Hey all.

I'm trying to determine which DOFFs to put on my ship. I'm not going to outline the ship and abilities as I want people's opinions about which combination is perceived to be more useful in a general sense rather than in a specific sense, although I will say that carrier pets are involved. In my mind that makes Attack Pattern Beta III a little more effective.

Do you think it's more useful to have

- Attack Pattern Beta III (with captain attack pattern skill at 6) with 3 Conn Officers, effectively giving it 10 seconds on, 6.5 seconds off and
- Target Shield Subsystems III with 2 Energy Weapons DOFFs, giving you a 75% chance of halving the cooldown

OR

- Target Shield Subsystem III supported by 3 Energy Weapons DOFFs, giving you an 87.5% chance at halving the cooldown and
- Attack Pattern Beta III with 2 Conn DOFFs, effectively giving it 10 seconds on and 11 seconds off.

Opinions?

Nobody has an opinion regarding this? Help would be greatly appreciated!!

You're being too general, and this sounds too weird. APB3 and carrier pets says Armitage, but it's really hard to give good advice without understanding what it is that you're trying to do, what content you're trying to do it in, and how on earth you try to justify running target subsystems on an Escort.

If you really want a general opinion, I guess there's this: max out APB, because target subsystems is almost never worth it.

But seriously, if you're in PvE it doesn't make any sense at all to run target subsystems, 4 DHCs fore 3 turrets aft will drop a target's facing shields in no time, and if you run tetryon that will help with the other shields as well. Without abilities DBBs fore turrets aft (the next highest damage layout after cannons) doesn't catch up to the DPS of cannons until you hit 7 km, and with abilities it never does. In PvP this might possibly work maybe, I don't really know what that's like, but it's hard to imagine.

Or a Recluse carrier. Which would make more sense with more subsystem abilities and more system drain abilities.

If you must have a choice between the two, i'd go with option A. The damage boost will help in the long run over the chance of shutting off skills without a Recluse.

You both gave reasons that agreed with my hunch and with the testing that I've been doing this afternoon.

I'm in a Recluse and thus far I've had two Conn DOFFs and two Projectile Weapons DOFFs. I've loaded turrets on the rear and two dual beam banks alongside a Tholian torpedo.
I've been sending the fighters in and hitting the opponents with Target Shields III and Attack Pattern Beta III. I've found that the enhanced damage that the fighters have been doing to be more effective as it has a longer duration. That being said, when the 40% shield offline proc lands, the target tends to die pretty quickly.

Time to load a third Conn DOFF and extend the amount of up-time for APB III. Thank you both for your responses.