Im finding this all very interesting. I just upgraded my Jem space set to MK XII to get the extra polaron dmg. I run with phased polarons right now - X3 DHC and a single cannon with 2 aft turrets and the cutting beam. I havent used any of the rep consols yet (still shopping) but Ive been considering the protonic polaron gear. As is I LOVE what my phased cannons do.
TBH I havent really crunched the numbers, but my Jem Dread seems to cut through NPCs like warm butter with Scatter Volley III and Rapid II and I. Anyone else with advice? There seems to be a LOT of different polarons to choose from. I tried a Mogh loadout with fleet, nanite, elachi and polarized DIRUPTORS - and MAN WAS THAT FUN. All kinds of TRIBBLE was happening to cause problems.- Anyone try that with Polaron? I might give that a go too now that I think about it.
Polaron, I only use two forms of this weapon. Dual heavy cannons but on Fed ship the smaller one defliant can handle those dual heavy cannon but single one works on some other Fed ship but hit damage is weaker. There is dual beam array XI or XII. Cutting beam too. I don't like to mix weapon module types but some time you have too get the cutting edge. DHC not using those on the primary ships right now just point blank hits only.
DHC
CTB
DBR
SBR
For most but then you run into the mirror fleets that hit you with cannons also. So yeah try the Polaron
but the phase one seems to be effective too. Cost of them right now for phase gear kinda high I could get it but still have mission weapons using. Those are very expensive to get also.
My two strips of latinum would be, it's good on the right ships. If you like the Jem Hadar set or use the Dyson destroyer or wanna use that setup and buy accordingly, you won't really go wrong with it, otherwise use what you like. My dyson destroyer goes through things pretty well.
"..and like children playing after sunset, we were surrounded by darkness." -Ruri Hoshino
I recently started running the Protonic Arsenal set on my JHAS along with some Protonic Poloran weaponry after getting an Auto Targeting Module Mk XII [+Pol].
Yes it does take a certain build to make it work, but I find myself easily in the 15-20k dps range regardless of which Elite I am in, excluding Crystalline. And with the 25% chance of damage straight to hull, things just melt in front of me.
Star Trek Battles: For those who want to Play Star Trek Online as it WAS MEANT TO BE!!!
Protonic Polarons with Dyson TAC Consoles alone don't do anything special. If that's what you're relying on in the belief of getting more dmg, you will be disappointed.
Synergy is the game with these weapons.
Protonic Polaron weapons are pretty much only useful for a full-on Proton-based build for synergy. The weapons, in conjunction with Dyson TAC Consoles, and either a dedicated Dyson Science Destroyer or full Dyson Space Set are where they really shine.
Dyson Space Set: The set bonus of "Proton Barrage" directly benefits from Aux Power and boosts from anything that increases Proton dmg. The Dyson TAC Consoles are a major source for this. There are others as well, but a 4-5 TAC Console ship can really put some boosts. While you're at stuffing these consoles, they also boost the Proton Dmg proc from Protonic Polaron Weapons.
Dyson Science Destroyers: This is where dedicated Proton dmg builds will really shine. The TAC Consoles completely synergize with the Solanae Consoles for the Dyson Sci Destroyers. They are stacked towards having something to do with Proton Dmg, and the Dyson TAC Consoles directly boost all that. This, on top of boosting Protonic Polarons.
IMO, it all comes together 100% on the DSD ships. Full Protonic Polarons, full Dyson Space Set, with some Dyson TAC Consoles, and the DSD C-Store equipment (which the 2 piece bonus brings a hefty +17% proton dmg bonus). With such a setup, you will have:
* 3 dedicated Proton dmg attacks (Shield Inversion Projector, Proton Destabilizer Module, and Dyson set's Proton Barrage).
* Said abilities on lowered cooldowns.
* Dyson TAC Consoles boosting that Proton Dmg.
* Said TAC Consoles of course, boosting Protonic Polarons in dmg (but not as high as a dedicated Polaron Console) as well as the Proton Proc.
* If you have some Dyson SCI Consoles as well, they give a chance to proc Proton Dmg when utilizing certain SCI BOFF abilities.
My last note about Protonic Polarons is that they shine better with high Critical Rate builds, but there's caveats to this.
* If you're going full Dyson TAC Consoles to boost most things Proton Dmg related, you are not equipping any or as much Spire TAC Consoles.
* If you're equipping any or all Spire TAC Consoles, you are not benefiting to their full potential your Proton Dmg based attacks.
* Protonic Polaron Procs are mostly based on criticals, not the old, flat 2.5% chance proc.
* If you're dedicating yourself for full Proton Dmg, you must resign yourself to the fact that you will not have a really high CritH build. You are relying more on sustained dmg from weapons and ramping things up with Proton special abilities. With this in mind, Romulans are best for Proton work. Even without Spire TAC Consoles, they easily can have respectable Crit Rates... better chances for the Protonic Polaron Proc to occur.
I have been running protonic polaron with the experimental proton wep, grav torp and console for the synergy and it is awesome. However, it depends on your ship's sci commitment and your playstyle preference. I am a tac captain with a heavy sci skill point investment. When I set up my ships to capitalize on this it is very effective.
For instance, my tac dyson is very effective and has great survivability. I run it in tac mode every time. But I recently tried my tac Oddy again and changed around the BOFF seating a bit and ran the above weps with KCB instead of my AP loadout. Wow what a difference. It was like a different ship. I had previously been lucky enough to get a Tal Shiar Battle Cruiser and on first play, I thought it was TRIBBLE. Changed the wep loadout and added Solanae engine for the turn rate buff and I am loving that monstrosity again.
Best advice is to just play around a little and see what works. Sometimes just changing your Boff seating or powers around a touch can be the real problem. YMMV.
Protonic Polarons with Dyson TAC Consoles alone don't do anything special. If that's what you're relying on in the belief of getting more dmg, you will be disappointed.
Synergy is the game with these weapons.
Protonic Polaron weapons are pretty much only useful for a full-on Proton-based build for synergy. The weapons, in conjunction with Dyson TAC Consoles, and either a dedicated Dyson Science Destroyer or full Dyson Space Set are where they really shine.
Dyson Space Set: The set bonus of "Proton Barrage" directly benefits from Aux Power and boosts from anything that increases Proton dmg. The Dyson TAC Consoles are a major source for this. There are others as well, but a 4-5 TAC Console ship can really put some boosts. While you're at stuffing these consoles, they also boost the Proton Dmg proc from Protonic Polaron Weapons.
Dyson Science Destroyers: This is where dedicated Proton dmg builds will really shine. The TAC Consoles completely synergize with the Solanae Consoles for the Dyson Sci Destroyers. They are stacked towards having something to do with Proton Dmg, and the Dyson TAC Consoles directly boost all that. This, on top of boosting Protonic Polarons.
IMO, it all comes together 100% on the DSD ships. Full Protonic Polarons, full Dyson Space Set, with some Dyson TAC Consoles, and the DSD C-Store equipment (which the 2 piece bonus brings a hefty +17% proton dmg bonus). With such a setup, you will have:
* 3 dedicated Proton dmg attacks (Shield Inversion Projector, Proton Destabilizer Module, and Dyson set's Proton Barrage).
* Said abilities on lowered cooldowns.
* Dyson TAC Consoles boosting that Proton Dmg.
* Said TAC Consoles of course, boosting Protonic Polarons in dmg (but not as high as a dedicated Polaron Console) as well as the Proton Proc.
* If you have some Dyson SCI Consoles as well, they give a chance to proc Proton Dmg when utilizing certain SCI BOFF abilities.
My last note about Protonic Polarons is that they shine better with high Critical Rate builds, but there's caveats to this.
* If you're going full Dyson TAC Consoles to boost most things Proton Dmg related, you are not equipping any or as much Spire TAC Consoles.
* If you're equipping any or all Spire TAC Consoles, you are not benefiting to their full potential your Proton Dmg based attacks.
* Protonic Polaron Procs are mostly based on criticals, not the old, flat 2.5% chance proc.
* If you're dedicating yourself for full Proton Dmg, you must resign yourself to the fact that you will not have a really high CritH build. You are relying more on sustained dmg from weapons and ramping things up with Proton special abilities. With this in mind, Romulans are best for Proton work. Even without Spire TAC Consoles, they easily can have respectable Crit Rates... better chances for the Protonic Polaron Proc to occur.
So basically, if you have a ship with 4x Protonic Polaron DHCs and 3x Turrets in the back, three of the Auto-Targeting polaron consoles, and the Dyson space set, it's not worth it simply because I won't spit out enough Polaron damage to kill a ship?
What should I do instead, get the regular Polaron tac consoles from a spire?
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
While I haven't (and won't) do the math, I'm pretty sure that all of the bonuses for protonic weapons in general end up 'pathetic,' except maybe if you're using a Dyson destroyer with the full set.
IMO, the protonic weapons are primarily good for relatively cheap ways to get decent Mk XII weapons for a newbie player. You can get some decent ones leveling Dyson and can keep grinding the daily until you get enough DHC or beam arrays for free and can patch the rest up with exchange purchases, and then you've got a decent DPS-output Mk XII ship weapon set.
So basically, if you have a ship with 4x Protonic Polaron DHCs and 3x Turrets in the back, three of the Auto-Targeting polaron consoles, and the Dyson space set, it's not worth it simply because I won't spit out enough Polaron damage to kill a ship?
What should I do instead, get the regular Polaron tac consoles from a spire?
Protonic Polarons are the most quirky energy weapons in the game. The issue is synergy for them and the dilemma of boosting them.
IF you go the route of the Dyson TAC Consoles in hopes of boosting the dmg of the Proton procs, your standard Polaron Dmg drops quite a bit (Dyson TAC gives 20% while dedicated Polaron consoles go for high 20s to 30s with Mk XII Spires).
IF you go the route of dedicated Polaron dmg consoles like the Spire ones, your Polaron dmg will perform as it should, but the Proton Proc, IMO, effects will be negligible. And if using Proton dmg abilities at all, their dmg will not be boosted.
I'd say if you were using a DSD / DSD + Proton consoles, or Dyson Space Set with its Proton Barrage, yes, the route you mentioned will be worthwhile.
I'd also say if you were just wanting strong Polarons to synergize with something else like Jem'Hadar Space Set, drain builds, but the Proton Dmg Proc is just a "oh, that's nice" feature, then yes, it's worthwhile but I'd use dedicated Polaron consoles.
Also the proton proc rate on the polaron hybrid weapons is crit rate divided by 4. But if you boost the proton damage with rep console, then you forego the fleet tac consoles that boost crit rate. So essentially they are only going to have high proc rate with an all-Romulan captain and crew that have a high natural crit rate. And then you do all that and the per-proc dmage is still weaker than Omega T4 passive trait.
It is -NOT- worth it to boost the weapons alone. It is only worth the cost of specing into proton damage IF you are using other things that benefit from it (such as the Dyson 4-pc Proton Barrage, or the c-store ship weapons). If you do all that, then you should use the rep tac consoles to buff them, and at that point you might as well use the weapons because you are already spec'd into proton damage.
In a nutshell:
Do you have the 4-pc Protonic Barrage? YES do it
-or-
Do you have the c-store tactical ship? YES do it
-else-
not recommended
I tried a full set of the weapons, using the special protonic consoles, but did NOT have the barrage.
My total DPS dropped by 20-30%, but I saw his hull drop faster while his shields were up.
Moral of the story - useless to go the proton-specific console boost. Complete waste of dil for me.
But then again, I've tried to make tetryon work. [insert joke here]
I do use protonic Polaron dual beams on my scimi - mixed with Phased Polarons. The console set are spire consoles. In this case the proton damage is a nice bonus, but doesn't really add much to the overall damage.
Moral of the story - Go spire consoles or go home.
I think they are absolutely worth the time to get. I currently have 3 Protonic Poloran DHC very rare Mk XII with the Gravametric torp and Experimental Protonic Weapon fore and 3 Very Rare Protonic Poloran Turrets aft.
Consoles are all Dyson rep consoles which boost Protonic poloran weapons.
I have tried the Avenger with AP and Quantums with MACO and Dyson gear to the Protonic version with Solonae gear and the Protonic version works better and faster.
Most of everyone will have defenses against AP, PLasma, and all other weapon types. There doesn't seem to be many defenses against Protonic weapons, so that would make Protonic weapons a VERY viable choice.
Another mistake some people make are that they are Poloran.....THEY ARE NOT. They don't benefit from Poloran boosting gear. I have tried that when they came out......My DPS dropped dramatically. Anything that boosts PROTONIC will boost PP, But the same coin, anyhting that boosts PROTONICS will not boost Polorans.
Well, considering that Cryptic have been "playing" again (unofficially, and they will most certainly deny it) But It's a fact!
They have tweaked the "un-cool" procs, such as Tet, Pol and Phaser, and they now go off, way more often.
I kitted out my Mogai with Phased/Protonic Polarons and she now spams procs like fireworks! There is more coloured circles around enemy ships than Voth Swarmers around cruisers at the Spire!.
Comments
From what I've seen, yeah, we'll continue to get boxes. But that was last week on Tribble, and I haven't been there since the last update.
TBH I havent really crunched the numbers, but my Jem Dread seems to cut through NPCs like warm butter with Scatter Volley III and Rapid II and I. Anyone else with advice? There seems to be a LOT of different polarons to choose from. I tried a Mogh loadout with fleet, nanite, elachi and polarized DIRUPTORS - and MAN WAS THAT FUN. All kinds of TRIBBLE was happening to cause problems.- Anyone try that with Polaron? I might give that a go too now that I think about it.
DHC
CTB
DBR
SBR
For most but then you run into the mirror fleets that hit you with cannons also. So yeah try the Polaron
but the phase one seems to be effective too. Cost of them right now for phase gear kinda high I could get it but still have mission weapons using. Those are very expensive to get also.
Time will only tell!
Yes it does take a certain build to make it work, but I find myself easily in the 15-20k dps range regardless of which Elite I am in, excluding Crystalline. And with the 25% chance of damage straight to hull, things just melt in front of me.
Our Battles
Synergy is the game with these weapons.
Protonic Polaron weapons are pretty much only useful for a full-on Proton-based build for synergy. The weapons, in conjunction with Dyson TAC Consoles, and either a dedicated Dyson Science Destroyer or full Dyson Space Set are where they really shine.
Dyson Space Set: The set bonus of "Proton Barrage" directly benefits from Aux Power and boosts from anything that increases Proton dmg. The Dyson TAC Consoles are a major source for this. There are others as well, but a 4-5 TAC Console ship can really put some boosts. While you're at stuffing these consoles, they also boost the Proton Dmg proc from Protonic Polaron Weapons.
Dyson Science Destroyers: This is where dedicated Proton dmg builds will really shine. The TAC Consoles completely synergize with the Solanae Consoles for the Dyson Sci Destroyers. They are stacked towards having something to do with Proton Dmg, and the Dyson TAC Consoles directly boost all that. This, on top of boosting Protonic Polarons.
IMO, it all comes together 100% on the DSD ships. Full Protonic Polarons, full Dyson Space Set, with some Dyson TAC Consoles, and the DSD C-Store equipment (which the 2 piece bonus brings a hefty +17% proton dmg bonus). With such a setup, you will have:
* 3 dedicated Proton dmg attacks (Shield Inversion Projector, Proton Destabilizer Module, and Dyson set's Proton Barrage).
* Said abilities on lowered cooldowns.
* Dyson TAC Consoles boosting that Proton Dmg.
* Said TAC Consoles of course, boosting Protonic Polarons in dmg (but not as high as a dedicated Polaron Console) as well as the Proton Proc.
* If you have some Dyson SCI Consoles as well, they give a chance to proc Proton Dmg when utilizing certain SCI BOFF abilities.
My last note about Protonic Polarons is that they shine better with high Critical Rate builds, but there's caveats to this.
* If you're going full Dyson TAC Consoles to boost most things Proton Dmg related, you are not equipping any or as much Spire TAC Consoles.
* If you're equipping any or all Spire TAC Consoles, you are not benefiting to their full potential your Proton Dmg based attacks.
* Protonic Polaron Procs are mostly based on criticals, not the old, flat 2.5% chance proc.
* If you're dedicating yourself for full Proton Dmg, you must resign yourself to the fact that you will not have a really high CritH build. You are relying more on sustained dmg from weapons and ramping things up with Proton special abilities. With this in mind, Romulans are best for Proton work. Even without Spire TAC Consoles, they easily can have respectable Crit Rates... better chances for the Protonic Polaron Proc to occur.
For instance, my tac dyson is very effective and has great survivability. I run it in tac mode every time. But I recently tried my tac Oddy again and changed around the BOFF seating a bit and ran the above weps with KCB instead of my AP loadout. Wow what a difference. It was like a different ship. I had previously been lucky enough to get a Tal Shiar Battle Cruiser and on first play, I thought it was TRIBBLE. Changed the wep loadout and added Solanae engine for the turn rate buff and I am loving that monstrosity again.
Best advice is to just play around a little and see what works. Sometimes just changing your Boff seating or powers around a touch can be the real problem. YMMV.
So basically, if you have a ship with 4x Protonic Polaron DHCs and 3x Turrets in the back, three of the Auto-Targeting polaron consoles, and the Dyson space set, it's not worth it simply because I won't spit out enough Polaron damage to kill a ship?
What should I do instead, get the regular Polaron tac consoles from a spire?
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
IMO, the protonic weapons are primarily good for relatively cheap ways to get decent Mk XII weapons for a newbie player. You can get some decent ones leveling Dyson and can keep grinding the daily until you get enough DHC or beam arrays for free and can patch the rest up with exchange purchases, and then you've got a decent DPS-output Mk XII ship weapon set.
Protonic Polarons are the most quirky energy weapons in the game. The issue is synergy for them and the dilemma of boosting them.
IF you go the route of the Dyson TAC Consoles in hopes of boosting the dmg of the Proton procs, your standard Polaron Dmg drops quite a bit (Dyson TAC gives 20% while dedicated Polaron consoles go for high 20s to 30s with Mk XII Spires).
IF you go the route of dedicated Polaron dmg consoles like the Spire ones, your Polaron dmg will perform as it should, but the Proton Proc, IMO, effects will be negligible. And if using Proton dmg abilities at all, their dmg will not be boosted.
I'd say if you were using a DSD / DSD + Proton consoles, or Dyson Space Set with its Proton Barrage, yes, the route you mentioned will be worthwhile.
I'd also say if you were just wanting strong Polarons to synergize with something else like Jem'Hadar Space Set, drain builds, but the Proton Dmg Proc is just a "oh, that's nice" feature, then yes, it's worthwhile but I'd use dedicated Polaron consoles.
It is -NOT- worth it to boost the weapons alone. It is only worth the cost of specing into proton damage IF you are using other things that benefit from it (such as the Dyson 4-pc Proton Barrage, or the c-store ship weapons). If you do all that, then you should use the rep tac consoles to buff them, and at that point you might as well use the weapons because you are already spec'd into proton damage.
In a nutshell:
Do you have the 4-pc Protonic Barrage? YES do it
-or-
Do you have the c-store tactical ship? YES do it
-else-
not recommended
My total DPS dropped by 20-30%, but I saw his hull drop faster while his shields were up.
Moral of the story - useless to go the proton-specific console boost. Complete waste of dil for me.
But then again, I've tried to make tetryon work. [insert joke here]
I do use protonic Polaron dual beams on my scimi - mixed with Phased Polarons. The console set are spire consoles. In this case the proton damage is a nice bonus, but doesn't really add much to the overall damage.
Moral of the story - Go spire consoles or go home.
Consoles are all Dyson rep consoles which boost Protonic poloran weapons.
I have tried the Avenger with AP and Quantums with MACO and Dyson gear to the Protonic version with Solonae gear and the Protonic version works better and faster.
Most of everyone will have defenses against AP, PLasma, and all other weapon types. There doesn't seem to be many defenses against Protonic weapons, so that would make Protonic weapons a VERY viable choice.
Another mistake some people make are that they are Poloran.....THEY ARE NOT. They don't benefit from Poloran boosting gear. I have tried that when they came out......My DPS dropped dramatically. Anything that boosts PROTONIC will boost PP, But the same coin, anyhting that boosts PROTONICS will not boost Polorans.
Because they (both the weapons and the consoles) might be more "useful" (for want of a better word) if they do.
They have tweaked the "un-cool" procs, such as Tet, Pol and Phaser, and they now go off, way more often.
I kitted out my Mogai with Phased/Protonic Polarons and she now spams procs like fireworks! There is more coloured circles around enemy ships than Voth Swarmers around cruisers at the Spire!.