Which of these torpedoes should I use? Hmmm.

snowwolf · May 2016

I dunno which one I should use! I have a cannon build so I'd prefeer one of these two. My ship other than that has a great deal of phaser beams, it's more of a tank and support build. Nothing straight up DPS stuff. lol.

I'm confused, one has less DPS but higher kinetic damage.. So.. Which one should I go for? :S

Here is the rest of my build..

questerius · May 2016

Photon if you're into sustained damage (Highest Rate of Fire) and quantum if you're more focused on burst damage (lower rate of fire, higher damage per salvo).

snowwolf · May 2016

questerius wrote: »

Photon if you're into sustained damage (Highest Rate of Fire) and quantum if you're more focused on burst damage (lower rate of fire, higher damage per salvo).

Well from my experience, when using my torpedo powers such as spread and high yield. Photon's spew out.

For example. Torpedo Spread will fire 6 Quantum Torpedoes.. But over 15 Photons'..

Some say therefor the photons are much more powerful than Quantums? Is that true? Or does Quantums actually have much more of a kick, just fires less.

I can't really notice a difference myself... Except on certain enemies.. Quantums work very well against Borg ships, Photons doesn't seem to work... At all.. On everyone else, photons work great. Quantums are more like.. Meh.

jaguarskx · May 2016

Both photon and quantum torpedoes are considered "normal" weapons. Therefore under optimal conditions regardless of which torpedo you use you should always fire the same number of torpedoes when using torpedo spread. For example, TS3 can target up to 5 enemies and launch 4 torpedoes at each of them; 20 torpedoes in total.

Between the two I would opt for photon torpedoes due to the shorter reload time. Quantum torpedoes does 11.15% more damage, but reload times are 33.33% longer. Reload times are only important though if you constantly keep the target in the same firing are (forward or after). If you are constantly switching between your forward and after torpedo launcher, then the 2 second reload time difference is less of an issue because you would generally be trying to position your ship to alternate launchers which takes time to do especially on a cruiser.

Also, be aware that since you have a Plasmonic Leech in your tactical console slot your ship will not be doing "optimal damage". You could move it to an engineering slot. That would mean you need to remove one of your fleet neutronium consoles, but stacking resistance consoles on top of each other has diminishing returns.

snowwolf · May 2016

jaguarskx wrote: »

Also, be aware that since you have a Plasmonic Leech in your tactical console slot your ship will not be doing "optimal damage". You could move it to an engineering slot. That would mean you need to remove one of your fleet neutronium consoles, but stacking resistance consoles on top of each other has diminishing returns.

Oh no, I tried that other times and I like my armour consoles just where they are now! It's not a "weapon damage build". I can play through the storyline and PVE content just fine, but I never die/blow up. Yay armour, it actually does stack quite nicely with the new skill system. My hull is about 114.000 so I'm quite the tanky build and I love it.

I think I will keep with the Quantum Torpedoes as a cruiser with slow turn rate, I mostly attack enemies with facing them with a side. So all my beam weapons can come into work. So I fire some Quantums when I approach, fly by them while spewing my beams out.. Then shoot out some torpedoes at the back before I do another pass.

I think that's the best way to go.

Also fun fact. Moving the plasmonic Leech out of the tactical console slot does not actually help my damage that much, I dunno why. I've always sucked at damage. Before the skill re-vamp my damage was 14,000 DPS. But it's improved now, but I don't know what the number is.

I can easily take down a Borg Cube etc playing through the missions.

jaguarskx · May 2016

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to play. If you are currently having fun with your build, then that is all that matters.

I play STO on a secondary account that is strictly free to play. My max level KDF engineering captain simply flies the free T5 Vor'Cha Cruiser Retrofit I got at level 40 with nothing but green / blue Mk XII "junk" gear. The main story missions are not very difficult and certain advanced STF are easy enough.

daeridanii · May 2016

In my personal opinion, and at a glance - I'd say you should probably go with quantums. Unless those Neutronium armors have the turn modifier, you're probably going to go the way of a beached whale - a few degrees per second. Quantum burst damage means that you would have a greater damage potential every time you turn to face your enemies.
(Oh, and holey [like swiss cheese] smokes, that's a mean loadout!)

mustrumridcully0 · May 2016

Photon torpedoes have a higher rate of fire. That means that you will fire more photon torpedoes unbuffed, and you need to have the target in your firing arc longer.

If you don't have the space for torpedo buffs or can maintain targets in your arc for the full duration, you can use them.

But ultimately, the answer is: Neither.

The good torpedoes are all "speciality" torpedoes that directly or indirectly deal extra damage:
- Gravimetric Torpedoes (Dyson Rep) for popping small gravity well like exotic damage that deal AoE damage for their duration
- Plasma Emission Torpedoes (Crafting, Exchange) for popping small plasma patches that deal AoE damage and slow down enemies
- Quantum Phase Torpedoes (Mission Reward) for draining shields (in an AoE) (you want the two-set bonus from its set to buff that drain, though)
- Terran Torpedoes (Terran Reputation) for dealing extra damage against low hull targets
- Neutronic Torpedoes (Delta Reputation) for dealing extra radiation damage in an AoE

I think I prefer QPT, NT and PE currently, but I am not sure that is the absolute best choice there.
QPT and NT have potential synergy since they both benefit from quantum torpedo buffs, if you have any.
Likewise, Gravimetric and Terran Torpedo have similar synergies.
But the Terrain Torpedo also is part of a set that buffs torpedoes, including something that lowers the shared cooldown (the latter is probably not important for your ship.)

But,of course, if you were here for space barbie advice and canon apppropriateness - you need some type of (red) photon torpedo, because that's what Galaxy Class Cruisers use.

antonine3258 · May 2016

Science ships love the speciality torps - if you're rigged for drain, the QPT is really synergestic, and if you have a lot of exotic particle abilities, well, all those torps with exotic particles are nice (and helps the science ship run high auxiliary without effectively giving up as much shooting)

postinggum · May 2016

Why not use a resall RCS - armour and biggest turn rate buff. Remember that many boff abilities boost damage resistance, it might be that in action you could drop an armour console without becoming significantly squishier.

In general you might want to look at some rep and crafted gear, at least consider a phaser omni beam.

pottsey5g · May 2016

kate370 wrote: »

questerius wrote: »

Photon if you're into sustained damage (Highest Rate of Fire) and quantum if you're more focused on burst damage (lower rate of fire, higher damage per salvo).

Well from my experience, when using my torpedo powers such as spread and high yield. Photon's spew out.

For example. Torpedo Spread will fire 6 Quantum Torpedoes.. But over 15 Photons'..

Some say therefor the photons are much more powerful than Quantums? Is that true? Or does Quantums actually have much more of a kick, just fires less.

I can't really notice a difference myself... Except on certain enemies.. Quantums work very well against Borg ships, Photons doesn't seem to work... At all.. On everyone else, photons work great. Quantums are more like.. Meh.

That's wrong as torpedo spread shoots out the same amount of torpedo's with Photon and Quantum. When talking about basic torpedo's a Quantum torpedo spread is better then a photon torpedo spread. Same amount of torpedo's for both only Quantum hit for more damage. Same goes for high yield a Quantum high yield beats a photon high yield when talking about the basic torpedo types.

nephitis · May 2016

Since you are already using phaser beam arrays the Quantum Phase torpedo, beam array and console would yield you very good results. You are going to shred your targets' shields and if that wasn't enough you will have opened them up for some significant damage when you fire your second torpedo salvo if you didn't get them the first time.

I mean, if you intend to use quantum torpedos anyways you may as well use the Quantum phase one, or at least try it out.

ultimatenewbie · May 2016

I think I agree with the above posters - use the Quantum Phase Torpedo (and my personal favourite, Neutronic Torpedo) in order to continue using Quantums but gain the extra abilities (drain, AoE radiation damage, respectively) for more fun times.

I note that with Saucer Separation, your primary hull should actually be able to turn OK so photons could work if you're often pointing your front torwards the enemy, but the rest of your build doesnt seem to be consistent with that (seems to be more of a fly-by).

e30ernest · May 2016

I've got a Canon Galaxy build as well made for aggro tanking. Link below includes my ship build, BOff seating, DOffs, ship specs and captain skill sheet.

https://redd.it/4gnc3r

I used the Terran torp fore and a crafted torp aft with the [Spr] modifier. This keeps a relatively canon look for the torps. Beams all have the [Over] modifier because I like the sound of beams going Overloadl (very Trrk-like).

I hope this helps.

darkknightucf · May 2016

Load as many as you can on your ship and fire away

officerbatman81 · May 2016

Tricobalt at very close range.

darkknightucf · May 2016

officerbatman81 wrote: »

Tricobalt at very close range.

Add a HY3 Gravimetric as well.

Which of these torpedoes should I use? Hmmm.

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