The Mists of Avalon

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 and Exotic Builds

The tactical ultimate does basically nothing for the majority of the damage on this build. However this is a skill tree that is still designed to run things like the Inquiry and Verity, so I do still have this. A more optimized tree would look something like EPHs tree he uses on exotics. The core skill selections are still there.

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.

Starship Weapons

Notes

As of right now I'm not amazing at getting much out of the mines on this ship. I mostly just let them go and do their thing, feeding stacks of Feel the weight of our presence and relocating them to big targets to build up stacks of Resonating Payload Modification. It is worth mentioning both of these are currently broken. Feel is not intended to scale with mines but does anyway, and Resonating can break the 5 max stack limit with mines. This has been the case for years (basically since the traits were released). I don't enjoy taking advantage of these but considering they've been in the game for several years now I think its fair game to use them here.

These mines are also the few that have radius x2. An interesting experiment might be to combine these with Kinetic Magnet should you have the boff space (which incidentally also has the propensity to kill teammates if you're not careful....ask me how I know). Additionally, something I learned just recently but seems obvious in retrospect, is that mines trigger the CrtH/CrtD projectile weapon officers, which just means that these also help trigger those DOffs.

An interesting thing that could also be considered is the lobi pairing to the Delphic torp, the Dual Overcharged Delphic Antiproton Beam Bank. This would fill the set bonus on the delphic torp for the 2pc which grants +1.25% CrtH amd +12.5% CrtD. Is this worth it compared to the 25% CrtD from the Lorca 2pc....I'm not sure. However it would also get around the issue where the Wide Angle Dual Beam bank is currently incorrectly applying a +20% bonus all damage (from the ramping proc; its listed as only granting to the beam but is infact applying to everything).

Only change here would be the pets. I have these from years ago when I was using the paradox as a tank during the FBP meta. The pets fit the theme of the ship and do far better than the innate Krenim Frigates that come with the Annorax. Pick whatever you wish for that slot.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

With some of my saved (read hoarded) stuff finally selling I saw a small plethora of extra EC I could throw at some wishlist items. Namely for this build the Maquis Raider for the Plasma storm module. I have avoided thinking about this in the past due to the visual of the console however with the introduction of VERTIGO that particular downside has faded and finally made me pull the trigger on picking this up. This only leaves the potential of the last bit in the Interphase Quantum Distributor, however at this time I think this would be more of a slide grade than a necessary pickup (and I don't want to open boxes for EC just for that).

Budget Tweaks:

This ship is incredibly expensive. As such there is a multitude of budget oriented options to take.

• Temporal Distortion Field - I put this in here as budget as it is the innate console on the Annorax. It provides some decent durability and a huge movement buff, as well as having a passive benefit to exotic damage.

• More Particle Focusers - I use 2, you can use more if you have empty science slots. I used 3 before the plasma storm got picked up so just fill any extra science slots you can with these, they are very good.

• Hull Image Refractors - While this ship doesn't have much in the way of heals, a passive +20% damage isn't bad!

• If you are struggling to get some Aux power the Temporal Disentanglement Suite can help, and also offer some CrtH/CrtD along the way.

Notes

I had tried out CPB in the past but now that I'm running Universal Designs in place of Strike From Shadows, I'm liking Intel Team here more for the threat reduction and the additional SIA trigger. Unfortunately you can't use sensor analysis with Intel team but things die pretty fast in most content now for us that I'm not super worried about missing that.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

I did pick up a Delayed Overload Cascade 3, I must say I was unimpressed. Either the power triggered later than I wanted it too and did nothing, or it flung stuff into the aether and runned runs. It could be that my focus on getting CtrlX for this build is interfering with the performance of this power, but all things considered I would rather have a tighter snappier gravity well in most content rather than DOC.

This is a meta pick and would probably give more damage however my personal performance improved when not using it so...take that as you will.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Obviously building on an engineer was "my first mistake"...I just like the engineering playstyle (also EPS power transfer is really good). I have thought about using Intelligence Agent Attaché on this to get that power back faster, but it would have to displace something here. In the future if I solve the Aux power problem I mentioned in my skill tree I might be able to remove EPS Manifold Efficiency. Tactical Captains as always get A good day to die with science captains having Conservation of Energy. Additionally, since this is an engineer it might be interesting to use EPS Overload as the primary subsystem is aux power so this would also grant +20% CrtD.

Budget Tweaks:

Despite being one of the first people to tackle exotic math way back when the S12 and S13 changes, I am a rather dunce when it comes to the total build space. Exotics Basics might be the best place to start.

Bug notes:

As it stands, Feel the Weight of Our Presence and Resonating Payload Modification both have broken interactions with mines. For the sake of transparency I will explain on them here.

FEEL THE WEIGHT OF OUR PRESENCE: Despite explicitly listing mines as not counting for the stacking -0.5, they do. This means that I can routinely apply anywhere from -20 to -25 to targets by myself in any engagement

RESONATING PAYLOAD MODIFICATION: I suspect largely due to how mines work that these are counting as seperate entities to the player (also would explain FTWOOP) and therefore are applying stacks to targets independent of the stack counter of the player. This can cause it to exceed the 5 max stack per person limit very easy.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Of the ones not listed, Kick them When Their Down is probably the best one to put in here, displacing Terran Goodbye. This grants up to 25% CrtH vs Terran Goodbyes +15%. However with Universal Designs Im not overly capped on CrtH...I also don't have the trait to slot there instead. By the Book is also another interesting trait that extends all anomalies. However this requires more micromanagement than I currently am capable of being "new" to exotic building, and also the ship has no temporal powers so it becomes less useful here.

Budget Tweaks:

Again, a bit of a dunce on this knowledge base. Some that I know off hand:

• Improved Critical Systems - requires 2 EPtX copies to get the full benefit but most science ships tend to have a Lt. Eng or greater seat. 

• Unconventional tactics - +% bonus damage on using brace for impact.

• yeah, there's not much here that's on a pure budget. There's a few C-store ones that poke around in my head like Checkmate, Electrified Anomalies, Strike From Shadows, and Emitter Synergy all come to mind. Exotic Modulation also serves very little use on this ship since it has no temporal powers and I would be hard pressed to want to run Directed Energy Modulation on it.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

In an ideal world I would get myself an 32 of 47 Liberated Borg Duty officer for Exotic Damage increase and 20% CrtD, but its again hardly needed.

Budget Tweaks:

Most of these are really easy to get. Sub in another Projectile weapon officer for cooldowns or whatever suits your fancy if you don't want the +CrtD one.

As old as the Annorax is, there's not many like it. The hybrid tactical intelligence and single ensign engineering means the ship can run all intel or science abilities save the Emergency Powers to Engines. You can replicate this on a few ships:

• Vulcan T'Pau Scout Ship - As mentioned, this is the ship this build started out with. With innate flanking could be considered a better platform, but I found it to be too explody for my liking hence swapping to the Annorax.

• Na'kuhl Daemosh Science Vessel - Overlooked probably also due to age, the Lt. Engineering with Pilot means the Lt. slot can be used for another unconventional systems trigger.

From this we can expand to ships with forced tactical seating, which would benefit from using Entwined Tactical Matrices to get torp spreads.

• Ba'ul Sentry Vessel - Forced tactical seating with a lt. Eng/Command, but gets a Cmdr Science / Intel

• Crossfield Science Spearhead - Forced lt.C Tactical, but also has temporal seating along side a Lt.C Intel

Ships with a Lt. Engineering seat (we can make use of the 

• Saturn Intel Science Spearhead - another Cmdr Science / Intel ship, this also has a Lt.C Tactical forced.

• Krenim Science Vessel - Another often overlooked ships. This is from an old event that came out after the Annorax. Its now in the phoenix store.

• Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer - Lots of intel seating available here

• Legendary Caelian Intel Multi-Mission Explorer - More Forced Tactical seating, it also gets a hanger  and 4/2 weapon layout instead of the standard 3/3.

And of course ships with temporal can do just as well, though I won't go through an exhaustive list.