Question about Phasers...

sharpie65

Why are phasers so disliked in the game? I haven't really tried the Phased Biomatter weapons, so I would really like to know.

P.S. I've been in the game nearly three years (f2Per, now LTS) and am still nowhere near the answer. :rolleyes:

jam3s1701

The rubbish phaser proc tbh

Only weapon that's worse IMHO is tetryon lol.

But fed for me = phaser.

jbmaverick

The main "problem" with Phasers (at least the basic form of them) is that they don't innately increase your damage. Disruptors decrease enemy resistances, thus increasing your damage. Plasma sets the target on fire, dealing additional damage over time. Tetryon deals additional damage to shields (usually thought to be worse than Phaser). Polaron reduces enemy power levels, which reduces their shield damage reduction from shield power (Polaron is generally disliked more than Phaser) and Antiproton has increased critical hit severity, and with the ability to stack critical chance has a much greater "chance" of applying its beneficial effect than the other weapons. Phasers however will randomly disable a single subsystem and only one of those 4 will actually help you kill a target more quickly, namely the shield subsystem. So while the other weapons have a 2.5% chance of helping you, Phasers have 2.5% chance of a 25% chance of helping you.

Additionally, the proc doesn't last very long when it's most needed. Most weak enemies don't last long enough for the Phaser proc to make much difference in any event, but large enemies such as Borg Cubes are highly resistant to subsystem disables, causing the proc to only be active for a fraction of a second. This almost entirely negates the usefulness of Phasers in end-game content.

That said, some of the specialty Phasers can be more useful, such as Phased Biomatter, and the 8472 reputation added a "bonus" Phaser damage set bonus. "Bonus" damage is in a different category than tactical consoles and therefore stacks multiplicatively rather than additively, which makes it even stronger. However, Antiproton and Polaron also have multiplicative set bonuses from other, easier to acquire sources (no Reputation grinding required).