10%? So what? I worry more about individual piloting ability and effective long duration DPS than 10%. I rather fly with a team that didn't care about 10% (deliberately or not) but had so much DPS that they can just speed blast or riot control everything into impunity whist looking out for one another.
The thing about sitting stationary in front of a target at close range and blazing away with DHCs is also very ineffective if the pilot doesn't know how to manage aggro. Escorts are -not- glass cannons from my experience. They can tank as well as a darn cruiser if flown right. Or at least better than that paper thin Excelsior which couldn't even manage a single sphere.
Instead of sitting stationary, escort should have used APO (multiple copies thereof) to stay fast and hit hard, pointing the nose at the target only for that devastating 10 second burst of CRFIII.
I think you should open your mind a little. 100% of STF players are not Tactical. Your advices are only for tactical players. What about engineer and scientist?
As engineer if I do what you say I will be useless player.
As a klingon scientis, if I follow your advice with my Vo'quv Carrier I'm dead.
I think you should open your mind a little. 100% of STF players are not Tactical. Your advices are only for tactical players. What about engineer and scientist?
As engineer if I do what you say I will be useless player.
As a klingon scientis, if I follow your advice with my Vo'quv Carrier I'm dead.
I have a Fed Engineer and a KDF Scientists as well. I don't do anything very much differently on those two. My Fed Tac is also nerfed as she's specced as a healer, not a DPSer.
As you can notice in some of my other threads, I don't even use any of the recommended ship builds or character specs. My Tac is a healer and my Eng is a DPSer. I do that because it works after extensive experimentation and I don't need suggestions to 'open my mind'.
Fully 90% of my other posts in this thread deal with opening one's mind to alternative tactics, unconventional strategies, observing group psychology, and not treating others like stereotypes.
I calmly explain that you can't rely on a single person to guard both sides, between cooldowns and the red alert engine slow down it's not going to work out.
Yeah. I had that once. I guarded one side, another cruiser started guarding his side.
Only thing is, he was trying out a new build. So his DPS was very low, and in the end I had to guard BOTH sides. Luckily, I was flying a 7 beam bank fire at will cruiser, and managed to control the probes from both sides with a little difficulty.
And at the VERY end of the STF... he pips in finally "Oh thank you guys, this was a test of a torpedo boat build."
I personally just went silent because if I said anything, I'd chew him apart for never saying that earlier. (And from what I saw... he wasn't using torpedo abilities. Nor was he launching torpedos too quickly.. but I was focused on saving the optional.)
We appeared into the map after an abnormally long wait on the loading screen. No one appeared to be moving off from the start area. But when I tried walking around, I realized everyone was having lag issues. As in, serious rubberbanding.
Everyone was really cautious and we chatted up each other for a few seconds before assigning a Caitian as the squad leader as he was the most experienced. We all feared the all encompassing lag.
First corridor - precision targeting was almost impossible and the Borg as usual turned the corner at turbo speed and started shooting everywhere. However, we were all surprisingly resistant to damage thanks perhaps to STO's netcode or that we simply rubberbanded so much the Borg full auto sweeps never really got us. None of us had any sudden deaths or anything.
I think after experiencing massive rubberbanding some of the team had ideas about giving up, but nevertheless I pressed on and led the way after humorously quipping if I should break out the sandwiches and coffee to have a picnic.
We used Russian infantry tactics to clear each encounter - full buffs, turn corner and full auto in the general direction of the Borg! Because of all the lag it was like watching infantry fire and maneuver in slow motion, but the Borg too fell in droves as bolts of all kinds filled the air.
Somehow we lagged our way to the IMRs where everyone more or less camped at the medical generators the sole engineer of the team dropped at intervals. Before anyone got confused or ran off to the wrong direction I enquired if they wanted to clear the entire zone of mobs first before deactivating shields on the generators - general consent was the reply. (PUG command reverse psychology - ask what you need and you shall receive.)
More Russian style full auto tactics at every generator and we started bottoms up. It was a very wierd thing just activating buffs blindly - because of the lag you never know if people are following you but everyone seemed to read each others' minds perfectly and team members simply snapped out of thin air at each objective once the 3 second latency cleared up.
At the final encounter with Tosk of Borg we realized we couldn't just spray and pray - the whole team was gradually driven out into the corridor proper and one by one they fell despite our best efforts to spam just about every buff, heal, turrets, shields, grenades and pets we could at him. Just then I had no time to remodulate and had to switch to secondary weapon which was a Tetryon Compression Pistol.
pew pew pew sounded the little pistol. Tiny pathetic reports compared to all the other assault rifles, SMGs and pulsewaves
pew pew pew as the last of the team was taken down leaving me in the corridor alone with Tosk whose health was steadily dropping from the heavy tetryon pistol's bolts. I took cover at the junction of the corridor, remodulated, rebuffed, and continued to fire down the corridor Hong Kong movie style and Tosk went down!
Just then the rest of the team (laggily) arrived and mopped up the remaining tactical drones creating the worst ever slow motion KA Ground run but was also the most fun and had the best teamwork!
Ps. That 'little' pistol does 104 dps and had a very long range - almost up to that of a rifle. Could 'snipe' from beyond the range of Borg plasma bolts. Not bad
So why do you think the Excelsior is not worth flying?
Because it was nerfed at the beginning of Season 5. Before Season 5 it was a great ship. I don't recall what all Cryptic did to it but they made it weak. I flew one from the day it came out to around Christmas 2011 when I gave up on it. Before season 5 it could do anything and I totally loved it. The Excelsior was GREAT in PVP, STF or just about any battle as a healer, fighter, support or whatever. Now it's a dead weight. I COULD make mine flyable and have it hold it's own in all the above situations but it would only hold it's own. Another good pilot in an simple escort would make it go boom in seconds. In the hands of an Instant Admiral, it would go boom in less than seconds.
Here is a relitively new post from another thread on how to build the Nerfed Excelsior and what it's good for. It would work in the hands of a seasoned pilot AND I do intend on trying it.
Public Service Announcement The Excelsior is a tac ship first and foremost. while there used to be sci Excelsiors that would work fairly well, due to just how laughably bad Target Subsystems has become it's really not an option anymore. Engies can just skip this post as you'll never crit enough or hard enough to really roll this one effectively in a Team.
And now we move on to the Excelsior. Step one? Acquire 3 SNB Doffs to **** everyone off Nah I kid.. okay only half kidding there.
There's several good options for an Excelsior build, the ships viability in Premade PvP is debatable, outside of a couple of specialized teams, but there are places for this dps friendly ship, most of my setups here are going to be DPS, or Control oriented sometimes both. There's only going to be a couple with any kind of heal focus to them.
Shields/Deflector/Engine.
Back in the day I ran Resilient Cap3s, Borg Deflector and Engine. Now? I think I'd try it with an Omega Shield, Omega Deflector, Borg Engine. (borg console in there too)
The Omega's turn rate booster is pretty significant on an Excelsior especially.
Consoles, RCS, Shield Power console, Eps flow regulator, Armor of your choice (anything but Monotanium) or second shield power.
Sci Field Emitter, Borg
Tac. Energy.
Preferred Armament, Tetryon/Polaron. (as you'll be using a Tet glider anyway. Might as well make the most out of those skill points)
The Cannon Excelsior, this one was really popular back in the day. The reason? The Excelsiors god like turn rate, and more importantly almost Escort levels of Inertia. The ship can stop on a dime, making for some really shockingly effective uses of Evasive Maneuvers. There's at least two variations that I've tried both worked fairly well. There is another good one earlier in this thread (I'll link to that post after I write this post)
The first one I list is also decent for extra crowd control and can be subbed in for that second escort on a team.
Power Setting, 90 Weapon Power, 60 Shield Power, 25 engine, 25 aux.
Lt Cmdr, Cannon Rapid Fire 2, Attack Pattern Beta1, Tac Team Variant, Cannon Scatter Volley2, APB1, Tac Team.
Lt Eng, EPTW1, ET2 Variant, EPTW1, EPTS2 Alt Variant, EPTW1 and Aux to Dampeners.
Ens Eng, EPTS1. Variant ET1
Lt Sci. Transfer Shield Strength1, Transfer Shield strength2,
Variant, Sci Team 1, TSS2. Alternate Variant Hazard Emitters1, Transfer Shields 2.
Doffs, I'd strongly consider, the Warp Plasma Doff that adds an immobilize to your warp plas. Get as high quality of one as you can afford. (I can't remember if you can stack multiples of these or not if so, get one more)
Maintenance Doff... the one that reduces Team ability cool downs. Get 2 of these blue or better preferably. (till they change it... if they change it)
For your final doffs, Shield Distribution officers. (the brace for impact shield healers) as many as you have slots for.
EDitor's note. 2 Deflector CD reducer doffs, and 3 BFI Shield Distribution doffs.
This ship is highly mobile as it is the omega shield, and RCS make it even more so. Throw in the warp plasma which will inevitably slow or stop targets with APB and rapid fire 2 cranking means there will be a ton of pressure applied to a given target. The Tetryon Glider will further assist in shield removal which adds even more pressure.
The other variant that I used is covered in the Variant, save for the cmdr spot being rounded out with DEM3.
The DBB Boat. This one is a more heavy dps variant on the Cannon Excelsior. This one utilizes either FAW or Beam Overload to get the job done. It's abit more difficult ship to position about, but it's forward arc is devastating. You will want to tweak your power settings here to max out those evil DBBs.
Armament, 4 Dual Beam Banks. Yeah you read that right. 4 of them. 4 Turrets. This is surprisingly energy efficient, and the ship is agile enough that with practice and proper implementation of warp plasma you'll be hosing people down pretty well. This ship also takes place of a second Escort.
Sci TSS1, Tss2 Variant A, Sci Team Transfer Shield Strength2 , Variant B Hazard Emitters 1, Transfer Shield Strength 2.
It flies quite abit like the Cannon Excelsior, only with a considerably stronger forward strike, for a significant loss on broadside dps. Think of this ship like a mounted knight on horse back armed with a lance. Everything in the front of this thing is going to feel the pain. Anything to the sides? not so much. Fly it accordingly plan your moves, so that your DBBs will always land on a target, or secondary target when possible on your straight charges so you hose the target in the opening volleys, hit it with warp plasma, and aim the ship towards the second, rinse and repeat on your turn inevitable turn around to the primary.
The Death Blossom and Deadly Broadside Excelsior.
Power Settings. 90 Weapon, 60 Shields, 25 engine 25 aux.
Armament, 6 Beam Arrays (4 Aft 2 For), 2 DBBs. This keeps your weapon power high, gives you spam clearing versatility, and gives you that oh so lovely insta gib crit potential with Bo3/2.
Secondary Armament, 7 Beam Arrays (4 aft 3 Fore, 1 DBB)
Cmdr, DEM3, Extend Shields2 or EPTS3 (EPTS3 is an alternate for solo play only.. like kerrat. please don't use this in the ques), EPTS2, EPTW1
LT Cmdr, Beam Overload 3, Attack Pattern Beta 2, Tac Team.
Alternate, FAW3, Attack Pattern beta 2, Tac Team.
Tertiary Alternate Beam Overload 3, Beam Overload 2, Tac Team. And last alternate, FAW3, Beam Overload2, Tac Team.
Because it was nerfed at the beginning of Season 5. Before Season 5 it was a great ship. I don't recall what all Cryptic did to it but they made it weak. I flew one from the day it came out to around Christmas 2011 when I gave up on it. Before season 5 it could do anything and I totally loved it. The Excelsior was GREAT in PVP, STF or just about any battle as a healer, fighter, support or whatever. Now it's a dead weight. I COULD make mine flyable and have it hold it's own in all the above situations but it would only hold it's own. Another good pilot in an simple escort would make it go boom in seconds. In the hands of an Instant Admiral, it would go boom in less than seconds.
Well, my Engineer still has one and i've been flying it lately in ESTFs. Its a lot of fun for me. I rotate ships every now and then to relieve the boredom.
I do remember when I was PvPing more and the Excelsior suddenly was not as good as it was, but really its vague in my mind as to what actually was done to make it less effective.
Well, my Engineer still has one and i've been flying it lately in ESTFs. Its a lot of fun for me. I rotate ships every now and then to relieve the boredom.
I do remember when I was PvPing more and the Excelsior suddenly was not as good as it was, but really its vague in my mind as to what actually was done to make it less effective.
Anyway, i'm enjoying it again now
I've looked at the Excelsior's basic stats and don't see it any particularly weaker than any other ship. Infact I could really use the LTC Tactical boff for Attack Pattern Omega or a big beam overload for maximum criticals.
Busting my *** keeping probes clear on my side while the other four in the STF, all members of the same fleet mind you, were working on the left side.
A probe gets through on the left.
I pop my group and gun it (As fast as I can with red alert active) to hold the lefts probes, pop those and then barely make it with a GW2 to stop probes on my side.
The four are still derping on the same transformer, apparently two spheres are too much for the four of them.
One finally breaks off and starts covering their probes.
At this point 4 have made it through all from the left side.
I pay attention to my side, pop some generators in between probes and clear my spheres, mind you, I'm a Science officer (cooldowns and all that), juggling probes and spheres and I clear them with little difficulty. I notice our count is up to 8 probes of ten.
Not a single gate has dropped yet.
"Guys you've got to keep on the probes over there if ten make it hrough this thing fails and we get NOTHING"
No reply.
I can't get to them in time and two more from their side get through, we lose.
I calmly explain that you can't rely on a single person to guard both sides, between cooldowns and the red alert engine slow down it's not going to work out.
Two of them agree with me one says nothing and yet another starts blaming the failure on me.
It was my fault apparently that their fleet is made up of people so inept that it takes FOUR of the to clear ONE Transformer/Generator.
If I can solo two spheres while juggling probes in my Intrepid Retro they should be able to rip the left side fo the map apart with four players two of which were in escorts.
I had a similar story in KA normal, lucky my tac escort has the dps to kill normal probe easy. Only 2 got thru before I realized they weren't checking the probe on the other side. So just kept killing probe on both side until they finally got the other gate. When they come on my side they don't even get the sphere of my back. Anyway, killed all the probe and the sphere that poped out the gate. That match took forever ....
Some peoples need to read missions objectives..............
I had a similar story in KA normal, lucky my tac escort has the dps to kill normal probe easy. Only 2 got thru before I realized they weren't checking the probe on the other side. So just kept killing probe on both side until they finally got the other gate. When they come on my side they don't even get the sphere of my back. Anyway, killed all the probe and the sphere that poped out the gate. That match took forever ....
Some peoples need to read missions objectives..............
A common problem.
To counter this I'll bring along a friend to team queue. She takes the left and I take the right and we post tactical directions and updates on team chat. Doesn't matter if they don't chat back; active chatter and useful updates from us both have a great effect on boosting team morale and effectiveness. Sort of like a 'model conversation' to prove that some brains are being used even if its a PUG.
Likewise on Cure, I trust she or I to guard and heal the Kang effectively and we send all the other PUGs to go storm the front.
Each map has its own crucial station and by doing them myself or assigning a trusted wingman to the task, it doesn't matter how badly the rest fail. Those who need help get a polite invitation to visit me on DSK7 for a friendly chat to test and optimize their ship builds. Don't really care if its a tac, sci or eng boat, I've flown and love them all.
Oh and usually the newer players don't refuse the offer. I let them tell me the reason for their rainbow boating or suicidal scientific ship piloting, and tell them how to make them into effective DPSers and riot police. My favourite is proving a sci toon too can utterly dominate an STF without too much effort.
I've looked at the Excelsior's basic stats and don't see it any particularly weaker than any other ship. Infact I could really use the LTC Tactical boff for Attack Pattern Omega or a big beam overload for maximum criticals.
Before season 5 it was much stronger than it is now. You might find the nerf in the forums or maybe the Release Notes.
I guess I've done so many STF's I can't remember which one was actually the worst. However, a few weeks ago I was doing Infected elite with a PUG. Mistake, I know... Now I was fairly new to elites at this point but I knew how to go about taking down the cubes first, generators to 10% etc etc. So I thought I'd put that info in the chat for the benefit of others who may be on their first elite run or be unfamiliar with the tactics. Well you can guess what happened... first gen popped really quick, I desperately tried to keep the nanite spheres away from the transformer but was hopeless. We spent nearly 10 minutes just trying to clear that first half. No matter what I said there was a total lack of willingness to read the team chat and they just fired away at whatever they wanted. I didn't want to leave because I'd get the dreaded timer lock me out of STF's for an hour or so. Stuck with it, died a little inside by the time we mopped up the tac cube and the gate. Never played with such a hopeless bunch of noobs in all my life. I can understand people making mistakes, but when help is freely given and visible if they just read chat....
Before season 5 it was much stronger than it is now. You might find the nerf in the forums or maybe the Release Notes.
I always thought when people talked about the Excelsior being nerfed it was because they took the transwarp drive abilities and put them into a console. Then later made transwarp abilities obtainable through the doff system in season 5, making people that paid for this ability upset because now it was essentially free to everyone.
I always thought when people talked about the Excelsior being nerfed it was because they took the transwarp drive abilities and put them into a console. Then later made transwarp abilities obtainable through the doff system in season 5, making people that paid for this ability upset because now it was essentially free to everyone.
There was more. It seems like the power transfer was reduced or something like that. It was a couple months before season 5. Whatever it was reduced the ablities 10 fold. It was said to be in the name of 'Balance'. They felt the Excelsior was too good. I remember the Transwarp deal. I already had transwarp to several systems and didn't need what they were doing. Plus the new skills system made things a mess.
To me this was a horror story. I had a good ship at the time that became a bad ship that I paid 20 some odd bucks for.
Some people may think it's a good ship now but it's only a shadow of what it once was.
I will try it again some time but Not until I have XII stuff for it.
There was more. It seems like the power transfer was reduced or something like that. It was a couple months before season 5. Whatever it was reduced the ablities 10 fold. It was said to be in the name of 'Balance'. They felt the Excelsior was too good. I remember the Transwarp deal. I already had transwarp to several systems and didn't need what they were doing. Plus the new skills system made things a mess.
To me this was a horror story. I had a good ship at the time that became a bad ship that I paid 20 some odd bucks for.
Some people may think it's a good ship now but it's only a shadow of what it once was.
I will try it again some time but Not until I have XII stuff for it.
i did something similar. i purchased what i thought was a playable federation klingon character at the c-store. i did not bother to read the description. what i actually purchased was a captain that could have a klingon bridge officer. no klingon officer yet.
As far as I know it is impossible to buy a KDF officer as a fed or vice versa. Unless something has changed recently.
For duty officers there is no check to see if the officer is usable. You can buy opposing faction duty officers but they have little to no functionality.
The only warning you have is a red/blue border around the doff's picture and a very tiny faction logo behind the portrait. If the doff's head is very large, you can't even see it except for certain distinctive shapes of the Fed or KDF faction emblem.
One day a blue quality KDF doff showed up in my roster. The doff was a biologist, something I would never buy off the exchange. I actually think I got it as a reward from a doff assignment. After failing to sell it on the market I was able to mail it to one of my KDF characters. Weird.
As far as I know it is impossible to buy a KDF officer as a fed or vice versa. Unless something has changed recently.
You can buy them off the exchange, they just don't work (you'll get a popup box with dialog from the officer you just bought complaining about you being the wrong faction and how they'll never work for you).
And had another case of 'I'll protect the Kang' in Cure Normal earlier.
A classic case, where the person in question (flying an Odyssey) boldly, and loudly, proclaimed this failed quite spectacularly. In fact, the first three BOP's killed the optional before anyone could get back there to assist. Once the initial BOP's were dealt with we flew off to deal with generators etc, advising the Oddy Captain to let us know if he needed help. No reply was forthcoming from Oddy Captain and we therefore carried on with the task at hand.
Unfortunately, after despatching a few geneators, I looked back again only to note that the second wave of BOP's were overwhelming the Oddy too, which was ( in fairness) firing at one of them. However, whilst the Oddy was busy with that one the other two were busy blasting the Kang. Sadly, whilst a few of us reached the Kang in time to despatch two of the BOP's, and throw heals at the Kang, the damage was already done and a plasma torpedo that no-one was able to intercept in time killed the mission.
Guess it was partly the team's fault - I suppose we should have kept better watch of the Kang, though I guess it is easy to mistake overconfidence for experience.
I'd have to admit, too, that I can't help but wonder if the Oddy Captain did this on purpose, as discussed in another thread (referring to people joining STF's with the intention of making them fail).
I'd have to admit, too, that I can't help but wonder if the Oddy Captain did this on purpose, as discussed in another thread (referring to people joining STF's with the intention of making them fail).
If it was a real troll, I'd have expected them to queue for Elite rather than Normal.
On the other hand; the Kang on Normal can take a lot of punishment compared to on Elite. If you throw it a Tac Team 1 and a Transfer Shield Strength it can nearly cope with a wave of BOPs firing at it by itself... and BOPs die a heck of a lot faster on Normal - you nearly need to make a conscious effort to suck so badly that you can't kill a wave of them by yourself.
It's possible to build an Oddy that can handle two waves of BoPs on Elite. And that's not "min-maxed" - I've managed it with only Mk XI weapons (and whilst I've got a good bit of Cruiser pilotting experience I'm certainly not the best pilot out there). One wave on normal should be no problem. I'm convinced that some of those people just sit at 25 Weapons power with one MKIV beam array on autofire...
If it was a real troll, I'd have expected them to queue for Elite rather than Normal.
On the other hand; the Kang on Normal can take a lot of punishment compared to on Elite. If you throw it a Tac Team 1 and a Transfer Shield Strength it can nearly cope with a wave of BOPs firing at it by itself... and BOPs die a heck of a lot faster on Normal - you nearly need to make a conscious effort to suck so badly that you can't kill a wave of them by yourself.
It's possible to build an Oddy that can handle two waves of BoPs on Elite. And that's not "min-maxed" - I've managed it with only Mk XI weapons (and whilst I've got a good bit of Cruiser pilotting experience I'm certainly not the best pilot out there). One wave on normal should be no problem. I'm convinced that some of those people just sit at 25 Weapons power with one MKIV beam array on autofire...
Well, in honesty, I couldn't comment on how much effort the Oddy in question was making to deal with the BOP's although it didn't seem as if he was ignoring them. On the other hand, it didn't seem as if he was moving much either, and he certainly wasn't doing anything to heal the Kang.
I'm convinced that some of those people just sit at 25 Weapons power with one MKIV beam array on autofire...
It would be nice if we could have canned, one key messages that we could send and not have to type in like, 'Please Take Your Weapons Off Stun.' or 'Technicolor/Rainbow Beams. LOL' or 'Hey Noobe, OVER HERE!'
It would be nice if we could have canned, one key messages that we could send and not have to type in like, 'Please Take Your Weapons Off Stun.' or 'Technicolor/Rainbow Beams. LOL' or 'Hey Noobe, OVER HERE!'
Pretty sure you can use keybinds for that, but I haven't messed with them in a while.
And had another case of 'I'll protect the Kang' in Cure Normal earlier.
A classic case, where the person in question (flying an Odyssey) boldly, and loudly, proclaimed this failed quite spectacularly. In fact, the first three BOP's killed the optional before anyone could get back there to assist. Once the initial BOP's were dealt with we flew off to deal with generators etc, advising the Oddy Captain to let us know if he needed help. No reply was forthcoming from Oddy Captain and we therefore carried on with the task at hand.
Unfortunately, after despatching a few geneators, I looked back again only to note that the second wave of BOP's were overwhelming the Oddy too, which was ( in fairness) firing at one of them. However, whilst the Oddy was busy with that one the other two were busy blasting the Kang. Sadly, whilst a few of us reached the Kang in time to despatch two of the BOP's, and throw heals at the Kang, the damage was already done and a plasma torpedo that no-one was able to intercept in time killed the mission.
Guess it was partly the team's fault - I suppose we should have kept better watch of the Kang, though I guess it is easy to mistake overconfidence for experience.
I'd have to admit, too, that I can't help but wonder if the Oddy Captain did this on purpose, as discussed in another thread (referring to people joining STF's with the intention of making them fail).
Seems like I see a fair number of posts that are not real favorable concerning Oddys. I have the Odyssey set and lately have been using the science oddy the most. All mk12 and it is a pretty tough ship. Anyway, I like to think i can carry my weight on a mission and a little more.
On the elite I typically focus most of my attention on protecting the kang and 9 times out of 10 other players come to help when i get over run. the 1 out of 10 they don't of course we lose the mission. And if you are really unlucky the flaming and finger pointing begins; a good time to exit.
What really bothers me is the fact that anyone would intentionally fail a mission. i have often wondered about that on ground missions since people just leave when there is really no reason too. I would say on grould that happens half the time for me. Space not so often, but it does happen.
Comments
I think you should open your mind a little. 100% of STF players are not Tactical. Your advices are only for tactical players. What about engineer and scientist?
As engineer if I do what you say I will be useless player.
As a klingon scientis, if I follow your advice with my Vo'quv Carrier I'm dead.
I have a Fed Engineer and a KDF Scientists as well. I don't do anything very much differently on those two. My Fed Tac is also nerfed as she's specced as a healer, not a DPSer.
As you can notice in some of my other threads, I don't even use any of the recommended ship builds or character specs. My Tac is a healer and my Eng is a DPSer. I do that because it works after extensive experimentation and I don't need suggestions to 'open my mind'.
Fully 90% of my other posts in this thread deal with opening one's mind to alternative tactics, unconventional strategies, observing group psychology, and not treating others like stereotypes.
Yeah. I had that once. I guarded one side, another cruiser started guarding his side.
Only thing is, he was trying out a new build. So his DPS was very low, and in the end I had to guard BOTH sides. Luckily, I was flying a 7 beam bank fire at will cruiser, and managed to control the probes from both sides with a little difficulty.
And at the VERY end of the STF... he pips in finally "Oh thank you guys, this was a test of a torpedo boat build."
I personally just went silent because if I said anything, I'd chew him apart for never saying that earlier. (And from what I saw... he wasn't using torpedo abilities. Nor was he launching torpedos too quickly.. but I was focused on saving the optional.)
Flying a ship is one thing, having a ship worth flying is another.
So why do you think the Excelsior is not worth flying?
We appeared into the map after an abnormally long wait on the loading screen. No one appeared to be moving off from the start area. But when I tried walking around, I realized everyone was having lag issues. As in, serious rubberbanding.
Everyone was really cautious and we chatted up each other for a few seconds before assigning a Caitian as the squad leader as he was the most experienced. We all feared the all encompassing lag.
First corridor - precision targeting was almost impossible and the Borg as usual turned the corner at turbo speed and started shooting everywhere. However, we were all surprisingly resistant to damage thanks perhaps to STO's netcode or that we simply rubberbanded so much the Borg full auto sweeps never really got us. None of us had any sudden deaths or anything.
I think after experiencing massive rubberbanding some of the team had ideas about giving up, but nevertheless I pressed on and led the way after humorously quipping if I should break out the sandwiches and coffee to have a picnic.
We used Russian infantry tactics to clear each encounter - full buffs, turn corner and full auto in the general direction of the Borg! Because of all the lag it was like watching infantry fire and maneuver in slow motion, but the Borg too fell in droves as bolts of all kinds filled the air.
Somehow we lagged our way to the IMRs where everyone more or less camped at the medical generators the sole engineer of the team dropped at intervals. Before anyone got confused or ran off to the wrong direction I enquired if they wanted to clear the entire zone of mobs first before deactivating shields on the generators - general consent was the reply. (PUG command reverse psychology - ask what you need and you shall receive.)
More Russian style full auto tactics at every generator and we started bottoms up. It was a very wierd thing just activating buffs blindly - because of the lag you never know if people are following you but everyone seemed to read each others' minds perfectly and team members simply snapped out of thin air at each objective once the 3 second latency cleared up.
At the final encounter with Tosk of Borg we realized we couldn't just spray and pray - the whole team was gradually driven out into the corridor proper and one by one they fell despite our best efforts to spam just about every buff, heal, turrets, shields, grenades and pets we could at him. Just then I had no time to remodulate and had to switch to secondary weapon which was a Tetryon Compression Pistol.
pew pew pew sounded the little pistol. Tiny pathetic reports compared to all the other assault rifles, SMGs and pulsewaves
pew pew pew as the last of the team was taken down leaving me in the corridor alone with Tosk whose health was steadily dropping from the heavy tetryon pistol's bolts. I took cover at the junction of the corridor, remodulated, rebuffed, and continued to fire down the corridor Hong Kong movie style and Tosk went down!
Just then the rest of the team (laggily) arrived and mopped up the remaining tactical drones creating the worst ever slow motion KA Ground run but was also the most fun and had the best teamwork!
Ps. That 'little' pistol does 104 dps and had a very long range - almost up to that of a rifle. Could 'snipe' from beyond the range of Borg plasma bolts. Not bad
Because it was nerfed at the beginning of Season 5. Before Season 5 it was a great ship. I don't recall what all Cryptic did to it but they made it weak. I flew one from the day it came out to around Christmas 2011 when I gave up on it. Before season 5 it could do anything and I totally loved it. The Excelsior was GREAT in PVP, STF or just about any battle as a healer, fighter, support or whatever. Now it's a dead weight. I COULD make mine flyable and have it hold it's own in all the above situations but it would only hold it's own. Another good pilot in an simple escort would make it go boom in seconds. In the hands of an Instant Admiral, it would go boom in less than seconds.
Here is a relitively new post from another thread on how to build the Nerfed Excelsior and what it's good for. It would work in the hands of a seasoned pilot AND I do intend on trying it.
I think one of the earlier post here was talking about someone who agreed to the 10% then blased a node before everyone else was ready.
This is what happened today.
After he killed the node The guy was cussing at everone for not being ready the same time he was.
So I blasted back, 'Learn how to control your weapons and you wouldn't have killed it early'
No reply.
Went to side two. Same thing.
Same guy blast the node early and started cussing away.
So I blasted back, 'Learn how to control your weapons and you wouldn't have killed it early'
He said we were all weak and should have been done the same time he was.
I again typed 'Learn how to control your weapons and you wouldn't have killed it early'
He called us all noobes and bailed.
We lost the optional but finished the mission with 4 ships.
Considering how lousy my work week has been this helped cheer me up.
It was fun.
Just curious, how was the Excelsior "nerfed"?
Well, my Engineer still has one and i've been flying it lately in ESTFs. Its a lot of fun for me. I rotate ships every now and then to relieve the boredom.
I do remember when I was PvPing more and the Excelsior suddenly was not as good as it was, but really its vague in my mind as to what actually was done to make it less effective.
Anyway, i'm enjoying it again now
I've looked at the Excelsior's basic stats and don't see it any particularly weaker than any other ship. Infact I could really use the LTC Tactical boff for Attack Pattern Omega or a big beam overload for maximum criticals.
I had a similar story in KA normal, lucky my tac escort has the dps to kill normal probe easy. Only 2 got thru before I realized they weren't checking the probe on the other side. So just kept killing probe on both side until they finally got the other gate. When they come on my side they don't even get the sphere of my back. Anyway, killed all the probe and the sphere that poped out the gate. That match took forever ....
Some peoples need to read missions objectives..............
A common problem.
To counter this I'll bring along a friend to team queue. She takes the left and I take the right and we post tactical directions and updates on team chat. Doesn't matter if they don't chat back; active chatter and useful updates from us both have a great effect on boosting team morale and effectiveness. Sort of like a 'model conversation' to prove that some brains are being used even if its a PUG.
Likewise on Cure, I trust she or I to guard and heal the Kang effectively and we send all the other PUGs to go storm the front.
Each map has its own crucial station and by doing them myself or assigning a trusted wingman to the task, it doesn't matter how badly the rest fail. Those who need help get a polite invitation to visit me on DSK7 for a friendly chat to test and optimize their ship builds. Don't really care if its a tac, sci or eng boat, I've flown and love them all.
Oh and usually the newer players don't refuse the offer. I let them tell me the reason for their rainbow boating or suicidal scientific ship piloting, and tell them how to make them into effective DPSers and riot police. My favourite is proving a sci toon too can utterly dominate an STF without too much effort.
It's in the forums somewhere. You should be able to find it. And it was well advertised that there was a nerf coming before season 5.
Before season 5 it was much stronger than it is now. You might find the nerf in the forums or maybe the Release Notes.
I always thought when people talked about the Excelsior being nerfed it was because they took the transwarp drive abilities and put them into a console. Then later made transwarp abilities obtainable through the doff system in season 5, making people that paid for this ability upset because now it was essentially free to everyone.
There was more. It seems like the power transfer was reduced or something like that. It was a couple months before season 5. Whatever it was reduced the ablities 10 fold. It was said to be in the name of 'Balance'. They felt the Excelsior was too good. I remember the Transwarp deal. I already had transwarp to several systems and didn't need what they were doing. Plus the new skills system made things a mess.
To me this was a horror story. I had a good ship at the time that became a bad ship that I paid 20 some odd bucks for.
Some people may think it's a good ship now but it's only a shadow of what it once was.
I will try it again some time but Not until I have XII stuff for it.
Is this the thread for the original issue?
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=243542&highlight=Excelsior&page=1
Just walked in the door at 0530 from another really crappy day at work.
I sat down and opened STO.
I did my Doff jobs like normal.
I went up to the ship and started my Childrens Toys and a few more Doff missions..
Then I beamed back down to DS9 and put the stuff I'd picked up during the day on the exchange.
Then I started checking the Doffs in the exchange to see what was new.
Here was a nice new Diagnostic Engineer with Resolve and Subborn for 60,000,000.
I had 68,000,000.
So I bought him.
I beam back to the ship thinking I'd put him to work making a console.
I cancel the mission I'd already started a few minutes earlier and try to start a new one.
WHERE"S MY NEW DOFF???
Oh No...
In my bad moodyness.............................................
I BOUGHT A KLINGON!!!! :eek:
Anyhow, there's now a Kilnk Diagnostic Engineer with Resolve and Stubborn on the exchange for 62,000,000 screaming 'Buy Me Buy Me'
For duty officers there is no check to see if the officer is usable. You can buy opposing faction duty officers but they have little to no functionality.
The only warning you have is a red/blue border around the doff's picture and a very tiny faction logo behind the portrait. If the doff's head is very large, you can't even see it except for certain distinctive shapes of the Fed or KDF faction emblem.
You can buy them off the exchange, they just don't work (you'll get a popup box with dialog from the officer you just bought complaining about you being the wrong faction and how they'll never work for you).
As a Fed you can still get a KDF BOFF that is actually usable if you max out Diplomacy (Ambassador title) - see http://www.stowiki.org/Bridge_officer#Federation_Enemy_Faction and http://www.stowiki.org/Bridge_officer#KDF_Enemy_Faction
My main is a Fed Engineer Captain who has a Female Orion Engineer BOFF (chosen for her ground traits rather than her looks, honest!!)
A classic case, where the person in question (flying an Odyssey) boldly, and loudly, proclaimed this failed quite spectacularly. In fact, the first three BOP's killed the optional before anyone could get back there to assist. Once the initial BOP's were dealt with we flew off to deal with generators etc, advising the Oddy Captain to let us know if he needed help. No reply was forthcoming from Oddy Captain and we therefore carried on with the task at hand.
Unfortunately, after despatching a few geneators, I looked back again only to note that the second wave of BOP's were overwhelming the Oddy too, which was ( in fairness) firing at one of them. However, whilst the Oddy was busy with that one the other two were busy blasting the Kang. Sadly, whilst a few of us reached the Kang in time to despatch two of the BOP's, and throw heals at the Kang, the damage was already done and a plasma torpedo that no-one was able to intercept in time killed the mission.
Guess it was partly the team's fault - I suppose we should have kept better watch of the Kang, though I guess it is easy to mistake overconfidence for experience.
I'd have to admit, too, that I can't help but wonder if the Oddy Captain did this on purpose, as discussed in another thread (referring to people joining STF's with the intention of making them fail).
If it was a real troll, I'd have expected them to queue for Elite rather than Normal.
On the other hand; the Kang on Normal can take a lot of punishment compared to on Elite. If you throw it a Tac Team 1 and a Transfer Shield Strength it can nearly cope with a wave of BOPs firing at it by itself... and BOPs die a heck of a lot faster on Normal - you nearly need to make a conscious effort to suck so badly that you can't kill a wave of them by yourself.
It's possible to build an Oddy that can handle two waves of BoPs on Elite. And that's not "min-maxed" - I've managed it with only Mk XI weapons (and whilst I've got a good bit of Cruiser pilotting experience I'm certainly not the best pilot out there). One wave on normal should be no problem. I'm convinced that some of those people just sit at 25 Weapons power with one MKIV beam array on autofire...
Well, in honesty, I couldn't comment on how much effort the Oddy in question was making to deal with the BOP's although it didn't seem as if he was ignoring them. On the other hand, it didn't seem as if he was moving much either, and he certainly wasn't doing anything to heal the Kang.
It would be nice if we could have canned, one key messages that we could send and not have to type in like, 'Please Take Your Weapons Off Stun.' or 'Technicolor/Rainbow Beams. LOL' or 'Hey Noobe, OVER HERE!'
Pretty sure you can use keybinds for that, but I haven't messed with them in a while.
Seems like I see a fair number of posts that are not real favorable concerning Oddys. I have the Odyssey set and lately have been using the science oddy the most. All mk12 and it is a pretty tough ship. Anyway, I like to think i can carry my weight on a mission and a little more.
On the elite I typically focus most of my attention on protecting the kang and 9 times out of 10 other players come to help when i get over run. the 1 out of 10 they don't of course we lose the mission. And if you are really unlucky the flaming and finger pointing begins; a good time to exit.
What really bothers me is the fact that anyone would intentionally fail a mission. i have often wondered about that on ground missions since people just leave when there is really no reason too. I would say on grould that happens half the time for me. Space not so often, but it does happen.