Thats not new; I see "players" dropping GW on transformers in ISE, choosing small increase in their DPS over buying more time for the whole team. Get used to it. Hell, some people even drop Tykens on generators because they do 200-ish damage per second...
I drop GW on the transformer to pull the spheres to it so they are all bunched where everyone is firing. That way we pop the transformer and the spheres at the same time.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
It was a trip. I even said in team it was a trip. It wasn't a complaint about the team in the least, mind you.
It was the first run of the day, and I was interested to see what a gear change I made just before doing it would have on the parse. I switched out a Mk XI Rare Partigens for the Hydro console. It would allow me to drop my Eng power while keeping the same Defense (70%) while giving me that little bump to Aux and allowing me to shift Eng power to Aux. Yep, I was looking to increase the healing coming from AtS, HE, and TSS some.
Boom...I died 3 times and another guy died 5 times. I only took ~50-60k more damage than usual, so that doesn't stand out in the least. The amount of the damage the one guy took - I'm figuring he simply didn't have any damage resists. No big deal - it happens, though it really shouldn't have - cause heals should have kept him and myself up.
But nope...lol...I didn't even do half the healing that I normally do. Was a WTF moment - knew something was off during the run (thus the comment I made in team while waiting on a respawn, saying it looked like heals weren't doing anything)...and sure enough, looking at the parse after the run...meh, /facepalm.
Lol, I checked a parse for the guy from yesterday I had - took almost 200k more damage without dying - nobody died.
That's the first one I've had like that, where "heals don't work" - have had plenty of lol runs where the Borg weapons are overcharged and they obliterate things; but never had one where healing was dorked...like I had no Aux at all - instead of having more Aux.
Just finished a Vortex Elite classic. One side despite flying with 3 persons ignoring the probes.
Really, how difficult is it to stop those little probes?
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
yeah, my experience with Vortex is that it really seems to go best if everyone smashes probes as soon as they appear then goes back to blowing up other stuff.
I drop GW on the transformer to pull the spheres to it so they are all bunched where everyone is firing. That way we pop the transformer and the spheres at the same time.
I drop GW on the transformer to pull the spheres to it so they are all bunched where everyone is firing. That way we pop the transformer and the spheres at the same time.
You are either really really stupid, a troll, or have absolutely zero idea that you are doing is harmful.
Ill run with the latter, as if your sig is remotely serious the latter is most likely.
In ISE, you do NOT want the Spheres to get remotely near the Transformer. Ever. You see, when a Nanite Sphere activates its effect on a Transformer, it fails the Optional objective, and costs your team 15 marks.
Your Grav Well drags these Nanite Spheres in, and therefore, it means they heal the Transformer failing the Optional.
Grav Welling Nanite Spheres is a good plan, but you do it as soon as they warp in, when they are still at the gate. That way they don't cause problems.
Whoa, chill dude. He means the defender spheres, not the healing nanites. I can see where he's coming from on that one.
Even if he means those - I hope he does - it's a waste of GW. If you have GW you should use it on the spheres that appear at the gate as soon as they do, providing more time for you and the team.
There's no point in parking an enemy that is near you.
EDIT: P.S. Don't forget one of the main features of grav well is the damage it does to craft it pulls in. If you only want to slow them down, use TR. You're not just parking targets. You're damaging them. /EDIT
There is a point, actually. If you kill the transformer fast, as most teams do, you don't even have to worry about containing the nanite healer spheres. You can simply kill them as normal.
In most PESTF or 10k matches, it's never an issue. You kill the transformer before the healers are even past the edge of the gateway they came through.
In such a case, grav well works perfectly fine on the transformer. It's only in teams where you have woefully inadequate firepower that you need to worry. In THOSE rare cases, the 10% rule was developed and works. You still don't bother with the healers. You focus ALL firepower on the transformer. To take firepower OFF the transformer actually creates the bad situation whereby you must delay or deal with the healers, when if you simply ignore them and concentrate fire on the main target, you avoid the issue entirely.
It really isn't an issue unless the team doesn't know what it's doing. For a random pug? Sure... if you get the sense that it's taking too long to pop the 4 corners you know you might need that GW to hold back nanite spheres. Otherwise, don't denounce a player for using it where it's more efficient.
Even in a pug you dont need the gravwell not for slowing them down, just to make the most of your AoE-abilities, those transformers die fast after all.
Oh wait, of course you need some power behind it to make that work, I forgot that.
Whoa, chill dude. He means the defender spheres, not the healing nanites. I can see where he's coming from on that one.
The transformer does not deal any damage when it explodes, so it's pointless anyway to try and drag the normal spheres towards the transformer. They won't be damaged by it.
Even if you're on top of the transformer when it explodes, you won't be damaged in any way and neither will the spheres.
So, use those gravity wells on the nanite spheres when they're close to the gate. Unless you (not specifically you, but in general) need the damage from the gravity well to destroy the transformer, but if you depend on a gravity well for its damage then you shouldn't be doing elite STF's.
Even in a pug you dont need the gravwell not for slowing them down, just to make the most of your AoE-abilities, those transformers die fast after all.
Oh wait, of course you need some power behind it to make that work, I forgot that.
I've been in many in which is precisely the GW that saves the day as some hotshot blows up a transformer without having noticed that the team is not powerful enough to take down the others and the generator in time.
So yeah, several along the lines of your second paragraph.
The transformer does not deal any damage when it explodes, so it's pointless anyway to try and drag the normal spheres towards the transformer. They won't be damaged by it.
Even if you're on top of the transformer when it explodes, you won't be damaged in any way and neither will the spheres.
So, use those gravity wells on the nanite spheres when they're close to the gate. Unless you (not specifically you, but in general) need the damage from the gravity well to destroy the transformer, but if you depend on a gravity well for its damage then you shouldn't be doing elite STF's.
First, nanite spheres shouldn't get even close to the transformer or your team F-ed up.
Second, who said the transformer does explosion damage? What it does is pull the spheres into a tight cluster so that all your AoEs, be it CSV, TS, mines, grav wells, isometric charges, warp plasma, anything else, etc., deal with them WHILE you're taking down the transformer.
I seriously don't understand how this isn't clear and self-evident.
fmgtorres, yes and that's why you don't pop a GW off until the 4 corners are taken care of. At that point you'll know if your team is working well or not. If not? Save the GW just in case.
I'm not advocating (nor is anybody else) reckless use of the GW. It is situation dependent. However, the knee-jerk condemnation of a guy for using it appropriately against the transformer? It baffles me.
First, nanite spheres shouldn't get even close to the transformer or your team F-ed up.
Second, who said the transformer does explosion damage? What it does is pull the spheres into a tight cluster so that all your AoEs, be it CSV, TS, mines, grav wells, isometric charges, warp plasma, anything else, etc., deal with them WHILE you're taking down the transformer.
I seriously don't understand how this isn't clear and self-evident.
fmgtorres, yes and that's why you don't pop a GW off until the 4 corners are taken care of. At that point you'll know if your team is working well or not. If not? Save the GW just in case.
I'm not advocating (nor is anybody else) reckless use of the GW. It is situation dependent. However, the knee-jerk condemnation of a guy for using it appropriately against the transformer? It baffles me.
~90% of the playerbase uses ~10% or less of their ship's ability - with that fact in mind, do you think it is really a good idea to assume someone is doing something in the correct manner, unless you know the person somehow?
I drop GW on the transformer to pull the spheres to it so they are all bunched where everyone is firing. That way we pop the transformer and the spheres at the same time.
Triple Picard facepalm with Riker on top.
Hilarious part is, you do that despite seeing the exlanation why its a stupid and detrimential thing to do and yet you boast (in your signature) that knowledge is power.
May 2013, automatic permanent ban for mentioning gold-seller sites pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should. moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
Hilarious part is, you do that despite seeing the exlanation why its a stupid and detrimential thing to do and yet you boast (in your signature) that knowledge is power.
Let me see, take down four generators. Defense spheres appear and hit random shield facings. Drop GW on the transformer and the spheres end up on top of the transformer when 80% of the time people are spamming cannon and torp spread. All targets in same place. Nanites are still back at gate and out of range of the GW. So what exactly is the fail?
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Let me see, take down four generators. Defense spheres appear and hit random shield facings. Drop GW on the transformer and the spheres end up on top of the transformer when 80% of the time people are spamming cannon and torp spread. All targets in same place. Nanites are still back at gate and out of range of the GW. So what exactly is the fail?
So you're talking a high DPS group, and you're running grav well instead of, I dunno, TR or something else useful to debuff the tac cube instead of just holding it?
Look, there's really no point at all in dropping GW on the transformer, and if you misjudge the DPS of the group you could very well blow the optional with that stunt--which come Delta Rising will mean blowing the ENTIRE mission.
So you're talking a high DPS group, and you're running grav well instead of, I dunno, TR or something else useful to debuff the tac cube instead of just holding it?
Look, there's really no point at all in dropping GW on the transformer, and if you misjudge the DPS of the group you could very well blow the optional with that stunt--which come Delta Rising will mean blowing the ENTIRE mission.
No that is a medium DPS group that has taken the generators down swiftly. GW pulls the spheres that can disrupt things into the target area.
In a high DPS group I am supplemental fire and toss what ship heals I have.
In low DPS I am usually using the GW and tractors to stop nanites till the transformer pops.
Different tactics for different scenarios. Most medium to high DPS don't need the nanites held back as the transformer will go down well before they are in range.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
No that is a medium DPS group that has taken the generators down swiftly. GW pulls the spheres that can disrupt things into the target area.
In a high DPS group I am supplemental fire and toss what ship heals I have.
In low DPS I am usually using the GW and tractors to stop nanites till the transformer pops.
Different tactics for different scenarios. Most medium to high DPS don't need the nanites held back as the transformer will go down well before they are in range.
With medium DPS, you should hold the nanites back in case somebody starts lagging.
The guard spheres are a petty annoyance for anyone with TT (and seriously, who DOESN'T run TT???). There's really no point to your strategy, it provides very minor benefits while greatly increasing the likelihood of some hyper-elite dude exploding in rage.
With medium DPS, you should hold the nanites back in case somebody starts lagging.
The guard spheres are a petty annoyance for anyone with TT (and seriously, who DOESN'T run TT???). There's really no point to your strategy, it provides very minor benefits while greatly increasing the likelihood of some hyper-elite dude exploding in rage.
Going to point out that my medium tactic has so far not failed the optional. And then sheepishly raise my hand for the same Atrox build that is using GW and not TT. Though I think every other build I have uses it.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Going to point out that my medium tactic has so far not failed the optional. And then sheepishly raise my hand for the same Atrox build that is using GW and not TT. Though I think every other build I have uses it.
Well then you've been pretty darn lucky.
And yeah, the Atrox is pants for tac, but it's in the unique position of seldom drawing enough aggro to NEED TT.
No that is a medium DPS group that has taken the generators down swiftly. GW pulls the spheres that can disrupt things into the target area.
In a high DPS group I am supplemental fire and toss what ship heals I have.
In low DPS I am usually using the GW and tractors to stop nanites till the transformer pops.
Different tactics for different scenarios. Most medium to high DPS don't need the nanites held back as the transformer will go down well before they are in range.
And now imagine that first transformer goes down as planned. They go to second trans, generators pop in a jiffy, guard spheres jump in, you toss grav well on trans. So far so good. Then 2 guys get distracted by who knows what and use HY/CRF on spheres instead of trans, since they are all in one place and for them its confusing. Or the other two start poking nanite spheres just arriving from the gate. Or the guy who was actually dragging them (8k dps followed by two 3k ones) needs to answer the phone, so he just goes AFK.
I pug ISE all the time. I have a pretty collection of screenshots of me poking the gate while 4 remaining players are dead. I saw pairs of players, using quite decent rep gear, losing to single spheres.
Point is, there are no rules in pugging. Even if its going awesomely well one second, does not mean it will not become a dragged out session of teeth pulling in the next second. Hell, the smoother it goes, the more I expect it to go south. If you have a grav well thats not really needed at the moment, save it because there is a really good chance it will make a difference between a neat run and a jumbled mess just moments later.
Want a real hair-pulling challenge? Go for eSTF round on weekend Eurozone prime time. You will see wonders beyond your comprehension.
Maybe you will meet that guy in 10-injuries A2B Obelisk running Type 8s.
May 2013, automatic permanent ban for mentioning gold-seller sites pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should. moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
Okay, this isn't a worst by any means...it was just kind of a funny one, imho.
I get hit by a HY3 Plasma torp - dead.
21s later, another guy gets hit by a Plasma torp - dead.
19s later, a third guy gets hit by a Plasma torp - dead.
Up until that point, it was just folks flying around going wheee - no 10s rule here, pop one - pop two - pop three - pop four - pop the Trans - repeat on the other side...obliterate the Gateway.
And then having three folks drop like that, lol...was kind of funny, imho.
"Hello, my name is Inigo of Borg. You killed my Gateway. Prepare to die."
Maybe I should be asleep...but I thought it was a trip.
edit: Meh, it was only a 200603 raw torp that popped me...had hoped it was a 300k+ one. But looking at the actual parse was funny, because one of the guys managed to shoot the fourth HY which would have popped him.
Originally Posted by feiqa View Post
No that is a medium DPS group that has taken the generators down swiftly. GW pulls the spheres that can disrupt things into the target area.
In a high DPS group I am supplemental fire and toss what ship heals I have.
In low DPS I am usually using the GW and tractors to stop nanites till the transformer pops.
Different tactics for different scenarios. Most medium to high DPS don't need the nanites held back as the transformer will go down well before they are in range.
See to me this looks like a tactic that could work well in some instances but has a huge chance to go horribly wrong.
What if the guys killing the transformer are not paying attention and the nanite spheres get close enough to be caught in the GW's pull? Then you've just hoovered up all the NPC's you were supposed to keep away from the transformer so they are now right on top of it.
Some people have grav wells with enormous ranges on them so you can't guarantee what you'll catch with it.
I think using it to keep things away from the transformers is a far better tactic. In ISE or KSE grav wells are there for crowd control, leave the damage dealing to those with the heaviest weapons.
lordsteve: That's where common sense and good judgment comes into play. You judge the team by how coordinated it is. You see how fast the cube and spheres are taken out in the initial attack. You see how fast and/or how evenly the 4 corners go down. You use your judgment if you think the group is on the ball or not.
If yes: GW that transformer. If no: Save it just in case.
It's the same as any other boff ability. You use CSV at the wrong time you'll get dead really fast sometimes. If you use all your heals on a friendly when you have 5% hull and are losing 1000 per tick, you'll get dead soon. Common sense and good judgment are key. Though, granted, this can be totally absent in some pugs.
notoryczny: Losing to single spheres isn't the player's fault many times. The borg have been buffed repeatedly over the past couple years. The spheres often do more damage than gateways now. Further, if the server is crapping bricks instead of running properly, it can give them 100k uber-hit ability with every shot. If, as you say, they had good gear then I wouldn't necessarily blame them unless it was 100% user error. There's just too much BS programming with the spheres to lay that solely on the player in 99% of cases.
notoryczny: Losing to single spheres isn't the player's fault many times. The borg have been buffed repeatedly over the past couple years. The spheres often do more damage than gateways now. Further, if the server is crapping bricks instead of running properly, it can give them 100k uber-hit ability with every shot. If, as you say, they had good gear then I wouldn't necessarily blame them unless it was 100% user error. There's just too much BS programming with the spheres to lay that solely on the player in 99% of cases.
I never underestimate spheres, they can very quickly overpower anyone who isn't paying attention or players who think they can ignore them because they aren't big enough.
Just because they aren't capital ships doesn't mean they are not dangerous. A cube will normally fire a couple of its weapons at a time at you, but if you get swarmed by 5+ spheres then that is a whole lot more shots they are putting out and targeted only at you.
My take on it is if it's shooting me I kill it, unless it's a single smaller npc who I can ignore or heal from until my main target is down.
lordsteve: That's where common sense and good judgment comes into play. You judge the team by how coordinated it is. You see how fast the cube and spheres are taken out in the initial attack. You see how fast and/or how evenly the 4 corners go down. You use your judgment if you think the group is on the ball or not.
And this really is where the better players show through. A lot of the poorer quality players will just spam abilities without really thinking, rather than timing things properly.
I'm not saying the original suggestion of grav wells on the transformer was totally wrong but in the wrong hands it could be really bad, a poor quality player wouldn't know how best to use the ability.
You see similar problems with people spamming torps at shielded targets. A high quality player will time a torp volley exactly when the shields drop for maximum impact.
Comments
I drop GW on the transformer to pull the spheres to it so they are all bunched where everyone is firing. That way we pop the transformer and the spheres at the same time.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
It was the first run of the day, and I was interested to see what a gear change I made just before doing it would have on the parse. I switched out a Mk XI Rare Partigens for the Hydro console. It would allow me to drop my Eng power while keeping the same Defense (70%) while giving me that little bump to Aux and allowing me to shift Eng power to Aux. Yep, I was looking to increase the healing coming from AtS, HE, and TSS some.
Boom...I died 3 times and another guy died 5 times. I only took ~50-60k more damage than usual, so that doesn't stand out in the least. The amount of the damage the one guy took - I'm figuring he simply didn't have any damage resists. No big deal - it happens, though it really shouldn't have - cause heals should have kept him and myself up.
But nope...lol...I didn't even do half the healing that I normally do. Was a WTF moment - knew something was off during the run (thus the comment I made in team while waiting on a respawn, saying it looked like heals weren't doing anything)...and sure enough, looking at the parse after the run...meh, /facepalm.
Lol, I checked a parse for the guy from yesterday I had - took almost 200k more damage without dying - nobody died.
That's the first one I've had like that, where "heals don't work" - have had plenty of lol runs where the Borg weapons are overcharged and they obliterate things; but never had one where healing was dorked...like I had no Aux at all - instead of having more Aux.
Really, how difficult is it to stop those little probes?
My character Tsin'xing
*facepalms*
You are either really really stupid, a troll, or have absolutely zero idea that you are doing is harmful.
Ill run with the latter, as if your sig is remotely serious the latter is most likely.
In ISE, you do NOT want the Spheres to get remotely near the Transformer. Ever. You see, when a Nanite Sphere activates its effect on a Transformer, it fails the Optional objective, and costs your team 15 marks.
Your Grav Well drags these Nanite Spheres in, and therefore, it means they heal the Transformer failing the Optional.
Grav Welling Nanite Spheres is a good plan, but you do it as soon as they warp in, when they are still at the gate. That way they don't cause problems.
Even if he means those - I hope he does - it's a waste of GW. If you have GW you should use it on the spheres that appear at the gate as soon as they do, providing more time for you and the team.
There's no point in parking an enemy that is near you.
There is a point, actually. If you kill the transformer fast, as most teams do, you don't even have to worry about containing the nanite healer spheres. You can simply kill them as normal.
In most PESTF or 10k matches, it's never an issue. You kill the transformer before the healers are even past the edge of the gateway they came through.
In such a case, grav well works perfectly fine on the transformer. It's only in teams where you have woefully inadequate firepower that you need to worry. In THOSE rare cases, the 10% rule was developed and works. You still don't bother with the healers. You focus ALL firepower on the transformer. To take firepower OFF the transformer actually creates the bad situation whereby you must delay or deal with the healers, when if you simply ignore them and concentrate fire on the main target, you avoid the issue entirely.
It really isn't an issue unless the team doesn't know what it's doing. For a random pug? Sure... if you get the sense that it's taking too long to pop the 4 corners you know you might need that GW to hold back nanite spheres. Otherwise, don't denounce a player for using it where it's more efficient.
Oh wait, of course you need some power behind it to make that work, I forgot that.
The transformer does not deal any damage when it explodes, so it's pointless anyway to try and drag the normal spheres towards the transformer. They won't be damaged by it.
Even if you're on top of the transformer when it explodes, you won't be damaged in any way and neither will the spheres.
So, use those gravity wells on the nanite spheres when they're close to the gate. Unless you (not specifically you, but in general) need the damage from the gravity well to destroy the transformer, but if you depend on a gravity well for its damage then you shouldn't be doing elite STF's.
I've been in many in which is precisely the GW that saves the day as some hotshot blows up a transformer without having noticed that the team is not powerful enough to take down the others and the generator in time.
So yeah, several along the lines of your second paragraph.
First, nanite spheres shouldn't get even close to the transformer or your team F-ed up.
Second, who said the transformer does explosion damage? What it does is pull the spheres into a tight cluster so that all your AoEs, be it CSV, TS, mines, grav wells, isometric charges, warp plasma, anything else, etc., deal with them WHILE you're taking down the transformer.
I seriously don't understand how this isn't clear and self-evident.
fmgtorres, yes and that's why you don't pop a GW off until the 4 corners are taken care of. At that point you'll know if your team is working well or not. If not? Save the GW just in case.
I'm not advocating (nor is anybody else) reckless use of the GW. It is situation dependent. However, the knee-jerk condemnation of a guy for using it appropriately against the transformer? It baffles me.
~90% of the playerbase uses ~10% or less of their ship's ability - with that fact in mind, do you think it is really a good idea to assume someone is doing something in the correct manner, unless you know the person somehow?
Triple Picard facepalm with Riker on top.
Hilarious part is, you do that despite seeing the exlanation why its a stupid and detrimential thing to do and yet you boast (in your signature) that knowledge is power.
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
Let me see, take down four generators. Defense spheres appear and hit random shield facings. Drop GW on the transformer and the spheres end up on top of the transformer when 80% of the time people are spamming cannon and torp spread. All targets in same place. Nanites are still back at gate and out of range of the GW. So what exactly is the fail?
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
So you're talking a high DPS group, and you're running grav well instead of, I dunno, TR or something else useful to debuff the tac cube instead of just holding it?
Look, there's really no point at all in dropping GW on the transformer, and if you misjudge the DPS of the group you could very well blow the optional with that stunt--which come Delta Rising will mean blowing the ENTIRE mission.
No that is a medium DPS group that has taken the generators down swiftly. GW pulls the spheres that can disrupt things into the target area.
In a high DPS group I am supplemental fire and toss what ship heals I have.
In low DPS I am usually using the GW and tractors to stop nanites till the transformer pops.
Different tactics for different scenarios. Most medium to high DPS don't need the nanites held back as the transformer will go down well before they are in range.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
With medium DPS, you should hold the nanites back in case somebody starts lagging.
The guard spheres are a petty annoyance for anyone with TT (and seriously, who DOESN'T run TT???). There's really no point to your strategy, it provides very minor benefits while greatly increasing the likelihood of some hyper-elite dude exploding in rage.
Going to point out that my medium tactic has so far not failed the optional. And then sheepishly raise my hand for the same Atrox build that is using GW and not TT. Though I think every other build I have uses it.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Well then you've been pretty darn lucky.
And yeah, the Atrox is pants for tac, but it's in the unique position of seldom drawing enough aggro to NEED TT.
except for the boarding parties. . .
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Doffed Transfer Shield Strength.
And now imagine that first transformer goes down as planned. They go to second trans, generators pop in a jiffy, guard spheres jump in, you toss grav well on trans. So far so good. Then 2 guys get distracted by who knows what and use HY/CRF on spheres instead of trans, since they are all in one place and for them its confusing. Or the other two start poking nanite spheres just arriving from the gate. Or the guy who was actually dragging them (8k dps followed by two 3k ones) needs to answer the phone, so he just goes AFK.
I pug ISE all the time. I have a pretty collection of screenshots of me poking the gate while 4 remaining players are dead. I saw pairs of players, using quite decent rep gear, losing to single spheres.
Point is, there are no rules in pugging. Even if its going awesomely well one second, does not mean it will not become a dragged out session of teeth pulling in the next second. Hell, the smoother it goes, the more I expect it to go south. If you have a grav well thats not really needed at the moment, save it because there is a really good chance it will make a difference between a neat run and a jumbled mess just moments later.
Want a real hair-pulling challenge? Go for eSTF round on weekend Eurozone prime time. You will see wonders beyond your comprehension.
Maybe you will meet that guy in 10-injuries A2B Obelisk running Type 8s.
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
I get hit by a HY3 Plasma torp - dead.
21s later, another guy gets hit by a Plasma torp - dead.
19s later, a third guy gets hit by a Plasma torp - dead.
Up until that point, it was just folks flying around going wheee - no 10s rule here, pop one - pop two - pop three - pop four - pop the Trans - repeat on the other side...obliterate the Gateway.
And then having three folks drop like that, lol...was kind of funny, imho.
"Hello, my name is Inigo of Borg. You killed my Gateway. Prepare to die."
Maybe I should be asleep...but I thought it was a trip.
edit: Meh, it was only a 200603 raw torp that popped me...had hoped it was a 300k+ one. But looking at the actual parse was funny, because one of the guys managed to shoot the fourth HY which would have popped him.
See to me this looks like a tactic that could work well in some instances but has a huge chance to go horribly wrong.
What if the guys killing the transformer are not paying attention and the nanite spheres get close enough to be caught in the GW's pull? Then you've just hoovered up all the NPC's you were supposed to keep away from the transformer so they are now right on top of it.
Some people have grav wells with enormous ranges on them so you can't guarantee what you'll catch with it.
I think using it to keep things away from the transformers is a far better tactic. In ISE or KSE grav wells are there for crowd control, leave the damage dealing to those with the heaviest weapons.
If yes: GW that transformer. If no: Save it just in case.
It's the same as any other boff ability. You use CSV at the wrong time you'll get dead really fast sometimes. If you use all your heals on a friendly when you have 5% hull and are losing 1000 per tick, you'll get dead soon. Common sense and good judgment are key. Though, granted, this can be totally absent in some pugs.
notoryczny: Losing to single spheres isn't the player's fault many times. The borg have been buffed repeatedly over the past couple years. The spheres often do more damage than gateways now. Further, if the server is crapping bricks instead of running properly, it can give them 100k uber-hit ability with every shot. If, as you say, they had good gear then I wouldn't necessarily blame them unless it was 100% user error. There's just too much BS programming with the spheres to lay that solely on the player in 99% of cases.
I never underestimate spheres, they can very quickly overpower anyone who isn't paying attention or players who think they can ignore them because they aren't big enough.
Just because they aren't capital ships doesn't mean they are not dangerous. A cube will normally fire a couple of its weapons at a time at you, but if you get swarmed by 5+ spheres then that is a whole lot more shots they are putting out and targeted only at you.
My take on it is if it's shooting me I kill it, unless it's a single smaller npc who I can ignore or heal from until my main target is down.
And this really is where the better players show through. A lot of the poorer quality players will just spam abilities without really thinking, rather than timing things properly.
I'm not saying the original suggestion of grav wells on the transformer was totally wrong but in the wrong hands it could be really bad, a poor quality player wouldn't know how best to use the ability.
You see similar problems with people spamming torps at shielded targets. A high quality player will time a torp volley exactly when the shields drop for maximum impact.