[Tatchi]

Hi,

I've started working on my old Federation Science Captain (level 51 at time of writing) and I'm really at a loss on how to approac it and could use some general advice.

First off, the idea is to build a medic / science type. I want buffing and healing to be a theme. Obviously need some dps for solo time.

Ship:
Currently flying the retrofit long range science vessel. Any advice on what the best ship would be? Have enough zen for a T6 ship if that's the way to go. The Pathfinder looks sweet, but I can't really judge if that would be a good choice.

Weapons:
Based on current (or advised) ship type, what weapon layout should I go for? My current one is all over the place.

Bridge officers:
Any must have skills for this build or even a suggested layout?

Misc:
Any other tips while I work on this? I've seen some builds online but I can't understand most of the nomenclature and don't have access to most if not all of the suggested items. That's why I'm asking for general advice first. I can start working towards "perfection" later on.

Thanks in advance!

[Dark]

First off, there's no place for a pure buffing/healing teammate. Everyone should be buffing and debuffing things, and everyone should be able to get by without a dedicated healer.

The only real exception is the Recluse Nanny build, which is basically focused around using itself and its frigate hangers to lay down five copies of Attack Pattern Beta 3 on everything (thus improving everybody else's DPS).

Anyway, that doesn't mean being a Space Wizard is bad, but in terms of purchases I actually recommend buying and flying the Presidio (T6 Tactical Command Battlecruiser) for the Starship Trait. All Hands on Deck reduces the cooldown of Captain and Science BOff abilities when you use Tactical BOff abilities, and obviously that'll scythe out large chunks of cooldowns when you then switch to a Science-heavy ship. It's also the most cost-effective ship on the C-Store, being a T6 Fleet tier ship that's account-wide.

The most effective Science ships tend to be lockbox or lobi anyway, and expensive. The Pathfinder isn't bad for an exotic damage build, though.

As for nomenclature, usually referencing this link will help.

[Tatchi]

Ok thanks.

There goes my support class vision. What's the use for a Science officer to begin with then? Reading this everyone might as well go Tactical. Hope that's not the case, I just like the idea of a science officer and hopefully science ship.

As for lockboxes, I think I still have a lot of keys I could use, so might try my hand at that. Any lockboxes you would recommend or lobi ships to target?

[Dark]

Captain careers have very little influence on what you do in Space. It's less than a half-dozen abilities with long cooldowns, compared to 12-13 BOff abilities that are constantly activated. What defines your role in Space is your ship, because ship seating determines the BOff abilities available.

Science captains deal pretty good damage, Engineers are actually the worst in terms of DPS, though obviously they're more survivable (which helps if you're flying ships with heavy tactical seating and low Engineer/Science seating).

I think you missed my point a little though, Science Ships can field a host of crowd control, exotic damage, or similar abilities. They can deal damage just fine. (I'm not sure they'd break into the 75k DPS channels, but who cares about that?)

My point is that healing/buffing is generally unnecessary, because if someone needs a dedicated healer/buffer on the team, their builds and piloting are fundamentally flawed. You shouldn't be building around the incompetent, that would just make you essential in teams you'd be frustrated to be a part of, and superfluous in teams you actually want to be in.

Which is not to say that tossing heals onto someone is unwelcome or useless, if one guy is getting focused down then it'll only help, it's just that being focused on that is not a very effective use of your resources.

If you have enough keys to accrue 800 Lobi, the Recluse remains the best support ship available because of their frigate hangers spraying Attack Pattern Beta everywhere via APB3 and Fire At Will. It has a Universal Commander slot, allowing you to be a Space Wizard with Science, or whatever else you want to do with it.

It's generally not a good idea to open Lockboxes hoping for a ship, it's usually cheaper to just sell keys and buy the ship off the Exchange. If you're filthy rich, the Krenim Annorax Science Dreadnought is an overpoweringly awesome Science-heavy ship.

Alternatively, sell the keys to buy 5 Fleet Ship Modules and grab a Fleet Jupiter. It's basically a Science ship (Cdr and Lt Sci) with two frigate hangers and 4 Tac console slots.

I still recommend grabbing the Presidio first, All Hands on Deck is an amazing trait if you intend to go all Space Wizard with Science abilities.

[Tatchi]

Awesome thanks. I may have indeed missed your point at first.

I was looking to build a more support type, if that's through crowd control and not healing that's fine. I think I'll get the Presidio then. I'm not rich at all, but I do have a pack of 30 keys I still have to claim. That would help in either selling the keys or opening boxes. Not sure how much Lobi that would give me.

[Halfeclipse]

Science Ships are fine. What they do really really well is AoE and crowd control, specifically the kind of crowd control that groups everything in a nice ball for that AoE to work. Something like this for example, allthough the annorax isn't exactly the most accessible of ships:

https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/c...rax_torp_boat/.
More accessable versions include stuff like https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/c...well_possible/

though something like that would want some optimization for normal play; hilarious as it is dropping a grav well and getting something halfway across the map is just excessive

Unfortunately however science does take a lot of work, even if you strip those build down to it's bare necessities, it requires a specialized skill build and is rather gear dependant.

Science officers...aren't that bad. They just don't work nearly as well as eng or tac; tacs get to buff damage while eng captains get miracle worker and can cough out stupid amounts of power. Sci gets some nice toys but they either don't synergize (photonic fleet) or are hilariously overkill for most situations (subnucleonic beam). They'll still do just fine though.


ETA: also another issue to note about team healer role that dark skipped over: If you heal a tac captain there's a good chance they end up hating you. One of a tacs captains unique skills is Go Down Fighting lets them kick out more damage the lower HP they are. Which means that yes they know they're at 10% HP and that they hugged the warp core breach on purpose.

[Ross]

30 keys should fetch you nearly 143 million EC. You can do a lot more with that than the 120 lobi you are bound to get from lock boxes. If you are set on a lottery known as opening lock boxes though, try Tal Shiar.