U.S.S. Cobaltforge

Notes

Korvan's focus is damage, through and through. His builds are all Kinetic builds for maximum damage. As such, his skill tree is more "Meta".

However, I do make sure to pick up a point in Hull/Shield Capacity/Restoration. I do have to stay alive, and one point in each adds a hefty amount to each of those skills when they come up.

Advanced Projectile Weapon Training is obvious since my main damage source is, well, projectiles. I did choose Advanced Energy Weapon Training too because I needed the points for the Tac Ultimate as well as I usually have some energy weapon on my ships for various reasons.

I don't use enough energy weapons for EPS to make a difference, so I skip that entirely. I do, however, move around quite a bit, so I feel that Impulse Expertise is needed. I could drop something for Advanced, but using the Competitive engines is plenty of speed usually.

As usual, I pick up Control Expertise and Drain Expertise for their resistances more than anything. Control amp just improves and exotic damage sources I have or that my teammates have. The Improved CtrlX is mostly for my token Gravity Well.

Accuracy is chosen to make sure I hit every time, and extra accuracy over what's needed just turns into more critical damage. Defensive maneuvering is the only "Improved" in the tactical tree simply because of point spend, and it doesn't contribute to damage output.

I picked up Hull Plating, but honestly could see using that point elsewhere in the future due to its low overall contribution to damage. Damage Control is even worse and not worth slotting ever.

Shield Regeneration is special in some way, but you should read Jayiie's work for details on that. I always pick up a point here because its so special.

Criticals are always a crowd pleaser. Since most of my damage output here is based on weapons, I took all 3 points in both skills. I would say if a point is to be skipped, 0.4% CrtH is not much return for a skill point. If I didn't need the spend for the Tactical ultimate, I'd evaluate if the point in Hull Capacity would be worth more (via Tyler's Duality) than the point here. I may drop Hull Plating at some point for that reason.

As far as Power goes, I'll cover all 9 unlocks at once. Subsystem tuning (and power in general) is a tricky subject. Each ship comes with power bonuses, and I am using Emergency Power to Engines 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 don't end up needing a lot of extra power because I don't do most of my damage using abilities that rely on power.

I pick up Advanced Exotic Particle Generator (EPG) because it is damage. Anything that scales with EPG will do more damage, and damage is the goal.

Shield/Hull Pen are both max because it means more damage from my torpedoes gets through.

I use Boimler's now as a "primary" cooldown mechanic, and so don't need any readiness. However, the Tactical Readiness does help fill in the gaps in Boimler's (and fill out the Tac tree).

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

Coordination is really solid for me solo, but also as part of a team. My build has 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 theirs (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, Matthew 7:12).

Notes:

Most of this comes from my Tzentar build, but you'll notice that the Morphogenic set is missing. I have less Tactical slots for the console, fewer tactical powers for the 3 piece, and it really just didn't fit well. Just about everything in this portion of the build is budget-friendly with the bulk of the items being Fleet or Reputation. 

There's more specific details down below, but if you have reputations completed, you can easily pick up the most important parts of this gear. 

Notes

Commander Engineering & Ensign Engineering

This ship has a ton of forced Engineering seating. Thankfully, the Lt. Commander seat is also Command, and we use it entirely as such since we are flush with Engineering seats. There's not a lot of great options, especially for projectiles at Commander, so we take Reverse Shield Polarity for the extra survivability when needed. This is not used constantly, just when we need it. 

For Lt. Commander, we could go Aux to Battery and use that as our cooldown method. I chose to save the Duty Officer slots, and just picked up Let it Go 3 here, which is a pretty solid single target debuff and is cheap during the winter event. 

At Lieutenant, we pick up Aux to Structural as this is a nice quick cycling power for Boimler and healing. 

At Ensign, we always take Emergency Power to Engines for the maneuverability when combined with the duty officer. That leaves our extra Ensign seat, which we shelled out for Structural Integrity Collapse as a debuff. Honestly, you could slot Engineering Team or Emergency Power to Aux or something here and you'd be just fine. Engineering just doesn't have a lot to offer for Projectile builds. 

Lt. Commander Tactical

We have pretty limited Tactical seats, and by using Entwined Tactical Matrices, we can take all 3 seats as essentially Torpedo Enhancement powers. Just be sure you clear the ETM torpedo spread before using another FAW or CSV power. We take Torpedo High Yield so as to not interfere with ETM, and it makes the most sense to take that as the highest rank since FAW and CSV both trigger Torpedo Spread 1 regardless of rank. High Yield 3 is a solid power, and we aren't sad for taking it. 

Lt. Commander Engineering/Command

We take this entirely as Command as we are plentiful on the Engineering Powers. 

Concentrate Firepower 3 is an easy slot since that is one of the best Projectile powers anymore. Rally Point Marker is filler healing, but an extra trigger for Target That Explosion too. Finally, Reroute Power from Life Support is a niche slot that multi-triggers Target that Explosion. Boimler and Photonic Officer do a good job counteracting the anti-cooldown from Reroute Power from Life Support. 

Lieutenant Science

This one is quick and easy. Tractor Beam for Rapid-Emitting Armaments, Photonic Officer for cooldowns. 

Miscellaneous

Parse Breakdown

Here's a top-hitters on my 1,081k DPS Run:

Name DPS

Delphic Distortion Torpedo 164,721

Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon Torpedo 133,737

Micro-Quantum Torpedoes Phalanx Array 114,003

Target That Explosion         105,424

Heavy Plasma Torpedo 83,633

Isolytic Tear 81,679

You Are Dismissed 37,751

Varuvian Explosives 35,204

Sequential Warhead Loader 34,770

Omega Kinetic Shearing (Rank 2) 29,627

Krenim Timebug 25,979

Tetryon Mine         24,645

Blackout Mine – Mine Explosion 21,690

Tricobalt Tear Launcher 10,807

Now, Tricobalt Tear Launcher and Micro-Quantum Torpedoes Phalanx Array are pretty swingy, and we got a pretty high-end number on the Phalanx array this time, and a pretty low number on the Tricobalt Tear Launcher. Don't forget, these consoles also have solid passives and come off of ships that also give us great Starship Traits. You Are Dismissed and Krenim Timebug are both just damage consoles, very replaceable if you have better consoles. Do note that Target That Explosion was a pretty heavy hitter because of all my allies and Concentrate Firepower. Heavy Plasma Torpedo is Rapid-Emitting Armaments.