BEST 5 zStore Ships in Star Trek Online 2023



In this video I go over my top 5 pick for ships in the zStore in Star Trek Online. We look at these ships based on there build potential and not the starship traits. These are my top best 5 ships for 2023.

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Top zStore starship traints: https://youtu.be/fixLEQOvVzU
Hydra build: https://youtu.be/gWLQoM0RZUM

Ship Wiki
Clark:
https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Clarke_Multi-Mission_Command_Cruiser
Hydra:
https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Terran_Hydra_Intel_Destroyer
Eternal:
https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Eternal_Temporal_Multi-Mission_Science_Vessel
Lexington:
https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Terran_Lexington_Dreadnought_Cruiser

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Intro | 0:00
Ship 1 | 2:05
Ship 2 | 11:05
Ship 3 | 18:40
Ship 4 | 29:18
Ship 5 | 37:27
Outro | 48:31

source

43 thoughts on “BEST 5 zStore Ships in Star Trek Online 2023”

  1. The Lexington is the best first purchase I thought I'd make: It is. And I barely have anything top end going for it. I don't even have remotely ideal ship traits as the account is only a month old, and it just PERFORMS. And sometimes it flies like an escort, which is wild to me.

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  2. Great list. I have similar picks for my top 5 z store ships currently. The only ones I would replace from your list are the Eternal and the Norway. I have found that even though the Sutherland is not a full temporal ship, it is actually more suitable for epg/torp builds. As engineering is the most useless boff seating for epg. There are exceptions of course, but for a pure epg build, I pick the fleet Sutherland/Magellan over the Eternal using the engineering seating for my temporal abilities. As for the Norway, I don't have this ship, and I passed on it, as I am not a torp guy, and the lt. intel seating limits it. I would pick the Adamant over this particular ship. The Adamant is basically the Vengeance class ship if it were a raider. If I were going for mere fire power from an energy weapon build, the Fleet Intel Soyuz frigate is a monster as well. Using Surgical Strikes or CSV. Also it has incredible flexibility as it is almost set up like a raider. Still the Norway is a pretty ship, and I might just get it one day.

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  3. Good list. I really like that you broke down which ships are Fleet Quality out of the box versus the ones that need a FSM to get.

    But it's me, so please pardon my follow-up observations.

    Science carriers, especially those with some Intel seating, make for excellent Unconventional Systems boats. Since you don't need any drain/debuffs to mule a Deteriorating SecDef, you can go all in on Control abilities. In fact, I am going to be so bold as to suggest that Intel/ Science Carries are probably your best Uncon boats. Slap those clicky consoles on and observe the explosions.

    Tanks are easy to make, but (and this is probably my own prejudice) still require a lot of Threat generation and survivability, even for support tanks. That's not cheap.

    Finally, I would like to reiterate that you can't go wrong with Ba'ul DBB and Surgical Strikes. With the Ba'ul Lobi set doubling your extra targets and that automatic SS crit magic, yum. The Hydra is the perfect boat for that.

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  4. I'm don't often purchase ships, I kinda wanna make sure I'll really like it. I saved up last year and got the 10th anni set and I loved it, also got the romulan legendary set which I loved for my Romulan, my first ship was the Lexington and loved it, also got the vanguard ship for my Jem'hadar and loved it too.

    I got the Hydra last week anf I really love it despite it claiming to have the immolating phaser lance and it does not, but far as any kinda energy weapon set up it runs pretty well with my Mirror Warship I got in the event last year. Enjoy it very much.

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  5. I've been using the Hydra as my daily driver since it launched as well. I run a DEWSci build with 3 anomalies, SIA, and SS3 plus 4 other SIA detonators. Very little survives 15 SIA procs, and SS3 mops up what little does easily. It's also nice because as long as you're not running elites, you can run a single build and do literally everything else in the game without swapping (and elites too but it'll be a struggle.)

    The rest of my build and why:
    – 3pc Restoration Reinforcements set: lowers cooldowns, increases power levels, the blast module deletes torps and fighters in a 180 degree cone, the support platform provides good shield healing on maps where you need to sit still, and the torp platform follows you and just pukes out torps constantly (which deal mediocre damage but it fires a LOT of them)
    – 2pc Chronitron Integrated set: AoE healing + tractor beam immunity without eating a boff slot for polarize hull, also good for pushing mines away, mainly for Tour the Galaxy though
    – Gamma Warp Core: for Tour the Galaxy mostly
    – KHG Engines + Shield: The hands down best 2-piece core component combo in the game and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. The only reason to use ANY other 2pc is if you have zero torps on the entire ship, and even then alternatives aren't much better.
    – Fleet Channeling Deflector: for crit, obviously
    – Hypercharged Field Projector: doesn't use any weapon power to fire, is excellent torpedo point defense
    – 1x Kelvin Torp: self explanatory
    – 4x Sensor-Linked Disruptors: because SS3 lowers rate of fire, which in turn halves proc chance. Sensor-linked aren't a massive buff but they're always on, better than a proc that will almost never fire. I'm using Beam Arrays because I'm lazy, but of course you can slot DHCs. The Hydra can easily turn enough for them.
    – 2pc House Matrok set: the console for this is the second best quest reward console in the game, second only to the Chronometric Capacitor, but I'm tired of Polaron.
    – 2pc Omega Cutting Beam set: because the cutting beam is simply underrated. Yes, it doesn't benefit from firing modes. No, it doesn't matter. DPS is 20% higher than ANY Omni after shields are down, which SIA and the other weapons melt instantly.
    – Hull-Image Refractors: The best single console in the game. I'll fight anyone over this too. +20% Cat2 damage plus doubling your survivability plus battle cloak plus a 100% hull heal all on one console. I refuse to fly any ship without this, even ships that already have battle cloak. Fortunately I have 5 of them 🙂
    – 1x Disruptor Locator, 1x Protomatter Infuser: self explanatory
    – 1x EPG Particle Field Exciter: self explanatory
    – SIA, Vanguard Specialists, Time to Kill, Synthetic Good Fortune, She's a Predator, and tbh idr the other trait. Those are the important ones, heh.
    – SS3, Torp Spread 3, Ionic Turbulence 1, Intel Team 1, Aux2Shields 3, AP Lambda 1, Reinforcements Squad 1, GW1, Subspace Vortex 1, Photonic Officer 1, Transfer Shields 1, Hazard Emitters 1. Pretty sure I'm forgetting something but those are the main ones. I am usually able to redeploy the anomalies every 24 seconds, which means 20 seconds of uptime and 4 seconds of downtime. SS3 never goes down for more than 1 second. Also worth noting, the Hydra is unique among ships with Cmdr Tac Intel because you can use AP Lambda instead of eating the Tac Lt slot for AP Delta or Beta, which allows the third anomaly. No other Cmdr Tac Intel has Pilot slots.

    Anyhow, loving the Hydra. I still love the Adamant too but it's worth sacrificing the battle cloak and 10% She's a Predator damage for everything the Hydra offers.

    As for pure Sci ships, my personal favorite is still the Fleet Nova Scout Ship, because the 33% raider flanking can apply to sci abilities. That automatically gives Scout ships a boost that no other Sci ship type has. Of course the Dranuur works fine too, but I find the Pilot maneuvers do help with survivability if you save them for then you're about to take a big hit. It's also 4/2 so it's an excellent SciTorp platform. Throw 4 Kelvin torps on it with the new Terran Eagle console and it's insane.

    EDIT: One thing about shields, if you do decide to build for them, the Voth Power Subscore is a must. That plus EPtS3 gives you around +55% shield hardness. Counterintuitively, you want a Covariant shield for best results, not a Resilient shield. The capacity is far more important than anything else, because the largest issue you'll have trying (emphasis on "trying") to make a "shield tank" is drains, especially when fighting Borg. EPtS3 will negate them once they drop to 50%, but when you're up against drains, that basically means 50% is your functional shield capacity. Thus, more capacity trumps everything else. Anyhow, you can't just stop at the Voth Power Subcore + EPtS3, you need more hardness, but those 2 are the main sources for it. My T'Laru has around 89% total shield hardness, and those shields simply never drop, but it has 2 wings of Elite Drone Ships that are drawing most fire anyway.

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  6. Could you do a pilot focused build maybe? I'd like to try see if I might like to play that way but I'm not build savvy. Plus, I don't know much about the Pilot rework.

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  7. Very good your video, thank you. I noticed that when using the Starship Switch in a social zone, the loadout of any ship gets messed up. This problem has been happening to me for a long time.

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  8. Honestly, CSW on the Hydra has the biggest damage potential, while SS makes it a superior single target damage dealer. Don't really need any other firing modes, as long as you have the extender traits for both.

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  9. I'm a huge Star Trek fan, love this game and played it for probably about a total of 40-50 hours over the last 13 years, as you can see I don't play much and that is due to how complicated this game is for me, I don't know anyone that plays the game, so it's hard to get help. I've checked out the STO wiki but not sure if there are any other resources for new players, wiki is confusing to look at for me 😥

    Reply
  10. In RTFO's I see people all the time, flying science ships and never using anything that triggers their secondary deflector.
    They might as well be flying sci carriers at that point.

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  11. I feel like they're going to nerf the Hydra trait. I think the Lexington is my favorite. The Clarke is good, too. If you use Centaur pylons it gives it an odd Connie look.
    My latest ship is the Vengeance. I'm a bit late to the party on that, but it's fun.

    Reply
  12. Good list. And I agree with your view on ships-for-traits. I have max. 6 trait slots, what would I need 30 great traits for?

    Personally, I prefer the Fleet Oberth over the Eternal. It dishes out an amazing amount of damage (focused on Spore Infused Anomalies) for such a small ship.

    Reply
  13. I think the Lexington would look and be even cooler instead of a sensor pod or whatever it's supposed to be it could also be docking ports for another ship like a defiant 😁 but I know nothing like that would ever happen..

    Reply

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