Been looking around for some helpful hints regarding, weapons, shields and Consoles + Skills
Got the flowing info.
(yes it’s a lot of cut and paste and thanks go out to the guys at STO that did all the work)
Weapon Types
All energy weapons have a damage drop off at a distance, getting close will always do more damage, however bolt weapons (cannons and turrets) have a much greater damage drop off then beams, so at maximum range beams will do more damage than bolt weapons, though still less damage then if they were close range. Projectile weapons do not have this drop off, nor are they effected by weapon power settings.
Energy weapons:
Beam Arrays: 250' arc, low burst damage
Dual Beams: 90' arc, medium burst damage
Turret: 360' arc, low sustained DPS
Cannons: 180' arc, medium sustained damage
Dual Cannons: 45' arc, high sustained damage
Dual Heavy Cannons, 45' arc, high burst/sustained damage (same overall damage as dual cannon but in 2 big bursts rather than 4 little hits)
Damage Type Theory
All types of damage will have the same base DPS as far as specific equipment. A Phaser Cannon Mk X will have the same DPS as a Tetryon Cannon Mk X. There is not enough information on specific resistances that enemies might have to declare a winner by shooting their vulnerabilities.
Skills also play a large part. Polaron and Anti-Proton are Admiral rank skills and from what I hear you can max less than 2 Admiral skills (one to 9, one to 6).
• Phaser (2.5% chance to disable 1 subsystem)
The chance to disable Weapons or Shields seems to be a fairly big incentive. May counter act you if it knocks out shields on first volley and they return at full strength.
• Disruptor (2.5% chance to apply 10% damage resistance debuff)
My opinion is that this is the best damage type to use. Lowers resistance for Shields and Hull? DPS boost for every weapon. Low skill requirements.
• Plasma (2.5% chance to apply plasma fire)
Poor secondary effect. Doesn't pull Klingons out of cloak. Enemies probably do not last long enough to get a full duration dot.
• Tetryon (2.5% to deal extra 10% shield damage)
Does nothing against hull, but helps get shields down faster.
• Polaron (2.5% chance to drain 25 power from all subsystems)
Same as plasma. Enemies probably do not last long enough to worry about this, unless it is a real drain that syphons their power and gives it to you.
• Anti-Proton (2.5% crit severity)
Doesn't seem bad, especially as a Tactical Officer and all the crit you get with APAlpha. Probably not the best dps boost, especially since it's Admiral ranked.
Projectile Weapons:
Torpedoes: 90' arc, very high burst damage (75% less against shields)
Mines: no arc... they're mines you put them down, things come near they go boom... Medium burst damage (75% less against shields)
Torpedo Theory
Photon Torpedo is on a 6 second cooldown and has the highest dps if fired on cd. This means you can shoot more torpedos at enemies in a shorter span of time.
Quantum Torpedo is on an 8 second cooldown and has the highest burst damage. This means it really hurts with High Yield.
Transphasic and Chroniton are on a 10 second cooldown. Not the best choices for an Escort.
Projectile:
Photon: Less damage but faster fire rate. Regular boff effect.
Quantum: More damage but slow fire rate. Regular boff effect.
Plasma: medium damage with a chance to apply a DoT that ignores shields (decent against both unshielded and shielded targets). Plasma's version of High Yield fires a Plasma Ball that can be targetted and shot down.
Transphasic - low damage, but more of it penetrates shields (very good against shielded targets, mediocre against unshielded targets). Comes with standard Boff powers.
Chroniton - can slow down enemies. (nice for making enemies' weakened shields harder to protect, or as a rear launcher to use when running away). Comes with standard Boff powers.
Tricobalt - very high damage, and a short disable effect (stops target from using any powers for a moment). has a very long cooldown and doesn't get modified by Boff powers.
Personally I am sticking to Phasers for now Will look at the skilling out Tetryon weapons when I hit CAP. The 2.5% to add extra shield damage might be worth it. Will test it
Shield Theory
There has been massive debate over which shield to use. My conclusion is that at a certain point you are doing enough DPS in PvE to counter any weakness in your shields.
At lower tiers a Regenerative or Resiliant work rather well, but a Covariant may still be better. Higher tiers near Captain and above the burst damage spawns can do to you makes Covariant or Resiliant a better choice. In PvP Covariant or Resiliant win out over all other shields with a strong leaning towards Covariant as a clear winner.
Shield Power Setting
• 25 - zero regen
• 50 - 1x regen
• 75 - 2x regen
• 100 - 3x regen
• 125 - 4x regen
Shield Types
• Basic (Avg Capacity/Avg Regen/10% Bleedthrough)
Not bad, not great.
• Regenerative (Low Capacity/High Regen/10% Bleedthrough)
Works better with higher shield energy setting. Can be used to great effect with high-dps enemies, but so can Covariant.
• Resistance (Avg Capacity/Med Regen/5% Resistance and Bleedthrough)
Getting one of these with a [Cap] bonus is a nice alternative to Covariant. Really nice in PvP.
• Covariant (High Capacity/Low Regen/10% Bleedthrough)
Works well with no power in shields. Science Team, Emergency Power to Shields, and even Reverse Shield Polarity all work well with this shield.
Console Theory
It has been proven that there are no diminishing returns for using +Skill consoles. However we haven't done any testing on +% such as Resistance modules.
Tactical - Pick a damage type (Disruptor/Plasma/etc) and buy the best Mk consoles that say +Starship <damage> Weapons. Fill every tactical slot you have with these. Do not mix weapon damage types. (There is no diminishing returns)
Engineering - Depending on your style you can go +Resistances, or +Weapon Power, or +Turn Rate if you're not a Tactical officer. Later tiers (probably when you start using 3xDHC) you will need at least an EPS Flow Regulator to keep your weapon power as high as possible.
Science - Try to get a Biofunction Monitor (+Able Crew, +Crew Recovery Rate), its the best I've seen so far. Alternative is to find something that boosts your most important Science Bridge Officer ability.
Beam Theory
Beams are not as efficient as Cannons for sustained DPS but can put forth some excellent burst dps using a different set of Bridge Officer abilities that are not linked to your Cannon cooldowns. Beams have a large power drain that must be compensated for with EPS Engineering Consoles.
On an Escort you will most likely want to use Dual Beam arrays that have a smaller arc of fire but higher damage. USE YOUR MANUEVERABILITY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.
It has been shown in testing that 2xDC+1xDBB is less dps than 3xDHC.
System Power Guide
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showth ... p?t=101249
Massive Space Science Skills/Powers Overview.
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showth ... p?t=107070
I just hope the ageing graphics card I've had to resort to will handle this game OK. 
