Good day, Joe and STOers! Or if you’re on or from Endeavour’s blog, welcome back! I hope your interest in the Seneca was piqued in Part 1 last week (if you have no clue what I’m talking about, go! Read! This will still be here!). While I’d have liked to get this part out before the Black Friday sale ended, I have no doubt this ship and its bundle will go back on sale at similar discounts at other times in the future.
Today, I want to show off the combat video I teased in Part 1, show the parse (that is, how much damage I did per second and some of the details for where those numbers came from), and show off the gear and traits I used. I’ll try to explain a few choices, but no promises! I like to write this as if I’m talking in real time, but I also want to be done eventually! ha ha!
So let’s get started!
THE COMBAT VIDEO AND PARSE
Let’s go ahead and look at the combat video.
While I didn’t splice the parse into the video, I did post the details on Twitter. However, here’s the parse itself, showing my Damage per Second (“DPS”), the general sources of that damage, and the Pet-specific damage (which isn’t the comprehensive list but shows most of the Pet sources).
This build did 27,500 (“27.5k”) DPS!
…
“Is that a lot,” did you ask? Well, it depends.
On Elite, nope, not even close.
For Normal, you bet your rear end it’s more than enough to get through content!
No, it wasn’t the fastest solo run in history (a whopping 13.6 minutes!). No, it wasn’t the easiest! But it was doable, and that’s the whole point of this first part!
As a side note, apparently some Endeavor Perk Point shenanigans were afoot unknowingly, as CasualSAB pointed out that Tribble does actually copy over Endeavor Perk Point stats. sigh Oh, well! I tried to get some veteran-player bias out of these tests!
THE BUILD
When I want to see a person’s build, I want all the details. ALL…the details! But while some are willing to sit through 45 minutes of explanation (which is helpful, don’t get me wrong!), others just want to see the gear to copy-and-paste into their own builds.
So I kinda went down both roads.
First up, I’ll show you the build video for my Seneca’s Free to Play (“F2P”) build. I took some advice from Twitter and MC Stu’s F2P Phaser build from April of last year to come up with everything here. I don’t explain anything here; I highlight the gear, hold for about 3 seconds so you can pause and get the tooltip info, then go onto the next piece of gear/trait.
Some of you, though, like to (or need to) read things and click links, and that’s cool, too! Here’s the build as I have it typed out in a spreadsheet:
| SHIP: | Seneca Command Carrier |
| Upgraded to T6-X? | Yes |
| Fleet? | No |
| Anything Re-Engineered? | No |
| SCED* | Type | Method |
| Deflector | Bajor Defense Deflector Array Mk XII [CtrlX] [DrainX] [ShCap] | EPISODE: “Scylla and Charybdis“ |
| Engine | Sol Defense Impulse Engines Mk XII | EPISODE: “Midnight“ |
| Warp Core: | Deuterium-Stabilized Warp Core Mk XII [SecSpd] [Trans] | Crafted, Drop, Exchange |
| Shield: | Bajor Defense Covariant Shield Array Mk XII [Cap]x3 | EPISODE: “Scylla and Charybdis” |
| * Pronounced “sked’, it’s the Shield, Core, (Impulse) Engine, and Deflector(s). Items are listed top-to-bottom in the order they’re listed in the UI. |
| WEAPONS | Method |
| Fore | |
| Quantum Phase Beam Array Mk XII [CrtD] [CrtH] [Proc] | EPISODE: “Sunrise“ |
| Quantum Phase Torpedo Mk XII [CrtD] [CrtH] [Proc] | EPISODE: “Sunrise” |
| Phaser Beam Array (Standard Issue) “Mk Infinity” | Standard Equipment |
| Aft | |
| Omni-Directional Phaser Beam Array Mk XII [Acc] [Arc] [Dmg] | Craftable (Beams Mk XV, materials, and R&D: Beams DOFF) OR Exchange (~3,000,000 EC) |
| Trilithium-Enhanced Omni-Directional Phaser Beam Array Mk XII [Acc] [Arc] [Dmg] | EPISODE: “Beyond the Nexus“ |
| Trilithium-Enhanced Phaser Turret Mk XII [CrtH] | EPISODE: “Beyond the Nexus” |
| DEVICES | Method |
| Delta Alliance Reinforcements Beacon | EPISODE: “Broken Circle“ |
| Red Matter Capacitor | Phoenix Prize Pack – Ultra Rare ticket |
| Subspace Field Modulator | EPISODE: “Skirmish“ |
| Deuterium Surplus | Finish “Skirmish”, then do “Supply Contract” at the Alhena System (southern Beta Quadrant). Will be craftable via Engineering R&D school. |
| Reactive Armor Catalyst | EPISODE: “Broken Circle,” then craftable via Engineering R&D |
| CONSOLES | Method | |
| Universal Slot | ||
| Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls Mk XV | Discovery Reputation, Tier 5 project | * Upgraded, hit Epic on final upgrade. |
| Engineering Slots | ||
| Polaric Modulator Mk XII | EPISODE: “Delta Flight” | |
| Reinforced Armaments Mk XII | EPISODE: “Beyond the Nexus” | |
| House Martok Defensive Configuration Mk XII | EPISODE: “Brushfire” | |
| Science Slots | ||
| Non-Baryonic Buffer Field | Seneca’s console. | * There is no info available on STOWiki yet. Please refer to the build video for tooltip information. |
| Temporal Disentanglement Suite Mk XII | EPISODE: “Butterfly“ | |
| Quantum Phase Converter Mk XII | EPISODE: “Sunrise” | |
| Zero-Point Energy Conduit Mk XIII | Romulan Reputation, Tier 1 | * Is Mk XIII Ultra Rare due to Temporal Recruit reward claim for having 10 T5 Reps. |
| Tactical Slots | ||
| Phaser Relay Mk XV (x3) | EPISODE: “Of Signs and Portents” for Mk XII | * Upgraded; should take 3 Phoenix Upgrade Tokens to go from Mk XII to Mk XV |
| HANGAR PETS | ||
| Support Runabouts | Default to the Seneca itself. | * Information is not available via STOWiki. Refer to the build video for tooltip info. |
| PERSONAL SPACE TRAITS | Method |
| Beam Training | Default |
| Fleet Coordinator | Default |
| Beam Barrage | Level 15 in Beams R&D |
| Operative | Default |
| Bulkhead Technician | Default |
| Point Blank Shot | EPISODE: “House Pegh” |
| Regenerative Control Synergy | “Of Signs and Portents” Episode reward |
| Warp Theorist | Default |
| Redirected Armor Plating | “The Renegades’ Regret” Episode reward |
| Thrill-seeker | Default |
| NOTE: 1 trait slot came from an Elite Captain Training Token. While the token was free at the time, there are no guaranteed free versions known to come regularly. Of these, drop Thrill-seeker until/unless you can get that extra slot. | |
| STARSHIP TRAITS | Method |
| Improved Predictive Algorithms | Standard after spending 15 Specialization Points in the Intelligence Specialization; Improved is after spending 30 Points. |
| Need-to-Know Basis | Infinity Prize Pack – Starship Trait box; Exchange (< 1,000,000 EC) |
| Non-Linear Progression | Spend 15 points in the Temporal Operative Specialization |
| One Impossible Thing at a Time | Infinity Prize Pack – Starship Trait box; Exchange (< 1,000,000 EC) |
| Sentient Starship | “Discovery: Uneasy Allies” Lock Box; Exchange (< 1,000,000 EC) |
| SPACE REPUTATION TRAITS | Reputation & Tier |
| Tyler’s Duality | Discovery, Tier 4 |
| Energy Refrequencer | Iconian, Tier 2 |
| Auxiliary Power Configuration – Offense | Nukara, Tier 4 |
| Precision | Romulan, Tier 2 |
| Magnified Firepower | Gamma, Tier 4 |
| NOTE: Fifth slot came from a Fleet holding purchase. I’d not recommend Tyler’s Duality until you can upgrade gear or get better gear for prioritizing Critical Hit Chance (“CrtH”). | |
| ACTIVE SPACE REP TRAITS | Reputation (all Tier 5 unlocks) |
| Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity | Temporal |
| Bio-Molecular Shield Generator | Undine/8742 |
| Deploy Sensor Interference Platform | Iconian |
| Tethered Non-Baryonic Asteroid | Discovery |
| NOTE: I’d prefer to not having a Borg Cube following me, so perhaps go with Refracting Tetryon Cascade instead (Nukara Tier 5). | |
| SPECIALIZATIONS | |
| Primary | Intelligence Officer |
| Secondary | Temporal Operative |
| BRIDGE OFFICERS | |||||||
| Seat | BOFF | Reason? | Ensign | Lieutenant | Lieutenant Commander | Commander | Method |
| Lieutenant Universal/Miralce Worker | Leonard “Bones” McCoy | N/A | Science Team I | Hazard Emitters II | N/A | N/A | Can be swapped with another Human Science BOFF. |
| Lieutenant Commander Tactical | “Refugio” | “Leadership” trait | Torpedo: Spread I | Beams: Overload II | Attack Pattern: Omega I | N/A | Can be swapped with another Human Tactical BOFF. |
| Lieutenant Commander Engineering | Geordi La Forge | “Leadership” trait | Engineering Team I | Emit Unstable Warp Bubble I | Auxiliary Power to the Structural Integrity Field II | N/A | Can be swapped with another Human Engineering BOFF |
| Commander Science/Command | “Zar” | Heirarchy BOFF for “Pirate” and “Efficient” traits | Jam Targeting Sensors I | Photonic Officer I | Scramble Sensors II | Gravity Well II | MISSION: “Alliances” |
| Ensign Science | “T’Met” | N/A | Tractor Beam I | Default TOS-era BOFF, can be anything. |
BUILD REASONINGS
What’s usually more important than the gear and trait selection is the question of, “Why would you use any of this to begin with.”
So here’s my attempt to explain as much of the build as possible while hopefully not boring you with minutiae.
SCED*
- Bajor Defense 2-piece: Provides a ~17% boost to Phaser damage.
- Sol Defense Impulse Engines Mk XII: Similar to the Prevailing Innervated Impulse Engines (which will replace this in the next part of the series), has a chance to boost Flight Speed and Turn Rate on something happening (here, getting hit).
- Deuterium-Stabilized Warp Core: When you fire your Energy Weapons, they drain some amount of Weapons Power each. The lower your Weapons Power goes, the lower the damage from those Energy Weapons. Therefore, minimizing Weapons Energy expenditure means maximizing the damage dealt by those weapons. Deuterium-Stabilized Warp Cores will cut power usage by 15% and add some power drain resistance to boot. I believe these go hand-in-hand, so it’s like a double helping of getting extra Energy Weapon damage from a single piece of equipment.
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WEAPONS
- Quantum Phase weapons: This one’s a bit of a triple-whammy.
- Quantum Phase weapons have a chance to drain shields. For a slow, underpowered boat like this, even a little shield heal could go a long way to not getting destroyed by a Plasma Torpedo.
- The 2-piece set boosts Accuracy and doubles the drain of the Phaser and shield heal of the Torpedo on High-Yield (which I didn’t have on here).
- They make a 3-piece lance-like attack with the Quantum Phase Converter Mk XII.
- Standard-issue Phaser Beam Array: Laziness, and I wanted to put as little effort and EC into this as possible, meaning using a single Phaser that came with the ship (and any T6 Federation ship).
- Omni-Directional Beam Arrays and Turret: With the distinct lack of weapon slots in which to get good forward attacks in, the aft had to be all 360-degree firing arc weapons.
- Omni-Directional Beams allow us to have 4 forward-facing Beam Arrays, on par with a 4/x weapon layout ship that’s not using Omni-Directional weapons in the aft section.
- Trilithium-Enhanced Phaser Turret Mk XII [CrtH]: This allows us a 5th forward-facing energy weapon (so we’re now tied with 5/x ships) while ensuring we keep a two-piece Firing Cycle Haste and Flight Speed bonuses (bonii?) with the Reinforced Armaments Mk XII Engineering Console even if we replace the Trilithium-Enhanced Omni with something else.
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DEVICES
- Delta Alliance Reinforcements Beacon: When you need some extra NPCs to take damage for you, or you need to pile on some extra damage from ships that aren’t your own, or you just need an extra hand at the start or end of the queue.
- Red Matter Capacitor: Boosting all your power levels helps with your damage output (Weapons and Aux), Speed (Engines), and Shields. Even if it’s a relatively small bonus, it’s still a tiny bit of extra you can do to help yourself a few times per queue (or at the right time if you’re in a quick group).
- Subspace Field Modulator: Partially a filler and partially a survival help device, but when you’re running solo you need all the help you can get for now.
- Deuterium Surplus: I don’t remember where I first heard it, but think about how true this is: “If you’re not shooting, you’re not doing damage.” There are some down periods in queues where you’re just traveling from one objective to the next (even for a fairly brief period). If your weapons aren’t firing, you’re not doing damage. But if you can get across the map a tad bit faster, you’re either constantly firing or not down as long as you would have been before firing back up again.
- Reactive Armor Catalyst: Another defense-based Device, this time to heal and grant extra temporary Hull (hit points). I believe this combines with Tyler’s Duality to also provide a small Critical Chance increase, so it’s a roundabout damage booster, as well.
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CONSOLES
- Universal Slot
- Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls: This is a DPS monster console. It adds Critical Chance, it gives some extra Weapon Power (remember, the more Weapon Power you have, the better your damage through a firing cycle!), and it boosts the amount of damage that gets through Shields. That’s a heavy hitter for a few Marks, P. Stellavatori [sp] Canisters, EC, and Rep Dil.
- Engineering Slots
- Polaric Modulator Mk XII: We are sluggish without the Prevailing Innervated Impulse Engines. This helps with both speed and turn rate. Extra Inertia helps to stop closer to where you tell the ship to stop (lower amounts mean you slide more, potentially putting you out of range of your intended target/group).
- Reinforced Armaments Mk XII: Covered that a bit above in the Weapons section, and provides some extra Hull Restoration (for hull heals) and Hull Capacity (eventually for Tyler’s Duality and to help our overall survivability more).
- House Martok Defensive Configuration Mk XII: More Shields, more Turn Rate, and more Hull.
- Science Slots
- Non-Baryonic Buffer Field: It came with the ship, so I figured I’d use it. It helps your Aux Power and Hazard/Damage-over-Time (“DoT”) resistance, which probably helps against the Borg’s Plasma DoTs. The clickable ability helps spread out the damage you take as smaller chunks of damage over a brief period. Think of it this way: Would you rather be hit for 50,000 damage at once, or 5,000 damage per second that you can heal likely as quickly as it comes in?
- Temporal Disentanglement Suite Mk XII: Extra Critical Chance and Critical Severity are always nice to have (any extra chance of dealing extra damage!). Extra Aux power helps those chances. Extra Shield capacity and Shield healing help surivability.
- Quantum Phase Converter Mk XII: Essentially, this is a Tactical Console disguised as a Science Console as it gives a boost to Phaser damage. Plus, it’s more help to Auxiliary Power (“Aux Power”) and has a “hot-restart” for Aux Power should it get disabled. A little extra Drain Expertise will help the Phaser and Torpedo parts of the set.
- Zero-Point Energy Conduit Mk XIII: Again, extra and cheap Critical Chance. That we’re running Drain-based weapons means the Drain bonus is helpful, and we get a tad more energy to all subsystems. It’s available after completing Tier 1 of the Romulan Reputation (~1-2 days of the “(Daily)” Reputation project in the Romulan Rep UI), so you could do some Patrols/Events/Romulan Mark-awarding queues to get this fairly early in your post-leveling build-up.
- Tactical Slots
- Phaser Relay (x3): A straight boost to Phaser Damage, which is almost all the damage we’ll do. Upgrading your Consoles, especially those that boost your damage in any way, is a relatively cheap way to boost your overall damage output. I had Mk XV Phaser Relays, but Mk XIIs should be fine (just expect your solo content to take a little longer or to not contribute as much damage to group content).
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HANGAR PETS
- Support Runabouts (x2): These are the default pet on the Seneca. As has been said by someone else, “You’re not DPSing if you’re dead.” They launch a healing torpedo your way, and they’re extra things for enemy NPCs to hit, so they’re extra survival. Oh, and they deal damage themselves, so that helps, too!
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PERSONAL SPACE TRAITS
I won’t belabor any points here where the use is obvious (flat stat boosts, for example). I’ll group these up a bit so you’re not reading stuff like, “It boosts damage, why wouldn’t you use it.”
- Damage and Critical Hit Boosts
- General Increases: Beam Training; Fleet Coordinator; Beam Barrage; Operative
- Point Blank Shot: Contrary to popular belief, sometimes being closer to an enemy is a good way to deal extra Energy Weapon damage. Point Blank Shot is like having more Long-Range Targeting Sensors skill: Instead of reducing weapon damage drop-off at closer distances, it provides a boost to damage at closer distances.
- Survivability
- General: Bulkhead Technician
- Regenerative Control Synergy: This explains why there are a few Control-based Bridge Officer abilities. When you activate one, you’ll trigger a boost to your passive Hull Regeneration, effectively acting as extra healing on activation.
- Redirected Armor Plating: This ship won’t always be facing forward. Actually, your Energy Weapons will cover out to about halfway around your ship from the forward arc. Because you’ll likely be firing from the sides and rear (while repositioning or as enemy NPCs move around), this is like getting a decent buff to your Damage Resistance Rating just for not staying forward-facing to your enemies.
- Other
- Warp Theorist: An overall boost to power levels (which, again, helps flight speed and turn, weapon damage, and survivability) and power transfer rate (for when you’re flying at Full Throttle, your power levels regenerate quicker).
- Thrill-seeker: General Flight Speed help.
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STARSHIP TRAITS
- Improved Predictive Algorithms: Extra Accuracy never hurts, and you wipe away a Debuff (like Flight Speed reduction, for example) every so often when using abilities like “Beams: Fire at Will.”
- Need-to-Know Basis: On 10 uses of an Ensign ability, bring in a Section 31 ship for a short bit. It’s kind of extra damage for doing what you’re doing anyway and survivability as it gives enemy NPCs something else at which to shoot.
- Non-Linear Progression: Have you ever gone in reverse and just never noticed? You drain power going in reverse too long, which hurts your damage output ultimately. With this trait slotted, there is no drain from reversing! It also helps heal your hull and regenerate shields. “Improved” and “Superior” versions also help reduce Captain-level Ability cooldowns (like Go Down Fighting or Attack Pattern: Alpha) a bit.
- One Impossible Thing at a Time: Getting your Captain-level Abilities on cooldown ASAP is crucial to maintaining high damage output. Since I’m not using some of the better cooldown methods, I’m going with whatever I can get my hands on. Plus, if you’re in a group, you can help your team get to their abilities a little faster.
- Sentient Starship: Activating Hull and Shield Heals while below 90% Hull or Shields (respectively) will help boost future Hull and Shield Heals (respectively) while you’re on the current map. Any survivability is helpful while we’re chasing down better damage output!
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SPACE REPUTATION TRAITS
- General Damage Boosts
- Auxiliary Power Configuration – Offense; Precision; Magnified Firepower
- Healing
- Energy Refrequencer
- Tyler’s Duality: I put an extra Space Reputation Trait in by accident as I’d purchased that slot from my Fleet’s Fleet Research Lab. This relies on your hull being high enough to get as much extra Critical Chance as possible. Until you can get some more Critical Chance boosters of any kind, I’d consider not having this over some of the other, more generic and fixed boosts.
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ACTIVE SPACE REPUTATION TRAITS (NOTE: These abilities can only be used once every 5 minutes. In a slower solo run, you can get 2 uses of each. In faster runs, keep these for the end boss[es] of the queue.)
- Anti-Time Entanglement Singularity: Decent chunk of Area-of-Effect (“AoE”) damage.
- Bio-Molecular Shield Generator: Otherwise known as an, “Oh, no!”, button, this provides a huge Shield heal over time while the bubble is active. I don’t know if it outpaces the Borg’s traditional shield drains, but in a pinch if you can just get some shields up you’ll be better off for it.
- Deploy Sensor Interference Platform: Another, “Anything else the NPC can hit helps you,” type of summon. It can also help lower enemy damage output, which means even more for your survival.
- Tethered Non-Baryonic Asteroid: I’m actually going to swap this out for Refracting Tetryon Cascade. The last thing I need is a bunch of NPCs chasing me down from the back where I can’t fire near as many weapons.
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SPECIALIZATIONS
- PRIMARY: Intelligence Officer – This track has Flanking available in Tier 3. Raiders partially are favored for their “Raider Flanking,” which boosts damage dealt to the aft section of an enemy. The Seneca isn’t a Raier, so it needs this level of Flanking to boost damage…as long as you can identify the rear end of a Borg ship. The passive and first tier tend to also improve survivability in some way.
- SECONDARY: Temporal Operative – Boosts your DoTs, gives your Energy Weapons a chance to give a DoT effect to the enemy, some damage resistance if they’re affected by a DoT, a boost to your DoTs, get some Temporary Hit Points by activating a DoT ability, and increase the recharge speed of DoT-based abilities. The passive effect boosts your Exotic Particle Generator skill, which boosts your DoTs.
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BRIDGE OFFICERS (“BOFFs”)
I’ll just put some general notes, as you can see the effects above.
- General “weapon enhancement” abilities
- Torpedo: Spread (more torpedoes hitting more Borg, meaning more Shield drain); Beams: Overload (single hits do a lot more damage to the thing you want to destroy); Attack Pattern: Omega.
- Healing
- Science Team (Shields); Hazard Emitters (Hull); Engineering Team (Hull); Auxiliary to the Structural Integrity Field (Hull)
- Control, General (for Regenerative Control Synergies)
- Emit Unstable Warp Bubble; Jam Sensors; Scramble Sensors
- “Emit Unstable Warp Bubble” Training Manuals come initially from the Mission/Episode “Broken Circle”, then are craftable in the R&D system for more copies.
- Control, General and DoT (for Rengerative Control Synergies and Temporal Operative specialization)
- Tractor Beam: Gravity Well
- Bridge Officer Cooldown Reduction
- Photonic Officer (the faster you can fire off your Bridge Officer abilities, the better!)
- The Bridge Officers are generally nothing to write home about except “Zar”. It’s a Hierarchy-race Bridge Officer obtainable from a mission. He boosts both All Damage and the power levels of low-power (<75) subsystems. (The Stealth buff only helps with cloaked ships, which this doesn’t do by default.). I do prefer the “Leadership” trait on Humans in lieu of better options just because…say it with me…the more healing, the better!
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Duty Officers (“DOFFs”)
- Brad Boimler: free for Federation players. He only did 1.76 DPS, but that’s 1.76 damage each second that I didn’t have to do on my own. :p (…yes, that’s effectively worthless, but free is free!)
- Elder Malik’itan, who boosts damage by 10%, comes from a Gamma Recruit Reward. You can slot him in either Space or Ground and he’ll boost damage for both.
- Neal Falconer is found in the Very Rare level of the Phoenix Prize Pack. Very Rares should be fairly easy to come by unless you have the worst luck imaginable of an all-Rares opening (even Ultra Rares can knock down to 2x Very Rares). Note that he’s only helpful against Borg, but that’s what we’re testing against!
- While I did have the Emergency Conn Hologram and Beckett Mariner slotted, I didn’t have Emergency Power to Engines and Tactical Team, so their slots were effectively wasted.
PART 3: “FLEET”-ING UPGRADES
Now that we know what the Seneca can do, it’s time to visit its Fleet variant, the Hiawatha. With a little extra Hull, Shields, and one more Console slot, we can add a bit more survivability or firepower to this sluggish beast.
Because I’ll be going for a Fleet ship, I’ll also be using some Fleet gear and bit more Reputation gear. As such, some of this build detail will change. I’m going to try to limit the amount of Dilithium spent, but let’s remember that a Free-to-Play build trades off Cash spending for time to build up resources. What I provide may not be done quickly almost no matter the Dilithium budget used, but it can be done for $0.00 if you’re willing to put up with earning and refining Dilithium for a while (and likely across multiple characters).
Until next time, have a wonderful time playing Star Trek Online!
Joe and STO 