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Why are beams the meta?
telbasta7386
Member Posts: 761 Arc User
Just trying to understand why everyone is saying beams are better than cannons right now. Need to pick a setup for my ship.
Used to be that cannons were always better, but I've been out of the game for a long time.
Used to be that cannons were always better, but I've been out of the game for a long time.
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There is no Meta that says beams are better then anything else though.
Torp Builds can hit 200k+
Cannon builds can hit 200k+
Beam builds can hit 200k+
What I will say is that it is easier to reach 50-75k range with a beam build due to FAW being ensign - FAW I, LT - FAW II, Lt comm - FAW III.
Where as a cannon build your abilities will be LT - CSV/CRF I , LT COMM - CSV/CRF II, COMM - CSV/CRF III
So right away beam users have a little easier time due to the way boff abilities were set.
Plus Beams have an easier time targeting enemies with their wide area of attack. Not too mention Beam FAW will hit everything within range regardless if they are targeted or not.
It just makes for easier gameplay for the average player.
But a quality pilot can make any weapon system shine, and have shown that in the right hands a cannon build is superior to a beam build.
Its at the very top end of DPS where these pilots will expose a beam build for being inferior to a cannon or torp build.
1. Captain A is flying an escort with a 5/2 setup using dual cannons in front and turrets to the rear. He charges in at a group and fires up volley, all ships in a cone in front of this ship within the cone are damaged. All other ships around him are unaffected. His 5 DCs and 2 weaker turrets deal the damage.
2. Captain B is flying a cruiser with a 4/4 setup using Beam Arrays front and back. He charges in at a group and fires up Fire at Will. All ships around him begin taking damage from his beams. Sure there is a cap on the total number of ships and it is random, but it's still very much a wild display of beams when you consider there are 8 of them doing this. His 8 BAs are dealing strong damage.
1. Captain A is flying an escort with a 5/2 setup using dual cannons in front and turrets to the rear. He charges in at a single target and fires up rapid fire, again he must keep his damage cone focused on the single target. All other ships around him are unaffected. His 5 DCs and 2 weaker turrets deal the damage as he passes, this changes to just the 2 turrets.
2. Captain B is flying a cruiser with a 4/4 setup using Beam Arrays front and back. He charges in at a single target and fires up Fire at Will. He begins to circle the target, focusing all 8 beams on it. His 8 BAs are dealing strong damage the entire time.
This is why ships like the Arbiter are so great. Decent agility and a 5/3 setup, but you can put 3 Omnis in the rear and BAs in the front. Now you have 8 beams in the front and still 8 beams at the sides to rear quarters with 3 beams to the direct rear, but how often will your own rear be exposed?
Now fire up FAW and don't worry about pesky 90 degree cones.
That all said...I do still fly escorts with cannons...they are very fun to fly and in the right hands can be very lethal, if not as lethal as the other, but any Friday night drunk captain can get decent DPS out of a beam boat using FAW.
Nope. (CSV is the same.)
It's the 250˚ angle.
Id drop the cutting beam for an R&D Omni beam + Ancient AP Omni.
But yeah that will work just fine.
Beam banks still suffer from the limited weapon traversal so while you gain FAW, it's real advantage of having access to a vast amount of space and targets around your own is still not there.
I have been known to load Beam Arrays on escorts from time to time.
Ah you're on console, forget I said R&D Omni lol.
Maybe put a regular AP beam in the cutting beams place. Its not that great.
Plus some missions tends to have a lot of enemies that swarms you which can make life difficult for ships using cannons especially if you use Dual Heavy Cannons which only has a 45 degree firing arc. There are Wide Arc Dual Heavy Cannons with a 90 degree firing arc, but only one can be installed per ship.
A good mission to compare beam weapons and cannons (especially DHC) was MIrror Invasion especially when people neglected to close rifts or when too many rifts formed near each other where sooner or later (mostly sooner) you get interrupted when closing a rift and within 60 - 90 seconds you can find yourself surrounded by a swarm of enemies.
A generic ship with DHC can hold its own decently well compared to a generic ship with beams against swarms, but it can take a lot more effort. But doing so can be fun because "effort" can be seen as a challenge which can also be used to improve your space combat skills through personal experience.
yeah, lvl15 in beams gives Omni, which can be stacked with the Cutter and Ancient for 3 Omnis, as I have on the rear of my Arbiter.
Cutting beam in the rear is way better than a beam array of the same level and gets WAY better when you add in an Assimilated Module as you get:
Set 2: Omega Weapon Amplifier
On hit with any energy weapon, 2.5% chance: to self: Applies Omega Weapon Amplifier:
+10 Current Weapon Power
+500 Current Weapon Power Resistance Rating for 3 sec
+500 Maximum Weapon Power Resistance Rating for 3 sec
to all your beams and that 2.5% chance is decent when you have a lot of beams and fire off FAW a lot.
Dual Heavy Cannons basically used to have an advantage beams didn't have - since the damage was all up-front, the energy drain didn't hit them as hard. Beam users had to manage all those beam's energy drain since the weapon fires over its entire cylce, basically, and so there was quickly a cut-off point where more beams didn't help anymore.
For a time this made them a bit too good perhaps compared to beams, though they still had that fire arc restrictions (hence we used to call the game Escorts Online). But then the other "features" were added - things like Plasmonic Leech, Cruiser Weapon Efficiency Command, Plasma Embassy, traits that lower cooldowns. And now BFAW is definitely the easiest way, probably also the best way, to reach top DPS.
Fixing all of this without taking a lot away is difficult, and requires probably adjusting many aspects of the game. And Cryptic is doing that relatively slowly. And there are probably some monetary reasons for that, too. Even before BFAW Online, people loved Cruisers. Most of the hero ships are cruisers, and this is what people want to fly. But... during Escorts Online they weren't good enough. Now they finally are, so there is a beautiful confluence of "Ship Type people would prefer to buy because hero ship" and "Ship Type people would prefer to buy because most effective."
Suffice it to say that there players have figured out the combo of abilities, skills and math to make beams viable, where as back in the day it was DHCs on escorts in "Escorts Online" because that stuff hadn't been sorted out yet...at least not by the masses.
The problem comes from those late game foes who's attacks require you to keep moving. All that time when your cannons aren't on target is time when you're not doing damage. So the overall effect is less.
Still, it's a fun way of flying, I'm switching an alt over to it. I'd try it out and see if you like it.
Dual beam banks work pretty well with escorts. I decided to install Tetryon dual beam banks on a heavy escort; the free T6 Vorgon Xyfius from the 2016 Risa Summer Event on the PC. Tetryon because the ship included a universal console that increased Tetryon damage. I am pretty happy with it. I decided to go with DBBs because I could not push the turn rate high enough where I would feel happy enough to use DHCs. However, I plan on revisiting this later. Though I have to admit that using turrets instead of omni-beam arrays is bummer since turrets are less powerful.
Yeah, but if you have high PTR already you can go without the 2 piece Cut beam/Assim Console.
On another note, the Cutting beam has absolute garbage fire rate. Which is why I like another Omni, regular or Rep AP beam in its place.
But I'm spoiled maybe, used to 400% PTR, with Leetch and Supremacy. So I've not used the assim 2 piece in quite a while.
Since there's a lot of console players in the forums right now, I do think we need to be a bit clear cut about the 2pc Assimilated bonus Omega Weapon Amplifier.
It is indeed something a build can grow out of. But until a build/ship/player reaches a specific point, it's still pound for pound an amazing bonus to equip and run with. Beyond that, even after replacing the KCB, the Assimilated Module itself still remains a great console choice until you can replace it with something usually that costs Lobi or is ship specific.
One of the best parts about the new player infusion from console is a lot of things that were old (like how standard the Assimilated 2pc used to be in alllll build, hahaha), is new again!
that's great for you and the rest of us PC players, but for the new console players...they have easy access to this set I recommended and no access to R/D and PL, etc. so you gotta consider the target of the thread.
Yeah true enough.
Oh wow, really? I thought they would have that one at least. Damn. So for the console peeps, uh, what reputations do you have available right now, if any?
I knew they didn't have them all, but I could have sworn Borg/Omega was one of the reps they did have.
Did some digging and it looks like they only have "Delta, 8472, New Romulus and Dyson"...which to be honest...is pretty lame. They have my pity for sure.
1, Beams have a 250 degree firing Arc. Most Cannons only have 45 degrees. That's means beams have a 205 degree Arc advantage and the ability to fire at the target and keep firing at the target for a longer duration.
2. Beams can be equipped fore and aft meaning fore or aft technically you are equipping weapons with the same power level fore and aft. you cannot do this with Cannons.
3. Due to the 1st 2 reasons, a beam boat can broadside a target and bring all eight beams to bare. A Cannon boat can only ever bring 4/5 max depending on ship layout.
4. Due to the 3 reasons given above but mainly the 1st that leads into the other 2 piloting is easier due to the superior firing arc of beams.
Everyone TRIBBLE that Beam Fire at Will is Overpowered and go onto rant about traits/shipship traits, consoles ect. And they DO buff damage as they DON'T affect Cannons as much, that is the fault of the Dev's neglecting Cannons rather than Beams being Overpowered. (Example of this is plasma embassy consoles not critting when it was switched on for Cannons so it was switched off because they couldn't fix it)
A Cannon boat that can keep a target in its 45 degree Arc is just as powerful as any Beam Boat it can be even more powerful. But it takes excellent piloting skills to accomplish. As soon as the target is out of that 45 degee Arc Cannons damage ability drops to zero whereas a beam boat has 360 degree coverage due to being able to equip fore and aft so a target is never out of Arc of you're primary weapon.
But its easier to say something is overpowered rather except the limitations of 1 weapon type and ones lack of piloting skill
Biggest change I'd make to Cannons to help bring them up to speed is increase their firing Arc from 45 degrees to 75/80 degrees
Of course, it could just be that they intend to release them slowly over the next months or years to not overwhelm the new players.
But that is probably the main reason, beside BFAW, why beams are currently prefferable over cannons.
1. Time-to-target: Damage packets register instantly with beams where is there is a delay for cannon shots and to a greater extant for torps. It's hard to get deepz when your target was killed simply because a teammate had the damage register quicker.
2. Beams have access to an ensign-level power with both B:Faw and B:O. Cannon get no such luxury.
3. The inherent +10% CritD I believe is nullified during C:SV and C:RF.
THESE issues need to be resolved to create more parity between beams/cannons and by extension, more differentiation in builds.