Hello Dev's, STO and everyone!
A Dev posted recently that all STF's were made (a bit) 'easier'. I beg to differ that I am not exactly finding that, but the exact opposite. KA Elite ground Borg 'seem-to-be' taking a LOT more shots before they go down now.
Mind you, I am here to enjoy Trek and -figure things out- as THAT is the real fun here, not just being a shooter with everything ready for you to JUST shoot.
However, KA Elite Space's encounter with Donatra's ship I am finding unbelievable?
Before the engagement with Donatra's ship, the mission goes as usual, depending on the luck of the draw' - meaning the people whom you are teamed with. In this particular encounter there were 2 Odyssey class ships and 3 Tacs.
The main thing about Donatra's ship is its ability to 'move' as a Tac ship does! (?) For the mass of ship we see in the Trek Film 'Nemesis' it - seems to be able to move faster and maneuver for its size, except when its command was surprised and could not get out of the way of Picard's ship-to-ship crash. However, Odyssey - a smaller ship should be able to move as well or out maneuver KA's Scimitar logically - correct? Starfleet would certainly have found a way to negate or update their ships as well by now? Or Odyssey is the largest ship Starfleet ever created and not meant for these missions, but just 'story' <ambassdor> type missions.
Evasive maneuvers for 8 seconds on a Starfleet ship, no way? NO WAY! Someone is kidding.. right?
Odyssey and Excelsior ships move like whales despite skill points and evasive. KA's Scimitar of Donatra was not only able to out maneuver us, but cloak so fast as to seem on super subspace anti-matter! During this particular engagement we barely had time to fire before ship cloaks away, then reappears to fire that thalaron multi-beam weapon almost immediately after uncloaking. Scimitar also is tracking the ship with the most power or most devastating weapon so as to take it out upon next appearance. You can 'see' it tracking you as it disappears/re-appears, or during engagement - but its turn ability fast(er) as a Tac?!
Other problem - when Scimitar appears on the respawn location, giving us NO time to get out of range. That was nuts and made some just quit and leave making it harder for the rest of us.
So where is the - ah - NORMAL's are easier.. not Elite. LoL. Elite's are haRRder than usual.
By the way, a side NOTE: I have made mention of this in another forum msg - WE ARE LOSING TEAM CHAT a LOT more often now then before that previous note! We lose team chat when there are terrific explosions when everyone is engaged on the same enemy mostly! A huge flurry of fire and 'blink' no more team chat! We have to reform teams on our own! This comes at times when things are MOST critical:
- During the timed part of KA Ground Elite - taking down the protected poles - alpha and betas. After several (2) transphasic bombs go off - suddenly team chat is gone - no connection with anyone - and we are Unable to call when we are ready - forming team again takes up critical time to get the optional. I no longer much go for the optional without my fleet now.
- During KA Space Elite - during fire shooting at the large gates - we are Unable to call out when to stop shooting at the gate for tactical reasons - some which a few people don't know why or care, but some do.
- Sometimes at the start of a space or ground engagement I type in a msg, but " I " don't see it in MY box and -- unless someone decides to respond, am not sure anyone HAS seen it.
- Engagement with Donatra's ship -- a HUGE flurry of fire on her and 'blink' - team chat is lost! This too is critical when someone asks about strategy and team rewards.
I am not sure where to look to see if anyone in STO has acknowledged this input, can only hope. Thank you all for viewing this.

Sincerely,
@celloman (Bogle, Sybog, Payne FED characters)
Comments
I make sure both my Evasive Maneuvers and Emergency Power to Engines are both ready to go when the ship decloaks. There are other methods to give your ship a boost of speed as well.
Its very easy to get out of the way of the kill weapon although it does take practice to do it in such a way as to leave your ship in a good position to immediately begin firing once your clear. It is important to learn how to to escape the weapon firing arc in such a way as to leave you in position to begin firing as soon as possible to take advantage of every second she is decloaked in order to pour on as much damage as possible during that attack cycle.
The change to make them easier was to merely reduce them down a single level.
Not much of a difference really.
I think what your experiencing is a run of having random teams with lower DPS that seem to be making the mission more difficult.
It happens.
I had a random team with very low DPS recently and we had an insane time taking her down. I think everyone of us died about 20 times and had our ships damaged progressively worse as it was happening making it all the more difficult. I myself had run out of the things you use to fix your ship and by the time it was over I had about 10 different damage conditions on my ship. Others in my group had the same problem.
When it was all said and done though we collectively took a sigh of relief, but the simple truth is that it was one of more fun completions; even if it was frustrating; that I have ever had with that STF.
-Cheers