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The More You Know: How to pick a Warp Core
redricky
Member Posts: 1,004 Arc User
Warp Cores are new at this point and I see a lot of "Which WC for this career in that ship?" What you should be asking is which core for your preferred power presets (say that 5 times fast) and typical power levels.
For the "what," here's the wiki entry.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Warp_Core
So the "what" has been covered, we're concerned with "which one." What the wiki tells us is that in addition to raising one subsystem's cap from 125 to 130 a WC will also provide a bonus to the power level if the setting is low.
Basic WC functionality
Field Stabilizing - S
Hyper Injection - E
Overcharged - A
Pick one, S/E/A. Are you going to run it at 125(130)? Are you going to run it at 15? If the answer to both of those is "No," pick another.
Again, a WC raises the cap of the corresponding subsystem from 125 to 130. If you're not going to ping 130 regularly, you're not going to choose your WC based on that.
If the corresponding system is at low power levels they provide their bonus in the same manner as the efficiency skill. If the corresponding system is at 15 it's +6.
If you shield power will consistently be at 115 then a Field Stabilizing Warp Core is the wrong choice. If you plan to run low engine power then a Hyper Injection might be for you to get the +6. If you plan to run high shields with EPTS3, MACO shield, and Leech then you'll be able to make use of a Field Stabilizing Core's raised cap of 130.
Modifiers:
EPS is the most solid choice for A2B builds.
15 Batt bonus will give you +1.5 seconds to consumable batteries. Great for some A2B qm battery doff builds, probably not so useful for new player escort builds. Eff only helps the lower power systems and Rep (last I checked) scales off of crew, which is frequently dead.
I've heard it whispered in elite PvP circles that Driver Coil is the secret hax, but this is unconfirmed. /joking
X->Y
I don't want to insult your intelligence. Pick what is likely to be your highest subsystem for X. Are you able to deal with weapon power drain to the point where W is consistently high? X=W. Are you running base 70 shield with EPTS3? Then maybe X=S.
If X isn't weapons because of power drain, then weapons might make a good Y to help with just that.
Again, this part is pretty obvious, pick which system you can consistently keep at cap, then pick which system you want to get a little higher.
XCap
Battery lite. Not too much to tell. Personally I'd pick it based on which system you'd prefer an extra fix for an offline proc since the actual power bonus is relatively small.
So...
Which of the above 4 aspects of the WC should influence you the most? Well:
+5 cap or +6 at x/15 preset.
[mods] provide an average of 1-3 per affected subystem for [Eff], [SEP], and [EPS] when they come into play.
X->Y can provide about +9 to Y if X can be kept at 125.
Capacitor is +15.
So the first 3 are "always on." [Mods] seem to have the smallest impact while X->Y has the greatest potential magnitude.
Basic WC functionality seems to be the most misunderstood right now, while the X->Y and Capacitor is pretty self explanatory. So when somebody says "Which warp core for my profession in my ship" you can say, "Well, that's kind of the wrong question" since we really want to pick based on which presets we're likely to run.
I think I've got this right, but to my peers, please fact check me and correct me on anything, this stuff is still new and I'll update this post as needed.
For the "what," here's the wiki entry.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Warp_Core
So the "what" has been covered, we're concerned with "which one." What the wiki tells us is that in addition to raising one subsystem's cap from 125 to 130 a WC will also provide a bonus to the power level if the setting is low.
Basic WC functionality
Field Stabilizing - S
Hyper Injection - E
Overcharged - A
Pick one, S/E/A. Are you going to run it at 125(130)? Are you going to run it at 15? If the answer to both of those is "No," pick another.
Again, a WC raises the cap of the corresponding subsystem from 125 to 130. If you're not going to ping 130 regularly, you're not going to choose your WC based on that.
If the corresponding system is at low power levels they provide their bonus in the same manner as the efficiency skill. If the corresponding system is at 15 it's +6.
If you shield power will consistently be at 115 then a Field Stabilizing Warp Core is the wrong choice. If you plan to run low engine power then a Hyper Injection might be for you to get the +6. If you plan to run high shields with EPTS3, MACO shield, and Leech then you'll be able to make use of a Field Stabilizing Core's raised cap of 130.
Modifiers:
EPS is the most solid choice for A2B builds.
15 Batt bonus will give you +1.5 seconds to consumable batteries. Great for some A2B qm battery doff builds, probably not so useful for new player escort builds. Eff only helps the lower power systems and Rep (last I checked) scales off of crew, which is frequently dead.
I've heard it whispered in elite PvP circles that Driver Coil is the secret hax, but this is unconfirmed. /joking
X->Y
I don't want to insult your intelligence. Pick what is likely to be your highest subsystem for X. Are you able to deal with weapon power drain to the point where W is consistently high? X=W. Are you running base 70 shield with EPTS3? Then maybe X=S.
If X isn't weapons because of power drain, then weapons might make a good Y to help with just that.
Again, this part is pretty obvious, pick which system you can consistently keep at cap, then pick which system you want to get a little higher.
XCap
Battery lite. Not too much to tell. Personally I'd pick it based on which system you'd prefer an extra fix for an offline proc since the actual power bonus is relatively small.
So...
Which of the above 4 aspects of the WC should influence you the most? Well:
+5 cap or +6 at x/15 preset.
[mods] provide an average of 1-3 per affected subystem for [Eff], [SEP], and [EPS] when they come into play.
X->Y can provide about +9 to Y if X can be kept at 125.
Capacitor is +15.
So the first 3 are "always on." [Mods] seem to have the smallest impact while X->Y has the greatest potential magnitude.
Basic WC functionality seems to be the most misunderstood right now, while the X->Y and Capacitor is pretty self explanatory. So when somebody says "Which warp core for my profession in my ship" you can say, "Well, that's kind of the wrong question" since we really want to pick based on which presets we're likely to run.
I think I've got this right, but to my peers, please fact check me and correct me on anything, this stuff is still new and I'll update this post as needed.
_______________
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
Post edited by redricky on
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Comments
Thanks,
Gen
I'm sure your DPS is great, but as Kahless said, "a petaQ with high system mastery is still a petaQ." (Well, he should have said it...!)
Actually as a tank I use field stabilizing warp core specifically to raise my shield cap to 130. I run at 81/55 shield power. Hitting epts brings shields up to 122. Hitting eptw brings my shields to the 130 cap. Not to mention I also have 2x aux2bat as well. Your first sentence contradicts your last sentence. So you might want to lower your 115/70 value to something else quite a bit lower or reword it.
Soon as I saw the new warp cores I knew exactly what I wanted. Seemed common sense to me. It just made my 10k+ dps beam boat just that little bit more tankable.
The choices of EPS, batteries, etc, etc are a bit more difficult to decide on. None are actually that great tbh. EPS will only raise the power level of EPTS1 by 1 and epts2 by 2 and epts3 by 3 approx. EPS does not help with weapon power if you're trying to use it for that. Or I should say if weapon power setting is 125 and you drop to a min of 82 increasing EPS will not change the min amount. Same as an EPS flow regulator console won't help either. Other choices such as Cap might work for you or coil. I actually like the Battery choice myself. But this is so I can decreases the 10.1 second gap in 30 seconds of my shields being at 122 instead of 130. FYI as an engineer with the EPS trait this is where I get the extra 10 power from and time is based on batteries. And I also use batteries and red matter capacitor and 99 points in batteries. So an increase of 1.62 seconds is a plus. So total +10 power to all system is 21.52 seconds in 30 seconds or a down time of 8.48 seconds.
Again if you're at 125 and weapon power drops to 82 using 7.5% shield power to weapon power for example won't increase that min value. Now if you instead had your weapon power at 120 you'd get the boost and be sitting at 125 and min weapon power would be 82 again. So you can use the extra 5 power you gained by lowering your weapon power and now use that in another subsystem. But there's not much point in doing that. You'd be better off bosting a subsystem that is below cap and get the full benefit. For me with an Aux2bat build i'd be better off using 7.5% shield to aux. If I didn't have aux2bat i'd probably instead go for shield to engines. Actually even with an Aux2bat build engines still might be the better choice. But it really depends as you said before, what power levels you run with. I typically run my powers at 125/100, 91/70, 44/15, 49/15. Using epts puts me at 125, 130, 54, 59. BTW this also puts me at the defense cap for impulse speed via engine power which for me is 70% defense (10% passive trait and 60% from speed) that's approx 50 engine power.
A lot of people are going to be using the wrong warp cores.
Uh, I tested EPS recently and it did NOT give me a boost to EptX or EptS instant heal like the skill tree does, just EPS transfer, so its in fact one of the less useful mods imo.
BTW I did test the so called Driver coil Hax that the OP was talking about. It works exactly as the tooltip says and there wasn't much benefit using it for me. Except for having power levels higher while in full impulse. Which was beneficial when dropping out of full impulse as sloshing power back was quicker as power was already higher. So there was an advantage during those times. Depending on the STF it could be quite handy. But it's certainly not a hax. I did an ESTF last nite with 99 points into driver coil. But was only able to use full impulse once. So i'm going back to my old build to use skills that are more beneficial to me. I did 10k dps and 43% of the teams damage which is typical for me while running a pug on this engineer beam boat tank.
Thanks for this, I assumed it did because it functions like the skill tree for A2B. Is overcapping no longer affecting weapon drain with LoR? Or are are you saying that X->W specifically does not apply to overcapped levels?
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
Now that's a good question. TBH i'm quite stumped here as to the first question. As regards the the second question, no I do not believe it works to overcap power levels. I specifically got the warp core 7.5% shields to weapon solely to be able to do this. And since I tank my shield levels are at 130 most of the time and 120 some of the time to maximize the amount I get to weapon power. My weapon power is set to 100 and is well over the 125 cap. It's approx. 136 before hitting any abilities and before factoring in the 7.5% from shields to weapons. Yet my min power level before and after LOR was released or before and after warp cores is 82 weapon power while all weapons are firing.
I also bought the Leech console specifically to overcap my weapon power even more. Neither the warp core nor the leech console has any effect on min weapon power. I also have 3 purple mk xii plasma distribution manifolds to increase weapon power by another 12. Again before factoring in 7.5% shields to weapons. And before factoring in the Leech console of another 15 weapon power or any other abilities or set piece bonuses like power conduit link for another 2 weapon power. All the above would put weapon power at approx. 174.75 weapon power. Yet min weapon power still drops to 82. 77 for fire at will as experimental rom beam is still using weapon power during a faw. Also my dps after adding the warp core and the leech console is about what it was before. My personal best before LOR was 11.5k and after LOR 10.8k. My average is about the same at 10.2k or so. So this leads me to think that they either changed weapon power hidden cap of 150-160 and it's now a real cap of 125 or there never was a hidden cap. I actually believe the latter to be more true. It's also possible the hidden cap if it exists is lower then the 150-160 estimation. Perhaps it's only 135.
-UPDATE-
I just did quite a bit of testing at differing power levels and i'm getting a hidden weapon power cap of 135. I set my weapon power level to achieve a weapon power of 124. Set pieces removed, etc etc so as not to skew the testing. Weapon power dropped to a low of 66 during a fire at will. So weapon power drain was 58. Increasing weapon power to 146.675 the low was 77 during a fire at will. 77+58=135. So i'm pretty sure the hidden cap is 135.
To answer your question specifically. Yes the shield to weapon power does indeed work. But only to the 135 hidden cap as i tested this as well. Kinda glad I did all this testing as it answers many of my own questions.
Edit:
Man, after reading a bit I found some of my favorite nerds can't agree on overcap mechanics. Some are even saying that it functions differently for beams and cannons. IDK, and I consider some of those guys on a level of patience and parsing I'll never reach.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
In my current escort build my power levels are:
w 125/100
s 71/50
e 51/25
a 50/25
with a Hyper Injection Warp Core Mk X [Rep] [W-A] rare
I got today a Hyper Injection Warp Core Mk X [Coi] [A-W][ECap] very rare from elite stf drop
This means that if I put this on, my wpn power will....what? I m confused!
And what will happen with the aux? Will it return to previous condition and weapons will take a part of that? I suppose it wont go over 125 so where will that part help?
If I use a Field Stabilizing core the +5 to engines I'll loose will effect what?? Speed? maneuvers?Both?
What would be better for an escort? My guess, from what I understand is a Field Stabilizing [Bat or Eff or Rep] [A-W (??) ][WCap] ??
I suppose the Field Stabilizing will help only when EptS is used?
I got a headache :P
I'm an Engineer flying a soveriegn class. During battle, my stats are:
weapons: 111
shields: 75
engines: 50
aux 44
Ideally I'd like to max the weapons and add the bonus to the engines. Which core do I need for this?
Or would it be more of a benefit to have the core upgrading shields and engines? I still don't get what aux does, other than help power my tractor beam and aceton beam when i use EPTA.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
As for the increase you get when the power is low in a subsystem it's like the OP said. This is based on the actual power setting and not how much actual power you have in that system. So it looks like this.
Power settings
15=+6
20=+5.5
25=+5
30=+4.5
35=+3
40=+3.5
45=+3
50=+2.5
55=+2
60=+1.5
65=+1
70=+0.5
75 or above=no bonus
So in your 1st Hyper injection warp core you powers would look like this.
before
w125/100
s 71/50
e 51/25
a 50/25
after
125/100
s 71/50
e 56/25 increased by 5, also cap increased to 130
a 59.375/25 increased by 9.375 but will fluctuate when using weapons
The 2nd hyper injection core one would looks like this.
w125/100
s 71/50
e 51/25
a 50/25
after
125/100 (increased weapon power by 3.75 (hidden) so long as you don't exceed the hidden weapon cap of ?
s 73.5/50
e 56/25 increased by 5, also cap increased to 130
a 50/25
As for a Field stabilizing warp core it would look like this. Let's say it one that does shield power to engines.
before
w125/100
s 71/50
e 51/25
a 50/25
after
w125/100
s 73.5/50 increased by 2.5, also cap increased to 130
e 56.5/25 increased by 5.5
a 50/25
If you use EPTS3 and it increases shield power by 40 as an example it looks like this.
w125/100
s 113.5/50 increased by 2.5, plus increased by 40, also cap increased to 130
e 59.5/25 increased by 8.5
a 50/25
Then my final question is, what is the full name of the core I need to be looking for?
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
You haven't listed what your power settings are set at. So it's kinda hard to say exactly what the power levels will be. I'm actually confused in what you're trying to do. You want to max weapons and that's the best choice. But you then want more engine power. If you're already at the defense cap from speed there's no advantage to increasing engines unless you want to fly faster. Should only need to do that now and then and your better off hitting your speed setting during those times.
If it was me i'd be solely concentrating on maxing out my weapon power. But if you also want to increase engine speed as well i'd do it like this. Use a Hyper injection core. This will increase engine power by the amount I listed in my last post based on your power setting and not actual power level. And get one that does shield power to weapon power. The bonus is based on power level and not power setting. So with shields at 75 actual power then weapons power level will increase by 5.6, which puts it at 116.6.
FYI your weapon power needs to be at the hidden weapon power cap. Whatever this cap actually is. I'd suggest getting it to 135. Sadly this game is all about dps. Kill before being killed. Most especially works this way in eSTFs. As you seemed confused by what Aux does i'll assume your knowledge is not the highest. So also suggest you look at this link to see exactly what skills effect what and how many points effects x by. http://home.comcast.net/~amicus/Skill%20Point%20Effects.htm See also http://sto.gamepedia.com/Bridge_officer_abilities_(space) to see what effects each BO ability as well.
dragonsbite thanks very much for your time, I kinda got it now
but...still...some questions if I may? :rolleyes:
How do I now what my hidden cap is? is the one that power calculator shows in () next to wpn power in attack display? (129)?
(actually I think I have an old version, there s no warp core in there)
Will this hidden cap help me when firing? (kinda like my Nadion Inversion?)
If I increase the engine power but not the cap and I m not near the cap, this increase in what part exactly will help me? maneuvering or just top speed?
So if I got it right I must start looking for a Field Stabilizing [Eff or Rep] [W-S][SCap or WCap] ... (yes I know...good luck with that...
And no you have that backwards a bit. If you used a core that did weapons to engines it would use the actual weapon power of 111 and add 7.5% of that to your engines. That's the x to y ability. The type of core field, hyper, overcharged uses power setting and not actual power to figure out the increase.
Ha we're both replying before the other posts. Or maybe i'm just to slow. Probably the latter. As to the first question about the hidden cap. You'll never be able to see it as it's hidden. Weapon power only shows as going to 125. What the hidden cap is i'm actually still not sure. I did more testing last nite and my Oddys (eng and sci) both capped at 125 weapon power. Which makes no sense at all as my fleet assault cruiser refit caps at 135. Something fishy is going on here. And yes increasing weapon power up to the hidden cap will increase dps. While not the same as nadion inversion as that resists power drain. But yes they both serve the same purpose just in different ways. DPS will also improve as Nadion will become even better as your weapon power will be higher. So one helps the other. It's like the 2 piece bonus from the cutting beam and assimilated console. Unarguably the best 2 set piece bonus in the game. +10 weapon power always and procs 500 weapon power resist for 3 seconds and it procs a TRIBBLE ton.
I may need to retest that hidden weapon power cap again and see if I can figure it out.
BTW I bought my core via the dil store on minimap.
-UPDATE-
So retested my fleet assault cruiser refit and min weapon power was the same as the 2 oddys I tested. That being 67. My weapon power was at 146 approx. Weapons were actually using 68 weapon power and not 58. Which makes sense as that's what they should be using. 135-68=67. This is very difficult to test as weapon power use is instant as is the recovery. Getting all weapons to fire exactly at the same time is extremely difficult. But i'm sticking with 135 as being the hidden weapon power cap. For now anyways.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
yes I know, my next target after the MACO set is the assimilated console-KCB set.
But first I have to get the shield so not to blow up that often :rolleyes::D
The only bad about the dil store is it only has rare items in warp cores (I got from there my antiprotons)
thank you very much for all the advices
Glad I could help.
In a fleet patrol escort, I got a current 125/95 weapons, 95/80 shields , 20/15 engines and 60/15 aux.
The warp core is W-A efficient. This allowed me to put all the engine/aux to shields and still get a good aux bonus for healing. Plasmonic leech helps too, and with EPTS the ship can run 125W 125S power.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=532731
The link to the calculator is at the bottom of the first post. It's pretty amazing, honestly You can pick which traits, skills, equipment, etc. you're running and it will show your power settings. Then you can just switch to a different core on the spreadsheet to see how it will affect your build.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
So, let me recap (pardon the pun). I hope you can verify/falsify these questions.
- Only power *settings* actually determine bonus power being applied to other systems, right? So, 125/100 weps power, with W->E core, would give extra power to engines, but *not* when weps setting is below 100, right?
- With weps power setting of 125/100, and same W->E warp core, if actual weps power drops below 100, like 82, then the logical inference would be that you *still* get extra engine power, right? (based on the fact that only power *settings* matter).
- In the X->Y system, is X setting is below 100 to begin with, you're getting nada extra Y, ever, right?
Thank you also so very much!
Power transfer is based solely on the set power level. You'll get 5/7.5% of the number to the right of the "/". This bonus does not currently fluctuate with power boosts, or drains.
Additionally, a power setting of 100 is not required. It simple gives the largest bonus.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe