Possibly just had my worst STF - certainly most frustrating.
Played CSE, and it started well - the spawned ships went down quickly and the generators followed suite. But then no-one bothered taking out the Borg cubes! I tried but frankly my Intrepid retro is not really a match for a Borg cube one-on-one (not to mention the invisible insta-death torpdeo), and the respawn timer discouraged me from too many attempts.
We therefore failed the optional, as the time limit expired, and failed the mission in it's entirety as the cubes kept spawning BOP's and Raptors which overwhelmed the Kang. All cubes remained until the end. Bye-bye mission.
:mad:
I will tell you of an experiment I did: I took my Qin Raptor, which is a wrecking ball in Dual Heavy Cannon madness and decided to change things a little. I took oner of my Disruptor turret off the back and plugged in a Beam Array, then went to Qo'nos and trained my Ensign Tac Officer in Beam Overload 1. Then I took it into a normal STF, that way if my idea fails, it wasn't going to be a disaster.
Turns out it is extremely fun to fire at an enemy with Dual Heavy Cannons and Turrets, then quickly make a u-turn and pop an overloaded Beam for an extra 10k damage
i found it strange that when i completed my space maco xii and omega xii sets, instead of get the feeling of sucess and acomplishment that i thought i'd get, i got an overwhelming feeling of relief that i didnt have to do stf space anymore. it turns out (to me), stfs felt like a chore. like somthing unpleasent i had to endure.........
am i the only one to have this feeling? (i must say that dealing with un-informed and rude ppl are most likley the cause of this feeling)
i found it strange that when i completed my space maco xii and omega xii sets, instead of get the feeling of sucess and acomplishment that i thought i'd get, i got an overwhelming feeling of relief that i didnt have to do stf space anymore. it turns out (to me), stfs felt like a chore. like somthing unpleasent i had to endure.........
am i the only one to have this feeling? (i must say that dealing with un-informed and rude ppl are most likley the cause of this feeling)
i found it strange that when i completed my space maco xii and omega xii sets, instead of get the feeling of sucess and acomplishment that i thought i'd get, i got an overwhelming feeling of relief that i didnt have to do stf space anymore. it turns out (to me), stfs felt like a chore. like somthing unpleasent i had to endure.........
am i the only one to have this feeling? (i must say that dealing with un-informed and rude ppl are most likley the cause of this feeling)
I know what you mean. I used to run 10+ a day and now probably around 10 or less a week and I am a much happier player. Unfortunately you look around and realize there's not allot else to do in end game that rewards you besides STF's. The only thing keeping me busy is lvling up multiple characters.
I know what you mean. I used to run 10+ a day and now probably around 10 or less a week and I am a much happier player. Unfortunately you look around and realize there's not allot else to do in end game that rewards you besides STF's. The only thing keeping me busy is lvling up multiple characters.
yea i find myself pvping only now days, wish the new content wasnt only availabe when im working or sleeping
i found it strange that when i completed my space maco xii and omega xii sets, instead of get the feeling of sucess and acomplishment that i thought i'd get, i got an overwhelming feeling of relief that i didnt have to do stf space anymore. it turns out (to me), stfs felt like a chore. like somthing unpleasent i had to endure.........
am i the only one to have this feeling? (i must say that dealing with un-informed and rude ppl are most likley the cause of this feeling)
it seems many feel this way , i wish cryptic took it seriously.
there has to be some balance between fun and making a profit somewhere, they keep coming out with lock box gimmicks(wich i understand why there doing it) and gated content. but it seems to me that they could come out with content i could actually do(without taking a day off of work or waking up early or staying up late) to do.
dnt get me wrong once a week or so it manages to fall into a good time slot for me, but that seems a lil to few and far between for my tastes
I will tell you of an experiment I did: I took my Qin Raptor, which is a wrecking ball in Dual Heavy Cannon madness and decided to change things a little. I took oner of my Disruptor turret off the back and plugged in a Beam Array, then went to Qo'nos and trained my Ensign Tac Officer in Beam Overload 1. Then I took it into a normal STF, that way if my idea fails, it wasn't going to be a disaster.
Turns out it is extremely fun to fire at an enemy with Dual Heavy Cannons and Turrets, then quickly make a u-turn and pop an overloaded Beam for an extra 10k damage
If you're doing that, had you thought of using a Tric instead? I use one aft for breaking tractors when everything's on CD or for hitting things stuck in Grav Wells and it works a treat. CD's a bit long but it can be made very nasty with HY or Spread and it doesn't drain weapons power either.
If you're doing that, had you thought of using a Tric instead? I use one aft for breaking tractors when everything's on CD or for hitting things stuck in Grav Wells and it works a treat. CD's a bit long but it can be made very nasty with HY or Spread and it doesn't drain weapons power either.
No i really haven't. Mostly because I've seen Tricobalts at work with my brother in law's ship and he keeps blowin himself up with them.
Then again, if you are retreating, there is less of a chance to get smacked by them.
Ok quick story, I am sure many have had this experience.
ISE
4 engineering officers all in cruisers and myself playing my tactical Klingon in a Qin Raptor. On both sets of transformers they blow the gens early, but I am able to save the option while they blast away at spheres. This really didn't bother me. What did was the fact that whenever a wave of spheres or a cube came at us they would focus fire on me and the 4 engineering cruisers never sent any kind of heals my way. It's PUG, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised.
We get the option, game ends. I swallow my pride and give out the usual "gg". Of course, no response. Everyone just grabs their prize and leaves.
I wish more people understood you should play your role and help others. I have 2 engineering characters and I actually like playing support, tanking and handing out heals, it makes people happy! Heck, even when I am playing my tactical characters in an escort I am looking for people who need help when I have heal abilities to spare.
No i really haven't. Mostly because I've seen Tricobalts at work with my brother in law's ship and he keeps blowin himself up with them.
Then again, if you are retreating, there is less of a chance to get smacked by them.
Tricobalt warheads aren't a lot of use breaking tractor locks or doing anything useful at all unless you know how to coordinate with a team in them.
Basically how they can be effective is if an entire team uses HY3 TCD torpedoes and fire them simultaneously at something in the hope of getting a very lucky 1.6 million critical hit. I don't believe TCD torpedoes are capable of using spreads either. They're about as useful and effective as world war two torpedoes (which means a lot need to be fired at once to get that magic critical.)
Individually their reload rate is too low and the damage too small to make any difference. It's not that hard to get 9K damage off a normal torpedo spread and normal torpedoes go out the launchers much, much faster than TCDs.
What I do find worthwhile on a 'fast battlecruiser' type build is a TCD mine. Those mean little buggers can do 26-52k damage if you remember to hit the buffs before dropping them say, as you veer away from the attack run like a Nuck Chorris roundhouse kick to finish the job with.
As for breaking tractor lock, the new patch makes it possible to evade tractor beams using Inertial Dampers, or otherwise it's compulsory for all serious ESTF builds to bring PH1 or Attack Pattern Omega, anyway.
Tricobalt warheads aren't a lot of use breaking tractor locks or doing anything useful at all unless you know how to coordinate with a team in them.
Basically how they can be effective is if an entire team uses HY3 TCD torpedoes and fire them simultaneously at something in the hope of getting a very lucky 1.6 million critical hit. I don't believe TCD torpedoes are capable of using spreads either. They're about as useful and effective as world war two torpedoes (which means a lot need to be fired at once to get that magic critical.)
Individually their reload rate is too low and the damage too small to make any difference. It's not that hard to get 9K damage off a normal torpedo spread and normal torpedoes go out the launchers much, much faster than TCDs.
What I do find worthwhile on a 'fast battlecruiser' type build is a TCD mine. Those mean little buggers can do 26-52k damage if you remember to hit the buffs before dropping them say, as you veer away from the attack run like a Nuck Chorris roundhouse kick to finish the job with.
As for breaking tractor lock, the new patch makes it possible to evade tractor beams using Inertial Dampers, or otherwise it's compulsory for all serious ESTF builds to bring PH1 or Attack Pattern Omega, anyway.
They can use spreads...the spread however is more like fire two, three, or four torpedoes (depending on what version of the skill you are using) at four targets instead of the 16+ torpedo vomit you usually see.
They can use spreads...the spread however is more like fire two, three, or four torpedoes (depending on what version of the skill you are using) at four targets instead of the 16+ torpedo vomit you usually see.
Ahh I see. I just didn't bother to try as the only use for the TCDs were fireworks. If I wanted a proper 'strategic bombardment warhead' I'll use that photon console that creates a photonic shockwave on impact. It's quite pathetic that the normal photon torpedo or quantum launcher does far more damage than a TCD which was supposed to be so powerful it was illegal or something.
Ahh I see. I just didn't bother to try as the only use for the TCDs were fireworks. If I wanted a proper 'strategic bombardment warhead' I'll use that photon console that creates a photonic shockwave on impact. It's quite pathetic that the normal photon torpedo or quantum launcher does far more damage than a TCD which was supposed to be so powerful it was illegal or something.
I just hate the slow recharge time. Besides I like beams and cannons way too much.
I just hate the slow recharge time. Besides I like beams and cannons way too much.
I tried full beam and full cannon loadouts before. I then tried hybrid beam and cannon loadouts. I now have 3 weapon types at once for maximum Texas Chainsaw Massacre effect, and the boff powers and buffs to support them all at once!
The amount of fireworks that comes out is spectacular and so is the sight of their shields and hull totally getting ravished by so many hi damage things at once.
Not like a beam boat which sits there peee peeeeeing away at things taking its time to demolish them. And I swear I do not use DHCs well because the sound makes me sleepy.
Unless said beam boat is a Bortas. One of the cruisers and science vessels problems is the lack of Tactical consoles. Your Star Cruiser only had 2 consoles if I'm correct, and my Recon vessel is limited to 3 tac consoles.
Meanwhile my Bortas is blessed with 4 Tactical consoles which boosted the damage of my Disruptor beams and my Beam Overload. I remember timing a BO just right until a cubes shield dropped (In Infected Space Elite) uncloaking the behemoth of a ship and shooting my sole Dual Beam Bank and pulling off a 25k Critical hit.
As for my Raptor, I took off a turret and put on an aft beam array and replaced HY1 with BO1 on my Ensign tac. It was a good move on my part due to the extra damage while I am turning to set up attack runs and due to a parting BO1 shot as I turn away.
Yep, BO3s are awesome alright. As you recall I was quite surprised when my wee lil destroyer managed to pop a tactical cube surprisingly quick using the "Parthian shot" technique. (in plain language, BO3 the rear phaser as you turn away)
I happen to like using a single DBB as a 'sniper cannon' for long range work or to slice open shields like the belly of a roasted targ. On escorts and raiders there are plenty of tac boff slots to play with anyway.
I have a new trick up my sleeve, it's called using Technician doffs and Aux Power to Batt to cycle the cooldown on a cruiser's limited tac skills in such a way it just spams everything it has JJverse style. Precision fire skills like BO are also more desirable than BFaW because in actual combat precision high damage fire is more desirable than things that go everywhere except the thing you hit.
So thanks for the discussion, I will go update my favourite high speed raiding cruiser build (hint - not star cruiser) now
On a Bortas, you could do the same, but it would be clumsily executed and you would lose valuable engineering abilities that makes them monsters in the game. Best my Bortas has is BO2 (I also heard BO3 tends to miss a lot)
My Raptor also only has BO1 in that one slot. Her best slots are taken up by cannon abilities.
No i really haven't. Mostly because I've seen Tricobalts at work with my brother in law's ship and he keeps blowin himself up with them.
Then again, if you are retreating, there is less of a chance to get smacked by them.
It's not really an issue if you fire from 3km or so. Any closer than that and you'll be hit by the AoE but even down to 1km you'll only receive a (very short with points in the resistance skill) stun. The problems only really start if you have no shields.
Tricobalt warheads aren't a lot of use breaking tractor locks or doing anything useful at all unless you know how to coordinate with a team in them.
Tric's stun the target and break the Sphere's tractor lock every time, the only time they don't is if they're under the temporary immunity from a previous stun but due to the state of Science at the moment that isn't a problem usually. Although the Spheres are less common in elite STFs than in normals they're still annoying with the spammed tractors which can be a death sentence for an Escort. AP:Omega can get at best 50% up time and taking PH on most escorts will be losing either a TSS or HE, both of which are important for clearing DoTs and regenerating shields after a drain.
Personally I'll take AP:Omega in a PuG but prefer AP:Beta for the resistance debuff as it helps everyone to kill (usually big) things faster. That relies on some kind of outside support though which is usually not forthcoming.
Cube's and Tac Cubes are effectively immune to stuns, at least I've never seen one interrupted by a Tric or PSW stun.
Most people struggle with Trics because they just blind fire them into full shields and wonder why they aren't doing anything but they really shine when fired into bare hull.
Individually their reload rate is too low and the damage too small to make any difference. It's not that hard to get 9K damage off a normal torpedo spread and normal torpedoes go out the launchers much, much faster than TCDs.
A blind fired Tric is uesless, time them to bare hull and with plenty of buffs and debuffs active and they're easily capable of over 45k, up to 90k with a crit. They aren't like normal torpedoes and shouldn't be considered as such; the knockback and stun is just as important a part of their function as the damage they deal. For the record I never get below 20k from a basic Tric to bare hull and fully buffed to bare hull I've seen over 100k. I do make sure that I always have my buffs up though.
It should also be remembered they deal heavy AoE damage so firing a HY Tric into a group of Borg that are trapped in a Grav Well will deal heavy AoE damage to all of them as well as the damage to the primary target.
As for breaking tractor lock, the new patch makes it possible to evade tractor beams using Inertial Dampers, or otherwise it's compulsory for all serious ESTF builds to bring PH1 or Attack Pattern Omega, anyway.
Borg tractors are still very powerful and besides which as an Escort I can't afford to be stationary or slowed as it impacts my defence rating.
I did also mention the Tric was for when everything else is on CD.
So, today I start up an IGE private queue, get two friends and two others from elite-STF in there.
At the start I know the one is going to be some form of trouble due to her going "Oh look, an idiot with a low dps whip!" to the two others (one friend, one random) having the energy whips equipped at first but then swapping those out.
Later on, my one friend accidently nudges to forward in the hallway to first room, and knowing her mistake could fail optional, charged to try to save it. Me, my other friend, and the other random guy adapt to the situation and charge in to help. The girl who said the earlier line sits in hallway still sniping, otherwise not helping at all. She then starts ranting at us for being idiotic noobs for rushing first room. She then ragequits and starts bashing us in the channel, where me and one of my friend point out how she was an idiot herself for quitting at the first sign of trouble.
We then proceeded to, without much trouble, clear the entire mission, kill Manus, and get our loot. All a man down. never had to redo either boss.
She then ragequits and starts bashing us in the channel, where me and one of my friend point out how she was an idiot herself for quitting at the first sign of trouble.
We then proceeded to, without much trouble, clear the entire mission, kill Manus, and get our loot. All a man down. never had to redo either boss.
Sounds about right. She was probably also one of the DS9 "I H8 NOOBS" brigade too, and spent the next 20 minutes moaning about the leaver penalty she picked up because "THAY WER TO STUPID TO NO WAT TO DO".
There's nothing dumber than someone rage quitting a successful group like that.
Not pointing out anyone in particular but -
Some people are so used to failure that they cannot appreciate success.
You notice they don't make any attempt to collaborate with the group. They don't make a point to use their superior experience and gaming skill to help the team gain success. They expect the team to do everything perfectly like machines.
Put 5 of these persons together in the same map and you have a recipe for inevitable failure.
The thing is you can't blame them because they're played zillions of STFs and have a low tolerance level for what they deem "sub standard" performance. Problem is due to the changes to STFs tactics and strategy do actually evolve and there are several ways to succeed in an ESTF.
The sensitive ones should just stick to a certain (semi) private channel if they enjoy their textbook-strategy runs that much.
PUGs admittedly sometimes don't coordinate precise, time sensitive plans well. But of course! No one knows each other and hardware limitations can affect situational awareness (familiarity with interface, framerate, combat stress, etc), but there is something called looking out for one's teammates in order to make sure everyone's goals for the map are achieved.
What are everyone's objectives in a PUG? Winning, that's what. Everyone plays to win, no matter how ill informed or non optimally equipped.
I find there's no harm speccing a ship to have the ability to help out a team member in need, no harm to post tactical updates so people know if they need to adapt tactics to save the optional or even the mission itself.
In CSE it's possible to do very well for the first half of the map but lose the battle instantly if say, the team starts demolishing cubes happily but doesn't notice the next 3 Raptors closing in on the Kang. It's possible to lose situational awareness for a minute and see some threatening red text in the mission log the next moment.
So prevention is better than reaction - either break the ice with teammates (no excuse on people not having chat open there - it never happens on my runs), or be prepared to move into position to cover weak points. Sometimes chatting does not work but a extend shields or hazard emitter in the right place can get people chatty and that's where friendships are formed in battle.
And if the map fails, so what? Failure is what separates the keyboard warriors from the true gentlemen and leaders out there.
Keyboard warriors flame away to boost their own 'elite' ego contributing little to anything really.
Leaders acknowledge the weaknesses in the current team and offer advice and collaboration on future runs with the same team in order to secure victory. A friend's list exists for a reason.
It's not hard at all to make people listen. Sometimes it just takes a bit of leadership by example. And of course, a bit of reverse psychology helps. You don't give orders and expect people to follow a stranger's instructions, not in today's society.
My absolut nightmare was an attempt of "Infected Space" on elite. Nothing special, but my team got a player who was a "sunday driver". He did not interact with the team. Instead he stayed aside for most of the time. The problem: He was the only science healer. So I used most of my repair items in a very short time. The other three guys were fantastic. We fought a sa team and tried to solve the mission even without the special reward. It took us 2 hours!!! Because ther eis no "kick your ***" function in the game, the useless player stayed all the time in the game and got his reward for doing nothing.
:mad:
Right!
Engineer can heal but most of time they don't. I'm engineer in federation side. I heal often but I don't get any "thx" from fed player. Only klingon players, in exchange, they help me or they save me from spheres.
ngineering cruisers never sent any kind of heals my way. It's PUG, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised.
We get the option, game ends. I swallow my pride and give out the usual "gg". Of course, no response. Everyone just grabs their prize and leaves.
I wish more people understood you should play your role and help others. I have 2 engineering characters and I actually like playing support, tanking and handing out heals, it makes people happy! Heck, even when I am playing my tactical characters in an escort I am looking for people who need help when I have heal abilities to spare.
What you experienced with engineer. I experienced it with tactical fed. Most of time Tactical fed areThe Weakest Link of the pug. Because they have much dps they ignore window chat, they don't know what does mean teamwork and unfortunately they push the pug in the hell and wasted time.
Today I played KASE. We killed the cube. I went on the left to take the probe. I finished to kill 2. I look on the right. Nobody is taking probe on the right. What happened? We failed optionnals. whil I was going on the right. I said. Nobody's taking probes on the right? No answer. I said. I can't believe it. Suddenly I saw 8 probes passed throught the gate. Nobody took probes on the left. We failed total.
Cure Space Elite, me and one other person agreed that we would handle the kang while the 3 others knocked out the cubes.....
So, after everyone boosts over to the kang im the only one sitting there with 2 bops incoming from each side, so i pop my rapid fire 3, torp spread 3, emergency to weapons, blah blah blah blah basically every single buff i have and i open up on the first two, the first one melts away, and as i circle around to engage the second one, it fires a heavy plasma while im not looking. boom goes me.... so i respawn, pop every buff thats up, (at this time theres 5 birds on the kang, hull down to 90, shields at almost nothing. move in from the side, and open up, and after the first couple blow up near the kang, optional is gone. Now the second ship realizes that it should be helping me and rushs back to kang...
I try not to bail, 90% of runs can be salvaged, during a private fleet run of the same stf, my fleets leader accidently blew the cube(didnt stop firing in time) so the right hand side cube went, so we all rush back to kang, defend it, although optional is gone, and then we left one ship at the kang to guard and all four of them went to the center cube and blew it up, and then the same to the left...i got a XI engine off that run.... and im currently obsessed with getting the XII engine, which is all i need to finish that set.
Not pointing out anyone in particular but - ...
....
So you use the power of suggestion :P
Well said. CSE is one of those maps that has, at its heart, the most diverse amount of employable strategy, yet quite a few elites believe that RMMRL is the only one that guarantees success. Yesterday, I played three very different rounds of CSE that resulted in success with plenty of optional time to spare: One that I hosted employing the MRML strategy, which is my personal favorite. The second was the CSN strategy, which made life a bit tough for the Kanger, but we had lots of high-DPS guys who knew how to handle the situation. The third used the guide strategy, where you kill alll probes then kill the cubes simultaneously.
The first one was notable in that everyone made a bee-line toward the right cube instead of the middle one. I called an audible and switched back to the RMMRL, though not before the Kang took a little bit of shield damage from the left BoPs. The last two were memorable in that there were one or two people who questioned the strategies and tried to persuade the host to switch to their methods, but they were good sports, performed their duties precisely, and came away knowing that there are many ways to skin a cat.
Comments
Played CSE, and it started well - the spawned ships went down quickly and the generators followed suite. But then no-one bothered taking out the Borg cubes! I tried but frankly my Intrepid retro is not really a match for a Borg cube one-on-one (not to mention the invisible insta-death torpdeo), and the respawn timer discouraged me from too many attempts.
We therefore failed the optional, as the time limit expired, and failed the mission in it's entirety as the cubes kept spawning BOP's and Raptors which overwhelmed the Kang. All cubes remained until the end. Bye-bye mission.
:mad:
Turns out it is extremely fun to fire at an enemy with Dual Heavy Cannons and Turrets, then quickly make a u-turn and pop an overloaded Beam for an extra 10k damage
am i the only one to have this feeling? (i must say that dealing with un-informed and rude ppl are most likley the cause of this feeling)
I know what you mean. I used to run 10+ a day and now probably around 10 or less a week and I am a much happier player. Unfortunately you look around and realize there's not allot else to do in end game that rewards you besides STF's. The only thing keeping me busy is lvling up multiple characters.
yea i find myself pvping only now days, wish the new content wasnt only availabe when im working or sleeping
Yes, you hit the nail on the head.
there has to be some balance between fun and making a profit somewhere, they keep coming out with lock box gimmicks(wich i understand why there doing it) and gated content. but it seems to me that they could come out with content i could actually do(without taking a day off of work or waking up early or staying up late) to do.
dnt get me wrong once a week or so it manages to fall into a good time slot for me, but that seems a lil to few and far between for my tastes
If you're doing that, had you thought of using a Tric instead? I use one aft for breaking tractors when everything's on CD or for hitting things stuck in Grav Wells and it works a treat. CD's a bit long but it can be made very nasty with HY or Spread and it doesn't drain weapons power either.
No i really haven't. Mostly because I've seen Tricobalts at work with my brother in law's ship and he keeps blowin himself up with them.
Then again, if you are retreating, there is less of a chance to get smacked by them.
ISE
4 engineering officers all in cruisers and myself playing my tactical Klingon in a Qin Raptor. On both sets of transformers they blow the gens early, but I am able to save the option while they blast away at spheres. This really didn't bother me. What did was the fact that whenever a wave of spheres or a cube came at us they would focus fire on me and the 4 engineering cruisers never sent any kind of heals my way. It's PUG, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised.
We get the option, game ends. I swallow my pride and give out the usual "gg". Of course, no response. Everyone just grabs their prize and leaves.
I wish more people understood you should play your role and help others. I have 2 engineering characters and I actually like playing support, tanking and handing out heals, it makes people happy! Heck, even when I am playing my tactical characters in an escort I am looking for people who need help when I have heal abilities to spare.
Tricobalt warheads aren't a lot of use breaking tractor locks or doing anything useful at all unless you know how to coordinate with a team in them.
Basically how they can be effective is if an entire team uses HY3 TCD torpedoes and fire them simultaneously at something in the hope of getting a very lucky 1.6 million critical hit. I don't believe TCD torpedoes are capable of using spreads either. They're about as useful and effective as world war two torpedoes (which means a lot need to be fired at once to get that magic critical.)
Individually their reload rate is too low and the damage too small to make any difference. It's not that hard to get 9K damage off a normal torpedo spread and normal torpedoes go out the launchers much, much faster than TCDs.
What I do find worthwhile on a 'fast battlecruiser' type build is a TCD mine. Those mean little buggers can do 26-52k damage if you remember to hit the buffs before dropping them say, as you veer away from the attack run like a Nuck Chorris roundhouse kick to finish the job with.
As for breaking tractor lock, the new patch makes it possible to evade tractor beams using Inertial Dampers, or otherwise it's compulsory for all serious ESTF builds to bring PH1 or Attack Pattern Omega, anyway.
Ahh I see. I just didn't bother to try as the only use for the TCDs were fireworks. If I wanted a proper 'strategic bombardment warhead' I'll use that photon console that creates a photonic shockwave on impact. It's quite pathetic that the normal photon torpedo or quantum launcher does far more damage than a TCD which was supposed to be so powerful it was illegal or something.
I just hate the slow recharge time. Besides I like beams and cannons way too much.
I tried full beam and full cannon loadouts before. I then tried hybrid beam and cannon loadouts. I now have 3 weapon types at once for maximum Texas Chainsaw Massacre effect, and the boff powers and buffs to support them all at once!
The amount of fireworks that comes out is spectacular and so is the sight of their shields and hull totally getting ravished by so many hi damage things at once.
Not like a beam boat which sits there peee peeeeeing away at things taking its time to demolish them. And I swear I do not use DHCs well because the sound makes me sleepy.
Meanwhile my Bortas is blessed with 4 Tactical consoles which boosted the damage of my Disruptor beams and my Beam Overload. I remember timing a BO just right until a cubes shield dropped (In Infected Space Elite) uncloaking the behemoth of a ship and shooting my sole Dual Beam Bank and pulling off a 25k Critical hit.
As for my Raptor, I took off a turret and put on an aft beam array and replaced HY1 with BO1 on my Ensign tac. It was a good move on my part due to the extra damage while I am turning to set up attack runs and due to a parting BO1 shot as I turn away.
I happen to like using a single DBB as a 'sniper cannon' for long range work or to slice open shields like the belly of a roasted targ. On escorts and raiders there are plenty of tac boff slots to play with anyway.
I have a new trick up my sleeve, it's called using Technician doffs and Aux Power to Batt to cycle the cooldown on a cruiser's limited tac skills in such a way it just spams everything it has JJverse style. Precision fire skills like BO are also more desirable than BFaW because in actual combat precision high damage fire is more desirable than things that go everywhere except the thing you hit.
So thanks for the discussion, I will go update my favourite high speed raiding cruiser build (hint - not star cruiser) now
My Raptor also only has BO1 in that one slot. Her best slots are taken up by cannon abilities.
It's not really an issue if you fire from 3km or so. Any closer than that and you'll be hit by the AoE but even down to 1km you'll only receive a (very short with points in the resistance skill) stun. The problems only really start if you have no shields.
Tric's stun the target and break the Sphere's tractor lock every time, the only time they don't is if they're under the temporary immunity from a previous stun but due to the state of Science at the moment that isn't a problem usually. Although the Spheres are less common in elite STFs than in normals they're still annoying with the spammed tractors which can be a death sentence for an Escort. AP:Omega can get at best 50% up time and taking PH on most escorts will be losing either a TSS or HE, both of which are important for clearing DoTs and regenerating shields after a drain.
Personally I'll take AP:Omega in a PuG but prefer AP:Beta for the resistance debuff as it helps everyone to kill (usually big) things faster. That relies on some kind of outside support though which is usually not forthcoming.
Cube's and Tac Cubes are effectively immune to stuns, at least I've never seen one interrupted by a Tric or PSW stun.
Most people struggle with Trics because they just blind fire them into full shields and wonder why they aren't doing anything but they really shine when fired into bare hull.
A blind fired Tric is uesless, time them to bare hull and with plenty of buffs and debuffs active and they're easily capable of over 45k, up to 90k with a crit. They aren't like normal torpedoes and shouldn't be considered as such; the knockback and stun is just as important a part of their function as the damage they deal. For the record I never get below 20k from a basic Tric to bare hull and fully buffed to bare hull I've seen over 100k. I do make sure that I always have my buffs up though.
It should also be remembered they deal heavy AoE damage so firing a HY Tric into a group of Borg that are trapped in a Grav Well will deal heavy AoE damage to all of them as well as the damage to the primary target.
Borg tractors are still very powerful and besides which as an Escort I can't afford to be stationary or slowed as it impacts my defence rating.
I did also mention the Tric was for when everything else is on CD.
At the start I know the one is going to be some form of trouble due to her going "Oh look, an idiot with a low dps whip!" to the two others (one friend, one random) having the energy whips equipped at first but then swapping those out.
Later on, my one friend accidently nudges to forward in the hallway to first room, and knowing her mistake could fail optional, charged to try to save it. Me, my other friend, and the other random guy adapt to the situation and charge in to help. The girl who said the earlier line sits in hallway still sniping, otherwise not helping at all. She then starts ranting at us for being idiotic noobs for rushing first room. She then ragequits and starts bashing us in the channel, where me and one of my friend point out how she was an idiot herself for quitting at the first sign of trouble.
We then proceeded to, without much trouble, clear the entire mission, kill Manus, and get our loot. All a man down. never had to redo either boss.
Sounds about right. She was probably also one of the DS9 "I H8 NOOBS" brigade too, and spent the next 20 minutes moaning about the leaver penalty she picked up because "THAY WER TO STUPID TO NO WAT TO DO".
Not pointing out anyone in particular but -
Some people are so used to failure that they cannot appreciate success.
You notice they don't make any attempt to collaborate with the group. They don't make a point to use their superior experience and gaming skill to help the team gain success. They expect the team to do everything perfectly like machines.
Put 5 of these persons together in the same map and you have a recipe for inevitable failure.
The thing is you can't blame them because they're played zillions of STFs and have a low tolerance level for what they deem "sub standard" performance. Problem is due to the changes to STFs tactics and strategy do actually evolve and there are several ways to succeed in an ESTF.
The sensitive ones should just stick to a certain (semi) private channel if they enjoy their textbook-strategy runs that much.
PUGs admittedly sometimes don't coordinate precise, time sensitive plans well. But of course! No one knows each other and hardware limitations can affect situational awareness (familiarity with interface, framerate, combat stress, etc), but there is something called looking out for one's teammates in order to make sure everyone's goals for the map are achieved.
What are everyone's objectives in a PUG? Winning, that's what. Everyone plays to win, no matter how ill informed or non optimally equipped.
I find there's no harm speccing a ship to have the ability to help out a team member in need, no harm to post tactical updates so people know if they need to adapt tactics to save the optional or even the mission itself.
In CSE it's possible to do very well for the first half of the map but lose the battle instantly if say, the team starts demolishing cubes happily but doesn't notice the next 3 Raptors closing in on the Kang. It's possible to lose situational awareness for a minute and see some threatening red text in the mission log the next moment.
So prevention is better than reaction - either break the ice with teammates (no excuse on people not having chat open there - it never happens on my runs), or be prepared to move into position to cover weak points. Sometimes chatting does not work but a extend shields or hazard emitter in the right place can get people chatty and that's where friendships are formed in battle.
And if the map fails, so what? Failure is what separates the keyboard warriors from the true gentlemen and leaders out there.
Keyboard warriors flame away to boost their own 'elite' ego contributing little to anything really.
Leaders acknowledge the weaknesses in the current team and offer advice and collaboration on future runs with the same team in order to secure victory. A friend's list exists for a reason.
It's not hard at all to make people listen. Sometimes it just takes a bit of leadership by example. And of course, a bit of reverse psychology helps. You don't give orders and expect people to follow a stranger's instructions, not in today's society.
So you use the power of suggestion :P
First day off of my 4 day weekend....
First and maybe the last STF for this week...
I pugged into a CSN and said 'Hi' like I always do.
No responce.
The dog was bugging me so I petted him real quick which made me a few seconds late to get started.
Four ship head to the right cube.
I think 'OK, I'll watch the Kang.'
I type,' I'll get the Kang.'
No responce.
I buzz over about 6K out from the Kang and kill a couple Borg real quick.
A need/greed pops up and I hit pass.
Another one pops up, I hit pass.
I buzz over to the other side of the Kang and kill a couple Borg.
Another need/greed and I hit pass.
There's nothing in these need/greeds I want other than to sell anyhow so I usually hit pass.
Someone types 'Looks like Jake's farming'
I type 'I don't think Pass has much to do with Farming.'
They say 'Then get in here and help'
I say 'And who will protect the Kang?'
He says 'The Kang doesn't need you to protect it. If it's in trouble we can all get it.'
I say 'Yea right, technicolor beams and all'
I stay where I'm at.
No cubes had gone down yet and Borg are spawning.
It was a lousy night at work so I'm a bit grumpy. :mad:
Someone else pipes up and say's I am farming.
I stop shooting anything.
The Borg are closing in on the Kang.
I say 'How is hitting Pass farming?'
Someone says' I'm camping next to the Kang.
I'm checking them all out.
Accolades of 2000, 2500, 2700, 2100.
The guy calls me a noobe and says I don't know how to do a normal.
I say, 'OK, you are so good can you handle all these Borg that are getting in range?'
He says Yes.
I say OK.
And I bailed.
I got a PM from one of them that said sorry. They lost the Kang. :eek:
:mad:
Engineer can heal but most of time they don't. I'm engineer in federation side. I heal often but I don't get any "thx" from fed player. Only klingon players, in exchange, they help me or they save me from spheres.
What you experienced with engineer. I experienced it with tactical fed. Most of time Tactical fed areThe Weakest Link of the pug. Because they have much dps they ignore window chat, they don't know what does mean teamwork and unfortunately they push the pug in the hell and wasted time.
Today I played KASE. We killed the cube. I went on the left to take the probe. I finished to kill 2. I look on the right. Nobody is taking probe on the right. What happened? We failed optionnals. whil I was going on the right. I said. Nobody's taking probes on the right? No answer. I said. I can't believe it. Suddenly I saw 8 probes passed throught the gate. Nobody took probes on the left. We failed total.
So, after everyone boosts over to the kang im the only one sitting there with 2 bops incoming from each side, so i pop my rapid fire 3, torp spread 3, emergency to weapons, blah blah blah blah basically every single buff i have and i open up on the first two, the first one melts away, and as i circle around to engage the second one, it fires a heavy plasma while im not looking. boom goes me.... so i respawn, pop every buff thats up, (at this time theres 5 birds on the kang, hull down to 90, shields at almost nothing. move in from the side, and open up, and after the first couple blow up near the kang, optional is gone. Now the second ship realizes that it should be helping me and rushs back to kang...
I try not to bail, 90% of runs can be salvaged, during a private fleet run of the same stf, my fleets leader accidently blew the cube(didnt stop firing in time) so the right hand side cube went, so we all rush back to kang, defend it, although optional is gone, and then we left one ship at the kang to guard and all four of them went to the center cube and blew it up, and then the same to the left...i got a XI engine off that run.... and im currently obsessed with getting the XII engine, which is all i need to finish that set.
Well said. CSE is one of those maps that has, at its heart, the most diverse amount of employable strategy, yet quite a few elites believe that RMMRL is the only one that guarantees success. Yesterday, I played three very different rounds of CSE that resulted in success with plenty of optional time to spare: One that I hosted employing the MRML strategy, which is my personal favorite. The second was the CSN strategy, which made life a bit tough for the Kanger, but we had lots of high-DPS guys who knew how to handle the situation. The third used the guide strategy, where you kill alll probes then kill the cubes simultaneously.
The first one was notable in that everyone made a bee-line toward the right cube instead of the middle one. I called an audible and switched back to the RMMRL, though not before the Kang took a little bit of shield damage from the left BoPs. The last two were memorable in that there were one or two people who questioned the strategies and tried to persuade the host to switch to their methods, but they were good sports, performed their duties precisely, and came away knowing that there are many ways to skin a cat.