Quick notes about DPS
A player with good DPS will make life a lot easier on their teammates. Even if you are not in an escort, you can change your layout, and not spend a huge amount of skill points and still give yourself a major DPS boost. There are a few things to pay attention to before you decide where to spend your points, and which weapons to use.
A weapon's damage at 50% weapon power is calculated by taking the base damage and multiplying it by your skill bonuses. That number is then added to the weapon's mark bonus.
Your damage = (Base x Skill bonus) + Mk bonus
The mark level bonus is a certain percentage of base damage, and can be calculated using this chart:
Mk 1 = 1.082 (8.2%)
Mk 2 = 1.184 (18.4%)
Mk 3 = 1.296 (28.6%)
Mk 4 = 1.388 (38.8%)
Mk 5 = 1.490 (49%)
Mk 6 = 1.592 (59.2%)
Mk 7 = 1.694 (69.4%)
Mk 8 = 1.796 (79.6%)
Mk 9 = 1.898 (89.8%)
Mk 10 = 2.00 (100%)
The base damage can be found by looking at the damage of a weapon on an unmodified tooltip (like on the exchange or your paper doll) and divide it by the appropriate value on the chart. I found a chart that lists the base damage for each weapon.
Beam Array 100
Dual Beam Bank 133
Cannon 72
Dual Cannon 100
Dual Heavy Cannon 200.5
Turret 45
Photon Torpedo Launcher 1383
Quantum Torpedo Launcher 1447
Plasma Torpedo Launcher 1085.5
Transphasic Torpedo Launcher 1000.5
Chroniton Torpedo Launcher 1184
For example, I use Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons Mk X. It says the phaser damage dealt is 401.
401/2.00 = 200.5
The base damage for every dual heavy cannon is 200.5.
Using my skill points, I have maxed out Starship Energy Weapons Training, Starship Cannon Weapons, and Starship Phaser Weapons. That gives my Phaser Cannons a 18, 30, and 52 weapons training bonus respectively. That is a +100 skill bonus total. Each skill bonus acts as a 1% increase to your base damage. (so base x 1.01)
200.5 x (+100 skill bonus, so 2.00) + (100% of 200.5)
= 601.5
So at 50% weapons power, I will deal 601.5 damage for every shot.
Tactical consoles act as a skills/training bonus. So if you stack 4 consoles that add +30 to phaser weapons, you are getting another +120 to add to your +100.
200.5 x (+220 skill bonus, so 3.2) + (100% of 200.5)
= 842.1
So my consoles give my cannons a 40% increase in DPS.
You can choose to have a variety of energy weapon types if you want, but you cannot stack your consoles in your favour. So if you choose two cannon weapons of different types (such as Phaser and Plasma), you can only have an average of +160 weapons training on each cannon, instead of +220.
A big thing to note is that you can use less skill points by using one weapon type. Phasers and Disruptors also cost less, yet can do just as much damage. However, you would get better DPS spending 3600 points (lvl 9) on plasma weapons, than you would get by spending 3200 (lvl 8) on plasma, and 2400 (lvl 8) on Phasers.
This is another reason why it is better to use one weapon type for your energy weapons or projectile weapons.
Another aspect to keep in mind is weapon power. The wrong setup could be draining your weapon power too quickly, and you could end up firing blanks at a critical juncture in a fight. You should try to find a setup that will not drain your energy, thus decreasing the damage dealt with each shot.
I use two engineering consoles that increase my weapon power. Using this and setting my weapon power to the max means that I am dealing 2054 phaser damage from 200.5 base damage. That number becomes more significant when Attack Pattern Alpha/Omega or tactical team is applied on myself, or when Fire on my Mark and Attack Pattern Beta/Delta are applied on the enemy.
Cannons have a shared cooldown, which helps a ton in maintaining high weapon power levels. Beam weapons and especially turrets drain power much faster. Turrets do not have a shared cooldown, and always fire, which is murder on your power levels. You can fire two energy weapon types at one time without much drain, so consider only using one, if any turrets.
Because of the cooldown, you can have as much as three cannons before they become redundant. There is some debate on whether or not two cannons is the max before dual beam bank starts to give you a better dps rating, but I prefer using three cannons.
A weapon's damage at 50% weapon power is calculated by taking the base damage and multiplying it by your skill bonuses. That number is then added to the weapon's mark bonus.
Your damage = (Base x Skill bonus) + Mk bonus
The mark level bonus is a certain percentage of base damage, and can be calculated using this chart:
Mk 1 = 1.082 (8.2%)
Mk 2 = 1.184 (18.4%)
Mk 3 = 1.296 (28.6%)
Mk 4 = 1.388 (38.8%)
Mk 5 = 1.490 (49%)
Mk 6 = 1.592 (59.2%)
Mk 7 = 1.694 (69.4%)
Mk 8 = 1.796 (79.6%)
Mk 9 = 1.898 (89.8%)
Mk 10 = 2.00 (100%)
The base damage can be found by looking at the damage of a weapon on an unmodified tooltip (like on the exchange or your paper doll) and divide it by the appropriate value on the chart. I found a chart that lists the base damage for each weapon.
Beam Array 100
Dual Beam Bank 133
Cannon 72
Dual Cannon 100
Dual Heavy Cannon 200.5
Turret 45
Photon Torpedo Launcher 1383
Quantum Torpedo Launcher 1447
Plasma Torpedo Launcher 1085.5
Transphasic Torpedo Launcher 1000.5
Chroniton Torpedo Launcher 1184
For example, I use Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons Mk X. It says the phaser damage dealt is 401.
401/2.00 = 200.5
The base damage for every dual heavy cannon is 200.5.
Using my skill points, I have maxed out Starship Energy Weapons Training, Starship Cannon Weapons, and Starship Phaser Weapons. That gives my Phaser Cannons a 18, 30, and 52 weapons training bonus respectively. That is a +100 skill bonus total. Each skill bonus acts as a 1% increase to your base damage. (so base x 1.01)
200.5 x (+100 skill bonus, so 2.00) + (100% of 200.5)
= 601.5
So at 50% weapons power, I will deal 601.5 damage for every shot.
Tactical consoles act as a skills/training bonus. So if you stack 4 consoles that add +30 to phaser weapons, you are getting another +120 to add to your +100.
200.5 x (+220 skill bonus, so 3.2) + (100% of 200.5)
= 842.1
So my consoles give my cannons a 40% increase in DPS.
You can choose to have a variety of energy weapon types if you want, but you cannot stack your consoles in your favour. So if you choose two cannon weapons of different types (such as Phaser and Plasma), you can only have an average of +160 weapons training on each cannon, instead of +220.
A big thing to note is that you can use less skill points by using one weapon type. Phasers and Disruptors also cost less, yet can do just as much damage. However, you would get better DPS spending 3600 points (lvl 9) on plasma weapons, than you would get by spending 3200 (lvl 8) on plasma, and 2400 (lvl 8) on Phasers.
This is another reason why it is better to use one weapon type for your energy weapons or projectile weapons.
Another aspect to keep in mind is weapon power. The wrong setup could be draining your weapon power too quickly, and you could end up firing blanks at a critical juncture in a fight. You should try to find a setup that will not drain your energy, thus decreasing the damage dealt with each shot.
I use two engineering consoles that increase my weapon power. Using this and setting my weapon power to the max means that I am dealing 2054 phaser damage from 200.5 base damage. That number becomes more significant when Attack Pattern Alpha/Omega or tactical team is applied on myself, or when Fire on my Mark and Attack Pattern Beta/Delta are applied on the enemy.
Cannons have a shared cooldown, which helps a ton in maintaining high weapon power levels. Beam weapons and especially turrets drain power much faster. Turrets do not have a shared cooldown, and always fire, which is murder on your power levels. You can fire two energy weapon types at one time without much drain, so consider only using one, if any turrets.
Because of the cooldown, you can have as much as three cannons before they become redundant. There is some debate on whether or not two cannons is the max before dual beam bank starts to give you a better dps rating, but I prefer using three cannons.
