>
>Or you can ask here!

I got the impression he was asking about discussion re: how the mechanics work rather than what build is best, but I could be wrong.

>
>I'm actually considering the HEC for the Tac captain I'm levelling at
>the moment - it's a toss-up between that and the Avenger. Or maybe
>both!

The Avenger is a pretty awesome bit of kit, but I think what type of captain you're running has little bearing these days on what ship they're sitting in. My science captain is rockin' a Vesta but I've put her behind the helm of an Avenger and not noticed any real difference; same goes for my engineer the other way around.

Granted, engineers can make a high-HP hull that much more impressive, but it's a pretty minimal difference when you look at the in-game outcome.

>Fore energy weapons: 3x Duel Heavy Cannons. I'd recommend the special
>Tetryon variant that's coming from the Hirogen lockboxes at the moment
>- their shield drain effect is apparently pretty cool and because the
>market has flooded, they'll be cheap.

Don't bother opening the lockboxes yourself, just run the Tour the Galaxy mission (even if you don't complete, it's still tons of EC per sector) and buy them on the exchange. Or hop into some PvE fleet actions (Crystalline Catastrophe, for example), you'll have decent quality gear coming out your ears.

>Fore torpedo: 1x Breen Rapid Fire Transphasic (from one of the Breen
>missions, natch). Good, quick reload, decent punch against shielded
>targets. Once you rep up with Dyson, consider the grav torpedo - it's
>the best in the game.

The Rapid-Reload Transphasic is pretty awesome but what you REALLY want is the Transphasic Cluster Torpedo, which drops a bunch of mines on the target that each do the same damage as a regular torpedo would, but have the mine-based 80% penetration instead. Extra yummy bonus: it only shares the global one-second cooldown with other torpedoes, so if you're carrying another torp launcher you can seriously unload. Downside: it can be destroyed... not that this usually comes up (at least in PvE).

>Aft weapons: Tetryon turrets. Hirogen if they're available, regular if
>not.

I run the 360 degree Antiproton Beam from the Solonae mission. Verra nice. I actually also have my TCP (above) mounted here because my playstyle is more bombing run than slugfest.

>
>Tactical consoles: 4x Tetryon-boosting consoles, as high quality as
>you can afford.

Tetryon is fun but is not all that and a bag of chips. Tetryon's special trick is extra damage to shields, on a 2.5% random chance basis. Now, that's per-shot (as far as we know, subject to change), so if you're going to run cannons then you'll get that damage more often than running beams, but that's an 'if' -- and the extra damage is only to shields. These are great shield poppers, but not especially great at actually killing stuff. Not *bad* at it, just not great.

I personally go with something that has more punch -- right now antiproton and protonic polaron are easy to get and boosted by Dyson set bonuses, and do more damage.

>Engineering consoles: RCS accelerators are always a good fit here - as
>an escor, your turn rate is very important. Also consider universal
>consoles such as Phasmotic Leech (expensive as fuck, but best console
>in the game), Assimilated Console and the Dyson Console. If you get
>the Assimilated Console, replace one of your rear turrets with the
>Borg cutting beam and maybe lose your torpedo. Or don't, and run the
>2-piece Borg AND Dyson sets.

... assuming of course that you feel like grinding for months to get the rep and dilithium necessary for those expensive bits.

No, seriously. The rep missions that are the best bang for the buck have 20-hour cooldowns, which means you effectively can do them once per day. To get the first couple of tiers is not so bad; getting the tier 5 rewards is 720 hours minimum, or, 36 days if you're spot-on and never skip a day.

Don't get me wrong, I like the rep stuff, but it's not something you should look at out of the gate, in my opinion.

>Science consoles: Usually where I whack universal consoles, or shield
>consoles if you can afford them. Have you had a look at some of the
>cross-faction reward pack consoles? There's a lot of fun stuff there
>for very few ECs.

Shield boosters are the best bang for the buck here, I think. Important safety tip: there are two types, one that boosts your shield capacity, and one that boosts your shield regen. It *really* depends on what you're flying to decide which you should equip.

In general, the high-HP hulls will benefit more from regen than low-HP hulls, in my experience. High capacity (but low regen) shields are better for escorts or other ships that aren't planning on sticking around for the slugfest.

>Warp core: The reward core from the Dyson introduction episode (with
>Worf!) is good enough to be getting on with. Romulans are screwed with
>this. Poor old Romulans.

Can't argue this, it's easily the best core in the game outside rep-farmed expensive-as-fuck pieces. This alone (and with the appropriate captain skill boosts) will let you complete the aforementioned Tour the Galaxy, if only just.

>Devices: You get a free device from 'Skirmish' (first Devidian
>episode). It's a 3-minute cool down panic button that boosts your
>defence. Other than that, batteries or just don't bother.

I drop turrets, because I like freem. I also pack shield batteries.

>Hanger bay: A tricky one. First, know that the basic (blue) hanger
>ships are kind of useless. <snip>

Can't argue most of this but will take a moment to note that there's an anti-Borg tactic where you basically hang back and let your shuttles nibble them to death, because the Borg don't bother targeting the little buggers.

Surprisingly effective! Slow, but, effective.

>
>Bridge Officers:
>
>Tactical
>Commander: Attack Pattern Omega III, Cannon: Rapid Fire II, Cannon:
>Rapid Fire I, Tactical Team

Nope, nope, nope, and yep.

*IF* you run a cannon build then attack pattern and the cannon rapid fire powers are useful. But cannons have narrow firing arcs and are finicky as hell, and the strange range rules STO has mean that you have to love the high-risk high-reward playstyle for them to really shine.

Me, I prefer living, so I run beams and torps. Torpedo Spread and Fire At Will are my bestest friends ever.

It's worth noting though that you can load up on nothing but turrets and make use of the Rapid Fire cannon powers to turn yourself into a 360 degree Death Blossom lightshow. Very pretty, often hilarious, and actually pretty effective if you don't mind getting in close (see: range limitations). Not recommended on thin-skinned hulls, though.

>Lt Cmdr: Attack Pattern Omega I, Cannon: Scatter Volley I, Tactical
>Team
>Ensign: Torpedo Spread I
>
>The idea here is to chain Attack Pattern Omega to keep it up at all
>time, then chain CRF while you focus on large targets. If you're going
>after groups of weaker ships, couple CSV with Torp Spread to ruin
>their days.

This is where I follow the advice of the longest-term player I know, who told me straight-up "Don't double up on bridge officer powers, you're wasting slots". He (and I, technically, though I come and go a lot) have been in since beta; I've never been steered wrong by his advice.

What really makes the most difference is the quality of your bridge officers and how well you stack your active duty officers' abilities. You want purple bridge officers, period. Beg, buy, or steal them wherever you can.

Purple officers make a huge difference. For example, I can drop a Grav Well 3 every 45 seconds reliably (standard CD is 60), and about 15% of the time I get a double drop due to DOFF abilities. (The numbers say it should be 20-25% of the time, but I'm talking in actual practice)

Grav Well 3 ruins everything's day (it does kinetic damage and bypasses shields).

>Finally, every character in the game should pretty much skill out like
>this to maximise DPS, survivability and available subsystem power.
>http://imgur.com/sTgEqUK

Yyyeaaah... no.

Skill out to support your playstyle. There's no One True Build. About the only rule is that you usually don't want to bother going past yellow rank in any skill, because of diminishing returns.

--sofaspud
--