LAST EDITED ON Mar-06-14 AT 10:08 PM (EST)
 
>Mine skills are bad because they share a cooldown with torpedo skills,

As a Mine User, I can attest that this factually wrong.

>and furthermore, because they take up tactical bridge officer slots
>that could be better used for things like cannon rapid fire, beam fire
>at will, and attack patterns.

I avoid mixing energy weapon types and have had very little luck or value from attack patterns, so this is hardly a hardship.

>Also mines in general are bad because it's a whole weapon slot that's
>contributing pretty much nothing to your DPS most of the time. If
>you're in a beamboat, the time you spend getting your mines in place
>means that some of your arrays won't be hitting the enemy, and in a
>cannonboat, it's -1 turret slot that could be banging away at someone.

As I said; mines do need to have their relevant bridge officer powers leveraged properly to really shine.

>Look at it this way: what's more useful, some mines that might hit an
>enemy every minute or so, or ~150-200 more DPS from a cannon
>turret/beam array?

I get a lot more use out of the ability to make half of a Galor's HP go away in a single pass, myself.

Edit: Wait, OK, lemme math out why you're wrong. A single common Transphasic Mine Mk XI, like I've got, does 1,177 damage before skill boosts (maxed, in my case, but not directly relevant to the discussion.) 80% shield penetration means it's going to do.... 942 through the target's shields. Dispersal Beta 3 means that a full-dress mine drop is sixteen of these; a total of 15,072 damage, assuming that you drop a torpedo or two on the victim to distract him from trying to zarch them, which is easy.

The limiting recharge factor is the timer on Dispersal Beta 3, which is 30 seconds. More, the positioning condition for laying the mines is much easier than that for the vaunted heavy cannons; you just need to be in the right area, rather than flying at a particular angle. The calculated max DPS of ~500 is actually achievable, which I've never found to be the case with cannons, is what I'm saying, especially if you want to account for the fact that Transphasic base damage is actually lousy and trade up to quantums or something.

A buddy of mine who's played with Tricobalt mines reports that a dispersal-boosted drop of those things will cook the likes of an Undine Dreadnought.

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"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."