USS Vishnu

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 with 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 Phaser Dual Beam Banks of various flavors and Beam overload. I went for [Over] beams to fill any gaps in Beam Overload and I already had some gilded crafted ones. 

The off-meta twists on this ship are using Phaser Dual Beam Banks as opposed to cannons, but deep analysis has shown that Beam Overload with DBBs and a turret under CSV1 is more DPS than CRF. 

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. That this ship has Concentrate Firepower III available lends itself further to using the Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo, which is an incredibly powerful torpedo with a non-destructible AOE high yield. The torpedo does more damage than the dual beam banks, but and procs Super Charged Weapons.

On the Cutting Beam versus a Cannon: I use a Cannon turret in the aft to since I have CSV for proccing Cultural Conquest anyway and it allows me me to pilot nose-at-target at all times. I am not huge fan of the Kinetic Cutting Beam as it does not 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) * 1.5 = 9.4 power drained during each shot, even with 2 pieces of gear that reduce power cost (Emergency Weapon Cycle, Fleet Core). The torpedo obviously drains no power and the cannon slightly less. 

[Over] mods: These are not optimal. [Pen] or [CrtD] would marginally better choices but it's less than 1% final calculated DPS and I already had these gilded. If the [Over] proc does go active during any gaps in the Beam Overload cycle, it'll fill the gaps that theoretically shouldn't be there with proper cooldowns and server performance but sometimes happens due to server lag or bad RNG with Boimler. It's a small chance, but also a small enough difference that it's not worth re-gilding a new pair of DBBs to generate. 

Notes:

I'm not using the meta drive train (i.e. Competitive Engines, Discovery 2-piece, Colony Deflector) since I skipped the core for a more offensive one. While no set bonuses are applied, each individual piece (Competitive engines, Tilly shield, Fleet core, Colony deflector) provides a useful benefit in its own right. I'm not a huge fan of the Competitive Engines on everything but this ship really needs them. 

Notes: 

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

Agony Redistributor: This console has had a tumultuous patch history, with being stupidly OP, to being hot garbage, to now somewhere in between. In the first state, STOBETTER refused to slot it because it was blatantly OP/bugged, especially in its interactions with Recursive Shearing. After it was heavily nerfed, it wasn't worth slotting. Now it's somewhere in between and we're okay with using it. I'd like to strongly caveat that this console is only really powerful if you're doing a ton of single-target damage to a target surrounded by weaker targets and is only worth using on Elite. Do not buy the Adamant for this console unless that describes how you frequently play the game. It was less than 10K on ISA; nothing survives 12 seconds against this ship on Advanced.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• This is about as meta-focused as I can get without tossing in a DPRM which I don't have.

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

• The Tachyon Net Drones would be replaced by the Quantum Phase Converter (Sunrise Mission)

Meta Notes

• I could drop Distributed Targeting and down-rank Torpedo Spread to pick up Directed Energy Modulation (with the Systems Engineer to reduce power cost) and Emergency Power to Weapons III. Not sure if that would actually be worth it.

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

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 -> Accurate

• 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 or Universal Designs

Budget Tweaks:

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

• Drop Preferential Targeting (T6X2 upgrade)

• Drop Strike From Shadows (T6X upgrade)

• 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. Cultural Conquest comes with the ship so if you're doing this on a World Razer you have it already.

Miscellaneous

This ship uses a half Auxiliary to Battery cooldown scheme alongside The Boimler Effect. If I can get Auxiliary to Battery to trigger every 15 seconds with Boimler, and I have a 91.8% chance of getting a roll in 15 seconds with a full rotation, then my cooldowns are fine. 

Link to CDR sheet