U.S.S. Capitoline

Palatine Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Explorer

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Eph289's Builds

Build Overview and Focus

Last Updated January 2025

The 2024 STOBETTER initiative to post builds of varying budgetary tiers provided an opportunity to bring back an old friend: the Palatine class. In this Economy tier, we build with a few C-store ships and a handful of things from the Exchange, but we're going to eschew anything from Lobi Store or any expensive ships and try and keep the costs down. While this isn't my highest DPS build on this character, even with a small budget I'm able to put out more than enough DPS to do well on a variety of Elite TFOs without sacrificing all the survivability.

Platform Selection

Why the Palatine? There are a few things that I considered at this budgetary level to determine the ship selection choice. Exotic builds don't place emphasis on Engineering seating, and prefer Intel or Temporal seating especially at this price point. What they really want is lots of science seats to maximize secondary deflector triggers and Spore-Infused Anomalies procs. Those two, combined with some well-chosen torpedoes, are going to do the heavy lifting on an exotic build at this price point. Having full-spec Temporal is even better for the Support Config option that grants 40 CtrlX, extra Exotic damage, and +10 max aux power. There are other types of builds hybridized with kinetic torpedo builds that like Command (we call them TorpSci) but that's not what we're building here. Having a hangar or scout ship mastery (flanking, 15% CrtD) is also nice. If we put all those factors into a nice chart across all the standalone C-store purchases, you get something like this:

Squint really hard if you prefer the Klingon or Romulan cross-faction equivalents. I wouldn't consider all of those factors on the chart equal, but for an initial winnowing of the field it's not a bad calibration. You can see that's why we're not using ships like the Pathfinder, Scryer, Nautilus, or Augur--too much tactical seating and no usable trait or console. At this price point, we understand not everyone is sitting on a large stable of consoles and traits to plug into a ship, so we need to be efficient with our purchases.

A couple of other notes that aren't in the chart: the Damar is a brick. I have and fly one, and it takes some getting used to in terms of handling. The Equinox is the exact opposite: twitchy and squishy. I wouldn't recommend it for a newer player, especially since its Pilot seating wants you to get close and/or damage yourself, and it doesn't synergize well with Spore-Infused Anomalies. They're both fun ships that can do some unique things but not great for someone new to the economy style.

For the particular style of build that I'm going to illustrate here and to understand why I chose the Palatine over the Eternal, we need to dive into some more nuance. In terms of console and starship trait, I can safely say that both the Eternal's and Palatine's starship traits aren't something you want to slot. Heavy Tachyon Mine (Palatine) is quite underwhelming and Particle Feedback Loop (Eternal) only applies its hull penetation bonus to weapon damage. That's not our stop, folks. Console-wise, the Causal Anchor from the Eternal has fairly mediocre damage from its active and has great passives (15% Exotic damage, 2% Exotic Critical Chance). The Palatine's console has a much better active if you can aim it correctly and similar but slightly worse passives (15% Exotic damage and 10% Flight Turn Rate). I'd call it a wash personally on that front except for one thing: the Palatine's console is unlocked. The Eternal's console is only usable on 31st-century ships. Chalk that up to a win for the Palatine.

For the particular style of build that I'm going to illustrate here and to understand why I chose the Palatine over the Eternal, we need to dive into some more nuance. The Eternal's full Temporal spec + hangar is a great pairing that makes it very new player friendly. However, since we're limiting our budget, this is where having a LtCmdr Engineering seat holds it back compared to the LtCmdr Tactical on the Palatine. We're going to be using Entwined Tactical Matrices to spam out as many Gravimetric and Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo spreads as possible, and the Morphogenic set to gain stats from using a cannon, a beam, and a torpedo firing mode. Sometimes we call this subvariety of exotic build "TacSci." It falls off at higher budgets against some of the higher-end traits and consoles, but combining that with the secondary deflector and Spore-Infused Anomalies gives us three efficient pillars to build around. That means we want three tactical seats. No more . . . no less. Four shalt thou not count and neither count thou two excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.

The Eternal's seating means that you could take the LtCommander universal as Tactical, use the Lt Tac/Temporal seating for all Temporal and be fine . . . but there's one problem. That leaves us 5 science bridge officer slots between the Commander and Ensign seats, which is going to constrain our boff power choices. We'd like to fit Gravity Well, Photonic Officer, Destabilizing Resonance Beam, Very Cold in Space, a Tractor Beam power, Tyken's Rift, Structural Analysis, but the problem is, we only have space for 5 blue buttons. Sure, we can pick up another Ensign Temporal power on the Lt seat, but there's not much great there compared to higher ranks. We're stuck with LtCommander Engineering, which brings Emergency Power to Auxiliary III as its best slot, and frankly that's not a great seat.

On the Palatine, everything slots neatly into place. We can fit all 7 science abilities nicely and still have room for Chronometric Inversion Field, which is the most synergistic temporal power for what we're building. We have our 3 tac seats and 2 eng seats to fill out the build. It's much less pinched due to better boff layout. Thus, even though the Eternal has that sweet full Temporal spec, I chose the Palatine because it brought more blue buttons and at higher ranks.

Why an Engineer?

I have done all my Exotic builds on an engineer. Even though it's not the best synergy, it’s a strong counterargument to the idea that engineers can’t do DPS/can’t do exotic builds effectively. (Note that effective is not the same as optimal; Tac Rom Alien still wins that argument). At first it was kind of a happy accident, now it's here to prove a point: Engineers can still do silly-high DPS with Exotics.

The Engineer is the weakest for exotic builds by about 5-10% final DPS at this level of performance. Tactical captains using exotic builds benefit from Tactical Fleet, Fire On My Mark, and Attack Pattern Alpha, and Go Down Fighting. Science captains benefit from Scattering Field, Science Fleet, and Sensor Scan as well as the utility of Subnucleonic Beam. In contrast, the Engineer has only one useful offensive ability for an exotic build - EPS Power Transfer. That said, it's a heck of a buff with +30 current and max aux power. Nadion Inversion and Intrusive Energy Redirection are largely wasted on an exotic build (although the latter procs Drain Infection). The Engineering captain’s other abilities are largely focused around durability, but the personal trait EPS Manifold Efficiency does allow us to max out the Auxiliary subsystem without taking EPtA or significant gear investments.

I have tried to make up for the lack of offensive captain powers by making it fairly glass, allowing the engineering captain's abilities to keep me alive. Thus, all of the console slots are devoted to offensive purposes. If you want to build a similar ship on a Science or Tactical captain, be my guest.

Flavor/Theme Choices

Hull Image Refractors console for survivability
Varied bridge crew vs all Superior Romulan Operatives/Pirates
Engineering career
Human captain

This is an economy build, with limited C-store purchases up to 10K Zen and 100M EC limit, but no Lobi, lockbox ship or promotional ship items. See the build costs page for more detail.

Namesake

The Capitoline is one of the seven hills of Rome and the source of the English word capitol. It was famous for having several enormous temples, and was the ceremonial and geographical center of Rome during the height of its power. The hill adjoined the Roman forum and later became the location of a piazza designed by Michelangelo. The Capitoline has long had a legacy of combining status with elegance and beauty, a legacy to which this ship aspires.

Meta Analysis

ISA: 219K (solo, deathless)
ISE: 818K (premade)
HSE: 703K (premade)

Budget Analysis

Using the EZRA rubric, this build would cost 125 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.

T6X upgrade, all fleet unlocks
4 T6 C-store ships (Somerville, Gagarin, Palatine, Trailblazer or cross-faction equivalents)
2 Lockbox consoles, 1 lockbox personal trait, 1 lockbox starship trait, 1 lockbox bridge officer ability
Reputation + fleet gear; all Mk XV Epic
0 R&D Promotional ship or Lockbox ships

Change History

January 2025: Updated build to remove dependence on event item. Replaced Dragonsblood Flame Reactor with Decentralized Immunity. Replaced Five Magicks with Weaponized Exotic Particles. Replaced Imperial Rift set with Temporal Defense set. Was at 860K ISE, 731K HSE.
February 2024: Posted re-worked build.

Build Breakdown

This ship is heavy on exotic damage but still ventures into some build spaces with supportive abilities, hangar bays, torpedo damage, as well as concessions to survivability. The use of a human Engineering captain and a varied crew can be considered a thematic choice.

Skills

Skill Unlocks

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.

Build

Starship Weapons

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.

Starship Equipment

Notes:

Drive Train: The Imperial Rift 2-piece is best-in-slot for exotic builds so if you have it, use that instead. The 4-piece is competitive, but not quite as good IMO unless you can guarantee a good use of the active. The Crystal Shield can be replaced but there's not much better. I took the Temporal Defense 2-piece to keep the build cheap and not dependent on event items.

Hangar pets: You could swap the Peregrines for any other better fighter you prefer. Elite Type 7 Shuttles from the Ahwahnee would be the best. These are fairly good and widely available.

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

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.
If you have the Proton Eruptor from the Lo'Lah or the Dragonsblood Flame Reactor, both are very strong choices.
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, but if you need to drop a C-store ship you might try Chronometric Capacitor over Decentralized Immunity.

Bridge Officers

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.

Traits

Personal Traits

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

Starship Traits

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. This build doesn't really work without Entwined Tactical Matrices or Spore-Infused Anomalies. That said, if you have access to the Hysperian, take Five Magicks over Unconventional Tactics.

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Most doffs for exotics are either marginal or extremely expensive. Liberated Borg doffs or crit-boosting Projectile Weapons Officers would be the next upgrade and that's exactly what I use on my premium exotic builds.

Budget Tweaks:

If low budget

These are all cheap. If you don't have access to the K-13 doffs, I would slot one more Projectile Weapons officer to reload torps and don't worry about unlocking the last slot.

Miscellaneous

Cooldowns

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

Ship Stats

Keybinds

With as many abilities and synergizing concepts as this ship employs, an efficient control scheme is essential. There are many ways to set up such a ship, so I don't pretend to assume that my way is superior.

[Spacebar] is my spambar. It includes Auxiliary to Structural, Structural Analysis, Fire at Will, Tractor Beam, Nadion Inversion, Brace for Impact , Photonic Officer, Torpedo Spread, Scatter Volley, and Emergency Power to Engines, as well as Exotic Particle Floods and Targeting Locks.
[1] is my exotic combo: Gravity Well, Chronometric Inversion Field, Destabilizing Resonance Beam I, Tractor Beam, Tyken's Rift, and Cold in Space.

I also bind "Fire all weapons" to right mouse.

Everything else is manually triggered.

Videos

This first one is not this ship, but covers general piloting tips for this build type on ISE

Piloting

ISA/ISE

Pre-buff the spambar prior to countdown (in PUGs) or prior to launch call (premade). You want to have your firing modes stacking the Morphogenic set and Aux to Structural stacking the Research Lab consoles. Hit the first group with basic Exotic combos, leading with Chronometric Inversion Field. On ISE, use EPS Power Transfer and big buffs here as well. Next, hit Evasive Maneuvers and fly to the left side, using any remaining big buffs. I tend to target the Assimilator first, and switch targets when it's at about 20% health. Target the generator with Tyken's Rift and whatever other exotic powers are available along with another torpedo spread and the rest of the consoles: Dark Matter Anomaly, Delphic Tear, along with Relocate Mines. Save GW As the generator is about to die, turn, bypass the spheres and fly to the right side. Can use a Reinforcements cooldown here as well. In general, Delta > Nimbus.

Activate Evasive Maneuvers and Deuterium and fly to the right side, rinse and repeat with as with the left. Save big active heals for this part in ISA because PUG teams don't always fly over to right generator quickly. As it's dying, turn back on the gateway. Evasive Maneuvers might be available here as well to go even faster. Activate Quantum Singularity Manipulation and FIRE EVERYTHING! Close to 5 km and drop the Anti-time bubble and your third GW (second on a fast run) with the boost from Quantum Singularity Manipulation. Another Relocate Mines should be used here to pull in the mines. With any luck, the 400+ CtrlX Grav Well will also suck in the remaining spheres. All the universal console clickies should be available here as well. Finish off the tac cube and that should be it. On a slower run, I can often get a third round of big buffs and console actives on the gate or tac cube if I use them again on right transformer.

HSE

You want to have your firing modes stacking the Morphogenic set and Aux to Structural stacking the Research Lab consoles. Drop your opening salvo with every long cooldown buff on one of the first Cubes with the goal being to pull the spheres in as well. Use the 5 minute powers here. Stay close to your tank and be prepared to drop a Bio-Molecular Shield Generator to help them out if needed. Taking down the individual cubes and ships farther back in the formation might take a little longer. Another trick to be careful of is to avoid triggering both DRB and Structural Analysis at the same time/target since the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector doesn't stack. The -DRR is good and does stack between them, but the DSD is so powerful that we want to spread that debuff out further. Once the queen's guards are down move to the large dreadnoughts, focusing fire with your team. Console actives are likely coming back at this time so use as available. Chronometric Inversion Field is best saved in case one of the pickles activates Feedback Pulse; ditto with the queen though a premade team should have a science captain to cleanse it. Since your damage doesn't really fall off with distance, staying more than 6 km from the queen will prevent deaths to Aceton Field. Make sure you're using Relocate Mines on large, healthy targets as it's available as well as your fleet summons and batteries!

Parse Breakdown

Numbers from record ISE.

Gravimetric Torpedo: 147.6K
Deteriorating Secondary Deflector: 116.5K
Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo: 77.5K
Very Cold In Space: 37.3K
Elite Peregrine Fighters: 35.3K
Spore Infused Anomalies: 26.4K
Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity: 24.7K
Chronometric Inversion Field: 24K
Delta Beacon: 21.1K
Gravity Well: 20.2K
Fek'Ihri Torment: 20.1K
Concentrate Firepower: 19.1K (from another player)
Wide Angle Heavy Dual Beam Bank: 18.1K
Micro Dark Matter Anomaly: 17.3K
Entropic Rider: 16.7K
Digital Compilation Field: 16.7K
Destabilizing Resonance Beam: 14.8K
Delphic Tear: 12.1K
Morphogenic Energy Weapon: 11.6K
Omega Kinetic Shearing: 9.7K
Radiation Bombardment: 8.7K
Tyken's Rift: 8K
Fleet Support: 7.3K
Tractor Beam: 7.1K
Drain Infection: 5.5K
Plasma Fire: 1.5K
Dyson Proton Weapon: 1.3K
Refracting Tetryon Cascade: 0.3K
Distributed Targeting: 0.2K (from another player)

Weapon crits were around 50%, exotics were generally higher, up into the 90s. The team composition for this run was a support tank, a support, this ship, and a lower-DPS CSV build.

Portability

As discussed in the opening, you could make a similar build on an Eternal but it would take some painful tradeoffs. If you have access to the Dranuur, that ship could also seemlessly take this build, just dropping the hangar. The Compiler Dreadnought would be another intriguing option, dropping Aux to SIF for Science Team. It would gain another weapon and I would put the Dark Matter Torpedo Launcher in front, and pick up an Advanced Inhibiting Turret to augment the aft weapon slots. Lastly, you could run this build on the Legendary Glenn, again dropping the hangar.

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