Hello, Joe and STOers! My apologies for the lack of writing. Life has gotten busy, and considering I literally get nothing for doing this, I had to prioritize my work and other life priorities.
I still have a passion for Star Trek Online, don’t get me wrong, but free-to-make content creation isn’t a high priority.
However, when we come across new ~$100+ USD bundles, I feel I need to show what you’re getting and show the math behind your potential purchase decisions.
Plus, Mudd is in command (didn’t you read the headline? The official blog post!?), so I guess I’ll do as he says.
This is the “show me” part of what I’ve more recently tried to do with these Choice Packs. It’s not so much to whet your appetite for the contents but rather to let you literally see what you’re possibly looking at in action. I try to do two videos: one where the content creator only shows what the ship can do with default equipment and how it looks with default visuals and innate abilities, the other find high-end parses (over 100k DPS) so you can see you can pull decent numbers with any of these ships even if they aren’t the go-to ships of the DPS meta.
With that short explanation of my absence and why I still like to do these entries, let’s get the eye candy started!
THE SHIPS
Keep in mind, when you buy these ships via Mudd’s various Choice Packs, they are account-wide unlocks. You’re not buying these just for one character but for theoretically every character on your account. Some of your value or interest may be for 2-3 characters. Great, fantastic! Claim it on them and enjoy! Just claiming one ship on two characters will probably justify the cost for you (as that’s potentially hundreds of dollars worth of EC you won’t have to grind and/or buy).
I should also warn ahead that I don’t screen videos for language or any other potentially sensitive content. Viewer discretion is advised.
And finally, builds presented here may not be cheap. The ship may just be one component of the damage output. Traits and gear from lock boxes, C-Store ships, expensive bundles, etc., do help. Piloting and ability activation skills also matter, perhaps more than the gear itself (to a degree). There is no guarantee you can pull these numbers from a straight-up copy-and-paste of any build setup.
All those disclaimers done, let’s finally look at the ships!
Section 31 Command Heavy Battlecruiser
Original Release Date: March 5, 2020
Mudd Choice Pack Date: November 24, 2021
Time from Per-Character to Account Unlock: 1 Year, 8 Months, 19 Days
First up, for the visuals and stats, I have a video from Captain Geronimo on YouTube. When possible, he takes ships and shows off their stats, innate abilities, consoles, etc., so you can literally see what all you’re getting. (Although he may have issues with doing this in the future due to tax law issues and where he’s living.)
For the combat portion, I don’t recall if he’s using default equipment or has equipped Beam Arrays for ease of keeping up with firing cycles while recording. While I do have one, I don’t recall the default setup, so I can’t say for sure, myself.
For the performance side of this, let’s look at 1800BrokenSoul‘s 173k DPS build from April of this year, pulling 173k DPS:
And let’s not forget Augmented Dictator Games (“Auggie”), who uses a Torpedo/Mine-based build to pull a whopping 335k DPS SOLO in Infected Space on Elite:
While a capable ship in its own right, its console could be useful for boosting Critical Severity stats once your Critical Chance percent is high enough to reliably make those Critical Hits on enemies.
Elachi Sheshar Command Dreadnought
Original Release Date: May 20, 2015
Mudd Choice Pack Date: November 24, 2021
Time from Per-Character to Account Unlock: 6 Years, 6 Months, 4 Days
The Sheshar is the oldest ship in this bunch, being among the first Promo-level ships to release. Similar to the Jem’Hadar Strike Ship, which got an Intel-based side-grade as the Jem’Hadar Recon Ship, the original Sheshar got a side-grade a few months later from the original Intel-BOFF’d seating to a Command-BOFF’d version to help bolster it as a viable Promo ship choice. It also has an Elachi-themed bridge for its interior. Unfortunately, it’s not a “full-spec” Command ship, meaning no innate Inspiration ability and no second Command-spec BOFF seat.
It’s interesting to note that 3 of the 4 Elachi T6 ships (if we don’t count the Intel version of the Sheshar as a separate ship) are now/can be available in Mudd’s Market as account-wide unlocks, and two of those contribute to a 3-piece Elachi set:
- Elachi Qulash Frigate (Mudd’s Market, past Event ship)
- Elachi S’Ateth Escort (Mudd’s Market, “Faith of the Heart” Choice Pack when it re-runs, part of 3-piece set)
- Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought (Mudd’s Market, “Mudd’s in Command” Choice Pack, part of 3-piece set)
That only leaves the Elachi Ornash Battlecruiser as the final Elachi T6 ship to be made available account-wide. My personal bet is it comes out next year, but we’ll see.
Anyway, I’m back on Captain Geronimo to show off the Sheshar’s visuals and console, a detachable Elachi vessel. His look is relatively recent, about a year and a half or so old:
It was the meta Torpedo ship, both for its trait and as a capable torpedo ship. It has been eclipsed since then for both trait usage and as a preferred Torpedo-based ship platform. However, that doesn’t stop it from putting up decent numbers in the right hands. Augmented Dictator Games, for example, posted a whopping 571k DPS build using this ship just a year ago this March.
Voth Rampart Command Flight Deck Carrier
Original Release Date: August 8, 2019
- Original T5 version, Voth Bastion Flight Deck Carrier: November 12, 2013
Mudd Choice Pack Date: November 24, 2021
Time from Per-Character to Account Unlock (from T6 update): 2 Years, 3 Months, 16 Days
- From T5 original: 8 Years, 12 Days
The Voth Rampart Command Flight Deck Carrier was an upgrade on the older Tier 5 counterpart, the Voth Bastion Flight Deck Carrier. It features full Command specialization (including the innate Inspiration abilities), an Antiproton-based Omni-Directional Beam Array (non-upgradeable), and 2 unique Hangar Pets (upgradeable from the Dilithium Store and your Fleet’s stores). It also sports a Voth bridge interior.
Oh, and those Voth invulnerability shields that annoy you so much in battles with the Voth in the Dyson Sphere? Yeah, you get one of those, too! (Though only usable on Voth ships, sadly.)
Here, yet again, is Captain Geronimo with his August 2019 look at the Voth Rampart Command Flight Deck Carrier!
As far as ship performance is concerned, it’s been touted as recently as today by Gauss STO as among the best ships in the game, similar to the Styx Terran Dreadnought Cruiser. CasualSAB gives it a lot of credit in his overview of the ships in the Choice Pack, and CounterYolo recently put in the “A” Tier of Cruisers in his rundown of Cruisers released so far in STO.
But the proof has to be in the pudding, as they say. So here’s the only parsed run I could find, where Auggie did 502k DPS with a Torpedo/Mine-based build (notice a theme here with the Sheshar and this ship?):
Before I forget, here’s a screenshot from a video by fireballstardraco with stats for the Omni-Directional Voth Antiproton Beam Array that comes with the ship (NOTE: Best we know, it’s not upgradeable. I’m unsure if an upgradeable version exists.)
Suffice it to say, you won’t be making a bad choice picking the Voth Rampart as one of your ships.
Original Release Date: July 18, 2017
Mudd Choice Pack Date: November 24, 2021
Time from Per-Character to Account Unlock: 4 Years, 4 Months, 6 Days
We come to the last ship of the Choice Pack, the Son’a Command Science Vessel. The main claim to fame here would be the trait, which gives a boost to using targeted control-based abilities on enemy ships that are already being affected by another control effect (e.g.: using a Tractor Beam on a ship already caught in a Gravity Well).
One thing to note on its console is that it’s part of a 3-piece set with two other Son’a ships, but the one you’d most likely have is the Son’a Intel Battlecruiser from the Lobi store (for its Subspatial Warheads trait). If you like set pieces, this may be one of your choices. The two-piece set provides a passive bonus to Plasma damage, so using a Son’a ship to help with Plasma damage Endeavors may not be out of the question.
But this first part isn’t about the performance, it’s about the looks! Captain Geronimo seems to have the best videos for this, so I’ll reference him for the finale. The ship boasts a unique bridge, laid out similarly to Ru’Afo’s bridge on his flagship in Star Trek: Insurrection.
And to wrap up the DPS look at the ships, we’re back to Auggie with a 490k DPS run with a mostly torpedo-based build (and two turrets in two of the aft slots).
THE OTHER ITEMS
There’s nothing to see with the other items, but I tend to list them and briefly describe them, anyway, so let’s do that!
WARNING! WARNING! In the past, items in this section have been Bound to Account. Do not expect these items to be sellable on the Exchange or be tradeable to other players unless stated and proven otherwise upon release.
Elite Captain Training Tokens (x6)
These tokens give your character an extra Kit Module slot, Device slot, Personal Space Trait, and Personal Ground Trait. This may be quite a decent option at some point for your more serious characters as that extra Personal Space Trait could be used for anything you’d had to cut in the past due to not having enough room to slot that one last helpful trait.
100% Off T6 C-Store Ship Coupons (x2)
These coupons are usable on practically any ship available in the C-Store under the “Ships” tab as long as they’re available for sale separate of a Bundle.
Mudd’s Market ships are not found in the “Ships” tab of the C-Store, they’re found in the “Mudd’s Market” section and are not available for purchase with these Coupons.
These tend to be Bound to Account, which means they’re not good on any ship still in the “New Items” tab (Event Campaign prize coupons can’t, as well, thus the restriction). Ships do rotate out of that section eventually, but it may be a while before you desired ship does.
Lobi Crystals (x300)
I mean…what more can I say? This is 1/3 of a T6 ship in the Lobi store, or it’s a piece of space gear and 2 pieces of most ground gear.
Get this in multiples, though, and you can get most of the consoles you’d need for a ship and perhaps have enough left over for some ground items.
Ultimate Tech Upgrades (x10)
If you’re lazy or extremely conscious of your Dilithium supply and not wanting to use other upgrade types, this may not be a bad option. The ability to go straight to Mk XV Epic with a single upgrade is quite tempting!
IS THERE VALUE? MAAAYYYYBE…
What this part of my analysis does not do is look at whether these ships and items are worth your purchase price. That will come later this week, hopefully sometime this weekend before all sales are done.
I think I can say this safely, though: as long as you want any 2 of the ships, you’re easily “in the money” (getting your value and then some) as far as what would have been the cost to obtain just one ship for one character is concerned.
Do you want more detail than that? Sorry, everyone! That’ll have to wait. So much time and so little to do!…wait…strike that, reverse it.
Until next time, may you at least enjoy the visual treats these ships provide!
Joe and STO 