[WelshAvenger]

Link to STO Academy

Here's my excelsior build as of right now. I'm saving up for better phasers but she's fun to play!

[Arno12]

Nice, You know when I was gonna get my first T6 ship I was gonna get the excelsior but I went with the Dreadnought instead Seriously though excellent build, hopefully they address the bridge officer seating issue in the future, 3 engineering seats is too much, they should at least make one a universal seat.

[Generator]

I'd be surprised if they updated the Resolute at this point, and I'd be even more surprised if the update was the "make the Ensign seat a universal" thing that many have advocated, including you.

There are already 2 Federation ships with the bridge you're proposing, the Andromeda and the Yamato. There's at least one more cross faction option that does too, the new Jem'Hadar cruiser, and there might even be others I can't think of right now. I don't think cryptic would undercut Demand on those other ships like that just to bump up the Resolute's potential sales.

Of course, by thinking those thoughts out loud and committing them to the screen, I just bumped the chance of that actually happening about 10-fold, haven't I?

[Scarlett]

Gen, if it actually happens I'll have to buy you a Lifetime Sub

There are other ways around it though and Cryptic has taken the path players have not asked for: more abilities.

Changing the seat itself is the most obvious desire and Universal offers the best flexibility. Due to Gen's observations, if Cryptic were to change the Ensign seat, they could take another route: not Universal.

Consider this: the Constitution is a "Temporal" Cruiser, so why not have the AHCR have a Temporal seat?

Or *bites a knuckle* a Pilot seat (whaaaaat). That would be crazy, and yet the inherent T6 console boost speed and fans have *b i t c h e d* that "Fly Her Apart" was not a title given to the Excelsior in some way ... well, it's in the Pilot abilities yeah?

I'm curious on the choice of using EptAux - what's the thinking there?

[Generator]

Scar, lemme pick your brain. As I was thinking this over on my morning commute, I had had the exact same idea as you, give her Pilot seating. I'm just trying to figure where you'd put it.

Only one I can justify is the Science seat. The Ens Eng isn't enough, the Cmdr Eng is too much, the LCDR Eng is spoken for, putting it in the Tac seat eats up valuable space for, well, Tac. The Lt Sci seat by process of elimination.

Thoughts?

PS - I'm already LTS.

[Arno12]

I can kinda see it with a pilot seat given it being labelled the great experiment and all, on the livestream 2 weeks ago they mentioned changing the seating so who knows.

[Scarlett]

On more thought, the Cmd seat would be okay because it's loaded with Eng space. I mean, just because it would have Pilot doesn't mean I'd have to use it ... just that I could would be a boon to the ship.

[Petrarch]

Lore wise, it's implied by the end of the Dominion War that it's a class that's had its day, but it's also probably the most easily recognised class of Trek as a whole outside of the hero vessels. I'm just not sure a pilot seat would quite fit with the Excelsior given its size - I'd suspect either a Command or Miracle Worker seat would be more likely and be a better reflection of the ship's history and service.

[Silynn]

I've browsed through the posts but didn't see the most important aspect and feature of the Excelsior-class build... how did you paint it?

Does it have those racing stripes that give it +200% to it's Impulse speed (stacks with consoles and engine bonuses!!!) <- Yes, 3 for emphasis.

On a serious note, I have purchased this ship, but have yet to claim it or even configure it. I still use the old T5 one from my free ship token. And yes, I do explode a lot. But it is a glorious explosion and honorable death. Klingons would be proud.

I'll have to use the good advice in the previous posts to make sure I don't explode as much... when I do get around to it.

[Scarlett]

I'd suspect either a Command or Miracle Worker seat would be more likely and be a better reflection of the ship's history and service.

The LtC Engineering seat is a Command hybrid

What most people want is for the Ensign Engineer seat to "do" more and the most obvious choice is to make it straight Universal. THEN you see Generator's post above (about other ships with that same layout) and go, "well, I guess that can't happen" lol.

Pilot would be funky, admittedly ... I'm not sure any other cruiser has that but I'm not sure. Thus, Temporal would be another option as the Temporal Light Cruiser has both Cmd and Temporal hybrid seats.

I still wanna know about WA's choice for using EptA, spill the beans!

And Silynn, I tried Aegis shield visuals and this remodel puts some VERY COOL Tron-like racing strips on the ship. Very recommended

[Petrarch]

I should pay more attention then :p

Admittedly, I've never flown the Resolute or the T5 Excelsior, only the T3 version so my knowledge of it is second hand at best and I've rarely ever used specialist seating either. Tried it out a few times but never really got on with it so I'm in the old school train of thought when it comes to BOFF skills.

[WelshAvenger]

I'm curious on the choice of using EptAux - what's the thinking there?

My thinking was that, despite my warp core having W>S and S>A, my aux power sucked, and having Aux Power Config: Offence as a ship trait I thought I might get a bit of extra pew out of it plus better shield heals. Happy to take suggestions on what else to use.

[Scarlett]

In my very humble opinion:

Set power levels to
W - 100
S - 15
E - 15
A - 70

Shields and Engines can get boosted by so many ways via abilities and gear. Their higher numbers wouldn't be as impactful as Aux and Weapons.

Having said THAT, I see you are not using Aux2Batt and that's okay. SO, I think you are looking to have a Drake-style build where at least two versions of Emergency Power to "X" is used with three Damage Control Engineer DOffs. You'll be leaning on the EptX abilities because Drakes have these abilities on global cooldown constantly (if not most of the time). So definitely use Emergency Power to Weapons and (the meta says) Emergency Power to Engines. ((I use EptShields to use the Competitive Rep Engine proc for maneuverability, yet I'm leaning to move to EptE myself.)) The EptW should be level 3 which is either crafted or bought and fits in the LtC slot. You could even have two copies of the same Ept- ability if you wanted because the AHCR has the room for it

Anyways, the issue, if there is one, with Drakes is that you'll want to manage your OTHER BOff ability cooldowns as well. I see you using the MACO 2-pc and that Rep Trait to help. Good. I'll need to use another PC to see the STO Academy link to recall other details though as I think you have a console helping with CD as well ...

Another way to help with cooldowns will be getting Skill Tree Readiness in the desired career. With AHCRs being Eng-heavy then clearly the Engineering Readiness will be wanted. ((For my part, I did Improved Readiness for all careers because I wanted my Tactical abilities active as much as possible. Science because TSS is a heal and that procs the Competitive Engines yadda yadda yadda / Hazard Emitters for the Cleanse.))

Another way to help CD is with Krenim BOffs form the Fleet Research Lab but that's a costly avenue. You'll be wanting the SRO from the New Romulus to handle the Tac seat and the Hierarchy dude for the Science seat soooo ... three Krenim BOffs ...

Having said all that ... EptAux is seriously not a bad idea for the reason you are using it. And frankly, since you are using Overwhelm Emitters and Aceton Beam to get the ship Trait used ((like me )), then more Aux helps those abilities so there you go

[Generator]

Another way to help CD is with Krenim BOffs form the Fleet Research Lab but that's a costly avenue. You'll be wanting the SRO from the New Romulus to handle the Tac seat and the Hierarchy dude for the Science seat soooo ... three Krenim BOffs ...

It's with a certain perverse pride that I go on record as having never used the Hierarchy Boff. Seriously, screw that guy. On a sizable portion of my roster, I may have even manualed him. Appallingly stupid-looking, from the series I didn't follow, and every time the Hierarchy was presented as an adversary in-game, these alleged masters of deception and misdirection were written to have all the guile of fricking Pete Puma.

/deep_breath

Um, where was I? Oh yes, cooldowns. I do a lot of stuff Scarlett mentioned. Eng and Tac always get two points of Readiness (one for Science), and I'll often supplement with one Krenim boff at each of those careers. I find that helps things along nicely.

[Petrarch]

It's with a certain perverse pride that I go on record as having never used the Hierarchy Boff. Seriously, screw that guy. On a sizable portion of my roster, I may have even manualed him. Appallingly stupid-looking, from the series I didn't follow, and every time the Hierarchy was presented as an adversary in-game, these alleged masters of deception and misdirection were written to have all the guile of fricking Pete Puma.

/deep_breath

I don't use Mr. Potato Head Knock-off either, stupid characters that make Inspector Clouseau look like Columbo in comparison, but I do have one of the Krenim boffs who I think is one of my tac officers.

I quite like the K-13 boffs too. Again it's expensive, but they have minor skill boosts depending on which career they're from. I actually forget which of my characters has one, but my main has the TOS Android engineering boff.