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Cutting Beam Review
amahood
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
So I Just got the "Cutting Beam" weapon , (omega tier 3), cost 15,000 dil and 500 omega marks...
Here's my thoughts on it (and anyone else who wants to add their thoughts about the weapon in replies, feel free to).
"Pros":
- It does about the same amount of damage as a torpedo, Yet you can use the Cutting Beam Much more often than a torpedo. So using it frequently, helps to give more damage to the enemy ship.
- It can shoot at 360 degree angle, which is great, it hits any nearby ship you aim at.
-Can equip it either in the fore or the aft section of the Ship.
And now for the "Cons":
- When you use the Cutting Beam, it lasts for barely a moment. (Should last much longer as it did in the t.v. show, makes me wonder why I got the weapon....)
- There's practically no Sound Effect what-so-ever, so you don't really know if you've used it, you just guess that it worked ....(I think adding a good sound fx is important).
- It's way too expensive for such a weapon. (15,000 dil and 500 omega marks!?!)
- The damage it does, doesn't seem to be very much.... It's not near as cool a weapon as in the t.v. show.....
Overall Review:
When I first heard that this weapon was going to be brought out, (and indeed until today), I thought how Cool and Awsome and Great it would be to have it!!!
Cause I remember how dramatic it was in the t.v. show when the Borg used it.
Now to have it, it's quite a disappointment. In my opinion, the "cons" outweigh the "pros", and I kind of regret spending all that dil on it, when I could have exchanged it for zen for the costumes I want to get....
So all in all, I think this is Not worth getting what-so-ever, at all.
It should be the most devastating weapon a ship could equip, cause it's a "cutting beam", which means it should actually Cut right through the Ship's exterior.....?... (instead it's "devastating" once you waste dil and marks on it)...
That's my opinion on it so far. I wish now, I had exchanged the dil for zen instead. This is a waste to buy with your dil and omega marks.
Any other opinions?
Here's my thoughts on it (and anyone else who wants to add their thoughts about the weapon in replies, feel free to).
"Pros":
- It does about the same amount of damage as a torpedo, Yet you can use the Cutting Beam Much more often than a torpedo. So using it frequently, helps to give more damage to the enemy ship.
- It can shoot at 360 degree angle, which is great, it hits any nearby ship you aim at.
-Can equip it either in the fore or the aft section of the Ship.
And now for the "Cons":
- When you use the Cutting Beam, it lasts for barely a moment. (Should last much longer as it did in the t.v. show, makes me wonder why I got the weapon....)
- There's practically no Sound Effect what-so-ever, so you don't really know if you've used it, you just guess that it worked ....(I think adding a good sound fx is important).
- It's way too expensive for such a weapon. (15,000 dil and 500 omega marks!?!)
- The damage it does, doesn't seem to be very much.... It's not near as cool a weapon as in the t.v. show.....
Overall Review:
When I first heard that this weapon was going to be brought out, (and indeed until today), I thought how Cool and Awsome and Great it would be to have it!!!
Cause I remember how dramatic it was in the t.v. show when the Borg used it.
Now to have it, it's quite a disappointment. In my opinion, the "cons" outweigh the "pros", and I kind of regret spending all that dil on it, when I could have exchanged it for zen for the costumes I want to get....
So all in all, I think this is Not worth getting what-so-ever, at all.
It should be the most devastating weapon a ship could equip, cause it's a "cutting beam", which means it should actually Cut right through the Ship's exterior.....?... (instead it's "devastating" once you waste dil and marks on it)...
That's my opinion on it so far. I wish now, I had exchanged the dil for zen instead. This is a waste to buy with your dil and omega marks.
Any other opinions?
Post edited by amahood on
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Comments
So, I would say that it was worth having, but only coupled with the Tractor Beam, and that the 4 minute cooldown on the Tractor Beam is too long.
I think the Cutting Beam animation isn't very good too. I think you should see the Beam go right through the ship it is fired at if it impacts on the hull and can be seen coming out the other side.
1) It makes a loud humming sound on my PC while active. Try firing it alone without any other weapons and you'll hear its distinct droning hum.
2) Since the cutting beam delivers kinetic damage, it deals double listed damage amounts vs. exposed hulls, but not so much against shields.
3) The primary purpose of the cutting beam is to combine with the Borg Universal Assimilated Module to give users the Omega Weapon Amplifier mod. The latter lowers energy weapon power drain dramatically for 3 seconds, allowing energy weapon damage to remain at optimum levels over multiple shot volleys.
4) The cutting beam + Borg tractor beam is nothing short of devastating once you breach the target's shields, delivering 2k kinetic damage per second over 10 seconds (your cutting beam will keep re-priming the Borg tractor every second while shooting). This translates to 40k total hull damage. All you have to do is keep shooting your weapons while your Borg tractor is locked onto the target.
Hope this helps.`
This I didn't know. Thank you.
No Prob!
I was PVP'ing some fleet mates last night in my Breen ship running all plasma weapons (yeah, I know this is normally a bad PVP set-up, but their builds were not nearly as optimized as mine). The Cutting beam + Borg tractor combo was usually the deciding factor in many of our matches -- once it was locked on an unshielded ship facing, the target's hull plummeted like a rock if he didn't get TacTeam up in time.
The Experimental Romulan Beam Array was the other clincher with its high DPS plasma DOT. I just had to wait until I had a shield nearly breached, then fire its hyperflux special ability. I'll be testing this further tonight with Beam Overload just to see what happens.
The bells and whistles of Romulan plasma seem very appealing.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Plasma energy weapons are not very good in PVP right now due to all the anti-plasma shields out there (MACO, Omega, Borg, etc.) -- all have at least 15%+ plasma damage reduction. Plasma torpedoes are fine if you can get them to hit (usually requires tractor beams, target subsystem engines, and other target-immobilization tricks). Although hazard emitters are the bane of plasma fires, plasma torps still deal high kinetic damage, and if you can catch opponents while their hazard emitters are on cooldown, then you can apply real pressure.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Like the person who started this 'review' I too got the cutting beam. We wanted to see how it performs.
Alone it does not do so much at all - just seems for show.
BUT--
Add it's other partners of the SET it belongs to and BAM! CUTtsss a LOT longer and the beam is ON most all the time cutting any ship it auto picks up - on my Vesta ship (where weapons seemed to take too long to stop the smallest probes in KA Elite space) the Cutting Beam cuts through those probes long before they get out of range - and you can keep firing on the large gate without flying after them!
So add the 'SET' the Cutting Beam belongs to and you too will be smiling!
Bogle@celloman
Agreed! I like that it constantly applies pressure to enemies even in PVP - after all you cannot shoot it down or escape its reach. Equipped with the Borg set and console I find that it can be effective.
2) i agree about the tractor beam being WAY to long of a cool down to time active ratio...4 mins CD:<20 second active sucks -.-
3) its a set in its own, but yeah...the best way to make use of the borg gear, im my opinion, is to have both sets equipped and having the romulan hybrid weapons (the dual disruptor/plasma DoT proc) so you pretty much are flying an assimilated ship XD
Ive been using an all plasma build (mk 12 purple plasma torp|mk 12 green plasma DHC|mk 12 green plasma DHC|mk 12 purple plasma torp) (mk 12 green plasma turret x2|borg cutting beam) along with 2 blue and 1 green projectile doffs on my HEC and I've been tearing through tholians, borg, undine, etc. alike on elite setting...im going to be grabbing either mk 10 or mk 11 romulan DC/DHC and romulan turrets to test out their effectiveness.
Wouldn't have an effect. The assimilated tractor beam says in its description that it does a better effect when used with cutting beam.
I'd be willing to run the Borg Shield so I could use the Tractor Beam but the cool down on the Borg Tractor Beam is just way too long to justify giving up so much shield capacity.
The Borg Tractor Beam needs its cool down reduced to two minutes; I mean come on you need to run a complete set just to get the Tractor Beam in the first place and your telling me that it has a cool down that's longer and any of the special console abilities that are in the game.
Two minutes seems quite reasonable for a special ability that requires you to invest so much into it just to be able to use it.
As far as the damage being boosted by the assimilated tractor beam...wow thats so wonderful lol. The tractor beam is not only on a 5 min cooldown, not everyone uses the garbage assimilated set to begin with.
The experimental romulan plasma array is by far superior as a set weapon than this garbage tool.
I laugh at the people who made "2" cutting beams and thought they could equip them both as well. LOL
There is a reason this item is available at only tier 2..its garbage.
The 2 and 3 piece set bonus(Console, Beam, and Omega torp)are nothing to shrug at either. The random 1 second immunity procs more often when under heavy fire, a huge benefit to tanky cruisers spaming fire at will aggro-ing everything. And the engery resistance proc means those fire at will's have more fire in them.
exchange gear is better
By all means, label it as trash or garbage or whatever without even understanding it. Makes no difference to those who actually use and enjoy it.
Have you actually used the set? That weapon amplifier is great.
Do you know how weapon power drain works?
Yeah I know the Borg tractor beam boosts it but don't forget like it's mentioned already, 4 minutes is a HUGE cooldown for a weapon that actually counts on the tractor beam to make a big impact.
If you're into the pretty sets I suppose it's good for you, I'll move around it in a wide arch until Cryptic either buffs it or changes it completely.
I'm astonished at how many people use the cutting beam as a turret replacement and dismiss it without ever getting an Omega Weapon Amplifier proc... I guess there are still people out there running without a Borg Assimilated Universal Module?
Use the borg console all the time, like I said, look at the entire set cooldown/persistent DPS track. I've tested the set and the old setups using proper environments (PvP and PvE) and really, the old setups are still vastly superior over time.
How about posting your damage logs here, with and without the cutting beam? You might have to run synthetic DPS tests vs. the same target to get repeatable test results.
I've noticed a significant DPS boost since running the cutting beam + borg console... enough so that I'm now making millions of EC per day by farming fleet actions and consistently placing 1st. Getting a 3 second nadion inversion every few seconds is kinda hard to miss.
even if i didn't use a torpedo boff a single phton torp does over 4k dmg alone for me no cutting beam is going to do that much in the short ammount of time i recharge my next torpedo which is usually 3 secs. On top of that a single torp crit is good for 10-15k dmg easy and boff use i exceed 20k dmg.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Fun fact. The Omega Weapon Amplifier isn't just for the cutting beam alone. Long story short, when you run the 2 piece set, all beams get the Omega Weapon Amplifier proc and it can stack up to 5 times.
For me, the cutting beam is a godsend. It gives my Atrox carrier a 360 degree kinetic weapon. Coupled with Omega Graviton Amplifier means I have a weapon that has a chance to pierce kinetic. Plus with my +Threat Graviton generator, it can proc Plasma fires as well.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Trent957/Procs_zpsca9d2236.jpg
Yea i am not doing any amazing damage with the Cutting beam compared to torps, but 99% of the time, I won't be in an optimal firing angle to even use torps, let alone torp enhancing boffs since my Lt Tac Boff is being used for TT 1 and 2. So its either another beam array, turret, or the cutting beam and since the cutting beam w/assimilated module offers a proc that enhances my ability to tank and keep my weapons firing on all my beams, it was kind of a no brainer.
Plus my character is specced for energy weapons, and it did out DPS my ferengi missile launcher which is what i used to use on my Atrox before gaining the Cutting Beam.
True, but you won't get those numbers until the target's shields go down, and that just won't happen with torpedoes alone.
The cutting beam isn't just an 800DPS turret replacement -- instead, it is used as a combo-primer:
1) Cutting Beam + Borg Console = Omega Weapon Amplifier to help breach shields faster
2) Cutting Beam + Borg Tractor = (800 + 2000) kinetic damage per second, or 5600DPS per second for 10 seconds. This translates to 56,000 reliable, sustained damage vs. exposed hulls.
3) Torpedoes can still be fired in addition to the Cutting Beam and Borg Tractor, thereby increasing total DPS
4) The Cutting Beam can take an aft weapon slot, so it does not compete with a forward torpedo launcher.
I have yet to see another torpedo based ship that isn't running a cutting beam out-DPS me in Gorn Mine Field vs. the last boss. The combination of Cutting Beam + Borg Tractor + HYT3 Hyper-plasmas usually gets me 1st place.
I hope STO get's better ...
This sounds more like an build accuracy issue, because mine always hits. How much bonus accuracy do you see in your ship attack tab while in space?
I added the Omega Torpedo to my Vo'Quv to go with my Cutting Beam and my Borg Console and I love the full set bonus.
I'm not speced for Torpedo's in any way with my KDF Science Main but that Omega Torpedo hits for massive damage on unshielded targets.
I'm popping Cubes in Elite STFs much faster in my Carrier now.
Builds that are speced for Shield and power drain will have a field day with the Borg Cutting beam and Omega Torpedo.
Although I do not use them, I suspect that when this set catches on we'll see a big increase in the use of Tetryon weapons on Science Vessels and many Escorts.
I have no problems crippling Shields with this Combo:
Target Subsystems Shields 3 + Tykends Rift 1 + Acton Assimilator console
I could use Tykends Rift 3 but I find Gravity Well 3 much more valuable in my Carrier.
The only problem with the above combo is that you have to be within 5K from your target to get maximum effectiveness (for a Carrier at least).
If Cryptic would lower the cool down on the Borg Tractor Beam to two minutes, I'd have no problems at all with running the Borg Shield on my Vo'Quv even with its laughably low capacity.
This set just screams to be abused on a power drain speced Bird of Prey :eek: