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a question. power transfer. or weapon power?
skullblits
Member Posts: 1,273 Arc User
well I've read up on this but the topics talking about it are at least a year old.
so I'm a dual plasma beam user.
I was wondering what would be better. power transfer rate. or weapon power setting??
just wanna make sure what's best before I upgrade the consoles.
thanks
oh I'm using a battle cruiser
would weapons power setting and a eps be the best option??
so I'm a dual plasma beam user.
I was wondering what would be better. power transfer rate. or weapon power setting??
just wanna make sure what's best before I upgrade the consoles.
thanks
oh I'm using a battle cruiser
would weapons power setting and a eps be the best option??
Post edited by skullblits#4627 on
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Answers
Let us assume you are using a Fed or Klingon. When I setup a new build the first thing I do is jack the weapons power up as close to 100 as I can get, without compromising shields and engine TOO much. I believe some battlecruisers have a built in + to weapons so that helps. But here is the kicker. Just because your weapons power is high, doesn't mean it will last long. Dual beam banks, and beam banks in general drain power fairly quickly. So, to counter this, I use an EPS console. Their are several different types of EPS consoles, and a crafted version has a turn bonus as well which comes in handy on a big ship. The consoles that boost weapons power, to me, don't really seem worth it. Purple MK XIII's give +4 I believe, and that just seem like a lot of bang for your buck. However, running Emergency power to Weapons 3, and that Trait that reduces weapon energy usage, which of course I cant recall the name of, comes in handy as well.
I would say ship builds are largely based on play style, a build that works for me, someone else may hate. However to answer your question: Both. But the * would be: What BOFF skills are you planning on using, what traits do you have, do you fly in weapons blazing, or play it cautious when fighting big groups? Best part of it is you can try a build, and if it doesn't work, try something else. Battle cruisers are definetly badass, fun to fly ships. I'll be honest ive never loaded one up with Dual Beam Banks, because of the lowish turn rate, and lack of firing arc, but then again if you get enough DPS out of them you could likely kill half the badguys on the first pass.
Hope my ramblings help...
Fleet Admiral In charge of Bacon
Fighting 5th Attack Squadron
The Devils Henchman
indeed it has helped. as I'm on ps4 no duty officers or crafting yet
I'll put both on and upgrade them a bit in the tech boost we are having.
I've also a console with turn rate on it. so gunnar upgrade that a fair bit.
I'll try them out. thanks
Without getting into the math (I would make too many errors) the general idea is that as you fire weapons energy drains, EPS refills it. More EPS it refills faster. Ideally it refills fast enough your power stays at max for every shot. The ideal is close enough to impossible as to not be worth worrying about, but you can get some truly impressive refill values if you really work at it.
If you are up for it, here is where you find the critical information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/math/damage_categories
Specifically the important discussions of power and EPS are here including detailed examples:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/3ydhn8/eps_and_fleet_spire_cores/cycl340
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/45g9v4/cannons_and_eps/czyv8lf
There may be a newer thread that I missed, but the reddit people are usually pretty good about keeping the wiki accurate. If I remember correctly, Mastajdog posts here on the official forums as Jarvisandalfred. He and Atem (the two main contributors to the EPS/Power math discussions) are very good about helping people who ask about mechanics.
I made both my consoles epic in the tech event we are having.
I thought it reduces the recharge time of your weapons. mine are all the same. but for some reason the recharge is still 3 seconds.
Power transfer does not reduce power drain. It does not increase power levels, nor does it increase power regeneration. So if you ask me I would recommend you to go with weapon power if it is raw damage you want.
You should take the time to check the links provided above. You would probably give a different answer if you did. Well, at least a more nuanced answer. The first line of your answer is correct up until a certain point when overcapping comes into play.
On this topic in general there are two choices for players. The first is to actually wrap your brain around a number of specific topics so you can explain them back to yourself in general terms. Those topics include at a minimum: firing cycles, weapon drain AND return during firing cycles, overcapping, and PTR's effect on overcapped power.
Or, use this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/4rxl9j/updated_sto_weapons_power_calculator/
A combination of both approaches will probably be best. Getting a general understanding of those topics will allow you to understand the crunching being done by the spreadsheet in that thread.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
I'm pretty sure that it doesn't effect the actual recharge time of the weapon, just the power bank for the weapon.
Then I shall provide you with this read:
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Release_notes/20100603#Weapon_Energy_Drain_Mechanic_Changes
I have been playing STO off and on, and I could use a little help to improve my DPS. I always thought my DPS was good enough, but after playing ISA yesterday and seeing someone post a combat log, I am now thinking otherwise. My DPS was about 8.5k, but there were 3 heavy hitters in that STF ranging between 90k to 150k DPS so I assume my DPS would be a bit higher if Borg ships were not being destroyed as quickly as they were. I was not quick enough to even shoot off a single shot at the Borg Cube protecting the 2nd transformer.
I am currently a level 56 KDF Engineer and I am flying the free T5 Vor'cha Battle Cruiser I received when I was level 40. If it matters, I just started playing Delta Rising missions and I am currently working on the Omega, Iconian, Delta Alliance, and Terran rep systems which are basically tier 3 or 4. I will be buying a T6 ship when there is a ship sale; most likely the Qib battle cruiser. I also have a AoY Temporal Agent that I am leveling up (level 45)... finding those temporal probes can be a pain... My current gear is as follows and I think it is best not to get anymore rep gear until after maxing out all the reps for my AoY captain.
[b]Forward Weapons:[/b]
3x Ultra Rare Disruptor Beam Array Mk XIV [CrtD]x2 [CrtH] [Dmg]
1x Very Rare Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo Mk XIII [CrtD]x2 [CrtH]
[b]Aft Weapons:[/b]
2x Ultra Rare Disruptor Beam Array Mk XIV [CrtD]x2 [CrtH] [Dmg]
1x Ultra Rare Omni Directional Beam Array Mk XII [Arc] [Acc] [CrtD] [Dmg]
1x Very Rare Kinetic Cutting Beam Mk XIII [Dmg]x3
Solanae Deflectory Array Mk XII
Solanae Efficient Impulse Engine Mk XII
Solanae Resilient Shield Array Mk XII
Obelisk Subspace Rift Warp Core Mk XII
[b]Engineering Consoles[/b]
1x Ultra Rare Conductive RCS Accelerator Mk Xii [ResAll]
1x Plasmonic Leech
1x Very Rare ESP Flow Regulator Mk XII
1x Sustained Radiant Field Mk XII
[b]Science Consoles:[/b]
1x Exotic Particle Field Exciter MK XII [EngPwr]
1x Very Rare Assimilated Module Mk XIV
1x Bio Neural Gel Pack Mk XII
[b]Tactical Consoles:[/b]
3x Epic Disruptor Induction Coil Mk XIV
I prefer to keep the torpedo for game style purposes since the movies and TV series show KDF ships using torpedoes. I cannot remember my captain skills off the top of my head, but they are pretty balanced... something like engineering - 16 points / science - 12 points / tactical - 18 points. For skills that affects damage I know I have 3 points in energy weapon training, weapon amplification and long range targeting. And I know I have 2 points in projectile weapon training and targeting expertise.
My bridge officer abilities are as follows:
Ensign Tactical - Tactical Team I
Lieutenant Tactical - Torpedo Spread I / Beam Fire At Will II
Lt. Cmdr Engineer - Engineering Team I, Emergency Power To Shields II /
Commander Engineer - Emergency Power To Shields I / Engineering Team II / Emergency Power To Weapons III / Directed Energy Modulation III
Lieutenant Science - Hazard Emitter I / Science Team II
I have 6 specialization points that I have not allocated yet. And... I just realized that I do not have any Doffs on active duty.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Again, I will not run any more rep projects until after my AoY maxes out all the reps and I will probably by the T6 Qib battle cruiser during the next ship sale.
That is a six-year-old patch note from season 1. By contrast the information the Redditors posted has been tested in 2016. It is not theorycrafting, it is actually tested and verified information from this year. Mastajdog has some of the highest damage engineers in the game and has discussed formulas with the developers. I trust his advice and understanding of how EPS modifies damage over an obsolete patch note.
Now, bear in mind that I did not go mad in the power transfer department by aiming for a 600% increase. However, I did raise it to 366% as opposed to 100% and saw some surprising benefits. I did come to the conclusion that a certain level of increased power transfer is very beneficial and healthy on several planes.
First of all, the added power transfer will help your systems will allow you to redistribute power very quickly. This has the added benefit to faster recovery after disengaging Full Impulse, but also the added benefit to faster acceleration to the full power of Full Impulse once engaged.
Secondly, power transfer can add greatly to your survival by allowing you to redistribute shields significantly faster. In particular, if you even out shields (all facings) in combat the shield capacity will be taken from facings that don't really need it and put them to the facings that are taking damage. Of course, you can redistribute power to a specific facing of your choosing.
And finally, it will keep your power fluctuations more leveled with fewer peaks and lows. Here is where I will offer my own recommendation. You could most certainly go for 600% power transfer and I suppose it could be very beneficial in certain areas. However, in order to achieve that level of power transfer you would need to forego gear that could otherwise also be very beneficial to your build. And you still need weapon power so in conclusion I would say that a healthy balance between power transfer and weapon power is probably preferable to going all out on power transfer.
Combined with Emergency Power to Weapons and the starship trait Emergency Weapons Cycle (that affects the aforementioned) you can keep your weapon power drain and recovery at bay. Throw in Command: Weapon Efficiency into the mix and you could send Mr Scott to a spa treatment while you take on enemies of your choosing.
I believe on pc you can put full power to one facing. like front shields? not sure.
all we can do is redistribute them.
with my build I notice with power transfer this happens really quickly. tactical team is also very handy.
as for power to weapons setting. it's only at 122 power levels. nothing really to write home about. but I think the transfer refill's the power back up quickly. not sure.
anyway thanks for the advice.
with the boost weekend my weapons do over 800 damage. and over 700 dps.
I think that's good. lol
After even further analysis and testing I managed to boost the power transfer rate to 466% for a total of about 23 power points per second. It makes a significant difference as opposed to the default 5 power points per second.
However, since the true benefit provided by power transfer seems to lie with the overflow(*) power invisible above the 125 power mark, I would say that you would need a fair amount of overcap(*) power for power transfer to be useful in this area. I use Plasmonic Leech with a lot of Drain Expertise for about 3.0 points per activation. I also use the Kelvin Timeline Intel Dreadnought with Command - Weapon Efficiency which reduces power draw by 20% for each weapon.
I've seen people showcase the importance of power transfer but they always buff up and use Fire at Will when they record their videos. In those videos they generally manage to stay at 125 power while using this type of test scenario. While this is indicative as to what you can gain from power transfer I can give you my own test results for some extra insight. When I do the same, as in use Fire at Will together with Emergency Power to Weapons, my weapon power remains at 125 power as well. I consider this important information to relay but what I find even more important is to mention what I gain from just firing normally without buffs at all.
Thanks to my power transfer of 466% (23 power points per second), Command - Weapon Efficiency and Plasmonic Leech (total 23 leeched power points) my weapon power drops down to 112 at the worst when firing all 7 beam arrays. I think this is a great improvement. I don't remember entirely what the drops were before the respec and all, but I believe I did see drops of 60-70 without the extra added power transfer.
Now I think it is worth mentioning that I can improve the overcap by adding the Temporal Reputation console (+5 weapon power) and the Terran Reputation console (+4 weapon power), Temporal Reputation engine (5 weapn power) as well a Research Fleet DrainX console (60 expertise / + 4 leeched power). This increases my overcap power from 156 to 175 (125 + 50 overflow).
I actually tried the above but quickly came to the conclusion that adding 19 more weapon power with the above-mentioned gear did not yield any better results when just firing normally. I suspect I would need even more than 466% power transfer rate to benefit from that much overcap power (175). In conclusion I can say that having an overcap above 160 or 35+ overflow is not going to give you much extra min and max power in the end.
Now, I did not lower the power transfer to see where the actual threshold was for the most optimal yield and balance. Also, take into account that if I were to fly a different ship with 7 weapon slots or use an aft torpedo both my leech and weapon drain would look different. Anyways, I could speculate that the ratio between power transfer and overflow is perhaps about 1:1 for good reference. That is to say, 20 power transfer points per second for 20 overflow... and this is not with weapon drain per second considered. But let's say you were to have 600% power transfer. That means you can move 30 power points per second from your power reserves.
If you want to know what I think then I think it is probably better to have a little more power transfer than overflow. For example, if your overcap is 150 (25 overflow) then a power transfer of 300% is probably desirable. Anyone who reads this doesn't have to take my word for it. But I hope this can offer some insight.
* Overflow = Power overflowing above 125. If your overcap is 150 then the overflow is 25.
* Overcap= The total power maxed power + overflowing power.
Oh yes, I remember those days. That's how it usd to work for a while, but at some point it seems they changed back to the old model (or maybe a third one, that is more similar to the old). I tend to think that was a mistake, but what's done is done.
Again, https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comments/4rxl9j/updated_sto_weapons_power_calculator/
Nobody has to take anybody else's word for it. Use the spreadsheet, consult the box "Maximum Useful Overcap."
Credit to the reddit heroes. Your maths are as good as my words are the awful.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
Anyways, let's say that you fly a ship with 8 weapon slots, 7 of which you use for beam arrays and the last one one for a torpedo launcher in the fore. It means you will have 7 weapon drain sources. Beam arrays have an attack cycle of 4 seconds upon which it fires once every second for each attack. Now, judging by observation of power fluctuations and how weapons work the power level at the start of each attack cycle determines the power at which those four attacks are launched at.
So in a worst case scenario where either of the fore or aft facings fire simultaneously you will have 7 drain sources if all of them are within their targeting arc. If it is just one side it may be 3 fore, 4 aft or 4 fore and 2 aft (with the torpedo occupying the 8th slot). But let's focus on the very worst case scenario of 7 beam arrays as well the lowest of 2 or 3 beams. It means you would lose max 70 weapon power or 56 with Command - Weapon Efficiency, or even 50 ish with the Bounty Hunter's friend console as well. At the lowest you would lose 20, or 16 with Command - Weapon Efficiency and 14.4 with Bounty Hunter's console. With 3 aft weapons instead that would be 30, or 24 with Command - Efficiency and 21.6 with Bounty Hunter's console.
As the Borg would say, trying to cancel out the max drain regardless of how much it can be lowered with Command - Efficiency and Bounty Hunter's console seems like a futile attempt. For that to be fully successful you would need something like 1000 Power Transfer for 50 power points per 1 second, and also at least an overflow of 50 for a total overcap of 175 (125+50) to always remain at 125 weapon power.
Now, trying to cancel out the lowest drain seems more feasible to me, but even then you would preferably need about 400% power transfer for 20 power points per second. And of course you would need a minimum of 20 overflow for a total overcap of 135. Getting the overflow higher than power transfer rate is relatively easy. And if we think about how much we may preferably need to get one or two free uses of overcap at 1:1 ratio before power transfer rate kicks in when power levels reach below 125, then we would need 2 or even 3 times more overflow than power transfer. For example, 40 or 60 overflow for a total overcap of either 145 and 165.
Is all of this achievable and what is the cost of doing so for both power transfer and overflow/overcap. Of course, the maximum and minimum power drains you will have at a given time will depend on your ship's weapon layout and the weapons you use. But regardless of what the ship and weapons are we could put us at a compromise of 300% power transfer rate (15 points per second) and 145 to make it more achievable and at less cost of any other potential bonuses.
All of this is with the 125 weapon limit in mind. Depending on where you are in the game and how much endgame gear you can get I think a ratio of 1:1 between power transfer and overflow (even drain and recovery) is a good goal to aim for. For example, if your power transfer is at 200% for 10 power points per second, then an overflow of 10, 20 and 30 (135, 145, 155 overcap) would allow for an even drain and recovery.
But this is just me and how I would think about power transfer and weapon power.
So with 7 beams, you have the first not draw power the other 6 all do even on their first shot of the 4. The first weapon will draw power on its second shot because the other weapons are now in the firing cycle.
Power transfer happens during the cycle, not after. Certain boosts, like the leech, happen immediately upon firing, boosting power for the next shot.
There are also two categories of drain lowering. Drain "resistance" is applied first and reduces the amount a weapon tries to drain (starting from a base 10). Drain "reduction" applies second and changes what is actually taken out. Any triggered plus power (leech) happens last. Power transfer is applied every quarter second if I remember correctly.
Like the previous poster said you're missing a few things, most importantly the timing on how power returns.
Seriously, that spreadsheet is as fun to tinker with as your actual ship. Watch the red and blue lines in the top right move around as you adjust the fields.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe