U.S.S. Ascendant

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 offtanks, taking two points in Hull Restoration/Hull Capacity helps survivability. Increased Hull Capacity boosts Tyler's Duality as well

  • 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 build uses Quantum Phase torpedoes which scale with Drain Expertise, I take both points in DrainX. A single point in Control Expertise powers the Fragment of AI Trait on builds that use it on this toon. (Not this one due to budgetary reasons)

  • 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

Torpedoes: The torpedo is not just here for immersion. It hits very hard while not taking weapon power away from a very power-hungry build. 8 energy weapons on this budget on a tactical captain will be difficult to maintain power levels while using Beam Overload. 

Mixing in DBBs and Cannons: Despite "don't mix weapons" being conventional wisdom for good reason, I've chosen to mix in the Wide-Angle DBB and two turrets. The reason why is that this build lacks the power management resources to effectively use eight beams, so a torpedo is needed. Since the tactical seating is so limited anyway, we'd rather set up the build to fly nose-on than try and alternate between broadsiding and nose-on. On a 4/4 ship using beams, that means you're running 2 turrets in the back. It's not ideal, but as with many things involved in building a 4/4 T5 ship on a very thin budget, there are compromises that have to be made. 

Mods - these don't really matter at this point and you shouldn't spend dilithium re-engineering yet so they are not listed. Mods are default for all weapons. Save it for after Mk XV. 

Leveling - The Terran Beam is from Tier 6 of the Terran Reputation and the Wide Angle Heavy Dual Beam Bank is from T5 Discovery. While you're leveling those reputations, Dual Beam Banks from Sunrise at Mk XII Very Rare are serviceable substitutes. The Gamma weapons likewise are from Tier 6 Gamma reputation. The Trilithium turret can replace that in the interim. You can get a Very Rare Phaser Turret Mk XII from Sunrise also to fill in for the Heavy Bio-Molecular Turret until that reputation completes. 

Firing Order

1. The WA DBB also has a stacking damage buff over time the longer it is in combat, hence it's first. 

2. The torpedo needs to be early in the cycle to stack Super Charged Weapons / proc ETM. Plus its proc does shield damage, so hitting earlier in the cycle is better. 

3. The Quantum Phase beam is next by default

4. The Terran beam is last because it scales with the target's missing health and the target that I've already hit with the other weapons should be lower health. Maybe that logic is flawed, but that's why I ordered them I way I did.

Notes:

Drive Train: We're starting off cheaply, with the Bajor 2-piece providing some Cat1 Phaser Damage as well as a hefty power boost from the Bajor Core and the Discovery 2-piece providing some regeneration. The Bajor Core's passive will teach you to fly better since its power drain benefit only occurs within 2 km of targets, also benefitting the Point Blank Shot trait and general energy DPS. If you see swirls coming off the enemy ships to yours, you are close enough. If you're not, get closer. 

The Discovery 3-piece does not perform well on a ship such a low amount of hull hit points and will unnecessarily draw threat. There are better options but they generally involve fleet gear. 

If you have access to fleet gear, the colony deflector used on builds like our Arbiter is a good replacement and an Elite Fleet Plasma-Integrated Warp Core from the Fleet Spire are better choices; this will necessitate buying the Stamets-Tilly Engines to keep that 2-piece, or you can switch to Prevailing Regalia Fortified Impulse Engines (aka Competitive Engines) for more speed. Another choice would be Romulan Prototype Combat Impulse Engines for the small amount of weapon critical severity. 

Leveling: While leveling Discovery reputation, I would slot the Preeminent Warp Core from the "Melting Pot" mission and Regenerative Crystal Shield from "Para Pacem." Bajor Defense 4-piece is also an option, but that is a lot of runs of that mission. 

Notes: 

• Alternate energy types: Jay has a similar build mostly built around cannons using Disruptor on the Vorcha. The other energy types are not as well supported via mission rewards and reputation so we don't recommend them for starters. While any energy type can be made to be very effective, it's more expensive to do so. In particular, Antiproton and Plasma shine best with Lobi set bonuses, and Tetryon is somewhat lackluster in general. 

  • Polaron could be made to work:

    • Replace QP torp, Omni, and Phaser Relay with Morphogenic 3-piece set ("Home"). 

    • Advanced Inhibiting Turret and crafted Omni switches to Polaron

    • Replace 8472 turret with Chronometric Turret ("Time and Tide")

    • Replace the Bajor 2-piece with the Jem'Hadar Deflector and Engines, taking the Discovery core instead since the Jem'Hadar set has no core ("Operation Gamma")

    • Replace Counter Command Relay with Chronometric Capacitor ("Time and Tide")

    • Replace Reinforced Armaments with Bellum EPS Flow Regulator (Discovery Reputation Store)

    • Replace Quantum Phase Converter Piezo-Electric Focuser (Lukari Reputation)

    • Remaining Quantum Phase and Terran weapons shift to Lukari Adv. Piezo-Polaron Beam, Chronometric Polaron Beam Array, and Polaron Dual Beam Bank ("The Search")

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• If you'd like to amp up this build some in terms of gear, picking up either Vulnerability Locator [Phaser] or Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold [Phaser] consoles and replacing the Phaser Relay is an obvious win (shifting other universal consoles around to occupy that slot if using Isomag). I would also replace the Zero Point Energy Conduit with a second one if you can manage it. 

• Upgrading weapons to Mk XV is also going to be significantly beneficial to DPS output. Gilding is not essential at this point but for some weapons like the Terran beam that will be on an endgame build, not a bad idea if you have the resources. 

• General upgrade priority: Weapon mark > Console mark > Engine/Shield mark > Weapon Rarity > Console Rarity > Everything else

• Significant improvements to consoles likely come with C-store purchases and flying a T6 ship that offers more consoles, so we'll save that for the Economy tier version of this build. 

Meta Notes

• For this budget, you're unlikely to get a better boff layout. Directed Energy Modulation is not great but there's little better for a second LtCmdr Engineering seat.

Notes

• These are the best traits at this price point. The first two Lockbox traits to prioritize would be Intelligence Agent Attache and A Good Day to Die (the latter only for Tactical captains). You will need to focus on Beams R&D and Engineering R&D for two of them and it takes a while, so get started! 

• Note that we don't slot Operative because your boffs provide a non-stacking copy of it already.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• The first C-store trait to pick up for any energy build is Emergency Weapon Cycle from the Arbiter/Morrigu/Kurak. Players with larger budgets will want to consider the Legendary Battlecruiser bundle which contains several other valuable traits and consoles for energy builds, as well as superior energy DPS platforms. 

• Onboard Dilithium Recrystallizer is why we're running Engine Batteries and high engine power, and is also fed by A2B, the Warp Core Engineer doff, and the Bajor Core. You should be able to keep the buff active fairly often.

Miscellaneous

This ship manages cooldowns via A2B. It's fallen out of vogue on higher end builds due to needing more build space and precious aux power, but it's cheap/free to set up with a little grinding and effective, especially on a ship with so much engineering seating. 

Link to CDR sheet for this build