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What Happened (Why Am I Suddenly Exploding)?

arakim5arakim5 Member Posts: 82 Arc User
Seriously, what the hell happened?

My oldest character, an Engineer in a MW Tac cruiser armed with epic everything is getting toasted in advanced missions. NOT elite, just advanced. Close to 50% resist on just about everything, and that is passive. 116k of hull and 20k shields, gone in seconds.

I thought maybe it was just an over-tuned mission, but it seems to be the norm. My Tac is seeing the same thing.

Energy Refrequencer seems to be the big change, supposed to give 7.5% of my damage back every second, but it is capped at 300 per event. So if you have an attack that does more than 4k in one hit, you don’t get the benefit.

I’ve been here since the beginning, and have invested a ton of time and money.

So what the hell happened?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,971 Community Moderator
    First... who were you fighting?


    We're gonna need more information in order to figure out what happened.
    And just a side note... don't say anything about investing time and money. It makes you come across as entitled, which can actually cause negative responses from people.

    For future reference.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • asuran14asuran14 Member Posts: 2,335 Arc User
    Without some numbers to go by it will be hard to tell if it is number tweaks that were implemented like on the enemies, or if it is something like a change to an ability functionality (boff, traits, and such). Even if it might be a tweak to how some fo the stats work that might have went abit wonky. It would be good to know how much more damage you are taking comparatively now to before, as just saying what kind of general stats you have, since than we can actually see an figure out if it is a hike in damage number (enemy or otherwise) or something more player side if the numbers are the same.
  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    have your traits and skills been reset (and are empty?)
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

  • questeriusquesterius Member Posts: 8,301 Arc User
    arakim5 wrote: »
    Seriously, what the hell happened?

    My oldest character, an Engineer in a MW Tac cruiser armed with epic everything is getting toasted in advanced missions. NOT elite, just advanced. Close to 50% resist on just about everything, and that is passive. 116k of hull and 20k shields, gone in seconds.

    I thought maybe it was just an over-tuned mission, but it seems to be the norm. My Tac is seeing the same thing.

    Energy Refrequencer seems to be the big change, supposed to give 7.5% of my damage back every second, but it is capped at 300 per event. So if you have an attack that does more than 4k in one hit, you don’t get the benefit.

    I’ve been here since the beginning, and have invested a ton of time and money.

    So what the hell happened?

    It is supposed to be 2.5%, not 7.5%
    I think the last change was at season 13 in which it was limited to 5 times per second.
    One thing which has changed though it that procs now go per cycle and not per shot so maybe that's the crux.

    Otherwise check if your traits and skills are still there and remove and reequip your gear.
    This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,950 Arc User
    When playing at advanced there shouldn't be any major issues with an experienced player in a Tier 6 ship and decent gear but there does seem to be (to me at least) a bit heavier dose of kinetic damage potential as compared to what we were seeing previously so yes it is possible to experience higher spike damage more than before. Could just be a level cap increase thing, could be they've tweaked a few things in-game... but they did tone down npc damage a bit earlier this year (was in patch notes).

    Given your stated level of gear and time in-game pat yourself on the back that you generate so much aggro. Have you tried a parser? Sometimes when in a lower performing team you could be taking a generous share of damage in. This would be something to look at after exiting a TFO where you took a good beating in addition to checking to see what hit you while respawning.
  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,196 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    I keep getting blown up by constant red or just very high damage critical hit torpedoes on only advanced. They deal up to like 50-60+k the majority of the time.
    Post edited by avoozuul on
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    have your traits and skills been reset (and are empty?)

    I would check this first.. it happened to me before. All the sudden my traits just unslotted.. it definitely could be the cause.

    Otherwise, if you could head over to STO Academy Skill Planner and link us your build maybe we can help you find the problem.

    [Edit]Here is my current Miracle Worker Build if it helps. She does pretty well, nothing really all that expensive either outside of the RCS Console which isn't even necessary. Just putting it for reference in case it helps.
    Post edited by seaofsorrows on
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • salazarrazesalazarraze Member Posts: 3,794 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    Traditional tanking has been dead for a long time. Resists are practically useless IMO. The way to tank right now is by using a good combination of hull healing, invulnerability triggers and placates. I must stress that placates are HIGHLY underrated by the vast majority of the community. Try out the space trait Pseudo-Submission. It's a really good defensive space trait that stuns attackers once every 15 seconds.

    Also, forget about energy refrequencer. That hasn't been a must have for at least a year or two.
    When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
  • arakim5arakim5 Member Posts: 82 Arc User
    Thanks for the responses.

    First, I really have spent both a serious amount of time and some real world bucks on this game. I didn’t get vanguard officers from just selling dil. And I don’t feel entitled as much as disappointed. With high resists and bonus hull heal I shouldn’t be seeing huge chunks of my ship fly off at advanced.

    I’m using a classic disruptor build. My crit is 25%, severity is 100%. Using Nausican, borg weapon 2-piece, elite fleet deflector, engines, shield. Disruptors are a mix of Elachi, Fleet, Nausiges. Energy Torp is also Nausican, with a Kentari in back. 4 locators, 1 exploiter. Prototype dynamic and whatever the projectile one is called. Martok console as well as the crafted sci console with resist/bonus shield.

    SPACE: Traits were slotted, it’s happened to me before as well. EPS bonus power, miracle worker, context is for kings, biopatch, helmsman. I can’t remember it all.

    STARSHIP: Invincibility, the FAW=bonus power one, the FAW=Bonus damage one, EWC. FAW (Being hit increases FAW duration).

    REP: Bonus crit chance, bonus crit damage, Offensive and defensive AUX bonus, Bridge officer recharge reduction.

    Skills are fairly balanced, special is MW/intel.

    Duty build is Drake+Tac team.

    3 Vanguard officers and 1 tac Romulan for bonus crit.

    All modules are epic.

    If this was elite I could just shrug is off as lag, but advanced shouldn’t be this challenging for a character as old as the game.

    I don’t know, maybe it is lag. It didn’t look like lag though. And there isn’t a lot of fat in the build.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    arakim5 wrote: »
    Thanks for the responses.

    First, I really have spent both a serious amount of time and some real world bucks on this game. I didn’t get vanguard officers from just selling dil. And I don’t feel entitled as much as disappointed. With high resists and bonus hull heal I shouldn’t be seeing huge chunks of my ship fly off at advanced.

    I’m using a classic disruptor build. My crit is 25%, severity is 100%. Using Nausican, borg weapon 2-piece, elite fleet deflector, engines, shield. Disruptors are a mix of Elachi, Fleet, Nausiges. Energy Torp is also Nausican, with a Kentari in back. 4 locators, 1 exploiter. Prototype dynamic and whatever the projectile one is called. Martok console as well as the crafted sci console with resist/bonus shield.

    SPACE: Traits were slotted, it’s happened to me before as well. EPS bonus power, miracle worker, context is for kings, biopatch, helmsman. I can’t remember it all.

    STARSHIP: Invincibility, the FAW=bonus power one, the FAW=Bonus damage one, EWC. FAW (Being hit increases FAW duration).

    REP: Bonus crit chance, bonus crit damage, Offensive and defensive AUX bonus, Bridge officer recharge reduction.

    Skills are fairly balanced, special is MW/intel.

    Duty build is Drake+Tac team.

    3 Vanguard officers and 1 tac Romulan for bonus crit.

    All modules are epic.

    If this was elite I could just shrug is off as lag, but advanced shouldn’t be this challenging for a character as old as the game.

    I don’t know, maybe it is lag. It didn’t look like lag though. And there isn’t a lot of fat in the build.

    Sounds like you should be ok.. I would recommend maybe re-evaluating your personal space traits. That's one area that gets overlooked a lot, there is a lot of focus on Starship Traits (with good reason) but you can get a lot of durability from your personal space traits.

    On my build, I run a few that really help. You can find them in my build, but I'll put them here as well.

    Context is for Kings. This can provide a really nice defensive buff when you're under heavy fire.

    Repair Crews. Excellent damage resistance buff, also gives bonus to hull heals, I slot this one on every build I run.

    Biotech Patch. Not a critical trait, but the 20% boost to hull heals can be really nice.

    Give Your All. This trait is pheonominal on Aux2Bat builds as it triggers with use of Engineering Abilities. Even on a standard Drake Build using DCE's, this should still be a good trait as it would proc from your Emergency Powers. It's also a free trait, so hard to beat.

    Ablative Shell. This is another trait that I run on pretty much every build. Gives a nice heal and damage resist when taking damage. Can be a bit pricey on the exchange, but not too bad.. it's definitely worth it.

    If you can spare a starship trait, maybe mix in something like Honored Dead. Last time I checked it was fairly cheap on the exchange and it can be great for durability.

    Other then that, the only other thing I would recommend is make sure you have a copy of Reverse Shield Polarity slotted and use a Fabrication Engineer to extend it's duration. Activate this when you're under heavy fire and it can be a real difference maker. If you don't have a Purple Fabrication Engineer, just get a blue one.. the VR ones are insanely expensive.

    Try playing around with your traits a little bit, it shouldn't be too expensive and they can really make the difference.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • bendalekbendalek Member Posts: 1,781 Arc User
    No,the Op is quite correct. The damage scaling, particularity for "kinetic" damage, such as Torpedo's and WCB's is just plain FUBAR. I minute you can be happily "tanking" the 8k torps, then suddenly the enemy is throwing 35k+ non-crit torps at you with 100% perfect shield penetration, and 0 sec cooldown. And no it is NOT debuf's causing the issue, is the bugged "scaling" calculations that Crytpic introduced with the mission journal revamp.

    And it seems completely "random" and arbitrary. I've had it happen numerous times for instance in BBS and SB1.

    And don't even get me started on the 8k radius 100k+ WCB's that show up all to frequently even from exploding BoP's and fighter pets!
    Oh, hoho hohhhhh, Oh,, hoho, hohhhhh
    My%20STO%20Sig%20Clear_zps5etu86s1.png
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,950 Arc User
    bendalek wrote: »
    No, the Op is quite correct. The damage scaling, particularity for "kinetic" damage, such as Torpedo's and WCB's is just plain FUBAR.
    coldnapalm wrote: »
    There seems to a bug with certain torps suddenly doing massive damage. Which with anything doing a TS is insta death unless you have an invulnerability up.
    Yup it's still happening on a regular basis. Most of the time when checking damage when re-spawning it's multiple torp hits that add up to quite a bit, a WCB, or the occasional what the heck was that. I don't find it particularly bothersome aside from a "fair play" perspective regarding npc behavior. Shouldn't my torps and WCB's be equally effective? I want some of whatever it is they got.
  • sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    for me the only time i can be hurt is if i'm being held. this is why my defenses are now centered around breaking holds and immunity. I try to always have 2 or 3 breaks and 2 or 3 immunities.

    many enemies love tractors but the borg and tholians are particularly fond of them. if they can hold you you can get popped like you described very easily. but if you can break the hold instantly you should be able to survive.

    you know, i haven't been one-shot by the borg invisitorp lately. could they have actually fixed that??
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

  • lianthelialianthelia Member Posts: 7,820 Arc User
    luckyyahoo wrote: »
    arakim5 wrote: »
    Seriously, what the hell happened?

    My oldest character, an Engineer in a MW Tac cruiser armed with epic everything is getting toasted in advanced missions. NOT elite, just advanced. Close to 50% resist on just about everything, and that is passive. 116k of hull and 20k shields, gone in seconds.

    I thought maybe it was just an over-tuned mission, but it seems to be the norm. My Tac is seeing the same thing.

    Energy Refrequencer seems to be the big change, supposed to give 7.5% of my damage back every second, but it is capped at 300 per event. So if you have an attack that does more than 4k in one hit, you don’t get the benefit.

    I’ve been here since the beginning, and have invested a ton of time and money.

    So what the hell happened?

    Yeah that's what happens when you modify enemy stats based on formulae.

    Even on normal it's a problem with some enemies. For example raptors in cure space normal (scaled 65) do 6k disruptor damage per hit and their torpedoes hit at about 50k.

    Same with some enemies in counterpoint and some other TFOs. Damage is too spikey. Lots of people complaining on the boards and every time the complaints are met by blank stares and the same call for "we need more info".

    What those people don't realize is that most players will just abandon the game, especially newer players who simply can't make it with average builds in some TFOs...

    Yup...and you got the people who're like "I do okay, so it must be you!"

    I've been playing the game since before it went F2P...I've never had any kind of problems like I have been since they increased the level cap to 65 and screwy things have been going on.
  • salazarrazesalazarraze Member Posts: 3,794 Arc User
    you know, i haven't been one-shot by the borg invisitorp lately. could they have actually fixed that??
    Definitely not. I got invisitorped recently on one of my newer characters. Also, your point about breaking holds is really good advice.
    When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
  • bendalekbendalek Member Posts: 1,781 Arc User
    Aye, Polarize Hull, or a good cooldown buff on Evasive is essential these days, as soooo many enemies now seem to want to (and, perhaps unfairly, seem able to) spam tractor beams. But the zero CD TS with each torp doing 25-35k dmg and 100% shield pen, is ... very irritating.

    Unless you are really lucky on your ability clicking, or you fortuitously have an invulnerability up, it's lights out for most ships, unless you happen to have 120k+ hull.
    Oh, hoho hohhhhh, Oh,, hoho, hohhhhh
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  • salazarrazesalazarraze Member Posts: 3,794 Arc User
    bendalek wrote: »
    Unless you are really lucky on your ability clicking, or you fortuitously have an invulnerability up, it's lights out for most ships, unless you happen to have 120k+ hull.
    That's where Pseudo-Submission comes into play. With the placate going off every 15 seconds to any enemy that's targeting you, it can be (and has been for me) the thing that can save you when your invincibility is on CD.
    When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
  • lordmerc22lordmerc22 Member Posts: 776 Arc User
    Traditional tanking has been dead for a long time. Resists are practically useless IMO. The way to tank right now is by using a good combination of hull healing, invulnerability triggers and placates. I must stress that placates are HIGHLY underrated by the vast majority of the community. Try out the space trait Pseudo-Submission. It's a really good defensive space trait that stuns attackers once every 15 seconds.

    Also, forget about energy refrequencer. That hasn't been a must have for at least a year or two.

    My engineer's tank ship which is an advanced obelisk almost never goes below 85% hull with high resists(65% lowest to almost 70% highest base or more across every resist and 163.8k hull - when I use my skills it goes further by far). All that while also have triggers to heal those near me helping team and pets. Its not that its dead - its just not popular, and you also need to heal, not just spam and tank. Unfortunately ships that are good for tanking are slow-to-turn whales like the mentioned one.
  • salazarrazesalazarraze Member Posts: 3,794 Arc User
    edited December 2018
    coldnapalm wrote: »
    bendalek wrote: »
    Unless you are really lucky on your ability clicking, or you fortuitously have an invulnerability up, it's lights out for most ships, unless you happen to have 120k+ hull.
    That's where Pseudo-Submission comes into play. With the placate going off every 15 seconds to any enemy that's targeting you, it can be (and has been for me) the thing that can save you when your invincibility is on CD.

    Doesn't that only work on one ship every 15 seconds? And the placate is really short if I remember. Not sure how useful that if that is the case unless it's changed. Spamming jam sensors with catastrophic overload might be a better option if you want a placate every 15 seconds.
    It placates multiple enemies that target you within 10km. Since it only has a 15 second CD, you can line it up with your CD on engineering team or Aux2SIF. It also actually works up to 10 seconds as long as you don't fire at the enemy. Obviously having the enemy not be able to fire on you for 10 out of every 15 seconds is a really good thing especially if you're about to die.

    EDIT: I've also noticed that triggered hull heals like automated promatter conduits seem to trigger it. Also, one of the
    other reasons I said up to 10 seconds is that some enemies timer counts down faster. Instead of 10, 9, 8 etc. Their timer goes 10, 8, 6 etc. I will continue testing against different enemy types to see if I can figure out why the timer is different for different mobs.
    Post edited by salazarraze on
    When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,971 Community Moderator
    Yea... Tzenkethi are evil that way...
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • meimeitoomeimeitoo Member Posts: 12,587 Arc User
    lianthelia wrote: »
    Yup...and you got the people who're like "I do okay, so it must be you!"


    Such a statement -- whilst not entirely devoid of an 'in your face!' attitude -- is not wrong per se, though, in that one white raven proves the existence of white ravens; aka, if I can do it (with me not being a super-DPS player), then it's fair to say the game hasn't become totally undoable for everyone. And, indeed, I don't think it has, as I can do it. :) Doesn't mean no NPC dmg scaling took place, or that they didn't get a bit smarter, here and there; for instance, Tzenkethi flock together (especially when you force them to do so with your GW on them), reinforcing each other. So, still doesn't amount to you exploding instantly now, but merely means that you, the player, can no longer blindly pew-pew everywhere you go. And that, by the goddess, sometimes you even need to try and think outside just your 'smashing the spacebar' box. :)

    All-in-all, I say those changes were good, even though the scaling is a bit off in certain areas (especially NPC kinetic).
    3lsZz0w.jpg
  • michelle82tmichelle82t Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    hmm nobody mentioned about the ship?

    Let's say even my Vo'que Carrier has 50%+ resist all, it is still very fragile, no better than a 0% resist fed assault cruiser.
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