U.S.S. Adamantoise

Fleet Justiciar Command Star Cruiser

Build Overview and Focus

I'm going to be upfront - this is a build for experienced players. This doesn't fly like anything you've ever seen, and in fact when we were testing it, the question was "So what role is it exactly?" After flying this for a while, it's ended up at a Kinetic DPS role with off-tanking ability. In high end runs, it won't fill the role of tank, but in PUGs, unless someone is trying to tank, this thing does great. It's more like a DPS turtle - you can't really kill it. 

So what is this monstrosity? Well, it sacrifices its hull to do damage, and it does a lot in short order. This is my Hull-Burn Build!

Hull-burn is sacrificing your health to do damage to those around you. The only console that does this is the Fractal Integrity Bleed from the Princeton. It's damage directly scales with your hull capacity, and this ship rests at over 300k, and has even peaked 400k in combat. Combined with massive resistances, it takes a lot to bring this ship down. However, the focus on being a torpedo-boat means it struggles to pull threat. I usually get in the 40-60% range, which is fine, but for higher-end runs, won't cut it as a dedicated tank. To paraphrase a discussion we had, it will survive a Hive Space Elite, but it probably won't pull enough threat for anyone else to survive. 

This build is centered around increasing hull capacity to feed into the Fractal Integrity Bleed. 

Namesake

Adamantoises are really massive creatures in a faraway fantasy land that do a ton of damage and have a ton of resistances, rather much like a turtle build

Meta Analysis

Budget Analysis

Each category is sorted by priority of contribution. Something that applies to generally more builds will be rated higher than archetype or build specific contributions. Warning: This is not a cheap build.

T6 C-Store Ships

Legendary Ships

Event Items/Ships

Lockbox Gear & Duty Officers

Lobi Gear (200 lobi each) 

Lobi Ships

Lockbox Ships

R&D Promotional Ships - none

Change History

Build Breakdown

The Adamantoise is a cruiser built entirely around increasing Hull Capacity, which in turn increases the Fractal Integrity Bleed damage output. There are several pieces that synergize with Torpedoes, so that is the secondary build type. As such, this is themed around Fractal Integrity Bleed.

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes

This skill tree has been modified to go for a maximal damage output as well as supporting the goal of chasing additional hull. Advanced Hull Capacity is normally an odd choice, only one or two points should really go here, but this was an easy place to pick up a few percentage points of hull capacity. This build gets hull capacity often in small percentages at a time. We also needed to make sure that we picked up 10 points in Engineering to get the 3% hull capacity from the unlock, and 10 Engineering points isn't too much of a stretch. It would have been a harder sell at any higher unlock level. The Advanced Impulse Expertise really helps maneuverability, regardless of build. Cruisers are pretty slow, so it is really beneficial here. A single point in Hull Restoration, Warp Core Potential, EPS Flow, and Hull Plating are pretty efficient points for the skills the contribute to. Other +Power points (+5x2) don't unlock as much total power as Warp Core Potential (+3x4).

Tactical points are entirely damage focused. We skip Defensive Maneuvering, but max out everything else. Since we don't need Frenzied Reactions due to a better understanding of cooldowns in general, we can also take one point out of Tactical Readiness. This leaves us 10 points to use in Science. Control Expertise helps clear controls as well as boost our own. EPG and Long Range Targeting are both beneficial for damage output. Finally, Shield Regeneration is a pretty special skill, so I make sure to pick it up on every build. 

Note the specializations we use: Miracle Worker Primary, Strategist Secondary. Miracle Worker and Command both have additional hull capacity, with Miracle Worker having a clicky at the highest-level for 20% Hull Capacity, and Command's passive being 15%. Miracle Worker has a lot of great passives that trigger off of healing, which we have a few to make sure we stay topped up on health, not to mention a big boost to regen as a passive. Command is a pretty weak specialization, even though we are using torpedoes, the Torpedo Exploits it centers around as a secondary specialization are just too weak to be of much use. Strategist is still the go-to secondary specialization, offering several easy to trigger passives for damage output. 

Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

If I were to go for optimal hull capacity, we could slot Integrity-Linked weapons in all 8 slots, each of which gives us 1.5% hull capacity. This is a solid baseline, and we can also go for the Radiant Armaments 2pc for 19 Hull Capacity skill (5.7% Hull), which nets an extra 2.7% Hull Capacity over Integrity-Linked weapons. However, this would end up being pretty sub-optimal as far as overall damage output, averaging about 2% Hull Capacity per weapon - just about all of the other sources we have will significantly outpace that hull capacity, and our weapons can be much stronger than mismatched beam arrays. 

I ended up going with Torpedoes, partly because this character is set up for Torping already, and partly since it synergizes better with a few selections we make later on for Hull Capacity. I picked up a few energy weapons to try and pull more threat (which also drives our hull capacity up, oddly enough). As such, this is a mishmash of projectile and energy weapons, but ends up doing pretty well for damage output. 

Typical players show up here - Delphic, Enhanced Biomolecular, Neutronic, Dark Matter torpedoes. I ended up with the Dark Matter torpedo in the back so I could get the 3pc set (the Beam Bank is fore-locked). I got far more performance out of the Dark Matter torpedo in the rear than as a 4th torp in the front, since it would now auto-fire a torpedo at ships nearby. If you play on a team that is buff stripping, you can even get more than one of these torpedoes per target! That's Just the Beginning Lockout is an enemy buff that can be cleared, and then you will shoot them again. 

To round out the weapons, I went with 360° targeting weapons. The Pahvan Beam is just flat out overpowered under FAW, even without me enhancing it more than +All Damage. The Gamma turret has a smattering of -DRR, and a Disruptor Omni even less. I could easily slot an Integrity-Linked Omni here, but wasn't ready for that price tag. If the Pahvan Omni gets the nerf-bat, I will probably return to the Radiant 2pc in place of the Pahvan+Disruptor Omnis.

Starship Equipment

Notes

On our quest to maximize hull capacity, nothing even comes close to the 4pc Stamets-Tilly set. The clicky alone stacks up to 60% hull capacity, not to mention 3 of the four pieces each contribute the most hull for their individual slot. And the 3pc is great for tanking, which we want to do, we want to pull threat. We get nearly 16% hull capacity from the deflector, 10% from the shields (of all places), and about 10% from the warp core (depending on shield power). The engines merely complete the set at this point. 

Hull Patches provide a clicky for 20% hull capacity, which is basically like candy for the Fractal Integrity Bleed. Hit this before you use it! Then, while it is on cooldown, the Kinetic Amplifier boosts the torpedo damage output. Deuterium Surplus is good in a pinch, but not often needed. Kobyashi Maru is free since I had it, but expensive if you don't have it now. I do get 10% Hull Capacity from it sometimes, so I do get some benefit out of it. 

Starship Consoles

Notes

There's a good portion of these consoles you've probably never seen on a build before. The Lorca console rounds out the 3pc set, and is used a lot of places. 

From here, let's assume you fill every slot with a Pax console. Tactical slots are Pax Warhead Yields (torps), Engineering are Pax Triburnium (resistances), and Science are Pax Particle Generators (EPG -> damage). If we were using Devious rerouting for Hull Capacity, the EPG would make a lot more sense since that turns EPG into Hull Capacity. Since that's only useful on a static Hull Capacity build, I chose to start dropping those off the build first. 

Our first "must" console is the Fractal Integrity Bleed, the crux of this build. I've gotten almost 200k out of this console alone on ISE. You sacrifice 8% of your hull every second to do 16% of your hull every second to up to 10 targets within 5km. Let's unpack that a little. 

8% damage per second, if we assume is -8% hull per second, we can translate into "Regen". Regen is measured in % hull per minute, so for 20 seconds, we have -480% Regen! Now, you could passively hit this with Nurse DOffs, Tilly 2pc, Endeavours, etc. However, the oft-underrated portion of the Dynamic Power Redistributor Module is that it has 500% Regen. For 20 seconds. Which is exactly perfect to counteract the Fractal Integrity Bleed. Now, the bonus damage doesn't boost the Fractal Integrity Bleed, but the Regen keeps us at 100% hull every time the bleed ticks. If we were at even 90% of hull capacity, the damage output of Fractal Integrity Bleed would be 90% of the full potential. It's important to stay topped up during the bleed, or your damage will drop off quickly. We will assume, then, the DPRM and Fractial Integrity Bleed are the two key consoles on this build. 

Each Pax console, fully upgraded, is 12.3% Hull Capacity. Each console we pick will need to have more hull capacity than that, or some other strong contribution to the build. 

Micro-warp Bubble Shockwave is a fun console that does damage based on... Hull Capacity! It's pretty weak, but the 15km warp is really fun. You can actually sometimes hit it a few seconds before the briefing of a mission is over if a target is within 15km and you'll warp right up to it! This also puts you in the perfect position to hit with the Fractal Integrity Bleed. It has a few seconds windup, but is very fun to use. Fly around with it quite a bit to get used to how it works and the timing of it. The Micro-warp Bubble Shockwave is also a whopping 20% hull capacity, so it is a lot stronger than a Pax console. 

The next highest Hull Capacity console is the Unstable Planetoid Detonation, which is a rather disappointing console. It's damage output is extremely low, but I had to get one to be able to test it and know that. Don't spend your lobi on it, its only got 15% hull capacity vs. a 12.3% from a Pax console. We do take advantage of the extra CtrlX and Kinetic Damage it offers, but overall those are pretty small bonuses for a Lobi console. Since I had already spent on it for testing, I went ahead and equipped it. 

House Martok Defensive Configuration is a free console from the Mission "Brushfire" and has 13.1% Hull Capacity, compared to a Pax's 12.3%. This also has a little extra shield power, which is a little extra Hull Capacity through the Warp Core. The turn rate is also really appreciated. Since this is free and adds a variety of benefits, we replace another Pax with this. It's only about 1% more hull capacity altogether, so if you have a fully upgraded Pax, may not be worth replacing. It is locked to an Engineering slot. 

Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly is from the Terran reputation and often shows up on Torpedo builds since it reduces the shared cooldown for torpedoes, but it also has slightly more Hull Capacity than a Pax - 13% at max upgrade. This synergizes well with our path of doing Projectiles. 

The rest of the consoles are Pax consoles - there aren't any other consoles that have more Hull Capacity than a Pax at this point.

Set Bonuses

Bridge Officers

Commander Engineering/Command

If you are on a Torper, and it has command seating, the best thing you can slot is Concentrate Firepower 3. Other ranks simply don't cut it. Now, we are sort of tanking, and mostly torping, so we have several options for the Commander Engineering-Command slot. Reverse Shield Polarity 3 is a fantastic survivability tool, however we have so much damage resistance and hull capacity, we really don't need the survivability it offers; we're essentially hull tanking. Tanks also can use Suppression Barrage 3, which makes our weapons reduce outgoing damage from enemies we hit. This would be a great option for this build, except we don't have great weapon coverage to spread the suppression barrage. If this build was pulling threat better, and filling a better tank role, Suppression Barrage would be a good option. As such, it isn't tanking very well in a premade group, so I went for damage output instead of damage reduction. 

Emergency Power to Engines is also something I slot on just about every build anymore. With the ECH DOff, it cools down Evasive Maneuvers so I can get significantly more uptime on it and use it to get to where I need to be. This leaves just the Lieutenant slot available. If we were using energy weapons, Emergency Power to Weapons for Emergency Weapon Cycle would be a good choice. As such, Aux to Structural is a very quick cycle heal, which means we can use it every 10 seconds to trigger Strategist and Miracle Worker Specialization abilities. We don't need more Engineering seats on a torper, but if you have more than this, you can start using some of the Winter Event powers as single target debuffs, but Engineering seats are certainly the weakest option when it comes to torping. 

Lt. Commander Tactical

Depending on how many Tactical seats you have, there are options for what powers you can pick up. Since we have Entwined Tactical Matrices available, we can think of a Lt. Commander as a set of 3 Torpedo Spreads via Fire at Will 1, Cannon Scatter Volley 1, and Torpedo Spread 3. FAW and CSV will only ever be triggers for Torpedo Spread 1 regardless of rank, so we slot them at the lowest rank and get Torpedo Spread 3 from the Lt. Commader seat. If you don't have ETM, Attack Pattern Beta 1 and Kemocite Laced Weaponry 1 are suitable replacements, though the higher damage output is from the additional torpedo spreads. 

Science Seating

The Fleet Justiciar comes with a Lt. Commander Universal seat. We've already covered how little additional Engineering seating helps, so it can either be a Science or a Tactical seat. If we set this as a Lt. Commander Tactical seat, we could get KLW1 and APB1 as we discussed in the Tactical section, but we'd be down to some pretty Filler powers for the last slot. Since our focus is on the Fractal Integrity Bleed, we'll garner more benefit out of getting some additional Unconventional Systems triggers. Science has several, and even though we have two other seats of forced Science seating, we get the most benefit from Science powers. There are 6 Unconventional Systems triggers available on Science seats. 

We have 1 Lt. Commander slot, which could use any of the 6 Unconventional Systems triggers, but two of them are only available on the Lt. Commander slot: Gravity Well and Photonic Shockwave. Photonic Shockwave has a slightly higher uptime, and is fun to use after the Fractal Integrity Bleed has worn off to hit all ships within 3km. We don't have enough EPG to really boost the damage output of either power, so it's mostly for fun and Unconventional Systems trigger. 

This leaves us with 5 slots and only 4 Unconventional Systems triggers available. While we are not a true tank, using Scramble Sensors is really counter-productive to taking incoming damage as it makes targets start shooting at other things instead of us. Tractor Beam and Tractor Beam Repulsors do lock each other out, but there is still benefit to running both as you can still get extra Unconventional Systems triggers than just using the one power. Tractor Beam Repulsors does push targets way out of range, and is a really bad idea for everyone's damage. If we can pick up the Duty Officer that turns it into a pull, it's actually a great way to lock targets within the 5km range of Fractal Integrity Bleed. We'll cover that more in the Duty Officers section. Tractor Beam is also a trigger for Rapid-Emitting Armaments, which is a really strong damage output trait. This means we get more than just Unconventional Systems triggers from each power, and works out well for the build. 

We are using The Boimler Effect as a cooldown assist, but it's never enough on its own. We will get the benefits of Attrition Warfare, which is a solid cooldown reduction every 30 seconds (since we will be in Threatening Stance), but this still isn't quite enough cooldowns. As such, Photonic Officer 1 helps round out the cooldowns and keeps our powers up even when Boimler lets us down with poor RNG. This pretty easily forces the last 3 slots to be Tractor Beam Repulsors 1, Tractor Beam 1, and Jam Sensors 1 (Unconventional Systems trigger). The threshold on Jam Sensors is so low, we won't have them placated very long, and we can also use it on targets that don't fire such as Transformers. This gives us plenty of Unconventional Systems triggers and we should have the universal consoles we have up at least every 90 seconds if not more often. 

Traits

Personal Traits

Notes

Most of these traits are carryovers from my Kinetic builds, so I won't rehash them here. But there are a few key changes. 

Resonating Payload Modification has been pulled because at one point, I was using Scramble Sensors. Did you know Scramble Sensors + Resonating Payload Modification means you can Resonating Payload Modification yourself...? Yeah, me either. I dropped it like it was hot, and never put it back on. 

Unconventional Systems is one of those few traits you have to build around, and I put a lot of BOff powers onto the build to get the most I could out of this towards my numerous Universal Consoles. 

Bulkhead Technician is a free trait, and 10% Hull Capacity just feeds the Fractal Integrity Bleed. 

Starship Traits

Notes

There are a lot of traits here that you wouldn't expect to see. I'll also cover a few traits that give Hull Capacity that I could have used if I wanted to maximize my Fractal Integrity Bleed. I chose to remove a few of the weaker options to really boost the torpedo damage output for when Fractal Integrity Bleed isn't running. 

Subspatial Warheads turns every High Yield into a Isolytic Tear, and I get a lot of extra damage out of this. Rapid Emitting Armaments also creates these rifts, so both traits contribute a lot of damage and synergize well. Entwined Tactical Matrices helps keep my rear weapons under FAW to hit many targets, and keeps my topedoes doing Torpedo Spread as much as I can between Concentrate Firepower triggers. I could also use Ceaseless Momentum since I have it, but chose to just stick to the Projectile Weapons Officer method of cooling down torpedoes since I have the DOff space. 

The rest of the traits are for boosting Hull Capacity to boost Fractal Integrity Bleed. Here's a list of Starship Traits that boost Hull Capacity:

Adaptive Tactical Algorithms is the best source of hull capacity, after a high hull mod ship. This essentially multiplies your Hull Mod by 1.2, which is a huge amount of extra hull for every source of hull capacity that you have. Now, it only lasts 7 seconds, but that's why we have 2 Command powers! You should be able to get enough uptime out of this during Fractal Integrity Bleed to be worth slotting. 

That's a Big Ship says it needs Captain or Engineering powers to trigger, but for whatever reason, on combat maps, it just stays up all the time. It'll wear off in social zones. Regardless, I have two Engineering powers, one of which cycles quickly and several captain powers, so this would stay up all the time either way.

History Will Remember is a tough one, as it requires being shot at by different ships to get the boost. Maps like Swarm and Defense of Starbase One are great for this, maps like Hive and Infected Space, not so much. I usually get 10-20% out of this, but its also boosting all damage and threat at the same time, so even if it is lower than other Hull Capacity traits, that's not all I am getting from it. The extra threat is good because we also build hull from Threatening Stance. 

As we drop down the list, the hull capacity they give is lower and lower, so the benefit really isn't very strong as compared to other traits that boost the torpedo side of the build. Superior Going the Extra mile, Adaptive Hull Plating, and Unified Engineering are all triggering off the same powers we already have equipped, so the triggers aren't costing build space, but all they offer is Hull Capacity, and far less than other traits, so I left them off. Someday, I'll have a Max Hull build just for fun that uses these powers. Notice, there are exactly 7!

Finally, Devious Rerouting is triggered by your shields dropping below 50% and has an internal cooldown, so it's the most finicky of the powers, but does allow you to turn EPG into Hull Capacity... 0.06% hull per point of EPG. Even dedicated exotic builds have 500 or so EPG for a total of 40% Hull Capacity, but with only Universal and Science console slots for Pax EPG consoles, I wouldn't even approach that. Once we factor in uptime, even at best it'd be 10-15% Hull Capacity, which puts it at the bottom of the list. However, for Max Hull chasing, pairing it with Reroute Shields to Hull Containment allows you to trigger the power on demand at the same time you get a ton of hull from Reroute Shields to Hull Containment.

Reputation Traits

Notes

For most Torpedo builds, Fortified Hull would be Advanced Targeting Systems, and the rest of the traits would be the same (depending on hull). Since we have a resting hull of more than 200k, we always get the max benefit from Tyler's Duality. 

There are two traits that provide Hull Capacity; Fortified Hull and Aux Config: Defense. At one point, I had both traits on the build. As I added energy weapons to the build, I had to add Weapons power to the build to keep them running. I simply didn't have enough power left to keep much benefit from Aux Config: Defense, not to mention even at 125 Aux, Fortified Hull is more Hull. Aux Config Defense does provide other benefits, but we don't really need those. Since the contribution from Aux Config Defense is pretty low, I just kept the strong Torpedo trait options available. 

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Notes

The Projectile Weapons Officers are cheap and easy to obtain, and really keep the torpedoes firing quickly, this fills up half of our slots. The ECH Conn Officer is a must-slot on every build, as the maneuverability can't be beat. 

This leaves two slots for us to utilize for other purposes. The 23 of 47 is really expensive, but a friend of mine gifted me one. It's a small contribution, but it does allow me to have a chance for 10% extra hull. The CrtH from Command Powers is also nice. This DOff is really optional. If you want some Hull Capacity, the K-13 Duty Officers are like a low-powered Inspirational Leader Trait, and contribute up to 20 Hull Capacity skill, or 6% Hull Capacity. You'll rarely get that much out of it, but it's a cheaper option. 

Finally, the Tractor Beam Officer is an expensive purchase as they are pretty rare drops from DOff packs, however they also have been added to high-level Fleets in the Spire holding. They cost 500,000 Fleet Credits, which is a lot, but its certainly achievable for less than the cost of the DOff from the exchange. 

Miscellaneous

Ship Stats