You’re right that boosted beams will recover far and away faster than beams left at baseline. The gains made will be different depending on whether beams are fired manually or automatically. I’d need to talk to Starry to confirm the precise figures, but it is my understanding that 300% beams fired manually will cycle 9 times faster than baseline, whereas 300% beams fired automatically will cycle only 3 times faster. Working from a 40 second baseline, that’ll be 4.4 seconds manual and 13.3 seconds auto. You could take these figures and toy with them to work out how often you want to fire when boosted.
Now, you could spin this in one of three ways:
– Take it as an opportunity to adjust the beams to hit harder without worrying about trying to conduct firing passes more frequently than you’d expected, as you suggest, or . . .
– Accept it as a feature that you don’t need to boost beams under most conditions. You can instead shunt that power and coolant into keeping both fore and aft shields healthier and cooler for longer periods of time without failing, along with boosting warp or maneuver to minimize your exposure, or . . .
– Optimal damage requires free reign on the target. It is entirely reasonable that you’re going to land fewer shots on target while avoiding fire than if you were to post up and blast away. This is true with all manner of weaponry and vehicles. Your attempts to evade enemy fire necessarily prevent you from killing your target as quickly as you could otherwise.
Now, the 4.4 second boosted firing rate may simply be a valid answer to my Gunnery-Boredom concern, particularly when engaged in Kappa or when locked into a tractor beam. One thing you definitely don’t want is to be tractored by a Skaraan Executor, have your weapons officer miss the weapon node on his first shot (which in manual will expend all beams in range simultaneously in most cases), and end up sitting there clicking furiously for 20-30 seconds while the Executor looks back at you through mirrored sunglasses taunting you: “Stop trying to hit me and HIT ME!”