Bring the Rainbow

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".

This skill tree has been modified to go for a maximal damage output as well as supporting the goal of chasing additional hull since this is also used on the Justiciar hull build. 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. 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. 

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 uses hangar pets, and 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

My initial focus with this ship (to differentiate from the Excelsior) was to make it a Plasma-Torpedo build. Sadly, it seems that Hydra and Swarmer Matrix will never buff Hyper Plasma or Omega Plasma torpedoes, so I merely stuck with Digitizer torpedoes. If Plasma Torpedoes do get fixed someday, I plan on running 2x Digitizer, Hyper-plasma, Particle Emission plasma, and Omega Plasma torpedoes. This will be expensive as I will have to Gild and replace 5 Tactical Consoles with +PlasmaTorp instead of +Torp. For now, I picked the best 3 torpedoes +2 Digitizer Torpedoes. The fast firing Delphic, EBM, and Dark Matter trigger cooldowns on the heavy hitting Digitizers. Is it meta? Not really, but it is fun. 

As I flew with this build more and more, we really found that the Digitizers were holding this build back. They're so slow to travel even with the little bit of travel speed bonuses, it was too late hitting to dish out large AoE damage. So for now, Plasma torpedoes as a build are tabled. I replaced the Digitizers with Neutronic torpedoes, which are typically a strong 4th torpedo and pretty simple to acquire. Since I am running with Ceaseless Momentum and Concentrate Firepower III, if I equipped a 5th torpedo, it would hardly ever fire. As such, I equipped the Wide Angle Dual Heavy Beam Bank. As this completes the 3pc set, I now am able to fire a few extra Dark Matter torpedoes that circumvent the shared firing cooldown of torpedoes. The Delphic Torpedo is strong and applies -DRR. The Enhanced Biomolecular is powerful under High Yield, and I have set it to be the first torpedo fired in the cycle. The Dark Matter fires even less, but the DoT helps trigger Kemocite, as well as contributing to the 3pc which is even more torpedoes. 

In the rear, you could slot Morpho, but the torp would never fire and the Omni isn't worth much on its own. I found I was stronger with the -DRR from Inhibiting Turret. You could also slot some extra damage from mines. I would choose Tetryon mines as they are free and have some extra Shield Pen built in. Thoron-Infused would be fine as well, though with only one set of mines and no specific buffs, the Tetryon ones will fire more often. However, since I have AoE firing modes for ETM, the Pahvan Omni is a really strong damage source, even with low weapons power.

Notes:

The Colony Deflector is great for Damage due to the criticals. Another option is the Gamma for -DRR, but that can also be relegated to a supporting teammate. 

The Tzen-tar is a pretty slow ship on its own, so I chose to use my least favorite engines: Competitive Engines. It was suggested that I use the Engineering ones to trigger off of a hull heal, but I am a literal glass cannon with no heals and have 3 firing modes. As such, I went with the tactical variant and just have to try to stagger my firing modes a bit so that the buff is always up. Bursts of speed are hard to adjust to, but if you are always going at the same speed, then it is much easier. 

The Tholian Nucleating Warp Core has a passive ability to create crystals for more damage as targets are destroyed. Since I slotted this, I no longer can go for the 2pc Imperial Rift/Revolutionary set. The Revolutionary Core and Shield both provide a little extra damage output in the form of weapon Criticals as well as some crit for my exotic powers (though they are few). There are cheaper options for either of these if you didn't run either event, and the Tilly 2pc is a solid option for survivability and damage output. I stick with just the shields since I get damage from the core. 

Type 7s for pets make the most sense since we have most of our damage coming from our torpedoes and their effects. I tried using Hangar Craft Power Transmissions and Valkyries, but it was contributing such a small portion of the overall damage even with [Torpedo] modifiers, the pets end up more incidental. 

Notes: 

• Starting with Tactical Consoles, Lorca's Custom Fire Controls has a lot of Shield Pen as well as CrtH and CrtD (with the 2pc), so it is worth taking up a slot. If I was running all plasma, I could run the Fekihri Torment Engine, but I am not so it ends up with a total of 7 Torp Locators/Exploiters. Now, a mix would be a bit stronger, but it's not worth redoing the consoles that are fully upgraded.

• Covert Warhead Module is just a smidge better than Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly, but either fills the same role. This reduces the shared cooldown between firing torpedoes and will add a lot to your overall damage output by allowing torpedoes to be fired more often. Even without a cooldown solution, this will impact how quickly you can fire torpedoes. Since we have some cooldown elements to the build, reducing the shared cooldown will be even better. Covert Warhead Module just brings some Cat1 damage to the table versus Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly adding some incidental Hull Capacity and other needs. 

• Custom Power Matrix is a fantastic slot on a torpedo build as one of the modes adds torpedo cooldown haste, as well as the CrtH and CrtD. We put this in an Engineering slot since the Engine power is just as helpful as Auxiliary power and we aren't pushing our power levels higher. If we were using Phased Space Membrane, we would probably want the Auxiliary power. 

• Krenim Chronophage is great for not only its damage, but also the AoE shield offline. Used at the right time, it will be pretty high damage output and then removing shields mean torpedoes are more... impactful. This replaces the effect of Tachyon Net Drones, which was also an AoE shield offline. Tachyon Net Drones' main drawback is the activation time, but Krenim Chronophage also piles on a ton of damage as well. 

• Micro-Quantum Torpedoes Phalanx Array has a basically useless passive, but the active is really strong. Tricobalt Tear Launcher has a weaker active, but a better passive. Both of these consoles come from ships that come with almost identical traits, so if you have the Appalachia and not the Achilles, you can swap in here. Otherwise, the Micro-Quantum Torpedoes Phalanx Array is stronger than the Tricobalt Tear Launcher as long as you time it right. Both consoles can be a little swingy. Sequential Warhead Loader is similar in that its a strong clicky, but different in that it is primarily a single target power. It's quite strong as it also has a shield offline, so best used on a large shielded boss target like Terok Nor, Tactical Cubes, or RRW Valdore. 

• Adaptive Emergency Systems is just +Bonus damage, and comes from a ton of different ships. It's solid damage resistance and good uptime damage bonus to everything. It's not essential to the build, but is really great to have. 

• Agony Redistributor works as a way to take our single target high yield torpedo barrage (from Concentrate Firepower) and spread it to nearby targets in AoE. This can be pretty strong if applied to a large target surrounded by smaller targets. Again, not a hard requirement on a torpedo build, but is pretty effective here. 

This ship is so strong because of the Miracle Worker and Command seating. I also really focused on Tactical powers for damage output, and use very minimal other seating. At some point, however, I run out of Tactical toys to slot, so more Tactical seating wouldn't help.

Commander Tactical/Miracle Worker

Mixed-Armaments Synergy III is a powerful ability since I can't run all 7 slots with torpedoes. The persistent firing of the Omni plus constant firing of my torpedoes means I get the maximum benefit every time it is up. 

Torpedo: High Yield 3 is here due to the massive 1-hits it generates, and doesn't lock out my CSV/FAW that I trigger TS1 with ETM with. I'd lose performance from ETM by slotting TS3 here. This is best used with Enhanced Bio-Molecular Photon if you can, but any torpedo we have slotted should be great. 

Kemocite-Laced Weaponry is huge on a torpedo boat due to the higher proc chance and AoE -DRR and damage. We also need to look at Null Pointer Flood as a Unconventional Systems trigger. Both of these powers can take the Ensign slot, however Kemocite Laced Weaponry will scale better than Null Pointer Flood (which is merely a trigger). Because of how torpedoes interact with Kemocite, it's going to perform better than Attack Pattern Beta even though it's got a little more debuff value. 

Lt. Commander Universal/Command (Engineering)

Concentrate Firepower III is the quintessential Torpedo power, refreshing torpedo cooldowns, granting extra THY1 every couple seconds, and overall increasing output of damage significantly. You can never have too many of these on the team, especially since pets no longer steal the torp refreshes. 

At ensign, we can use Reroute Power from Life Support combined with Target that Explosion and our two hangar bays of pets to get some significant damage output. We don't need a higher rank because it's mostly a trigger. The extra power is great, but isn't super beneficial to the build. 

Now, I could use Tactical powers here for Automated Aggression, or Science for Unconventional Systems triggers for my clicky consoles, but in reality, Aux to SIF is a solid heal and damage resist and makes good sense here. Tactical or Science picks just make this ship even more glass cannon. 

Lt. Commander Science

The highest slot is really a utility slot, and I chose Gravity Well for the pull. I've tried other Unconventional Systems triggers or other damage powers, but the sheer utility of a pull even at rank 1 really helps with splash damage from hard hitting torpedoes. 

Photonic Officer is our base cooldown solution. It's not a full solution, but combined with Custom Power Matrix and Boimler Initiative, this makes a good foundation for uptimes. 

Tractor Beam is here for both Rapid-Emitting Armaments and Unconventional Systems. You can also slot Carrier-Wave Shield Hacking to take advantage of this Tractor Beam, but we have plenty of other really strong starship traits already. 

Lieutenant Tactical

Both FAW1 and CSV1 are triggers for ETM to generate more Torpedo Spreads for my torps. This shows the wanton, extreme number of Tactical seats. I don't like mule powers, but we are locked to Tactical here, and it is worth more than a Sci or Eng set of seats if we jockeyed with the Universal slot. 

Ensign Engineering

Emergency Power to Engines: this is my maneuverability stick to keep Evasive Maneuvers up. 

• A Good Day to Die: This allows Go Down Fighting to be used anytime for some Cat2 All and is basically the quintessential Tactical captain personal trait for DPS, but obviously needs another option on non-tactical captains. Grace Under Fire is a great survivability choice for Engineering captains, and Science Captains could just pick from some general damage traits. 

• Unconventional Systems: While not critically essential, but we have a few powers that are on the build only to trigger this. Really getting universal consoles down from 120s to 60-90s cooldown can really help have consoles available when you need them. 

• Fleet Coordinator: Great in teamed content, and free - tough to beat.

• Intelligence Agent Attache: This is great on captains where you need the Captain powers more often, and Tactical captains have a lot of really strong damage bonuses. It's not wasted on Science or Engineering captains either. This will probably get most of your captain powers to min cooldown. 

• The Boimler Effect: This is essential if using Reroute Power from Life Support, but really good for hitting minimum cooldowns regardless. This is basically the go-to cooldown method when coupled with some sort of backup cooldown method. 

• Whole Lotta X's and Harmonic Shield Linkage: These are solid survivability traits, there are some other traits that you can use here like Repair Crews or Ablative Shell if you have them. 

• Twinkling Lights: Is this the best trait on this build? Probably not. Is it thematic? Absolutely. When Twinkling Lights came out, we knew right away Taste the Rainbow had to equip a trait called Twinkling Lights...

• Resonating Payload Modification: Solid debuff for projectile builds, goes crazy with Black Ops Mines which we don't have room for on this build. 

• Intel Handler: Solid +CrtH source, pretty replaceable with any other damage traits you already have. 

Rapid-Emitting Armaments is a solid trait, and the first one I would drop for budget since it requires a Legendary bundle. This also frees up the T6X2 requirement. If you aren't flying on the Tzen-Tar, Automated Aggression is not a good reason to get the Tzen-Tar. Ceaseless Momentum could be replaced with something like Carrier-Wave Shield Hacking, but make sure to change out your Projectile Weapons Officers as well to make up for the cooldowns. If you are trying to save on C-Store ship purchases, sync up Piercing Projectiles and the Tricobalt Tear Launcher or Micro-Quantum Phalanx Array and Angle on the Bow. No real reason to mix and match. Subspatial Warheads is a substantial amount of damage output and is really worth the splurge, especially if you have the lobi from Event Campaign burning a hole in your pocket. Entwined Tactical Matrices is the last thing I would drop - if you don't have it, two of your Bridge Officer seats do essentially nothing. ETM also has wide application for other builds. Target that Explosion is solid, but hardly required. If you drop it, also swap out Reroute Power from Life Support probably for some survivability if you can. 

Miscellaneous