As for the All-Beam versus the other builds I have listed, the normal Canon build is supperior in damage by far.
Agreed and then some. I just completed a Cure and it was all but lost from the start because I was the only cannon build in there. Plus the fact that nobody knew what they were doing. Me and another ship hit the first cube. I killed all the dronees and find myself going after the cube and the assemilated ships around that cube on my own.
I killed the first cube and went to help the beam boat at the Kang which was surrounded by 4 assimilated ships. The beam boat was doing no damage and the Kang dropped below 75% before i could get there. I cleared the 4 ships and went after the next set of drones taking out another assemilated ship on the way. The other three ships were all shooting the Cube, not the drones. I cleared the drones and a couple raptors and killed the cube.
The third cube was the same story. It took forever to complete! PLUS two of the fed ships were running multible beam types. It made for an exciting hair raising run. Thats the first optional I've lost in a long time. It might have been better if the other ships had a bit of a clue.
With the escort beam build, and against a single target, when you use your inherent tac skills PLUS Fire at Will 3 and Attack Pattern Beta 3, the DPS is ridiculously high, higher than a canon alpha strike, and higher using Disruptors and hitting for the disruptor breach proc too.
But it doesn't last long and as soon as multiple targets enter the picture, you don't hit the same target as much meaning DPS drops for that target. BUT you can hit everything in 360 degrees with the beam build and Fire at Will, meaning in something like Infected you can hit all 4 of the conduits healing the transformer at once You also take out stray plasma torpedos easier.
PLUS, another benefit of using the beam build is that you can use Target Shield Subsystems or other subsystem targeting skills which does make a difference against targets like the Tac cubes and such. I would honestly love to have a beam build like I was running in my group, as long as they knew what they were doing and had the proper equipment to utilize it.
I just want to get across that it is a good supplementary build, and I did just fine in Elite with using it too, good enough to recommend trying it.
With all the debate about a beam boat I decided to pull out my quantum torpedo launcher and build a cannon boat. I obviously needed to tweak my BOFFs, so I threw in APB- also inspired by this thread.
Defiant R
3 AP Dual Heavy Cannons MkXI
1 AP Dual Heavy Cannon MkXI [Borg]
3 AP Turrets MkXI
Borg Deflector
Borg Engine
MACO Shield
Eng Consoles- Field Generator, Neutronium Alloy, Shield Emmitter
Sci Consoles- Borg, Biofunction Monitor
Tac Consoles- 4 Mag Regulators
I got the MACO Engine Mk XI tonight so I'm planning on having the 2-piece bonus for MACO and Borg until I get the MACO deflector. Would anyone suggest otherwise?
I was using all crafted weapons but I've been slooowly replacing them with the [Borg] weapons from the STF vendors. Is anybody running with a full set of [Borg] weapons now? Are they any better than the crafted purples? I don't have enough of them to tell yet.
I don't have any hard numbers, but I seem to be doing much more damage. My concern is that I'm not using my BOFFs very efficiently. With this setup I am constantly using CSVII w/APB. It seems to work very well, but it means APO is hardly available. I've been using PH2 to get out of dodge when I need to break a tractor beam. My shields seems to stay up fairly well with two TT1 and distribute shield. The MACO shield seems to work way better than the borg shield did.
So with this build I do more damage, stay alive longer and die less. But I'm waisting a Cmdr Tac slot, an Ens Eng slot, and an Ens Sci slot. Any ideas on how I can improve this?
What do guys think? How should I switch around my BOFFs?
So... the best way to build out an escort to defeat the Borg is to equip it with gear that you get by defeating the Borg?
Not neccessarily. I'm using crafted stuff, stuff I purchaced from the exchange and the Maco equipment. Getting better stuff THROUGH STF missions is just a big beniffit you get from doing STF missions. You just have to work harder for the STF equipment.
I got the MACO Engine Mk XI tonight so I'm planning on having the 2-piece bonus for MACO and Borg until I get the MACO deflector. Would anyone suggest otherwise?
I don't have any hard numbers, but I seem to be doing much more damage.
That's what I'm doing, I got the engines in a drop, worked for the shields and I'm 9 away from the deflector. It works fine with just 2.
When you are firing your weapons, hover over the firing weapon in your skills bar if you have them in there. You might be shocked at the DPS. I don't remember what mine was, checked a couple hours ago but the damage was well over 2000.
And in the Cure mission in which we were clobbered so bad, I'm sure the main problem was lack of experiance. I think we would have done better if the pilots were'nt just lost.
I've got the Mk XII Quantums with the [Borg] proc. They are a small but effective improvement over the Mk XI ones I were using previous. I'd say that's the first thing worth swapping, as most escort builds mentioned only have one torpedo launcher.
If you have time to sit out of combat to repair your hull, you can cloak, which directly boosts your dps.
Point Defense is a universal console, as is the cloak, and both > a biofunction monitor.
That's my whole argument, I don't care if your syntax or word choice is poor, my message is pretty clear and concise, and you haven't brought forth any good evidence to the contrary.
I tried using cloak running Elite STF's to get that "15%" bonus but in all honesty it wasn't efficient. Because i had to wait for the Red Alert to go off to use it and then the 15% only lasts 5 seconds, it was taking more time waiting to cloak and decloak and recloak again than what i was getting out of it. This is especially true for running Elite STF's where you're trying to get the Optionals. Time is of the essence and if you, as a main DPS guy is idling waiting for Red Alert to go off it's precious time wasted. Use a weapons battery, or the numerous damage buffs i have and i can be more efficient.
I found that the hull repair rate is actually a big thing. Sometimes after taking on a tac cube or whatever my hull will be pretty low, but with bio-function i found the hull repaired almost to 80% by the time i flew to the next cube saving me from using my hull repair skills which is crucial because i need to jump from target to target and having my skills on cool down is not cool.
I tried using cloak running Elite STF's to get that "15%" bonus but in all honesty it wasn't efficient. Because i had to wait for the Red Alert to go off to use it and then the 15% only lasts 5 seconds, it was taking more time waiting to cloak and decloak and recloak again than what i was getting out of it. This is especially true for running Elite STF's where you're trying to get the Optionals. Time is of the essence and if you, as a main DPS guy is idling waiting for Red Alert to go off it's precious time wasted. Use a weapons battery, or the numerous damage buffs i have and i can be more efficient.
I found that the hull repair rate is actually a big thing. Sometimes after taking on a tac cube or whatever my hull will be pretty low, but with bio-function i found the hull repaired almost to 80% by the time i flew to the next cube saving me from using my hull repair skills which is crucial because i need to jump from target to target and having my skills on cool down is not cool.
I don't run elites yet, but I would agree. I have fun with the cloak in dailies, but they don't seem to work well in STFs.
I tried using cloak running Elite STF's to get that "15%" bonus but in all honesty it wasn't efficient. Because i had to wait for the Red Alert to go off to use it and then the 15% only lasts 5 seconds, it was taking more time waiting to cloak and decloak and recloak again than what i was getting out of it. This is especially true for running Elite STF's where you're trying to get the Optionals. Time is of the essence and if you, as a main DPS guy is idling waiting for Red Alert to go off it's precious time wasted. Use a weapons battery, or the numerous damage buffs i have and i can be more efficient.
I found that the hull repair rate is actually a big thing. Sometimes after taking on a tac cube or whatever my hull will be pretty low, but with bio-function i found the hull repaired almost to 80% by the time i flew to the next cube saving me from using my hull repair skills which is crucial because i need to jump from target to target and having my skills on cool down is not cool.
While I don't have the Defiant Retrofit, I do use Klingon cloak whenever possible. You don't have to constantly use it, but if it's convenient, do so. That 15% is a big deal. Not quite big enough to go out of your way for, but if you can do it without much trouble, do it.
While I don't have the Defiant Retrofit, I do use Klingon cloak whenever possible. You don't have to constantly use it, but if it's convenient, do so. That 15% is a big deal. Not quite big enough to go out of your way for, but if you can do it without much trouble, do it.
the difference between klingons and feds is the klingon ships (most i think anyways) have battle cloaks- feds can only cloak/decloak out of combat.
that said, in PvP, dailies, and other missions using the cloak is fun and worth while. but in STF, for a fed anyways, it just takes too much time away from firing on a target just to get a few seconds worth of extra DPS. im better off using the neutronium armor console (+18% kinetic and energy damage resistance) than a cloak.
as for biofunction monitor, its obvious some people think its awesome while others think its a total waste. no amount of evidence will change the other sides mind. my suggestion? use it if you want, or use something else. either way any science console is pretty much a wash on an escort (unless you run the MVAM with gravity well or use something sensor heavy, then obviously a sensor console would help) so find the one that works best for the build youre using.
on another note, does anyone have/tried a build using polaron beams/cannons along with some power draining abilities? im looking specifically at the mvam and using tykens rift or something along those lines- wanted to know if anyone else has tried something similar.
So... the best way to build out an escort to defeat the Borg is to equip it with gear that you get by defeating the Borg?
Its the less-expensive way. Rare Borg Salvage and Prototype Borg Salvage drop randomly, but they do drop often enough to outfit your ship entirely using them.... Without having to use Dilithium or millions of energy credits to do so.
It works for me, far more damage than I was doing with just cannons, and I can be in the fight, moving around, and shooting my target, no matter which direction I am facing.
For STF's and PvP, it comes down to simple math if debating cannons versus beams.
With cannons, you have to be facing your enemy, thus showing one shield facing to maintain maximum DPS.
With Beams, you can perform broadsides (you have two of those) to maintain maximum DPS. I won't take into account that sweet spot that you can still be hit in the fore or aft shields and still maintain all beams on the target.
Additionally, to maintain facing at somebody, you have to be sitting still, performing attack dive bomb runs on them, or keeping them in your sights staying on their six o'clock. With beams, you can run circles around them showing them one side, when the facing gets to about 20%, you can turn the other way showing them that side to reduce to < 20%. Essentially, (without the few seconds of dps they performed on your fore or aft as you were turning) you have twice the amount of shields for your enemy to wade through than a single facing cannon setup before they get to your hull.
It did take some time for me to admit to agreeing that a ship that is still flying is a ship that is still fighting. A dead ship does 0 DPS (if you're out of range of the warp core breach of course).
I may put a quantum torpedo on my fore section of my Odyssey when I get one. I'll still maintain 7 beams on the enemy with the added benefit of a well placed torpedo spread. However, that's a cruiser and thus subject for another topic. Otherwise, I'm a firm believer that taking the Bug ship, Defiant Refit, or a fleet escort into elite STF's armed with nothing but beams is a very effective method of beating them.
Only the Birds of Prey can cloak in and out of combat. All other KDF ships have to wait, same as the Defiant/Galaxy-X.
ah did not know that- i knew BoP had the battle cloak, i thought there were other ships as well. i knew the cruisers didnt have the battle cloak but wasnt sure about the others.
For STF's and PvP, it comes down to simple math if debating cannons versus beams.
With cannons, you have to be facing your enemy, thus showing one shield facing to maintain maximum DPS.
With Beams, you can perform broadsides (you have two of those) to maintain maximum DPS. I won't take into account that sweet spot that you can still be hit in the fore or aft shields and still maintain all beams on the target.
Additionally, to maintain facing at somebody, you have to be sitting still, performing attack dive bomb runs on them, or keeping them in your sights staying on their six o'clock. With beams, you can run circles around them showing them one side, when the facing gets to about 20%, you can turn the other way showing them that side to reduce to < 20%. Essentially, (without the few seconds of dps they performed on your fore or aft as you were turning) you have twice the amount of shields for your enemy to wade through than a single facing cannon setup before they get to your hull.
It did take some time for me to admit to agreeing that a ship that is still flying is a ship that is still fighting. A dead ship does 0 DPS (if you're out of range of the warp core breach of course).
I may put a quantum torpedo on my fore section of my Odyssey when I get one. I'll still maintain 7 beams on the enemy with the added benefit of a well placed torpedo spread. However, that's a cruiser and thus subject for another topic. Otherwise, I'm a firm believer that taking the Bug ship, Defiant Refit, or a fleet escort into elite STF's armed with nothing but beams is a very effective method of beating them.
If you have the patience....Its very hard for me to wait for the spheres to wear down so i can hit them with a torp spread and hope that does the trick. Once i got back into the escort its hard to go back.
I am playing with a combo of canons, beams and torps at the moment. So far it weak. 3 Canons, 1 torp up front/ 3 turrets rear has been the best overall for me. I am trying to encorporate a beam in order to use BTW3 which does well at nerfing the tactical cubes.
Some techniques for keeping up your front sheild facing must be incorporated if you want to stay alive.
1. Never sit still. Dive in with all guns blasing than turn and burn. The sooner you get out of range the less likely you will get the death ray.
2. Obviously you should be running 2x tac team but dont depend on it exclusively. The manual transfer sheild to x facing keybind works very well. If you must slow down to target sheres effectively, you can spam the transfer sheild strength forward command
3. Tell your friend to spec all into threat control. Than invite him to all of your runs and let him fly into range first! lol
Thanks to everyone for a great thread! Goog Hunting!
Once i got back into the escort its hard to go back.
3 Canons, 1 torp up front/ 3 turrets rear has been the best overall for me.
1. Never sit still. Dive in with all guns blasing than turn and burn. The sooner you get out of range the less likely you will get the death ray.
2. Obviously you should be running 2x tac team but dont depend on it exclusively.
Agree, agree, kinda agree and agree.
I ran an Excelsior for the longest time and had fair luck with it. I tried Escorts every now and then but I always tried to build them like a Cruiser so they were usually DOA. After Season 5 started the Excelsior became a death trap. If it saw a klink 40k out it would just self distruct to save itself the embarasment of being killed with one swipe from a klink Lieutenant hanging his arm out a portal with a machete. It's now in the bone yard being used as parts storage along with a Dreadnaught and a few others.
Mousing over the cannons while firing I'm getting 2900+ damage and 1250+ DPS. 900+ DPS on the turrets. I can deal wiht the firing arc with that kind of firepower.
I was hesitant about switching RSP for TT and now I'm glad I did. If I need all the shields recharged, just do a quick circle or two. Works great.
2 XI Anti-Borg purple phasers
1 XI Anti-Borg purple photon
Positron Deflector Mk XI [ShdS] [SIF]
Mk XI Efficient Impulse
Paratronic Mk XI
2 XI Anti-Borg purple phasers
Weapons Bat, Red Matter Cap
Neutronium Mk X blue
Mk X Biofunction
Mk XI Photon Detonation blue, Mk X Phaser Relay green, XI Yield Chamber blue
Tac Team 1, BO 2, HY3, Torp Spread 1, Eng Team, EPtS II, JTS, TSS
And it works pretty good. I get 25k hull and 7,367 shield arcs out of it, with 25% damage resist all around.
It's a fun little torp cruiser. I'd much prefer a tier 5 Akira, but hey. This is fun.
My Defiant-retrofit Elite STF build. I swapped out the MK X purple for a MK XI blue (they have same stats which is kinda dumb) so i did it for consistency sake. Also recently i've been experimenting swapping out the Borg engine for the MACO engine to get the 2 set bonus...and i'm still not sure yet - it seems like my shields go down a lot quicker but my hull is a lot more robust. I can enormous beating with my shields down and not pop...it's kinda strange so i'm still playing to see what's going on.
Would it be to better to have a set of the [borg] weapons?
Yes and no, well more yes then no. Cannons and Beams with [Borg] only have a 7.5% chance to proc the radiation damage, so it depends on your luck if they are better than normal weapons. With an escort and rapid fire/scatter volley the proc is likely to happen quite often, so if you can get your hand on them, use them.
Kinetics with [Borg] are defnitly better than normal ones. The proc happens always, so you always get the 1000 radiation damage. Means every single torpedo in a high yield/spread salvo and every single mine (that's 5 even without any Dispersal Pattern) gets +1000 damage and a lot more oomph.
Okay, so on a whim, I changed back to my cannon build (All Borg equipment):
Fore:
1 Dual Heavy, 2 Duals, 1 Q Torp.
Aft:
3 Turrets.
Then I went through Khitomer Accord, Space, Normal.
I took the probes on the one side, while the other four concentrated on the other side. In the time it took them to complete their side, including the gate, I took out all probes on my side, plus one full transformer (including the generators) and the spheres on the other side, with the first two generators. One of my teammates called me a Deathstar. lmao
Would it be benificial to replace some of the standard weapons with borg weapons of the same level. The Borg weapons, (Turrets for example), are 129 DPS where the regular weapons are 137. Just wondering.
Thanks
Edit... Intersting, the above figure were while at the MACO equipment vender at DS9. I bought a turret with a DPS of 129. When I get to space and install the turret it jumped to 193 DPS and the standard turrets jumped to 201. Mouse over shows a DPS of 548 for the borg and 565 for the standard.
I've never noticed the change before when installed on the ship.
Would it be benificial to replace some of the standard weapons with borg weapons of the same level. The Borg weapons, (Turrets for example), are 129 DPS where the regular weapons are 137. Just wondering.
Thanks
Edit... Intersting, the above figure were while at the MACO equipment vender at DS9. I bought a turret with a DPS of 129. When I get to space and install the turret it jumped to 193 DPS and the standard turrets jumped to 201. Mouse over shows a DPS of 548 for the borg and 565 for the standard.
I've never noticed the change before when installed on the ship.
The Borg weapons are better hands down because the 7.5% chance is PER TICK, meaning PER bolt of phaser fire that get's sent out. So with a DHC, you're sending out a barrage of phaser "bolts" each one has a 7.5% chance so that's very good actually.
2 AP mags and 2 zero point quantum damage. You'll be doing much torpedo work.
Torpedo spread one and two, cannon scatter volley two and three.
Tactical team one and two, attack pattern omega one.
And then you run into that third useless seeming ensign tactical slot. So i switched out a cannon for a dual beam. Been messing around with fire at will and target subsystem flavors. Generally I prefer anything but the defiant for this very reason but I suppose if you have em may as well fly em. This choice of Tactical abilities gives best aoe damage by far and single target damage comparable to hyt or crf.
Skip the other team abilities as you'll be using tactical team instead. Aux to structural integrity, haz emitters, polarize hull, tractors/repulsors etc. All the fun stuff.
Great thread and very useful tips. There's stuff even I didn't know about until reading this. I have a question though; I thought eps consoles got massively nerfed. How exactly do they help me? I know they help with power transfers when I get outta full impulse.
Another question; I run x4 dhc as I'm not much of a torp fan. Does that hurt my dps too much?
Comments
Agreed and then some. I just completed a Cure and it was all but lost from the start because I was the only cannon build in there. Plus the fact that nobody knew what they were doing. Me and another ship hit the first cube. I killed all the dronees and find myself going after the cube and the assemilated ships around that cube on my own.
I killed the first cube and went to help the beam boat at the Kang which was surrounded by 4 assimilated ships. The beam boat was doing no damage and the Kang dropped below 75% before i could get there. I cleared the 4 ships and went after the next set of drones taking out another assemilated ship on the way. The other three ships were all shooting the Cube, not the drones. I cleared the drones and a couple raptors and killed the cube.
The third cube was the same story. It took forever to complete! PLUS two of the fed ships were running multible beam types. It made for an exciting hair raising run. Thats the first optional I've lost in a long time. It might have been better if the other ships had a bit of a clue.
With the escort beam build, and against a single target, when you use your inherent tac skills PLUS Fire at Will 3 and Attack Pattern Beta 3, the DPS is ridiculously high, higher than a canon alpha strike, and higher using Disruptors and hitting for the disruptor breach proc too.
But it doesn't last long and as soon as multiple targets enter the picture, you don't hit the same target as much meaning DPS drops for that target. BUT you can hit everything in 360 degrees with the beam build and Fire at Will, meaning in something like Infected you can hit all 4 of the conduits healing the transformer at once
PLUS, another benefit of using the beam build is that you can use Target Shield Subsystems or other subsystem targeting skills which does make a difference against targets like the Tac cubes and such. I would honestly love to have a beam build like I was running in my group, as long as they knew what they were doing and had the proper equipment to utilize it.
I just want to get across that it is a good supplementary build, and I did just fine in Elite with using it too, good enough to recommend trying it.
Defiant R
3 AP Dual Heavy Cannons MkXI
1 AP Dual Heavy Cannon MkXI [Borg]
3 AP Turrets MkXI
Borg Deflector
Borg Engine
MACO Shield
Eng Consoles- Field Generator, Neutronium Alloy, Shield Emmitter
Sci Consoles- Borg, Biofunction Monitor
Tac Consoles- 4 Mag Regulators
BOFFs
Cmdr Tac- TT1, APB1, CSVII, APOIII
LCmdr Tac- TT1, APB1, CSVII
Ens Tac- TS1
Lt Eng- EPTS1, EPTS II
Lt Sci- HE1, PH2
I got the MACO Engine Mk XI tonight so I'm planning on having the 2-piece bonus for MACO and Borg until I get the MACO deflector. Would anyone suggest otherwise?
I was using all crafted weapons but I've been slooowly replacing them with the [Borg] weapons from the STF vendors. Is anybody running with a full set of [Borg] weapons now? Are they any better than the crafted purples? I don't have enough of them to tell yet.
I don't have any hard numbers, but I seem to be doing much more damage. My concern is that I'm not using my BOFFs very efficiently. With this setup I am constantly using CSVII w/APB. It seems to work very well, but it means APO is hardly available. I've been using PH2 to get out of dodge when I need to break a tractor beam. My shields seems to stay up fairly well with two TT1 and distribute shield. The MACO shield seems to work way better than the borg shield did.
So with this build I do more damage, stay alive longer and die less. But I'm waisting a Cmdr Tac slot, an Ens Eng slot, and an Ens Sci slot. Any ideas on how I can improve this?
What do guys think? How should I switch around my BOFFs?
Not neccessarily. I'm using crafted stuff, stuff I purchaced from the exchange and the Maco equipment. Getting better stuff THROUGH STF missions is just a big beniffit you get from doing STF missions. You just have to work harder for the STF equipment.
That's what I'm doing, I got the engines in a drop, worked for the shields and I'm 9 away from the deflector. It works fine with just 2.
When you are firing your weapons, hover over the firing weapon in your skills bar if you have them in there. You might be shocked at the DPS. I don't remember what mine was, checked a couple hours ago but the damage was well over 2000.
And in the Cure mission in which we were clobbered so bad, I'm sure the main problem was lack of experiance. I think we would have done better if the pilots were'nt just lost.
I tried using cloak running Elite STF's to get that "15%" bonus but in all honesty it wasn't efficient. Because i had to wait for the Red Alert to go off to use it and then the 15% only lasts 5 seconds, it was taking more time waiting to cloak and decloak and recloak again than what i was getting out of it. This is especially true for running Elite STF's where you're trying to get the Optionals. Time is of the essence and if you, as a main DPS guy is idling waiting for Red Alert to go off it's precious time wasted. Use a weapons battery, or the numerous damage buffs i have and i can be more efficient.
I found that the hull repair rate is actually a big thing. Sometimes after taking on a tac cube or whatever my hull will be pretty low, but with bio-function i found the hull repaired almost to 80% by the time i flew to the next cube saving me from using my hull repair skills which is crucial because i need to jump from target to target and having my skills on cool down is not cool.
I don't run elites yet, but I would agree. I have fun with the cloak in dailies, but they don't seem to work well in STFs.
While I don't have the Defiant Retrofit, I do use Klingon cloak whenever possible. You don't have to constantly use it, but if it's convenient, do so. That 15% is a big deal. Not quite big enough to go out of your way for, but if you can do it without much trouble, do it.
the difference between klingons and feds is the klingon ships (most i think anyways) have battle cloaks- feds can only cloak/decloak out of combat.
that said, in PvP, dailies, and other missions using the cloak is fun and worth while. but in STF, for a fed anyways, it just takes too much time away from firing on a target just to get a few seconds worth of extra DPS. im better off using the neutronium armor console (+18% kinetic and energy damage resistance) than a cloak.
as for biofunction monitor, its obvious some people think its awesome while others think its a total waste. no amount of evidence will change the other sides mind. my suggestion? use it if you want, or use something else. either way any science console is pretty much a wash on an escort (unless you run the MVAM with gravity well or use something sensor heavy, then obviously a sensor console would help) so find the one that works best for the build youre using.
on another note, does anyone have/tried a build using polaron beams/cannons along with some power draining abilities? im looking specifically at the mvam and using tykens rift or something along those lines- wanted to know if anyone else has tried something similar.
Only the Birds of Prey can cloak in and out of combat. All other KDF ships have to wait, same as the Defiant/Galaxy-X.
For STF's and PvP, it comes down to simple math if debating cannons versus beams.
With cannons, you have to be facing your enemy, thus showing one shield facing to maintain maximum DPS.
With Beams, you can perform broadsides (you have two of those) to maintain maximum DPS. I won't take into account that sweet spot that you can still be hit in the fore or aft shields and still maintain all beams on the target.
Additionally, to maintain facing at somebody, you have to be sitting still, performing attack dive bomb runs on them, or keeping them in your sights staying on their six o'clock. With beams, you can run circles around them showing them one side, when the facing gets to about 20%, you can turn the other way showing them that side to reduce to < 20%. Essentially, (without the few seconds of dps they performed on your fore or aft as you were turning) you have twice the amount of shields for your enemy to wade through than a single facing cannon setup before they get to your hull.
It did take some time for me to admit to agreeing that a ship that is still flying is a ship that is still fighting. A dead ship does 0 DPS (if you're out of range of the warp core breach of course).
I may put a quantum torpedo on my fore section of my Odyssey when I get one. I'll still maintain 7 beams on the enemy with the added benefit of a well placed torpedo spread. However, that's a cruiser and thus subject for another topic. Otherwise, I'm a firm believer that taking the Bug ship, Defiant Refit, or a fleet escort into elite STF's armed with nothing but beams is a very effective method of beating them.
But thats a discussion for another thread
ah did not know that- i knew BoP had the battle cloak, i thought there were other ships as well. i knew the cruisers didnt have the battle cloak but wasnt sure about the others.
Except for the obvious fact that it is inate and not a console that takes up extra space.:mad:
If you have the patience....Its very hard for me to wait for the spheres to wear down so i can hit them with a torp spread and hope that does the trick. Once i got back into the escort its hard to go back.
I am playing with a combo of canons, beams and torps at the moment. So far it weak. 3 Canons, 1 torp up front/ 3 turrets rear has been the best overall for me. I am trying to encorporate a beam in order to use BTW3 which does well at nerfing the tactical cubes.
Some techniques for keeping up your front sheild facing must be incorporated if you want to stay alive.
1. Never sit still. Dive in with all guns blasing than turn and burn. The sooner you get out of range the less likely you will get the death ray.
2. Obviously you should be running 2x tac team but dont depend on it exclusively. The manual transfer sheild to x facing keybind works very well. If you must slow down to target sheres effectively, you can spam the transfer sheild strength forward command
3. Tell your friend to spec all into threat control. Than invite him to all of your runs and let him fly into range first! lol
Thanks to everyone for a great thread! Goog Hunting!
Agree, agree, kinda agree and agree.
I ran an Excelsior for the longest time and had fair luck with it. I tried Escorts every now and then but I always tried to build them like a Cruiser so they were usually DOA. After Season 5 started the Excelsior became a death trap. If it saw a klink 40k out it would just self distruct to save itself the embarasment of being killed with one swipe from a klink Lieutenant hanging his arm out a portal with a machete. It's now in the bone yard being used as parts storage along with a Dreadnaught and a few others.
Mousing over the cannons while firing I'm getting 2900+ damage and 1250+ DPS. 900+ DPS on the turrets. I can deal wiht the firing arc with that kind of firepower.
I was hesitant about switching RSP for TT and now I'm glad I did. If I need all the shields recharged, just do a quick circle or two. Works great.
2 XI Anti-Borg purple phasers
1 XI Anti-Borg purple photon
Positron Deflector Mk XI [ShdS] [SIF]
Mk XI Efficient Impulse
Paratronic Mk XI
2 XI Anti-Borg purple phasers
Weapons Bat, Red Matter Cap
Neutronium Mk X blue
Mk X Biofunction
Mk XI Photon Detonation blue, Mk X Phaser Relay green, XI Yield Chamber blue
Tac Team 1, BO 2, HY3, Torp Spread 1, Eng Team, EPtS II, JTS, TSS
And it works pretty good. I get 25k hull and 7,367 shield arcs out of it, with 25% damage resist all around.
It's a fun little torp cruiser. I'd much prefer a tier 5 Akira, but hey. This is fun.
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=3436191
Armed with
3 AP Dual Heavy Cannons MkXI [CrtH] [Dmg]x2
1 Quantum Torpedo MkXI [Acc] [Dmg]x2
3 AP Turret MkXI [Acc] [Dmg]x2
4 AP Mag Regulators
running 2 each Attack Pattern Beta 1 & Cannon Scatter Volley II running constantly.
Any suggestions on how I could boost DPS?
Would it be to better to have a set of the [borg] weapons?
That's kinda what I thought. And I forgot Torpedo Spread 1. Are the [borg] weapons any good?
Yes and no, well more yes then no. Cannons and Beams with [Borg] only have a 7.5% chance to proc the radiation damage, so it depends on your luck if they are better than normal weapons. With an escort and rapid fire/scatter volley the proc is likely to happen quite often, so if you can get your hand on them, use them.
Kinetics with [Borg] are defnitly better than normal ones. The proc happens always, so you always get the 1000 radiation damage. Means every single torpedo in a high yield/spread salvo and every single mine (that's 5 even without any Dispersal Pattern) gets +1000 damage and a lot more oomph.
Fore:
1 Dual Heavy, 2 Duals, 1 Q Torp.
Aft:
3 Turrets.
Then I went through Khitomer Accord, Space, Normal.
I took the probes on the one side, while the other four concentrated on the other side. In the time it took them to complete their side, including the gate, I took out all probes on my side, plus one full transformer (including the generators) and the spheres on the other side, with the first two generators. One of my teammates called me a Deathstar. lmao
Thanks
Edit... Intersting, the above figure were while at the MACO equipment vender at DS9. I bought a turret with a DPS of 129. When I get to space and install the turret it jumped to 193 DPS and the standard turrets jumped to 201. Mouse over shows a DPS of 548 for the borg and 565 for the standard.
I've never noticed the change before when installed on the ship.
The Borg weapons are better hands down because the 7.5% chance is PER TICK, meaning PER bolt of phaser fire that get's sent out. So with a DHC, you're sending out a barrage of phaser "bolts" each one has a 7.5% chance so that's very good actually.
2 AP mags and 2 zero point quantum damage. You'll be doing much torpedo work.
Torpedo spread one and two, cannon scatter volley two and three.
Tactical team one and two, attack pattern omega one.
And then you run into that third useless seeming ensign tactical slot. So i switched out a cannon for a dual beam. Been messing around with fire at will and target subsystem flavors. Generally I prefer anything but the defiant for this very reason but I suppose if you have em may as well fly em. This choice of Tactical abilities gives best aoe damage by far and single target damage comparable to hyt or crf.
Skip the other team abilities as you'll be using tactical team instead. Aux to structural integrity, haz emitters, polarize hull, tractors/repulsors etc. All the fun stuff.
Another question; I run x4 dhc as I'm not much of a torp fan. Does that hurt my dps too much?