Battlecruiser, Beams or Cannons?

dandalftheteal

I am considering acquiring a battle cruiser in the near future, is the general consensus that beams are better for that class, or are cannons just as viable. I've only flown BoPs so far, and cannons work pretty well for them, but they are more agile.

potasssium

Depending on interia rating I generally use beams with turn below 30ish, and cannons above that point.

My Vor'cha has a Turn just shy of 50 so runs cannons.

My command cruisers vary, Beams on some, cannons on the Tact one.

My Mogh I run beams with two front toros to turn in and launch. (I have a Sheshar and it's mastery trait for back to back THY).

Kama'rang can be set however you like, delightfully versitile.

warmaker001b

The game heavily favors beams right now. Only reason right now to use cannons is if you want to be a stickler for a KDF ship acting like a KDF ship (dual beams, cannons, narrow arc weapons like in canon). But if you want easy effectiveness both offensively and defensively with the littlest amount of hassle in piloting, you go beams.

Another reason to go beams is that they're less costly in terms of TAC station requirements. To get BFAW1/BO1 you can slot it at Ensign. TO get CRF1, CSV1, you need Lt station at the bare minimum.

Yeah, Beams win, hands down.

dandalftheteal

I was thinking about the k't'inga, and I am a tac officer. My BoP does well with cannons, but i wanted to check. How do you get more training manuals? I've only gotten a couple from making boff candidates make them before being dismissed. Is there a store for them?

variant37

dandalftheteal wrote: »

How do you get more training manuals? I've only gotten a couple from making boff candidates make them before being dismissed. Is there a store for them?

They're available on the Exchange.

freakium

Yep, like warmaker001b said, beams are the current go-to weapon right now. I however usually like to be an exception to the rule. Whether that makes me less useful in an STF is up to interpretation.

You see I own a Bortasqu' that runs twin DHCs, a cannon, and a torpedo up front and twin turrets, a beam array, and a kinetic cutting beam in the back. Why in the seven TRIBBLE would anyone do such a thing you might ask? Because I can. I'm doing perfectly fine in the new Iconian STFs staying roughly 6 km away from the enemies and I can't get any more Klingon with my uber cannons facing the enemy.

The whole beams vs. cannons thing to me really just boils down to playstyle. If you prefer to stay as far away from the enemy as possible then I would recommend beams. If you prefer to chase down your target and never let anyone chase your 6, then strap on some cannons.

dandalftheteal wrote:

Is there a store for them?

You can also find BOff trainers at every major faction hub (Q'onos, Earth Spacedock, New Romulus Command).

dandalftheteal

Thanks, my BOFFs need some definite attention skill wise. I like the cannons particularly, and i usually run turrets aft. Might be waiting until my next rank on the battle cruiser, for some reason i thought i could buy the k't'inga with energy credits, is the Vor'cha a good investment?

szerontzur

Cannons are more fun/satisfying. Beams are more effective.

Everything in the metagame just heavily favors beams right now.

tom61sto

dandalftheteal wrote: »

Thanks, my BOFFs need some definite attention skill wise. I like the cannons particularly, and i usually run turrets aft. Might be waiting until my next rank on the battle cruiser, for some reason i thought i could buy the k't'inga with energy credits, is the Vor'cha a good investment?

The Tier 4 or Tier 5 Vor'cha? Steer away from the T4 completly, I leveled a toon via just DOffing to the next rank after buying it without looking at more than a couple of stats, and hated so much after a few fights that I scrapped it. The T5 you get from leveling up is servicable, and will be quite a bit different from what you're used to, being much slower, less Tactical if you've been slotting Tacs in the higher rank BOff slots, lacking Battlecloak (only has standard cloak, which requires being out of red alert to recloak), but sooo much more durable.

Beams would work better in this case, as the leveling T5 Vor'cha lacks the tac run both cannon abilities and attack patterns.

dandalftheteal

I do love my battlecloak, one of the reasons i've stuck with BoPs. The tier 4 Vor'cha would be the next one available to me, as I just picked up the Norgh at my last promotion. it seems that the basic idea that cannons are the skill weapon and beams the fire and forget sort. I appreciate the input.