Are Cannons Gimped by the global cycle?

[Undergrid]

I've been wondering if I'm better with 2x Dual Heavy Cannons and a Dual Phaser Beam Bank, or 1 Cannon and 2 Beam banks.  And the enforced global cooldown for cannons seems, to me anyway, to gimp most cannon types.

Disclaimer: These calculations are on base damage of Mk VIII weapons, assume instant refiring when available (inhuman reactions), don't take into account skill buffs (like cannon rapid fire which does't speed refire rate but increases damage per attack), accuracy (misses) or target resists.

First up, the base info.  Numbers are Damage / DPS / cycle time (time between shots)

(Beam) Dual Phaser Beam Bank Mk VIII    239 / 191 / 1.25
(Cannon) Phaser Cannon    129 / 172 / 0.75s
(Dual) Phaser Dual Cannons Mk VIII    180 / 240 / 0.75
(Heavy) Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons Mk VIII   360 / 240 / 1.5s

As you can see, even with a single installed cannon, the Cannon and Dual Cannon are already gimped because their refire rate is lower than 1 second.  So lets calculate damage over 10 seconds.

Beam:  (10 / 1.25) * 239 = 1912
Cannon: (10 / 1) * 129 = 1290
Dual: (10 / 1) * 180 = 1800
Heavy: (10 / 1.5) * 360 = 2400

Now the theoretical maximum for Cannon and Dual's without the global cooldown:

Cannon: (10 / 0.75) * 129 = 1729
Dual: (10 / 0.75) * 180 = 2400

So while the Dual does have the same theoretical DPS as a Dual Heavy, it can never actually produce that due to the gobal cooldown lasting longer than the cycle time.  

Now given we can only fire 1 cannon ever second, its not even considering installing 2 Cannon or Dual's in a ship, they wont fire any faster.  When we look at the Heavy's, adding a second cannon will reduce the time between shots to 1 second instead of 1 every 1.5 seconds.  The reason for this is the global cooldown limits each cannon (when two are fitted) to firing once every 2 seconds and with the cycle time of 1.5 second, theres plenty of time for the cannon to cycle before the global cooldown allows it to fire again.  So..

2x Heavy: (10 / 1 ) * 360 = 3600

So 2 Heavy's increase damage, but not by the damage of a single Heavy, which would have been a total of 4800.  So lets look at the total:

1 x Beam, 2x Heavy:  1912 + 3600 = 5512
2x Beam, 1x Heavy: 1912 + 1912 + 2400 = 6224

So your better off with 2 Beams and 1 Heavy.  Except when you take skills into account, Cannon Rapid Fire increases your damage over 15 seconds so would probably change these calculations enough to make a second Heavy Cannon worth it.

I think I'll stick to 1 Beam and 2 Heavy, non Heavy cannons don't seem to be worth bothering with,

[Undergrid]

OK forget all that because its bollocks...   

Cannons (and possibly other weapons) don't fire at the rate expected.  Dual have a cycle time of 2 seconds, Heavy's are 3 seconds.  That means, with the 1 second global cooldown staggering shots, you max out cannons at 2 Duals or 3 Heavy's.  Actually trying to fire them that fast could be an issue though, with reaction time and network lag you could be looking at 1/3rd of a second over the three second firing cycle of a Heavy which could mean your better off with a dual beam in the third slot.

What I have found out is that turrets are cannon/beam hybrids.  While they fire bolts like cannons and are effected by cannon skills and consoles, they fire like beams, that is they don't have or effect the cannon global cooldown.  So you can add a couple of turrets in rear slots in an escort and add to forward damage without slowing cannon fire with the bonus of plugging the 22.5degree hole between forward firing cannons and rear facing beam arrays that might otherwise be in those slots.

Some people suggest using a turret in the fourth slot of a Captain escort but I think this is a bad idea.  You want as much damage concentrated forward as you can and a turret there would cut your forward DPS.  On a cruser however, in the cases where you have more slots forward than rear, a turret might be a good choice assuming you want the same forward and rear damage.

[rover]

sorry am still trying to find my way around your first post UG