In the coming weeks we will be introduced to the new K-13 fleet holding. It will introduce the new lucrative
Xenotech Powerflow Module which at Ultra Rare and MK XII provides 28.3% power transfer rate and 31.9 Hull Penetration skill rating. At MK XIV Epic I suspect one console will provide 40% power transfer and 40 Hull Penetration skill rating.
So with the introduction of this new console it means I can finally replace the Lobi Tachyon console and the Borg Assimilated console with their CritH and CritD with two of these Xenotech Powerflow Modules. This will mean less CritH and CritD in favor of more power transfer and increased armor penetration.
So with that loss of CritH and CritD in favor of what the Xenotech console will provide I am revisiting the idea of swapping my current CritDx4 beam arrays for DMGx4. What are your thoughts about this?
In essence I would go for the totally random critical damage to more reliable raw damage (armor penetration, power transfer rate and increased base damage).
To give you an idea of what I currently use so you can give me better feedback...
I run a full 8 array beamboat with 515% power transfer rate (26 power units/sec), 25% critH and total 205% critD and full benefit of AMP (13% damage) and also 20% firing haste. In addition, I have 130 weapon power with power dips down to 110~ at the worst when going full broadside. With full buffs and starship trait stacks (minus Attack Pattern Alpha, Beta and Omega) the damage difference between CritDx4 and DMGx4 is about
2300 vs 2600 when hovering over the auto fire icon(s).
Basically it's a 300 damage difference between CritDx4 and DMGx4 for each array and probably also each attack in the attack cycle (4 attacks per cycle and per array). Given all of this information, would you consider DMGx4 more superior than CritDx4?
Any input is welcomed.
Comments
So... kinda depends on your build honestly.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
I have 18 toons, so if I have one build that does 50k+ then I won't invest in grinding heavily again. Currently I am even Dumping some of my better builds for "fun boats" (still aiming for 30k+ though).
If you didn't have the CrtDx4 gear yet I'd say: think before buying. But as you seem to have the gera already I'd say: don't bother. It may improve your build by 10% - but is that worth one month grinding?...
KDF: 2 tacs, 2 engs, 3 scis
KDF Roms: 3 tacs, 1 eng, 1 scis
FED: 2 tacs, 1 eng, 2 scis
TOS: 1 tac
all on T5 rep (up to temporal)
all have mastered Intel tree (and some more specs Points)
highest DPS: 60.982
However, and I may be missing some detail of the math, last I heard [Dmg] was, one-on-one a preferable modifier to [CrtD] for tacs due to where it enters the damage math for each shot. Thus, console replacement aside, [Dmg]x4 would have a higher dps ceiling than [CrtD]x4. It seems like the potential gain as a tac by moving to the [Dmg]x4 beams might be almost the same as any net gain (or loss) from the added armor pen.
as @rattler2 said upthread, it's trading spike for consistent damage (with the consistent potentially being a bit higher if everything is flattened out to a single metric).