Surgical Stike Escort Q

reginamala78

So planning to build a Surgical Strike escort on a Phantom and maybe on a different character's Faeht, and curious for the opinions of people with more experience with SS than I have. I know my aft weapons are gonna be a pair of AP omnis either way, but fore do y'all run DHCs or DBBs? On one hand DHCs hit harder, drain less energy, and get a small CrtD bonus. On the other, DBBs give more time on target and I'd be able to pack an extra FAW1 for spam clearance. What do people prefer and why?

lordsteve1

I found running the Phantom as beam escort worked best for SS builds.

Mainly because like you say time on target is better and generally the arcs of the beams means you're wasting less shooting time that with the cannons you need to spend lining up for shots.

Now all of that is just a general escort + DHC problem overall but with SS it is even more vital to keep targets in your arc because you shoot so much slower whilst using SS.

I found a SS attack with DHC's at close range was lethal but overall my effectiveness was much higher with omni beams and DBB's (or arrays) because I could shoot more targets from further away or those outside of a DHC arc.

The cannon build worked well if I could kill something in one attack run but with the damage sponges we have now often i'd need to turn round for another run, losing valuable time on target. Beams meant I could shoot from 7km + away and then circle the enemy to some extent.

One area i would say cannons with SS works wonders is with groups of lighter targets using CSV. You can easily tear up stuff like that in seconds. I'm talking settings like the mirror invasion where you've got groups of 3+ medium to light targets in close proximity.

dova25

I presume you want to build it for PVP

Phantom
Antiproton [CRD]X4

kerygan

DBB' s works best with SS , overall, but there are some situations where dhc's are better , like the „boss” ships at the end of instances .

shadowwraith77

My own personal opinion, would be beams all the way!

SS causes your weapons fire to be cut directly in half big time, this causes an already 2 shot DHC, to fire 1 shot per complete cycle and, by cycle it also factors in standard cd times between shots so, you get about 1 shot per DHC ever 3-4 secs, while the DBB's can pop off about 2 shots roughly every 4-5 secs. (granted these times listed aren't exact but, they are very close)

fatman592

Beams, Reciprocity, max out critical severity.

ussboleyn

I'm really liking 4x AP DBB with both AP Omni + KCB.

warmaker001b

If you're flying an Escort with SS, I'm assuming you're going for narrow arc builds.

SS reduces rate of fire. On DHCs, the feel is quite noticeable. But it doesn't stop them from racking up stupid good numbers in these short bursts that they do under SS. I personally have no problems with DHCs in SS fire but from the feel of it, I knew some wouldn't like it.

With that, I feel you can't go wrong with DHCs, DBBs either way. They both work well for me.