Weapon Loadout/T6 D'Khellra Warbird Battlecruiser

Hey Folks. I've got a couple of questions I was hoping to ask, but I'm not sure if this is the right place. The last time I did any "hardcore" PvE was back during the Iconian War. I've completely missed out on any changes made since New Dawn and AoY came out. Because skills changed so radically from what I remember and there's gear over Mk XII now I decided I'd make a new character to get my feet wet again before trying to catch up my old characters up.

At present my "main" is a VA53 FED Romulan Tactical officer. I bought her the D'Khellra-class warbird during the ship sale (I have major love for the look of the D'Deridex. It was my favorite ship in TNG when I was a kid.) I was just wondering if anyone had any general build advice.

More specifically, I was going to go with a Gravity Well I build in the science officer slot similar to what I did on a different Rommy. I selected TT1, BFAWII, and TS3 for my tactical abilities. If I remember right I have two plasma infusers and th basic auto point defense console you can get at T1. I have two particle generators in the science console slots. My engineering console slots are neutronium alloy x2, RCS and a plasma leach. I have four plasma beam arrays aft and three fore with a plasma torp launcher. None of them are impressive. Mk X-XII greens mostly. I focused my skills in hull capacity, power levels and beam damage/crit/shield/hull penetration.

My problem is that I seem to explode rather easily. It just doesn't seem to perform well. I was going for a tanky AoE build and feel I have failed.

So my question(s):

1. Would I be better off going with a straight tank build that focuses on shield/hull healing (replacing GWI with Transfer Shield Strength) and shield damage rather than capacity/crit and both hull/shield damage?
2. Is this even possible or is the D'Deridex just a poor choice for a Tactical officer? I have access to the T6 Mogai, or I could get the Aelahl Light Warbird next month. I was really set on having a character in a D'deridex but recognize this may not be the character for it.

Additional questions unrelated to the above:

1. Should I focus on getting crafted Mk XIII+ VR gear or are Mk II Fleet weapons still competitive?
2. [strike]I made a Temporal Agent and got her the Temporal Dreadnaught. I planned on doing AP and Chroniton torpedos. I have several VR Mk XII Omni-Directional AP arrays which seems like an amazing idea on paper but I know I'll need to compensate for the energy drain. Are skills boosting weapon power and EPS transfer enough or do I need EPS consoles too? .. or am I crazy and I should use straight 180-degree arc beam arrays?[/strike] Edit: I forgot you could only do one omni.

Quote by Sentient_Gumball

...is the D'Deridex just a poor choice for a Tactical officer? I have access to the T6 Mogai, or I could get the Aelahl Light Warbird next month. I was really set on having a character in a D'deridex but recognize this may not be the character for it.

Since you enjoy the look of the thing, I'll leave the finer points of Double-D build making to the fleet shipwrights who are going to be much better at this sort of thing than me. BUT if you're thinking of getting another boat for your TAC toon anyway, take a look at the T6 Malem Light Warbird. My Rom ENG toon flies it with an all-plasma weapons loadout (almost entirely RomRep) and it's plenty of fun. Enhanced battle-cloaked torpedo launching and the Withering Barrage cannon trait make it a blast to fly. :evil:

I could put my Rom ENG in the D'Khellra the only downside is I currently have him in the T6 Fleet-Morrigu completely outfitted with fleet plasma cannons and turrets so I would have to earn a crap ton of fleet creds somehow to change all those into beam arrays. Unless I should be upgrading the fleet weapons to crafted Mk XIII+ stuff anyway, most of everything else would probably carry over. I could then use the Morrigu with my TAC or get the Malem later.

I have plenty of feedback about this but initially on the weapons front. The exchange is an excellent place to buy weapons. I wouldn't waste your fleet credits on weapons that are readily acquired elsewhere. Save fleet credits for things like consoles that are only able to be bought from the fleet.

Agreed, definitely save your fledits for the specialized stuff like consoles (and maybe a fleet singularity core). Effective weaponry (canon or otherwise) is readily available via easier/cheaper means like the exchange, reputation system and crafting.

Also, I just compared its stats to your Morrigu: unless you really really want the Malem's enhanced cloak, torp console and ship trait, it probably wouldn't really make enough of a difference to be very cost-effective. At $30 in the C-store it ain't cheap, and I wouldn't have been able to justify buying it if I had already owned a roughly equivalent T6 warbird at the time. YMMV.

Definitely not cheap. I was kind of dreading making a purchase without a ship sale. I was kind of shocked to see the prices up to $30, I remember when ships were $20. I need to stick someone in the D'Khellra since I sprung for it, I just need to decide who. Moving my ENG into it will require an enormous rework of how I have him set up and I'll need to evict him from his fleet ship but maybe it's more appropriate. Sadly he doesn't currently have access anywhere to obtain a fleet D'deridex.

So as far as exchange purchases go do you guys think Mk XII is solid for general gameplay or do I need to invest in something higher? Very Rare or do I need to spring for Ultra? I would like to outfit her in Romulan plasma from the rep system since fleet weapons are no longer the way to go.

Quote by Gravity

I have plenty of feedback about this but initially on the weapons front. The exchange is an excellent place to buy weapons. I wouldn't waste your fleet credits on weapons that are readily acquired elsewhere. Save fleet credits for things like consoles that are only able to be bought from the fleet.

I welcome any and all feedback you have. :)

Quote by Sentient_Gumball

So as far as exchange purchases go do you guys think Mk XII is solid for general gameplay or do I need to invest in something higher? Very Rare or do I need to spring for Ultra? I would like to outfit her in Romulan plasma from the rep system since fleet weapons are no longer the way to go.

I like to play my alts with mainly canon equipment, so my Malem is equipped with almost 100% RomRep gear with a couple of standalone - pieces to fill in the blanks. Plasma doesn't exactly have the greatest proc damage-wise, but it's serviceable for general PvE (the set bonuses help). There are several generic consoles that definitely need to be better and the weapons could benefit from an upgrade, but for the most part he does just fine with MkXII RomRep plasma.

[attachment=3683]malem-romrep-gear.PNG[/attachment]

However if you're looking for MOAR DEEPS POWAR then I will totally defer to the shipwrights for recommendations. Personally I'm not generally a min-maxer so I just use VR Mk XII for starters and then pump things up as desired with tech upgrades when there's an "Upgrade Weekend" event (keep an eye on the Mission Overview calendar).

I've never been a min-maxer. I'm one of those guys that runs phasers/quantum torpedoed on his Fed characters not for the procs but because it's canon. That said, I still enjoy PvE and want to do the best I can with what I've chosen. I'm usually torn when it comes to my Romulans on using the Republic's plasma or using disruptors like they did in the shows. I usually wind up doing plasma because of the rep.

I switched my TAC Rom to the Morrigu yesterday and it does feel far more effective. I focused on shield damage, hull/shield restoration, and power levels while throwing points in shield hardness/capacity and hull capacity when I needed places to put points. I put the three piece Mogai console set on it, plasma quads, and a Mk XII VR Plasma DHC, Plasma Torp, and three plasma turrets. The last weapon slot has a Mk XI Romulan Plasma Beam Array I got from a rep box. I ended up going with Feedback Pulse instead of Gravity Well.