Damage in a Raptor

System

I've noticed I don't seem to be doing much damage in my raptor. I pvp quite alot and i've noticed that i'm always either last of second to last for damage when the pvp ends. I used to just put this down to the fact that I was a lower level than other people in the pvp. But then yesterday I got into a capture & hold senario and by the end I did just over 79000 damage when the guy in my team that was 4 levels lower than me did over 170000! I asked him how he did so much and he didn't have a clue.

Was just wondering if you guys could try and help me figure out why my damage is so bad.

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Sonic74205 wrote: »

I've noticed I don't seem to be doing much damage in my raptor. I pvp quite alot and i've noticed that i'm always either last of second to last for damage when the pvp ends. I used to just put this down to the fact that I was a lower level than other people in the pvp. But then yesterday I got into a capture & hold senario and by the end I did just over 79000 damage when the guy in my team that was 4 levels lower than me did over 170000! I asked him how he did so much and he didn't have a clue.

Was just wondering if you guys could try and help me figure out why my damage is so bad.

Are you capturing and holding in these maps to assure a win, or are you charging from place to place, constantly engaging the enemy and maximizing the time you spend dealing damage? If it's the first, that could very well be why you see low damage numbers, though I'd hesitate to call that a problem.

If you are engaging in about as much ship to ship combat as your map sharing compatriots and still inflicting lower damage it is going to boil down to player skill. Try stacking your bridge officer abilities into alpha strikes and practice moving your ship to keep opponents in that 45 degree arc in front of you.

Hope that helps.

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ok cheers. In the mission we still won but were mainly attacking rather than holding. Now that I think about it most of the enemys focused on attacking me and mainly from behind so whilst I was trying to turn around and get into the arcs I was mainly using the 1 plasma beam I have at the back.

In pvp do u think its best to have duel beams and dual cannons at the front or just cannons?

Archived Post

Sonic74205 wrote: »

ok cheers. In the mission we still won but were mainly attacking rather than holding. Now that I think about it most of the enemys focused on attacking me and mainly from behind so whilst I was trying to turn around and get into the arcs I was mainly using the 1 plasma beam I have at the back.

In pvp do u think its best to have duel beams and dual cannons at the front or just cannons?

I believe Dual Heavy Cannons and a Quantum Torpedo is the standard front ship fare for a leveling Raptor. When you get to General rank you start having the Boff stations to work in a beam array that's mostly there for overloads.

As for enemies focus attacking you, get used to it. Raptors are glass cannons with a predictably low degree of suvivability and the enemies know it. Learn to use your cool downs like Evasive Manuevers and whatever Bridge Officer abilities you have to outmanuever enemies and don't be afraid to focus on whoever's in front of you in hopes that your wingman will cover your butt.

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What level are you?

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sonic,
it would help if we knew what level you are, and what your boff skill loadouts and weapon loadouts are.
We need to know more to help

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There are a lot of factors contributing to doing less damage. But firstly, I must point out that this ultimately adds up to the damage numbers being useless as a metric for anything important. It really doesn't matter how much damage you do, the real question is whether you are effective or not, and the damage numbers do not measure that at all.

Some reasons why you might be low on damage you already know. Being focus fired is pretty common for escorts/raptors. If you're focus fired you generally fly more defensively or at least you can't fly offensively and keep the enemy in your cannon arcs. This obviously means you do less damage. But that doesn't mean you weren't contributing. The escort/raptor that stays alive while being focus fired means the other team is not doing anything useful. It isn't the most prestigious role, but it is worthwhile to learn to do.

Tactical captains also do much more damage than other captains. If you're Eng/Sci, you will never really reach the damage numbers of a Tac.

Those things are more or less out of your control. They are situational and you can't really affect them.


However some things could help you do more damage if you alter your playstyle. For one, firing on a hardened target will lower your damage. That cruiser with EPTS and RSF up? You won't do real damage to them. Find a target without shield buffs running and shoot them. Timing your tactical buffs so you aren't wasting them against a hardened target is also important part of that.

Hull damage is also the only measure of damage on the scoreboard. If you are burning down shields but not hitting the hull, your damage numbers will be lower. Obviously hull damage is also the only way to kill a ship too.

Another reason your damage can be low is the kill speed. If you do lower DPS and give your target enough time to heal 5000 HP, you now have to do 5000 more damage to kill them. But if you kill them before they can heal, you end up with 5000 less damage, yet it should be obvious that in this situation doing less damage is actually preferable.


Again in the end, it all adds up to mean that the damage score is really quite meaningless.

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Thanks I understand it a bit more now and won't worry so much. Whenever I pvp I always look at the scores at the end to see who did the most damage and who healed the most but I guess I won't bother anymore.

When I made this post I was Lt Commander 7 and i'm a Tactical officer. I had Duel Beams, Plasma Torpedo Mk IV [Dmg] and Dual Heavy cannons up front and just a plasma beam aft.

I've managed to level up to commander 1 now and have decided to go with the K'T'inga class so im gonna spend alot of time on refitting the ships weapons etc.

Thanks for your help guys!

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Don't really have to worry about it now, but when you get to Admiral/General level, get a hold of one of the skill planners and be sure your skill points are spent effectively.

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Foxrocks wrote:

Tactical captains also do much more damage than other captains. If you're Eng/Sci, you will never really reach the damage numbers of a Tac.

Those things are more or less out of your control. They are situational and you can't really affect them.


However some things could help you do more damage if you alter your playstyle. For one, firing on a hardened target will lower your damage. That cruiser with EPTS and RSF up? You won't do real damage to them. Find a target without shield buffs running and shoot them. Timing your tactical buffs so you aren't wasting them against a hardened target is also important part of that.

Hull damage is also the only measure of damage on the scoreboard. If you are burning down shields but not hitting the hull, your damage numbers will be lower. Obviously hull damage is also the only way to kill a ship too.

Another reason your damage can be low is the kill speed. If you do lower DPS and give your target enough time to heal 5000 HP, you now have to do 5000 more damage to kill them. But if you kill them before they can heal, you end up with 5000 less damage, yet it should be obvious that in this situation doing less damage is actually preferable.


Again in the end, it all adds up to mean that the damage score is really quite meaningless.

All of this. ^ I have 2 toons both in raptors besides the captain abilities and a few race trait differences, offensively the raptor is set the same. I do 100-150K less in my sci toon then my tac toon but the thing in my sci toon is each shot counts more because I can strip heals and debuff a target pretty well just with capt abilities so targets die faster. With my tac toon I akin it to throwing everything and the kitchen sink at a target to kill it so you have higher numbers since I have kill through heals and buffs.