Notes

I leaned into the energy build meta very hard! Full Tactical unlocks, everything I could in extra damage output, and a spare few points in just some basic resistance and survivability. 

Notes

Our weapons are driven entirely by Temporal Surge. Antiproton weapons, such as from R&D, don't have a typical proc (2.5% chance to do X). Instead, they come with 20% CrtD on each weapon. That means with any amount of +CrtH, you'll get 20% Cat2 damage more often than any proc would trigger since the base CrtH is 2.5%. Temporal Surge pegs out CrtH at 100%, so every shot under Temporal Surge will get that extra 20% Cat2 damage.

With Commander Intel seating, the Hydra can use Surgical Strikes 3, but as I don't have the duration extension trait (*cough cough* Legendary), I went with CSV. Even still, Surgical Strikes also adds 30% CrtH to each shot, as well as Accuracy and CrtD. Even without Temporal Surge, Surgical Strikes builds will see great benefit from CrtD. The additional Accuracy will "overflow" into CrtH and CrtD, at a rate of 0.125% CrtH per accuracy over 100%, and 0.5% CrtD per accuracy over 100%. We'll come back to this in a moment.

Dual Heavy Cannons (DHC) drain slightly more power than Dual Cannons (DC), but in return also get 10% CrtD additional. Since we have Temporal Surge, I chose DHCs over DCs. The power drain difference is usually mitigated by EPS, overcap, and Emergency Weapon Cycle. Other weapons just simply trade raw damage for firing arc. The Hydra is fast enough turning that I have little trouble keeping a target in arc, especially with Pilot powers.

Modifiers on weapons are always a hot topic. Generally, you must choose between [Acc], [CrtD], [CrtH], and [Dmg]. Epic modifiers let you choose two for one.

An [Acc] modifier, if we assume it all goes into overflow, is 1.25% CrtH and 5% CrtD. This is basically the best you can get from an [Acc] modifier. If you aren't hitting 99.9% of your shots, that's pretty unusual as enemy defense is often quite low. If you are talking PvP, I'm the wrong one to talk to.

A [CrtD] modifier is 20% CrtD. A [CrtH] modifier is 2% CrtH. A [Dmg] modifier is a 3% final damage increase. I've always seen an argument between CrtD and Dmg modifiers, but I'm going to compare all 4.

Using an all of my ship stats, pre-modifiers, on the build with around 64% CrtH and 233% CrtD, if we assume all of the ship mods are the following (vs non-Contributing mod):

Acc (as Crit): 0.76%

CrtD: 8.27%

CrtH: 3.95%

Dmg: 9.99%

Dmg and CrtD mods come out on top, as expected. Even still, please realize that we're talking fractions of a percent in damage for each mod that switches between CrtD and Dmg - this is a total of 27 modifiers across 7 weapons, so 0.06% final per modifier. On 100k DPS, 0.06% is 60 DPS. Taking 91 seconds to clear the map instead of 90 seconds is 1.1% DPS loss.

Now, why include a torpedo? In my case, the torpedo is a trigger for some of my starship traits, as well as a way to use a tactical seat. On a tac-heavy ship, a torpedo power will do much better than something like Distributed Targeting. The torpedo I chose is just a solid option for doing Spread damage. It also provides 25% global CrtD from its 2-piece bonus.

With [CrtD] modifiers, Dual Heavy Cannons, and Antiproton weapons, we have a total of 130% CrtD on each of our 4 fore energy weapons. So what about the Ba'ul Omni? On a Surgical Strikes build, beam vs cannon makes no difference since both are enhanced under the firing mode. However, on a CSV build it won't be enhanced. The base damage is also lower than a regular Omni. We do, however, get 5% of all AP weapons' damage to hit other targets with the 2 piece bonus. 5% extra damage to our strong fore cannons is a great way to break out of the single target mold for Surgical, and spread to even more targets with CSV. A regular AP turret would do just fine if you want to avoid Lobi or several million EC. I also have extra BOff seats, so I can end up taking Beam Overload to enhance the omni.

The experimental weapon, to me, is always about what's available since just about all of them are locked to a ship purchase. Just as long as you don't use the default Ion Stream zappy, you'll be fine. I tried the loitering munitions, but this build couldn't really take advantage of them. However, with both OSS and Enhanced Induction Coils for lots of Engine power, Soliton Wave Impeller makes a great addition since it gets haste based on Engine Power. From there, it's just what you have available based on others' research. I won't rehash it here.

LINK TO CALCULATOR

Notes

The majority of shields available provide resistances to various damage types. Some even have triggers based on taking damage, such as a burst of damage or +Power. I'll be focusing on ones that enhance our energy weapon damage.

Prevailing Innervated have a 5% chance when damaged by energy damage to gain 1% CrtH and 10% CrtD, for 5 seconds. If the duration were longer, I'd consider it. However, since I'm expecting to take less than 10% of the damage on the map, I don't expect to be shot enough to proc this consistently. Based on a recent parse, I was hit by 2 energy attacks. That many triggers over the 150 seconds of the map means basically no uptime on 10% CrtD.

Tilly Shields use our Shield Power to increase the damage we do to enemies we hit, I get at least 10%. This is pretty solid and has 100% uptime, not to mention we take advantage of the 2pc (more to come on that).

Hyper-Capacitor are a favorite of mine where you can bleed off shields to do extra damage. However, being shot at also reduces shields. If you are a tank, ironically, you could use Reverse Shield Polarity right before activation to keep the shields up, but for a standard energy build, the uptime and low benefit aren't worth it. You could also use the Shield Absorptive Frequency Generator during the Hyper Capacitor active, but I already have enough console slots used. There's not really any other way to negate the shield self-damage.

Imperial Rift Shields turn Aux Power into Cat1 Directed Energy Damage. While I have a lot of Aux, this shook out to be less effective than the Tilly shields. Even above 125 Aux power, I was only seeing about 15% Cat1 energy damage at the peak.

For warp cores, most options are best used to apply a set bonus. Besides set bonus, the Bajor Core can give me a lot of +Power, but I have an abundance of +Power, so it would mostly be wasted. In fact, most cores are a +Power to a single system, with a little extra +Max Power on top. Deuterium is -15% Weapon Power cost, while Plasma-Integrated is +100% EPS. Elite Plasma-integrated takes a balanced approach with -10% Weapon Power cost and +66% EPS. These are go-to for availability, and coming at Ultra-rare *and* pick your mods on a non-re-engineerable component. I would also like to make sure that I get [AMP] or [Bat] to take advantage of all of my extra power. A [Bat] mod gets 21.25 Battery Expertise at Mk XV, which increases the duration and the power bonus of Enhanced Induction Coils (below). For Fleet Spire cores, [Eff] is the only mod available in this slot. Essentially, there are no warp cores in the game with [Bat] and [AMP], and I will be getting 3 AMP stacks pretty much all of the time. 

Reputation cores have some interesting options. Lukari and Temporal Defense both have a teleport, each with varying degrees of applicability. You'll see more teleports later, but neither of these are great with a 4 minute cooldown. Temporal core just poofs you forward 5km on your heading. Lukari core puts you 4km in front of your target, which isn't any real benefit since we'll be trying to flank or be behind our target.

Mission reward cores tend to actually come from events and are free if you have them, expensive if you don't. Other than the Bajor core, the Breen core is interesting, but is just outclassed by the Fleet Spire cores.

The Mycelial core can give us the 2pc with the shields, but I ended up with the Fleet Spire core for maximum effectiveness. Having a good mix of power cost reduction and EPS will be strong for the energy weapons. 

The engines are, honestly, the least optimized portion. Romulan Engines offer 12.75% CrtD at Mk XV, so I chose those. In balancing for Fly Her Apart, I found a little extra regen helped a lot, so I switched to the Mycelial engines for the 2pc. It's really a matter of composition, I have a lot of Regen from Endeavours as well as Hazard Emitters and so with better piloting could take the Romulan Engines. Many might immediately gravitate towards the Competitive engines, but the Hydra is plenty fast, especially with 125+ Engine power. The last thing you want is Competitive Engines + Temporal Surge, you'll end up out of position for sure.

The Deflector, there really is only one main option and that's the Colony Protomatter deflector. With passive CrtH and CrtD, it blows away anything else on an energy build. It's best to roll into CtrlX mods where applicable because of the Fragment of AI Tech, and the other options won't provide damage. Be sure to keep [EPS] and [ColCrit] though. 

I don't focus on devices much, but I do keep a few around. Energy Amplifiers are the obvious choice. Targeting Batteries make a good off-cycle option as that much accuracy makes for a hefty amount of CrtD (unless using Fire at Will, which we aren't). Deuterium Surplus is a little extra kick in case evasive maneuvers is on cooldown, though on this build straight-line speed is really high with Fly Her Apart.

I have the Delta Reinforcements Beacon, which is just free damage. Between that, Nimbus Pirate, Kobyashi Maru, and Hurq Swarm, there's enough available clickies for reinforcements. I do want to try the Hydra's console + Hurq swarm… but I'm not running Home again on this build. I'll save that for another build…

Notes

Here's where the interactions start getting heavy. I'll start with a few quick and simple ones. We have 6 non-Tactical consoles to fill.

For starters, then, let’s talk Tactical Consoles. On a DEW build, you’ll generally see a tactical console in the universal console slot as well, so with a T6X, we have 6 slots (A Bozeman will have just 4). As you’ve seen previously, when it comes to CrtD vs CrtH, I have been choosing CrtD (Exploiters) because of Temporal Surge’s 100% CrtH. Generally, DEW builds end up choosing CrtH (Locators). There’s a 3rd option in the way of Colony Protomatter consoles, which trade CrtD/CrtH for Healing. This is primarily used on Tanks, and won’t be covered here. In my case, Locators come out superior to Exploiters when Temporal Surge isn’t active, but because of Temporal Surge, I went with Exploiters. Even if we switch to Locators without Temporal Surge, it’s a 1% total difference for 6 whole new consoles. I ended up going for a 3/3 mix of both simply so that it was easier to convert should I choose to drop Temporal Surge. This is only 0.2% lower than optimal when Temporal Surge is off. I ended up dropping one of these to pick up the Lorca console and its 2pc, for extra CrtD and Shield Pen instead of the Cat1.

With all of our Tac and Uni slots full of Exploiters, That leaves 6 more console slots open. I had Enhanced Induction Coils lying around from Klingon Recruitment. What I didn't know was that it is part of a set! There are four pieces to this set, but only a 2pc and 3pc set bonus. Three of them are obtained from lower-tier ships so they only cost dilithium, and the fourth is part of a Legendary set as well as a C-Store ship. I’ll be discussing all four pieces as well as their set bonuses, and you can choose the 3 that work the best for you. 

Also, The Tachyon Net Drones is from the Bozeman, and includes some CrtD and a solid active power. Since we are already using the trait, I’m assuming the console is a free add. The fleet Bozeman is also a great alternative to the Hydra for this build. However, I do have the event ship that contains the account-unlock DOMINO, so I am using that in place of Tachyon Net Drones. If you are replicating this build, don’t chase DOMINO just for one character. 

Finally, There are a few slots for general damage boost consoles. Hull-Image Refractors, Bioneural Infusion Circuits, Tachyokinetic Converter, Assimilated Module, Sustained Radiant Field are good generalists, while Polymorphic Probe Array, Temporal Anomaly Projector, Ba’ul Linked Sentry, and other general +AP consoles are good for specifically Antiproton. I went with Ba’ul Linked Sentry, but there are many options based on budget and what you have unlocked. 

Enhanced Induction Coils - This console has no passive abilities, but like many lower-tier consoles, it has a 1 minute base cooldown, which in this case is a global cooldown that cannot be reduced (sorry Unconventional Systems users). Unmodified, for 15 seconds, you get +10 Maximum Weapons, Auxiliary, and Engine power as well as +50 Current Weapons, Auxiliary, and Engine power. Taking the Battery Expertise Skill Unlock (5 points spent in Engineering), you not only double the duration of Consumable Batteries (such as Energy Amplifiers and Weapons Batteries), but also double the duration of this console! This skill also increases the Current Power from 50 to 62.5. When compared to 10% Hull Capacity for your hangar pets, this should always be the choice; in this case it benefits us further with the use of this console. There is only a few other sources of Battery Expertise (BatX), and that would be warp cores and Critical Success on Assess Ship Batter Coolant Performance. In a magical setup with every source of BatX, You get 100+21.25+25=146.25 for a total duration of 37.2 seconds. As discussed before, dropping the [AMP] mod for a [Bat] mod just isn't very effective. The other source is nice when it is up, but tough to chase.

So with a 50% uptime, you can increase 3 of the 4 subsystems to very high levels. Going from 125 to 135 power will add up to 5% damage just based on Weapons/Aux power damage scaling. We are also using Emergency Power to Weapons and Engines on rotation, so those are adding to current power as well. With High Auxiliary power, we can consider powers that scale with Aux on our build. Some great Aux-scaling budget options exist, even without talking about adding exotic powers (that’s a build unto its own). Aux Config - Offense, a Nukara Reputation Trait, adds Bonus All Damage (Cat2) based on Auxiliary Power. Temporal Disentanglement Suite, a Mission Reward Console, adds CrtD and CrtH based on Aux setting, and doesn’t even need to be upgraded to get the full benefit from this console. When we talk about the 3pc Kor Set bonus, we’ll see that having extra power helps there too. While not essential, many Bridge Officer Powers scale with Auxiliary power as well. Aux to SIF scales healing and damage resistance with Aux, Ionic Turbulence scales -DRR with Aux, and even Tractor Beam scales damage with Aux (though its damage is certainly never why we have it slotted). Having extra Weapons Power and Max Weapons power just further increases the damage output of our cannons. Warp cores with [Amp] will get a small amount of Cat2 for subsystems over 75 power, which we should easily hit 3 of with this active. Finally, a very budget-friendly starship trait is Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer, which I really enjoy trying to make work. When you use an engineering power, it checks what subsystems are at Max power and gives +10% Cat2 All based on how many non-weapons systems are at max. OSS gives +Max power equal to its +Current power, so it doesn’t help us hit our power goals (like moving the finish line as you try to cross it). We have two engineering powers which could keep at least 10% up nicely, and regularly hit 20% as well. It's possible a Large Shield battery could hit the last subsystem, but it's far better to use Energy Amplifiers. This seems overly optimistic, but 62.5 power in 3 subsystems is a lot of power.

I also want to talk about running OSS in conjunction with EIC. While I do not recommend using both at the exact same time, there are benefits to having both on this build. Max Power bonuses do not stack, so overlapping the two powers will only pick the higher +Max at the time and use it. However, a large drawback of OSS is that it shuts down a random subsystem. Another aspect of EIC is that it prevents Weapons, Engines, and Aux from being shut down. So if you use EIC right at the end of OSS, within the last second or two, your subsystems will never go offline (unless it picks shields, but that’s not going to be essential to damage output). 

OSS does have a 20 second duration, and a 45 second minimum cooldown. If we assume it runs 20 seconds, and then you trigger the 30 seconds of EIC, OSS will be off cooldown before EIC is finished. If you hit OSS as soon as EIC is finished, there will be a gap before EIC is up again of about 10 seconds. Therefore, my recommendation is to wait until you have 20 seconds or less of EIC’s cooldown remaining before hitting OSS. I want to make sure you use EIC after OSS to prevent the subsystem shutdown since that occurs at the end of OSS’s active time. It's really too bad we can't pick up around 67 BatX for perfect overlap… or even 200 BatX for 100% uptime (kidding, of course).

So your power cycle will be 20 seconds of OSS, 30 seconds of EIC, and 10 seconds of no enhancement before starting the cycle again. If you know you are going to have some lull time (such as crossing sides in ISE, or a cutscene), you can push the OSS to trigger right after EIC, but then you will have a forced period of no enhancement as well as OSS’s subsystem shutdown. I also recommend that you trigger an engineering power right at the start of EIC and close to the end as well to get the maximum usage out of Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer (if you are using it). Using Aux to SIF should time nicely as it has a 10 second cycle and should get plenty of benefit from ODR+EIC just spamming. You could slot it over Fly Her Apart, but the way this ship is laid out, we just have room for an EPtX chain.

Subspace Jumper - This console is my #2 pick from the Kor set. While it may not seem like much, every 60 seconds you can teleport 3km behind your target. You also get +25 Hull Penetration, like adding 2 ½ [Pen] mods to every weapon! But this clicky has other benefits as well. If you cut engines (R on most default keybinds) right before you click the power, it resets your momentum, which is something we don't talk about much. 

Inertia is a value that every ship has, and larger ships have lower "Inertia Rating", while smaller ships have a higher Inertia Rating. With only one console that even affects this, most builds just deal with the Inertia. This is the value that affects how a ship feels when turning, stopping, and moving. A "drift" is when you head in one direction, start to turn, but continue on or close to your original heading. Perfect drift is using the pilot power Lock Trajectory, which locks your momentum in one direction but lets you turn your facing freely. Big bulky ships can hit full impulse for only a second and drift the rest of the way to a target 10-15km away. Small ships can cut engines and stop almost immediately. This is inertia, and momentum is how we talk about continuing movement after you've started. 

Big ships have a lot of momentum, and finding ways to dump that momentum quickly is a big deal. Hitting full impulse, hitting full stop, and then turning off full impulse is my most common way of dumping momentum. The problem is, if you enter combat before stopping, your momentum persists and you will drift towards your target.

So why talk about all of this? Subspace jumper is a method that sheds momentum. If your speed is set to 0 before you jump, even if you have momentum and are drifting, after the flash, you will be at a dead stop. You'll be perfectly positioned 3km behind your target with 0 speed. If you don't cut engines before clicking, you'll probably fly right through your target. This means you have to shift your piloting to take advantage of this ability, but I’ll add some reasons that this is worth it. 

Firing arc is an important mention here. Since Subspace Jumper puts you nose-on to your target, a broadside beam build should not use this ability as half of your weapons (or so) will be out of firing arc. Since we are using a cannon build, all of our weapons hit the front firing arc, and even better, the narrow 45° arc of Dual (Heavy) Cannons will be spot on to our target. 

Flanking is an ability that gives you bonus damage for hitting your target from behind. Not everything can flank, and you have to have abilities or ships that give you flanking to take advantage of it, but the Subspace Jumper puts you in the perfect position to flank. Some ships have Raider Flanking built in, and the Bozeman is one such ship. The Hydra, sadly, does not have flanking. Raider Flanking gives you 33% Cat2 All Damage when you are hitting the rear arc of your target. Improved Raider Flanking is far more limited in its scope, but is an extra 7% Cat2 to flanking for 40% total. Intelligence Operative Primary Specialization is often chosen because of its ability to add flanking to ships that normally don’t have it. Assuming you have it all unlocked, you can get another 10% Cat2 All Damage in addition to 15% CrtD and 5% CrtH towards your flanking, even on ships that have no prior flanking. A newer universal console, Computer Assisted Flight Algorithms, also gives you 10% more Cat2 to your flanking passively, and has a clicky that adds another 30% Cat2 to flanking. This means that a flank with a Raider gets 83% Cat2 All when flanking with the clicky! The Hydra only gets 50% Flank. CAFA also lasts 30 seconds, which is quite long for a clicky. CAFA also has a built-in method for reducing its cooldown when flanking, and if you time it right, you can have this back up in time to use it with Subspace Jumper again, without Unconventional Systems. 

Now, I also want to talk about another under-used Intel power: Subspace Bacon Beacon. This power has two activations. The first activation drops a “buoy” at your location, a Subspace Beacon. After a few seconds, you can hit the power again to teleport back to where you dropped the beacon as well as shed some Bridge Officer cooldowns. However, this teleport is 100% different from Subspace Jumper. First off, the beacon is destructible, so it's possible it won't be there when you are ready to jump back to it. Second, this teleport won't change your heading or momentum. 

In theory, as soon as an Infected: Space starts, I want to use Subspace Jumper on the primary Cube. Then, once I'm settled in and shooting, I can hit Subspace Beacon and use it to save some time on crossing from Left Generator to Right generator. In practice, because Subspace Beacon retains momentum and heading, it's not really saving any time on crossing. On many maps that really just wander in a large area or only have one location, Subspace Beacon never even gets used. I would recommend you leave this power in spacedock.

I end up using Subspace Jumper on the first cube, the second Transformer, and the last cube. Even if you are already flanking, like you might be with second transformer especially, remember that it gives you +25 Armor Pen when you use it. 

Shield Destabilizer/Quantum Warhead Module - Shield Destabilizer is a terrible console, with a PBAOE (Player-based Area of Affect) shield damage that scales down with number of targets, as well as a shield weakening effect, this console has no business being on any build. If you have the option, the Quantum Warhead Module from this set, it is by far a better option even though we won't get a big benefit from torpedo damage. Either one is not an ideal option and will be here just for the 3pc bonus. The Quantum Warhead Module does afford a significant spike in DPS, especially when compared to the Shield Destabilizer, but again is mostly here for the 3pc.  

Kor Set 2pc bonus - Overcloaked is not an amazing ability on its own, but requires a cloak. Since we are already built out for cloak Ambush bonus, even the single decloak we get at the beginning of a map will net us the bonus 1.5% CrtH and 7.5% CrtD. Admittedly, this isn’t a lot, but it is enhanced by our Infiltrators to last up to 20 seconds. This also means that using Temporal Surge takes advantage of the 7.5% CrtD fully. This is not a stellar set bonus, but the two consoles we use to get here as well as the 3pc bonus make the 2pc really just icing on the cake. 

Kor Set 3pc bonus - Impulse Integration is an ability I wasn’t aware of until I started looking into this console set further. Impulse Integration is passive Cat2 All Damage that is based on your current engine power. For reference, DPRM (one of the hottest consoles for a long time) is 40% Bonus All damage for 20 seconds, so at best has a 33% uptime for an average of 13.3% Cat2. This bonus gets you up to 25% Cat2 All! Now, to be fair, it all depends on your engine power so we can almost treat this like a clicky or active power. However, with Emergency Power to Engines having 100% uptime and belonging on just about every build, I can get 100% uptime on 83 power for 11.3% Cat2. When I use Enhanced Induction Coils, I can get 22% Cat2 (135 engine power). I can spike up to 25% with OSS, but 50% uptime on 22% Cat2 and 50% uptime on 11% Cat2 is a very strong ability. This is why we slot the 3rd console, even though the console itself isn't great.

Universal Console Builds - Universal Designs is a very expensive trait you have to build around, and Unconventional Systems often goes hand in hand with it. Optimally, you use a clicky every 20 seconds which needs a minimum of 4 powers with 60 second cooldowns, 3 powers will drop stacks since timing is imperfect. With the Kor 3pc and CAFA, we have the minimum you'd need without needing Unconventional Systems. I don't have Universal Designs, and have no plans to obtain it. I don't think it's worth it. But a "budget" alternative to phaser lance would be the Kor set, and it would be fun to see it in action sometime.

With the Kor 3pc, and CAFA, that uses 4 of our 6 open console slots. I went with Ba'ul Linked Sentry and DOMINO, but there are many other options at higher budgets (BIC+Tachyo) and lower budgets (Crystalline Absorption Matrix, Temporal Anomaly Projector, Sustained Radiant Field, TDS, assimilated module), it'll depend on preference. If you change energy type, your list of options will change too. None of these have amazing interactions, but are good sources of additional damage.

Notes

You'll recognize a lot of these from earlier discussions, but I want to go through them in detail. I always start from the highest rank seat and work through fixed seating and then universals.

Commander Tactical/Intel

Our firing mode of choice was Surgical Strikes 3 in keeping with the theme of Critical Damage. Sadly, I cannot afford the Legendary Bundle that the "extender" comes from, so I only get partial uptime. As a result, I switched to Cannon Scatter Volley since the extender is "free" with a Klingon Recruit. The uptime just wasn't cutting it for performance.

Override Subsystems Safeties 3 is great for the extra power in weapons, and we can enjoy buffs like [Amp] and increased abilities from extra Aux power. OSS is good on energy builds, but I would not recommend it on Exotic builds as shutting down Aux may shut down many of your exotic powers with long cooldowns. Shutting down Weapons power will shut down your weapons, but they are much faster to recover. Torpedoes also won't be as big of a problem if they go offline, but also won't really see much benefit from the added power.

Ionic Turbulence 1 is another solid Intel power, especially since we will have high Aux power. This will lower damage resistance in an AoE making our damage more effective. I think this has a better home when you can do something with the anomaly, such as an exotic build with Spore Infused Anomalies. In our case, it is a debuff and a trigger for Temporal Surge.

Intel Team 1 is a pretty filler power, but has a low cooldown and gives us a high uptime on low threat as well as several cooldown procs on Temporal Surge.

With all of these intel powers, I'd love to be able to slot "X of 47" that triggers off of intel, however they are outrageously expensive.

Lt. Commander Engineering/Pilot

Emergency Power to Weapons III is a best-in-slot for any energy weapons build, though I downgraded it to a lower rank because of the ships' seating. Because of Pilot, I chose Fly her Apart 2. This damages me for some extra speed, a lot of extra damage, and a disorienting camera stretch effect that makes you feel like you are backing up even though your engines are off… Be sure to trigger this at about t-10 seconds before the map to make sure you get the best buff. Then, trigger it whenever it is up (as long as you aren't dying). Don't place it on your spambar or you'll never get anything out of it.

Emergency Power to Weapons 2 is my next slot. It's here for Triggering Emergency Weapon Cycle, providing Cat2 Energy damage, as well as a boost to weapons power, there is nothing with this power that isn’t utilized. With a 15 second shared cooldown and 30 second duration, Emergency Power to X powers pair well together. Since I have Improved Critical Systems, having two EPtX powers is worth it. I ended up replacing ICS, but once you have it, ICS is a great free option here.

Emergency Power to Engines I is a solid option with the Emergency Conn Hologram Duty Officer, from the Phoenix Box. It’s easy to obtain, and a great boon to mobility. Using EPtE with the ECH resets the cooldown on Evasive Maneuvers (to a minimum cooldown). Not to mention, extra power and mobility on its own help keep you on target regardless of your build. 

Lt. Commander Tactical (Universal Seat)

Torpedo Spread 3 keeps with the multi-target theme of CSV. Even with Surgical Strikes, I'd keep the spread for extra damage. 

Attack Pattern Beta I is a great way to reduce damage resistance of whatever you are shooting at. It also serves as the key power to trigger She’s a Predator. Now, Attack Pattern Delta and Omega can keep She’s a Predator up as well (it has a 30s lockout), but don’t have great uptimes themselves. APD requires being shot at, and APO is strong, but low uptime and takes a higher seat. APO I actually comes back as a lower boost than Focused Assault II on this build, even still keeping APB.

Kemocite Laced Weaponry I is overpriced and overused, but it’s basically the best power here for an ensign seat so that’s why. Distributed Targeting or Beam Overload would work too. BO works because we have 1 beam, but it isn't a great choice.

Lieutenant Science

Photonic Officer I is my plan B for use with Boimler’s RNG cooldowns. This helps even out the gaps in Boimler’s triggers. On an Exotic build, it would have 100% uptime and bonus exotic damage with Improved Photonic Officer, but that Starship Trait slot isn’t worth it on an energy build when you can slot a trait like Boimler’s. 

 Hazard Emitters I We’re getting close to the bottom of the barrel as far as BOff powers on this build, though Very Cold in Space or some other Ensign powers could be slotted here or over Polarize Hull as well.

Ensign Tactical (Universal Seat)

Polarize Hull offers extra damage resistance and a "get out of Tractor Beams free" card, especially with such high Aux. I'm not sold on this power, but it exists. I ended up going with Beam Overload since I have one beam that isn't modified by Cannon:Scatter Volley. I'd drop this if flying Surgical Strikes.

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Drop Temporal Surge like it's hot for any other +Energy trait. The rest are top tier for any energy build, I wouldn't drop any of them!

Budget Tweaks:

Temporal Surge, She's a Predator are the most costly and first I would drop. Withering Barrage is free if you time it right. After that, Pick up Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer as it fits great on this build. Also do the event (long grind) for the Improved Critical Systems, which also does great on this build. The Calm Before the Storm, Emergency Weapon Cycle, and Super Charged Weapons are all C-Store ships. I'd pick EWC and CBtS as my first two if I got my annual event as 2x T6 tokens. 

Miscellaneous