This idea that one is better than the other is complete BS. Rapid fire works with a burst of fire, some shots may miss but most will hit. It is a one-off, if you miss you get ZERO if you hit you do serious damage between 5 and eight times normal beam damage. But Beam Overload suffers from the possibility of a miss. Cannon Rapid Fire works in a similar fashion to Beam Overload in that it hits only your primary target. The drop off is more sudden losing approximately 8% per kilometer from beyond 2km according to several sources including the source referenced above. Cannon weapons do not begin losing power until beyond 2km. Cannon weapons are very weak at long range but they are actually stronger up close especially inside of 2km. Beams can also be used with subsystem targeting where cannons cannot.Īs good as Fire at Will and Beam Overload are, they are not as strong a power as either scatter volley or rapid fire. Cannon abilities require higher ranking BOFFs starting at the Lieutenant rank. Fire at Will I and Beam Overload I are available at the Ensign level. The maximum power for beams is achieved in the Lt. The beam weapons are great for cruisers and science ships that have limited tactical officer abilities. This is not necessarily a bad thing depending on your player group in PVE matches or PVP, but it is a genuine limitation at times. Sure the DPS numbers look great, but not concentrating fire on a single target allows the shields to recover on the primary target while fire is wasted on other targets like targetable torpedoes and wimpy carrier pets. It also keeps the player from focusing on a single target. But it does bring the heat on as it increases the threat from multiple angry bad guys. This is fine for a tanking engineer in a cruiser trying to draw fire away from flanking raiders and escorts. Against multiple enemies this ability randomly selects targets. If you look at the DPS masters however you will notice that they are typically using ‘fire at will’. This compares well to cannons at 180 and dual cannons at 45 degrees. Beam Arrays have a 250 degree firing arc and the more powerful dual beam banks cover 90 degrees. The next “truth” about beams is the wide firing arc. I found one guy who went to great lengths to chart the data and you know how much I love me a good chart □ Check it out here. This compares favorably to cannon weapons including turrets that fall all the way down to around 35% efficiency at the 10km limit. In fact studies conducted by a variety of hard-core gaming geeks show that beams lose roughly 4% per kilometer of range bottoming out at around 65% damage output at the limits of the 10km range. First beam weapons do not lose nearly as much power over long-range. The primary argument in favor of beams lies in a couple of absolute beam truths. Although the argument in favor of “King Beam” is strong, it may not be the best ultimate killer after all. The prevailing theme lately is that beams are the only way to go for maximum DPS. To be fair, these masters of destruction also have great ship and character builds that squeeze extra damage from the ship’s weapons. I have noticed that many players that achieve insanely high DPS do so utilizing beam weapons and multiple instances of ‘fire at will’. DPS alone however does not tell the whole tale. For the benefit of any gaming newbs, DPS stands for “Damage Per Second” and it is the standard benchmark for determining the ability of your toon to lay waste to enemies. Let’s make no mistake about it, DPS is important. There are even DPS leader boards whereby players can challenge the best damage dealing fiends in the Galaxy for ass-kicking supremacy. There are a variety of forums where this is hotly debated. I have noticed that many people are heavily invested into the idea of DPS and maxing the DPS of their ships.
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