When the borg have 5x more shields and hull it will become plain to everyone how bad phasers really are compared to elite diruptors
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
What are people's opinion about Bio-Molecular Phasers? I can't really find any info about when I Google. I am contemplate between them when I do the 8472 rep system (waiting for KDF toon to finish for the sponsorship token) and Bio-Matter Phasers. Maybe I will just stick with plain 'ol standard phasers for a "canon" build.
Bio-Molecular Weapons are alright, whether you go the Phaser or Disruptor version. I've had the Radiation damage proc for 2k in my combat log.
Also, with DR, there's supposed to be a new quantum-based torpedo with the new Rep. It does heavy Radiation damage also. So whatever we have that boosts Radiation damage will benefit that also.
Bio-Matter Phasers? The proc damage you see is what a single target will take. Not bad, I say. However, if there are multiple targets in close proximity to the target you're shooting at, the proc damage gets divided between them all. That's really bad.
However, having said all this, I'd say wait for DR and to see what the new weapons are before you go through the process of acquiring any more.
Indeed, the only time I use phasers is on my Chimera, and even then I'm using the Elite Fleet Phasers to get a semi-useful proc out of them, instead of the worthless phaser proc.
Let's go into why phasers are awful. Their base damage is in line with all other types, but their proc is garbage, making them fall very far down the usefulness chain. Their proc is garbage because:
It is a 2.5% chance to have a 25% chance to do something useful.
Phaser could be brought into line with the others by removing this hilariously useless proc, and putting something at least half-decent in it's place.
I could be wrong, but from what I can tell, the proc is working constantly. Every target I hit with phasers has an immunity almost constantly to systems being offline. If the proc did not work or rarely work or did not work properly, then this immunity would not show up at all.
...Updated Phaser Procs: Multiple system offline procs to a single subsystem no longer stack. For example, if your Weapons are offline and you get hit with another Weapons offline proc, it is disregarded. After a phaser proc's duration has ended, targets will receive a 10-second immunity to additional phaser procs. During this time, no additional systems can be taken offline by Phasers. Other effects that cause subsystem offline, such as Boarding Parties, can still take effect during this immunity...
...So the proc does work, and does so often, but it is hardly noticeable. When it is noticeable, it's the disabled shield proc I see. Anything else seems unnoticeable or it doesn't work. So the npcs are becoming immune to virtually nothing almost constantly, because it is rare for me to see that the immunity icon is not active when I attack the npcs.
I cannot remember that far back before this update anymore, but I can only assume that phasers worked far better before than they do now. I am guessing that cryptic thought it was time to nerf the phasers or make them less effective against npcs with this single systems offline immunity thing. In my conclusion, at one time in this game's early history, phasers were quite powerful and are no longer. Well... no longer powerful in this case at least.
Now I guess we seek to learn from players that were on this game far before we were, to either confirm this conclusion or prove that this is untrue. If untrue, then I can't figure out the problem with phasers, because the fact is... they do work somehow. I suspect a serious nerf happened.
Phasers are not completely useless, no energy type is really.
Sure some procs like disruptors or romulan plasma can add a few dps points to your build but they all do the same basic damage when at the same mk & rarity.
Only serious min/maxers would try to squeeze every decimal point of dps out of their guns and if you go chasing proc types then that really what it comes down to.
I've been in STF's where someone with tetryon was useful because they wiped out the shields on a tac cube in seconds so we were all hitting hull with our own shooting.
I've seen polaron users shut down an NPC.
I've seen phaser users knock an NPC's shields off just as a HY plasma torp hits and one shot a target.
It's how you fly that's more important than worrying about the proc your guns are doing.
Just pick the colour/sound/special effect you like most and go with that. The only other thing to consider is maybe if you have space sets that boost specific energy types then that might sway you a certain direction.
On the subject of phaser types:
Normal - can be useful but as with all procs the chance is still 2.5%, so no point basing a build on it. They can sometimes give you a lucky proc and allow you a serious advantage but don't rely on this.
Biomolecular - the Rad DOT effect is quite good and when combined with embassy plasma consoles and also kinetic shearing for torps it can be quite a nasty damage boost if you're fighting a boss target.
Phased Biomatter - the only pure damage proc available I believe. It will boost your dps and spike damage when it happens. Best used on single targets for more damage but even in groups it can do a fair whack of damage to smaller targets. Really it would be improved if it was a splash damage proc that is not spread among targets, it should do a set amount of damage regardless of how many targets it hits.
Comments
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Bio-Molecular Weapons are alright, whether you go the Phaser or Disruptor version. I've had the Radiation damage proc for 2k in my combat log.
Also, with DR, there's supposed to be a new quantum-based torpedo with the new Rep. It does heavy Radiation damage also. So whatever we have that boosts Radiation damage will benefit that also.
Bio-Matter Phasers? The proc damage you see is what a single target will take. Not bad, I say. However, if there are multiple targets in close proximity to the target you're shooting at, the proc damage gets divided between them all. That's really bad.
However, having said all this, I'd say wait for DR and to see what the new weapons are before you go through the process of acquiring any more.
I could be wrong, but from what I can tell, the proc is working constantly. Every target I hit with phasers has an immunity almost constantly to systems being offline. If the proc did not work or rarely work or did not work properly, then this immunity would not show up at all.
Here's what it says: http://sto.gamepedia.com/Release_notes/20120719
...Updated Phaser Procs: Multiple system offline procs to a single subsystem no longer stack. For example, if your Weapons are offline and you get hit with another Weapons offline proc, it is disregarded. After a phaser proc's duration has ended, targets will receive a 10-second immunity to additional phaser procs. During this time, no additional systems can be taken offline by Phasers. Other effects that cause subsystem offline, such as Boarding Parties, can still take effect during this immunity...
...So the proc does work, and does so often, but it is hardly noticeable. When it is noticeable, it's the disabled shield proc I see. Anything else seems unnoticeable or it doesn't work. So the npcs are becoming immune to virtually nothing almost constantly, because it is rare for me to see that the immunity icon is not active when I attack the npcs.
I cannot remember that far back before this update anymore, but I can only assume that phasers worked far better before than they do now. I am guessing that cryptic thought it was time to nerf the phasers or make them less effective against npcs with this single systems offline immunity thing. In my conclusion, at one time in this game's early history, phasers were quite powerful and are no longer. Well... no longer powerful in this case at least.
Now I guess we seek to learn from players that were on this game far before we were, to either confirm this conclusion or prove that this is untrue. If untrue, then I can't figure out the problem with phasers, because the fact is... they do work somehow. I suspect a serious nerf happened.
Sure some procs like disruptors or romulan plasma can add a few dps points to your build but they all do the same basic damage when at the same mk & rarity.
Only serious min/maxers would try to squeeze every decimal point of dps out of their guns and if you go chasing proc types then that really what it comes down to.
I've been in STF's where someone with tetryon was useful because they wiped out the shields on a tac cube in seconds so we were all hitting hull with our own shooting.
I've seen polaron users shut down an NPC.
I've seen phaser users knock an NPC's shields off just as a HY plasma torp hits and one shot a target.
It's how you fly that's more important than worrying about the proc your guns are doing.
Just pick the colour/sound/special effect you like most and go with that. The only other thing to consider is maybe if you have space sets that boost specific energy types then that might sway you a certain direction.
On the subject of phaser types:
Normal - can be useful but as with all procs the chance is still 2.5%, so no point basing a build on it. They can sometimes give you a lucky proc and allow you a serious advantage but don't rely on this.
Biomolecular - the Rad DOT effect is quite good and when combined with embassy plasma consoles and also kinetic shearing for torps it can be quite a nasty damage boost if you're fighting a boss target.
Phased Biomatter - the only pure damage proc available I believe. It will boost your dps and spike damage when it happens. Best used on single targets for more damage but even in groups it can do a fair whack of damage to smaller targets. Really it would be improved if it was a splash damage proc that is not spread among targets, it should do a set amount of damage regardless of how many targets it hits.