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Proper weapons for battle cruisers?
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Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
So, I've decided my Gorn shall follow the path of the battle cruisers... but what kind of weapons should I be looking to put on this bad boy? I know it's all about cannons with BoPs with their manueverability, and I"ve tried to turn my first cruiser in basically a floating gunship with mainly cannons and turrets... but that hasn't turned out quite like I'd hope. The "handles like a bathtub on wheels" handling seems to result in me having some difficulty keeping my cannons lined up, and while the turrets can always fire they aren't all that impressive in terms of damage.
So what should I be looking for? What have other folks had success with?
So what should I be looking for? What have other folks had success with?
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Additionally, cannon builds on cruisers work best in the hands of Tac officers, but run into issues with the other professions. The typical dps cruiser layout is an array heavy set that keeps ships in the broadsides (hitting with 6-8 beams) and utilizing the offensive engineering powers like DEM or EPtW, again though, the overall style that you should be concerned about it centered around the profession of your officer.
On the stern was another Beam array and the good old Transphasic mine launcher or another beam if sustained firepower was needed.
I found using this layout I could keep a fairly good sustained rate of fire against pretty much all npc targets although doubt this would work in PvP since I dont do it.
Well... I'm a Science officer.
Having said that it is remotely possible to turn the things into 'big ole Raptors' by adding RCS consoles and an Aux2ID power. But even then it's going to be cumbersome. But maybe you will like it.
It's much more typical and easy I think to put arrays on it. Maybe 3 front, 3 back with quants or other torps in the other spots. One thing you also might try is dual beams on front and arrays in the rear. This might allow better shot lineup in front, and the 4 in back will still give a nice broadside. And 4 beams firing at any one time should not strain the energy recovery of a Sci toon...
Good luck
Then like I said, cannons are not the best way to go, you'd be better off using beams. I know it's more boring but you're better served by them since you don't have the needed damage boosters that a Tac officer has (which is why they can be very dangerous in a cannon cruiser).
Depending which cruiser you go with, I would suggest something on the order of 6 beam arrays (3 fore, 3 aft), a chroniton mine launcher, and up front either a dual beam bank or a torpedo. A very basic setup and you can alter it from there as it suits your playstyle.
That, and it's advice I can still implement at the lower levels. My little K'Tanco now has a pair of disruptor arrays in the after, along with another in the front with a quantum torpedo launcher. So far it's worked incredibly well both in PvE and PvP (so far). I can just strafe along side spamming beams and obliterating their shields, and if they manage to get infront of me I can lay on a tachyon beam to keep draining their shields (still wanna try switching that slot to Sci team or tractor beam and see how it works). Honestly feel the switch has increased both my damage output and survivability tremendously.
Epicly, I took out one fed Cruiser one on one, and with my shields virtually gone from the prolonged battle a second feddie decided to pounce on me... and he was a couple seconds from destruction while my shields were just about to finally go down on me when, sadly, some other Klingon got the last kill elsewhere. Still, I think this "mass beam ship o' doom" strategy is a winner. Can't wait to see how it handles at the higher levels.
The problem comes later on, I found to make my cruiser (when I flew one) do what I needed it to, I was running Aux2ID 2 nearly back to back, but doing this took up two potential heals although it did work quite well. The other problem I had is that you'll still get outmanovuered by escorts, and you've sacrificed some of your resilience to out manouver other cruisers more easily. This leaves you in the position of being outgunned and outmanouvered.
Edit: So with K'tinga I'd go DHCx3 and a torp up front with turrets out back, or turret and an aft torpedo. Later on, I used the same, but if you're willing to trade DPS, DBBs and Arrays will be easier to keep on target.
Not true at all. Its all about playstyle, not class.
If you want to do sustained DPS, hitting multiple targets over a longer period of time, then use beams.
If you want to do burst DPS on a single target and kill it as quickly as possible, then use cannons.
I am an engineer flying a battle cruiser with cannons and I can garuntee you that I will always out-DPS a battle cruiser using beams.
Player Class is completely irrelevant. A science officer can just be as effective at doing burst damage in a cruiser as a tactical officer. Yes, the tactical officer can do greater damage, but not as much as you think.
With my focus on cannons I almost always out-DPS BoPs and Raptors in PVP, and am almost always within the top 3-5 for damage dealt.
I use the following setup:
Fore;
2x Dual Disruptor Cannons
1x Dual Disruptor Beam Bank
1x Torpedo Launcher
Rear;
2x Disruptor Beam Banks
1x Disruptor Turret
1x Torpedo Launcher
The combination of the 2 cannons, turret, dual beam bank, and beam overload+cannon rapid fire boff abilities, give me massive burst DPS, while the two rear beams means that I am not entirely defenceless from behind and maintain a moderate level of sustained DPS while turning.
I use Tricobolt torpedoes in both front and rear, allowing me to fire a trico every 30 seconds. To be effective with a trico you really have to learn how to use it, and its all about sticking within 1km of your target, but once you learn how to use it effectively you can be very deadly with it - which is useful in a cruiser since you aren't able to use the high-grade torpedo tactical abilities.
As I said above, all three classes are just as capable with cannons, due largely to the limited tactical boff abilities. And as it stands, because an Engineer can maintain a higher weapons power setting due to EPS transfer, I would actually argue that an Engineer can out-DPS a tactical player using a battle cruiser with cannons over a period of time. The tactical officer will do greater burst damage, but the Engineer will do greater damage overall, more or less evening the two out.
K'tanco;
Forward; Heavy Dual Cannons, Torpedo
Aft; Beam Bank, Turret
K'tinga
Forward; Dual Cannons, Dual Beam Bank, Beam Bank, Torpedo
Aft; Beam Bank, Torpedo
Vor'cha
Forward; Dual Cannons, Dual Beam Bank, Single Cannon, Torpedo
Aft; Beam Bank, Turret, Torpedo
Negh'Var
Forward; Dual Cannons, Dual Beam Bank, Beam Bank, Torpedo
Aft; Beam Bank, Beam Bank, Turret , Torpedo
Refit Vorcha
Forward; Dual Cannons, Dual Beam Bank, Single Cannon, Torpedo
Aft; Beam Bank, Beam Bank, Turret , Torpedo
Now, I know these builds aren't optimized for pvp, but they did work there as well. Overall though, this was just me arming the ships with what I felt was a "realistic" armament. It should be noted I also mostly used Disruptors and Photon Torpedoes. The Blue phaser from the Devidian series snuck in on a couple of times, but not often.
It should be said that almost any armament does ok for your average pve. Pvp and stf demands more planned out armaments.
I thought they changed it a while back that high engine power now affects turn rate, and not high aux?
They did, although you'll still occasionally see people who use no science powers rolling emergency to aux back to back, so not everyone got the message.
Maybe they had heals that rely on aux....just a thought