I use 5 BAs, the KCB, the ODA, and the gravimetric on my Fleet Avenger and everything dies quickly. My current project is my Mobius on my Engineer, which will be outfitted with Romulan Plasma. That has 3 DBB and 1 Photon Torpedo Launcher with 3 arrays in the back. Yes, I know I could go cannons, but you can engage further out with DBBs than you can with cannons and have max effect. Weapon power is not an issue either.
sovereign, antiproton setup.
forward: two beam banks, one array, one photon torpedo.
aft: two beam arrays, one photon torpedo, one omnidirectional array.
consistent performance broadsiding...with EVERYTHING bar the aft torpedo launcher firing.
a good trick to get everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING firing is to fly over the target's dorsal side(you want to expose your ship's belly here fellas)...you'll get some epic dps doing that..of course mind your shields is a given, particularly with the borg.
Murphy's laws:
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
DBB's become more valuable on 5 fore weapon ships. Ships like the Avenger that stick 5 antiproton dual beams in the front, a 360 degreen antiproton beam along with a borg turret and antiproton turret in the back can make for a very powerful forward assault.
three words for a build like that...swiss cheese maker.
that kind of build will shred targets.
Murphy's laws:
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
DBB's become more valuable on 5 fore weapon ships. Ships like the Avenger that stick 5 antiproton dual beams in the front, a 360 degreen antiproton beam along with a borg turret and antiproton turret in the back can make for a very powerful forward assault.
To my knowledge all 5 front weapon slot ships can pack cannons. Cannons eat DBB's alive every day of the week.
This is the core issue with DBB's. Their only useful on ships that cannot mount cannon's and are fast turning enough to get the on target. That's mostly Sci ships, which due to hull tanking sucking and high Aux being required for many abilities can't run high weapons power without nerfing their tank or their sci powers hard.
Even if you can build a Sci ship it will work on. Chances are that if you can get the tac slots for the abilities, Single Cannon + Turret's will perform as well because of the extra boost from the abilities affecting the turrets and the inherent superiority of cannon abilities over beam ones.
Fish in a barrel...Cannons win
That said...it still annoys me that dps in this game is measured by how much dps done during the entire run instead of the boss fight. I get that it's due to how bloody powerful everyone is...but it just against the way I've been brought up for mmos.
Problem is it's quite common in content, especially if there's a friendly sci ship or your running an advanced escorts as many non-tight groups are actually loose groups meaning a simple grav well will bunch them up.
Well, those high-end dps beam builds require some rather expensive doffs to function as well as they do. Fact of the matter is, it's a lot easier (and cheaper!) to make a good cannon ships than beam ship.
Borg STf's are all single target or clustered groups, (hell you can shove your nose into them and let collision keep you in place while benefiting from the speed defense bonus).
Azure Nebula is clustered groups
20 man Starbase is clustered groups or single target (Phase 2 and 4 include a lot of chaff, but healing the base and single target + Crowd Control on the siege dreadnoughts in phase 4 are the key, not overall DPS, though in my experience no PUG ever remembers this these days).
Blockade and the 5 man Starbase Defense are beam friendly only if Grav wells aren't in use, otherwise they favor cannons again due to the grouping effect.
The Voth content apart from the initial surface run on the big ship is all single target or clustered groups or widely separated examples of singles and groups, (thus placing the target/target groups too far away to hit multiple targets/groups at once).
Never done No Win but based on talk i believe it's Beam friendly even with Grav well.
Vault Ensnared is Beam friendly till last phase, though the wide target separation still favors escorts better impulse modifiers.
The new undine content has jumping and distributed targets that are hard to group with grav well, so beams come out ahead.
Really the main reason beams are seen as being as good as they are is simple:
1. Grav well packing sci ships and advanced escorts are much rarer these days so for about half the content the grav wells needed to get good clusters in half the content are missing.
2. A2B can provide sufficient weps power overflow to boost FAW'd Beams upto CRF level 4/3 cannon builds if there's only a single target to shoot at and vastly outperform CSV if they're not tightly concentrated enough. 5/3 builds still TRIBBLE all over beams single target but...
3. Of the 5 front slot ships the Scim is the flavor of the month and it's just not suited to cannon usage due to it's turn rate.
The magic about the broadside is the fact that you can use every last weapon slot at once (if you are running with just BAs).
Without weapons overflow or abilities factored in a 4/3 cannon build is still 7% better than a 4/4 beam array, and far more with abilities thrown in. As long as you can keep the cannons on target the majority of the time.
Nah... bfaw, AP beta, eptw, be a tactical captain, use 8 beams. And you'll be a 20k dpser easy.
Now cannons...only good players can get 20k dps with a cannon build. great players can get 30k and the absolute best will get 40k. And these are all extremely gear/skill dependent numbers.
Without weapons overflow or abilities factored in a 4/3 cannon build is still 7% better than a 4/4 beam array, and far more with abilities thrown in. As long as you can keep the cannons on target the majority of the time.
I just went through the content and showed you how a good chunk of it if you are paired with a GW using Sci or just flying a fed advanced escort IS probable or even enforced, (depending on weather GW is actually needed or not respectively).
There is one ship in which DBBs are extremely effective, by nature of its layout, and that is the Kumari. Running four Antiproton DBBs up front + one torpedo and the KCB and Omni-directional Antiproton beam in back with a fire-at-will setup is really, really, really good.
Generally anything with five fore weapons will be able to make better potential use of DBBs.
There is one ship in which DBBs are extremely effective, by nature of its layout, and that is the Kumari. Running four Antiproton DBBs up front + one torpedo and the KCB and Omni-directional Antiproton beam in back with a fire-at-will setup is really, really, really good.
Generally anything with five fore weapons will be able to make better potential use of DBBs.
And once again, because of the 90 degree arc on DBB's you will far outperform that with a DHC + Cannon build. FAW is strictly inferior to both CSV and CRF unless the targets are not tightly clustered or your dealing with multiple targets respectively. DBB's need the same clustering to make FAW work, (also a mine Launcher would work better than a torpedo IMO), so they lose the only advantage beams normally have.
It's undoubtedly a fun build and someday i'll build a DBB escort too for the hell of it. But it's nowhere near equal.
Also my prior 7% figure ignores the fact that without power overflow cannons outperform beams point for point on base DPS because they drain less power per weapon per second for DHC's, (12 every 1.5 seconds instead of 8 every 0.75 for beams), and the smaller number of weapons reduces overall power drain anyway.
I just went through the content and showed you how a good chunk of it if you are paired with a GW using Sci or just flying a fed advanced escort IS probable or even enforced, (depending on weather GW is actually needed or not respectively).
You can have the entire map bunched in a gravity well. You can gather pockets of enemies but you still need to reposition. Beams have such an easier time that it is the sole reason why beams outperform cannons in this game's communities' eyes
Well, you can't broadside in a DBB. It has a 90 degree firing arc. Your best bet with DBB is to fight similar to cannons. You'll get more burst from the cannons but you can start your run from further out with DBBs
I believe DBB have a 180 degree fire arc. Which if you turn just right you can broadside but at a angle or get under your target.
You can have the entire map bunched in a gravity well. You can gather pockets of enemies but you still need to reposition.
No you don't. Anything that won't go down in one good firing pass is big enough you can stick to it's hull if you hit it right. Also a lot of the content is so easy you can afford to drop your impulse speed down a lot in an escort to extend the firing window if you need to, (you shouldn't by and large but whatever).
Also remember in a clustered multi-target environment CSV will outperform FAW by roughly 300% even if the base DPS of both builds is equally good. You cna be off target 50% of the time and still outperform FAW builds, (not to mention without A2B you are not getting anywhere near the ability uptime, in fact accounting for uptime and not counting possible buffs from the cmdr ability a CRF2 *2 4/3 cannon escort will outperform an 8 beam cruiser sufficiently to be off target 20% of the time, not account for the turrets being able to fire even when the front cannon's can't which extends it)
EDIT: If i did the math right with turrets factored in you can be off target roughly 30% of the time and still come out even single target.
I believe DBB have a 180 degree fire arc. Which if you turn just right you can broadside but at a angle or get under your target.
Sorry I was wrong it is 90 but the rest is what I do. I use 2 DBB and 2 arrays and a torp on avenger does well. Should of check before saying anything lol but cannons have 45 and that is why I only use them on escorts.
It'd not about hypothetical numbers Dahminus. It's about facts. if you play right and either play the right content, have the luck to have a friendly Sci with Grav well, or bring it yourself on the right ship then without an expensive Aux2Bat build you cannot outperform cannons with Beams. our FaW has too little up-time and your Beam DPS isn't good enough and you'll have identical time on target for both, (There's littrially no content that involved clusters/cluster-able groups that you shouldn't be able to burn in one pass and no single target content where you shouldn't be able to use collision to keep you on target at full speed, the only time my Chimera has an issue is if the Tholians take her weapons offline part way through her run in and the batteries on cool-down).
Sure the new Undine content or the old No Win or the Old Vault Ensnared will not give you the same uptime even then. But the rest will unless you fly wrong or your DPS is utter horribad.
Yes get to the extreme end with A2B builds that give massive overflow and you'll outperform cannons with beams no issues because your FAW can be up every 15 seconds you can have an attack pattern buff every 15 seconds and TT every 15 seconds on the same build, and your lack of major power loss during firing boosts real world beam damage beyond that of a cannon. But without the cooldown reductions and power overflow effects there is a HUGE DPS difference between them.
But i was discussing without major overflow or A2B cooldown reductions. Overflow and shorter cooldonws totally change the rules of the game.
I have many ships with DBBs. Ships with 11-15 turn-rate that are fast enough for forward-firing but not raeally fast enough for dogfighting with DHCs without EPtE at least, not always but a lot of ships in that pocket. I run them on slower ships sometimes too. The 90 degree arc lets them get on target sooner and stay on target longer.
I started to think it hinges on whether I want to use torpedos or not. In that case, how come people stop recomending torpedos?
Skillpoint efficiency, considering torpedoes are only effective if the shields are completely and utterably down.
Boosting up Torpedo Skills alongside your Energy Weapons Skills is very costly. In addition, shields in PVE and PVP have something like a 75% resist against Kinetic, which all Torpedoes are. If even a sliver of minimal shields come up on a hull side you thought was exposed with down shields when you fired your torps, rest assured, most of your torp damage will be negated.
Torpedoes are effective when the target is only in a certain condition. Energy Weapons? They are always effective no matter the state of the target.
With these factors in mind, a number will completely ignore torps altogether, dropping anything and everything related to them.
It takes far more work in making torpedoes effective, most esp. so for those Pure 100% Torp Boats out there. But Beams & Cannons? You don't have to worry about anything, just pummel the target regardless of its state.
I used to do Torpedo Boats, but got sick and tired of STO's mechanic where Torpedoes are only circumstantial weapons, when in Star Trek, they were the first and preferred means of attack, regardless of battlefield conditions. There's ways in making torps effective in STO, but the labor was too much for minimal gain compared to doing something like 3 DHCs + 1 DBB + Turrets, or all 7-8 Beam Arrays with FAW, and never worry about how effective my attacks are because there's a sliver of shields that came up the last second.
Because with the generally low DPS of torpedoes compared to energy weapons, plus the fact that most enemies are rebalancing their shields every second to cripple the damage even further, torps just aren't really a general-purpose weapon anymore. Certain torps that do status effects can rock if used properly, the high damage torps can be a major finishing blow if you have the timing for it, some theme builds can really scary in the right circumstances, and personally I won't fly without one just because Star Trek. However for general purpose maximization of murder capacity (or being in the same vicinity as the DPS snobs at all), torps have just fallen way behind.
I started to think it hinges on whether I want to use torpedos or not. In that case, how come people stop recomending torpedos?
Because people place more emphasis on raw numbers over enjoyment and skillful play. Even before BFAW proliferation, there was a growing elitism over 4xAP DHCs doing more damage than running 3 cannons with a Torpedo on Escorts.
As for the topic at hand, the main perk to Beam Banks is that their firing arc lines up with torpedos; so it's a great weapon for breaking shields and sinking in torpedos while you close with/chase a target.
Personally, I find them to be a weapon of choice for Science Ships. You can get 'respectable' damage with DBBs on a science ship and it lines up pretty nicely with the forward arc of most science abilities. I usually use a single DBB on cruisers as well to supplement forward firepower. It may not do anything during a broad side, but there's almost always a ship in front of you when you fire off BFAW anyways - and it hurts a lot more than single arrays.
I don't really recommend using a ton of them though, they are seriously power hungry and suffer a horrible damage falloff when you use too many at once.
Not talking hypothetical, you are ignoring how much arc plays into the matter. The higher uptime is the biggest contributer to beam's maximum dps
I'm ignoring it because it's irrelevant. It plays no part whatsoever in the content that gives you grouped or single targets. Single targets can be hugged and you WILL kill groups of weaker opponents before you overrun them, (not to mention the stuff with weak groups often lets you get away with dropping to half or quarter speed), and none of that content puts separate groups within the 10KM weapons range, and an escort can turn to start closing that 10KM gap much more quickly.
Yes if your running an A2B build your gonna have issues as with escort impulse modifiers and boosted Engine power you'll exceed the 24 impulse defense cap by a massive amount. But without it you'll usually be just barely one side or the other, (My Chimera is 24.12 i think), that has a significant effect on overrunning the target as it cuts the closure rate down.
Without trying to invoke the more experience thing, (i just want to reference the pro opinion of yesteryear), please bear in mind i've been playing this game since before fleet starbases where in. Prior to A2B becoming viable Cannons DID parse much, much, much higher than beams in endgame content when used by competent players. I'm not saying this because i believe it. I'm saying it because i know it's true and much better players than myself did the parses long, long ago to prove it was so. But that was before over-capping to the degree of now became possible and A2B let you stretch tac slots so much.
I have many ships with DBBs. Ships with 11-15 turn-rate that are fast enough for forward-firing but not raeally fast enough for dogfighting with DHCs without EPtE at least, not always but a lot of ships in that pocket. I run them on slower ships sometimes too. The 90 degree arc lets them get on target sooner and stay on target longer.
.
If you can effectively use DBB's you can effectively use DHC's, it's all about picking a target and lining a run up, if you not getting them on target from 10KM out all the way to run-over (if they're even still alive by that point), your not lining your run up early enough. In fact the only reasons not to use them on KDF cruisers is that fine tuning your approach for the run is hard and they don't tend to pull the sticking trick as effectively due to the same fine control issues.The Tac slots also throw limits on ability based boosting which reduce their ability to burn as hard as an escort which does make over-running more likely.
Comments
forward: two beam banks, one array, one photon torpedo.
aft: two beam arrays, one photon torpedo, one omnidirectional array.
consistent performance broadsiding...with EVERYTHING bar the aft torpedo launcher firing.
a good trick to get everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING firing is to fly over the target's dorsal side(you want to expose your ship's belly here fellas)...you'll get some epic dps doing that..of course mind your shields is a given, particularly with the borg.
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
that kind of build will shred targets.
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
To my knowledge all 5 front weapon slot ships can pack cannons. Cannons eat DBB's alive every day of the week.
This is the core issue with DBB's. Their only useful on ships that cannot mount cannon's and are fast turning enough to get the on target. That's mostly Sci ships, which due to hull tanking sucking and high Aux being required for many abilities can't run high weapons power without nerfing their tank or their sci powers hard.
Even if you can build a Sci ship it will work on. Chances are that if you can get the tac slots for the abilities, Single Cannon + Turret's will perform as well because of the extra boost from the abilities affecting the turrets and the inherent superiority of cannon abilities over beam ones.
Problem is it's quite common in content, especially if there's a friendly sci ship or your running an advanced escorts as many non-tight groups are actually loose groups meaning a simple grav well will bunch them up.
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Azure Nebula is clustered groups
20 man Starbase is clustered groups or single target (Phase 2 and 4 include a lot of chaff, but healing the base and single target + Crowd Control on the siege dreadnoughts in phase 4 are the key, not overall DPS, though in my experience no PUG ever remembers this these days).
Blockade and the 5 man Starbase Defense are beam friendly only if Grav wells aren't in use, otherwise they favor cannons again due to the grouping effect.
The Voth content apart from the initial surface run on the big ship is all single target or clustered groups or widely separated examples of singles and groups, (thus placing the target/target groups too far away to hit multiple targets/groups at once).
Never done No Win but based on talk i believe it's Beam friendly even with Grav well.
Vault Ensnared is Beam friendly till last phase, though the wide target separation still favors escorts better impulse modifiers.
The new undine content has jumping and distributed targets that are hard to group with grav well, so beams come out ahead.
Really the main reason beams are seen as being as good as they are is simple:
1. Grav well packing sci ships and advanced escorts are much rarer these days so for about half the content the grav wells needed to get good clusters in half the content are missing.
2. A2B can provide sufficient weps power overflow to boost FAW'd Beams upto CRF level 4/3 cannon builds if there's only a single target to shoot at and vastly outperform CSV if they're not tightly concentrated enough. 5/3 builds still TRIBBLE all over beams single target but...
3. Of the 5 front slot ships the Scim is the flavor of the month and it's just not suited to cannon usage due to it's turn rate.
Without weapons overflow or abilities factored in a 4/3 cannon build is still 7% better than a 4/4 beam array, and far more with abilities thrown in. As long as you can keep the cannons on target the majority of the time.
Now cannons...only good players can get 20k dps with a cannon build. great players can get 30k and the absolute best will get 40k. And these are all extremely gear/skill dependent numbers.
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Which is systemically improbable
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
I just went through the content and showed you how a good chunk of it if you are paired with a GW using Sci or just flying a fed advanced escort IS probable or even enforced, (depending on weather GW is actually needed or not respectively).
Generally anything with five fore weapons will be able to make better potential use of DBBs.
And once again, because of the 90 degree arc on DBB's you will far outperform that with a DHC + Cannon build. FAW is strictly inferior to both CSV and CRF unless the targets are not tightly clustered or your dealing with multiple targets respectively. DBB's need the same clustering to make FAW work, (also a mine Launcher would work better than a torpedo IMO), so they lose the only advantage beams normally have.
It's undoubtedly a fun build and someday i'll build a DBB escort too for the hell of it. But it's nowhere near equal.
Also my prior 7% figure ignores the fact that without power overflow cannons outperform beams point for point on base DPS because they drain less power per weapon per second for DHC's, (12 every 1.5 seconds instead of 8 every 0.75 for beams), and the smaller number of weapons reduces overall power drain anyway.
You can have the entire map bunched in a gravity well. You can gather pockets of enemies but you still need to reposition. Beams have such an easier time that it is the sole reason why beams outperform cannons in this game's communities' eyes
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
I believe DBB have a 180 degree fire arc. Which if you turn just right you can broadside but at a angle or get under your target.
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
No you don't. Anything that won't go down in one good firing pass is big enough you can stick to it's hull if you hit it right. Also a lot of the content is so easy you can afford to drop your impulse speed down a lot in an escort to extend the firing window if you need to, (you shouldn't by and large but whatever).
Also remember in a clustered multi-target environment CSV will outperform FAW by roughly 300% even if the base DPS of both builds is equally good. You cna be off target 50% of the time and still outperform FAW builds, (not to mention without A2B you are not getting anywhere near the ability uptime, in fact accounting for uptime and not counting possible buffs from the cmdr ability a CRF2 *2 4/3 cannon escort will outperform an 8 beam cruiser sufficiently to be off target 20% of the time, not account for the turrets being able to fire even when the front cannon's can't which extends it)
EDIT: If i did the math right with turrets factored in you can be off target roughly 30% of the time and still come out even single target.
Sorry I was wrong it is 90 but the rest is what I do. I use 2 DBB and 2 arrays and a torp on avenger does well. Should of check before saying anything lol but cannons have 45 and that is why I only use them on escorts.
But that just isn't how people look at dps in this game.
The people in this game that care about dps, measure the entire run in their parsings.
Cannons should destroy beams in a real dps race. But the arc difference has such an impact, cannons will never compete with beams.
For every second it takes to reposition that 45 degree arc, beams are already going full bore.
Cannons will never out dps beams. Unless a 270 degree dhc cannon is released and csv starts acting like bfaw.
You just have to accept it.
Top cannon dps is 40k, top beam dps is 80k+.
If you don't believe me...i wish I lived in your world again...dps was alot more fun when I wasn't aware of the dps channels.
If you ever want to fly with me, handle is @acceleron. If you have an axe to grind, hit me up
I can understand if you think I'm full of **** and what not, but the above is simply...plain fact
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Sure the new Undine content or the old No Win or the Old Vault Ensnared will not give you the same uptime even then. But the rest will unless you fly wrong or your DPS is utter horribad.
Yes get to the extreme end with A2B builds that give massive overflow and you'll outperform cannons with beams no issues because your FAW can be up every 15 seconds you can have an attack pattern buff every 15 seconds and TT every 15 seconds on the same build, and your lack of major power loss during firing boosts real world beam damage beyond that of a cannon. But without the cooldown reductions and power overflow effects there is a HUGE DPS difference between them.
But i was discussing without major overflow or A2B cooldown reductions. Overflow and shorter cooldonws totally change the rules of the game.
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
If I use DBBs though, it's usually in concert with Dual Heavy Cannons. DHCs blazing CRF with the DBB using BO.
Skillpoint efficiency, considering torpedoes are only effective if the shields are completely and utterably down.
Boosting up Torpedo Skills alongside your Energy Weapons Skills is very costly. In addition, shields in PVE and PVP have something like a 75% resist against Kinetic, which all Torpedoes are. If even a sliver of minimal shields come up on a hull side you thought was exposed with down shields when you fired your torps, rest assured, most of your torp damage will be negated.
Torpedoes are effective when the target is only in a certain condition. Energy Weapons? They are always effective no matter the state of the target.
With these factors in mind, a number will completely ignore torps altogether, dropping anything and everything related to them.
It takes far more work in making torpedoes effective, most esp. so for those Pure 100% Torp Boats out there. But Beams & Cannons? You don't have to worry about anything, just pummel the target regardless of its state.
I used to do Torpedo Boats, but got sick and tired of STO's mechanic where Torpedoes are only circumstantial weapons, when in Star Trek, they were the first and preferred means of attack, regardless of battlefield conditions. There's ways in making torps effective in STO, but the labor was too much for minimal gain compared to doing something like 3 DHCs + 1 DBB + Turrets, or all 7-8 Beam Arrays with FAW, and never worry about how effective my attacks are because there's a sliver of shields that came up the last second.
Because with the generally low DPS of torpedoes compared to energy weapons, plus the fact that most enemies are rebalancing their shields every second to cripple the damage even further, torps just aren't really a general-purpose weapon anymore. Certain torps that do status effects can rock if used properly, the high damage torps can be a major finishing blow if you have the timing for it, some theme builds can really scary in the right circumstances, and personally I won't fly without one just because Star Trek. However for general purpose maximization of murder capacity (or being in the same vicinity as the DPS snobs at all), torps have just fallen way behind.
Because people place more emphasis on raw numbers over enjoyment and skillful play. Even before BFAW proliferation, there was a growing elitism over 4xAP DHCs doing more damage than running 3 cannons with a Torpedo on Escorts.
As for the topic at hand, the main perk to Beam Banks is that their firing arc lines up with torpedos; so it's a great weapon for breaking shields and sinking in torpedos while you close with/chase a target.
Personally, I find them to be a weapon of choice for Science Ships. You can get 'respectable' damage with DBBs on a science ship and it lines up pretty nicely with the forward arc of most science abilities. I usually use a single DBB on cruisers as well to supplement forward firepower. It may not do anything during a broad side, but there's almost always a ship in front of you when you fire off BFAW anyways - and it hurts a lot more than single arrays.
I don't really recommend using a ton of them though, they are seriously power hungry and suffer a horrible damage falloff when you use too many at once.
I'm ignoring it because it's irrelevant. It plays no part whatsoever in the content that gives you grouped or single targets. Single targets can be hugged and you WILL kill groups of weaker opponents before you overrun them, (not to mention the stuff with weak groups often lets you get away with dropping to half or quarter speed), and none of that content puts separate groups within the 10KM weapons range, and an escort can turn to start closing that 10KM gap much more quickly.
Yes if your running an A2B build your gonna have issues as with escort impulse modifiers and boosted Engine power you'll exceed the 24 impulse defense cap by a massive amount. But without it you'll usually be just barely one side or the other, (My Chimera is 24.12 i think), that has a significant effect on overrunning the target as it cuts the closure rate down.
Without trying to invoke the more experience thing, (i just want to reference the pro opinion of yesteryear), please bear in mind i've been playing this game since before fleet starbases where in. Prior to A2B becoming viable Cannons DID parse much, much, much higher than beams in endgame content when used by competent players. I'm not saying this because i believe it. I'm saying it because i know it's true and much better players than myself did the parses long, long ago to prove it was so. But that was before over-capping to the degree of now became possible and A2B let you stretch tac slots so much.
.
If you can effectively use DBB's you can effectively use DHC's, it's all about picking a target and lining a run up, if you not getting them on target from 10KM out all the way to run-over (if they're even still alive by that point), your not lining your run up early enough. In fact the only reasons not to use them on KDF cruisers is that fine tuning your approach for the run is hard and they don't tend to pull the sticking trick as effectively due to the same fine control issues.The Tac slots also throw limits on ability based boosting which reduce their ability to burn as hard as an escort which does make over-running more likely.