So I did a bit of testing against a friend's defiant build today, which he had setup to tank effectively with an engineer. I found Scatter Volley 3 to be markedly more effective than Rapid Fire 1, but the same wasn't true for Scatter Volley 2, so I think that so long as I can expect my team mates to focus fire all on the same target, sticking with Rapid Fire should be more effective.

Made some small updates to the builds just now.

For the Beam Build, using Beta 3 IS better because of Fire at Will. Although using Omega 1 might be a good idea to get your ship out of sticky situations when need be. Also switched out to Fire at Will 3, I find I was using it MUCH more often than Overload, so might as well use a lower-level Overload and even moved Tactical Team up for a slight all-around damage gain.

I also added a notation about the MACO shields now being the best STF shields in the game.

And one more thing, I'm finding its more useful to swap out my EPS console for my Grappler/Etc. bonus consoles instead of the Biofunction. Biofunction seems to be keeping me alive MUCH longer, I think more testing is required with the Biofunction to show its usefulness.

biofunction is crucial in a defiant, more so than any other ship. with only 50 crew, keeping them alive (brace for impact) and regenerating crew lost (biofunction monitor) is one of the most crucial elements of survival.

i have used the MACO mk xi shields with the aegis engines/deflector. with the bonus, shield power and engine power setting from both the engine and the deflector, this would almost seem to be the best set for an escort. i dont have math to back it up, but id be interested what everyone else would think.

ive also tweeked my build a little bit since my first post-

tac skills: TT1, BO 1 and 3, CRF 1 and 2, THY 1, APO 3, APB 1
eng skills: EPtS 1 and 2
sci skills: HE 1, ST 2

to me, i dont see much of a use in TT1 other than clearing assimilated ship- its better than another torp skill, but i dont see the shield facing help that its supposed to do. i just dont.

i also use ST 2 because when my shields get low, i hit ST followed by whichever EPtS is up- with 2, it gives a nice resist plus my shields are almost back to full. with 1, the resist is smaller but the shields are still almost all the way up. even though i lose out on the shield resist from TSS 2, TO ME, ST 2 makes more of a difference- I will have to try TSS 2 out some more to be sure though, but the few times ive used it i dont like it nor see it to be as effective as ST 2.

Ive also started using 3DHC and 1DBB up front and 2 turrets and a torp rear- that seems to be a tad bit better in terms of firing rate and a tad more DPS- its easy to go flying head first into a probe and as you pass, dropping a salvo of torps into bare hull. turn, rinse and repeat.

When ONE of your shield facings is down to almost 0, and the rest are full, hit Tactical Team. That shield facing that is going down or dropping will refill instantly and if that side keeps taking fire, TT transfers even more power to that side to compensate.

Also, check your weapon damage before and after using tactical team. Notice it goes up. It gives a damage boost as well, so running it constantly with two versions of it WILL increase your DPS along with keeping your shields routed to keep you alive.

thats probably why i dont see the increase of shield that much- i also have the key bind that distributes shields every time i fire my weapons- it probably does help, i just miss it.

and im not saying it doesnt add DPS, ive just never noticed that much of a difference. i still take things down really fast so i cant see the difference in DPS output except in the numbers- on my screen they still go boom really quick lol.

The 'manual' redistribution is a lot slower than Tac Team, (Although it works, don't get me wrong, Even with Tac Team, I still redistribute regularly). Also, Tac Team reinforces the shield taking damage, as opposed to lowering the full one to make the others better.

Really?

In my experience at least, it's not hull regen that determines my survivability, it's keeping my shields up. Most of the times I seem to die it's due to a cheap 1-shot from a Tac cube or similar. I don't think having Biofunction monitor would help much in that case? Otherwise I can pop HE2 often enough between/during battles that I heal up enough hull.

When your crew drops to near zero, your shields drop faster.

Ok i got a question when you look at the mk xi very rare weapons which is actually better to use the borg ones or the non borg ones, now i know the borg one have the radiation or what ever it is but its just a chance damage compaired to the none borg one which have a bit higher dps , and that is a constant every time you fire damage.

I couldn't agree any less with these two statements. If you're getting that low on crew your already in trouble that it's not going to matter much. As for TT; always running with one up greatly increases survivability(due to the extremely fast regen rate and automation) and provides a pretty decent boost to DPS without having to do much(since you can bind TT to your main key). If you honestly think TT is nothing good but cleaning boarding parties then you are way off base mate.