test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Mixing Beams and Cannons
sililos
Member Posts: 2 Arc User
I recently got the Phantom Escort and love flying it, for fitting i keep seeing fits that use both beams and cannons, Why are people suddenly mixing? I was always told stick to one type of weapon, Beams or Cannons or Projectiles.
Anyone know whats going on with the sudden change?
Anyone know whats going on with the sudden change?
Post edited by sililos on
0
Comments
not sure, typically i use cannons and a single dual beam bank on front (for beam overload 3)
same thing here
And yes, a lot of ppl use dual beam banks with cannons. Full beam arrays are nice of you want to protect your flanks somewhat as cannons have such a tight firing arc. Personally I fly a Scim with a beam build.
In the end, find whatver balance works best for you. If the enemy takes more damage and dies before you do, you're doing ok.
But never cross the types! If you do, it will be bad.
I use Beam Overload boffs, that give me a 35% chance to bypass most of their shields, and it's surprisingly effective. This isn't a PvP build, but in PvE it's remarkably effective.
There are players who would argue its not efficient. But with changes to over dps capability, I like have something that looks it might be from Star Trek. This fits the bill without dumbing down my dps too badly
Basically wanted to make sure there wasn't some DPS boosting reason i was missing.
I can only seem to get 5-6k DPS regardless of ship and yet i see people in the 10's of thousands and cant understand why.
Now i know mixing weapons isnt the reason i can try to figure out where else i could be going wrong.
With the changes to STF's i have to figure this out or i will be labeled noob and loser forever by the l33ts in pugs lol.
I was basically told im doing it wrong because i only use Beam banks and boosting consoles for said banks when i should of been mixing in cannons etc.
I get the feeling some people are confusing the fun reasons for doing mix builds with it being higher DPS or something.
Depends on what you plan on doing with the ship and what you want out of it...
Phanton has Cdr, LCdr as tacs and you could even use the universal tac for another tac station.
Some builds that i could go with for a 3 DHC + 1 DBB setup is:
TT1, BO, CRF, APO/APB
TT1, BO, CRF
TT1, BO, CRF, APO/APB
TT1, CRV, CRF
TT1, BO, CRV, CRF
TT1, BO, CRV
TT1, CRV, BO, CRF
TT1, CRV, BO
TT1, CRV, BO, APO
TT1, CRV, CRF
TT1, CRV, CRF, APO/APB
TT1, CRV, CRF
BO
With so many boff tac slots there are a lot of different configurations you can try which can suit your needs. Some of those builds might be less optimized then others but at least you have options. You can max out your spike damage with a DBB BO setup by getting an AP DBB CritD x3, 3 AP DHC and going with BO3 and APO3. You can time it so that you use BO3 whenever you have the APO3 buff for an even bigger spike.
Right now how im playing is the attack run style of play. I pop my damage buffs then hit the Heavy Phaser Lance which is normally enough to knock a shield facing out even on a Voth Dread, i then slow down and hit that facing hard with the DBB, the damage resistance rating debuff from corrosive does the rest.
When i have to turn for another run my rear weapons keep the pressure on that one shield facing. It normally gets the job done in 1-2 attack runs on one facing.
I tend to not use FAW much however unlike everyone else, might be why my damage is low.
I was just using AP as an example of how you could maximize BO.
A DBB with CritD x3 has 60% severity, an AP DBB with CritD x3 has 80% Severity. I dont even know if its possible to roll a CritD x4 with the crafting/upgrading or if modifiers are capped at x3. I had an AP DBB that i was upgrading but best i could do on it was CritD x3 and [dmg]. But if it were possibly an AP CritD x4 is going to be 100% severity. Hell even just critd x3 is a lot of severity. Throw some AP cannons on there so that you can use all AP tac consoles or better yet fleet tac consoles with +8% severity each then you have yourself an optimized build. Whether you can afford it or not is on you.
And just think, thats on a Fed toon. Think about how much severity you would have on a Romulan toon with 4-5 SRO. I have like 113% severity on one of my Romulans with 5 SRO. With a DBB CritD x3, BO3, APO3, Tac Fleet and all that stuff a BO is going to really really hurt.
I think a lot of the people that say don't do it think there is only 1 "right" way to play the game and everything else is wrong.
I do it that way on many builds now.. FAW with an omni works as well on a cannon build. May not be optimum but i think all the better than integarting torpedoes in general pve.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Thanks. This clears it up perfectly.
All DHC may have been common, but definitely not the only suggested option ever.
The typical Escort combinations were:
3 DHC + 1 Dual Beam Bank + 3 Turrets
3 DHC +1 Torpedo + 3 Turrets.
Either weapon enables you to use an additional tactical skill to boost your damage, instead of having your slots left unused during an alpha strike.
For the DBB, you use Beam Overload. Great spike damage. Suggestion here is generally to use ACC weapons, to ensure the BO hits.
For the Torpedo, I am not usre if High Yield or Torpedo Spread is better. Okay, High Yield definitely deals more damage to one target, but at least in PvE, Torpedo Spread can help you hit multiple enemies. I suppose it depends on whether you use Cannon Rapid Fire or Cannon Scatter Volley - with volley, you can easily kill multiple enemies shields, and so a torpedo spread hits extra hard.
The weapon of course for torpedoes used to be Quantum Torpedoes, but I believe nowadays, the Gravimetric Torpedo (Dyson Reputation) or the Enhanced Biomolecular Torpedo (Space 8472 Counter-Command) are the weapons of choice.
Of course now comes the hard part, getting EC to fund them. Tend to use any keys i buy not sell them, its how i got my Corrosive beam arrays.
Glad i made this topic, its given me a world more insight than i had beforehand info like this tends to be like hens teeth to find for STO.
One last question, i have never been clear on what an Alpha strike is, is it attack pattern Alpha plus a DPS ability like BO?
Its all about three things. AoE, Spike, and Sustained Damage.
If your enemies can be reduced to space dust within the space of 10 seconds (the uptime on most buffs) then Spike damage is the way to go.
If you can do a lot of damage very quickly and end the combat then you damage total is divided by fewer seconds and your looking at some of the biggest DPS numbers.
If you can not reduce your enemies to space dust within the duration of a short burst then the focus is on sustaining as many damage bonuses as you can for the duration. Beam Overload and torpedo High yield can still enhance a sustained damage build's DPS in many situations, but for some builds you sacrifice more then you gain when the total damage done is divided by time.
The way to reach the highest possible DPS is to combine Spike damage with AoE. This is typicaly where the 50k+ DPS boasts come from.
Given enough enemies, a Gravity well, some single cannons with volley and a torpedo spread even a science ship can parse 60k DPS in some of the situations in which large waves of enemies warp in and can be quickly dispatched.
Just remember reports of DPS above 25k are usually taken from selective parsing and are not usually reproducible in all situations.
As an example, an AoE Escort that parses for 10k DPS in infected space will often parse for 20k DPS in Cure space, simply because of the way in which enemies are arranged and the reduced amount of time spent fighting fewer oponents.
Of course with the phantoms mastery trait you may want to forgo doubling up abilities in the way we have become accustomed to building ships. As long as your holding agro and you have a high enough defense your tactical and intelligence powers will not usually be more then a couple of seconds of global.