Yesterday was a WTF?? day for me in Ker'rat - There were three Klink ships COOPERATING with Federation players against Borg. And simply stopping there and letting me kill them instead of ganking me when I was nearby and kicking. Facepalm and me wanting to level as fast as possible to admiral was the result.

It's more or less few days before I have my RA ship so I'm thinking about configuration. Healing ship primarly with some drain abilities to power up it's heals and TB for some easier SNB from time to time. DSSV (free, not Fleet), as I never liked the look of RSV.

There will be some C-Store ship in future, but for now: DSSV. Without DOFFs most likely (only those I get for free, so nothing special).

I thought about something like this: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skil...rdssvheal333_0

I will be using standard equipement, no sets. Most likely resilient shields with some [cap] and [reg], tachyon deflector with [flwc] and whatever boosts for shields I can get. Plus combat impulse engines. either shield or flow consoles for sci, something to boost mines/torps for tac and hull buffs for eng.

Weapons: torpedoe's (3 front) and mines (3 back). Either plasma, chroniton or transphasics - will try them all, choose one I like most. No energy weapons (I know, no free target subsystem, can live with it).

I'm bit rusty with current skills, anything that can be changed to make it better?

As a dssv user (before getting that wonderful breen ship), I'd suggest a dbb and two photons rather than a pure torp/mine boat to use the 25 base weapons power instead of wasting it

Having tested the transphasics, rapid fire or not, I learnt that on a borg raptor at least, two photons cycled does near the same hull damage as two cycled rapid fire transphasics (as in transphasic one fires, then transphasic two then transphasic one fires again - thats a cycle) - Plus photons damage the shield far more

Or if you are adamant on no energy...a tricobalt torpedo, or a breen cluster transphasic - something with a long recharge time that will not mess up the photon cycle

Regarding chroniton and plasma, its the same issue as the transphasics - too long reload versus too little damage - On my dssv, I used (among many builds) chroniton mines - these synergise well with photons and a dbb as they reduce turn rate and movement, allowing you to hammer down a shield facing (imo, if you go this way, choose a high yield over dispersal as three mines spamming constantly is more than enough)

Regarding sci choices, I'd consider using a second hazard emmiter as HEs cd requires two to keep a near constant anti-burn buff up (plus it lets you heal others of that burn) and possibly a gravity well 1 (of course that requires some particle skill for damage) for crowd control and to help bunch up enemies for your teamates to faw to death (assuming of course you plan to pve too...for pvp, maybe a virus skill might serve better)

if you do get doffs, I'd also possibly switch extend shields for auxhilary to battery - purple technician duty officers (which can be gotten via a doff chain) can, when equipped, lower all cooldowns of your boff abilities when aux2bat is used - a useful fact for a healer (just remember to pop a large aux battery after!)

Finally...if you like the RSVs layout, the cheap-as chips Mirror RSV has the DSSVs skin...they are hilariously cheap, so you should pick one up for less than 80k ec

Ok Assuming this is for a PvP build, lets modify somethings.

Skill Point Allocation:

Performance Skills should go to 6 points max. Going to 9 gets you very marginal gains. I'd say same with Warp Core Efficiency and Potential.

Do not max hull plating or armor skills. Somewhere in these forums, someone has worked out an optimal spread between Plating, armour and threat control to get good resists without wasting skill points.

Put at least 6 points in Batteries.

You should put points in maneuvers and targetting. Very useful.

To maintain flexibility, I'm of the opinion, you don't need full spec in anything. 6 points is good enough.

On Weapons:

You need one beam, and not a Dual Beam Bank (horrendous on a DSSV). I like running 3 torps up front, but that's with more maneuverable ships. Never more than 2 mines, cooldowns will clash with more than 2 mines.

So.

Fore: 3 torps
Aft: 1 Beam array, 2 mines

Weapons types depends really. In PvP, you will not be able to hammer down anyones shield facings in this kind of Science Ship unless you're up against someone who has no clue what they are doing, so when picking the Torp type, you're looking Transphasics or Plasma for shield by passing damage. I like plasma. The DoT can stack quite a bit and it can be effective. If you're doing just pugging and not going up against some serious PvPers, you can burn someone to death in a sci ship (it's sad really though if someone manages to let you burn them to death). Even if you're on a good team, you still probably won't be able to exploit downed shield facings too well. If you're looking to control movement, Chroniton Torpedos are good. Mines, go plasma and chronitons. If you want to be cheesy, a tric mine.



If you feel like grinding the Omega Torp and Romulan Hyper Torp, go for it.

On to BOff Skills (assuming no DOffs):

Tac: TT1, Attack Pattern Delta 1 (here you can even drop TT1 for a Torp Spread if you really like. TS1 works well with Plasma and Chroniton Torpedoes)
Lt Eng: EPTS1, Extend1
En Eng: EPTS1
Cmd Sci: TB1, ST2, TSS3, Grav Well 3
LtC Sci: PH1, HE2, PSW1/Scramble 1

It's not efficient to double up on HE or TSS in my opinion. But if you really want to, go ahead.

DOffs:
Never run Aux2Bat Technicians on a healboat. Get some Projectile officers if you can. Doing the 2800 featured will get you a blue one for sure. If you manage to get 2 purple Damage Control Doffs, you can run ETPS1 and EPTA1.

To be honest, the RA science ships are setup more to be support healers with Crowd control support.

Here's a "Don't Do This" build courtesy of VD...

Sci Captain (hrmm, I ran an Eng in a DSSV when I was dorking around with this)
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skil...tFlyThisDSSV_0

Passives (A little something down the road...)
Romulan: +30 Shield Systems, ShieldHealWhenCritProc
Omega: HullRegen, ShieldRegen

TT1, APD1
EPtS1, ES1
ET1
PH1, ST2, TBR2, GW3
JS1, HE2, TSS3

DOFFs: (But these weren't important, remember?)
SDO(BFI), GS(GW), ME(ET), DLS(ST), SO(Dmg)

D/E/S: Breen (WTF? Yeah...until T5 and picking up Borg)

Weapons (But he said no energy...yeah, it's not for damage)
Fore: 2x Dominion Polaron Beam Array, Breen Transphasic Cluster Torpedo
Aft: 2x Dominion Polaron Beam Array, Breen Transphasic Cluster Torpedo

Consoles (What's with the Rom consoles? Really?)
Tac: Graviton Pulse, Theta
Eng: Neut, SIF, RCS
Sci: Emitter Array (not SEA, but EA), Rom Particle (Shield), Rom Graviton (Hull), Rom Flow (Pla)

Devices: SFM, Aux Batt, Eng Batt

Power: 25/50/25/100, 25/100/25/50, 25/75/25/75

Okay, so where to start? Yes, this is one of my failbuilds. I think they're all considered that - everything I fly - they're just that bad...etc, etc, etc.

So what's the thought process behind this build? I mean, it's all over the place - all over the place...all freaking over the place. Not even sure where to start...

It's all over the place. Three teams? Four beams and 25 Weapon Power? No Tac consoles? Four different Sci consoles? Quirky skill build? The Breen set? Single DOFFs?

It's an illusion. A mockingbird. It's about creating opportunity costs amidst the chaos of battle while focusing on tossing out those heals.

The Dom Pols...easy to ignore - there's no damage, right? Exactly! 2.5% -X Shields, 2.5% -X Power, 2.5% Plasma DoT. Four of them. 9.6%...

Does the power drain happen at a bad time? Who knows? It's the chaos of battle!
What about the all but meaningless DoT? Do they ignore it or blow HE on it leaving them without it when they actually need it?
Does the shield damage make it look like you're running higher Wep Power than you are?

The Breen Clusters...that ohlala hull damage when folks have put all those points into Projectile and Projectile Specialization - when they're running Trans Tac consoles - ohlala. But you're not doing that. They don't know that. Do they let them hit? Do they use CRF/FAW, an AoE ability, or even change targets to shoot it? Opportunity cost...

Are they targetable happy? Dropping mines, pets, spamming Hyper, other targetable torps? Well, that's why you're tossing out your GW and using your TBR. If you're blowing all that crap up - well, that's not damage that you have to heal on anybody. It's also going to cause some folks to burn APO, PH, Engine Batteries, etc when perhaps they'd have been better off saving them.

SIF/Emitter Array/ME(ET)/DLS(ST) - simple buffage to healing, both hull and shields. ET->HE. ST->TSS/ES.

Breen Set? Why not Jem? Have got the Polarons, right? Well, the Breen Energy Dis vs. AP Sweep... but the Jem shields are better than the Breen. The Breen Engine is better than the Jem for this particular build though. It even looks like the Jem Deflector would be better. For this cooky build, I just feel the Breen Set works better...even that Trans damage bonus is going to work better than the Polaron damage bonus given the Wep Power settings.

Three Teams? Things are getting rough out there. Needing X for A, Y for B, Z for C... yes, running three teams is going to create gaps. But a gap is better than nothing, right? Maybe? Personally, I don't think they should create CDs on each other. Well, a TT should create a CD on a TT - but a TT should not create a CD on either ET or ST. It's never made sense to me. BUT ANYWAY... given the stuff out there that can be dropped on you and the guys on your team - well, ET and ST beg for attention. In an actual team environment, odds are Player X would have ET and Player Y would have ST - teamwork and all that jazz. If you're in PUGland...well, yeah - good luck with that.

Speaking of things like that, Jam Sensors? Lots of folks hate it. There are a lot of folks that give tells (like a poker tell, not a message) of their intentions. They trigger their tractor too soon, they buff up while aimed right at you, etc, etc, etc... and you jam them. Do they clear it? Can they clear it? Do they lose buffs or time from buffs waiting? Do they pick another target you can drop Extend on?

Romulan Science Consoles? Well...er...um...yeah.

Now, the next two are likely to get you rocked...but that's the price of being annoying.

Theta. 'Nuff said.

Graviton Pulse. 'Nuff said.

Am I right? C'mon, there's just something about getting hit by either of those that makes you remember the person that did it and want to kill them...a lot.

Does help that they help set up kills for the rest of the team, eh? More than what you'd get out of actually using Tac consoles with this build...

...but enough babbling and rationalizing, eh? There's little reason to continue discussing my build here. It's a horrible build. Any experienced PvPers or a premade would destroy it without a second thought.

So take a look at what others have said and will say... nothing to see here.

Here's what I would run on a DSSV with no fluffy DOffs or consoles.

Lt Tac: FAW 1, Attack Pattern Delta 1
Lt Eng: EPtS 1, Aux to SIF 1
Ens Eng: EPtS 1
LtC Sci: HE 1, TSS 2, SciTeam 3
Cmdr Sci: HE 1/Tractor Beam 1, TSS 2, SciTeam 3, GW 3/Scramble Sensors 3

Consoles: As you wish for Eng, but 4 Shield Emitter Amplifiers for Sci and 2 Tac consoles for your energy type.

Use 5 Beams + 1 Chrono mine layer. Be set at 100 Weapons Power, 50 Aux. Have a 90 Aux/60 Shields Defensive/Heal setting.

You'll be able to heal a crap ton, while still being able to help your team significantly with damage. 5 Beams at 100 Power is pretty potent, especially with Sensor Analysis. You'll be at ~95 Aux after skills even with 100 Weapons Power.

Take a look at the Mirror Universe DSSV. I believe it may have a better boff lay out.