[packetoss]

I've been away from the game for 2 years and was doing fine till I hit 60 now I seem to struggle to stay alive in most fights. I burned a retrain token to switch up my skills and kinda made it well worse. I currently fly the T5 Dreadnought Cruiser. Here is the skill planner of what I currently have https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/...8#space-skills

I also have enough zen to pick up a T6 ship as well. I normally lean towards cruisers like being tanky and pumping out a decent amount of damage. though equip wise that is a massive WIP.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Scarlett]

Link seems to go to a blank skill planner ...

Regardless, my initial question is how far do you want to go with the Dread?

Meaning, do you love the ship enough to commit the Zen to make it better? Or does the ship not matter to you?

The reason being, to me, if you really love the ship, then I recommend committing to it all the way: spend the Zen for the T6, and then the Fleet version. This gives you max hull and max console space for it, on top of all the gimmick stuff for the ship (saucer step, cloak, etc.).

Unless the link is fixed, then what else do you want to do: canon style or MAX DPS FOR THE DPS GOD rar? Do you want budget build recommendations (I.e. Free gear), or can you spend some money (EC and real) for it?

[packetoss]

Alright the link should work now in the first post guess I forgot to save it doh (not gonna lie it's probably a terrible build). I'm not super attached to the dreadnought.

I was thinking of running beam arrays and maybe a beam bank in one of the forward slots. Gear wise I'm not super about min max top of the line never have been in this game. Just shooting to survive at present as I rebuild my EC.

I have 4000 Zen to work with at present.

[aceman67]

If you're going Beam Array, go all the way or not at all. The Dread turns like an Oil-Tanker (IE hardly at all), and that means that very quickly, your targets will be out of arc for that Dual-Beam bank and you'll loose out on DPS.

If you plan on running a Torpedo, I would suggest getting the Wide-Angle quantum from one of the Z-Store Assault Cruisers (Sovereign's), as that should give you the most time on target given the ungangly beast that is the Dreadnaught.

Another thought is possibly picking up the T-4, T-5 and T-6 Galaxy's for their console set (to make it a little more beefy, gives you a saucer combat pet and adds turn rate) and the T-6 trait (Explosive Polarity Shift) gives you a 3km explosion when Reverse Shield Polarity ends is pretty sweet.

[Dylan Erikson]

might want to hold off getting a ship until after Victory Is Life launches... im sure there will be new ships coming out, aside from the Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships..

[Scarlett]

Excellent suggestions! With VIL literally around the corner, you should strongly consider waiting a bit, then wait a little more when bugs are fixed and the community settles into the new meta.

For the Dreadnought: https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/c...e_siege_yammy/

This is high-end and has one or two pieces of expensive gear but nothing that can't be substituted. This may be considered an end-goal versus "MAKE THIS NOW". There are some interesting ideas with Bridge Officers and gear. Specifically it using Beam Banks. Ultimately, it's more about the discussions in the comments for this ship.

If you are wanting another ship, then these suggestions seem portable. It's just a matter of where you will settle

[packetoss]

Oh wow totally wasn't paying attention that VIL was so close to launch. I'll wait till things settle after the update to go ship buying.

Liked the saucer sep for the galaxy though I think my tactical captain has that one. That T-6 Explosive Polarity shift sounds pretty cool. The turning rate on the dread doesn't bother me a whole lot I spent most of my time in cruisers so it seems normal to me lol.

Thank you for that link Scarlett. Gives me a goal to work towards and to build off to suit my playstyle. This captain is definitely not going to be a right now character. Still has to do the reputation grinds and I get kinda stingy with my Z coins.

Thank you all for the advice it is greatly appreciated.