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Ok, for starters you want to clean up the choices - you have beams, cannons, torpedoes, and mines... and you use two energy types and three torpedo types. While it's possible to make decent builds with mixes, it's much harder to get decent performance.
So, pick beams or cannons, and maybe pick a single energy type (disruptors are an easy one to work with). Given that it's an assault warbird, you may want to run with cannons so long as you're comfortable maneuvering your enemy into your front arc.
With your front arc loaded with, say, disruptor cannons, the rear arc can have a few disruptor turrets to add to the strafe attacks. If you find the weapon drain is too high, you can swap out a front and rear cannon with torpedoes.
Run with weapons power set to its highest if you don't already. If you're having drain issues, slot two pieces from the Omega Adapted Borg Tech set... the assimilated console and maybe the omega plasma torpedo. The torp will work well on the rear to fire off all its charges as you move away to set up another strafing run... or you can put it on the front if you prefer that sort'v thing.
The two-piece bonus from those helps to mitigate weapon drain to keep your damage up.
Slot all your tactical console slots with +Dis consoles (assuming you go with plasma). If you have lots of fleet credits and dil, make it Vulnerability Locaters (+dis), to get yourself a bunch of extra crit.
You can also get several other sources of +dis damage, like the nausicaan set (entoiled technology).. the science console (siphon capacitor) is +20% disruptor and +26.7% power transfer... the nausicaan energy torpedo does disruptor damage instead of kinetic, so is boosted by +dis consoles... the only downside is the weapon is beam not cannon... its a damned good weapon too.
The same mission (echoes of light) can give you MK XII +dis tactical consoles too so... grind grind grind!
These are all very low MK. Consider replacing them with set pieces from either missions or reputation projects. Iconian set is pretty popular if you have the rep and the marks.
Unless you're getting something particularly good out of a non-set piece, you might as well be getting set bonuses.
These are a bit all over the place. Tactical should be boosting your weapon type as hard as it can, and if you're T5U that means all 5 tactical slots filled with +damage consoles. For an escort (equivalent) you'll be using your engineering slots for maneuverability (+turn) or to hold universal consoles that need a home. Same is true of science slots, though its +shields and/or utility slots. You never need +stealth in PVE
Work on getting the MK of your weapons and tac consoles up to XIV via upgrading... they periodically have upgrade weekends where all upgrades are worth double points. Take advantage of those!
Next, for BOFF slots, you want kemocite-laced weaponry 1 (I mean, it can be any rank, but you don't want it competing with things that NEED to be higher ranks), and either Scatter Volley 3 or Rapid Fire 3... for PVE its usually scatter volley. Attack Pattern Beta in there somewhere as well. Engineer should have Emergency Power to Weapons.. science should have Hazard Emitters and maybe Polaraize Hull (especially if you do Borg stuff... they love their tractor beams).
For doffs, cannon ability reduction works (you can slot up to 3 of those)..
How you'll play at this point is dropping out of full impulse in time to let your weapons power get back to 125, then pop scatter volley, beta, and kemocite, and EPW as you come into medium range, and then just let loose on them. Since you're squishy it'll help to not be the first guy to attack and thus not be the person soaking all the first shots from something like a borg cube. If you aren't lucky, they'll focus on you... if they do, pop HE and PH (your science abilities) to ward off the tractor beams and the shield drains.
Once you get close, veer off and fly away so you can turn around for another run, letting any aft torpedoes deal some damage to the facing you hopefully stripped bare of shields on your approach.
I knew my configuration was all over the place since I paid no attention to anything other than value. It sounds like I should focus on cannons. I do like charging my opponents with energy weapons, then pulling away when I get with 3 km and unleashing a barage of torpedoes in my wake, but it clearly is not getting the job done.
Some of your advice is going to take some time. A stereotypical T6 ship runs around 3,000 Zen. With the exchange rate of ~290 Dilithium Ore per Zen that works out to ~870,000 Dilithium Ore. With a maxmium of 8,000 Dilithium Ore being refinable per day, that is a minimum of 108.75 days of grinding. Upgrading everything to Mk. XIV is also a lengthy, and costly, process. Each upgrade slot costs 10,000 EC and 700 Dilithium and upgrades only 6% at a time. To go from Mk XII to Mk IV would cost 333,333 EC and 23,333 Dilithium, for each component.
Which bring me to another question I have. Should I be investing Marks in all 11 of the Reputation Events, or just focusing on a select few? Currently I have been spending 165,000 EC daily on all 11 Reputation Events. It is also my chief source for my upgrades. I'm currently Tier II in all 11 Reputation Events and it only appears to go up to Tier V, so it shouldn't take too long to max out.
I keep my power levels locked at 60% Weapons, 55% Shields, 30% Thrust, and that usually leaves me with 15% for Auxillary. I've got a Shield Regeneration Rate of 1,065.9/6 sec., and a Hull Repair Rate of 124.8%/min.
With regards Station Skills, I most frequently use:
Nadion Inversion III <-- Helps keep the Borg from draining my shields too badly.
Cannons Rapid Fire III
Torpedoes: Spread III
Beams Fire At Will II
Polarize Hull II <-- Also helps against the Borg and Tholians.
Rotate Shield Frequence III <-- Also helps against the Borg and Tholians.
Emergency Power to Shields II
EPS Power Transfer III
Miraculous Repairs III
Engineering Team I
Science Team I
Tactical Team I
Engineering Fleet III
As an Engineer, I find that I have pretty good staying power. I can be the first to attack a Borg cube and survive, for example. I can take some serious punishment. My problem is that I can't deliver enough punishment in return, which was made very apparent with my "AFK Penalty." I had no problems surviving the Borg, I just couldn't deliver enough damage to even be considered present. That is pretty pathetic.
Based upon what you are telling me I should be playing more missions to get the gear I need. I guess there is no quick fix, unless I want to throw real cash into the mix. I really do appreciate the time you've taken to give me this advice. You can be certain that I will be referring to it from time to time to gleen more information. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the time and expense it is going to cost me.
Don't worry too much about the ship if its an issue. If upgrading is an issue then you can make do with MK XII, but no lower for anything. The MK XII stuff you can get from mission rewards (except for rep stuff) you just need to be ready to grind episodes to get them.
If you can manage to collect the necessary marks each day then you want all your reps up to V. They also open up a lot of space traits to use. The main problem you'll have is not the marks but the rarer components needed for some higher-end projects.. they drop from either specific missions, or from specific elite queues. Some of them cost a good chunk of dil, too (30k+).
If you're finding the EC hard to come by, the endeavor system they recently added is a very good source of quick EC. Do whatever scut-work thing it wants you to do and it'll hand you up to 500,000 EC, often 50 marks of your choice, and maybe 1000 or 2000 dilithium. Often for doing almost nothing.
You need the power level to be set to 100%, and you really do want to find bonus maximum such that it gets to 125 when set to 100%. I'm not sure if you know how weapon power works, but on the off chance you do not, here's the deal:
At 50 power your weapons do full damage. For every point above that the damage goes up by 2%, and for every point below it the damage goes down by 2%. Every firing cycle each energy weapon drains your power by a certain amount (between 8 and 12 usually). Weapon power can go up to 125 (150% bonus damage) but power beyond that acts as a buffer against the power going below 125.
Thus, to maximize your damage output you want as much weapon power as you can manage and as much cost reduction as you can manage. That's all bonus damage that you can attain purely through power levels, without needing fancy and expensive equipment (though fancy, expensive equipment can certainly make doing so easier).
At 60% weapon power, firing a single beam array will drop you to 50 power.. having four or five of them means you'll likely be spending your time at below full base damage the entire fight, much less the best damage you could be doing.
Captain abilities (the ones found in your list that are not associated with a Bridge Officer) usually have long cooldowns.. they're good as nukes and "oh ♥♥♥♥" buttons, but are probably not a good idea to use as basic defensive abilities. Polarize Hull is tons faster to recharge than NI3 or RSF3, hazard emitters likewise.
Engineers have good staying power - my main is an engineer - but you're flying a DPS ship, meaning you have lower than average hull and shields, but higher than average speed and agility. To produce that staying power you'll be firing off more engineering abilities and such than you would on ships built to last like cruisers, and any effort you're putting into staying alive is effort not being put into making the other guy dead. I know it sounds very black and white, it's just one of those MMO standards: as you get to the end of the game things become more about optimizing everything, learning a focused play style, getting better gear, and so on. STO is the same, its just not as obvious how it works.
Flying a DPS-focused escort is very satisfying... which is why you see a lot of people doing it. The main issue is that cannon-based escorts aren't really meant for sustained fights.. they're about burst damage.. they're the ones that run right at a cube and kill it on a single pass.
The cheapest way is to get gear from missions and rep. You can get a good foundation of gear that way for basically nothing but your play time. If you do decide to work toward a ZEN ship, and you've been enjoying your current assault warbird, my suggestions are either the Ouroboros 31st century temporal raider[sto.gamepedia.com], or the Okhala Pilot Warbird[sto.gamepedia.com]. Either ship will blow your mind. The Ouroboros is more versatile, having all universal and univeral/temporal seating (and using a normal engine, not a singularity drive... which is a plus). The Okhala has pilot maneuvers, which is one of the specialization systems... you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. Double-tapping in any direction makes you move about 1km in the direction you tapped, and makes you immune to damage for a few seconds... then maneuvers take a few seconds to recharge. It's great for getting out of web cannon cones, away from an impending core breach, closing gaps quickly, dealing with that deadly plasma bolt the borg mothership targets you with, and so on.
But yes, you can get a whole lot of performance by just running missions to get your needed tac consoles and gear, and running with weapons set to 100%.
Necessary? No. Better? Yes!
Additionally, T6 ships have specialization seating that T5 ships lack, opening up an entire new set of boff abilities. Universal seats are significantly more common on T6 ships as well, making them much more versatile than their T5 counterparts. If you want to leverage starship traits you need to unlock them from t6 ships... ignoring those traits is disregarding a potential source of improved performance.
There are only two reasons to pilot a T5U at 60... either you absolutely cannot afford a T6, or you have a soft spot in your heart for a T5 ship that has no T6 equivalent. I myself still keep my Tholian Recluse and Kar'Fi on their respective characters. If Cryptic ever rolls out T6 versions of those ships they'll have a direct line to my wallet.
My primary Specialization is Intelligence Officer and my secondary is Miracle Worker. I only have ~120,000 Dilithium currently, but my goal is to eventually accumulate a million Dilithium for the purpose of buying a T6 ship. Considering the other demands for Dilithium, it is going to be a few months before I can make that happen.
I was not aware of how ship power works in STO. Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me. With my weapons locked out at 100% I get: Weapons 122/100, Shields 41/30, Thrusters 28/15, and Auxillary 18/15. That will certainly improve my DPS, even with my current gear hodge-podge, I just hope I can stay alive long enough to exploit this improvement.
Between the Reputation and PvE I have been able to accumulate just over 8,000 Dilithium per day. But now I think I will start doing missions again in order to accumulate some better, more coordinated, gear. My Consoles are my biggest disappointment, so I will start with them. It will mean that it will take a little longer to get that T6 ship, but I should have better, more coordinated, gear when I do eventually get it.
I'm currently mid-way through the 11 Reputation Events, in the middle of Tier III. Considering I only started with Reputation just last week, they are going pretty quickly so far. They provide lots of nice Mk XII gear and research components. I have used the Endeavor Event system, as you say it is an excellent source for EC for doing virtually nothing. It is how I am able to keep funding the Reputation Events. As you know, each of the 20-hour Daily events runs 15,000 EC, 30 Marks, and 2,000 Experience, and that can add up.
I do spend a lot of time staying alive and not as much time as I would like making the other guy dead. I need to reexamine my Bridge Officer skills and take into consideration the cool-down times. I will get PH3 today. The other skills (NI3, RSF3, and especially MR3) may take longer to cool down, but they can be indespensible. It is NI3 and RSF3 in particular that allow me to be the first to encounter a Borg cube and survive. There has been more than one occassion when my ship's hull was below 10%, with no shields, and Miraculous Repairs III saved my posterior. While it is true that it takes a very long time to cool down, it can also mean the difference between winning and losing. It is one of those "I'm going to explode anyway, so what do I have to lose?" moments.
Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to my newbie questions. It is very much appreciated.