Controversial thread ahoy! tl;dr? I've highlighted the main point if you don't like reading.
Pulsewaves are a fact of every day life for anyone who does ground content, be it PvE or PvP. They hit hard, they have pretty looking effects, and who doesn't like a good old shotgun? However, it's starting to feel that they just aren't right in their current form.
Earlier tonight, I got bored of space and decided to see how the latest ground changes were working out. I picked up the MACO set on my tactical character so that I could use a shield that isn't broken. I figured I'd play around a bit, get creative, do a goofy setup and see what happens: MACO Armour, Omega Shield (oops, I'm still using the broken one!), and both Omega/MACO guns. The extra survivability from having two STF set powers was nice, even if the shield heal is kinda TRIBBLE for Tac characters. I figured that it wouldn't go too well, since I'd be leaving my pulsewave behind as well as my bonus dodge from Omega 3 piece set bonus.
It required more careful timing of my buffs, my debuffs and my attack patterns. Things felt more fluid and dynamic. It wasn't "superbuff, sprint across the field, kill or be killed". I was having fun! I didn't chase people around a corner and derp all over my keyboard to see "TRIBBLE was defeated by McKenna."
I noticed other people weren't using their pulsewaves either. It was purely a range game. People pulled their parlor trick toys out. Stasis pistols. Ghostbusters. High Density Beams. CRM-200s. Compression Pistols. You name it, I saw it. And it was fun.
The game actually required planning and skill by both teams to kill targets. We did focus fire, we sat near hard cover, we stacked debuffs, we buffed each other. Medics actually had time to heal people. People weren't dying instantly. People fought as teams and moved as teams (for the most part). There were cheers after each game this happened in; people seemed to be in bright spirits all around. Tons of good sportsmanship.
So it got me thinking.
Are pulsewaves in general, not just the cryowave, the cancer (or at least part of it) that is killing ground pvp? I myself hate using them, but I have to if I want to compete. But it feels like with the amount of damage they put out, combined with power creep, combined with broken mechanics *cough Romulan Fire Team, cold damage cough* is sucking the fun out of it. There have to be others out there who live and die by the pulsewave who agree as well.
When new guys get into ground pvp, pulsewaves are their number one complaint I've noticed. Sure they're not into the whole groove of things, they forget to crouch, they get flanked, they don't have ultra mega hyper mk XII STF gear, etc. I dunno, it just seems broken in general to me.
Anyone else have opinions on the matter? To me, it's a balance issue, but I know that it is not to others, so I've made a new topic to discuss it rather than dump it in the balance concerns megathread. I'm not asking for a blanketed soul crushing nerf, just a discussion.
Comments
Pulsewaves lost a lot of their "horror" with all the Reputationsystem Passive Heals. You can see a difference using a pulsewave on someone, between people having the Reputationsystem, and those who have not.
What for? That you lack against every other kind of damage on PvP Ground?
dont be stupid... for the visual!
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Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
The Type 3 Phaser rifle isn't as good as was originally thought. Still a solid weapon though.
The reason it picked up a lot of steam is due to a misunderstanding in the way its secondary fire works. It has three rapid bursts and the AoE component. Back when my fleet was testing the gun out, it was assumed that ambush affected all three bursts and the AoE explosion before being used up. It does the job of killing targets reasonably quickly, so no further testing was done, and then everyone started using it. However, later testing seems to be showing that Ambush is used up on the first burst and the rest of the attack is at normal damage (+ other buffs).
Type 3 Phasers would probably be a major goto gun if pulsewaves were to suffer an unfortunate accident, but they're nowhere near as deadly and they add emphasis on the range game.
No need really. Cryowaves will be having a pvp only fix applied to them shortly which basically equates to everyone having passive cold resistance as if it were on armour.
Two possibilities: Either I don't understand how the rep passives work, or you don't. To me, it doesn't seem like 1.667% health (about... 8-9 health?) per five seconds and 5 shield regeneration a second even matters. That wouldn't even be enough to counter an unbuffed mk I white pulsewave in the hands of a level 5 lieutenant. A level 50 doesn't care about such measly regeneration, and the shield regen from the romulan passive is laughable at best.
I'm not good with math, perhaps someone who is can work it out. It just seems inconsequential.
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That requires teamplay.. teamplay is something that rarely ever happens in pug groups.
Besides theres absolute nothing that bores me more then a long-ranged gunfight with healers present.. thats like space-pvp with 2 healer heavy teams and no burst dps there. Speedy fights are more fun.
Particulary in long range engagements is like a dance, you have to push a little, back up a little, and so on.
But generally speaking i don't have any problems with pulsewaves. I have 3 PvP characters and i only use pulsewaves with my tact, and i don't feel OP. I mean the archwave setting can be easily resisted if you know what are you doing and you need to get in range to use it effectively (of course you can reach someone easily using Cloak and Covert, but that it's another issue).
And for the new guys getting killed, it's inevitable, it's going to happen the same with any other weapon they face. The Pulsewave it's only the quickest way. It's like a memo: 'Hey, wakeup! you are in Ground PvP, BOOM!':D
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A pulsewave is a mandatory requirement for FES ground pvpers.
There are some rather harsh punishments for not having one in your inventory when entering a pvp game
Punishment 1: Must buy everyone in the fleet a mk 1 pulsewave
Punishment 2: Must attend an hour long health and safety meeting about the hazards of not bringing a pulsewave into a pvp game.