[Glenn42]

So, I'm starting to specialize my Atlas and I decided to make her into a Beam Boat (Her slow turn rate gives me ample reason to want broadsides) But now I have a bit of a conundrum. I am reading up on the best weapons mix and there seem to be 2 main schools of thought.

1) The Rainbow Boat: A mix of weapon types in an effort to bypass any shielding strengths the enemy might have.

2) The Pure Boat: Load up on one flavor of weapon and use consoles to boost damage, crits, and the like.

I see strengths and weaknesses for BOTH. So, my UFP-ers...discuss...which school of thought do you subscribe to and why?

Thanks, in advance, for your opinions

-Artur Pendragon

[Petrarch]

Rainbow boats are generally frowned upon - by mixing the different energy types of phaser, antiproton etc whatever you gain in cutting through resistances is going to be lost in raw damage output as you’re not able to effectively boost the damage of the weapons type fully or effectively as you’re spreading your bonuses across multiple fronts. It’s a similar school of thought when mixing cannons with beams.

That said here there are some legitimate rainbow boat builds, but these are all using different styles of the same energy type, such as pulse phasers coupled with sensor linked phasers, so the ship is ultimately built around a unified energy type.

Generally speaking the all for one approach will see you right against more or less everything - from the information Bridger posted a little while ago, disruptors followed by phasers are the go to weapons these days as the number of consoles and bonuses available to boost them are plentiful and easier to get your hands on than some of the other energy types. As procs have been nerfed and no longer really matter in the big picture, you’d be free to use basically whatever type you chose and do well with it. The sensor linked weapons which come in phaser and disruptor flavours are I believe the top of the current meta as they forgo their proc in place of an inherent CrtD bonus that effects all your weapons, though the trade off on that front is that it’ll cost you a good bit of EC for a full set.

Generally speaking though, unless you’re after the absolute maximum DPS you can possibly squeeze out of a ship, pick a flavour, run with it and have fun!

[Heyallo]

yep just have fun with it, or have multiple boats for different flavors hehehe

[Glenn42]

yep just have fun with it, or have multiple boats for different flavors hehehe

That's actually what I am doing at the moment.

Fleet Arbiter: Anti-Proton Dual Beam Bank
Tactical Escort: Phaser Cannons...although I'm thinking of switching her to Disruptor Cannons
NX Refit: Not really sure what I'm gonna do with her yet.
Atlas: Phaser Beams

[Dark]

1) The Rainbow Boat: A mix of weapon types in an effort to bypass any shielding strengths the enemy might have.

Unless I'm hopelessly out of date, this is complete and utter nonsense. You can safely disregard build advice from anyone in this "school of thought" because the enemy has never had different resistance to different energy types. The only time this could apply is for PvP, and in those situations being in a broadsiding beamboat is practically conceding.

It's also not a simple an question of if "multiple energy types" is better or worse than "single energy type", it depends on the energy type.

Running a rainbow boat of Plasma, Phasers, and Disruptors with the optimal equipment for those energy types (+Beam Locators with the set with DPRM, the Prolonged Engagement Phaser Beam Array, the Trilithium set, the TTFDBA, and so on and so forth) will be far superior objectively to a single-energy Tetryon ship with optimal equipment.

The introduction of the TTFD weapons alone shifted the meta from pure Antiproton ships with +AP locators to Antiproton ships with the TTFD weapon and +Beam locators.

[Bridger]

It does not make a huge difference if you go with a Rainbow build or not on beams because the way procs work now just make sure you have the best possible mods and the best beams and you will be golden.

The storry is different with cannons but those builds are past the billion ec range.

To answer the question about NPC's they should not have any resistances at all.

[Raz Beraht]

I personally used to run all AP beams back when that was a thing, but eventually I got tired of the lack of cannon to it all.

I discovered that I like seeing my starships shooting phasers and my klingons firing disruptors. The galaxy makes more sense to me that way.

So I try to use only cannon builds now. Although my sensor-linked phasers on my sovereign is a problem I haven't yet decided to remedy.

My Jemmy is in a real pickle because I intend to have him flying both dominion and klingon ships.

[Glenn42]

It does not make a huge difference if you go with a Rainbow build or not on beams because the way procs work now just make sure you have the best possible mods and the best beams and you will be golden.

The storry is different with cannons but those builds are past the billion ec range.

To answer the question about NPC's they should not have any resistances at all.

BILLION EC RANGE!?! Maybe building a cannon T6 Tactical Escort wasn’t such a good idea.

But anyway, my Atlas is now a full phaser beam build in front with an Omni, Cutting Beam, and Kelvin torpedo on the back. Now I’m starting to collect marks and dilithium for the Iconian set...except for shields (I just like the look of the Terran shields better)

[Raz Beraht]

BILLION EC RANGE!?! Maybe building a cannon T6 Tactical Escort wasn’t such a good idea.

But anyway, my Atlas is now a full phaser beam build in front with an Omni, Cutting Beam, and Kelvin torpedo on the back. Now I’m starting to collect marks and dilithium for the Iconian set...except for shields (I just like the look of the Terran shields better)

Cannon escort is fine, dont let it discourage you. Crafting good stuff is a LOT easier now than in the past now with salvage and you can get good equipment easier now than ever, but it will take grinding out your crafting and earning salvage and dilithium.

I think Bridger's talking about maximizing your DPS as a cannon boat. You need traits from lockbox/lobi ships (expensive as hell) to do things like increase the duration of cannon scatter volley, ect. You can do well enough without that if you don't have the credits, and just work for it over time.

Also, you can slot the Terran shields in your ships cosmetic slot and use the appearance without having to actually equip the shields on your ship.

[Glenn42]

Cannon escort is fine, dont let it discourage you. Crafting good stuff is a LOT easier now than in the past now with salvage and you can get good equipment easier now than ever, but it will take grinding out your crafting and earning salvage and dilithium.

I think Bridger's talking about maximizing your DPS as a cannon boat. You need traits from lockbox/lobi ships (expensive as hell) to do things like increase the duration of cannon scatter volley, ect. You can do well enough without that if you don't have the credits, and just work for it over time.

Also, you can slot the Terran shields in your ships cosmetic slot and use the appearance without having to actually equip the shields on your ship.

Yeah, I figured. I’m slowly getting into crafting and seeing the possibilities. Right now, I’m just trying to figure out how to finance the needed tech upgrade modules.

I’m planning on making my Tac Escort into a Disruptor Cannon boat. Just doing research on the consoles I’m gonna need.

I’m also a little wary about spending THAT much on a visual. I’m researching the differences between the 2 right now.

[Scarlett]

It seems to me, there are a lot of moving parts, and only a few can be handled at the same time.

[Bridger]

BILLION EC RANGE!?! Maybe building a cannon T6 Tactical Escort wasn’t such a good idea.

But anyway, my Atlas is now a full phaser beam build in front with an Omni, Cutting Beam, and Kelvin torpedo on the back. Now I’m starting to collect marks and dilithium for the Iconian set...except for shields (I just like the look of the Terran shields better)

The Billion EC part is the Trait from the T6 Bug Ship, but you will get good results without the trait.

[Scarlett]

So, I thought I pressed cancel as I suddenly had to bolt.

To continue my thought above, in my very humble opinion, concerning EC there are many ways to make it. Removing the Exchange then it's basically Tour the Galaxy or selling loot. The best place to sell stuff is at Drozana at the bar. Belan buys back at 50%. So, look for Foundry missions with intent to drop loot.

Having said that drops are also used for salvage. Yet I counsel to upgrade stuff first; this solves how to pay for upgrades you will craft. Once you have the gear upgraded, then salvage loot to re-roll Mods to your preference.

Since both upgrading and re-engineering costs Dilithium, then you simply need to be refining as often as you can.

HAVING SAID THAT, I really recommend waiting to upgrade stuff until an upgrade weekend. Doing so makes your precious Dilithium go farther with each token use.

Now then, if you are not afraid to spend real money for Zen, then more strategies open up. To be sure, everything will go "faster" with real money. Such is the way of gaming nowadays.

SO! Back to the OP; if you want DPS, then stick to one weapon flavor and some are simply better than others due to console support. If you don't care for DPS, then do whatever your soul desires.

[Deltron]

I'm not real big on DPS. I just like to keep my ships as canon as possible. I use ships and gear to portray (at least in part) actual canon ships. So if I'm in my defiant, I use phasers. when I'm using my Disco ships, I use sensor-linked phasers. and when I'm playing my KDF toon, I use disruptors. Then I do my build around that and try to maximize damage by using consoles to boost the types of weapons I'm using.

[Arno12]

I'm not real big on DPS. I just like to keep my ships as canon as possible. I use ships and gear to portray (at least in part) actual canon ships. So if I'm in my defiant, I use phasers. when I'm using my Disco ships, I use sensor-linked phasers. and when I'm playing my KDF toon, I use disruptors. Then I do my build around that and try to maximize damage by using consoles to boost the types of weapons I'm using.

Here, here, i try go canon too with my builds, which kills me when I use a dreadnought as a pure beam boat without at least one cannon, which is why I'm thankful for the Beta parts for the Galaxy-X

As for the topic, I too once struggled in regards to spending on gear but in the end I played the long game and my patience paid off, saved up, got my traits and my gear and when the phoenix prize pack came around again got the upgrades and got them all to epic. So yeah the wait and saving is agonizing but worth it in the end,