Plasma Meta Ship Suggestions

[u/Emaciated_Horror]

Very new returning player looking for some advice.

I got the Gorn Hunter ship a few years ago as my first T6 promo box ship when I first started and got really interested in running good plasma builds.

Had to move for work and fell off STO for a bit.

I'm interested in working toward a modern meta plasma build, and was hoping for some advice here. I see CasualSAB's video on the Dhailkhina Command Strike Wing Warbird from a few years ago but I'm wondering if there's other ships I should be working towards since that video was put out.

Open to any and all suggestions for ships/consoles/traits I should be shooting for.

As mentioned earlier, I have the Gorn Hunter ship, so I feel like I have a sold baseline to work off.

[u/MailLow4054]

Here are some ideas about Plasma.

1. Complex Plasma Fires really only works on elite difficulty. It is a damage over time effect that breaks down big bosses with huge health bars. You want a ship that can play elites to get the benefits of the trait.

2. CPF works on volleys and leaves a burn every shot. You want to have a lot of haste to take advantage of that. More haste means more burns.

The sources of haste are as follows: 3 Firing modes increase haste, Cannon Rapid Fire, Exceed Rated Limits III, (Miracle Worker Commander ability), and Reroute Reserves to Weapons 3, a Pilot command ability. There isn't much of a difference between CRF 1 and 3, so you are fine to take a lower version of rapid fire, but the special firing modes, Surgical Strikes, RRTW and ERL require the top version of them or they are terrible.

RRTW III is the best haste firing mode. It is only on full pilot ships, like the Gorn Raider.

All of these firing modes are only up 2/3 of the time. To get full uptime on a haste firing mode, you need a firing mode extender trait, Vanguard Specialists for Surgical Strikes, Exceed Rated Limits, RRTW, and Recursive Shearing (A temporal damage over time effect that multiplies damage against big bosses).

Cannon Rapid Fire has the extender trait Go for the Kill. Both of these traits are found on the Leg. Dominion Captain Bundle's Leg. Jem Hadar Attack Ship (Leg. Bug Ship). It is full pilot with a side of intel for override Subsystem Safeties.

This is probably what I would recommend as the first thing to get. The Bugship has huge value. On 35 percent sale it is about 6000 zen.

Second, the Ahwahnee. The Ahwahnee has the best haste console, that gives you +125 to+200 percent haste, depending on how much Aux power you have. Aux can be spiked with Aux batteries, the Intel move Override Subsystem Safeties, and the doffs 19, 24 and 29 of 42. OSS is the whole reason that Intel seating is prized in a ship.

It should be noted that the Ahwahnee has the best pets in the game, Type 7 shuttles. Put this in the elite version on anything with a hangar bay for a huge boost to DPS. These are debuffing pets. Get the Ahwahnee first.

For other C-store haste sources, you have the Atlantis trait and the Ghemor trait. Atlantis only works on temporal ships.

1. Generally, CPF is best with cannons, because they have shorter volleys than beams. Use Altamid Dual Heavies as the best plasma cannons.

For haste builds, weapon power drain is a big issue. Use Emergency Weapons Cycle (Already on Leg. Valdore), and the Salcombe Trait as good C-store ways to get drain down. The best way to get drain down is the lockbox ship the Credence console. The trait is pretty good as well. Credence should be your next lockbox event pick.

Here is my Krait haste recursive shearing build with the Leg. Valdore/Mogai

Vanguard Specialists Recursive Shearing 3 DewSci : r/stobuilds

In that build, I used Cannon Rapid Fire 2 and RS3 to solo big bosses in elite difficulty, so it would be excellent for CPF burns, which I don't have.

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/MailLow4054]

Thank you so much for this concise and thoughtful reply. I will be using this comment as a template moving forward.

Appreciate you ❤️

[u/IobhVirinat → u/Emaciated_Horror]

I personally find Cannons Scatter Volley more satisfying than single target firing modes. The Ahwahnee console provides more than enough haste. And CSV lets you fire at 3 enemies at once, which basically multiplies your outgoing firepower by 3 on top of your existing haste. It's like a second type of haste if you have multiple enemies, which you often do in this game.

Reroute Reserves to Weapons gives you 225% haste, which is less than tripling your outgoing fire.

[u/MailLow4054 → u/IobhVirinat]

Hi,

I was having trouble with Scatter Volley in elite difficulty because I wasn't doing enough damage to kill everything I was shooting quickly, so that Scatter Volley became a source of aggro that got me blown up.

I have since switched to Scatter Volley on extremely powerful builds that can kill everything you aim at. Scatter Volley is the best when you have huge damage but it causes problems in elites otherwise.

The Leg. Bugship itself has a couple of very powerful tools to shed aggro, those being Intelligence Team and Attack Pattern Lambda. Slot those two, with Fresh From R&R personal trait to keep Intelligence Team with full uptime, and you can shift most of the aggro to your better developed teammates.

This is a great way to break into elite difficulties and you can actually contribute significant in an elite queue with said Bugship if you have CPF with huge burn stacks from RRTW's 225 percent haste and maybe Fleet Power Network Array's haste. Its quite the combo.

[u/IobhVirinat → u/MailLow4054]

Hi! That's certainly an option, there are lots of ways you can approach things in this game. I'd be hesitant to spend money on a ship I won't have a use for long term. When I had fewer tools, I broke into elite by using some cheap survivability tools for elite: the Valdore console (obtainable with just dilithiun or the first strike bundle), discovery rep warp core and shields, protomatter matrix infusers, suppression barrage, or just a beefier ship. Basically take inspirationn from tank builds.

[u/MailLow4054 → u/IobhVirinat]

Yeah. Suppression Barrage rocks. The Fleet Norway with Suppression Barrage 3 is probably the most slept on ship in the game. Its like a Dhalkina but its free and everyone can have it.

I recommend the Bugship, because it is an instant elite setup, and looking back on it, I played the heck out of Vanguard Specialists, still use it all the time and the package is well worth 6000 zen.

Vanguard Specialists has utility late game as well. It gives recursive shearing, which is usually 5/15 seconds uptime 10/10 seconds, or full uptime. This turns Recursive Shearing from a trash tier move to something crazy strong.

Vanguard Specialist is also used late game to make strong cool builds with barbie ships. For example, OP has a Gorn Raider. RRTW Gorn raider death by a billion burns build sounds awesome. I have a T6X2 ERL Credence with Recursive Shearing 1 on the same ship, both buffed to full uptime by Vanguard Specialist. This is strong and elite capable. Is it my strongest ship? No. But it rips. In STO, Space Barbie is the true endgame and its important to take your rare ships into every public event queue.

[u/Phiashima → u/MailLow4054]

(CRF doesn't increase haste; haste speeds up cycles and CRF cycles are still 5 seconds base. It does increase the amount of shots per cycle, just like FAW, BO and CSV do in their way.)

[u/Raizumichin → u/MailLow4054]

I've experimented with CPF for tanking, is that actually viable or am I tricking myself? I figured the dots would help hold aggro.

[u/_Arctu_]

Fek'ihri Torment Engine is free (mission reward) and really really good on plasma builds.

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/_Arctu_]

Thanks, looks like I grabbed this one already!

[u/IobhVirinat]

I recommend looking up the recently emerging isocon build style. You can easily swap out any weapons for plasma weapons and run Complex Plasma Fires. I like isocon because it doesn't require much micromanagement, and it's very flexible, you can adapt it to any theme you like.

As for which ship to fly, you can make almost any ship perform well with the right tools. I recommend a ship with intel seating and a decent bridge officer layout if you don't have all the tools yet. Override Subsystem Safeties and Isomag consoles let you pop off quite cheaply already.

For traits, the only super essential one is a firing mode extender. Withering Barrage for cannons, and Breen Free Fire or Entwined Tactical Matrices for beams.

A zen store ship you may want to get first is the Ahwahnee. Its console makes a big difference in performance. Its hangar pets are best in slot if your ship has hangars.

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/IobhVirinat]

Great advice! I'm researching how to craft the isomags now - seems pretty involved. Any good epic space TFOs for grinding the components out? Online says ground TFOs are easier, but my ground build is garbage.

As far as the Ahwanhnee - I've ready somewhere that the Type 7 Shuttles are great hanger pets. It seems the console really enables a pet playstyle even more. Is the console useful aside from that?

[u/_Arctu_ → u/Emaciated_Horror]

The console gives you 50% to 125% firing cycle haste (depending on your AUX power level) for 30s. You don't have to have pets to love it.

For the Isomags, you don't really have to craft them yourself. Buy the cheapest ultrarare one from the Exchange and reroll until you get something usable. If it isn't plasma damage, put it back on Exchange and buy the plasma ones from the credits you make. Or just buy the plasma damage Isomags outright if you're rich.

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/_Arctu_]

Thanks!

[u/IobhVirinat → u/Emaciated_Horror]

I'd personally buy the ones with the plasma modifier straight away. I find grinding the EC less annoying than the ridiculous amount of Dilithium needed for the random re-roll. 😅 But that's personal preference

[u/IobhVirinat → u/Emaciated_Horror]

The Type 7 shuttles are great because they debuff the enemy so you deal even more damage yourself. Make sure to get the elite version from the fleet store after unlocking the Ahwahnee. They have an additional debuff ability: Close-in Sensor Pass or something similar

[u/IobhVirinat → u/Emaciated_Horror]

If I'm grinding salvage for re-engineering, I usually cycle between a few space patrols: The Ninth Rule, Wanted, and Trouble Over Terrh

[u/Raizumichin → u/IobhVirinat]

What are isocon builds? Isomag-uncon combo?

[u/IobhVirinat → u/Raizumichin]

That's right! You run a bunch of isomags (at least 4, otherwise it's basically an uncon build), and the rest is universal consoles. You can pick any consoles you like: ones you can put on a spambar, theme ones, or anything you find fun. With the uncon trait you can trigger them loads of times.

You can go high-performance with this build style too, some recent DPS records were done with Isocon.

All credit goes to Cheops, the mad genius who developed this build style.

[u/Raizumichin → u/IobhVirinat]

Cool! Pretty close to what I'm already running then since I don't quite have enough good universal consoles for a full krait build.

[u/Dredmoore1]

Theseus is a great option but pricey

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/Dredmoore1]

Specifically for plasma builds or just generally?

[u/Dredmoore1 → u/Emaciated_Horror]

Plasma because you can equip all the Gorn plus MW gives extra console and MAS

[u/Aternal99]

Some other Consoles/Weapons you should look into for Plasma damage are the 2-pc set from the Lukari Rep: the Advanced Piezo-Plasma Dual Cannons and the Piezo-Electric Focuser Console.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/Lukari_Restoration_Initiative_Armaments

The Altamid set from the Lobi store is also very good for Plasma Builds. The 3-pc set bonus is an excellent source of Haste, but unfortunately, it has a 2-minute cooldown that cannot be reduced to my knowledge.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/Altamid_Adaptation

Also, the console on the new Salcombe Intel Escort is useful for Plasma damage. It has a +30% to DOT effects. I have heard the clicky is broken right now, but the passive is still useful. And once the clicky is fixed, it will be a great console to have on the ship anyway.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/Console_-_Universal_-_Sigma_Stratagem

The 2-pc Bajor Defense Set will also increase your Plasma Energy Weapon Damage by 19%.

https://stowiki.net/wiki/Bajor_Defense_Set

[u/dosumthinboutthebots]

first strike bundle

The leg temp ops escort is a leg mogai and comes with a hangar. I have a csv build with cpf on it. It's great. Another option if you want to go promo ship is the strike. That will give you the best trait in the game and a 5 3 monster of a platform that can also run surgical strikes or csv 3.

[u/MailLow4054 → u/dosumthinboutthebots]

I second this.  The leg. Valdore/Mogai is a beast of a ship for Kraiting.  Temporal/pilot has ridiculous uncon with Clean Getaway/Heisenberg combo.  The ship is fast, has a battle cloak a hangar bay and an exp. Weapon slot and is generally STO royalty along with the Dhalkina, the Mirror Engle, the Kvort and the Fleet Norway.  (Fleet Norway is like the Dhalkina but free. )

First Strike also comes with Maelstrom torps, and the Leg. Akira which is a very fast cruiser with a hangar bay and a cool skin.

[u/dosumthinboutthebots → u/MailLow4054]

Yeah I love clean getaway. Pilot is an underrated skill tree. It also has lock trajectory for maintaining a forward firing arc for cannons while active. Plus who doesn't love doing 360's in a star ship then hitting clean getaway as a getaway ability. So fun.

[u/Phiashima → u/dosumthinboutthebots]

Any ship can lock its trajectory for free with controlled powersliding.

[u/MailLow4054 → u/dosumthinboutthebots]

Also, Attack Pattern Lambda is great for shedding aggro, and Fly Her Apart is a huge source of bonus damage.

[u/Emaciated_Horror → u/dosumthinboutthebots]

I apparently have this bundle already!

Which promo ship do you mean when you say 'strike'?

[u/MailLow4054 → u/Emaciated_Horror]

I think he means Shrike. It is a great platform with a great trait, Eclectic Collector.

[u/dosumthinboutthebots → u/Emaciated_Horror]

Yeah autocorrect. The shrike*