R.R.W. Xiphos

Legendary Scimitar Intel Dreadnought Warbird

Build Overview and Focus

Last Updated April 2024

Modern torpedo boats are really a hybrid of torpedo, mine, projectile, and exotic damage. Dedicated torpedo ships can also really only benefit from four torpedoes due to shared cooldown so the rest of the build space is allocated to building around those four launchers or augmenting them with other damage sources like mines or set bonuses. This build incorporates a wide variety of the most powerful projectile build concepts, but that comes with a certain amount of piloting difficulty inherent to flying torpedoes on a less agile ship.

Platform Selection

Torpedo boats need LtCmdr Command for Concentrate Firepower. Other attractive attributes are lots of Tactical seating, not much Engineering seating, lots of weapon slots, and lots of tactical consoles. The Legendary Scimitar has all of those along with a hangar and battle cloak. While it lacks the Commander Command seen on a lot of meta boats, the tradeoffs allow it to be a bit more independent outside of parsing maps only, as it brings its own Gravity Well and has some additional heals. This ship also comes in a bundle with one of the meta traits for torping, so I've reduced the cost to represent a more affordable torpedo build that still incorporates virtually all the key staples and concepts. 

Flavor/Theme Choices


Namesake

The xiphos was the sword of the Greek hoplite, carried into battle by soldiers belonging to many city-states. In particular, soldiers of the earliest republics carried this weapon, which is thus a befitting namesake for a warbird that serves as the sword of the nascent Romulan Republic. 

Meta Analysis

Budget Analysis

Using the EZRA rubric, this build would cost 347 USD to replicate. That is far more than what I spent on STO to make it. If the cost looks daunting, don't worry! Lower-budget alternatives are provided below.

Change History

Build Breakdown

This ship emphasizes projectile damage, but has aspects of it that touch pretty much all of the others as well. 

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes


I chose Temporal primary specialization for the Atrophied Defenses passive and Entropic Rider. Continuity is a useful survival tool. Strategist has solid boosts to crit since I have a low cooldown heal. 

Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

The 4 chosen torpedoes are "meta" torps for good reason. The Lorca's Ambition 3-piece does okay damage but is hardly essential. Mines do excellent damage as well, particularly with Relocate Mines on debuffed targets. If you don't have Delphic or Altamid, use the Quantum Phase torpedo with its beam array in the back, or consider slotting the Terran Task Force Photon with an Advanced Inhibiting weapon for the pair of 2-piece bonuses you'd get from them. 

Starship Equipment

Notes:

If you don't have Revolutionary, I'd probably go with the Mycelial Wave core for the regen from the 2-piece.

Starship Consoles

Notes:

The Eagle console would be an obvious inclusion over Ferrofluid Hydraulic Assembly if you have it (they do not stack). Replacing Hull Image Refractors with a low-cooldown charge-based console to power Universal Designs would be important if you were running that expensive trait.

Set Bonuses

Notes: 

For beams or cannons, energy type and subtype doesn't matter all that much and an astounding number of keystrokes have been spent asking whether Phaser or Disruptor is better, should I fill up with Spiral Wave Disruptors or Sensor-Linked, etc. when difference between them until one starts hard-core chasing numbers is minimal. That is NOT the case with torpedoes, where I will say that conservatively there's about a dozen usable types of torpedoes for high-level play and the rest of them are basically trash. This is where the torp crusaders have a point--the average torp is not strong, and 3 whole subtypes are basically not worth slotting (Transphasic, Chroniton, and Tricobalt). This is my personal list of strong/decent torpedoes. If it's not on this list, I personally wouldn't slot it (though I may have missed one)

Alternate Torpedo types: 

See my full quantum build on the Fleet Engle / Earhart for an all-quantum take on things. After running a handful of ISEs and HSEs on each build, I can't honestly say that the mixed torp build is better. This is the more meta ship yet its numbers aren't as high. I think the quantum build is stronger in large part because it's easier to fly and on a more agile ship; the Xiphos simply has a lot more going on (singularity abilities, cloak, fewer heals) while being a less agile ship. Perhaps further testing and piloting will change my outlook, but for now I am saying the quantum boat is stronger. I could run that setup almost exactly on this ship, but variety is the spice of life. 

You could also run this build as a Photon build using Gravimetric, Enhanced Bio-Molecular, Terran Task Force, and Adv. Piezo-Photon torpedoes and replacing the Torpedo consoles with Photon but I think it's weaker. In that case, ensure to slot the Wide Angle Dual Beam Bank from the Discovery Legends set to retain the 2-piece bonus.


Budget Tweaks:

Bridge Officers

Meta Notes


Traits

Personal Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

If going full glass-cannon with unlimited budget


Budget Tweaks:

Try and keep the ones at the bottom, but the default traits are not very good for torpedoes at all. 

Starship Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:

 Try and keep the ones at the bottom. Torpers really need Entwined Tactical Matrices to function


Notes:

Superior Area Denial is an excellent trait for ships using Fire-at-Will or Scatter Volley that also have a hangar, but while I have access to it, it lowers the damage done by Elite Drone ships, so I am not using it here. 

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:

Miscellaneous

Cooldowns

This ship uses Photonic Officer and Boimler Effect its primary cooldown mechanism. As evidenced from the chart above, without Boimler Effect triggering, this build will not have most of its powers on global cooldown. Thankfully, with a high number of short rotation powers (10 over a 15-20 second rotation), there's an 85% chance or higher of at least 1 activation of the trait during a rotation.  

Link to CDR Sheet for this build

Ship Stats

Keybinds 

With as many abilities and synergizing concepts as this ship employs, an efficient control scheme is essential. There are many ways to set up such a ship, so I don't pretend to assume that my way is superior. I have simplified it down to a single spambar. Some people can fly and manually fire torps; it was a detriment for me on this ship.

Everything else is manually triggered.

Piloting

ISA Piloting Tips

I start off pre-buffing my spambar prior to countdown (in PUGs) or prior to launch call (premade). I start dropping mines right away; Relocate Mines will be used to move them onto the generator. The first group I hit with Grav Well (GW), and a full rotation of torpedoes. On ISA, I don't bother using Concentrate Firepower here. Next, I hit Evasive Maneuvers and fly to the left side, activating my big buffs. I shoot the nearest generator on the way in and try to line up so the 2 far-side generators are hit by torpedo spreads and Fire at Will. I also usually activate my Delta Reinforcements beacon here and Phased Space Membrane. Use a Large Aux Battery when your aux levels start to dip below 50 to prolong the effect. I then lock onto the transformer with Concentrate Firepower, Relocate Mines, and Tractor Beam to destroy it; Tac ult and Swarmer Matrix active help a lot. I have enough damage that I can kill it through 1-2 generators still being alive. I basically ignore the cube at each transformer in favor of hitting the juicier unshielded targets. Then I turn onto the sphere/probe cloud. As the generator is about to die, I turn and engage the ball of Nanite Spheres with a single torp spread. I don't bother killing them all, as a single spread will get them low enough while I zip over to the other side. Activate Evasive Maneuvers and fly to the right side, rinse and repeat with as with the left. I try to save my big active heals for this part because PUG teams don't always fly over to right generator quickly. As it's dying, I turn back on the gateway. Activate Quantum Singularity Manipulation and FIRE EVERYTHING! A second Gravity Well should be available here. Of note, closing to 5 km and dropping the Anti-time bubble is quite good with the boost from Quantum Singularity Manipulation. With any luck, the 300 CtrlX Grav Well will also suck in the remaining spheres for tons of damage. Concentrate Firepower, Relocate Mines, and Tractor Beam on the gateway helps bring it down quickly, then it's rinse and repeat on the cube. Ideally, my teammates would all move to flank position and help take down the shields on the flanking face, but if they don't, it's better for me to give up the flank shot and hit hull than it is to flank but hit shields. That's the nature of torping. Concentrate Firepower, Tractor Beam, and Relocate Mines again on the Tac Cube when it's available. If another reinforcements calldown is available, use it here.

ISE Piloting Tips

Essentially the same as ISA, with a couple of modifications. Concentrate Firepower should be used on the first Tac cube along with most Tactical captain powers since the initial encounter can make or break the run. Toss in any other console actives too, like Tricobalt Tear Generator or Swarmer Matrix. Jump across to the right side. I might slow down to fight the first group of Nanite Spheres a little more, but in a premade with at least one science build, just fire one spread and cross over to the right transformer. 

Parse Breakdown

Numbers are from record ISE


Weapon crits were generally in the 70-80% range.  Team composition for the run was two supports, and a support tank alongside this ship in a 4-man run.


Portability

Ships with 5 fore weapons, LtCmdr Cmd, and enough-but-not-too-much Engineering seating are somewhat rare. Other possible options include the Fleet Engle (which could run this build exactly, aside from swapping a mine for an experimental weapon) or its cross-faction equivalent. The Khopesh Warbird would trade Gravity Well for another low-ranked tactical power, likely Distributed Targeting. The Legendary Walker could pick Call Emergency Artillery III at the cost of the Gravity Well. The Kelvin Einstein Destroyer is an intriguing option, as it has pilot seating which would allow this setup without SAD and using Pilot Team to proc Cold-Hearted instead. Lastly, the Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird, and Legendary T'Liss could run this build with few bridge officer or weapon changes.