Engineer Advanced Escort Build

Build:

Engineer flying a Fleet Advanced Escort, used primarily for PvE.

As an engineering escort you’re going to be focussing on long-term dps and staying in a fight as long as possible, with the lieutenant commander science slot of the fleet advanced escort being used to maximize your hitting and control in PvE.

Weapons:

You will want to set this all up for DHCs with the exception of the fourth forward weapon slot.  The fleet advanced escort has a third tactical ensign BOFF slot which is entirely useless in a conventional all-cannon build, however an escort build with a forward torpedo is quite viable, especially in PvE with torpedo spread 1.  Eventually you will want to get the complete Omega Adapted Equipment set with the Omega plasma torpedo, Assimilated Module console, and Kinetic cutting beam.

Forward:

3x Fleet Advanced Antiproton DHC [acc]x2 [dmg]x2

1x Omega Plasma Torpedo Launcher (until that torpedo launcher is available from Omega reputation, use whatever is your best torpedo that you currently have, or purchase one cheaply).

Rear:

2x Fleet Advanced Antiproton Turret [acc]x2 [dmg]x2

1x Omega Kinetic Cutting Beam (until the cutting beam is available from Omega reputation, use the cheapest AP turret you can find or even an array or a mine – just a placeholder weapon for now).

As shown in previous testing, [acc] is the most generally powerful of all the modifiers.  In PvE, you might find [crtd] to be harder hitting, however there is no fleet advanced [crtd]x2 [dmg]x2 so you’re out of luck there.  It’s a good choice though because [acc] is easily the best for PvP if you ever decided to start doing that.

If you are not entirely wedded to using antiproton weapons, I am generally unenamoured with them.  If we do the math, they have a 20% bonus to CrtD, and at a crit rate of 10% (which is going to be close to what it is, maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower, but not too far off) that means a bonus to dps of only 2%.  They look and sound cool though, and they do give you the best dps for yourself, so if you’ve already spent a lot of ec on nice AP consoles, stick with them.  If you haven’t though, disruptor probably boosts your team’s overall damage the most.  It’s a good teammate’s weapon choice, though it will rob you of some of your dps in favour of improving all members of your team’s dps, which may not be the most desirable for greedy players.

Equipment:

Generally speaking, escorts use sets which have high capacity shields, like the MACO or Adapted MACO.  MACO is good since it’s transwarp and you don’t have to switch your engine between travelling and fighting.  Adapted MACO might be a bit more effective in combat since you will be using a torpedo and it has a bonus to projectile damage.  Omega Force can be very effective when used with a skill build that has a lot of flow capacitors, but it’s best used with an all gun build.

As you don’t have access to the top end Omega reputation equipment yet, you should probably continue to use the Fleet Advanced equipment that you already have until you do.  The shield you have isn’t very good for an escort though, so get a Fleet Elite Resilient or Covariant shield (now that we have tier IV communications array complete).  The stacking shield resistance is very potent and is a great shield for tanking until you get the reputation system completed and can get more well-rounded equipment.

Consoles:

Engineering: Neutronium, mission specific armour console (for instance, monotanium for STFs, ablative for SB24 or Mirror incursion), or a second neutronium if you don’t want to go about switching things every time.

Science: Field Generator, Assimilated Module, MVAM.

Tactical: 5x AP mag regulator (or 4x AP mag regulator and 1x Ambiplasma once you get the Omega torpedo), though you’ll probably get better consistent dps with all AP.

You can also get good use out of the isometric charge console from the exchange.

BOFF layout:

As you are not a tactical captain, I recommend a support escort dps setup.

Commander Tactical: TT1, CRF1, APB2, APO3

Lieutenant Tactical: TT1, CSV1

Lieutenant Engineering: EPtS1, Aux2Sif1/RSP1

Lt. Cdr. Science: TSS1, HE2, GW1

Ensign Tactical: TS1

What happens here is that APO3 plus APB2 are chained.  This works because you will have 2 of the top end conn officer doffs that reduce the attack pattern cooldown.

CRF gives a small boost to your hitting power, while CSV is useful for knocking down incoming heavy torpedoes or large amount of smaller enemies.  Actually, in PvE I’ve seen that CSV can be more effective than CRF for boosting overall dps and can be useful for taking down Borg heavy torpedoes, while only being moderately less powerful against a single big opponent.  It might be worthwhile testing to see if running with two CSVs could be better for your purposes.  The two instances of TT1 clear tactical debuffs nearly constantly, while keeping your shield facings up.

Torpedo Spread 1 will work wonders with your Omega plasma torpedo, though it does kind of get in the way of the rapid fire feature, you can get around that with timing when you activate the ability.

EPtS1 will help keep shields up while Aux2Sif1 gives a moderate hull heal and decent hull damage resistance buff which is nice and it is also fast to recharge.  Or RSP gives you the occasional energy weapon immunity and big hull heal for when you need it, though I find that it’s better for PvP than PvE.

I consider HE a very nice ability (especially with all the plasma torpedoes flying about these days) and TSS is a nice shield heal when you only have one EPtS1.  I believe gravity well is the most useful PvE Lt. Cdr. Science ability, able to keep large numbers of enemies nice and stuck together for use with CSV and TS, and for controlling certain enemies in STF missions.

Duty Officers:

2x Attack pattern Conn Officer to reduce cooldown of your attack pattern omega and beta.

2x Shield distribution officer to give you a big shield heal with brace for impact.

1x Gravimetric Scientist to get you more gravity wells.

Skills:

I don’t know what you have, but here is what you should have for this type of role:

Starship attack patterns: max

Starship weapons training: max

Starship energy weapons: max

Starship projectile weapons: max if you are using a torpedo, none if not

Starship maneuvers: at least 6

Starship targeting systems: max

Starship threat control: actually a pretty efficient source of damage resistance.  If you don’t mind drawing a lot of aggro in PvE, somewhere between 3 and 6 is good.

Starship energy weapon specialization: max

Starship projectile weapons: max if you are using a torpedo, at least 6 if you are using a torpedo but are running out of skill points, none if no torpedo

Driver coil: I like 3 for use in sector space, and for flying at high speed into combat it’s nice to have some, but most of the time it won’t come into play

Starship hull repair: max

Structural integrity: max

Starship warp core efficiency: somewhere between 3 and 6

Starship electroplasma systems: somewhere between 3 and 6

Starship impulse thrusters: max

Starship warp core potential: somewhere between 3 and 6

Starship engine performance: somewhere between 3 and 6

Starship hull plating: somewhere between 3 and 6

Starship shield performance: somewhere between 3 and 6

Starship armor reinforcements: no more than 3

Starship auxiliary performance: no more than 3

Starship weapons performance: around 3, maybe a little more or a little less depending on what else you are using to get to 125+ weapon power

Starship flow capacitors: none for this build

Starship shield emitters: max

Starship power insulators: some, especially if you fight a lot of Klingons with plasmonic leech, none if you’re never going to PvP.

Starship shield systems: max

Starship particle generator: if you really like the isometric charge, it is boosted by this, but generally an escort isn’t going to have enough use for it to be an efficient use of skill.  It also boosts gravity well’s damage.

Starship graviton generator: in PvE it probably won’t make too much of a difference if you have any of this at all.

Starship inertial dampeners: some, especially if you fight a lot of science ships with viral matrix and knock abilities, none if you’re never going to PvP (it does come into play against Tholians, but not worth it at the high level required).

Of course, try the rest of the build first without respeccing to get a feel for what you need and what you don’t.  There are tools that can be found online to help calculate your power levels, too.

Power settings:

1: XX weapons, 25 shields, YY engines, 25 aux

2: XX weapons, YY shields, 25 engines, 25 aux

3: 25 weapons, 25 shields, 100 engines, 50 aux

4 25 weapons, 75 shields, 25 engines, 75 aux

Where XX is the weapons setting that gets you to 125 and YY is whatever is left over.

Keybinds:

I’ve attached your bind file here (download to your Cryptic Studios\Star Trek Online\Live directory and then enter /bind_load_file wolfe.txt in the chat window to upload to the game) but you’ll have to set up your trays exactly as I lay out below.

Row 1: 1 Brace for Impact, 2 EPS Power Transfer, 3 Evasive Maneuvers, 4 Miracle Worker, 5 Nadion Inversion, 6 Rotate Shield Frequency, 7 Engineering Fleet, 8 Call Trade Freighter, 9 Full Impulse, 10 Quantum Slipstream

Row 2: 1 Abandon Ship, 2 Fleet Support, 3 Ramming Speed, 4 Reserved for Quantum Singularity Manipulation, 5 Reserved for Space Set Power, 6 Blank, 7 Isometric Charge (Specialty Console), 8 MVAM, 9 Shields Battery, 10 Subspace Field Modulator

Row 3 (Cdr. Tac): TT1, CRF1, APB2, APO3

Row 4 (Lt. Tac): TT1, CSV1

Row 5 (Ens. Tac): TS1

Row 6 (Lt. Eng):  EPtS1, Aux2Sif1

Row 7 (Lt. Cdr. Sci): TSS1, HE2, GW1

And here’s how you use it:

Switch configuration

Not a combat command, but by pressing “o” you can quickly and easily reload your bind file.  This is handy for making small adjustments.  I would actually make two of these, one for your escort, one for your cruiser, and pressing “o” would switch between the two of them – use the keybinds I made for Salat for your cruiser, of course.

o Playersay Wolfe Escort $$ bind_load_file wolfe.txt

Power Presets

Use these to quickly change between your power settings, most importantly to go from total offense and speed (setting 1) to offense and tanking (setting 2) with running away (setting 3) and maximum healing (setting 4).

F9 "StatsPreset_Load Preset_1"

F10 "StatsPreset_Load Preset_2"

F11 "StatsPreset_Load Preset_3"

F12 "StatsPreset_Load Preset_4"

Chain Emergency Power, TT and Distribute Shields

Pressing spacebar will fire all your weapons, redistribute your shields, and activate both copies of TT1.  This will give you a good tactical team rate to clear debuffs and grant a small buff your weapons every so often, while keeping your shields balanced.  You don’t have to be constantly hammering away at spacebar, just when one of the chained powers is becoming available or when you would like to distribute your shields.

space "GenSendMessage HUD_Root FireAll $$ +power_exec Distribute_Shields $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 0"

Alpha Strike

Pressing “1” on the numpad will activate APO3 (I’ve set it to activate this one first) or APB2, as well as CRF1 for your big hit.  I thought APO first since APB doesn’t do much while the shields are still up, so you would want that second.  Once you get into a long fight it wouldn’t matter anymore.

numpad1 "+TrayExecByTray 2 3 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 2 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 3"

Small Craft

Pressing “2” on the numpad will activate CSV1, as well as your attack patterns.  I’ve set is so that CSV1 will activate first because you often need it right away to quickly knock down incoming heavy torpedoes, mines, and spam of various sorts.

numpad2 "+TrayExecByTray 3 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 3 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 2 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 3 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 1"

EPS Power Transfer

Press “3” on the numpad on its own to get a quick boost to your power levels for when you want to either get a little extra defense, speed, shield resistance, healing, and/or hitting power.

numpad3 "+TrayExecByTray 0 1"

Nadion Inversion

Press “0” and “3” at the same time to get prevent power drain. 

numpad0+numpad3 "+TrayExecByTray 0 4"

Brace

Press “4” on the numpad when torpedoes are incoming or a ship is about to explode right next to you.

numpad4 "+TrayExecByTray 0 0"

RSF and SFM

Press “0” and “4” on the numpad when everyone starts to open up on you.  SFM and Rotate shield frequency really are built for the same task, and really go well together to keep you healthy when everyone else wants you dead.

numpad0+numpad4 "+TrayExecByTray 0 5 $$ +TrayExecByTray 1 9"

Hull Repair

Press “5” on the numpad to activate Aux2Sif1 and either HE2.

numpad5 "+TrayExecByTray 5 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 1”

Miracle Worker

Press “0” and “5” on the numpad to activate Miracle Worker, for when you really, really need it.

numpad0+numpad5 "+TrayExecByTray 0 3"

Shield Heal

Press “6” on the numpad to activate EPtS1 and TSS1.

numpad6 "+TrayExecByTray 5 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 0"

Gravity Well

Press “7” on the numpad to activate gravity well.

numpad7 "+TrayExecByTray 6 2"

Torpedo Spread

Press “8” on the numpad to ready torpedo spread 1.  Best used with groups of enemies all nicely stuck in a gravity well, or when you’re down to 1 or 2 Omega torpedoes left in the stack.

numpad8 "+TrayExecByTray 4 0"

GTFOOD

Press “9” to run away really fast while rerouting shields aft.  This is an absolute lifesaver when things get disasterous.

numpad9 "GenSendMessage Throttle_FullImpulse_Button FullThrottle $$ +TrayExecByTray 0 2 $$ StatsPreset_Load Preset_3 $$ +power_exec reroute_shields_rear $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 3"

Quantum Singularity Manipulation

Press “0” and “9” on the numpad to activate quantum singularity manipulation (when you finally get access to it).

numpad0+numpad9 "+TrayExecByTray 1 3"

About to die

Pressing the “.” on the numpad will activate Fleet Support and Ramming Speed.  I’ve duplicated Fleet Support on either side of the string to make sure it’s the first one activated, as sometimes Ramming Speed is counterproductive.

decimal "+TrayExecByTray 1 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 1 2 $$ +TrayExecByTray 1 1"

Evasive

Press “Page Down” for when you want to go fast without switching power levels.

PageDown "+TrayExecByTray 0 2"

Device (Shields Battery or Engines Battery or dual systems consumable)

Press either “/” or “*” on the numpad to activate your battery.

divide "+TrayExecByTray 1 8"

multiply "+TrayExecByTray 1 8"

Engineering Fleet

Pressing “End” will activate engineering fleet (I put this one out of alphabetical order in the tray for consistency’s sake across the different professions).  It’s a long cooldown, and you won’t need it often, so it’s in a somewhat out of the way location.

End "+TrayExecByTray 0 6"

Console (MVAM)

Pressing “Page Up” will do whatever it is that MVAM does.  I don’t actually know how the console works so it might be more than just one button so you’ll have to adjust that accordingly if it is.

PageUp "+TrayExecByTray 1 7"

Console (Isometric Charge)

Pressing “Home” will make closely grouped smallish enemies go boom.  If there’s just the one big enemy, it’s not so good, so for those situations you should replace it with something else.  Any of Subspace Jumper, Vent Theta Radiation, and Graviton Pulse have their uses.

Home "+TrayExecByTray 1 6"

Spaceset Power (Heavy Graviton Beam or Mask Energy Field or whatever you end up getting)

Press “Home” to activate whichever space set power you end up using once you complete the Omega reputation.

Home "+TrayExecByTray 1 4"

Target Fore

Pressing the “Up” arrow will target the closest enemy in your front 45 degree firing arc while redistributing your shields in that direction.

Up "+power_exec reroute_shields_forward $$ Target_Enemy_Near_ForArc 45"

Target Wide

Pressing the “Right” arrow will target the closest enemy in your wide forward 90 degree angle, if there isn’t anyone in your front 45 and you would like to use some of your 90 degree science, set, or console abilities, while still redistributing your shields right.

Right "+power_exec reroute_shields_right $$ Target_Enemy_Near_ForArc90"

Team Heal

Pressing “`”, that’s the squiggly thing to the left of the number 1, will send all your transferable heals to your current target (if friendly) as well as tactical team to help them redistribute their shields (should your TT not be on cooldown).  The numbers “1” thru “4” will do the same to that numbered teammate.  You are not a primary, or even secondary healer so this isn’t all that important to you, but if you see someone in trouble and you have the heals to spare, you would be a good teammate to do so.

` "+TrayExecByTray 2 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 5 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 1"

1 "Target_Teammate 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 5 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 1"

2 "Target_Teammate 2 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 5 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 1"

3 "Target_Teammate 3 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 5 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 1"

4 "Target_Teammate 4 $$ +TrayExecByTray 2 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 3 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 5 1 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 0 $$ +TrayExecByTray 6 1"

Team Focus

Pressing “F1” thru “F4” will make your teammate’s target your own; useful if you have a team that isn’t really good at communicating and you want to ensure that you are firing on a target that someone else has also targeted.  “F5” will make your target’s target your target, but you shouldn’t have much use for that except to confuse yourself.

F1 "Target_Teammate 1 $$ Assist"

F2 "Target_Teammate 2 $$ Assist"

F3 "Target_Teammate 3 $$ Assist"

F4 "Target_Teammate 4 $$ Assist"

F5 "Assist"

Chat Command target my target

Pressing “g” will instruct your teammates to attack your target. They won’t automatically be given the target, but it does help them know upon whom to focus their firepower.

g Team Focus fire on $target.

Abandon Ship

You need this ability rarely but when you do you need it easy to hit in a hurry.  “Left alt” is the easiest button I can think of for this, as it is right next to the fire key.  One word of caution is that you have to clear any existing keybinds that use the alt key or else you may accidentally do something else entirely.

Lalt "Trayexecbytraywithbackup 1 1 0 1 0"

Feel free to modify this in any way you want.  This kind of setup works well for me, but other people are more comfortable with other setups.