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Development moves in the last six months that have negatively impacted PvP
rylanadionysis
Member Posts: 3,359 Arc User
These are of course my opinions but I do know for a fact a lot of them are shared with at least some of you. Some more than others, but as I never really hold back a thought, here we go. My top ten list of development changes since the summer that has made PvP more and more of a joke.
1. The Romulan faction. This is an old dead horse in most aspects but today it still rings true more than anything else in the game. The crit hit chance coupled with nearly unbreakable battle cloaks on every ship coupled with the escape skills via singularity powers coupled with the lunacy of the overpowered universal consoles (valdore being the big nasty of them all) has turned PvP into a pointy vs pointy war in which most of our toons established prior to Legacy of Romulus have been rendered utterly obsolete. This is true also for nearly every federation ship and many of the KDF non battle cloakers. Why play a human or klingon when you can play an overpowered space elf with more damage and defense than anything else?
2. Spire tactical consoles. We knew these were coming, but the addition of up to eight critical hit chance or 40 critical severity pushed the power creep a lightyear above what it was before. In fact, this singular addition rivals the power creep jump of LOR itself. Before LOR the most crit any ship would ever see was about 15%, now it is completely possible to push that to 35 and even a little higher, right along with crit severities hitting 150-200.
3. The shuttle PvP addition. This completely flopped and the main reason it did is because of universal consoles and nimbus/fleet support bringing in Starship level power and damage to a field of ships not able to handle it. Take a single isometric charge or integration circuit up against a couple shuttles and see what happens.
4. The Voth ships. Rarely talked about, these ships come with console bonuses that when combined with boff abilities and specs turn them into nearly unkillable science spammers. I was not wrong when I said the Palisade was going to knock the wells off the mountain, it has and it has a lot. Add this to the fact we already had nearly unkillable ships, and it will lead into the next problem.
5. Additions of more universal console madness (and the ability to stack them ad nauseum, and obtain the uni consoles of both sides for use on ONE ship). This has lead to the prevalence of Vapers, Supper Bosted FAW boats that can do insane amounts of bleedthrough damage, The whole uni console pack via lockbox thing needs to stop now, but its probably already too late. It gets even worse on a romulan toon that can get access to EVERY SINGLE CONSOLE IN THE GAME and stack them together into a ship that can then spike for over 300,000 damage in 3 seconds via BO/TS/ISO/Proton/Ion/Bioneural/god knows what else. The impulse capacitance cell being given to everyone was the stupidest move I have ever seen, as well. Not to mention its possible to bypass console cooldowns by swapping them out of combat, christ sakes cryptic, think about this stuff!
6. Doffs. This isnt really a last six months only thing, but in the last six or so months we have seen the addition of some of the most ridiculously overpowered and imbalancing doffs of them all. Impossible to name them all, but between the Elachi lockbox, Romulan doff pack, Voth lockbox, Tal Shiar Lockbox, and Hirogen lockbox we have seen some pretty insane combinations come out. Additionally we also had a sixth doff slot added with the spire, making the doff problem in space even worse!!
7. EPTX. Increasing the duration was the single stupidest move you have made with any boff power, ever. Having EPTS at 100 percent uptime, EPTE at 100 percent uptime. Do you not see the problem with that? It is completely and totally possible via doffs to have a ship able to move at near full impulse speeds (or more with other abilities) 100 percent of the time.
8. Whatever you did with the changes to pets when you came out with the obelisk. Its already been mentioned on the forums tonight in another section, but the ability to stack buffs on the pets you launch turns them into little nightmares stacking 12 APBs or worse on your opponents. Lets not forget the addition of all these new frigates and other harassment pets lately that have really silly abilities they can spam so often that it seems like youre literally caught in a web of debuffs constantly.
9. Unlinking the cooldowns for Tactical/Engineering/Science teams. Some people on the forum here seem to think this isnt a big deal, but ive seen whats happening in the game. People are starting to carry them all the time, making subnuke/sensor scan/fomm/and a plethora of boff skills virtually unusable most of the time. No longer do we have to pick and choose and make tradeoffs in our skills, no no, defense wasnt high enough before, now we can just slap every single clear onto our ship and just remove anything at the press of a button without needing any help from our teammates. This was a problem with the Keelel doff to be sure, but its been amplified murderously by this change.
10. The upcoming change to Elachi weapon procs. As if we didnt have enough shield bypass out there already? Yes defenses are high but this change is going to have the effect of basically rendering the concept of a shield obsolete. Might as well hulltank it now because the proc is going to be hitting you every couple of seconds once everyone switches to them. No more lockout time, everyone can proc it over and over and over.
So there is my list, oh there is way more but Ill leave that up for discussion. I am so close to just being done with it all. Ive stuck around and been as competitive/flexible/understanding as possible. I am a fighter and stubborn, but the last couple of weeks especially have really put some last straws into play. Something has to give, something has to change, and at this rate like so many others it might just be me stopping STO altogether. PvP was bad before all of this garbage. Now its just awful.
1. The Romulan faction. This is an old dead horse in most aspects but today it still rings true more than anything else in the game. The crit hit chance coupled with nearly unbreakable battle cloaks on every ship coupled with the escape skills via singularity powers coupled with the lunacy of the overpowered universal consoles (valdore being the big nasty of them all) has turned PvP into a pointy vs pointy war in which most of our toons established prior to Legacy of Romulus have been rendered utterly obsolete. This is true also for nearly every federation ship and many of the KDF non battle cloakers. Why play a human or klingon when you can play an overpowered space elf with more damage and defense than anything else?
2. Spire tactical consoles. We knew these were coming, but the addition of up to eight critical hit chance or 40 critical severity pushed the power creep a lightyear above what it was before. In fact, this singular addition rivals the power creep jump of LOR itself. Before LOR the most crit any ship would ever see was about 15%, now it is completely possible to push that to 35 and even a little higher, right along with crit severities hitting 150-200.
3. The shuttle PvP addition. This completely flopped and the main reason it did is because of universal consoles and nimbus/fleet support bringing in Starship level power and damage to a field of ships not able to handle it. Take a single isometric charge or integration circuit up against a couple shuttles and see what happens.
4. The Voth ships. Rarely talked about, these ships come with console bonuses that when combined with boff abilities and specs turn them into nearly unkillable science spammers. I was not wrong when I said the Palisade was going to knock the wells off the mountain, it has and it has a lot. Add this to the fact we already had nearly unkillable ships, and it will lead into the next problem.
5. Additions of more universal console madness (and the ability to stack them ad nauseum, and obtain the uni consoles of both sides for use on ONE ship). This has lead to the prevalence of Vapers, Supper Bosted FAW boats that can do insane amounts of bleedthrough damage, The whole uni console pack via lockbox thing needs to stop now, but its probably already too late. It gets even worse on a romulan toon that can get access to EVERY SINGLE CONSOLE IN THE GAME and stack them together into a ship that can then spike for over 300,000 damage in 3 seconds via BO/TS/ISO/Proton/Ion/Bioneural/god knows what else. The impulse capacitance cell being given to everyone was the stupidest move I have ever seen, as well. Not to mention its possible to bypass console cooldowns by swapping them out of combat, christ sakes cryptic, think about this stuff!
6. Doffs. This isnt really a last six months only thing, but in the last six or so months we have seen the addition of some of the most ridiculously overpowered and imbalancing doffs of them all. Impossible to name them all, but between the Elachi lockbox, Romulan doff pack, Voth lockbox, Tal Shiar Lockbox, and Hirogen lockbox we have seen some pretty insane combinations come out. Additionally we also had a sixth doff slot added with the spire, making the doff problem in space even worse!!
7. EPTX. Increasing the duration was the single stupidest move you have made with any boff power, ever. Having EPTS at 100 percent uptime, EPTE at 100 percent uptime. Do you not see the problem with that? It is completely and totally possible via doffs to have a ship able to move at near full impulse speeds (or more with other abilities) 100 percent of the time.
8. Whatever you did with the changes to pets when you came out with the obelisk. Its already been mentioned on the forums tonight in another section, but the ability to stack buffs on the pets you launch turns them into little nightmares stacking 12 APBs or worse on your opponents. Lets not forget the addition of all these new frigates and other harassment pets lately that have really silly abilities they can spam so often that it seems like youre literally caught in a web of debuffs constantly.
9. Unlinking the cooldowns for Tactical/Engineering/Science teams. Some people on the forum here seem to think this isnt a big deal, but ive seen whats happening in the game. People are starting to carry them all the time, making subnuke/sensor scan/fomm/and a plethora of boff skills virtually unusable most of the time. No longer do we have to pick and choose and make tradeoffs in our skills, no no, defense wasnt high enough before, now we can just slap every single clear onto our ship and just remove anything at the press of a button without needing any help from our teammates. This was a problem with the Keelel doff to be sure, but its been amplified murderously by this change.
10. The upcoming change to Elachi weapon procs. As if we didnt have enough shield bypass out there already? Yes defenses are high but this change is going to have the effect of basically rendering the concept of a shield obsolete. Might as well hulltank it now because the proc is going to be hitting you every couple of seconds once everyone switches to them. No more lockout time, everyone can proc it over and over and over.
So there is my list, oh there is way more but Ill leave that up for discussion. I am so close to just being done with it all. Ive stuck around and been as competitive/flexible/understanding as possible. I am a fighter and stubborn, but the last couple of weeks especially have really put some last straws into play. Something has to give, something has to change, and at this rate like so many others it might just be me stopping STO altogether. PvP was bad before all of this garbage. Now its just awful.
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
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Its not the moves in the last six months, its the mind boggling consistency with which systems continues its development strategy. Change is good for a game. It keeps things interesting. However, system's patter is clear. Ignore the problem, pile moar on top, and then proclaim that the problem is real, but introducing changes now would be "too disruptive". Change being good actually goes both ways. It's time that systems takes a new approach.
1)Pet spam and the targeting UI. (S3)
Ever since the release of carriers pets spam, targeting, invisible cc effects, force multipliers (as ulti likes to harp on the topic) have been an issue. Ignored and progressively made worse by systems.
We now have warp poo, TB3, phaser and chroniton procs, apb, eptx spamming yellowstones with more HP then a B'rel player ship!!! gg Geko!
2) Set gear (s2)
Why oh why is the assim set the one to rule them all. At release we the peeveepeople complained that it would obsolete all other (standard) gear in game, limit choices etc.
partial assim set still reigns supreme ouclassing all other sets in game. Why oh why Geko after the addition of 10 (or more) new sets and items??? Talk about "too good" options much?
3) ELite Fleet Shields and Weapons (mostly kdf weapons) (S6?)
Talk about disruptive. Take a team without neither elite fleet, against a team with, then switch tables and repeat...marvel in the skill difference that occurs between match a and b.
4) TRIBBLE_U_PvP easter eggs. aka greed (F2P)
Be it the SNB Doff, when it was first introduced, or Elite disruptors... throughout the season "systems" has introduced items that have no measurable effect on PvE, but are problematic in PvP. Because.....revenue?? a special donuts jar, filled by PvP centred purchases??
5) +1 ships
Ultra rare non faction ships, that CBS would only let into the game in small numbers to avoid images of earth and qonos surrounded by non faction ships.
this one still makes me laugh.
6) Insane response times: (aka geko's stoked moment)
How often have we rebuild F@W from the ground up? Voldi, kit swaaping on ground (now we can do it in space
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Now cryptic is putting in screws, adding glue and throwing a few chains around the coffin for just in case.
My Sci toon is effing useless for anything other than tossing Grav Wells. Take that you stupid FAW Scimi! *subnukes, sensor scans, jams sensors* Scimi: *clears all* bye!
pretty much agree on all the rest
E.g. No new maps (besides shuttle, but lets not talk about that one)
Various bugs in Ker'rat that have been there for years (those warping cubes give me a headache every time)
Harden up Princess
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Well, there are other useful sci things, but you completely have to cripple your DPS.
Unfortunately, that is not the only problem with EPtX. EPtX provides a single major bonus to one area with a 100% uptime and very little investment. The first problem is the fact that players can chain two EPtX abilities at the same time for 100% uptime on both abilities. Then we toss in warp core engineers providing +100 power, clearing all debuffs, or resetting singularity ability cooldowns. On top of all this, EPtX works hand in hand with Auxiliary to Battery to provide the player with even more power. It is stupid easy to get all subsystems to 125+ at the same time with such builds. As a result, they are capable of passively shrugging off Beam Target X and any power drain combinations. There is nothing a Science captain in a Science Vessel can do to someone using EPtX + Aux2Bat or a 2x EPtX chain due to the sheer amount of subsystem power bonuses and the ability to clear all negative effects. Even before the decoupling of the team abilities; Auxiliary to Battery builds were still quite immune to Subnuke beam due to the cooldown reduction.
--->Ground Combat General Bugs Directory
Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
Seems like only you and me supported nerfing epte in my thread about it awhile back. A lot of others either wanted all EPTX powers to also be nerfed the same way or left alone. I don't know why most of the pvp community doesn't see this as a huge issue, it makes either technicians or DCE mandatory and restricts a lot of the options you can use for builds, making it less interesting as a result. So many escort builds I could have fun with if only I could ditch those stupid DCEs.
I am of the opinion that it should be impossible to run two versions of EPtX at the same time with 100% uptime on both abilities. The Devs had it right with Legacy of Romulus before the community started crying: 20 second uptime, 45 second cooldown, 15 second shared between different types of EPtX, and 30 second shared between identical types of EPtX.
I also believe that using Technician Auxiliary to Battery duty officers should add a 5 second shared cooldown with all versions of EPtX per Technician duty officer (15 second shared with 3 Tech doffs). Lastly, Technician duty officers should not decrease Auxiliary to Battery's own cooldown. The fact that this does lower cooldown on itself allows ships to use a single copy of Auxiliary to Battery to almost the same effect as using two copies of Auxiliary to Battery.
--->Ground Combat General Bugs Directory
Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
People who complain about things being OP or to much cheese, just need to understand that this game is about building a ship to counter another type of ship.
And on the palisade dethroneing the wells...no...just no. The wells is still the no1 sci ship in the game. Sure the palisade can tank a hell of a lot more, but the wells is still better all around. Its faster, can turn better, can throw out more sci stuff faster, and looks better.
-LindseyLohan - Under appreciated Rom Bug
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Well I am not sure if techs/a2b will get nerfed, too many Fed cruiser captains would scream bloody murder lol, but I agree something should be changed with it, even though I use it a lot too, I'd rather not have to for my big ships to be competitive.
As for EPtx cooldowns interesting enough even though you saw it as a problem for sci ships, I mainly play tac in space and saw it as a problem for me too. I never used to use DCE doffs before the changes, my tac builds all took advantage of other doffs and those builds all became mostly obsolete after being forced to run DCE and EPte to be able to keep up with others using it. I don't play sci ships as much but don't like it either then, makes tractors and GW very hard to use. Anyway even though I'm on a tac much more I still wouldn't mind being more vulnerable to sci just to be able to ditch my DCE's on my escorts and get 3 doff slots back.
When you use Emergency Power to Engines without engines.....where is the power going? What is making you move??!!?
*twilight zone*
2. The Romulan faction is so powerful that it's not even funny.
3. No real difference between the three classes. That's why I only have one toon. I noticed that from all the videos I watched while downloading the LOR (that's when I started playing this game, last April).
4. It doesn't feel like my ship is a "home away from home". I should only be in a star base one a year. Not whenever I want. I don't have a sense of exploring the galaxy when everything is so close.
5. Sector space is a joke. It should be a giant PVP war zone. But because of casual players,...it isn't.
6. Eventually these ships will be so powerful they can solo the Special Task Force missions. Oh wait...scimitars can already do that.
7. They way Cryptic uses the Jem'Hadr Attack ship as a cash cow, instead of using customization options to make money. For so long we've been begging for customized universal ship interiors. We've had long discussions about how to do it (I've even offered to make it using my Cinema 4D).
8. Unless it can generate a profit, Cryptic will not do it.
9. How for almost one year I've been on this forum, I see the same complaints and concerns being voiced. Yet I hardly see a response from the developers. Which tells me that they don't care what we say.
10. I'll be shocked if Season 9 isn't a complete overhaul of this game. Because right about now, the only reason I still play is because of the name "Star Trek". This game has become nothing more than a disrespectful slap in the face to the illustrious history of Star Trek.
That is all :mad:
It's kind of funny, but I've not used EPtE outside of dorking around on Tribble during the LoR beta in an Ody running 2x EPtE3 with the Chevron - that was just epic! But the first time I launched the boat, I did forget to slot engines. EPtE got me back in range to dock and slot weapons...pretty zippy too.
Is the exact same thing not true for EPTS ?
Lets all face it the only EPTx you HAVE to run is EPTS... so really nothing has changed there. If they are going to halve EPTE they can do the same to EPTS while there at it.
I have always flown my escorts with ETPS and ETPE... going with out epts for 15s isn't the end of the world. Try it out... just make sure you run TSS while EPTS is down.
OF course with DOFFS these days why gimp yourself I guess.
And it is after eptx debuff cleaner Warp Core Engineer which made it possible to make sci immune builds.
If there is such a doff against my career, I would like to have a doff which would make me immune to all tac.
eptx buff discussion, really? The whole class in game has suffered and dying and no word about it.
Elachi weapons buff is complete mess. There are those which claim that it is ok and that change simply made those weapons useful. Sure, it is a coincidence that since this patch every premade uses elachi weapons and their prices skyrocketed. Not to mention that in ground pvp those are being used more as well.
Space pvp was pretty good before last two patches, Warp Core Engineer cleaner was main headache.
Yes, there are many problems but those didn't turn this game into total pain at least. I was thinking that I might have a bad luck at the beginning, but every game I join now is a TRIBBLE.
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Sub nuke was never about the silly debuff in premades... pugs just got more premade like in being able to clear it more reliably. The main thing with nuke is and always has been the strip. There is NOTHING anyone can do about the strip. The silly debuff was cleared by any half way unsuck premade since S 1.0.
Yes its hard to argue that the average pugs are more liable to clear many science skills now... I would hardly say science is neutered though... and yes there have been plenty of changes that have been anti ENGI and even a few believe it or not that where anti tac.
Science ships are about to get always click sensor ann and they can even use it on friendlies to boost healing... not to mention second deflectors should be in game soon.
I have a hard time shedding tears for Sci. Sci still decide most matches... if you subtract the stupid nature of FAW which has more to do with people not playing right now then a few extra sci teams.
In summary, Science Vessels are useless against anything running Attack Pattern Omega, Auxiliary to Battery or Inertial Dampeners, and Emergency Power to Shields + Engines with the Cleanse All Debuffs Warp Core Engineer. If they want to provide a surefire way to keep themselves 100% immune to Science effects, then it is just a matter of popping on Science Team, bam, no more Science debuffs...ever. Science Vessel abilities have cooldowns 2-4 times longer than any Tactical or Engineering ability. It is impossible to chain Science abilities 100% of the time the same way it is possible to chain EPTX, Attack Patterns, CRF, CSV, BO, FAW, TS, HY, Aux2ID, and Aux2Bat.
It won't make much of a difference considering it will break the second a target breaks 10km. The big warning animation dropped on the target will be a dead giveaway. It doesn't even detoggle after a target dies and it has a five second toggle cooldown.
Secondary deflectors aren't going to do anything to help Science Vessels. +7.6 to three stats and a minor shield heal isn't going to have any distinguishable effect on combat. They won't even come close to the effects cruiser commands have on cruisers and battle cruisers. It is just as bad as Subsystem Targeting. Good in theory, but useless at the moment due to insane power level overcap.
--->Ground Combat General Bugs Directory
Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
Dude, i know u havent been around as long as some of the vets, but ill tell ya now, get ready to release STO from your brain if you know whats good for ya.
Skill and competition in this game is slowly fading, because with all the TRIBBLE they add there is less and less to finetune and time, just spam spam continuously.
Really? Last i heard some doffs could cool it down
He is right though on all counts. That was a perfect summary of the problems with the game at the moment. I spent a good three days reviewing all the game's mechanics trying to find an easy fix for Space combat. The sad thing is there are so many imbalanced mechanics, items, and abilities that the devs would need to take a slash and burn approach to bring a semblance of balance back to the game.
--->Ground Combat General Bugs Directory
Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
Total game rewrite, and why? Wouldnt profit them. They do well on this path, and one must be blind if they still see a competitive and fair future in pvp.
There is still Ground PvP. That area has a decent amount of game balance overall.
--->Ground Combat General Bugs Directory
Real join date: March 2012 / PvP Veteran since May 2012 (Ground and Space)
You are so dumb it hurts. I am not even close to being a straight detection build, and can see cloakers at 17.5km out. I did not build a detection ship. I built a team disabler who is very effective at detecting cloaked ships. Yeah science has suffered with the team cd reduction, but it has not been nullified by any means.
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-LindseyLohan - Under appreciated Rom Bug
-EmiliaClarke - Under construction engi recluse