A little while back I made myself a science officer just to try something a little different (main is a tac). Unfortunately, I found myself basically flying the same ships on him as I do on my tac officer. Long story short I decided to get myself the Vesta. Here's my build idea so far.

Equipment:
Borg Assimilated Deflector
Borg Assimilated Sub-Transwarp Engines
M.A.C.O. Shield

This has been a reliable combo for me on my other ships and I find the hull heal invaluable. I would assume since the Vesta is rather fragile hull hit point wise that this would still be a good combination.

Weapons:
(Fore) - 3 x Aux Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons
(Aft) - 2 x Fleet Advanced Phaser Turrets, Borg Kinetic Cutting Beam

Normally, I enjoy having torpedoes, but with only 3 weapon slots and the fact that I will need to invest a little more heavily into sci skills I decided to forgo the torpedoes and go with full aux cannons forward. The cutting beam will at least provide me with a little bit of kinetic damage.

Consoles:
?

This is really up in the air. Only thing for certain is that I'm going phaser relays to maximize the damage of the quantum focus phaser. Speaking of which what sci skills affect the damage of the quantum focus phaser? Are the Vesta's other set consoles any good? Is it worth running the entire set?

Bridge Officer Layout:

Lt Tac: TT1, C:SV1
Lt Eng: EPtS1, AtSI1
Cmd Sci: PH1, HE2, TSS3, GW3
Ens Uni (Going Eng): EPtS1
LtCmd Uni (Going Tac): TT1, C:SV1, ? (maybe an attack pattern? Beta perhaps?)

Doffs I'm also unsure about. Any and all suggestions welcome.

so does the cutting beam work for subsystem attacks? that'd be pretty super. i'm a nub myself, so i don't really have any constructive criticism, just the question ^^

Unfortunately, it does not.

QFFP is affected by Particle Generators skill, Aux power, and consoles that buff Phasers. The three piece bonus is a get out of respawn timer free button, and the two defensive consoles are situationally useful as well.

I use Romulan Plasma DDB at the front and Romulan BA in the aft. Go fig I use whatever enhances plasma damage (2pc Romulan set, 3 pc Omega set for plasma torps, 3 MK XII plasma infusers).

My current setup on the Tac Vesta Class as a Joined Trill Engineer

Weapons:
Fore: 1 MK XII Romulan DBB, 1 MK XII Romulan Experimental BA, Omega torpedo
Aft: 2 Romulan BA MK XII, Borg Kinetic Cutting Beam

Consoles:
Tac: 3 MK XII blue Plasma Infusers, Zero Point console
Eng: Tachyokinetic Console, MK XI blue Neutronium Armor
Sci: Borg console, MK X Romulan Shield Emitter console (adds 8.9% plasma damage), MK XII blue Shield Regen console, Fermion Field console

BOFF Seating:
Lt. Cmd (Set to Tac): TT1, BFAW2, BO3
Lt. tac: TorpSpread 1, HYT2
Cmd sci: PH1, HE2, TSS3, GW3
Lt. Eng: EP2S1, Aux2SIF 1
Ens (Set to Sci): HE1

Ship Equipment:
MK XII Adapted MACO set

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