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Sci ground PvP

guglifguglif Member Posts: 88 Arc User
edited February 2013 in PvP Gameplay
Hello everyone,
First, let me say I'm quite a newbie in PvP, especially ground. Then, I was wondering if a sci captain can beat, or at least kill 2 or 3 times a tactical captain in a duel which kit to use, tactics, and a few more suggestions :rolleyes: .
Most tacs I've played against use the "Operative" kit that allows to do lunge and stealth module.
Do I have any chanche? :confused:
Of course, even if you don't do 1vs1 every bit of information will help, also to let me know better how sci have to be used in ground PvP :D
Post edited by guglif on

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  • devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
    edited January 2013
    Of the little knowledge i have of pvp ground, the first thing that pops to mind is any kit that controls and holds. CC is your key, so use it.
    Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

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  • guriphuguriphu Member Posts: 494 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Medic is your best counter to Operative. Physicist is your best counter to Fire Team, unless your opponent is a Caitian, in which case you're back to Medic again. This is because one can Lunge or Pounce out of Gravitic, and at point blank range tac damage vastly exceeds Physicist damage, but at long range, Physicist damage dominates.

    The information contained here will help you get started on this. http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=517971 Signing up for the 'bootcamp' on Saturday, if you haven't done so already, will also be helpful.

    Your ability to defeat your opponent is going to be based on three things in sequence:

    1: Damage mitigation to survive the superbuff

    Secure this by wearing good armor (polyalloy or STF armor), maximizing your dodge (crouch, gambling device, Omega shield if possible), and pre-buffing against the attack (nanites to heal you up if you're knocked and can't heal with your other powers, vascular regenerator, even a precisely timed Medical Tricorder if you can work it in. Note that your heals all boost resistance. Use double-tap roll or sprint to keep your dodge high while evading the worst of the pulsewave shot (if you take a pulsewave shot from 5 meters, it does about half the damage it does at 0 meters). Avoid flank damage.

    If your opponent uses pets (shard clones, security escorts) keep the fight on the move, use cover to space out your timings, and focus your fire on the pets, not your opponent. You cannot sustain the combined damage and procs of his pets and him at the same time.

    Note that you can hear a cloaker coming if your ambient and music sounds are turned off. As they pass the 25 meter mark, you'll hear a whoosh sound like the sound of somebody activating a cloak. You can also hear them as they buff up. Hit your tricorder scan to try to reveal them before they're ready, and run Vascular Regenerator to keep your resists high.


    2: Aggressive response, taking advantage of the tac's low capacity to sustain a long fight

    Nanoprobe infestation, tricorder scan. Apply sustained damage from medium distance, while keeping the tac out of pulsewave range if possible. If your opponent is not superbuffed up and doesn't have Tactical Initiative running, you can pop a Power Cell to boost your damage more. Keep your healthbar high and space out your heals. Use a high damage exploit weapon like a compression pistol or type 3; tacs have minimal ability to clear exposes.

    3: Slowing your opponent down as you pursue for the kill.

    The best weapon for this purpose is the omega gun, if you have access to it. Failing that, you want knockback and stun. A stun pistol can be useful here to buy you an extra second. (It can also be useful in phase 1, disrupting the tac's approach into pulsewave range). Stun effects against players got massively nerfed a few months ago (stuns proc a 20 second immunity to stuns), and stun pistols are virtually useless as a result, but this is one place where you can use one effectively. Telekinesis, caitian Pounce, [kb3] weapons, and phaser weapons can all help slow an enemy's retreat. Use tricorder scan to debuff the opponent's stealth rating and keep him from vanishing on you. Operatives also move slower and can't sprint, so if you know where your opponent is, you can run up to him and use tricorder scan on yourself, which will reveal him.



    Your opponent is doing you a big favor by playing Operative. Medic can sustain an Operative oneshot, and after you do so, you have the advantage in damage, thanks to your debuffs and your ability to use exploit weapons to dominate the middle-distance fighting (all your heals clear exposes, and vascular regenerator clears them continuously, so you will almost never be exposed). Tac's capacity to sustain a long fight is tied to Suppressing Fire, which Operatives don't have.
  • gradstudent1gradstudent1 Member Posts: 633 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    guglif wrote: »
    Hello everyone,
    First, let me say I'm quite a newbie in PvP, especially ground. Then, I was wondering if a sci captain can beat, or at least kill 2 or 3 times a tactical captain in a duel which kit to use, tactics, and a few more suggestions :rolleyes: .
    Most tacs I've played against use the "Operative" kit that allows to do lunge and stealth module.
    Do I have any chanche? :confused:
    Of course, even if you don't do 1vs1 every bit of information will help, also to let me know better how sci have to be used in ground PvP :D

    I would also encourage you to check out PvP Boot Camp Ground, which will take place this Saturday. We have assembled some really good coaches who can address your questions. Here is the registration thread:

    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=518001

    Guriphu, who responded to your inquiry, is one of our coaches.=)
  • snoge00fsnoge00f Member Posts: 1,812 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    I love this kind of insight. I've been gathering much info on Ground PvP, so this is a huge help. Thanks to the OP and Guriphu for making it happen.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • redrickyredricky Member Posts: 1,004 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    I'm not very experienced at ground, but I have a side project toon that's a sci intended for ground.

    My suggestion, and it's probably crazy, is to try to melee him. The strategy is going to be to make it through his alpha strike and then beat him down while his abilities are on cooldown.

    -If he's using a pulsewave, make him waste his buffs from far away.

    -Damage Resistance (DR). The physician kit has 3 abilities to clear exposes, which you will absolutely have to do. One hypo gives physical DR (for the lunge), one gives energy DR, and one gives all damage DR. They all clear exposes when applied, so it's going to be your call whether to buff your DR all at the start or save an ability to clear the expose.

    -Dampening field to reduce his energy damage.

    -Neural Neutralizer as an "oh TRIBBLE" only because it has such a small range and may not work. Here's the thing about this ability, if you land the placate, check his buffs. It may be more important to take that time to either let his buffs expire, or to debuff him further, rather than get a few free swings in which will break the placate.

    -PBKB shields to interrupt, maybe, although it's less effective on a tac who is betting it all on one swing. This will be better if he decides not to run from you after his alpha fails.

    -Dealing damage: Dyoveline buffs your physical damage, and the duration is greater than most of his buffs. Scientific Aptitude increases your run speed, so don't let him get away. Nanoprobe Infestation so if you get an exploit it hits harder.

    -There's fleet armor that gives 20% to physical damage. IDK how invested you want to get in this.

    -Doffs: This is going to be significant, I think. There's a melee crit doff, and a melee knockback chance doff. If you can keep knocking him down that's good, don't let him run away for his buffs to come back up. The biochemist is going to be important because you want to reduce his DR with tricorder scan.

    -Weapons: This is tricky. The point is to bypass shields and keep knocking him down with a melee weapon. The bad part is that if you get an expose and you aren't in the right part of a combo you might flub the exploit. So I would say the other thing to take is a phaser compression pistol. We're going to go with the idea that after you make it through his alpha he's going to run away, so phaser it is. Also you can fire a compression pistol easily on the run. So if you get an expose chance while you're beating on him, you can either try for an exploit with the melee weapon or pull out the compression pistol, which is still going to have to eat through shields, but hopefully will be consuming Nanoprobe Infestation to buff it.

    My sci ground toon is Ferasan because they have the possibility for, at least according to my theory, some of the highest melee damage in the game. The bonus is that they have an innate ability to close the gap, which is the tough part for anybody trying to use melee.

    Anyway, that's my theory, it might work, it might not. There are other things like the gambling device from the lobi store and consumables like the ketracel stimulant that could give you an edge if it's close.

    Other than that, you could go with the Analyst kit and try to keep your distance if he's using a pulsewave. You're going to use the knockdowns from Sonic Pulse and Tachyon Harmonic when he gets close, and doff so those add the additional DR debuff. Tachyon Harmonic is super spammable. Figure out the range on it so you can try for the knockdown as soon as he's in range. Anesthezine has a run speed and damage debuff, but a really long animation. Triage when you can't stop him from pulling the trigger, before he pulls the trigger, it has a high DR but short duration.

    CC is going to be knockdown and run speed, I think. Everything that gives an actual hold is going to have a long cooldown and come with other stuff on the kit that isn't useful.

    Long post, started before other people replied, so I'll just add that all the other advice given is good and probably comes from more experience than I have.

    Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
    _______________
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    Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
  • radkipradkip Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Trying to melee a tac is probably one of the worst ideas you can try. Sure the stars may align and you'll knock them down with every melee strike, but when you don't, you usually take a super buffed pulsewave to the face.

    I've found range and situational awareness is usually the most favourable weapon against a tac. Most I've run into use the omega gun for the omega 3 piece set and a pulsewave, usually that stupid cryo launcher. If you can hear them super buffing from stealth, start running. If you see them superbuffing with Fire Team, run and try to keep range on them. Waste their buffs.

    If you can survive their burst, you can usually regroup and kill them before they get their cooldowns back unless they're really good at their gameplay. (most aren't)
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  • guriphuguriphu Member Posts: 494 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Melee is occasionally worth a try for medic vs fireteam, because suppressing fire doesn't debuff it. Use your omega gun primarily until the tac is on cooldown, then switch to your sword to pressure and kill. There's no reason to use a sword against operative.

    The damage resistance biochemist does not work, has never worked, and most likely will never work. The debuff indicator is inaccurate.
  • redrickyredricky Member Posts: 1,004 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    guriphu wrote: »
    The damage resistance biochemist does not work, has never worked, and most likely will never work. The debuff indicator is inaccurate.
    Wow that sux.

    OP, I would trust the other posters in this thread.
    radkip wrote: »
    Trying to melee a tac is probably one of the worst ideas you can try.
    Probably good advice :D.
    _______________
    CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
    Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
  • guglifguglif Member Posts: 88 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Thank you all, I'd like to join PvP bootcamp but my lifestyle (and timezone) doesn't allow me to, not to mention I'm not able to use teamspeak. However, all these suggestions made me much more fiducious to kill him at least 2 or 3 times, considering the duel is a fleet tournament :D
    I'll try to evade him in some ways but sometimes my camera get crazy...
    any idea to make it watching my back and not my front? It makes me turning my character and taking flanking damage

    EDIT: oh right, so at the end which weapons should I use, considering I have access only to the Mk X omega gun? I didn't spend that much time on reputation projects as I had to level up another toon

    Revenge of the EDIT (lol): I've got to tier 3 omega today, and I've seen I can get the Whole omega mk XI set. This should make things easier
  • radkipradkip Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    guriphu wrote: »
    Melee is occasionally worth a try for medic vs fireteam, because suppressing fire doesn't debuff it. Use your omega gun primarily until the tac is on cooldown, then switch to your sword to pressure and kill. There's no reason to use a sword against operative.
    Every time I've tried getting close to a Fire Team tac it's always bitten me in the rear, as I'm sure you've seen and demonstrated hundreds of times.

    With the sea of tacs running around where it's usually 4+v4+ tacs, their abilities don't have cooldowns.
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  • ericphailericphail Member Posts: 87 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    The damage resist biochemist doesn't work? Didn't know that.

    If it doesn't work and has never worked, why is it still listed and the Doff slottable:
    Oversight? Taunt? Trap for Science Captains to make their life harder? Hoping they'll fix it someday and don't feel like changing it in the meantime?
  • guglifguglif Member Posts: 88 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Forgot to ask
    If my opponent uses sweeping strikes etc, I've heard they put him in an animation lock. Any hint about how to get profit from this little lock? Maybe if I roll left I could shot him in his back
  • p2wsucksp2wsucks Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    redricky wrote: »
    ...
    -Damage Resistance (DR). The physician kit has 3 abilities to clear exposes, which you will absolutely have to do. One hypo gives physical DR (for the lunge), one gives energy DR, and one gives all damage DR. They all clear exposes when applied, so it's going to be your call whether to buff your DR all at the start or save an ability to clear the expose.

    ...

    Dylovene Hypospray was changed around season 4. It no longer gives damage resistance to physical attacks (it adds a HP boost now). Also, it's cooldown has been increased to 45 seconds (iirc it was 15 seconds).

    I used to stack 3 of these on 3-4 Sci boffs way back when to plow through PvE w/the super leaping sword attacks.
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  • radkipradkip Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    guglif wrote: »
    Forgot to ask
    If my opponent uses sweeping strikes etc, I've heard they put him in an animation lock. Any hint about how to get profit from this little lock? Maybe if I roll left I could shot him in his back
    The only real way to take advantage of an animation lock is to hit him hard and hit him fast, hopefully killing him before he can use his hypo. Or if you're in serious trouble, look for a corner to go around to take a breather, heal up, or wait for a hypo to come off cooldown.

    Any ground player who knows what they're doing is using RPG mode, and if he's attacking you with sweeping strikes, he's got you targeted and will follow you. Getting a flank off of that will come down to latency and how bad your opponent's computer is (I've noticed I'm not getting flanked by people I'm targetting now that I'm not at 3 fps). You'll never get around latency is you roll, which will lock you from firing as well.
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  • guglifguglif Member Posts: 88 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    Alright guys I've collected every bit of information I needed
    But what about doffs? They can give me more chances to win!
  • redrickyredricky Member Posts: 1,004 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    I'm totally bowing out of trying to give advice on this. So far at least two things don't work at all like I thought they did.

    Thanks for the info all.
    _______________
    CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
    Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
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