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Halp, I'm Dying A Lot in a Warbird!
alarikun
Member Posts: 3 Arc User
My friend and I just hit 50 on our Romulan characters, and busted out the T'varo Retrofit and the D'dedirex Retrofit... we had gear from our other characters to bring them up, power-wise... but no matter what we do, enemies seem to tear right through the shields and hull, bringing us to nothing.
Is the power difference between Fed/KDF Ships, and Warbirds really that distinct that we can't hold out against enemy fire?
I'm asking a simple question, and I'll put up my build if people ask for it... but it has some simple Hull Defense consoles in the Engi slots, Damage-consoles in the Tactical slots, and some special consoles in the Sci slots.
So... has there been a change to Shields? Or perhaps Warbirds are simply that fragile (not that their hull really implies it).
NOTE: We do infact play on Elite. We have never played anything less. It was too easy for us as FEDs or KDFs on anything less. And now it just seems absurdly hard at Level 50 as ROMs.
Is the power difference between Fed/KDF Ships, and Warbirds really that distinct that we can't hold out against enemy fire?
I'm asking a simple question, and I'll put up my build if people ask for it... but it has some simple Hull Defense consoles in the Engi slots, Damage-consoles in the Tactical slots, and some special consoles in the Sci slots.
So... has there been a change to Shields? Or perhaps Warbirds are simply that fragile (not that their hull really implies it).
NOTE: We do infact play on Elite. We have never played anything less. It was too easy for us as FEDs or KDFs on anything less. And now it just seems absurdly hard at Level 50 as ROMs.
Original Join Date: January 2010
Original Name: -Gen-Alaris
Days Subscribed: 1211 (As of May 26, 2013)
Original Name: -Gen-Alaris
Days Subscribed: 1211 (As of May 26, 2013)
Post edited by alarikun on
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Comments
A lot of your survivability comes from your BoFF abilities, not gear. That's what's going to be most important in surviving.
Personally, I haven't noticed much difference between the average Fed/KDF and my warbirds.
Finally, cloaking under fire is something you do not do in a Warbird unless you have Warp Shadows or Quantum Absorption up.
More mundane things to think about:
Romulans have less total power available to them on Singularity Core ships. If you're running on the Attack preset, your shields have less power than on a Fed or KDF ship on the same preset, which means your shields have less resistance to damage and regen slower.
On a fresh 50 you don't have the Reputation system passives, like Hull Repairing Nanites and other such tanking passives/procs.
Romulans (not sure about Remans or Alien Gen) have a fair chunk of ground Traits by default that you probably didn't take Fed or KDF side, check your Traits and consider respecing them to be more Space oriented.
There's a lot of BOffs you get just by leveling with the crit generating/buffing Operative Trait, so you may be doing more damage than usual, and attracting more aggro because of it.
1. Run 2 copies of EPtS (or one copy with 3 Damage Control Enginners/A2Batt build)
2. Use a Field Stability Core
This brings your shield power level up to the level of the non-Singularity ships. Shield level is very important not only for regen, but shield resistance. EPtS further enhances shield resist.
3. Bring at least one ability to replenish shields outside of the above:
(Transfer Shield Strength, Engineer Captain - Rotate Shield Frequency, at least 2 high quality Shield Distribution Officers)
4. Save your singularity power for when you need a "save my bacon". The Quantum Shield Replenish is good. I also like the Warp Shadows as it tends to distract the big ships long enough for my natural regen to help me up.
5. Go faster and use only Romulan BOs with Subterfuge. Get your defense up and you'll take fewer hits.
These all make you tougher.
TAC Skills:
Attk Patters, Energy Weapons, Manuvers and Energy Weapon Specialization all maxed
Weapons Training, Targeting Systems, all maxed; first projectile is 5, last projectile is 3.
Eng:
Structural Integrity, Armor reinforcements maxed
Subsystems repair and hull plating maxed
Hull repair, warp core efficiency, warp core potential, shield performance and weapons performance all maxed
Sci:
Shield Emitters & Shield subsystems maxed.
I can't remember what stations he had with the retrofit, and he has the fleet version now, but with the universal slot I got a Sci BOff and got 2 TSS1, 2 HazEmit2, combined with ET1 and EPTS2. Even with the Shield Absorptive Frequency generator sometimes even that isn't enough. So I figured that with an Engineering Captain it should be better, and it is. Similar setup but I have a Engineering BOff in that universal slot combined with miracle worker that does make it much better. Although I do rely on batteries and the skills reflect that
Let's break it down shall we?
Lieutenant Universal, Commander Tactical, Ensign Tactical, Lieutenant Engineering, and Lieutenant Commander Science.
Here's what I use for each slot and why:
Commander Tactical:
Tactical Team 1: a MUST, it rotates your shields to keep your facing that's getting stomped up and keeps you from taking huge direct hull damage, it's best to have 2 of these Tac team 1s on your ship to keep it rolling at all times. It also removes the borg's ASSIMILATE SHIP which causes your boff abilities to go into short cooldowns.
Cannon Rapid Fire 1: Simple cannon damage improvement ability, helps DPS
Torpedo High Yield 3: Powers up Torpedo shots causing many to fire at once(again helps DPS, which helps you kill things faster and not have to take damage as long)
Cannon Rapid Fire 3: Same as rapid fire 1
Ensign Tactical:
Tac Team 1: Second instance of it to keep it up at all times. Single most important cooldown to keep up
Lieutenant Engineering:
Emergency Power to Shields 1: Helps with your Shield healing and keeps your shield power higher which improves regen rate per 6 seconds.
Auxiliary to Structural Integrity Field 1: A very short cooldown instant 10%ish hull heal. It can save your butt in an emergency and it provides a boost to your Resistances for a short time.
Lieutenant Universal:
I go with a second Engineer here.
Emergency Power to Engines 1: Allows a quick escape or allows you to speed up to hunt down those speedy spheres, when used with Evasive Maneuvers provides roughly Full Impulse speeds.
Reverse Shield Polarity 1: This is a save your shields ability. It causes all incoming energy weapon damage to heal your shields instead of harm them for a short time. This DOES have a long cooldown so don't expect to depend on it too often.
Lieutenant Commander Science:
Hazard Emitters 1: This heals your hull and gets rid of Plasma Fire(which can really hurt when you get hit by several stacks of it), quite important to have against Borg.
Transfer Shield Strength 2: Provides a large shield heal over time. When paired with Emergency Power to Shields it increases healing over time further. It's best to keep your shields up as it prevents you from having to hull heal as much.
Tractor Beam Repulsors 2: This pushes smallish exploding ships away from you, allows you to not worry about Heavy Plasma Torpedoes from Cubes(deals damage to them) and does a fair amount of damage as well to up to 3-4 targets within 5 KM. Medium cooldown, so be careful when it's not up.
I currently use a Regnerative Shields Array Mk XI [Reg]x2 [Pla], a Positron Deflector, and the Breen Engines. Plan to get the Elite Fleet Space shelds coming up soon when we hit tier 4 Communications Array with my Fleet. I highly recommend a shield with Plasma Resist.
Not sure if it'll help any, but I hope it does.
I think you're probably used to all of the gear and powers (like rep powers) that your Fed/KDF characters have.
So it will take some time for you to acquire borg set or MACO set items, and rep powers (T4 Omega is great for passive shield regen).
What ships do your Fed/KDF characters use?
It would probably be useful to compare.
Good advice!
Cannon scatter volley also increases damage by nearly as much but it hits multiple targets. If I'm not mistaken one version of rapid fire gives a 15% boost vs 1 target and the same level of volley gives 10% vs up to 5. I think this is the rapid fire/volley 2.
So if you're doing 500 damage base, rapid fire bumps to 575 vs 1, or volley gives 550 to up to 5 targets each (not spread out among them). The difference is small enough that I prefer volley.
I have been experiencing that quite a bit too when I try replaying missions such as "Smash and grab". I get hit by a Torpedo spread while at full shields and health, but still get killed. Granted, part of the problem is that Keldons are grossly overpowered, but this is totally beyond the pale ridiculous.
Alternatively if you're running the Attack Preset, pull it to 80/50/15/15. The shield gains are worth more than what you lose in terms of weapons power.
The Mk XI Jem'Hadar shields are pretty nice too, Resilient with 10% resist all Energy Types, yours free for re-running a mission. I'm running these on my Mogai to good effect while I grind through Omega rep. Note: The Jem deflector does nothing for tanking, so fitting a Positron instead would be a good idea if you want more survivability.
Yeah, these are pretty nice, even if you're KDF allied and have to spend Zen to get it, I'd go for it(and have).
I like using the full Jem'Hadar set from completing the story missions. I use Plasmonic leech and full points spent of Starship Flow Capacitors and I gain a nice power boost. I also use Polaron weapons because they take full advantage of both the Jem'Hadar set and flow capacitors allowing me to sometimes disable enemy ships for a short period of time when Polaron weapons proc activates.