It would be a lot easier to overhaul the skills and equipment mechanics to let all ships do meaningful damage than it would be to expand every mission to have combat-, engineering-, and science-specific solutions.
Things like THAT needed to have been considered during the game's earliest design stages.
Hi. I have been playing this game for over a year now and now when I tried almost everything out... I don't feel like playing anymore.
The reason is that this game does not need any other ship/class but escorts.
Example would be a regular STF. Take 5escorts and you can finish STF on elite in a matter of 4minutes!
That can't be done with science or cruiser ships.
Now one might argue that those ships are not designed for damage and you would be right... But man, why do we have time limits on STFs and all kinds of fleet actions, events etc. when they struggle for them already?
I can destroy a group of ships in azure nebula just as an escort can while im in a science ship, but the thing is it will take me 3minutes and it takes escort to do so 30secs!
When I enter gorn minefield with an escort, almost every time I am rank 1 because I do insane DMG comparing to others - especially if they are flying cruisers or science ships, so I always get best rewards and after a while I feel sorry for them.
Question for developers - do you not see all of this?
You need to redesign this ASAP, we have been on this system since the start and its not working out.
You need to make roles mean something and needed. Why don't you make science ships more fun by lets say making it like this.
Grav well 3 - meh just a power
Photonic shockwave - meh just a power
But if you combine them, and use shockwave while target is being pulled by well, they would somehow react and cause massive aoe DMG.
You should also add class/ship only abilities and class/ship buffs!
So for example tanks would have debuffs that reduce enemys DMG, while science has sens analysis.
Also tanks would have some kind of buffs to improve passive repair of allied ships, while science would do the same for shields and escorts could buff its friends with small dmg buff.
This would make all classes and ships needed and desirable!
It would also break this linear, simple gameplay and add a lot of diversity.
Also this would mean that science ships could take a roll of damage - which they should be able to!
This post that I made is because I love this game a lot. And it pains me to see that you are developing it in a wrong way. Don't get me wrong, rep system is kinda fun, but its not even nearly important as making classes and ships fully work!
I bet that there is no player that can see at least some truth in what I said here.
Please comment on this matter, I would like to see everyone's opinions.
IMHO there are 2 point to focus on:
1) many missions are designed in a way that you do not need the support of sci or eng ships. Even if I played many times ISE with a 5 sci ships team and finisced it in 8-9 minutes. We need missions were time is not critical but you need not only dps but also several support ships. The hive space elite can be a start point, but we need missions and the NPC's AI to make support ships critical... Note: I do not want to be instant killed by borgs, it can be possible but it hasn't to be a rule... I think borgs should have new powers, ex. disable a ship's subsystem for a while (so that you need a support ship to restore them quickly and/or protect you while the systems are disabled).
2) we need a new generation of support ships, science ships in particular, onlya few science ships are good enough. About cruisers, I think we have enough good ones, but many players do not have a good build.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
sci and cruisers are far from obsolete, some of the best PvP players i ever meet were in sci ships, its really all about understanding exactly what each ability does and how and when to use them.
A well built science ship is a very deadly thing and not to be taken lightly, as far as cruisers it is possible to keep survivability and do some good damage.. again it really just falls on really understanding the game mechanics and abilities..
I have a few tactical characters and one of them uses a long range sci vessel, and he is much more effective then he was in a escort, ill even give you an example
i have a Fleet DSSV i run with a tac, i run with 5x Phased tet turrets, 1x kinetic beam, i run it with 2 piece omega (tet glider) boosted with flow capacitors to do about -50 to shields per hit, using a fast firing weapon like turrets or single cannons it allows you to just eat shields alive also using the turrets i have a much greater chance of the tet to proc and hurt the shields even more, phaser proc is nice if it hits their engines, or aux stops them from moving or healing, mixed with a boosted charge particle burst, once shields are down i hit them with viral and syphon, and use a alpha boosted photon wave, grav well, n kinetic beam and a fire on my mark to debuff their resistance.. and if they try to get away, tractor beam, or i can use repulsors to move them back towards the the grav well and mines..
the chances of you walking away from a build like that, are extremely slim, if i was a sci it be even more deadly because if u tried to RSP i could sub nuc it away..
as far as cruisers go, tanks can be useful, i was in a fleet awhile back where we went into pvp using 5 of them, we rarely got killed and with coordinated attacks we could take down other ships with ease, mainly running a machine gun build (turrets n single cannons) with DEM.. sometimes we throw in a aux2bat to speed up the DEM, and RSP if we need it. you have 5 ships hitting you with single cannons n turrets buffed with dem, you don't last to long...
2) we need a new generation of support ships, science ships in particular, onlya few science ships are good enough. About cruisers, I think we have enough good ones, but many players do not have a good build.
also, i agree with this 100%.. people are impatient and are not willing to sit down and really get to learn a ship and develop a good working build.. alot of people will use a ship for 2 days go heh i died alot.. time for a new ship.
being an elite pvp player takes along time, alot of trial and error with builds and actual effort. i tend to limit one ship to each toon that way i can build that toon around that ship from the basic character traits to captain skills and equipment.
Whether science ships or cruisers are obsolete depends entirely on what situation they are used in.
Most PvE content is a damage race, you have targets with a massive health and no buffs, so all you need is as much raw damage as possible, to kill them as fast as possible before they kill you. For example having healers or tanks in STFs is pointless, as some of the Critical hits that NPC put out are are so large, your dead before you have a chance to even react. So killing the target as quickly as possible before it can kills you is why escorts are the way to go. Plus there's nothing that says escorts cannot heal, if someone has plasma fire, send him your Hazzard Emitters, if someone is obviously drawing aggro, try and keep him alive, because the longer he is alive, the less time the NPC might be shooting at you, but you don't need to sacrifice 1 players worth of damage output in order to bring a dedicated healer along.
Now PvP is a very different scenario. The problem is Escorts appear to rule the roost when they are put up against disorganized and unskilled players. Most pug matches will have a very wide range of skills and ship types. If one excellent player in an escort is against a team of unskilled players, not working together, not healing each other, and not focusing fire, of course he is going to pick them off one by one. Now a skilled science ship or cruiser can do the same, but it won't appear as impressive as an escort because he won't have the same damage output.
However if 5 skilled players come up against 5 skilled players, the ship and captain types are really going to matter. You can put 5 escorts against a mixed team of escorts, cruisers and science ships, and the escorts won't have enough heals to stay alive.
It's the same as having no science ships. Ships nowadays are tougher than ever, 1 decent healer can keep an entire team alive if he knows what he's doing. 1 science ship can really mess things up, debuff,hold,disable,disorientate the target to make them vulnerable for the escorts.
Last but not least, if you have no dedicated healers, when that escort or science ship has been made vulnerable or run out of heals, who will keep them alive?
Every ship has a role, a healer cannot fly an escort, and will struggle in certain science ships, whilst a Science captain focused on crowd will struggle in an escort or a cruiser. Obviously certain ships do jobs better than others in their class and some meet in between, but part of the skill of STO is picking the right ship in order to maximize your effectiveness in the role you play.
I have 3 characters who PvP, 1 tac, 1 sci and 1 eng, so I have been able to experience all the roles ships can play in this game. The most frustrating is my Engineer Oddy With a premade team, I can keep my team mates alive, but also know they will keep me alive. But in a pug, often what happens is everyone goes of caring only about themselves and trying to get as many kills as possible, but playing the healer role, I try and keep them alive. But what then happens is the enemy becomes aware i'm the healer and focuses me, I am then in a situation 1 against 5, on my own receiving no help from my team and I die, making the cruiser look like the weak one, but had that cruiser not been healing everyone else, instead of losing 1 ships, the team could have lost 5.
In the end, every ship has a role to play some are better than others at fulfilling that role, but it depends entirely on how the player has set up the ship for that role and where and when he uses it.
The reason is that this game does not need any other ship/class but escorts.
Example would be a regular STF. Take 5escorts and you can finish STF on elite in a matter of 4minutes!
That can't be done with science or cruiser ships.
it can be done, just takes the right build and the right amount of practice
that right there, "does not need any other ship or class but escorts" that is saying that sci and cruisers are useless, which they are not.. again it just falls down to the right build.. a large part of it is team work to, thus why i do not do pugs groups into STF i go with friends where we can talk on TS and coordinate our attacks.
Hi. I have been playing this game for over a year now and now when I tried almost everything out... I don't feel like playing anymore.
The reason is that this game does not need any other ship/class but escorts.
Example would be a regular STF. Take 5escorts and you can finish STF on elite in a matter of 4minutes!
That can't be done with science or cruiser ships.
DERP! I didn't even bother reading anything after that. Perhaps rewards should be removed from STFs (again) if you can finish them in four minutes.
Jack Emmert: "Starfleet and Klingon. ... So two factions, full PvE content." Al Rivera hates Klingons Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert All cloaks should be canon.
Look... you want to know why science and engi ships are so unwelcome in STFs?
It's because they don't do their damn job. I'd say there's about 10% of eSTFs where the cruisers/sci ships heal anyone other than their own sorry asses.
Engis are tanks, whose job is to take beatings (which escorts can't survive) and hold aggro. Instead, I have aggro in STFs 90% of the time as an escort, and often find myself the only person throwing repairs on others - and I'm a tac, and that's not even my freakin' job. If I can find the engi team cooldown to throw on someone while being beaten on by *all the Borg* and still manage to stay alive, you can do it too.
Science ships are debuffers and healers, yet somehow the only thing they seem to do in STFs is keep themselves alive at all costs, while the team dies around them. Oh, and sometimes they puke out a special effect that does nothing for the team but look nice.
It's not that Sci or Eng ships suck. It's that Sci and Eng *players* suck. If you pulled your weight, you'd be welcome in eSTFs - if you just sit there staying alive and waiting for the Tacs to do all the hard work so you can absorb free rewards, it's no wonder nobody likes seeing a cruiser or ball-ship next to them on a team.
Dont give us that "if you are skilled" you can do well with cruisers and science in PvP -.-
Where did i or any of us say that you cant?
Gosh, sometimes i feel like talking to a f****ng wall brings more sense and logic...
The first one after this post who rly understands what this is all about will get 10M EC ingame from me.
My comment was in no way aimed at you, but more at the growing number of players who do believe that STO is becoming Escorts Online especially in PvP and hopefully would be reading this thread.
You are absolutely right, as I said, PvE content is all a damage race, so bringing anything but an escorts is stupid. The game should involve the different types of ships in different ways, I think removing the stupidly large crit hits in STFs for example and replacing it with constant damage will give healing cruisers a purpose And like us players they should use Buffs, they should't have 1mil hit points and just sit there, but instead rely on boff skills like the player does so Science Ships are needed to control and debuff them.
No nobody said skilled players cannot do well in Science Ships or Cruiser I was merely trying to give an example, that on a level playing field with skilled players, (because unskilled players would not be putting their ships abilities to best use) science ships and cruisers are far more likely to excel at clearly defined roles. I only used PvP as an example because it is currently the best place to see all the different ships play their individual roles, not trying to prove something to you or anyone here. Because other than PvP sadly all other content "IS" catered towards escorts.
Your Title alone and what you wrote, and I quote "does not need any other ship or class but escorts" is really misleading if all you are trying to say is that the game is at fault for not providing enough scenarios where Proper Cruiser or Science Ship builds are needed.
You should have called the thread "PvE Gameplay only suited for Escorts" because it's not the ships fault, its the mission content.
Well, then, thank you for being here. You're one of the very, very preciously few non-tac pilots in STO who *don't* believe DPS is their job.
It should be noted that there *are* good sci/eng players. People claiming that a skilled player can't make a good sci/eng are either wrong or suck themselves. If I have a good healer on me, JUST ONE, I can blast through an elite Hive Onslaught with all 3 optionals without breaking a sweat.
Dont give us that "if you are skilled" you can do well with cruisers and science in PvP -.-
I do not agree at all. We have only a few good and real science ships, but they are good.
I started to play pvp with my sci toon just 5 days ago and I was surprised about how much I can survive in my wells even if my build is much pve oriented. I was also surprised about I can be usefull... I just need a few changes to have a good build.
That means that being effective in pvp is not impossible, simply only 2-3 ships are good enough many others are bad (IMHO).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
Well, then, thank you for being here. You're one of the very, very preciously few non-tac pilots in STO who *don't* believe DPS is their job.
It should be noted that there *are* good sci/eng players. People claiming that a skilled player can't make a good sci/eng are either wrong or suck themselves. If I have a good healer on me, JUST ONE, I can blast through an elite Hive Onslaught with all 3 optionals without breaking a sweat.
I'm sorry, but you believe that any ship that ISN'T an escort should not be doing any shooting?
As an Engineer captain in an offensively-oriented cruiser like the Assault Refit, I should have the option of DPS output and while I don't expect to do better than a Tactical captain in an escort at the task, I should be confident of actually managing to threaten my targets, if not outright destroying them. Part of tanking is to either prove to be that threat or at the very least have some way of controlling the flow of the battle.
Healing in STO is not only boring, but also stupidly hard to pull off thanks to the lousy firing controls. It is also generally sub-optimal due to a lack of AoE support skills. Frankly, I don't think anyone relishes the thought of being a second fiddle to an escort, either.
Now we might be getting somewhere.
Yes and i am sorry, the title is a bit misleading.
The reason i did not focus this topic on PvP btw is because its underdeveloped, mostly not balanced and needs a lot of dynamic gameplay. We dont even have rated pvp and i am mostly a pvp player but not here in STO.
To get back to the topic:
"Healing in STO is not only boring,"
Totally true. The entire system on which this entire game is based is easy to change. It needs to focus more on situational cooldowns and combinations of certain cooldowns.
We have too much passive defense like resistances and avoidance by speeding up...
And many many more examples
You won't find those who knew how the SCI was nerfed time and time again pre F2P in forums anymore since most either moved on or quit the game. Current crowd mostly post F2P and DPS centric.
Yes...you can still find some exceptions to the rule and have great SCI builds...which cannot compare to what you were able to do about 2-3 years ago not just in STFs but PvPs. In general IMO I definetely agree that STO profit's based on Tacts and cater to Escorts and could care less for other classes...hope sooner or later they can catch and and undo what was done to SCI much earlier on and cater to other classes....perhaps asking too much....too late
Look... you want to know why science and engi ships are so unwelcome in STFs?
It's because they don't do their damn job. I'd say there's about 10% of eSTFs where the cruisers/sci ships heal anyone other than their own sorry asses.
Engis are tanks, whose job is to take beatings (which escorts can't survive) and hold aggro. Instead, I have aggro in STFs 90% of the time as an escort, and often find myself the only person throwing repairs on others - and I'm a tac, and that's not even my freakin' job. If I can find the engi team cooldown to throw on someone while being beaten on by *all the Borg* and still manage to stay alive, you can do it too.
Science ships are debuffers and healers, yet somehow the only thing they seem to do in STFs is keep themselves alive at all costs, while the team dies around them. Oh, and sometimes they puke out a special effect that does nothing for the team but look nice.
It's not that Sci or Eng ships suck. It's that Sci and Eng *players* suck. If you pulled your weight, you'd be welcome in eSTFs - if you just sit there staying alive and waiting for the Tacs to do all the hard work so you can absorb free rewards, it's no wonder nobody likes seeing a cruiser or ball-ship next to them on a team.
Its your opinion that engis are tanks and that they should tank for you. Escorts have access to defensive options, both in terms of consoles and abilities, I suggest you use them.
Look... you want to know why science and engi ships are so unwelcome in STFs?
It's because they don't do their damn job. I'd say there's about 10% of eSTFs where the cruisers/sci ships heal anyone other than their own sorry asses.
Engis are tanks, whose job is to take beatings (which escorts can't survive) and hold aggro. Instead, I have aggro in STFs 90% of the time as an escort, and often find myself the only person throwing repairs on others - and I'm a tac, and that's not even my freakin' job. If I can find the engi team cooldown to throw on someone while being beaten on by *all the Borg* and still manage to stay alive, you can do it too.
Science ships are debuffers and healers, yet somehow the only thing they seem to do in STFs is keep themselves alive at all costs, while the team dies around them. Oh, and sometimes they puke out a special effect that does nothing for the team but look nice.
I have to agree. A lot of people don't heal teammates and I think it comes from a vicious cycle of them not being healed by teammate when needed so they save their heals so if they become targets they can heal themselves. I have been in games that I heal someone then moments later I am in need of healing when multiple ships target me and no else spends any heals on me.
With Cruiser so many suck because they don't invest into threat control skills. I can't say I blame them for not spending skill points on threat control because I would not want to be forced into being a higher target with it all the time even when I want to use a different type of ship so with it being active 100% of the time many don't spend points on it. It also doesn't help that threat control is one of the more expensive skills to spend points on. Change threat control so you can either shut it off when you don't want it active or create a threat meter that you can control your threat levels based on how many skill points you spent on it. That would make more people spend points on threat control.
The healing thing is a pretty obvious red herring since the majority of STF deaths are caused by uber-torpedoes. A healer is quite useless against those. I have an extend shield skill and really it's not very useful on the whole. Frankly it got a lot more use when I was doing Starbase Defense missions for fleet marks, before I was doing Omega stuff. It was ok for healing a starbase since a starbase actually had enough hitpoints to make healing it worthwhile.
That's part of the problem with the game mechanics. Taking sizable damage and not dying is pretty rare. This reduces the value of healers across the board. It's much closer to a two-state system of "alive" or "dead" than it should be.
A lot of the healing skills are sort of half wasted in high level play. In my opinion what science needs is a skill like extend shields, but designed to reduce specific damage types. Say "Shield Modulation: Plasma" or "Shield Modulation: Disruptor" that lets you grant a buff vs. that damage type.
That would actually be a worthwhile science skill. Things that heal my hull when the only time an escort takes hull damage is because it's dead from a 100K torpedo despite having max shields and max hull isn't.
So I think there's plenty of room for buffs in the game. It's just that the existing ones don't actually give you the options you need.
As a cruiser captain, I have a bunch of shield buffs and threat control maxed. It fills a hole but it's a real pain in the butt when you get stuck with an escort captain with weak guns (and there are many more of them than some give credit for, merely being in an escort does not actually make you useful by any stretch of the imagination). Because the problem with drawing threat to yourself is... you draw threat to yourself. And if the escort can't hold up his end of the deal it's a seriously long game.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
Its your opinion that engis are tanks and that they should tank for you. Escorts have access to defensive options, both in terms of consoles and abilities, I suggest you use them.
It is my opinion, yes.
But keep DPSing in your cruisers and science ships and hoarding your heals to keep your pitiful personal DPS up while the actual damage-dealing tacs explode around you, for all I care. I loaded up with as many hull repair abilities as possible to counteract the utter incompetence of most support class players I run into in STFs.
That's what they are. Support classes. The engineer excels at tanking himself and others, better than a tac possibly could, but can't match the dps of the tac... so why have him DPSing and causing the entire team to lose, when he could be repairing and causing the entire team to win?
Hey, you're right. It's just my opinion. People are free to fly their ships like utter incompetents. Fortunately, my fleet contains healers that realize they have a part to play, and play that part to the fullest of their ability instead of trying to cram square pegs into round holes, blowing up twice a minute in the process, and pissing off their entire team.
The healing thing is a pretty obvious red herring since the majority of STF deaths are caused by uber-torpedoes. A healer is quite useless against those. I have an extend shield skill and really it's not very useful on the whole. Frankly it got a lot more use when I was doing Starbase Defense missions for fleet marks, before I was doing Omega stuff. It was ok for healing a starbase since a starbase actually had enough hitpoints to make healing it worthwhile.
You're a bad healer.
Avoid shield transfer abilities, because shields are usually turned off in borg STFs by various Borg abilities, or in the case of elites, the constant high damage output of the NPCs present. What you want is an engineering team I with two doffs that lower its cooldown (two purples will lower it to engi team's GCD), coupled with aux 2 structural, and hazard emitters. You'll note that all three are 'self or ally targeted'.
The real value of this heal build comes in during a Borg STF when someone gets hammered with one of those torp spreads that instakill many ships. If they survive with a sliver of health (hint: tank kinetic to survive the instakill abilities in Borg STFs, and keep Brace for Impact up), you can bring that person back from the brink of blowing up. This is IMMENSELY valuable, and your teams will fall in love with you quite fast.
Look... you want to know why science and engi ships are so unwelcome in STFs?
It's because they don't do their damn job. I'd say there's about 10% of eSTFs where the cruisers/sci ships heal anyone other than their own sorry asses.
Engis are tanks, whose job is to take beatings (which escorts can't survive) and hold aggro. Instead, I have aggro in STFs 90% of the time as an escort, and often find myself the only person throwing repairs on others - and I'm a tac, and that's not even my freakin' job. If I can find the engi team cooldown to throw on someone while being beaten on by *all the Borg* and still manage to stay alive, you can do it too.
Science ships are debuffers and healers, yet somehow the only thing they seem to do in STFs is keep themselves alive at all costs, while the team dies around them. Oh, and sometimes they puke out a special effect that does nothing for the team but look nice.
It's not that Sci or Eng ships suck. It's that Sci and Eng *players* suck. If you pulled your weight, you'd be welcome in eSTFs - if you just sit there staying alive and waiting for the Tacs to do all the hard work so you can absorb free rewards, it's no wonder nobody likes seeing a cruiser or ball-ship next to them on a team.
So... you're basically saying that all those offensively oriented Cruisers (like the Excelsior, Regent, and their respective Fleet versions, Galor, Tactical Odyssey, D'kora, most KDF Battlecruisers), and offensively oriented Science ships (Fleet Nova, Recon Science Vessel, Fleet Recon Science Vessel, all 3 Vestas, Wells-Class) are useless in all ways because they try to deal damage at the cost of the ability to heal tacscorts like yourself?
And I have another question for you. I have a few tacs, and they run around in raptors and escorts... and yet I seem to have an issue with dying in ESTFs. It just doesn't happen... Am I playing wrong since you, who are obviously a GREAT TACSCORT CAPTAIN always seem to be blowing up left and right. And yet... my fleet defiant... REGULAR Qin raptor, and my other escorts all just... they just won't die. I must be doing something wrong.
A Tac can keep himself alive with EASE. Maybe you're just doing it wrong. And contrary to common belief, there are hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of Engi and Sci captains who are much better than you give them credit for. Put me in a Tac Odyssey/Fleet Assault Cruiser on my ENGI and you will find yourself not only being healed (since for some reason you seem to need it, most of the tacscorts I run with don't... weird) but you will be seeing respectable damage output. So please, get off your highscort and actually play with real players.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Avoid shield transfer abilities, because shields are usually turned off in borg STFs by various Borg abilities, or in the case of elites, the constant high damage output of the NPCs present. What you want is an engineering team I with two doffs that lower its cooldown (two purples will lower it to engi team's GCD), coupled with aux 2 structural, and hazard emitters. You'll note that all three are 'self or ally targeted'.
The dead don't DPS.
I haven't checked my Aux 2 Structural tooltip in a while, so that may actually be what it says, but I know for a fact the Aux 2 Structural does NOT work on other players. I know, I have tried to use it for that. Anytime you have an ally targeted, Aux 2 Structural will still heal yourself anyway.
Please do not fight each other on this thread. We are all together in this game and the point of this topic is to try to get you all to agree around certain things - which would be facts about STO gameplay.
Sci and cruisers CAN and are useful but not even close to escorts.
Take CSE as example you take out a few balls and Negh'var spawns, 5escorts simply nuke it together and stay away from its face and kill it in a matter of seconds.
The proper way of doing this would be to give those Negh's tactical team+EPtS so that you cant rly nuke it that fast, and that torpedo or whatever it has should be hitting the first target that attacks it so you would also want tanks to be there and hit it first.
And yes, in all of this increase the damage of both classes (not to match escorts).
But sometime (hopefully soon) i would like to see a system where all and any classes (and ships) could perform multiple rolls. The question is why we don't have it already.
This game offers all classes exactly the same skill points to choose which is a BIG mistake really.
I dont want and escorts to be able to take any and all my engineering skills/talents cmon cryptic, seriously you never thought about how boring and single minded this is?
No class (not ships but class) is that much different from another. Sure you dont get to CC as a tactical or put turrets that engi can but we all equip kits and while they are different from what other games offer, they also dont offer specializations.
I think that everyone would agree with me that it would be a good idea to make class-only skills that only certain class can take.
Yea let an escort or a cruiser use gravity well but make it very very weak, only a tool which they would use to prevent someone from moving, but if im a science guy let me get damage on that, let me combine some other power to give me super devastating effect with some insane visuals!
Cryptic/PWE whoever owns and develops this game needs to look into this. I know you work hard but you need to redirect that work to something else.
And all of this comes from a player that likes this game and wants it improved, and not to flame or anything else.
So... you're basically saying that all those offensively oriented Cruisers (like the Excelsior, Regent, and their respective Fleet versions, Galor, Tactical Odyssey, D'kora, most KDF Battlecruisers), and offensively oriented Science ships (Fleet Nova, Recon Science Vessel, Fleet Recon Science Vessel, all 3 Vestas, Wells-Class) are useless in all ways because they try to deal damage at the cost of the ability to heal tacscorts like yourself?
And I have another question for you. I have a few tacs, and they run around in raptors and escorts... and yet I seem to have an issue with dying in ESTFs. It just doesn't happen... Am I playing wrong since you, who are obviously a GREAT TACSCORT CAPTAIN always seem to be blowing up left and right. And yet... my fleet defiant... REGULAR Qin raptor, and my other escorts all just... they just won't die. I must be doing something wrong.
A Tac can keep himself alive with EASE. Maybe you're just doing it wrong. And contrary to common belief, there are hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of Engi and Sci captains who are much better than you give them credit for. Put me in a Tac Odyssey/Fleet Assault Cruiser on my ENGI and you will find yourself not only being healed (since for some reason you seem to need it, most of the tacscorts I run with don't... weird) but you will be seeing respectable damage output. So please, get off your highscort and actually play with real players.
Did I complain anywhere that I was dying too often? No, I complained that most eng/sci pilots are TRIBBLE, but acknowledged that there are good ones too. I already mentioned that I'm loaded on hull repair abilities, and I don't have issues with dying either, so why don't you stuff your snarky comments up your TRIBBLE. Maybe even give them a lick once they come out the front of you, along with the rest of your words.
I haven't checked my Aux 2 Structural tooltip in a while, so that may actually be what it says, but I know for a fact the Aux 2 Structural does NOT work on other players. I know, I have tried to use it for that. Anytime you have an ally targeted, Aux 2 Structural will still heal yourself anyway.
Huh. I'll have to pay closer attention next time I use it on someone. For me it seems to work correctly though, or at least, I have never noticed it *not* working...
Do sci and cruisers work in PvE. Yes. Do the escorts work better. Hell,Yes.
I primarly PvP, but when I level a new toon I do all PvE content in escort. Cause there is really no reason, outside of ships look, to do this in anything else. Can my cruiser kill things? Yes. Can my sci kill things? Yes. Do my escort do better then both combined? Hell, yes.
That is the primary problem with Escorts Online - whatever both other ships do, the escort will do better. And, if I may mention, to go through the content I need to use... tactical abilities and toys to complete it. Do my sci kill with well, shockwaves, FBP? No. It need mines, torps, beams. Do my eng kills... hmm... with EWP (are there any other offensive eng abilities?). No. It needs mines, torps, beams. Now I can do both better if I fly cruiser or sci with a tac captain, as this will buff whatever offensive abilities those ships have but even then engscort or sciscort will do a lot better.
It's not that cruiser or sci are ineffective in PvE. It's that they are obsolete, cause anything they do can be done as good and a lot faster with escort.
Now the easiest way to bring cruiser back to their place would be to force escort reliance on cruiser abilities. It would not fix the leveling issues, but would make cruisers desirable in STFs. How to do this - nerf escort survivability. "Kumari bug" would be pretty decent start. Nerfing low-level eng and sci abilities would be second one. Removing non-tactical clears from tac abilities would be another. All this would not harm escort ability to deal impressive damage with their DHCs, but it would make them squishy and reliant on cruiser buffs and support to survive in combat environment. It would also bring tac-cruisers back, at least into PvP, as pressure damage from tac oriented cruisers will matter against squishy escorts.
As for sci... I doubt there is easy way of making those desirable for PvE and more desirable in PvP Although they are pretty good for PvP, thank you, I still miss the time when I could lock out escort with grav well. And times when Nebula on the tail of my Patrol Escort would mean that I will die pretty soon if I don't get away and abandon my team (so ro so - I wont matter for dew seconds).
I haven't checked my Aux 2 Structural tooltip in a while, so that may actually be what it says, but I know for a fact the Aux 2 Structural does NOT work on other players. I know, I have tried to use it for that. Anytime you have an ally targeted, Aux 2 Structural will still heal yourself anyway.
Um... no. I heal others on a regular basis using Aux2SIF.
Did I complain anywhere that I was dying too often? No, I complained that most eng/sci pilots are TRIBBLE, but acknowledged that there are good ones too. I already mentioned that I'm loaded on hull repair abilities, and I don't have issues with dying either, so why don't you stuff your snarky comments up your TRIBBLE. Maybe even give them a lick once they come out the front of you, along with the rest of your words.
zzzZZZzzzZZZ
You are still being an arrogant elitest pain in the rear. You are trying to dictate to others how to play the game, when it has been proven time and time again that Cruisers and Science ships can STILL do decent DPS WHILE healing others. I would suggest you find better cruiser and science pilots to play with.
But then again, I am wrong, because I choose to fly a DPS/Tank Cruiser instead of just heal all those little tacscorts who are the real heroes of the game, right? So I am wrong, and you're right. Cuz you're a tacscort.
Yup.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Huh. I'll have to pay closer attention next time I use it on someone. For me it seems to work correctly though, or at least, I have never noticed it *not* working...
No, aux2sif does work on other friendlies. It doesn't heal that much even at high aux power, but it does apply a rather nice damage resistance buff.
Comments
It is about making them needed, giving them specific and "to the point" roles and making them effective in the process.
Not just forcing us to have them, but so that they would be really needed and effective at what they do and also giving this entire game diversity.
And that there is what made the Vesta a 50$ best seller .
Tac's thought they got another Tac-Carrier .
Sad part is , they were right .
Things like THAT needed to have been considered during the game's earliest design stages.
IMHO there are 2 point to focus on:
1) many missions are designed in a way that you do not need the support of sci or eng ships. Even if I played many times ISE with a 5 sci ships team and finisced it in 8-9 minutes. We need missions were time is not critical but you need not only dps but also several support ships. The hive space elite can be a start point, but we need missions and the NPC's AI to make support ships critical... Note: I do not want to be instant killed by borgs, it can be possible but it hasn't to be a rule... I think borgs should have new powers, ex. disable a ship's subsystem for a while (so that you need a support ship to restore them quickly and/or protect you while the systems are disabled).
2) we need a new generation of support ships, science ships in particular, onlya few science ships are good enough. About cruisers, I think we have enough good ones, but many players do not have a good build.
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
A well built science ship is a very deadly thing and not to be taken lightly, as far as cruisers it is possible to keep survivability and do some good damage.. again it really just falls on really understanding the game mechanics and abilities..
I have a few tactical characters and one of them uses a long range sci vessel, and he is much more effective then he was in a escort, ill even give you an example
i have a Fleet DSSV i run with a tac, i run with 5x Phased tet turrets, 1x kinetic beam, i run it with 2 piece omega (tet glider) boosted with flow capacitors to do about -50 to shields per hit, using a fast firing weapon like turrets or single cannons it allows you to just eat shields alive also using the turrets i have a much greater chance of the tet to proc and hurt the shields even more, phaser proc is nice if it hits their engines, or aux stops them from moving or healing, mixed with a boosted charge particle burst, once shields are down i hit them with viral and syphon, and use a alpha boosted photon wave, grav well, n kinetic beam and a fire on my mark to debuff their resistance.. and if they try to get away, tractor beam, or i can use repulsors to move them back towards the the grav well and mines..
the chances of you walking away from a build like that, are extremely slim, if i was a sci it be even more deadly because if u tried to RSP i could sub nuc it away..
as far as cruisers go, tanks can be useful, i was in a fleet awhile back where we went into pvp using 5 of them, we rarely got killed and with coordinated attacks we could take down other ships with ease, mainly running a machine gun build (turrets n single cannons) with DEM.. sometimes we throw in a aux2bat to speed up the DEM, and RSP if we need it. you have 5 ships hitting you with single cannons n turrets buffed with dem, you don't last to long...
also, i agree with this 100%.. people are impatient and are not willing to sit down and really get to learn a ship and develop a good working build.. alot of people will use a ship for 2 days go heh i died alot.. time for a new ship.
being an elite pvp player takes along time, alot of trial and error with builds and actual effort. i tend to limit one ship to each toon that way i can build that toon around that ship from the basic character traits to captain skills and equipment.
its not going to happen over night, baby steps..
Most PvE content is a damage race, you have targets with a massive health and no buffs, so all you need is as much raw damage as possible, to kill them as fast as possible before they kill you. For example having healers or tanks in STFs is pointless, as some of the Critical hits that NPC put out are are so large, your dead before you have a chance to even react. So killing the target as quickly as possible before it can kills you is why escorts are the way to go. Plus there's nothing that says escorts cannot heal, if someone has plasma fire, send him your Hazzard Emitters, if someone is obviously drawing aggro, try and keep him alive, because the longer he is alive, the less time the NPC might be shooting at you, but you don't need to sacrifice 1 players worth of damage output in order to bring a dedicated healer along.
Now PvP is a very different scenario. The problem is Escorts appear to rule the roost when they are put up against disorganized and unskilled players. Most pug matches will have a very wide range of skills and ship types. If one excellent player in an escort is against a team of unskilled players, not working together, not healing each other, and not focusing fire, of course he is going to pick them off one by one. Now a skilled science ship or cruiser can do the same, but it won't appear as impressive as an escort because he won't have the same damage output.
However if 5 skilled players come up against 5 skilled players, the ship and captain types are really going to matter. You can put 5 escorts against a mixed team of escorts, cruisers and science ships, and the escorts won't have enough heals to stay alive.
It's the same as having no science ships. Ships nowadays are tougher than ever, 1 decent healer can keep an entire team alive if he knows what he's doing. 1 science ship can really mess things up, debuff,hold,disable,disorientate the target to make them vulnerable for the escorts.
Last but not least, if you have no dedicated healers, when that escort or science ship has been made vulnerable or run out of heals, who will keep them alive?
Every ship has a role, a healer cannot fly an escort, and will struggle in certain science ships, whilst a Science captain focused on crowd will struggle in an escort or a cruiser. Obviously certain ships do jobs better than others in their class and some meet in between, but part of the skill of STO is picking the right ship in order to maximize your effectiveness in the role you play.
I have 3 characters who PvP, 1 tac, 1 sci and 1 eng, so I have been able to experience all the roles ships can play in this game. The most frustrating is my Engineer Oddy With a premade team, I can keep my team mates alive, but also know they will keep me alive. But in a pug, often what happens is everyone goes of caring only about themselves and trying to get as many kills as possible, but playing the healer role, I try and keep them alive. But what then happens is the enemy becomes aware i'm the healer and focuses me, I am then in a situation 1 against 5, on my own receiving no help from my team and I die, making the cruiser look like the weak one, but had that cruiser not been healing everyone else, instead of losing 1 ships, the team could have lost 5.
In the end, every ship has a role to play some are better than others at fulfilling that role, but it depends entirely on how the player has set up the ship for that role and where and when he uses it.
Where did i or any of us say that you cant?
Gosh, sometimes i feel like talking to a f****ng wall brings more sense and logic...
The first one after this post who rly understands what this is all about will get 10M EC ingame from me.
it can be done, just takes the right build and the right amount of practice
that right there, "does not need any other ship or class but escorts" that is saying that sci and cruisers are useless, which they are not.. again it just falls down to the right build.. a large part of it is team work to, thus why i do not do pugs groups into STF i go with friends where we can talk on TS and coordinate our attacks.
DERP! I didn't even bother reading anything after that. Perhaps rewards should be removed from STFs (again) if you can finish them in four minutes.
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
It's because they don't do their damn job. I'd say there's about 10% of eSTFs where the cruisers/sci ships heal anyone other than their own sorry asses.
Engis are tanks, whose job is to take beatings (which escorts can't survive) and hold aggro. Instead, I have aggro in STFs 90% of the time as an escort, and often find myself the only person throwing repairs on others - and I'm a tac, and that's not even my freakin' job. If I can find the engi team cooldown to throw on someone while being beaten on by *all the Borg* and still manage to stay alive, you can do it too.
Science ships are debuffers and healers, yet somehow the only thing they seem to do in STFs is keep themselves alive at all costs, while the team dies around them. Oh, and sometimes they puke out a special effect that does nothing for the team but look nice.
It's not that Sci or Eng ships suck. It's that Sci and Eng *players* suck. If you pulled your weight, you'd be welcome in eSTFs - if you just sit there staying alive and waiting for the Tacs to do all the hard work so you can absorb free rewards, it's no wonder nobody likes seeing a cruiser or ball-ship next to them on a team.
My comment was in no way aimed at you, but more at the growing number of players who do believe that STO is becoming Escorts Online especially in PvP and hopefully would be reading this thread.
You are absolutely right, as I said, PvE content is all a damage race, so bringing anything but an escorts is stupid. The game should involve the different types of ships in different ways, I think removing the stupidly large crit hits in STFs for example and replacing it with constant damage will give healing cruisers a purpose And like us players they should use Buffs, they should't have 1mil hit points and just sit there, but instead rely on boff skills like the player does so Science Ships are needed to control and debuff them.
No nobody said skilled players cannot do well in Science Ships or Cruiser I was merely trying to give an example, that on a level playing field with skilled players, (because unskilled players would not be putting their ships abilities to best use) science ships and cruisers are far more likely to excel at clearly defined roles. I only used PvP as an example because it is currently the best place to see all the different ships play their individual roles, not trying to prove something to you or anyone here. Because other than PvP sadly all other content "IS" catered towards escorts.
Your Title alone and what you wrote, and I quote "does not need any other ship or class but escorts" is really misleading if all you are trying to say is that the game is at fault for not providing enough scenarios where Proper Cruiser or Science Ship builds are needed.
You should have called the thread "PvE Gameplay only suited for Escorts" because it's not the ships fault, its the mission content.
It should be noted that there *are* good sci/eng players. People claiming that a skilled player can't make a good sci/eng are either wrong or suck themselves. If I have a good healer on me, JUST ONE, I can blast through an elite Hive Onslaught with all 3 optionals without breaking a sweat.
I do not agree at all. We have only a few good and real science ships, but they are good.
I started to play pvp with my sci toon just 5 days ago and I was surprised about how much I can survive in my wells even if my build is much pve oriented. I was also surprised about I can be usefull... I just need a few changes to have a good build.
That means that being effective in pvp is not impossible, simply only 2-3 ships are good enough many others are bad (IMHO).
Playing STO spamming FAW is like playing chess using always the computer's suggested moves
I'm sorry, but you believe that any ship that ISN'T an escort should not be doing any shooting?
As an Engineer captain in an offensively-oriented cruiser like the Assault Refit, I should have the option of DPS output and while I don't expect to do better than a Tactical captain in an escort at the task, I should be confident of actually managing to threaten my targets, if not outright destroying them. Part of tanking is to either prove to be that threat or at the very least have some way of controlling the flow of the battle.
Healing in STO is not only boring, but also stupidly hard to pull off thanks to the lousy firing controls. It is also generally sub-optimal due to a lack of AoE support skills. Frankly, I don't think anyone relishes the thought of being a second fiddle to an escort, either.
Yes and i am sorry, the title is a bit misleading.
The reason i did not focus this topic on PvP btw is because its underdeveloped, mostly not balanced and needs a lot of dynamic gameplay. We dont even have rated pvp and i am mostly a pvp player but not here in STO.
To get back to the topic:
"Healing in STO is not only boring,"
Totally true. The entire system on which this entire game is based is easy to change. It needs to focus more on situational cooldowns and combinations of certain cooldowns.
We have too much passive defense like resistances and avoidance by speeding up...
And many many more examples
Yes...you can still find some exceptions to the rule and have great SCI builds...which cannot compare to what you were able to do about 2-3 years ago not just in STFs but PvPs. In general IMO I definetely agree that STO profit's based on Tacts and cater to Escorts and could care less for other classes...hope sooner or later they can catch and and undo what was done to SCI much earlier on and cater to other classes....perhaps asking too much....too late
Its your opinion that engis are tanks and that they should tank for you. Escorts have access to defensive options, both in terms of consoles and abilities, I suggest you use them.
I have to agree. A lot of people don't heal teammates and I think it comes from a vicious cycle of them not being healed by teammate when needed so they save their heals so if they become targets they can heal themselves. I have been in games that I heal someone then moments later I am in need of healing when multiple ships target me and no else spends any heals on me.
With Cruiser so many suck because they don't invest into threat control skills. I can't say I blame them for not spending skill points on threat control because I would not want to be forced into being a higher target with it all the time even when I want to use a different type of ship so with it being active 100% of the time many don't spend points on it. It also doesn't help that threat control is one of the more expensive skills to spend points on. Change threat control so you can either shut it off when you don't want it active or create a threat meter that you can control your threat levels based on how many skill points you spent on it. That would make more people spend points on threat control.
That's part of the problem with the game mechanics. Taking sizable damage and not dying is pretty rare. This reduces the value of healers across the board. It's much closer to a two-state system of "alive" or "dead" than it should be.
A lot of the healing skills are sort of half wasted in high level play. In my opinion what science needs is a skill like extend shields, but designed to reduce specific damage types. Say "Shield Modulation: Plasma" or "Shield Modulation: Disruptor" that lets you grant a buff vs. that damage type.
That would actually be a worthwhile science skill. Things that heal my hull when the only time an escort takes hull damage is because it's dead from a 100K torpedo despite having max shields and max hull isn't.
So I think there's plenty of room for buffs in the game. It's just that the existing ones don't actually give you the options you need.
As a cruiser captain, I have a bunch of shield buffs and threat control maxed. It fills a hole but it's a real pain in the butt when you get stuck with an escort captain with weak guns (and there are many more of them than some give credit for, merely being in an escort does not actually make you useful by any stretch of the imagination). Because the problem with drawing threat to yourself is... you draw threat to yourself. And if the escort can't hold up his end of the deal it's a seriously long game.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
It is my opinion, yes.
But keep DPSing in your cruisers and science ships and hoarding your heals to keep your pitiful personal DPS up while the actual damage-dealing tacs explode around you, for all I care. I loaded up with as many hull repair abilities as possible to counteract the utter incompetence of most support class players I run into in STFs.
That's what they are. Support classes. The engineer excels at tanking himself and others, better than a tac possibly could, but can't match the dps of the tac... so why have him DPSing and causing the entire team to lose, when he could be repairing and causing the entire team to win?
Hey, you're right. It's just my opinion. People are free to fly their ships like utter incompetents. Fortunately, my fleet contains healers that realize they have a part to play, and play that part to the fullest of their ability instead of trying to cram square pegs into round holes, blowing up twice a minute in the process, and pissing off their entire team.
You're a bad healer.
Avoid shield transfer abilities, because shields are usually turned off in borg STFs by various Borg abilities, or in the case of elites, the constant high damage output of the NPCs present. What you want is an engineering team I with two doffs that lower its cooldown (two purples will lower it to engi team's GCD), coupled with aux 2 structural, and hazard emitters. You'll note that all three are 'self or ally targeted'.
The real value of this heal build comes in during a Borg STF when someone gets hammered with one of those torp spreads that instakill many ships. If they survive with a sliver of health (hint: tank kinetic to survive the instakill abilities in Borg STFs, and keep Brace for Impact up), you can bring that person back from the brink of blowing up. This is IMMENSELY valuable, and your teams will fall in love with you quite fast.
The dead don't DPS.
So... you're basically saying that all those offensively oriented Cruisers (like the Excelsior, Regent, and their respective Fleet versions, Galor, Tactical Odyssey, D'kora, most KDF Battlecruisers), and offensively oriented Science ships (Fleet Nova, Recon Science Vessel, Fleet Recon Science Vessel, all 3 Vestas, Wells-Class) are useless in all ways because they try to deal damage at the cost of the ability to heal tacscorts like yourself?
And I have another question for you. I have a few tacs, and they run around in raptors and escorts... and yet I seem to have an issue with dying in ESTFs. It just doesn't happen... Am I playing wrong since you, who are obviously a GREAT TACSCORT CAPTAIN always seem to be blowing up left and right. And yet... my fleet defiant... REGULAR Qin raptor, and my other escorts all just... they just won't die. I must be doing something wrong.
A Tac can keep himself alive with EASE. Maybe you're just doing it wrong. And contrary to common belief, there are hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of Engi and Sci captains who are much better than you give them credit for. Put me in a Tac Odyssey/Fleet Assault Cruiser on my ENGI and you will find yourself not only being healed (since for some reason you seem to need it, most of the tacscorts I run with don't... weird) but you will be seeing respectable damage output. So please, get off your highscort and actually play with real players.
I haven't checked my Aux 2 Structural tooltip in a while, so that may actually be what it says, but I know for a fact the Aux 2 Structural does NOT work on other players. I know, I have tried to use it for that. Anytime you have an ally targeted, Aux 2 Structural will still heal yourself anyway.
Sci and cruisers CAN and are useful but not even close to escorts.
Take CSE as example you take out a few balls and Negh'var spawns, 5escorts simply nuke it together and stay away from its face and kill it in a matter of seconds.
The proper way of doing this would be to give those Negh's tactical team+EPtS so that you cant rly nuke it that fast, and that torpedo or whatever it has should be hitting the first target that attacks it so you would also want tanks to be there and hit it first.
And yes, in all of this increase the damage of both classes (not to match escorts).
But sometime (hopefully soon) i would like to see a system where all and any classes (and ships) could perform multiple rolls. The question is why we don't have it already.
This game offers all classes exactly the same skill points to choose which is a BIG mistake really.
I dont want and escorts to be able to take any and all my engineering skills/talents cmon cryptic, seriously you never thought about how boring and single minded this is?
No class (not ships but class) is that much different from another. Sure you dont get to CC as a tactical or put turrets that engi can but we all equip kits and while they are different from what other games offer, they also dont offer specializations.
I think that everyone would agree with me that it would be a good idea to make class-only skills that only certain class can take.
Yea let an escort or a cruiser use gravity well but make it very very weak, only a tool which they would use to prevent someone from moving, but if im a science guy let me get damage on that, let me combine some other power to give me super devastating effect with some insane visuals!
Cryptic/PWE whoever owns and develops this game needs to look into this. I know you work hard but you need to redirect that work to something else.
And all of this comes from a player that likes this game and wants it improved, and not to flame or anything else.
Did I complain anywhere that I was dying too often? No, I complained that most eng/sci pilots are TRIBBLE, but acknowledged that there are good ones too. I already mentioned that I'm loaded on hull repair abilities, and I don't have issues with dying either, so why don't you stuff your snarky comments up your TRIBBLE. Maybe even give them a lick once they come out the front of you, along with the rest of your words.
Huh. I'll have to pay closer attention next time I use it on someone. For me it seems to work correctly though, or at least, I have never noticed it *not* working...
I primarly PvP, but when I level a new toon I do all PvE content in escort. Cause there is really no reason, outside of ships look, to do this in anything else. Can my cruiser kill things? Yes. Can my sci kill things? Yes. Do my escort do better then both combined? Hell, yes.
That is the primary problem with Escorts Online - whatever both other ships do, the escort will do better. And, if I may mention, to go through the content I need to use... tactical abilities and toys to complete it. Do my sci kill with well, shockwaves, FBP? No. It need mines, torps, beams. Do my eng kills... hmm... with EWP (are there any other offensive eng abilities?). No. It needs mines, torps, beams. Now I can do both better if I fly cruiser or sci with a tac captain, as this will buff whatever offensive abilities those ships have but even then engscort or sciscort will do a lot better.
It's not that cruiser or sci are ineffective in PvE. It's that they are obsolete, cause anything they do can be done as good and a lot faster with escort.
Now the easiest way to bring cruiser back to their place would be to force escort reliance on cruiser abilities. It would not fix the leveling issues, but would make cruisers desirable in STFs. How to do this - nerf escort survivability. "Kumari bug" would be pretty decent start. Nerfing low-level eng and sci abilities would be second one. Removing non-tactical clears from tac abilities would be another. All this would not harm escort ability to deal impressive damage with their DHCs, but it would make them squishy and reliant on cruiser buffs and support to survive in combat environment. It would also bring tac-cruisers back, at least into PvP, as pressure damage from tac oriented cruisers will matter against squishy escorts.
As for sci... I doubt there is easy way of making those desirable for PvE and more desirable in PvP Although they are pretty good for PvP, thank you, I still miss the time when I could lock out escort with grav well. And times when Nebula on the tail of my Patrol Escort would mean that I will die pretty soon if I don't get away and abandon my team (so ro so - I wont matter for dew seconds).
Um... no. I heal others on a regular basis using Aux2SIF.
zzzZZZzzzZZZ
You are still being an arrogant elitest pain in the rear. You are trying to dictate to others how to play the game, when it has been proven time and time again that Cruisers and Science ships can STILL do decent DPS WHILE healing others. I would suggest you find better cruiser and science pilots to play with.
But then again, I am wrong, because I choose to fly a DPS/Tank Cruiser instead of just heal all those little tacscorts who are the real heroes of the game, right? So I am wrong, and you're right. Cuz you're a tacscort.
Yup.
No, aux2sif does work on other friendlies. It doesn't heal that much even at high aux power, but it does apply a rather nice damage resistance buff.