Making Cannons Work

blackcat

I recently got a Romulan Eng to level 50 and started looking for how I want their playstyle to be. For now the only T5 warbird I have available to me is the Ar'kif, so I started with the obvious; cannons. Presently I am running a full set of Voth Antiproton weapons with the 360* AP beam. (3x Voth DC XII [acc] [dmgx2] 1x Voth DHC XII [same] fore, 1x Voth Beam Array XI [acc] [dmg], 360* beam, Cluster Torp aft) The torp is temporary, but also useful for the time being.

My problem:
I'm finding cannons to be clunky (even the full XII purple Plasma set I have) under normal use. For a couple reasons, but the main one being that even with CRF or CSV active there seems to be a full second of down time (perhaps more) between volleys. It could just be my mind exaggerating the gap, because I'm not running turrets this time around.
Also, I'm finding both plasma and AP set up to be lackluster in damage unless I'm nearly .blank to my target.

On my Human Eng I have the Cardie Gallor (yay!), though I don't often use the ship I do use the Spiral Wave Disruptors. As an Eng in the Tactical Vesta running SWDs I feel I do considerably more DPS and DPH than as a Romulan running cannons of Plasma or AP.

I'm convinced this is due to error on my part, as I have had previous Romulan officers running plasma cannons of the exact same grade/modifiers and did outstanding damage.
(Disclaimer; Outstanding for me, not compared to A2B Scimitar)

My solution;
Heres the tricky part. Ideally I would simply outfit with SWDs (had they been account unlock) or failing that Plasma/AP beam arrays. Well, frankly I do not have the funding to get *any* Mk XII Very Rare Plasma/Disruptor/Antiproton beam arrays. Exchange, Fleet, ect because of being a new VA.

So, here I am asking for assistance/advice on how to make either A: the EC needed for a full [acc]x2 [dmg] XII set from the exchange, or B: Make cannons work "properly"

I will edit this post with my ship build as soon as I have "finished" it on the planner.

EIDT; Build Link;

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=romulaneng21_0

Notes:
*All "unique" weapons are XII Voth Antiproton.
*I can't remember the [mods] on my singularity core atm.
*Replace the Ultra Rare Turret with the 360* AP Beam
*Replace Isometric Charge with Spacial Charge Launcher
*I also cannot remember the [mods] for my deflector, so it is left out.

Edit for future reference; this was posted during server downtime.

noroblad

there is a gap in shooting when you activate the skills. I am not sure if it is a real gap or a graphical glitch, though. But once you activate the rapid fire, cannon fire looks almost like a beam they shoot so fast, should be a solid stream of energy for a few seconds. For the cone aoe, it depends on the target(s) what it looks like but it should fire a ton of shots, at least 2 per cannon per target I think (?). Also, from memory, one of these does reduced damage per shot, maybe both do, I need to look that up again...

Even if the gap is real (that is, you totally stop shooting when using these skills?) the dps after it should more than make up for it. That is one second of rapid or aoe fire should do equal or more damage than 1 second of normal shooting. Since the abilities last multiple seconds, the first second would "recover" the "lost" damage and the subsequent seconds mean more total dps done. If the gap is just a graphical glitch, then you do even more total damage than the worst case scenario above.

Gear aside, cannons require a lot of power -- once your power levels go below 100, your dps suffers a significant amount. Are you power levels falling off too quickly to maintain high dps?

orondis

1 - [dmg] mods are the least effective mods in the game. For PvE you're best focusing on getting CrtH or CrtD mods.

2 - Despite what the tooltip says, Dual heavy cannons do more damage than dual cannons. Mostly this is because of their cooldown rate and power drain mechanics, but also because they have a +10% crit severity.

l30p4rd

A good way to make EC is to do the cluster DOFF missions for purple (rare) DOFF's although they are bound to you when you get them (some are useful) take them to the embassy and exchange 1 (one) for 3 (three) Blue Doffs. The blue DOFF's are not bound to you so you can sell them on the exchange. Good money for nothing !

Dilith well that's easy just hit the ESTF's for a day you will be surprised how much dilith you will accumulate !

If your into the AP then the fleet ones are best I use 2 fleet and 1 voth (for the proc) up front, with good results especially being a rom. Also the rommie plasma (as a Romulan) are fantastic in PvP and PvE, dont let anyone convince you otherwise !

shockwave85

Couple things:

1. The gap in firing is normal. In fact, it's important. The reason DHCs outperform DCs and (to a point) beam arrays is this gap. Remember, weapons drain weapon power while firing. When the weapon finishes firing, the power is returned to the pool to benefit other weapons down the chain. DHCs "front load" all their damage into a short firing cycle, then go dark. This leaves more power for the other DHCs firing after it. So yes, you will not fire out a constant stream of energy, but this way actually leads to higher overall DPS. What Rapid Fire does is cause the DHCs to fire more shots during their firing cycle, but will not actually affect the firing cycle itself. You should actually drop the DCs and run full DHCs.

2. Buffs matter a lot to DPS with cannons, that's why they're favored by Tacs. In your case, I'd pick either Scatter Volley or Rapid Fire and run two copies of it. Having that extra third cannon skill is a waste, because you can only efficiently cycle two of the same skill (or two that share a cooldown). A third will sit unused. For PvE, probably stick with Scatter Volley most of the time, but you can have an alternate Boff to swap into for situations where you think Rapid Fire's single target DPS is preferable. For the extra slot opening up, I'd drop APB in there to debuff the target and help with your (and your team's) DPS. You will need the boost in absence of a Tac captian's APA/FOMM/GDF/Tac Fleet stacks.

3. EPTW is probably a waste. You skill tree looks fine, if anything you're over specced into power skill. That with your Engi captain powers should mean you're totally fine on weapon power if you're running a typical 100/50/25/25 or 100/25/50/25 power spread. Dump EPTW for EPTE, it makes you faster and turn better to keep those cannons on target. Get yourself 2-3 purple Damage Control Engineers to cut the cooldown on the EPTx skills so both EPTS and EPTE can have high uptime with a single copy. Drop EPTS1 in favor of Eng Team for extra hull heal and restoring disabled subsystems, or drop EPTS3 in favor of RSP2 for an "oh s***!" emergency shield heal.

4. Lose the rear beam array and torpedo in favor of all turrets. Turrets benefit from Rapid Fire/Scatter Volley and can fire forward in conjunction with your DHCs. This does actually add a noticeable amount of DPS, plus that many more energy weapons to potentially proc (crits in the case of your AP weapons). Point is, most of the time you want to be facing forward toward your target, at which point the beam array and torpedo are doing nothing. Even a little bit is preferable to nothing.

5. You have enough power insulators in your skill tree, you don't need the consoles. Honestly 3 points in PI is enough. Get yourself some sci consoles that boost your shields or shield healing skills. Use Hazard Emitters to clear the Borg shield drain. In fact, I'd swap HE and TSS around so you have HE1 and TSS2. HE you will use mostly to clear DoTs, drains, etc which it does just as well at ensign level. The hull healing is covered by A2SIF, ET, and your Engie captain skills.