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I dont understand stats for shields and armour

roughsuperiorroughsuperior Member Posts: 6 Arc User
edited July 2014 in The Academy
I am having trouble trying to work out the advantages or various shields , armour , and weapons.

Is there a guide or table anywhere.

eg:

Console - engineering - ablative hull armour mk 111

+ 9.4 phaser damage resistance
+ 9.4 disruptor,plasma,tetryon resistance

but

console- engineering - tritanium alloy mk 4
is only + 7.5 kinetic damage resistance
and 7.5 all energy weapon resitance

the mk 3 looks stronger than the mark 4 but cost less enegy credits

also


poly weave body amour mk 3
42.9 physical/kinetic damage resistance

diburnium reinforced body armour mk 4

25.5 physical/kinetic resistance
plus 2.6 phaser resist

again the mark 3 looks stronger


also I get that ship weapons with a narrower targeting arc tend to be more powerful than a wide tageting arc but what does DPS mean ?


any ideas where I can find a comparason table of shiels weapons consoles ?
Post edited by roughsuperior on

Comments

  • mandoknight89mandoknight89 Member Posts: 1,687 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    DPS is "damage per second," the average damage of a weapon per second. A weapon that deals 2000 damage once every other second deals 1000 DPS, as does a weapon that deals 500 damage every half-second.

    Damage resistance consoles offer either higher magnitude resistance ratings or a wider degree of protection. Your ablative hull armor only protects against phasers, disruptors, plasma energy weapons (including plasma damage over time, but not the initial impact of plasma torpedoes), and tetryon weapons. The tritanium alloy defends against all of those, but also antiproton, polaron, proton, and kinetic (torpedoes and mines, primarily) damage sources, but defends against each of those less than the dedicated armor types.

    However, the ratios are set up that for the most efficient protection (unless you're going to be swapping a lot of armor around depending on who you're facing), using the "all-types" alloys is best. The name of that alloy console depends on the level... at Mk X-XII, you won't find any tritanium alloy consoles, but you will find neutronium alloy instead.

    Furthermore, keep an eye out for the console rarity/quality markings. Each level of rarity gives the console a boost equal to going up one mark: a green Mk III is the same strength as a white Mk IV, and a purple Mk X is as strong as a green Mk XII.
  • policestate76policestate76 Member Posts: 1,424 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Easy way, about ship armor, forget everything except neutronium alloys (all energy and kinetic resistance, you will only need that).

    And for ground combat, pollyaloy wave armors are usually the best, but it depends on what class / style your captain is.

    But since it seems that your are new to the game, you should visit the wiki

    http://sto.gamepedia.com/Main_Page
  • razar2380razar2380 Member Posts: 1,187 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    When dealing with weapons, it is good to have both high DPS, and damage. If using cannons, the higher damage is better, but beams are better for higher DPS. The reason for this is that cannons are great for spike damage, but beams do much better with sustained damage.

    It you can combine the two on your ship for a forward facing build (example, fore weapons being a combination of Dual Beam Banks, and Dual Heavy Cannons, and aft being turrets), then you can do much higher damage output over all, and kill things faster.

    Beams are great against shields, and with their ability to keep firing (especially with the FAW skill) will help keep shields down, and the cannons can hit hard, in burst damage. The cannons are really good for taking down the hull. If you have a torp on the ship, that can replace a cannon to add even higher spike damage while the enemy's shield facing is down.

    It is possible to focus a build on just one, or the other. A very high DPS build, or high damage build. However, when you face enemies that have a high defense against one of them, it will mea. It takes longer to kill them. Using a combination will work against all enemies, all the time.
    Leader of Elite Guardian Academy.Would you like to learn how to run a fleet? Would you like to know how to do ship builds (true budget as well as high end)?The join the Academy today!
  • lordfuzunlordfuzun Member Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    You needs some basics to first to be able to understand armor and shields. First there different damage types in the game. Each damage type is unique and different. But they are group into two different categories. The Energy damage types are Phaser, Disruptor, Polaron, Tetryon, Anti-proton, Proton. Energy damage is being hit with directed energy weapons. Then there is Kinetic and Physical damage sort of a non-goup. Physical damage is from melee attacks (punches and kicks and from hand to hand weapons). Kinetic damage is from explosions. And there ae some exotic damages which you generally only run into on ground maps: Electrical, Toxic, Fire, Cold, Psionic.

    Armor of any type has one or more damage resistance ratings. These rating only apply to the type of damage it's for. The way the ratings work is you simply add them all up. The total translates to a damage resistance % amount via a math formula. In essence it's a curve with diminishing returns which increases towards a limit of 75%. See http://sto.gamepedia.com/Damage_resistance for more details. Also note cetain BOFF abilities and space gear procs can give damage ratings as well. These stack with any armor.

    In regards to Starship armor consoles, most will have 1, 2, or 4 armor ratings. The more armor rating the console has the less each armor rating will be. The console quality (white, green, blue, purple) also affects the armor ratings. So a lesser mark console that is blue or purple can be better then a white higher mark console.


    Shields are more straight forward. Shields are a layer of defense that sits above armor. You can think of shields as a type of ablative armor which has a limited damage absorption capacity which can regenerate. Shields will block 90% or 95% damage depending on it's type. (Some weapons have added shield penetration capabilities).

    Shields can also have their own damage resistance rating. But this rating only applies to the Shield itself. This shield damage resistance can be inceased with certain abilities. Starship Shields can also be hardened by increasing the amount of Shield Subsystem power. Like armor, Shield damage resistance has an absolute limit of 75%. But the way it's calculated is straight forward. Shield damage resistance is always expressed as a percentage. You just add the percentages together.
  • roughsuperiorroughsuperior Member Posts: 6 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Thanks guys , it was mainly confusion between mk 3 armour being stronger than mk 4 , but thats been explained by the different levels within each grade.
  • norobladnoroblad Member Posts: 2,624 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    I am having trouble trying to work out the advantages or various shields , armour , and weapons.

    Is there a guide or table anywhere.

    eg:

    Console - engineering - ablative hull armour mk 111

    + 9.4 phaser damage resistance
    + 9.4 disruptor,plasma,tetryon resistance

    but

    console- engineering - tritanium alloy mk 4
    is only + 7.5 kinetic damage resistance
    and 7.5 all energy weapon resitance

    the mk 3 looks stronger than the mark 4 but cost less enegy credits

    also


    poly weave body amour mk 3
    42.9 physical/kinetic damage resistance

    diburnium reinforced body armour mk 4

    25.5 physical/kinetic resistance
    plus 2.6 phaser resist

    again the mark 3 looks stronger


    also I get that ship weapons with a narrower targeting arc tend to be more powerful than a wide tageting arc but what does DPS mean ?


    any ideas where I can find a comparason table of shiels weapons consoles ?

    Specific energy resist items vs general. That is, there are many types of damage in the game (antiproton, proton, plasma, phaser, disruptor, tertyon, more) and resisting 2 or 3 of them will be stronger than a generic item that resists ALL of them. So you can't compare those items... resist all is obviously better for day-to-day play and pvp, while resist "type" is better if you are farming a particular STF or area. Resists have a hard diminishing returns (DR) -- kind of like your captain's skill tree where 3 points is 50%, 6 points is 85% and 9 points is 99%, so with resists, the more points of resist you have the less value you will get from each additional point. The equations can be found in the wiki ... http://sto.gamepedia.com/Damage_resistance

    same for ground. On the ground, I like resist-all energy most. Mines and grenades are avoidable (pvp might want to resist these).

    Shields for ground are simple things: bigger amount is better, and anything else on top of that is a perk, there are only really 1 type of ground shield with various affixes/perks.

    Shields in space are complex. You have 3 types of shields, various affixes, set bonuses, and your ship's power level matters for regen, and your ship's shield modifier matters as well. For example my tanky carrier has a huge shield and hull mod (shield is 1.3X, hull is over 50k) so I can use a lower capacity, higher regen shield and still be tougher than any escorts would be using a full capacity shield, and if I put a high shield power setting, I would be very durable. Or I could drop shield power, use the biggest capacity I can find (about 12k per face) and just heal myself when I get low -- also super durable. Play around with cheap shields, see what works best for you, but at lower levels shield power is a luxury, as you need weapon power and decent aux ... there is not enough power to run high shields at low levels... use a high-cap from 1-40 level and just heal with officers.

    Speaking of power, your weapon power greatly affects dps for non-projectiles. It should be maxed in most builds; only a pure healer or pure tank would run with less than max weapon power... (with odd exceptions... missile boats, aux weapon ship, and so on).

    weapon arc is part of the whole. Dual heavy cannons at a 45 degree arc are the hardest hitting but they do not fit on all ships AND their dps falls off at range. Dual beam banks do as much or more damage at longer ranges (more than 5 or so km -- you can look up the exact crossover range I forget). Cannon ships need to be nimble enough to not only hold the target in their arc but to stay close to the target -- which is often a bad plan for bosses -- making DBB the "go-to" weapon in this game. The vast majority of players, then, are doing one of 3 things... DBB frontal builds at range and with aoe, beam array builds for broadsides and aoe, or dual heavy cannons for up close destruction.

    there are tons of guides here in these forums and the wiki is a great reference. Keep asking as you have questions, though, but the math and details are easier to get from in-depth web pages. Asking just gets you general answers, good for starting out but not for a max/min/do the math build.
  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    edited July 2014
    Starship armor basically protects you against specific energy weapon damage or provides protection against kinetic damage and all types of energy weapon damage.

    Armor that protects against specific energy weapon damage provide higher protection than armor that can project against all energy weapon damage in general; assuming both are of the same mark level (example Mk III). If you know you are going to be fighting specific enemies then you want to pick an armor that matches up against the type of weapons your enemy uses. If you are playing as a Klingon, then you want armor that specifically protects you against phasers (Federation) and plasma (Romulans). If you are playing as the Federation, then you want armor that protects you against disruptors (Klingons) and plasma (Romulans). Of course; if you face a different using different energy weapons, then the armor does not provide any extra protection. Choosing an armor that protects against energy weapons in general will give you some protection no matter who you face, the extra bonus is this armor also provides a bit of protection against damage done by torpedoes and mines if your shields are down.

    Armor that protects against specific energy weapons can provide protection against 4 different types of energy at Mk XI. But you need to be rear admiral, upper half before you can use that armor; known as Tetraburnium if I am not mistaken. I typically use armor that protects against phasers and plasma when I play Klingon. When playing as the Federation I use armor effective against disruptors and plasma.

    When it comes to shields for your starship there are a few different type that can make it confusing to choose which one is right for you.

    1. Shields - This are your basic shields which balances capacity and regeneration. Capacity is the amount of damage the shield can take before it collapses. Regeneration is the rate at which the shields recharges. All shields have 10% bleed through which means 10% of the damage done by energy weapons and projectiles (torpedoes and mines) will damage your hull. The exception is Resilient Shields.

    2. Covariant Shields - These shields have higher maximum capacity compared to normal shields, but they have lower regeneration rate. These types of shields are generally favored by people who flies crusiers because they can take a pounding.

    3. Regenerative Shields - These shields have lower capacity compared to normal shields, however, they regenerate faster. Players who flies Escorts, Birds of Prey and Raptors generally favor this type of shields. They go in firing their cannons and when they need to they fly away so that their shields can regenerate before going back for more fighting.

    4. Resilient Shields - These shields only allow 5% of damage to bleed through the shields vs. 10% of the other shields. However, this type of shield also have lower capacity and lower regeneration rate compared to normal shields.


    I use Covariant Shields for all the ships I fly because they have high capacity. I use the Boff (bridge officer) abilities like Emergency Power to Shields (engineering) and Science Team (Science) to help keep shields up in a fight. I fly the following types of ships.

    Fed Engineer = Sovereign Cruiser
    Klingon Engineer = Negh'var Cruiser
    Klingon Tactical = Hegh'ta Heavy Bird of Prey
    Romulan Science = Ha'nom Guardian Warbird (best described as a light cruiser)
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