r/stobuilds • … • u/Eph289

STOBETTER S6E3: Klingons and Carriers

Introducing a spinoff of “[Bat’leths & BiHnuchs](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bat'leths_%26_BiHnuchs),” it’s time for “Klingons & Carriers!” Old-timers will remember that once upon a time, Cryptic announced the “Year of the Klingon” back in 2020 where they added KDF recruitment, the Klingon Civil War arc, and updates to Qo’NoS along with a few other things that I’m forgetting because yes, that was 6 years ago. Well . . . it’s time for our take on the “Year of the Klingon,” by adding some KDF-centric builds to the site.

If you don’t know anything about us, STO BETTER is a website dedicated to understanding game mechanics and ship/ground building for players just entering the game all the way up to 2 million DPS. We post updates about once a quarter that cover a broad spectrum of gameplay.

To level-set expectations, this does not mean 1) more than a handful of KDF (themed) builds, 2) all Klingon ships, or 3) future promises to do either of those. For the most part, KDF builds look like any other build, just with more annoying teaming requirements when leveling ships. Most of our ships are Fed or cross-faction, with a handful of Romulan and Jem’Hadar in the mix–you know, like the playerbase at large. However, given that previously we had only 2 KDF ships on the site previously – the Lo’laH and the T5 Vor’Cha, this’ll be a nice little boost.

#Basics

We’ve done a number of changes and updates to the Basics pages. The bulk of the content has not changed, but special emphasis was placed on Carrier Basics.

#Builds

##Eph289

* We recognize that there is a small subset of players that really love carriers. It doesn’t matter that carriers are traditionally expensive to build or inefficient in terms of dollars-to-deeps, that’s their jam and that’s how they want to play. We also recognize that starting all carrier builds with “First, acquire and slot Superior Area Denial,” or “First, we load up a brick stuffed full of Hangar Craft Power Transmissions” is not going to be helpful. Thus, I’m trying to showcase some much more affordable carriers and yes, in the original Klingon. Starting with the Fek’Ihri Kar’Fi carrier, this [extremely affordable starter tier build](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/eph289/carrier-karfi) does over 500K DPS in organized play, and while it’s mostly a CSV build due to not being able to afford most hangar toys, I still got 102K out of pets.

* Stepping up the budget to where carriers can really start to shine as we add carrier consoles and traits, I have a [midrange Orion Blackguard at 1022K DPS](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/eph289/carrier-blackguard), with 450K from all sources of pet damage, using the fairly affordable Nausicaan stingers in the hangar bays. This build doesn’t use SAD, but it springboards some carrier fundamentals very nicely to where if you had that trait, it’d be an easy swap-out of trait and pets.

* Another KDF ship we wanted to do was the M’Chla Raptor that KDF Recruitment players get at level 65. Since it comes with Withering Barrage, we have a [starter cannon build on it at 461K](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/eph289/csv-mchla).

* Finishing out the KDF expansion, I’ve added a rainbow FAW Krait build on the [Legendary Negh’Var](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/eph289/faw-legendary-neghvar) at 1495K.

* I’ve updated my [Vonph carrier](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/eph289/carrier-vonph) with some new toys from the Kelvin bundle, including the formidable Elite Kelvin Timeline Assault Drones, to push the ship up to 1429K.

* Lastly, I’ve joined the 2 million DPS club with my [Constitution Miracle Worker FDC](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/eph289/csv-constitution-mw-fdc). That’s a Krait CSV build and it’s a *stunning, brave, and very original* choice, thank you very much.

##Jayiie * Jayiie and I spent some time going over his [DEWSci Fleet Scryer](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/jay/dewsci-fleet-scryer), originally introduced before we had budget ratings and such. What does the Fleet Scryer bring to the table that newer ships like the Chekov don’t have? Well, there are maybe lots of answers out there, but Jay’s was to put a much cheaper build on the Fleet Scryer, which is now dealing 1074K at the Economy tier.

* In the same vein, Jay also added the [Salcombe as a Surgical Strikes build at Midrange](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/jay/ss-salcombe), dealing 1465K.

* [Jay’s Friendship](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/jay/carrier-friendship) has also been updated with new Kelvin toys and is now up to 1673K as our highest-parsing carrier.

* [Jay's Lexington](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/jay/Lexington) has gone down in price to a more affordable Midrange tier and of course gone up in DPS to 1065M.

##Tilor

* Tilor’s done a bunch of investigation on Singularity Cores as part of his research into a single-target ERL build on the [Legendary D’Deridex](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/tilor/erl-legendary-dderidex), now at 900K DPS.

* Tilor has also added his own take on the [Eagle as a stealth torpedo bomber](https://www.stobetter.com/intro-builds/tilor/kinetic-eagle) at 1151K DPS.

We also figured out why Tilor was only going warp 2 on build creation, realigned Dilithium Crystals, and now he’ll be ready for more builds next time (probably).

The full build table is below:

#Cadet Handbook

We’ve updated this for Sector Space revamp, Deep Space Encounters, and recommended playthrough.

#Ground Builds

I’ve added an [Economy tier Tactical ground build](https://www.stobetter.com/ground-builds/tac-economy-eph289) on my new KDF character, bridging the very basic starter tier Tac build and my more expensive premium ones. It’s dealing 2.44K DPS on Bug Hunt.

I’ve also done an update to the [Tac Mage](https://www.stobetter.com/ground-builds/tac-mage-eph289), bringing his new DPS total to 3.6K. Tactical Storm Strikes was solid and very much on-theme.

#Mechanics

* [Tilor and I did a writeup on Singularity Mechanics](https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/1ullrr0/on_singularity_cores/)

* [Exploring KDF Hangar Pets](https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/1uuo89z/mathbusters_18_kdf_hangar_testing/)

* [Revisiting Exotics 27: That’s Starfleet for Get Out](https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/1vcaqwp/revisiting_exotics_27_its_starfleet_for_get_out/)

#Tier Lists

These have had an extensive revisiting as we were focused heavily on Cadet Handbook this year and should be current. The K'Vort Experimental, Tactical Storm Strike, Kelvin Drones, and traits from the Kelvin bundle, Last Stand bundle, etc. are now included.

#Tools

* TRINITY has been updated to fit in Gomtuu and Chronophage, now at 1.8.2

* ALICIA ended up getting a similar pass as the tier lists to fill this in, now at 1.06.

#YouTube

* We posted our second Buffwatch on 3 broken traits

* Korfez VODs are done!

* Miner Instability now has a tutorial

* We added a video explaining the concept of Portability we covered last time.

#Support the Team

Completely optional: https://ko-fi.com/stobetter

#Thanks

Our continued thanks for members outside the immediate team who nevertheless have contributed immeasurably to our success:

* Mrs. Eph289, who’s been supportive of a lot of gaming and spreadsheet time. You remain my favorite captain to fly with, forever!

* The STOBETTER auxiliaries: Grim, Codingjungle, and Mickster, who patiently theorycraft and fly with us regularly.

* Thank you to those of you who’ve submitted errata via our feedback forms. With as many builds as we have, the possibility of copy/paste or other human error always exists.

#Future Plans

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STOBETTER S6E3: Klingons and Carriers