A.R.W. Harpe

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

  • Since I use this skill tree for both tanks and DPS build, taking two points in Hull Capacity helps survivability. Increased Hull Capacity boosts Tyler's Duality as well. I could have taken a second point in Hull Restoration but chose to take a point in Shield Restoration instead for the second science unlock.

  • I always take a single point in Hull Plating, but other resistance skills and Damage Control are not worth it. 

  • 2 points in Impulse Expertise are 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 point in Shield Restoration is low opportunity cost for relatively high survivability gains. Since I need skill points elsewhere, only 1 here

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

  • Since this character has Nadion Inversion, which scales off of Drain Expertise, I take both points in DrainX. Two points in Control Expertise powers the Fragment of AI Trait.

  • 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 use torpedoes 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 energy weapons + 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.

While Engineering captains can't output the raw DPS of a Tactical Captain, their abilities lend themselves quite well to energy DPS, and you're not really a glass cannon when you have doubled Miraculous Repairs. Since I'm also tanking on this toon, it makes it rather easy mode. Tacticals have more DPS, Engineers survive longer, and I'm not building for glass cannon supported run meta. 

Notes

There's lots to discuss here. This one is spicy.

Plasma: There are three specific interactions that drove my choice of Plasma over Phaser, which is perhaps the more obvious choice given the number of set weapons that double-dip on beam/cannon flavor for Phasers. 

1. The Altamid Adaptations 2-piece bonus fires plasma bolts at target on crit or miss. This build has 100% CrtH under surgical strikes, so we fire a lot of these. In addition, both the console and Omni are really quite good, and the Omni will shred plasma resist by -15 on crit, which again, is every time it fires.

2. The Lukari Dual Cannons apply Technical Overload on use of Surgical Strikes (once per activation), which is a really significant damage increase. The console and 2-piece set bonus also provide a lot of cat1 damage.

3. The Advanced Isolytic Dual Beam Bank is not a weapon most people would consider and it is expensive. However, the fine print on this weapon is that it has an extra 26 armor penetration on crit, which translates to 2.6 [Pen] mods...and if you've caught on that this build crits every time it fires, you've gotten the point. 

No Lorca's Ambition 2-piece: This one was a surprise even to me, as there's no other reputation set that has been so ubiquitous. I've been placing the Lorca's Ambition 2-piece on pretty much every DPS build for the past three years. However, the strength of that set draws significantly from the console's CrtH boost, which with Surgical Strikes ends up being wasted. That said, replacing the Custom Fire Controls with another Exploiter was not a DPS gain by itself. However, after some experiments with Call Emergency Artillery I left me unimpressed, I slotted Concentrate Firepower instead and everything fell into place. I was already using the Heavy Bio-Molecular Plasma Turret from the 8472 reputation, so adding the Enhanced Bio-Molecular Torpedo meant that another Exploiter + 7.5% bonus plasma damage from the Counter Command 2-piece was on the table and THAT combination of another Exploiter, a stronger torpedo, and the Counter Command 2-piece was stronger than the Lorca's Ambition console + torpedo. 

No Romulan Beam Array: I originally had this slotted, but mathematically Quad Cannons were significantly stronger and I wasn't suffering from power issues. Quad Cannons are also pretty easy to acquire at just 120K dilithium (upgrading, of course, is a different matter).

Notes:

Drive Train: The popular meta would involve maybe a fleet core or more than likely a second piece of Stamets-Tilly (typically the core) for the regen along with the competitive engines for speed. I don't need the Competitive Engines, as the problem with this ship isn't the speed, it's the stopping. Instead, both my core and engines offer Critical Severity because again, we're critting all the time.

Notes: 

If you want to see what a Surgical Strikes build looks like with Phasers, go check out Jay's Legendary Kelvin Timeline Connie.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• See notes on drive train above

• You could consider slotting the Altamid Torpedo for the 3-piece bonus. I had no numbers on its performance, so while the 3-piece is good, the EBM torp under CFP is a known high performer so I went with that instead. Plus it was less expensive.

Budget Tweaks:

• The trickiest part to get if you don't already have it is the Imperial Rift Core. Substitute the Disco Core instead if you don't

• Altamid 2-piece isn't essential to making this work, but it's very, very nice. I would drop the Advanced Isolytic DBB first. Really though, the Lobi gear is what makes this build truly shine.

Meta Notes

• Meta options would be replacing all boffs but maybe Weyoun with Superior Romulan Operatives. Bor-ing.

• If you're in love with Unconventional Systems, consider replacing the Hazard Emitters and Engineering Team with controls like Jam Sensors and Tractor Beam.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• The meta would be using a Tactical captain, so EPS Manifold Efficiency gets replaced with A Good Day to Die

• If you wanted to go full glass, drop Give Your All and Repair Crews for Duelist's Fervor (though the Accuracy will be wasted) and Adaptive Offense, or maybe Unconventional Systems if you have the consoles to make it work. I find it overrated myself unless staggering expense is invested.

Budget Tweaks:

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

• Drop Fragment of AI Tech (Elite Captain unlock)

• Context is For Kings -> Operative

• Repair Crews -> Techie

• Self-Modulating Fire -> Point-Blank Shot

• Intelligence Agent Attache -> Cannon Training I suppose. This one hurts to lose because there's no great substitute

• Boimler Effect is the hard one to give up. Scrounge for it if you can

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• The only change that I'd think would optimize this further is swapping Vaulting Ambition for Pride of Mol'rihan IF you were playing a Romulan. Since I'm not, that's not an option here. I suppose Ruin of our Enemies would be a replacement as well but it's fickle in that you must land the killing blow to stack it.

Budget Tweaks:

• Dropping Vaulting Ambition is the obvious choice. If I didn't already have a Styx on this toon, there's no way I would have slotted it or pursued it. Much cheaper alternatives are the aforementioned Pride of Mol'Rihan on a Romulan, or else Promise of Ferocity. Improved Critical Systems would be a little bit wasted but is an option. 

Notes:

Vaulting Ambition was barely better than Promise of Ferocity or ICS by about 1% final DPS, assuming a 15% uptime on Vaulting Ambition. If I needed to cut cost to stay below budget, it'd be an easy change to make.

Miscellaneous

This ship uses Photonic Officer with the Boimler Effect as its primary cooldown mechanism. As evidenced from the chart above, without Boimler Effect triggering, this build will not have most of its powers on global cooldown. Thankfully, with a high number of short rotation powers (10 over a 15 second rotation), there's an 92% chance or higher of at least 1 activation of the trait during a rotation.

LINK TO CDR SHEET