PvP question...

apophis77

So, I've picked up PVP again recently, and I have to know, how do people do so much damage so fast sometimes?

For example, this one guy in a Jem'Hadar ship kept us spawn-locked for the entire match while his team sat at points. He dealt such tremendous damage, we couldn't even move. Now, I don't have the best Gear, but I'm usually able to at least stand-up in PVP, but this was a slaughter.

I'm wondering, does he just have really good gear, or what?

I'm lvl 50, running mostly MK XI gear from STFs, same with most of the rest of our group. We just could not touch him. At the end, he had dealt us over 1 million damage in the 10ish minutes the game lasted


Whatever it was, if it was a glitch/hack, his anme was Talon Jonas Owns You, and his ship was i.k.s. you dead bro.

So please, is this just amazing skill, or what?

apophis77

I should add, he seemed to fly at impossibly fast speeds, and even tractors did almost nothing.

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azurianstar

Reminds me of a similar situation a week ago, being blown away by a Jem'Hadar fighter. Even with a Cruiser with every defense buff, skill, and abilities, it chewed me up. Right there and then, I thought to myself, I'll go back into retirement.

Others I know in the STF and Accolade channels had similar thoughts, they had more fun in private queues than in public. Especially in set up limits like no consoles, no Phased Tetryons, No Spiral Disruptors. That way PvP is longer and more fun like in the "old" days, than the newer "boom - dead in 3 seconds".

I hope that whomever took over Gozer's task in PvP will keep such things in mind.

theindefatigable

Ah, I have run into that guy. Frankly, anyone with a toon name and ship name like that is simply being a prick--the unfortunate thing is that sometimes these guys are actually good. While I've often had reactions to such players similar to the OP's (I thought I knew how this game worked? What piece of gear didn't I get? What skill didn't I train in?), I now believe that there usually is some recourse against even the best players. It just takes a lot of research, discussion, experimentation, and the acquisition of (sometimes very expensive) gear to stop them. Even then, he is flying what is considered the best ship in the game, so that is going to be difficult to deal with anyway.

It'll probably take some time to get back into PvP. I had the same problem earlier this year when I decided to give it another try. Now, I can at least hold my own.

I don't know what setup that particular player is using, but I wonder if he would be susceptible to power drains. Energy Siphon III + multiple Mk XII Flow Regulators can drain a wicked amount of power, though this can be countered somewhat. Polarize Hull and Attack pattern Omega get you out of tractor beams, but I believe multiple tractors can confound polarize hull. You can also try to slow players down with carriers packing runabouts, with Eject Warp Plasma/Vent Theta Radiation/Metreon Gas, chroniton torpedoes (I'm not sure how effective that is though), Viral Matrix III for general mayhem, and Gravity Well. Basically, bring a science vessel/carrier or two. Thermionic torpedoes + the Torpedo: High Yield BOFF ability might also be worth a try if one of you has them off a tholian ship.

As for speed...well, with the highest base turn rate of any ship available to Starfleet, he is going to be able to maneuver well at higher speeds than you. Other ways of "going faster" include purple conn officer DOFFs which reduce the recharge time of evasive maneuvers (I do this), batteries/deuterium burn (I don't use consumables but I wonder how many players do), attack pattern omega (I use it on all my escorts), and some engineering BOFF abilities that I doubt he would be using. Get to know all of the bridge officer abilities, talk to other pvp'ers about their setups, read and post on the forums, and eventually you'll improve like I did and continue to do. Also, if you are not good at something--say, killing cruisers in 10 seconds flat--find something else that you might be good at and run that for a while to build up confidence. I tried tanking for a while until I became confident enough to try science setups and then return to high-damage setups.

In the end, though, unless you are a powergamer, it IS frustrating to face these kinds of players in random pick-up-games, especially when they flaunt their skill to your face in such an adolescent manner. I had an encounter in Ker'rat today where I was the only KDF player and the spawn was controlled by a half dozen or more Starfleet characters. I was content to just fly around waiting for more klinks and getting blown up every couple minutes while other players said things like "poof!" and "fried klingon" and I actually really wasn't offended because what else were all those guys going to do? However, after I got annoyed about some players' use of autofire, another guy whom I believe is something of a well-known troll started trash talking me, calling me just a whiner because I was losing. He deliberately seemed to forget that I was holding up pretty well in a bird of prey against six or more enemy players without cloaking and running. Well, I waited for more klinks to show up, and then when he was fighting a member of the famous Sad Pandas fleet I decloaked and went to town on him, watched his ship (named the U.S.S. Hitler, incidentaly) explode, laughed, and left the system. Sometimes that is all you can do...

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travelingmaster

sophlogimo wrote: »

The ship he has (the Jem'hadar Attack ship) is superior to each and every other ship in the game. Few people will argue that. Superior turn rate, superior hit points, superior consoles to most ships (10 instead of 9). And the Boff layout is quite useable.

The player you mention, at least last time I encountered him, uses an all-cannon escort build: Dual Heavy cannons fore, turrets aft, for maximized frontal assault firepower. That alone, buffed by the corresponding weapon type's tactical consoles, will be very potent in his front 45 degree arc.

Add to this that he will cycle Attack Pattern Omega (probably 1, in two of his tac boff slots), which will not allow you to grasp him with a tractor beam, most of the time. If he also took Polarize Hull, that could fill the gaps. Cannon Rapid Fire for added maximum damage also.

Moving so fast can be aided by equipping three purple Conn Officers, which reduce the Cooldown for Evasive maneuvers to 15 seconds... in other words, 33% of the time he will run on Evasive, increasing his speed, turn rate and Defense. If that is what he did.


Also note that many full-time PvPers play "Alien" characters... you will find it easy to identify which four traits they selected from the list at charcter creation. Not one of them will be a ground trait.

Yeah, this seems to be the most plausible scenario, given what the OP decribed. Frankly, that's about what I'd be running in a JHAS if I had one on my KDF tactical toon.

theindefatigable

Agreed, and a player like that will require either another very well setup pvp'er to stop him or will require some good teamwork and the right combination of tactics.

syberghost

I would recommend you do some reading on the PvP Gameplay Feedback forum; there's a very skilled bunch of folks there who understand all the ins and outs, and you will learn a lot.

supergaminggeek

Agreed with all of the above.
And don't name names. Against the rules.

atomicfb

You can take heart in the fact that several months ago the same individual was in the TTS channel boasting and one of the other players basically told him to put up or shut up and smeared him good in private battles.

apophis77

Thanks for the suggestions and info. I'm gonna talk to my fleet about ways to improve my pvpability and maybe practice with them. I haven't really done PVP since before the Jem-Hadar ship existed (I'm a lifetimer and I leave and come back fairly often).

crusty8mac

This particular player is an above average player, I wouldn't call him one of the best. All his captain names are similar to other, actually good players, he talks smack and uses tactics like spawn camping. Really, I don't think anyone respects him.

As to your own build, definitely go to the PvP forums and ask questions.