[Zekkie]

I've been working on upgrading gear lately, and I don't want to spend a whole load of dilithium upgrading gear that I'm not going to end up using. So, I'd like some help with a few items before I upgrade them.

http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skil...ekkiejhdc_5289

Here's my build basically as I have it right now. I'm working on crafting the beam arrays at the moment. The rest is exactly what I have.



I'd especially like to explore what other options I have available for Deflector, Engine, Core, and Shield.

I tend to stubbornly stick to my 2pc Borg + Fleet shield setup, basically because I've been playing it since around season 2 except I upgraded the shield at some point to MACO then Fleet when leech took over.

The alternate configuration that I've tried, and I honestly haven't really felt personally is that much better, is:

Nukara Deflector, Romulan Engine, and Nukara Shield.

I've got all 3 upgraded to mk 14 already because I was playing around with them for a while but I never really felt that it made much of a difference to me.




So the reason I am making this thread is primarily because the upgrade system is making it impossible to evaluate gear on my own. I simply can't upgrade everything to epic to see what mods they get, so the information just isn't there for me anymore. Are there any other items in these slots that I should be aware of? Anything useful from Season 10?



Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions for a good replacement for Dlyrene, I'm open to suggestions. I honestly don't know if he's worth using anymore. Though if he is, then great! I'll just leave it alone.


And another note - I'm working on getting the stupid bug ships right now. Stupid 300 million for pets. Ridiculous.

[Dark]

The increase in performance from Nukara/Romulan/Nukara is minimal, but it is better. When I compared it with alternatives in (pre-DR) ISE the difference was too small and lost in the noise, but against just SB234 it was rather consistent. My test results are floating around here somewhere.

As for suggestions you can try:

I would toss Dicrok and Dlyrene for two purple Damage Control Engineer DOffs. That would allow you to carry both EPtS1 and EPtW3 and have them both active at once. This has three effects:

1. You're going from no EPtS1 to constant EPtS1. That should offset the loss of Dicrok.
2. You're going from EPtW1/3 to constant EPtW3. That should offset the loss of Dlyrene.
3. You now have an EPtX ability firing every 15s. Your ranks in Starship Battery means EPS Manifold Efficiency is constantly active. I believe that is better than Warp Theorist with your traits, considering the latter's Warp Potential boost is irrelevant in the face of Leech and Rank 6 in the skill. This gives you a flat +15 to all subsystems, which has the obvious benefits.

You only have one copy of DEM, which means you're making half the use of the rather costly Marion.

I would rather make the Universal an Engineer to get a second copy of DEM1. Take ET1 and switch HE1 with ST1. This does mean you'll have to endure Plasma Fire and Borg Shield Neutralizers though. Personally, I'd rather switch the two DLS Doffs for Shield Distribution Officer DOffs, allowing for Brace For Impact to become a third shield heal (alongside ST1 and RSF1). I'm not sure if that's better or worse, but I do like making BFI useful.

The new Iconian Reputation has a weapon & console set that looks rather nice - if you don't already have your last Beam Array, it may be cost effective to hold on the last one and see how it pans out. Nobody has them for testing yet, though.

[Zekkie]

OK a couple things:

Warp Theorist was supposed to be Astrophysicist. Oops.

I'll think about the DCE build. I've got the doffs for it somewhere, but I just never really felt I needed it. The newer content might change that.


I've made a conscious choice when not using the uni in Engineering. I don't actually play a ton of borg stfs (in fact, hardly any at all). This is my all-around build that I use for basically everything. Because of that, I find I like to have answers to both hazard debuffs and science debuffs (esp. subnukes), and the only way I can do that is with the science bridge officer. If I was optimizing specifically for ISA, I think I would agree with you.

[Zekkie]

Has anyone played with any of the iconian gear yet? Is any of it better than nukara/rom or borg/fleet stuff?

[Zekkie]

So it's sounding like three pieces of the iconian space set is just the way to go now. Haven't really had time to farm the iconian marks yet but it's next on my list to do.

I've been hearing conflicting reports about which fourth piece to use. I'm leaning toward using a fleet warp core, because the iconian core isn't very exciting, but I've heard of people also talking about using the Romulan engine.

Done any tinkering with this yet?

[Dark]

I'm not aware of anyone talking about dropping the Romulan Engines. It's been a staple since... like, forever. At least a year, maybe two. Nothing else gives as much of an impact on performance when we're cycling Attack Patterns.

Iconian Warp Core is supposed to pick up [AMP] at UR, though I'm only 90% sure about that. At which point it's superior to a Fleet core due to the set bonus.

Man, the debuff removal looks so sweet, but getting a core to UR is going to be a huge PitA.

BTW, my recommendation actually reduces performance against Borg since I recommended ET and ST over HE. ET and ST clears a wider variety of debuffs.

[Zekkie]

I have actually heard of people replacing the engine, and using a better core. The iconian core is basically junk when you consider pretty much any valid choice for core has [amp]. It boosts only engine power, and I think it only has E->S (though not listed in the mod list) and W->S. (Here's a screenshot thanks to our nice little thread we have.) Basically, the impression that I am getting is that when compared to other epic cores (that get [amp] and [w->s] at UR and epic, which is basically all fleet cores and rep cores), that warp core is a blank item, and I find it hard to justify using it even if the romulan engine is great (and to be honest, the attack pattern buff isn't that big, esp. if you're not tactical).


I wish I had access to these items in game more readily. I don't mean to be the guy that just shoots down every idea sent to him; I actually am really open to ideas when backed by good argument and data. I just don't have any way to collect data anymore so all I can do is hope to create discussion with counterpoint.

Maybe later I can make a spreadsheet that actually quantifies the four possible configurations with 3pc iconian gear.

(3pc + deflector, 3pc + engine, 3pc + core, 3pc + shield; although I imagine the engine or core are the only really interesting configurations)

I will try some fishing for info soon. I'd like to know if there's a prevailing opinion on this.

Oh, a quick edit: I am not really counting the weapon hot restart as particularly relevant when I have the RMC (now that it actually works!). I haven't played end-game content lately as much as I'd like, so it's possible that is more relevant than I think it is.