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Singularity vs warp

kronin#4685 kronin Member Posts: 325 Arc User
What are the pros and cons of a singularity core? I mean, if you had to choose between two ships that were the same in every possible way, except that one had a singularity and the other had a warp core, which would you choose and why? What kind of builds work better or worse for a singularity core?
As I understand it, singularity cores have less energy, but give you a few special abilities. Also, I notice that ships with singularity cores (warbirds) have less health, and come with cloaking devices. I never use the cloak, not my thing. So, why would one pick a singularity core/warbird over a standard warp core/anything else?

Comments

  • lillihennylillihenny Member Posts: 36 Arc User
    For the battle cloak. Being able to get a long lasting ambush damage bonus practically at will is what makes the trade off worthwhile.
  • iamynaughtiamynaught Member Posts: 1,285 Arc User
    edited September 2017
    I've never cared for the Singularity mechanic. Actually, I hate it. So much so that my Rom alts don't fly Rom ships as their main ship. Which sucks because I like the Romulan story line and a lot of the ships look great.

    Oh sure, I own several Rom ships, but only because I got them when I bought the bundles that have the Fed and KDF ships. With the pricing on the bundles, it's basically "Buy the Fed and KDF ships and get the Romulan ones free."

    All my Roms do fly the Rom ships long enough to open the traits, but after that they make their home in something cross faction, event ships or T5-U lockbox ships. Now with the new Suliban Flight Deck Cruiser though, I'll finally have something they can have that is faction related.
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  • seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    lillihenny wrote: »
    For the battle cloak. Being able to get a long lasting ambush damage bonus practically at will is what makes the trade off worthwhile.

    One has nothing to do with the other, there's plenty ships with a regular core and BC.

    Personally I prefer regulars cores. Singularity powers are fun and stuff but that -40 power is quite annoying, especially if you want both weapons and sci stuff to work properly.
    As for the bird issue, their style is to hit fast, hit hard and move along. That's what the BC is for and to balance that out they got a little less health and shields. The inferior power output on birds is actually hard canon from TNG, that's why we got the special green space magic to balance that TRIBBLE out.
  • odinforever20000odinforever20000 Member Posts: 1,849 Arc User
    lillihenny wrote: »
    For the battle cloak. Being able to get a long lasting ambush damage bonus practically at will is what makes the trade off worthwhile.

    One has nothing to do with the other, there's plenty ships with a regular core and BC.

    Personally I prefer regulars cores. Singularity powers are fun and stuff but that -40 power is quite annoying, especially if you want both weapons and sci stuff to work properly.
    As for the bird issue, their style is to hit fast, hit hard and move along. That's what the BC is for and to balance that out they got a little less health and shields. The inferior power output on birds is actually hard canon from TNG, that's why we got the special green space magic to balance that **** out.

    I Love Singularity cores..Their usefulness became apparent to me in PVP as they added another level of sneakyness and tactics applied to confuse and disorient other players :D

    Against NPCs...I only use 2 out of 4 abilities..

    Everytime I switch back to my FED tac toon..I feel like im missing slot of stuff..(also kinda miss having a battle cloak on my sci ship..)

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  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    I generally prefer a straight up warp core. However, all pure Romulan ships have singularity cores. Singularity cores trades 40 power points for 4 singularity abilities that I mostly do not use. I tend to stay a decent distance away from enemies so I do not use Singularity Jump very often. I don't use Quantum Absorption much either.

    I am sure there are many players who likes singularity cores, but I simply view them as a necessary evil if I want my Romulan characters to command a pure Romulan ship.
  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    I think the -40 power is a bit too extreme. Cryptic could make it -20 and that'd be a decent balance. Or give Singularity Powers a significant boost.
  • lillihennylillihenny Member Posts: 36 Arc User
    One has nothing to do with the other, there's plenty ships with a regular core and BC.

    Yes, but irrelevant. See the OP's question and try to keep up. We are discussing bonuses innate to core type.

    All singularity cores have a Romulan battle cloak and that is what factors into my decision for whether or not to accept the power trade off. The singularity powers have no bearing on the decision making process for me, as I find they are more rarely useful.

    Hence my conclusion:
    The best reason to choose singularity cores is for the damage bonus all Rom ships get from battle cloak. 22 seconds of 25% ambush damage that resets at will is the attraction.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    lillihenny wrote: »
    One has nothing to do with the other, there's plenty ships with a regular core and BC.

    Yes, but irrelevant. See the OP's question and try to keep up. We are discussing bonuses innate to core type.

    All singularity cores have a Romulan battle cloak and that is what factors into my decision for whether or not to accept the power trade off. The singularity powers have no bearing on the decision making process for me, as I find they are more rarely useful.

    Hence my conclusion:
    The best reason to choose singularity cores is for the damage bonus all Rom ships get from battle cloak. 22 seconds of 25% ambush damage that resets at will is the attraction.

    Before you insult someone, you should get a clue what you're talking about.

    Again, Singularity Core has absolutely NOTHING to do with Battle Cloak. Not a single thing.. nothing. There are ships in the game that have Battle Cloak and do not have Singularity Cores, Battle Cloak is a standard mechanic for Romulan Ships and those ships ALSO happen to use a Singularity Core. Tons of Klingon Ships have Battle Cloak and do not use a Singularity Core. Even a few Federation Ships can get a Battle Cloak using a standard Anti-Matter Warp Core.

    The Singularity Abilities are the ONLY advantage to the Singularity Core and they get them by sacrificing total overall power. So if you're not factoring that into your decision then you're picking Singularity Cores only for the loss in power because that's all you're getting. Singularity core has nothing to do with Battle Cloak or Ambush benefit or duration.

    Before telling someone to 'try and keep up' you should at least learn what you're talking about.
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  • revolution0214revolution0214 Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    I tend to agree with others in this thread in that I generally prefer standard warp cores over singularity cores when analyzed by themselves. However, there are aspects of singularity cores I very much like.

    Before I upgraded to the Prevailing Engines, I used to use Singularity Jump quite often as it was useful to get my Scimitar to one location rather quickly. Now, I simply pop Warp Shadows occasionally when I need a little heat taken off of me.

    That said, there are some singularity cores out there which provide slightly better bonuses than its warp core counterpart. A great example of this is the Terran Singularity core, which gives +10 power after 50 seconds, instead of the Terran Warp Core's +5 after the same length of time. Granted, the difference in power between these two cores is overshadowed by the fact ships with singularity cores have only 160 base power instead of 200, but is otherwise worth noting.
    ---@revolution0214 | Certified Clueless | Zone, Forums, and Facebook tri-branded Top Fleet Player™ |

    I'm pretty sure that even if you've not equipped AP but are doing x17 elitist hax dps, you're actually using AP. It's another coding quirk.
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    So TIL that SA didn't go from being a T H I C C damage bonus to a thicc damage bonus. Rather, what happened is that it went from T H I C C to merely flat. I guess I should be happy it was not turned into a flatter bonus. That would have been even more nerd-rage worthy. -Anonymous
  • kronin#4685 kronin Member Posts: 325 Arc User
    Hey gang, thanks for the replies so far. Since I started the thread, I feel obligated to remind everyone to keep it civil. We are all friends playing the same game. Anyhow, back to the topic at hand. It's looking like my guess was correct, and that the singularity gives you some cool abilities, but takes away energy. I never use the cloak, so any bonus that gives is moot to me. Now, one more question about singularities and builds; is there a preferred weapon type that goes with singularities? I am thinking torpedoes, since beams and cannons use so much energy. Any thoughts here?
  • revolution0214revolution0214 Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    I never use the cloak, so any bonus that gives is moot to me.

    Just to be clear, and there are a few comments above me that reflect this, but a ship's Singularity core has absolutely nothing to do with its Cloak, should it possess one. There are other things in the game that effect cloaks, such as the Superior Infiltrator, / Superior Subterfuge boff traits, as well as the Infiltrator Personal Trait, but the Singularity Cores themselves have nothing to do with the cloaking mechanic. The only similarities between the two are that Romulan ships which require Singularity Cores frequently possess Battle Cloak.
    Now, one more question about singularities and builds; is there a preferred weapon type that goes with singularities? I am thinking torpedoes, since beams and cannons use so much energy. Any thoughts here?

    In general, no. However when using energy weapons, it's useful to have a warp core that gives either an EPS boost, or some kind of power boost. The Fleet Spire Singularity Core and Terran Singularity core are excellent choices for these kinds of builds.

    From experience, my Shamshir build currently uses the Terran Singularity core and I very much love it. Despite the Shamshir's 160 base power levels, the Scimitars have pretty much always been very potent in terms of energy weapon builds. If you ever have an interest in pursuing an energy weapon build on a ship that uses a Singularity core, please do not be discouraged by the base 160 power levels as they can be very powerful platforms, depending on the ship itself.
    ---@revolution0214 | Certified Clueless | Zone, Forums, and Facebook tri-branded Top Fleet Player™ |

    I'm pretty sure that even if you've not equipped AP but are doing x17 elitist hax dps, you're actually using AP. It's another coding quirk.
    verified by the forums, zone and top fleet players.
    -Nirett

    So TIL that SA didn't go from being a T H I C C damage bonus to a thicc damage bonus. Rather, what happened is that it went from T H I C C to merely flat. I guess I should be happy it was not turned into a flatter bonus. That would have been even more nerd-rage worthy. -Anonymous
  • casualstocasualsto Member Posts: 672 Arc User
    It's actually a niche-related choice and a skill-based choice.

    If you're going for better power levels and better reliable systems for a simplified gameplay style, warp cores are hands down your choice.

    On the other hand, if you wanna be in the upper echelon of the romulan players, singularity core is the choice. Indeed it is difficult and the singularity powers require great skill and timing. And tuning up a warbird for performance is a costful activity.

    Really for cheaper builds, warpcore hands down. For tanks also.

    For spiking dps builds, a singularity core with good timing is king, at the cost of some fragility and some power levels.

    Overall, I'd stay with the singularity as a romulan. I got them on all of my roms and they totally perform as intended.
  • lillihennylillihenny Member Posts: 36 Arc User
    edited September 2017
    Seems everyone misses the point about cloak as I've noted that, yes indeed, other ships have cloaks - but that is tied to a specific ship, console or console set and is not inherent to all ships that carry matter-antimatter cores. But ALL ships with a singularity core have the battle cloak. Therefore choosing a ship with a singularity core means you are guaranteed the battle cloaking ability - hence why, as a general rule, it factors into the pros/cons between cores.

    So I'd say if you're not going to use cloak then definitely go matter anti-matter.
  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    lillihenny wrote: »
    But ALL ships with a singularity core have the battle cloak.

    True... for now. But nothing Cryptic has stated says "A begets B" as far as Singularity Cores and Battle Cloaks go.
    If a battle cloak is a must have, there are Warp Core ships that do so. Yes, they make take a console or 3 to do it, but same could be said for a Warbird to make up the lost power; it may have to run 1-3 power consoles.

    Personally, I use Warbirds on my Rommy. It's most of the reason to have a Romulan ain't it? ;)
  • gwyrdallongwyrdallon Member Posts: 30 Arc User
    I personally really wish there were a way to equip a warp core in most Romulan ships instead of a Singularity core. I'm not saying that the SC is inferior, but my preferences run towards warp, unfortunately my aesthetic sense runs towards Romulan ship designs...
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