Beams or Cannons?

[TheSpyHat]

Im running a T6 Eclipse Intel Cruiser, and i keep wondering... Cannons or Beams? Im asking in terms of damage/coverage. I was thinking since the ship has cloak, cannons are good for a burst, but i cannot recloak in combat so im forced to U-turn the ship. And if beams > Which damage type?

[Dave of Infamy]

its quite a fast ship with a good turn rate personally id do cannon but beams are easier to use, as for type whichever you like really theres some good disruptors in exchange you get alot of antiprotons now from the rep boxes phasers are always fun and i read somewhere that polaron is the in thing to use thesedays (im still running an old antiproton build lol)

[TheSpyHat]

I've used polarons on an odyssey class, but i cant seem to see the good thing about them. Lower damage than plasma/antiproton, and the chance to reduce enemy energy doesn't seem as good in practice as it is on paper.

[The Arkady]

I literally forgot the Eclipse was a cruiser on one alt and just stacked it with cannons. I didn't realize until almost to full mastery because with a good impulse engine and my being decent enough at pointing the cannony bit at the enemy, it really does work quite well as a cannon boat.

However, if you tend to have trouble with maneuvering/facing in space combat, beams are still the safer play.

Energy types tbh don't really matter, unless you seriously want to start chasing absolute top-tier dps.

[TheSpyHat]

Could a combination of both work? Cannons in front, Beam arrays in the back? Since turrets don't tend to add too much to the DPS it could be nice to have some flank cover, and things like morphogenic polaron cannon, and omni-directional beam arrays also would work

[Vellari]

Originally posted by TheSpyHat✦Blitz:

Could a combination of both work? Cannons in front, Beam arrays in the back? Since turrets don't tend to add too much to the DPS it could be nice to have some flank cover, and things like morphogenic polaron cannon, and omni-directional beam arrays also would work

No, mix is suboptimal due to tac abilities being either for cannons(and turrets) or for beams.

[TheSpyHat]

Remember that Eclipse is an Intel Cruiser. "Surgical Strikes" applies both to cannons and beams.
Plus, antiproton turrets are expensive...

[ImperatorPavel]

The Eclipse is more of a battlecruiser than a true cruiser imo. Has the Battlecruiser set of cruiser commands (I believe anyway).

I use beams with OSS and dual surgical strikes on mine. It does decent. Could probably use cannons if I upped the turn rate a bit more.

[The Arkady]

Originally posted by TheSpyHat✦Blitz:

Could a combination of both work? Cannons in front, Beam arrays in the back?

I can think of exactly one reason to mix cannons and beams: going for a disruptor cannons build and putting the Nausicaan beam in the rear to preserve the entoiled technology 3-piece set bonus. That probably adds so much to the oomph of cannons and the nausicaan torpedo it's worth it.

Other than that, no, because tactical boff abilities apply to one or the other.

Mixing a torpedo or two in with cannons/beams is more likely to be a good idea, as in the case of entoiled technologies.

[TheSpyHat]

Then... Plasma or Antiproton?

[The Arkady]

Originally posted by The Arkady:

Energy types tbh don't really matter, unless you seriously want to start chasing absolute top-tier dps.

I don't really recommend the latter, tbh, because there's hardly any gain to it. Come up with a decent build you like and you're good to carry half the groups in normal TFOs; get its gear to Mk XV and gear-wise you're good to meaningfully contribute to all advanced TFOs.

That said, antiproton used to be king; its not quite anymore from what top dps chasers say, but it's still nice, with some fairly easy to get fun toys. (If beams, absolutely play "Sphere of Influence" twice for the warp core-omni beam two-piece set.)

Plasma, on the other hand, was fairly bad for a long time because it lacked decent set weapons; with T6 reputations, that's massively improved (look no further than the Lukari Restoration Initiative Armaments). It's still technically sub-par for beams because it lacks a mission drop set omni beam.

[Vellari]

Plus the plasma DoT (low chance proc too) isn't particularly effective when "everything" dies in seconds anyway.

If you want plasma (for roleplaying purposes or whatever) I would look for Romulan reputation weapons (easy to get) or Corrosive Plasma (can be expensive) which also have dmg res debuff, like a disruptor weapon, in addition.