I fly a cruiser as its my main ship I play. Going by what I see compared to another MMO gam I used to play. Both roles as a tank type role. Which I love doing that role. Take damage, pin down the enemy, and keep the other enemies off players.
Here is what I noticed playing STO as a cruiser. Which should be a tank and used as a tank. I see no moves for Threat. The other MMO I had several moves that would generate Threat in both settings. Single target and multiple targets. That way the DPS can dish out their damage while I hold the enemy. And the healers can heal with out being hit. Using DPS on a tank is not good specially if your in PVE if you can't taunt. If you want that route, then the tank needs a ton more DPS than your regular DPS so you can keep up.
What I see we need:
Taunt moves for single and multiple targets. To keep them off DPS and healers. Noticed this more than once, when I'm trying to get the enemy off the target to save them. I had to pound them good just to peel them off.
With a Eng in a cruiser we need less power drain so we can keep up. (In PVE solo I ran out of juice more than once. Specially when you got nailed with something that takes it out.) This is where taunts come in to get that aggro back. Which will help in groups.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
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That still leaves game balance as a need to change or not change things.:)
i love how you dismantled bloctoads comment!
in my opinion just half of the stuff hereticknight posted at the beginning is enough to bring fed cruisers to a point where they are enjoyable in general, not only certain cruisers with certain builds.
personally i think the +2 turnrate and the decrease of power drain on beam weapons would be the key and should be easy to implement...atleast cryptic could give it a try on tribble.
towards the proposed "super beam" i'm sceptical, since this just implements another thing that may or may not be unbalanced and should the 2 modifications above fail to deliver this may be an option in the future.
One beam i'd liove to see would be a 360 degree beam...just to make a frontal attack beam boat possible. they are in the game already...just limited to shuttles.
my opinion on the galaxy refit: the option with the ltd cmdr sci boff slot went with the introduction of the ambassador, sad but why not. Only thing i see left is a universal ensign, paired with sensor analasys and a build in (not console) saucer sep.
With a Eng in a cruiser we need less power drain so we can keep up. (In PVE solo I ran out of juice more than once. Specially when you got nailed with something that takes it out.) This is where taunts come in to get that aggro back. Which will help in groups.
Engs have a number of moves that mitigate energy drain (Nadion Inversion, EPS something something), and can couple that with emergency power, aux power and battery skills, so that can help.
As for getting nailed with subsystem-killers (damn tholians!), I believe Power Insulators helps with resisting it? I dunno if the Tholian drain-pedos are actual power drain or phaser-style procs.
Engs have a number of moves that mitigate energy drain (Nadion Inversion, EPS something something), and can couple that with emergency power, aux power and battery skills, so that can help.
Escorts don't even have the limitation of enormous energy drain that would require those abilities you listed. That's where the inequity lies.
As for getting nailed with subsystem-killers (damn tholians!), I believe Power Insulators helps with resisting it? I dunno if the Tholian drain-pedos are actual power drain or phaser-style procs.
Nope, they're disable procs, not drain procs. Only Starship Subsystem Repair helps in that respect.
The ironic thing about disables is that any ship with a large crew has a severe disadvantage in repair times.
IE escorts have a faster 'repair' time than a cruiser/carrier when it comes to that on average.
Crew doesnt matter for repair time. Ships classes have base repair time, no matter the crew. The real catch is, the more crew you have, the least effective it actually is, because you are loosing crew in the course of battle, and it is much easier to regen 50 than 1000.
Escorts have 2,5% base (steamrunner has 3%), science ships 3% and cruisers 3,6%, galor has 3,3% on top of my head.
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Taunt moves for single and multiple targets. To keep them off DPS and healers. Noticed this more than once, when I'm trying to get the enemy off the target to save them. I had to pound them good just to peel them off.
only problem is, given the powers currently available to cruisers, not many are good candidates for having any threat generation on them.
EWP? very few cruisers have the maneuverability to make good use of it
DEM? not really all that great on its own, outside of an aux2batt build, so that would need to be changed in some way
BP? again, really not all that great; the shuttles can be shot down way too easily, and the CD is a bit too long besides
aceton beam? this is actually okay, but again, it has too long of a CD to really make it worth using
if you want taunt-like powers, entirely new powers would have to be created, or the ones i listed above would have to be modified so they're actually worth using in any kind of build
As for getting nailed with subsystem-killers (damn tholians!), I believe Power Insulators helps with resisting it? I dunno if the Tholian drain-pedos are actual power drain or phaser-style procs.
they're both, actually; subsystem targeting drains power from the targeted system, and also has a chance to take the whole thing offline
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Easy way to fix these problems, cruisers don't need a buff nor do beam array's. Change Defense so that it instead of just making you hard to hit it also adds a degree of crit immunity, give all cruisers a passive 15% defense. Now scale the mobs where they have a 70% chance to crit against 0% defense. Now ACC still negates defense of course including crit immunity so it wouldn't unbalance PVP at all. Further more change a few engineering abilities, such as Engineering team heals the hull and adds a 10-15-20% damage resistance per rank. Now also scale up NPC damage in STF's where if an escort gets aggro for more than a few seconds they blow up. Also make it so that shields being up is a high priority even for cruisers and the job of science is not only to debuff and snare but also to heal in space. This will make it so the ideal STF is 3 escorts, 1 cruiser and 1 science ship. Also add in a perk for each tree, tactical gets 5% bonus damage, Engineering gets 5% hull strength, Science gets 5% aux. This will quickly make it so you want more than escort without require a rewrite of the game.
Easy way to fix these problems, cruisers don't need a buff nor do beam array's. Change Defense so that it instead of just making you hard to hit it also adds a degree of crit immunity, give all cruisers a passive 15% defense. Now scale the mobs where they have a 70% chance to crit against 0% defense. Now ACC still negates defense of course including crit immunity so it wouldn't unbalance PVP at all. Further more change a few engineering abilities, such as Engineering team heals the hull and adds a 10-15-20% damage resistance per rank. Now also scale up NPC damage in STF's where if an escort gets aggro for more than a few seconds they blow up. Also make it so that shields being up is a high priority even for cruisers and the job of science is not only to debuff and snare but also to heal in space. This will make it so the ideal STF is 3 escorts, 1 cruiser and 1 science ship. Also add in a perk for each tree, tactical gets 5% bonus damage, Engineering gets 5% hull strength, Science gets 5% aux. This will quickly make it so you want more than escort without require a rewrite of the game.
Crew doesnt matter for repair time. Ships classes have base repair time, no matter the crew. The real catch is, the more crew you have, the least effective it actually is, because you are loosing crew in the course of battle, and it is much easier to regen 50 than 1000.
Escorts have 2,5% base (steamrunner has 3%), science ships 3% and cruisers 3,6%, galor has 3,3% on top of my head.
wait.....:eek: I for one hope that's not true... but if what you are saying is true... they need to give cruisers for sure a innate crew death resistance, not to mention really tweak or overhual the way hull Regen works..
Easy way to fix these problems, cruisers don't need a buff nor do beam array's. Change Defense so that it instead of just making you hard to hit it also adds a degree of crit immunity, give all cruisers a passive 15% defense. Now scale the mobs where they have a 70% chance to crit against 0% defense. Now ACC still negates defense of course including crit immunity so it wouldn't unbalance PVP at all. Further more change a few engineering abilities, such as Engineering team heals the hull and adds a 10-15-20% damage resistance per rank. Now also scale up NPC damage in STF's where if an escort gets aggro for more than a few seconds they blow up. Also make it so that shields being up is a high priority even for cruisers and the job of science is not only to debuff and snare but also to heal in space. This will make it so the ideal STF is 3 escorts, 1 cruiser and 1 science ship. Also add in a perk for each tree, tactical gets 5% bonus damage, Engineering gets 5% hull strength, Science gets 5% aux. This will quickly make it so you want more than escort without require a rewrite of the game.
wait.....:eek: I for one hope that's not true... but if what you are saying is true... they need to give cruisers for sure a innate crew death resistance, not to mention really tweak or overhual the way hull Regen works..
wait.....:eek: I for one hope that's not true... but if what you are saying is true... they need to give cruisers for sure a innate crew death resistance, not to mention really tweak or overhual the way hull Regen works..
I tried that a while ago on a T3 Excelsior (I got mine when they were still free)and a T3 Cheyenne.
They both had the exact same repair rate even though they have different crew sizes.
Only the percentage of active crew combined with the class of ship is relevant.
Easy way to fix these problems, cruisers don't need a buff nor do beam array's. Change Defense so that it instead of just making you hard to hit it also adds a degree of crit immunity, give all cruisers a passive 15% defense. Now scale the mobs where they have a 70% chance to crit against 0% defense.
Tractor beams, particularly the Assimilated kind. Now you have near 0% defense, and so every other hit will be a critical one. Note that Escorts have more slots they can fit a "no tractor beams" power into than most Cruisers.
I fail to see how having a series of predetermined targeting priorities, maneuvering options and combat rules of engagement to streamline command and deployment in the chaos of a fight is nonsense simply because you don't like them.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
I'm waiting for you to explain your grand theory about "synergy" and how it is necessary to the game in place of balance.
If I need to explain that bad for you then you clearly would not understand it. Look up the definition, extrapolate how that would relate to gameplay, and see why that would be superior to every class essentially being merged into the same basic skill set. Deny it until your pink skin turns Andorian blue, you demand escort play while piloting a Cruiser.
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That still leaves game balance as a need to change or not change things.:)
'Balance' in the amalgamating manner in which demand: Removes all gameplay relevant choice from the player; Removes unique differences between the classes; Removes the point of having more than one character as they all have the same function; Removes meaningful strategy from gameplay as all classes have no real differences; Removes teamwork from the game (Not that STO ever had an abundance of this) as all classes now have the same capabilities; Removes the gameplay.
But if the game is this 'unbalanced' and no longer fun for you, why do you keep logging in?
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.
Honestly, if you want a cruiser with as much damage as an escort, then what good an escort would be?
It would make the cruisers horribly overpowered, especially those flown by tacticals.
Also... cruisers can, if built well, tank anything.
My engineer in a cruiser can tank an elite tac cube for 5 minutes.
My tactical in an escort can tank tan elite tac cube for... 5 seconds.
If you don't want to play the tank, then you chose the wrong class. Sorry. But whining for a ship to be the best tank and the best damage dealer would make escorts, and science vessels, both obsolete.
Also, its usually not the cruiser's fault it has low dps, but the players. I can get a moderate dps out of a very good tanking cruiser.
However... Klingon cruisers ARE superior in every way. But on the other hand, with all the lack of attention for the KDF, they are entitled to something good.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Tractor beams, particularly the Assimilated kind. Now you have near 0% defense, and so every other hit will be a critical one. Note that Escorts have more slots they can fit a "no tractor beams" power into than most Cruisers.
easy fix, change it so tractor beams don't negate defense, but only reduce defense by 40% easy fix.
Guys, nobody is going to pay attention to a community that is forever arguing with one another, can we all simply agree that cruisers need SOMETHING, ANYTHING but knowing full well we can't agree upon what it is lets not bother...
Guys, nobody is going to pay attention to a community that is forever arguing with one another, can we all simply agree that cruisers need SOMETHING, ANYTHING but knowing full well we can't agree upon what it is lets not bother...
it should be easy to agree, Cryptic needs to bring in the tank/dps/healer scheme used in every other MMO that makes it where you need all 3 classes
Cruisers do need something and in one word its SPEED! both escorts and science vessels destroy us in terms of flight speed, inertial and turn rate (which is the worst one).
Now I'm not saying that cruisers should go as fast as escorts and science vessels, but they really need to some help here. At the very least an increase in turn rate or two won't hurt.
This is also tied to the issue of bonus defense. The faster you go the more defense bonus you obtain. If you are rocking Aegis that's 70.0% bonus with the engines with MACO and Omega Force it's 60.0% which is not to bad either.
I mention this because in order to get the highest defense bonus with your engines cruisers have a massive disadvantage here. Cruisers are punished with the other two ship classes get rewards. Now that's not fair. Either fix the turn rate and flight speed or bring the other two classes down in order to make things fair.
Huh, my Tac console thread didn't make it on the list?
I'm not going to argue the points made by OP, even though I disagree with them in part. However, I want to add on to what has been mentioned:
Cruisers are not nearly useful in PvE because their tanking capability isn't that critical. I've been in Elite STFs where a handful of escorts could bring down cubes before a cruiser's ability to resist damage really factors in.
Trying to spec cruiser for damage won't it make it any better an escort at the task, while unreasonably sacrificing survivability. Basically, it becomes so much worse at everything.
You've forgotten to include the Galor, but I suppose that also goes to show how much better Tactical orientation is than Engineering. It also goes to show how even a marginal improvement in some qualities could make cruisers viable combat vehicles.
In PvP, cruiser weapons just seem like they only exist for the purpose of having something to shoot with, and not to actually deal damage. I've managed to use BOIII to knock down a section of shielding on a number of occasions, but I've never actually managed to follow up on that opening.
Escorts cannot quite match well-made cruiser builds in terms of sheer damage resilience, but their qualities are such that they can be very survivable and still make a useful contribution to a fight.
KDF Battlecruisers are simply better, and no two ways about it.
To further expand on the subject of tanking...
In PvE, cruisers can tank fairly well because of how AI works and how Threat Control can force AI to target cruisers over other members of your team. However, it doesn't mean a whole lot if cubes and the lot cannot withstand or retaliate the assault of multiple escorts.
In PvP, you either tank or you heal, but tanking means nothing if you cannot pose enough of a threat to draw players' attention or force it on you. Likewise, it also means nothing if your shields aren't all that much stronger because once one quadrant falls, you're toast: unlike escorts, you can't manoeuvre to cover your weak spots. Healing seems to just about the only role that cruisers can safely provide, but some cruisers are made to heal better than others.
As for the OP's suggested improvements, I think that cruisers lack in variety compared to other ships, and are also incapable of tanking adequately, as I have explained above. If cruisers can't fulfil their tanking role well, then why must they be stuck with a turn rate that appears to be actually slower than that of a Borg Cube?
I won't deign to comment on nerfing either escorts, dhcs, or both, since those are separate issues, and involving them in the topic would only lead to unnecessary antagonism. What we ought to discuss should specifically pertain to why cruisers are underperforming, or otherwise undesirable, compared to other choices.
~
Personally, I think that a few cruisers could use a boost in their turn rate, which is to say that every single cruiser with the exception of the Star Cruiser, Support Cruiser, and the Odysseys. Moreover, while the characteristics of cruisers are not identical, they are ultimately oriented towards roughly the same capabilities of healing/support/tanking, when it might be better to distinguish within these rough categorical outlines. Some cruisers may be built for pure tanking, while others qualify as offensive tanks or the more esoteric role of "point defenders" (cruisers that can exercise both mobility and tanking qualities).
Beam Array power drain is excessive and causes a massive decrease in the effective DPS of a cruiser, which is already inferior to escorts under most circumstances. Beam abilities are hobbled by disadvantages that are not present or otherwise negligible for Torpedo and Cannon abilities. While I don't have any particular qualms about the scattering nature of Fire At Will, Beam Overload comes into mind for the exceptional number of faults it has, namely in terms of its reliance on power for damage, delay and interruption of firing cycles and its disconcerting tendency to miss and do no damage at all.
Cruisers would also be more viable if they could make effective use of kinetic weapons such as torpedoes, but the ship class as a whole would be far more effective if they either had conditional mobility capabilities or the ability to enforce zoning (i.e., cripple enemy mobility or force them into a situation where they must engage the cruiser).
This response is mostly related to PVP. In PVE I think cruisers are allright.
I can't really do too much damage in pvp on my cruiser unless I sacrifice some good survivability, and I need a lot of survivability otherwise I'll get blown up real quick. I've been running the stock Assault Cruiser with fire at will when facing one target, all anti-proton beam weapons with the occasional quantum torpedo depending upon if I want something different, and directed energy modulation 3. I also sometimes run with a vent-theta radiation console or warp plasma.
Basically, it's the "Dragon" cruiser spec or similar to it that was posted on these forums somewhere. It's not bad, and I can still kill people with it, but it's not great. I certainly cannot take down a Jem'Hadar Escort, or some of the other escorts out there. The problem isn't that they do too much damage, the problem is that I cannot penetrate their shields. I just don't do enough damage. There are many fights where I can survive indefinitely, but I cannot kill certain people. Perhaps if cruisers got an extra tactical slot, I might be able to do a bit better. The answer to this game seems to be just buff damage to fix things, so...I guess I can't have best of both worlds...but not being able to penetrate an escorts shields or destroy him/her is just annoying, in most cases it's just a stalemate for me at that point.
I just don't think an escort should have more powerful shields or hull than a cruiser, in pvp.
Comments
That still leaves game balance as a need to change or not change things.:)
Welcome to thee, water-logged wart. I have been awaiting thy presence.
I'm waiting for you to explain your grand theory about "synergy" and how it is necessary to the game in place of balance.
Here is what I noticed playing STO as a cruiser. Which should be a tank and used as a tank. I see no moves for Threat. The other MMO I had several moves that would generate Threat in both settings. Single target and multiple targets. That way the DPS can dish out their damage while I hold the enemy. And the healers can heal with out being hit. Using DPS on a tank is not good specially if your in PVE if you can't taunt. If you want that route, then the tank needs a ton more DPS than your regular DPS so you can keep up.
What I see we need:
Taunt moves for single and multiple targets. To keep them off DPS and healers. Noticed this more than once, when I'm trying to get the enemy off the target to save them. I had to pound them good just to peel them off.
With a Eng in a cruiser we need less power drain so we can keep up. (In PVE solo I ran out of juice more than once. Specially when you got nailed with something that takes it out.) This is where taunts come in to get that aggro back. Which will help in groups.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
i love how you dismantled bloctoads comment!
in my opinion just half of the stuff hereticknight posted at the beginning is enough to bring fed cruisers to a point where they are enjoyable in general, not only certain cruisers with certain builds.
personally i think the +2 turnrate and the decrease of power drain on beam weapons would be the key and should be easy to implement...atleast cryptic could give it a try on tribble.
towards the proposed "super beam" i'm sceptical, since this just implements another thing that may or may not be unbalanced and should the 2 modifications above fail to deliver this may be an option in the future.
One beam i'd liove to see would be a 360 degree beam...just to make a frontal attack beam boat possible. they are in the game already...just limited to shuttles.
my opinion on the galaxy refit: the option with the ltd cmdr sci boff slot went with the introduction of the ambassador, sad but why not. Only thing i see left is a universal ensign, paired with sensor analasys and a build in (not console) saucer sep.
Engs have a number of moves that mitigate energy drain (Nadion Inversion, EPS something something), and can couple that with emergency power, aux power and battery skills, so that can help.
As for getting nailed with subsystem-killers (damn tholians!), I believe Power Insulators helps with resisting it? I dunno if the Tholian drain-pedos are actual power drain or phaser-style procs.
Escorts don't even have the limitation of enormous energy drain that would require those abilities you listed. That's where the inequity lies.
Nope, they're disable procs, not drain procs. Only Starship Subsystem Repair helps in that respect.
IE escorts have a faster 'repair' time than a cruiser/carrier when it comes to that on average.
Crew doesnt matter for repair time. Ships classes have base repair time, no matter the crew. The real catch is, the more crew you have, the least effective it actually is, because you are loosing crew in the course of battle, and it is much easier to regen 50 than 1000.
Escorts have 2,5% base (steamrunner has 3%), science ships 3% and cruisers 3,6%, galor has 3,3% on top of my head.
only problem is, given the powers currently available to cruisers, not many are good candidates for having any threat generation on them.
EWP? very few cruisers have the maneuverability to make good use of it
DEM? not really all that great on its own, outside of an aux2batt build, so that would need to be changed in some way
BP? again, really not all that great; the shuttles can be shot down way too easily, and the CD is a bit too long besides
aceton beam? this is actually okay, but again, it has too long of a CD to really make it worth using
if you want taunt-like powers, entirely new powers would have to be created, or the ones i listed above would have to be modified so they're actually worth using in any kind of build
they're both, actually; subsystem targeting drains power from the targeted system, and also has a chance to take the whole thing offline
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
This will not have the effect you think it will.
That is a very bodl suggestion you have there.
/imout
The entire crew mechanic needs to be replaced.
I tried that a while ago on a T3 Excelsior (I got mine when they were still free)and a T3 Cheyenne.
They both had the exact same repair rate even though they have different crew sizes.
Only the percentage of active crew combined with the class of ship is relevant.
Tractor beams, particularly the Assimilated kind. Now you have near 0% defense, and so every other hit will be a critical one. Note that Escorts have more slots they can fit a "no tractor beams" power into than most Cruisers.
[Unrepentant] Lapo@overlapo: the problem with space STF
is that you can't properly teabag your defeated opponent
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and that point is? attack patterns help keep your ship in one piece and their ships in pieces, so i'm not seeing the beef with them
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
By all means then, enlighten us.
If I need to explain that bad for you then you clearly would not understand it. Look up the definition, extrapolate how that would relate to gameplay, and see why that would be superior to every class essentially being merged into the same basic skill set. Deny it until your pink skin turns Andorian blue, you demand escort play while piloting a Cruiser.
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
'Balance' in the amalgamating manner in which demand: Removes all gameplay relevant choice from the player; Removes unique differences between the classes; Removes the point of having more than one character as they all have the same function; Removes meaningful strategy from gameplay as all classes have no real differences; Removes teamwork from the game (Not that STO ever had an abundance of this) as all classes now have the same capabilities; Removes the gameplay.
But if the game is this 'unbalanced' and no longer fun for you, why do you keep logging in?
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
It would make the cruisers horribly overpowered, especially those flown by tacticals.
Also... cruisers can, if built well, tank anything.
My engineer in a cruiser can tank an elite tac cube for 5 minutes.
My tactical in an escort can tank tan elite tac cube for... 5 seconds.
If you don't want to play the tank, then you chose the wrong class. Sorry. But whining for a ship to be the best tank and the best damage dealer would make escorts, and science vessels, both obsolete.
Also, its usually not the cruiser's fault it has low dps, but the players. I can get a moderate dps out of a very good tanking cruiser.
However... Klingon cruisers ARE superior in every way. But on the other hand, with all the lack of attention for the KDF, they are entitled to something good.
easy fix, change it so tractor beams don't negate defense, but only reduce defense by 40% easy fix.
it should be easy to agree, Cryptic needs to bring in the tank/dps/healer scheme used in every other MMO that makes it where you need all 3 classes
Cruisers do need something and in one word its SPEED! both escorts and science vessels destroy us in terms of flight speed, inertial and turn rate (which is the worst one).
Now I'm not saying that cruisers should go as fast as escorts and science vessels, but they really need to some help here. At the very least an increase in turn rate or two won't hurt.
This is also tied to the issue of bonus defense. The faster you go the more defense bonus you obtain. If you are rocking Aegis that's 70.0% bonus with the engines with MACO and Omega Force it's 60.0% which is not to bad either.
I mention this because in order to get the highest defense bonus with your engines cruisers have a massive disadvantage here. Cruisers are punished with the other two ship classes get rewards. Now that's not fair. Either fix the turn rate and flight speed or bring the other two classes down in order to make things fair.
This is so very true. The MMO I played, you had no choice but use the 3 set up. Tank, DPS, and Healer. If you didn't you failed the group missions.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
This response is mostly related to PVP. In PVE I think cruisers are allright.
I can't really do too much damage in pvp on my cruiser unless I sacrifice some good survivability, and I need a lot of survivability otherwise I'll get blown up real quick. I've been running the stock Assault Cruiser with fire at will when facing one target, all anti-proton beam weapons with the occasional quantum torpedo depending upon if I want something different, and directed energy modulation 3. I also sometimes run with a vent-theta radiation console or warp plasma.
Basically, it's the "Dragon" cruiser spec or similar to it that was posted on these forums somewhere. It's not bad, and I can still kill people with it, but it's not great. I certainly cannot take down a Jem'Hadar Escort, or some of the other escorts out there. The problem isn't that they do too much damage, the problem is that I cannot penetrate their shields. I just don't do enough damage. There are many fights where I can survive indefinitely, but I cannot kill certain people. Perhaps if cruisers got an extra tactical slot, I might be able to do a bit better. The answer to this game seems to be just buff damage to fix things, so...I guess I can't have best of both worlds...but not being able to penetrate an escorts shields or destroy him/her is just annoying, in most cases it's just a stalemate for me at that point.
I just don't think an escort should have more powerful shields or hull than a cruiser, in pvp.