[MachoCyclone]

For the past few weeks, I have been playing around with different builds for my Engineer. I tried escorts and while they are quick, nimble, and powerful. Even with an Engineer captain, it was still squishy. I tried a science ship, but found it just didn't fit my style. So, I went back to my trusty cruisers. I like they handle and look. I saw that there were a lot of the same cruisers being used. Even saw more than I wanted of the Dreadnought being used. I wanted something different that people really aren't using that often. I could have used the APU ship I have, but I was disappointed with it. I loved my Galor Class when I was using it, but I still wanted a Federation ship for my human (ex-borg) to use. So, that got me thinking and looking around. Then I found her. I had almost forgotten about her when I saw there was an upgraded fleet version. The good ol' trusty Excelsior Class. I have had access to the lower tier versions forever and never realized they made a fleet version of her. I love the lines of the ship. So, I brought her into my fleet of ships.

I am still working on getting a full set of anti-proton weapons, but I had some phasers I could install on her for the time being and start figuring out the build. I started with the a Drake (or at least pretty close to it) build. It is the build I used on my Samsar and Dreadnought. Did a few STF's with it and felt the build really didn't fit the ship. So, I started playing around with the setup. And also did some research on Excelsior builds.

I ended up trying an Aux2Bat build. I have never done one of these builds before, but decided to try it. While it is pretty much your cookie cutter Aux2Batt build. I never knew how powerful this build could be. I ran a normal STF with it. And man, did it dominate. I haven't even respeced my character yet and it was plowing through like a champ. The build also fit my play style perfectly. The ship was cranking out the DPS while being able to shield tank. And being an engineer, I had miracle worker to along with a console that gave me a massive hull heal (can't remember the name) for those OH CRAP moments.

I love the fact that with 2 copies of Aux2Bat I have weapons, shields, and engine power always maxed. When the servers come back up, I will post the current setup of my ship. But, it is still a work in progress for weapons, consoles, and doffs.

I haven't been this excited about a build in a while and I love this build.

[Mayrheane]

You should try Command Battlecruisers~ tho the fed ones are kinda meh... or there's also ze T6 Galaxys + ze Fleet ones~

[Sysil]

Ah yes, the Excelsior. The original Federation battlecruiser, and the best looking of them all.

I used it a lot some years ago and I'm still nostalgic about it.

Good luck flying her!

[MachoCyclone]

You should try Command Battlecruisers~ tho the fed ones are kinda meh... or there's also ze T6 Galaxys + ze Fleet ones~

I did try the Command Battlecruisers. I didn't like it. I think it is an ugly ship and there are far to many being used in game right now. I like making people go, "Would you look at that. An Excelsior!" The T6 Galaxy could be another option for me later on down the line. I would have to make some small console changes to improve the turn rate a little.

Here is the current build of the U.S.S. Esmeralda.

I am open to suggestions on equipment. Also, how does one measure your DPS in game?

[Dark]

I recommend APB1/FAW3 over FAW2/APB2, you should do more damage that way.

Current Meta is Nukara Deflector and Shields with Romulan Engines. The former two gives a damage bonus and Resilient shields are preferred because they make 5% of incoming damage disappear, the latter because it gives a hefty bonus to the Attack Patterns skill, making it the only Engine that directly affects DPS. This meta may change as we earn the Iconian rep, however, so there's no rush on changing it.

You have excessive armoring consoles - get rid of one for the Tachyokinetic so you can add another Locator. Likewise, you have excessive points in the two armoring skills - 3 ranks is sufficient, and 6 is already excessive. The Tactical skills you already have should be maxed, and so should Attack Patterns. The power skills (efficiency, potential, performance) have excessive points - you're suffering from major diminishing returns, and should drop them to 6 ranks. EPS can be maxed and will help Weapon Power overcapping.

Nothing else really jumps out at me.

Also, how does one measure your DPS in game?

First, know that the in-game command /combatlog 1 will generate a log, and /combatlog 0 will stop.
Next, go into Infected: The Conduit on Advanced difficulty, commonly referred to as "ISA" for "Infected Space Advanced", and log a full run.
Finally, use a parser - usually CombatLogReader (CLR) - to parse the log and generate human-readable information.

CLR can be found on the DPS League site, or the direct links here: Java Version (recommended), non-Java .exe

[Scaper84]

Thanks for the tips on DPS, Dark. I've been wondering this myself.

[MachoCyclone]

I recommend APB1/FAW3 over FAW2/APB2, you should do more damage that way.

Current Meta is Nukara Deflector and Shields with Romulan Engines. The former two gives a damage bonus and Resilient shields are preferred because they make 5% of incoming damage disappear, the latter because it gives a hefty bonus to the Attack Patterns skill, making it the only Engine that directly affects DPS. This meta may change as we earn the Iconian rep, however, so there's no rush on changing it.

You have excessive armoring consoles - get rid of one for the Tachyokinetic so you can add another Locator. Likewise, you have excessive points in the two armoring skills - 3 ranks is sufficient, and 6 is already excessive. The Tactical skills you already have should be maxed, and so should Attack Patterns. The power skills (efficiency, potential, performance) have excessive points - you're suffering from major diminishing returns, and should drop them to 6 ranks. EPS can be maxed and will help Weapon Power overcapping.

Nothing else really jumps out at me.



First, know that the in-game command /combatlog 1 will generate a log, and /combatlog 0 will stop.
Next, go into Infected: The Conduit on Advanced difficulty, commonly referred to as "ISA" for "Infected Space Advanced", and log a full run.
Finally, use a parser - usually CombatLogReader (CLR) - to parse the log and generate human-readable information.

CLR can be found on the DPS League site, or the direct links here: Java Version (recommended), non-Java .exe

Thanks for the insight. I will start work on the changes. I will post my results when I get them.


EDIT:

Just ran ISA with my current setup. Pulled out 11,994.321 DPS with only being killed once by the Tac Cube that pops out of the gate. Overall it was third in the group, with the two highest dps coming from escort setups which managed a punishing 41k and 56k dps.

[Dark]

If that parse was submitted (via CLR), then you should be receiving an invite for the 10k DPS channel within a few days.

That'll get you more reliable and hopefully more consistent groups. The 41k and 56k are "stealing" DPS from you, and you should parse higher if the entire group is in the ~15k range.

[MachoCyclone]

The second run through sucked big time. Everything kept targeting me. I ended up being killed 4 times. When I read the log if figured out why. No one else in the group was putting out more than 6K dps. Here I am putting out 10k. No wonder I kept getting swarmed. I will run again later. Time for lunch.

[Dark]

Hm... you really should be able to tank everything with an A2B Fleet Excel.

ST1 and RSP2 for shield heals, ET1 and HE2 for hull heals, and the cooldown on RSP2 should be practically nonexistent. Then you've got RSF and MW as an Engineer.

Dunno what's going wrong, though if you were at 10k even after dying 4 times, you're probably taking like 3/4ths of the group's incoming damage.

[Wesstan]

I am open to suggestions on equipment. Also, how does one measure your DPS in game?

Put the ancient omni beam in the back. A normal beam array with okay mods will be doing slightly more damage while directly facing an enemy.

[MachoCyclone]

Hm... you really should be able to tank everything with an A2B Fleet Excel.

ST1 and RSP2 for shield heals, ET1 and HE2 for hull heals, and the cooldown on RSP2 should be practically nonexistent. Then you've got RSF and MW as an Engineer.

Dunno what's going wrong, though if you were at 10k even after dying 4 times, you're probably taking like 3/4ths of the group's incoming damage.

The amount of damage coming in was more than could be managed of a long period of time. I think what happened was that they went and destroyed both generators and ignored all the incoming ships. I couldn't even count all the borg ships that were on screen at one time.

Put the ancient omni beam in the back. A normal beam array with okay mods will be doing slightly more damage while directly facing an enemy.

I ended up replacing that with a MIV Antiproton Beam Array [CrtD]X3 [Dmg] that i was lucky enough to find on the exchange for 1.5 mil EC instead of the normal 15mil. I don't think the person knew what they had exactly. My goal is to eventually have 7 of those beams.

[Dark]

Looks like that team didn't know what they were doing.

Blow the four generators on one side at roughly the same time, then burn the transformer. Should only need to deal with one spawn of spheres (who shouldn't arrive before the team can kill the transformer, if the whole team is ~10k).

[Kerry Malone]

Looks like that team didn't know what they were doing.

Blow the four generators on one side at roughly the same time, then burn the transformer. Should only need to deal with one spawn of spheres (who shouldn't arrive before the team can kill the transformer, if the whole team is ~10k).

Problem with that is if you have a bad team. But I've taken good teams into that STF, and the lag/rubber banding is so appalling that the transformer is almost always rescued by the Nanite Spheres.

That being said, Cryptic are aware of the lag issues in STFs, and they'll be fixing them! Also, if you do it on normal, you can complete it easily enough.

Never give up, Never Surrender!

[MachoCyclone]

I have made some improvements to the U.S.S. Esmerlda.

I have her up to 16k DPS in ISA.

I am working on the Nukera and Omega Rep for the level four perks. With the trait from level 4 Nukera should give the ship Aux2Bat by traits and can then replace the Aux2Bat powers with something else.