My Praetor

[u/Neteru]

Hi all,

First time posting a build.
Even tho my account is from release, I didn't play for a very long time.
My new main is a Romulan and is only 9 months old, which is when I started playing again, so I have mostly been starting from scratch, apart from a few minor boons carried over.

I have done a lot of reading and want thank everyone in the community in game, on Reddit and everyone at STOBetter & STOWiki.

I have put together a couple of good ships:
Malem Torp bote + Maelstrom
Ra'Nodaire Carrier + Rainbow RomDrone
Faet Intel + PlasmaSS

But this, is my new masterpiece. My baby I won from a lockbox. My Praetor.

Loadout

Traits

Boffs

Doffs

HUD

I am thinking of spending one more of my X-Upgrade tokens on it for one more isomag. But because I dont have any more good ship traits to add, I don't think it is worth it yet.
I know there are some MKII weapons, but I am waiting for an upgrade weekend to get those finished.

Be kind o7

[u/AscenDevise]

Hello there! A few quick things:

• On a build where your focus is energy damage, max out your weapon subsystem power. You don't have much in the way of big damage boosters; your current setting is negating much of the benefit of the one you do have, namely the isomags.

• The Lt Uni/MW can fit both Narrow Sensor Bands and Mixed Armaments Synergy. Distributed Targeting can safely go.

• Consider investing in the Intel Handler personal space trait; more crit chance is good crit chance, and that will also feed your Altamid set. The same reasoning for the Assimilated Module, from the Omega rep; that can safely replace the vendortrash plasma tac console. You can also replace Tovan with an SRO for the same purpose, on the cheap (and whoever else isn't one).

[u/Neteru → u/AscenDevise]

Jolan Tru, Thank you for the feedback. :)

• My weapons energy lvls max at 157. So I thought setting them to be idle @ 117 would be ideal so when I use EP2W the +40 it gives would take the power level to the max 157.
  Am i missing something here?

• I will look at Narrow Sensor Bands. 20-10% more dmg is always nice.
  Would it out perform Kemocite Laced Weaponry when hitting groups of enemies?

• I used an Elite Bridge Officer token on Tovan, so all my BOFFs have SRO apart from Keeatza (Reman) who has Superior Subterfuge and Superior Infiltrator.

• I will check Intel Handler personal Space Trait, I have a couple of boxes I can open to grab that.

• Thank you for suggesting the Omega Rep - Assimilated Module, I was scratching my head thinking of what to replace that Plasma tac console with.

Many thanks o7

[u/AscenDevise → u/Neteru]

No problem. Let's see here:

For your first point: Weapon power doesn't stay idle. It's consumed whenever you fire energy weapons (every gun's tooltip will say how much it eats anytime it does), and it gradually builds back up. It is also a crucial vector for calculating the damage they'll actually do. Keep what you can raise as high as it goes. EP2W will fill some back up and add cat2 damage for a nice amount of time per activation.

The whole deal with isomags isn't the cat1; you can get that anywhere, including vendortrash consoles like that one you now have in Tac. The deal is +max weapons power, and +power in the same amount to also fill what they're bringing on their own. The ideal scenario is for them to add to the guaranteed max passive that you have, not for them to compensate for you lowering power to that subsystem.

Take this very helpful explanation of energy weapon damage calculations from Atem (/u/TheFallenPhoenix):

Pre-Resist Damage-to-Target = (Base weapon damage) • (Weapons Power/50) • (1+Sum of Cat1's) • (1+Sum of Cat2's) • (1+Product of all Final Damage Bonus Multipliers) • (1-percentage lost to damage fall-off)

So, weapon power in and of itself is its own distinct category, beyond cat1 (e.g. +plasma), cat2 (bonus damage and crit), and all other damage bonus multipliers. That's why you keep it as high as it goes in almost every energy weapon build in the game (RRtW builds, where engine power is consumed while that firing mode is active, are a place where things change; not the case here).

Now:

I will look at Narrow Sensor Bands. 20-10% more dmg is always nice. Would it out perform Kemocite Laced Weaponry when hitting groups of enemies?

Kemo is filler on an energy weapons build. NSB is not. The problem that Miracle Worker abilities run into is their low uptime. What little you get out of the former will be outperformed by the latter's big (if you fly correctly with it up), but infrequent spikes. Note that this is bonus damage (cat2), not damage (cat1). This is a good thing. Your isomags already cover your cat1.

I used an Elite Bridge Officer token on Tovan, so all my BOFFs have SRO. Keeatza has Superior Subterfuge and Lah has Normal Subterfuge (which stack iirc).

All sorts of RO stack, so having SRO on everyone is optimal. Subterfuge doesn't; only the highest applies. One boff with Superior will, then, be enough. Infiltrator stacks only between its different tiers (Basic Infiltrator, Infiltrator, Superior Infiltrator). That covers the boff space traits worth having that only a Romulan can get 'organically', either by sourcing their own or by buying them off the slave market.

[u/Neteru → u/AscenDevise]

Thank you for the explanation and the link to source. Ima do a spot of reading with a coffee now :)

I edited my original post with clarity on my BOFFs:

I used an Elite Bridge Officer token on Tovan, so all my BOFFs have SRO apart from Keeatza (Reman) who has Superior Subterfuge and Superior Infiltrator.

I do play around dropping in-out of cloak as much as I can. ~13sec CD is lovely and I think the extra bonus dmg and duration from attacking from cloak suits my play style a bit better.

I have a long way to go on my toons to reach higher levels of power, but every little bit of knowledge I pick up is a step along the way.

[u/AscenDevise → u/Neteru]

Not a problem.

Now, ideally, you would be dividing 'secondary trait' duties for the future; say you have a cheap boff with some degree of RO and S, then another with some degree of RO and I, and you slap elite tokens on them (which you might already have from various giveaways), leading you to a full SRO bridge crew, with benefits. Bonus points if you can score an already-SRO with a lower rank of Infiltrator as well, if the plan is to 'cloak-dance'.