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[avnplja]

Do you ever do a play-trough without these two? Flux is the most important thing in this game and these two skills boost it. Other skills are somewhat balanced around a certain type of play-style, like the carrier skills for example, but everyone needs flux. These two skills need to be removed. And before you say "just don't take them", it's like giving crack to a person and saying just don't smoke it. Let's remove these skills.

[Princess of Evil]

I would be happy if FR were just rolled into base, but i do pretty often play without BotB.

[Megas]

I used to take Flux Regulation until Neural Link swapped places with Cybernetic Augmentation.  Now, I take Neural Link instead of Flux Regulation.  My next choice would either be Electronic Warfare to cheese AI or Flux Regulation.  Phase Coil Tuning is a must since I use phase ships in the fleet.  For me, it is Phase Coil Turning plus one other tier 3 before capstone, and Neural Link is the one I choose.

Best of the Best?  That is the one skill I see taken more than any other, to the point that some people assume it to be baseline and an auto-pick.

Officer Training is another common skill I see taken for stronger officers.

And since Cybernetic Augmentation was buffed and promoted to capstone, I see that one taken nearly as much as BotB and Officer Training.

One thing about Flux Regulation.  Ever since Ordnance Expertise got nerfed, it looks like I do not get much more vents from it than from Flux Regulation, and Ordnance Expertise only gives caps if elite, while Flux Regulation gives both to you (and higher max limits).  Ordnance Expertise needs to give more flux again, even if at elite instead of at basic.  Industry needs help.  After the Ordnance Expertise nerf, Industry is easier to dump.

[avnplja]

I would be happy if FR were just rolled into base, but i do pretty often play without BotB.

I mean yeah, you can do that as a challenge, but you can't do that without feeling like you shot yourself in the foot. Having three build in mods in a capital is nuts. It makes the whole ship building process a non-issue. You don't have to make any choices. You can just have everything you want.

[avnplja]

I would be happy if FR were just rolled into base, but i do pretty often play without BotB.

I mean yeah, you can do that as a challenge, but you can't do that without feeling like you shot yourself in the foot. Having three build in mods in a capital is nuts. It makes the whole ship building process a non-issue. You don't have to make any choices. You can just have everything you want.

Yes, I mean best of the best is the worst. It removes ship building completely. You can max caps and vents and have all the guns you want.

[SCC]

Flux Regulation is alright. Generically, I think Electronic Warfare is better. If you have phase ships, Phase Coil Tuning is better. If you're going for Cybernetic Augmentation, Neural Link is better. Basically, Flux Regulation is a lowest priority skill, but it isn't pointless like PCT with no phase or NL with no combat skills.

Best of the Best feels similarly alright, except it doesn't have competition as good as FR. Support Doctrine is a skill. But if you aren't looking specifically for a SD build, you will pick BotB. But you have to pick 4 other skills to get BotB first and you probably will, since Leadership is a pretty good tree. If you want to buff fighters, fighter skills are here. That aside, Crew Training is a good generic skill, Tactical Drills is okay, Coordinated Manoeuvres is deceptively good, Wolfpack Tactics is good early game and I suppose it exists later on. Then we have the good stuff, Officer Training (or Officer Management if you're going wide). You're going to arrive at BotB simply by going on the path of the most convenience.

For sheer power... It's better than the alternatives. There's typically no point to going all in on combat and likewise goes for Technology (unless you're going for a killer Radiant, which is excellent), leaving you either to go all in on Leadership, do some SD-DO spam or spread the points mostly evenly. You'll either forgo Combat for armchair admiral playstyle or forgo Industry for a balanced playstyle. BotB simply offers a good power/convenience ratio.

[MrE]

I think both skills are fine, I've seen enough builds not use botb that it doesn't seem like a must have. Flux Regulation is tame all thing considering, as it only goes off of base flux stats and those are typically below average to account for the player adding vents and capacitors.

Personally I always thought best of the best was an industry capstone, leaving the deployment bonus in leadership and take +5 combat readiness per built in hullmod from hull restoration. (not sure where hull restoration would go after that though.)

ordnance expertise, while I understood the reasoning for the nerf, I still think it could been handled differently, in that it should instead be +1 flux dissipation and +10 flux capacity per op spent on weapons, and the elite skill doubles it.

[Phenir]

Do you ever do a play-trough without these two? Flux is the most important thing in this game and these two skills boost it. Other skills are somewhat balanced around a certain type of play-style, like the carrier skills for example, but everyone needs flux. These two skills need to be removed. And before you say "just don't take them", it's like giving crack to a person and saying just don't smoke it. Let's remove these skills.

I like to build wide fleets so actually for me support doctrine is usually better. I get more value out of deploying more ships and those ships being a lot better than getting 5-30 OP on each ship. SP cost also horrendous.
Flux regulation is ok but it's only really valuable if you use a lot of frigates, because +5 capacitors is a lot of survivability, or you use ships with high base flux stats like paragon or conquest. I'd guess across an entire fleet, flux regulation gives you about 500-1000 extra dissipation. Lower if you use low tech, higher if you use midline and high tech. So it gives you the dps of an extra capital spread out across the fleet, not including missile damage. Pretty on par with the other two t3 tech skills. Ewar makes taking objectives trivial so you can very easily actually deploy your whole fleet and essentially gives your entire fleet range bonus. Neural is ridiculously strong if you are building towards either of the capstones. Player piloted radiant? Two level 8 officers getting 8% dr and 16% damage? And if you are taking cyber aug you might want both the tech combat skills. So overall, flux regulation is good but I don't think it's must take good.

I would be happy if FR were just rolled into base, but i do pretty often play without BotB.

I mean yeah, you can do that as a challenge, but you can't do that without feeling like you shot yourself in the foot. Having three build in mods in a capital is nuts. It makes the whole ship building process a non-issue. You don't have to make any choices. You can just have everything you want.

Yes, I mean best of the best is the worst. It removes ship building completely. You can max caps and vents and have all the guns you want.

Responding to your own post is cringe. Just use modify.

[Doctorhealsgood]

I have never taken best of the best to my memory and flux regulation whenever i feel like getting automated ships because i was already going to the blue tree anyways

[happycrow]

I hesitate to pipe in, seeing as I'm one of the rare Industry Enjoyers^(tm), but I often take Flux Regulation for the extra flexibility in refitting, but only took BOTB literally my first game. Would far rather spend that skill point on having a deep and wide officer pool if I am going heavy green. My (extremely unpopular) opinions have already been posted, but I don't think these are so necessary that they need go away.

[Bungee_man]

Forgoing BotB is necessary for certain red or blue - heavy builds. It's a good skill, but if your force is concentrated around a strong flagship, it's not always the best deal to go into the green tree.

FR is generally good, but I think it's fine as it is. It doesn't feel OP either, it's just that the blue tree almost always gets used (because it works with everything), and it's part of the blue tree. Making yellow tree more competitive might help.

In general, the builds I've seen are:

* Red+Blue+Green (conventional build)

* Red+Blue (buffed-up flagship)

* Blue+Green+Yellow (no flagship)

If Red+Green+Yellow were more viable, or if there were a reason to double up on yellow or green, you'd see more builds without FR.

[Ptirodaktill]

 Best of the best is overrated and rarely worth it. I usualy go red heavy to overbuff my flagship and cybernetic augmentation in blue.

[BigBrainEnergy]

They are easy to take because they are generic. Every ship wants flux, and every ship is improved with more hullmods.

The skills competing with them are narrow; phase coil tuning for phase ships, neural link for double flagship, and support doctrine requires you to run ships without officers on purpose. If you go into green or blue without planning to do any of those things you will automatically grab BotB, Flux regulation and Electronic warfare.

With how strong afflictors are you could easily grab phase coil tuning and neural link so you can pilot two of them at the same time, and you can easily make up for the lack of flux regulation by your sheer impact on the battlefield.

[Spyro]

You guys don't use BotB because you don't like it.

I don't use it because I'm always out of story points.

We are not the same.

[Vanshilar]

I've mentioned before that I think the 3rd s-mod from Best of the Best should be moved to the Industry tree, and the CR bonus from Hull Restoration should be moved to Best of the Best -- something like, reverting back to the original +5% CR per s-mod. This is more to have them fit thematically than anything else; it makes more sense that something build- or construction-related like a 3rd s-mod would belong in the Industry tree, and something CR-related (which is an abstract measure of crew capability) would be in the Leadership tree. It would also mean that ships would only have 95% CR with BotB unless min-maxers have the ship officers take the CE skill.