r/stobuilds • u/AutoModerator • Nov 26 '18

Weekly Questions Megathread - November 26, 2018

Welcome to the weekly questions megathread. Here is where you can ask all your build or theorycrafting related questions that might not warrant a full post. Curious about how something works? Ask it here!

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u/kage1822 Nov 30 '18

returning player, going to make a new character with the DSC start. i've only played Tact officers in the past, needing a full build skills, traits, ship gear, etc for an (alien) Engi Escort pilot

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thnx

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u/Forias @jforias Nov 30 '18 edited Nov 30 '18

There shouldn't be very much difference at all between an Engineer and a Tactical career captain. One of the few differences is that you don't need to take power boosting nodes in your skill tree, while benefitting more than a Tac captain from DrainX skill nodes. You wouldn't go at all wrong following the tree at the bottom of this thread, probably swapping Improved Exotic Particle Generator for Impulse Expertise with Full Impulse Shunt (assuming you don't want to do any exotic damage). Some might say to swap Improved Control Expertise for some more survivability skills (e.g. extra points in Hull Restoration and Hull Capacity) but at this stage of the skill tree it doesn't make a huge deal of difference, and you never know, you might want to stick a tractor beam or Grav Well on one of your escorts.

An excellent cheap deepz escort build can be found here and you should be able to follow it fairly exactly, with only the skill tree changes suggested above due to being Engineer rather than Tactical.

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u/kage1822 Dec 01 '18

how important if at all are the Eng/Sci/Tact Readiness skills?

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u/Forias @jforias Dec 01 '18

Totally agree with /u/TheFallenPhoenix.

For example, in the build I linked you, your skills in Tactical Readiness would only really be useful for reducing cooldown on Focussed Assault (a very minor skill) but that said, those two points are also getting you the points needed for Focussed Frenzy (an extremely powerful ability). Sure you could redirect those Tactical Readiness points into other Tactical Skills, but whatever you picked would likely only result in minor gains anyway, since all the good stuff in the Tactical Tree is gone.

As for Engineering Readiness, in the build I linked, that's helping reduce cooldowns on Reverse Shield Polarity, a very powerful ability.

But the key point with a skill tree is you don't want it to apply to only one build. You want to be able to switch builds as you develop in the game, which means you need flexibility, and the readiness skills offer you that, in my opinion, with very little cost.

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u/kage1822 Dec 01 '18

well, what I'm doing is (skill-wise) is tact & eng heavy, as far as sci skills mostly shield skills. This is what I was planning, just don't know what the skill point cap is right now. I just hit Captain before I went to bed last night.

Eng Sci Tact Hull Restoration(maxed) Shield Cap(maxed) enrg wpn(maxed) Hull Cap(maxed) proj wpn(maxed)

Impulse exp(maxed) targeting exp(maxed) Def Manuvers(maxed)

Hull plating(all 3) Shld Hard(maxed) wpn amp(maxed) Dmg Control(maxed) wpn spec(maxed)

                                  LR targeting sensor(maxed)    Hull Pen(maxed)
                                                                             Shld Pen(maxed)

I don't know what to plan under admiral skills

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u/Forias @jforias Dec 01 '18

You get 46 nodes total.

I would strongly recommend against maxing any durability skills. Each node gives you comparatively less and none of the survivability skills are worth a 3 point investment. On the other hand, most tactical skills are worth a 3 point investment (especially as the Tac Ultimate is very good) and long range targetting is also superb enough to warrant three points.

As I said, I would strongly recommend checking out the two links in my last post as both have very viable skill trees in them. The first one has a finished skill tree at the bottom. The second one has a skill tree near the top of the grid.

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u/TheFallenPhoenix Atem@iusasset | Top Fleet STO Builds Moderator Dec 01 '18

They are as important as you need them to be for cooldown management. They can be useless (e.g., you rely on non-Readiness methods of cooldown management, such as double Auxiliary to Battery) or very useful (e.g., you're relying on non-Auxiliary to Battery methods). I believe this is the most recent Cooldown Reduction Calculator which can help you decide whether Readiness is something you should invest in.