Over Achiever

Notes

• All weapon-centric builds benefit from the tactical ultimate, as weapon haste and bonus weapon damage from the Focused Frenzy active are appreciable when used on big targets. Applying the bonus to your team is also appreciated. I do not find the cooldown boost from Frenzied Reactions to be needed on a build with a good cooldown scheme.

• Engineering skills

  • Taking two Hull Capacity helps survivability and boosts Tyler's Duality as well. A point in Hull Restoration is useful for helping heals

  • I always take a single point in Hull Plating, but other resistance skills and Damage Control are not worth it. Likewise, 2 points in Impulse Expertise is an appreciable boost to maneuverability. Warp Core Potential and especially Warp Core Efficiency help boost power to subsystems. Efficiency is particularly good at adding power to subsystems I am not allocating much power to.

  • Improved EPS Power Transfer is essential for recovering power while firing energy weapons. 

• Science skills

  • Single points in Shield Restoration/Shield Capacity are low opportunity cost for relatively high survivability gains. Since I need skill points elsewhere, only 1 here for those. 

  • A single point in Shield Regeneration has surprisingly large impact on shield regeneration based on recent research by Jay

  • Since this character uses either Overwhelm Emitters, the Bajor Core, or Tetryon weapons on various builds, all of which scale off of Drain Expertise, I take both points in DrainX. Two points in Control Expertise powers the Fragment of AI Trait on builds that use it on this toon. 

  • All energy builds should take maximum points in Long Range Targeting Sensors. 

  • The rest of the science skills are of little value on this build and are completely skippable. 

• Tactical skills

  • Energy Weapon Training, Hull Penetration, Shield Penetration, Weapon Specialization, and Weapon Amplification are all worthwhile skills to take 3 points in as they boost energy weapon damage directly. Since I do have a torpedo and it does decent damage, 2 points in Projectile Weapon Training is a good choice. 

  • I like taking 2 points apiece in accuracy and defense. Defense is a small contribution to avoiding incoming damage but also helps reduce enemy crits when you're not moving and accuracy is just good all around, if not a stat that you'll need tons of. 

  • Coordination Protocols, Defense Coordination and Offensive Coordination are good team boosts so I always take those. They also benefit hangar pets on builds that have those. Improved Tactical Readiness is essential for reducing tactical cooldowns along with the rest of the cooldown scheme. 

• Unlocks

  • There are two crucial unlocks: battery expertise (improves duration of consumable batteries) and threat control which either increases or decreases threat based on threatening stance. 

This ship is a classic energy + 1 torpedo set up. It has absolutely zero investment into exotic damage, so I am not skilled at all into those.

Intel/Strategist is the best-in-slot choice for non-tank Energy builds. Intel provides substantial damage through flanking and Intel Fleet. Strategist likewise adds damage through Logistical Support, Maneuver Warfare, and Show of Force, as well as some damage reduction through Layered Defenses. 

Notes

This ship’s primary role is Energy DPS. Its primary weapon systems are Tetryon Dual Beam Banks of various flavors and Beam overload. I went for a variety because it seemed fun to use a variety of Tetryon DBB subtypes. On this ship, the procs don't matter much, so I chose to grab one of each as long as they were blue. To an extent, the Tetryon Support Array is a concession to color since there is another Tetryon set Omni from a mission reward, but it is sadly yellow-orange. 

The off-meta twists on this ship are using Tetryon Dual Beam Banks (when Tetryon is the weakest energy type) and shield weakening (see below). Don't let those fool you, though. This ship has many transferable build concepts which are discussed later on in the post. Virtually any Beam Overload build with Beam Arrays can use the concepts of a A2B Beam Overload build. I chose DBBs because frankly, I didn’t have a ship that used them yet, and I chose Tetryon because it’s one of the best flavors of energy weapon for Dual Beam Banks despite being weak overall. It also helps with the other part of the twist:

The Over Achiever, in keeping with the Tetryon weapon choice, has a number of abilities to weaken or debuff enemy shields without sacrificing DPS. Thus, some equipment and bridge officer choices are intended to assist team DPS by either causing enemy shields to take more damage or increase bleedthrough. The following effects on this build impact shield resistance/bleedthrough/penetration:

• Intelligence Fleet provides 15% shield penetration to the team for 30 seconds

• Deploy Gravitic Induction Platform I adds 10-20% Shield Bleedthrough to all enemies within 5 km for 15 seconds

• The Advanced Diffusive Tetryon Torpedo Launcher has a 2.5% chance to increase your shield hardness by 10% while reducing the target’s by 10% for 10 seconds

• Advanced Diffusive Tetryon Beam Bank has a 2.5% chance to increase your shield hardness by 10% while reducing the target’s by 10% for 10 seconds

• Tilly’s Review-Pending Modified Shield causes enemies shields to take more damage for 10 seconds from weapon attacks based on shield power (i.e. reduces shield hardness).

The value of this investment is certainly up for discussion, but it added a fun sub-flavor to what is otherwise a slightly-off-meta build.

Further discussion of shield resistance mechanics can be found here.

On the use of a Torpedo Launcher: Use of a torpedo launcher is attractive to me first and foremost from a flavor perspective. Most "hero" ships in Star Trek used both energy weapons and a torpedo. The particular torpedo I have chosen also happens to fit my theme AND gives me an awesome 3-piece bonus AND scales off my Tetryon damage, all of which is good. In a Beam Overload setup, the torpedo does significantly less damage than the dual beam banks, but it does proc Super Charged Weapons as well as a solid set bonus, so I'm going with it. I could have used the Dark Matter Torpedo for its excellent 2-piece set bonus (25% CrtD > 25% Cat1), but I am running that torpedo on seven other ships and wanted to do something different. 

On the Cutting Beam versus a Cannon: I use a Cannon turret in the aft to proc Mixed Armaments Synergy reliably and allow me to pilot nose-at-target at all times. Using a torpedo for MAS requires particularly careful timing and is unreliable. I am not huge fan of the Kinetic Cutting Beam as it does not proc MAS nor does it benefit from firing modes.

Managing weapon power costs: Due to using Beam Overload, which is a final 50% penalty to weapons power cost, weapon power cost reductions are particularly important. Formula for beams on this ship is as follows: 10 base * 1 / (1 + 0.5+0.1+0.25) * 1.5 = 8.1 power drained during each shot, even with 3 pieces of gear that reduce power cost (Emergency Weapon Cycle, Fleet Core, Weapon System Efficiency). The torpedo obviously drains no power and the cannon slightly less. 

On Dmg mods: Using the energy weapon calculator, specifically version 1.09, allows me to easily see which mods are better. [Dmg] wins, hands down.

Notes:

I'm not using the meta drive train (i.e. Competitive Engines, Discovery 2-piece, Colony Deflector). While no set bonuses are applied, each individual piece (Romulan engines, Tilly shield, Fleet core, Colony deflector) provides decent offensive benefit. 

Notes: 

Alternate energy types: If you wanted to do this build with another energy flavor besides Tetryon, replace the type-specific Tactical consoles and weapons as needed along with the Biased Configuration Modulator console. There are plenty of type-specific consoles out there for your chosen flavor, or use something generic like the Bioneural Infusion Circuits (Lobi store).

Keeping the Webspinner: While the Tholian Webspinner console was heavily nerfed for exotic builds, it still has a decent amount of Cat1 Tetryon damage, some CtrlX to power Fragment of AI Tech, and the 50% bonus damage to held targets passive still applies to weapon damage (but not exotic). Barring a much more impressive console, it's still worth slotting on a Tetryon build. The active is pretty well garbage though. 

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• To make this more optimal, using a different energy flavor like Phaser or Disruptor and swapping the energy torpedo for Dark Matter torpedo would lead to greater DPS

• I don't think the Competitive engines are needed, this ship is fairly spry with high engine power.

Budget Tweaks:

• The easiest replacement for D.O.M.I.N.O. would be the M6 computer, available for a small chunk of Dilithium from the T3 Perseus

• Likewise, the Arbiter's Ablative Hazard Shielding would do for the Protomatter Field Projector in a pinch. 

• The Tachyokinetic Computer would be replaced by the Nukara Particle Converter (Nukara reputation)

• Replace the Tzenkethi Resolve Lobi set with a crafted dual beam bank, Dark Matter Torpedo Launcher (Discovery Legends reputation), and an Emitter Refocuser (Mission Reward; The Renegade's Regret). If you take the Dark Matter Torpedo, swap a Locator for the console from that set for the 2-piece bonus.

Meta Notes

• Probably about as good as it gets on this ship. Could increase cooldown reduction support by dropping Deploy Gravitic Induction Platform, upranking Narrow Sensor Bands to II and slotting Photonic Officer or else using Gravity Well at LtCmdr and trading Hazard Emitters for Tractor Beam to fit Unconventional Systems. With the current consoles I have, that would not be a huge gain if any.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• These are pretty much as good as it gets for energy weapons, but if you wanted to go full glass cannon:

• Give Your All -> Superior Beam Training

• Repair Crews -> Pseudo-Submission (defensive) or possibly either Adaptive Offense or Into the Breach

There's enough shield pen on this build innately that Self-Modulating Fire is actually not as amazing. 

Budget Tweaks:

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

• Drop Symbiotic Ice (Elite Captain unlock)

• Fragment of AI Tech ->  Point-Blank Shot

• Context Is For Kings -> Redirected Armor Plating

• Repair Crews -> Techie

• Terran Targeting Systems -> Beam Training

• Boimler Effect -> Elusive

• A Good Day to Die -> Operative

• Intelligence Agent Attache -> Beam Barrage

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• You'll be hard-pressed to find a better set of starship traits for energy weapons at this price point. A possible upgrade would be replacing Strike From Shadows with something expensive like Terran Goodbye. 

Budget Tweaks:

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

• Drop Preferential Targeting (T6X upgrade)

• Strike From Shadows -> Improved Command Frequency (Command specialization) or Improved Critical Systems if available

• Calm Before the Storm -> Unconventional Tactics (Strategist specialization)

• Super Charged Weapons -> Improved Predictive Algorithms (Intelligence specialization)

• Superweapon Ingenuity -> Programmable Matter Enhancements (Lockbox trait, should be cheap on the Exchange)

This build basically won't work without Emergency Weapon Cycle

Miscellaneous

This ship uses a half Auxiliary to Battery cooldown scheme with The Boimler Effect. The chart shows that I won't hit minimum cooldown without A2B triggering more often; Boimler should help with that. 

Link to CDR sheet for this build