I have a tholian recluse carrier, and the new mine trait that extends the acquisition range to 6 km. I would like to try putting 3 mines in the rear weapon slots and 3 beams up front, but it seems that mines carry a shared cooldown.
Do mines of the same type carry the cooldown only? For example, can I use three different mine types and get better dps?
It's too late for me to try this out tonight. I'll look for some responses when it wake up tomorrow. I will also gladly take any other advice people might have about how to maximize dps on a sci character using a recluse.
BTW, this is a PVE ship only. No intention to pvp with this ship.
There is a brief cooldown shared among all projectile weapons (3 seconds), but I don't think there is an additional cooldown between different mine types, so you could for example have Web mines and Tractor Beam mines and Quantum Mines all together.
ALL mines seem to share a long global cooldown which can be reduced with DOFFS but that is unwise in a carrier (and most other ships). Carriers need at least 1 flight deck guy on top of the other stuff.
That means that mines are generally useful as a manually fired weapon: make a macro or keybind or whatever you call it to use dispersal pattern and then launch.
It also means 1 set of dps mines and 1 set of utility mines (web, tractor) are about all any ship needs.
Mines are not amazing for dps. They deliver a spike or allow you to kite if playing solo against elites or something. And in a ship with that sort of turn rate (unless you dedicated to turn?) drive by mines does not do well either, you can't drive by and drop, you can't spin and lob, and in groups, drive in reverse and let them come into your trap is also pretty worthless.
What I did with mine:
I made a full AP build. I have 3 AP dual beam banks up front, the cutting beam and obelisk 'turret' thingy in back, and a standard AP turret. I *may* slot a graviton torp up front later as my build is good for GWs, but I have not yet spent the resources on the weapon.
I also run the ob warp core for the AP bonus.
Depending on what I am doing the cmdr slot is either a tactical with overload 3 and FAW and APO3 or a sci officer (I have a couple to pick from with various skills).
This has worked out pretty well for me. PVE enemy are mostly slow and dumb, so its actually possible to aim the DBBs in the carrier, which would utterly fail against decent opponents. BO3 is of course a beast; crits over 25-50k are fairly standard.
If you did not, you want to get the mesh weaver pets, even the blue version.
IMHO the pet boosting console is too little up-time for too much cooldown time, and I took mine off. There may be a time and place for it, but in pve, it was not really all that.
And I have a purple 'escort mode' damage increasing flight deck officer for the pets, which more than makes up for the console: its always active.
I got up this AM and experimented with the mines. There are actually two cooldown timers at the moment, one for 12 seconds, and a second for 3 seconds. Seems like something is really screwed up with the mines, but they're not worth it that's for sure. I even tried combinations of 2 and 3 cobolt mines with 30 second cooldowns. With my skills, they would do 13+k damage each but that's every 15 seconds or so, and that is damage which I cannot target. They still have to slowboat their way to the target and can be destroyed in transit.
I also discovered that mixing mines didn't matter, as the 12 second + 3 second cooldown remains. I read that at one time STO had a shared cooldown between torps and mines, but my research did not reveal any evidence of that remaining.
I sure liked your combination of obelisk consoles and AP damage. My character has not reached level 50 yet, and my options are limited for now, but your build gives me something to think about.
I did find another build that was interesting. This guy is using a wide-angle torp, that is unfortunately not available for KDF characters. He did manage to get 14k dps average, though. It's always interesting to read about other people's builds. There are some creative minds playing STO.;)
I don't have the OB console (requires the advanced ship purchase), I have the beam/turret thingy (its unique) and warp core which make a 2 piece set bonus (these pieces are free). The warp core is kinda weak but the bonus is strong, and the core gives aux and its a sci ship, so its not a total loss.
The recluse is a great ship, but one of the drawbacks of it is 6 weapons, and that means not a lot of room for toys like mines.
Someone probably has a 3 torp / low weapon high aux power setup that might suit you as you seem to like bombs.
Thanks, Noroblad. I understand what you're saying. Sure appreciate the help. I've asked a buddy of mine to give me some tips on fitting out this new ship, boff skills, etc. We'll see. ha!
I experienced same problems with the breen transphasic cluster. I have one on my forw, and another one on my back. Sometimes, when i fire the first one on my forw, i turn back to fire the one in my back.. and i see again 45 s cooldown. Even if i never fired it. This happens sometimes, not always.
Sometimes it is really frustrating, because we dont even know if this is a bug, intended or just bad code. Sigh.
Comments
That means that mines are generally useful as a manually fired weapon: make a macro or keybind or whatever you call it to use dispersal pattern and then launch.
It also means 1 set of dps mines and 1 set of utility mines (web, tractor) are about all any ship needs.
Mines are not amazing for dps. They deliver a spike or allow you to kite if playing solo against elites or something. And in a ship with that sort of turn rate (unless you dedicated to turn?) drive by mines does not do well either, you can't drive by and drop, you can't spin and lob, and in groups, drive in reverse and let them come into your trap is also pretty worthless.
What I did with mine:
I made a full AP build. I have 3 AP dual beam banks up front, the cutting beam and obelisk 'turret' thingy in back, and a standard AP turret. I *may* slot a graviton torp up front later as my build is good for GWs, but I have not yet spent the resources on the weapon.
I also run the ob warp core for the AP bonus.
Depending on what I am doing the cmdr slot is either a tactical with overload 3 and FAW and APO3 or a sci officer (I have a couple to pick from with various skills).
This has worked out pretty well for me. PVE enemy are mostly slow and dumb, so its actually possible to aim the DBBs in the carrier, which would utterly fail against decent opponents. BO3 is of course a beast; crits over 25-50k are fairly standard.
If you did not, you want to get the mesh weaver pets, even the blue version.
IMHO the pet boosting console is too little up-time for too much cooldown time, and I took mine off. There may be a time and place for it, but in pve, it was not really all that.
And I have a purple 'escort mode' damage increasing flight deck officer for the pets, which more than makes up for the console: its always active.
I got up this AM and experimented with the mines. There are actually two cooldown timers at the moment, one for 12 seconds, and a second for 3 seconds. Seems like something is really screwed up with the mines, but they're not worth it that's for sure. I even tried combinations of 2 and 3 cobolt mines with 30 second cooldowns. With my skills, they would do 13+k damage each but that's every 15 seconds or so, and that is damage which I cannot target. They still have to slowboat their way to the target and can be destroyed in transit.
I also discovered that mixing mines didn't matter, as the 12 second + 3 second cooldown remains. I read that at one time STO had a shared cooldown between torps and mines, but my research did not reveal any evidence of that remaining.
I sure liked your combination of obelisk consoles and AP damage. My character has not reached level 50 yet, and my options are limited for now, but your build gives me something to think about.
I did find another build that was interesting. This guy is using a wide-angle torp, that is unfortunately not available for KDF characters. He did manage to get 14k dps average, though. It's always interesting to read about other people's builds. There are some creative minds playing STO.;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De7dzxQ9pPM
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=jhdcb1_5726
The recluse is a great ship, but one of the drawbacks of it is 6 weapons, and that means not a lot of room for toys like mines.
Someone probably has a 3 torp / low weapon high aux power setup that might suit you as you seem to like bombs.
Sometimes it is really frustrating, because we dont even know if this is a bug, intended or just bad code. Sigh.