1st...the cutting beam is freaking awesome if used correctly with, say, a tetryon shield stripping build/
2nd...it looks freaking awesome, i love the constant red beam effect...if only we could have more of those (the beam fx effect) lol....yes it would be cool to have more KCBs...but then it would be OPed the moment shields are down, not to mention anyone who will run the t4 kinectic borg passive will be that much more hull battering.
3rd. the 2 pc proc isnt limited to JUST the cutting beam, its applied to ALL the weapons on a ship.
4th. combine the borg 3-pc equipment space set and its that much more deadly when used with the borg tractor beam (after firing the KCB ofc) *see flur1n's combat logs where it says explosive decompression*
I'm definitely liking the Kinetic Cutting Beam. But Cryptic/PWE, please change it so that we can equip more than one per ship. I'm not interested in adding a torpedo to my build, and i'd like to be able to run this set with all beams. With that said, i'd be happy to just be able to equip more of these for the fun factor, even if you couldn't get the 3 piece set bonus without the torpedo. The KCB is the perfect way to completely replace torpedos in a beam-only build. I've actually been wanting this exact kind of ship weapon since the game came out back in 2010, and now that it's finally here, it's frustrating that only one can be equipped. If nothing else, give us a completely separate one that can just be purchased from the shipyard and isn't part of a set at all just like any other weapon.
Make it an exact duplicate of the Omega KCB, but just remove the set bonuses, if you must.
First problem i see here, beam bank with rest cannons and turrets..do yourself a flavor, drop the beam bank and get another cannon, quit gimpin yourself and get the most out of your rapid fire and scatter volley
Meh. It is a sorta common build. And he may have 3 ensign tac ship. If you don't use a beam or a torp you leave one of those slots blank.
Giving up one turret is inconsequential. Even if any of the values given in this thread were in any way representitive of actual damage dealt, it would still be inconsequential.
Not everyone that uses turrets uses CRF or CSV. Many people in that group use DEM. It works with DEM.
The damage is very good on unshielded targets.
You are under NO obligation to keep the same weapons, boffs, or other ship gear equipped for an ENTIRE stf. If you want to run a heavy kinetic aoe build to take down the static npcs and then switch to single target energy for the boss....
YOU GO RIGHT AHEAD AND DO THAT MR 'OUTSIDE THE BOX AINT GONNA HOLD ME DOWN' guy.
So really. Stop complaining that something isn't good for what it wasn't intended for.
i added this to my fleet Saber replacing one of my rear turrets. I'm still tweaking the build a little bit, but I have it mostly where it's doing some ok work. though there are times when it looks like i keep hammering on ships and nothing is happening. that's aggravating. Anyhoo:
2 mk12 purple Borg Dual Heavy Polaron Cannons
2 mk11 blue Phased Polaron Cannons (from the 2800 story arc)
3 piece Jem Hadar set
2 mk12 purple Borg Polalon Turrets
Cutting beam
I also had a quantum upfront at one point, but I got rid of it. the dual cannons have that shield stripping ability that works pretty ok. I also switched out my one of my BOff's to one that has tac team1, rapid fire and scatter volley two. the other tac BOff is the Jem Hardar one and he has tac team 1 and scatter volley one. thus far it's not a -bad- build, but i'm sure it could be tweaked. i run the assimilated console as well as that other console from the Romulan rep system.
Combine it with the 3 part borg set tractor beam and hit a unshielded target then you can complain.
I heard that the cutting beam is a monster when it is combined with the borg tractor beam.
It is, it melts NPC hulls like butter. I pulled this move on a baby V'Ger in a sector block red alert, and even though it was only for a couple seconds, for those few seconds, that thing was ticking down hull strength at a percent per tick with the Assimilated Tractor Beam on it. Had the same impact on the Tactical Cube in Infected Elite. Beat down the shields, find bare hull, hit the green t-beam, and laugh while it screams.
I run my Ody with a Ferengi missile launcher fore, a wide angle quantum launcher after, and the cutting beam mounted aft. The rest are ultra-rare MK XII Antiproton arrays from the starbase vendor. I have absolutely no problem quickly melting shields down with EPtW and BO, even on some of the nastier stuff in elite STFs. Follow up with a t-beam special, and the only issue I have is dodging one shot torpedoes.
It would have been helpful if you provided measurements and data to support your arguments, rather than just theorycrafting.
My testing with the ACT DPS meter shows that the Kinetic Cutting Beam outguns Mk XII advanced fleet turrets in STFs on an escort-type ship equipped with 2 Cannon Scatter Volleys, by approximately 10%. In fleet alert, the cutting beam does roughly equal damage as the turrets, since the escort has enough forward firepower to strip typical ship shields within one pass.
I'd be curious to know if this holds up in general, or just with escorts in STFs and particular shield-stripping builds.
It would have been helpful if you provided measurements and data to support your arguments, rather than just theorycrafting.
My testing with the ACT DPS meter shows that the Kinetic Cutting Beam outguns Mk XII advanced fleet turrets in STFs on an escort-type ship equipped with 2 Cannon Scatter Volleys, by approximately 10%. In fleet alert, the cutting beam does roughly equal damage as the turrets, since the escort has enough forward firepower to strip typical ship shields within one pass.
I'd be curious to know if this holds up in general, or just with escorts in STFs and particular shield-stripping builds.
I completely re-worked my Intrepid retrofit build to take advantage of the cutting beam. I use Tachyon Beam III, Energy Siphon II, Tyken's Rift III, and Target Shield Subsystems I with the Assimilated Tractor Beam. I also have a purple Tractor Beam Officer. The build drops enemy shields very quickly in PvE. For PvP, I replace Tachyon Beam III with Feedback Pulse II. Works even better against Escort players.
Yeah, I thought 'COOL!' too, and spent 500 Marks.
Got it and now 'meh'.
It's now mounted on my shuttle in combo w/ a beam array-S . Works decent in Vault where alot of things don't have shields. So...eh. I'd rather have my 500 Omega Marks back.
Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.
For the explosive decompression effect does it have to be the assimilated tractor beam, or will any tractor beam do the job?
Has to be assimilated tractor beam. It actually says under the info on assimilated tractor beam that it causes 2,000 kinetic damage if used after cutting beam.
Yeah, I thought 'COOL!' too, and spent 500 Marks.
Got it and now 'meh'.
It's now mounted on my shuttle in combo w/ a beam array-S . Works decent in Vault where alot of things don't have shields. So...eh. I'd rather have my 500 Omega Marks back.
Threw my cutting beam in the back and replaced a turret with it. Not going to be doing as much damage to shields, but more effective on hulls. Besides it replaced a turret so its not like I am losing much DPS because I am using it. If I used a broadsider, then that might be a different story.
Has to be assimilated tractor beam. It actually says under the info on assimilated tractor beam that it causes 2,000 kinetic damage if used after cutting beam.
Much appreciated. Never even considered that they updated the information on the set (doh!).
The Omega proc does show up on other energy weapons, not sure exactly of the affect when it does trigger.... does it mean your weapon power jumps up when it triggers?
Thx
Applies to all weapons, increases your weapons power AND resistance to procs that drop weapons power, AND it stacks. I've seen as many as six stacked. Since I Started using cutting beam I almost never have to worry about wepons power even when firing all seven weapons at the same time on autofire.
Also, looking at my overall DPS, replacing one fleet utrret with cutting beam my overall DPS went up by a bit.
Applies to all weapons, increases your weapons power AND resistance to procs that drop weapons power, AND it stacks. I've seen as many as six stacked. Since I Started using cutting beam I almost never have to worry about wepons power even when firing all seven weapons at the same time on autofire.
Also, looking at my overall DPS, replacing one fleet utrret with cutting beam my overall DPS went up by a bit.
I am also noticing similar DPS gains with the borg assimilated module and cutting beam, routinely placing 1st or 2nd in all of the PVE fleet action maps. The resulting purple prizes have made me several million EC easy.
EDIT: Doh, I said too much! CB-haters, please feel free to keep using your standard or fleet turrets -- nothing to see here!
I have a question about the Omega Weapons Amplifier proc. Does it affect the proc rates of your other weapons, as in potentially overriding them or is it just another "roll"?
I'm running an Atrox with 5 Spiral Wave Disruptors and the Cutting Beam w/Assimilated Module.
I have a question about the Omega Weapons Amplifier proc. Does it affect the proc rates of your other weapons, as in potentially overriding them or is it just another "roll"?
I'm running an Atrox with 5 Spiral Wave Disruptors and the Cutting Beam w/Assimilated Module.
No - it's got its own chance to proc. With the weapons amplifier only lasting for 3 seconds though, it's only going to apply to a single volley on a beam boat and even then, all it's really doing is boosting your last 2-3 shots - fun, but honestly a weapons battery is better.
So its just another roll of the dice. I'm not relying on the proc, never do, but its a nice perk still.
The cutting beam just serves to make the spiral waves better in my case, even more so since it gives me a kinetic weapon that can fire from all directions. Straight upgrade from what i was using before which was the Ferengi Missile Launcher
Just a quick observation: I started using the Cutting Beam with the Borg Assimilated Set tractor beam. Although the tractor beam has a ridiculous 5 minute cooldown, I found it quite devastating when used in conjunction with the Cutting Beam for 2000 kinetic damage. I could not tell if the tractor beam generated 2k kinetic damage per second, or if it was a 1-time hit (more testing needed).
The assimilated tractor beam should have the same cooldown as a normal tractor beam with no skill ranks. I think its 1 minute, 25 seconds or something like that?
I just got the Kinetic Cutting Beam and personally I find it very useful; my load out is a pair of dual heavy tetryon cannons, dual tetryon beam bank, tetryon array (rear) and the cutting beam (rear), along with a load of transphasic torpedos (rapid reload to the front and breen cluster to the back). I'll likely shift once I get the omega torpedo launcher, so I can get the full set bonus, but I've got the rest of the assimilated stuff and I have to say the cutting beam stacks very well with the tractor beam ability, to the point that I will probably replace my rear facing torpedo launcher, as the beam starts doing damage the moment an enemy's shields are down, so if you can't get a torpedo salvo off in time it's no big deal, and if you can fire them then that's just a bonus!
My only problem with the beam is that it seems to have no visual effect? At least none that I can see; does anyone else suffer this issue? I have no problems with other weapons, except when there is a ton of firing at once and some things aren't visible, but even in the quieter solo missions I can't see any visible effect for the beam. It definitely does the damage, but I like being able to see it firing
Otherwise, I was a bit disappointed to see that the cutting beam is unaffected by fire at will; I can understand why it doesn't get damage bonuses from abilities but I would have liked to be able to use it with fire at will for shooting down enemy projectiles, as unshielded projectiles are easily taken out with it, but aiming it manually is very inconvenient.
So to recap; just having a 360? beam weapon is a bonus for me, but since my load out makes short work of shields anyway I find it a hugely useful weapon that really hurts a target when used with the tractor beam. I just wish I could see the damn thing, and that it was easier to use for point defence.
I put one on my Vo'quv. I'm draining power like crazy from targets, so generally their shields go down anyway. For me, kinetic cutting beam is a great addition since it puts out a lot more damage than a turret on my usually-unshielded targets, plus I'm not using tactical abilities to boost specific weapons so I don't care so much about homogeny.
So. Specialized maybe, in that it's not a magic bullet for every ship and build, but hardly useless.
My only problem with the beam is that it seems to have no visual effect? At least none that I can see; does anyone else suffer this issue? I have no problems with other weapons, except when there is a ton of firing at once and some things aren't visible, but even in the quieter solo missions I can't see any visible effect for the beam. It definitely does the damage, but I like being able to see it firing
It definitely has a visual effect. I had a fleet mate who said they couldn't see the beam when it fired, and it turned out he was running the game at very low detail levels because his computer was pretty old.
It definitely has a visual effect. I had a fleet mate who said they couldn't see the beam when it fired, and it turned out he was running the game at very low detail levels because his computer was pretty old.
Ah perhaps that's my problem; I'm playing on a Mac so I mostly run the game under WINE, sometimes I can get away with higher settings but usually not for long, and I hate rebooting to play under Windows, ah well.
I don't suppose you have any idea what setting could be affecting it specifically? I'll try turning stuff on and off and up and down, but I would have thought it was just a regular beam effect?
Oh, one other thing with the beam but is it now affected by any abilities or is it purely weapon power that benefits it? I ask because my weapon power is at 89 at the moment, and the cutting beam reads at 509.4 dps.
I compared this to a tetryon turret mk x as something cheap to compare to and the dps for that is only 368.7, and that's with two tetryon pulse generators!
So while the lack of fire at will is still a bummer, the dps on the cutting beam is definitely well above any other turret regardless, and if the enemy shields don't regenerate too quickly then you can get more kinetic damage from the beam than you can from a lot of torpedoes! It's still a bit situational as a well timed torpedo salvo will do more damage in the short term, but if you can keep the enemy shields down the cutting beam really does hurt them even without the tractor beam bonus which I think makes up for the lack of abilities since it makes the beam more comparable to torpedoes than a lot of people seem to think, unless I'm missing something huge?
So while it won't hurt shields as much as other turrets, it really does need to be thought more of as a 360 degree torpedo alternative; no need to bring front arc to bear means you can be doing the damage the moment enemy shields are down while you bring other weapons round (such as cannons and/or a proper torpedo launcher). Even when the enemy shields are up it's still extra damage to the enemy in any direction, unlike torpedoes again which can waste time being brought to bear first. Personally the only issue I really see with it is that without the tractor beam it's not quite as good as torpedoes, and unless you only fire it once the enemy shields are down you have to put up with that extra -8 power.
Anyway, I've been trying to figure out which video setting determines whether the beam shows or not and so far I've had no luck; I think I've tried everything. I'll probably post in one of the support forums though as it's not really relevant here.
I found out you can't buff it with either Warhead Yield Chambers or Directed Energy Distribution Manifolds.
It's a beam weapon that does kinetic damage! One of them should work! I can't believe you can't buff this weapons damage at all, using ANY console!
Really how did this get past testing? At least one generic damage console should work on it!
I want a refund! This TRIBBLE Borg technology is NOT worth 500 Omega Marks and 15,000 dilithium! Seriously!
Bort specifically stated that this is the way it's supposed to work.... And really? If that's your only reason for disliking it then you need to try using it more.
Comments
2nd...it looks freaking awesome, i love the constant red beam effect...if only we could have more of those (the beam fx effect) lol....yes it would be cool to have more KCBs...but then it would be OPed the moment shields are down, not to mention anyone who will run the t4 kinectic borg passive will be that much more hull battering.
3rd. the 2 pc proc isnt limited to JUST the cutting beam, its applied to ALL the weapons on a ship.
4th. combine the borg 3-pc equipment space set and its that much more deadly when used with the borg tractor beam (after firing the KCB ofc) *see flur1n's combat logs where it says explosive decompression*
Make it an exact duplicate of the Omega KCB, but just remove the set bonuses, if you must.
[Combat (Self)] Your Cutting Beam deals 58 (580) Kinetic Damage to Tholian Recluse.
(38280) dpm (damage per minute)
Commander of the I.K.S. Reman Snuff Film <-- this
the beam needs work like seriously :S
Edit: but it is a great beam, i like it though, but still
Meh. It is a sorta common build. And he may have 3 ensign tac ship. If you don't use a beam or a torp you leave one of those slots blank.
Giving up one turret is inconsequential. Even if any of the values given in this thread were in any way representitive of actual damage dealt, it would still be inconsequential.
Not everyone that uses turrets uses CRF or CSV. Many people in that group use DEM. It works with DEM.
The damage is very good on unshielded targets.
You are under NO obligation to keep the same weapons, boffs, or other ship gear equipped for an ENTIRE stf. If you want to run a heavy kinetic aoe build to take down the static npcs and then switch to single target energy for the boss....
YOU GO RIGHT AHEAD AND DO THAT MR 'OUTSIDE THE BOX AINT GONNA HOLD ME DOWN' guy.
So really. Stop complaining that something isn't good for what it wasn't intended for.
But gawd that sound effect is awful. They need a better sound effect.
And being it's a cutting beam, I want some souvenirs from my targets. It's a cutting beam! I want the pieces I'm cutting off!
2 mk12 purple Borg Dual Heavy Polaron Cannons
2 mk11 blue Phased Polaron Cannons (from the 2800 story arc)
3 piece Jem Hadar set
2 mk12 purple Borg Polalon Turrets
Cutting beam
I also had a quantum upfront at one point, but I got rid of it. the dual cannons have that shield stripping ability that works pretty ok. I also switched out my one of my BOff's to one that has tac team1, rapid fire and scatter volley two. the other tac BOff is the Jem Hardar one and he has tac team 1 and scatter volley one. thus far it's not a -bad- build, but i'm sure it could be tweaked. i run the assimilated console as well as that other console from the Romulan rep system.
It is, it melts NPC hulls like butter. I pulled this move on a baby V'Ger in a sector block red alert, and even though it was only for a couple seconds, for those few seconds, that thing was ticking down hull strength at a percent per tick with the Assimilated Tractor Beam on it. Had the same impact on the Tactical Cube in Infected Elite. Beat down the shields, find bare hull, hit the green t-beam, and laugh while it screams.
I run my Ody with a Ferengi missile launcher fore, a wide angle quantum launcher after, and the cutting beam mounted aft. The rest are ultra-rare MK XII Antiproton arrays from the starbase vendor. I have absolutely no problem quickly melting shields down with EPtW and BO, even on some of the nastier stuff in elite STFs. Follow up with a t-beam special, and the only issue I have is dodging one shot torpedoes.
My testing with the ACT DPS meter shows that the Kinetic Cutting Beam outguns Mk XII advanced fleet turrets in STFs on an escort-type ship equipped with 2 Cannon Scatter Volleys, by approximately 10%. In fleet alert, the cutting beam does roughly equal damage as the turrets, since the escort has enough forward firepower to strip typical ship shields within one pass.
I'd be curious to know if this holds up in general, or just with escorts in STFs and particular shield-stripping builds.
I completely re-worked my Intrepid retrofit build to take advantage of the cutting beam. I use Tachyon Beam III, Energy Siphon II, Tyken's Rift III, and Target Shield Subsystems I with the Assimilated Tractor Beam. I also have a purple Tractor Beam Officer. The build drops enemy shields very quickly in PvE. For PvP, I replace Tachyon Beam III with Feedback Pulse II. Works even better against Escort players.
Got it and now 'meh'.
It's now mounted on my shuttle in combo w/ a beam array-S . Works decent in Vault where alot of things don't have shields. So...eh. I'd rather have my 500 Omega Marks back.
Has to be assimilated tractor beam. It actually says under the info on assimilated tractor beam that it causes 2,000 kinetic damage if used after cutting beam.
Threw my cutting beam in the back and replaced a turret with it. Not going to be doing as much damage to shields, but more effective on hulls. Besides it replaced a turret so its not like I am losing much DPS because I am using it. If I used a broadsider, then that might be a different story.
Much appreciated. Never even considered that they updated the information on the set (doh!).
Applies to all weapons, increases your weapons power AND resistance to procs that drop weapons power, AND it stacks. I've seen as many as six stacked. Since I Started using cutting beam I almost never have to worry about wepons power even when firing all seven weapons at the same time on autofire.
Also, looking at my overall DPS, replacing one fleet utrret with cutting beam my overall DPS went up by a bit.
I am also noticing similar DPS gains with the borg assimilated module and cutting beam, routinely placing 1st or 2nd in all of the PVE fleet action maps. The resulting purple prizes have made me several million EC easy.
EDIT: Doh, I said too much!
I'm running an Atrox with 5 Spiral Wave Disruptors and the Cutting Beam w/Assimilated Module.
No - it's got its own chance to proc. With the weapons amplifier only lasting for 3 seconds though, it's only going to apply to a single volley on a beam boat and even then, all it's really doing is boosting your last 2-3 shots - fun, but honestly a weapons battery is better.
The cutting beam just serves to make the spiral waves better in my case, even more so since it gives me a kinetic weapon that can fire from all directions. Straight upgrade from what i was using before which was the Ferengi Missile Launcher
My only problem with the beam is that it seems to have no visual effect? At least none that I can see; does anyone else suffer this issue? I have no problems with other weapons, except when there is a ton of firing at once and some things aren't visible, but even in the quieter solo missions I can't see any visible effect for the beam. It definitely does the damage, but I like being able to see it firing
Otherwise, I was a bit disappointed to see that the cutting beam is unaffected by fire at will; I can understand why it doesn't get damage bonuses from abilities but I would have liked to be able to use it with fire at will for shooting down enemy projectiles, as unshielded projectiles are easily taken out with it, but aiming it manually is very inconvenient.
So to recap; just having a 360? beam weapon is a bonus for me, but since my load out makes short work of shields anyway I find it a hugely useful weapon that really hurts a target when used with the tractor beam. I just wish I could see the damn thing, and that it was easier to use for point defence.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
So. Specialized maybe, in that it's not a magic bullet for every ship and build, but hardly useless.
It definitely has a visual effect. I had a fleet mate who said they couldn't see the beam when it fired, and it turned out he was running the game at very low detail levels because his computer was pretty old.
I don't suppose you have any idea what setting could be affecting it specifically? I'll try turning stuff on and off and up and down, but I would have thought it was just a regular beam effect?
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
When Firing a Cutting Beam the Omega Torpedo won't fire until the Cutting Beam's firing cycle has ended...
Is this normal and as intended? Would it have anything to do with me placing the torpedo on auto fire?
I took auto fire off but still couldn't manually fire it until the cutting beam cycle completed.
I compared this to a tetryon turret mk x as something cheap to compare to and the dps for that is only 368.7, and that's with two tetryon pulse generators!
So while the lack of fire at will is still a bummer, the dps on the cutting beam is definitely well above any other turret regardless, and if the enemy shields don't regenerate too quickly then you can get more kinetic damage from the beam than you can from a lot of torpedoes! It's still a bit situational as a well timed torpedo salvo will do more damage in the short term, but if you can keep the enemy shields down the cutting beam really does hurt them even without the tractor beam bonus which I think makes up for the lack of abilities since it makes the beam more comparable to torpedoes than a lot of people seem to think, unless I'm missing something huge?
So while it won't hurt shields as much as other turrets, it really does need to be thought more of as a 360 degree torpedo alternative; no need to bring front arc to bear means you can be doing the damage the moment enemy shields are down while you bring other weapons round (such as cannons and/or a proper torpedo launcher). Even when the enemy shields are up it's still extra damage to the enemy in any direction, unlike torpedoes again which can waste time being brought to bear first. Personally the only issue I really see with it is that without the tractor beam it's not quite as good as torpedoes, and unless you only fire it once the enemy shields are down you have to put up with that extra -8 power.
Anyway, I've been trying to figure out which video setting determines whether the beam shows or not and so far I've had no luck; I think I've tried everything. I'll probably post in one of the support forums though as it's not really relevant here.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
It's a beam weapon that does kinetic damage! One of them should work! I can't believe you can't buff this weapons damage at all, using ANY console!
Really how did this get past testing? At least one generic damage console should work on it!
I want a refund! This TRIBBLE Borg technology is NOT worth 500 Omega Marks and 15,000 dilithium! Seriously!
My character Tsin'xing
I bought 4 of these consoles and the KCB so I could fit them to my shield stripping boat. If they can't make it work, I would like a refund.
Also how can a dev logically say it should be working like this? its a BEAM weapon! Seriously they are just being lazy!