U.S.S. Alamo

Presidio Tactical Command Battlecruiser

Build Overview and Focus

Last Updated December 2022

Modern tanks focus not only on surviving and dealing some amount of damage but also supporting allies to help them achieve new records. The fact is that STO's content, even on Elite, does not require tank builds to be completely geared to survivability and/or damage. That niche does exist and we call those "heavy tanks," but the more meta-centric tanks are "support tanks." These ships are typically built on full spec Command ships (Commander Command), which allows access to Suppression Barrage, an amazing tanking tool, as well as Inspiration abilities. This tank falls into that build space and is thus outfitted for a combination of survivability, damage (to hold threat), and supportive concepts. 

Platform selection

Since Suppression Barrage and Inspiration abilities are critical to this style of tank, I need a full Command ship, preferably on a Cruiser for the higher hull modifier and the Attract Fire Cruiser Command. That led me to the Presidio, which I already had for its starship trait back when that was the meta. The Clarke had not been released yet, though I do discuss how this build could be ported to the Clarke below. 

Flavor/Theme Choices


Namesake

The Alamo was a mission (the church, not the assignment) compound in North America that was turned into a fort by Texan settlers rebelling against the Mexican government. Though vastly outnumbered, the rebels held off a superior force for several days before falling. The battle became a rallying cry for the rebel movement, which ultimately was successful. The U.S.S. Alamo honors their bravery and hopes to similarly inspire success in teammates while holding off vast numbers of enemies. 

Meta Analysis

Budget Analysis

Using the EZRA rubric, this build would cost 611.40 USD to replicate. That is far more than what I spent on STO to make it. If the cost looks daunting, don't worry! Lower-budget alternatives are provided below.

The biggest cost driver for this ship is the use of the Cold-hearted trait from an event ship; otherwise it requires an Epic Phoenix token which are exceedingly hard to come by. Low budget alternatives are provided in the detailed build section. I did some testing using all the low-budget gear options and traits, with mostly Mk XII/MK XIII gear (unless I already had it upgraded), and this ship was capable of over 100K DPS on Infected: The Conduit Advanced while tanking over 90% of incoming even in low-budget configuration.

Change History

Build Focus

This build combines energy DPS, tanking, supportive concepts and survivability as its primary areas of strength. There are other secondary concerns as well, but a blend of tank, support, and Elite-capable DPS are what this ship is intended to do.

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes


Miracle Worker/Strategist is the go-to specialization combo for optimal survivability. Temporal Operative is an option if you can survive the damage or are premade with very high DPS teams. 

Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

If you're building an optimal tank, then Ba'ul Antiproton is king. There are two other examples of such builds on this site: the Bedivere and the Dragonscale. However, if you're building around debuffs, then Disruptor's chance to reduce enemy damage resistance by 10, combined with other proc chances like Resonant and Nausicaan, ends up being a preferred choice. My fleet was in need of more tanks and I was in need of a ship with Disruptor weapons so pairing the two made sense to me. 

Link to Energy Weapon Calculator for this build

Survivability:  The survivability analysis on this ship is well above the recommended 500K Effective Sustained HP to be an effective tank on Elite (590K total).  (For reference, Stormbreaker is around 630K ESHP, so this ship is 7-10% less tanky). Here's the survivability analysis. 

Starship Equipment

Notes:

Everything here is basically optimal for tanking. The Discovery 3-piece adds substantial regen as well as Mycelial Lightning, which is a valuable damage source. The Alliance Fighter Squadrons were chosen because they don't have torpedoes and buff the team through casting Focused Assault (albeit infrequently). Torp-armed hangar pets can steal Concentrate Firepower procs from torp boats and tanking is a selfless profession anyway. 

Shout-out to Prototype Ablative Jevonite hardpoints which, while kind of difficult to get, give +100 Hull Capacity for 15 minutes and can be used from inventory, meaning that they don't take up a device slot. Definitely useful on maps like Hive! 

If you can't get Elite Alliance Fighter Squadrons, Elite Class C Shuttles unlocked via C-store ships like the Earhart or Buran work just fine, as do the Mirror Shuttles from the Lexington.

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

Notes: 

Crit: The importance of Crit cannot be oversold and while DPS is not the primary goal of this ship, you have to do decent DPS to pull threat/aggro. I saw significant increases in DPS from boosting Crit in doffs and traits. On my record runs, my weapons were parsing between 65-70% Crits. There are players with better gear and piloting skills than I who've achieved much, much higher percentages, but I will say broadly that when in doubt, add crit. 

Alternate Energy types: If you want Ba’ul AP, swap those beams in and replace the Entoiled Technology with at least 2-piece Linked Sentry set. For consoles, the Nausicaan Siphon Capacitor gets replaced by Aligned Antiproton Shielding from the Khitomer and the torpedo can be replaced by the ever-reliable Dark Matter Quantum Torpedo. For anything else, choose your weapons of choice and Locators, then replace the Altamid console and Piezo-Electric Focuser (keep the latter if using Polaron).

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:

If low budget, the following changes will help reduce cost


The loss of a second powerful heal active if no Protomatter or another substitute like Reiterative Structural Capacitor will leave this ship rather squishy, so retaining Hull Image Refractors and using more Colony tactical consoles would be advisable.


Bridge Officers

Meta Notes

Traits

Personal Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:

If low budget, (try and keep the ones at the bottom) 


Downgrading all the survivability tools will limit your ability to run Elite maps

Starship Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:

If low budget, (try and keep the ones at the bottom) 

This build basically won't work without Emergency Weapon Cycle, Entwined Tactical Matrices, and History Will Remember. The whole point of this build is to help debuff enemies while tanking, so Cold-Hearted is pretty crucial. 


Notes:

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Notes:

Three Technicians are needed to ensure 100% Suppression Barrage uptime. The 8 of 47 doff could easily be replaced with a Reverse Shield Polarity extender

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

These doffs are fairly well optimal for an A2B build but if your budget was truly unlimited


Budget Tweaks:

 If low budget

Miscellaneous

Cooldowns

A2B is not ideal for a tank, especially one with a hangar, as aux power helps boost heals as well as recharge the hangar. However, in the spirit of team debuffs, Cold-hearted is sufficiently powerful that I am choosing a less optimal CDR strategy in order to take advantage of that ability. Three Technicians are definitely needed to power this build and using only a single copy of A2B won't work to sustain Cold-hearted stacks. I do use Attrition Warfare, but that happens in the background anyway and I don't really think about it since its cooldown is too long to really take advantage of, and this ship lacks spammable heals. The same is true of Calm Before the Storm. 

If I was feeling adventurous, I could drop one of the Technicians and an instance of A2B and add The Boimler Effect, replacing Duelist's Fervor. That's a little less reliable and expensive so I've opted against it for now.

Link to CDR sheet for this build. 

Ship Stats

Keybinds 

With as many abilities and synergizing concepts as this ship employs, an efficient control scheme is essential. There are many ways to set up such a ship, so I don't pretend to assume that my way is superior. It works for me, especially with my background in RTS and MOBA games, where pushing many different keys quickly is essential:


Piloting

Tanking is generally a selfless job unless you really glory in seeing how much damage you can absorb. Your job as a tank is to 1) pull threat and 2) survive. If you can also debuff enemies and amplify your team's damage, that's nice to have. In order to do #1, you need to do three things:

In order to do #2 (survive), you need the following:

You're aiming to pull 75-90% of the incoming attacks for the entire team, so be prepared. On a fast ISE run, that could mean less than 3 million damage absorbed. On a slower run, you're looking at closer to 7-8M. This is by no means the most optimized tank build in the game, but it certainly does the job for DPS channel or fleet runs, especially in ISE. I’m very well pleased with this build and feel it fits nicely in the build space of intermediate-but-semi-affordable tanks while providing ample debuffs for team support. I've used it to tank while boosting at least two other players in my fleet to new records thanks to Inspiration abilities and extra debuffs.  

ISE Piloting Tips

Before the map starts, I will launch Fighters, set Threatening Stance, and set the Attract Fire cruiser command. Use Full Impulse when the map starts to hug the center cube. I prebuff Emergency Power to Weapons at 20 seconds prior to countdown and Engines at 5 to avoid misfires with resetting Evasive Maneuvers. 

I start with flying very close to the first 3 cubes. I will use all of my longer cooldown buffs in the first fight as well as Interphasic Instability and D.O.M.I.N.O. Trigger Evasive Maneuvers to fly over to the left transformer and fire off all major abilities while at 1/4 impulse or stopped within 2 km of the transformer. FAW should take care of most targets. Once 2-3 of the generators are down, target the transformer with Focused Frenzy and Fire On My Mark. I rotate to face inward toward the gate. When the transformer is low health, fly towards the ball of spheres and give them a torpedo spread and cycle or two of firing. Once they start thinning out, Evasive Maneuvers again (reset due to Emergency Power to Engines) along with Deuterium and head to the right side. Rinse and repeat, then Evasive Maneuvers to fly between the Tactical Cube and Gateway. If there's a large ball of spheres here, this is an important time to use Diversionary Tactics to taunt enemies. This is also the single hardest part to stay alive at, so save big heals like Protomatter or the Bio-Molecular Shield Generator for here. Try to avoid using Reverse Shield Polarity at the right transformer if at all possible. Seriously, this part can be rough depending on how fast your team wipes the Nanite Spheres. Focused Frenzy and Fire On My Mark should be available here again. Lastly, don't forget to summon your Delta Alliance Beacon/Nimbus Pirates, etc. In an average ISE run, I can get two off: one at left transformer and one at the end.

HSE (Hive Space Elite)

I’ve successfully flown HSE on this build without dying and while you can't always save your teammates dying from Warp Core Breaches or Feedback Pulse, it's hard to knock this build for it. I'm not the best HSE pilot but the build is fine. This ship is less survivable than the Stormbreaker so if you're looking to dive right into the middle, it might be kinda rough. The hardest part is the first fight. Preload Ablative Hazard Shielding as you fly in. I stagger my big heals in 15-20 second intervals to give the team time to clean up. Once Ablative Hazard Shielding expires, I use Brace for Impact, Reiterative Structural Capacitor, Give Her All She’s Got, and Subspace Field Modulator. As those are winding down, use the Bio-Molecular Shield Generator. If the health bar is still going down after that, pop Reverse Shield Polarity and use the Sensor Interference Platform as a last resort. Hopefully by that point, the spheres and first few tactical cubes are cleared out after the first full minute of combat. Push into the formation gradually at first and then as only a few targets are left, attack more aggressively. Suppression Barrage is very helpful on this map.

When fighting the queen, I find it better to stay farther away from her as Aceton field is no joke and neither are her confuses. Hopefully your teammates will use Subnucleonic Beam to clear out the queen’s Feedback Pulse, but that’s not really a problem as long as your big heals are back off of cooldown.

I’ve found that if you can solo HSA without dying and 100K DPS, you’re probably in good shape for HSE. It’s a good way to practice getting a feel for the map, placement/positioning, and knowing when you can ride your regen/HP and when you need to pop a big heal to keep from dying.

Parse Breakdown

Numbers are from record ISE:


Heal breakdown (Heals-per-second)

Portability

There are only three other full-Command ships that could run this build while dropping A2B yet still retaining Cold-hearted. The easiest option is the Clarke, which came out well after I built this ship. To run this on the Clarke, switch an A2B out and take Boimler Effect, and pick up a Gravity Well. That said, you do lose Attract Fire. Alternately, you could consider the Legendary Walker and the Undine Kiwavi, since Command/Pilot is a rather rare combination. Neither is able to slot all of the same powers, as the Legendary Walker is light on Tactical seating and would function better under A2B. If sticking with A2B and keeping all the tactical and engineering boff abilities, most full-spec Command ships can't run this build as they have too many forced science seats. Though highly expensive, the Section 31 Command Battlecruiser is capable of running this exact build, though it loses the hangar, while the Elachi Ornash Battlecruiser doesn't have the hangar or the Attract Fire command. The Legendary Vor'cha Command Support Battlecruiser is another hangar-less option that does at least have 5/3 weapons. That said, at the C-store price level, the Presidio and its cross-faction equivalents the Vastam and the Ty'Gokor are probably the best. 


Build Breakdown

Put breakdown here