Consider your options carefully, as if you are on a low budget, or simply can only afford to main one type of energy. You may change energy types, but it will be harder to do as one type can set you back a couple million. Short version: Stick to one energy type. Unless you wanna grind a lot more.


Energy weapons in star trek online vary. Some having special capabilities, such as plasma and it's fire chance. When building a beam boat, you want to start out with one type of energy weapon. Below are the listed energy types, and what they do.


Please consider DPS beam boating involves alot of damage, crit, and bleedthrough. Shield damage is not a top priority.

DISCLAIMER: Kinetic and physical damage will not be included in this guide.

Phaser (Recommended)
Direct damage, plus a slight chance (2.5% to be exact) to disable a single random subsystem on the target. This could be shields, engines, weapons, etc. Other types such as the discovery themed pulse phasers have added benefits. See Linked Phasers[sto.gamepedia.com] for details.

Disruptor (Recommended)
These beams deal direct damage, plus adds a slight chance (2.5%) to deal -10% all damage resistance to the target, making them 10% weaker to your beams, and allowing more DPS to stack. Like Phasers, these too have special beams with passive mods.

Tetryon
These are the more uncommon, unused type of beams. These beams have a slight (2.5%) chance to deal a certain amount of damage to all shield facings on the target. There are not many different types of tetryon beams, thus making them unpopular among DPS players.

Antiproton
These special beams are common in DPS builds, although they can be pricey. They do not have a special debuff, however they have a worthy opposite, making antiproton the ideal choice for dual beam 5:3 weapon layout people. (AKA Overload builds). These have +20% Crit Severity built in, as well as a slight chance to trigger Beam Overload[sto.gamepedia.com] while firing.

Plasma
These beams are quite rare to see used in beam builds, unless you talk about borg or corrosive plasma. These beams have a slight (2.5%) chance to deal "Plasma Fire". This sets a DOT effect unto the enemy vessel, causing a certain amount of damage over the span of a few seconds.

Poloron
These beams are similar to phasers and disruptors, however they have their own special proc. Poloron beams have a slight (2.5%) chance to deal -25 to all subsystem settings, limiting the target from reaching their full power, protection, and speed.

When making any kind of beam build, you must consider this. Do I want a frontal assault build, or an all around beam build? Choose wisely, as both have their own benefits.

Frontal Assault
This setup uses ships with either a 4:3 or 5:3 weapons layout. This makes use of all forward frontal dual beam banks to maximize firepower from the forward arc. This is great for single target destruction, as well as defeating bosses.

Beam Boat
Beam Boats are a lot different from Frontal Assault. Being a beam boat means having a ship with a 4:3, preferably 4:4 weapons layout. This type of build is meant to deal with multiple enemies at once, using AOE attacks for beam banks. Take notice that this type of set is a bit harder to do than frontal.


Great, got a format? Lets move on to the ship!

Frontal Assault is pretty self explanatory, so I will go into depth on Beam Boats.

The best pick for Beam Boats are Cruisers, or any ship class with a 4:4 weapon layout. This is due to their sturdiness, and ability to reach all points around them with equal firepower. For Feds, I'd highly recommend the miracle worker vessels, or T6 Odyssey Cruisers. For free to play options, the Assault Carrier, Sovereign Class, or any ship with such a layout is the best option. Romulans, well again, Miracle worker warbirds, and Klingons, sorry, I am unsure of which ships to use. I'm assuming the BortasQ classes (both T5 and T6) have a 4:4 layout.


Got your ship? Good! Its time to buy your beams now!
After getting your ship and deciding what energy type you want to use, just pick up some beams (preferably rare - epic if you can afford it!).


Heres what your ship should look like now!

Well first we need to talk skills, traits, etc. I shall break this down for you.

Beam Skill Trees
First off, you want to have a 80% tactical skill tree, not 100%. As you may or may not know, beam damage diminishes with distance. To counter this, spend points in distance penalty negation in the engineering section, as well as some traits into survivability, and power transfer.

Traits
For traits, chose ones that increase your Crit Chance. I personally recommend getting crit chance above 25% if possible. Other traits to be desired are those which increase Crit Damage, and Severity. The higher these are, the more damage you will do.


Now its time for both Equipment, and Consoles.

Equipment
This really depends on if you have the ability to grind the reputation systems, or if you have a fleet. My first suggestion is to obtain the Elite Fleet warp, shields, deflector, etc. These will suffice until you have the resources to obtain reputation gear. Personally, I recommend going with the PVP set, as it gives you some pretty nice benefits.

Consoles
For this, you really wanna be in a fleet. Normal consoles such as Plasma Infusers, Phaser Relays, etc don't cut the DPS game. You want to pick up chance, and severity consoles from your fleet spire for the specific weapon damage you picked. Other consoles I suggest are as follows.

Lobi:

Bioneural Infusion Circuits +15.2 CritS at base rarity and level.

Tachyokinetic Converter +0.76% CritChance and +7.6% CritS

Reputation:

Assimilated Module +0.93 CritChance and +9.2 CritS

Zero Point Energy Conduit +1.8% CritChance + This module belongs to a set able to increase
plasma damage.

Lorca's Custom Fire Cntrols +3% CritChance + Belongs to phaser set.

These are generally used for their "clicky's". Although some do not have passive buffs, their abilities are wonderful.

D.P.R.M Also known as the Dynamic Power Redistribution Module. This gives some damage resistance, and higher outgoing damage, as well as a DoT Heal.

D.O.M.I.N.O This comes from the Bajoran Interceptor. It gives extra firing cycle haste, as well as damage and damage resistance buffs, plus some extra if you kill targets.

Take a look at the images below. Does your ship/traits look similar to them?


Traits Layout



Starship


Everything look good? Great! On to doffs!

When looking at Doffs (Duty Officers), you want to look for certain passive bonuses. An example in the Beam Weapon category is the "Chance for stacking crit sev buff on not crit hits". This is a game changer for us Beam Boats.

Sets are an essential part of the game as they also provide passive bonuses. I eventually will list ALL sets in this list, but it may take a while, as I have limited time to do these things.



NOTE: Starting tomorrow, STO is bringing back the winter wonderland!
This time you have the opportunity to obtain 200 lobi!
You may use it as you wish, but I recommend picking up either the Tachyokinetic converter, or the Bioneural infusion circuits.



Tachyokinetic Converter Stats at stock level and grade:
+17.2 Starship Control Expertise
+22.9% Flight Turn Rate
+0.76% Critical Chance
+7.6% Critical Severity

at stock level and grade:
+17.2 Starship Hull Capacity
(Increases Starship Maximum Hit Points)
+17.2 Starship Control Expertise
(Improves Control Effects / Resistance to Same)
+15.2% Critical Severity

Hey!

Thanks for taking the time to read this guide. I hope you found it helpful!

Please stay safe in these disturbing times, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about this subject!


- Rustic Doggo
Also known in-game as Deathstalker@deathstalker6765. Feel free to friend me!