Assault_Cruiser

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/1f1576b4a56af6fcb8e12a0f265b3970

• This assumes a very basic build for a level 40 ship and should serve well a level 50 character as you earn Reputation powers, Specialization, Ship traits, and gear on your way to level 60
• At least rare duty officers
• Components are about 100k-200k EC each on the exchange

Tactical readiness is not needed if certain ship traits such as “reciprocity” are used. Reciprocity will reduce cooldowns on tactical, intel bridge officer skills every time a shot misses you. Since tank builds are likely to trigger this, it becomes a very useful ship trait.

Skill Discussion what is each skill worth in battle?

• Tanking for weaker hulled teammates is the main goal. This requires generating enough threat/aggro to keep large damage off your allies
• Engineer Captains will have advantages doing this tank/aggro build

• Draw aggro of npcs using Fire-at-will, grav well, or some other way of doing AOE (area-of-effect damage)
• When AOE skills are on cooldown consider attacking the same target that a damaged ally is. Taking away aggro from a weaker hulled team member is a good goal
• Have heals/buffs ready to use on yourself if you succeed in getting npcs to aggro on you
• Heal yourself first, But if not generating enough Threat/aggro, use heals on others
• Tanking is difficult with fresh level 50 gear, Keep moving and avoid getting too close to npcs. Npcs can not train in long range targeting sensors. Use the energy damage drop-off to your advantage, and don't get tractor beamed

• Most ships for tanking will have a 4/4 weapon layout. Beam arrays for broadsiding and Fire-at-will works very well, but the drain is significant and needs to be considered
• Fire-at-will allows each array to fire 2 shots per firing at 1 or 2 targets at an increased drain cost
• Pick a damage type and keep that for all 8 beams, choose tactical consoles for that specific damage type
• [Dmg]x2 is a good choice, [Acc] mod does not work with Fire-at-will and there are other ways to get accuracy, [CrtD] requires high crit chance to work, [CrtH] is not bad but there are other ways to get crit chance
• Tetryon builds consider running “the new link” 8 times to get Resonating_Tetryon_Beam_Array for double the proc chance, it has known upgrade path to [Chance] [Dmgx3] [Acc/Dmg]

Ships pitch up and down faster than side to side.
Therefore broadsiding can be accomplished faster by going below or above an enemy. 
This also allows better shield facing control while maintaining broadsiding

• Instead of 8 beam arrays, use a variant if 125 weapon power can not be reached or not fully trained in eps transfer for over-capping power transfer
• If over-capped, power transfer rate helps refill weapon levels before the firing sequence is over
• Plasma_Integrated_Warp_Core +100 power transfer rate
• Sarcasm Detector Talks overcapping, FAW, and EPS (warning spreadsheets, 30 minutes long)

• Emergency power to weapons provides buff to energy weapons as well as over-capping (power over 125)
• If engineering captain, consider using nadeon inversion or eps power transfer right before using Fire-at-will. This will help with the massive drain enough to keep damage output at a maximum.

About 7k average on level 50 content with this setup

• 3 Damage_Control_Engineer provides about 88% chance over 30 seconds of keeping cooldown reductions going for Emergency power to weapons and Emergency power to shields
• Tactical team will help deal with low shield facings, incoming torpedo spreads, borg assimilation, boarding parties
• Hazard emitters to deal with borg shield drains (green animation)
• Reverse Shield polarity for when your shields run out during battle
• Regenerative Shield Array Mk XII [Cap]x2 offers best stats for the EC, upgrade shield from missions or reputation on your way to level 60
• Leadership on Captain or bridge officers will help with subsystem repair and hull regen

• rare Conn_Officer gives -6 seconds on tactical team cooldown
• rare Shield_Distribution_Officer gives brace for impacts a shield healing function and is very likely to trigger under heavy fire. Consider it like reverse shield polarity

For these keybinds, drag your cruiser commands to the 5th power tray

General purpose dps and fire weapons

• set(100,65,15,20) result(125,124,41,48) command weapon-system-efficiency

/bind key "GenSendMessage HUD_Root fireall$$+TrayExecByTray 4 0$$StatsPreset_Load Preset_1"

Defensive (use rear weapons and get distance)

• set(70,80,15,35) result(125,125,42,60) command Shield-Frequency-Modulation

/bind key "+TrayExecByTray 4 1$$StatsPreset_Load Preset_2"

Pursuit/manuver front weapons only full throttle

• set(70,15,100,15) result(125,83,115,44) command Strategic-Maneuvering

/bind key "+TrayExecByTray 4 2$$ThrottleAdjust +1$$ThrottleAdjust +1$$StatsPreset_Load Preset_3"

Defensive retreat full throttle

• set(15,65,60,60) result(81,124,77,81) command Shield-Frequency-Modulation

/bind key "+TrayExecByTray 4 1$$ThrottleAdjust +1$$ThrottleAdjust +1$$StatsPreset_Load Preset_4"

• Defense bonus drops from movement stopping, tractor beams or other holds
• Sub nukes kill boff powers for a time. watch your shield power levels, be ready with shield battery and hull heal/buffs

• Torpedo addition may be a solution to weapon drain issues. I recommend a breen cluster torpedo on back weapons as a going away present and replace it with Romulan_Hyper-Plasma_Torpedo_Launcher after doing romulan reputation
• More than one torpedo is not recommended

• Tactical captains findPlasmonic_Leech console useful to help with drain and raising all power levels. but expensive and not compatible with maco shield
• M.A.C.O._Resilient_Shield_Array effectively raises all power levels +10 with its proc
• Plasma infused warp cores from spire fleet holding (+power transfer rate)

• A_Step_Between_Stars for Solanae set gear
• Fluid_Dynamics For very rare anti-proton weaponry with random mods