test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
torpedo boats
partsource
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
tly experimenting with a torpedo boat on STF's. Have my fleet (thank you!) Defiant with 4 fore and 3 aft quantums and 1 aft turret. Supported by 4x damage consoles and a borg universal. They seem to have a SLIGHTLY slower rate than the photons, but they do work. Even though it seems they only fire one per second, maybe faster, the criticals do magic on borg equipment.
Why do this? To help clean up the objectives a little faster. Borg cubes usually get their shields ripped down quick anyway, so only real loss might be the spheres. In the one with the gateways, even if I am going against the probes, they are so weak it works well on them too.
Any opinion on this from anyone? Do you think this is an ok STF tactic? I have yet to see anyone use it.
Sacha
Why do this? To help clean up the objectives a little faster. Borg cubes usually get their shields ripped down quick anyway, so only real loss might be the spheres. In the one with the gateways, even if I am going against the probes, they are so weak it works well on them too.
Any opinion on this from anyone? Do you think this is an ok STF tactic? I have yet to see anyone use it.
Sacha
Post edited by partsource on
0
Comments
Torpedoes are also not as effective against shields as they are hull. So you are sacrificing DPS if the target's shields are still up.
As long as your team understands what you are doing, it shouldn't be a problem though. A good team will support you and strip shields.
You might also try a Turret Boat... those are really fun. Just equip all turrets and one torpedo launcher fore and aft. Make sure you have CRF I and II, or I and III.
Legendary Starfleet Captain
STO Forum Member since December 2010
Alternately you could use plasma torps, as a good amount of their damage comes from the DoT plasma fires so you wouldn't have to worry so much about shields.
To maximize torps, you need to get creative in what you load up. Just take a look at the thread for ideas. We've gone back and forth heaviliy on this. I know Torpedo Boat threads have appeared in other forums, but the thread I linked is the oldest, continuously updated one on the subject. Hell, I had a Vo'Quv with Chroniton Torps + Torp Spread 3 just to land a snare on anything forward & aft of the ship
I've long had a B'Rel Torp Boat. I changed its loadout continuously, experimenting in PVE and in PVP.
Right now, one of my toons is on a KDF Fleet Veranus. With KHG 2 piece torpedo bonus and a few generic torpedo damage consoles. Aceton Assimilators, Isometric Charge, Assimilated Module (for crit and Graviton Part. bonus) to supplement the following torps:
Hargh'peng Torp fwd & aft
Breen Cluster fwd & aft
Bio-Neural Warhead fwd
Rapid Reload Transphasic aft (temporary)
It works out well for me in PVE, to include Elite STFs, especially in conjunction with science abilities. It works out even better in the team oriented environments of PVP. What I have isn't going to replace a decently used Escort. I see it as a means to supplement my team's firepower with torpedo and science abilities. It's not my ideal "1 on 1" PVP kind of ship, though I've ran into those fights a few times in PVP.
Photons and Quantums will be fast and devastating to exposed hulls, but up shield facings will lower that incoming damage extensively. If you're going to solo PVE alot, you need to look at other means like Transphasic weaponry, because alone, Photons and Quantums outside of non-shield Borg craft will be more problematic.
Setup below:
Breen Absolute Zero space set
Fore:
x3 rapid reload transphasic torps
x1 Breen cluster torp
Aft:
x1 rapid reload transphasic torp
x3 tetryon turrets (blue Mk XI)
Consoles:
Tac: x3 Transphasic Compressors (purple Mk XI)
Sci: x1 Shield Emitter Amplifier, x1 Emitter Array
Eng: x1 Ablative Hull Armor, x1 Tetraburnium Hull Armor, x1 Monotanium Alloy, x1 Borg universal console
Doffs: x3 blue projectile weapon doffs (rate of fire was insane)
It was an odd ship to fly because I never got the impression I was doing any real damage, but every now and then I would vaporise a cube after a single volley - and I would attract crazy aggro from everything. It was pretty good at demolishing structures in STF's too.
I run a B'rel retrofit, using
- Klingon Honour Guard (the 2-piece bonus is a projectile damage bonus) - fora FED you might want the adapted MACO space if you can get it
- Front weapons: Quantum, Cluster Transphasic, Harg'Peng and Photon
- Aft Weapons: Tricobalt and Quantum Mines.
If you want to see a bit more closely, look on the gateway. Type Bli'Megh@teklionbenrasha into the address bar instead of your character name and take a look through
ive tried a number of builds including these, i use plasma torps to bypass shields cause DOT's on the hull, when the shields do come down the torpedoes are usually powerful enough to extract moderate damage on the shields, it usually takes a few plasma torps to take down anything when it hits the hull directly. cubes? takes 2 heavy torps with [crit d/h]x3 if possible to cause even more damage, but on a crit it can take anything from 35k to 75k in one hit, usually 1/4 of the cubes health, but it usually takes within 45 seconds to take down a cube with plasma torpedos uncharged because its like a rapid firing grenade launcher. photons do work, but yes, you need something to strip off the shields or your firing blanks but they do fire very fast when armed with nothing but. thats all burst damage and its not always reliable, so make sure you keep your forward tubes on the target and turrets on the back to strip shields (assuming), otherwise alternate between targets to create the biggest gain possible with torps on front and back.
the turret build is nice, you dont have to direct your ship to a specific location to get into a firing arc, depending on what damage type you use, plasma, phaser, disurptor... it can be quite deadly, it also frees up the player when auto firing using tab or auto target, its usually a killer of shields but takes a bit longer on bigger ships to take out, but a very effective fighter suppression build, with cannon spread of course it is better, but rapid fire works well. best to get in close as well to maximize damage per hit.
beam boats are not too bad, but they lack the overall endurance when it comes to outright dps, the only way to compensate is getting inside 5km of your target to cause the biggest possible damage you can per hit as being further away, your attacks are a lot weaker. i once was in a pvp match, my vor'cha with phased polaron beam banks blue XI's vs 3 feds and one of them was an oddy, the beams inflicted heavy heavy damage on the oddy, i destroyed 2 others, but the player realized how heavy my damage was they diverted their shield to that quadrant and it became less annoying, but if that player had not concentrated as much, they would of been dead quickly. so yes its possible to be very destructive with beamboats, just dont turn them into rainbow cruisers.
ive also experimented with DHC and turret build as well, it doesnt suit my sort of style, but i have seen others use the DHC's to devastating effect with cmbos from cannon spreads, if correctly setup they can shred a small fleet of 6 ships from t1 to t5 npc's in moments.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Quantums are fine in STFs if you don't get forced into dealing with cruiser/destroyer class mobs(namely spheres and raptors). Although if you're using an escort and trying to build a single-damage type kinetic ship, you should be making use of mines and dispersal pattern beta 3 as well. As for the 4 forward tubes, that's a waste. You actually even get a 1 second waste with 3 tubes and can get away with using only 2 tubes with projectile doffs.
The real trick to setting up and using a torpedo boat, however, is using specialty torpedo launchers that don't share weapon cooldowns. Normally, this means you'll have to use generic kinetic tactical consoles, but there are two exceptions with transphasic and plasma having a variety of special launchers with the same damage type.
Amusingly, I find science ships tend to make better torpedo boats than escorts due to the high aux and shields from not needing weapon's power. The hard part is finding science ships with enough tactical bridge and console slots. (As far as strictly torpedo boats go, the tactical Vesta is simply the best ship in the game for the role in my book.. followed closely by the Chel Grett and B'rel Retro which can also make use of mines.) This allows you to make heavy-hitting ships that can not only dish out damage, but also tank, heal and control as the situation needs.
Wells also has Lt Cmdr and Lt universal slots, it's a bit of a tradeoff for 3 tac console slots compared to the Aventine's 4 but the Wells has 15 turn rate compared to 12 which makes it easier to use the rear torps while the fore are on CD, and Temporal Backstep is arguably the best console ability you can get.
?
You have 8 weapon slots on a fleet defiant?
Spock's Brain.
My photons do mediocre DPS. I don't compare to escorts, but I do fairly well compared to most other ships. I like the fact that I can run 75 shields and 75 aux.
I drain shields with tachyon beam, tractor beam (with DOff), and 2 pieces of the Omega set.
Gravity Well 3 and tractor beam really helps in STF's, especially Khitomer Accord and Infected. I can sometimes save the optional in Infected Elite if someone drops a generator early. A grav well 3 on the mob of probes/spheres can usually slow them down long enough for everyone else to finish the transformer.
Forward: Hyper-plasma, Breen Transphasic Cluster, 2x Transphasic Torpedoes CrtD CrtH2
Rear: Breen Transphasic Cluster, Bio-Neural Warhead, 2x Transphasic Torpedoes CrtD CrtHx2
Damage Consoles: 3x Transphasic Compressor Mk XII VR, Tachyokinetic + Assimilated
You can imagine that I have nothing but HY's and TS's on the bar, along with a pair of TT1's and Omega1/3's. Having Mk XII Borg set + 125 shield + 75 aux is pretty awesome. The amount of DIRECT damage I deal is 15% less compared to 3x Pol/Dis DHC's CrtD/CrtH, but the utility goes up drastically. HE1 and TSS2 are mandatory, the extra aux doubles their effectiveness. TBR2/ES2/TR1 become brutal post-75aux power.
The basic premise is shield penetration/bypassing, direct support and critical power. The Cluster deals 2.3k on base hits for me, and I have seen 9.8k crits from each mine to hull. This is in no way counting the amount of shield damage due to the Transphasic torpedo base damage. The Bio-Neural seriously helps chip down shields on Tactical Cubes as well as, hopefully, killing Plasma Energy Bolts from Unimatrices/taking someone's aggro from Queen/Donatra for a few seconds, allowing them to recover.
TL;DR: utility > damage or damage > utility, your choice. Just be smart about it.
By itself, not well. The dual photon build works because photons have a fast refire to begin with, and as such only need a single proc from a purple PWO doff to sustain continuous fire. All other torpedo types require at least two procs, and thus necessitate either more torpedoes being loaded, or the acceptance of bigger, and more often, breaks in torpedo fire.
That being said, the Kumari (with its 5 fore slots) makes a very successful non-photon hybrid torpedo platform because it can load three torpedoes, but still put two DHCs on-target. On large stf targets (gates, cubes/tac cubes etc) it's not uncommon to be pushing 20-25 plasma burn stacks.
Your first paragraph is a big deal if you want to maximize damage type as well as unify your launchers to a single type for easier, a single, larger bonus with dedicated tac consoles.
Sci ships do make potentially good Torpedo Boats and I will agree on that. Especially the more nimble Sci ships like the Fleet Nova. Torpedoes do not require much energy to run, you can minimize that subsystem power and still operate effectively. For a Sci Ship, that means boosting other Subsystems, meaning even more power to Aux for better Sci abilities or to Shields to boost up one of the platform's strongest traits; Highest Shield Mods of the game. The advantage of a Torpedo Sci Ship over a cloaked B'Rel Torpedo Boat is that the Sci Ship can stay in the thick of a fight and be much more rugged than the fragile B'Rel.