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There is some confusion for escort captions (including myself) about the difference between dual cannons and dual heavy cannons. Since they both do the same dps it would seem that it doesn't matter which one you use. However, it does - the key to the difference is in their cooldowns and their interaction and with Cannon: Rapid fire ability.

In short, all canons share a 1 sec universal cooldown; meaning that you can only ever fire 1 cannon per second no matter how many you have. In addition, each individual Duel Cannon has a 2 second cooldown and each individual Dual Heavy cannon has a 3 sec cooldown.

This means that if you have 2 dual cannons, you can alternate firing them both; Fire A, wait a second, fire B, wait a second and then you can fire A again.

You can do the same thing with dual heavy cannons too, but it requires 3 of them to keep a continuous stream of fire due to the 3 sec individual cooldown on heavy cannons.

The problems start when you start mixing Duals and Dual Heavys. Since they have different cooldowns, occasionally they will both be on cooldown and occasionally they will both come off of cooldown at the same time. For example if you have 1 dual and 1 dual heavy:

Time(sec) Fire
1 Dual
2 Dual Heavy
3 Dual
4 Gap: Both on cooldown
5 Clash: Both are ready to fire
etc.

Clashes mean you have to push back firing one of your cannons by one second - meaning that you effectivly increased the cooldown on that cannon. And since dps is damage per second, that means that you're losing a quarter to a third of the dps from the weapon that you push back.

Gaps are another (but lesser) problem. The problem comes when under the Cannon: Rapid Fire ability. Basically, anytime there is a gap in your rotation you can't take advantage of the ability. This is why using 2 dual heavy cannons are also not optimal (even though you do avoid the clashes) - since you have a gap every third second you are wasteing a third of the effect of Cannon: Rapid Fire. And it's such a nice ability you don't want to waste it.

tl; dr:
Use either 2 dual cannons or 3 dual heavy cannons for best dps.

Up through Commander 5 (the rank I am at the time of writing) I am having no problem taking down shields using 2 dual cannons combined with 2 (1 at LtC) aft mounted turrets. But getting through the hull of cruisers can be tough, so I have found 2 duels plus a torpedo (and Torpedo: High Yield) to be the best combo rather than using 3 dual heavy cannons. But I didn't test 3 dual heavies much, so YMMV.

As an aside, turrets are also considered cannons and are affected by Cannon: Rapid Fire and by the canon skill.

OK, now I am confused. If the cannons do the same DPS but have differnt cool downs, doesn't that make Heavy Cannons useless? Seems like no reason to use the heavier weapons. What gives?

Thanks,
Duncan

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You are correct - if you only want 2 cannons. If you want to add a third, you have to go to dual heavies because a third cannon (of any type) literally cannot be used with dual cannons - 2 duals with a 2 sec. cooldown means that you'll be alternating between the first two and never firing the third. Moving to dual heavy cannons means you can slot a third cannon into the rotation because the 3 sec. cooldown on the heavies gives time to fire the third cannon before the first comes back online.

Tier 2 and 3 escorts have 3 forward slots so can use 3 dual heavy cannons or 2 dual cannons+another weapon. The question every escort captain has to answer is which is better - the third cannon or the alternate weapon? My answer is that I prefer a torpedo in the third slot because I've not had much of a problem trearing down shields - getting thru the hull has been trickier and that's something that torpedos do very well.

Tier 4 and 5 escorts add a 4th forward slot so I'm planing on moving to dual heavies when I get to Captain. Plus a torpedo.

-Steve

Ok, still confused. If you use 2 Dual cannons firing alternatly every second for X DPS what is the difference between 3 Heavy Dual Cannons firing alternatly every second for X DPS? Either way you do X DPS and fire a cannon bolt every second. Sorry if I am missing something.

thanks,
Duncan

_________________
Gold 109 (ret.)
Leader of the Anti-Gungan Defamation League
SWTOR: Server Bergeren Colony
Hobbie - Jedi; Hesrat - Trooper; Deridre - Scoundrel
Vice Admiral Dallas of the 66th Fleet, STO
Captain Hetsh, Leader of the Gorn Resistance, STO
Got Gorn?

That's a good question, too, Duncan. I look forward to hearing the answer.

_________________

It has to do with stopping power.

Heavy cannons hit harder, but fire less often. If you want your shots to hit with a lot of force, take Heavy Dual Cannons. If you want a lot of shots hitting for a little damage each, take regular Cannons.

This may be another area that Data Miners are still working on over at Cryptic, and we may see a change coming that really defines Heavy Cannons and their role.

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They both only fire for a second and then complete their cooldown (the second that they fire counts towards completing their cooldown).

We'll use these hypothetical cannons as an example (to simplify the math):




Now, if we slot a second cannon in each example we get:

We've doubled our dps by adding the second cannon. Note that there is no room in Rotation A for a third dual cannon, but we can add a third dual heavy cannon to Rotation B. The third one would fill the cooldown gap and add another 100 dps bringing the total dps to 300.

You can now no longer add cannons to increase damage. The torpedos are in asile 5 next to the replicators. Thank you for visiting the SpaceShip Depot.


*edited to add - sorry about the formating; I give up trying to get the tables to display right.

Great info! Thanks SRKazman!

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Current Co-Host of All Wings Report In, the Official Podcast of the Rebel Legion SW costuming club
Order 66 Contributor: Fragments From the Rim - BLOG UPDATED EVERY THURSDAY

Steve,

thanks, that makes much more sense too me. Basically they Heavy Dual Cannon fires a bolt that is 3xDPS and the Dual Cannon fires a bolt that is 2xDPS. The actual bolts are bigger. So my guess is that a cannon fires 1xDPS, but can fire every second. Just a guess.

thanks,
Duncan

_________________
Gold 109 (ret.)
Leader of the Anti-Gungan Defamation League
SWTOR: Server Bergeren Colony
Hobbie - Jedi; Hesrat - Trooper; Deridre - Scoundrel
Vice Admiral Dallas of the 66th Fleet, STO
Captain Hetsh, Leader of the Gorn Resistance, STO
Got Gorn?

When running solo i like to use torps in my third forward slot. In fleet action I tend to add either a third cannon but often just a been weapon for better arc to be able to hit stuff before it dies cause I could not turn to get in front of me fast enough. Torps in Fleet action I find tend to drop my dps big time cause most ships die before they get there.

Do you stack a certain type of damage cannon to maximize your chance of getting the random procs. And when it comes to consolesdo you get a tact console that boost that one damage type or do you go with prefire chamber that boost all cannons. And then just use the best cannons you find for damage.
As of right now i have to 2 plasma duels and a disruptor turret in the back which gets no boost as of now from my plasma console. And my second console boost torpedo.

I stick with phaser canons and turrets for two reasons:

1. They shut down systems, so yay!

2. At my level the Prefire Chamber grants +15 Canons, which impacts turrets and canons. BUT, the Phaser Relay gives +20 to all phasers. So, all things being equal (which they are), I'm actually getting more out of my Phaser Relay than the Prefire Chamber. I have two Phaser Relays and one Zero Point Quantum Chamber (boosts Quantum torp dmg).

On your idea of slapping phaser arrays instead of torps during fleet actions, I think I like that idea. I should try it myself and see how I like it.

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I run trip dual heavy cannons (plus a phaser turret in the back), and love it. I'm not into the math crunching in this game like I was in WoW, but I have no problem taking down targets quickly. I am currently sporting 1 electro-plasma and 2 plasma cannon mounts. I can take down a Neg'Vhar cruiser, or usually 2-3 corvettes, down in one pass if I slow down once I hit range and pop CDs. Anything that allows me to do that is A-OK in my book. Plus I like big guns Just my two cents.

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"They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about." Lord Hugh Percy to General Harvey April 20, 1775

I can't wait 'til I get a Defiant fitted out with trip-heavies and a quantum torp on the front. I also really prefer the way the heavy bolts look to the regs.

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Whats the story on the single barrel cannons. I know they do less damage but get more firing arc. Do their cool downs interfere with dual or dual heavy cannons. They seem to be the unwanted weapons as they are dirt cheap on the AH. I picked one up to try it instead of a beams in fleet action. Since it will get boosted by rapid fire and give me a better firing arc then dual cannons in fleet action when a lot of stuff seems to die before I can get a bead on it if there are a lot of other ships around.

So ill be messing around with 2X dual plasma and 1 plasma cannon in front and dual turrets in back in fleet action next.