Tempest

Herald Vonph Dreadnought Carrier

Build Overview and Focus

So . . . carriers. It's been a running joke with myself and a select few posters on Reddit that I don't care for this build type and would rather do other silly things instead of making a pet-focused carrier. That said, my arguments against this build type in the past were that they were expensive and lacking in meaningful console and trait choices, which was certainly true in 2021 when I first said it. 

Fast forward to 2023-2024 and we have a lot of newer items that support this build type and the STOBETTER team has done significant amounts of research to build our own body of knowledge rather than relying on basically one player (Pottsey) carrying the high DPS carrier torch through all those dark, lonely nights. With Hangar Craft Power Transmissions, newer traits like Repurposed Cargo Bay Hangar from the Typhon, the console and trait off of the Hydra, the Obelisk 4-piece, and more powerful fighters, the ceiling for carriers has never been higher. And this build has been cooking for a long time. 

All that said, the statement about carriers having a higher ceiling is not the same as "carriers have the same ceiling as other prominent build types." If you're building for 40+% pet damage, the ceiling for your build is going to be lower than just focusing on Cannon Scatter Volley with dual cannons and taking Elite Type 7 Shuttles for selfish DPS. At the end of the day, you're more reliant on hangar pets using their weapons and abilities well, which can be unreliable. Not only that, but if you lose hangar pets, you lose DPS, whereas even a ship with low hull still puts out the same damage. Also, it must be said that the high-end carrier traits tend to be expensive, leading to significant expense for lower numbers. That said, carriers are a thing a decent number of people care about, and there's enough build items and working knowledge out there now for me to properly build one, following in Jay's and Tilor's footsteps. In truth, I had some part in building their carriers as well so a lot of lessons learned have been incorporated. 

Build Definition

The STOBETTER definition of a carrier build is a DPS-oriented build that derives at least 40% of its damage from hangar bay or related sources (i.e. Hydra console). If you follow our approach, we'll typically benchmark in the 40-50% of DPS from pets. This will get you higher DPS values than what Pottsey generally builds and recommends, given that we allow around half the damage to come from a better-built host ship. We've flown our team comps with Pottsey and while his approach is Elite-capable, it deliberately sacrifices total DPS to lean more into pet damage. Choose the approach that aligns better with your style; they're both Elite-capable, but ours will get you above 1M DPS with the right piloting and team composition.

Platform Selection

Why the Vonph? First, we need a 2-bay ship. You can build a carrier with only 1 bay, but it feels like a deliberate handicap rather than a. Secondly, I am a strong believer in the use of Concentrate Firepower to amplify pet damage, assuming you're using pets with torpedoes, as I am. Third, it has Commander Tactical, a relative rarity among C-store ships. Fourth, secondary intel seating allows use of Ionic Turbulence for Unconventional Systems and boosting pet/overall damage. Lastly, it was an expensive ship I painstakingly farmed up the credits for a long time ago, back when it was a mere 200M, that I no longer had any use for. I originally obtained it for Peak Efficiency before Photonic Officer and Boimler Effect were alternate cooldown schemes. Between its suitability for carrier DPS and the fact that it felt bad to have a pricey thing collecting dust in a drydock, the Vonph was a more than adequate platform for a carrier. That said, jump to Portability if you want to see how this build would translate to a Friendship or Typhon because they're very, very similar in concept and you're essentially swapping out 1 boff power and maybe a weapon to adapt this build to those ships. 

Namesake

Tempest originally was the default auto-generated name for this ship when I acquired it . . . a very long time ago. That said, I decided to keep it because the name fits this ship, with its waves of fighters spewing AOE devastation that sweep over an entire area like a severe storm. Or institutional laziness, one of the two.

Meta Analysis

Budget Analysis

Using the EZRA rubric, this build would cost 730 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 is mostly built around maximizing output from hangars, but it's still built on a strong foundation of basically being an energy weapon build, swapping out consoles, gear, and traits to emphasize hangar pets where applicable. 

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes



Build

Starship Weapons

Notes

Why Antiproton? Well, the Ancient Obelisk Set is a significant gain for carrier-based DPS, which leads me to conclude that AP is the way to go for Carriers, with Phaser not far behind.  That leaves us with some other fun options like the Delphic 2-piece. Ba'ul unfortunately gets mostly displaced due to needing the Set Omni to be Ancient. I could have gone cannons, but Jay already has an AP cannon-based carrier on the Friendship, which tbf is probably a superior platform thanks to having its 4th aft weapon and full-spec.

The Herald AP beam was given out by Cryptic during an Event in 2024 and could be easily swapped to a crafted one. 

Starship Equipment

Notes:

Blue (Rare) To'Duj Fighter Squadrons in our testing are basically the same as Elite Valors in terms of performance, so if you'd rather use those, they are much cheaper, but this build does use pieces from two other ships in the Heritage bundle so it was worth it to me. Plus, I have a grudge against Cryptic concerning Cross-Faction Flying. My understanding was that I unlocked Cross-Faction Flying through purchasing the Mudd's Pilot Bundle, but it didn't unlock. When I emailed support, they said that was only for its initial promotion despite the bundle description not changing in the Z-store. I could always make a KDF recruit when that event rolls around but I'd rather make a point: Blue To'Duj are no longer the only game in town. 

The Revolutionary Shield could also be a Tilly Shield or Regenerative Crystal Shield if you don't have access to it. 

Starship Consoles

Set Bonuses

Notes: 

The set bonuses are why I believe AP is the best for carriers and you should run the Ancient Obelisk Set even if you use another flavor.  

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:



Bridge Officers

Meta Notes

Traits

Personal Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Budget Tweaks:

Starship Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:


Budget Tweaks:


Notes:

Our philosophy on carriers doesn't sacrifice everything at the altar of pet DPS. If you go too far down that rabbithole, you lose a lot of Elite viability. Keeping Emergency Weapon Cycle and the extender (ETM) helps maintain some base ship DPS in case of losing pets. 

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

It wasn't worth it to me to pick up a 3rd Very Rare Flight Deck Officer but you could if you had credits to spare. A Dal R'El Conn Officer would displace the Warp Core Engineer if I was sitting on another one, as the ship is kind of squishy. 


Budget Tweaks:

These are all cheap/grindable, though the Flight Deck Officers can be a pain. Easier to get them from buying doffs in the Fleet Starbase than doing the doff chain but YMMV. I used the Exchange. 

Miscellaneous

Cooldowns

This ship uses Photonic Officer with the Boimler Effect as 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, there's an 88% chance or higher of at least 1 activation of the trait during a 10 second 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. Okay, normally this section is somewhat copy-paste, but it actually matters this time so pay attention or you're going to teleport yourself into the middle of the Borg fleet. 

Videos

This first one is not this ship, but covers general piloting tips for this build type on ISE. It's basically the same positioning. 

Piloting

Prior to start, you'll want to set 1 hangar to auto-launch and turn the other one on. Launch the auto-launch hangar and wait until it's about halfway off cooldown. Then trigger the second hangar and set it to auto-launch. This should stagger your hangar launches pretty well to keep Scramble Fighters up (and your pets invulnerable). I also pre-charge Hull Image Refractors for some temporary HP and use Kobayashi Maru. 

You want to use all your console actives in the first fight, then use Subspace Fracture Tunneling Field (SFTF) to cool them down after. Trigger Evasive Maneuvers to fly over to the left transformer and fire off all major abilities while at 1/4 impulse or stopped within 2 km of the transformer. FAW should take care of most targets. Once 2-3 of the generators are down, target the transformer. Be careful in timing EPtE here, as you'll need it to reset your Evasive Maneuvers. Ideally you activate EPtE here to reset the cooldown on Evasive and it's still active to fly to the right. I rotate to face inward toward the gate. 

When the transformer is less than 5%, fly towards the ball of spheres and give them a torpedo spread and cycle or two of firing. Once they start thinning out, Evasive Maneuvers again with Deuterium (reset due to Emergency Power to Engines) and head to the right side. Rinse and repeat, then Evasive Maneuvers again to fly between the Tactical Cube and Gateway. Stay nose on: no broadsiding. Make sure to flank the Tactical Cube. Lastly, don't forget to summon your Delta Alliance Beacon/Nimbus Pirates. In an average ISE run, I can get two off: one at the start and one at the end.

The importance of Crit and Flanking cannot be oversold. I saw significant increases in DPS from boosting Crit in doffs and traits. On my record runs, my weapons were parsing between 80-90% with roughly 40% flank percentage. There are players with better gear and piloting skills than I who've achieved much, much higher percentages, but I will say broadly that when in doubt, add crit. Since flanking includes extra crit chance/severity with Intel, you can't go wrong with flanking either! Look for the downward pointing arrow on your target.  

Parse Breakdown

DPS Numbers from record ISE:



Weapon crits were around 60% averaged; flank rate was around 30% averaged across weapons. The team composition for this run was this ship,  a support tank, and 2 supports.


I'll provide the survivability breakdown for this ship on my solo, deathless ISA as an indication of how this ship stays alive in heals-per-second (HPS). It's a little weird on a carrier



Portability

As it turns out, ships with 2 hangar bays, at least 7 weapons, at least 3 eng consoles, and at least LtCmdr Command are somewhat common so there's lots of options. Most of them give up the Intel secondary, except the Friendship. That said, if you have a Friendship, drop Hazard Emitters for Call Emergency Artillery III, using the Ensign Universal for Engineering Team and splitting the Tactical/Intel seat and Lt Universal as Tactical to fit FAW III, Ionic Turbulence I, Attack Pattern Beta I, Kemocite I, and Torpedo Spread II. You'll also pick up another aft weapon, it'll be a turret. It's just a straight upgrade to the Vonph, but the key difference is: I've had a Vonph for years and I don't have a Friendship. Jay does and he uses cannons on it. 

Besides the Friendship, another ship that can fit a similar build are the Borg Assimilator, which gets you Mixed Armaments Synergy over Ionic Turbulence and another Dual Beam Bank over a turret. That's a pretty good trade. 

Last but not least, the Typhon brings a notably cheaper entry from the C-store and the only thing you give up is that Ionic Turbulence, but you get Call Emergency Artillery instead, which is a solid trade. If you want to do this build but on a cheaper ship, do it on the Typhon.