Star Trek Online thread

[Dawg81]

i outfitted my modified akira with Mark VI photons, tetryon and heavy plasma cannons on the rear a disrupt array and Mark 5 quantum mines

[Barihawk]

You really shouldn't mix weapons like that. Pick a specific type and stack them. I only use phasers and photons but chances are my ship could outdamage someone with your setup because of their lack of specialty.

[majormagna]

I've never understood that sentiment Barihawk (Especially if the two weapons have the exact same DPS)

Fore:1 Tetryon beam, 1 Phaser beam, 2 photon torps.
Same for aft weapons, Tetryons RIP through shields, whereas phasers do balanced hull/shield damage, yet they both have the same DPS for me.

I can kill a -1 Sovereign class in about 15-25 seconds. So it works well for me!

Yes, that also means I'm in an Assault Cruiser! The Beagle D!

[Daystar70]

i Don't agree on the no mixing myself. i watched shows on the Math aspect of Damage- sure specialising  will augment what 2 tactical officers can do but it does not mean you will out-dPs them...

[Tuskin38]

So thats where the Terran Empire has been getting ships, they've been stealing them from us!

lol

[Spade]

You really shouldn't mix weapons like that. Pick a specific type and stack them. I only use phasers and photons but chances are my ship could outdamage someone with your setup because of their lack of specialty.

I would have to agree to this. I will give an example why. Now, I do not remember what weapons types have what stats on it so I am going to just make some up.

Ship #1 Weapon Load Out

Tier 4 Exploration Cruiser:

4 Forward Weapon Slots

• 1 Phaser Array with a +%0.1 to accuracy
• 1 Disruptor Array with a +20 Crit Severity
• 1 Plasma Torpedo Launcher
• 1 Quantum Torpedo Launcher

3 Aft Weapons Slots

• 1 Poleron Array with a %2.5 chance to reduce enemy subsystem ratings by 25
• 1 Plasma Array with a %5 chance to do DoT
• 1 Photon Torpedo Launcher

So lets do the run down to what ship number one has. This will be assuming the the captain in question does not have skill points towards any weapons.

With his Arrays he can do:

+%0.1 to accuracy
+20 Crit Severity
%2.5 chance to reduce enemy subsystem ratings by 25
%5 chance to do DoT

Ship #2 Weapon Load Out

Tier 4 Exploration Cruiser:

4 Forward Weapon Slots

• 2 Phaser Array with a +%0.1 to accuracy
• 2 Photon Torpedo Launcher

3 Aft Weapons Slots

• 2 Phaser Array with a +%0.1 to accuracy
• 1 Photon Torpedo Launcher

Now lets do the run down on ship #2

With his Arrays he can do:

+%0.4 to accuracy



Now, lets compare the two fighting against each other with their Arrays (I will get into Torpedoes in a moment).

Ship 1 fires both of his forward arrays at ship 2 coming at him allowing him a +%0.1 accuracy bonus for just that phaser array and if he deals a critical hit with his disruptor array he will do a +20 to the crit damage for just that disruptor array.

Ship 2 fires both of his forward arrays at ship 1 allowing him a +%0.4 accuracy bonus per array.

Ship 1 turns about to give a broad side to ship 2 allowing him a +%0.1 to accuracy for just that phaser array, a +20 Crit Severity for just that disruptor array, a %2.5 chance to reduce enemy subsystem ratings by 25 for just that poleron array, and a %5 chance to do DoT for just that plasma array.

Ship 2 returns the favor bearing down all 4 arrays on ship 1 granting him a +%0.4 per array fired.


When looking at the load out on ship 1, it sounds good with all of the stats but its only for each array of that type. Since ship 2 picked all phaser arrays he is multiplying what each array can do.


Now for the torpedoes.

There are things to consider when picking torpedoes:

• Cooldown for a given torpedo
• Global cooldown for all torpedo slots
• Stats (This is an important consideration but I will not get into that for this)

First off lets see what the cooldown timer is for each torpedo type (just showing the cooldown for the examples above).

Photon-6 second cooldown
Quantum-8 second cooldown
Plasma-8 second cooldown

Now the global cooldown for torpedo slots is 3 seconds

Lets take a look at our ships load out of torpedoes.

Ship 1 has:

1 Plasma Torpedo Launcher
1 Quantum Torpedo Launcher
1 Photon Torpedo Launcher

Ship 2 has:

3 Photon Torpedo Launchers

Now lets compare the two firing torpedoes at each other.

Ship 1 fires a plasma torpedo at ship 2. He has a 3 second global cooldown plus a 8 second cooldown. After the 3 seconds are down he fires a quantum granting him another 3 second global cooldown plus the 8 second cooldown for his quantum torp. He then would have to wait 2 seconds (8 second cooldown minus the two 3 second global cooldowns) before his plasma torpedo is ready before he can fire and again after the 3 second global cooldown he would have to wait another 2 seconds before he can fire another quantum torp.

Ship 2 rattles off his photon torpedo giving him a 3 second global cooldown plus a 6 second cooldown for his photon torpedo. After the 3 second global cooldown is up, he fires his other photon torpedo giving him the 3 second global cooldown plus the 6 for the torpedo. By the time the global cooldown is up his other photon torpedo is ready, giving him a constant stream of photon torpedoes to launch at the other ship.


You may think for ship 1 that the 2 second wait is no big deal, but when you are facing an opponent who is unleashing a constant stream of photon torpedoes at you, it really seems to take forever.


Now this is just my opinion but I would go for the load out of ship 2.

[Daystar70]

I now tend to agree, after a few hours today re outfitting my Akira with almost all Plasma, and the consoles to match, i was kicking much more arse.

i had the pleasure of teaming w a guy today who was unique--he customised AALL his Bos to look like the aliens from AVATAR, he did a great detailed job.

[majormagna]

I agree with the torpedo part, but I have a console that gives +25 to all beam arrays the best I can find for my rank on the exchange only gives +22 to phasers only.

And as I said, I get the same DPS on all beams, and my tetryon beams both have +acc and +crit chance (Phasers only have +accuracy).

[Spade]

I agree with the torpedo part, but I have a console that gives +25 to all beam arrays the best I can find for my rank on the exchange only gives +22 to phasers only.

And as I said, I get the same DPS on all beams, and my tetryon beams both have +acc and +crit chance (Phasers only have +accuracy).

Oh, I agree, I was just using phasers as an example. IMO to get the most out of your weapons is to use the same type so the stats stack for each of the weapons. In your case Tetryon Arrays.

[Ryles]

With the right mix of weapons combined with skills you'd do far more damage than you would with just one weapon type. I use disruptors and tetryon weapons, I'll be adding polaron beams to the mix when they increase the skill cap.

Anyway, the reason for this (explained by the devs and proven) is that different weapons have different procs, as in different additional effects that either do additional damage or debuff the enemy.

Tetryon does increased damage to shields (or has a chance to disable shields. its only a 2% chance, but when it works its awesome.)

Polaron has a chance to take 25 power from all enemy ship systems. If it procs more than once at the same time, the enemy will likely be dead in the water.

Disruptors simply have a chance to lower the enemies resistance to damage.

So, the right combination of weapons have been exceptionally more potent than just one set. More so if you put enough points into them all to equalize the damage.

[Barihawk]

Here's the most important reason to stack a single type of weapon: It's cheaper on command points. With rank 9 in that skill, you can do much more DPS than someone who has no points invested in their weapons, and multiply that by however many arrays you have. Using rare weapons with bonuses (say one phaser with crit severity, one with accuracy, one with...etc) and you completely remove the reason for having multiple weapon types while gaining all of the benefits from specialization. And if you don't mind me saying so, phaser and photon are CHEAP and I can spend the extra points bolstering other skills that make my ship stronger.

By spreading out your weapons, you lose the DPS you would gain from specialization for a few novelty effects that quite honestly do not make up for doing 200 DPS less.

[Ryles]

Eh... I had no trouble maxing my ship skills, as well as disruptors, quantums, and tetryon weapons by RA5. I also put max points into cannons, as my sovereign doesnt use torpedos and has turrets instead.

However, I have almost no points in ground abilities.

[Barihawk]

Eh... I had no trouble maxing my ship skills, as well as disruptors, quantums, and tetryon weapons by RA5. I also put max points into cannons, as my sovereign doesnt use torpedos and has turrets instead.

However, I have almost no points in ground abilities.

Not to mention you completely lose out on engineering and operations as well, which can seriously hurt when those abilities are so useful.

[Tuskin38]

Guess what ship is still in service.

[Ryles]

Not to mention you completely lose out on engineering and operations as well, which can seriously hurt when those abilities are so useful.

No.

I'm an engineering officer.

Starfleet Training has all of the appropriate cruiser skills maxed.

I found I dont really need any of the operations section's skills. They mainly buff science  abilites. The only points I have in that section are in the initial Starship Operations Training box. Yes, the additional points in AUX would improve cruiser turnrate. But I've balanced that with consoles.

Also, you can't even use most of the more potent science abilities in a cruiser, but I do have my heals and engineering teams to keep me alive, and my different weapon procs to help hammer things down.

[davies78]

Got me a new Galaxy class....Yay me. It is such a step up from the heavy cruiser. Loving it. Need to improve my combat on the ground now any ideas for best load out. I am a tactical officer

[Daystar70]

We had a bad storm and i am w/o power for almost 2 days now  :'(

It may be back tonight but i am jonesing to fire Quantum Torpedoes at something!!!! :evil


UPDATE-i am at work. found out power is back on! I will be Rage Killing Hirogen and Romulans tonight!!! 

[Daystar70]

Whoot! after being sponsered and applying on their forums, i was accepted into JUPITERFORCE fleet,the official fleet of STOked!

[Dawg81]

congrats Daystar though i am unfamilar with that fleet any info ya could share?

[davies78]

Had never even heard of stoked till you posted the link, was v funny and will be keeping up with it from know on lol