Difference between Restorative Particle Focusers and Exotic Particle Focusers

grimoaldus1701

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Particle_Focuser_Science_Consoles

Hello all,
So I'm confused on how they work really. The Restorative Particle Focuser grants a chance to receive a stacking Exotic damage bonus when activating any Shield Heal or Hull Heal ability. Every Exotic Particle Focuser grants a chance to receive a stacking damage bonus when activating any Exotic Damage ability. I understand the difference being that they start with a heal on the Restorative and the Exotic with the use of an Exotic Damage ability. But is the damage from the Exotic Particle Focuser, exotic damage or just weapon damage. Maybe someone could explain it all better? Thank you. I would like to increase my exotic damage from Gravity Well and the like. I want a true Sci build and do not use beam weapons very often. So which one should I use. Thank you.
Edit: Also wanted you to know that I use torpedoes. So you could say I'm trying out a torp / sci build.

grimoaldus1701

I think I found my own anwser and wanted to share this guide with you all. It is way more complex than I thought. But I wanted to try to play the game very diffrently than I have ever before. Thank you all for playing and let's keep this game going.

https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/9pu8mr/space_magic_and_you_weys_guide_to_epg_in_the/

sci321

Edit: Misread the OP. The bonus from the focusers is purely for exotic damage. If an ability says it's boosted by EPG, it's boosted by the buff from the Particle Focusers. Otherwise, what I originally said still applies. The amount of exotic damage abilities vs the amount of healing abilities is the big factor in which is better.

tobiashirt

The short answer is that the Restorative ones give their buff immediately after using a heal, and the Exotic ones only give the buff after the end (last tick/pulse) of an exotic ability. So, a buff that you can have before firing off exotic abilities vs a more even/continuous buff during combat.

Also, the damage bonus is exotic only (iirc, it used to be a general bonus and got changed to being exotic-only). This will affect anything on your build that counts as exotic, including Kinetic, Physical, and Radiation damage types.

https://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/7e534dc61195be065d815b41cd54e186

That is my sci/torp ship that has only minimal use of beam weapons or non-science powers, though it's expensive enough to put together that it serves better as an example.