Type: All-Rounder
Roles: DPS, Tank, Secondary Healer, Secondary Support.
BHE Record: 1.28k DPS (#89 on the DPS League leaderboard)

Welcome, Captain!

Today we are going to discuss a particular strategy for you to employ in ground combat.

We'll start with an overview of this strategy, or 'build' as it is commonly called, followed by a comparison with other widely employed strategies, and then move on to looking at this one in detail.

If you got questions, make a note and post them at the end. Most of them will probably be answered before this discussion is over.

This particular... 'build' puts the survival of our ground forces first and foremost. It follows up with a good versatile set of abilities, from heals over buffs to debuffs and even control effects, while still ensuring that it has enough offensive capability to handle any enemy you can imagine.

As a result, this build is not only practically indestructible but also able to handle entire armies on its own while still being able to adapt to just about any circumstances imaginable and being a good team-player.

Let's take a quick look at how most common strategies, or 'builds' tackle ground combat.


The typical approach is to use the Na'khul Temporal Operative Personal Shield[sto.gamepedia.com]. That shield grants a brief moment of invulnerability once a minute.

Usually, they also add the Na'khul Temporal Operative Minigun[sto.gamepedia.com] as their secondary weapon for the set bonus as well as the Mud's Time Device[sto.gamepedia.com] kit module.

With that, they consider their defense handled and their survival sufficiently likely and proceed to add whatever their build focuses on in all the other spots - usually focusing exclusively on offensive options.

Unfortunately, that leaves them with only a 10s window where they can genuinely survive taking damage - plus a second chance once every 30s and to be fair, for most easier fights that suffices just fine.
When facing tougher situations though, it quickly becomes overwhelmed and, given that one is either immune to damage or has almost no toughness, one quickly ends up taken off guard and 'squished'.

In my opinion 'immune or dead' is a good way to end up overconfident due to the immune bit and head straight for a lot of the dead bit when things get just a hair too tough for the immunity to be able to handle things...

This build uses multiple redundant 'layers' to ensure survival while using potent yet flexible and fairly wide-ranging offensive options to take down the enemy - all the while still having additional control, utility and team support build in to make ones presence a true boon for the team.

For defense we use multiple sources of passive and thus continuous shield regeneration and further enhance them with shield hardness buffs that are permanently active (100% uptime). Then we have a few emergency shield heals in case our shield, our first line of defense, fails.
For our health we first provide a layer of "ablative armor" thanks to temporary HP gained from our specializations as we use kit modules and HP heals.
Then we follow up with multiple sources of health regeneration, automatic self-heals and of cause rather strong armor and thus very good damage resistance. And again we have multiple backup options to further help with our HP recovery in case they should ever get low enough to be a concern.
Finally we got several "oh-♥♥♥♥" options ranging from temporary invulnerability to "undo death".

For offense we use a series of multi-target and AoE abilities with very short cooldowns and fairly potent damage to quickly remove the chaff, then back that up with damage boosters, resistance debuffs, control abilities and even harder hitting AoE abilities. Many of these even boost the performance of allies close enough to be affected by them.

So ... in total we are close to immortal, hit everything more or less simultaneously, hit damn hard and, if that wasn't enough, lock down enemy movement, weaken their resistance while simultaneously healing and buffing our allies.

Let's take a look at how it is put together and what makes it tick then, shall we?

Here is the full listing of the components that make up the build.

Engineer

• Primary: Temporal Operative[sto.gamepedia.com]
  
• Secondary: Miracle Worker[sto.gamepedia.com]

• Universal: Mudd's Time Device[sto.gamepedia.com] (Discovery Rep, cheat death, and more importantly major cooldown booster)
  
• Universal: Resistance is Futile[sto.fandom.com] (Lockbox/Exchange; massive DRR debuff vs 1 damage type)
  
• Universal: Ball Lightning[sto.gamepedia.com] (Risa Summer Event; Exchange; persistent aoe lightning)
  
• Universal: Chain Conduit Capacitor[sto.gamepedia.com] (Lockbox/Exchange; rapid-fire chain lightning)
  
• Engineer: Equipment Diagnostics[sto.gamepedia.com] (R&D/Exchange; major durability buff)
  
• Engineer: Shield Pulse[sto.fandom.com] (Lockbox/Exchange; major aoe shield heal & shield hardness buff; optional: aka only if one has 6 kit module slots)

• Kit Frame: Universal Kentari Kit Mk XV [Radiant] [WpnCrit][WpnDmg][KPerf] [KP/Wpn][sto.gamepedia.com] (Fleet Colony; stacking AoE damage buff)
  
• Armor: Romulan Imperial Navy Combat Armor[sto.gamepedia.com] (Mission Reward: Iconian War -> Uneasy Allies)
  
• Shield: Lukari Proto-Reactive Personal Shield[sto.gamepedia.com] (Lukari Rep)
  
• Primary Weapon: Lukari Piezo-Electric Wrist Apparatus [Dmg/CrtH] [Dmg]x3[sto.gamepedia.com] (Lukari Rep)
  
• Secondary Weapon: any (I suggest a kinetic anti-borg weapon, e.g. Leck's Throwing Knives from the Gamma Quadrant -> Quark's Lucky Seven)

• Rainbow Tribble[sto.gamepedia.com] (risa summer event for 50 favors; 2.5% crit chance per team member using it; replace with Gambling Device if you got one)
  
• Temporal Flux Generator[sto.gamepedia.com] (unique; Mission Reward: Iconian War -> Time in a Bottle; short term invul button)
  
• Phavan Healing Crystal[sto.gamepedia.com] (Mission Reward: J'Ula's Discovery -> Illusion of Communication; team HoT that counts as hypo)

Kit Boosters

• Creative (+KPerf; very high priority)
  
• Field Technician (+KCD; very high priority)
  
• Upgraded Gear (+KPerf, lockbox/exchange, very high priority)
  
• Technophile (+KPerf; ground R&D 15; high priority)

Defense

• Coalition Squad Tactics (+SReg; lockbox/exchange; defense; high priority)
  
• Molt (+Heal; lockbox/exchange; medium priority)

Offense

• Make an Example (-DRR; lockbox/exchange; offensive support; high priority)
  
• Hive Mind (+Dmg; lockbox/exchange; offense; high priority)
  
• Ambush Fighter (+CrtH; lockbox/exchange; offensive support; medium priority)
  
• Vicious (+Dmg, +CrtD; lockbox/exchange; offense; medium priority)
  
• Dulce Et Decorum Est (+Dmg; lockbox/exchange; offense; low priority)
  
• Universal Law is for Lackeys (+Dmg or +DRR; lockbox/exchange; defense & offense; low priority)

This list contains more options than there are Trait Slots. Pick either the highest priority ones you have access to - or simply the ones you like best. The same applies to the other trait lists.

• Medical Nanites (+HPReg; defense; high priority)
  
• Regenerative Shield Augmentation (+SReg; defense; high priority)
  
• Landry's Tenacity (Cleanse on Crit; high priority)
  
• Active Armor Hardening (+DRR based on missing HP%; defense; medium priority; optional)
  
• Energized Nanites (+Lifesteal; defense; medium priority; optional)
  
• Omega Graviton Pulse Module (Borg Adapt Slower (massively so); low priority; for convenience)
  
• Neural Network Overload (chance for +Slow & +electric DoT on weapon attacks; offense, control; low priority; optional)

Note: Neural Network Overload shows a different DPS in the trait tooltip than it does on the weapon tooltip when equipped. I tend to get 70-100 DPS on the weapon tooltip but only 20-30 DPS on the trait tooltip.

• Medical Nanite Cloud (AoE rez chance & AoE heal; medium priority)
  
• Defiance (defense; low priority; only worth it if you use a hotkey so you can trigger it while focusing on other things)
  
• Piezo-Electric Perimeter Snare (AoE electric damage & slow; low priority)

• 3x Diagnostic Engineer (very high priority; exchange; 35% chance for +50 ranged damage on equipment diagnostics; also triggered via support drones; applies to weapons, kit modules, and fabrications)
  
• Fabrication Engineer (medium priority; exchange; unknown chance for 2 extra support drones when calling in a support drone)
  
• Tendi (medium priority; +CDR on Healed Targets; lower deck DOff)
  
• EMH Mk I or Nurse or Medic (no priority; mission for the EMH, exchange for the others; 20% chance for it to beam down is rolled per toon affected by the Phavan Healing Crystal; purely for fun - its not effective at all)

Here is a quick overview of how to use this build.

• activate threatening stance at the start of any TFO; the extra max HP will help you quite a bit (and you're usually the highest threat anyways)
  
• activate the rainbow tribble at the start of any TFO; afaik this tribble buff vanishes on map-change
  
• activate the following abilities whenever they come off cooldown:
  
  • #1 Mudd's Time Device
    
  • #3 Equipment Diagnostics
    
  • #4 Phavan Healing Crystal
    
  • #5 Support Drone
    
  • #6 Radiant Energy Emitter
    
  • #7 Resistance is Futile
    
  • #8 Chain Conduit Capacitor
    
  • #9 Ball Lightning
• use Orbital Strike as the opener vs bosses if you want to use it at all (I don't, IMO the activation time is way too long for its damage)
  
• keep an eye on the team and use Engineering Proficiency if at least two allies have lost (most of) their shields

I use a custom hotkey [Q] for all of these, which I spam almost non-stop; only pausing when I want to use an ability not part of the hotkey, or activate an objective.

See the STO Wiki[sto.gamepedia.com] for more info about custom hotkeys.

On that hotkey, I also added Defiance (as #2 on the list) so I automatically activate the emergency heal without having to think about it. I also added Secondary Fire (#10) and Primary Fire (#11) to the hotkey so I can just spam it and have all the basics taken care of - essentially turning auto-pilot on :-P

That way, with a single spammed hotkey (I picked Q), I can basically run the entire build without having to worry about a dang thing - except a few situational clickies. By having to keep just a small handful of situational abilities in mind rather than the full spread I have more mental capacity 'left' to keep an eye on the battlefield, focus on objectives, position correctly, etc.

As a bonus, I found that spamming the hotkey after initiating some non-cancelable objective activation (e.g. Phavan Ground, overloading the pain device thingies), can quite often still allow me to use my powers even while technically busy with the objective ...

You are likely the person with the most mental capacity to spare.
You are also unlikely to die if you type in chat for a brief moment or are 'locked' into activating something and can't defend yourself.

Thus you are the one to coordinate the team and handle optional objectives.

This build combines a couple of things in order to achieve its remarkable performance.

Shield Tank
You regenerate ~21 SP/s from your Lukari Shield.
You regenerate another ~10 SP/s from your Coalition Squad Tactics Personal Trait (per Engineer on the Team, but since we can only guarantee our own presence I don't count any others for this).
You regenerate another 16 SP/s from the Regenerative Shield Augmentation Reputation Trait.

That is a passive recovery of about 47 SP/s.

In addition, you have about 10% shield hardness from the Lukari Shield and 72%-ish from the Equipment Diagnostic Kit Module - which you can keep active 100% of the time. Together that is roughly 80% shield hardness, aka your shield only takes one-fifth of any damage thrown at it.

Together this means you can passively resist about 240 DPS just with your shield - and if you pop your Reroute Power to Shields captain ability for +95 SP/s and +50% shield hardness which increases this to about 1,400 DPS that your shields can just take without giving a damn for the 15s that that ability lasts.


Ablative Armor
We gain 48.4 temporary HP every time we use a Kit Module.
That averages out to about 14 temporary HP per second - before accounting for the cooldown reduction from Mudd's Time Device.


Health Tank
You regenerate no health during combat by default and any regeneration from skills is entirely negated.
Regeneration from other sources works just fine though.

You gain +160% HP/min from your Romulan Imperial Navy Combat Armor, +50% from your Medical Nanites reputation trait, and +50% from your Miracle Worker secondary specialization.
Given that you have about 950 HP, that results in approximately 43 HP/s just from that.

On top of that you have the Mold trait which approximates 9 HP/s (48.6 HP every 0.5s for 3s with 30s cooldown) and the Phavan Healing Crystal which approximates 8 HP/s (29.9 HP/s for 15 so with a 60s cooldown).

That means you approximately recover about 60 HP/s without even taking into account the self-healing proc from your weapon's primary attack, the self-healing from your weapon when it is in support mode, or the HP you recover through lifesteal thanks to your Energized Nanites trait.

When it comes to damage resistance you get 144 DRR from your armor (well, against energy weapons - which happens to be almost everything you'll encounter), +3-30 DRR from Universal Law is for Lackeys Trait (I approximate that as ~9 DRR on average),+0-93.75 DRR from Adaptive Armor Hardening based on missing HP% (given how little damage I tend to take, I at most approximate this as another +9 DRR for most situations), and another +48 DRR from the Equipment Diagnostics kit module which, again, you have active non-stop.

Together this is an impressive 200-ish DRR, which equates to roughly 62% damage resistance.

If I convert this into DPS you can simply ignore with your health, that's about 150 DPS worth.


Total Tank
The above gives about 240 DPS shield tank, 14 DPS ablative armor and 150 DPS health tank.
If you add in crouching and the lifesteal from a guestimated 500 DPS of damage dealt, then this isn't just 404 DPS, but up to 600 DPS that you can just passively take without even having to do a damn thing other than spam your hotkey ...

Add in that you can activate Engineering Proficiency (Teamwide +12.9 SP/s & +60 DRR for 60s), Reroute Power to Shields (+95 SP/s & +50% shield hardness for 15s), as well as Defiance (+45 HP/s & +40% damage resistance & +1250 DRR for 20s) one can rightly say that you can face an army and be likely fine.

Then add in Mudd's Time Device kit module to 'nope' out of dying by hitting 'undo' up to once every 30s and the Temporal Flux device that outright makes you invulnerable for 5 seconds you can easily see why death is not something one tends to worry about when using this build.

... oh... I forgot to add that you get +10.5 SP/s and +50% HP/min regeneration for 10s whenever your shields drop (45s cooldown) - which also happens to be a 4m radius AoE that heals your allies just as nicely as you ... and the 5% chance to proc the Lukari Wrist Appartus' self-healing proc. That amounts to another 14.7 SP/s & 150% HP/min when it is active - which it'll be between 25-50% of the time.


Electric Damage
The entire build deals lightning damage.

The Lukari 2-piece set bonus grants +25% lightning damage.

The Resistance is Futile kit module reduces the DRR of its victims by 150 against the first damage type any one of them is hit by.
This not only removes the damage resistance one's enemies might have from about 50-60% down to 0% but also reduces their resistance into the negative, which grants extra damage on top of the above.
Together this can increase your damage by x2 to x2.5 times if not more with just Resistance is Futile.

The fact that the ability also roots your enemies in place is a nice bonus.

Also, keep in mind that you do electrical damage.
Most enemies have good resistances vs the standard weapon damage types as well as melee & physical damage.
Very few will have any noteworthy resistance to electrical damage though - and that's before you nuke what little they have with Resistance is Futile.


Damage Boosters
Equipment Diagnostic has a 35% chance to trigger a DOff ability that gives you +50% bonus damage. You got 3 of those DOffs that are rolled individually and their buffs can stack up to 150% bonus damage.
On average this results in roughly +50% bonus damage on a permanent basis since their buff lasts the same 30s that the Equipment Diagnostics ability lasts for.

Your kit frame also has the Radiant Energy Emitter ability that provides ~+24% bonus damage not just to you, but to all friendlies within a 4.6m radius for 10 seconds every 30s. If multiple people are using this one, then the buffs can overlap and stack just fine.
This grants another +8% bonus damage.

Add in the +10% bonus damage from Hive Mind (+2% per Team Member nearby, doubled for those also using Hive Mind), the 0-7.5% bonus damage from Viscious, the 0-10% bonus damage from Universal Law is for Lackeys, the +10% bonus damage from Dulce Et Decorum Est and finally the guaranteed Crits you get for 5s after every flank (20s cooldown) and I think you can see that there is a lot of damage boosting going on on top of the resistance nuke-nerfing from Resistance is Futile - and many of them become better the more people of your team are using those abilities or builds compatible with them.


AoE Damage
Your primary attack has a 66% chance to chain once and a 33% chance to chain a second time.

Your secondary attack is a 3.7m radius AoE damage.

You are also using the Chain Conduit Capacitor which hits up to 6 targets every 6-7s.

On top of that, you are also using Ball Lightning regularly, which is another major AoE that, very very slowly, follows you around and does major damage to anything nearby.

This, together with your ability to lock enemy movement down hard will give you a lot of horde-breaking power.


Bonus
In addition to all the above, there is also a little hidden gem in this build for some extra DPS goodness - or AoE healing if you are ins support mode.

The Temporal Tier 3 passive reduces the cooldown on one's secondary attack when using a kit module.
Mud's time device counts as more or less continuous use of a kit module.
Combined, that effectively reduces the cooldown on the Lukari Wrist Apparatus' secondary attack to ~2 seconds.

My record with this build was 1,282 DPS on a Bug Hunt Elite. That placed me on #82 of the DPS League charts at the time, though I have since been pushed back down to #89.

I usually see 600-700 DPS when taking it easy and regularly end up doing about half the damage of the entire team while easily handling half or more of the incoming attacks without truly noticing.

For comparison, for players that regularly play advanced content without any issues about 200-300 DPS is the average.


This build can solo any advanced TFO there is - baring ones where one needs to be in multiple places simultaneously. Even on Elite, it can solo the fights, though might struggle with both fighting and completing objectives at the same time.

Here is a combat log parse for a random run of Miner Instabilities on advanced (in fact, the very run I took the thumbnail & cover image for this build from). Its a quite representative for how ground TFOs go for me most of the time.


(The Combat Log Reader messed up a little here and assigned ~50 DPS to healing instead. Presumably that's the extra damage I dealt from not just reducing enemy DRR to 0, but into the negative. I only noticed when I ran the log through another tool and investigated the DPS difference.)

Overall this build is very reliable, very effective, easy to use, helps the team, and if that wasn't enough, it also becomes better the more people in your team are using it.

I hope you've enjoyed my exposition of this build.
It is just one out of countless ways to play this game, though I have to say it is a very nice one :-P

Please feel free to comment, ask questions, offer suggestions, etc - I'll reply as I am able.

Thanks for your time and I hope you'll enjoy STO!