U.S.S. Erie Belle

Notes

Ayjei's tree is aimed towards DEWSci and the builds that come along with it, support included. He takes only a few points into engineering for power management and then the rest into damage. Of all my currently posted characters his is the most offensively tuned for the greatest flexibility, at the cost of personal durability which usually needs to be solved through consoles or bridge officer powers or even traits.

DrainX

Long ago I set out to craft a drain build...then some history happened and drains on targets in PvE broke and hasn't yet returned. I could very well respec but this is a part of the character's storied past I want to keep (also it is a very fun build to fly, even if its not super useful).

27 vs 26 Point Tactical ultimate

Since this is a support build it is once again reasonable to assume that 27 is the way to go. If I was to build this character as a totally dedicated support build and have them only do that, I would concede that 27 points into the tactical ultimate is useful. However that point has been allocated elsewhere, and I still believe that outside of super planned runs a person's cooldown reduction scheme is still important to focus on and should not be dependent on others to provide it for them.

Starship Weapons

Notes

I opted to use a set of cheap disruptor weapons off the exchange and from random pickups, rerolling them into Crth. Overall it would cost me about 250k credits at this time, which is thankful as this build is expensive in every single other area. Im going with just standard here since it was also really really easy, about 45s of grabbing things from my account banks.

From a support perspective, the best procs would be those that apply -DRR to targets. As such a few examples of weapon types that could be used:

• Romulan Plasma - Were I to build this again this is the weapon type i would use. Taking advantage of the weapon's proc of -10 DRR as well as the dot to trigger Atrophied Defenses from temporal specialization.

• Corrosive Plasma- Like Romulan Plasma but have a ramping -DRR for 20s instead of a constant for 15. These have the largest -DRR capability and also last the longest, but are from a very old box that few open anymore so are hard to find without opening infinity weapon packs for them. Because of the cost these can be a pricey option but would technically be one of the best options

• Altamid Plasma - for those looking for a more targeted plasma varient, these trade plasmas dot for a -15 DRR debuff to both plasma and kinetic damage

• Disruptors - standard weapon with the standard Disruptor proc is -10 DRR (which is where Romulan Plasma inherent their -DRR from)

• Nanite Disruptor - decreases the -DRR to 5 from a standard disruptor proc but also grants 2% shield bleed through. This is a really interesting weapon type from the support perspective as it allows more damage to bypass shields and apply directly to hull. I have seen targets die with the shields still up when using these.

  • This is a bit of a discussion in the meta right now; on one hand people want to do damage to shields to get bigger numbers, on the other hand killing targets without punching through shields or downing shields faster decreases engagement time which pushes DPS up by the inverse law.

• Pulse Phasers - This would take advantage of some of the +Phaser damage boosts this build carries

• Agony Phasers - Combined proc of a random subsystem disable (hoping for shields) and a phaser dot would also help fuel Atrophied defenses, and like Pulsed phasers take advantage of the +phaser buffs this build carries

There's a plethora of weapon types available here, so get creative and use a type you want. Finally worth noting, the Altamid Modified Plasma Omni has a guaranteed debuff on crit, but conflicts with the Gamma reputation Omni (also its 200 Lobi, which I don't have or want to spend).

Torpedo

The Resonant Transphasic Torpedo is one of three torpedoes I know of that carry an innate -DRR on target, the other two being the Nausicaan Energy Torpedo and the Delphic Distortion Torpedo. Of these the Resonant was the one on hand, but arguably the Delphic is better for this purpose. No real wrong choices here of the three so pick which you want if you wanted something less shield drain focused.

Realistically when flying with torpedo builds you want to avoid using a torpedo at all costs. However I've found having this shield drain torpedo to be very beneficial due to the damage incursion torps suffer from hitting shielded targets. I should also note you can just...not fire the torpedo and hang on to CF procs. You won't get another so long as you have it and can use the torpedo when the target paint wears off, helping the torp player if you decide to bring this with them.

Notes

Gamma 3pc is here to focus more on torpedoes and provide some passive team buffs. However the Iconian Space Set is an easy trade off with the intent to focus support an energy build. In the current configuration the entire build is more built towards torpedo support but I wouldn't call it a dedicated torpedo support ship outright due to how heavy the emphasis is on all damage reduction debuffs rather than just kinetic or physical.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

There are several lockbox lobi and promo ships with support consoles. A compiled list with rankings can be found here. I've tried my best to also get a blend of both energy weapon aligned (Dominion Targeting Synchronizer) and projectile aligned (Deconstructive Resonance Emitter) to not bias the ship in any one direction so that I can take it along with anyone in random groupings without knowing ahead of time.

You can usually guess what people are flying and make some substitutions but I've found its not needed for the most part. Opening Salvo was something I grabbed for the Frontenac however it didn't make the cut here on this ship.

Budget Tweaks:

Because of the heavy reliance on consoles from other C-store ships I would call this an expensive ship, even if there isn't any lockbox lobi or promo ships needed. However on the support guide page we have lists of support consoles which are easy to change out. 

For those with the Vanguard Pack, the Polaron Particle Inverter can be used to fit the 2pc with the Dominion Targeting Synchronizer for some extra synergy.

Notes

While Structural Analysis is a huge debuff at high aux values, it cannot be stacked on a target, which may interrupt a DPS players capability of use the power. Exotic builds will suffer the most from you running this. I decided not to do this as there are a few DEWSci builds floating around in our group that use this.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Outside of some C-store ship replacements and some promo options theres not much to be done. You could swap Torpedo Spread 1 and Distributed Target 2 for the differing ranks to get more torpedo spread hits but also this reduces the assistance DT2 gives to single target builds.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Resonating Payload Modifications is still bugged (and has been since day 1 of its release), given how absurd this can get at anywhere up to 25+ stacks. Feel free to use it but be aware of this (the interaction is specifically with mines so you should be free to ignore this), but you don't want the torpedo firing often anyway so it's really a catch 22 trait; either use it to bump number and risk stealing CF procs or don't and ignore the trait.

Expedient Repairs is another option that can be used here if you place the Aux2Sif on another player. I don't currently have it to use that but it is an option. Another common one I don't have is Psychological Warfare for the control effectiveness. This would best replace the Ablative shell/ For tactical captains Coordinated Targeting Solution might also see some use by giving back FOMM if the target dies while its active, although Intelligence Agent Attache is perfectly capable of doing this same job for all captain powers.

Budget Tweaks:

For budget players who want to save some EC:

• Advanced Rapid Support - Temporal Recruitment - reduces cooldown on captain fleet abilities. This would be especially great on tactical captains who run this build and don't have IAA

• Nanite Repair Matrix - this can help keep you alive. Unfortunately there's not much in the way of support orientated traits available for free, so anything that increases durability or damage would probably help.

• Tactical Captains get access to Crippling Fire to reduce targets accuracy and Engineering Captains get access to EPS Manifold Efficiency for more power.

Budget Tweaks:

Thankfully all this stuff can be acquired from the C-store, but just to list out some of the traits that came to mind while building this:

• Superior Going the Extra Mile - Miracle Worker Specialization - hull increase to help increase the effects of Tyler's on the target of heals you place; pairs nicely with Aux2Sif and Expedient Repairs. In similar style Continuing Mission could be a stand in here for this or Unified Engineering.

• Jubilant Cadence - Recon Destroyers - Since the ship has a very very good target debuff console in the Trinary Arrays, the trait is also decent by granting turn and cooldown reduction. The trick here is you need to land the final blows so it might not be as reliable as desired, but it does work of healing so feeds nicely into the aux2Sif casting. This can also be combined with Radiant Nanite Cloud or Greater than the Sum.

• You can replace Tricks of the Trade, for Carrier Wave Shield Hacking, this would give you access to a shield shutdown on command from tractor beam.

• Charged Particle Reaction - Science Multi Mission Vessels - this provides a minor shield debuff which scales with DrainX to targets affected by charged particle burst. This might be interesting to use on ships that have lots of science seating

5th Slot here would ideally be the Tethered Non-Baryonic Asteroid to help clean up. This can be used in lieu of a gravity well on left and right in ISE. More Discussion on my tank build here.

Miscellaneous

Dual Bay Commander Command Tactical ships are might rare. IN fact this is the only ship that meets that criteria. Some other ideas:

• Xindi-Aquatic Briostrys Dreadnought Carrier - Of all things, this gets two bays, a Lt Command seat and a Lt.C Intel seat which could get you a few things here, howver would force you into many more tactical and engineering seats

• Ahwahnee Command Carrier - Right now this would be the best way to go about this, giving you a style of build hybrid between the Frontenac and the Typhon, and probably able to do both at the same time with different loadouts. Given you buy this on the way, this might be a budget option to save a C-store pickup. Similar style would be the Fleet Hiawatha Command Carrier.

• Friendship Command Flight Deck Carrier - Dual Bays, Commander Command, , Lt.C Intel, comes with a pretty good support trait and console.

• Stepping away from 2 bays, you end at the Fleet Norway Command Strike Wing Escort (EPH has one posted here) and Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird, both which have a commander tactical and intel seating.

A ship I would be curious to see this ported too would be the Allied Flight Deck Cruisers (Tellarite Pralim / Orion Blackguard / Suliban Silik) for the ability to slot the IFF Manipulator which is a -400 DRR on a target if you hit it on a single target. Since these have a Commander Engineering they are unlikely to be amazing in any aspect at support but they could potentially make a very handy support style tank.