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Ship weapons noobie question

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2010 in The Academy
Hello everyone,

I finally have made the rank of Captain, I purchased my cruiser ship and am ready to beef it up.

I recently ran through a mission that had me fight cardassian ships (as a commander) - and I was taking a beating. There was another player that came in who was killing those ships like it was nothing, yet i was struggling just to stay alive.

So my question is all the different weapons out there do certain weapons do better against certain foes?

A side questions I currently have Paratrinic Shield Array MK IV, they are great however their recharge rate is very low. I can't seem to find a mark Viii version (for my new cruiser) any advice on which shields are the best.

As for weapons I so far found the following

Beam Weapons
Phaser
Polaron
Plasma
Disruptor
tetryon

Torpedo Weapons
Plasma
Photon
Quatum
Transphasic
Chroniton

What do they all mean? What should I go with to have a versitile ship that can take a beating. Do the different consoles really do that much more for a ship?

Lots of questions I know, but I cant seem to find out what the different weapons really do and how the consoles enhance them.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    IMO - specialise is king. Pick one energy type and one projectile type and go with it - then max out those skills.

    As cruiser you'll typically loooking at - arrays (or turrets) for energy, probably quantums for projectile (or other slow firing weapon, since cruisers turn slowly you're not going to get the msx DPS that photons can theoretically churn out, so you should look for a burst damage projectile.

    Personally I chose to go with phaser arrays and quantum torpedoes since SP cost is low to max out skillwise - Then Energy Weapons-9, Beam Weapons-9, Phasers-9 = total +100, same with Projectiles, Torpedoes, Quantum.

    Also energy settings - go all out offense, I'm typically running Weapons-100, Shields-60, Engines-45, Aux-50 (including various power boosting abilities and equipment). To keep shields up I rely on things like EP2Shield-3, Science Team, Reverse Shield Polarity.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Here's a link to a thread that has some good information on weapons.
    http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=88576
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    So what kind of consoles should I be looking for? What kind of powers for my officers.

    why all the different types of weapons if it does not really matter? I heard that there was one kind of weapon that really works well with borg cubes.

    lasty what are the best shields and what is the best way to keep them alive?

    Looking at the link provided above really helped. Thanks for that. Still have questions about the shields and different consoles
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Well, it's kinda hard to say exactly what consoles you should equip since there's so many out there, but generally speaking, you'll want consoles that buff your existing weapons... I know, duh, right? But again, you kinda have to figure where you want your extra power and what consoles are available to you. As an example, I just got my heavy cruiser and I outfitted it with phasers forward and plasma beams aft for no other good reason than that's what I had in stock. Same thing with torps, I've got one quantum slotted forward and two plasmas aft. As far as my console selection, I had a console giving a +12 to plasma projectiles, but just today I found a console giving +13 to ALL projectiles, so I used that instead since it buffed all my torps and not just my plasmas.

    When choosing other consoles for your ship, I have generally found it to be a better idea to use consoles that buff several things other than one thing, although of course there are exceptions. If you're doing Lt. missions in Klingon space, you aren't going to need a console that provides a buff against plasma weapons since you won't be encountering plasmas until Commander levels. You might instead want to find a console that provides a bonus against disruptors. I guess what I'm saying is that the console you choose really depends on the location you're going to be playing in.

    As far as weapons are concerned, yes, they are all very similar when it comes to damage dealt at each Mk. level, the differences lie in what kind of bonus damage you like. Phasors provide a chance to disable a subsystem when fired. Disruptors have a chance to deal extra instantaneous damage (I think, someone might need to correct me on that), and plasma weapons have a chance to provide extra damage over time (they basically catch the enemy on fire for a short time) and so on... I can only give specifics up to plasmas since that's as far as I've made it in the game myself.

    Also, you have to take into consideration the quality of the weapon. Generally speaking, an uncommon space weapon will provide either a +2 to critical chance or a +20 to critical severity, while a rare weapon might have both, and I'm sure a very rare weapon would have higher numbers or another bonus added, although I can't say for sure since I have not encountered any very rare weapons yet.

    And to answer your questions about shields, those are fairly cut-and-dry selections based on personal preference, although I admit when given the choice of four different shield systems I usually end up staring at them for 10 or 15 minutes before picking one. Covariant shields are the strongest, but have the slowest recharge rate. Regenerative shields recharge the fastest but are the weakest, and the other two fall in between. Uncommon shields will generally provide bonuses against the weapons you'll be facing at that Mk.level, i.e. MK. III & IV weapons might have a bonus against disruptors and plasmas, MK. V & VI shields will bonus against plasmas and something else (antiprotons?) and so on...

    Now lastly, about bridge officer skills, that kinda depends on your preference and what you're flying. An escort will allow many more tactical powers than a cruiser, while a cruiser will have many more engineering slots and so forth... For my cruiser, I have my bridge officers trained in reverse shield polarity, emergency power to shields, and engineering team, so I can heal myself and others as I fight and last longer. I've also got my tacs trained in high yield torpedos, tactical team, and beam fire at will (although I'm not fond of this skill and will probably change it...). If you like to use mines, you might want a tactical BO trained in a dispersal pattern skill. I trade my science officers back and forth to give me the science team skill to repair shields or the jam sensors skill. In short, with the skills I've listed here, you will last much longer in battle due to your ability to heal, and you will be moderately stronger as well with your tac officer bonuses. There are alot of skills out there, go to the BO requisition people on starbases and see if any of the ones available have any skills you want, then buy them or use them to train your current BOs...

    So to make a (very) long story short, I would just look for consoles, BO's, shields and weapons that compliment a) your current installed equipment b) your personal play style and c) the region you'll be fighting in. THERE IS NO WRONG WAY TO OUTFIT YOUR SHIP. Your strengths and weaknesses are going to end up gelling with the strengths and weaknesses of other players and your play style will evolve, so that what you might prefer to use for your ship now might be totally different than what you'll be using a week, a month, or a year from now...

    Sorry this was so long, I really didn't intend to write a book on the subject, I just hope it helps...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Shkelton wrote: »
    What do they all mean?
    You may find the Starship Weapons Overview link in my sig to be helpful.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Thank you all for all your info and help on this. The link provided plus the detailed explanation really helped.

    So in the end this is what I ended up doing. However even with all of this I am still having a hard time killing cardassian ships.

    The ship is an Exploration cruiser - 4 weapon slots in front and 3 in back.
    Infront I have
    Phaser mk VIII, disruptor mk VIII, quatum and photon torpedos
    In back I have
    Phaser and Disrupter mk VIII, quatum torpedo

    Consoles
    3 Engineer slots
    2 science slots
    2 tactical slots

    Engineer I have RCS for adding +18 for turn rate, shield emitter for increasing shield regen rate, and something else that gives 5 to shield strength

    Science i have something that increases deflector, the other is something to keep the crewman alive

    tactical - i have one item that increases my beam shots + 17, and the other increases my torpedos by + 19.

    I kept the same mk IV shields that I have the paratrinic and will save up to purchase an updated version of these that has double recharge rate.

    As for my officers i have the following stuff to help me stay alive
    jam targetting sensos II
    high yield II
    engineering teams 1 and 2
    rotate shield frequency
    emergency power to shields

    A few others that I can not think off.

    So with all this when fighting a cardassion ship with a green level of 0, I still struggle. What am I missing? It's like they have these huge shields that you cant get through or something.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I would pick the quantum torpedos, lose the photon torpedo front and back and replace them with more beam weapos. As a cruiser you will do a lot of beam damage.

    Next get a couple of EPS consoles for your engineering slots, these help keep the power levels high while running that many beems.

    Also try doing alot of attacking from the side of your ship as this will bring all 6 beam weapons to bear on your target. Give it a try and see how it goes.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    A mixture of weapons and their procs can be winner.

    I run with 2 anti-proton but use different type of turrets for their proc.

    In PvE I use different torpedoes depending the fight but the plasma fire proc is nice for keeping damage ticking over. Chronitons at higher levels are also usefull if you use cruisers or science ships :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Wow, had I known you were atually farther along in the game than I was, I might have kept my answer short or not even answered at all... I'm willing to bet that you have a bit more experience with the game being a full grade higher than me... Oh well, maybe it'll help out a newbie...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Are you kidding? Your post was very helpful. This is my very first massive multiplayer online game. The only other game that I play online is Unreal tournament. So going from a first person game to this is a huge change.

    I created my character and just jumped into the game (much like you do in first person shooters:) ). I assumed that as you level up the weapons you can purchase and ship items would be on par with the enemy you had to fight. My old ship as commander had no problems with anything, until of course i entered Cardassian space. When I upgraded to the current cruiser with all mark 8 stuff and went back to cardassian space to show em who is boss, I was very surprised when I got my butt kicked. Yet I saw a few cowboys that were slicing through the cardassians like butter. That's when I said Ok, i must be missing something and came here to the forums.

    I have done as suggested. I kept my one quatum torpedo and now I have 4 common phaser banks, and 2 disruptors - one common and one uncommon. This does seem to do a pretty good job, even against cardassians. Except my shield still take a beating fast.

    For my consoles I now have the following

    3 Engineer slots
    Shield emmiter + 5 shield power
    EPS regulator 2.2 power transfer
    EPS regulator 2.5 power transfer
    I have no idea if having the EPS things really is stacking and doing anything.

    2 Tactical slots
    +19 for beam weapons
    +22 for phaser beams

    Science I kept the same. I have no idea what all those different things really help with. Like do I really need photonic theroy? Upping my deflector really going to help staying alive against cardassian ships?

    I aslo was donated by a friend a updated shields which are Rare resiliant mark 8. However they still do take a beating pretty easily, especially from torpedos. I noticed that I really have to play with all the different shield things to keep them alive.

    What I am going to do next is working on upgrading the phasers and disruptors to uncommon ones, so that they have better hit, critical and accuracy. I won't pretend that I know whta all that means, but I assume it should be better then just the standard ones.

    Lastly I did add skills only to the things I care about. Before I spread out the poinst across the board. So this time I just did, beam weapons, torpedos, hull repair, disruptor - things like that.

    So how am I doing? I hope I have not bored anyone with this post. The feedback has been great and it sure is nice to see people sharing their insights with the rest of us - thank you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Shkelton wrote: »
    I have done as suggested. I kept my one quatum torpedo and now I have 4 common phaser banks, and 2 disruptors - one common and one uncommon. This does seem to do a pretty good job, even against cardassians. Except my shield still take a beating fast.
    I'd suggest trying one torp launcher front and another rear - the Tier 4 Exploration Cruiser turns very slowly, and it's often easier to get an enemy behind you that it is to turn to face them.
    For my consoles I now have the following

    3 Engineer slots
    Shield emmiter + 5 shield power
    EPS regulator 2.2 power transfer
    EPS regulator 2.5 power transfer
    I have no idea if having the EPS things really is stacking and doing anything.
    EPS is stacking, but you may not need both consoles.

    Try taking out the 2.2 for a couple of fights and pay attention to your weapon power while broadsiding with all beams - if it doesn't start to deplete over time, you don't need the extra EPS console.

    (What I mean is that when you fire weapons, your weapon power drops, but then between firing cycles it regenerates. If it always drops to the same point, you're regenerating power quickly enough. If the point it drops to starts to fall as you continue to fire, so eventually you'd run out of power, you need more EPS consoles).

    On my own T4 Cruiser (5 beam arrays, 2 torps) I seem to be doing fine with a single 2.2 EPS console, although I haven't done any proper testing to see if I'd get any benefit from another.
    2 Tactical slots
    +19 for beam weapons
    +22 for phaser beams
    If you're going to stick with a mix of phasers and disruptors, it'd be an idea to get two of the beam consoles (which will boost both types).
    Science I kept the same. I have no idea what all those different things really help with. Like do I really need photonic theroy? Upping my deflector really going to help staying alive against cardassian ships?
    The Starship Operations skills boost Science abilities, so which Starship Operations skills you need (and thus which deflector and science consoles you want) depends on which Science abilities you use.

    If you press P to open the ability window, you can click on your abilities and see which skills boost them. Those are the skills you want to increase with your deflector and consoles.

    For example, Science Team is boosted by Science Team Leader, Starship Deflectors and Starship Deflector Field - so if you use Science Team, deflectors and science consoles that give bonuses to Starship Deflectors or Starship Deflector Field will improve it.
    I aslo was donated by a friend a updated shields which are Rare resiliant mark 8. However they still do take a beating pretty easily, especially from torpedos. I noticed that I really have to play with all the different shield things to keep them alive.
    Yes, you will do, especially in a cruiser, as it takes longer to turn a new facing towards the enemy.

    Keeping your shield power level high will help your shields to recharge quicker, but shields getting battered is par for the course.
    What I am going to do next is working on upgrading the phasers and disruptors to uncommon ones, so that they have better hit, critical and accuracy. I won't pretend that I know whta all that means, but I assume it should be better then just the standard ones.
    Yup. The differences are small, but they do add up.
    Lastly I did add skills only to the things I care about. Before I spread out the poinst across the board. So this time I just did, beam weapons, torpedos, hull repair, disruptor - things like that.
    Sounds good, but be sure to check which skills boost the abilities you use via the abilities window, as mentioned above, and try to improve those ones as well.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Thanks for the reply back. That is perfect info! My lone torpedo is in the middle back slot. You are right that was the easiest place to put it and the easiest way to shoot.

    I will do what you say about the eps. It would be nice to add something different in there, like faster shield regen.

    As for tactical the reason that I did what i did is that by ship is mostly beam weapons. And I have twice as many phasers as disruptors. So having once tacticle console that gives +19 to all beam weapons, and one console that gives +22 phasers. I assume the end resault is Disruptors that are +19 and phasers that are + 31. And since I have 4 phasers I figured that would be the most potent combination. Would it be better to have a console for each that gives both phasers and disruptors + 22? Or maybe stay with all phasers have go to + 44?

    The skills thing is really tough for me to grasp. I mean I get the items that are self explanatory like hull repair and beam weapons. But photonic stuff, deflactors, anomolies, its all still confusing. However I did notice that tractor beam can be enhanced by the deflector. I just need to figure out if tractor beam is worth it.

    As for the deflector I have a rare graviton deflector array mark 6. I does lot of stuff but is it helping anything I have no idea:) I'll report back as I learn things. I sure hope that others who are new to the game find a post like this helpful
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Check the science bridge officer skills. The skill text tends to fit the following format:
    Skill: Ship System: Little paragraph about the skill effect.

    The important bit for you is the Ship System - getting deflectors and science consoles that improve your science BO skills is a good thing. However, one thing to note - having 2 skills that use the same Ship System means they also share a cooldown.

    eg: Engineering Team, Science Team & Tactical Team all use "Crew" as their Ship System, so using one of these skills will time out the other 2. Incidently "Crew" is not a system that can be buffed by deflectors or science consoles :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Edit: Because I had forgotten that Jam Targeting Sensors and Jam Sensors are two different things and it was Jam Sensors (Scramble Sensors) I was referring to.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I thought I might add in a setup I've been experimenting with to give you another option to try...

    I've got my heavy cruiser outfitted with a combo of phaser bank, dual phaser beam bank, and a torpedo launcher in the front, two torps and a beam aft... My thought had been that since I was so slow to turn and people really like to ride my tail end, I would make them pay to hover there... I admit I've had mixed results with this setup, since by only having one beam back there, I can't knock down an enemy's shield as easily, but by attempting to turn, I can usually bring one of my forward beams to bear with it's 270 degree firing arc and whittle them down a little while popping off a torp roughly every three seconds.... A couple of suggestions I haven't had a chance to try yet with this setup: possibly placing turrets in the front weapon slots... I've never used turrets, so I don't know if you can slot them there or not... Also, I'm going to change out one of my aft torps (I'm using twin plasmas back there right now) with something else to see if the different procs would help... I like the plasmas, but if I use the high yield torp skill, I don't like how it turns my plasma torp into a heavy plasma torp... It's too slow and easily shot down... I like popping off two or three quantums though, so I might try that...

    You might try this setup or an alternate if you're having trouble with hangers-on on your aft end... Anybody know about those forward mounted turrets?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Hello everyone,

    I thought I would report back on where i am with this.

    First thanks all for your feedback, it was very helpful. I have made it to Admiral and I now have a star cruiser. My current configuration stands as

    4 uncommon phaser beem arrays mark 10
    1 uncommon polaron beam array mark 8
    1 uncommon disruptor beam array mark 8
    1 uncommon photo torpedo, aft mark 9
    1 uncommon transphasic torpedo, fore mark 10

    For my consoles I have things in engineering to beef
    up my shields more and eps power plus 1 hull plating
    Tactical i upgraded the 2 times for beam weapons and
    phaser to mark 10.

    I seem to be killing pretty good. the transpasic torpedo is
    worthless. I am doing way more damage with the photons.
    I plan on upgrading both to mark 10 quatum. I am also going
    to get rid of the polaron and disruptor and replace with just
    2 tetryon beam arrays for better shield penetration.

    lastly I did upgrade my shields i currently have rare reselient
    mark 9 shields and even with the consoles to beef up regen
    time and power - My shields go down very fast. If I am fighting
    a level 0 ship, 4 torpedos and what ever side of shields get
    hit they almost are down all the way. I need to figure
    out something or i will never get to the borg.

    So once again thanks all for your help.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    That's good info to know... I've been wondering where to put my skill points to (Cmdr 6 right now) where they would be most effective for future setups... Can anybody else confirm their successes with polaron and transphasic weapons? I've actually been putting points into phasers and quantums, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to max them out or not since I've been eyeballing those higher end weapons... If it turns out that the higher end weapons aren't that much more powerful than phasers though, I might just max them out after all... Any thoughts?
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