U.S.S. d'Alembert

Legendary Verity Command Dreadnought Cruiser

Updated: 2023 - 12

Build Overview and Focus

Support builds are those designed around increasing team damage, and frequently used in meta and record setting runs to boost a single persons damage. Tanks are a natural extension of the support umbrella and come in a variety of various flavors. The Bedivere represents a heavy tank, being a supremely durable platform able to soak damage while also being able to deal damage to help weaker teams complete any kind of content either solo or protecting a team. Heavy Tanks are super useful for general content play and are very fun themselves. However are almost never use for record setting runs because of the high damage potential and more selfish nature of damage.

On the opposite end you have dedicated support tanks which lower their own damage to just enough to take threat off teammates and use the rest of the build space to apply debuffs or team damage buffs. I have a Glenn built in this manor; providing lots of team. However, the d'Alembert is aimed more at team support though providing a tank rather than a dedicated support platform.

Build Purpose and Scope

This is a relatively new area of building to me, so I'm a bit later to this portion of meta build than most others. However, I am still giving it a shot...for my team! The Verity, while a very capable heavy tank is also a great support platform due to the flagship set and commander command powers. Suppression barrage makes tanking such an easy task nowadays, and concentrate fire power is almost universal good to carry around since most builds carry a torpedo (namely the DMQ for Energy builds).

While my Glenn support is more aimed at torpedo support, the Verity and the associated consoles lend it more towards being an energy weapon support platform and I believe the choices here reflect that. 

Flagship Tactical Computer

This console is locked to the flagships and the Verity. With the Lexington being fairly popular many people have chosen to slot this on theirs. This does mean that it is possible to bring this into a run where the console is duplicated (I've even had a few in triplicate). However I still believe this is a valuable console to carry be it on a heavy tank or a support tank, if you can. The Active is very much geared towards energy weapon damage, with the primary buff being 33% firing cycle haste for 15s, and additionally granting +50% flight and turn speed.

This does have a global 60s lockout starting when the console is used, and this lockout applies to the whole team. On this ship I can get my FWA buff to cooldown by the time this lockout is done sometimes, but not often. Having a second copy is nice to have, and shouldn't interfere with anyone else running it too much. The passives are also quite good.

Dominion Coordination Protocol

I only have the T5 one which comes with no passives. This has meant that I don't see much use from this console. However it has gained new life in my toolkit here. This is similar to the Tactical Computer in that it shares a team wide 60s lockout, also starting the moment the buff goes live. However, unlike the FWA being a primarily energy weapon buff, this provides a +15% Bonus all damage to all team members and pets for 15s, as well as a +60% turn and flight speed increase and a +100 Inertia setting (a bonus rarely seen).

Something I was meaning to play around with eventually was building the 3pc into using this. Unfortunately I ran out of room for "better" support consoles and consoles needed for durability. The associated console Dominion Command Interface (which I also have from the Gamma Vanguard pack, also at the T5 without passives) paints a target with -20 DRR and -20 defense for 20s second, and also allows for a random subsystem to be knocked offline if the target takes a small amount of damage. The final console in the set is the Dominion Defense Screen, something previously avalible only with promo ships but is not unlocked though the Legendary Jem'Hadar Vanguard Pilot Attack Ship. This console provides a 75% shield resistance (it says 95%, it doesn't break the 75% limit, I've tried) and a small amount of shield resistance each second while active. Normally the duration is reduced by firing weapons but with the 3pc this is neglected.

The reason you would want to take the 3pc, especially on a tank, is access to the DDS for shield durability, the debuff console form the command interface, and the 2pc which increases fleet maneuver gamma to also have +15 Accuracy and +15 Defense. However, given the wealth of consoles we have access too nowadays I felt this was best left alone in favor of other consoles

High-Energy Communications Network

Found on the support command carriers, these console offer a small Aux/Hull cap passive with an active that grants everything in 3km (up to 20, players getting preference) +100 Accuracy and defense, as well as applying -30 DRR to foes within the field. This also applies control amplification as it applies a hold to foes. Due to the nature of accuracy, this does mean this console is more beneficial to weapons than exotic builds (and specifically weapons which benefit from accuracy overflow, which excludes FAW buffed weapons).

Tachyon Net Drones

This is a shocking addition. I was really surprised by the effects of this console when used by Tilor and EPH, and when I picked it up I too was surprised even more at the actual consoles performance. This is slowly making it way onto every build for good reason. It offers a shield offline when the target is critically hit as well as a damage resistance debuff. 

Support Tanks and Outgoing Damage

Something I have seen spoken about a few times but not enough to make it into mainstream discussion is that of lowering tanks DPS output to attempt to shift more of it towards the rest of the team with the goal of collating it from a single person. This is a recent build however and I haven't been able to experience that side of the game very much. However, I have tried to limit the ships damage output to an extent This is mostly found in decreasing weapon power and limiting the number of damage buffs. Since this is aimed at being an energy weapon support build, this will pick up on all of those buffs for itself.

This means this is one of the very few ships which has very little tech upgrades invested into it. I did decided to upgrade my weapons and colony consoles; however this hasn't change the ships outgoing damage much, still limited to about 100k or so. However, NPC aggro is still a damage factor and it's been a tricky balance to bring this ship into the regime where it still deals enough damage to gain aggro but also doesn't overpower the other players. I've taken to adjusting the weapon power of the ship to get it to be in the performance range where it doesn't take off and out damage everything else.

Redirecting Arrays

I believe this is still viable. I'm using it here and have gotten really good results with it, and its what we used before ETM was a thing, that should tell you something. The downside to this trait is that it does require you to get hit. Realistically this shouldn't be an issue but it can cause the offensive rotation to break down.

If you do copy this method, being aware of these things and being willing to experiment with your own settings and setup will be the best way to go to getting the ship as you want it. This is no different than any ship.

Namesake

Jean le Rond d'Alembert, a French Polymath. Notable contributions include wave equations, fundamental theorems of algebra, and series convergence tests

Meta Analysis

I have stopped tracking these stats for this ship. As we approach higher and higher records, the threat in starts to decline. However I have never had anyone complain, and has been part of several dozen assisted runs about 1m dps now, so I call that a success.

Budget Analysis

Change History

Build Breakdown

The d'Alembert is a support tank. Like the Glenn it gets full points into support with the rest of the build being distributed around energy and durability.

Skills

Skill Unlocks

Notes

Teryh's skill tree is similar in many aspects but lacks a few features compared to my engineering captains. Because tactical captains get no inherent power management, I've taken points to buff up weapon power. I've also skipped Drain Expertise, mostly because its of no important, and the other being there isn't any case for me to use Drain Scaling powers on her. There is often a case to use Energy Siphon but it doesn't normally find room in bridge officer layouts to make it worthwhile enough to spec into DrainX when the points could instead be spent on EPG or power.

27 vs 26 Point Tactical ultimate

There is some comments floating around about people moving back to the 27 points in the tactical branch for the cooldown reduction on Focused Frenzy. I maintain that this is a negligible effect and and good build should already have and maintain proper cooldown reduction chaining. Therefore the cooldown reduction from Focused Frenzy should be redundant and therefore ignored. Unless you can maintain Frenzy the entire run (in which case all members have agreed to specifically build conditions and timings before hand) this point is wasted in the sense that the extra unlock will at most times be of unimportance, Therefore 1 point can be moved for utility to Science or Engineering .

Hull Restoration vs Hull Capacity

Once again I took a point in hull restoration. While the same argument as in Jayiie's skill tree doesn't quite hold up, as a tactical captain there is a distinct lack of healing innately avalible to her. As such taking that last point does help in scaling healing things up.

Shield Regeneration

While Teryhs primary goal isn't to tank, this last point in science does get her to the next unlock for +10% max shield capacity. While not a massively important stat, 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. If you want to take the final point of EPG or something else such as power or hull capacity feel free too do so.

Build

Starship Weapons

Starship Equipment

Starship Consoles

Notes

Colony consoles don't have the healing effect scale up with rank and rarity. Thus the amount of healing provided by UR Mk XII are the same as Epic Mk XV. 

Set Bonuses

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

As this is aimed at being more of an energy weapon support build. As such the Iconian Set is used to provide a +30% team wide energy buff. For use on torpedo aspected supports the Gamma Set is equally valid, as seen on my Glenn.

For HSE, you might also opt to bring something like a Colony Deflector and Discovery 2pc for the hull regen for some more duability and plan on having a second support run the Iconian set.

Bridge Officers

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

I've normally seen people run more controls than I do here for unconventional systems. However the ones available generate placates which can mess up threat tables and screw up aggro. This is harmful to both maintaining FAW with redirecting arrays and the primary purpose of this ship being a tank.

Cooldown Reduction

This build uses 3 sources of cooldowns; Aux2Batt, Boimler Effect, and the cooldown reduction from strategist secondary specialization Attrition Warfare II.

Traits

Personal Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

For tactical captains Coordinated Targeting Solution is available to them, however with Intelligence Agent Attaché, cooldowns on Fire On My Mark aren't exactly hard to find.

Budget Tweaks:

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

Starship Traits

Meta-Focused Tweaks:

    This is about as meta as you get for support. The two big -DRR traits, SAD and Cold Hearted, are both present as is the +power and team healing trait Greater than the Sum. I would imagine most meta support tanks don't run EWC but I do just because dealing damage is still an essential part of threat, and makes controlling the amount of damage this ship does by changing the weapon power a very controllable variable.

    Some traits to consider in place of Unified Engineering:

Budget Tweaks:

Most people will have Entwined Tactical Matrices, which is a fine substitute in place of Redirecting Arrays if you don't want to buy another C-store trait. There's more information found over on the Support Basics page.

For those looking to pick up more Defensive Traits:

Reputation Traits

Active Reputation

Duty Officers

Budget Tweaks:

There's not much here that's not easily accessible outside of Nerul, who is only found in the Delta Pack. Agent Nerul unfortunately has no equivalents. As such and durability driven duty officer would be best to put here. Dal R'el is a close equivalent, but this is a chance at an effect rather than guaranteed like Nerul. Another technician would probably be the easiest slot here.

Miscellaneous

Ship Stats

Keybinds 

As an player who's been doing this for some time, I have very few keybinds as I use most of my powers manually. As such I have only 1 "spam" button, which consists of the offensive rotation.

Parse Breakdown

ISE Record Damage Breakdown

ISE Healing breakdown

Portability

Any ship with commander command seating will work here. Obviously the higher the hull mod the better. The problem with porting 1:1 will have less to do with the ship bridge officer layouts and more with the unique consoles now un-locked from the Odyssey and Flagship lines. However lots of other ships have unique consoles that let you deal more damage or run more support (team damage buffs or target debuffs).

In order of highest to lowest hull mods: