Beams could use some love...

darkspeaker

Cannons got a buff recently, letting DC and DHCs activate and damage during scatter volley outside of the normal firing arc for those weapons. How about the same thing for DBBs when it comes to FAW?

casualsto

You brought up a good point ahead. But the improvement should be for focusing Beam:Overload for DBB+omni setups. It would be the CRF alternative to beams.

My suggestion: Lock all of the DBB and Omnies to a fore 90 degree angle during BO. This should not apply to BO when using beam arrays.

And BO to increase +30,+40,+50 accuracy besides the BO crtd and dmg buff. (only on DBB weapons).

seriousdave

Yeah, BO and FAW really need to be locked at again. Both did ned a nerf (especially FAW) before the re-balance but they've gone too far.

darkspeaker

seriousdave wrote: »

Yeah, BO and FAW really need to be locked at again. Both did ned a nerf (especially FAW) before the re-balance but they've gone too far.

Yep, they nerfed the hell out of beams, but then buffed cannons like three times to make them ridiculous instead. Doesn't do much for rebalancing when you take something else and overbuff it afterwards.

lianthelia

And how many years was the game FaW online?

seriousdave

Dosen't change the fact that they've gone too far.
FAW 1 & 2 are basically a waste of space, since BO dosen't auto crit anymore it's also way too weak to properly deal with the bloated damage sponges and lets not talk about the subsytsem targeting because that's just gonna be sad.
Beams have 1 effective power to rely on, FAW3, and even that has only penalties on it.

There is also surgical strikes but since that got nerfed it's literally worse than using nothing. I am not kidding, SS sligtly lowers your DPS compared to not using any weapon enhancing boff powers.

lianthelia

And how long were cannons a waste of space? For years...but no one stepped up for them...but the moment beams suck everyone is crying up a storm for their easy weapons.

seriousdave

And before that there was also a time where this game was called Escorts Online and everything that couldn't wield dual (heavy) cannons properly was a liability.
No one profits from being butthurt over how long it took them to make cannons good again, what matters is the current state of the game and that once again one weapon type is way more effective than another and that really shouldn't be.
But given cryptic's history of "balancing" nothing will change in the next couple years until season 20 reverses everything again and creates a new imbalance.

casualsto

The real problem with FAW now is that it adds up so much threat without having the serious punch behind it. So for a tac, it simply doesn't pay up to keep the FAW build, since CSV adds a real punch in aoe effect at the cost of making efforts to pilot/place yourself better.
BO and dual beam bank+omni builds are now the bottom of the barrel -> That is the real issue!

ichaerus1

Beam powers also cost less of a rank to utilize than cannons. BFaW likewise is a mash of the benefits of CSV and CRF. AOE shouldn't outstrip single target punching power going for a precise hit.

I do miss the automatic critical that came with Beam Overload. But I can sort of see why they removed that, if you have someone running a full Elachi DBB up front build that's packing CrtDx5 for mods on each DBB.

What about having BOL stack charge counters on activation? Lower the current BOL effects some, but when it reaches 3-5 charge counters, the next BOL is an auto-crit? That's the first idea that popped into my head. Oh, and give the Romulan Reputation space weapon 3 piece clicky back its auto-crit, since the damn thing is on a longer cooldown.