Lootcritter here: Hera offered to provide a kinetic build example after a few conversations about her success with it.  I’ve had requests for build advice, and while i’m happy with what I can do, offering a look at how others reach their goals  gives me an opportunity to learn as well.   In the coming months I will be offering other builds specifically for new players getting into Star Trek Online for the first time. To kick that off, Hera has provided her kinetic build for the blog.

Hera’s Photon and Proton Science Pilot Escort Build

With so many fronts having come and gone along with so many different strategies ideas were constantly being created and discarded.  One such concept was the Icarus class redesign, the NX Maiden….

A bit of RP to start us off – Hello!  I am Hera one of Lootcritter’s fans and a builder of weird ships.  He has been so kind as to accept my offer of a guest post about my latest build – The Photon and Proton Science Pilot Escort!  it should be a fun build for an old hand wanting to try something new or a new player carving their niche.

At the end of this article will be a link to the STO Academy skill builder with the ship details in depth.  It does require several reputations to get the gear – but at least it’s something you can steadily work toward not like the lockbox lottery.

Ship – Icarus Pilot Science Ship (also Jaeih Warbird for Romulan and Klavek Raptor for Klingon)

• Source: Zen Store (Remember you can turn Dil into Zen)
• Tier 6
• Shield Mod: 1.05
• Hull (Lvl 60) 38,800
• Weapons 5 fore / 2 aft
• Consoles: 5 Tac, 2 Eng, 4 Sci
• Stations: Com Tac/Pilot, Lt Tac, Lt Eng/Pilot, Lt Com Sci, Lt Universal
• Turn: 20
• Impulse: .24
• Inertia: 75
• Bonus Power: +10 Weapons and Engines
• Special: Pilot Maneuvers

You can see by looking at the stats she is a solid ship.  But the main reason I was drawn to this ship is the maneuvers and the level 3 science power.  Gravity wells and an easier time keeping things in my forward arc just sounded too delicious.  I’m also using the console from the tactical pilot ship – the Mercury Class Pilot Escort because the 2 set boosts useful stats and a swarm of  microprojectile missiles is just fun.

Weapons

Starting with the forward weapons I have:
 Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo Launcher (Counter Command Reputation Project)
 Terran Task Force Photon Torpedo Launcher (Terran task Force Reputation Project)
 Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo Launcher (Counter Command Rep Box or Rep Store)

 Gravimetric Photon Torpedo Launcher (Dyson Joint Command Reputation Project)
 Experimental Proton Weapon (Dyson Joint Command Reputation Project)

The Proton weapon is one of two weapons with its damage type and I find it exceptionally useful against the monster of the moment STO throws at us – because no one has resistance to its damage type.  Rge beam is also exceptionally good at knocking down shields.  The 4 torpedos cycle nicely with the build and remain on cooldown firing a torpedo every 1-2 seconds.  The net effect is that when you use a torpedo spread it will fire off almost instantly – so make sure to use Tactical Team and other buffs first! 🙂

Romulans have another interesting option – the Disrupting Photon Torpedo from the quest Mind Games.  Sadly it is no longer available to any other faction.

Now in the aft weapons I have:

Vaadwaur Polaron Turret (Vaadwaur Lockbox or exchange)

Bio-Molecular Photon Mine Launcher (Counter Command Rep Box or Rep Store)

The photon mines are boosted by the tactical consoles and an energy less way to add a bit of damage.  Other second weapon options would be a nice disruptor omni-beam or additional Vaadwaur turret.  You see the weapons here aren’t here for the damage they deal as much as the debuffs they provide.  The Vaadwaur turret has a 2.5% chance to make the target’s shields weaker to energy and torpedoes.

Deflector/Engines/Shields

Starfleet Elite Force set (M.A.C.O. – Task Force Omega Reputation Projects)

All three of them are solid items but what I’m after is their set bonus.  At 2 it gives a 5% faster recharge speed on powers.  At 3 they give a Heavy Graviton Beam.  This is boosted by Aux Power and sciency skills stuff and has a bit of a knockback making it a devastating and  fun way to snack enemies around.  In fact many things on this ship happen to boost its exotic damage…

Warp Core

Temporal Phase Overcharged Warp Core (Quest Reward – Butterfly)

The click power boosts Aux energy – a nice bonus!  But its real delight is that when its active your bridge officer skills get a 50% recharge reduction.  and as icing on the cake it will repair disabled Aux if it happens to you.  Upgrade to [AMP] for hard hitting delights.

Item

Delita Alliance Reinforcements (Quest reward Broken Circle)

I wanted to make sure to mention this because its such a potent item and can be readily gotten in game.

Tactical Consoles

Auto Targeting Module [Photon] Dyson Joint Command Rep Box or Rep Store) x5

These give +20% Photon +15% Proton and +2.5% accuracy at MK 12.  The net effect is your forward weapons (and mine) all hit much harder without having to dip into the fleet consoles.  I tried using ones that didn’t boost my proton damage but it didn’t feel as fluid to play – your millage may vary.

An option is to get the Tactical Console from the Surface Tension mission.  It will boost Radiation and Photon damage 26.2% and give you an option of using the reputation turret in your aft weapon slot giving you the 3-piece ability ‘Heavy Bio-Molecular Turret Barrage’.  It damages every foe in 5m, gives them radiation damage and slows them with the incubation effect.  It’s a huge amount of fun but I ended up dropping it because I’m feeling overwhelmed with buttons.  i might pick it up again if I swap out my core with one I wont use the boon of.

Science Consoles

Spatial Sinkhole Generator (Pilot Ship Console)

Micro-projectile Barrage Launcher (Pilot Ship Console)

Proton Particle Stabilizer (Dyson Joint Command Reputation Project)

Temporal Disentanglement Suite (Mission Reward – Butterfly)

The Spatial Sinkhole Generator boosts exotic damage (and we do a lot of that here) and pulls ships together in a sort of small gravity well effect crushing them a bit.  Its mostly here for the fun effect and the nice boosts the 2 piece give you with the pilot consoles.
Micro-projectile Barrage Launcher fires a cone of missiles that auto target with a fast cooldown.  It can be annoying to use when the speed ramps up since triggering it counts as a weapon use and your photons don’t rest but if you hit it a few times the game will realize what you want to do.  But best of all its passive gives mines and torpedoes +25% damage.

With both of the pilot consoles together you also get +10% crit severity, +2.5% accuracy, and 24% reduction in bridge officer skill recharge.

Proton Particle Stabilizer boosts proton weapon damage and as a part of its set adds many tasty boosts.
Only the Temporal console is a real science console the rest can go wherever in sci and engineering.  The TDS gives more aux power, shield capacity, crit and crit severity based on aux levels – and reduces damage to shields by 3%!  It’s not the best console out there but it’s really great in so many areas I love using it.  Also having this console and the warp core happens to boost Tetryon damage in case you have a Tetryon turret with a sweet debuff <.<

Engineering Consoles

Constriction Anchor (Vaadwaur Lockbox or exchange)

Adds 23.7% exotic damage and makes a drone that crushes your enemies.  A fine addition.

Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly (Terran Task Force Reputation)

This exciting console gives -.5 sec shared torpedo recharge time.  It also gives a set bonus with the photon torpedo that adds 13% projectile weapon damage.  The 3 piece requires the use of a disruptor beam – and may be worth slotting it in the aft or reworking the build to a disruptor/photon style.

Bridge Officers

Lt Universal – Engineering

Endothermic Inhibitor Beam 1

Emergency Power to Aux 2

This is just a fill in station with whatever you think you need more of.  I happen to like the Aux boost to gravity well’s range and damage and got the Endothermic ability in Q’s winter wonderland.

 

Commander Tactical/Pilot

Tactical Team 1

Torpedo Spread 3

Focused Assault 3

I don’t often use pilot skills in my builds so there is a lot of fun to be had there.  Id keep the Torpedo Spread and Tactical Teams regardless of what you play with their too vital to the build.  I only have one torpedo spread because the few seconds I was gaining by a level 2 skill didn’t seem worth putting my level 3 skill on longer cooldown.

Lt Tactical;
Tactical Team 1

Beam Overload 2

Having your tactical team up and raring to go is vital for damage builds so I run two copies of it.  Beam overload seems like a better overall boost than having a Tactical Team 2 and the way it makes the Proton beam blast foes is a joy.

 

Lt Engineering/Pilot

Engineering Team 1

Aux Power to Structural Integrity Field 1

I went with Engineering Team instead of Aux to Shields because having 3 aux powers just gets messy and Aux to SIF is a great boon to keeping hulls together.  I may swap back to Aux to Shields 2 eventually but for now it’s working as intended.

 

Lt Commander Science

Science Team 1

Transfer Shield Strength 2

Gravity Well 1

One of the most fun things in this build is the science abilities.  Two shield heals since engineering has two hull heals and Gravity well to hold targets in place and squeeeeeeeze em with sciency hugs!

Captain Skill Notes;

I wanted all of the science skills, even boosted healing, so I ended up with nearly everything in that tree.  Engineering gives some power boosting and skill refresh while tactical gets the lion’s share of my remaining points.  I’m not sure how vital each tac skill is but I tried to build reasonably using the rule of thumb about 9 Points in a skill form the old system.

 

Specialization Notes;

My primary is Intel – maxed out for the flanking bonus and added survivability.

My secondary is Command – the beam and torpedy synergy in it is excellent at low levels.  also you have a bunch of healing and you get more damage when your group is healthy 🙂

Traits

Conservation of Energy (Sci officer Trait)

Kinetic Precision

Particle Manipulator (Science Crafting Trait)

Photonic Capacitor (Sci Officer Trait)

Positive Feedback Loop (Lockbox Genetic Resequencer – Space Trait: Positive Feedback Loop)

Inelastic Collisions (Shield Crafting Trait)

Fleet Coordinator

Innocuous

Operative

Projectile Training

Everyone’s skills are a bit different – these happen to be the ones I have and like using.  Positive Feedback Loop is a fantastic skill that adds +10% exotic damage to your next exotic damage ability (Stacking 3 times) and your exotic damage adds +10% to your next heal (Stacking 3 times).  At worst you get +10% to them.  if you can hit a couple of buttons in a row you get a whopping +30% on that graviton beam or gravity well.  😉

If your serious about exotic damage get the Particle Manipulator trait it adds +crit and crit severity to all exotic abilities.

 

Ship Traits;
Weapon System Synergy (Lifetime sub ship trait)

Every time a directed weapon (turret/beam on this ship) is activated you add a charge for your torpedoes to hit harder.

All Hands on Deck (Command Battlecruiser trait)

Activating a tac/command ability reduces the cooldown on science/captain abilities.

Emitter Synergy (Scryer Intel Ship Trait)

Activating a tac/intel ability gives a bonus to exotic damage and healing.

Improved Command Frequency (Command Skill Tree Ship Trait)

Fleet Support No longer takes low hull to use and its cooldown is 5 minutes.  Not vital but super cool and the ships do impressive damage.

Improved Predictive Algorithms (Intelligence Skill Tree Ship Trait)

Gives stacking bonus accuracy and with there being a bit of crit in bonus accuracy it doesn’t seem too bad.

 

Reputation Traits;

Torpedo Prefire Sequence

Plus torp damage

Advanced Targeting Systems

Plus crit severity.

Precision

Plus critical chance

Auxiliary Power Configuration – Offense (Nukera Strikeforce Rep)

Plus damage and accuracy based on aux power level.

Omega Kinetic Sheering (Omega Taskforce Rep)

Torpedo’s and Mines do an additional 40% of damage to targets hull as a shield penetrating DoT.  Damage dealt over 6 seconds.

 

Doffs

Ch’zilti’la Biochemist (reduces Threat after exotic damage)
Gravametric Scientist (aftershock gravity wells)
Projectile Weapons officers x3 (Reduce Torpedo Cooldowns)

** = Updated tested the Terran Task Force Disruptor in the aft and using the 3 piece secondary torpedo launchers found it to be incredibly punishing.  Especially since these torpedoes seem to be just as buffed up as the original.

 

Just to rough up the console numbers you can get about at MK 14.

+13.3 projectile damage

+80% photon +25.6

+25% torpedo

+74% proton

+13.7% accuracy

+5.5% crit

+10% crit with photons

+30% crit severity

+31.2% exotic damage

Playing casually I’m pulling about 30k DPS 🙂

 

Hera

TFTBA

 

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DPS checked with STO-Nexus combat log reader.  User friendly and easy to use.\
Crystaline Entity Advanced

• 20k
• 24K

Infected: the Conduit Advanced

• 27k
• 31k

Khitomer Vortex Advanced

• 22k
• 17k

Temporal Marauders Queue

• 13k

 

USS Maiden

Pilot job: Science Officer

Intel (Maxed) primary Command (Maxed) secondary

Science skill tree focused 27 points

Ship Traits: all Hands on Deck, Improved Command frequency, Emitter Synergy, Improved Predictive Algorithms, Weapon System Synergy