I ran into this question yesterday: Does the Charge Quality require the characters to charge their weapon for every shot? My players argued that this would be a setting that should apply until changed, keeping their phasers to have area or vicious effects for the whole scene. I was slow in finding the rules on this, so I allowed it, but now would like to have an expert opinion on this.
They also argued “Hey, I still have my phaser charged for vicious from the last fight.”, but I did not allow this. Even if the phaser kept charged for effects for longer than one attack, I think Starfleet Officers would be trained to set their phasers to standard settings prior to holstering after a fight.