I did it. Against all sense of reason and accountability, I actually went and bought the damn Andorian Escort premium package for 5000 Zen. Over 40 Euros for a fucking ship! Greedy, greedy Zen-Store! "But Kitten", I hear you say. "You get three ships in that bundle!" Actually, I get one ship in three slightly different variations, only one of which is viable, but I'm forced to buy the whole package in order to get all the consoles and set bonuses. Yes, yes, I could have bought only one of them for 20 Euros and gimped the hell out of it, but who does that?
Enough bitching. Why am I looking at a ship, which has been around for months? Because I haven't touched STO in over a year and only just got back. And I find the Kumari relevant to my play style. And by blogging about it, I'm adressing some issues people have raised with my previous STO videos:
- Little to no information on the setup
- "Is this thing any good in STFs?"
- "You never give enough answers!"
Alright, alright!
This video begins with a few seconds of no-HUD fly-by droolage to show off the escort's phallic look, then we move right on to the installed weapons and goodies and then there's a relatively flawless Elite Borg Conduit STF run in a random PUG. Hurray!
So let's start by describing the setup.
WARNING: This is by no means the best ever/the perfect/the ultra mega pwnage 3000 Setup. It's just the stuff I personally chose to put on my ship, because I happened to have it sitting around and/or had the credits to afford it. I'll explain to you how and why I chose it and the video shows you what it does, what performance and damage to expect, how it all plays out. Whether you think this would work for you or whether you find it utter shit is entirely up to you.
Also, be aware that I have only just started the reputation grind with Omega, Nukara and the Romulans, so I'm missing passives that more dedicated players may have in their videos. Also, I'm without a fleet and have no access to elite weapons.
Weapons:
Kumari Phaser Wing Cannons [Dmg]x4 (298 DPS)
Phaser Quad Cannons [Dmg]x4 (286.6 DPS)
3 Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons MK XII [CritD]x2 [CritH]
2 Phaser Turrets MK XII [CritD]x2 [CritH]
I know that neither phaser damage nor [Dmg] are flavour of the month right now. So why did I choose this particular setup? Because it's decent damage for a moderate budget. The wing cannons come pre-installed with the ship and while they may not have any extra crit on them, the bonus damage is alright, however unpopular. I still had the Phaser Quad Cannons from my old Sao Paulo refit sitting around the bank. I like the quad cannon firing effect, the damage is decent enough and with the wing cannons already installed, phaser was the way to go, so this one's a no-brainer.
I went with a phaser setup in every remaining slot and I pity you, if I still have to explain why. I'm going for extra crit damage and a little extra crit rate on each weapon, because I've maxed out Starship Targeting Systems and picked the Accurate Trait for my captain. That's all the accuracy I'll ever need in pve, so no point in going for more.
UPDATE: I have switched from [CritD]x2 [CritH] to [CritD]x3, since most of my crit chance comes from abilities, anyway, and an additional 2% doesn't make a big difference. 20% more crit damage>2% crit chance.
Deflector/Impulse Engines/Shield:
Borg set (+ console) with Maco MK XII shields instead of Borg shields.
No particular reason, it's just what I currently have access to and it works. I haven't looked into the full Maco/Omega set bonuses and may or may not switch once I get my Omega reputation up to Rank 5. For the time being, this setup gets the job done, as shown in the video.
Warp Core:
Hyper Injection Warp Core MK XI [EPS] [W->S] [WCap] [Trans]
Again, possibly not perfect, because Warp Cores didn't exist the last time I played STO. I chose this particular one, because of the extra engine power. I put as much power into weapons and shields as I can, so my engines are usually a bit low by default. With weapon power being my highest setting, having 7.5% weapon power added as a bonus to shields made the most sense. The weapons capacitor is a nice plus - having an active buff to boost weapon power whilst spamming all those abilities can help with the DPS a bit.
Devices:
Subspace Field Modulator
Nimbus Pirate Distress Call
These devices are far from being the proverbial canine's testicles, but they're fun. I like the field modulator for it's little extra defensive buff and the distress call summons two more targets for my enemies to shoot at while I gtfo. You should probably just use shield and weapon batteries.
Consoles:
All 3 Wing Cannon consoles
Plasmonic Leech
Assimilated Module
Field Generator MK XII
4 Phaser Relay MK XI/XII
Again, the wing cannons are a no-brainer. I've bought them all, I'm gonna fucking use them. I find the wing cannons to be a lot more useful and not anywhere near as annoying as hangar pets. The shield/hull set bonus special attacks are insanely powerful. Watch me crit that Borg cube for over 52k at 01:40 - with the damn wing cannon! Outside of STFs I crit as high as 80k with this thing, so it stays in my setup and that's that.
I like the Plasmonic Leech, because it drains enemy power and gives it to me. My engines and auxiliary power levels are notoriously low, so this thing helps a bit. It also helps keeping those weapon and shield power levels maxed whilst spamming abilities.
The Assimilated Module sits in there for the Borg set bonus and it's added crit rate and damage.
The Field Generator is entirely optional - I feel a lot safer with 20% of extra shield capacity, seeing as the Kumari Escort likes to pop when you hit it too hard. If you're too hardcore for extra defenses, you could always slam in a point defense system or something.
All our damage comes from Phaser type weapons, so again, this one should be self-explanatory. Not going for a 5th relay, because the damage bonus is already significantly lowered on the 4th console, a 5th one would no longer be noticeable. MK XI consoles add 28.1% damage, MK XII adds 30% damage. The latter cost well over 30 million credits and bring no real damage over the MK XI consoles, so there's really no point, I just had enough credits.
UPDATE: Been experimenting with 5 phaser relays as opposed to 4 and my wing cannon's special ability started critting for up to 120k. Further investigation is required.
BO Abilities:
This should also be very obvious, so I'll keep it brief. Obviously, there is absolutely no point in any tactical abilities to buff mines, torpedoes or beam weapons, so you'll want Cannon Scatter Volley II and Cannon Rapid Fire III (or the other way 'round, whichever you prefer) and all the attack patterns you can get. I also like to have Tactical Team II + I available, because it realigns my shields for me, so I can focus on the shooting. For our modest science and engineering abilities, we're going with anything to repair shields, plain and simple. I didn't bother with hull repair, because a) not enough slots on a Kumari and b) if they're starting to destroy my hull, I'm already dead. Let's focus on those shields, shall we?
So, does this thing work in STFs? You tell me - in the video, our little PUG finishes the mission + optional objective with more than 7 minutes left to go and no casualties. Can you score 1st place in competitive PvE like Starbase 24 with this setup? Seriously, which escort can't? Does this setup work in PvP? Don't know, don't care, I've never enjoyed pvp on here aside from the occasional 1vs1. Got any more questions? Spam the comments section on here or on Youtube.
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