Notes

This skill tree is used for many different builds as this is my main character on my account. This means that it could be optimized for just one or two builds, but servicing all main archetypes requires a few concessions in the "Advanced" skills in order to pick up some basic skills elsewhere. I'll go through each node and why I chose the amount I did, though sometimes it's simply "I ran out of points".

For Hull/Shield Restoration/Capacity, I like to pick up one point of each, however shields have really fallen out of favor. 50 points in each skill is quite a lot, and heals are needed on every build. With the current state of the game, shields are pretty meaningless. I do pick up the Regen later on, but of the base skills I don't feel they are necessary. If you really want some extra shields, pick up the Valdore and use it's console for some really large shield heals. 

For energy/projectile weapon training, there's no real reason to skimp on these points. All of my builds use torpedoes and/or mines, and several use many energy weapons as well. Having all 6 points is like having the Cat1 from another 1 2/3 Advanced Consoles for every weapon type.

EPS is another quintessential energy weapon damage skill. This combined with emergency power to weapons helps mitigate losses from firing energy weapons. Since several builds sport many energy weapons, this really helps those. This also helps recover from Full Impulse and Auxiliary to Battery much faster. This makes it a very useful utility skill for every build. Both points means I get 5 power every 0.5s rather than 5 power every 1s, essentially double the effect.

Full Impulse Shunt is a waste of a point in my opinion. While this keeps more power in systems while at full impulse, strategic flying can remove the need for this. Short bursts of full impulse doesn't allow for much power to be drained, and in cases where long distances need to be traveled, coming out of Full Impulse a second or two early can mitigate these issues (especially on such large ships as I fly, they power slide regardless!) If you run Miracle Worker Primary as many tanks do, this instantly restores power after coming out of Full Impulse making this point absolutely unneeded. 

Impulse Expertise is just about essential. None of my ships turn well and don't have a lot of power left for engines after putting it in Aux or Weapons. This helps me keep up with everyone who uses those Competitive engines, or actually turn around before the queue finishes. I could argue for an extra point to take all 3 here, but ended up needing the point elsewhere. The last point is only 4% anyways, so I am not missing much. 

Control Expertise (CtrlX) and Drain Expertise (DrainX) are skill points many leave off. I always spend one in each, not only for their offensive utility, but also the defensive benefits against controls and drains. In the case of my Tholian fleet, all three use the Web Cannon and Webspinner, which hold for a specific duration. That duration is increased by CtrlX, so I can't really get enough. Also, being hit by Gravity well or Tractor Beam reduces some damage resistance is fantastic for all 3 builds. Drain Infection is an odd choice, but as a DoT, it really serves as a trigger for other abilities when it hits.

Targeting Expertise is an iffy one for me. Parses show I never miss, but they don't show how much extra gets turned into criticals. I feel like the first two points can be justified, but the last point is a pretty small contribution. I may even drop the third point in the future, but we'll see how the resulting accuracy shakes out. Defensive Maneuvering is also tough because of how much actually moving factors into the equation. For now, I feel like I can justify two points, especially since this is harder to come by than Damage Resistance Rating.

Hull Plating is what I would spend the extra Defensive Maneuvering point in, but this isn't all damage resistance, but pretty close. Some of the more exotic sources such as Fire and Radiation aren't present. Also, all this is only 15 actual damage resistance. All 3 skill points in the Hull Plating is equivalent to the damage resistance of Repair Crews.

Damage Control is awful, it's 1/5 as effective in combat. That means one point is 10% regen, whereas 2 1/2 points in the Hull Regeneration endeavor is that amount.

Shield Regeneration is special for some special reason and is extra effective. I always put in at least one point here.

Shield Hardness is something that mitigates damage while your shields are up. However, I tend to go for more Hull than Shield defenses. My tank (totally different character) often will have absolutely no shields in deep combat and relies on Regeneration and large capacity. Reverse Shield Polarity is still really strong, but Shield Hardness doesn't really boost that.

Weapon Amplification and Specialization are must-haves on just about every build anymore. Anything using Torpedoes or Energy weapons will benefit from these skill points. Since I was around for the Imperial Rift Set event, I also run that on my exotic builds which converts my Weapon Amplification into Criticals for my exotic powers. Now, in reality the Weapon Specialization is pretty weak (0.6% CrtH for the last point). I may drop this point someday.

Subsystem tuning (and power in general) is a tricky subject. As an Engineer, I get access to EPS Power Transfer, which adds 30 max and current power to each subsystem. Each ship also comes with power bonuses, and I am using Emergency Power abilities as well. I ended up choosing Warp Core Potential to add a flat 3 to each subsystem for a total of 12 (largest single +power per skill point). I also chose offensive because of the 4.8 power for engines trying to speed my ships up, and the 4.8 helps for my energy builds as well. This is a total of 9.6 power for the point. Improved Warp Core potential adds a total of 8 (2 per system), and adding to a specific system only adds 3.2 power, so significantly diminishing returns. I also like a lot of Auxiliary power for my exotic powers and the Web Cannon & Webspinner which scale strongly with Aux.

Exotic Particle Generator is fantastic because of Particle Manipulator. That means each point here contributes to all my exotic powers in flat damage and criticals. Since almost all builds have at least some exotic powers, these points are well spent. Even Advanced only giving 15 EPG means an extra 7.5% Cat1, 3% CrtH, and 1.5% CrtD, which is as strong as some Starship Traits (namely the CrtH). Exotic Particle Amplifiers also scale off of EPG, and slotting up to four of these on a build makes hitting 500 EPG all the more important.

Long Range Targeting Sensors is always maxed out on energy builds for me because it is the only source that reduces damage falloff with distance. There's no other way to get this, which makes it pretty hard to pass up.

Hull/Shield Pen for weapons is a tough one, especially since some of my biggest damage dealers ignore shields, and these skills translate to such a low amount of actual value, and they are only for weapons. Even if I was extremely focused on weapon damage, these would be near the end of the list for pickups because the value is so low. A single point is 1/2 a [Pen] mod, and all 3 is a single [Pen] mod. On the builds that need it, they have a huge amount of debuff already (5-10x per power), so these points are pretty weak.

Readiness is absolutely wasted because of the methods I use to hit global cooldown. On my exotic builds, I get there with Improved Photonic Officer, which buffs exotics and has 100% Photonic Officer uptime for cooldowns. On my Jorogumo and Tarantula, I use Aux to Batt plus some technicians for cooldowns. I benefit from Cold Hearted as a result. In both cases, I have fantastic cooldowns tied to other primary benefits. Where I don't use either of those methods, Boimler's exists and fills in all the gaps routinely.

Shield Mastery is always terrible. Ignoring a random hit once every 20 seconds is terrible, and none of the other downstream points help either.

Coordination is really solid for me solo, but also as part of a team. 2 of my builds use hangar pets, and all have summon clickies (Delta Reinforcements, etc.). As part of a team, I can't expect anyone to send the buff my way if I don't send it to them (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, Matthew 7:12).

As far as unlocks go, there's usually either a pretty minor choice or only one relevant option. I don't push skill points anywhere just to hit unlocks. Battery Expertise can't be replaced.

Notes

Our weapons are more of a support lean than a full suite of exotic weapons. The Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo is a strong exotic torpedo, as is the Gravimetric Torpedo. The rest are merely for support or set bonuses. 

The PEP leaves behind a plasma cloud that scales with EPG, and if we manage to hit it on anything caught in a gravity well or similar, we can rack up a lot of damage from it. These are also very easy to acquire, either through R&D or from the exchange at a low price. You can't reroll modifiers on this, so better modifier sets will cost more. In reality, these are small additions to overall damage so I mostly just stuck with what I got. Having a Mk XV Epic is far more impactful than a lower-upgraded with better mods.

The Gravimetric torpedo has a chance to create a rift upon impact that scales with EPG. Under any firing mode, a rift is always created. I chose to go with torpedo spread to make several rifts rather than high yield to make one slightly bigger rift. Again, anything caught in a gravity well or similar can rack up a lot of damage, and this rift even has a little pull of its own. This budget-friendly torpedo uses easy to acquire Dyson Marks, and only requires Tier 2 of the reputation progression.

The Resonant Transphasic torpedo rounds out our fore weapons. Since we are running low on weapon power, and high on engine and auxiliary power, projectile weapons make the most sense on this build. The Resonant Transphasic torpedo doesn't do a lot of damage, but does have a 1/3 chance of applying a -DRR in a small AoE. The Delphic Distortion Torpedo far outclasses this torpedo at the same goal of applying -DRR, but costs a hefty 200 lobi. The Resonant Transphasic can be picked up from a mission reward, albeit a rather long mission. I used an Ultimate Tech Upgrade from a recent Red Alert event since this weapon only comes at Mk XII Very Rare, and getting it to Epic would be quite expensive. However, this weapons is not required to be upgraded as the primary reason for its usage on this build is as a -DRR source, which doesn't scale with mark or rarity. It will be far better to upgrade the other two torpedoes first, and even then there is minimal impact for going all the way to Epic; just get to Mk XV.

In the rear, we are mostly aiming for set bonus completions. These set bonuses have a large impact on the entirety of the build, rather than the minimal damage that a rear weapon often affords, especially with low weapon power like we have. 

The first rear weapon is the Advanced Inhibiting Phaser Turret. This can actually be any one of four weapons: Phaser or Polaron, Turret or Omni Beam. I chose the Phaser Turret simply because I had it. In general the damage from this turret is pretty weak, it's here for the passive. If you shoot enemies slower than you, you apply a -10DRR. This is tough to beat off of a rear weapon with 360 degree firing arc. 

Next we have the Dark Matter Quantum torpedo. Since this is a 90 degree firing arc, and in the rear, we won't be firing it too often unless something is behind us. However, this does add 25% CrtD to everything else with its set bonus with the Lorca console that we will cover later. 

Finally, we have a Dyson Proton Weapon. This does require Tier 4 of the Dyson reputation, but should still be pretty easy to acquire. The weapon itself isn't very strong on our build, with a rear facing firing arc and low weapon power. However, the set bonus is pretty beneficial with 3% CrtH. If I were using my premium gear I have for other builds on this build, I'd slot the Altamid Omni here (which would lock us into a turret for the Advanced Inhibiting). The Altamid Omni applies a 1% CrtH, but also has a proc that always applies on Critical Hit for -15 Kinetic and Plasma DRR. As our primary damage source is Fire damage, this isn't as critical, but there are still Plasma and Kinetic damage sources on this build. Since we are trying to keep on the lower end of budget, I went with the Proton Weapon. 

Notes

The Colony Deflector finds its way onto most DPS builds due to its CrtH/CrtD output. You could go Solanae for more EPG, but the extra crit here outweighs the slight EPG increase. 53.1 is the max Solanae EPG, which translates to 10.62% CrtH and 5.31% CrtD, whereas the Colony has 15% CrtD and 4% CrtH to everything, Exotic or not. It also has a Mod of EPG for a nice 10 or so. I also have more than 500 EPG already, so the CrtH portion of the Solanae is really 0, and the colony CrtH doesn't care about the Particle Manipulator cap. If I were on a budget or short of the 500 EPG goal, the Solanae deflector would be a good option. If you are after more CtrlX, then the Gamma Deflector or a Graviton Deflector with the right mods has the highest possible CtrlX from a deflector slot (~74.5 at Epic Mk XV). On paper, the Reman and Romulan deflectors have more CtrlX, but are not able to be re-engineered so the last bit from the Epic modifier (~10) puts the Gamma or Graviton over the edge. Since we are after the highest damage, I went with the Colony Deflector that adds CrtH/CrtD to everything. 

I won't belabor the Secondary Deflector. There are no meaningful set bonuses available, and only a few options past that. Deteriorating Secondary Deflector is the only one that does significant damage. 

Next I want to look at the Warp Core. There are a few options here, and all depend on what you have available. In my case, I've been playing a long time and have many event rewards completed. The Tholian Nucleating warp core is a recent acquisition, and adds 1-2 crystals that spawn when you destroy an enemy unit. Since we are probably going to do the most kills, this makes decent sense as a way to squeeze out more damage. Another benefit of this (credit to VaporTrayle for this idea), is that when we are using the Graviton Displacer, ships are being swirled around and have a much higher chance of smashing into a crystal that spawns near where targets die. More on the Graviton Displacer later. 

If you don't have the Tholian Nucleating warp core, no major loss. You'll notice we are already using the Revolutionary set, and the warp core is honestly one of the better pieces of that set. The 3pc set isn't necessary, but if you slotted the core here, you would not only get some additional CrtD, it would free up either the engine or the shield to slot something else. If you don't have either of the event cores, the Temporal reputation core is fine, and will be beneficial towards getting the 2pc set for +DoT damage. 

The shields are our next piece to pick. Our first priority would be to complete some 2pc sets we are after. If we have Revolutionary set, then we should pick up one of the pieces here. Neither the shields nor the engines are super applicable to the build, but the 2pc turns some otherwise minimal stats into damage for our exotics. If you can't slot the Revolutionary set, the next best option is the Temporal reputation set. On a piece-by-piece basis, the shield has the most impact of what's available. The Tilly shield can increase shield bleedthrough, which helps boost your damage a little as long as you have a few energy weapons. Another option is the mission reward Regenerative Crystal Matrix shield, which has a feature of auto-balancing shield strength. Which of the two really is up to you. 

You end up with a priority list like this:

1. Nucleating Core, Revolutionary Shields and Engines

2. No Nucleating set: Revolutionary Core and Engines, Regenerative Crystal Matrix shield or Tilly Shield. 

3. No Revolutionary set: Temporal Shield and Engines, Nucleating Core

4. No Revolutionary set or Nucleating set: Temporal Core and Engines, Regenerative Crystal Matrix Shield or Tilly Shield.

This easily shows the diminishing returns for having more focusers. So why don't we slot just one? If our goal is 5 stacks, then just one console would take 30 triggers to get all 5 stacks (90% of the time, Binomial distribution). Slotting two Focusers cuts that down to just 15 triggers since each trigger would roll twice. This is much more manageable. This build has around 15 exotic triggers per minute, and since those are spread out, you should be able to both maintain and generate 5 stacks. Adding more than 2 consoles increases how fast the focusers charge up to 30%, but you also end up with an average of 10% per console, which is less than the passive 14% from an Amplifier. 

As such, we slot 2 Focusers, 1 [EPG] Exciter, and the rest Amplifiers (4 in our case). This combined with the rest of our gear gets just above 500 EPG, maximizing our Amplifiers. 

With our science slots locked down, let's look at the other 6 console slots. We have 2 Tactical console slots, and both take a Tactical console. The first is the Fek'ihri Torment Engine, a mission reward console. This gives almost 40% Cat1 to Fire damage (amongst others), and so boosts the DFR. While DFR is technically a Damage over a period of time, it does not count as a DoT and so does not double-dip from the Torment Engine. This console has many other benefits to our build and often shows up on many Exotic builds as a result. Delphic Tear is a good example of a power that benefits twice from the Torment Engine for a nearly 80% Cat1. 

Our next tactical console is Lorca's Custom Fire Controls, providing global CrtH as well as a 2pc set for extra CrtD. This is often used on just about every type of build with the 2pc since the bonuses to all damage are so strong. We don't have to worry about Spire Consoles since we are locked out from using them with the Exotic Amplifiers. 

With our two Tactical slots filled, we have only 4 Engineering slots left. Our Dragonsblood Flame Reactor takes one of these slots and is the focus of this build. The other three Universal consoles have been chosen to synergize with the active of the DFR. Graviton Displacer is not one you typically see, but takes this build to an 11 on the "fun" scale. This makes the Gravity Well pull look extremely weak, as it sucks in everything within 6km and stirs it around somewhere 3km in front of you. While this does lock your Engine speed and turn rate, it doesn't lock your throttle so you can still sit still while it runs. Pulling a bunch of enemy ships in the front cone at a nice 3km away makes them prime targets for the DFR. We also take advantage of this clicky with some other 5km cone powers. 

I had slotted Multi-Target Tractor Arrays, but this is not a cheap acquisition anymore. Also in testing, it got poor results from it. Delphic Tear is a very solid candidate as it has a great Exotic passive Cat2, as well as a 5km cone -DRR and radiation damage. 5 Magicks, DFR, Torment Engine all play well with the Delphic Tear, to name a few. 

Our last console slot is a bit more "free". I had DPRM slotted, but chose to remove it to lower the price ceiling of this build. It also doesn't sync up well since it has a 20/140 uptime instead of the usual 20/120 uptime. Directed Dilithium Resonance Destabilizer is a great budget option as the drawback to this clicky won't apply as the targets are stuck in our Graviton Displacer. I did find that many targets simply didn't survive long enough for the 6 second explosion to hit. I ended up going with Deconstructive Resonance Emitter, another great budget option. This also applies a -DRR to targets in a cone and has a normally pretty narrow cone, so works well with Graviton Displacer. 

Notes

The primary focus of this build being on Universal Consoles means we make some sacrifices in damage in order to pick up some items that will help the Universal Consoles. None of the traits on my Bridge Officers are optimal, for this build I went with what I had lying around for Traits. 

Commander Science/Miracle Worker & Lt. Commander Science & Ensign Science

None of the Miracle Worker powers are stellar at Exotic damage, so all of these powers are vanilla science powers. Gravity Well 3 has a lower DPS than Tyken's Rift and Photonic Shockwave at the same ranks, but also has a very significant ability to pull ships into the center, and "make a pile". Graviton Displacer does this in a smaller area much faster, but also has a significant uptime problem. As a Control, Gravity Well also feeds Unconventional Systems to cooldown our Console powers faster. In reality, you don't need Unconventional Systems on this build, but it does let us use a couple of our consoles faster. DFR doesn't really need it, it cools down fast enough on its own. As an anomaly, it also is a source and trigger for Spore-Infused anomalies. 

Tyken's Rift shares a cooldown with Gravity Well, but if you stack their uptimes on top of each other, you end up with them covering the gaps of the other. Tyken's rift has no pull, but has a higher base damage as well as a trigger for the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector. We have two Lt. Commander slots, so we also pick Very Cold in Space 3. We can also slot Subspace Vortex 3, but it has a weird knack for being un-clickable, so VCIS is the better option. Besides, VCIS also scales with DFR and 5 Magicks being a Cold power. Even though these are two separate seats, Tyken's Rift 3 and VCIS 3 are interchangeable. 

Destabilizing Resonance Beam is a small AoE debuff, and comes from a mission reward so it isn't very expensive to acquire. It is also Radiation damage and falls into the 5 Magicks/DFR bucket. It is interchangeable with our other Lieutenant Science power, Photonic Officer 1. With the trait Improved Photonic Officer, this provides not only cooldowns but also extra Exotic damage. 

We have 3 Ensign science slots. These are typically not large damage dealers, but we can take advantage of downstream effects. For two of the powers, Tractor Beam and Jam Sensors, they are simply triggers for Unconventional Systems to keep the consoles up longer. Structural Analysis is a -DRR as well as a trigger for the Deteriorating Secondary Deflector. 

Every science power we slot is also a trigger for the Spore Infused Anomalies trait, so having a full selection of science powers is very beneficial for this trait. 

Lt. Commander Engineering

None of these powers are required, but with our goal of keeping Engine Power and Auxiliary Power high for DFR, using Emergency Power to Engines and Auxiliary helps keep these systems topped off. We take a higher rank of EPTA than EPTE since we get a little EPG from the higher rank. EPTE is also a must-have with the ECH Conn Officer that cools down Evasive Maneuvers. That leaves us with one power left to choose, and for a Lieutenant power with high Aux, I typically go for Auxiliary to Structural for its defense as well as its heal. You could choose a debuff or support power here as well, but since we are light on defense, it makes good sense. Many of the other options are single-target or low impact so you don't miss out on much. 

Lieutenant Tactical/Miracle Worker

We have several torpedoes on the front of our ship, so a Torpedo enhancement really helps. Torpedo Spread is the strongest option since we don't have a lot of torpedo enhancements to make a High Yield a stronger option. This also helps spread our -DRR from the Resonant Transphasic. 

Destabilize Warp Core is very filler, but is a Radiation exotic power and serves several purposes as a trigger that way. We don't have much in the way of energy weapons. Kemocite Laced Weaponry would be acceptable as well.

Onboard Dilithium Recrystalizer is a budget-friendly trait, and works great since we have at least 2 subsystems maxed all the time. With Aux2SIF as a quick trigger for this, we can take advantage of all that extra power for at least 20% Cat2 all. 

Improved Photonic Officer is our cooldown mechanic, and also adds damage to all of our exotics. While the cost is high, this can be obtained with EC instead of Lobi. This has no substitute, but isn't game-ending if you don't have it. 

Five Magicks is the trait that comes off of the Hysperian (same as DFR), so for this build is free. We get at least 20% bonus damage to several damage sources, as well as some extra trickle of Engine power. 

Improved Critical Systems, Spore-Infused Anomalies, and Strike from Shadows are all good general Exotic traits you'll find useful for many occasions. These are the ones you replace if you have a higher or lower budget. 

Miscellaneous