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Stupid question: How important is DPS? Or should i value weapons based on another quality?
theawesomeran
Member Posts: 14 Arc User
in The Academy
Sorry if this has been asked before
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Some equipment comes in sets where having a second or third piece gives a bonus, its possible in those circumstances that slotting the lower dps 'set weapon' trumpc a higher dps regular weapon. For example, the nausicaan disruptor set from the Echoes of Light mission, is great for disruptor builds if all three pieces are used but not if only two.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Entoiled_Technology_Set
Some of these can be quite significant changes that may help you more than just flat out damage.
Take polaron weapons for example. They do damage just fine, but put them into a dedicated drain boat and you have a target that is being damaged AND it has no power, making even more of a sitting duck.
Or disruptor weapons that lower the resistances of the target, meaning more damage can be done to it.
Then you have things like the PEP torp that will stop targets dead in their track with its plasma cloud, stationary targets take more damage.
So yes, all weapons do damage and doing more kills things faster. BUT...if you add in the special effects they have you can supplement your attack and control the battlefield much better. Don't just think of a gun as something shooting a funky energy beam, consider also the proc that might help slow, drain or debuff your enemy to help you and the team out.
2 -- Buy or craft weapons with decent modifiers that works for you. Weapons with highly desirable mods like [CrtD]x2 [Pen] can be extremely expensive. So settling for something like [CrtD]x2 [Dmg] or [CrtD]x2 [CrtH] can be a lot more affordable. Critical chance is one of the harder things to increase on a starship. The higher your critical chance the more often you can do critical severity (critical damage). [CrtH] is not that desirable since it only give a +2% critical chance for the weapon that does has that proc; it is not for all your weapons. However, if you have no other consoles / abilities that can improve your ship's critical change, then [CrtH] is a decent stopgap until you do. Overload or [Over] is also a pretty nice proc to have for beam weapons.
3 -- Upgrade the weapons and the appropriate tactical consoles to Mk XIV. Very rare is good enough for most people, but to max damage potential push them to epic quality. Ultra rare quality strikes a good balance because trying to improve quality from that point on can be extremely expensive. Weapons get a good boost in base damage going from Mk XII to Mk XIII, and going from Mk XIII to Mk XIV gives weapons it's biggest boost. Tactical consoles are easier to upgrade than the weapon itself so some players typically start
4 -- Purchase or craft very rare Mk II weapons and tactical consoles. The lower the mark level the easier it will be to increase the rarity. But your chances will still be low.
5 -- Sometimes it makes sense to purchase "failed" upgraded weapons during or after a Double Tech Point weekend. I have picked up some ultra rare Mk VII / Mk VIII [CrtD]x3 [Dmg] beam weapons for less than 1.1m EC on my secondary free to play only account. Naturally, I need to use more resources to upgrade them to Mk XIV, but at least those are some pretty good procs for an account where I do not play as much / have as many resources as my primary account where I do spend real money. I am not going to bother pushing them to epic quality.
6 -- When upgrading any gear always use Superior Upgrade Kits to get the most Tech Points while using the least refined dilithium per Tech Point. It also gives a better chance of improving quality. But the % chance is still very small and it gets even smaller as the Mk level increases and the quality of the current piece of gear increases. The % chance can drop below 1% at which point you will see a 0% chance of increase. That is because the upgrade window does not display decimal places. For example, when attempting to upgrading an ultra rare Mk XIV to epic Mk XIV, I believe you need to apply 8 Superior Upgrade Kits before you see the chance of a rarity improvement increase by 1%.
7 -- Use 1.5x or 2x Quality Research Accelerators (simply do a search for "1.5x q" or "2x q" on the Exchange without the quotes). Using them will increase the % chance of of each Superior Upgrade Kit to increase the quality of the piece of gear.
8 -- If you already have an epic piece of gear that is not Mk XIV, then use 1.5x or 2x Technology Research Accelerators to increase the amount of Tech Points each Superior Upgrade Kit will provide. The button that will actually allow to do an upgrade will only become available after the gear has received enough total Tech Points. You find these accelerators on the Exchange by doing a search for "1.5x" or "2x" (without the quotes); they are typically less expensive than the Research Accelerators.
9 -- Use gear from mission rewards or from the reputation systems that will improve the damage your weapons will do. For example, the rewards from "Echoes of Light" is good for disruptor weapons, whereas the rewards from "Sunrise" is good for phaser weapons.
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Entoiled_Technology_Set#Nausicaan_Disruptor_Beam_Array
https://sto.gamepedia.com/Quantum_Phase_Catalysts#Quantum_Phase_Torpedo
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
What this means is that, at a given level and quality, you should be able to achieve the same nett dps with any of the weapon types - as long as your build supports it: If you have tactical consoles that boost polaron damage then equipping a phaser is going to be less effective than equipping a polaron.
Things like the tactical consoles, and bonuses on sets, does mean that you do need to pick a weapon class and stick with it so you can get synergy benefits from all your equipped items.
But for the most part there is no intrinsic bonus to phaser vs polaron vs anti proton or whatever either in space or on ground.
And this rule doesn't just apply to STO. Every MMO that offers different kinds of damage will go to great care to ensure that any particular specialization is as capable as any other, or the playerbase will complain about a lack of effective choice.
It all comes down to your playing style. Some people pride themselves on being able to annihilate anything in seconds without breaking a sweat. Those are the people to whom DPS is important.
I view things a bit differently, though.
To me, the game is about having fun, and in a battle, the fun lies in the fight, not the victory. I much prefer having to think my way through a fight, to prioritize targets and to have to figure out the best strategy for taking out the enemy. That way when I do win, I feel like I accomplished something.
To me, just walking in and knocking out a target with overwhelming firepower in a single volley is only fun every once in a while. If I can do that every time, it gets boring.
But that's just me.
Figure out for yourself what your preferred play style is. Despite what some of the elitists will say, every style of play is a valid and viable one and nobody's idea of fun is wrong.
Things I want in STO:
1) More character customization options such as more clothing options, letting the toon complexion affect the entire body, not just the head. Also a true RGB color picker applied to all costume and appearance options, which would allow for true appearance customization and homogenous colors instead of "this same exact color looks vastly different on two different pieces."
2) Bridge customization, not bridge packs. Let us pick a general layout and adjust the color palette, console appearance, and chair types, as well as more ready room layout options.
3) Customizable ground weapons, i.e. The aesthetic look of phaser dual pistols but they shoot antiproton bolts. For obvious reasons this would only apply to standard ground weapons.
4) For the love of Q please revamp Plasma Ground Weapons. They look like demented Supersoakers right now.
5) True Vanity Impulse and Deflector effects similar to Vanity Shields.
6) A greater payout for hitting T6 Reputations. Currently it takes more time and resources to get from T5 to T6 than it does to get from nothing to T5. Make that grind really pay out at the end.
7) Mirrorverse Refugee event similar to AoY/Delta/Gamma, complete with new Mirrorverse recruits for all factions.
8) Independent Faction, because yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
I've been here since Beta release when STO was released by Atari.. If anyone remember, and I'm still new as.. Yeah.. xD
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!