[Edward Valor]

Hi all,

So I have recently returned to STO and have the long journey ahead of reorganising my skills etc. Originally I was flying a Atrox but decided to go back to a tactical cruiser aka Aribiter T6 (plan to upgrade this to the Fleet T6 when I am able to)

Here is a link to my current ship's setup, station skills etc. I have not fully completed it yet since its a stage by stage process of when im able to.

LINK

Im looking at also maybe getting a full load out of advanced fleet phaser beam arrays with CrtD and Dmgx3

Your advise would be most helpful in the direction of how I can best gear her to play both a dps and support role.

[Dark]

[CrtD][Dam]x3 is actually the ideal set of mods for a Federation Tactical captain at the high and very high end, so you're set with the Advanced Fleet weapon.

You shouldn't slot an AP Omni array though, that's the wrong energy type and it deals reduced damage compared to a regular beam array. Your Tactical console should ideally be all Fleet Vulnerability Locaters that boost Phasers, or just Phaser Relays. So you should put the Kinetic Cutting Beam (Borg rep) in place of the AP Omni array. The two universal consoles in the Tac slots can just be moved up to the blank Engineering spots, obviously.

I think you really need to make a choice between going Science (making the Uni a Sci) or having the core tactical abilities. Either way, you want to make use of OSS.

If you want the core Tactical skills (TT x1/2, FAWx2, APx2) then you need to make the LCdr a Tac:

LCdr Tac:FAW1/APB1/APO1
Ens Tac: TT1
LCdr iTac: OSS1/OSS2/FAW3

If you have 1 Zemok, you'd be able to alternate between FAW3/APO1/OSS and FAW1/APB1 every 20s. FAW3/APO1 when boosted by OSS (so like 165 Weapon Power) does ridiculous amounts of damage. If you don't have a Zemok (which most people can't afford), then I'd go APB2 instead. There's no real way to fit two FAW3 on this layout.

Alternatively, if you want to play with Science abilities I'd go:

Ens Tac: TT1
LCdr iTac: OSS1/APB1/FAW3

The point here is that Override Subsystem Safeties is amazing, I might even go FAW1/APB1/OSS3 actually. You could be firing Grav Well 1 at 175 Aux power, and it'll suck up all the things! The Destabilizing Resonance Beam ability from the Blood of Ancients mission (I think?) is an excellent ability to pair with Grav Well, as it's a shield penetrating AoE that will also lower damage resistance.

Either way, since there's only room for one Tac Team, you either need to use it reactively, or take enough Conn DOffs to bring the cooldown down enough to rotate.

Speaking of rotations, your Engineering seat is slightly lacking. I'd recommend making a Drake build, which means taking 2-3 Damage Control Engineer DOffs such that a copy of two different Emergency Power to X abilities results in 100% uptime 97% of the time:

Cdr Eng: ET1/EPtS2/EPtW3/AtSIF3

EPtW3 powers and buffs the large amount of weapons the ship has, EPtS2 will keep your shields regenerating and hardened all the time. It's an increase in uptime of EPtS by 50% compared to your current layout - these are abilities to keep going. AtSIF3 is obviously one of the best powers, and since you'll be spamming that every 15s for heals and resist, we only need Eng Team 1.

Eng Team 1 is actually not used as a reactive hull heal, you need it to prevent/recover from OSS disabling a subsystem when it runs out. You should have enough Science slots to be able to have Science Team, Transfer Shield Strength, and Hazard Emitters. Leaving two slots for DRB and GW, like so:

LCdr Uni: TSS1/DRB1/GW1
Ens Tac: TT1
LCdr iTac: FAW1/OSS2/OSS3
Cdr Eng: ET1/EPtS1/EPtW3/AtSIF3
Lt Sci: HE1/ST2

(In my personal opinion though, it's probably better to not try and make it a Science ship at the expense of its tactical/damage capabilities.)

[McClintock]

[CrtD][Dam]x3 is actually the ideal set of mods for a Federation Tactical captain at the high and very high end, so you're set with the Advanced Fleet weapon.

Woohoo, my choice in UR weaponry is vindicated! Super-cheap considering the mods you get - I'm pretty space-poor. If you don't mind, I might cannibalize some of these nice thoughts for my own Fleet Manticore build.

[Edward Valor]

I probably should take a relook at my station abilities lol

Since this post a lot has changed in terms of gear for my ship, spent around 3 hours getting some Fleet stuff and working out what I should replace etc lol

LINK

Im planning to have 4 of those Vul Locators +Phaser.

Now my main issue is what Sci consoles I get...I was told the [Flow} Sci consoles might be useful but since im inexperienced in builds and working out the maths and stats etc I have no idea if the [Flow] Embassy sci consoles would be useful for me.


Station Abilities:

If I read right I've reorganised my abilities -

LCdr Tac:FAW1/APB1/APO1
Ens Tac: TT1
LCdr iTac: OSS1/OSS2/APB2
Cdr Eng: ET1/EPtS1/EPtW3/AtSIF3
Lt Sci: HE1/ST2


And while I think of it...I have no idea the type of doffs I should be using lol


UPDATE:

I was pondering about the science consoles in regards to the new station abilities setup...Im thinking a "Plasma-Generating Weapons Signature Nullifier[+Emit] would be more benefical to me as a tactical ship (extra proc damage ? along with help with improved shield healing).

Unless +Sen would be useful to a degree?

[Dark]

The Plasma explosion mod is pretty much a given, that thing is roughly 5k per console depending on Mark and Rarity. In comparison, the shield and hull heal barely do anything. The reason we usually take Flow Caps is because in the very long run you really want a Plasmonic Leech console, which is based on Flow Caps. Aside from that, I don't know what would be useful. AFAIK, sensors is really only for PvP.

DOffs, you're going to want 2 purple Conn DOffs that reduce the recharge of Tac Team, otherwise you're not going to be able to reduce its cooldown to the minimum of 15s and need to manually time it. More important are Damage Control Engineers, which give a chance to reduce the cooldown of all Emergency Power to X abilities every time you activate Emergency Power to X. Having at least 2 purples or 3 blues will mean EPtS2 and EPtW3 should be able to be constantly active the vast majority of the time.

The last thing you want/need is a Zemok, but he's ridiculously expensive. He reduces the cooldown of attack patterns.

So with a Zemok:

LCdr Tac:FAW1/APB1/APO1
Ens Tac: TT1
LCdr iTac: OSS1/OSS2/FAW3

Allows you to alternate between FAW3/APO1/OSS and FAW1/APB1 every 20s.

Without Zemok:

LCdr Tac:FAW1/APB1/APB2
Ens Tac: TT1
LCdr iTac: OSS1/OSS2/FAW3

Allows you to alternate between FAW3/APB2/OSS and FAW1/APB1 every 20s.

[Edward Valor]

Guess im saving for Zemok lol

[Dark]

I'm not sure how valuable Zemok is here, since it's just APO1 not APO3. You should check the prices for Zemok and the Leech, and if they're comparable. The Leech is going to have considerably greater impact on performance.

[Edward Valor]

I'm not sure how valuable Zemok is here, since it's just APO1 not APO3. You should check the prices for Zemok and the Leech, and if they're comparable. The Leech is going to have considerably greater impact on performance.

I'll take a look. I'll get the leech first as I'm sure someone said that's one of the first things I should get for my build...cheapest leech is 120m lol

Have everything else ship gear wise sorted including the 2 sci [FLOW] consoles.

Another thing that comes to mind is that Uni Ablative hazard shielding console even still useful or should I just go with a RCS and x4 Neut alloy console build for engineering?


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[Dark]

Neut Alloy and similar armor consoles are completely unnecessary for the vast majority of ships. I don't think even Vel'gon uses any on his tanks.

Ideally, Tac slots are full of Vulnerability Locaters, Sci slots are full of plasma explosion consoles, and Eng slots are full of universal consoles and EPS-boosting consoles (like a Conductive RCS Accelerator Mk XIV [EPS]).

[Edward Valor]

I see.

Good news is I've got 4 Vulnerability Locaters MKXII now along with my 2 Flow nullifier sci consoles.

Ill take a look at the RCS consoles (I think it's the spire we get those from?) and any uni consoles I could slot into engineering that could be of some use.


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[Dark]

The one I linked is crafted, and worth 300 million. I don't have one.

The point is the Power Transfer Rate buff.

Weapon Power gives +2% damage for every point above 50, and that caps at 125 (so +150% damage). If we have (through whatever other sources, like Leech) more than 125 Weapon Power, that doesn't technically do anything.

However, when we fire a weapon, it reduces Weapon Power for other weapons until their firing cycle ends, at which point it instantly returns it. (Multiple weapons are fired sequentially, not simultaneously, regardless of if you manually fire them or use Autofire.) So if we have 7 beam arrays and only 125 Weapon Power with no drain mitigation, the first array fires at 125 power, the second fires at 115 power, the third fires at 105, and so on. Which means each subsequent array deals less damage than the previous.

However, if we actually have (for example) 145 Weapon Power (it would only show 125), then the first would fire at 125, the second would fire at 125, the third would fire at 125, and then the fourth would fire at 115. So having that extra 20 power above 125 results in something like 20% more damage bonus from Weapon Power than if you just had 125 power.

However, the excess power doesn't instantly flow back into Weapon Power. Instead, it refills it at the Power Transfer Rate in ticks of 5. With a sufficient Power Transfer Rate, the above example could happen. With an insufficient Power Transfer Rate, what would actually happen is that it doesn't refill Weapon Power fast enough, so while the subsequent weapons would fire at a higher Weapon Power than without any excess, it wouldn't be firing it at 125 Weapon Power.

All that is referred to as "overcapping", as in having power over the cap. There's also things like the Fleet Spire core which reduce drain, so you can approach this from the other direction as well.

[Edward Valor]

You sure are knowledgable lol but I get what your saying and it makes sense in terms of being able to dps at a not so incapacitated steady rate if that's the right phrase to use.

I guess I should check the fleet RCS consoles for similar stats like the RCS you linked me to see what I can find...I defo don't have 300m ecs lol

So I'm slowly starting to understand this build your helping me with and why I should use certain things...one to point out this RCS console would be good for is EPtW if I'm understanding what your trying to say to me lol




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[Dark]

this RCS console would be good for is EPtW if I'm understanding what your trying to say to me

Uh, no? Maybe? I'm not sure what you mean at all.

First of all, keep in mind that everything I've said about overcapping is actually grossly oversimplified. There's more detailed and complicated explanations by folks like Vel'gon and Jena floating around on the Internet elsewhere.

Now, think of it like two tanks of water (one at the top, one at the bottom) connected by a pipe, with a drain at the bottom.

The amount of water in the top tank is your excess Weapon Power.
The diameter of the pipe is your Power Transfer Rate.
The bottom tank is 125 units big, and the water in there is your current Weapon Power.
The drain is your Weapon Power drain.

When you fire your weapon, you're opening the drain.
The amount of water in the bottom tank flows out the drain, so now it's not at 125 units.
There's water in the top tank which will refill the bottom tank, but how quickly it can refill the bottom tank depends on the diameter of the pipe connecting them.

EPtW primarily has two benefits, one of which is adding to Weapon Power. So it's adding water to the top tank.
EPtW is going to help overcapping.

The linked RCS console buffs the Power Transfer Rate, so it's giving you a wider pipe.
The console is going to help overcapping.

The console and ability don't have any direct interactions with each other.

(Note that there's a 3rd thing there - the size of that drain. Things like Cruiser Commands (Weapon System Efficiency) and the Fleet Spire warp cores that add drain resistance will reduce the amount of excess Weapon Power and Power Transfer Rate you need to stay at 125 Weapon Power.)