Ok Im a assault cruiser/eng capt and I'm going for a tank/dps role. I'm trying to decide on either the neutronium armor console or a plasma distribution manifold. I have the full aegis set and plenty of shield and hull heals. My current weapon power is at 119 and that's full skills but with the manifold I'd be up to 126 which would help my dps some. What do you guys think would be a better balance for tank/dps?

What are your other engineering consoles?

I currently use it. Can you put it into a Science console slot instead?

If you use hazard emitters/Science team, it's great...



Wait - Crap - I thought you meant the "Enhanced Plasma Manifold" you get from the Oberth...my bad.

I run the 35% shield console, an eps, and a +7 shield power console. All of which I like to keep. The 35% is a must, the eps helps with my 6 beam broadside and my beam overloads, and the +7 shield is good for keeping my shield level at 85 with full weapons power or 125 when tanking with max shield power. Just gotta decide more weapon power or more resist for my hull

Use the armor, and get Emergency power to weap 1. If you have 2 copies, you can perma run it. It will boost your power +15 for 30 seconds, and also give you +7.5% all energy damage for 5 sec.

Also, you can run 2 copies of EptS and ditch the +shield power console. So you can have perma shield buff with 2 copies. Plus you get shield resistance too.

So your set up would be EptW 1 x 2, EptS 2 x 2. The cooldowns are such that you can perma run both. Activate EptW. after 15 sec, activate EptS. After 15 sec, activate EptW. After 15 sec, activate EptS. Rinse and repeat.

This would free up 2 console slots for you.

Ok cool thanks I'll give that a try. Also what's up with these Hargh'Peng torpedoes? They better than full spec quantums?

Depends. They are a mission reward from 'doomsday machine' mission. I don't have the exact details, but they basically do a small amount of damage initially, and then a small DOT (I think). This can be cleared with haz emitters. BUT, if they are not cleared, after a short period of time, it produces are large AOE explosion. I believe the total damage is higher than quants. But it can be negated by haz emitters. I don't think the DPS is higher, though because it takes so long for the damage to occur.

It works fine for PVE since the NPCs don't usually clear the dot.

Awesome thank you sir. Now one more question should I keep my beam overload with my 6 arrays or swap in high yield with my fore and aft quantums? Which is better for tank/dps cruiser?

If you do PvE only, grab atleast 1 copy of FAW.. Could even drop the torps entirely and run with 8 beams, but the 2 copies of Ep to weaps are mandatory

its the ultimate dps setup and makes most PvE a joke

I'd use Beam overload myself. The weapon is always in arc, and it doesn't require you to cease the broadside to fire it. Also, as an engineering captain you have tools like eps power transfer and nadion inversion to help mitigate the weapon power loss beam overload causes. Lastly, beam overload can be useful against shields.

I'm curious what other tactical abilities you use.