🔶 1. Weapon Power: The Foundation of DPS
Source: STOwiki → “Weapon Power” & “Power Levels” pages
Weapon Power is one of the most important parts of any DPS build.
✔ What Weapon Power Does
According to STOwiki:
Your current weapon power level directly increases your energy weapon damage
Higher weapon power = more damage per shot
Lower weapon power = reduced damage output
The relationship is linear, meaning:
If your weapon power drops during firing, your DPS drops with it.
✔ Why Weapon Power Drops
Every time an energy weapon fires, it consumes some weapon subsystem energy.
This is called Weapon Power Cost or Firing Cycle Cost.
With multiple weapons firing at once, your weapon power can dip sharply, lowering damage.
✔ What This Means for Beginners
A DPS player should aim to:
Keep weapon power as close to its set point as possible during combat.
This is the foundation of all high-DPS builds.
🔶 2. Weapon Power Set Point vs. Actual Power
Verified on STOwiki → “Power Levels”
Your ship has:
A set point — the number shown in the power preset (for example, 100)
An actual power level — which may be lower depending on drain
Example:
Set to 100
Actual during firing may drop to 70
Your damage is based on the 70, not the 100
A DPS build works best when:
Set point is high
Actual power stays close to that set point
Power does not collapse during firing cycles
🔶 3. Weapon Power Cost (Firing Cycle Drain)
Verified on STOwiki → “Weapon Power Cost” and “Energy Weapons”
Every energy weapon shot has a drain:
Multiple weapons firing = multiple drains
Larger firing modes (FAW/CSV) = more weapons active → more drain
Lower weapon power = weaker energy weapons
The core idea:
If you fire more energy weapons than your power system can sustain, your DPS drops.
This is why DPS builds focus on:
Power management
Power recovery
Reducing or offsetting firing energy cost
No specific items need to be mentioned — this is purely mechanical.
🔶 4. Weapon Power Mitigation (Concept Only — No Gear Names)
STOWiki supports the general principle of “reducing power drain”
A DPS build increases performance by making sure weapon power doesn’t crash during combat.
This is often called:
Weapon Power Mitigation
Weapon Power Drain Reduction
Weapon Cost Control
STOWiki verifies that:
Some abilities
Some consoles
Some traits
Some warp cores
Some ship mechanics
…can reduce weapon power cost, increase power recovery, or boost the weapon subsystem.
We can safely state the principle:
DPS builds benefit from anything that reduces weapon power cost or improves power recovery, because it keeps your actual weapon power high during firing.
Without naming specific items, this remains fully wiki-accurate.
🔶 5. Critical Chance & Critical Severity
Verified on STOwiki → “Critical Hits”
Energy weapons can land critical hits.
Critical hits have two parts:
Critical Chance — how often a crit triggers
Critical Severity — how much bonus damage the crit deals
Critical hits apply on top of your weapon power damage.
This means:
A DPS build works best when it has both high weapon power and strong critical stats.
🔶 6. Firing Modes Increase DPS Potential
Verified on STOWiki → “Firing Modes”
Examples:
Beam firing modes
Cannon firing modes
Torpedo firing modes
Firing modes:
Increase the number of shots
Add area damage
Enhance weapon cycles
However:
Firing modes increase weapon drain — which makes weapon power mitigation even more important.
This ties everything together.
🔶 7. Damage Categories Multiply Your Output
Verified on the “Damage” and “Cat1/Cat2” wiki pages
STO has several damage categories:
Base Damage
Category 1 (Cat1) — weapon type bonuses
Category 2 (Cat2) — final damage, haste, crit severity
Bonus Damage (situational)
A DPS build improves each category gradually:
Cat1 from consoles
Cat2 from abilities or traits
Crit chance/severity
Haste
Weapon power
These multiply together, which is how DPS players scale to high numbers.
🔶 8. A DPS Build Works When All These Layers Work Together
A functional DPS build is not defined by one piece — it's defined by synergy.
A good DPS build:
✔ Maintains high weapon power
✔ Prevents weapon power collapse
✔ Uses one energy type
✔ Improves Cat1 and Cat2 damage
✔ Has healthy critical chance and severity
✔ Uses firing modes correctly
✔ Has enough survivability to stay in the fight
When these work together, you can deliver consistent, high, reliable damage.
⭐ Final Beginner Summary
The most important wiki-verified truth about DPS is this:
DPS comes from keeping your weapon power high while applying as many damage multipliers as possible.
Everything else — traits, consoles, sets, firing modes — exists to support this core mechanic.