Chris, first of all don't try to do more damage than an escort. They are designed for DPS while Cruisers are designed as a distraction basically. The job of a cruiser is to support the escorts and rest of the fleet. If you want to do more damage, put more skills points into abilities that boost weapon power. If you are going to call this a beam boat, then get rid of the torps. Make sure your weapon power is at max and I suggest getting a Saurian BOff with the Efficient trait so it can give you a boost to your ship's power.
Well: for starters I'd pick one damage type and stick to it, getting two appropriate tactical consoles for maximum benefit. A traditional and fairly straightforward build is to focus on beam arrays, taking 6 or so, and then focus on keeping your weapons+shield power as high as possible. It'll give you sound dps whilst being pretty tough as well.
As for items, focus on getting the Retro Borg set - you can buy the first 3 pieces for 5 Encrypted Data Chips (you get these from completing STFs) each from the vendor behind the desk on DS9 (the assimilated borg shield/deflector/engine), and there is a console you receive from one of the Borg missions in the story to complete the 4-piece set. It's a solid set, pretty quick to acquire, and can be combined nicely with other sets, such as the Maco.
The best setup IMHO is Borg set with Maco shield. The borg tractor beam you get from having all four items is not really worth how much weaker the borg shield is then the Maco shield.
Get a friend to do it for you - other players can train Boffs up for you, and I'm sure there are some friendly engineers around the place! That's how I got two copes of Ept3 on my KDF.
