I have two questions about the Triptych Tactical Control Node

1. Are the summoned ships affected by Target That Explosion Trait)?

2. Cooldown: Can it maintain 100% uptime? Description says "This ability has 2 charges, each charge has a 60 second cooldown, 20 second cooldown between uses." Does Unconventional Systems, Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field, and Harmonic Distribution reduce the reuse timers?

I know the ships themselves do poor damage. But the self-buffs are pretty sweet, and combining them with a few other summons for TTE shenanigans on a hangarless ship sounds like fun.

Always looking for suggestions to improve it. the build basically machine gun fires tons of hy torps. they kill and relocate as things die, making more stuff die. any suggestions appreciated.

I pulled an epic phoenix token tonight and I’m trying to decide what to spend it on…

Pretty much at a crossroads between the Bajoran cruiser for its DOMINO console which to my best knowledge would provide buffs to my energy build ships…if I can find a spot to slot the console…(all my ships are currently x1 and I have two energy build ships)…or the Breen Sarr Theln Carrier which I’d want just because I don’t have a carrier yet and this one looks like it has a huge kind of imposing hull that might be fun to fly…

My research is indicating that the Sarr Theln carrier doesn’t really offer much in terms of what other modern carriers might offer, and ghemore is already on my “buy on sale” list…

So i guess my question is, is DOMINO a desirable enough console to have in the toolbox that it is better than an entire 10year old carrier hull?

Thank you

Hello! I've been tinkering with a dedicated minelayer build for my Vorgon Ytijara Dreadnought Cruiser for a while now, and I'm looking to optimize it as much as possible. There's not much information out there on dedicated minelayer builds, so I'd appreciate any advice, suggestions, or feedback on how to improve it.

Long Night of Solace

Ship: Vorgon Ytijara Dreadnought Cruiser (T6-X2)
Species: Alien
Build: Minelayer/Kinetic
Cooldown Management: Custom Power Matrix + Boimler Effect

Space Skill Tree

• Engineering: 10 points
• Science: 9 points
• Tactical: 27 points

Weapons

Fore (3)

1. Romulan Hyper-Plasma Torpedo Launcher
2. Dark Matter Quantum Torpedo Launcher
3. Advanced Inhibiting Polaron Omni-Directional Beam Array

Aft (5)

1. Bio-Molecular Photon Mine Launcher
2. Thoron Infused Quantum Mine Launcher
3. Black Ops Mine Launcher
4. Advanced Inhibiting Chroniton Mine Launcher
5. Modulating Competitive Mine Launcher

Consoles (13)

Universal (2)

1. Lorca's Custom Fire Control
2. Covert Warhead Module

Engineering (5)

1. Tricobalt Tear Launcher
2. Covert Munitions Deployment Console
3. Custom Power Matrix
4. Ordinance Accelerator
5. Covert Mine Layer Suite

Science (3) Vorgon Expertise Set

1. Subphasic Defense Drone
2. SIF Inverter
3. Harasser Probes

Tactical (3)

1. Swarmer Matrix
2. VAQ Warhead Multiple Launch System
3. Harmonic Yield Distribution via Radial Aperture

Bridge Officer Stations

Lieutenant Commander Universal / Temporal

1. Kemocite-Laced Weapons I
2. Torpedo High Yield II
3. Mines: Dispersal Pattern Beta II

Lieutenant Tac

1. Tactical Team I
2. Attack Pattern Beta I

Lieutenant Commander Science

1. Tractor Beam I
2. Very Cold In Space II
3. Gravity Well I

Ensign Universal

1. Hazard Emitters I

Commander Engineering

1. Emergency Power to Engines I
2. Reverse Shield Polarity I
3. Emergency Power to Auxiliary III
4. Auxiliary Power to the Structural Integrity Field III

Personal Space Traits (10)

1. Fleet Coordinator
2. Intelligent Agent Attaché
3. The Boimler Effect
4. Superior Projectile Training
5. A Good Day to Die
6. Terran Targeting Systems
7. Holographic Mirage Decoy
8. Pike Maneuver
9. Adaptive Offense
10. Resonating Payload Modification
11. Hot Pursuit
12. Enhance and Protect

Starship Traits (7)

1. Subspacial Warheads
2. Ceaseless Momentum
3. Rapid-Emitting Armaments
4. Angle of the Bow
5. Particle Fluctuation Analysis.
6. Relaunch and Repair
7. Universal Designs

Space Reputation Traits (5)

1. Magnified Firepower II
2. Torpedo Pre-Fire Sequence II
3. Tyler's Duality II
4. Precision II
5. Advanced Targeting Systems II

Active Space Duty Officers (6)

Tactical (4)

1. Projectile Weapon Officer (Very Rare)
   • Chance to reduce the time to recharge mines.
2. Projectile Weapon Officer (Very Rare)
   • Chance to reduce the time to recharge mines.
3. Projectile Weapon Officer (Very Rare)
   • Chance to reduce the time to recharge mines.
4. Space Warfare Specialist (Ultra Rare)
   • Chance of outgoing damage applied as healing (Tactical Abilities)

Engineering (2)

1. Fabrication Engineer (Very Rare)
   • Increases the duration of Reverse Shield Polarity
2. Damage Control Engineer (Very Rare)
   • While using Auxiliary to the Structural Integrity Field placate next attacker

Intro

Builds have lost a sense of identity. Before, the game was much more combo dependent - having to combine items in a unique way to get to a desired result. There were tons of cool tech choices that were good on specific builds. Think running a torp for Super Charged Weapons, which encouraged running a beam/torp/combo 3-pc set, which again changed depending on energy type. A2B Technician CDR is another classic interaction which feels far better than the modern solutions.

I keep finding that the current state of the game is among the worst it's ever been. Every high end build these days has been reduced to two objectives:

1. Activate Unconventional Systems as often as possible.
2. Use Universal Consoles as often as possible.
   

This has really collapsed the design space. Before, you had to make a choice as it impacts your build (designing around stats, sets, and passives). Now, the only stat that matters is final DPS. When you only have one metric to judge items by, it naturally results in having certain answers be absolutely correct, and everything else be a mistake.

This leads to what I consider to be a dishonest metagame - every build is reaching for the same thing and pretends to do something else. There is no longer a goal to build towards - any differentiation is largely preference. Individually good items have risen to the top. For example - the Pahvan Omni is practically inescapable. You'll see the Khitomer Shields and Tholian core on high-end as they are the only option in their slot which deal damage. You no longer see builds excel as a result of careful crafting, but instead through raw DPS output.

Twinkling Lights does not help.

I do not enjoy flying modern Uncon Builds - there's so many abilities to keep track of and it's essential that you time your activations perfectly. It's very difficult to get a high parse, or at least have confidence that a parse is actually good. The variability is very high, and it takes too many runs to judge if a change has improved your build.

Build Info

Does anyone remember the Sistruus? I have seen precisely one over the past ~5 years - it's not fully spec, it doesn't have a hangar bay, and it's largely relegated to history.

Fortunately for me, the ship takes vanity shields in a weird way. The Sistruus I saw looked cool enough that I had to get one. Plus, it was the only Xindi ship I was missing, and the console set has a unique interaction with hangar pets. I had the expensive ships, so why not pick one up with no intention to actually fly it?

I fell in love with this ship. It does nothing - no spec, no lance, no hangars, no cloak. It is as pure as you can possibly get.

I fit everything on two hotbars. One of them is dedicated to CPM triggers.

What I love about this ship is that I don't have to think or try. It is very consistent to fly, and the small number of abilities allows me to maintain near perfect focus. Every boff ability is on the spambar. I can look at what I'm doing, not at my cooldowns. It is a revelation.

Let me be perfectly clear - this build is very modern. I would still classify it as dishonest. The difference is that it lies to me. It has tricked me into feeling like I'm flying a build from a decade ago.

This ship is nearly perfect for uncon, with the only flaw being the ensign seating being tac instead of sci. I can hit 20s uptime consoles with just a single vovin usage. Half the consoles can live on the spambar. The only downside is maintaining PFA, and that can be alleviated with the right teammates.

This thing easily puts up 1.3m. That's not a lot these days, but the ship is T6, not T6X. I have the tokens, but it's way more fun than I thought to leave so much on the table and just enjoy the simplicity. I think this can hit 1.4 with a good run, and maybe 1.5 with a perfect one. EDIT: I just got 1.787m with this. New record for me!

I'm also at a relatively low endeavour level (290) so while it helps, I'm not being carried by the maximum bonuses. I'm still very far from maxing the important space stats.

This ship is more fun than anything else I've flown over the past couple years, including the L-Valdore (which is very similar).

Player Information

Skill Tree

Skill Tree Unlocks

Skill Tree Information

I'm nearly happy with this skill tree. This updated was intended to do everything, and it almost gets there. The only notable missing point is Improved EPS Flow - it is likely better to drop improved drainX and take that point instead.

Build Description

Type Your info here

Officers and Crew

Character, Reputation, and Starship Traits

Concluding Remarks

I did not expect a T6 build to do so well. There's trivial improvements on the road to T6X2, but I'm enjoying flying a normal T6 significantly more than I had though I would. Sometimes, less is more.

If you did want to transition this to t6x2, I'd suspect traits which add new sources of damage would be the way to go, such as Hellbore Light. I'm very happy with it where it is, and feel no need to do so.

Where can it be improved? Crit chance. I've looked into the new Sigma Strategem console and while it feels like a perfect fit the cooldown doesn't start until after the ability ends. There's trivial improvements to be had by replacing SROs with Watchers.

If anyone has a list of consoles which a. provide a ton of raw stats, and b. cooldown while active - I'd be very interested in going through it.

As the Sistruus is an easily accessible ship (can be easily purchased by selling <$20 worth of keys) I was looking into converting this into a starter uncon build. That's a hard no - it is eye watering how much this build costs, and how much uncon in general costs. I take way too much which I have access to for granted, as event campaigns and moderate annual spending quickly adds up over the years. If you are a new player, do not try to build this right away. You will be much better served building out the basics.

PS. Fixing up the old formatting was an absolute pain, but I think it adds to this post about looking backwards.

Less about numbers chasing and more to test whether the Micro-Missile Array Lobi weapon with 3 PWO DOFFs can allow me to cycle between 2 Maelstrom torps on a build with Entwined Tactical Matrices. Also wanted to test the new Neotype Omni, though this build is not really the ideal testbed for it.

Inspired by Zylva/Neuropain’s Legendary Bortasqu build over on the STO Builds Discord: https://discord.com/channels/889102180332732436/1553780781262831816/1553780781262831816

Some other terminology definitions before we get to the build:

1. "Krait" refers to the build paradigm of having almost no passive consoles on the build in favour of high-impact active console abilities, of which their uptime and activation frequency are greatly facilitated by the combination of the SFTF Console from the Vovin and the Unconventional Systems personal trait.
2. "Lazy Piloting" in my case means that, if I had to pick between activating abilities/consoles at the right time/target for maximum impact, or simply spamming it whenever it's off cooldown, I almost always choose to spam. "Lazy Piloting" also means that I did not bother with a keybind setup that lets me teleport in place when using the Vovin SFTF console, so I end up jumping all over the place. All this is to say that a far more capable and disciplined pilot flying this same build will get a LOT more performance out of it.

Captain Details

Space Skill Tree

See the attached images for my current generalist skill tree. My rationale for the lack of Engi skill points is that EPS Power Transfer and Nadion Inversion on this toon should have the ship power aspects well covered. Subject to change should I ever get the Spirit of Sacrifice console from the Trafalgar.

Loadout

Officer Details

Traits & Duty Officers

Other Information

DPS Parse Breakdown, sorted by DPS source name

Observations from this specific parse:

• TTF DHC Total DPS = 100k. Compared to 68k DPS total from Breen Imp Dual Cannons.
• TTF DHC Total DPS under CSV = 93k. High overall CSV uptime, suggesting that the Micro Missile with 3 PWO DOFFs were sufficient to keep the ETM chain going with the 2 Maelstrom torps.
• Maelstrom Torps Total DPS = 205k. Double that of the TTF DHC, and 14% of overall DPS output here before including Kemocite.
• Dilithium Transporter & Hellbore Light DPS quite a bit a lot lower compared to full CSV/FAW build.
• Hexa Cannons post-nerf is still generally stronger than a TTF DHC.
• Neotype Cryonic Subspace Rift Total DPS = 38k DPS. Strong, but still distant second to Pahvan’s Resonance Shock (105k DPS). But that is likely affected by the Omni only being on FAW half the time.
• Total Kinetic/Torp related DPS = 335k. 23% of total DPS output.
• Micro Missile Array only contributed 10k DPS total, but it did fulfill its purpose as a PWO DOFF trigger.

Appendix

• Raw combatlog can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LNdDpVyX7oKD8zNfgO-02HhZNeXWBKuO/view?usp=drive_link

Hi everyone,

Recently, I've picked up the Shrike for my Romulan toon and have been trying to put together a serviceable DEWSci build for it but I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to making a cohesive build.

Up until now I was running cannons but have just picked up the aux scaling disruptor dual beam banks from the new story mission (hence CSV3 is still on the build).

I'm unsure between FAW, SS or going back to CSV for this sort of build. Cannons have always felt a bit off to me, not sure why.

What recommendations for build upgrades or replacements do you have? I still haven't picked a ship from this event campaign yet and am sitting with a bunch of Lobi as well.

Thanks for the help.

P.S. I've got no idea about Doffs some I'm currently not actually running any.

IKS Coldstar K'Vort AuxDEW

Build Info

The intent of this build was v2 of a build focusing on the new Temporal Disruptor mission reward weapons. These are an (improved) version of the old Aux weapons from the Besta line (and cross faction friends). It's worth noting for fans of twinkling lights the Vesta Aux Phasers can NOT be used on the K'Vort.

Player Information

Skill Tree

Skill Tree Unlocks

Skill Tree Information

Generalists tree. I literally do almost every possible type of build with this dude

Build Description

(Aux) DEW. Damage primary build. I am probably over-doing the heals and survivability. It's a clicky heavy but not UNCON or Krait build. Compared to the Vorago Solitude from a couple days ago, I pulled EPTW and Twinkling lights off, using five magicks and heavy into disruptors.

Officers and Crew

Character, Reputation, and Starship Traits

Other Information

Concluding Remarks

Also have Eldar Malik'itan on Ground Doff; Link to my list of ships: https://www.reddit.com/user/originalbucky33/comments/1x6nxkr/comment/pgwv8fh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button ; Not certain if I need to switch in Withering barrage or keep what I have. If I T-6X it, then that's an easy add.

This is my current build and layout. I seem to be doing little damage with my DBB's

Ive been using the competitive rep meta engines on all my builds thus far. I understand having the speed boost buffs for larger ships with poor turn rates, but Im having a problem with my Terran Adamant.

I have various bridge officer abilities set to go off whenever possible, which triggers the speed turn rate buff. This makes lining up my shots for cannon weapons much more difficult.

What engines give me the best turn rate without random buffs that shoot me past my targets?

This is our latest installment of our series using math and analytical methods to dive into the underpinnings of STO and no witty title this time. We’ll save our jokes and references for the body of the post here. Today, we’re talking about Aetherian Beam Enhancements.

This is a personal trait from the Aetherian Concordium Lockbox and this is what the tooltip says:

Now you might be thinking, why would you devote an entire article to this trait. Of all the traits, in all the lockboxes, in all the game, why walk into this one, aside from an excuse to make Casablanca references?

Well, as it turns out, the trait doesn’t do what it says on the label and if you’ve been playing STO for long enough I’m sure you’re SHOCKED, SHOCKED to find out that the tooltip is incorrect. 

Tilor being Tilor, the trait was cheap on the exchange and he was curious if it was 15% Cat1 or 15% Cat2 damage. Doing some Doomsday, checking the first few stacks seemed pretty unassuming, acting like it was Cat2. Neat. Checking back at 15 stacks, for some reason, the tooltip damage was over double what it was at 0 stacks. Quite a bit of testing later, and Tilor figured out it scales non-linearly, an unusual property in STO. Today, we found a hidden gem.  Here’s looking at you, Mr. Tilor.

The tooltip is misleading on a few fronts:

1. Despite the name, this is not specifically a beam trait. It applies to all energy damage sources, but more on that later. 
2. The tooltip is a little ambiguous as to whether it is Cat1 or Cat2. Tilor found it is Cat2 energy damage. 
3. The stack maximum, capped at 15, which with a pretty slow ramp-up time once every 2 seconds of doing energy damage, is okay but not great if that’s what it did. It doesn’t.

Based on how stuff in this game usually works, you’d expect that each stack is 1% Cat2 energy damage, ramping up to 15% at max stacks after 30 seconds of combat. So, what does it actually do? The stacks are not all the same size. Each stack adds 1% to the previous increase, meaning this scales like the sequences of Triangular numbers. Here’s the equation:

Cat2 = (N (N-1))/2 

Okay, but play it again, Sam, and use smaller words, maybe a picture or two.

The first stack is 1% bonus energy damage. The second stack adds +2% bonus energy damage for a total of 3%. The third stack adds 3% for a total of 6% bonus energy damage, and so on and so forth until at 15 stacks you’re adding at 105% Cat2. And here’s a visualization of that:

Now wait, you protest. There’s a ramp-up time and a lockout! Don’t try to wow me with numbers on a ramping trait that locks out! What is the average Cat2 bonus, including the duration with the 30s ramp, and 15 second lockout? 

The answer is 25% Cat2, and let’s not forget that’s handily more than traits like Fireball Escape (20% CrtD) or Terran Targeting Systems (15% CrtD) which are inferior even at 100% CrtH, and there are no maluses or complicated hoops to jump through for this one. 

Ah, and wait, there’s more. 

Remember how that’s Cat2 energy damage it adds? As it turns out, some of the more popular console actives, experimental weapons, and traits that directly deal damage also scale off of energy damage. Here’s a little table for you as we round up the usual suspects for testing:

For example, this is what Spore-Infused Anomalies looks like with and without the trait stacked:

Here’s Bio-Electrical Wave before stacking the trait:

And after:

One more example: Hellbore Light:

Okay, but let’s say you think that the math problems of three little engineers don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy game. You want real-world numbers, parsed numbers, none of this theoretical stuff. Normally, I’d discount those as the ravings of someone so edgy they can cut the lawn by looking at it, but I think in this case it’s worth showing some actual numbers using a heavily-modified (read: not-posted) version of my FAW Legendary Avenger. All DPS numbers in thousands, i.e. 619 is 619K.

I also hit a new solo ISE record on this ship, and all I did was swap out the trait, going from 850K to 1031K. 

The proton release proc itself is not worth much, maybe 5K (or much, much less), but the stacking energy weapon damage is definitely noticeable when we’re talking about this much of a damage increase. 

Again, there are no hoops to jump through and the trait is nice and straightforward, so if you’re using an energy build, or even something that does a little energy damage but also is leaning into Spore-Infused Anomalies and Bio-Electric Wave Capacitor, check out Aetherian Beam Enhancements. After all’s said and done, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful synergy where both exotic and energy builds and everything in between can benefit. 

One more thing: we’re giving away a copy of Aetherian Beam Enhancements. The first person to identify all the Casablanca references gets it! We have no idea if this functionality is working as intended or if it’ll get nerfed, but whatever the case, we’ll always have parses to show the power of this trait.

Hey there, I'm returning to the game after a long absence (I had plasmonic leech + 2xA2B slotted on a T5-X Fleet Assault Cruiser Refit) and have picked up some of the more accessible meta stuff along with getting lucky with my Icons pulls. Looking to get some feedback on where to go from here? I sure my piloting still needs work but I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something obvious. Here's my parse summary from ISE

OSCR (DPS) | Infected Space | Elite | 01:47 | @TheDitchKing - 958,762 | @Relk - 717,449 | @chairmanrob - 467,400 | @stevenmccary#3122 - 447,020 | @Duke_ster - 172,302

U.S.S. RODINA

Ship: Obena Miracle Worker Heavy Cruiser (T6-X2)
Captain: Esray
Species: Joined Trill
Build: Phaser Beam: Fire at Will III / Miracle Worker Broadside
Cooldown Management: Photonic Officer I + Auxiliary to Battery I + Boimler Effect

Space Skill Tree

• Engineering: 11 points
• Science: 13 points
• Tactical: 22 points

Weapons

Fore (4)

1. Radiolytic Phaser Beam Array
2. Terran Task Force Phaser Beam Array
3. Unverified
4. Unverified

Aft (4)

1. Neotype Cryonic Omni-Directional Beam Array
2. Omni-Directional Inhibiting Phaser Beam Array
3. Obliviating Phaser Beam Array
4. Advanced Inhibiting Polaron Heavy Turret

Consoles (14)

Universal (3)

1. Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser]
2. Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser]
3. Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser]

Engineering (5)

1. Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser]
2. Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser]
3. Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser]
4. Custom Power Matrix (CPM)
5. Krenim Chronophage

Science (2)

1. AES
2. Flagship Tactical Computer

Tactical (4)

1. Broadside Emitter Arrays
2. DOMINO
3. Experimental Power Redirection (EPR)
4. FPNA

Bridge Officer Stations

Commander Science / Command

1. Jam Sensors I
2. Photonic Officer I
3. Scramble Sensors II

Commander Engineering / Miracle Worker

1. Null Pointer
2. Narrow Sensor Bands II
3. Emergency Power to Weapons III
4. Mixed Armaments Synergy III

Lieutenant Commander Tactical

1. Kemocite-Laced Weaponry I
2. Attack Pattern Beta I
3. Beam: Fire at Will III

Lieutenant Engineering

1. Emergency Power to Engines I
2. Auxiliary to Battery I

Ensign Science

1. Tractor Beam I

Personal Space Traits (10)

1. Good Day to Die
2. Boimler Effect
3. Fleet Coordinator
4. Breen Shield Tunneling
5. Symbiotic Ice
6. Intelligence Agent Attaché
7. Twinkling Lights
8. Unconventional Systems
9. Adaptive Offense
10. Context Is for Kings

Starship Traits (7)

1. Breen's Free-Fire
2. Broadside Beam Support
3. Calculated Broadside
4. Cold-Hearted
5. Emergency Weapon Cycle
6. Cultural Conquest
7. Universal Designs

Space Reputation Traits (5)

1. Advanced Targeting Systems I
2. Energy Refrequencer I
3. Tyler's Duality II
4. Controlled Countermeasures I
5. Precision II

Active Space Duty Officers (6)

Tactical (3)

1. Energy Weapons Officer (Rare)
   • Chance for stacking Critical Severity when firing energy weapons.
2. Energy Weapons Officer (Rare)
   • Chance for stacking Critical Chance when firing energy weapons.
3. Emergency Conn Hologram (Very Rare)
   • Recharges Evasive Maneuvers when Emergency Power to Engines is activated.

Engineering (2)

1. Technician (Very Rare)
   • Reduces bridge officer ability recharge times after activating Auxiliary to Battery.
2. Technician (Very Rare)
   • Reduces bridge officer ability recharge times after activating Auxiliary to Battery.

Operations (1)

1. Quartermaster (Rare)
   • Reduces recharge time on batteries.

Hey yall! I am flying an Excelsior II with a FAW Broadside phaser build. I'm using the colony consoles and isomags, as well as most of the meta broadside traits (kerala trait etc) with ETM as the firing mode extender. I was wondering if it was worth slotting a turret for another trigger for MAS or if I should stick with 6 beams, 1 omni and 1 torp. Thanks!

Quick question. What is more powerful under torpedo high yield 3? The maelstrom quantum, or the enhanced biomolecular? How about the maelstrom under spread 3?

The ship bundles are on sale and I am eyeing the cardassian ship bundle mostly for the ghemor but I see the bundle comes with an additional t5 ship with the 4 free beam arrays that would save hella dil…

If I really only want the gehmore to unlock spiral waves and its trait/console is this bundle a better value than say waiting until ghemore is individually on sale?

Thank you

In a recent parse, I saw that another player had some pretty impressive damage on an item called "Critical Puncture". What is this--a trait, a console, etc.? I can't seem to find a thing about it online.

That I purchased from the Zen store as that's the only way to get them as far as I'm aware

Hey all - I’ve tried scouring Reddit and searching on Google but no luck. Is there a way I can get BOFFs with SRO as a Fed? I read that it’s only a blue tactical in the Fleet Embassy but I see on STOBetter, there’s build with engineering and science BOFFs with SRO as a fed?

In science mode. Because of 12s base recharge of Proton torpedo (10 with CPM), I use Micro-Missile Array with PWO recharge doff to fire it often enough for ETM. Resonance Shock, Proton Eruptor and Dismissed all scale very well with +Proton buffs, and the two latter are also affected by Particle Manipulator. I had Protonic Snare equipped and it performed nicely in a solo ISE, though its use case is situational. DetSecDef is well worth it with DRB alone. Particle Conversion Matrix gives +100% energy and exotic damage. The Auto Targeting Modules (tac consoles) have [Beams] modifier, so each provides 17,5% beam and 19,7% proton damage. Pahvan console provides 69,8% proton damage.
On my Dyson theme character, for solo and random elite content.

Okay peeps, like the title says, I have gathered enough resources to migrate from AP to Phasers.

Seems like a simple thing but I can't decide which one or ones are the best given the MANY types of phasers available. Good thing is that I don't care much about Barbie so I can mix different visuals with no issues.

Not only that but I'm having trouble finding the best console replacements, and yeah, I have looked the usual places for that info but still can't make up my mind so I thought it'd be best to ask. I would love to replace them 1-to-1 (damagewise) but I'm affraid that won't be possible so I'm looking for the closest replacements possible.

Last but not least, I'm going to replace the AP isomags with their PHA versions as I have ZERO intention of going Uncon. Also, I'm happy with BO instead of FAW.

Guess that's it. Looking forward to read about your opinions. Thanks!

Welcome to part 2 of our deep dive into active consoles, their cooldown mechanics, and a comparison against more active setups. 

If you missed part 1, we covered the definition of an active versus passive console, the various mechanics that lower their cooldowns, and a comparison of a wide range of active-versus-passive consoles across various levels of clickies and budget tiers on energy builds, as well as pros and cons. Unless you’re already familiar with these concepts, please consider that required reading. 

In part 2, we’re going to look at the impacts of active consoles apply to exotic builds. As a reminder, that means we're focused on damage sources that scale with Exotic Particle Generators. You know, space magic.

Once again, we’ll be using both parsed data and TRINITY to model the impacts of this.  Solo ISA and the Trouble Over Terrh Elite patrol are the test maps, just like in Part 1. The build will all be iterations on my EPG Dranuur because it’s my highest parsing exotic build and can easily swap between passive and more active setups. We’ll use several different budget tiers to try and find those breakeven points. 

Testing

It’s readily apparent that a viable exotic build simply can’t skip active consoles in their entirety. In all scenarios, I’m going to still use the same bridge officer layout and the Unconventional Systems trait, but vary up the amount of other cooldown mechanics and actives. 

• Premium Passive-ish) - this will include 2 Restorative Particle Focusers [EPG] [CtrlX], 2 Exotic Particle Amplifiers [EPG], Delphic Tear Generator, You Are Dismissed, Genesis Seed, Krenim Chronophage, Constriction Anchor, Fek’Ihri Torment Engine, Micro Dark Matter Anomaly, and we’ll use the Immolating Phaser Lance to help maintain Universal Designs. 
• Midrange Active - we’ll replace Immolating Phaser Lance and Universal Designs with Gemini Device and Exotic Modulation. We’ll also swap out Scientific Bulwark for Strike From Shadows to reduce costs. 
• Premium Active - Compared to the passive premium setup, we will load the ship heavily with console actives, as well as slot Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field with 2 procs. The Reslab consoles, Constriction Anchor, Phaser Lance, and one Amplifier are replaced by Bio-Electric Wave Capacitor, Dragonsblood Flame Reactor, Plasma Storm Module, Gemini Device, and Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field. This is my current loadout.
• Premium extra-active with To Hell With Our Orders (THWOO) - the same loadout as premium active but displace Spore-Infused Anomalies for To Hell With Our Orders (5 triggers).

Results

Let’s look at what this tells us:

• The disparity between more passive and more active builds is even more stark on an EPG build than energy build, where you essentially give up too many sources of damage in exchange for buffing the ones you already have. I’m running six anomalies (Gravity Well, Timeline Collapse, Tyken’s Rift, Chronometric Inversion Field, Very Cold in Space, Subspace Vortex), I have only 3 uncon triggers (GW, CIF, TC), and 3 secondary deflector triggers (Destabilizing Resonance Beam, Structural Analysis, and Timeline Collapse), and I have By the Book to extend my boff abilities and if you look at the actual parses, you get these results on the passive build for the top 10 damage sources:
  • Total DPS: 364K ISA
  • You Are Dismissed: 36.2K
  • Deteriorating Secondary Deflector: 34.6K
  • Chronophage: 24.7K
  • Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo: 23.9K
  • Gravity Well III: 23.5K
  • Micro Dark Matter Anomaly: 20.3K
  • Gravimetric Photon Torpedo: 20.3K
  • Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity: 19.6K
  • Genesis Seed: 18.2K
  • Spore-Infused Anomalies: 16.3K
  • This is why active consoles are so build-warping. I’m not really building around them, all my Uncon triggers are things I would run anyway for other purposes, and they’re still providing that much of my build power. The active consoles I’ve chosen simply outscale the passive benefits of having more EPG. It ends up that 1/3rd of my damage comes from 6 consoles (You Are Dismissed, Chronophage, Genesis Seed, Proton Eruptor, Delphic Tear, Micro Dark Matter Anomaly), most of which also have some kind of passive benefit to the build, and again, I’m not really building around their cooldown as hard as I could. This 1/3rd statline from console actives held true on TOTE also. 
• Just like with energy builds, a more passive scheme, while also being more expensive, does not come out ahead compared to slotting more efficient actives. Gemini Device does decent damage and has good passive stats. Phaser Lance on this build does okay damage and doesn’t bring useful stats. Even adding Scientific Bulwark and Universal Designs was less important than adding better actives, since the Midrange active build and the Passive Premium build were about the same power. 
• Note how much power is lost when I drop Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field and three more powerful actives. That’s a huge fall-off, folks. Even losing two powerful traits in Universal Designs and Scientific Bulwark didn't hurt me too much, but Strike From Shadows and Exotic Modulation are decent enough substitutes.
• We’re still solidly Elite-capable (100K) and even on a midrange budget, we could get up to 300K (Elite-carrying), proving once again that EPG is one of the easier ways to get a good Elite-capable build, even if most of you won’t be swayed away from DEW builds. 
• At the high end, I did not notice appreciable power increases from going to even more console cooldown reduction with SFTF, To Hell With Our Orders, and Uncon. While I had marginally higher performance, I’d chalk that up to piloting variance rather than an appreciable build difference. We’ll cross-check this against TRINITY, but Spore-Infused Anomalies, while not a huge part of the damage cross-section, is doing enough work, especially with cleaning up errant targets, that I’m not convinced dropping it is a net benefit. All DPS builds tend to benefit from a starship trait that boils down to “Doing a thing you were already going to do deals additional X damage” For beam builds, that could be Broadside Beam Support, Complex Plasma Fires for plasma builds, for kinetic builds it’s Subspatial Warheads and Advanced Precision Guided Munitions. Target That Explosion can be worked in there under the right conditions. It’s the same opportunity cost as consoles, where having a trait that deals decent damage is more important than better stat-sticks.

Here’s what TRINITY shows for our four setups with a link to the spreadsheet. 

Here’s what it looks like graphed, and remember that TRINITY’s raw DPS numbers, which are highly artificial, are less important than comparing them against each other. 

This is pretty well in-line with our results from ISA/TOTE. TRINITY favors the passive build a little more than the Midrange active build, but again notice the jump in power by slotting higher-end clickies and Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field. There’s not too much to comment here, because it’s largely the same conclusions we’d draw from the parses - except that TRINITY, when used correctly, is valuable to help analyze build performance as a comparative tool. 

FAQ

Are you saying that we all have to build with uncon all the time on EPG builds? You used it in all of your scenarios.

This I think requires a little more nuance than with energy builds, where you can fill up on Isomags which strongly benefit beams and cannons. In contrast, some of the strongest passive Exotic consoles are either Exotic Particle Field Exciter [EPG], which is expensive and rare, or Exotic Particle Amplifier [EPG], which grants its strongest bonus damage buff to non-boff abilities, including console actives, so . . . while yes there are some EPG-scaling weapon effects and the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector, you’re going to get more bang-for-your-buck from slotting universal consoles with good actives, and you can get at least 4 of them cheap from the Exchange: You Are Dismissed, Krenim Chronophage, Delphic Tear Generator, and Micro Dark Matter Anomaly. 

You’re also probably slotting at least a couple of control powers like Gravity Well and a specialization power, maybe with a Tractor Beam in there too, so might as well if you can afford it. That doesn’t mean you need to run Unconventional Systems necessarily; Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field and/or To Hell With Our Orders can substitute, but I find that 2 of out those 3 mechanics is a sweet spot for exotic builds. 

If we reframe the question to ask if it’s better to build around more active consoles and their cooldowns on an Exotic build compared to stuffing more EPG on the build, the answer is categorically yes. 

Does this mean that the 4 “leans” or pillars you wrote of years ago for exotic builds are dead?

When I wrote that in 2020, the game was in a very different state. Genesis Seed didn’t even exist yet. Neither did Chronophage, Micro Dark Matter Anomaly, You Are Dismissed, Gemini Device, Ionic Deflector Inversion, Bio-Electric Wave, Proton Eruptor Module, Dragonsblood Flame Reactor, and even Exotic Particle Amplifiers. We had Delphic Tear and Plasma Storm as some of our highest-end consoles. 

Since then, yes, the Exotic Particle Amplifiers and Fek’Ihri Torment Engine have helped the other three focus areas to a some extent (Secondary Deflector, Entwined Tactical Matrices-based torps, and Spore-Infused Anomalies), but there has been tremendous power creep in consoles and especially console actives over the last six years, to the point where consoles dominate build theory, especially in the exotic space.

Will active consoles continue to dominate the meta?

Who’s to say? It’s a tough spot for the systems design team because consoles help sell ships and that makes $, but now they basically have power-crept the game in a way that means ships are heavily-evaluated based on how much Uncon they can slot, which limits options for future ships based on perceived desirability. It’s a good place for wealthy and/or invested players who can buy all the shinies and get dopamine hits from clicking all their buttons. It’s less ideal for more casual players who don’t want to juggle a bunch of actives or afford a bunch of ships, but as shown above, I still was able to do 300K with only 5 clickies that matter, and most of them were cheap.

It’s not like the other approaches have lost power, but they are definitely behind what active consoles provide, and more of an Exotic build’s power is tied to consoles, since they have better buttons (that scale off the stats they’ve acquired), and worse passive options, and they probably have the seating to spare for control powers that fit naturally with their build anyway. 

Will you be putting console cooldown mechanics on all your exotic builds now?

I already do. The synergy between Unconventional Systems and a ship with Temporal, Intel, or Pilot seating that already wants to slot Gravity Well is just too good to pass up. 

Is this all on this series?

Probably for now unless you all can persuade Tilor to write-up something about Spirit of Sacrifice, which he has and I don’t. 

TL;DR

• Active console builds (“clickies”) have a higher ceiling than even more expensive passive builds. 
• The nature of Exotic builds having less constraints on bridge officer seating, more natural synergy with control powers scaling off of EPG, and worse passive console options means they are more heavily impacted by active consoles and their cooldown mechanics. Other exotic damage sources like Spore-Infused Anomalies, Deteriorating Secondary Deflector, or Gravimetric/Particle Emission Plasma Torpedoes are now more properly considered the side dish rather than the entree with how much power creep has occurred in console actives. 
• 300K DPS remains the ‘beat-the-game” level of DPS unless you’re trying to solo Elite space TFOs and is achievable with active schemes as well as some with a little uncon and some of the cheaper active consoles for exotic builds. 
• I’m not sure how well it’d work to skip active consoles or their cooldowns entirely on a science ship, but it’d be inefficient given that four of the better exotic clickies (Chronophage, Micro Dark Matter Anomaly, Delphic Tear, You Are Dismissed) are cheap on the Exchange. But hey, at the end of the day, it's a game, and if building a certain way works for you and you're having fun with it, I'm not here to tell you that you have to change your playstyle, and that's a pretty good of place to end this writeup.

Vorago Solitude Scryer AuxDEWSci

Build Info

The intent of this build was to try out a build focusing on the new Temporal Disruptor mission reward weapons. These are an (improved) version of the old Aux weapons from the Besta line (and cross faction friends). I'm trying to go roughly 50/50 (Aux)DEW/Sci, you will note there are no torps on the build. I'm using the scryer to mix and match weapon types, with hopefully enough intel power boosts to give both weapon and sci power. Looking for feedback and discussion, not certain anyone else has published one of these. Thanks for the look, it's been a while!

Player Information

Skill Tree

Skill Tree Unlocks

Skill Tree Information

Generalists tree. I literally do almost every possible type of build with this dude

Build Description

(Aux) DEW/Sci. Shooting 50/50. Trying to keep a mix of active and passive clickies, DEW and SCI abilities. Twinkling lights. Goal is a relatively mobile forward facing build. Kept TTF Dual Cannons and Pahvan as Weapons Power draining. Rest are aux weapons. Using Surgical Strikes as primary to accommodate the weapon mix; I don't have the extender yet so Beam Overload 1 (with Kish) as my off-time weapon enhancement. I'm not chasing entropy for my BOFFs or hangar pets on this build. Have questions about hangar pet/entropy/TempDis weapon interactions. Note: Ctrl runs 195; EPG 332

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Officers and Crew

Character, Reputation, and Starship Traits

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Concluding Remarks

Also have Eldar Malik'itan on Ground Doff. Sorry mods if it doubles, I tried posting it again without the youtube link.