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Plasma Build 2016?
ltbazz
Member Posts: 58 Arc User
Howdy Folks!
So, I am thinking about decking out my Romulan toons with some shiny new (ship) plasma weapons, but I am unsure which kind of plasmas to pursue nowadays.
I am looking for plasma first and foremost because of the plasma lotus on my Dinaes Warbird and to a lesser degree because of canon aesthetics.
Thanks to the Breach I have quite some Dil. And even more Fleet Credits (don't ask
)
EC ... not so much.
I did quite some digging through the Interwebs and Googles.
But most of it was out of date, especially regarding last years rebirth of the DMG mod.
The most touched topics were:
1) Advanced Fleet Plasma vs 2) Romulan Plasma
(I have access to both)
So in the past, the consensus seemed to be: RomPlas > FleetPlas, because FleetPlas had at least 2 (then) undesirable DMG mods.
How about now?
3) Crafted Weapons
I realize they are the top dogs nowadays because of the possible mods. And I have my R&D levelled up quite far.
But realistically: ~ how many million ECs would that be for one weapon with mods at least equal to fleet weapons (DMGx3, CrtD) ?
4) Anything important I forgot?
Any advice would be much appreciated!
TL;DR:
Which plasma weapon good? Me want big BOOOM!
Me like cyan!
Me haves much FC. And Dil.
So, I am thinking about decking out my Romulan toons with some shiny new (ship) plasma weapons, but I am unsure which kind of plasmas to pursue nowadays.
I am looking for plasma first and foremost because of the plasma lotus on my Dinaes Warbird and to a lesser degree because of canon aesthetics.
Thanks to the Breach I have quite some Dil. And even more Fleet Credits (don't ask
)EC ... not so much.
I did quite some digging through the Interwebs and Googles.
But most of it was out of date, especially regarding last years rebirth of the DMG mod.
The most touched topics were:
1) Advanced Fleet Plasma vs 2) Romulan Plasma
(I have access to both)
So in the past, the consensus seemed to be: RomPlas > FleetPlas, because FleetPlas had at least 2 (then) undesirable DMG mods.
How about now?
3) Crafted Weapons
I realize they are the top dogs nowadays because of the possible mods. And I have my R&D levelled up quite far.
But realistically: ~ how many million ECs would that be for one weapon with mods at least equal to fleet weapons (DMGx3, CrtD) ?
4) Anything important I forgot?
Any advice would be much appreciated!
TL;DR:
Which plasma weapon good? Me want big BOOOM!
Me like cyan!
Me haves much FC. And Dil.
0
Comments
Still, Romulan Plasma is as close as you can get if you want to use that plasma lotus...
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
As close to canon or as close to BOOOM?
(Because the latter is more important to me.
Empire ships use disruptors, Republic use plasma (old-school, apparently). Romulan plasma from the rep, are plasma weapons with the disruptor proc, and both those procs are pretty good. Dmg is better than it used to be, depends a bit how many fleet credits you have versus amount of dilithium.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Depends on if you want all the same colour beam.
Fleet Plasmas are Ultra Rare quality with 4 mods.
Out of the box, I see Fleet Plasma as the better damage dealer. If you plan to commit to fully upgrade no matter what, Rom Plasma mught have better potential.
Either way, I recommend getting the Romulan Experimental Plasma Beam Array in your setup. Why? Because it drains 0 weapon power when firing other energy weapons. On a 7 or 8 beam ship, that could be a big deal. It also can go toward a 2pc or 3pc set (with Harness console and/or Romulan Plasma torpedo).
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Granted they have good procs.
But Corrosive Plasma's are pretty similar in procs, and don't suffer from missing mods.
Corrosives have a plasma burn proc @2.5% and a scaling damage resistance debuff @2.5%
They are flat out better weapons then the RomPlasma if you ask me.
Personally, I'd pick up a few Corrosives, the Experimental Rom plasma array, and complete your weapons load out with either fleet ADV Plasma weapons (easier to acquire and start at Ultra Rare right off the bat, but fairly expensive to upgrade compared to crafted).
Or forget about the fleet adv weapons completely, and start getting serious crafting your own Plasma weapons (@mk II)
And upgrade them in the hopes you'll get CrtDx3 [Pen] or Dmgx3 [Pen] or even CrtDx4/Dmgx4.
This crafting route takes time, and can be frustrating to get the proper mods...but once you do, you can feel completely confident that your resources are going to a good cause, and not wasted on weapons that are missing mods etc, which you may end up regretting later down the road.
I just don't like to see players wasting their precious resources.
If you must get some RomPlasmas to tide you over and try out the build, fine.
But i don't recommend you upgrade them at all.
Go for the real deal right away is my advice. Either Crafted or Corrosive.
I think you'll end up happier in the end if you take the longer road.
It may take longer, but the payoff is huge.
And crafting isn't expensive per say, so long as you have some blue crafting mats laying around.
It is actually really cheap to produce MK II beams.
The hard part is getting them at CrtDx2 [Pen] or DMGx2 [Pen], then taking them to MK VII with one upgrade kit, and hoping they get a rarity upgrade on the way, and give you CrtDx3 [Pen].
Hard works, but huge payoff.
I'm glad i took my time with my disruptor build. Rather then waste resources on sub par weapons with poor or missing mods.
You will be too.
Corrosives will be tough to find if fussy about mods at mk 2, they're from an old lockbox so the new supply is pretty rare. Then you've got upgrading to fund.
Rom reps - so much dil and grind for moddest gain.
DHC pre-epicced will cost 15m+ ea. on the exchange plus the cost to mk14. You can aways save for gold and field lesser gear in the interim, with the upgrade weekend looking like a fairly regular event it makes sense to upgrade at half the cost.
If you're looking for great weapons on a budget, your best bet is the Advanced Fleet Plasma [Dmg]x3 [Crtd]. They are far superior to Romulan Plasma and come already at Ultra Rare quality. Just upgrade them to Mark XIV (Optional) and you have a full set of high quality weapons with desirable mods.
If you're looking for top of the line DPS then your best bet is still crafted Plasma beams with Pen Mod and either CrtD or Dmg (or a combination.)
Reputation weapons should be avoided, compared to Fleet and Crafted weapons they're horribly handicapped. Fleet weapons are far superior.
Don't forget torpedoes though! If, like me, you have healthy boosts to exotic damage and you like to throw gravity wells around you can do a lot worse than the craftable plasma torpedo. I've no idea how it compares in terms of DPS, but squeezing a mob into a clump and watching their hulls melt from the clouds that result from a dusting of torpedoes is very satisfying.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Very good advice.
Reputation Weapons have nothing but negatives, there is really no good reason to use them. Missing mods, unreal cost to upgrade, and they only start at VR quality. There is honestly no reason to use any of them at all, it's so much cheaper to just make Mark II weapons and upgrade them or if you don't want to craft, just use Fleet Weapons.
I have a ship filled with Rom: Romplas weapons, Rom shields, etc etc I was also told "you need (pen) fhghghgh!! Romplas are stupid!)
So i spent months making Plasma with lots of critD, pen, dmg, taking them to gold, and replacing my Romplas. You know what? The difference in actual play is minimal. All that dil and mats and hairpulling... gah
My alts are going to use Romplas and I'm leaving it at that. Ridiculous (throw money at screen) rush for 4 more dps is ridiculous
To be fair, there could be a number of reasons why you didn't see a difference.
Without knowing your build and skill level, I can't do anything but really guess as to why you didn't see a big gain, I will just say that you should have seen a considerable difference. Romulan Plasma is vastly inferior to crafted beams with the 'desired' mods. The difference is not small either, it's extreme, especially if you took them to Mark XIV Epic.
The blunt way of saying it is that putting high end weapons on a bad build won't make that build good. It won't hide poor piloting, inefficient use of powers, or any number of other factors. I'm not saying this was you, I'm not saying you're 'bad,' I'm just saying there are a lot of factors to consider. Your results could have been the result of any number of things, I won't try to guess using no knowledge of your build or skill level.
There is more to it then just getting gold beams and all the sudden you destroy everything. There are a number of reasons why your results could have been minimal, but regardless of that Romulan Plasma beams are still the worst plasma weapons in the game outside of crafted beams with all bad mods. No matter what gear you run though, if you don't use it correctly, it will be ineffective.
I usually just buy the romulan weapons using the random mark boxes in the reputation system and sell back any ones that are only Mk XI and the ones that have modifiers i don't like.
Pros: Only costs me rommie marks, ec and experience which are easy to get if you do the tholian alerts. and you get 360 dil per hour, so a few of those a day and you get Dil + Gear without sing any refined dilithium.
Cons: It takes a while to accumulate the gear you need
And no RomPlas are not "missing a mod". They get the disruptor proc instead. Which could be a bad thing if you're going for an UBER-DPS crit stacking build, but for the rest of us? Well, if you're really chasing UBER-DPS why are you using plasma at all?
My character Tsin'xing
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
thank you all for the input!
I will go with the Advanced Fleet Plasmas then, for the time being.
No plan to upgrade them, just something better than my green and blue loot drops ;-)
And when I have the EC, I will do some crafting, I promise ;-)
Toxic builds are the new thing this year
Crafting is a pain, but its a big payoff when you get the weapons you want.
The fleet adv plasmas will get you by just fine until then.
((hides))
My character Tsin'xing
There were two Xindi Boxes. The first one had PHASED Biomatter. The second had PLASMATIC Biomatter. Behaved the same, but different damage types.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
My character Tsin'xing