test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Quantums Vs. Plasma Vs... Something Else?
kirscht
Member Posts: 95 Arc User
As I read through the forums I see this undercurrent of a debate between plasma and quantum weapons. What's the skinny on what is best? Or is something even better. I recently switched my beams and turrets to plasma (still have quantum torps for the moment) and added two plasma boosting tac consoles. This increased my dps by about 20K. But I'm wondering if I should swithc the torps, too. (I know, I know... rainbow boats, blah blah blah), But if Plasma is as great as I thought it was I don't want to switch them.
Post edited by kirscht on
0
Comments
Quantum torps are mostly for burst damage, since they do the highest damage per hit (other than tricobalts), and if you use them in combination with TS3 or THY3, life can be insanely awesome. But as overall DPS goes, they are still sub-optimal, but as burst capability goes (ignoring tricobalts again), they are probably the best (which is why it is used primarily on cruisers, since they won't get their torps on a target much courtesy of crappy turn rate, so when they do they cause a lot of damage).
If you want maximum DPS on a torp, run photons. They are the fastest firing, and have the highest straight DPS out of all the torps. They don't do as much damage per torp as a quantum, but the higher firing rate means more chances of any procs you might have on your torpedo (borg or crit) and the higher firing rate also is where the added dps comes from.
Photons are great if you can reliably keep your weapons targetted, easy in STF, not easy in PVP or those PVE with loads of ships hunting kills.
I ran a photon torp sci boat in the public queue elite stfs and often got the bonus loot as top contributor. Not great against shielded ships but easily out dps beam boats and out tanked escorts that hade to fire from long range or make attack runs.
Your inventory and bank have room to collect weapons and consoles, why not try some cheap versions of different sets before chasing the expensive stuff?
Generally I'd run with a quantum on the front, but I don't have a cruiser just sci, escort and carrier.
Not anymore. Market speculation on the new Romulan weapons has pushed the consoles up just under Disruptors in price(22 million and rising), about a 400% increase over the last week.
Unless you run projectile doffs then Photons are one of the lowest DPS torps.
On my fore, I use Quantum, Bio-Neural Warhead, Breen Cluster, and Hargh'Peng. On my aft, I use Chroniton and Plasma.
I prefer the Hargh'Peng over the Plasma, as the Hargh'Peng fires faster, does more impact damage (I think?), more radiation damage (I think?), and has a secondary explosion.
Otherwise, I use the Quantum with HY3 for shield penetration.
Well, there's no such thing as a Quantum Turret or quantum Beam, so not on that front, but the thinking is solid for Plasma Weapons in general. With Plasma Energy weapons you can gain extra damage because Plasma Fire stacks, and with fast-firing weapons like turrets and cannons you're guaranteed to proc quite a few times.
That said, you may gain more in the long run from the procs that other energy types bring in, like Polaron power drain, Disruptor resistance debuff, Tetryon shield stripping, Phaser subsystem disable (more useful in PVP), or even just the raw damage bonus from Antiprotons and their natural Crit Severity boost (very useful for Dual-Heavy-Cannon Escorts).
From what I've seen the new Romulan rep weapons look to be bringing Plasma back into the running as a viable damage alternative (esp. for low-crit classes like cruisers), but vanilla Plasma weapons, not so much.
Roll a Klingon, level it to 50 and replay Blood of the Empire. It's reward selection includes Mk XI Plasma Infusers and Mk XI Ambiplasma Envelopes among other consoles.
Okay what? Since when? Last I checked (which was this morning actually) Photon Torpedoes had an unaugmented DPS that was second only to Quantum Torpedoes and could be argued to be better than Quantums in certain circumstances because they had an unagumented fire rate that was the highes of any projectile weapon in the game.
Photon Torps do moderate damage, but have a higher rate of fire. This gives them the highest DPS.
Quantums do much more damage, but fire slower.
When you add 3x Purple Projectile Warfare Officers, however, torpedoes recharge much faster. Quantums (and to some extent, plasma as well) have several advantages over photon torpedoes when using these Duty officers:
1. Because quantums have a longer recharge rate than photon torps, they benefit more than photons from the PWOs. In fact, the observed DPS from a single quantum is about the same as a single photon while running these PWOs (so, the PWOs help the photon torp, but help the quantum MORE, enough to roughly equalize the DPS).
2. When running multiple torpedoes (remember that they share a 1-sec GCD), the fact that quantums (and plasmas) have a longer base cooldown means you can slot more of them without them "stepping on each other" and causing diminishing returns. The sweet spot for quantum torpedo launchers is probably 3 (possibly 2 if your other front weapons are DHCs - more on this in #3). For photon torpedoes, however, even 2 will often GCD each other when running so many PWOs.
3. Quantum DPS considerations: 3x Purple PWOs will increase the Rate of Fire on a quantum torp from 1 shot every 8 seconds (1/8) to 2.83 shots every 8 seconds. If you have 2 Quantum torpedoes fitted, then you'll see an observed RoF of around 5.4/8 seconds (note: that's less than the 5.66 you might expect, due to the fact that sometimes they will GCD each other). If you have 3 Quantums fitted, you'll see around 7 torps fired every 8 seconds (again, you lose efficiency because of the GCD). This means the following: look at the tooltip DPS of your quantum torpedo (while you are in space). Multiply it by 2.8, 5.4, and 7 respectively. That's the effective DPS of those 1, 2, or 3 quantum launchers you have fitted. If you are wondering if it's ever worth it to put a 4th quantum tube in an arc: no it's not. If you are wondering about that 3rd torp, then take your Tooltip Quantum Torp DPS, multiply it by 1.6 (the rough difference between 2 and 3 launchers), and compare that to the Tooltip DPS of another weapon (DHC, dual beam, Kinetic Cutting Beam, whatever). If the 1.6xQuantum Tooltip DPS is greater, use the torpedo. If the other weapon is greater, then just use 2 quantums and use the other weapon instead.
TL;DR: 1 torp? No PWOs? Use a photon torp. Multiple torps? PWOs? Go with quantum.
I ran a small test yesterday (in PVE), replacing a rear mk XII quantum launcher with it (tac oddy, beams, a rear and forward quantum launcher). I noticed just a marginal 50 dps increase when using it, but could be normal fluctuation - nothing significant.
Just curious on others' thoughts of it's viability as a rear torp replacement.
I've noticed alot of "if you're running this.." or "if you're running that"s in the replies, and it occurs to me I wasn't very specific in what I'm running when I posted originally. Let me give you my old set up versus my new and see what you all think, and if it helps clarify: (tac officer flying a recon sci ship)
OLD SET-UP: Fore weapons: Phaser beam array Mk IX
Phaser cannon Mk X
Photon Torp Mk X
Aft weapons: Phaser beam array Mk IX
Phaser turret Mk X
Photon Torp Mk X
with tac consoles: Phaser relay (+18.8% phaser dmg)
Photon detonation assembly (+13.1% projectile dmg)
AVERAGE DPS IN PvP: 74K
NEW SET-UP: Fore weapons: Plasma beam array Mk X
Plasma cannon Mk IX (rare)
Quantum Torp Mk IX (rare)
Aft Weapons: Phaser beam array Mk X
Plasma turret Mk IX (rare)
Quantum torp Mk IX (uncommon)
With tac consoles: zero point quantum chamber Mk X (+20.6% quantum proj dmg)
Plasma infuser (+13.1% plasma energy dmg)
Prefire chamber (+12.5% cannon weapon dmg)
AVG DPS IN PvP: 94K
With both set-eps all I have for a weapons duty officer is 1 projectile officer to reduce torp recharge time.
I just installed the Omega Cutting Beam on my fully loaded Mobius destroyer, replacing a rear mounted AP turret, and I could tell that it made a significant difference in elite STF's. Borg are primarily hull tanks with easily-breached shields, thereby making omni-directional kinetic weapons more effective that standard energy turrets or narrow-arc torpedo launchers.
Well, if you are using and boosting AP with 4 mk xi (rare consoles), the cutting-beam has a 0.2 DPS advantage in Base-DPS over the advanced fleet turret, but it isn't boosted by subsystem-targeting or beam fire-at-will (I don't know if it can be used for an overload).
Also the cutting-beam isn't boosted by Cannon-abilities (CSV and CRF). Maybe you've recognized a boost in your DPS, because of the 2-piece Bonus with the assimilated console (damage amplification - 2.5% chance to increase your weapon-powerlevel by 10).
I don't want to say:"use this, that sucks...", but some projectile-weapons have got secondary effects. I love to use Chroniton-Torpedoes on the Atrox of my SCI (I need to slow down the enemies so I can keep facing them). My Engineer and my tactical have got both the Armitage and use both Quantum Torpedoes.
I would expect that you would find Transphasic Torpedoes on torpedo-boats (because of the higher shield penetration).
So, it isn't just a question "what is good?", it's more like "what's good for me, what gives me the highest benefits?".
If Star Trek Online was an Open-Source (GPL) Game, we would have a low-grind fork.
Yes, my Mobius does run 4 AP Mag regulators, but I was not aware that these boosted the cutting beam's kinetic damage... good to know.
EDIT: Just checked -- the above info is FALSE. Antiproton Mag Regulators do not boost cutting beam damage.
Yes, I am aware that BO-abilities do not work with cutting beam. Since the Borg Universal Assimilated Module is arguable one of the best consoles in the game, it is a perfect match for the Omega Cutting Beam to get the +10 weapon power proc.
I don't know if your calculations factor Kinetic damage dealing double the listed amount vs. exposed hulls, but this gives the Cutting Beam a clear advantage in Elite STF's since Borg are 90% hull / 10% shields. Many STF stationary targets are also unshielded, allowing the Cutting Beam to maximize effect immediately.
Theres a new omega plasma torpedo as part of the omega rep system based on borg technology so it may be worth reveiwing that before making a final decision.
I believe you need T4 Omega Rep to build the Omega Torpedo Launcher. I just got T2 with the Cutting Beam, so it will be a while before I'll be able to test one out.