be able to survive without this console, however until you feel comfortable enough, you should keep it. Then you can go after Bioneural Infusion Circuits. Also if you'd like to do some live space combat testing let me know.

[lunaticsarkasm]

In the two other seats I'd put Maintenance Engineer for batteries damage buff (You may have one purple in your roster as they were given as reward during one of the previous events) and Quartermaster for batteries recharge time reduce.

I just realized these two doesn't work with the emergency power to weapon/shield abilities? They are rather ment for battery consumable spamming?


Also, updated the build to current in the main post.

[thexpl0r3r]

Yes, they work with consumable batteries and Red Matter Capacitor, and they give nice buff. Purple Maintenance Eng DOFF will give you following boost.

Weapons Battery: +10% Damage while battery active
Shield Battery: +10% damage resistance while battery active
Engine Battery: +10 Inertial Dampeners while battery active
Auxiliary Battery: +10 Sensors & Stealth while battery active

Red Matter Capacitor: +5 all power while battery active

If at some point you get 6th DOFF slot from Fleet Spire you can add one more Maintenance Engineer which will be even nicer buff since they stack...

[Cranker]

if you're feeling squishy, get one of the neutronium [ShHP] from the dili mines. I know explor3r said take it out, and I agree, but if you are gonna use one, use the fleet one with the bonus. Conductive RCS with ShHP or ResAll would be another good choice. Engineers should be ok without the samsar console. I admit I didn't read that much it's 4 am but I saw squishy so I thought I'd throw that in before I pass out and I'll read over everything and see if I can throw anything else in that hasn't been said. Pretty much listen to Explor3r and then if you still die blame him but he knows what he's talking about so I'ma shut up now and go to bed.

[Dark]

I'm, very strongly against A2B on this ship. You're giving up Hanger Recharge, the Nukara T4 traits (the best reputation traits), and Aux to SIF (best heal/buff combo in the game). It's certainly cheaper with A2B, but performance-wise, I'm pretty sure it's not the best.

2 Purple DCE DOffs, 2 Purple Conn DOffs, 1 Zemok:

LCdr Eng: EPtS1/AtSIF1/EPtW3
Cdr Tac: FAW1/APB1/FAW3/APO3
Ens Tac: TT1
Lt Eng: ET1/RSP1
Lt Sci: HE1/ST2

APO3/FAW3 powered by EPtW3, alternate with FAW1/APB1. TT1 cycling, with ST2 and RSP1. AtSIF cycling, with ET1 and HE1. You should be indestructible while outputting considerable damage.

2 Purple DCE DOffs, 2 Purple Conn DOffs, 1 Zemok, 1 Marion:

LCdr Eng: EPtS1/DEM1/EPtW3
Cdr Tac: FAW1/APB1/FAW3/APO3
Ens Tac: TT1
Lt Eng: ET1/DEM1
Lt Sci: HE1/ST2

Trading off toughness for damage here, adding DEM1 to the FAW3/APO3 part of your firing cycle.

You'd literally give up nothing of value compared to the A2B layout. It just costs more. You lose an excess BO but gain Aux power (Hangers, Nukara T4 traits, AMP subsystem) and extra heals (including RSP1, which is actually enough to offset Borg sphere Tachyon spam if they're shooting at you at the same time).

With regards to gear, you're using Phasers so you want to replace the Omni AP array with an Omni Phaser array. Do keep the phaser turret for the sake of the Phaser set bonus.

Current Meta calls for Nukara Deflector/Shields (damage bonus, plus the shields are Resilient which is going to be better than the Kobali Regen shield anyway) and Romulan Engines (Attack Patterns buff). Warp Core you want a Fleet core with AMP (hence the desire for Aux power).

You have a Leech, do grab at least one Fleet Flow Caps [Pla], you can toss the Neutronium (shouldn't need it with AtSIF cycling). Personally I'd also drop the Kobali console for a 2nd Flow Caps. With Leech you should have no problem keeping all four subsystems above 75 power (and hence benefiting from AMP), so it kind of hurts to go A2B and lose that subsystem for no good reason.

[lunaticsarkasm]

Thanks, Cranker! Think me feeling squishy has something to do with me not managing aggro as I should. I tend to get too much attention, especially in CCA, which is where I go most of the time. Unlike the other advanced ones, I can actually perform well in there, for some reason, while I feel like the third wheel in all other advanced so far.
Will not get a fleet neutronium. Bounty Hunter's Friend, as suggested by Thexplor3r, will be replacing my current neutronium at the next key sale, me thinks.


Thanks, Dark for that indepth answer, and thanks for voicing the other kind of build I was considering! And the reason for my confusion, since both builds can't be best and I'm simply too ignorant about the game mechanics to tell myself.

As far as I could tell, the real benefit of A2B on this ship was being able to have full uptime on eptw/s and to a small extent the lower cds on the heals, And this at the cost of two lt eng abilities which, as Dark just said, could be well used in other ways, and the loss of aux power.

I was considering the first build, but switching RSP for EPTW2 for a full EPTW uptime and the ST2 to TSS2 (or is the debuff removal important?). And also switching APO3 to APB3, since I can't yet afford the doffs needed to support APO3 in a rotation.
Would flow caps consoles be better in this build than the lobi ones suggested by Thexplor3r?

Since I've played with the A2B build for a bit, I think I'll switch to one without for a while and see how it feels.

That omni is a phaser, just an odd color on the icon.

I've also opted to spend my dil to upgrade my current keeper gear before buying any reputation gear. Feels like I get more dps per dil that way. And it allows me to put the dil on stuff that I'm certain I'll be using.

Now let's see some verbal combat about the pros and cons of the two paths!

[Dark]

Thanks, Dark for that indepth answer, and thanks for voicing the other kind of build I was considering! And the reason for my confusion, since both builds can't be best and I'm simply too ignorant about the game mechanics to tell myself.

As far as I could tell, the real benefit of A2B on this ship was being able to have full uptime on eptw/s and to a small extent the lower cds on the heals, And this at the cost of two lt eng abilities which, as Dark just said, could be well used in other ways, and the loss of aux power.

You have to remember that the only reason to go A2B (the vast majority of the time) is to double your Tactical seats. Since the ship has a minimum of 5 Tactical, doubling up brings you to 10 - which results in your redundant Tac abilities (2x BO and 2xFAW).

I was considering the first build, but switching RSP for EPTW2 for a full EPTW uptime and the ST2 to TSS2 (or is the debuff removal important?). And also switching APO3 to APB3, since I can't yet afford the doffs needed to support APO3 in a rotation.

If you're talking about this layout:

LCdr Eng: EPtS1/AtSIF1/EPtW3
Cdr Tac: FAW1/APB1/FAW3/APO3
Ens Tac: TT1
Lt Eng: ET1/RSP1
Lt Sci: HE1/ST2

You don't need an EPtW2 if you have at least 3 Blue DCEs or 2 Purple DCEs. That is sufficient to keep both EPtS and EPtW constantly active most of the time. That's because the DCEs have a chance to reduce the cooldowns of all EPtX abilities (including itself) each time EPtX is used. You should be activating either EPtS or EPtW every 15s as a result. 3 Purple DCEs gives something like a 99% chance of that cycle not breaking down.

This of course means with 3 ranks in the Starship Batteries skill, your EPS Manifold Efficiency trait will be active all the time.

Would flow caps consoles be better in this build than the lobi ones suggested by Thexplor3r?

I would strongly advise against Bounty Hunter's Friend if you already have a Leech. Good Flow Caps with Leech (and EPS Manifold Efficiency) means you shouldn't have any issues keeping Weapon Power at 125 throughout FAW. The Bioneural Infusion Circuits is pretty much the most powerful Lobi console, I'd actually toss the Neutronium or Kobali. The former because it shouldn't be necessary, the latter because clicky consoles have limited utility and you shouldn't need that backup heal since you have Miracle Worker on top of the solid recovery BOff abilities.

Keep in mind that Flow Caps = better Leech = more Aux/Shield Power = stronger heals, stronger hull/shield/damage (from Nukara traits via Aux power), stronger shields (from Shield Power), higher damage resistance (from AtSIF via Aux power).

I've also opted to spend my dil to upgrade my current keeper gear before buying any reputation gear. Feels like I get more dps per dil that way. And it allows me to put the dil on stuff that I'm certain I'll be using.

Weapons to Mk XIV is the biggest difference in gear. All other things barely have a big effect going to Mk XIV, they tend to make the big jump via hitting Epic.

[thexpl0r3r]

I agree with Dark that non-A2B builds are generally better. However, there is just one thing to keep in mind... they are much more expensive. Just DOFF setup costs nine figures EC. If you can afford this you should definitely do it.

A2B builds are sort of budget builds. They give you best bang for the buck, and they can be pretty powerful. If you don't go all the way with non-A2B setup you will end up having lower dps than you would with A2B.

In order to make this a little less theoretical and a bit more practical... I have 8 main characters (different roles and responsibilities) and I cannot afford to spend all my money on just one or two characters. I fly A2B builds on 3 of my characters, Romulan Tac Scimitar, Fed Tac Avenger and Romulan Eng Vastam, and they all have decent dps; Scimitar hit 58k, Avenger 40k and Vastam 27k. Based on the current state of the game, I consider these to be decent results since they are A2B builds and don't even have all the best weapons mods.

When I hit 58k, Scimitar had 3 epic DBB's with crtdx3\dmg mods, 2 UR Critdx4, UR Kinetic Beam and VR Omni\Ancient Beams. I got lucky and managed to upgrade on of the crafted DBB's to Epic Crtdx4 and I'm slowly upgrading two other Crtdx4 Beams. Once I get them to Epic I'll parse ISA again to see how much more dps this build can do.

Avenger has none epic, and 4 beams have crtdx3\dmg mods, one acc\crtdx3 and one crtdx4. The other two are VR Omni Beams. It has exactly same DOFF setup as I suggested in the post.

Vastam has mixed MK XII - MK XIV gear with PvP mods...

If these builds were non-A2B I would get better results, but what I wanted to show is that A2B is more than valid choice if you have budget restrictions.

Bottom line is... Money makes the world go round... Calculate the budget you need for full non-A2B. If you can do it, you definitely should. If not, A2B is way to go.

[lunaticsarkasm]

And suddenly there was no more confusion! (That is no more confusion for me related to this topic, it is still quite impossible to bring order to me brainery!)

I only have this one character, and while I have two more planned, they can wait or make do. So I will struggle with what I have until my bug ship gets sold, which will be a while since so many are going up on the exchange and I don't want to go into a price war. Will go with a non-A2B build since that sale will allow me to get the stuff needed.
And I will use the time in between to get a hold of keybindings and rotations properly. Just fixed them up, but keeping track will take some effort though. Did help me quite some even so.
Had me a fair amount of 1st places in CCA thanks to all of your advice and them new keybinds. They still happened before, but now they are way more frequent!

[Cranker]

Another thing you should do if you are feeling squisy is get one of the plas -th consoles, the flow one if you use plasmonic. That should really lower your threat.

[lunaticsarkasm]

Thanks for the tip, already did that.

Updated the build in the first post. This is how it looks today, making fair progress.
Also, I now have one rom tac Boff, 2 VR DCE Doffs, 2 VR Conn Doffs, 1 Zemok and the Wing Commander trait.

I'm thinking that maybe the reason I felt squishy was that I only played CCA at the time (and havn't played since, been leveling an alt). So I'm going to play some other queues and see how it feels, and if I'm awesome enough, I'll drop the hull heal console and get either another flow caps, bounty hunters or bioneural infusion circuits.
Which leads me to a question...

DEM is good mainly because of Marion, right? And Marion is good because it preserves weapon power during them 8 seconds. So why, as Dark said, is it not recommended to use bounty hunters? Them 10% reduced power usage sounds like a good deal?
Also, if I tend to remain at 125 weapon power even when using FAW, is DEM still useful? Perhaps not 100% 125, but close enough.

[Dark]

DEM is good mainly because of Marion, right? And Marion is good because it preserves weapon power during them 8 seconds. So why, as Dark said, is it not recommended to use bounty hunters? Them 10% reduced power usage sounds like a good deal?

If you literally have no better consoles for the slot, then there's nothing wrong with Bounty Hunter's Friend.
Tactical console slots are full of Vul Locators, Science console slots are full of Embassy [Plas] consoles (or crafted, perhaps), Engineering slots have Assimilated, maybe Leech, Bioneural Infusion Circuits, Zero-Point...

BHF is dead last on the list of useful/good consoles. It's still on the list, unlike something dopey like Emergency Force Fields.

Marion/DEM is additional damage using a DOff slot and Engineering abilities. You tend to give up a lot less compared to your consoles.

Also, if I tend to remain at 125 weapon power even when using FAW, is DEM still useful? Perhaps not 100% 125, but close enough.

Marion/DEM is worthwhile only when both components are taken into consideration:
1. Additional damage that penetrates shields.
2. Keeps Weapon Power at 125 throughout FAW.

If your Weapon Power is at 125 regardless of Marion/DEM due to overcapping, then it's not really worth it (depending on the ship, with excess Engineering seats you may as well, if you only have like 4 Engineering seats you may not want it). Keep in mind that 1 power = 2% buff/debuff. You want it at 125.