Either are just as easy to use. Click on and fire a torpedo within 30 seconds.
My suggestion is experiment with both so you can decice if you want precision-fire (high yield) or full peanut butter spread.
The latter is a bit harder to manage because you might start drawing too much aggro to yourself. Not an issue on normal difficulty because you can murder things fast but in the endgame you have to manage aggro.
But I guess for now you can skip the STF related fire control strategies. What is proven effective is fire a gravity well on a group of enemy ships then torpedo spread all over it for maximum penguin mayhem
But I guess for now you can skip the STF related fire control strategies. What is proven effective is fire a gravity well on a group of enemy ships then torpedo spread all over it for maximum penguin mayhem
I can't check in-game, and I keep forgetting to, but is APB 3 actually -50% resistance or is it -50 resistance?
What I mean is, in the same way that a Neutronium MK XI Rare isn't +18% resistance and is instead +18 resistance which then gets calculated as part of your total resistance bonus* to give us the percentage we see in game - does APB simply subtract from the target's resistance bonus total, or does it actual reduce the target's resistance by a straight percentage?
*Resistance = 1 (1 / (1 + Total Resist Bonus)
It's -50 all resists, not 50% off current target resist levels.. this makes AP-Beta3 a damage multiplier once total resists drop below zero. So, if the target has Neutronium Hull Armor Mk XI with +18 resists and gets hit with AP-Beta3, then the target's total resists drop to -32, increasing damage taken by 32% while AP-Beta3 is active.
I'm not much of a PvP-er but in STFs i run Both HY and Spread and both Scatter Voley and Rapid fire on my Tac Fleet Escort. I alternate between which to use depending on the situation. If i have to guard gates on KASE or kill BoPs, Raportors on CSE, i use Spread with Scatter voley + a buff or 2.
If i'm fighting cubes or need to focus on a single target, i use HY + Rapid Fire.
So far It's been working fairly well for me and I don't plan on switching out of it unless I start serious PvP.
After weeks worth of Elite STF runs, I've come to the OPINION that Torpedo Spread is a rubber crutch.
Pure filler.
It's only saving grace is the ability to hit multiple targets if they include Boarding Parties and High Yield Plasma Torps.
Damage-wise, it's marginally better than a single Torpedo IMO.
The argument of being superior for closely packed targets (like the Borg BoP's charging the Kang on Cure) is just that, an argument.
Sure, you can damage both with TS(3) but not bringing down shield facings (assuming you're the only one firing on them).
Torpedo Spread is good, for non-STF play.
NEVER sacrifice HY for TS unless it's specifically for countering Boarding Party and enemy HY Plasma Torps.
NO to ARC RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
After weeks worth of Elite STF runs, I've come to the OPINION that Torpedo Spread is a rubber crutch.
Pure filler.
It's only saving grace is the ability to hit multiple targets if they include Boarding Parties and High Yield Plasma Torps.
Damage-wise, it's marginally better than a single Torpedo IMO.
The argument of being superior for closely packed targets (like the Borg BoP's charging the Kang on Cure) is just that, an argument.
Sure, you can damage both with TS(3) but not bringing down shield facings (assuming you're the only one firing on them).
Torpedo Spread is good, for non-STF play.
NEVER sacrifice HY for TS unless it's specifically for countering Boarding Party and enemy HY Plasma Torps.
totally wrong. i have TS3 and i usually fire it at a group of enemies. after the torpedoes are on their way, i target every one of those 3 enemys to give them a salve of my cannons. this usually drops down one of their shields. a second later, the torpedoes arrive and do the rest. it ALWAYS depends on your playstyle and if you can, you can utilize the TS3 very good.
but against groups (ISE elite groups of spheres) i use :
- gravity well
- Spread3 trico
- Spread2 quantums
- dispersal pattern3 trico
= group almost dead
I am almost certain in cummulation the spread gives more damage than high yield, combine that with innnertial AoE of Tricos and you get some impressive numbers
often I have some like
- each trico torps hit with 30k+ on multiple targets
- each trico mine hit with 100k+ on multiple targets
After weeks worth of Elite STF runs, I've come to the OPINION that Torpedo Spread is a rubber crutch.
Pure filler.
It's only saving grace is the ability to hit multiple targets if they include Boarding Parties and High Yield Plasma Torps.
Damage-wise, it's marginally better than a single Torpedo IMO.
The argument of being superior for closely packed targets (like the Borg BoP's charging the Kang on Cure) is just that, an argument.
Sure, you can damage both with TS(3) but not bringing down shield facings (assuming you're the only one firing on them).
Torpedo Spread is good, for non-STF play.
NEVER sacrifice HY for TS unless it's specifically for countering Boarding Party and enemy HY Plasma Torps.
Well it would be foolish to use TS3 without cannon volley. Volley will take shields down and torps do the rest.
If you're talking single target, using photons, and judging the damage based on the numbers given post HY3/TS3 buff, I'm seeing about 11.5k damage for 4x torpedo for spread for one target(up to x3 targets for a total of 12 torps fired). I see 14.5k damage for 4x torpedo for HY3. It's the same story for any torpedo, just different numbers. So while TS3 can deliver upwards of 30k damage overall to three ships in one blast, it's usefulness is slim, Fleet actions and mark "STF"s is about it and even then it better be combined with volleys. It can make quick work of borg STFs but it depends. I try not to use AoE in STFs because I don't want to be Worf. If people are on the same page beforehand it can work wonders for speed killing.
That's my opinion on direct HY vs TS use.
If you unload on the target with Turret fire and then let off a TS of course it will be more effective.
But not as effective as Turret fire followed by a HY salvo.
It's better to destroy 1 than damage 2.
NO to ARC RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
Spread is pointless 90% of the time... in both pve and pvp.
In pvp its fine for controlling spam I guess... but lacks any killing power and you are lucky enough to land torps on one person with out a shield facing let alone 2.
In PvE you will draw argo on all the things you don't want to draw argo on... don't be the spreader that pulls tac cubes and gets one shot by gates that would have ignored you.
Im sorry, i have to disagree with you here. If you are an engineer, this is EXACTLY what you want. As an engineer, you are the tank. If you cannot hold aggro without dying, then your build is wrong. I use torp spread all the time to grab the aggro off my buddies in escorts. That is still a challenge sometimes because threat control is broken. Even though i have Threat control maxed, The target will go after escorts that are doing higher dps to the target then i am. So if you are an Engineer, yes please use torp spread.
On my Krenn I use TS3 with Chroniton Torpedoes. This makes a huge difference when doing Cure and the targets will slow down considerably giving you all the time you need to finish them off long before they get anywhere near the Kang.
I'm also re-experimenting with plasma torpedoes and I have to say that, to my surprise, they do the job well. It might just be an impression since I haven't done the math but I do seem to be dispatching enemies a lot faster now. Tholian, Borg and Romulan ships in particular appear to be vulnerable to them. My Galor is now using a mix of Plasma and Photon torpedoes and I'm planning on equipping it with the Romulan Hyper Plasma torpedo when I get enough Romulan reputation to buy it.
I think it might warrant revisiting the HY vs. TS discussion with respect to the Romulan Hyper-Plasma and the Omega Torpedo Launcher. I get the feeling that the special abilities they've put on these torps suggests they want to make their High Yields a bit more powerful than normal.
Most escorts have the slots to equip both, which means they're always available and activatible on a situational basis (going after big ship? CRF(BO) & HY. Going after a cluster? CSV(BFaW) & Spread.
On cruisers and science vessels that don't have a ton of tactical BOff slots, then having two BOffs, one trained in spreading the pain and one trained in concentrated pain, swapping between alert states, is the best way to go, but if you're looking for "set and forget", I recommend spreads...
I think it's like 125% damage to a single target with spread, while HY does 150% damage. Also, both spreads and HYs pretty much assure torp procs, but spreads do not have a shoot-me-down mode with certain (Plasma, tricobalt) types.
Right now, I use manual shield reconfiguration at certain times, so I skipped tac team on my Vesta for HY I (ens. universal)& spread I / CSV I (lt. tactical). This way, I have HY for the omega torp's disintegrate effect and the spread/CSV for spreading pain at clustered foes...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Personally, in terms of a straight up comparison... It's kind of a case of apples and oranges. The two abilities are meant to fulfill different niches, using torpedoes as the "conduit" for lack of a better idea for a term.
However, I've been trying to determine which one is worth a higher slot. For instance, the build I'm working on now has an Ensign and a Lt. Commander available for torpedo abilities. I'm going to use both, but do I go HY1 + TS3 or TS1 + HY3?
From the rough experimentation I've been doing (this build uses Quantum Torpedoes), I haven't come to a truly conclusive answer as to which I feel is either "better", but I think I honestly prefer favoring High Yield for higher level slots, and keeping Torpedo Spread pretty low on the slots.
My reasoning is this: If you want to use a higher level Torpedo Spread, what that inherently means is that you wish to give the ship you're in more AOE damage, or in simple terms... More crowd control. Obviously, the higher you grade your Torpedo Spread, you are able to deal with more targets.
In my case, since I'm using dual cannons (I'm also pretty PvP oriented, but I enjoy a lot of PvE as well)... My Scatter Volley can only hit 3 targets max. So going a higher level Torpedo Spread will only help against either Carriers, High Yield Plasma Torpedoes, and cloakers. The reason I say cloakers is because the way TS appears to work (which is targeted AOE) makes it so that you cannot actually really dodge ANY of the torpedoes that are sent out. So for all intents and purposes, torpedo spread has 100% accuracy. This is obviously very crucial and key against Battle Cloak and/or ships with very high defense.
However, from my experience the main drawback of Torpedo Spread is not actually in the numbers, but how the damage is literally delivered. My main issue with TS is actually that the damage all occurs "at once". When the spread hits it's target, depending on the level of your spread (2 torpedo damage ticks for TS1 - 4 torpedo damage ticks for TS3), if the target has moved or changed direction or even simply regained some of it's shields... Then this damage is all easily mitigated.
With Torpedo High Yield however, because it adds on additional torpedo shots it allows you the physical opportunity to help guarantee that the damage sinks in. Admittedly, this also gives the opponent more opportunity to stave off some of that damage... But by this point the TS has either succeeded in doing good damage or it hasn't. Also keep in mind that we are talking fractions of seconds in most cases and scenarios, since HY shoots off torpedoes at a pretty quick pace.
So basically, I find the simplicity behind High Yield to be it's strength. Torpedoes can sometimes be very difficult and tricky to use... And by simply lobbing extra torpedoes it gives you a better shot at making sure they connect. Like I mentioned, since the only real downside to this is getting a shield heal immediately after the first torpedo hits (I say the first because if the first torpedo was not effective then torpedo spread would have similar effectiveness). By having that small timing gap between the torpedo hits, you can better gauge when it is a good time to fire off the torpedo. The reason I say this is because if you mistime your shot a little bit, the first torpedo suffers the brunt of the damage loss while the others go into the hull unhindered.
Since a cannon user can only hit 3 targets max with any level of Scatter Volley, granting additional crowd control can certainly be helpful... But ultimately I find that Scatter Volley is often enough crowd control in it's own right, that having Torpedo Spread to boot is icing on the cake. Sure extra targets means more overall damage, but whether or not that damage is actually being delivered efficiently is the question.
So, to make an already long post as short as I can now... I guess the long and the short of it is you should probably figure out what your ship is either A) Trying to do, or Trying to make up for when deciding which ability to favor over another. I don't think there is truly a definitive right answer, since with some builds the answer is immediately more obvious or clear to me than others.
So to conclude, what I ended up doing was having a boff layout for both, and use HY3 most of the time. That's the beauty of going Torpedoes, you can pretty much change your mind on the fly. When I'm in Kerrat and I have to deal with a lot of Birds of Prey, I favor Torpedo Spread... When I'm against heavier targets, I favor High Yield. So long as you have space for a spare bridge officer, I say use both because why wouldn't you?
Personally, in terms of a straight up comparison... It's kind of a case of apples and oranges. The two abilities are meant to fulfill different niches, using torpedoes as the "conduit" for lack of a better idea for a term.
However, I've been trying to determine which one is worth a higher slot. For instance, the build I'm working on now has an Ensign and a Lt. Commander available for torpedo abilities. I'm going to use both, but do I go HY1 + TS3 or TS1 + HY3?
From the rough experimentation I've been doing (this build uses Quantum Torpedoes), I haven't come to a truly conclusive answer as to which I feel is either "better", but I think I honestly prefer favoring High Yield for higher level slots, and keeping Torpedo Spread pretty low on the slots.
My reasoning is this: If you want to use a higher level Torpedo Spread, what that inherently means is that you wish to give the ship you're in more AOE damage, or in simple terms... More crowd control. Obviously, the higher you grade your Torpedo Spread, you are able to deal with more targets.
In my case, since I'm using dual cannons (I'm also pretty PvP oriented, but I enjoy a lot of PvE as well)... My Scatter Volley can only hit 3 targets max. So going a higher level Torpedo Spread will only help against either Carriers, High Yield Plasma Torpedoes, and cloakers. The reason I say cloakers is because the way TS appears to work (which is targeted AOE) makes it so that you cannot actually really dodge ANY of the torpedoes that are sent out. So for all intents and purposes, torpedo spread has 100% accuracy. This is obviously very crucial and key against Battle Cloak and/or ships with very high defense.
However, from my experience the main drawback of Torpedo Spread is not actually in the numbers, but how the damage is literally delivered. My main issue with TS is actually that the damage all occurs "at once". When the spread hits it's target, depending on the level of your spread (2 torpedo damage ticks for TS1 - 4 torpedo damage ticks for TS3), if the target has moved or changed direction or even simply regained some of it's shields... Then this damage is all easily mitigated.
With Torpedo High Yield however, because it adds on additional torpedo shots it allows you the physical opportunity to help guarantee that the damage sinks in. Admittedly, this also gives the opponent more opportunity to stave off some of that damage... But by this point the TS has either succeeded in doing good damage or it hasn't. Also keep in mind that we are talking fractions of seconds in most cases and scenarios, since HY shoots off torpedoes at a pretty quick pace.
So basically, I find the simplicity behind High Yield to be it's strength. Torpedoes can sometimes be very difficult and tricky to use... And by simply lobbing extra torpedoes it gives you a better shot at making sure they connect. Like I mentioned, since the only real downside to this is getting a shield heal immediately after the first torpedo hits (I say the first because if the first torpedo was not effective then torpedo spread would have similar effectiveness). By having that small timing gap between the torpedo hits, you can better gauge when it is a good time to fire off the torpedo. The reason I say this is because if you mistime your shot a little bit, the first torpedo suffers the brunt of the damage loss while the others go into the hull unhindered.
Since a cannon user can only hit 3 targets max with any level of Scatter Volley, granting additional crowd control can certainly be helpful... But ultimately I find that Scatter Volley is often enough crowd control in it's own right, that having Torpedo Spread to boot is icing on the cake. Sure extra targets means more overall damage, but whether or not that damage is actually being delivered efficiently is the question.
So, to make an already long post as short as I can now... I guess the long and the short of it is you should probably figure out what your ship is either A) Trying to do, or Trying to make up for when deciding which ability to favor over another. I don't think there is truly a definitive right answer, since with some builds the answer is immediately more obvious or clear to me than others.
So to conclude, what I ended up doing was having a boff layout for both, and use HY3 most of the time. That's the beauty of going Torpedoes, you can pretty much change your mind on the fly. When I'm in Kerrat and I have to deal with a lot of Birds of Prey, I favor Torpedo Spread... When I'm against heavier targets, I favor High Yield. So long as you have space for a spare bridge officer, I say use both because why wouldn't you?
Wise words, I would heed them even for PVE. Scatter volley hits only 3 targets, so any spread volley that effects more then 3 seems to be wasting torps against shields, unless the whole team is escorts firing scatter volley at different targets.
So generally, a high yield with a higher level is just a better option since the hurt it will deliver is useful against bosses like cubes too.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
I think the question of Spread vs High Yield also depends on the torpedo you use. If you only want to slot one launcher to maximize cannons/beams and/or want to use a plasma torpedo, then the only way for you to get multiple projectiles to launch is to use spread, or Romulan/omega torpedo. Using spread on plasma torps over high yield gives you more chances to cause the burn DoT without making the projectile target-able, unless Romulan torpedo as all the torpedoes they fire are targetable.
If you like using torps with long cool down times, High Yield gives an extra chance for your projectile Doffs to do their thing.
All AOE and single target damage types have their neat points, i usualy have a higher version HYT then Spread, but kinda like having both, same with CSV and CRF. If your facing big capitals (mogai and above) HYT is great for a big oumph, but against smaller ships in groups of 3 or more (borg spheres, frigates, fighters) Spread can easily 50% them fast.
I run both, it's saved optionals on khitomer elite so many times.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I mostly PVP, and run a torpedo build with the meanest quantums this side of the galaxy. I use a pair of spread IIIs, or spread III + II as my primary offensive ability. In PVP, spreads become really powerful if you're specced into them, because spreads... do not miss.
All the defense stacking your opponent does won't matter if you fire one of these beauties with him in range. Even if he moves out of range, cloaks or evades, they'll catch him. If he cloaks, they'll catch him in the hull. Half of my kills I'd say, are Klingons who saw me fire off an alpha spike, realized they were the target, zoomed out of range with every speed boosting ability they had, and cloaked up... the usual tactic for Klingons disengaging from a fight, except this time, it ends in a distant fireball and me chalking up another kill.
It's a very powerful build. The only one I've seen capable of scoring multiple kills. Bugs can beat single targets to death quite effectively, but I've never seen one capable of taking out 3 targets simultaneously. 5x 30% quantum damage consoles, adapted maco 2-piece bonus, rule 62 console, borg and romulan consoles. Two fore and aft quantum launchers, three purple projectile doffs, three Romulan crit boffs, season other slots to taste.
Comments
Either are just as easy to use. Click on and fire a torpedo within 30 seconds.
My suggestion is experiment with both so you can decice if you want precision-fire (high yield) or full peanut butter spread.
The latter is a bit harder to manage because you might start drawing too much aggro to yourself. Not an issue on normal difficulty because you can murder things fast but in the endgame you have to manage aggro.
But I guess for now you can skip the STF related fire control strategies. What is proven effective is fire a gravity well on a group of enemy ships then torpedo spread all over it for maximum penguin mayhem
LOL! I like the sound of that!
ya but now you can miss just as easy. With spread you can bit it will hit the target. Maybe they need to change that as well to make things fair?
For STFs, the answer is "both".
This is the same answer for every ship and captain.
You can swap BOFFs pre-mission to fulfill different needs, its really a feature this game has that is so amazing that I constantly marvel at it.
Just like kits on the ground, swapping BOFFs gives you a great amount of flexibility
It's -50 all resists, not 50% off current target resist levels.. this makes AP-Beta3 a damage multiplier once total resists drop below zero. So, if the target has Neutronium Hull Armor Mk XI with +18 resists and gets hit with AP-Beta3, then the target's total resists drop to -32, increasing damage taken by 32% while AP-Beta3 is active.
If i'm fighting cubes or need to focus on a single target, i use HY + Rapid Fire.
So far It's been working fairly well for me and I don't plan on switching out of it unless I start serious PvP.
Pure filler.
It's only saving grace is the ability to hit multiple targets if they include Boarding Parties and High Yield Plasma Torps.
Damage-wise, it's marginally better than a single Torpedo IMO.
The argument of being superior for closely packed targets (like the Borg BoP's charging the Kang on Cure) is just that, an argument.
Sure, you can damage both with TS(3) but not bringing down shield facings (assuming you're the only one firing on them).
Torpedo Spread is good, for non-STF play.
NEVER sacrifice HY for TS unless it's specifically for countering Boarding Party and enemy HY Plasma Torps.
RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
totally wrong. i have TS3 and i usually fire it at a group of enemies. after the torpedoes are on their way, i target every one of those 3 enemys to give them a salve of my cannons. this usually drops down one of their shields. a second later, the torpedoes arrive and do the rest. it ALWAYS depends on your playstyle and if you can, you can utilize the TS3 very good.
but against groups (ISE elite groups of spheres) i use :
- gravity well
- Spread3 trico
- Spread2 quantums
- dispersal pattern3 trico
= group almost dead
I am almost certain in cummulation the spread gives more damage than high yield, combine that with innnertial AoE of Tricos and you get some impressive numbers
often I have some like
- each trico torps hit with 30k+ on multiple targets
- each trico mine hit with 100k+ on multiple targets
enemy shields are of course a problem for torps
If you're talking single target, using photons, and judging the damage based on the numbers given post HY3/TS3 buff, I'm seeing about 11.5k damage for 4x torpedo for spread for one target(up to x3 targets for a total of 12 torps fired). I see 14.5k damage for 4x torpedo for HY3. It's the same story for any torpedo, just different numbers. So while TS3 can deliver upwards of 30k damage overall to three ships in one blast, it's usefulness is slim, Fleet actions and mark "STF"s is about it and even then it better be combined with volleys. It can make quick work of borg STFs but it depends. I try not to use AoE in STFs because I don't want to be Worf. If people are on the same page beforehand it can work wonders for speed killing.
If you unload on the target with Turret fire and then let off a TS of course it will be more effective.
But not as effective as Turret fire followed by a HY salvo.
It's better to destroy 1 than damage 2.
RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
Im sorry, i have to disagree with you here. If you are an engineer, this is EXACTLY what you want. As an engineer, you are the tank. If you cannot hold aggro without dying, then your build is wrong. I use torp spread all the time to grab the aggro off my buddies in escorts. That is still a challenge sometimes because threat control is broken. Even though i have Threat control maxed, The target will go after escorts that are doing higher dps to the target then i am. So if you are an Engineer, yes please use torp spread.
I'm also re-experimenting with plasma torpedoes and I have to say that, to my surprise, they do the job well. It might just be an impression since I haven't done the math but I do seem to be dispatching enemies a lot faster now. Tholian, Borg and Romulan ships in particular appear to be vulnerable to them. My Galor is now using a mix of Plasma and Photon torpedoes and I'm planning on equipping it with the Romulan Hyper Plasma torpedo when I get enough Romulan reputation to buy it.
If you wanna focus on boss killing, then HY is better plan and simple.
Any time you can get more than one target, TS is better.
But unless you are soloing something, i tend to go spread. Espically is you couple it with a chrono or plasma torp.
On cruisers and science vessels that don't have a ton of tactical BOff slots, then having two BOffs, one trained in spreading the pain and one trained in concentrated pain, swapping between alert states, is the best way to go, but if you're looking for "set and forget", I recommend spreads...
I think it's like 125% damage to a single target with spread, while HY does 150% damage. Also, both spreads and HYs pretty much assure torp procs, but spreads do not have a shoot-me-down mode with certain (Plasma, tricobalt) types.
Right now, I use manual shield reconfiguration at certain times, so I skipped tac team on my Vesta for HY I (ens. universal)& spread I / CSV I (lt. tactical). This way, I have HY for the omega torp's disintegrate effect and the spread/CSV for spreading pain at clustered foes...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
However, I've been trying to determine which one is worth a higher slot. For instance, the build I'm working on now has an Ensign and a Lt. Commander available for torpedo abilities. I'm going to use both, but do I go HY1 + TS3 or TS1 + HY3?
From the rough experimentation I've been doing (this build uses Quantum Torpedoes), I haven't come to a truly conclusive answer as to which I feel is either "better", but I think I honestly prefer favoring High Yield for higher level slots, and keeping Torpedo Spread pretty low on the slots.
My reasoning is this: If you want to use a higher level Torpedo Spread, what that inherently means is that you wish to give the ship you're in more AOE damage, or in simple terms... More crowd control. Obviously, the higher you grade your Torpedo Spread, you are able to deal with more targets.
In my case, since I'm using dual cannons (I'm also pretty PvP oriented, but I enjoy a lot of PvE as well)... My Scatter Volley can only hit 3 targets max. So going a higher level Torpedo Spread will only help against either Carriers, High Yield Plasma Torpedoes, and cloakers. The reason I say cloakers is because the way TS appears to work (which is targeted AOE) makes it so that you cannot actually really dodge ANY of the torpedoes that are sent out. So for all intents and purposes, torpedo spread has 100% accuracy. This is obviously very crucial and key against Battle Cloak and/or ships with very high defense.
However, from my experience the main drawback of Torpedo Spread is not actually in the numbers, but how the damage is literally delivered. My main issue with TS is actually that the damage all occurs "at once". When the spread hits it's target, depending on the level of your spread (2 torpedo damage ticks for TS1 - 4 torpedo damage ticks for TS3), if the target has moved or changed direction or even simply regained some of it's shields... Then this damage is all easily mitigated.
With Torpedo High Yield however, because it adds on additional torpedo shots it allows you the physical opportunity to help guarantee that the damage sinks in. Admittedly, this also gives the opponent more opportunity to stave off some of that damage... But by this point the TS has either succeeded in doing good damage or it hasn't. Also keep in mind that we are talking fractions of seconds in most cases and scenarios, since HY shoots off torpedoes at a pretty quick pace.
So basically, I find the simplicity behind High Yield to be it's strength. Torpedoes can sometimes be very difficult and tricky to use... And by simply lobbing extra torpedoes it gives you a better shot at making sure they connect. Like I mentioned, since the only real downside to this is getting a shield heal immediately after the first torpedo hits (I say the first because if the first torpedo was not effective then torpedo spread would have similar effectiveness). By having that small timing gap between the torpedo hits, you can better gauge when it is a good time to fire off the torpedo. The reason I say this is because if you mistime your shot a little bit, the first torpedo suffers the brunt of the damage loss while the others go into the hull unhindered.
Since a cannon user can only hit 3 targets max with any level of Scatter Volley, granting additional crowd control can certainly be helpful... But ultimately I find that Scatter Volley is often enough crowd control in it's own right, that having Torpedo Spread to boot is icing on the cake. Sure extra targets means more overall damage, but whether or not that damage is actually being delivered efficiently is the question.
So, to make an already long post as short as I can now... I guess the long and the short of it is you should probably figure out what your ship is either A) Trying to do, or
So to conclude, what I ended up doing was having a boff layout for both, and use HY3 most of the time. That's the beauty of going Torpedoes, you can pretty much change your mind on the fly. When I'm in Kerrat and I have to deal with a lot of Birds of Prey, I favor Torpedo Spread... When I'm against heavier targets, I favor High Yield. So long as you have space for a spare bridge officer, I say use both because why wouldn't you?
i would like to try it
thanks
Wise words, I would heed them even for PVE. Scatter volley hits only 3 targets, so any spread volley that effects more then 3 seems to be wasting torps against shields, unless the whole team is escorts firing scatter volley at different targets.
So generally, a high yield with a higher level is just a better option since the hurt it will deliver is useful against bosses like cubes too.
If you like using torps with long cool down times, High Yield gives an extra chance for your projectile Doffs to do their thing.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
All the defense stacking your opponent does won't matter if you fire one of these beauties with him in range. Even if he moves out of range, cloaks or evades, they'll catch him. If he cloaks, they'll catch him in the hull. Half of my kills I'd say, are Klingons who saw me fire off an alpha spike, realized they were the target, zoomed out of range with every speed boosting ability they had, and cloaked up... the usual tactic for Klingons disengaging from a fight, except this time, it ends in a distant fireball and me chalking up another kill.
It's a very powerful build. The only one I've seen capable of scoring multiple kills. Bugs can beat single targets to death quite effectively, but I've never seen one capable of taking out 3 targets simultaneously. 5x 30% quantum damage consoles, adapted maco 2-piece bonus, rule 62 console, borg and romulan consoles. Two fore and aft quantum launchers, three purple projectile doffs, three Romulan crit boffs, season other slots to taste.