U.S.S. Proxmia

T5 Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit


Released: 2024 - 01

Build Overview and Focus

Rounding out the starter tier is the exotic line, built on the Free T5 ship acquired on reaching level 61 and getting a Vice Admiral Starship Requisition Token. While the other ships at this rank acquisition are almost unworkable (the Galaxy Retrofit having 8 engineering seats and the Defiant Retrofit having 8 Tactical Seats), the Intrepid with its 8 Science seats is more of a boon to the build type. Exotic builds relish in having as many 'blue buttons' that they can get, and compared to the T5 Level 40 ships Luna and Trident each with 7 seats the Intrepid Retrofit converts the ens seat into a science for an additional scaling button.

The KDF parallel is the Gorn Varanus Support Vessel. This has a slightly higher hull mod than the Intrepid but features the same Bridge Officer layout as the Trident. That is to say the conversion of ensign science to ensign engineering is a huge loss but this platform has a potential for evolution that the 3rd engineering seat limits you on.

On this build I've taken a durability choice in this 8th science seat because exotics can pull high degrees of aggro especially when playing content where other players have lower DPS and no-threat pulling capabilities; the durability of this ship was my #1 concern when fly testing and I think I've done a good job of balancing the damage potential of this build but also blending in a good amount of healing.

Economic Costs

The goal of this ship build is to give you an Advanced-capable ship to finish out story missions, and grind reputations and/or fleet gear. We're going to very strictly limit the budget and make this as accessible as possible as one of our Starter builds:

This is not a ship that you'll be able to build on Day 1 of hitting Level 50, this is a ship that you can build toward on Day 1 of hitting Level 50. We'd like to point to the long-standing Baby Steps 1 for a Day 1 build, and Baby Steps 2 for like a Day 10 build, but if you're thinking about Day 30 on this tier of ship and build, this is the ship for you. This is also a useful example of how a coherent, well-thought out build with minimal investment and good piloting can match or out-perform people in expensive ships with no idea what they're doing. And it's not necessarily their fault, because STO is terrible at teaching shipbuilding. 

Trade-offs

We are not free of making trade offs. If I were to do this as legitimately as I wanted too, I would have made an entire new account to do this. However,  I like the rest of the STOBetter team, do have real life obligations that consume our time. For the ease of posting and putting these builds together I've opted to do this on an existing character on my primary account. This means that any unlocks and progression I've made that effects my whole account carries over. This includes C-Store purchases but also Endeavors and event rewards. Notable is the Temporal Recruitment which makes my reputation project rewards Mk XIII ultra rare items and the Gamma Recruitment which improves the standard traits from completing specializations.

However, since neither of these things are huge deal breakers, nor is Endeavor progression un-obtainable with just play time, we've accepted these trade-offs in the hope that we can expedite the build progress and get them into the public faster.

This does mean that on this T5 ship I will have a few Mk XIII ultra rare items, but that's just it; no extra upgrades have been applied

Namesake

Proxima Centati, the smallest star in the trinary system Alpha Centari, and is also the closest star to Sol.

Resource gathering

I'm going to steal some methods from EPHs Sovereign here:

Meta Analysis

Normally I would just push numbers here, however I feel that would be disingenuous to do so without caveats. I have a combined playtime of 10,000 hours in this game. I would consider myself a remarkable pilot with a long standing understanding of game mechanics, maps, and more importantly the ability to stretch the limits and the knowledge to predict what to do next.

So the numbers:

Tzenkethi Front Advanced:

ISA: 

ISE:

HSE:

The ISE / HSE premades resembled what you would expect an average group of players to be, and while in both I was the lowest contributor, these are still very good numbers that will allow you to hold your own in all advanced content and breaking into elite with developed players.

Budget Analysis

Change History

Mission Replay Requirements

Reputation Item Purchases

Build Breakdown

Middling Exotic build built with enough survivability to keep the ship alive, this is an exotic build and will pull aggro if you don't manage the powers you have correctly (bascially not spamming everything but holding some for when you cast GW).

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes

This is an unoptimized skill tree. There's about a dozen nodes I would respec if I wanted too, however I think this is a fair blend between the wants and needs of the build class and what people might want. I have several more optimized skill trees but for people starting off I think this is a fair tree to follow.

If you have a goal in mind of what you want, you can always copy the skill tree of the build type you ultimately want to end up in:

For people who are just starting their journey, here's some brief overviews of what this skill tree offers:

Engineering Skill Picks

Science Skill Picks

Tactical Skill Picks

Note: I know running these might seem ineffective, but if everyone on your team is using these, its +20% Damage, +20 Accuracy, +20% Hull Capacity and Shield Capacity, and +20 all DRR to all team members, which is more than you can get with any other 3 skill picks

Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

As a starter build we are limited to what we can pull from, and mission and reputation gear offers some of the best synergy available with the set bonuses. The Morphogenic Set is really good at this teir as it can act as if we've been given an extra 12% Critical Chance and 30% Critical Damage. The Gravimetric Torp and Plasma Particle Torp are both end game staples that will serve you well so these are viable investments to make early on, and are very easy to get.

Exotic builds are pretty different in the weapon and gear choices as a majority of damage will come from your bridge officers and consoles, wanting to have consoles with active powers (buttons you can push) and good stats (like Exotic Particle Generators, Control Expertise, Aux power, and damage)


Starship Equipment

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

Tweaks and Notes:

Temporal Destabilization Probe is a very...ok console. It offers no passives and active is a 2 minute cooldown single instance of damage to all targets with 3km of affected foe. This pairs well with gravity well on this build but I wouldn't recommend it long term. Its an easy slot and if you would rather a stat stick the Nukara Particle Convertor is a fine use.

Bridge Officers

Notes

I know I spoke about the usefulness of the extra ensign power at the start and once you move onto higher tiers of budgets this slot is easily replaced with something like Subspace Vortex or Structural Analysis. Alternatively you can use Tachyon Beam as a single target application of your secondary deflector

Traits

Personal Traits

Particle Manipulator is an almost mandatory trait to have, and thankfully is only time locked. Engineering Captains are able to run EPS Manifold Efficiency in place of Conservation of Energy, and Tactical captains can run Last Ditch Effort.

** NOTE **: You can run 3 of any schools daily R&D project at any time, do this for fastest progression. I recommend science first, then engineering

Starship Traits

Notes:

Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer is always going to be up on this build. Using Emergency Power to Engines 1 on cooldown will always net you the buff since at rest this build is at 130 aux power.

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Miscellaneous

Ship Stats

Keybinds 

I don't use any keybinds on my exotic builds, everything is done manually:

Top Row:

Middle Row

Bottom Row

Parse Breakdown

Record Damage Breakdown - ISE

Portability

Like all starter tier builds, these are meant to transition you to the next build, in this case its anything with a secondary deflector.