[Scarlett]

One thing I am not quite sure yet: Is there a discount for people who bought the Discovery Starter Pack? I could not decide yet if I should just buy the Gagarin or the whole thing.

There is: about 7400 Zen if you already have the Disco Starter Pack.

[Petrarch]

I use both on my Polaron Jem’Hadar Warship. Combined with the Morphogenic set Mixed Weapons Synergy is definitely worth it imo. Also Exceed Rated Limits feels quite good on this build, so I would recommend playing around with both.

One thing I am not quite sure yet: Is there a discount for people who bought the Discovery Starter Pack? I could not decide yet if I should just buy the Gagarin or the whole thing.

Ta for that, I'll try it out. I'll have to drop TS3 to 2 so I'm probably going to drop EPtS2 from the engineering seat for the mixed.

As to the pack cost, the 7350 cost includes the 30% off plus the starter pack discount. Its 8400 if you don't have the starter pack.

Sod Victory, Gagarin is Life!

[T'Tan]

There is: about 7400 Zen if you already have the Disco Starter Pack.

Ta for that, I'll try it out. I'll have to drop TS3 to 2 so I'm probably going to drop EPtS2 from the engineering seat for the mixed.

As to the pack cost, the 7350 cost includes the 30% off plus the starter pack discount. Its 8400 if you don't have the starter pack.

Sod Victory, Gagarin is Life!

Thank you both! Still a hard decision Might go with the Gagarin only as the trait does not seem to be a must have for my KDF toons.

[Sul-Matuul]

So according to people in game the Gargarin trait locks out other copies for BFAW/CSV/TS whilst it is active, so it's only really useful to get a single extra torp spread and not the 3 some people thought you could get.

However some people have claimed that having it slotted causes all weapon abilities to put each other on cooldown which effectively locks out everything the second you hit any of them. That makes it way less useful in my eyes as you could not stack two attacks together and you'd be better off just working with basic CD reductions.

It could be useful if you queue up TS3 then pop a spare BFAW/CSV and you'd have that stack up as well, if that is how it works. Then you must wait for the original ability to come off cooldown before doing the same thing again.
Alternatively if the other way round then it just doesn't seem worth it for any ship really. No point using a trait slot to get a free minor ability that then locks out all your other ones.

[Arno12]

Looks like I'm slotting redirecting arrays again

[Rellimie]

This is from Reddit regarding Entwined Tactical Matrices https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comment...ical_matrices/

For those wondering if the new Starship Trait that comes with the Gagarin/Qugh Miracle Worker Battlecruisers is any good, here's what I can tell you after using the trait for a bit:

The trait gives you a free CSV I and FAW I whenever you use any rank of Torpedo Spread, and gives you a free Torp Spread I whenever you use any rank of CSV or FAW. This means you don't actually need a torpedo or any energy weapons slotted to get the additional firing modes provided by this trait, however you won't be able to benefit from them if you don't have the proper weapons equipped.

The CSV I, FAW I, and Torp Spread I triggered by this trait last the full 10 second (for CSV and FAW) and 30 second (Torpedo Spread) durations, just like the BOff powers do.

Whenever either effect is triggered by this trait, their respective BOff powers are locked out until the trait's effects expire. For example, Entwined Tactical Matrices' CSV I and FAW I disable all other CSV and FAW powers until the trait's versions of the abilities run their course. Similarly, Entwined Tactical Matrices' Torp Spread I disables all other Torp Spread powers until the next torpedo is fired.

There is no lockout on how many times Entwined Tactical Matrices’ effects can activate. Obviously it’s in your best interest to space your BOff ability activations out so you don’t get overlap, but there’s no rate limit to worry about.

The free CSV I, FAW I, and Torp Spread I granted by Entwined Tactical Matrices are affected by other traits/DOffs that specifically affect those abilities. For example, the Withering Barrage Starship Trait increases the duration of Entwined Tactical Matrices' CSV to 14 seconds instead of the usual 10.

All-in-all the trait is actually quite strong, as being able to get what is essentially two or even three BOff abilities for the price of one can be very useful on ships with limited Tactical seating. If you happen to be running a BOff version of both CSV/FAW and Torp Spread, you can get near-100% uptime with the former two abilities just by cycling your powers effectively. Depending on how much you invest into Tactical Readiness and the traits you use that can easily go up to 100% uptime. Likewise, you can cycle your abilities in such a way that almost every torpedo fired is a spread.

Perhaps the best part of the trait is that using Torp Spread gives you both CSV and FAW. That makes this trait a must-have for any build that plans on mixing beams and cannons. It also allows builds that use both energy weapons and torpedoes to be much more viable, and makes melting large groups of enemies even easier to do. Combine this trait with Mixed Armaments Synergy and you can get some real mileage out of it! Hooray for mixed builds receiving a huge buff!

[Sul-Matuul]

Thanks, that sort of makes sense.
I guess the big question for me is can you load up two BFAW/CSV/TS stacked behind each other?

E.g:
- Hit torp spread 3
- TS onto cooldown
- Hit BFAW or CSV (of any rank)
- Trait give you free TS1 stacked behind original weapon buff.
- TS is locked out until the freebie TS is used up, but still potentially with the original CD in play also.

If you can do this ^, then this trait looks very nice.

If you cannot do this then it's a pretty niche trait which i'm not sure i see much use from.

[Rellimie]

Thanks, that sort of makes sense.
I guess the big question for me is can you load up two BFAW/CSV/TS stacked behind each other?

E.g:
- Hit torp spread 3
- TS onto cooldown
- Hit BFAW or CSV (of any rank)
- Trait give you free TS1 stacked behind original weapon buff.
- TS is locked out until the freebie TS is used up, but still potentially with the original CD in play also.

If you can do this ^, then this trait looks very nice.

If you cannot do this then it's a pretty niche trait which i'm not sure i see much use from.

What I found last night was that the FAW1, CSV1, and TS1 you get from the trait ignore the global CD completely.

For the purpose of this test I had FAW3 and TS3 slotted.

I hit FAW3, was granted TS1 (it locked out TS3 but did NOT put it on CD, just grayed out the button). As soon as FAW3 finished it's cycle and my TS fired my TS3 became available again so I hit TS3 and was immediately granted FAW1 while my FAW3 was still on CD (it did NOT reset the CD).

Tonight I'm going to combine this with the Photonic Officer changes and see where this goes.

[Sul-Matuul]

Awesome, sounds like just what i'm looking for then.
I didn't want to buy something that was going to be barely useful, but if it all works that way then it sounds ideal.

[Rellimie]

Awesome, sounds like just what i'm looking for then.
I didn't want to buy something that was going to be barely useful, but if it all works that way then it sounds ideal.

I’m going to do some more testing tonight. Also, don’t put it past Cryptic to hit it with the nerf bat lol

[Scarlett]

All I have is BFAW3 ... can I win?

[Solace]

All I have is BFAW3 ... can I win?

On the Excelsior? From my tests, the trait isn't all that useful, the ship benefits more from being a pure beam boat.

[Scarlett]

On the Excelsior? From my tests, the trait isn't all that useful, the ship benefits more from being a pure beam boat.

If that holds water, then you won't need to pay me back

[Rellimie]

On the Excelsior? From my tests, the trait isn't all that useful, the ship benefits more from being a pure beam boat.

Sulu disagrees.

Attachment 10281

[Sul-Matuul]

So to confirm after some testing with the EWM trait from the Gargarin:

1) If you activate TS2/3 then it will load up as normal.
2) You will gain TS for 30s as normal PLUS you will gain a free BFAW1 and/or CSV1 for 10s (duration of the cycle of the boff ability).
3) You cannot use any another weapon ability until the timer on the freebie BFAW/CSV runs down.
4) Once that is done you can activate a boff copy of BFAW/CSV to gain a free stack of TS1.
5) Both the TS2/3 and the TS1 will last as long as their usual 30s timer, so you can fire them in sequence.
6) Be aware that the orignal TS2/3 is already counting down once you activate it, so waiting for the free BFAW/CSV to end to slot up the free TS leaves you only 10s to use the original boff TS. So plan well if you intend to use both spreads for a double-whammy.

There's no way stacking up a 3rd TS1 for free by running both BFAW and CSV to proc the trait would help you as they'd end up overriding the actual higher TS2/3 your boff has because of how the timers run. You couldn't stack the freebie up untilthe end of the 30s potentially, and by then you'd be better off using the actual ability for a higher rank version.