Pen Weapon Mod

[eaglescoutdjb]

Just visited K13 for the first time and saw the consoles that give you hull pen and EPS and I'm wondering if pen is even needed anymore or if it's better to get a couple of those consoles and weapons that are dmgx4 or crtdx4.  You can gain a decent amount of DPS by getting your EPS high enough, to the point that some people are trying builds with EPS consoles and using tac slots for universal console, so if you can boost EPS and pen with these consoles that opens up more options for consoles.  My torp and radiation builds only need upgrading and some doffs to be finished, I might have to try a high EPS DPS build on my next toon.

[Bhaltair]

While EPS is important, there is a max amount after which stacking more EPS will not help your ship perform better.
Actions i.e. shooting weapons use power. EPS helps replenish that used power, not less, but also not more.
Once you have an EPS rate that matches your usage you don't need more. There is no benefit from it.
The highest setting you can do on your ship is 100. Some consoles give bonuses to that setting, but it is near impossible to reach the goal of 125. 
That's where Drains like the Plasmonic Leech and Energy Siphon come into play.
They will steal power from enemies and feed it into your ships subsystems, overcharging them in the process.
Bonuses like DrainX will boost drains. 
Ideally you want a mix of drains and EPS to reach Weapon Power of 125 and keep it there as long as possible.
There are also abilities and traits that help reduce the power cost of weapons. All works together.
And don't forget you also want more Energy in your other systems, as everything profits from more energy.

So unfortunately your idea of an EPS DPS build does not work. It has become a standard to have a Plasmonic Leech on your ship (at least when using Energy Weapons), so you will find it on every build.

As for the Xenotech Console with Power transfer rate, that rate is much lower than what a EPS Flow Regulator or  Conductive RCS Accelerator with [EPS] mod will do. So in terms of EPS they are less ideal.

[eaglescoutdjb]

That's not true, I've watched people test what high EPS does on Twitch.  If you dig into your combat logs you'll find that as you go through a firing cycle and use weapon power your beams damage drops as your weapon power goes down but if your EPS and power levels are high enough your weapon power will regenerate fast enough that your beams will maintain their full damage.  This was tested with EPS as high as 1000, although I believe depending your build 500 to 700 was good, and on ISA runs and in PvP.  I wish I could find the VOD but it looks like Twitch didn't save it.

[robonixon]

It's actually pretty easy to reach 125 across all systems with Leech, Supremacy, and good EPS with BFAW. 

I have not tested the pen consoles yet but I think the theory seems sound that they may be useful for certain builds. I'll grab a set and test them out at some point.

[Bhaltair]

take a look here

https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/...apons/mods

https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/wiki/...iki_case_1

[Bhaltair]

That's not true, I've watched people test what high EPS does on Twitch.  If you dig into your combat logs you'll find that as you go through a firing cycle and use weapon power your beams damage drops as your weapon power goes down but if your EPS and power levels are high enough your weapon power will regenerate fast enough that your beams will maintain their full damage.  This was tested with EPS as high as 1000, although I believe depending your build 500 to 700 was good, and on ISA runs and in PvP.  I wish I could find the VOD but it looks like Twitch didn't save it.

Not sure what is wrong with my statement, nothing what you just said is much different, except you aim for very high EPS.
Which is not wrong, just one way to achieve the goal.
You are referring to overcapping, which basically means you want your power transfer rate at least as / higher than your
weapons use. 8 beams use 70 weapon power in a 4 second firing cycle, so you should at the very least aim for 70/4 = 17.5 power transfer rate per second, which equals 350% EPS boost.
But there are many other factors that go into this math, like haste, weapon drain resistance, drains from Leech etc that makes it harder to calculate how much you really need. And that is only for Weapon Power. EPS/Power Transfer also helps with the other 3 subsystems as well.

Reddit came up with a very complicated calculator for that problem:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stobuilds/comme...alculator/

This guy here attempts to explain the relationship of it all:
https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DmK...xp24jDQeoA
His ship runs on 20.3 P/s , or a little over 400 EPS.
He is wrong though about FAW: it does in fact NOT change the firing cycle or affect the cost of. It 'just' lets you shoot more often is the same amount of time. You can read that in the description of the Weapon Calculator posted above. They have tested that extensively.

Btw, when you look at the builds on DPS league most of them don't use any EPS boosters except maybe the Fleet Core.
They rely more on drains (Leech, Supremacy, Energy Siphon) and WP Drain Resistances / Weapon Power Cost reductions.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't get any EPS boost. They are important. All that I said and keep saying is that you need a mix of Drains, Weapon Post Cost reductions and EPS to reach the ultimate goal: Weapon Power steady at 125.