How's the B'rel Retrofit?

System

I recently really got into Submarine warfare and thought to myself "What's the closest ship to a submarine in this game?"

I looked it up on the wiki and the B'rel retrofit pretty much fits that description perfectly with the enhanced battle cloak and the focus on torpedoes(how perfect ).

But balance is balance. And I don't want to level a character and spend precious sub time if the it is a piece of TRIBBLE.

So how is it? Is it any good?

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I bought it mostly for the having a b'rel as a T5 ship. The "enhanced" battle cloak isn't very useful. It breaks whenever you do something for a significant period, although it recloaks faster than a cloaking device's cooldown. But while revealed during that time, you are unshielded. This also happens if a teammate happens to heal or buff you whilst you are cloaked, or if you do these things to yourself. Honestly, I'd enjoy the ship more if it had a regular battle cloak. Torpedo-only combat is just not very potent. You need to get the shields down somehow. "Torpedo Bomber" builds use science abilities to accomplish that, everyone else uses energy weapons. Neither of those things can be effectively utilized with the enhanced battle cloak.

But, at least it's got a better turn rate than any of the other T5 ships. That's pretty cool. And it's got the classic bird of prey model. That's really what I bothered with it for.

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StormShade wrote: »

B'rel Retrofit Updates

• Heals and Heal over Time powers will no longer decloak your ship
• Enhanced Battle cloak will only be suppressed for 3 seconds when you activate an attack or heal on another target.

....................

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GorillaGrod wrote:

I bought it mostly for the having a b'rel as a T5 ship. The "enhanced" battle cloak isn't very useful. It breaks whenever you do something for a significant period, although it recloaks faster than a cloaking device's cooldown. But while revealed during that time, you are unshielded. This also happens if a teammate happens to heal or buff you whilst you are cloaked, or if you do these things to yourself. Honestly, I'd enjoy the ship more if it had a regular battle cloak. Torpedo-only combat is just not very potent. You need to get the shields down somehow. "Torpedo Bomber" builds use science abilities to accomplish that, everyone else uses energy weapons. Neither of those things can be effectively utilized with the enhanced battle cloak.

But, at least it's got a better turn rate than any of the other T5 ships. That's pretty cool. And it's got the classic bird of prey model. That's really what I bothered with it for.

Well no duh, I expect my friends to take down shields and then I'll go in for the kill.

Though, I do wonder why the regular battle cloak is "worse." Why is that?

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With the fixes and torpedo changes, if you like birds of prey... there is no doubt to pick up this ship Pretty much this was the only issue about STO I was unsatisfied with which I was more than satisfied with the way it was changed. I am also very pleased that the issue was listened too and that the changes to it was a better solution than I thought of for making it fun to play

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Zeuxidemus wrote:

With the fixes and torpedo changes, if you like birds of prey... there is no doubt to pick up this ship Pretty much this was the only issue about STO I was unsatisfied with which I was more than satisfied with the way it was changed. I am also very pleased that the issue was listened too and that the changes to it was a better solution than I thought of for making it fun to play

I am glad to hear this. Especially since I got into Birds of Prey and I am really digging the playstyle.

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Looks to me that the B'rel refit is yet another Sci vessel. There aren't really any good Lt. Gen ships for a KDF tactical captain. The only one that really looks like it was made for us is the Siege destroyer, which you can't buy with the token and apparently isn't that hot anyway.

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How is it any more a science vessel than an engineering or tactical vessel? The entire line of Raptors is 'made for' tactical, and KDF science captains don't get 'yet another' dedicated Science vessel until they reach BG.

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Munrock wrote:

How is it any more a science vessel than an engineering or tactical vessel? The entire line of Raptors is 'made for' tactical, and KDF science captains don't get 'yet another' dedicated Science vessel until they reach BG.

The B'rel isn't a raptor, it's a BOP. The Qin and Hegh'ta are fine ships for a tactical, but they are BG ships. I said Lt General, which is after BG. Then it is all carriers, cruisers, the Siege Destroyer and the B'rel.

I said the B'rel is a Sci boat because there is no synergy between the Enhanced Battle Cloak and the energy weapons that Tac captain live off of. A Tac captain has no way to lower a targets shields for his torps without using energy weapons.

I did start wondering though, how many Tac Captains in B'rels would it take to one shot an escort with Transphasic torps, TS or HY 3 and all of their CD's (AP:A, Fire at WIll, Go down Fighting,etc)?

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homerdick wrote:

The B'rel isn't a raptor, it's a BOP. The Qin and Hegh'ta are fine ships for a tactical, but they are BG ships. I said Lt General, which is after BG. Then it is all carriers, cruisers, the Siege Destroyer and the B'rel.

I said the B'rel is a Sci boat because there is no synergy between the Enhanced Battle Cloak and the energy weapons that Tac captain live off of. A Tac captain has no way to lower a targets shields for his torps without using energy weapons.

I did start wondering though, how many Tac Captains in B'rels would it take to one shot an escort with Transphasic torps, TS or HY 3 and all of their CD's (AP:A, Fire at WIll, Go down Fighting,etc)?

I never said the B'rel was a raptor. I would be contradicting myself if I meant that at all, by first asking how the B'rel is intended for any kind of captain over another, and then saying that (if it was a raptor) it was 'made for' tacs.

A better choice of ships is being prepared for the Klingons anyway. I get the impression PW are intent on making the F2P Half-measure of KDF on par with Starfleet in terms of quality, so I'd be surprised if there weren't tac ships slotting into upper tiers for Christmas.

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There are pro's and con's still to using it the positive note is the torpedo changes all you to fire more than 1 torpedo from each decloak to recloak period. There are some issues I think Cryptic should look into especially before implementing the new tracking torpedo that I was one of the ones who suggested it but the purpose of the console I believe has been overlooked in what it should be intended for. The big issue is when using the b'rel to deal enough consistent damage it leaves you in a constant state of cloak, decloak, cloak which the portioned of decloaked time is more so than the cloaked part in battle. In which it puts the b'rel at a super disadvantage that the tracking torpedo isn't really needed and would make the b'rel back to useless altogether. Right now all a player has to do when they see the brel player attacking something is love in close to where it can be seen by anyone regardless of sensor power or auxillary power and start unleashing their arsenal so it would be a waste of money to even buy the console since it was suggested on the basis that the b'rel would get some distinct advantages (giving it a few more K hull health won't be a satisfactory advantage either). Although I am seriously hoping that before or when this new console comes out to help decloak us brel users that Cryptic comes up with adequate balance to this issue, in this case I would really really like to be proven wrong LOL. I am sure though that there are those who do not want to fight a balanced brel in pvp so they will troll this thread on this matter, which will get no response from me if that happens... I don't feed the trolls.