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How do I deal with Borg Shield Drain
thfinalnightmare
Member Posts: 27 Arc User
Most PvE I don't have any trouble with but the Borg rip-down my shields instantly with some drain attack then catch me in a tractor beam. Flying a zippy destroyer this proves fatal nearly every time, is there anyway to counter this BS?
Post edited by thfinalnightmare on
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How do you deal with it? You currently can't. You have to wait for a fix. If there is no fix? You still can't deal with it, as there is no viable solution that works.
When you aggro the group, you get hit with all of them, so you're toast if you don't do something drastic. I would advise hitting evasives and brace for impact, then run out of 10k range to give your shield heals/cleanses a chance to work.
The people that will come along and post a long list of counters are people that don't draw aggro, so they see nothing wrong with the change. They'll just prattle on about FAW users and DPS builds finally getting their comeuppance. They'll insult your intelligence and tell you to learn to play. But what they mean is to play their way.
While I think tachy beam needed a buff, they need to make it so 7 of them don't hit a single target, or that the effect won't stack. Six in insulators should be more than enough for PvE, but against 7 drains, it does nothing, and that's what's happening to you.
More importantly though, watch your positioning. If you are in a zippy ship that may be a little squishy then don't wade straight in against a bunch of npcs if they can all hit you (fitting pol hull/APomega/EP2E and using strafing runs is something you could try). Try picking off the outer most enemy or one your teammates are currently attacking (thus focusing your dps) is another tactic. If you are in a bulkier ship like a cruiser, again don't fly into a clump of npcs and blaze away. Try to attack smaller groups if possible (not always possible i know). If you are experiencing heavy agro, don't be afraid to retreat to a safe distance for a few moments to heal up (pol hull/APomega will help you with this).
These small changes have helped me against the new borg tactics in the STFs.
What ship are you flying btw as other players who also fly this ship can give you more specific advice?
My advice is... wait and see what Cryptic will do about it.
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valdore console if you are a romulan, of course.
dps works: kill the stupid thing before your shields vanish?
temporary shields... I get one every attack pattern, rom singularity has one, there are other items and skills that can provide this bonus...
shield heals ... various
hull tank it. Polarize hull and bare hull can beat a cube if your dps is not super low. You can't do this all day but its enough to finish the fight, haz emitters healing you and maybe aux2struct?
run away! Sometimes, mashing evasive and popping out to 15K to recover is your best move. Just remember... he who fights and runs away can run away another day!
Neither one does. HE clears the Borg Shield Neutralizer but not Tachyon Beam. Sci Team heals damage, but if you activate ST while being drained you can just watch your fresh shields drain away too.
The shield drain alone doesn't matter. I can run and use my heals.
The tractor beam doesn't mater I can power one facing while I unload; until they let go.
Both at once sucks... but it's also decidedly Borg. They are suppose to be OP and there not doing anything they didn't in the show.
So the shield drain is going to happen and my heal options are limited by my choice in ships, but about breaking free sooner or avoiding the tractor lock all together?
You counter it with Power Insulators skill (counters power and shield drain), while Hazard Emitters cleans its effect as it is applied as a Hazard debuff.
Get polarize hull or attack pattern omega to break free from tractors.
Pesky NPCs huh
You can "break" a tractor beam a lot of ways. Evasive will give you so much turn rate and speed that you can turn and burn out of its range. Rock and roll fully loaded will get you out of it too (don't fly into the enemy or it won't work). Polarize hull will do it (it also reduces your damage taken... and its a short cooldown skill ... use it). Omega will do it (wasteful in PVE, you lose a pattern beta for this??).
TBR and GW kill the heavy borg torps (and mines, and other such things). TBR does it one the move and is a great defensive tool that can also do some good damage (even if not set up for full bore exotic).
You would have to do that completely before they fire the Tachyon. Abilities, once triggered, aren't affected by any later stat changes. If I dump a 100 aux GW on you, and then hit A2B, Quantum Singularity Manipulation, an Aux battery, EPTA, whatever, it doesn't care. It's still that same GW.
And draining it to 0 would be the only way to do that, because of how aux->based abilities are coded. Math behind them includes the general multiplier (50+aux power), so an ability fired at 75 aux power is only twice as effective as an ability fired at 25 aux power.
Given that spheres tend to fire tachyon the second they're aggro'd, draining does not to me thus seem to be a reasonable solution. Unless you have a killer TR that does that to all the spheres in an area and you're the only one in range firing it from EBC.
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Jam is single target so not too effective against getting aggro bombed by all the spheres. I'll try scramble but I don't think scramble has a lose target component.
the downside with scramble is the effective time is very short...like a few seconds...but that can be enough even at the lowest rank to have ships "blow their loads" on each other. Of course the other downside with jam sensors is its a bit selfish. you may be saved but at the expense of drawing agro to someone else.
As for lose target component only if there are multiple enemies in the vicinity. If there is a single enemy its a wasted ability.
Spheres, no, if it takes me longer then 30 seconds to smash a sphere I hang my head in shame, and adding more, meh.
I'm talking three cubes at once, that's what spawned this thread. Sadly I only got two science skills and I need both of them to heal my shield. Any other way to jam or polarize?
I know Bort said something about temp HP being shield HP, but does Tachyon Beam drain the temp hp rather than my actual shields? I don't really have a way to test it myself.
Maybe Virus has some input?
At least it could force players to use skills that have become less favourable like Polarized Hull, Aux to Internia Damps, and Reverse Shield Polarity. To combat direct hits to the hull with shields gone or to get some shield power back with RSP.
With the Command ships, Command Specialization (Which few people can skill in due to skill points being as rare as a sober Irishman), Kobali set, there seems to be a emphasis on tanking.
However as DPS rules and Tanking drools, a tank cannot generate enough DPS to hold aggro and do what it is intended to do due to poor game mechanics, meaning nothing changes a DPS boat will always take aggro off any ship not hitting the enemy hard enough.
Whether the Tachyon change is working as intended or not. I think the balance for NPC's before the change was fine, They still stripped shields quick but not practically instant. Personally i think Cryptic got it wrong and Broke/Unbalanced another part of the game.
Guess thats just part of the Package where Delta Rising is concerned. If it ain't broke break it and if it's a popular map nerf it.
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I find it more prudent to adjust play style a bit (as in is FAW really good idea now? can I take the pressure?) than actually investing much into my builds.
Changing the game rules at will and whenever they see fit is too less of an incentive for me to invest my dil. (why hurry to remove plasma doping when peeps can waist their dil on it for it a few months?)
If cryptic wants me to jump I just need a better reason. But then again throwing new available gear at us each season also only works up to a point.
They had to come up with something new.
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Which shield drain are we talking about? The Borg have 2 there's your tachyon beam and the class in shield neutralizer.
The second is cleared by hazard emitters or rally point. The first is countered by nothing direct really you just have to out last it.
Since the op said destroyer I presume he means the vet ships. Drop polarize hull in favor of either science team or transfer shield strength. Add attack pattern omega as it breaks holds. Put some points into inertial dampeners, resists holds, and you know about power insulators.
Anything's that boosts your shield regeneration rate would also help but I can assume you already have what you can.
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Yea same here on one of my chars. Personally I found tanking tac cubes still more or less difficult. Facing incoming tachyon beams of a handful of spheres however is hard which brings me to
Works and not much wrong with it. Place a grav well, bring in FAW barrage and make a run for it. Usually my shilds get up fast when out of danger and Im rdy to go in for next attack.
I really think this whole issue is more of an adjust you play style rather then a invest 100k Dil in power insulating gear before cryptic change the game rules anyway again thingy.
They also change the BO skill of VCEs planetkiller 5 months later
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The only counter I have found is the RSP TT combo with the RSP space duty officer
Your shields will stay on full for the 15 seconds of the TT then the facing shield to damage a bit longer
At this time its safe to use your normal shield buffs the borg TBs are in cooldown
if your using aux to batt your rsp should be almost ready for the second barrage of TB from the borg
2 epic power insulators fully speced in power insulators have little affect on the TB drain
RSP with TT is the only thing ive found to work
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Sure that will solve it o.O
For most ppl the tractor beam is the real problem. Sitting there not moving and without shields is what gets you killed. And there are numerous counters to that:
Polarize Hull (also gives some nice resists)
APO (a standard anyway if you have a Zemok (equi))
Evasive (gets significant def bonus and an immunity buff in pilot spec tree)
Deuterium Burn (somewhat like evasive)
EPtE
Aux2ID (again a major resist bonus when doffed)
more?
There are also some helpful DOffs, e.g. debuff cleanse on EPtX abilities and what not.
Ps. The drain is OP currently and Im pretty sure they will change things again, but skills are cheap, experiment a bit.
So, DPS boats have to follow a tank friend going (like me) in middle of the Borgs (with my sci captain on shield regenerating cruiser), while you kill them from afar.
You don't need to regenerate shields faster than it can be taken down if you have good resistances to both shields and hull and have a hull heal or two at the ready. You might have to trade a damaging science ability for a healing one, maybe 2, to stand up to them, though.
When the devs adjust or change something in the game, we have to adjust our builds, tactics, play styles, etc.
The trick is to heal shields as they are drained, NPC's powers also have a cd so once initial drain is done you're ok until they go boom. Else run away, heal then come back when sufficiently healed.
Of course power insulators skills is a must, high as you can.
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Sheild are going to get drained no matter what now. What you want more then shields, is a strong hull.
Hazard emitters is a good hull heal over time and eliminates annoying plasma burn.
Polarize hull can raise your resistances bigtime, and break tractor beam holds.
Efficient use of Brace for Impact. Use it only when you're low on HP and you know more torps are headed your way.
Efficient use of Rock n Roll...get this trait as soon as possible. Use it in emergency situations, low HP, know 4 or 5 torps are headed your way ? Rock n Roll. Torps will miss, and you'll recieve a huge resistance buff for a short time.
A smart thing to do with RnR, is to also use the short burst of speed it gives you to get out of range of enemy ships. Regroup, then head back in.
Its on a 1 min cooldown so you can use it often.
Attack Pattern Omega is also something that could help you, as it breaks holds, adds atk damage, defense, and speed/turning.
Ill usually have these as my escape/heal buttons
Brace for Impact
Rock n Roll
Omega3
Science Fleet (sci)
Scattering Field (sci)
Hazard emitters 1
Sci team or Transfer Shield Strength
Polarize Hull or Energy siphon 1
Aux, Shield, Engine Batts
Evasive and ramming speed to escape the really hairy situations and regroup/heal.
If you don't have a Leetch, use the MACO shield to get a similar power boost to subsytem levels Higher energy levels = more survivability, and more potent buffs/heals.