Fair warning from the start this is going to be pretty long, I've been wanting to do this build

write up for awhile now so I have quite a bit to say.

Since 5.5, Strikes are great now! While still lacking compared to some of the classes for more specialized roles, they are however super versatile.

Because of this even when players put up their specific ship builds I feel there are so many good builds that are getting overlooked.

It's actually more how you want to build an entire ship bar that decides which builds you're using these days.

Some ships still have optimal builds for sure, like the T1 Gunship (Quarrel/Mangler) minus very small differences most people are using the exact same builds.

However that just isn't so with Strike fighters.

At first I attributed the wide ranges of builds to the fact that the new patch had just landed and everyone was still figuring things out.

While I'm sure that still likely comes into play I think it's just the many different ways you can build these things for different jobs now.

Anyways let's get to some ship builds since that's likely what you're here for!

A quick disclaimer these are my variants on ship builds. I didn't come up with many of these builds and I'll try to give credit where I can.

All the crew setups are for if you choose Hydrospanner since it’s the only copilot that appears on every build, you may have to alter the crew setups slightly for other copilot abilities.

Type 1 Strike (Rycer/Starguard)

Pile Driver for Deathmatch

Heavy Lasers (Armorpen/Shield pen)

Quad Lasers (Reduced power cost/Hull damage)

Proton Torpedo (Extra arc/Range)

Quick Charge Shield (Lower Cooldown)

Retro Thrusters (Turning)

Damage Capacitor

Large Reactor

Regeneration Extender

Speed Thrusters

Crew

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/15% Shield regeneration

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines(Empire)/13% Efficient Blasters (Republic)

Wingman or Hydrospanner or Concentrated Fire

We started calling the action of weapon swapping "pile driving", after Audson's build.

I've made many adjustments and you'll also see other variants further in this thread.

If you don't know what the Pile Driver is be sure to check out this other thread Audson posted on what it is and how to use it. (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=944782)

This build is designed with Deathmatch in mind but can also do very well in Domination.

You're looking to absolutely mangle people with your lasers by switching between them very quickly to get so much dps. You want to target enemies that aren't paying attention to you and are moving slowly, like if they're attacking a teammate of yours or are just plain distracted.

Gunships make great targets since they are usually immobile when you creep up on them.

If you open on someone and aren't that close to killing them it's often better to just swap to a new target.

This plays very much like the old Quads/Pods build on the Sting/Flashfire. The big differences here is that you also have a Proton Torpedo in reserve and is on the Strike Chassis which has better hull and shields but worse turning and worse engines. Most of the time when you sneak up on people you don't want to lock the missile.

Just open with only lasers so they aren't immediately trying to run from the missile lock. However you can keep an eye out for any enemies that use their missile breaks and just go lock that Proton on them since you know that will be a guaranteed hit.

You can easily swap out parts of this build to your preferred style of play, I'll put some examples below with how the changes might change the way you play.

Pile Driver for Deathmatch (Speed Variant)

Heavy Lasers (Armorpen/Shield pen)

Quad Lasers (Reduced power cost/Hull damage)

Proton Torpedo (Extra arc/Range)

Quick Charge Shield (Lower Cooldown)

Barrel Roll (Speed)

Damage Capacitor

Large Reactor

Efficient Targeting

Speed Thrusters

Crew

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/15% Shield regeneration

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Hydrospanner

With this version you're extremely mobile having the most speed and engine power available.

This version is fantastic at tracking down Damage Overcharges and going after targets that might be a far ways behind the enemy lines. You're also super fast when retreating so if someone is chasing you down he's going to have a hard time catching you. This build also has faster Proton locks so you'll be leaning a little more on that side of your fire power. Because you're losing the Retros to help hold you in place to get more shots in and the extra weapon power regeneration/efficiencies though you're not going to be able to fire both lasers for very long.

The trick is to make your shots count and then retreat quickly to recharge all your cooldowns and weapon power. This version often has way more down time because of this, so if you're looking for a ship that's excellent at capitalizing on enemy mistakes this is the one for you. Where if you like to get into the thick of things and just keep firing until everyone else is dead or you are you'd likely want the first version.

Pile Driver for Domination

Heavy Lasers (Armorpen/Shield pen)

Quad Lasers (Reduced power cost/Hull damage)

Concussion Missile (Range/Engine targeting)

Quick Charge Shield (Lower Cooldown)

Retro Thrusters (Turning)

Damage Capacitor

Turbo Reactor

Regeneration Extender

Turning Thrusters

Crew

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/15% Shield regeneration

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Wingman or Hydrospanner

As you can see this is just another version of the first build but setup for Domination.

It has more turning to be able to fight under the Satellites. Turbo reactor to get to regenerating

your shields quick after being shot. Combined with Quick charge shield and the crew member we've chosen this means it only takes 0.6 seconds for your shields to begin regenerating after taking damage. With defensive play on a Satellite it's pretty easy to get that regeneration to kick in. Concussion Missiles extra arc and small decrease in lock on time helps get off a few more missiles per game.

Anti Scout Domination build

Heavy Lasers (Armorpen/Shield pen)

Rapid Lasers (Improved tracking/Hull Damage)

Cluster Missile (Range/Damage over time)

Feedback Shield (Critical)

Retro Thrusters (Turning)

Damage Capacitor

Large Reactor

Efficient Targeting

Turning Thrusters

Crew

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/15% Shield regeneration

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Hydrospanner

This is a build I've been using to try to counter the ever deadly Sting/Flashfire in Domination.

I found that while on the Satellites it was very difficult to beat the Scouts with a Strike fighter.

I've been using this one to mitigate the Scouts advantage in close quarters.

The style is pretty simple use Heavy Lasers while off the node to deal with any threats. Once on the node you swap to Rapids to give you a nice high accuracy short range laser with Cluster spam to make the Scout move as much as possible. Double turning helps shore up vs Scouts that might not be also using double turning. The Feedback shield is great vs Scouts because even if it doesn't crit it's a massive amount of Damage for a Scout to absorb, and if it does crit they’re in a heap of trouble.

Type 2 Strike (Quell/Pike)

Deathmatch Missile boat

Heavy Lasers (Armorpen/Shield pen)

EMP Missile (Range/Engine suppression)

Proton Torpedo (Extra arc/Range)

Quick Charge Shield (Lower cooldown)

Barrel Roll (Speed)

Damage Capacitor

Lightweight Armor

Efficient Targeting

Speed Thrusters

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/5% Evasion

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Hydrospanner

This setup is all about using your EMP Missile to "bait" their missile breaks so you can then

lock a Proton on them. If they don't break the EMP they can't use their break after anyways.

You have all the mobility possible so it's a great ship to gather Damage Overcharges on.

There isn't much else to say for this one, just keep an eye out for people using their missile breaks and go Proton them. With the extra evasion from your armor and crew member you'll have a much better time vs Gunships then a T1 Strike might. While you definitely won't kill as quickly as if you were running a similar build with a Pile driver, the consistent hammering of missiles to your enemies will not only give you consistent Proton hits, you'll be eating up the enemy teams missile breaks so your teammates can also land their missiles. It's also really handy to have EMP Missile to help deal with any nests enemy Bombers might setup.

Domination Midrange Node Guard

Heavy Lasers (Armorpen/Shield pen)

EMP Missile (Damage/Engine suppression)

Concussion Missile (Range/Engine targeting)

Quick Charge Shield (Lower cooldown)

Shield Power Converter (Missile break)

Damage Capacitor

Reinforced Armor

Efficient Targeting

Turning Thrusters

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/5% Evasion

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Hydrospanner

This ship has been my go to in Domination for months now. While it isn't particularly great at actually fighting on the node. It's so good at just being around it and killing things either on it or around it. Because of the Shield converter as it's missile break you can do some really handy things while defending too. Since you don't ever actually have to leave the node you can simply lock EMP's on enemies and when they use their breaks they will leave the node for a few seconds giving you some time to capture a little. Eventually you just gain the node from these zones of capture time.

Having EMP Missile is just so good for Domination, it locks out players from their missile breaks

while dealing a decent amount of AOE damage to everyone else that might be around the player you hit. Also you can simple fire them at the enemies defense turrets when assaulting a node to shower all the enemy players with damage and debuffs.

Domination Shortrange Node Guard.

Light Lasers (Improved tracking/Hull Damage)

EMP Missile (Damage/Engine suppression)

Cluster Missile (Ammo/Double volley)

Quick Charge Shield (Lower cooldown)

Shield Power Converter (Missile break)

Frequency Capacitor

Reinforced Armor

Efficient Targeting

Turning Thrusters

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/5% Evasion

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Hydrospanner

This build only changes a few components from it's Midrange counter part, but wow does it change the playstyle. With the Light Lasers and Cluster Missiles you can much more easily chase down opponents around the satellite. You will struggle a little more going after targets that aren't on the satellite like Gunships or Bombers enroute to a node, as well as take much more time taking out the defense turrets on an enemy satellite. However by using EMP on one turret you disable the other two which should give you enough time to take most of them down before you take too much damage.

Type 3 Strike (Imperium/Clarion)

Deathmatch Repair Cheerleader

Quad Lasers (Reduced power cost/Hull Damage)

Proton Torpedo (Extra arc/Range)

Repair Probes (Improved Repair/Ammo Refill)

Directional Shields (Reduced regen delay)

Power Dive (Speed)

Damage Capacitor

Large Reactor

Reinforced Armor

Communication Sensors

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/5% Evasion

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Lockdown, Suppression, In Your Sights, Slicers Loop or Hydrospanner

This one is specifically designed to heal teammates and be as tanky as possible while doing it.

It's got the extra speed and engines to get to those teammates to heal them. Because you'll always be refilling your ammo with this ship you want to spam as many Protons at everyone around you as possible. Just keep firing them to get as many of your enemies to use their missile breaks as possible. You also want to get the attention of as many enemies as possible by doing this so they come after you since you're so tanky and it's much easier to heal yourself then teammates you want them dealing that damage to you. Try to prioritize firing Protons at players that are chasing your teammates to "peel" for them as much as possible. This will open up your teammates to do the real damage.

If you don't know who is injured, you can watch for smoking allied ships, or just heal the ball of friendlies, or find a player who is doing well as he will probably be able to use your ammo refill.

Domination Repair Cheerleader

Light Lasers (Improved Tracking/Hull Damage)

EMP Missile (Extra Damage/Engine Suppression)

Repair Probes (Improved Repair/Ammo Refill)

Directional Shields (Reduced regen delay)

Power Dive (Turning)

Frequency Capacitor

Large Reactor

Reinforced Armor

Communication Sensors

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/15% Shield regeneration

Extra Sensor range/Extra Communication range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Lockdown, Suppression, In Your Sights, Slicers Loop or Hydrospanner

This one is pretty similar to the Deathmatch variant expect you use Light Lasers for on node fighting and EMP Missiles for AOE and turret disables. With a small shift from Speed to Turning on Power dive to give you more on node fighting power.

Basically this ships job is to tank friendly satellites, if anyone comes over to try to take it away

from your team you can stall for a very long time against most ships because of all your healing and shield/health. Since Satellites are natural gathering places it's great to have both AOE damage and AOE healing no this ship.

Remote Slicing Dogfighter

Light Lasers (Improved Tracking/Shield Damage)

Proton Torpedo (Extra arc/Range)

Remote Slicing (Weapon power reduction/Engine Suppression)

Directional Shields (Reduced regen delay)

Power Dive (Turning)

Frequency Capacitor

Large Reactor

Lightweight Armor

Dampening Sensors

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/5% Evasion

Extra Sensor range/Extra Dampening range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Lockdown, Slicers Loop or Hydrospanner

This build was just recently revealed to me. I was told by a friend that it was known as Neutrinos'

build but I can't be sure who came up with it first so I'm just going to give him credit for now.

(Neutrinos if you have a name for this build let me know and I’ll edit it in)

This is likely the best 1v1 build in the game right now. It has such good short range power with the Light Lasers and great long range power with the Proton it can switch from either very quickly. With the added power to drain your enemies engines on command and disable their missiles breaks it makes it very hard for any ship to compete with this one in a head to head fight. It's very powerful in Domination as it can very easily fight under a node but it can also eliminate threats while their enroute between them too by locking a Proton getting close and then using Remote Slicing to disable their break you can guarantee a Proton hit.

This ship is also excellent at aiding a friendly teammate as Slicing and locking on Protons are some of the best peeling tools in the game right now.

I personally like the Evasion setup on this one as I find Blasters/Gunships are the things that are killing me the most right now. However if you feel differently you can simply change the armor to Reinforced and swap the Evasion crew passive to regeneration.

Deathmatch Remote Slicing Variant.

Quad Lasers (Reduced power cost/Hull Damage)

Proton Torpedo (Extra arc/Range)

Remote Slicing (Weapon power reduction/Engine Suppression)

Directional Shields (Reduced regen delay)

Power Dive (Speed)

Damage Capacitor

Large Reactor

Lightweight Armor

Dampening Sensors

6% Accuracy/Larger firing arc(Empire)/Faster secondary reload(Republic)

10% Large shields/5% Evasion

Extra Sensor range/Extra Dampening range

13% Efficient Engines/15% Larger engines

Lockdown, Slicers Loop or Hydrospanner

This version is the Remote Slicing ship I've been playing for months. It's very good in Deathmatch but I didn't like it very much in Domination mostly because Quads just aren't that great there.

The Extra speed is the big difference between this ship and the other one, this lets you get to Damage Overcharges faster or just retreat quicker after a Remote Slicing/Proton run on someone. I like Quads better in the Deathmatch version for the extra range, and since you don't really have the turning to get into a turn fight with most other ships I don't think it's worth having Lights on this one.

Having said that, just because this is a Deathmatch Variant doesn't mean the first build I put up isn't good in Deathmatch because it is still very good. This one just gets places faster. Keep in mind in a head to head fight the lights version would decimate this one, but this one could also outrun the other one.

Well I think that was plenty long so I'm going to cut it here for the builds.

With so many viable Strike fighter builds right now you can see how people might be playing a lot of them even if they're being used in widely different ways by different players.

Maybe you really like playing Scout in Domination so you fill the rest of your bar with Deathmatch Strike builds for example. Or it could be the other way where you really like Gunship in Deathmatch so you put a bunch of Domination specialized Strikes on your bar for those.

I love that we have so many viable choices now for how you build a loadout bar and that just because you see someone in a Ship class or even specific ship you might not know exactly what loadout they're playing.

Hopefully this helped out some players looking for different builds for their loadouts or maybe got you thinking more about what your opponents might be playing.

If you have a cool Strike fighter build that has a unique or specialized role post it below I'd love to see new stuff I or others I know haven't come up with yet.

Thanks for reading.

Hm, interesting that you use LLC's for Domination Imperium/Clarion. I prefer RFL's for the AP, which I find handy for use against satellites and bombers. It's also a fun ship to use to pry bombers out of little hidey-hole nooks.

I roll a similar repair Imperium/Clarion, but with Shield Projector instead of Directional for a few reasons. First, it's easy to use, like Quick Charge. And in a big circling fight around a satellite, I won't get my lightly-shielded behind sniped. Plus, since I'll likely have allies near me, it's easier for the Projector to help them as well. I enjoy playing mobile support ship with this.

Hm, interesting that you use LLC's for Domination Imperium/Clarion. I prefer RFL's for the AP, which I find handy for use against satellites and bombers. It's also a fun ship to use to pry bombers out of little hidey-hole nooks.

 

I roll a similar repair Imperium/Clarion, but with Shield Projector instead of Directional for a few reasons. First, it's easy to use, like Quick Charge. And in a big circling fight around a satellite, I won't get my lightly-shielded behind sniped. Plus, since I'll likely have allies near me, it's easier for the Projector to help them as well. I enjoy playing mobile support ship with this.

I used to use Rapids a lot as well, however the meta has really shifted away from Damage reduction builds lately. The math on Lights is basically that they are more accurate, do more damage and have less tracking then Rapids. The only thing Rapids have going for them is that they have that Armor Penetration. The ship with the most Damage Reduction in the meta is currently a Directional Shield T3 Strike with 20%. Lights actually do more then 20% more damage then Rapids at close ranges because of how many more shots you're going to land and their raw DPS. This means you just gain vs every other ship in the game and you're absolutely melting players shields much faster.

I hate to break it to you about Shield Projector but it's just plain worse then Directionals. You're giving up 50% Shields and 10% Damage Reduction for the ability to regenerate 35% faster and have an ability that heals 48% of your shields over 10 seconds.

The net loss here is 2% shields after 10 seconds. You're actually better off just being in Directionals and never using the ability since Directionals also gains 50% less Shield recharge delay.

As for difficulty in play style try this, play with Directionals and never actually point them in a direction. Instead keep them balanced, whenever you Power dive quickly swap your shields backwards > forwards > balanced again. This will redistribute your shields. What this does is the side you were getting attacked on gains some shields and the side that wasn't Starts regenerating immediately because it hasn't suffered damage and isn't on the delay. If you stopped being attacked you're also regenerating that shield damage you took twice as fast since each arch regenerates independently.

I rarely point my shields in any direction in Domination anymore and mostly use this strategy. The only time I do point them is when a Scout is chasing me at a node and they've completely destroyed my rear shields and are still chasing me I point them backwards. Even in that scenario it can still be correct to just Power dive for some breathing room and do the cycle to get that double regen going.

It's not my intention to take the wind out of your sails here, but it seems like you are trying to reinvent the wheel.

There is already a comprehensive guide for ships (including Strike variants) here:

https://shadowlandsreconnaissancewing.enjin.com/forum/m/34025565/viewthread/31887290-sirakas-ship-builds

Which could be found on the last page of the (outdated) sticky guide.

It's not my intention to take the wind out of your sails here, but it seems like you are trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

There is already a comprehensive guide for ships (including Strike variants) here:

 

https://shadowlandsreconnaissancewing.enjin.com/forum/m/34025565/viewthread/31887290-sirakas-ship-builds

 

Which could be found on the last page of the (outdated) sticky guide.

Not at all I love Siraka's builds but did you notice that none of my builds are exactly the same as his.

This is exactly the point of the thread. There are so many different ways to build these things I figured you guys might have missed out on some cool builds that you might not have thought of or seen.

Thanks for the input though and it's probably good to have the link to Siraka's builds here in this thread too for players to be able to compare the different builds.

Not at all I love Siraka's builds but did you notice that none of my builds are exactly the same as his.

 

This is exactly the point of the thread. There are so many different ways to build these things I figured you guys might have missed out on some cool builds that you might not have thought of or seen.

 

Thanks for the input though and it's probably good to have the link to Siraka's builds here in this thread too for players to be able to compare the different builds.

I did not compare them side by side, no. Carry on!