TBR Tactics - The Double-Edged Sword

scurry5

Now, with the current meta and its increasing amounts of pets, mines and other destructibles, I'm beginning to see a growing niche for CC-type science builds.

GW and TB are fairly familiar and easy to use, as is EWP. PSW is also pretty handy.

However, as I mentioned in the thread title, TBR is a different matter. At one time, I believe that this ability was one of the most maligned in the hands of a newbie in both Elite STFs and PvP, given its ability to knock players out of Alphas, EWP clouds and such.

I would like to ask for some advice on using this Boff ability.

What other high-level Sci ability would synergise with this? PSW would be my idea. Am I correct, and are there any others?

Would it, in your opinion, be recommended to run two copies of this ability?

Should I focus on damage (particle gens, low aux) or push (grav gens, high aux)? How about high particle gens with high aux?

How should I use the ability? Should I just turn it on whenever spam gets a bit heavy? Use it to shove an Alpha striker away? Basically, how do I use it without inviting egg-throwing from my teammates?

How about the doff? Is the 50% of a 10 engine power drain worth it? Do they stack? If so, do they stack chances, or stack power drain amount?

Finally, are there any tips you all can provide?

Thanks in advance for any help you all can give, and I hope to see some interesting ideas we can build off from!

dontdrunkimshoot

you push a target away from healers and have escorts swarm it, or you drain your aux, add tac buffs and as many particle gens as possible, and deal large amounts of kinetic damage directly to the hull.

in azure rescue, you can just push tholian ships away and rescue them without taking the time to kill anything

borgresearcher

"grove street : home "

repulsors is the main spam clearing skill, but it doesnt mean it is the best for a pvp. gw or psw still do better against a scimitar or a pve recluse ...

fpr pve i use gw
for pvp, repulsors with 4 prtg embassy consoles ... its like san andreas ... " keep up motherfu"banana"er" ... everybody says it sucks, bur it works afterall

keep up

virusdancer

Trolling Beams, Rawr!

You know, I'm trying to remember ever using them against pets. Sure, I've cleared mines with them - but pets?

There's just so many fun ways to troll somebody with them - using them on pets never really occurred...just shoot them, meh.

There's pushing the healer. There's pushing the guy that just buffed up for the alpha (sure, his APO will means he can ignore the push - but not the damage - besides, that's what SNB's for...wheeeee!). There's dropping the GW, SNB'ing the APO/whatever, and TBRing back into the GW while saying in local, "Sit, boy...sit."

There's mixing it in with Plasma/Trans as part of a your Elite Fleet Shields didn't stop me from popping your hull trololol nerdgasm.

Heck, along the lines of the pushing to somewhere instead of away from somewhere - those Scim folks would probably be thankful if folks were to round up targets for them. Even before that, haven't you ever pushed somebody in front of a Tac Bort waiting to decloak?

Any maps with obstacles...c'mon, push folks into those obstacles - they might get stuck.

Feel guilty about using GPG on a whole team...ease that guilt by pushing one guy to the side and using GPG on him instead! Ahem...

Somebody drops out a Mega Torp? A low damage push of that back toward them...they should enjoy their gift as much as anybody else, am I right?

The list just goes on and on and on...Trolling Beams, Rawr!

skurf

TBR's are one of the more difficult powers to use in the game, but if used properly they can do good hull damage as well as have the ability to isolate larger/slower ships. The push/isolate doesn't work so well on escorts because they can just fly around your tbr range. With teamwork though, you can use it isolate the healer if they're in a cruiser or carrier. I've killed many Recluses by pushing them out of range of the rest of their team using evassive and then having allies follow with evasive. Before the other team knows what has happened their healer is 25 km away, half his hull is gone, and he's getting focused on by the team. The strategy is a bit more in-depth than that and can change depending on your team set up, but that's the jist of it. If you're not spec'ed into particle gens, you could just use it to push the healer away while everyone else focuses on another target, but this usually doesn't work as well.

Aiming TBR's is not so easy. I've run them on many different ships with many different setups and pushing them exactly in the direction you want to push them is never an easy task. If you're not on the same horizontal plane as them, you will push them up or down, which makes it harder for people to target him and gives him a boost towards his avenue of escape (spiraling). After all the practice I had with TBR's, at the end I was still only around 50% successful at pushing someone exactly where I wanted him to go.

I never really found them that useful for clearing pets except for maybe siphon drones. Most pets don't stick in one place like siphon drones so you're not actually going to be killing many of them in most cases.

The thing with synergy...is well...it doesn't combine well with most powers. Gravity well, Eject Plasma, Tractor beam...TBR can royally TRIBBLE over any of these powers. It would take a very well coordinated team and lots of practice to be able to consistently push people into GW or EWP (instead of accidentally mistiming it and pushing them out of said hold or just not pushing them in the exact right direction). It's much easier to hold them with a TB and then use GW/EWP than it is to push them back into it.

chlamidiot

I ran a JHEC with Orion Interceptors and the TBR doff for engine drain, but that was pre-LoR EPTE. The doff seemed to roll per tick and did seem to stack. I have no idea how it would work now with more widespread EPTE. And the new Interceptors have TB, so... less synergy there I guess.

What's the deal if you are caught in a regular TB and get hit with TBR? Do you move? Does it measure the push v. the hold?

Aux2Busey is nice for TBR because it brings it up more often and so it coincides a little better with tac buffs, plus as was mentioned it kills the push if damage is what you're after.

thelastlegate

Straight out of the gate let me say my ships (all three of them) are minelayer/sweepers.
My Tractor beams are used to clear mines and "bug swat" pointless fighter spam like those tortured souls which are so hard to lock onto individually.
With the right power levels and a little practice you can use a scimitar as a hockey puck AND mess with its cloak.
Well worth having.

alopen

Oh do I love TBR on my Dhelan. I have no problem whatsoever using TBR to pin an unsuspecting Fed in front of my 4 DHCs. It aslo pushes any potential buddies off my rear end while I pew pew away at the tgt. I tried out TBR one day as the LCDR sci slot and dropped all other contenders. TBR is even great on escorts if you use APO or evasive right as you decloak and run straight at the tgt. Without APO or PH up most people are helpless and have to take the full brunt of the attack. The trick is to stear right at the tgt so he doesn't get pushed over or under you as you charge at em. Also most escorts are lacking in hull heals and I know from my other escort builds how ******* annoying it is to get TBR'd.

voporak

I fly an escort. In PvP, whenever someone TBRs me, it's just an opportunity to get my DHCs lined up.