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Questions About Weapons
xxmaelstrom11
Member Posts: 4
So I just hit level 26 or 27 last night and I'm flying around in my Mogai Heavy Warbird. But I've had a few questions arise. Now, if there's a guide somewhere with weapon information then please link it.
I noticed that there's so many different weapon terms and I'm having trouble figuring out which ones are best for my ships. There's Energy weapons, launchers, arrays, energy damage, disruption energy damage (I think?), cannons, dual cannons, among a few others. How do you pick the best one out of all of those? I get so many different weapons through quests now I can't figure out what to put on my ship. Do I have some launchers and some arrays? Or some turrets and launchers? It's all very confusing to me. Also, how do you know which one to go with? Do you always just go with higher DPS to begin? Or do you sacrifice some DPS for a wider firing arc?
If someone could explain all this to me, that'd be awesome and it would help me understand the game more! Thanks!
I noticed that there's so many different weapon terms and I'm having trouble figuring out which ones are best for my ships. There's Energy weapons, launchers, arrays, energy damage, disruption energy damage (I think?), cannons, dual cannons, among a few others. How do you pick the best one out of all of those? I get so many different weapons through quests now I can't figure out what to put on my ship. Do I have some launchers and some arrays? Or some turrets and launchers? It's all very confusing to me. Also, how do you know which one to go with? Do you always just go with higher DPS to begin? Or do you sacrifice some DPS for a wider firing arc?
If someone could explain all this to me, that'd be awesome and it would help me understand the game more! Thanks!
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Now Weapons that depends on what you want to do. I've been told that Beams are good for leveling since Beam fire at Will will mark multiple targets and if you use a standard beam array that's 180 Degree arc to fire which is the biggest your gonna get. If you like beams you have the choice between the Dual beam banks (90 Degrees) vs a Beam Array (180 Degree with less damage) but you can broadside on the arrays very easy with fire at will. DBB's are upfront weapons so you more a less have to be point at the enemy.
Now if you like Escorts and general pew pewing lol Cannons are your best friend. Dual Heavy Cannons are the only real option for up front because they are far more power efficient that using dual cannons or singles. They also do tons of DPS if your into that. For the back your gonna want Turrets since they are 360 Degree firing arc and do low dps but in an escort you have a ship that can turn on a dime mostly so you want all your damage coming while you aim your 45 Degree Front DHC's at whatever enemy your destroying.
Always go for one damage type and get the consoles to match it because mixing weapons (aka rainbow boats) don't do a lot of damage but they do look good lol. Sticking to one type means you can focus on it and really improve your build. As your in a Mogai you have a good turn rate (14 I believe) so DHC's and turrets are fine. I'd pick whatever energy you like best for me I like tetryon (its cheap, quite powerful and looks cool) but others like:
Plasma (Burning the hull of enemies)
Disruptor (- Resistance to damage on enemies)
Phaser (Can take subsystems off-line on enemy ships)
Polaron (Stealing power of enemy ships)
Tetryon (Similar to Polaron but strips shields)
Anti Proton (Higher critical severity on shots)
You can get Dual Weapons that mix the above in weird and wonderful ways of course but I don't know all of them so I don't want to confuse you.
The above types are all energy types but you can also mix in Kinetic as well. Torpedoes are effective on the hull directly and work best if you take down a shield on your target first. Photon torps are fastest to reload do alright damage and you get a ton of them if you use Torp Spread abilities. Quatum Torps are slower to reload and do more damage than photons and their spread ability is still impressive. There are other types but I'll let you discover what ones you want to use first.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Starship_equipment - that's just for basics and a lot you probably already know about with your current experience.
A link within the page above is http://sto.gamepedia.com/Ship_Weapon - this is a comprehensive overview of ship weapons that may start focusing your current knowledge.
A link within the above page is http://sto.gamepedia.com/Damage_types - this gets down to the nitty gritty of weapons. Regardless if it's a Beam Array or a Turret, the type of damage output will help you further refine your ship's combat capabilities.
The next phase (to me) depends on how much effort you want to expend.
1) Experiential learning - using the above links as a foundation, get the gear you want to use, then tinker by switching out here and there until you are satisfied with your ship's performance. This path takes the longest and you may "suffer" as you learn through either time and/or resources (like EC and maybe Dilithium).
OR
2) Look at the Shipyard forum relevant to your faction for further advice. Look past the first post because its the replies that will get you what you may need. Beware this option because everyone has advice relative to their experience. You will see some common themes and ever reoccurring suggestions. take them with a grain of salt but know that most advice is provided with confidence and care. People generally post to help, not hurt, other players
For my part I made two ships to play with: one for my own enjoyment and another for group play where the my focus is on team success, not my own. The links to my current builds are in my sig and are far from perfect (I don't have the gear I want ... yet) - but they work for me now and I am having fun.
Good luck!
Now I suppose that for now at my level I should just take what I get from quests, right? Then do STFs and buy stuff from the Dilithium market and Exchange?
360 turrets do low dps, consider one mine thrower instead, esp later when you get utility mines (cloaked tractor beams etc), moreso if you have room for dispersal patterns in your tac officer(s).
So if your ship is able to keep dual cannons on the target, use dual cannons. If not, try the 90 degree beams. Note that beams and cannons use different tac officer skills, that can be confusing at first.
Missile launchers are great, I leveled up and played at 50 for a while with nothing else. Go for the hull, plasma and transphasic, you will kill anything and often, its shields are still up. At 50 without every item in the game, they do not keep up with dual cannons for dps.
Also try to get your weapon power to 100+ for cannons and beams etc, that is a huge deal for damage.
Most players have at least one torpedo equipped. All energy is brutal on your power, and having one relieves this somewhat.
Where is this weapon power level I keep reading about? Where can I find that info.? Is it a button somewhere on the screen that I can't see? Or a tooltip or something?
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
The default panel has a list of your current power levels & buttons to adjust them to a few configs.
Read the links people gave but the quick answer is you have 200 points of power + bonuses. 125 is the soft cap (you can exceed this with some gear). A dps escort probably wants to hit 125 in weapons then even it out for shields and engines. Most dps escort types have +10 from ship in weapon category. 25 is a hard min, you have to have 25 in all settings.
You can open up that panel with the 1,2,3 click button and customize your own power settings. That probably isnt necessary. The all weapons button is pretty good by default, its max weapons, high shields, and about right for a dual cannon offense setup. If you want shields and engines equal with minimal aux, that would be custom.
Power levels only drain when there's something active that affects them. That's debuffs and activated powers. Of the latter, firing energy weapons draws power from your weapons reserve, and using certain boff powers (mainly Auxiliary to Battery and some sci powers) draws power from auxiliary.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
And a side note - can weapons have more than one type? Like Plasma-Disruptor? I could have sworn I got a weapon like that. I got a really good DHC but I can't decide if I want to put it on or not yet. I may wait until 30 and I can fit 4 fore weapons. Suggestions? Also, can I do anything at ~30 range to get Dilithium in order to get some better weapons or should I just take quest gear?
Yes - some missions offer hybrid weapons for the reward for the level you are at upon completion. Also, if you open reward packs of hybrid weapons (weather from lock boxes or the exchange), you will get that type of hybrid weapon at an appropriate level.
You can have more than one weapon type - it's a free country. However you will find it is an inefficient usage of resources. I would suggest trying to stick to one weapon type (Phasers, Plasma, Disruptor, etc) so you maximize your output with coinciding tac consoles that boost those particular types.
While leveling, its nto a big deal though; some people might raz you for having different weapon types or a 'skittle boat or 'rainbow build", but it's not a biggie while you're leveling. When you get to VA you can then optimize your loadout.
Peachy keen. That's awesome. Thanks for the tip. Can you comment on the DHC? I got a good one from a quest and I'm in a Mogai about to hit 30 (not sure what ship comes next).
And let me make sure I got this down. Bigger, slower ships = beams, arrays, turrets, and smaller, faster ships = cannons, and...?
Haha yeah. Bigger, slower ships tend to use beam arrays A) Because they (with some exceptions) can't mount Dual heavy cannons or dual cannons. However, ALL ships can mount single cannons. In fact, there are some Effective builds that are strictly single cannons and turrets, although there are better builds available.
As for Dual Heavy Cannons :Yes. Strictly yes and always yes! They hit hard and most importantly they come with an additional +10% CritD. Free. Common layouts (for example)
Just say you have, 3 forward weapon slots and 2 rear slots:
front: DHC DHC TORP
rear: Turret Turret
Why? This puts all of your weapons into your forward arc during your passes (assuming you're in an escort). this maximizes your attack runs and since you're likely quite maneuverable in your escort, it shouldn't be too hard to keep your target in your forward firing arc (hence the narrow arcs of Dual Cannons and Dual Heavy Cannons)
Keep in mind this is a common build as it is so effective. Of course, there are other ways to do it. If you're in a Cruiser, beam arrays are preferred only because cruisers tend to turn slower. However, Right now they are very flavor-of-the-month at endgame with the Beam: Fire At Will builds. But that's a different topic.
No matter what, just experiment. Read the forums. Most importantly, have fun!
If you can't move in a way to avoid getting surrounded and overwhelmed, means you need a larger arc.
Generally, I found turrets too low DPS to matter, except if you have to shoot at fast moving targets, like fighters (then, they're my main choice). A pretty good turret is the omni-directional antiproton array from the Sphere of Influence episode.
An interesting option I tried recently is to replace the back turret with torpedoes. With a fast turning ship, I can hit with the fore cannons and torpedoes, turn and hit with aft torps, turn again and hit with fore guns, rinse and repeat.
This is mostly against powerful slow moving enemies which drain my shields.
Good and powerful, but I can't make them work effectively for larger groups (3-5 enemies is my limit).
Sell some of your loot and try buying some high level equipment/consoles. And shields !!! Like somebody said before, try matching damage type between weapons and console.
You can obtain dilithium, especially if you're willing to mine and do dilihium missions for few hours daily.
Personally, I find the dilithium stores very expensive for the effort needed to obtain the dilithium. I am pretty good at trading so I got most stuff for energy credits at exchange.
Do some farming missions and sell the loot on exchange or to NPCs like bartenders.
(I'm not at my computer right now and can't check).
If you want to do something NOW to improve, buy purple bridge officers with good space and ground skills. Then buy 10 duty officers (blue and purple) that you will use in your space and ground support role slots. These will still be just as useful at 50 as they are now!
The fastest way to get dil is to make alt characters and do one foundry on each once a day. At higher levels, the "empire defense" (or explore new worlds fed side) type quests for 1400 dil take just a few (less than 10) min. At lower levels, it can take over 1/2 an hour to beat all those ships, so those may not be optimal for you yet. You can also make dil by keeping your duty officers busy, its not much, but it adds up esp on 3+ characters. Also characters are a better deal than bank space, so its a win-win. You can trade dil between your characters by putting it on the exchange at an unacceptable price, changing characters, and pulling down the offer, if you didnt know that.
I may buy some Turrets and DHCs then since I haven't come across too many as quest rewards. I'm about to jump into the Ar'kif which is like an escort so DHCs should be useful.