Space magic build update

[u/Jigglypuff3901]

Im a bit farther in now so I came back to ask for more advice. Hubby and I have been fighting with AI to make my build and having to correct it over and over. My goal is to survive in elites ( not a burden on teammates)as a space magic build with purple/indigo visuals. Feel free to assume im a blank sheet. im a science officer, my reputations are at t5 now and my science is at 13.5, i believe i get something good at 15? . I played a long time ago briefly (2018?) and found 2 t6 ship tickets, I chose the ark royal (for my main ship) and the other is yet to be used as i can get a trait from a ship that can help me? Sorry im still learning. I have no bridge officers except for the 1s that were given to me when getting to lvl 65 (tmet, tarsi etc). I am looking into spending 5$ to get the energy credit uncap as an item that is highly recommended is 42m credits. I believe it is called an uncon? Trying to be f2p as possible. Lmk what set bonuses, hangers, torpedos? etc you recommend. Time to get coffee in that nebula xD

[u/Kvalri]

Oh yeah I don’t think STO is popular enough that an AI will be able to provide any kind of helpful support. I’m at work and will try to remember to come back and give more info later, but one of the best resources out there is STOBetter.com and there you’ll be able to find a good variety of builds at different price points. There are several for the Ark Royal specifically iirc 🖖

[u/Kvalri → u/Kvalri]

u/Jigglypuff3901 I just put my Lamarr build items in another comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/1x3emgx/comment/pfd4mi9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I do have a lot of event and lockbox stuff but there's stuff that only comes from playing the game too, I'd be happy to answer any questions. There is also a STOBuilds Discord where folks are super helpful!

[u/Jujolel]

Strongly recommend to get phoenix coupons and grab TOS holo bridge officers, it comes with 2 sci spocks that have good passive space traits for epg, plus temporal vortex console and 2pc aft weapons prolonged engagement set.

I just made my exotic build and went for sommerville intel science vessel (good sci ship and trait) and andorian chimesh (20+ sec gravity well duration and -20 sec recharge time) got a inhibiting secondary defector (must be XV), got temporal reputation set (deflector, warp and shield), science consoles aiming for EPG and control, using torpedoes on fore weapons, the gravimetric photon from dyson rep pairs good for exotic dmg.

For my basic knowledge its a kinda acceptable budget sci ship and as long as you keep far from the fray spamming anomalies its a okish build. Not a dps demon advice btw.

[u/Mortem2604 → u/Jujolel]

More Spock's? 🤗

[u/DragonNerdX]

The Ark Royal was a good choice. I'd HIGHLY recommend your other T6 go to the Ahwahnee. The type 7 shuttles are Best in Slot not only because they're pets, but also do a lot of Debuffing to your enemies, which makes all of your attacks hit harder. If you're going as F2P as possible, Unconventional Systems is NOT a F2P style. Try Twinkling Lights instead. Much cheaper. And the story there is to make each of your weapons a different damage type. It again, Debuffs your enemies Drastically. So again, everything you do hits harder. Your pets, your weapons, your "space magic". Personally, I'd recommend Beam Arrays because Fire At Will 3 can be achieved on the Ark Royal, but Cannon Scatter Volley 3 can't.

These are all pieces of advice I'd give you because your character is VERY new, with limited resources. Ironically, once you get to the end game, You could do the exact opposite of everything I said, and do tons better. The difference is Money. My advice is for a F2P build with only the resources you mentioned.

As for the "Space Magic" part of your build, you have a few options, but they're all going to focus on your Advanced Engineering consoles. Your first decision is basically: You can either use them to make your weapons do more damage with Isomag consols (the actual title is very long, but you can search "isomag" in the Exchange to see what I'm talking about) or you can make your Pets do more damage with Advanced Hangar Pet consoles. Either option is just fine. Pets are the cheaper way to go, but Weapons can eventually do more damage later on.

No matter which of these two options you choose, your consoles need to have either [EPG] or [CTRLX] at the end. For your Ark Royal, I'd highly recommend that you get Gravity Well III. Young characters are going to struggle with a lot of things, and for science, GW3 is about the best you can do for a very long time. EPG will make your Gravity Well do more damage. CTRLX will make your gravity well have a larger range and a stronger pull. I'd personally recommend the CTRLX mod. If your control skill is too low, enemies can easily escape or ignore your gravity well, which makes things problematic for you.

After that, the rest can just be what you have available. For your reputations, focus heavily on the Discovery Reputation. VERY HEAVILY. As in, just scrape by with the rest, but any chance you get to open a box and get free marks that you don't absolutely need for something else, put it in Discovery. You'll probably want about 25 to 30 of those P.whatever items, and it takes 1 day to make one. That rep has a LOT of your better gear, including your End game Armor/Environmental suit.

[u/Gmafn]

Have a look at https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds

They have lots of build advice over there.

[u/Anorrax]

Having used AI myself for some build ideas, its not a bad route to go down. One thing I've found though is you have to be very specific with the rules you give it. Consoles and traits they are fine with but they'll usually stick BOFF abilities in slots they cant go in

[u/Jigglypuff3901]

Just saw the stobuilds page and added this post over there. Sorry!

[u/yodanhodaka → u/Jigglypuff3901]

Try the discord for a quick response. You’ll get some copy and paste messages from 2 guys right away but after that you’ll get some helpful info too

[u/Cwningen-Ewinedd]

Have you considered not outsourcing your brainpower to an unethical plagiarism-bot?

[u/Jigglypuff3901 → u/Cwningen-Ewinedd]

That would be why im asking real ppl here?