I.S.S. Bedivere

Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser

Updated: 2023 - 02

Build Overview and Focus

Envisioned as a mirror parity of the U.S.S. Bedivere, The I.S.S. Bedivere is a self centered DPS build, focusing on methods of cooldown that contribute little to the team and instead are used to reduced self buffing consoles like the D.O.M.I.N.O., Dynamic Power Redistributor, Fleet Weapon Accelerator, and a recent addition to my collection, Immolating Phaser Lance.

The Terran Lexington Dreadnought Cruiser has been by far the most requested ship on which to publish a build I've ever witnessed. While I have not been directly contacted myself EPH has received many requests for it.

As you might (or might not) know, I prefer to take my time and craft a quality construction, and that includes builds I publish. As such this has been a longer deliberation on options. I started with a BO build and migrated to FAW and finally settled on CSV.

As another note, this is a mild experiment on learning how to do multiple builds on a single page. Since I acquired a Deimos Pilot Escort around the same time I picked up the Terran Lexington, I've got two different builds for it at two different build cost points. The first is the I.S.S. Bedivere which uses a combination of Boimler and PO to allow for more bridge officer seating dedicated towards including Unconventional Systems triggers to reduce some really expensive consoles. Conversely, the I.S.S. Szilard is a more conventional build running A2B and raw damage.

Build Purpose and Scope

Where the U.S.S. Bedivere is a heavy tank, the I.S.S. Bedivere is pure DPS, focusing solely on damage at nearly any cost (some stuff is just too much to justify for too little payoff, mostly in terms of single character unlocks). This also is a complement to the U.S.S. Bedivere in weapon choice; picking phasers and cannons as opposed to beam arrays.

This is another very expensive ship, rivaling the cost of its sister ship. However, I have constructed a more budget orientated ship in the I.S.S. Szilard which uses the same platform built out on my tactical captain. There I use free and more easily accessible items to achieve similar results

Platform Choice:

To date, the Lexington is the only C-store ship with access to both Miracle Worker and Intel bridge officer seating. Because of this, it makes it a prime platform for any budding captain looking into entering the DPS chase. Arguably the better energy weapon damage platform available on shear cost alone, its rivaled in performance by the Vaadwaur Juggernaut and the Inquiry Battlecruiser, both famous in their own right. Of the two the Inquiry is the closet having slightly improved seating capabilities with the intel powers being on a Lt.C seat.

No Discovery Set

I initially started with a beam overload then eventually moved to a fire at will power in the Lt. Tactical/Intel hybrid seat. This was so that the Wide Angle Dual Heavy Beam Bank could be used for the fore weapon. There is currently a bug where the weapons ramp up damage is applying the +20% cat2 to everything.

However, this current iteration of the build doesn't use it or the torpedo for the simple case that neither the beam or the torpedo is enough to supplement slotting Override Subsystem Safeties and running an Omni in the back for the Mixed Armament Synergy trigger. Having another Dual Cannon on the front of the build is just more damage. As well; slotting another Exploiter on a ship that very quickly approaches 100% CrtH is (on this particular ship) better than the CrtH on the Lorca Custom Fire Controls.

We have a project underway where I hope to test this more thoroughly as a comparison to see which one gains the mathematical advantage.

Namesake

The U.S.S. Bedivere was originally named after Bedivere of King Aurthurs Court. Since this is the mirror parity of the U.S.S. Bedivere, this inherents the name.

Meta Analysis

Budget Analysis

Change History

Build Breakdown

This build post encapsulates two builds. However, both are are very similar in their setup, with a very large focus on energy weapon damage. 

The Lexington is pretty agile for a ship of its size, hanger and support are fulfilled by the same role with the Alliance Fighter Squadrons. Survivability points because this is a dreadnought cruiser and has a decent amount of durability built into it already.

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes

Jayiie's Skill tree has been optimized to be used on as many build types as possible. As such there are some questions that naturally arise when talking about it. I will try to capture these discussions as succinctly as possible here.

Tactical ultimate

The Tactical Ultimate is still taken. Because of the skill investment for energy weapons in the skill tree, this only takes a small amount of investment. Even with the intent of going full min-max, if everyone takes the coordination protocols this is comparable to getting a Mk12 damage console which effects everything, as well as a hull plating node. These are worthwhile investements, and given how flexible Jayiies skill tree is designed to be very good at covering multiple roles such as support, tanks, and energy kinetic and exotic dps builds.

Hull Restoration vs Hull Capacity

This is very simple, while also not. Given the choice between a Improved Hull Capacity (+25.5%) and Hull restoration (+25%) against Advanced Hull capacity (+30%), I personally prefer to take the former, splitting the point difference. Since my character is an engineer, this 25% Hull restoration actually has some very useful applications through Miraculous repairs.

As well by taking some extra points into engineering, this has allowed me to take the 10th Engineering Unlock skill which adds +10 Hull Capacity, which is comparable to the +15 taken from the last point of Hull restoration. Due to how the skill works this is a +3.3% Max Hull vs 4.95% Max Hull buff respectively.

EPG vs Control Amplification, DrainX and CtrlX

This time around I've opted to put more points into CtrlX and EPG while taking Control Amplification, and instead dropping points from DrainX. If this wasn't on an engineering captain I wouldn't consider this a loss. However both Nadion Inversion and Intrusive Energy Redirection both scale with DrainX and are innate captain abilities, thus wanting for the skill.

Aux Power

Optimizing to hit 130 Aux power has been challenging. To do this I required Defensive Subsystem turning for the +4.8 Power to Aux. Combining this with the passive on most science ships as well as the Neutronic Eddies has allowed 130 to be hit passively. This has then allowed me to drop EPS Manifold Efficiency freeing up a 10th starship trait. On other builds this has the effect of allowing more aux power for more damage / better scaling on various powers.

Shield Regeneration

This is still a tank first skill tree. Shield regeneration is statically anomaly and adds a huge amount to shield regen in just the first point (more Information on shields can be found here). As such, I have taken the single point. with the most recent tree revision I've opted to spec out of DrainX and Drain Infection for that last point in EPG. Should you want to not take shield regeneration I would suggest the next DrainX point.

Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

Discovery Linked weapons trade the traditional Phaser subsystem offline proc for a passive stat increase, in the case of Sensor Linked this is specifically +5 Starship Defensive Maneuvering and +5 Starship Weapon Amplification. Damage wise this equates to 2% Critical Severity for Weapons. This is not the stunning improvement its often made out to be, and is simply better than relying on a random proc to affect one of 4 subsystems (shields in most cases is what we desire but not always the effect).

Budget wise, generic Antiproton's +20% CrtD passive will be equivalent to a whole ship made of sensor linked weapons. This does come at the cost of swapping to a different flavor and thus losing bonuses in the universal consoles but it presents as a very solid budget option.

This does make them the best of the linked weapons but there's a myriad of other choices. Note that these all proc based and will rely on that proc to see benefits.

Prolonged Phaser

Theoretically, the prolonged phaser is break even at around 60s. However at that it's only a very very small amount and is easily thrown out due to naturalized run variation. it stays under the +/-5% damage variation up to 100s in combat, where it then starts to ramp up to an 8% increase at 120s. This does mean that for combat times up to and around 120s the prolonged phaser is better, which is why I've been retrofitting my builds with it. 

Clearly however it hasn't suffered for not having it, as averaged each weapon has around 100k contribution.

Discovery Reputation Weapons

After some experimenting with TRINITY, some parsing, and some general build philosophy consulting, I've decided to remove the discovery set from this build. While the 2pc is good, this ship is approaching the point where being shackled by a torpedo is doing less than another energy weapon, and the higher damage of a cannon and another fleet console outweighs any advantage the Wide Arc Dual Beam bank provides with the Locator.

A note for Replication: I am doing this on an engineering captain! This is important to make note of. On a tactical captain the calculus isnt the same. As someone who parses in the regime of under or within the 300-500k regime this calculus changes. Most players will benefit from running the Dark Matter Quantum. The torp provides better Kemocite damage, and being an engineering captain my ability to directly improve these effects via captain powers is limited. I highly suggest running this with a torpedo. It just so happens than my parses tend to provide me with better results without the torpedo. Running a torpedo also allows you to use Super Charged Weapons, or Entwined Tactical Matrices.

I suspect, because this is a 4/4 weapon layout as opposed to a 5/3, the loss of another fore weapon isn't felt as much on an Inquiry, where I do use a torpedo as opposed to this ship could explain why this ship parses better without the fore torp and two piece.

Starship Equipment

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Since this build is the meta, there's not much to change here until we get new things. Depending on your Endeavors, captain profession, and weapon type the breakpoint between Exploiters and Locators will change. I know that many people run the Cutting Tractor Beam for the damage to the Immolating Phaser lance. However with the release of the Bozeman and the Tachyon Net Drones, I've been finding the shield offline and extra -DRR on target as well as the passive +CrtH/CrtD to be better (also the tachyon net drones do some interesting things with the parse and can attribute about 10k+ DPS alone depending on team composition).

Budget Tweaks:

Tactical Consoles

With the last update to the Energy Weapon Calculator (now included in TRINITY), there is a segment I added which estimates the ratio of CrtD to Dmg and Locators vs Exploiters. I haven't yet run this build through the calculator but the effects of the mastery and some other consoles, I can pretty much estimate now that this ship is a 4 Locator 2 Exploiter ship. Between endeavors and build progression level, this will change from person to person.

Universal Consoles

This build doesn't make any claim to be cheap. Between the DPRM, D.O.M.I.N.O., and BIC, and Immolating Phaser Lance, this build gets expensive fast. However, that's what makes the unconventional systems type work well. The raw stats of the BIC and Altamid fill roles that other consoles can, but not as easily. The raw power of the 3/4 active consoles provides incredible damage potential that is unmatched, hence its use in the current Meta. 

I did some napkin math and a few runs using the M6 in place of one of the two lobi consoles, but the lack of a passive really dragged it down when its not on cooldown. As such the M6 would most likely be a direct replacement for the D.O.M.I.N.O., and should the lobi consoles be out of reach with these other options available too you (which seems possible but unlikely, though that could change with the year long meta events) it would be a viable alternative to those.

For a greater budget, see the section on the U.S.S. Szilard for a non-unconventional non-universal console style build. If you have access too it, the Adaptive Emergency System can replace one of the two lobi consoles. As well the Ordnance Accelerator can be slotted to make up the 2pc with the Omni/Turret.

Bridge Officers

Traits

Personal Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Being as I've built this on an engineering captain, the most obvious build focused tweak would be to do this on a tactical captain for access to teh various captain powers. Doing such a replacement would warrant the use of A Good Day to Die. 

Budget Tweaks:

For budget players who want to save some EC, there's a few standard traits that could be used:


After this there isn't much available that super noteworthy so make substations based on what you need.

Starship Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

I picked up Universal Designs and I'm slowly converting my builds to include it. This is pretty much the meta combo with the phaser lance. There are a few other traits like Ruin of Our Enemies that could probably find its way into this layout.

Budget Tweaks:

Offensive Traits:

Notes:

Also worth noting that Heart of Sol is only available to federation captains. Jem'hadar captains who choose federation will get Persistence of the Founders instead, and romulan captains who choose federation will get Pride of Mol'Rihan, with Klingon Captains getting Legacy Of Qo'noS.

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Since this is a ship that has both intel and miracle worker powers, the two meta driven choices to put on this ship would be the two Strength Through Unity liberated Borg duty officers 24 of 47 and 27 of 47. However, these are ridiculously expansive at upwards of 1 billion EC. This is in my opinion too much for a small improvement. CrtH / CrtD energy weapon officers are good enough for me. I did get a gift of one and its been rather hit and miss when using, likely because it's an engineering varient on a ship with only 2 engineering powers.

Budget Tweaks:

Miscellaneous

Ship Stats

Keybinds 

As an player who's been doing this for some time, I have very few keybinds as I use most of my powers manually. As such I have only 1 "spam" button, which consists of the offensive rotation.

Adapting for Non-Unconventional Systems Builds

This build is largely an attempt to follow the current high end meta. This can be seen through the use of many potent console active abilities, such as DOMINO, DPRM, Fleet Tactical Computer, all coupling with the Phaser Lance from the Deimos Pilot Destroyer. In that, a player would want to have these at the lowest cooldown possible, we make use of Unconventional Systems to reduce these consoles active cooldown whenever a control is triggered.

This style of build makes it necessary that the build be made of two things:

This places this build into an uncomfortable realm for me. While yes this an incredibly potent build, coming in at just shy of 700k without much in the way of team support needed, it is inhibiting levels of expensive given how the various parts of it have been locked away being many many many expensive acquisitions. As such the following are some adjustments I made on a separate character to account for a more inexpensive version of the ship.

Truth be told this is a far more enjoyable way to fly the ship, its less demanding on timing, and it tends to handle better as a ship, and I'm not relying on luck to get cooldown chains working.

Modified Gear

Firstly, the whole point of doing this is to remove the super consoles. While in the image I have left on DOMINO and DPRM (because I have them on Teryh who has this version of the build running), they are not without replacement; these have been listed bellow.

Additionally, this allows for the pickup of a few sets:

Together these make the ship just competitive with the standard build, while not having the same expensive consoles that demand the bridge officer and raw stat trade off. This ship peaks around the 500k mark, but could probably do more with better team compositions.

Starship Weapons

Starship Equipment

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

Bridge Officers

Duty Officers

Parse Breakdown

ISE Record Damage Breakdown

Portability

Since this is a Miracle Worker and intel hybrid ship, in order to port fully a ship must meet both. As such only a few are capable of that

Dropping to just MW capable ships