U.S.S. Lancelot

Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought Cruiser



Released: 2023 - 08

Build Overview and Focus

To say the Vengeance, or more formally the Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought cruiser (what a mouthful), is a popular ship would hardly be an understatement. Not without reason, the Vengeance is a really great ship on paper.

This was initially a gift from a close friend of mine when the ship came out (first of the now constant trend of non-C-Store 9 packs to be Cmdr Specialization) and I...regretted it, mostly because of how much it had cost when it came out. Yes I have had this ship that long

Being a 5/3 Cmdr Engineering ship with Intelligence, lots of tactical seating and consoles, and a hanger, this is an excellent ship. However, for me this just...felt weird to fly. I think it has something to do with how disproportionate the ship is which causes its pivot point to be outside of the ships geometry and makes the ship look like it's not turning properly.

With the introduction of the Agony Redistributor in the 12th anniversary build I found that the passive oddly enough fixed most of my own personal problems with the ship, +10 Inertia can have a huge impact to the flight characteristics of a ship. However, I didn't want to use it in its obviously broken state. A nerf and a buff later, it has made a reappearance and to that I am finally able to enjoy flying this ship...it also helps that the buff to the console is really really really good for this type of ship, a Surgical Strikes setup.

The Five Magicks

The Hysperian Intel Battlecruiser yielded many interesting things notably a universal console from an event which granted Cat2 Disruptor damage and a trait which also provided Cat2 Distruptor damage. However in order to maintain the trait you need to deal what has been coined by now-in game mechanics, the 5 magicks; damage types found outside of the realm of normal traditional energy flavors. These would be Fire, Cold, Electrical, Radiation, and Psionic.

As such this build has a slight offshoot into dealing some non-traditional damage types on what you could class as a pure energy build. The Dragonsblood Flame Reactor brings Fire, Very Cold in space brings cold damage, the Stamets-Tilly Discovery reputation equipment set brings Electrical, and Radiation Detonation Matrix (along with the torp) brings radiation. This is more than enough to keep the trait running.

A note on the Agony Redistributor

When the Agony Redistributor first appeared on the meta damage scene, it was largely a buggy mess which interested weirdly with other powers and to some extent it still does (I'm not running anything on this to cause it to break). In its current iteration, the console excels when dealing single target damage which momentarily causes all damage done to a target to be spread, much like the effects of Distributed Targeting, However, this is because it only stores the damage done to a single target. Multi-target builds will see some lackluster results.

Build Purpose and Scope

Like many surgical builds, this uses a mix of beams and cannons. However unlike many of my other surgical builds, this is a disruptor variant. As well this is a surgical build which seeks to gain damage with non-spire consoles, something that hasn't been possible in a very long time. In this analysis done by EPH you can see that since this ship has more potential engineering consoles than tactical using isomags are the preferred console. This leaves the tactical console slots open. Normally we would suggest running colony consoles however because of the various disruptor specific tactical consoles I've chosen to run a few odd-ball consoles instead. These notably being the Counter-Command Multi-Conduit Energy Relay and the Nausicaan Siphon Capacitor.

Namesake

The Black Knight, Sir Lancelot, during Lancelot-Grail Cycles

Meta Analysis

Budget Analysis

Change History

I have temporal listed here as I did queue into and set the DPS record with this. However, I really should have had strategist rather than temporal secondary.

Build Breakdown

This build is basically a carbon copy of the Hydra but built with Disruptor instead of phaser. Not much difference in breakdown here.


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 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 s. The core skill selections are still there. There is an overlap on looking at torp skills when getting to the 25 Tac ult unlocks.

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

The quad cannons are great but easily replaceable with spiral waves. Since this build uses Calm before the Storm, it is an easy thing to get, I just didn't feel like upgrading another set when I have the quads already upgraded.

Hanger pets here can be whatever you want.

Starship Equipment

This marks my first use case of the Discovery 3pc set, forsaking my usually normative choice of the Competitive engines for the Mycelial Wave engines, which grants me access to the 3pc. This set bonus allows me to deal eletrical damage to the first shot I fire at a target, which in turn triggers the Five Magicks Starship trait.

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

With the advent of the Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifold there exists a choice between these new consoles and our old Spire Vulnerability Exploiters. However, I've chosen to take several tactical specific consoles and use these as spots for universals, which has a small gain on the opposite using traditional spire consoles. You can read more here.

Budget Tweaks:

This is a particularly interesting build as nearly everything here is 'free'. The three consoles with potential replacements is the Dynamic Power Redistributor Module, Tachyon Net Drones, and the event ship Dragonsblood Flame Reactor. Take a look at replacements in the energy basics guide. Something worth noting is that there is another free mission reward console called the Harmonic Resonance Relay, which could be very interesting to build with the set (the weapons are also very pretty and unique being white circles and beams).

Bridge Officers

Notes

Pretty standard Surgical Build layout. Focused Assault here is easily replaceable with a temporal power. Examples could be slotting Rapid Decay for more single target debuffs or upgrading torpedo spread to rank 2 and picking up Causal Reversion as a heal.

Traits

Personal Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

There isn't much to change here in terms of utility. If playing on a tactical captain always try to slot A Good Day to Die (not confusing at all there's a starship trait, mission, and personal trait with the same name).

Budget Tweaks:

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

Starship Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Since I'm on a federation captain I cannot use the Legacy of Qo'noS starship trait. This is the KDF equivalent to heart of Sol.

Budget Tweaks:

Offensive Traits:

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

In an ideal world I would get myself a 25 of 47 like I do on my science or one of the other expensive ones, but I don't feel the need too.

Budget Tweaks:

Miscellaneous

Ship Stats

Keybinds 

Energy builds don't have much in the way of keybinds or layouts, push buttons, get benefits.

Parse Breakdown

Portability

Surgical Strikes 3 builds require Cmdr intel seating. This means it already limits this to a certain type of ship.