A while back I wrote an article where I spoke of the issue of dual cannons versus single cannons, Kazon Raider and the Dual Cannon Conundrum. One of my readers commented about the wide field dual heavy cannons being crafted and sold on the exchange. The comment was spot on and I do use a wide field dual cannon on ships with an all single cannon front weapons layout. Why not gain the advantage of the hard-hitting duals without giving up the wide arc of a single cannon? As the reader pointed out only one wide field dual cannon can equipped on any ship, so it is not something you can use to replace all of your dual cannons.
His comment got me thinking about weapons and some research I did years ago when STO was still new. The whole idea of using the different weapons types properly and gaining the maximum dps possible was intriguing. It still is. This lead me to return to the idea of big hitting dps less often versus a constant barrage of weaker hits. I will use Mark XII Common Grade for examples to keep it consistent on the comparisons I make here. The Dual Heavy Cannons, ‘DHC’ hit very hard with a base damage per volley of 384 and a base DPS of 256. This compares to a turret which has just 99 DPV and 132 DPS. But, the turret has a 360 degree targeting arc which means that the target is always available to hit. The DHC requires the target to be in a very tight 45 degree arc in front of the ship. For this reason DHC are not recommended for slow turning ships and in most cases can not even be mounted on those types of ships. I always thought it would be cool to have a ship with all turrets mounted. I never got round to it largely because good turrets are really expensive. But I have a few bucks saved up, so what the hell 🙂
The important thing to remember is that the notion of all turrets for weapons is akin to death by a thousand paper cuts rather than death by a barbarian with a great sword. The question is, can the turrets deliver the thousand cuts as fast as the barbarian hacks enemies in half with a great sword? I decided that the best ship to use for this experiment would be a large ship with a heavy hull and strong shields that has a lumbering slow turn rate. There are many that fit the bill, but which to choose? A carrier ship might be a good choice as well as a big cruiser. One problem with all turrets is that they will always be firing and thus they will begin to drain weapon power and lose damage output. Carriers often only have 6 weapons so one approach is a carrier with 4 turrets and two torpedo launchers. Carriers have the additional support of the pets attacking as well to help keep damage output high. The carrier I would like is the Tholian Recluse but I don’t have 800 Lobi to spare. I do however, have that Obelisk lying around with several of my toons.
OK, so Admiral Sager dusted off that standard Obelisk carrier that he got way back in Season 8 and made it into a turret boat. It still has a torpedo launcher at each end and then 4 fleet grade anti-proton turrets [acc]x2 [dam]x2. It has the standard Obelisk swarmers for pets and I through a bunch of miscellaneous equipment on the ship. This is a pretty weak setup other than the turrets being fleet grade. I decided to stick with Romulan Patrol missions to break the ship in. I am impressed. I use the same two Romulan patrol missions every time I break in a new setup; Carraya and Japori. These are not difficult but they do provide a mix of a heavy, a couple of medium and multiple light targets. This can be effective at gauging the success of a build as well as monitoring strengths and weaknesses.
The Obelisk with this turret-boat setup was resilient, never losing any significant amount of health or shields. The amazing part was how quickly I could dispatch the waves of enemies. With my kick-ass escorts I can sweep through the waves in less than a minute each sometimes. I was not expecting that with this setup, but any time I can complete the entire 5 wave Patrol in less than 8 minutes I am pretty happy. I was able to do that with this turret equipped Obelisk 🙂 The turrets were constantly attacking and the target had nowhere to escape. I was particularly happy about how easy it was to dispatch those pesky Mogais as they run through that annoying turning pattern on the Carraya patrol. Clearly, a thousand cuts comes quick enough.
I think a 4/4 weapons cruiser would be effective with six turrets and a torpedo launcher at each end. As long as there is at least one EPS console equipped to keep the weapons power from draining too fast. I have two more fleet grade anti-proton turrets so I will try my under utilized Galaxy Class retrofit with all turrets. The only problem with that it, is the lack of tactical BOFF seats. A single Lieutenant at tactical is all you get on the Exploration Cruiser Retrofit. Ideally at least two lieutenant seats for tactical would be good. I would like to have two instances of scatter volley and one each, tactical team and torpedo spread.
If you have a ship lying around that you want to have some fun with, try a turret boat. I wouldn’t do this on an escort, but many other ships in the game could be effectively utilized this way. I should note it is also a great lazy combat setup. Since the targets are always in the arc, you do not need to worry about attack runs, ship position and all that other tactical non-sense. Just fly around and kill shit while texting and drinking, it’s OK when you’re flying a turret-boat 😉
Star Trek Online 
This is actually an intriguing thought. Turrets drain 8 Weapon Power each, right? Most of my cruisers run 6 beam arrays now and each of those drain 10 Weapon Power each; you can power 7-8 turrets with the same level of power drain… unless you hit Scatter Volley, but I bet you can still compensate with Emergency Power to Weapons or Aux-to-Battery.
I’m really curious to try this now!
Beam arrays hit quite a bit harder than turrets but turrets have better BOFF abilities. If you do 6 turrets instead of 6 beams you will have all six turrets always on target where as beams only get 6 when you broadside the target. On fore and aft targets only three beams are available to attack. It just might work 😉
This intrigues me so when my newest toon hit admiral I switched to this on a star cruiser. After some trial and error and some learning about eps and power supply. I got involved in some shady dealing with a Klingon general of mine and bank rolled 6 polaron turrets with various things on them. 1 polaron cannon. Damage crit +40. And my harpjong torp. Eventually I dropped the harpjong and committed with a seventh turret. It’s a fun set up. About middle of the pack dps it feels. With an eps and my set up I am. Sitting just at the over cap before I fire. The drop usually is in the 90s but sometimes wonky stuff happens and it goes a bit lower. Using. Eptw 3 when needed and when coming out of full impulse. I am using scatter volley instead of rapid fire. That volley is the whole point right?
I like scatter volley for this setup. Rapid fire has the advantage of putting all the damage down to a single target whereas scatter volley is an area of effect damage. I still like the scatter volley since the idea is to lay down damage over a full 360 degree arc to as many enemies as possible. Scatter volley will hit any enemy in a general area of the targeted enemy.
It’s impressive to hit scatter volley at grav well sites and large groups such as the defend arrivals. Got my first negative comment tonight guy called it the worst build he had ever seen and ignored me. I have my weapons power at 125. Any other tips to keep it viable?
Not sure what the scenario was. It is not a build that will yield HUGE dps numbers. It is also not a “conventional build”. Many people will chastise anything out of what they perceive as a proper build. I don’t take these types of setups into the advanced or elite queues until they are fully vetted. The advanced and elite queues can fail and if you are perceived as the reason it failed, tensions fly. In my situation it was an average build. What I liked about it was the ability to target any enemy in the 10km sphere at any time. This allows me to focus on other tactical and defensive elements.The guy who left the negative comment was just an asshole, there are lots of those in the world 😉 Remember that turrets are the weakest weapon in the game so you have to keep power up. Using eps consoles and dropping a weapons battery when heavy opponents are present will keep the turrets firing at maximum power. Also having two instances of scatter volley is a must. If those turrets are not firing in rapid or scatter mode they are week sauce! Another note, my captains traits and DOFFs provide a faster cooldown on many BOFF abilities including tactical, so I am firing in scatter volley mode 85-90% of the time. Even with that said the build is pretty average compared to some of the guys out there who can really lay down serious firepower. Don’t let the douchebags get you down, most STO players are pretty cool. Many will offer useful help.
Thanks for the advice and encouragement. Doing pretty good on power. I am on a basic star cruiser so only one scatter volley. Going to work on adjusting that or just look to an improved ship. Thanks again.
Star Cruiser only has one tactical officer and it’s only a Lieutenant. So one scatter volley or rapid fire is all you can have on that ship. If you have a couple of million EC you can buy a wide field DHC for the front of the ship. This hits like a dual heavy cannon but has a wide 180 degree firing arc. That might give you a little more forward punch. It will cost you a little more weapons power when it fires. There are some Feddie cruisers like the Odyssey and a few others with a Lt Commander universal or tactical that allow for two instances of scatter volley.
Yeah I am looking ahead to maybe upgrade to an eclipse or an operations cruiser. Eclipse has lt com tactical so scatter 1 and 2. Or operations use the universal for a second lt tactical and have two copies of scatter 1. Just have to get the cost together.
Probably bored with this by now but having a hard time making decision
Eclipse
Guardian
Tactical operation
What you think or other choice?
OK I would consider these very carefully before you pull the 3000 Zen lever 🙂 The third choice you listed must be Tactical Odyssey, right? If you are considering the turret boat application the big slow and heavy Odyssey has an advantage. As a ship with more traditional beams they are all excellent choices and your play style is the driving force in the decision. The Eclipse stands out here in stark contrast as it is more like a Klingon Battle cruisers with that 10 dps base turn rate. This ship really doesn’t need a turret boat application. It can bring standard beams to bear easy enough. It also has the Intelligence BOFF seating which can be really cool. It features a built in cloaking device albeit the weak sauce federation version. It also has the active sensor arrays. If your play style is an aggressive attack with a strong forward weapons array, say dual beam banks or single cannons in stead of single beams or the turret boat, this Eclipse could be the ticket. The odyssey Cruiser is the big bad dog of the Feddie fleet. 2500 crew count, 1.15 shield modifier beefy hull and a coveted Universal chair for a Lt. Commander! There are three varieties of this ship each with a slightly different console setup and each with a special console. the tactical ship has Aquarius escort as a pet and the Operations has the chevron separation which gives you essentially a pet to fight as well. This ship is slow and poor in maneuvering but I still love it! The guardian is a bit in between with a little better “handling” but a smaller crew count, weaker shields and hull. BTW if you get the Odyssey definately upgrade it to T5-U. It will cost the about the same, 2500 Zen plus either 700 or 500 depending on how many upgrade tokens you buy versus 3000 Zen for the T6 ships. Once you upgrade a ship all of the ships on the account get the upgrade for the same price. The Guardian is my least favorite here. It tries to be a little of both and doesn’t do either as well as the other two. However, if you want to spread the ship out over multiple toons with different play styles, then the Guardian can be money well spent in that regard. Don’t forget the Command Cruisers which might still be on sale! They are great for PVE missions as they offer the command abilities that buff all your allies as well as you. I hope this helps.
My third one was actually the tactical command cruiser I was considering. I like the look of the operations command better but the tactical one is the only one with the tac lt commander I am needing. Will look at the odyssey. I have been on a different from regular cruiser look thing lately so didn’t look at it before. Lots to think about. Thanks for the info. Ed just thinking same thing on the eclipse. Would be nice to have grav well 1 from the other options. Set up the volleys. Thanks again.
Just saw the basic odyssey is just 200000 fleet cred. Crap almost have that. But my fleet is very young. Decisions.
The fleet version doesn’t get the special console and i am not sure if it is upgradeable to T5-U
Definitely a lot to think about. Think I am holding off on that lever for now just to get it all straight for me. FYI my Malon temp build has been managing 3rd on the crystal runs. Not bad.
So on the cheap. Made an odyssey the 200,000 fleet version till could decide what I want. Things it’s missing. Has only two tactical console spots. Instead of three. Missing special console.
Am using lt commander for tactical using scatter volley 1 and two on lt tactical rapid fire 1. Still without having doffs to premium or anything managing to keep one of these firing with only a volley break between eat worst. Using rapid for harder single targets.
It’s funny though but I seem to have a damage drop from my Mallon. It did have gravity well. It could hit 3rd every two or three matches. Have not seen that yet on this build.
This build is never going to be top dps but don’t want it gimped. Thoughts?
You are gonna have more experience with the turret boat than me at this rate 🙂 I did this build on two ships. I did it with my top toon, Admiral Sager. This toon has all the delicious goodies, tons of specializations points, all the traits,yada, yada, yada. He did well using 4 turrets (2 at each end) and 2 torp launchers 1 at each end on a Obelisk carrier. Just the regular Obelisk NOT the advanced model. That ship had the regular Obelisk swarmers and they provided extra firepower. I also created one with my second strongest toon KDF Dahar Master Roddicka. She chose the Orion Maurder which has a single hanger bay instead of two and it has very rare maurader pets. That ship was pretty weak sauce with the setup. Roddicka is a PVP build and I did not take that setup into PVP, would had my ass on rotteserie if I did 😉 I ran it through the same patrol missions and the crystaline entity on advanced. It did fine but on the patrol missions it was not dealing the dps at all, it was terrible compared to the Obelisk. It was three turrets at each end. I only had one instance of Scatter Volley so that sucked. If you have six turrets that would be minus 48 on power so an eps console would help and hopefully your toon has some skill points in eps. I have beam boats with six beams all firing on broadside and I need the eps console for that to be certain.
Yep. I have an eps 70% console. The assimilated one from omega +5 weapon. And two + 4 weapon consoles some points in eps skill not full learned that late. Running over cap. I am usually over 100 even when shooting with an odd drop to 90 sometimes. Using etwp3 and aux to battery when science isn’t using it. Power is as covered as I can right now.
Going to look over beam boats and compare. Other than officer setups a lot ports. May start collecting some beams and give that a whirl.
Looked into switching from polaron to antiproton turrets but the expense is a bit high.
Anti-proton is a good weapon they have crit boosting proc that really helps boost dps. You can buy Polaron turrets from rep store with additional proton damage which can be boosted with tac consoles available in the same rep store (dyson) Those tac consoles also give 2.5% accuracy bonus.
just read your article, and i like it. i’ve been playing since year 1 (on and off), only going back to playing casually recently. i’m a lvl 54 admiral, most of my beam weapons are only mark 8 but i have a turret on the aft of my Odyssey. the funny thing is with rapid fire the turret has a higher dps than my beams. i might give it a go with full turrets
I use a turret/cannon boat. Kurak battlecruiser. 2 duals, two dhc’s, 1 top in front, 3 turrets in back. I also have rf iii, and consoles boost cannon and tetryon damage. (All weapons are tetryon). I can tear most things to shreds quickly unless it has beefy shields or hull. I can also take quite a beating unless I’m fighting against 5 or more ships at a time. Cannon/turret boats are awesome to play with. Want to try on my Voth carrier but haven’t gotten around to it yet.