Ground Support Basics

Career/Species

As a species, Bajoran (gets Creative by default) or Alien would probably be the best. This is not something that matters much. I’ve found there are good reasons to run both a Science and a Tactical captain as support. Science Captains bring Nanoprobe Infestation (a hefty -energy DRR ability) and the low cooldown Tricorder Scan (-65 all DRR), while Tactical Captains contribute Strike Team, (all damage, CrtH, CrtD), Fire On my Mark (-DRR), and Target Optics, which can expose and be doff’d to reduce DRR of affected enemies. This, combined with the use of certain kit modules, is why we’ve been using a “blue” (science) and “red” (tactical) support in our runs. 

Skills

Maximum points in Kit Performance (KPerf) and Kit Efficiency (KCD) are basically essential on the ground. Besides that, the rest of it does not matter much, as the support will not (should not) be doing much weapon damage. Bottom line, you don’t need a specialized skill tree. 

Temporal and Commando are still best-in-slot even for support builds. Temporal brings 50 Kperf, some KCD and a -DRR effect for anything with a DOT effect. Commando likewise gives KCD and reduces the cooldown on secondary weapon attacks. You could make an argument for Intel/Temporal, sacrificing some recharge haste that you probably won’t need with Mudd’s Time Device, for the Precision Offensive active. 

Armor/Shield/Weapon

The Omega 3-piece provides Team Ambush Field, which is a 2.5% CrtH and CrtD boost to allies, along with a little dodge. We typically have 1 support running this and it's possible to run with more than 1 since it stacks.

The Gamma Concerted Armaments 2-piece provides 10% all weapon damage and a minor kinetic/physical resist buff. We don’t consider the 3-piece worthwhile. This leaves space for another 2-piece like Duelist Regalia, Kuumaarke Visionary, or Furtive Perseverance that gives additional KCD or KPerf. We typically run only 1 of these since its benefit is lesser than Omega 3-piece, even though it stacks.

Another option would be the Iconian Resistance Elite 3-piece, which has an active that gives 33% all damage at 25% uptime to the team. 

As far as weapons go, we haven’t landed on any that are highly impactful or reliably leave a DOT for Decayed Defenses. I’m fond of Krieger Wave weapons, as they have a chance to increase your KPerf by 25, but it’s a 5% chance to trigger and something not to rely on. Assault Phasers, Romulan Plasma weapons, Altamid Plasma, Polarized Disruptors, and regular/Fleet Disruptors have a chance to reduce DRR. Obviously if you’re using Omega Force then that weapon will be slotted. I don't believe this is an area that truly matters much.

For devices, the Pahvan Healing Crystal is a teamwide heal and Rainbow Tribbles are a teamwide CrtH boost. Large Kit Overboosters are helpful both from a cooldown and KPerf perspective, though both types of supports will need to use Mudd’s Time Device per the Ground Cooldown Calculator. This brings us to …

Kit Frame and Modules

I prefer having at least 1 Radiant kit frame from the colony. This active gives a hefty bonus to ranged damage for the team at 10/30 seconds uptime and scales off KPerf. Again, since these setups are new to us, I haven’t tested to see if they stack. Will update this post once that’s done.

Otherwise, kits with high KPerf are good. I’d steer clear of Risian on a blue support to avoid triggering a highly-damaging kit ability. I am also unconvinced by the [+MA] versatile kit frames to avoid slotting Motion Accelerator as it is significantly less powerful than the standard tactical one. Also, if you're running more than 2 supports, the red one's kits mostly stack except for Motion Accelerator, and the blue generally do not.

Here is our current kit configuration for the blue and red supports:

Editor's Note: Some items do not have current wiki links!

Red

• Motion Accelerator: Craftable; makes team run very fast, essential on BHE with long distances between encounters. If you weren’t building around NTTE instead of BHE, swap Motion Accelerator for Resistance Is Futile (big single-target -DRR) (stacks)

• Motivation: Exchange; Teamwide on-hit heal and damage boost (doesn't stack)

• Rally Cry: Craftable; Teamwide heal and damage boost (stacks up to twice across the team)

• Coordinated Synergies: Gamma Rep; Teamwide damage boost (stacks)

• Gravitational Juncture: Exchange; AOE pull and big -DRR that scales with KPerf (stacks)

• Mudd’s Time Device: Discovery Rep; everything but Coordinated Synergies needs the cooldown help

Worth noting that 4 of the 6 modules are Tactical. 

Blue

• Causal Entanglement: Dil Store (Temporal); huge -DRR / shield hardness penalty, PBAOE (doesn't stack)

• Tal Shiar Forensic Scanner: Cheap on the Exchange; -DRR in a persistent area. Enemies defeated in the area leave buffs your team can pick up. (stacks)

• Frictionless Particle Grenade: Dil Store (Intel); -75 DRR in an area. Might be better to slot a second Gravitational Juncture depending on how they stack (doesn't stack)

• Virulent Dark Matter Cloud: Summer Event; Sci-only. Spreading AOE -DRR (doesn't stack, can't be cast on affected enemies)

• Delegated Devastation: Dil Store (Command); 40% all Energy Damage to the team for 25 seconds, your weapons offline for 10 seconds. (doesn't stack, can't be cast on affected enemies)

• Mudd’s Time Device: Virulent Dark Matter Cloud and Tal Shiar Forensic Scanner don’t have a minimum cooldown, so spamming stuff just leads to more -DRR being spread around. Could be replaced with Resistance Is Futile (big single-target -DRR) or Strategic Analysis (ramping teamwide bonus damage).

One-of-each has been an effective strategy thus far but again, if you wanted to stack them, the red one is the way to go.

Honorable Mention

• Resistance Is Futile: Exchange; This is a giant -150 DRR penalty to a single target to 20 seconds. There are not many targets worth using this on in BHE (probably just the Spawnmother), but might be good on NTTE

• Sandstorm Generator: Summer Event; This has a very hefty AOE DRR penalty (seen up to -90). Could swap this in for Frictionless Grenade, but it also does a non-trivial amount of damage and has a moderately long windup.

•  Overwatch: Crafted; hefty -DRR penalty for enemies who attack allies within the circle. Only use if you were confident in your ability to hold aggro.

• Strategic Analysis: Dil Store (Command); This is ramping teamwide bonus damage. We don't use it much since it has such a lengthy ramp-up time.

Traits

Generic Kit Performance and Kit Cooldown traits should be prioritized. There are a few other supportive traits in the list as well. The rating is for overall impact to supporting allies generally; some traits might be situationally more powerful (like Hive Mind or Pack Leader) depending on the teammates’ builds and setup. Having a few of these is helpful. Shadow of the Black Mountain is very expensive, but it does apply to both you and the team as long as you haven't died. 

Duty Officers

Almost done! There aren’t many teamwide or support-enhancing doffs we’ve found. Here’s a few that I’ve tried so far:

• Biochemists that lower the cooldown on batteries/stims are hard to find but do increase the uptime of Large Kit Overboosters. Probably would avoid on blue build because of…

• Biochemists that reduce enemy DRR on use of Science debuffs, including Virulent Dark Matter Cloud, fight for that slot

• Sensors Officers that reduce enemy DRR on use of Target Optics are a natural synergy for Red supports

• Biologists that increase the duration of Tricorder Scan are also useful for Blue Support

• Armory Officers that increase Expose chance are also fairly marginal, but also have some benefit and are at least cheap through the Phoenix Box.

• Quartermasters that give a chance for Fire On My Mark to expose the target are fairly marginal, but have some benefit. (Red Only)

• Assault Squad Officers that have a small chance to apply extra heal on Rally Cry are pretty marginal. I acquired one, but I’d hardly recommend it as essential.

Run Strategy and damage required

• You don’t really have to do much damage at all to stay above the threshold for leaver/AFK penalties. I’ve seen as little as 19 DPS be fine. Your focus should be on throwing down kit modules whenever possible, targeting clumps of enemies. Red Supports should use Motion Accelerator only when transitioning between zones on BHE. If the run is going slowly, you can add personal DPS abilities from reputation traits like One Little Ship and Piezo-Electric Lattice, or else summons like Security Team (red support), but otherwise your teammates should do the heavy lifting while you focus on buffing/debuffing. Target the Larval Queens and Ravagers on BHE as the priority since they're the largest enemies.

• We haven’t done much with NTTE so there is little working run strategy knowledge in our group.