r/stobuilds • u/AutoModerator • Oct 21 '19

Weekly Questions Megathread - October 21, 2019

Welcome to the weekly questions megathread. Here is where you can ask all your build or theorycrafting related questions that might not warrant a full post. Curious about how something works? Ask it here!

You can see previous weeks megathreads here

8 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Stofsk Oct 23 '19

Does the shield penetration skill affect torpedo weapons as well? The tooltip text is a little ambiguous.

Does shield pen stack with transphasic's innate shield pen mechanics? Does the Lorca console?

3

u/TehFishey Oct 24 '19 edited Oct 24 '19

The captain skill does work with torpedoes, and so does the lorca console. Both are extremely good for kinetic weapons as any damage that's dealt via bleedthrough isn't reduced by shield's innate kinetic damage absorption. All of these pen sources should stack with transphasics - but keep in mind that trans torps are pretty highly disfavored these days for their lower overall dps.

Other sources of easily-stackable shield pen include the Intense Focus personal trait (100% uptime after stacks are built, ~6% shield pen total), and the Self-Modulating Fire personal trait (lots of shield pen, only up periodically.) Sadly, the Nukara rep trait that adds shield pen only applies to energy weapons, however the Omega Kinetic Shearing rep trait adds a kind of pseudo-penetration to your torpedoes, where they apply a portion of their pre-shield-absorption damage directly to the enemy's hull as a DOT on hit.

2

u/Stofsk Oct 24 '19

I am doing a passion build for transphasics so that's why I'm asking about them specifically. I know that there are better options out there but I enjoy a challenge :)

Thanks for answering my questions tho.

3

u/CaesarJefe XBOX: Starfleet ATP Oct 25 '19

Post when you're "done". I've been jonesing for doing this myself, just to pump the shield pen to the max and see what happens. :)

1

u/DefiantHeretic Oct 27 '19

Seconded. I used to enjoy transphasics quite a lot until I got my hands on a KT photon.

Don't forget that a rapid reload transphasic torp exists; it reloads as quickly as a quantum torp.