Before I get to what some people would call a rant, I would like to give some background. I've played a Sci/Sci character for a good part of the 2 year run STO has had. My play style has been that of a shield tank/ECM warfare specialist. I enjoy playing matador. I don't PVP much, but I have PVP enough to know how hard it is to balance Sci skills for PVP and PVE. Most of the changes to Sci have been driven by PVP players, right or wrong. With that in mind the rant starts below.
I've suffered through the major nerfs to viral matrix, scramble sensors, tykens rift, 2 major revamps to Sci consoles and now I have to devote slots away from what is left of my Sci abilities to retain my ships stats. I understand the impulse to try and appease the Tac and Eng, but why nerf Sci again. Make those consoles Universal and maybe Unique. This would allow Tac and Eng to use their Sci slots and not nerf Sci, yet again.
I would like to also point out having 1 day to test this out on Tribble before it went live and be able to give feedback was a major SNAFU. Dare I ask if this was even tested internally or was this in a knee jerk reaction to the complaints about the Odyssey?
I play Sci too (I have a Sci/ Sci and a Tac/ Sci) and TBH I'm finding I'm better off. The buff to the consoles negated the lost console slot and freed up an Eng slot for me to use another console (not sure which yet, thinking Neutronium though). I think I actually gained a little on my Tyken's (it was at -9.8 with 3 Mk X very rare consoles yesterday, now it's -10 with 2). The broken shield console isn't helping much but but when it's fixed I'll have gained an extra Eng console at no real cost.
My Tac/ RSV is really going to benefit here, at least more than the Sci/ Nebula as I've been dying to get some armour on that thing but didn't want to lose either the EPS or Field Generator I had slotted previously.
I haven't run the math yet but I'm thinking that freeing up 1 eng console and using 1 sci console for my shield regen now gives me the option to use a power boost console and increase my base aux, shields, engines, or weapons. A 7 point aux boost would seem to be more beneficial to a sci ship across the board then a single sci console which has limited boosting potential.
You people (yes I said that, you people, the sci ships) kept complaining about HE consoles getting moved to Engineering. So we threw you a bone and gave you 2 shield consoles in return. And you're still complaining? Give me a break.
Not to mention that a sci captain regardless of ship can still break any other ship in PVP just through the use of SNB. If that's not an "I Win" button, I don't know what is.
I had to go back and read that twice. Viral Matrix was uber overpowered.
No, it actually did the same thing that boarding party did but a wee bit better since it could not be intercepted and it knocked out an extra system. Still, the disable time was barely 3 seconds per system.
The reason it was nerfed was because too many escort dps+zippyspeed kiddies *****ed too much about their engines getting disabled and then getting killed.
...its the same reason why subsystem attk has been slowly ninja nerfed into uselessness.
Overall, anything that does not involve dealing brute damage is being removed from the game.
I have toons for all careers but these chances to the shield consoles has hurt my Sci in her Luna. It's bad enough that the Luna is a difficult ship to keep alive to begin with but having to sacrifice the consoles that help keep my Sci doing some damage to have shields that last more than a few seconds againt elite level enemies. Yet again, another build ruined. It was bad enough when Cryptic played musical abilities with the Sci consoles a couple of months ago, shalfting all of us to spend a ton more on replacing consoles that were turned into worthless TRIBBLE! Now they're doing it again by taking the 2 Engineering consoles we need and taking away our ability to actually do more than heal.
Actually i don't find it very dramatic. My sci ships now have more space for Armor Consoles and btw. the "new" sci consoles (the ones we got after the skilltree revamp) aren't that useful at all IMHO.
Yeah, that 50% increase in effectivenss is cramping my style, not to mention the increased tankiness.
The fault lies in that the Devs have not found a way to make Science effective in the PvE enviroment. Its works very very well in PvP, where science is often the king of teh mosh pit.
I haven't run the math yet but I'm thinking that freeing up 1 eng console and using 1 sci console for my shield regen now gives me the option to use a power boost console and increase my base aux, shields, engines, or weapons. A 7 point aux boost would seem to be more beneficial to a sci ship across the board then a single sci console which has limited boosting potential.
Aye just to note 7 points to shield = extra 28% regen...
Comments
My Tac/ RSV is really going to benefit here, at least more than the Sci/ Nebula as I've been dying to get some armour on that thing but didn't want to lose either the EPS or Field Generator I had slotted previously.
I had to go back and read that twice. Viral Matrix was uber overpowered.
Not to mention that a sci captain regardless of ship can still break any other ship in PVP just through the use of SNB. If that's not an "I Win" button, I don't know what is.
True. But the response was to make it virtually useless.
Which is pretty much how things go with science powers tweaks throughout this game's 2 years.
No, it actually did the same thing that boarding party did but a wee bit better since it could not be intercepted and it knocked out an extra system. Still, the disable time was barely 3 seconds per system.
The reason it was nerfed was because too many escort dps+zippyspeed kiddies *****ed too much about their engines getting disabled and then getting killed.
...its the same reason why subsystem attk has been slowly ninja nerfed into uselessness.
Overall, anything that does not involve dealing brute damage is being removed from the game.
Well, that's always been Cryptic's flaw. Balance with a sledgehammer.
Live long and prosper.
Remember the Escort/BoP nerfs early in the game's life? That should've been our first clue..
The fault lies in that the Devs have not found a way to make Science effective in the PvE enviroment. Its works very very well in PvP, where science is often the king of teh mosh pit.
Aye just to note 7 points to shield = extra 28% regen...
All that regen adds up fast in a science ship.