U.S.S. Constantine

I have temporal listed here as I did queue into and set the DPS record with this. However, I really should have had strategist rather than temporal secondary.

Notes

Jayiie's Skill tree has been optimized to be used on as many build types as possible. As such there are some questions that naturally arise when talking about it. I will try to capture these discussions as succinctly as possible here.

Tactical ultimate and Exotic Builds

The tactical ultimate does basically nothing for the majority of the damage on this build. However this is a skill tree that is still designed to run things like the Inquiry and Verity, so I do still have this. A more optimized tree would look something s. The core skill selections are still there. There is an overlap on looking at torp skills when getting to the 25 Tac ult unlocks.

Hull Restoration vs Hull Capacity

This is very simple, while also not. Given the choice between a Improved Hull Capacity (+25.5%) and Hull restoration (+25%) against Advanced Hull capacity (+30%), I personally prefer to take the former, splitting the point difference. Since my character is an engineer, this 25% Hull restoration actually has some very useful applications through Miraculous repairs.

As well by taking some extra points into engineering, this has allowed me to take the 10th Engineering Unlock skill which adds +10 Hull Capacity, which is comparable to the +15 taken from the last point of Hull restoration. Due to how the skill works this is a +3.3% Max Hull vs 4.95% Max Hull buff respectively.

EPG vs Control Amplification, DrainX and CtrlX

This time around I've opted to put more points into CtrlX and EPG while taking Control Amplification, and instead dropping points from DrainX. If this wasn't on an engineering captain I wouldn't consider this a loss. However both Nadion Inversion and Intrusive Energy Redirection both scale with DrainX and are innate captain abilities, thus wanting for the skill.

Aux Power

Optimizing to hit 130 Aux power has been challenging. To do this I required Defensive Subsystem turning for the +4.8 Power to Aux. Combining this with the passive on most science ships as well as the Neutronic Eddies has allowed 130 to be hit passively. This has then allowed me to drop EPS Manifold Efficiency freeing up a 10th starship trait. On other builds this has the effect of allowing more aux power for more damage / better scaling on various powers.

Shield Regeneration

This is still a tank first skill tree. Shield regeneration is statically anomaly and adds a huge amount to shield regen in just the first point (more Information on shields can be found here). As such, I have taken the single point. with the most recent tree revision I've opted to spec out of DrainX and Drain Infection for that last point in EPG. Should you want to not take shield regeneration I would suggest the next DrainX point.

Starship Weapons

Notes

The Bio-Mol is super well performing here under HY, and having a CF3 on the build really helps enable it. It won’t achieve Torp boat levels of bonkers but compared to most anything else this is a really good choice. The Quad cannons can also be interchanged for the standard ones from the Dil Ship Sao Paulo Refit. The Lobi Store ones have a unique proc that applies globally buffing all the other weapons, however if you lack this a good option to use is the Terran Task Force Phaser Beam array. It has the same effect of scaling up damage as a targets health decreases so makes it a very good weapon.

The KCB is….really swingy, overperforming in ICE, but I wanted to try it compared to just another turret…and I probably would have done better with another turret.

The Phavan omni however does not perform well under SS and probably should be exchanged for another phaser omni.

Notes

The Iconian Core is hard to pass up on any build that has OSS. The ability to clear weapon offlines without having to react to it is super great for maintaining damage and making it one more thing we as pilots don’t have to think about. Automate the bad stuff away they say. I would say that the Regenerative Crystal Shield Matrix is probably an ok swap here in conjunction with Harmonic Shield Linkage to help automatically spread around the shield healing. 

Notes

All Isomags! Lots of power, lots of damage. Agony Redistributor for area nuking around a big target, really enhanced with a personal gravity well in solo / single area engagements. Phaser Lance for point damage (it did as much as the KCB did) and Universal Design triggers.  Timebug now that it’s off our no-fly list for being just crazy good is slowly replacing the Tachyon Net Drones on our builds.

For those looking for a more defensive console, consider Reiterative Structural Capacitor now available from the Phoenix Prize Pack store. This scales up healing received in proportion to damage taken. 

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

Console wise there's not much improvement here. 

Something worth noting is that the Vovin Consoles Teleport is only set if the active target when cast is designated as a foe. For most people using this normally will cause you to teleport to the nearest randomlly selected foe in range. However, it is possible to self cast this power, but you need to target self. I use a keybind for this, you can bind inside your file as:

| "target_clear $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 9 $$ target_clear" ""

Here 2 refers to Row #3, and 9 refers to Column 10 (the very last rightmost spot on tray #3). Feel free to modify as needed.

Budget Tweaks:

As always, there's a large portion of replacement consoles available. Only one of the non-tactical consoles I've listed are relatively expensive, but there's always slide grades depending on what you're after. Take a look here for the energy basics guide.

Notes

Superior Romulan Operatives grants +2% critical Chance and +5% Critical Severity globally, this makes them basically the best in slot as surgical strikes gives +30% Critical Chance. Watchers are an option but because they grant 3%/3% respectively. 

Notes

I tried something different here and offload healing to personal traits. This time with Harmonic Shield Linkage, which replicates almost entirely the healing of Shield Absorptive Frequency Generators. For hull healing we picked up Whole Lotta X’s for an emergency heal when under 25%. Combined with being an Engineering Captain I don’t need much in the way of healing. Tactical Captains will need to review the above to fit in A Good Day to Die. For the two engineering Specific traits, EPS Manifold Efficiency and Grace Under Fire, Fragment of AI Tech is a good choice here, as is Regenerative Control Synergy, Redirected Armor Plating, or even Give your all. 

Budget Tweaks:

For budget players who want to save some EC, there's a few standard traits that could be used:

• Point Blank Shot - Episode Reward from House Pegh - scaling damage based on distance to target from 2km to 6km.

• Operative - Innate Trait - +1% CrtH +2% CrtD, this isn't spectacular but if you lack any offensive traits you can use it.

• Bulkhead Technician - Innate trait - this provides +10% Maximum Hull capacity and can be used as a stand in for durability consoles

• Living Hull - Episode Reward from "Surface Tension" - +15% hull regen in combat 

Notes

Temporal Tunneling lines up perfectly with the cooldown and activation from Best Served Cold, 5s every 15s. Some offensive Traits that are worth mentioning for budget options:

• Improved Critical Systems - Temporal Agent Recruit Reward, grants CrtX on use of EptX abilities.

• Unconventional Tactics - Strategist Specialization, grants damage on using brace for impact.

• Getting into C-store accessible traits:

  • Promise of Ferocity - Alliance Pilot escorts, +4% bonus weapon damage when using a tactical or pilot bridge officer power (max 5 stacks, one stack every 4s)

  • Strike from Shadows - Pilot Escorts, Adds a passive -60% threat generation, +5% CrtH, and +5% Cat2, with a very very minor placate 

  • Greater than the Sum can be useful if you want to avoid OSS and it’s shutdowns but also need some power.

• • Heart of Sol can be a stand in but won’t reach the same performance impact that any of these traits will be able to offer. 

Notes

Keel’el is becoming much more rare, but is an incredible power on clearing debuffs. This one duty officer tends to clear more debuffs than a hazard emitters can. Agent Nerul, only obtained from the Delta Alliance Expansion Pack, while not exactly replaced is replicated in effect in Dal R’El. 22 of 47 is not required and can be replaced with another energy weapon officer providing critical chance or critical severity depending on what you need.

Something that we try to teach is how to read a ship, understand what are the important parts, and then apply it to other ships so you don't need a build for your specific ship. You can either copy or adapt from another ship as needed instead if there’s one that can run the same build or is close enough. The important parts of this ship are a combination of Cmdr Intelligence Seat and Concentrate Firepower III while also having 5 fore weapons, the ability to run Gravity Well. Consulting Fleffle's Sortable List with those filters, that gives us:

• Legendary Scimitar Intel Dreadnought Warbird - Downranking EPtW3 to rank 2 allows for the Lt.C Universal to be slotted as a Science. This build also picks up a hangar-drone ships are a good slot here since they get unlocked with the ship's acquisition.