[Edarta]

'Twas before Christmas, I was looking for a true science vessel for my Romulan. Edar'Ta was my only science captain that time. The Intrepid Packet came to the shop. Yay, that's her new ship! So I thought. To my disappointment, Federation shares only their lower Tier ships with their trusted allies.


Priss of Vulcan was born, Edar'Ta continued her R&D projects and I levelled the aspiring vulcan lady like I was mad. T'Pol's dress was a must. Starting with a Breen set the USS EINSTEIN did reasonable damage, excellent support (crowd/movement control) and thanks to it's Mastery traits unexpected toughness. At the Khitomer Vortex she always posed as Gandalf's lost daughter, hailing the Borg Probes "YOU CAN NOT PASS"

Now she has the pleasure to command the USS GIPSY QUEEN:

I have these very rare Duty Officers active:

• "Law" from Nimbus - 25% to reduce torpedo cool down
  
• Amsoti from Xindi Box - 25% that your gravity well disables engines
  
• A Deflector Officer - 25% to reduce deflector cooldowns to 50%
  These guys are drunk on duty. I learned the hard way: if you employ more than one, a second proc can actually set your GW CD from, say 12 seconds back to 30.
  
• A Sensor Officer - Sensor Scan reduces target's damage
  
• A Gravimetry Scientist - 25% to create an additional Gravity Well after 12 second, 20% for another one... up to 4 Extra Black Holes!
  Unfortunately, you must not put more than one on duty. So the Universe allows you to shoot your foot with 3 Deflector guys but it does not permit you to complete your "Twelve Black Holes To Bind Them, Twelve Black Holes To Rule Them All" master plan.
  
• Number Six joined the space duty crew:
  A Warp Core Engineer - 20% to add 25 to all power settings when an EPt(S, W, ...) is used.
  

[noybman]

I like GW for PvE only, but I found that the CD for it cant be stacked, so the frequency of calling it is still at least 20 seconds. what is your average cd?

[Edarta]

As I do not PVP - I love my GW anyway. I get a minute/30 seconds, if the DOff kicks in.

[Edarta]

As my main Tactical Ship runs so well, I put some more time into my Science Vulcan.


Changes:

• Out: Aegis Shield
  In: MACO Resilient Shield Array (Damage Reduction, Energy gain)
  
• Out: Neutronium Alloy and shift in Aero Shuttle Bay from Science to Engineering slot
  In: Field Generator
  
• Out: Shield Emitter Amplifier
  In: Hull Healing Weapon Signature Nullifier[+Grav]
  
• In: 6th Duty Officer assigned to Space
  

Results:
Less outbreaks from the grip of my Gravity Well - more damage
Some more selfhealing needed - that's what Science is infamous for, so DO IT

Fails:
Overwrote my Vastan build at STO Academy

[Edarta]

As Priss' long lost cousin Catriona is just better at hitting critically I rochaded the complete weapen load out between the two ladies. Priss also got some steaks served raw and poked some Undines in the eyes after that ordeal at the lunch table.


Result was a new build and new looks

[scissorlizard]

I'm confused by your equipment selection and abilities. It just looks like you grabbed things that make sense by themselves (Romulan 2-piece to boost your weapons, LRSV set and Gel Pack to boost shields, Counter Command 4pc... because Science?, and of course the Leech) but without an overall strategy. Based on your BOFF ability selection, are you trying to be a healer?

Can you post your skill-point distribution, and tell us a bit about your play style?

[Edarta]

I added the skill distribution to the ship build Skill picks were mostly ruled by being able to teach BOffs of anything scientific and catch all/miss nothing.

I fiddled my DoFFs to get a cool EPtS/W, and chipped in the Tachyon Beam.

Undine set decision was excatly that it looks very sience supporty

My main style on this ship was picking a friendly maverick role: hold and survive a side of the Khitomer vortex solo while players on the other side kill their gateways. That is herd anything that comes using my gravity well (the more the better), tractor beam as emergency. Smite some nano feeders, survive the borg cube and sphere & finally deal with them. And still take the probes out. Survive and hold the Sphere/Probe collection that appears until reinforcements arrive. For a time even touchy Donatra could not escape Priss' GW (in a weaker ship) and fly away cloaked - till something was changed or I started to botch timing.
When the damage dealers arrive: Gravity well(s) to collect the scum bags and they explode all neatly huddled together.

I am not doing much with Priss, since the Tacticians are so much fun - but will certaily return to her. So she got the fleet ship

I love the grav theme with hurting (180+ on PrtG/Grav) and keep it. For the Undine set I worked hard and keep it. Anything else: teach me, I try it - I grabbed indeed things/sets that just looked making sense. At that moment.

[scissorlizard]

Firstly, you can keep the Undine set


Secondly, I'm going to recommend that you buy a re-spec token, BUT DO NOT SPEND IT UNTIL YOU ARE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. I made that mistake once; learn from my failure. For research, use Google and read the subreddit /r/STOBuilds to avoid making costly mistakes. Here is a very relevant example of the cool things in /r/STOBuilds:

This Pathfinder build does 35K DPS, slightly favoring exotic damage over "normal" firepower Notice that the pilot's skill tree + consoles comes to 236 points in the Particle Generators skill, and at least 200 Flow Caps.

As a science captain in a science ship, there's a few skill areas to pay attention to:

• Particle Generators - how science ships do damage.
  
• Flow Capacitors - Drains and Leech
  
• Graviton Generators - Gravity Well III. 'Nuff said.
  

Always keep max points in Flow Caps. You have the almighty leech, and Flow Caps points are cheap.

I need to step away from the Internet for a bit, but I have more to add here.

[Edarta]

I put a look into to the reddit build, some yesses and a muhaha


The yesyesses
As life-timer Priss collected 12 respec tokens during levelling - so that is not an issue. The Aero Shuttle, my beloved Duckling, will get a good-bye-kiss as some Scientific Fleet consolrs want a new home.

The muhaha
Apparently one of the must challenged console in fleet chat is the Gel Pack. Many see the shield bonus and turn away from it. A dps nono? See the humble 7% cool down reduction of all bridge officer capabillities. Looking it the reddit build - 2 Duty Officers go into Deflector Ability CD reduction, and the fleet deflector reduces Sience BOff ability CDs by 10%. BOff CD reduction is a re-occuring theme. On the reddit tactical science build, on the draconian builds, on aux2bat. Sticking to the Undine set, I still gain 3% less CD reduction on my Science BOffs and gain 7% extra CD reduction on Tactics and Engineering. I keep it

Many things must get got and tried

[Edarta]

Nothing posted yet as I am now transitioning. I revamped my skills a bit, plugged in two [Flow] Plasma Weapon Signature Nullifiers (Grav and Shuttle went to the bank) and rebuilt the science crew. I run a slightly reduced Drake as two Damage Controll DOffs are replaced by a 2nd Deflector Doff and Gara Mal the saur. While learning to handle the ship and with single Beam Banks in front the ship jumped forward about 30% in damage. I plan ARC beams in the back seats and Double Beam banks.

[scissorlizard]

One thing we found when looking over the Pathfinder build (linked above) is that the latest consoles and secondary deflectors allow science ships to get over 200 points in two science skills!

[Edarta]

Values:
195 Flow Capacitors result in a drain of 3 by the Plasmonic Leech, feeding weapons and reducing opponents overall performance.
Particle Generators are 200, making Gravity Wells and others damage beasts.
Graviton Generators are 145 and I shall not sacrifice any single point before seeing a table They raise the grip, push and pull of many things: Grav Wells do more damage to foes nearby and run-aways are pulled back into the deadly hug of the well visibly more effective. The Tractor Repulsor Beam under field test drags/pushes bigger beasts - my tiny ship actualy drags capital ships along and dances with borg spheres. The Tractor beam (not slotted currently but tested beore) immobilized greatly since I got beyond 100 (was 130+ but the current behavior looks fine).
Shield Systems 131, Shield Emitters 94, Power Insulators 104, Inertia Dampeners 104 - don't hurt me, drain me, drag me, squeeze me! It' bad to be dead when there is a crowd control and take down job to be done.

BOff abilities - damn twisted setup^^

[Edarta]

I am used to play self-repair-as-mad. Now I tip my hat to the reddit build that shines on resistance-is-great!


I didn't even imagine that energy levels can rise up to 150+. Now I saw it. :eek:

I use the Destabilizing Resonance Beam rather than the Tractor Repulsor Beam: The TRB requires careful use to avoid pushing/pulling opponents out of gravity wells or out of firing ranges/arcs of other players. The DOff setup differs accordingly and rather than refitting the TRB, I carry on with spawning extra Gravity Wells.

So she's built. (can't document skills just now during server mainenance)

The Undine set suits me fine. I will get another Romulan Tactician, the fleet/adapted maco setup is for another experiment. As the ship gives the finger to the Masters Of Drain, also known as Borg, I want to fly in space NOW and adapt from broadsiding to directional fire

THANKS FOR THE POINTERS TO
ALL THIS NEW AND EXCITING
WAYS OF SCIENCE IN SPACE!*

* I need an animated rainbow as text color option!

[Edarta]

I played some more STFs: The OSS1 subsystem shutdown needs taken care of. I switched from Undine set to the reddit build and also changed my spam tray to get the ship resistance abilities really used.