Part Two: The Two Commandments
This is the IKS Garbage Scow, a Risian Corvette from the summer event. Unfortunately, it's no longer available if you don't have one. I chose this ship to showcase because it's cross-faction and not a C-Store vessel. Also, many of you may have one lying about. If you're playing along at home, feel free to copy the Garbage Scow's build as much as you like.
I will warn you: I intend to make this guide rather comprehensive. I'll be walking you through weapons, consoles, bridge officers, duty officers, traits, and specs. We'll also touch on making the most of the advice you receive along the way. Because of this, the guide is likely going to take a while for me to complete, so please be patient! I also admit that I am still very much a student myself. I chose to write on this topic not because I am particularly knowledgeable about ship builds, but I do know a thing or two about learning how to do something.
So let's do this thing together.
The Basic Rules of Effective Builds
Ah, that new starship smell. Here's the Scow as she appears fresh out of the box. Today, we are going to talk about outfitting her with some weapons. We can generally classify ship weapons in four basic types: Cannons/Turrets, Beams, Torpedoes, and Mines. Cannons/Turrets and Beams are known as
energy weapons. Torpedoes and Mines are
projectile weapons. We'll worry only about energy weapons today.
The First Commandment: Thou Shalt Choose One Energy Weapon Type Energy weapons come in multiple flavors. Geo has written an excellent guide to them
here. Each weapon type has a
proc, or an effect that has a chance to occur when the weapon hits the target. Some people select their weapon type based on their desired proc, other prefer to use the canon weapon type for their ship (such as phasers on a Federation ship and Plasma for a Romulan ship.)
It doesn't matter which weapon type you select as long as you commit to it. Don't cheat on Disruptors by running Polarons on the same ship! A ship that runs energy weapons of multiple types is often known as a
rainbow build. Rainbow builds are generally bad news because the best tactical consoles boost your damage in a single energy weapon type. As you play, you may find energy weapons that have multiple procs. However, these weapons have a 'base type' that is affected by a corresponding tactical console. So, you should only run energy weapons that correspond to a single base type.
The Second Commandment: Thou Shalt Choose Beams or Cannons Many new shipbuilders learn quickly that one should not mix energy weapon types. A slightly less-known rule is to run either beams OR cannons, not both. The reason for this is fairly simple. Bridge officer abilities such as 'Beam Fire at Will' and 'Cannon: Rapid Fire' affect only one of these two types of weapons. Therefore, a build with both beams and cannons will be less effective than an unmixed build.
So, which to pick? A good rule of thumb is to look at how your ship flies. A large, slow-turning cruiser like the Romulan D'deridex is suited for broadsiding opponents with beams. Meanwhile, a fast escort such as the Defiant is effective with cannons at the fore and turrets aft. These quick ships can zip up to enemies and blast them head on. The turrets, with their 360 degree range, ensure that they are always firing, despite their lower DPS (damage-per-second).
Before we move on to the next installment, let's check on the Scow. I've outfitted her with random crap from drops. Knowing what you know now, can you spot everything that's wrong with this zippy-fast escort? How would you fix it?
Fore weapons:
Tetryon Cannon
Phaser Cannon
Transphasic Torpedo
Plasma Turret
Aft Weapons:
Plasma Beam Array
Plasma Beam Array
Plasma Beam Array
A Final Note1. There are some builds that only use projectile weapons. We'll look at that option later.
2. There are builds that mix beams and turrets, and I am sure there is at least one effective rainbow build. Please follow the Picasso Rule: If you haven't mastered the basics, you can't bend the rules effectively. You must first be able to do
this before you can do
this.
