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Covert Phasers vs Regular Phasers: which to choose?
devencombs
Member Posts: 222 Arc User
I've been experimenting with regular phaser weapons and covert phaser weapons on my new Section 31 vessels, and to be honest, I don't see much of a difference. The covert weapons are not quite as powerful as regular phasers, but according to the specs they generate 50% less threat. In terms of overall performance, I can't tell which type has a clear advantage, if any. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
There is a noticeable difference with cannons. Regular phaser cannons have a flight time to reach the target, about one or two seconds at long range. Covert cannons and turrets are much faster. In fact, I would say the difference for time on target between covert cannons and any type of beams is negligible.
What are your thoughts? Does anyone else see a clear advantage of one type over the other? Do you have a preference? What is the last digit of pi?
There is a noticeable difference with cannons. Regular phaser cannons have a flight time to reach the target, about one or two seconds at long range. Covert cannons and turrets are much faster. In fact, I would say the difference for time on target between covert cannons and any type of beams is negligible.
What are your thoughts? Does anyone else see a clear advantage of one type over the other? Do you have a preference? What is the last digit of pi?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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If you don't care what phasers then sensor-linked are probably the best
If you could indulge my curiosity, how does penetration on phasers affect agility? What effect do sensor-linked phasers have?
Covert Phasers have a proc which effects your turn rate and flight speed
Pen is on crafted (orange) phasers
Sensor-linked Phasers have bonus stats instead of a proc and are probably considered the best phasers short of Advanced Phasers
Just a little warning, sensor-linked are a bit expensive on the AH, and Advanced can only be obtained if you have the MW flight deck connie or the D7 from the lockbox, or the temporal flight deck connie from the legendary pack.
Both covert and regular phaser have the same travel time in terms of damage or mechanic.
What you see as an energy missile/suite of energy missiles or beam ray have the same travel distance. It's a long wire between your firing point (hardpoint) and the landing point (hitting your target). The illusion of making some missiles travel faster or slower is purely cosmetics for energy weapons.
The transparent parts during that stream create the impression of shooting a stray of missiles instead of a long jet of light. Jet of light which is applied to beam array attacks.
But since visuals make up a lot of the feeling, feel free to mix, even after knowing this.
The difference is based on calculations and distance.
The covert phasers have a -50% threat generated from that weapon firing. Having -threat unless you're a tank is a really good thing.
On the other hand, I'd go with regular phasers, since the price and availability outweigh the -50% threat at this point.
Because every ferengi here tries to sell overpriced stuff that does the same as the regulars.
If you dont care, then as has been said there isn't much of a difference. The main thing would be the proc/bonuses added by the lockbox gear... A look at the wiki shows they all seem to have the exact same dpv/dps...
So if you have ec to spare, and like a red phaserwith procs, go for covert or kelvin. Or go for terran linked if you want red, but bonuses instead of proc
Blue would be phaser-linked for bonuses or phased bio-matter for a chain attack proc...or andorian if you can get them
Bio-molecular(undine rep) gets a green phaser
Standard and Agony are kind of red/orange with procs(and standard can be crafted)
Harmonics are brighter orange with yellow accents with a proc
And my barbie of choice, Pulse phasers are a bright orange with a proc
-It's an Omni
-It has a second guaranteed "proc" where, when shooting foes slower than you, they get -10 All Damage Resistance Rating for 5 sec. And since virtually all enemies minus a few exceptions in this game are considered slower than you...
The issue though is that you need to raise your reputation tier to VI and that takes forever.
The visual effect that procced every single time you fired it annoyed the heck out of me to the point I decided to just go with the trilithium omni phaser instead
They are disruptors normally, but at tier 6 of the reputation, you also unlock a phaser version.
Also there are the Terran variants that affect Tac, Engie, and Sci BOff abilities, but fire red instead of blue.
But like someone said... pick your flavor of choice and run with it.
Threat Generation makes more sense in a group setting. In a normal MMO, you'd want whoever can take the hits to generate the most threat. You know, the traditional TANK role. Problem in STO is that Threat Gen is also tied to damage output. So it is generally harder for the ships that are supposed to be tanky to be tanky when the harder hitting DPS ships are pulling threat off them. And then there's the Megawell build, guaranteed to make the entire universe absolutely hate the user.
So in STO... its generally if you don't want to attract as much attention as the rest of your team.
After your reply I made sure to pay careful attention to the time between firing cannons and the damage output on target for both regular and covert phasers. Their times are not the same. When I fire covert phaser cannons at a target, no matter the distance, the damage output appears right away.The travel time of covert phaser cannon and turret pulses is much faster than other type cannons and turrets in the game.
The floating numbers are synchronized with the animation times. And when they're not, it's server side delay.
The damage was pre-calculated each time. I could settle a sheet to explain why this is valid, but it might ruin your trek experience. I would advise you trusting this and picking based on:
- What you can get more easily at a higher rarity (Epic > UR in each and every case here)
- What you like visually/thematically (if you like the visuals of covert phasers firing, it's totally fine - fun is important)
I keep the Kelvin Phasers on my Vengeance, but are they great weapons? Nope. "2.5% chance for a minor knock back". Literally does nothing for DPS. But I like the look, they match the theme of the ship and their overload graphics are nice big red bolts!
2.5% wouldn't even be so bad if it was on shot instead of on cycle...but they decided to nerf that and buff a hundred other things that contribute more to power creep than weapon procs
I use the Kelvin Phasers on my Vengeance as well. I just like the look and sound of them.. I have used other 'better' phasers on it and honestly noticed almost no real DPS difference. You lose like 1-3% tops not even worth worrying about.
Obsessing over weapon procs just doesn't make sense to me unless you're parsing and trying to push every last percent to beat your previous mark. Either way the ship clears the screen in seconds flat. I have gone purely to the 'coolest looking' weapons on most of my ships.