I.G.S. Jhamel
Andorian Chimesh Pilot Escort
Build Overview and Focus
Last Updated December 2023
The goal of this build was to combine an Antiproton Scatter Volley build on Escort with Pilot abilities whereas previously I had been using that weapon set with a Temporal build. I chose Antiproton for the visuals and variety. There's nothing particularly special about Antiproton in terms of cannon builds and arguably something in the Phaser or Disruptor flavors would have been more powerful, but I wanted to build a pure cannon escort with not a lot of other frills.
Platform selection
I chose the Chimesh because it was a relatively accessible C-store platform with 5 fore weapons and Pilot abilities. Is Pilot optimal? No, that'd be Miracle Worker or Intel, but I didn't have a ton of ships with Pilot seating in my roster and wanted to really embrace the flavor of a speedy escort. It's especially potent after the 2023 Pilot Revamp.
Flavor/Theme Choices
Antiproton weapons
Human captain
Varied bridge crew
Variety of Antiproton subtypes for color variety
This is a midrange build with numerous C-store purchases up to 20K Zen and a 600M EC/200 Lobi limit but no lockbox ship or promo ships involved. See the build costs page for more detail.
Namesake
Jhamel was a female Aenar who was able to stop a Romulan plot involving drone ships with holoemitters to stir up strife between other Alpha Quadrant races while working in cooperation with Andorian Guard Commander Shran as well as Human Captain Jonathan Archer. Her heroism in persuading her captive brother to sabotage the drone ships telepathically stopped the plot and was one of the instrumental incidents leading to the founding of the Federation. This vessel honors her legacy of heroism and service.
Meta Analysis
ISA: 274K
ISE: 947K
HSE: 722K
Budget Analysis
Using the EZRA rubric, this build would cost 502 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.
Elite Captain/T6X upgrade, all fleet unlocks
6 T6 C-store ships (Arbiter, Chimesh, Shran, Endeavour, Valiant, Ghemor, Bozeman)
2 Event consoles from ships (Protomatter Field Projector, DOMINO, 1 Event weapon from a ship (Soliton Wave Impeller)
1 Lockbox console, 7 Lobi/lockbox traits, 5 non-standard doffs, 2 lockbox weapons, 3 lockbox powers
Reputation + fleet gear; all Mk XV Epic
0 Lockbox, Legendary, R&D Promotional or Lobi ships
Change History
December 2023: Added T6X2 upgrade, Ship of the Line, Kobayashi Maru Transponder, and another Locator. Was at 241K ISA / 745K ISE / 517K HSE
March 2023: Dropped Tactical Team and downgraded Attack Pattern Beta and Kemocite; up-ranked Emergency Power to Weapons and added Directed Energy Modulation. Dropped CrtD-boosting Projectile Weapons officer for weapon power cost-reducing Systems Engineer. Replaced Alliance Tactics with Tachyon Net Drones. Dropped Kobayashi Maru for Target Lock Batteries. Was at 240K ISA/535K ISE/517K HSE
December 2022: Posted build
Build Breakdown
Of course this build is very focused on energy damage and the chart reflects that. That said, with Pilot Maneuvers, Fly Her Apart, and other speed-boosting parts of the build, it's also very nimble.
Skills
Skill Unlocks
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
Single points in Hull Restoration/Hull Capacity are low opportunity cost for relatively high survivability gains. Since I need skill points elsewhere, only 1 here for those.
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 is using Gravity Well and other control-based abilities, having both points in ControlX boosts those as well as the Fragment of AI Tech trait adds value. I take a single point in DrainX to help resist drains and two points in EPG for boosting the Exotics like Gravity Well on this build.
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.
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. Temporal Operative would be another viable choice for primary.
Build
Starship Weapons
Notes
This ship’s primary role is Energy DPS. Its primary weapon systems are Antiproton Cannons of various flavors. I went for a variety of cannon subtypes purely for visuals. I love seeing the different red-purple cannon splats of various shapes, frequencies, and sizes. That’s why there’s a Ba’ul and a Delphic cannon in there. The build would function just as well if not better with regular Antiproton for all the slots. I avoided Radiant weapons because they are significantly different in color and they don’t benefit from any other haste except their own. Weapon flavor is Antiproton because they look cool. Energy type doesn’t matter (much). Could have just as easily been any other type.
Mods: Recent investigations on this particular ship using the energy weapon calculator showed that taking [CrtD] mods wherever possible was a net win. This is not universally true.
Torpedoes: I wanted a torpedo for immersion purposes. Two, the right torpedo, when used with Super Charged Weapons, is NOT a DPS loss compared to beam arrays. The Dark Matter torpedo provides a fantastic 2-piece bonus in addition to fueling Super Charged Weapons.
Starship Equipment
Notes:
This ship is sufficiently nimble that the Prevailing Regalia engines are not worth it. If I felt I needed more defensive tools, the Stamets-Tilly 2-piece is also an option, using it over the fleet core. Instead, we'll go for max offensive stats from deflector, engine, and warp core.
Starship Consoles
Set Bonuses
Notes:
Not many set bonuses are particularly good for antiproton exclusively (aside from the Ba'ul 2-piece Lobi set, which is more for tanks), so instead this build focuses on generically good bonuses and consoles rather than sets. The only set bonus is the near-ubiquitous Lorca's Ambition 2-piece for 25% Critical Severity.
Alternate Energy types:
Obviously all weapons would need to be replaced except the torpedo. Alliance Tactics is the only console to replace. Keep D.O.M.I.N.O. and replace the fleet consoles with the appropriate flavor.
Meta-Focused Tweaks:
Regular antiproton cannons are probably a touch better than some of the alternate flavors I have here.
Budget Tweaks:
Regular antiproton cannons are just fine here, don't need the fancy lockbox ones
D.O.M.I.N.O. -> M6 Computer from the T3 Perseus
Protomatter Field Projector -> Ablative Hazard Shielding from the Arbiter is a good choice. If you don't have it, Trellium-D from the "Ragnarok" mission is okay
Alliance Tactics -> Voth Phase Decoy from the Phoenix Box
Drop the Kobayashi Maru for a Red Matter Capacitor from the Phoenix Box
Bridge Officers
Meta Notes
Fly Her Apart is surprisingly good. Turn it on, leave it on, enjoy your 20% Cat2 all damage at 10/25 uptime. As much as people go nuts about Mixed Armaments Synergy, this is comparable. Of course, Miracle Worker has other things going for it besides Fly Her Apart, but if you're going to run Pilot on an offensive build, this one is pretty good. The self-damage can be negated via the Discovery drive train 2-piece
I was using Tactical Team and Engineering Team, but while they work as low-budget alternatives to Distributed Targeting and Deploy Construction Shuttle Wing, they have a longer activation time that will prevent anything else from occurring while they are initializing (1 second). At higher levels of DPS, this is an appreciable loss so I opted to drop both powers. That said, if you find yourself blowing up a lot from having one shield facing down, swap Tactical Team back in over Distributed Targeting.
Traits
Personal Traits
Meta-Focused Tweaks:
If you want to go full glass-cannon with unlimited budget:
Ablative Shell -> Duelist's Fervor
Give Your All -> Adaptive Offense
Budget Tweaks:
If low budget, (try and keep the ones at the bottom)
Ablative Shell -> Redirected Armor Plating
Context Is For Kings -> Operative
Terran Targeting Systems -> Point-Blank Shot
Fragment of AI Tech -> Innocuous
Intelligence Agent Attache -> Techie
Boimler Effect -> Photonic Capacitor
Self-Modulating Fire -> Accurate
Starship Traits
Meta-Focused Tweaks:
These are pretty well the best traits at this price point. If your budget is unlimited
Strike From Shadows -> Terran Goodbye
Budget Tweaks:
If low budget, (try and keep the ones at the bottom)
Drop Ship of the Line (T6X2 upgrade)
Drop Super Charged Weapons (T6X upgrade)
Improved Critical Systems -> Promise of Ferocity at the C-store level, Programmable Matter Enhancements otherwise (Exchange)
Strike From Shadows -> Improved Command Frequency (Command specialization)
Calm Before the Storm -> Unconventional Tactics (Strategist specialization)
Withering Barrage > Improved Predictive Algorithms (Intelligence specialization)
This build basically won't work without Emergency Weapon Cycle but if you really can't swing it, try Arrest from the Constable specialization to help fill cooldowns as presumably you won't have Boimler Effect either.
Notes:
Improved Critical Systems was superior to Promise of Ferocity or Piercing Projectiles, but it was very close. If you don't have ICS, consider one of those at the C-store level. Entwined Tactical Matrices can be used to replace Withering Barrage, just make sure you stagger out your Torp Spread and Cannon Scatter Volley instead of stacking them.
Reputation Traits
Active Reputation
Duty Officers
Meta-Focused Tweaks:
If you're truly space-rich
The Andorian Conn Officer is pretty bad and either a crit-boosting Projectile Weapons Officer or maybe a Matter-Antimatter Specialist that boosts CtrlX would be better. I'm keeping it for flavor on this Andorian ship.
Budget Tweaks:
If low budget
Replace Energy Weapon Officers with a Maintenance Engineer (Exocomp) from the Phoenix Box and the Mirror Hakeev Astrometric Scientist also from the Phoenix Box.
Replace the Systems Engineer with a Warp Core Engineer (chance of power on Emergency Power ability)
Replace the Conn Officer with a Fabrication Engineer from K-13 that gives a chance of boosting skills on use of Ensign abilities
Miscellaneous
Cooldowns
This ship manages cooldowns via Photonic Officer I and The Boimler Effect. Note that with a good Photonic Officer timing and Calm Before the Storm, as shown here, I barely need the Boimler Effect, but those aren't always on good timing cycles so it's mostly to fill gaps. Within a 10 second rotation, I have a 92% chance of triggering Boimler so cooldowns should be solid here.That said, I do not recommend slotting the Boimler Effect as your only CDR source. The chart gets weird in that Construction Wing Shuttle has a longer duration than its cooldown so it kind of breaks.
Ship Stats
Keybinds
Keybinds are essential to how I fly this ship. Since my background is in RTS games and MOBAs, I'm very comfortable with using my left hand to both fly and activate keys, but I basically keep this one to a single spam bar.
Tactical chain: (Spacebar) Scatter Volley III, Kemocite, Deploy Construction Wing, Emergency Power to Engines, Directed Energy Modulation, Torpedo Spread, Photonic Officer, Attack Pattern Beta, Emergency Power to Weapons, Intelligence Fleet, D.O.M.I.N.O, Energy Amplifiers, Target Lock Batteries, Scattering Field, Science Fleet
Everything else is activated manually. Note that Fly Her Apart is a toggle and spamming it does not lead to good things as you will turn it off before the buff is fully charged.
Piloting
I don't do much prebuffing on ISE aside from Kobayashi Maru and Emergency Power to Weapons, hitting Energy Amplifiers and [spacebar] as I fly in. Use Fly Her Apart about 5-10 seconds before countdown ends. I use my big buffs and keep spacebar cycling at the first group. On ISA, I’d save the big buffs until the left generator. Next, I hit Evasive Maneuvers and fly to the left side, activating remaining buffs and keeping the tactical chain going. Target the generator with Sensor Scan and position to hit the smaller transformers as well. With a cannon build, you often will not be at optimal point-blank range if it helps hit three targets with Scatter Volley instead. This is a trade worth making.
As the generator is about to die, turn and engage the ball of Nanite Spheres, aiming to use Refracting Tetryon Cascade and Diversionary Tactics. I will often use a Reinforcements cooldown here as well if I could not activate Fleet Support earlier. Activate Evasive Maneuvers and fly to the right side, rinse and repeat with as with the left. I try to save my big active heals for this part. As it's dying, I turn back on the gateway and FIRE EVERYTHING!
I try to stay so that my cannons can hit the gateway and any nearby spheres. Priority targets for Gravity Well are initial Tac Cube (ISE only), left generator, right generator, gateway, Tac Cube. On ISE, you generally get initial Tac Cube, left or right generator, tac cube. If it's a fast run, avoid using Gravity Well on Generator and save for Gateway with Quantum Singularity Manipulation. Since I am using Intelligence as primary specialization, I want to look for flanking angles on the big targets. These are indicated by a little arrow on the targeted enemy's health graphic. When the arrow points DOWN, you're flanking.
Parse Breakdown
Parse notes from record ISE.
Antiproton Cannon Scatter Volley III: 522.6K
Dark Matter Laced Quantum Torpedo: 95.5K
Regular antiproton cannon shots: 72.1K
Soliton Wave Impeller: 67.8K
Kemocite: 49.3K
Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity: 34.3K
Digital Compilation Field: 31.9K
Concentrate Firepower III: 14.4K
Delta Beacon: 13.7K
Tachyon Net Drones: 12.7K
Gravity Well I: 12.5K
Photonic Fleet: 8.9K (this is probably the highest I've ever seen this)
Distributed Targeting: 4K
Aftershock Gravity Well: 2.9K DPS
Ba'ul Refraction: 1.3K
Counter-Offensive: 0.1K
Refracting Tetryon Cascade: 0K - misfired
Weapon crits were around 80%, flanking about 30% for energy weapons. Could've been better but I'm happy with the overall results.
Portability
There are plenty of Commander Pilot ships with 5 fore weapons, so your options are plentiful. Obviously the cross-faction equivalents of the Chimesh (Nemosin, Ikkabar) would translate seamlessly. Beyond that, the Icarus and its cross-faction equivalents could port this build with a little shuffling of boff seats, downgrading Emergency Power to Weapons by one rank. At higher price tiers, you could also fit this build on a Miradorn Raider or Kelvin D4X, dropping a pair of aft weapons.