U.S.S. Capitoline

Notes

• Since this is an exotic build, using an ultimate is not really worth it. The Tactical ultimate only benefits weapon damage, which is a very low percentage on this build and the other 2 ults are garbage.

• Engineering skills

  • Two points in Hull Restoration/Hull Capacity are low opportunity cost for relatively high survivability gains. 

  • 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.

  • I take a single point in EPS Power Transfer to recover power levels faster after drains or Full Impulse, but it's low impact on this build. 

  • Since I don't want to use Emergency Power to Auxiliary to reach a max of 130 Aux, I take extra points in Defensive, Aux Subsystem Performance and Warp Core Potential to cap out power. Need EPS Manifold Efficiency to make this work but that's a good choice anyway.

• 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. 

  • Since Control Expertise and Exotic Particle Generators are primary offensive stats for this build, I want those maxed out and take Control Amplification. Drain Infection and two points in Drain Expertise add minor benefits. The Drain Expertise is more useful on another build that uses Charged Particle Burst. 

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

• Tactical skills

  • I do use multiple projectiles, so 3 points in Projectile Weapon Training is merited. Energy weapons are a very low contribution; a single point is fine here. I only take 2 points apiece in Hull Pen, Shield Pen, and Weapon Specialization as those only benefit weapons and thus aren't a major damage component. Maxing Weapon Amplification is essential to optimize gains from the Imperial Rift 2-piece set, which scales Exotic CrtD based on that stat.

  • I like taking 2 points in defense. Defense is a small contribution to avoiding incoming damage but also helps reduce enemy crits when you're not moving. I only take 1 point in accuracy; weapon damage and output is not a focus on this build. 

  • 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.

Notes

This ship’s primary role is Exotic DPS using bridge officer powers, exotic torpedoes, and other non-weapon effects. The primary offensive statistics for this ship are the Exotic Particle Generators skill (EPG), Critical Chance (CrtH), Critical Severity (CrtD), Auxiliary power (Aux), +Exotic, Damage Resistance Reduction (DRR), and +Bonus Exotic Damage. Secondary offensive statistics are Control Expertise (CtrlX) and +Projectile Damage as well as Weapon Amplification, since that skill boosts Exotic Critical Severity through use of the Imperial Rift 2-piece. 

The Morphogenic weapons, Dual Beam Bank, and Dyson Proton Weapon are purely there for set bonuses and contribute very little meaningful damage. 

Notes:

Drive Train: The Imperial Rift 2-piece is best-in-slot for exotic builds. The 4-piece is competitive, but not quite as good IMO unless you can guarantee a good use of the active. If it's not available, use the Temporal 2-piece instead. The Crystal Shield can be repalced but there's not much better.

Hangar pets: You could swap the Peregrines for any other better fighter you prefer. These are fairly good and widely available. 

Notes: 

Exotic Subflavors: In my opinion, there are 4 main flavors in the Exotic space right now. All of them are pretty similar overall and all can be combined to a certain extent, but there are subtle differences:

• "Clicky" builds are going to lean more on universal consoles with powerful actives, the Cutting Tractor Beam console to boost damage of those, and the Unconventional Systems trait to reduce cooldowns. This also pretty much forces a lower-cooldown "Control" bridge officer power than only having Gravity Well, so you'll see Tractor Beam/Tractor Beam Repulsors as a mule. The downside is that acquiring all those clickies is expensive and some of them are quite finicky. This is the highest-end sci meta, but is very expensive. We're not focusing on that here. 

• TacSci builds are going to emphasize torpedo spreads with the Entwined Tactical Matrices build. This'll require 1-2 extra boff powers devoted to Tactical powers, possibly with Kemocite or an attack pattern on top and works well on things like the Fleet Nautilus that have excess Tactical seating. This also leads to a synergistic choice of the Morphogenic 3-piece. This build uses a lot of these concepts. 

• DSD builds emphasize the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector more. While most any high-end sci boat will be running Structural Analysis and DRB, this lean goes beyond that. This means you'll see powers like Tyken's Rift or Charged Particle Burst. Mathematically, this means an emphasis on Cat2 damage or -DRR, because the DSD is super-heavily-loaded with Cat1 already. This kinda works better with the clicky focus because Delphic Tear is a thing. This is the cheapest build to start building effective exotics with. This build uses a lot of these concepts. 

• SIA builds emphasize Spore Infused Anomalies above almost all else. This has some hard decisions against a TacSci lean because that's 2-3 boff powers going to Tac that could be going to more anomalies or more triggers for Spore Infused Anomalies. It also has some conflict with the clicky focus because SIA doesn't scale with +Exotic or +Bonus Exotic damage consoles like Delphic Tear. This build uses a lot of these concepts. 

Alternate exotic types: 

Please see my Dranuur for a DSD/SIA-focused ship with a healthy amount of universal consoles. Repeated testing has shown that the DSD/SIA focus is stronger but if you like Tac-Sci, both are very viable up to and above 700K DPS.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• Could slot the Delphic Torpedo and Dark Matter Torpedo in the back, displacing the Morphogenic weapons, with the Delphic AP DBB up front. This brings a 2-piece bonus that provides CrtH/CrtD but the biggest advantage is freeing up a console slot for another powerful Exotic active. These tend to be expensive and the focus of this build isn't console actives.

• Swapping 1 Focuser with a well-aimed Genesis Seed would be a strong damage contributor.

• Replace the Morphogenic console with the Cutting Tractor Beam console

Budget Tweaks:

Most of these consoles are cheap, with the exception of the Dragonsblood Flame Reactor. If you need to replace it, you might try Chronometric Capacitor.

Notes

• Subspace Vortex could replace Tractor Beam if you were willing to spend the cash. Tractor Beam is also a low cooldown Unconventional Trigger so I'm not eager to make that swap. 

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

• The meta would be to fly a Tactical captain, specifically a Romulan Alien. This would result in swapping Grace Under Fire for A Good Day to Die

• Picking up Intelligence Agent Attache would be great if using a science or tactical captain. Engineering captain powers have little effect on exotic damage. 

• Give Your All -> Pseudo-Submission and hope the placate is enough/tank is good

• Other powerful traits are Resonating Payload Modification, Terran Targeting Systems, and Enlightened

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

• Drop Unconventional Systems (Elite Captain unlock)

• Context Is For Kings -> Redirected Armor Plating

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

To increase this build further, there are numerous suggestions, starting with displacing the two from specializations:

• At the C-store level, Strike From Shadows works well on any DPS build and Exotic Modulation is likewise solid. Avoid Checkmate unless you have nothing better.

• If looking at Lobi Store ships, consider Improved Photonic Officer or Ceaseless Momentum. 

Budget Tweaks:

 If lower budget than this, there's really not much you can do. The one possible substitution might be for the Hysperian, which is event-locked. 

• Five Magicks -> Fireball Escape

This build doesn't really work without Entwined Tactical Matrices or Spore-Infused Anomalies

Notes:

Strike From Shadows is nice for the placate/universal damage. It's something of a preference if you'd rather have Strike From Shadows to reduce threat and provide some damage or Improved Gravity Well.

Miscellaneous

This ship uses Photonic Officer as its primary cooldown mechanism. Don't need Boimler Effect or anything else. The Morphogenic set and Improved Tactical Readiness provides enough cooldown reduction to keep all cooldowns at minimum. 

Link to CDR sheet for this build