Should I use beams fire at will or target shield subsystems?

[Astrostars2025]

My ship is more for DPS than a tank, and it takes some time still for me to take enemy shields down. However beams fire at will has a pretty fast recharge (at least it seems that way at 25 seconds for me) and targets multiple enemies at once which can be useful if I'm getting swarmed by fighters.

[cap-boulanger]

Target Subsystems - of any kind - sucks fairly badly, to the point that I can't even remember the last time I saw any recommended build that uses them.

That said... there are ways you can speed up the cooldown on Fire at Will, or fake-double it up (Entwined Tactical Matrices trait). You might also get some mileage out of Beam Overload, depending on the enemy (Overload is better used on small numbers of large targets, while Fire at Will is good for groups of smaller targets.)

[Eggy]

You said it - FaW is great for swarming enemies. It's also a good choice when one or more of your opponents have already been beaten down into the red because it saves you the trouble of re-targeting. I also use it against Iconian formations because I can fly in and take out their ... boost portals (?) ... on my way through. I wish it worked better against probes and inbound torpedoes as well.

Like RT said, I alternate between FaW and Beam Overload as needed.

[x1Heavy]

I just use FAW for phasers now and then.

And trail plasma for the chasers. Which end up sitting among the mines and torpedoes.

[Doctor G]

Originally posted by STARMAN20290:

My ship is more for DPS than a tank, and it takes some time still for me to take enemy shields down. However beams fire at will has a pretty fast recharge (at least it seems that way at 25 seconds for me) and targets multiple enemies at once which can be useful if I'm getting swarmed by fighters.

fire at will is only good for small ships. you want the highest single target damage like Tactic Alpha or beam over load

this game is broke on cannons, has been for 10 years. they wont fix it. you can have 1 only that will fire and its worthless. go with beams and torps.

do not spend any money . the game will give you everything, there is no pvp worth bothering with anymore.

it basically is this now. Black screen. swarms of ships. limited time. end. totally pointless, no player made content , almost no pvp.

log in once a day. do their reward mission. log out. i mean you can brush your teeth or take your dog for a walk while the mission is going they have so many bots playing.

[cyäegha]

Originally posted by Doctor G:

fire at will is only good for small ships. you want the highest single target damage like Tactic Alpha or beam over load

FAW is primarily a tool for clearing large groups; while it's not as effective as BO for killing bosses, it's by no means solely for killing weak adds, and can be an okay firing mode in its own right
if by "tactic alpha" you mean attack pattern alpha, that's not just something you can just "choose" if you aren't already playing a tactical captain

Originally posted by Doctor G:

this game is broke on cannons, has been for 10 years. they wont fix it. you can have 1 only that will fire and its worthless. go with beams and torps.

eh, not really?
if you aren't using plasma BO + altamid then DHC with all the associated traits is probably stronger than most, if not all DBB builds, and that's before getting into the nitty-gritty of things like surgical strikes or reroute reserves to weapons, things that are agnostic towards the type of weapon you're using and benefit cannons much, much more than they do beams

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by STARMAN20290:

My ship is more for DPS than a tank, and it takes some time still for me to take enemy shields down. However beams fire at will has a pretty fast recharge (at least it seems that way at 25 seconds for me) and targets multiple enemies at once which can be useful if I'm getting swarmed by fighters.

Target subsystems is pretty much worthless on its own, so typically if you're choosing between that and anything else the answer is "anything else". The effects of target shield subsystems is a short-term disabling of shields, but they're not gone-gone.. and "boss" type enemies have high resistance to disable, meaning most are either immune or have the duration reduced to something so small that it won't affect your kill time.

Fire At Will is going to be your go-to ability for most content, so you'll use FAW3 as your bread and butter. Even against a single target, assuming you have the accuracy to mitigate the -30 acc penalty, FAW3 is going to be higher damage than not having any ability in use: a full firing cycle with a normal beam is 400% normal damage (you fire 4 times)... a full firing cycle with FAW is 450% normal damage (90% base damage fired 5 times).

Luckily, Beam Overload can also be slotted for fighting tough, single targets, since BO3 is a commander ability while FAW3 is only a lt. commander ability. Against a single target BO3 is going to dramatically outperform FAW3, dealing 800% normal damage.

If, however, you have commander intel seating, Surgical Strikes III will slightly outperform Beam Overload III, on average, against single targets (the same is NOT true of SS1 and SS2 at the comparable boff levels).

Most other mutually-excluding firing modes are situational and based on your build rather than just being a straight up comparison of numbers.

Originally posted by Doctor G:

fire at will is only good for small ships. you want the highest single target damage like Tactic Alpha or beam over load

As stated, FAW is going to give better damage against a single target than no firing mode at all. Attack Pattern Alpha, which is exclusively for Tactical characters, is not a firing mode, so there is no "or" involved. If you're a tactical character then you use APA in conjunction with firing modes.

Originally posted by Doctor G:

this game is broke on cannons, has been for 10 years. they wont fix it. you can have 1 only that will fire and its worthless. go with beams and torps.

What are you talking about? Cannons work just fine, and if you have the maneuverability to use them they generally outperform beams.

[chemiman]

Originally posted by VoodooMike:

[...]
Luckily, Beam Overload can also be slotted for fighting tough, single targets, since BO3 is a commander ability while FAW3 is only a lt. commander ability. Against a single target BO3 is going to dramatically outperform FAW3, dealing 800% normal damage.
[...]

BO3 and FAW3 are both Lt. Commander abilities.

[x1Heavy]

I keep a quad cannon on hand in bank. That goes onto agile ships and most of the consoles provide for weapons power, haste and so on. The doctrine is to get in, trash the enemy target, and be gone before retribution comes in.

If against human targets in huge ships that cannot turn... sit off one of the side sheilds from below and dakka. Repeat until hes gone.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by chemiman:

BO3 and FAW3 are both Lt. Commander abilities.

Ah yes, you are correct - I was thinking of cannon firing modes, which are shifted up by one rank.

[Dixa1]

fire at will for aoe, surgical strikes for single target if your ship has intel seating.