Cannot Kill Romulan Ship

tyranaal

I have been having this problem for awhile now, and a recent mission has made it all but impossible. I cannot kill the D'deridex Battleships that the Romulans throw at you. I've a Tactical officer on a Defiant-class ship kitted out as a torpedo boat; I open up with a broadside of High Yield quantum torpedoes, but it simply shrugs off the hits. After dancing around each other for a bit, it will eventually hit me with a tractor beam, then a torpedo salvo, and finally a trio of High Yield plasma torpedoes. I have Polarize Hull, and Torpedo Spread and Fire At Will to deal with the the plasma torps, but before I can recharge them it'll pump out the combo again! Or it'll hit me with Viral Matrix first and I can't fire any of my weapons anyway. The only way I've been able to take them at all is fighting for as long as I can and inflicting some hull damage, getting killed, respawning, and doing it all over again. It usually takes three or four tries before I can take one down!

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Birds of Prey fall before me with no trouble whatsoever, the D'deridex is the only problem, but it's a brick wall! I'm playing at the medium difficulty level, but I can't believe that the only solution is to drop difficulty every time I'm facing a single Romulan ship type!

defalus

First, Sci Team will counter Viral Matrix.

Second, one build won't work for every single race/faction, you're runing a torp build which may work well for you, but for Rommies go 3 DHC 1 Torpedo and a couple turrets aft and use Cannon Rapid Fire and High Yield Torpedo. In Science take Sci Team and Tractor Beam Repulsors, if it tracs you you know it's about to plasma torp you, hit repulsors to deal with them and knock the Rommie back and keep those DHCs on him.


Edit, if your still concerned with the Trac beams throw in Attack Pattern Omega which like Polarze Hull keeps you free if trac beams and boosts your dmg and dmg resists.
Should be easy.

daveyny

tyranaal wrote: »

I have been having this problem for awhile now, and a recent mission has made it all but impossible. I cannot kill the D'deridex Battleships that the Romulans throw at you. I've a Tactical officer on a Defiant-class ship kitted out as a torpedo boat; I open up with a broadside of High Yield quantum torpedoes, but it simply shrugs off the hits. After dancing around each other for a bit, it will eventually hit me with a tractor beam, then a torpedo salvo, and finally a trio of High Yield plasma torpedoes. I have Polarize Hull, and Torpedo Spread and Fire At Will to deal with the the plasma torps, but before I can recharge them it'll pump out the combo again! Or it'll hit me with Viral Matrix first and I can't fire any of my weapons anyway. The only way I've been able to take them at all is fighting for as long as I can and inflicting some hull damage, getting killed, respawning, and doing it all over again. It usually takes three or four tries before I can take one down!

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Birds of Prey fall before me with no trouble whatsoever, the D'deridex is the only problem, but it's a brick wall! I'm playing at the medium difficulty level, but I can't believe that the only solution is to drop difficulty every time I'm facing a single Romulan ship type!

Ya need at least a couple of beams to knock down it's shields.

Torpedos are mainly for Hull Damage... though they do do some shield damage, but usually not enough to make a kill without getting pounded on yourself.

hevach

Warbird's are mostly shields, so yeah, a torpedo boat isn't going to work. You could managed it in a science vessel, relying on science powers to drop shields, but even that's a pretty difficult tactic. In a Defiant you're close to helpless.

Some energy weapons and stay out of 5 km range (negates photonic shockwave and tractor beam, leaving you only the torpedo salvo to deal with), though, should be little problem.

defalus

A Tactical Officer in a Defiant should have more than enough firepower to take it out if he builds his ship to suit the situation.

attizz

If you have problem with this ship use the classical 3 dhc 1 torpedo build with turrets rear. First I suggest to stay out of the 5 km range, because the best attack this ship has is the tractor in combination with 3 heavy plasma torpedos (so a shield with plasma-resistance would be good). Next thing: You are fast, use it. Try to stay behind the ship and most of the powers will not hit you that often.

The best torpedo for the jump was the Klingon Hargh'peng Torpedo Launcher, because of the radiation damage over time at the hull even when enemies shields are up and the explotion at the end of the radiation, which makes enough aoe-damage to destroy heavy torpedos. With the right timing, no torpedo can survive long enough to hit you.

truewarper

If you have a comsole space for Sci, jamming Sensor kills Tractor Beam Lock everytime.

aavarius

I'm curious as to what difficulty you're playing on. I've never been able to beat a D'deridex on anything but Normal. I'm sure there are some of you out there that can chew them up on Elite, but they're some of the tougher critters I've found.

macfelly

I'll never understand people's fascination with building torpedo boats. Two dual heavy cannons two dual beam banks and two turrets and you can take out any ship in one, maybe two runs. You really don't need any torpedoes on an escort other than maybe one in the back if that's your thing. Attack Pattern Omega III is your friend when fighting anything that likes to tractor beam you.

travelingmaster

macfelly wrote: »

I'll never understand people's fascination with building torpedo boats. Two dual heavy cannons two dual beam banks and two turrets and you can take out any ship in one, maybe two runs. You really don't need any torpedoes on an escort other than maybe one in the back if that's your thing. Attack Pattern Omega III is your friend when fighting anything that likes to tractor beam you.

Yeah, I don't get it either. I thought the game's limited tutorials made it clear that torps are effectively useless against shields. . .thus requiring you to have enough DPS to knock the shields down before torpedoing the hull. I personally run 1 dual beam, 2 DHCs, and a quantum torp. Beam Overload is a wonderful move, excellent at taking out shields.

carl103

Probably because your told beam arrays suck vs hull, yet beam boats work quiet well.

Really they need to edress torp balance IMHO. Drop the global cooldowns, adjust the damage modifiers for hull and sheilds, (to bring them in line with beams), and bring their DPS in line with their fire arc, (i.e. same for all torp types as dual beam banks), i'd also put them all on an 10-15 second CD myself, with the exception of tricobolts which (since they're supposed to be burstier, and that is a big part of their advantage), i'd puch out to 20-30 seconds or so.

Right now despite being somwhat useful torps are the red headed step child of weapons.

p2wsucks

Unless the Romulan has a unique VM, Engineering Team clears VM.

NPCs generally have a lot of hull, so burst builds aren't as good as sustained dps. I'd just go w/4 dhcs (dual heavy cannons). Use APBx2 since most NPCs don't have TT. Use CRF 3, APO1, CVS1 to clear spam, TT to auto distribute your shields. If you're gonna use BO, TTSx, or HYT/TSV drop a turret for a beam array or torp and use piloting skills.

Use TB to lower target's defense and keep it in your forward arc while staying at it's side where it can't launch torps @ you. 2xEPTS (if you're not using Eng Team) will boost shield resists, shield power, and add shield regen. HE (hazzard Emitters) will clear plasma damage proc (among others), provide resist buff to hull, and HoT (Heal over Time).

Don't forget you have BFI (Brace for impact) to reduce torp damage. Evasives manuvers and full power to engines or Eng Batt should break you free of a single TB. All else fails just turn your exposed shield facing away from the enemy until you can distribute shields to the exposed facing.

Use cloak to pick the side you want to target while prebuffing what you can, and use TB as soon as you decloak. Start w/APB buffed to save your APO incase you're TB'd and to buff your hull damage. Often you'll rip apart NPCs before their defensive buffs trigger.

lordmalak1

A side attack ? What insanity drives a captain to take on a battleship from the side ? Try coming from his rear, pound the aft shield mercilessly and and continuously reinforce your front. He don't turn very well and his aft shield is weakest of all- stay on his TRIBBLE.

Shuttles have been doing this for ages in 'the vault'.

p2wsucks

lordmalak1 wrote: »

A side attack ? What insanity drives a captain to take on a battleship from the side ? Try coming from his rear, pound the aft shield mercilessly and and continuously reinforce your front. He don't turn very well and his aft shield is weakest of all- stay on his TRIBBLE.

Shuttles have been doing this for ages in 'the vault'.

I explained why, to avoid the torps. He's in a low hull ship and has trouble hitting BFI apparently. Torps fire in a 90 degree arc from the forward and rear facings. The side facings are the safest spot vs this ship for what he flies. Btw, rear shields are no less or more buffed than anyother facing.

twg042370

As suggested above: Go do as the Borg do, OP and adapt.

Go change your gear set up whenever dealing with a new species. Go change your Boff skills to counter the attacks you'll be facing. The AI isn't that varied and once you figure out their pattern you can have your counters ready.

But yeah, staying out of range is a pretty good idea as well. You'll get them blown up even from 9km away.

ajay80

tyranaal wrote: »

I have been having this problem for awhile now, and a recent mission has made it all but impossible. I cannot kill the D'deridex Battleships that the Romulans throw at you. I've a Tactical officer on a Defiant-class ship kitted out as a torpedo boat; I open up with a broadside of High Yield quantum torpedoes, but it simply shrugs off the hits. After dancing around each other for a bit, it will eventually hit me with a tractor beam, then a torpedo salvo, and finally a trio of High Yield plasma torpedoes. I have Polarize Hull, and Torpedo Spread and Fire At Will to deal with the the plasma torps, but before I can recharge them it'll pump out the combo again! Or it'll hit me with Viral Matrix first and I can't fire any of my weapons anyway. The only way I've been able to take them at all is fighting for as long as I can and inflicting some hull damage, getting killed, respawning, and doing it all over again. It usually takes three or four tries before I can take one down!

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Birds of Prey fall before me with no trouble whatsoever, the D'deridex is the only problem, but it's a brick wall! I'm playing at the medium difficulty level, but I can't believe that the only solution is to drop difficulty every time I'm facing a single Romulan ship type!

i found a simple way to counter the tractor beam i trainned one of my officers the sensor jam ability i hit that if they catch me in a tractor beam and the let go straight away loool

nohmalkiri

macfelly wrote: »

I'll never understand people's fascination with building torpedo boats. Two dual heavy cannons two dual beam banks and two turrets and you can take out any ship in one, maybe two runs. You really don't need any torpedoes on an escort other than maybe one in the back if that's your thing. Attack Pattern Omega III is your friend when fighting anything that likes to tractor beam you.

+1

Then again it's STO's fault since there isn't a tutorial explaining jack about the combat system and how most content can be beaten with the spacebar faceroll mode.

My PvEscort (I'm primarily a PvP Zombie Healer in a Sci Oddy) runs 3 DHC, 1 DBB and 3 Turrets. Cannon Rapid Fire and Beam Overload will melt pretty much any PVE content. I built this thing pretty much due to the prevalence of 'space bar hero' Cruisers in Elite STFs.

ajay80

macfelly wrote: »

I'll never understand people's fascination with building torpedo boats. Two dual heavy cannons two dual beam banks and two turrets and you can take out any ship in one, maybe two runs. You really don't need any torpedoes on an escort other than maybe one in the back if that's your thing. Attack Pattern Omega III is your friend when fighting anything that likes to tractor beam you.

would this be a good arsenal for the dread nought crusier?

corsair114

Science ships with Tactical captains make for murderous PvE torp boats. Any other ship class is unnecessarily hamstringing themselves if they have more than on torpedo launcher on any given facing. Practically speaking, 4 DHC's and 2 Turrets with two copies of scatter volley should let you park nose-to-nose with the big bad D'deridex and turn it into swiss cheese.

lordmalak1

p2wsucks wrote: »

I explained why, to avoid the torps. He's in a low hull ship and has trouble hitting BFI apparently. Torps fire in a 90 degree arc from the forward and rear facings. The side facings are the safest spot vs this ship for what he flies. Btw, rear shields are no less or more buffed than anyother facing.

Hmm, just stating what worked for me, But I'd rather stay out of that overloaded forward beam array arc. Is he using some 'odd' skill like torp spread or something ?

I seem to remember an early encounter in the story arcs where one has to put down a D'deridex in lvl30 ship (mine being a BoP). IIRC I had to decloak on his rear, unload and bug out, and repeat. I couldn't get closer than 5km because of the torps, but they are slow and easily outrun. At the time I was running a pair of MkIII ppl. DDC's and a photon torp.

...And the rear shield is ALWAYS the weakest in every other trek game I've ever played, it's impossible to tell in this game as the shield power is shown in percentage on the HUD. There's NO possible way someone would design a ship for frontal attacks and give the front shield the same power as the shield furthest away from the assault.

p2wsucks

lordmalak1 wrote: »

Hmm, just stating what worked for me, But I'd rather stay out of that overloaded forward beam array arc. Is he using some 'odd' skill like torp spread or something ?

I seem to remember an early encounter in the story arcs where one has to put down a D'deridex in lvl30 ship (mine being a BoP). IIRC I had to decloak on his rear, unload and bug out, and repeat. I couldn't get closer than 5km because of the torps, but they are slow and easily outrun. At the time I was running a pair of MkIII ppl. DDC's and a photon torp.

...And the rear shield is ALWAYS the weakest in every other trek game I've ever played, it's impossible to tell in this game as the shield power is shown in percentage on the HUD. There's NO possible way someone would design a ship for frontal attacks and give the front shield the same power as the shield furthest away from the assault.

The OP complained about torps, I replied w/a way he can avoid them (some sci abilities too). NPC energy weapons are a joke for the most part even w/BO, most encounters just require chaining EPTS w/TT. That said, w/e works for you.

Btw, you're making bad assumptions regarding shield HP distribution. Every player ship has evenly distributed shield HPs across the 4 facings. I've never seen anyone present any combat logs (the way you can tell if you really want) to show NPCs are any different.

gr8captain

my set up when going after romulans has always been dual phaser bank, Antiproton dual cannon, quantum torpedo up front.
In the back phaser beam array and tricobalt torpedo.

chews them up everytime.

covenanter

The Hilbert Guide (from Hilbert one of STO's best players)

http://denkbassin.de/sto/

Use the PvE set up

You'll kill the battle ships in a few seconds, when you're attack pattern alpha is up , a little longer when it is not.

The build in here will transform you game

The game does not instruct people enough in the skills or basics , most tac escorts are putting out about 20-40% of the damage they should and are very squishy because they use the wrong/not enough heals and the wrong equipment (ie best for PvE either 3 piece Borg set plus maco shield or all borg set).

This guide explains everything for an exteremely powerful build, it's very very good everybody should read it

mustrumridcully0

Basics:

1) Damage:

• - Most of your firepower against your enemies will come from energy weapons. Torpedoes are only good against hull.
• - Most of your firepower from energy weapons comes when you have lots of weapon energy. Weapon energy is - on most ships and builds - the most important energy level to maximize.
• Good Standard Weapon Setups are
  • Escort: Front - Focus on Dual Heacy Cannons, Aft ar efor Turrets. Consider one Dual Beam Bank or one Torpeod Launcher in the Front.
  • Cruiser: Most weapon slots filled with beam arrays. Broadsiding, e.g. keep enemies in your side arc.
  • Science Vessels: Most weapon slots filled with beam arrays. Broadsiding again. Science VEssels may experiment the most, but they'll always suffer for having the least weapon slots and need to compensate with good powers.

2) Survival:

• Distribute Shield Power. When your shields are up, your shield damage reduction helps you. If they are down, it doesn't. So you always want any facing that could possibly take damage have some shields. Distribute Shield Power ensures this. Also, all shield healing is per facing and doesn't overflow to other facings. So each shield at top when gaining a shield heal means you lose 1/4 of your potential healing!
• Tactical Team: When Distribute SHield Power is too slow, this works great as well. Use it when one facing under fire gets particularly low and see how energy is rapidly transfered from the other facings.
• Emergency Power to Shields. Starting at Commander Level, you can slot two. That means continual shield damage reduction, continually increased shield power for better regeneration and more shield damage reduction.
• Transfer Shield Strength: Go-to Shield Heal when EPtS doesn't cut it anymore.
• Hazard Emitters: Go-to Hull Heal that also cleanses plasma fires and similar "hazard"

lordmalak1

p2wsucks wrote: »

Btw, you're making bad assumptions regarding shield HP distribution.

So noted, just trying to help.

blackmarch0

travelingmaster wrote: »

Yeah, I don't get it either. I thought the game's limited tutorials made it clear that torps are effectively useless against shields. . .thus requiring you to have enough DPS to knock the shields down before torpedoing the hull. I personally run 1 dual beam, 2 DHCs, and a quantum torp. Beam Overload is a wonderful move, excellent at taking out shields.

Beam overload III is a bit OP, however as it is available id certainly say use it. For those who want be elite ship killers that is the way to go.

HOWEVER for those who enjoy a slightly slower pace and want a decent alternative.. There is one torpedo boat loadout that actually works,... The romulan special.

Load up with three plasmas and a harp in front or three plasmas and your preferred beam weapon, and two plasma mines in back, and have all your tac consoles pump your plasma projectile damage. Amake sure you have the related boff skills (i like having mine dispersal III, torp spread III, and high yield II ). and go have fun.
This works very well in the heavy escort carrier (use peregrines)

Yes you dont kill things in two seconds.. But you get to watch them rot to death while they still have full shields. You will also be most likely taking most the aggro in pve missions too, fair warning.

Another nice bonus with this setup is that it lets you dump your weapon enrgy into auxilery power.

Oh ya and make sure to have 3 doffs reducing torpedo CDs.