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Space vs Ground Combat
glorthox
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
When it comes to space combat, when you have the right gear you are at an even playing field as the borg. But when it comes to ground combat it seems way off. The borg can one shot our shields and take 75% of health off with a single blast. So how in the hell is that fair? I see more people queue'in up for space elites way more than ground and I think this is the reason why.
Post edited by glorthox on
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Although team work is a very important thing on the ground, more so than in space. If you don't have a team who knows exactly what to do, it's not gonna be fun or easy for you at all. I've ran many an IGE where the run goes well, all the until Becky's room, and where team work is most important, and hence why we don't finish it. Same applies for CGE, but not so much for Armek, as the actual gates to get there.
Ground Combat = plain horrible
Because for ground you actually need a balanced team(for the most part.. an all tac team can still breeze through a ground mission if done right).. so a engineer who can drop generators, a science with medical kit, and tacticals actually focusing fire while using overwatch to help the team while killing stuff will make even ground elites quite pleasant... with a little luck even possible with random groups in which I've had infected elite ground runs where no one has died because everyone did what they are supposed to within a team.
If it's done right with that type of balanced team, those heals and extra damage resistances you find those elite drones still hurt a lot when they critical but not 1 shot crits. Get an unblanaced team but they know what they're doing you'll make it quite alright (probably will die at some point though with no extra resistances from the 3 different careers). Get a bad team where people think the way to fight the borg is to skip around like they had 10 gallons of coffee with 2 massive sugar cubes expecting their armor and shields to take it all and survive.. well is going to be hard and frustrating with 1 shot criticals left and right.
"We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
Sincerely,
The Cube Assimilating Your Ship Right Now
__________________________________
Experience, Experience, Experience.
and most importantly, Experience.
and even more importantly, Teamwork. Get into an organized group, and if you're not quite sure what to do or need some advice, just ask, most players are kind and helpful.
If you're getting one shotted by elite drones, two pieces of personal advice.
1. You need the RIGHT gear, that means kits, shields, armor, weapons, devices (stack up on those hypos and shield charges, I recommend the Cordrazine Hypos, and the Plasma Resistance Shield Charges from Defera)
2. Tough, they're ELITE tactical drones after all. Best recommendation, get to melee range, and use either melee, or pulsewave assaults, he hits like a damp sponge, you might get a red mark, but it won't kill you.
Compare it to ground combat, where the class differences are very clearly defined. There are very specific and obvious differences between what a science officer, tactical officer, and engineering officer can do and what they are good at. Combine this with the typical "puzzle style" combat of the STF bosses and some of the stage gimmicks, and you have a formula that throws many players for a loop, especially since the solo ground missions don't call for the kind of coordination and synergy that STFs typically do.
As a result, ground combat requires more smarts and tactics, but is also more frustrating and demanding.
Truthfully, Ground combat isn't any more difficult than space combat.
There's just a different set of tactics to learn.
You know how in Elite endgame space combat, you can be one-shot by Tactical Cubes? Well in Elite endgame ground combat, you can be one-shot by Tactical Drones. You can avoid both happening by using certain powers and tactics.
The problem is that people get exposed to more and more difficult space enemy encounters as they level up, so they tend to learn at least some of the necessary tactics for endgame stuff as they go. And teamed content in space isn't that much different than solo content. But unlike space combat, ground combat at endgame is totally different to ground combat you'll have experienced up until then - you have no Bridge Officers with you, so you'll be a lot squishier than you're used to. You'll have to rely on teammates instead - your old tactics won't work, so you need to develop new ones.
The tactics you'll need to employ for endgame ground combat will work all the time, you just won't have needed to use them until endgame encounters. Things like Croutching and Rolling/Sprinting to minimize how often you get hit. Moving into Melee range of an enemy to stop them using their overpowered ranged attacks. CC powers. Shield Stripping. Even just using "Aim". (Not to mention carrying extra equipment: Remodulators, Hypos, Gambling Devices, etc. etc.)
Note also that if you're PUG'ing, you're going to have a much rougher time as a Tac than as an Engineer or a Science Captain in endgame ground combat.
In my experience, in PVE space combat Tacs are probably the most effective captain type. However on the ground, they're actually the least effective. Engineers (particularly Demolitions specialists) and Scis (with shield drains) can both kill NPC enemies very quickly, and are a lot more survivable. Playing as a Tac on the ground is basically "Hard mode": it's difficult (but not impossible) for Tacs to pull their weight in a PVE elite ground mission without requiring a lot of allied healing/buff support, since they just don't have the ability to mitigate incoming damage the same way that Scis or Engineers do. However with decent equipment and a lot of practice, most of that incoming damage can (thankfully!) be avoided altogether.
Next for survivability always carry Large Hypos. They are very cheap. Then get your Dodge bonus up high. You can do this with gear as well as the bonus from some set pieces. AND you can get it by crouching, sprinting, or rolling. Press C for crouch (+50% dodge), Shift = sprint (75% dodge), double tap W, A, S, D, Q, E for roll (+100% dodge). When you dodge a shot its damage is halved, BEFORE any resistance is calculated). So a 1000 damage shot turns into a 500 damage shot. Then your resistance is applied.
Flank Shots will get you killed. A flank shot reduces your damage resistance dramatically. So try to keep the borg infront of you. If you do decide to rush in, try to find a wall and put your back to it. It can save you from several flank shots.
I can solo an Elite Tactical Drone with my tac, sci, and engineer. I know my Sci and Engineer can solo Armek, I haven't tried with my tac, but I am very confident that I can. All borg will start slapping you when you are too close to them. This is great! Their slaps will put a smile on your face, since you know our mom hits a lot harder. Carry some Immunosupport Nanites incase they try to assimilate you. If they knock you back then great! That gives you several seconds of immunity to another knockback.
So if there is a large number of borg, hang back and crouch. Might as well press X for aim so you get the free 33% damage increase. If you face a single demi boss or boss, get close and let them slap you while you kill them. (Armek might be an exception, although with the right DPS giving him a facewave hug is a great setup).
Next try these kits depending on your profession:
Fire Team Kit
Squad Leader
Enemy Neutralization
Medic
Physicist
Starting out I would suggest you burn your kit as soon as you start to face the borg. This seems strange but most of your abilities will last several seconds and will carry you through the encounter. Include your Captain abilities. As you learn the benefits of each ability you can start stretching out your abilities. But dumping your kit will get you 70% of the way to doing the top DPS.
And again, remember to Crouch!
Here is a little sneak peak of how to dump a kit on a tac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtaXbMASX7s&feature=youtu.be
Unless you are point blank, in which case crouching is suicide since crouching doubles the damage you take from melee weapons.
But other than that, this post is mostly good. A few small minor errors, but nothing major enough to get you killed. Often.
Actually, counterintuitive as it might seem, crouching at point-blank range is still a viable tactic.
For two reasons:
Firstly, very few foes can deal meaningful damage in melee range. Taking double damage when the initial base damage is extremely low (and the recharge cycle on your foes melee attack is long) isn't really a big deal. Whilst you're in melee range of one Borg drone, the rest will likely still be shooting at you, so crouching and taking double damage from a low damage hit from one enemy is well worth the tradeoff.
Secondly, crouching confuses the heck out of the enemy AI. In fairness, it doesn't take much to confuse enemy AI in this game... but if you crouch and still use your gun when you're in melee range of something big and nasty, your foe tends to come down with a severe case of the what-the-heck-am-I-supposed-to-do-nows.
Nearly every elite PUG run I've been in that's worked has had someone tank Armek in melee range, whilst crouching. And in that situation, both of the above apply.
VERY GOOD RESPONSE!
And you should consider, that if you can increase your dodge chance close to a 100%, the incoming melee hits will be dodge and you are back to the normal damage.
Lets add it up:
Crouch : 50% Dodge
Omega Shield: 27% Dodge
Omega Set Bonus: 12.5% Dodge
Gambling Device: 10% Dodge
Total Dodge: 99.5% Dodge
Oh, and the 3 Piece set of Omega gives a 2.5% crit chance and severity. So if the whole team runs this, you get 12.5% crit chance and crit severity. With tactical officers chaining Strike Team you could see a team with 25% crit chance running around. And tactical officers with +30% crit chance. Talking about the borg dissolving from secondary pulsewave hits! Get some Science officers to spam tricorder scans and things really just start poofing infront of your eyes.
Of course there are several ways to tweak your dodge chance up. This is just one example. The idea is that with high dodge chance, you can take twice the amount of damage that you could before. Melee is not an issue against most NPC attacks. Especially the BORG! You will find assimilation to be the bigger issue. Well there is a device to counter that.
Caitians have a 10% Dodge bonus.
So putting this all together. You should always be in one of 3 states:
If you have a slow remodulator then use State 3 as often as you can during remodulation. You are not outputting any damage, during this time, you might as well not take any.
Tip: If you are new to the STFs or find it that you sometimes just get autowiped, hang back a bit. Stay behind other people. You can actually receive a fire shadow, from a borg auto spray attack, by hiding behind someone else. Let them take most of the damage. Especially if they know how to tank. You can still shoot through them. Avoid Blast Assaults and Miniguns, they will cause you extra agro. And they really have the lowest primary DPS with VERY dangerous animation locks. Go for a Sniper Rifle or Split Beam (Does agro as well but 3 targets only). This sounds counter to what was mentioned before. But, you want to avoid FLANK damage at all costs! Flank shots counter Dodge. If you charge ahead and get encircled you will receive Flank shots and all the dodge you have won't save you. If you are facing just a Boss, then go ahead and go face to face.
It is second nature for most to use Emergency Power to Shields when enganging, but not on the ground.
Reason: they pick kits that don't lend themselves well to tanking. On the ground, it's either or.
No tanking escort equivalent.