[Shane Martin]

Hi guys!

I am writing this to see if anyone has any helpful trips and tricks to max out dps on both my captain and my ship

I am currently level 56, and working my way through the story missions, and have got level 12 weapons.

Can anyone give me any advice for this, or where to get or craft better and rarer weapons.

Sorry for the noobness, and thank you for your time,

Shane

[ForTheGamer]

If you are running the Paladin, you could go a few ways. The first is to run it via A2B.

The other is that you could invoke a strategy I like using which is pour on the Temporal skills. Use as many builder skill as you can, then utilize a single skill that wipes out the entropy. Use the builders to build up the entropy, then finally use that skill to ram the damage home. Or so I think anyways.

Don't worry about the noobiness. We all were there!

[Dark]

The most cost effective weapons are the Advanced [Dam]x3[CrtD] weapons from the Fleet holdings.

The best weapons involve crafting Mk II arrays until you get [Dam]x2[Pen] or [Dam]x3, then using a Superior Experimental upgrade kit with a research booster and hope to get [Dam] as the 4th mod by the time that kit runs out. If it's not [Dam]x3[Pen] or [Dam]x4 (or you get really unlucky and it doesn't upgrade at all), you discard (onto the exchange) it and try again. Repeat until you lose your sanity and/or have a full set of the optimal weapons.

However, all of that is only going to get you something like 5% more DPS. 5% is obviously not going to turn an entry-level 10k DPS into a high-end 100k DPS. Performance is Build * Piloting * Gear Quality, and Quality is pretty much the least significant aspect overall.

---

Build is the basis of performance - your BOff abilities, and your equipment layout (beams vs cannons, what consoles you use, etc.). Then it's about Piloting - knowing what to use, when to use them, where to use them, and being able to get where you need to be at the right time.

The problem with Aux2Batt and why it's to be avoided whenever possible, is that at endgame it costs you an [AMP] boost (some/many Warp Cores pick up [AMP] as the UR mod, which gives a bonus to damage per subsystem above 75) as well as robs you of the Nukara reputation Tier 4 traits (which scale to current Aux power).

(Reasons A2B can't be avoided include poor ship layout or a specific build, though the only one of the latter that comes to mind are for high end aggronauts. Even then the high end folks usually prefer expensive methods to get cooldown reduction rather than give up Aux.)

The Paladin doesn't need it, and shouldn't use it.

With Damage Control Officer DOffs (2 purple or 3 blue, the higher quality and quantity the lower the chance the Emergency Power to X&Y cycle breaks after 30s) and Conn Officer DOffs (2 purple, or another combination to reduces Tactical Team to the minimum 15s cooldown) you can run:

LCdr Tac: Fire At Will 1 / Attack Pattern Beta 1 / Fire At Will 3
Lt tTac: Tactical Team 1 / Attack Pattern Beta 1
LCdr tEng: ??? / ??? / Emergency Power to Weapons 3
Lt Sci: Hazard Emitters 1 / Science Team 2
Lt Uni: Emergency Power to Shields 1 / Auxiliary to Structural 1

Activate EPtW3 when combat starts, then 15s later activate EPtS1. If the DCE DOffs did their job, 15s after that you'll be able to activate EPtW3 again. (These abilities have a duration of 30s, a minimum cooldown of 30s, and a system cooldown of 15s.) Alternatively, activate EPtS1 15s before the start of combat, but that's tough to time and really kind of unnecessary. EPtS1 helps regenerate shields as well as hardens them, so it may as well kick in after you've started taking fire. Ideally combat is already over after ~20s, so it doesn't matter if the DCEs kick in and EPtS is just helping repair.

Activate Tactical Team at the same time as EPtW3. Either right before, or right after, it doesn't really matter. Tactical Team automatically redistributes shields when it's active (duration of 10s), effectively bringing the full combined total strength of your shields into play, as opposed to each facing dealing with their own fire. The Conn DOffs reduce the cooldown to 15s, so you'll have it active 2/3rds of the time. The DOffs also buff your Attack Patterns skill, which is why you want it active as part of your buffing cycle before you start your offensive cycle.

You'll want to activate Auxiliary to Structural 1 at this time as well. It's a hull heal and damage resistance buff that scales with Aux power, also with a duration of 10s and a cooldown of 15s. It'll keep your hull topped up, and since your shields should never be down the damage resistance will reduce the bleedthrough enough that it should be able to practically keep your hull up by itself.

Your offensive cycle consists of pairing Attack Pattern Beta 1 with Fire At Will (3 first, then 1). Don't spam the four abilities indiscriminately. APB1 has a 15s duplicate ability cooldown, but FAW has a 20s duplicate ability cooldown. Once Tactical Team is active, you activate APB1 and FAW3. 20s after when FAW1 is available, you activate the second copy of APB1 along with FAW1. Repeat as necessary, ideally you don't need to use FAW1 at all if combat is over quickly and/or you have cooldown reducing traits like Reciprocity firing off.

Your recovery abilities are only Hazard Emitters and Science Team. The former is mostly for clearing Hazard debuffs like Plasma Fire, but obviously acts as backup if AtSIF isn't keeping up with incoming hull damage. Science Team doubles up as your shield heal and debuff (confuse, placate, etc.) clearer.

This is a bit fragile, but you have two ability slots free. Temporal abilities tend to have a self-heal aspect, and both Causal Reversion and Gravimetric Conversion look fun. Personally I'd probably end up taking Eng Team and Reverse Shield Polarity instead, though. ET clears subsystem disables, and RSP makes your shields effectively indestructible while active.